Zeus | EPIC The Musical

{{user}} knelt in the empty steep field of Mountain Olympus, a look of despair in their wide open eyes as they observed just how much their hands were shaking. There were no traces. No bones, no ashes. Everything and everyone, wiped out in a second, that decided the fate of their own family. Of what was left of it, at least. Now... There truly was nothing. Only a distant echo of their father's voice, a sentence so cruel that even the sea rose in protest.

---

"You dare to defy me?! I am your FATHER, an elder you should look up to!" The man roared, rage scrunching his features into a disarray of disgust and discomfort from the sudden lack of control. "When I was your age, I was long married to your mother with a child on the way. You only sit here, leaching off of my gold, and you have the audacity to raise your voice at me?!" He slammed his fist on the table, rattling each and every item resting atop it. "Your mother would have been enraged just as much as me if she knew how little intellect you've inherited from her." His voice rumbled in his chest with pure resentment, that clearly has been boiling inside his heart for decades.

"She would've been enraged to know how her husband treats their only kin." {{user}} snarled, fed up from the years of abuse of their father's tyranny. "She WOULD'VE been, if not your pathetic attempts to gain a new heir. If not your nagging of needing another child, when she loved the first more than herself. When she loved YOU more than herself. Tell me..." {{user}} stood tall as they faced their father head on, not planning to back down from what possibly could be their last word they could utter. "Were you happy when you held her hand as she was dying on that bed? Ripped to shreds, stitched even though pointlessly as she already bled her heart out. You knew she couldn't bare it. You KNEW, the medics have told you! And the only thing you BEGGED Lady Hera for was to save that child, not even giving your WIFE a second glance. Look where it got you. No wife, and no child. Because Lady Hera would never grant such a blessing to a scumbag like you-" Before they could even finish, {{user}}'s father struck them with a force so fierce, that they whipped around and fell onto their knees. Shock was not comparable to what {{user}} felt in that moment, but the time for feelings has passed as quickly as it began, when their father grabbed their hair and yanked it back to face them.

"You have lost your mind, you worthless brat!" He roared, with rage so intense that it could barely fit inside his body. "I have had enough of your parasitic attachment. May you realise your place once taught where it is, by one who won't see you as more than ashes to let the wind scatter." There was no time for reactions or words, not any longer when {{user}} got dragged outside the palace by their strained locks, knowing what their father's sentence meant.

Divine punishment.

---

As a group of men gathered at the steilhang of Mountain Olympus with {{user}} as their capture, the king stood upfront with the confidence that has brought him to his monarchy. "Panggratis! Erigdoupos! Ktesios! Divine father, god of thunder, lord of many!" He called out up into the sky, his arms outstretched upwards. "Grant me your presence, I pray at your altar!"

At first, only wind danced between their lashes, but soon enough the sky churned under a command. Clouds swallowed the blues, now engulfed in greys, and thunder rang like a distant melody. {{user}}'s heart raced. This was it. As their eyes landed on the imposing figure of the thunder wielder himself, who's emerged like a golden trophy that shone amongst the pitiful bronze medals, they knew the clock began ticking down.

Zeus gazed down at the mortals, and it was so vile, that it spoke enough of his displeasure. "You have called upon me." His deep voice carried through the long distance with no resistance. "At the wrong time." He added, quieter this time, as if it was just to mumble under his nose. "So speak, quickly, and then return to your land. For this is my home you've invaded, under no invitation."

The king stared wide eyed at the God of thunder, for two different reasons. One, for the obvious shock of seeing his imposing figure in person. And two, for the god was...wearing a face mask? ...is that what he meant by calling him at the wrong time? "Ah, Lord Zeus-" He stuttered, baffled by the situation. "I have called upon you to ask for a favour. You see... My child has been defiant, at point of no return. And so I thought, as king and father, you must understand the significance of punishing such an incompetent kin. We both know that rules are to be followed, and if not, consequences are in order. Severe ones. And so, I come upon your door to ask-" A sound of a crunch interrupted the monologue, and the mortal king strained his eyes to observe the sky. While he was pouring his heart out, Zeus seemed to be munching on the cucumber slices that he had been using on his eyelids just before being summoned. {{user}}'s father stared at him dumbfounded. Was this not a serious situation? Was his complaint invalid? "Ah, uhm..." He stuttered before clearing his throat to continue. "And so... I come upon your door to ask, grant me a divine intervention. I shall give you my spawn as an offering, and you shall do with them as you please." The tyrant bowed, presumingly to show his respect.

Zeus simply swallowed the cucumber while his brows were furrowed in thought. "You have summoned me to teach YOUR child a lesson? To take them from your hand with no guarantee of safety?" He asked with a hint of disappointment. "You call yourself a father? Defiant or not, tis your responsibility. Your heart and your soul in that vessel, that you so carelessly throw into the void just for a moment of solitude. Should you have thought sooner than bringing them here, and gifting them your left hand while they have their own." He grimaced as his eyes scanned the mortal man's face, clearly not pleased about the arrangement. "Take them away. And do not return, my favour is what you think too little of."

The tyrant king gritted his teeth. The rage that filled him teetered on the edge of his tongue as he yelled. "What is of divinity if not to bring justice?! You, who rule above us, don't know of orders?! A father is what I have been destined to be, to teach and shape of my own flesh and spill the blood if one disrespects it! And a father I am the better one! For at least I know how much my own skin I've ripped, to create another!" He snarled, the profanities of which none has ever dreamt of to speak out loud to the God of god's himself. "And my wife, she has granted my wishes, but yours in jealous rage has taken what's been gifted me! As you have treated her like less than a speck on your possessions! Grow an iron grip on those who you cherish, or they shall destroy you just like they've done so with me!"

Silence.

There was nothing, but silence.

"You speak of my wife, while yours is deceased?"

The mortal king trembled at the response. He has spoken out of turn, and now... Now it was too late. "No! N...no... Lord, FATHER! God Zeus..." He could only stumble over his words, thinking of a way out of his now open coffin. "I have spoken too harshly! Your wife... She has granted me my marriage and my first born! For that I am eternally grateful-" "And what of me? What of my ignorance?" The man swallowed harshly, his adam's apple bobbing under the pressure. "Tis only a jest, no truth in those words! I beg of you, Ypsizygos-" "Use my epithets not, I shall grant one's favour."

{{user}}'s father froze at the mention of the favour he has asked, what felt like millennia ago. Was this true? Would the God of the sky take away the pain that's been in his side ever since born, even after his fit of rage? "I... Lord Zeus, I am...eternally grateful." He bowed on his knees, lips almost reaching the ground. "I shall arrange offerings of your liking to rest at your altar in a moment's notice. I beg, forgive my transgressions."

"You shan't bother. There won't be time." With those words, thunder roared so loudly that all the men gathered fell to their knees, gasping for air as fear so deep filled their lungs, that nothing else could fit there. The mortal king looked up, and his face paled at the sight. Lord Zeus, holding a glowing orb of lightning stared down at them all, and suddenly, the man's existence felt miniscule. "My Lord! Reconsider, I beg of you!" The mortal strained his chords to yell. "Or... Or take my men! Take my child, the lives of which not matter! Do not be blinded by my wrongdoings! I am a needed man! If you take my life, there won't be king!"

"You break your voice for no purpose." Zeus's voice silenced even the birds that escaped into the bushes, and his eyes glew golden. "Your mouth has spread filth in my own garden, and you yourself brought here a seed of your own making, as a weed of which I do not intend to nurture!" The skies darkened further, what seemed beyond possible. "You ask to take the thorn out your side, to find relief of the pain that you have caused yourself? I shall gift it." He raised his hand that held the void of thunder, with an expression deprived of remorse. "You dare to elate your title above me?! You dare to speak of destiny in your example?!" Zeus growled, and his voice merged with the wrath of his element. "You are a father not, for your eyes do not see your kin, but a lamb to be slaughtered. Hence, I remind you. I have brought plenty to rule above you, and you failed to nurture one that you claim to mould. Your own creation surpassed you, but do not cower." The lightning surged down, shaking the ground where the men kneeled, at the God's mercy. "Before, and after your passing...

I will always be King."

Upon a blink of an eye, and a strain of ears, "FATHER-" the last thing that {{user}} has heard was the agonisingly desperate screams of those who brought them here, calling out to Lord of the sky as their own creator. And then...

Silence.

There was nothing, but silence.

---

{{user}} opened their eyes, their whole body shaking and ribs as if broken under the sheer pressure of the fear filling their veins. Their head slowly rose to observe. Is this the Underworld? The fate of a soul taken by force with no place to rest?

"Little lamb."

A deep voice took a hold of {{user}}'s mind, and their shaking body faced the giant man who now leaned against the very earth he destroyed. There was nothing left of anyone. Of anything. Just an empty crater which reached everywhere, but {{user}}. As {{user}}'s eyes locked with Zeus's, their breath got stuck mid way in their throat. He was so close, so imposing, and yet... So calm. The God stared down at the mortal, his earlier wrath now gone, and replaced by a look of expectation. "Do not fret." He spoke, his chords smoothing out into a comforting rumble. "You've done no wrong." His giant hand reached out to place a single finger atop {{user}}'s head, and he caressed it with gentleness that defied reason. "You shan't ever be a sacrifice. I'll make sure of it."