Inside Kronos’ stomach, they lived having forgotten the very concept of time.
There was no choice—within pitch-black darkness, the only information they could gather came from sounds that occasionally echoed through the void.
Before they knew it, the boys had become sturdy young men. The girls had become mature young women.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang—
As the stomach shook with a series of blows, Hera grew irritated.
“Poseidon, will you cut it out already? You make so much noise every single day I’m going insane.”
“Hera, this is a proven training method. An amazing technique called the Legendary Training Method.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I told you—if you do that crazy crap in front of me again, I’ll melt you alive….”
Poseidon, who had been striking the inner wall of their father’s stomach with his fists, sensed Hera’s explosion incoming and instantly ran away.
After ignoring her warnings a few times and nearly getting killed by her magic, he had learned to be careful.
“Oh my, Poseidon ran away again?”
“Demeter, you should’ve seen Hera’s face. She was absolutely thinking of using that weird magic again, just like last time.”
“Hehe, that’s because you always poke at Hera’s temper. Still, there are parts of her that are thankful to you, so don’t hate her too much.”
Poseidon only nodded half-heartedly at Demeter’s words and quickly sprinted to a place where Hera’s attention couldn’t reach.
Although Demeter always spoke kindly about Hera, her side was not exactly the safest place either.
“Seeing that temper, she definitely is the goddess Hera. And at that level of strength, she’s worthy of being acknowledged as the Queen of the Gods.”
Hera had awakened her magic a few years ago.
After being reborn as Poseidon, I had tried all sorts of things since childhood to see how far a divine body could go. Of them, the most impressive was the training method called the Legendary Training Method.
(It was a technique of one of the strongest beings in the universe, so I was certain it couldn’t be wrong.)
Besides, there was nothing inside Kronos’ stomach—so all I could do was punch the wall.
Sure, I wondered if Kronos would be in pain when I hit the wall, but why would I spare any consideration for a god who swallowed me?
So Poseidon punched the wall every single day.
During that process, bones would sometimes break, and muscles would tear enough that he couldn’t move—but the divine body healed such injuries instantly.
And because he could feel himself getting tougher in real time, there was no reason to stop.
Of course, Hera nagged at him constantly, but that was nothing new.
Then, once, Kronos must have been in such pain that he sent poison into his stomach, intending to kill them. For still-young gods, it was lethal.
At that moment, Hera barely awakened her magic, and thanks to her, they survived.
If she had been even slightly later, Greek and Roman mythology might have ended right there.
Well, it was true that my experiments and training had given Kronos an extreme sense of danger.
Hades was the only one who actually praised me—for the first time ever. …So maybe I had done something good?
‘Though after that, a lot of unpleasant things occasionally came in… but thanks to that, all of us awakened as proper gods, so you could say it worked out.’
Saying something that would’ve gotten his skull smashed if Hera heard it, Poseidon went to where Hestia was.
Even Hera couldn’t lightly touch anyone when they were near Hestia.
“Heyyy~ Hestia.”
Hestia saw the handprint marks and traces of magic on Poseidon’s body and let out a long sigh.
“You did it again, Poseidon.”
“Hahaha. Couldn’t help it. If I’m going to escape this place someday and take revenge, I have to get stronger.”
At Poseidon's boisterous laugh, Hestia instead looked at him with worried eyes.
“You still haven’t given up.”
“Of course not. In the end, we’ll get out eventually. When that time comes, we have to defeat Father. No matter what.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Don’t worry. Hestia, Hades and I are working hard to get stronger. And if you sisters join your strength with ours, how could we not beat Father?”
“Well, we can’t kill a god. After defeating him, we’ll have to think about what comes next… but we can worry about that later.”
Hestia looked into Poseidon’s confident blue eyes and gently smiled.
“Alright. If you say so, then it must be so. Come here. You’re running away from Hera again, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Hestia tapped her thigh as usual—offering her lap—so he could lie down.
(Hestia, being the goddess of the hearth, had the ability to embrace all things and to heal quickly.)
Poseidon rested his head on his older sister Hestia’s lap, and Hestia gently stroked his blue hair.
For now, the five siblings lived in peace—but how long that peace would last, no one knew….
* * *
In the still lightless stomach of Kronos, Poseidon and his siblings relied on one another, training their bodies and the powers slumbering within.
Following Poseidon’s words—to someday avenge themselves on the father who had swallowed them.
Bang bang bang bang bang—
As usual, Poseidon punched the wall, and the siblings counted the days by the sound.
Then one day—
Rumble—
The place they lived in began to shake.
This level of shaking was the first they’d experienced since Poseidon began punching the walls, so Hades, Hestia, Hera, and Demeter quickly gathered around him.
“Poseidon, you caused trouble again!!!”
Hera, the fastest to arrive, punished Poseidon with a flying side kick.
“Gaaah—Hera! This time it wasn’t me! I was doing the same thing as always!”
Rolling on the ground from Hera’s cyclone-like side kick, Poseidon was watched by Hades, who chuckled gloomily and mocked him.
“Tsksksk. Who else but you could have caused this? The sisters wouldn’t do something like this.”
“Shut up, you pompous-sounding piece of shit.”
“You little—!”
BOOM!!!
“Both of you, stop it. The whole place is still shaking—this is serious! What are you doing!?”
Demeter, who almost never got angry, stomped her foot and stopped the quarrel between Hades and Poseidon.
“If it wasn’t Poseidon, then what’s causing this?”
“Hestia, something must’ve happened to the father who put us in his stomach.”
While Demeter held back the still-bickering Hades and Poseidon, Hestia and Hera analyzed the cause.
“Huh? Hera, didn’t you kick Poseidon because you thought he caused it?”
“No. I just wanted to hit him. The reason was improvised.”
“Mm. I see. Well, Poseidon’s sturdy, so hitting him a bit is fine.”
“Right? Just looking at him makes me want to punch him. Anyway, judging from my magic, something inside Father’s body is being stimulated.”
The two girls spoke casually—words that would’ve made Poseidon explode in rage if he heard them.
“Then we need to maximize the effect.”
“Exactly. If we flip this place inside-out with our power, we might be able to get out.”
* * *
Meanwhile, as Poseidon and his siblings analyzed the situation inside Kronos’ stomach, outside, just like in the original myth, Zeus had succeeded—using Rhea’s help—in making Kronos swallow the pharmakon.
Uweeeeeeeehk—!
Having swallowed the pharmakon imbued with Gaia’s power, Kronos began vomiting everything.
“Ugh—deceitful Mother Gaia. In the end, you too are a vile, filthy woman. One who banishes her own children and husband as she pleases. And Rhea, I never imagined you would betray me as well.”
Kronos looked at Rhea with eyes full of resentment.
Then he turned to the blond young man who was his own child.
“You foolish son. In the end, you dance in Gaia’s palm. You don’t even know who has sent that red-haired woman beside you.”
“Father Kronos. Even if that were true, what choice do I have? You only wish to kill me and my siblings.”
The blond Zeus replied to Kronos’ taunts without the slightest shake.
Having seen both Kronos’ cruelty and Gaia’s cruelty, he already knew which side was more advantageous.
Kronos’ face hardened as he looked at Zeus—a child who looked so much like him.
The thing he had been tricked into eating by Rhea…
It must have been medicine meant to make him vomit out the siblings inside his stomach.
For right now, that young son, the young woman behind him, and Rhea alone could never defeat him.
And Gaia… well, she couldn’t interfere any further.
He was furious, but he couldn’t focus on them for the moment.
‘First, I have to stop the time inside my stomach.’
Kronos immediately froze the time of his own body.
Even Kronos himself could predict that the children he had swallowed might have grown strong by now.
‘The pain I felt from that first stomach ache….’
Sensing great danger from the current events, Kronos took out the Adamantine Sickle—the same weapon he used to overthrow his father Uranus.
Seeing that, Rhea panicked, quickly casting magic on Zeus and warning him.
“Oh dear child. Kronos seems to have stopped time inside his stomach. The effect of the medicine has halted.”
“What?!”
“Zeus, stay calm. There’s still a chance. You focus only on the battle. Mother and I will try to pull your siblings out.”
* * *
Power clashed against power.
Kronos—using the sickle he once used to castrate his father—wove time fast and slow, driving Zeus into a cruel fight.
And as the god of agriculture, his ability to “harvest all” made every one of his attacks fatal.
“Kugh—”
Even with Zeus fighting desperately, his body grew more and more bloodied as time passed.
As the god of agriculture, Kronos could envision the guaranteed future of “harvest”—each attack was practically a one-hit kill.
Zeus had no choice but to dodge.
At this moment, all he had was the shield Aegis.
And if Gaia hadn’t forged that shield from the same metal as adamant, Zeus would’ve been far worse off than just bleeding.
“Son, watching you crawl on the ground like a rat… I can only imagine how furious Gaia must be, seeing her ‘word’ crawling like this.”
Slash—
The blade of Kronos’ sickle grazed Zeus’ head, narrowly missing. A few strands of his blond hair were cut off and scattered in the air.
Because of the crescent shape of the sickle, every time Kronos swung it, there was an opening—one Zeus tried to slip into—but each time, Kronos slowed the time in that space dramatically.
So Zeus had to dodge the next swing before he could counterattack.
As Zeus accumulated wounds, barely holding off Kronos, Rhea and Metis grew more urgent.
“Mother, the other Titans will arrive soon!”
“Yes. Gaia can only hide information for so long. Since Uranus hates her, Gaia cannot intervene any further.”
“Yes. And Zeus, who still hasn’t received an official divine name, cannot fully use his power—he won’t last much longer.”
Rhea nodded at Metis’s words, falling deep into thought.
The only way to start Kronos’ time again was for his children inside him to exert power from within.
‘If my children inside release their power, they could force Kronos’ time to move again….’
Rhea looked at her youngest son, barely holding on.
With no other solution, the best course might be to run—take Metis and Zeus and flee.
If they took refuge in Gaia’s belly, even Kronos couldn’t harm them.
“Metis… we may have no choice but to pla—”
Doom doom doom—!
“?!”
Just as Rhea was about to suggest planning for another day, a massive drumming sound echoed from inside Kronos’ stomach.
“Mother!!!”
“No way?!”