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I am no longer in the living realm.

I am in Olympus.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Persephone

The Underworld is darkly exquisite.Nothing and no one can deny such a claim.

But Olympus is the other side of that darkly seductive coin. And it is exquisite in an entirely different way. Bright, light, and gilded gold.

Disappointingly, we have arrived in a room.

No—roomis not the right word for this space. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is huge—Coliseum huge and castle grand. It is far grander a space than I’ve ever stood. Words escape the enormity of it.

I feel like a speck on the floor of white marble that gleams with veins of glittering gold. High white marble walls arch into a single peak in the center from which a starburst is cut into the stone. It is aligned perfectly to pull the golden sun that sits high in a blue cloudless sky into the room.

Chiseled into the white marble are scenes of cherub angels and tender hands, horse drawn carriages and soft gazes. Carvedinto the walls is a feeling of love that leaches into the room, permeating the very air.

This realm was carved of love, of that I am certain. There is a familiarity in me that I can’t ignore as ancient memories rise to the surface of my mind. I've been here before, but I've never felt for this space, this realm, what I feel now.

I don't want to love it, but there is something deep inside me, rooted into the pit of my belly that is bursting with love.

It bleeds into every part of me, for there is beauty in this realm that even the evil that hides, wearing a mask of love, slips through.

But evil was never meant to thrive here. It was not invited, and the takeover has not been kind. It has been hostile, and the price has been a world of pain. The overtaking of this realm sprung wounds that bleeds into the living realm, infecting the souls meant to live there as it infected the Gods and Goddesses who sought a life here.

Chaos created this realm as she created all the others, and she outdid herself. Twisting vines of gilded gold shimmer in the rays of sunlight that peek through the starburst in the ceiling.

They dance like tiny fireflies glimmering across the white marble floor. Specks of dust high in the air hover golden, like fairy dust sprinkled on magic.

Everything in Olympus was crafted to radiate warmth.

But trapped beneath all the warmth and all the wonder is a love and a purity that should have never been contained by the evil it has been trapped by for centuries. The evil of a hungry and devious God.A false God.

For no true God wishes ill upon the people he crafts. No true God injects such pain in his subjects, as Zeus has injected in mankind.

Humanity has been deceived.

We have been tricked into worshiping a terrible God who feats on energy and thrives on pain. He is a harvester of hope.

My heart quickens with a need to decimate Zeus, the God who stands clothed in shimmering robes of gold that sweep the floor around his sandaled feet.

There is no denying he is breathtaking. I shouldn’t be surprised, really. He is, after all, Hades’ brother.

His hair is long and curled and stark white. His skin smooth, his eyes blue and flawless.

He radiates the perception of good and purity, but his heart is cracked and bleeding black.

Hatred oozes inside me, and I have to look away for fear he might see it.

Still, his image is burned behind my eyes.

There is no question as to why Zeus is worshiped as God. There is no confusion as to how his image is the one that paints the picture of the Heavenly Father in the minds of so many.

There is no question as to how he has deceived those who kneel to the practice of religion, time and again throughout history.