I Am Zeus

The great hall of Olympus had never felt so silent, nor so small. Zeus stood before his throne, the weight of the silent heavens pressing down on him. He looked at the assembled faces—Odin's grim resolve, Hades's stoic calm, the worry in Persephone's eyes, the fierce determination in Artemis's.

"We cannot fight him here," Zeus said, his voice cutting through the quiet. It was not a suggestion. It was a conclusion he had reached on the lonely peak.

A murmur rippled through the room.

"Here, we are defending a house made of glass," he continued, his gaze sweeping over them. "Every clash of power, every stray bolt of lightning, every burst of hellfire—it scars the earth, poisons the rivers, terrifies the mortals. We might win a battle, but we would leave behind a broken world. And that…" He looked pointedly at Lucifer's words, "…would be a victory for him. It would prove his point that we are just destroyers."

Hades, who had been watching from the shadows, spoke first. His voice was like stone grinding on stone. "You propose we take the fight to them. To Hell."

"I do," Zeus confirmed. "On their turf, we can unleash our full might. There is nothing there to protect but ourselves. No mortal cities to ash, no fields to blight. The damage is contained. The only price…" He paused, letting the grim reality settle in the room. "…is ours to pay. The risk to us, to every god who crosses that threshold, would be immense. Many would fall. But the world… the world would live."

The silence returned, heavier now. They were no longer discussing defense; they were contemplating a suicide mission.

"It is a cleaner calculus," Odin finally rumbled, his single eye sharp with understanding. "A sacrifice of soldiers to save the homeland. A tale as old as war itself. But the battlefield… you understand what you are suggesting? We would be fighting in a realm designed to break our will, to feed on our hope."

"I do," Zeus said. "But here, our hope is a vulnerability he can exploit. There, it is a weapon. A small, bright flame in an infinite dark."

Artemis stepped forward, her jaw set. "And what of the mortals while we are gone? We leave them undefended?"

"We would not be gone," Hades interjected, his logic cold and precise. "A strike force. The bulk of our combined pantheons remain here, guarding the borders, sealing the wounds as they appear. But the spearhead—the strongest of us—we take the fight to the heart of the infection. We force Lucifer to defend his own home."

"It is a gamble," a new voice said. The Jade Emperor, who had been observing with serene detachment, folded his hands into his sleeves. "You risk your most powerful pieces in a single move. If you fail, you leave your kingdoms leaderless and weakened."

"And if we do nothing, we lose slowly," Zeus countered, his voice rising with passion for the first time. "We watch as he turns brother against sister, as he corrupts our children, as he uses our love as a lever to pry us apart. He will make us the instruments of our own destruction. I will not give him that satisfaction. I would rather fall in his halls, fighting, than watch my family tear itself apart in mine."

The room erupted into a chorus of voices.

"It is madness!" Poseidon boomed, his trident striking the floor. "To charge into the heart of their power? It is what they expect!"

"What alternative is there?" Demeter fired back, her usually gentle voice sharp with fear for her daughter. "To wait for the blight to reach my fields? For the corruption to touch the harvest? I would rather face it at its source!"

Apollo, uncharacteristically solemn, strummed a single, dissonant chord on his lyre. "He is a master of discord. His greatest weapon is not a sword, but a whispered doubt. In Hell, his lies may be louder, but our truth will be sharper out of necessity. There is a certain… harmony in that."

The debate raged. Gods of war argued for the aggressive strike. Gods of hearth and home pleaded for a defensive stance. The Norse, no strangers to fatalistic glory, seemed more receptive, while others from distant pantheons looked on with deep concern.

Through it all, Zeus listened. He did not command. He let the fear, the anger, the courage, and the doubt fill the hall. This was a choice that could not be made by a king alone.

Finally, Hades spoke again, and his voice quieted the others.

"There is no good path," he said, his dark eyes meeting Zeus's. "Only a choice of tragedies. One path offers a chance to save the creation we swore to protect, at the cost of our own blood. The other path offers a slower, more insidious end, where we may survive only to rule over a graveyard of our own making."

He looked around at the assembled gods. "I have spent eternity ruling the dead. I have no wish to preside over the end of the living. My realm is full enough."

His words hung in the air, a grim endorsement.

One by one, the protests died down. The logic was brutal, but it was sound. The cost was terrifying, but the alternative was unthinkable.

Zeus saw the resolution hardening on their faces. The fear was still there, but it was being mastered by a greater duty.

"Then it is decided," Zeus said, his voice once again the firm bedrock of authority. "We build our spear. We choose our champions. And we bring the storm to Hell."

The decision was made. They would not wait for the end to come to them. They would march into the dark, a legion of gods against the infinite legions of despair, not to save themselves, but to save the fragile, beautiful world they called home. The cost would be written in divine blood, but the hope was that the story of mortals would continue.