There was no light, no sound, only eternal imprisonment and deathly silence.
Here, even the brutal divine power was suppressed, leaving only boundless void.
In the center of the void, seemingly frozen in time, a large, blurred figure was bound by countless chains flickering with cursed runes, like a specimen nailed to the backdrop of the universe.
This was Cronus, the former God-King and father of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon.
Cronus's chaotic eyes slowly opened. There was no madness, no pain from ten thousand years of imprisonment, only a silence that had seen through everything, and a slight impatience at being disturbed.
"You're here again..." Cronus's voice was like two rusty boulders grinding together, dry and unperturbed.
He showed neither surprise at Hades's appearance nor pleasure.
Hades stood motionless in the void, his black robe merging with the surrounding darkness, only his deep eyes were astonishingly bright.
He did not speak, just quietly looked at his father.
"..." Cronus was also silent, as if competing in patience.
"If you have something to say, say it." In the end, Cronus was the first to break the silence, his tone displeased at being disturbed.
"..." Hades remained silent, his eyes cold probes, as if he wanted to dissect the deepest part of Cronus's soul.
"If you can, leave." Cronus's patience wore thin, and he issued an eviction order.
"..."
Finally, a very faint ripple, one that was ignored, flickered in Cronus's silent eyes, and some indescribable irritability appeared.
"I don't remember giving birth to a mute," he said with a hint of mockery.
Hades's gaze didn't change a bit.
"Alright," Cronus seemed to find it uninteresting, his tone condescending.
"It seems Rhea will be sad; one of her proudest sons has finally become a mute who can't even speak."
Hades finally spoke, spitting out only a name:
"...Zeus."
Cronus's enormous body moved almost imperceptibly.
In his dead eyes, Hades's figure was reflected clearly for the first time.
He understood the purpose of Hades's journey.
"Him?" There was a note of eccentricity in Cronus's voice—sarcasm, and something deeper.
"You should take it easy when you deal with him. Why did you come to me?"
He did not doubt that Hades possessed the power to sanction Zeus, especially after sensing Hades's aura, which faintly transcended the realm of the gods.
Hades looked at his father and clearly spat out three words:
"Lazy, annoyed, disgusted."
Too lazy to deal with disgusting trouble himself;
Annoyed by Zeus's repeatedly profitless behavior;
Disgusted by the depravity of his essence.
These three words precisely summed up all of Hades's views on Zeus and explained why he had come to this place of imprisonment.
Cronus was silent.
His chaotic mind seemed to move slowly, digesting the meaning of these three words and Hades's true intentions.
It took a long time for his voice, like an echo from the abyss, to sound again, with an almost absurd confirmation:
"...So you want to let me go? Let me, the former God-King, go?"
In the void, it seemed even the cursed runes held their breath.
The darkness in the deepest part of Tartarus grew even thicker because of this question.
"I promise you freedom."
Cronus's large, blurred figure froze for a moment, and even the cursed chains running through his divine body hummed, as if suppressed.
Free... This was a word he had almost forgotten, or had long given up hoping for.
"...But you will no longer have royal authority."
The subsequent conditions were cold, clear, and undeniable.
Stripping him of all the authority he once had and lost.
Cronus was silent.
In his eyes, which seemed to contain countless broken times and spaces, a dim light played.
No royal authority meant the authority of a father could still be exercised?
He couldn't rule the world in the name of a God-King, but he could 'correct' a disobedient bastard in the name of a father.
This seemed like another form of 'freedom', perhaps even more interesting and hateful than an empty throne.
His voice sounded again, like rusty stones grinding, with a note of questioning, confirmation, and a slight, barely perceptible longing that had been suppressed for too long:
"And then?"
He waited for new conditions, additional restrictions, or a clear goal.
However, Hades's answer was so simple it was almost cruel.
"No..."
These two light words abruptly stopped Cronus's thoughts.
He even wondered if he had misheard due to the distortion of space-time itself.
"...What did you say?" A note of the coercion inherent in the former God-King appeared in his voice, although here it seemed so pale.
Hades stood quietly in the darkness, as if the shocking decision just made had nothing to do with him.
He paused for a moment, as if gathering his words, and seemed only to intensify the pressure of this silence.
In the end, he said without any flourish, as if stating an established fact:
"...Nothing more. You are free, Father."
'Father'.
This title, spat from Hades's mouth, held no warmth, no admiration, cold as a blade tempered in ice.
He acknowledged the blood connection, but that was all.
It was more like a curse, a reminder, bringing Cronus back from a prisoner of nothingness to a specific network of relationships.
No other conditions. No clear instructions.
Hades had simply opened his cage and returned his ancient beast, imprisoned for countless years.
What this beast would do, what waves it would create, and who it would go after...
Hades did not say.
It seemed he was simply tired of doing things himself, so he chose to release a being more in line with the 'natural order' to uphold the agreed-upon 'patriarchal authority'.
Cronus took a deep breath, as if wanting to absorb the void of Tartarus into his heart.
His chained body trembled slightly, and the runic chains that had bound him for ten thousand years let out a piercing groan.
He understood.
Then there was nothing.
There was only freedom and a blurred boundary.
The matter between him, the 'father', and the unworthy 'son' was left for him to 'resolve' on his own.