{A month later}
'It's been a month since I started to grind my body. Somewhere in the middle, I also started to train my mind. It was surprising when I first found out about it, but gods and immortals, in general, their minds rot and decay quicker than any other being. This is also the reason for Greek gods having such an unfaithful past since their minds are quick to succumb to pleasure.
"Just as wealth corrupts men, so too does divinity rot gods," he mused internally, legs folded beneath him, body still. "Desperation anchors mortals. The threat of death forces focus. But gods? Gods become soft." In his former life, he'd been hardened by necessity. The need to survive honed his senses sharper than any blade. Now, in this second life, he chose the harder path: mastery over self.
"10 minutes; it is my limit currently. This is way harder than physical dominance, but the rewards are just as good since my control over my domain is going up in a faster way than just throwing myself into battle." Hades mused out loud as he sat under a purple willow tree. It was a beautiful sight to behold, Hades peacefully sitting under a giant purple tree in pure darkness.
Suddenly, he sensed a presence tugging at the boundary of his realm. A divine force. He turned toward the veil of darkness and saw her. 'Hera, what does she want?' Hades thought as he allowed her entry. Outside the veil, she paused before striding in. Her form was regal—tall, white-haired, golden-eyed. Her beauty sculpted by ambrosia. Her expression bore no hesitation, no fear.
Hades raised an eyebrow from beneath the willow. 'She just walked into my domain… without hesitation. Not even Hestia did that. Has the fear of death dulled in this age? Who walks into a spirit-choked cave shrouded in silence and thinks, "This is fine"?'
She stopped in front of him, her divine presence pressing gently against his own. The leaves around them swirled with the faint whisper of the dead.
"I have been told by my mother to inform you of the situation of our resistance," she stated without preamble. "Zeus was able to get Prometheus, Epimetheus, Selene, and Eos to join the war on our side. While the Titans grow stronger—Hyperion, Iapetus, Atlas, and Krios now rallying forces—Zeus and Poseidon lead divine sprites and elementals. One commands the sky, the other the sea. We lag behind, but the balance is tipping."
She waited for a response. He nodded to and said "Tell Mother that I am going somewhere, and if I were to succeed, the gods' resistance may gain a huge advantage."
"Tell her yourself," Hera said, angry at being treated like a messenger. Hades said nothing, he just opened the portal to the underworld and disappeared unlike the usual where he had to find the entrance to the underworld. Leaving her to tell mother which she reluctantly did.
'This domain of the afterlife, after using it so much when reanimating corpses, I found out about its function to travel to the realm of afterlife. Yes, the realm of the afterlife and not the underworld itself in this universe seems to be split up into different sections. While I need the permission of the ruler of the domain to go into their version of the afterlife, I can freely travel to the one where there is no one ruling it, and that is the underworld.
Hades arrived in the underworld shortly after, he was immediately attacked but hades after month of constant battle has honed his instincts to be able to react to attack like this and simply made no moves as the shadows that attacked him stopped while the divine sprites, elemental and more importantly the current acting ruler who are trying to keep the realm together, The 5 divine rivers, all were shocked at how easily the underworlds defensive system were taken down.
The 5 primordial gods stepped forward from the darkness. The most powerful out of them, the river of Oaths Styx, spoke, "What does an Olympian want here?"
"It is pretty empty here," Hades said, looking around like he owned the place and was a king inspecting his realm, completely ignoring Styx. Phlegethon, the river of Fire, spoke in a fiery and angry tone contrast to the calm tone of styx
"Arrogant, how dare you, a mere child come to the underworld and ignore the one ruling it? Do you not fear death?"
"Fear death, How can I fear something that I rule?" Hades said as he used nether and afterlife to overwhelm the place with the energies of death, destruction, and souls. "Styx is ruling the underworld, you say? Not even a child would believe that. Otherwise, this place wouldn't be so empty and defenses so weak; you are barely able to keep the underworld from falling apart," Hades said with a smirk. After so many years of no one ruling the underworld, it will naturally start to weaken. There can't be a world without someone ruling it; otherwise, it will crumble and be destroyed.
Phlegethon was about to attack Hades with his fire when Acheron, the River of Pain, stopped him in his tracks. "Is this any way of asking for help? It seems you underestimate us way too much, Hades," He said.
"Help? Me?. There seems to be a misunderstanding. I am not here to ask for help," Hades said when Cocytus, The River of Wailing, interrupted him.
"Then why are you here?" He wailed; it seemed he couldn't stop crying or screaming. His very voice hurt even his ears as it took a while to get his mind back in order. Everyone looked at him with a slight anger except for Phlegethon, who was in ecstasy. 'I am going to ignore whatever Phlegethon is up to,' Hades thought as he struggled to unsee what he just saw.
"As I was about to say, I am here to offer a trade to you." Hades said.
"Oh, wait, what are we talking about again?" Lethe, The River of Forgetfulness, said. Everyone ignored her, as Styx said
"What is the 'trade' you speak of?"
"Simple. I will fix the entire underworld. In return, I will rule it," Hades said. As soon as these words dropped, the entire underworld went quiet. It is not easy trying to rule a world, first, you need to be a god. This is the reason why the rivers were not able to rule the underworld or gain full authority; next, your soul must be able to handle it since gaining a world is gaining another domain. Finally, you must be compatible with this world. Unlike domains where a god of fire could take and survive the god of water's domain, you need to be compatible with this domain. If any of these are not completed, it is straight to the void for you.