Chapter 1: Echoes of a Forgotten Era.
It all had to end this way... The one who, in the past, was one of the great lords of the heavens, whose strength, it was said, could flood the entire cosmos; the one who was one of the most trusted beings of the First of All and who, in a forgotten era, had sworn to protect everything that man loved...
He was a god respected and feared, even by his brother Zeus, thanks to his wisdom, nobility, and unbreakable sense of justice.
And now he found himself here, in the place where those who were noble and just came to rest for eternity. A site removed from all evil, even beyond the Underworld that he himself once ruled with an iron fist, before the death of his best friends plunged him into an eternal sleep. In this place, suffering and pain simply do not exist:
The Elysian Fields.
Mortally wounded by his own niece, a young woman who, in her ignorance, did not understand that his actions were motivated by the deep love he once felt for those "hairless monkeys." Defeated by an insolent and arrogant girl who, by loving humans too much, preferred them to destroy each other rather than allow him to guide and correct them properly.
He knew he was going to die. And with his death, the delicate balance between life and death would break; the souls of the departed would lose the place they were supposed to go after the eternal sleep.
No. He refused to allow it. Dying was inevitable: the goddess of victory had pierced his heart, and there was no turning back.
However, he soon felt his head being gently lifted and placed on the lap of, undoubtedly, a woman.
"I told you to leave her alone, my love... I knew Athena would do this someday," the soft, sorrowful voice made the last of the great lords of the heavens open his eyes. Despite his completely blurred vision, he saw the only image he would always see with total clarity.
"Hello, my queen," Hades said, his voice barely a whisper.
"Don't speak anymore, save your strength," the goddess of spring, Queen of the Underworld, but above all, Hades' beloved wife, had rushed in as soon as she sensed the god's awakening. Despite their incredibly eventful history, he had always loved her with his dark heart.
To her immense horror, the only thing she found was not the strong god who radiated light from every pore of his body, but the wounded and dying shadow of the god she loved without a doubt and with all her heart. As such, she simply couldn't help it and decided that, at least, they would spend his last minutes together.
...save his strength. No, that wasn't going to happen. She could protect them; she was now the queen of the dead, and her duty was to guide them. With any luck, she wouldn't repeat the same horrible decisions he had made in his time.
He would die, yes... but not before trying to set things right. Using all his power, as even mortally wounded he was still one of the most powerful gods in the entire cosmos, he did something he had sworn to himself not to do under any circumstances: reverse death itself.
His loyal friends and counselors, the twin gods Hypnos and Thanatos, and the 108 Specters. He also hoped Persephone would look after Pandora, the woman who had always been by his side. After all, he and his wife had given her a place when the other gods discarded her, treating her like trash after she unleashed the evils upon the world by opening the box.
As soon as he did, the twin gods, aware of having died at the hands of Athena's Saints, awoke abruptly. They wondered how it was possible that they had returned to life. However, they soon realized that the immense cosmos of the god to whom they had sworn allegiance long ago was slowly beginning to fade. Therefore, and without hesitation, they ran toward the mausoleum where his body rested, feeling the need to be by their lord's side.
As soon as they arrived, they were speechless at the scene: their lord, defeated, lay in the arms of his queen. However, they did not stop. At that moment, it was imperative to do something, anything, to save their lord.
"My Lord Hades!" they cried in unison, running toward the dying god.
Seeing them, he offered them a smile he had never shown them before.
"I'm glad you're well, my friends," he told the twin gods, who immediately fell to their knees before their lord. They did not speak a word, allowing only the sobs of the Queen of the Underworld to break the silence.
"My Lord, I... I truly am very sorry," Thanatos said, feeling incredibly guilty. "I shouldn't have played with the Bronze Saints. If I hadn't tried to play with them by trying to kill the sister of the Pegasus Saint and had killed them on the spot, your Lordship would not be dying right now."
"You don't have to blame yourself... this would have happened anyway. What happened has no other culprit but me," Hades admitted. He wasn't even trying to comfort one of his most faithful counselors; it was simply the truth. It was he who constantly refused to change things, always following the same strategy against his niece. Although, to be fair, this reincarnation of the brat turned out to be incredibly inept, and they only got this far because Kerr was even more stupid and tried to destabilize the Sanctuary.
"My Lord," Hypnos asked, not understanding what he had just heard. "How could this be your fault?"
"It happened many ages ago... shortly after the Hypermyth... there was a man whom I defeated in single combat and with whom I became a great friend," Hades said, letting his smile widen as he remembered those times when he was truly happy. "Many things happened, but at some point, he became the greatest king the world had ever seen... and will ever see again."
Persephone simply couldn't help but smile; she remembered those days as vividly as her husband: how the King of all Kings and he had become best friends, and the deep feeling of loneliness that had invaded Hades when his friend left the land of the living to ascend to a place that not even Hades could reach.
"When he left, things changed. Although I never stopped being the most benevolent of the three great ones, things on Olympus didn't exactly go well," he admitted. The twin gods looked at each other. Despite being even older than the three great gods, the children of Cronus, being also children of Nyx, did not know this part of the myth, since at that time they still remained in their mother's infinite darkness, outside the purview of the main gods.
"What happened, my Lord?" Thanatos asked.
"They denied us the right to care for humans and guide them on the right path, just as he had asked us to," Persephone said, still completely furious with her father and mother for having handed the Earth over to their damned sister instead of them, whom the King of Kings had entrusted with protecting the Earth when he was no longer there.
"Zeus is a tremendous jerk. He couldn't tolerate that his brother, Corpse Breath, was more revered than he, the almighty lord of Olympus. And Demeter... well, there's no need to explain why she has always hated me," Hades said, letting out a small, bitter laugh that caused him a sharp pain in his chest.
"Father handed the earth over to my sister Athena," Persephone explained, "alleging that she, being the goddess of wisdom and strategy, was more suitable to guide humans than us, who watched them grow during the Golden Age that he guided with his immense light."
The twin gods understood a little better Hades' deep hatred for his niece and his brother, the great Zeus, but they still did not understand the origin of the Holy War.
"I am a god, just like you, and I have my pride," Hades continued. "Being denied the right to fulfill the promise I made to my best friend was not to my liking. Poseidon didn't like it either. He and I have always been very close, and he knew how much it meant to me to be able to fulfill that promise. That's why he started the first Holy War against our niece."
This was a truly interesting origin for the Holy War, considering the many theories circulating among the minor gods about why the Lord of the Underworld and the goddess of war could not simply end their eternal conflict.
"However, unlike me, he is one of the twelve gods of Olympus. When he was defeated in the First Holy War, my brother, the great jerk, ordered him not to face Athena again unless she herself initiated the conflict," Hades said with a smile. Who would have thought that one of Athena's Saints would start a conflict by deceiving his brother...
Actually, now that he thought about it, why had the 'ceviche' sent the Gold Cloths to the Elysian Fields? They had always gotten along well, and he didn't understand why he had suddenly helped the goddess they both despised.
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," Hades concluded. "Of course, many on Olympus were on my side: Apollo, Artemis, Hera... no need to explain why, we all know what she thinks of her husband's bastards... and even Ares. However, being part of Olympus, they could never do anything against Zeus and his blatant favoritism for Athena, other than simply providing some occasional support here and there," he explained in a little more detail.
"I was furious about everything. I simply did something that, to this day, is my biggest regret," Hades said, letting the twin gods look at him expectantly. "I opened the gates of Tartarus."
"That day I lost the remaining support I had from the Olympians who still trusted me. Even Persephone was furious with me for a while, as I unleashed the most terrible beasts upon the world just because they denied me the opportunity to fulfill that promise," Hades admitted, smiling as he looked at his wife, who returned the smile.
"I corrected my mistake, of course. I faced all those beasts and annihilated them myself. With their skins and using the gems of the Underworld, I created the one hundred and eight evil stars. I suppose you can already figure out the rest... It was my pride, the resentment, and my stubbornness that led me to this, something that, no matter what, would have happened sooner or later," and with that, he let out a tired, heavy sigh, laden with all the regrets he had carried with him throughout these eons.
"My love!" Persephone whispered, cradling her beloved's head in her arms. "You know this isn't the end... You're going to come back, aren't you?" she pleaded, tears streaming from her beautiful blue eyes.
"Sefone, I..." Hades said, unable to look her in the eyes. "Even if I come back, I no longer know if I want to continue with this damned war," he confessed openly. Persephone looked at him, astonished: after entire eons fighting and being defeated by his niece, was he finally going to give up?
"Humans are no longer even a shadow of what they were when my friend still ruled. I continued the Holy War purely out of obstinacy, and look where it has led me. If I return, I no longer want to continue fighting," he admitted, making it clear that, as far as he was concerned, this was the last Holy War.
After all, a god is immortal; and even if his body were destroyed and his essence dispersed throughout the cosmos, sooner or later it would gather again, and he would be reborn in a new body. In fact, that was the method Athena used to reincarnate and be able to face him.
"I love you," was all Persephone could say before kissing him, perhaps for the last time in many years.
"I love you too," Hades replied with a smile as soon as the kiss ended.
"Hypnos... Thanatos," he called to the twin gods. Immediately, they lifted their heads to look at the god to whom they had sworn allegiance, perhaps for the last time in a long time. "Thank you for always being by my side... Perhaps when I return we can live together as more than just a lord and his war counselors."
Their lord's words and the smile he gave them were enough for even them, known for never having shed a tear, to break into silent weeping.
That lament intensified when the borrowed time ran out. His body slowly began to disintegrate, turning into stardust that ascended toward the sky.
"Until we meet again... my friends... my queen," and after these final words, his body finally expired.
For a time, neither the twins nor the Queen of the Dead spoke a word; they remained in silence, united in mourning for the loss of the most just god. Finally, after a couple of hours, Persephone stood up and wiped away her tears. Now she was the undisputed queen of the Underworld, of the Asphodels, and of the Elysian Fields. Although her heart would have a void the size of the universe until she could hug him again, she could not allow herself to mourn his absence indefinitely.
The first thing was that it would only make her feel his disappointment if he could see her. Secondly, she had to bring back the Specters who died in the Sanctuary before her stupid sister returned and prevent them from massacring the remaining Saints of Athena. And, above all, she had to ensure the Underworld remained as stable as possible until the lord of the dead returned to reign alongside her.
This time, no matter what her father or mother said, she would not leave his side again, no matter what happened.
End of chapter.