"WHAT THE HELL?!"
Damon's demonic voice echoed through the small clearing. His power began flowing out of his body rapidly…
The vegetation beneath him started to wither as it clashed against Damon's destructive power, worrying Gaea a little, as she feared what Damon would do after learning the reality Hera had been forced to face.
"Relax, Damon," she said as calmly as possible, trying not to agitate the blond even more.
She had to choose her words carefully.
"Relax!?" the blond asked, looking at Gaea. "How the hell do you expect me to relax!?" he finished, abruptly rising from the ground and throwing the book as far away as he could.
"Damon, calm down," Kurama spoke mentally, trying to calm him. "This won't solve anything."
Damon ignored him completely, as if he had not even heard him. He began walking away from the small clearing, leaving Gaea behind. She followed him with her gaze and felt the blond begin to gather divine energy.
Bad news.
Very bad, actually.
Before Damon could teleport, roots burst from the ground and trapped him, preventing him from leaving the clearing.
But Damon had not trained until his body could no longer stand just to be held back by something like this. With pure brute force, he tore apart the roots that had reached almost to his knees.
Gaea began releasing natural energy to try to calm Damon, but this time it was useless.
The moment he felt the natural energy, he expelled it from his body so he would not be influenced by the calm that particular energy emitted.
"Do not interfere," the blond said through clenched teeth, glancing at Gaea from the corner of his eye.
Gaea stepped back, not wanting to do more than necessary. Otherwise, her relationship with Damon would be in danger, and that was the last thing she wanted… She sighed, knowing that this time it would take more than natural energy to calm the blond in front of her.
She began thinking carefully about what to say. She knew perfectly well that one wrong word and she would not be able to stop him from going to Olympus and turning it into complete chaos. Honestly, that was what she wanted, but was it truly what the Greek pantheon needed? That, she did not know.
"Where are you going?" asked the beautiful primordial of nature.
Although the answer was as clear as water, it was a good way to buy time.
The blond glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his red eyes glowing with power.
If Gaea had taken anything from this meeting, besides how much she had missed Damon, it was that she did not like those eyes. She did not like the feeling they transmitted.
Those red orbs with black slits only transmitted hatred. A hatred that dwarfed almost everything she had ever known, making even Kronos's hatred look insignificant compared to those red orbs.
They did not suit him. Or at least, they did not match the Damon she knew. Someone with such a large heart, with as much love as Damon… those eyes, in her opinion, were something unnatural for him.
"To destroy him," the blond said. "I'm going to kill him. The moment he decided to violate Hera, he dug his own grave," he said, releasing even more corrosive chakra.
Gaea approached Damon without hesitation and positioned herself in front of him. She stretched out both arms and hugged the god. Damon allowed her to approach, but he remained on maximum alert. At any moment, if he felt Gaea was plotting something, he was not afraid to go against her, even if it was the last thing he wanted.
Gaea began stroking his back with her hands while filtering a little natural energy from her own body to calm him.
"Calm down, Damon," she whispered. "Going to Olympus could end very badly."
Damon did not move, indicating that he was listening.
"If you go, you will turn all of Olympus against you," said the beautiful woman in front of the blond. "You are a myth, Damon. The world has forgotten you. The new generation does not know you."
Damon weighed Gaea's words.
He did not like this. With all his soul, he wanted to go to Olympus and get Hera out of that hell as soon as possible.
"You go, you present yourself in Olympus… and then what?" Gaea continued. "Will you kill everyone who stands in your way to defend Zeus from you?"
"You are not like that, Damon. The end does not justify the means," she whispered as she pressed her forehead against Damon's and looked straight into his eyes. "There are innocents. Young gods who are not to blame for the actions of their parents. They are not saints. Almost all of them have committed reprehensible acts… but not at Zeus's level."
Damon closed his eyes.
"Very few will follow you if you go now," Gaea continued. "Some because they await your return. Others because they knew you… because they know you exist, that you are not a myth like Zeus told them. If you go now, you will have to fight even against all of them. And I know you are strong, but is that really what you want?"
The silence after those words was heavy.
Damon was calmer, but he did not show it… Gaea had a point…
But…
"Damon, I am the first who wants to see Zeus fall… but not if I have to watch the others fall with him because of his arrogance," Gaea said.
"He has defamed other gods so humans would pray to him more than to them, changing facts to make his demigod children more famous… he has violated other goddesses besides Hera. Many of them you know. Many others you do not."
Gaea continued whispering, but Damon closed his eyes again.
He wanted to fully agree with her. A part of him wanted to accept her words, breathe, and wait for the right moment.
But he could not do that completely.
Because it went against everything he had done throughout his life.
He had been in situations like this before. Staying calm was important, yes, but it was not always the best choice in the end. Sometimes, waiting too long only gave the enemy time to move first.
And he could already feel it.
Dark forces rising from Tartarus.
Kronos's influence inside the boy from the Hermes cabin.
And for the love of his mother, he would not let that continue.
He could not live with the conscience of knowing he could help his family prepare for what was coming… and doing nothing.
"What happened to Hera was only the beginning."
"I want to get her out of there," the blond's voice was heard, now normal. "Gaea… I can't leave her there, forced to be married to the man who violated her. She doesn't deserve that."
"I am not denying that you should help her. You can go whenever you want. What I am telling you is that if you present yourself as a threat, you may end up regretting it."
"You need to keep reading, Damon. Zeus has not been the only one acting while you were gone. There have been acts from almost all your siblings that will disappoint you, and others that will draw out your anger. You need to be prepared for that. I will not always be there to stop you from doing something you will regret later," she said, making Damon open his eyes again.
"Medusa, a priestess of Athena who was violated by Poseidon in a temple of the goddess of wisdom and punished for it by being turned into a monster. Pandora's Box. Prometheus."
Damon said nothing.
Poseidon, huh.
The same Poseidon he had raised with his own hands. The same younger brother he had once held, protected, and taught not to become another copy of the monsters who had ruled them.
Damon lowered his gaze to the book… He did not want to believe it.
"Metis…" Gaea continued.
This time, her voice dropped even lower.
"She was Zeus's first wife. A goddess of wisdom. When Zeus heard a prophecy saying that the child she carried in her womb could surpass him, he did the same thing Kronos did to all of you."
Damon slowly lifted his gaze.
Gaea did not look away from him.
"He tricked her. And swallowed her while she was pregnant."
A sepulchral silence fell over the forest; it seemed as if even the animals were listening to the conversation. Damon did not know what to say. He was conflicted, trapped between the rage demanding he move and the small part of him still trying to understand how everything had reached that point. But there was one thing he had no doubt about.
His brother Zeus had become Kronos.
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:_: Hi