Itb Boo 3: the Titan War

Book III:

The Titanomachy: The Great Titan War

Disclaimer:

This story is the final installment in the

In the Beginning

trilogy, which is the first series in the

Tales of Olympus

series. After this story, the disclaimers on the first in a series will be long, and it will explain that you should start either at

In the Beginning

or start at a Book 1 of whichever arc I am in for the Mythology, but otherwise, I will assume people have been reading these.

As those who have been reading will know, there will be depictions of sexual encounters, incestuous relationships (specifically grandmother/grandson and siblings in this tale), graphic fight scenes including a massive final battle, creampie, manipulation, elements of magic. Some of these themes are because of the source material. Some are for creative purposes.

This one was tricky to nail down because there's incest, Sci-Fi elements, a fire time sexual experience. Since it has all of these, I have determined to put this in the Novels and Novella Section.

Like previous entries, it draws inspiration from various mythological sources and modern adaptations, including

God of War

,

Percy Jackson

,

Lore Olympus

,

Supergiant Games' Hades

,

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

,

GoodTimes' Hercules

,

Mythos

, and classical texts like Hesiod's

Theogony

and Apollodorus'

The Library

. This work, however, remains a creative adaptation, with the author reimagining elements to fit the narrative.

While certain historical events from the Ancient Era to early CE are reinterpreted for storytelling, this is a fictional work and not intended as a historical account. Any resemblance to real-life people, events, or existing works is coincidental. Quotations from various sources appear to pay homage and set the tone, with all efforts made to respect original copyrights.

This story is primarily a work of the author, with editorial support, created as a cohesive narrative of mythological fiction for entertainment. It's not meant to replace traditional sources of mythology. While this series incorporates fanfiction-like themes, it remains an original creative work at its core.

Thank you for reading, and proceed at your discretion.

The Cast:

The Progenitor:

Chaos: The Progenitor Deity of formless, infinite, and undifferentiated chaos. Chaos is the source of all creation and existence.

The Primordials:

Gaia: The Primordial Deity of the Earth. She is a child of Chaos and represents the physical, living world.

Eros: Eros is the Primordial of love and desire, born from Chaos.

Tartarus: The Primordial of the deepest abyss. He is a child of Chaos.

Erebus: The Primordial of darkness and shadow. He is a child of Chaos and represents the primeval darkness before creation.

Nyx: The Primordial of Night. She is a shadowy and enigmatic deity, mother to various beings, including Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death). She is Daughter of Chaos.

Ouranos (Uranus): The Last Primordial, representing the sky or heavens. He is the child of Gaia. Deposed King of Olympus. He was the First Death in the land of Greece.

The Titans: The "Rightful Children" of Ouranos and Gaia.

Oceanus: Titan of the Ocean and all bodies of water.

Coeus: Titan of intelligence and the inquisitive mind.

Crius: Titan of constellations and heavenly bodies.

Hyperion: Titan of the sun, light, and heavenly wisdom.

Iapetus: Titan of mortal life, mortality, and human nature.

Cronos (Kronos/Cronus): Titan of time, harvest, and the ages.

Theia: Titaness of shining light and divine splendor.

Rhea: Titaness of fertility, motherhood, infidelity, betrayal, and generation.

Themis: Titaness of divine law, order, and custom.

Mnemosyne: Titaness of memory, remembrance, and the arts.

Phoebe: Titaness of prophecy, intellect, and the moon.

Tethys: Titaness of the sea, freshwater, and mother of rivers.

Other Characters:

Atlas: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Lesser Titan of Might and Strength.

Brontes, Steropes, Arges (Cyclopes): The Cyclopes are one-eyed giants known for their craftsmanship. They are the children of Gaia and Ouranos, and represent various aspects of natural forces.

Cottus, Briareos, Gyges (Hecatoncheires): The Hecatoncheires are 3 monstrous giants with a hundred arms and fifty heads. They are the children of Gaia and Ouranos, and represent chaotic and destructive forces.

Clymene: Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Wife of Iapetus. Mother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. One of the Oceanids.

Demeter: Middle daughter of Cronos and Rhea. Adept at magic related to the weather.

Epimetheus: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Twin to Prometheus. Lesser Titan of Hindsight.

Hades: Eldest son of Cronos and Rhea. Lived all his life in Cronos' stomach.

Hera: Youngest daughter of Cronos and Rhea. A magical prodigy under the tutelage of Rhea.

Hestia: Eldest daughter of Cronos and Rhea. The disinterested child.

Menoetius: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Lesser Titan of Destruction and Rage.

Metis: An Oceanid, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Lesser Titan of Wisdom.

Poseidon: Middle son of Cronos and Rhea. He has lived all his life in Cronos' stomach with Hades.

Prometheus: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Twin to Epimetheus. Titan of Foresight.

The Sisters of Fate: Also known as the Moirai or Fates; these three powerful deities are in charge of the Tapestry of Fate. The Tapestry controls the destinies of gods and mortals alike. They are Clothos (the Spinner), Lachesis (the Measurer), and Atropos (the Cutter). They weave the threads of life, measure its span, and cut the threads to determine when it would end.

Zeus: Youngest son of Cronos and Rhea. Trained By Gaia since birth with the goal of defeating Cronos.

**********

Prologue: Rhea's Secret

"The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one."

-- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000). Copyright © Margaret Atwood. Published by Nan A. Talese (an imprint of Doubleday).

On the planet Earth, there were many nations, but none were so famed as the land of ancient Greece. Within the confines of its borders were majestic beings and an extraordinary mountain known as Mount Olympus. On this mountain was the home of the Titans, and within the majestic halls of Olympus, Cronos, the ruling Olympian King, and Rhea, his queen, lived as husband and wife.

Despite the actions of Ouranos, which led to what some called the Curse of Ouranos, weighing on the throne, Cronos saw no imminent threat to his rule.

His Titan brethren continued to kneel before him, showering him with honor as their leader. After all, he was the very son who had deposed their despotically oppressive father.

When it came to the public nature of the Titan King and Queen, Rhea and Cronos shared moments of passion, their bond seemingly unbreakable. There were many nights of passionate lovemaking. Cronos always gave his wife his most loving efforts.

Rhea, however, longed for the day she could be rid of her husband. She knew Olympus deserved a far more worthy king than the Titan who sat upon its throne. To those ends, Rhea had given her youngest son to the care of Gaia.

While Cronos remained blind to the potential danger, since he was obsessed with keeping his throne, Rhea kept her gaze firmly set on the doom of the Titan King. The deepest recesses of her heart were where she held her most sacred truths, and it was within that consecrated portion of her sul, she knew that the Curse of Ouranos would not go unanswered.

Cronos

would

be deposed by his most worthy son, whether he acknowledged that verity or not. For that alone, Rhea understood in the marrow of her bones that this offspring would be her most cherished child, Zeus.

Cronos existed in his larger form, and because of this enlarged stature, he stood in a blistering tremendousness. While some might not consider him the most conventionally attractive being as he had a bald head, hard eyes, stubble on his chin, and hairy chest, he was one of the mightiest Titans to ever be born.

His power had grown so immense that he was lost in his exaltation of it. Because of his wayward focus, the Titan King was blissfully unaware of Rhea's machinations.

He ruled over the heavens with that very might. His Titan brethren, ever unquestioning his authority, bowed before him and ignored his actions. Only Cronos' daughters, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were free from kneeling before their father as well as witnessing any atrocities he committed. While he held no romantic love for them as some divine fathers had for their daughters, Cronos adored his little girls.

He raised them to be faithful and loyal to him. This admiration might have been born from the knowledge that Cronos had been told long ago that only a son could overthrow him. Since Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were girls, they were no threat to him.

For their good behavior, he knew that a reward would be in order. Perhaps, one day, he might even allow them to marry an uncle or even a cousin of their choosing, so that they might go off and find a fulfilling happiness that had always eluded the youngest son of Ouranos and Gaia.

For all of these factors and more, many considered Cronos' rule to be a golden age.

Change bred change, but under Cronos' reign, it was harmonious. Soon, humans would be born. The titan sons of Iapetus were creators like Chaos in that they helped expand the Realm of Greece. They made animals for the land, sky, and sea.

These sons, called Prometheus and Epimetheus, had been hard at work on these lesser beings of mortals, who would exist to worship the Titans.

Almost all believed that Cronos' reign would be unending, but the Curse of Ouranos would come to call.

**********

Chapter 1: Zeus' Training

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

-- William Shakespeare,

Twelfth Night

(1602), Act 2, Scene 5. Copyright © public domain.

It had been fifty years since Zeus had been slipped away from Olympus by Rhea and brought to Gaia. His power had been developing since that day.

Gaia fostered him, teaching him very nearly since his arrival. That was not entirely true. She did not start the lessons until she felt he was old enough to understand. That had taken a tremendous amount of patience from the Earth Primordial. She had seen the power he had at his command; she knew without a doubt that he would be effective in the arts of violence.

Thankfully, it was the earthly bedrock who had been bequeathed its enduring forbearance from the Primordial Queen, so she was up to the task of waiting for his body to mature.

Though he was fifty years old, he appeared to be in the latter years of his adolescence, just before reaching his true adulthood. If Gaia had a firm grasp about how the divine beings matured (and she should since she spawned the twelve Titans), it was entirely plausible that her grandson would soon be coming into his physical and magical maturity in the coming decades.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the boom of thunder.

A violent, pulsing thunderstorm was forming around Gaia's Island. Zeus lifted his hand and a lightning bolt flew as if to strike him. The energy pulsed down to him, but the crackling flash did not harm him. It came to him to show its reverence for his divine aura.

He captured the part of the storm that had come his way and threw that very same energy back at the sky. When that happened, the storm died before it could begin.

"Very good," Gaia said, clapping her hands.

While on her island, Gaia assumed a smaller form of an eight-foot-tall adult female made of greenery. She was still made up of the earth, trees, and rocks, but in her more compact form, even Zeus could see that the primordial earth goddess was breathtakingly beautiful.

It certainly did not hurt matters that Zeus' grandmother never wore clothes, so his young male mind could wander into more lascivious thoughts when she did not require his full attention. Like most divine beings, Gaia had the anatomy of her sex, which certainly hurt in the mind of Zeus. As one of the oldest divine beings, she was considered beautiful in every way, for what others considered appealing to the eye had been dictated by her very existence.

The distraction of his grandmother's body might have given the lighting prince an erection if Gaia had not taken the tone that warned Zeus that she was going to be giving him a lecture.

"Zeus," Gaia began as she had so many times before. "Where do you stand?"

"Upon your island, Mother Earth," Zeus replied respectfully.

Gaia began encircling her grandson.

"That is a vaguery, young Zeus," she said as a hint of a reprimand entered her voice. "What does that

specifically

mean?"

"This island, like most of the lands of Greece, is part of you," he answered quickly.

His voice adopted the timbre of an obedient student searching for their instructor's approval.

"And yet not apart of you," he went on. Uncertainty entered his voice before he found his confidence once more. "This island is your body itself. When you become one with this island, you take your truer form of a Primordial of one hundred feet tall."

"Better," Gaia said with a nod. She never stopped her slow pacing trudge. "And what of your power? Your lightning?"

"It comes from the spark of divinity, bestowed upon us by Chaos. Some sparks are greater than others. With training, any being can master magic and power to become greater than others who have larger sparks."

"And what if one has a greater spark and they battle one with a weaker spark?" Gaia inquired.

Zeus paused to make sure he answered the question correctly.

"If the one with a weaker spark cultivated their power, their connection to this world, they can overcome the one with the greater spark, especially if the one with the greater spark is lax in their study."

"Very good," Gaia praised with a nod and smile.

The Earth Primordial walked up to Zeus and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"Continue harnessing your power. I want you to be ready when your time comes to confront Cronos."

"Yes, Grandmother," Zeus said with a bow of his head.

While he did not outwardly react, there was a stirring in his stomach. From the thrill of battle to the fear of failure, he was impatient for the day the great work of battling his sire would come.

When Gaia disappeared, Zeus stood upright and returned to harnessing his power and began throwing his bolts of thunder and lightning at the sea and sky.

*********

Cronos stared out at his kingdoms. From Olympus to the seas to the plains and mountains and even to the Underworld itself, he ruled over all that he saw.

That did not mean he was above needing aid. The truth was he leaned on his brothers in a way his predecessor never would.

Crius and Hyperion were indispensable in the day to day functions of the land. Both helped guide Cronos' ruling hand over Olympus, so as to march into the future with the best results.

Why, even Oceanus had made the sea run itself. After negotiating a peace between Cronos' brother and the abomination of a 'Primordial' called Pontus, Cronos had never heard of a single issue with that portion of his domain.

Further still, the realm of Greece was filled with bison, cattle, horses, satyrs, fawns, naiad, dryads, and other nymphs.

Soon those humans will be made. Cronos was excited at that prospect of bipedal beings who were not divine. Having human mortals walking the earth to worship the Titans would be good for the world.

Cronos considered what that future would look like. This was merely a mental exercise though. For while he was the Titan of Time and could control the flow to the future (and even stop it in some cases), he could not peer into the future as the Sisters of Fate could.

Seeing his Titan Brothers, he wondered if Crius' hands would ever heal. Cronos also marveled at Hyperion; with each day, the Titan of Light looked all the more magnificent. Cronos did not fear for the usurpation of his throne from his brothers. As the Fates told him, Cronos' threat would come from a son, but Rhea had not born him a child since Zeus. With Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades within his belly, Cronos was unconcerned with the future.

In his heart, Cronos believed that he had mastered fate itself. Perhaps the Sisters' prophecy had been real, but it was sorely out of date when it came to him.

In moments like this, when Hyperion and Crius visited, Cronos' thoughts went to that of siblings and family. Those thoughts of tribal relations made him ponder the sons in his own stomach. How had his sons survived the realm of his belly?

**********

After many years trapped in the gut of Cronos, both Poseidon and Hades gave in to their frustrations.

The two brought themselves to blows against one another. While they could not know that their powers were dampened by their father's divine power weakening them, they still brought all of their efforts against one another.

The pulsating glow of divine energy from the godly sons illuminated the dim recesses of the belly, casting eerie shadows across the ancient walls.

Poseidon had a pair of striking blue eyes that shined like the sea. He stood proudly across from his gloomy brother. He had long black hair, a strong jawline, honed muscles, and he was covered in a fur pelt made from one of the deer that his father had eaten. Despite not having intimate knowledge of the world outside of his prison, he fashioned it like a skirt.

On the other side of the stomach stood Hades.

His eyes reflected the depths of darkness found in Cronos' belly and made his brother's hair look pale by comparison. His very demeanor exuded a solemn aura that would embody all of the power within death and darkness.

A gust of wind swirled around Poseidon and a chilling aura enveloped Hades in anticipation of what was to come.

Poseidon lunged forward, launching a torrent of water toward Hades. The water was taken from the acid of Cronos. In Poseidon's hand, the acid purified itself to become water and be a weapon for the god.

His liquidy armament surged with relentless force.

While Poseidon charged for the eldest son of Cronos, Hades calmly stood and waved a hand of dark energy. This barest of efforts pushed back the waters. The powerful clash of elements threw Poseidon back.

"

How

does that

always

work on you?" Hades asked with frustrated confusion.

The only thing he loathed more than losing was winning when he should have lost. Poseidon making it too easy removed so much of the enjoyment.

When Poseidon crashed against the flesh of their father, the elder sibling seemed annoyed that he would be getting up. Poseidon, however, did his best not to take his eyes off of his opponent.

"One day you're going to falter, Hades!" he exclaimed.

Though he shouted, the younger brother's smile never flinched at the circumstances.

The eldest son of Cronos shook his head. "I will not."

"It never hurts to try!" Poseidon laughed, jumping into the air with swirling tides of water at his side.

Hades rolled his eyes but let his brother attack with his dazzling display of divine power. Poseidon summoned massive water tendrils that might have skewered and stabbed Hades only to crash against shadowy barriers that Hades summoned.

Hades retaliated immediately. With a lifted hand, the eldest son of Cronos conjured shadowy make-shift spears that danced around Poseidon. They flew at Poseidon only to succeed at testing his agility and reflexes. Poseidon was laughing the entire time.