Chapter 23
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After giving Alex the protective amulet, Zeus clapped his hands together as if to clean off dust or dirt from his palms.
"This protection should give your god body enough time to absorb some power from the commons and start generating power on its own. Usually, mortals take many years when ascending to godhood and adjust their bodies as they go. I forced your soul along unnaturally so you won't have all the supporting bodily functions set up and working from the start." Zeus was explaining to Alex about his new god body when Alex interrupted.
"You keep talking about my god body but you said it was my soul. What do you mean?"
Zeus took a deep breath and let it out as he wiped his face with his left hand.
"There is so much to explain for you to understand it all. Just take it slowly and you'll learn. Now, about your god body and the difference between it and your normal soul. I think I said it before but your god body is pretty much the physical or consolidated form of your soul. I formed it by coalescing the power you gathered from the fragments with your own soul giving your soul form."
Zeus could see he still wasn't making enough sense to Alex and sighed.
"Just consider your god body as your new protective shell. It is your armor here in the god commons. If you existed as a normal mortal soul here, you would probably dissipate when a gentle breeze blew past you as if you were just water vapor or smoke. Everything in the god commons contains power. Whether you think of this power as willpower, spiritual power or whatever, they're all like waves on the same ocean. They might move and splash a little differently but they're all forms of power and flowing in the same world."
Zeus realized he was being too detailed again and looked around for something physical he could use to help Alex understand better. He found a block of wood and placed it on the table.
"Okay, I want you to take your hand and push this block of wood down into the table as if you're trying to squash it flat."
With a confused look on his face, Alex walked up and did as Zeus told him to.
"What is this supposed to show me?" Pushing on the block had the same effect that pushing on a block back on Earth would have. It slid a little but didn't sink into the wood of the table and wasn't getting any flatter.
"There you see?" Zeus asked him.
Alex only looked at the old man and raised an eyebrow in response.
"You used power to exert some force on the block of wood but the table resisted. Your interactions in the god commons will be very similar to how they would be back on Earth." Zeus said as understanding finally began to shine in Alex's eyes.
"Why didn't you just say that to begin with?" Alex asked with indignation over being given a hard time for no apparent reason.
"I was trying to help you better understand how things worked here. Though it may seem like you're back on Earth, you need to understand the underlying principles within the commons if you want to survive on your own. My little demonstration was meant to show you that you need to use willpower to get things done here just like you would use muscle power on Earth. For your current body, when you've absorbed some power, your heart will start pumping and the absorbed power will start to circulate within you. Your new immortal body gains life by circulating this power and once it has enough power, your inner power generator or dynamo will be kick-started and begin to generate enough power to maintain basic levels of power to keep your god body alive. As you grow in power, your inner storage capacity will increase and your dynamo may become more powerful too. This would allow you to maintain higher levels of power and strength without it bleeding out of you. Gathering and keeping more power than you use so that your inner dynamo can grow stronger is a basic method to become a full god someday."
Alex was looking around the room as if desperately trying to find something.
"What are you doing?" Zeus asked worried that he'd just wasted his breath trying to teach Alex important information.
"I'm looking for paper and something to write with so I can jot this all down before I forget it all. As it is I can't follow along well enough to understand you the first time, so if I write it down first I can just read it later and understand everything at my pace instead."
Zeus actually felt a bit foolish for being so long-winded while acting like a responsible teacher.
"Alright, I have faith you'll understand in the future. Just eat when you're hungry to recharge your energy and sleep when you're tired. I won't go into details but you also purify yourself by excreting impurities that your body doesn't have a use for too." The old man was feeling worn out trying to teach Alex such basic stuff and glanced at Persephone who was trying to hide her giggles behind her hand.
"I think it may be better if I had you explain everything to the boy instead." He said.
Persephone stopped giggling and made a straight face before she nodded and said "I understand" She actually knew this would happen and didn't try to escape her new responsibility. She looked over at Alex and gave him a beaming smile.
Zeus saw this and shook his head.
"It's getting late and I have to prepare a place for Alex to sleep so lets head to my home." Zeus told the other two as he put away all the tools he was using to craft the amulet. He gave Alex some chopped wood to carry and opened the front door, which was a solid reinforced wooden door. As soon as the door opened, fresh air from the outside world swirled in carrying the scent of tree blossoms.
When Alex first stepped outside, he froze in place as his mind tried to comprehend all the sensations he was suddenly feeling. The dirt ground was cool on the soles of his feet and the breeze was gentle along his chest and the air was soothing. He took a deep breath and it felt like every pore in his skin and every organ in his body was sucking in power. It felt invigorating. Alex couldn't help it when a broad smile naturally spread across his face and a deep contentment blossomed within his body. It felt like a flower of joy was blooming between his stomach and his heart. He was overcome with the feeling of having real freedom for the first time he could ever remember. He felt like running down the gently sloping road and across the grassy fields and meadows he could see from where he was. He realized that this feeling was the spirit of adventure.
He was finally roused from his trance when Persephone gently tugged on his arm to get him to follow along. Zeus was walking uphill along the dirt packed road ahead.
"This world is so... Earth-like." Alex said to Persephone.
Persephone laughed and explained, "What do you think Earth is modeled after? I wasn't born when the Earth was made but most living worlds are designed to look and feel like the god commons. After all, most powerful gods are familiar with the god commons but aren't creative enough to put in the effort to customize their own worlds from scratch."
She rubbed her chin as she thought of another way to explain.
"Most gods use the commons as a premade template." She clarified and gave Alex's arm a gentle swing while it was still entangled with her own as she pulled him along after Zeus.
As he followed along, the trio went further up the hill allowing them to see over the rooftops of the houses further down. The road was gently curving making a long spiral and the houses further up the hill were too tall to see over. Alex looked around and realized that he was in a small hillside town surrounded by a one-story tall stone wall at the bottom of the hill. Beyond the wall, he could see a large fruit orchard of trees with elegantly sweeping branches twisting up from man-sized tree trunks. At least the trunks looked man-sized from far away. There was nothing nearby the trees to give him a sense of scale and the highest branches still reached above the horizon. Only a few fruits could be seen among the branches as if they'd been left there after the harvest. He couldn't tell what kind of fruit they were even though his eyesight was as sharp as a hawk's for the first time in his life.
Alex was overwhelmed by all the detail he could see with his new eyes. On Earth, before he died, his vision had been getting steadily worse year by year. The relief and joy he felt by being able to see such sharp and intense detail left him flabbergasted. He was focused on all the minute details of the little rocks along the dirt road they were still walking up and didn't notice the other inhabitants they passed by. The road was mostly deserted but it was still a habit of his to take note of strangers around him but at that moment he was too distracted and was happy to just automatically follow behind the old man while Persephone was pulling him along.
["This is amazing Angel! Are you seeing all this detail too?"]
Alex tried talking to Angel but didn't get a response.
"I can't talk to or hear Angel. I think something is wrong." He told Zeus and Persephone with a bit of panic.
Zeus looked back, "I told you before that systems won't usually function outside of the worlds they're designed for. When you eat and start making enough power of your own, she may start working again but with only the most basic of functionality. A system usually connects to the central governing... rather the central control system for the world they belong to in order to function properly. Um... Think of it like a computer that runs programs that need a wifi connection to the internet to work. Without the password to gain access to the network, the system won't be able to run all of its programs. So when you have enough power for her, she'll work but won't be as useful to you. But it's not my fault, I was careful not to damage her when I was working on your soul."
Alex understood the old man's explanation this time but had to ask Zeus how he knew about computers and the internet as they started walking again.
Zeus looked back with a smirk, "What? You think I'm too old to know about modern technology? I still visit and look around Earth when I want to. I have to say, you mortals are good at inventing some useful stuff. Especially birth control. I haven't had to deal with an angry Hera in ages thanks to condoms and pills." Zeus gave a hearty laugh.
Persephone slapped her forehead embarrassed that this was her old man. Then she looked over at Alex and whispered "In case you didn't already know and haven't already guessed, Hera is his wife and she gets really scary jealous when Zeus cheats on her. She usually targets the children he has with other women but she's not above using others to get revenge on Zeus himself."
She looked to see if Zeus was paying attention before she continued.
"One time Hera convinced a bunch of mortal male athletes to hold a competition in the nude and to scrape all their sweat and dead skin off into a potion to be given as an offering to Zeus. Getting a bunch of stinky man grime as an offering freaked him out. He was even worried that mortals would stop giving him their normal tribute and switch to this man muck because of Hera's meddling. Which was a real possibility since the games and giving the dirty sweat potions became a big tradition every year. The games became so popular that even wars were halted so the games could be held on time. The competitions even drew athletes from all over the Greek world. In fact, I hear the Olympic games still continue to this day."
Hearing about the origins of the Olympic games made Alex stumble with widened eyes. Seeing his expression made Persephone laugh knowing the lesson had been taken to heart.
"Just remember. When Hera wants revenge, she will get revenge. So don't piss her off. Ever." She warned Alex just to drive the lesson home.
Just then, Zeus stopped and turned around to look at Alex.
"I just remembered, you won't be using your god body when I send you into the lower realms. You'll be using a mortal body again which can get injured and have children with mortal women. I won't blame you if you get sidetracked but you'll still have access to some of your powers and you'll need to learn how to safely use them. Otherwise, you might turn any unfortunate lovers into a pile of ash by accident. If you don't want this to happen, you'll need to know how to control and contain your power so I'll be sending you to the training fields tomorrow to start your education."
Zeus looked at Persephone and asked, "Can you to escort Alex and introduce him to Lucius in the morning?"
Persephone looked at her father for a moment before responding, "Sure, this at least gives me an excuse to get out of the house before I'm given a bunch of busy work at home."
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After giving Alex the protective amulet, Zeus clapped his hands together as if to clean off dust or dirt from his palms.
"This protection should give your god body enough time to absorb some power from the commons and start generating power on its own. Usually, mortals take many years when ascending to godhood and adjust their bodies as they go. I forced your soul along unnaturally so you won't have all the supporting bodily functions set up and working from the start." Zeus was explaining to Alex about his new god body when Alex interrupted.
"You keep talking about my god body but you said it was my soul. What do you mean?"
Zeus took a deep breath and let it out as he wiped his face with his left hand.
"There is so much to explain for you to understand it all. Just take it slowly and you'll learn. Now, about your god body and the difference between it and your normal soul. I think I said it before but your god body is pretty much the physical or consolidated form of your soul. I formed it by coalescing the power you gathered from the fragments with your own soul giving your soul form."
Zeus could see he still wasn't making enough sense to Alex and sighed.
"Just consider your god body as your new protective shell. It is your armor here in the god commons. If you existed as a normal mortal soul here, you would probably dissipate when a gentle breeze blew past you as if you were just water vapor or smoke. Everything in the god commons contains power. Whether you think of this power as willpower, spiritual power or whatever, they're all like waves on the same ocean. They might move and splash a little differently but they're all forms of power and flowing in the same world."
Zeus realized he was being too detailed again and looked around for something physical he could use to help Alex understand better. He found a block of wood and placed it on the table.
"Okay, I want you to take your hand and push this block of wood down into the table as if you're trying to squash it flat."
With a confused look on his face, Alex walked up and did as Zeus told him to.
"What is this supposed to show me?" Pushing on the block had the same effect that pushing on a block back on Earth would have. It slid a little but didn't sink into the wood of the table and wasn't getting any flatter.
"There you see?" Zeus asked him.
Alex only looked at the old man and raised an eyebrow in response.
"You used power to exert some force on the block of wood but the table resisted. Your interactions in the god commons will be very similar to how they would be back on Earth." Zeus said as understanding finally began to shine in Alex's eyes.
"Why didn't you just say that to begin with?" Alex asked with indignation over being given a hard time for no apparent reason.
"I was trying to help you better understand how things worked here. Though it may seem like you're back on Earth, you need to understand the underlying principles within the commons if you want to survive on your own. My little demonstration was meant to show you that you need to use willpower to get things done here just like you would use muscle power on Earth. For your current body, when you've absorbed some power, your heart will start pumping and the absorbed power will start to circulate within you. Your new immortal body gains life by circulating this power and once it has enough power, your inner power generator or dynamo will be kick-started and begin to generate enough power to maintain basic levels of power to keep your god body alive. As you grow in power, your inner storage capacity will increase and your dynamo may become more powerful too. This would allow you to maintain higher levels of power and strength without it bleeding out of you. Gathering and keeping more power than you use so that your inner dynamo can grow stronger is a basic method to become a full god someday."
Alex was looking around the room as if desperately trying to find something.
"What are you doing?" Zeus asked worried that he'd just wasted his breath trying to teach Alex important information.
"I'm looking for paper and something to write with so I can jot this all down before I forget it all. As it is I can't follow along well enough to understand you the first time, so if I write it down first I can just read it later and understand everything at my pace instead."
Zeus actually felt a bit foolish for being so long-winded while acting like a responsible teacher.
"Alright, I have faith you'll understand in the future. Just eat when you're hungry to recharge your energy and sleep when you're tired. I won't go into details but you also purify yourself by excreting impurities that your body doesn't have a use for too." The old man was feeling worn out trying to teach Alex such basic stuff and glanced at Persephone who was trying to hide her giggles behind her hand.
"I think it may be better if I had you explain everything to the boy instead." He said.
Persephone stopped giggling and made a straight face before she nodded and said "I understand" She actually knew this would happen and didn't try to escape her new responsibility. She looked over at Alex and gave him a beaming smile.
Zeus saw this and shook his head.
"It's getting late and I have to prepare a place for Alex to sleep so lets head to my home." Zeus told the other two as he put away all the tools he was using to craft the amulet. He gave Alex some chopped wood to carry and opened the front door, which was a solid reinforced wooden door. As soon as the door opened, fresh air from the outside world swirled in carrying the scent of tree blossoms.
When Alex first stepped outside, he froze in place as his mind tried to comprehend all the sensations he was suddenly feeling. The dirt ground was cool on the soles of his feet and the breeze was gentle along his chest and the air was soothing. He took a deep breath and it felt like every pore in his skin and every organ in his body was sucking in power. It felt invigorating. Alex couldn't help it when a broad smile naturally spread across his face and a deep contentment blossomed within his body. It felt like a flower of joy was blooming between his stomach and his heart. He was overcome with the feeling of having real freedom for the first time he could ever remember. He felt like running down the gently sloping road and across the grassy fields and meadows he could see from where he was. He realized that this feeling was the spirit of adventure.
He was finally roused from his trance when Persephone gently tugged on his arm to get him to follow along. Zeus was walking uphill along the dirt packed road ahead.
"This world is so... Earth-like." Alex said to Persephone.
Persephone laughed and explained, "What do you think Earth is modeled after? I wasn't born when the Earth was made but most living worlds are designed to look and feel like the god commons. After all, most powerful gods are familiar with the god commons but aren't creative enough to put in the effort to customize their own worlds from scratch."
She rubbed her chin as she thought of another way to explain.
"Most gods use the commons as a premade template." She clarified and gave Alex's arm a gentle swing while it was still entangled with her own as she pulled him along after Zeus.
As he followed along, the trio went further up the hill allowing them to see over the rooftops of the houses further down. The road was gently curving making a long spiral and the houses further up the hill were too tall to see over. Alex looked around and realized that he was in a small hillside town surrounded by a one-story tall stone wall at the bottom of the hill. Beyond the wall, he could see a large fruit orchard of trees with elegantly sweeping branches twisting up from man-sized tree trunks. At least the trunks looked man-sized from far away. There was nothing nearby the trees to give him a sense of scale and the highest branches still reached above the horizon. Only a few fruits could be seen among the branches as if they'd been left there after the harvest. He couldn't tell what kind of fruit they were even though his eyesight was as sharp as a hawk's for the first time in his life.
Alex was overwhelmed by all the detail he could see with his new eyes. On Earth, before he died, his vision had been getting steadily worse year by year. The relief and joy he felt by being able to see such sharp and intense detail left him flabbergasted. He was focused on all the minute details of the little rocks along the dirt road they were still walking up and didn't notice the other inhabitants they passed by. The road was mostly deserted but it was still a habit of his to take note of strangers around him but at that moment he was too distracted and was happy to just automatically follow behind the old man while Persephone was pulling him along.
["This is amazing Angel! Are you seeing all this detail too?"]
Alex tried talking to Angel but didn't get a response.
"I can't talk to or hear Angel. I think something is wrong." He told Zeus and Persephone with a bit of panic.
Zeus looked back, "I told you before that systems won't usually function outside of the worlds they're designed for. When you eat and start making enough power of your own, she may start working again but with only the most basic of functionality. A system usually connects to the central governing... rather the central control system for the world they belong to in order to function properly. Um... Think of it like a computer that runs programs that need a wifi connection to the internet to work. Without the password to gain access to the network, the system won't be able to run all of its programs. So when you have enough power for her, she'll work but won't be as useful to you. But it's not my fault, I was careful not to damage her when I was working on your soul."
Alex understood the old man's explanation this time but had to ask Zeus how he knew about computers and the internet as they started walking again.
Zeus looked back with a smirk, "What? You think I'm too old to know about modern technology? I still visit and look around Earth when I want to. I have to say, you mortals are good at inventing some useful stuff. Especially birth control. I haven't had to deal with an angry Hera in ages thanks to condoms and pills." Zeus gave a hearty laugh.
Persephone slapped her forehead embarrassed that this was her old man. Then she looked over at Alex and whispered "In case you didn't already know and haven't already guessed, Hera is his wife and she gets really scary jealous when Zeus cheats on her. She usually targets the children he has with other women but she's not above using others to get revenge on Zeus himself."
She looked to see if Zeus was paying attention before she continued.
"One time Hera convinced a bunch of mortal male athletes to hold a competition in the nude and to scrape all their sweat and dead skin off into a potion to be given as an offering to Zeus. Getting a bunch of stinky man grime as an offering freaked him out. He was even worried that mortals would stop giving him their normal tribute and switch to this man muck because of Hera's meddling. Which was a real possibility since the games and giving the dirty sweat potions became a big tradition every year. The games became so popular that even wars were halted so the games could be held on time. The competitions even drew athletes from all over the Greek world. In fact, I hear the Olympic games still continue to this day."
Hearing about the origins of the Olympic games made Alex stumble with widened eyes. Seeing his expression made Persephone laugh knowing the lesson had been taken to heart.
"Just remember. When Hera wants revenge, she will get revenge. So don't piss her off. Ever." She warned Alex just to drive the lesson home.
Just then, Zeus stopped and turned around to look at Alex.
"I just remembered, you won't be using your god body when I send you into the lower realms. You'll be using a mortal body again which can get injured and have children with mortal women. I won't blame you if you get sidetracked but you'll still have access to some of your powers and you'll need to learn how to safely use them. Otherwise, you might turn any unfortunate lovers into a pile of ash by accident. If you don't want this to happen, you'll need to know how to control and contain your power so I'll be sending you to the training fields tomorrow to start your education."
Zeus looked at Persephone and asked, "Can you to escort Alex and introduce him to Lucius in the morning?"
Persephone looked at her father for a moment before responding, "Sure, this at least gives me an excuse to get out of the house before I'm given a bunch of busy work at home."
After giving Alex the protective amulet, Zeus clapped his hands together as if to clean off dust or dirt from his palms."This protection should give your god body enough time to absorb some power from the commons and start generating power on its own. Usually, mortals take many years when ascending to godhood and adjust their bodies as they go. I forced your soul along unnaturally so you won't have all the supporting bodily functions set up and working from the start." Zeus was explaining to Alex about his new god body when Alex interrupted."You keep talking about my god body but you said it was my soul. What do you mean?"Zeus took a deep breath and let it out as he wiped his face with his left hand."There is so much to explain for you to understand it all. Just take it slowly and you'll learn. Now, about your god body and the difference between it and your normal soul. I think I said it before but your god body is pretty much the physical or consolidated form of your soul. I formed it by coalescing the power you gathered from the fragments with your own soul giving your soul form."Zeus could see he still wasn't making enough sense to Alex and sighed."Just consider your god body as your new protective shell. It is your armor here in the god commons. If you existed as a normal mortal soul here, you would probably dissipate when a gentle breeze blew past you as if you were just water vapor or smoke. Everything in the god commons contains power. Whether you think of this power as willpower, spiritual power or whatever, they're all like waves on the same ocean. They might move and splash a little differently but they're all forms of power and flowing in the same world."Zeus realized he was being too detailed again and looked around for something physical he could use to help Alex understand better. He found a block of wood and placed it on the table."Okay, I want you to take your hand and push this block of wood down into the table as if you're trying to squash it flat."With a confused look on his face, Alex walked up and did as Zeus told him to."What is this supposed to show me?" Pushing on the block had the same effect that pushing on a block back on Earth would have. It slid a little but didn't sink into the wood of the table and wasn't getting any flatter."There you see?" Zeus asked him.Alex only looked at the old man and raised an eyebrow in response."You used power to exert some force on the block of wood but the table resisted. Your interactions in the god commons will be very similar to how they would be back on Earth." Zeus said as understanding finally began to shine in Alex's eyes."Why didn't you just say that to begin with?" Alex asked with indignation over being given a hard time for no apparent reason."I was trying to help you better understand how things worked here. Though it may seem like you're back on Earth, you need to understand the underlying principles within the commons if you want to survive on your own. My little demonstration was meant to show you that you need to use willpower to get things done here just like you would use muscle power on Earth. For your current body, when you've absorbed some power, your heart will start pumping and the absorbed power will start to circulate within you. Your new immortal body gains life by circulating this power and once it has enough power, your inner power generator or dynamo will be kick-started and begin to generate enough power to maintain basic levels of power to keep your god body alive. As you grow in power, your inner storage capacity will increase and your dynamo may become more powerful too. This would allow you to maintain higher levels of power and strength without it bleeding out of you. Gathering and keeping more power than you use so that your inner dynamo can grow stronger is a basic method to become a full god someday."Alex was looking around the room as if desperately trying to find something."What are you doing?" Zeus asked worried that he'd just wasted his breath trying to teach Alex important information."I'm looking for paper and something to write with so I can jot this all down before I forget it all. As it is I can't follow along well enough to understand you the first time, so if I write it down first I can just read it later and understand everything at my pace instead."Zeus actually felt a bit foolish for being so long-winded while acting like a responsible teacher."Alright, I have faith you'll understand in the future. Just eat when you're hungry to recharge your energy and sleep when you're tired. I won't go into details but you also purify yourself by excreting impurities that your body doesn't have a use for too." The old man was feeling worn out trying to teach Alex such basic stuff and glanced at Persephone who was trying to hide her giggles behind her hand."I think it may be better if I had you explain everything to the boy instead." He said.Persephone stopped giggling and made a straight face before she nodded and said "I understand" She actually knew this would happen and didn't try to escape her new responsibility. She looked over at Alex and gave him a beaming smile.Zeus saw this and shook his head."It's getting late and I have to prepare a place for Alex to sleep so lets head to my home." Zeus told the other two as he put away all the tools he was using to craft the amulet. He gave Alex some chopped wood to carry and opened the front door, which was a solid reinforced wooden door. As soon as the door opened, fresh air from the outside world swirled in carrying the scent of tree blossoms.When Alex first stepped outside, he froze in place as his mind tried to comprehend all the sensations he was suddenly feeling. The dirt ground was cool on the soles of his feet and the breeze was gentle along his chest and the air was soothing. He took a deep breath and it felt like every pore in his skin and every organ in his body was sucking in power. It felt invigorating. Alex couldn't help it when a broad smile naturally spread across his face and a deep contentment blossomed within his body. It felt like a flower of joy was blooming between his stomach and his heart. He was overcome with the feeling of having real freedom for the first time he could ever remember. He felt like running down the gently sloping road and across the grassy fields and meadows he could see from where he was. He realized that this feeling was the spirit of adventure.He was finally roused from his trance when Persephone gently tugged on his arm to get him to follow along. Zeus was walking uphill along the dirt packed road ahead."This world is so... Earth-like." Alex said to Persephone.Persephone laughed and explained, "What do you think Earth is modeled after? I wasn't born when the Earth was made but most living worlds are designed to look and feel like the god commons. After all, most powerful gods are familiar with the god commons but aren't creative enough to put in the effort to customize their own worlds from scratch."She rubbed her chin as she thought of another way to explain."Most gods use the commons as a premade template." She clarified and gave Alex's arm a gentle swing while it was still entangled with her own as she pulled him along after Zeus.As he followed along, the trio went further up the hill allowing them to see over the rooftops of the houses further down. The road was gently curving making a long spiral and the houses further up the hill were too tall to see over. Alex looked around and realized that he was in a small hillside town surrounded by a one-story tall stone wall at the bottom of the hill. Beyond the wall, he could see a large fruit orchard of trees with elegantly sweeping branches twisting up from man-sized tree trunks. At least the trunks looked man-sized from far away. There was nothing nearby the trees to give him a sense of scale and the highest branches still reached above the horizon. Only a few fruits could be seen among the branches as if they'd been left there after the harvest. He couldn't tell what kind of fruit they were even though his eyesight was as sharp as a hawk's for the first time in his life.Alex was overwhelmed by all the detail he could see with his new eyes. On Earth, before he died, his vision had been getting steadily worse year by year. The relief and joy he felt by being able to see such sharp and intense detail left him flabbergasted. He was focused on all the minute details of the little rocks along the dirt road they were still walking up and didn't notice the other inhabitants they passed by. The road was mostly deserted but it was still a habit of his to take note of strangers around him but at that moment he was too distracted and was happy to just automatically follow behind the old man while Persephone was pulling him along."This is amazing Angel! Are you seeing all this detail too?"Alex tried talking to Angel but didn't get a response."I can't talk to or hear Angel. I think something is wrong." He told Zeus and Persephone with a bit of panic.Zeus looked back, "I told you before that systems won't usually function outside of the worlds they're designed for. When you eat and start making enough power of your own, she may start working again but with only the most basic of functionality. A system usually connects to the central governing... rather the central control system for the world they belong to in order to function properly. Um... Think of it like a computer that runs programs that need a wifi connection to the internet to work. Without the password to gain access to the network, the system won't be able to run all of its programs. So when you have enough power for her, she'll work but won't be as useful to you. But it's not my fault, I was careful not to damage her when I was working on your soul."Alex understood the old man's explanation this time but had to ask Zeus how he knew about computers and the internet as they started walking again.Zeus looked back with a smirk, "What? You think I'm too old to know about modern technology? I still visit and look around Earth when I want to. I have to say, you mortals are good at inventing some useful stuff. Especially birth control. I haven't had to deal with an angry Hera in ages thanks to condoms and pills." Zeus gave a hearty laugh.Persephone slapped her forehead embarrassed that this was her old man. Then she looked over at Alex and whispered "In case you didn't already know and haven't already guessed, Hera is his wife and she gets really scary jealous when Zeus cheats on her. She usually targets the children he has with other women but she's not above using others to get revenge on Zeus himself."She looked to see if Zeus was paying attention before she continued."One time Hera convinced a bunch of mortal male athletes to hold a competition in the nude and to scrape all their sweat and dead skin off into a potion to be given as an offering to Zeus. Getting a bunch of stinky man grime as an offering freaked him out. He was even worried that mortals would stop giving him their normal tribute and switch to this man muck because of Hera's meddling. Which was a real possibility since the games and giving the dirty sweat potions became a big tradition every year. The games became so popular that even wars were halted so the games could be held on time. The competitions even drew athletes from all over the Greek world. In fact, I hear the Olympic games still continue to this day."Hearing about the origins of the Olympic games made Alex stumble with widened eyes. Seeing his expression made Persephone laugh knowing the lesson had been taken to heart."Just remember. When Hera wants revenge, she will get revenge. So don't piss her off. Ever." She warned Alex just to drive the lesson home.Just then, Zeus stopped and turned around to look at Alex."I just remembered, you won't be using your god body when I send you into the lower realms. You'll be using a mortal body again which can get injured and have children with mortal women. I won't blame you if you get sidetracked but you'll still have access to some of your powers and you'll need to learn how to safely use them. Otherwise, you might turn any unfortunate lovers into a pile of ash by accident. If you don't want this to happen, you'll need to know how to control and contain your power so I'll be sending you to the training fields tomorrow to start your education."Zeus looked at Persephone and asked, "Can you to escort Alex and introduce him to Lucius in the morning?"Persephone looked at her father for a moment before responding, "Sure, this at least gives me an excuse to get out of the house before I'm given a bunch of busy work at home."
