I wake up and find myself lying in the middle of a large chamber made of marble and lined with gold. Gigantic windows that were mathematically set apart were on either side of me and had golden handled torches on the wall to the sides. I tried to look outside, but there was a heavy overcast and the moon wasn’t there to pierce the dark. Behind me was a thick double-door made of what looked like oak with gold hinges that was big enough to let a large aircraft in. In front of me sat three men in a semi-circle on stone thrones. One had long curly white hair, was clothed in a robe of purple, and held a staff with lightning runes engraved into it to his side. The man to his right had long hair also, but it was straight for the most part and had a tint of blue. He also wore a blue-green robe adorned with items of the sea and held close a trident. The man to left of the one in purple had straight, long jet-black hair and a mustache-beard combo of the same color. Continuing his dismal tone, he wore a robe as black as soot and clutched a helm to his side.
“I see you are up,” said the one clad in purple with a deep, commanding voice, “it has been awhile.”
“Wha… Who are you?” I asked as I got up and walked closer to the group.
“I am Zeus,” he said pointing to himself, “this is Poseidon to my right and Hades to my left.” The gods nodded their heads. “And I fear we bring dark tidings,” uttered Zeus in a hushed tone.
“What kind of news could you have that includes the need of a mortal?” I inquired.
“Your father is dead Aeron,” said Hades with an equally commanding voice, “Thanatos is dead.”
I took a step back in shock and asked, “Wait, I’m the son of Death!?”
“Yes,” Hades answered, “and Death is dead.”
“But, how is it possible to kill a god?” I asked.
Poseidon spoke up and said, “It takes incredible strength, but it is quite possible.”
“Then who did it?” I asked.
“We do not know,” said Poseidon, “but it definitely wasn’t another god.”
“But enough of this talk!” declared Zeus rising from his throne. “Here, take this, it’s dangerous to go alone!” he said throwing me a long, silver rapier with a beautifully complex hilt and pommel. “It was your father’s, Libitina he named it, and he would’ve wanted you to have it.”
“These too!” spoke Hades throwing me a black trench coat, dark leather boots, a black shirt, black pants, and dark undergarments.
“I’m not going to be in the sun a lot am I?” I questioned.
“You’ll be as pale as me some day!” joked Hades.
“Good then.” I said.
“Now then Aeron,” said Zeus, “in order to become a god, you must pass three trials, the trials of mind body and spirit. If you do, we’ll throw a party and that will be the last of your fun for the rest of your eternal life! Unless you enjoy holding doors for dead people…”
“Great fun!” I said sarcastically, “when do we start?”
“Tomorrow,” said Zeus, “get some rest and come here tomorrow morning.”
And with that, I was out cold.

When I reawakened, I was still in the same room in which I talked to the main three gods. A few differences were that it was much brighter outside, (it must have been morning), there was a great fog outside, and the torches were no longer lit. Another few were that the thrones and gods were no longer in front of me and in place of them was a rectangular table with a chair at either end. At the back end sat a tall woman in full Greek armor with sparkling blue-green eyes and a golden helm on her head.
I stood up and looked down upon myself. I was in the clothes that Hades threw at me yesterday and the long rapier hung at my right side. I walked up to the table and sat in the chair on the front end of the table.
The goddess and I sat there, staring at each other until she said, “Do you not know how to greet a lady?”
“No, I actually don’t,” I said, “And you are…”
“Athena, my name is Athena. I believe you know what I’m here for… Right?”
“Yes”
“Then are you ready to begin?”
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“All right then, let’s begin!” All most immediately after she said that, the chair and I were sent flying back, crashing into the double doors.
I got up quickly, drew my blade and yelled, “What the heck was that for!?”
“This is a trial, isn’t it?” she questioned calmly like nothing happened.
“Humph.” I sheaved my blade and walked back up to the table and stood where the now shattered chair used to sit.
“In order to become a god, you must be able to protect and hide your mind from physic assaults. Are you ready to try again?”
“Yes”
“Then shield you mind!”
And with that I created a mental barrier in my mind and felt an overwhelming amount of energy pour over me. I lasted awhile until her physic strength got the better of me and I was sent flying backwards again. We did this over and over until the sun went down and my will power could match hers for long periods of time.
“Very well,” she said like she had better things to do, “I declare you a master of the mind. Rest now; you’ll need your strength for tomorrow.”
"Um... could I ask for a better conclusion?"
"No."

And once again, the world faded into darkness.

Once again I woke up, laying on the ground, but this time I was in what seemed to be an arena. The floor was dirt and dust and all around me was a white, blood stained wall with four gates at regular intervals. The wall must have been 12 feet high and it had spikes around the perimeter. The seating was coliseum like and just above one of the gates was a luxury box which must have been seating for a king and his advisors. I looked up and the sky was a blood orange and an occasional cloud floated by.
I stood up and heard a voice behind me say, "Took you long enough to describe the place."
I turned around and saw a man that must have been in his late 20’s wearing leather armor and a bronze helm and held a one and a half handed sword in his right hand and a medium sized buckler in the other.
"You know why you're here?" he asked.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, "trial of the body- so what do I have to do? Take my clothes off and do push-ups?"
"Sure, if you want to," he replied.
"Naw, anyways, may I ask who you are?"
"Ares, and you?"
"Aeron."
"Nice, death and slaughter, I like it! But away with this nonsense! I’m here to make sure you can fight. Now show me what you got!"
I drew my blade and we locked in a vicious dance of blades. With blades singing, the fight went on until Ares withdrew and said, “That rapier has a good reach; great for overpowering foes with shorter blades. But what do you do when they are many times faster than you?” He then harshly shook his fist and his blade and shield became two daggers which he held backwards. He started to run around me stabbing at me here and there, barely giving me time to block. This was tiring me quickly. When my breath was nearly depleted, I gathered all my strength and drove Ares back with a sweeping spin attack.
“Good!” he said, “But your foes won’t always be that fast, some prefer brute force instead. Let’s see what you do against me now!”
Ares then smashed his two daggers together and produced a hulking broad-sword and came at me, heaving the blade downwards at my skull. I immediately responded by holding my rapier up length-wise to counter the stroke, right palm against the flat side of my blade. His deadly stroke came down upon it and we locked blades in a deadly game of push. I shoved with all my strength, but I was being pushed backwards across the arena. Then, I started to push with more force with my right hand, slowly driving that monster of a blade towards the hilt of mine. When it was there, locked in place, I used all my strength to drive Ares’s blade to the ground. He stumbled forward and I stepped diagonally, first to the right, then left, until I was behind he and I drove the pommel of my blade to the back of his head. He fell upon his face and laid there. Just when I thought I killed him, he jumped back up, with his starting sword and shield and white-hot furry in his eyes, and charged a full on assault on me. We continued our blade-dance of the ages, Death vs. War, the first of its kind. Our cries echoed across the arena, our blades sung swan-songs of each other, sweat poured off both of us, yet neither of us gained the upper-hand. But finally I was too tired to go on and Ares leapt at me with what could have been my demise. Just as the stroke came down on me, I dissipated, and reappeared right behind him. I had no idea how that happened, but still, I grinned and tapped the side of Ares’s neck with the flat side of my long blade.
“How,” he muttered, “how was I beaten by the son of Death? You barely had any training and yet still, you have beaten me.”
He stood up straighter, turned around, and looked me in the eye.
“You have gained your father’s ability to dissipate and reappear at will. It is a great power, use it wisely.”
“But it only happened when I was in mortal danger,” I said.
“Maybe so, but eventually you’ll be able to control it. But anyways, you have passed the trial of body. Now rest, tomorrow is your final test.”
“Bu-“
“Augh, shut your mouth.”
And once again, I saw nothing but the darkness of my dreams.

I woke up in a dark forest, lying on a thick branch of a tree not too high up. I hopped down and took in my surroundings. There was a thin mist around the area and I could hear an off-distant melody, but where ever I walked, it got neither nearer, nor farther. The forest was completely natural and the only trees were different types of cedar. The smell of it was so relaxing and overpowering and it made me want to fall back asleep. The floor was an ankle-high grass that never showed any patches of dirt. I looked up and I saw a starry night sky and a large white moon. There were no animals around and I couldn’t find any nesting places of where they might have once lived.
I explored a bit longer until I heard a feminine voice behind me say, “Took us long enough to find you.”
I turned around and saw three pre-teens girls with silvery hair and eyes, armed with bows and arrows, and in forest-green knee-high chitons that blended in near perfectly with the forest.
“What brings you here?” said the tallest and most graceful one in the middle.
“I suppose Zeus hasn’t told you?” I asked
“Ah yes. You must be Aeron,” said the one in the middle.
“And you are?”
“I am Artemis, and these other two girls here are my huntresses. So you must be here for the trial of spirit.”
“Indeed I am.”
“Good. So you may be able to deflect a mind attack or defeat a god in one-on-one battle, but you still must have bravery and courage, even when you are hunted. You must learn to base some of your reaction on instinct, because you can’t beat a powerful enemy on knowledge alone.”
“So what do I have to do this time?” I asked.
“Me and two of my huntresses will hide up in the trees and fire at you. Your job is to knock us to the ground without getting shot.”
“Knock you to the ground!” I exclaimed sarcastically, “But my mother told me to never to harm a woman!”
“Well, did she tell you anything about pre-teen girls about to kill you?” Artemis asked with a grin on her face.
“Yeah, to beat some sense into them.”
“Humph.” She and her huntresses turned sharply and disappeared into the woods.
“Trial begins now!” I heard her simply state and all the sound of the forest vanished. Even the long-distant melody ceased.
With eyes and ears wide open, I started to trek across the forest, looking and listening for any signs.
“C-r-r-e-a-k” I stopped. But so did the sound. I turned around slowly and looked up. I could see a faint glimmer coming off the hair of one of huntress. I concentrated hard and after about 12 seconds of thinking I dissipated and reappeared right next to her on the branch.
“Beautiful night isn’t it?” I asked her and she freaked, shot her arrow wildly, screamed, and fell off the branch all within two seconds.
“That’s a record timing for scaring a girl away from yourself Aeron. How do you feel?” I chuckled to myself.
I dissipated back onto the ground after some time and continued the hunt. I was humming quietly to myself when I heard the shuffling of the leaves on the tree just above me. I stopped and looked up, but this time I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I thought it was just my imagination and I started to walk away from it, but as I got further, I felt a knot tightening in my back and instinctively I ducked. Sure enough, right where I was standing was an arrow wound deeply it to a tree. I turned around and ran back to the tree, dodging fire along the way. As I got close I saw the girl up in the tree and near instantly I dissipated and reappeared into the tree where she was and knocked her down.
“Man, I am getting good at this.” I thought and hopped down. I once again started searching, but this time it took me an hour before I found Artemis.
I was sitting under a tree, tired as heck, when I heard her voice above me say, “You’d be dead by now.”
Without looking up I responded, “But you haven’t drawn an arrow or knife. So in truth you just gave yourself away.”
"But you're not even checking to make sure I haven't."
"You could have just killed me by now instead of dragging this on."
“And there we go looping the conversation, but you speak the truth. You have walked far and have done well, and you nearly finished, but I understand you are only human, so I’ll let you pass. Sleep now, and when you wake up tomorrow, come to the throne room, you’ll have an important day ahead of you.” And once more I closed my eyes.

I woke up once again in the chamber that I saw the three gods at the start of my story, but it was destroyed. The torches were cinder black, and the dark foreboding wind crept through the shattered glass. Shining through it, the moon was full and red as blood. The marble floor was cracked in many places and the wall looked as if a large, heavy animal tried to escape. The two heavy wood doors behind me were wide open and scorched like an explosive hit it. In front of me lied my instructors in pools of golden blood, dead. Athena, with her armor dented to the extreme. Ares, with his blades broken and shield shattered. Artemis, with her bow still in her clutch. And in front of all of them, sat a weary old man with white hair and in ripped robes of grey, holding a devilishly wavy blade reminiscent of lightning and gales weakly at his side.
“Where are the rest of the gods?” I asked him, “Or did you kill them too?”
“I thought you might have known where they have gone, Death,” he said looking up at me with dark, stormy eyes.
“Who are you?” I questioned.
“I am Ouranos, titan of the sky. And once the petty gods are all dead, I will be the earth’s new god.”
“But you can’t kill them completely,” I said, “for I would send them back from the gates of death.”
“But death of a god is different, Death. When a god dies, it is oblivion; nowhere, yet everywhere at once.”
“So basically they go to a quantum dimensional world?” I smiled.
“No! Shut your yap!”
We went back and forth like this for a while, until my brain fully processed my surroundings and past events and it finally dawned on me and I said, “So wait a minute, you were the one who killed my father?”
"Good god, you're slow," he said.
Hatred started to boil inside of me, and with a calm, slow, and threating demeanor, I asked, "So, why exactly did you kill my father in the first place? You could have just killed any god and got the effect."
“It’s rather quite simple, Death. You sink the unsinkable, and while they try to figure out what happened, you strike.”
“So you tried to get the gods to get together so you could kill them all at once.”
“Yes, but when I got here, the only gods that were here where the trial mentors.”
“And you killed them.”
“What else would I do with them?”
“Surrender to them,” I said like it was nothing.
Ouranos’ eyes flashed with white flames and with a threating demeanor he said, “Titans don’t surrender to tiny gods you idiot. You’re lucky to even be alive, talking to me, maggot!”
“Maggot!? Do you not know who put you titans down in Hell?! We gods are here to protect this world and all you did was run it down! Even worse than we did, and are doing! So I suggest you draw your blade or put yourself back into Tartarus, and either way, your plan will not, and will never succeed!”
“Then so be it,” he said breathing fire.
Not moving from his place, Ouranos lifted his blade and drove it into the ground, causing a huge shockwave that repaired the walls, floors, and windows. It disintegrated the bodies and blood, leaving nothing but floating particles in the air and slammed the wood doors shut, locked beyond comprehension. A storm begun to rage beyond the marble walls, the blood moon beheld a malicious grin upon its face and the dark held a knife behind its back. Ouranos stood up, grey robes repaired and shimmering darkly, held his blade above his head, and magical lightning struck it, evaporating the roof and expanding the room to nearly twice its size. Rain, black as obsidian begun pour down from the heavens and dissipated as soon as it hit the floor.
With both of us soaking wet, we charged each other, crying with fury. Steel clashed on steel and the battle begun. He attacked with the turbulent forces of nature: wind, tornados, and even hurricanes at one point. I responded by dissipating, and reappearing behind him zeroing on a kill, but he was quicker than light, always turning and deflecting them.
We continued this dance until he back flipped to the farthest part of the room, held up his blade once more, and charged it with lightning. I dissipated up to him and mindlessly clashed swords with him. Immediately I was sent flying back from the discharge, screaming in pain. I landed on the other side of the room and got up to my feet, violently shaking from the volts circulating through my body, and smiled. I dissipated once more, but instead of reappearing immediately in front of Ouranos, I let my particles fly right through him, giving him a taste of his own medicine. He screamed in shock and I reformed right in front of him, swung my blade down at him, but he brought up his blade just in time and it interlocked with mine. We stood there sharing the volts, pushing each other, until we both relented and he canceled his shocking attack. There we leaned, clutching our sides and breathing heavily for the next minute.
"See you in Oblivion," I said, finally getting up and then leading one final leap against him, holding my blade high above my head aiming it to decapitate his sword arm.
“Foolish child,” he grunted and lifted his blade with his left hand for a counter attack.
As the swords pierced the flesh of their victims, the world went black, and I saw, heard, and felt nothing more.

For the sixth time I woke up, but this time I woke, well, nowhere. I stood up and looked around, for miles all there was a misty fog and darkness. I looked at the ground, there was no telling what the floor was made of, all I knew that it was flat, smooth, and cold. Looking at myself, I was perfectly fine, not a fiber disturbed on my coat and my sword was in its sheath. After a while of looking around, I saw three women in light robes, spinning, weaving, and cutting an eternal magical thread.
I was about to call them out but I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a deep, knowledgeable voice say, “No, they are busy.”
I turned around, and in front of me stood a man, older than time itself. His eyes were wormholes that led to eternal knowledge, his hair was thin, long, and grey from unimaginable stress, and the wrinkles on his face would make any celebrity gasp and any elder jealous. He wore an old, withered, grey coat and leaned on a worn oak staff.
“You must be wondering why you are here… hum?” he asked.
"Yes bu-"
“I am Chronos, god of time, and this place here is where anything related to time and space is done. Those women there are the Moirae,” he said pointing over to the women, “or as you would know them, the Fates. They are the ones that controls all mans’ destines, and deaths. You are here because fate said so; they said so. You have done a mortal wound to Ouranos, but he will recover. But never the less, you have given the gods enough time to recover from the attack on Olympus, come out of their hidey-hole, and prepare for a counter-attack.”
“Sleep now, you have done a great deed,” he said gripping my shoulder and helping me down, “Hades will take over your duties at the doors of you for now. You probably know this by now, but your turn is over, and you must await your next move.”
"Bu-"
“Shush…”
And for what felt like the final time, I regretfully closed my eyes.

End of Book 1