Lightning struck his skin like a vengeful lover too eager to inflict pain. The pain was immense, but it no longer made Zeus flinch. He welcomed it, needed it in a way. Not because he was a masochist, but to get his mind off things. Each strike of raw energy from the violent storm raging around him wasn't just training and tempering of his resistance and familiarity, it was also a conversation. This was not punishment, but Zeus' way of growing stronger and more resistant.
Zeus was no longer a boy capable of hiding behind his innocent and youthful smile. He had grown to his full height and stood naked inside the chaos of Jupiter's most recognisable and violent storm: the Great Red Spot.
The Great Red Spot was a persistent high-pressure region in the atmosphere of Jupiter. It was a never-ending anticyclonic storm unlike any other in the Solar System. Located 22 degrees south of Jupiter's equator, it produced wind speeds up to 268 mph (432 km/h). Though a 2024 study suggested otherwise, the mythic poetry of Zeus choosing this spot as his battleground still held true. It was here that he chose to continue to forge a stronger body for himself. He had come to see himself as a piece of iron, which had to be cleansed and hit so that it could be shaped and turned into an unbreakable weapon.
Zeus was now a god in the prime of his youth. At 18 years old, he was still a child in the eyes of his grandmother and essentially all immortal existences, yet for him, it was a significant milestone. Fully grown in body at least, and still growing in power. And finally, away from the equally growing hunger of his grandmother, Gaia.
He shuddered at the thought.
Her gaze had changed. No longer the 'warm' affection of a grandmother protecting a child, with well-controlled lust and desire. Something darker had begun to burn behind her eyes. Possessiveness, desire and lustful, more than it ever had in the past 18 years. He had seen that look before in others, but on her face… it terrified him more than his father's wrath or any war in the future. She had grown bolder, moving closer, her touches lingering too long and in 'inappropriate' places, her words were no longer simply subtle suggestions, she was basically saying what she wanted: him.
And he knew exactly why that was the case. It was the Essence again. Through it, Zeus had the passive ability always to say and do the right things to get into any woman's good grace, EVEN when he was not paying attention to it. But that wasn't all.
His charms worked all the time. For example, it might take months of hard work to bone a lesbian feminazi who hated men with undying passion. Still, if this feminazi were in a happy lesbian relationship, it would only take a few weeks instead. Married women were particularly vulnerable to you, needing only a few days or hours of work. As for Gaia, well, she was a Primordial and insanely powerful, and yet, she had been around Zeus for 18 years straight, and that was enough.
(Zeus' looks)
And she was Gaia. There was no winning that encounter for Zeus, only escape. So he ran. What else was he supposed to do? There was no place on Earth he would have been safe from her, and since he needed another place to train anyway, it was all right.
.
So here he was, in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, named after him ironically, where the Great Red Spot raged with unending fury and lightning struck like divine retribution. It was Zeus' personal anvil, where he planned to reach a new stage in his training. The gravity was also helpful, as it was pulling him down and forcing him to stay in the air. The atmosphere was unbreathable, and yet none of that mattered. He didn't need to breathe anyway.
Every moment on Jupiter was training.
His body moved through the stormy sky at the speed just below that of a stepped leader, the initial phase of a lightning strike, approximately 1.5 x 10⁵ meters per second. His muscles were enhanced and fuelled by electrical stimulation. Zeus had trained this to increase his speed gradually and train his perception during those speeds. His movements were aided by charged magnetic fields, which Zeus had started to summon from the charges in the air itself, turning him into a streak that was not quite, but almost, lightning. He zoomed through the air, weaving through bolts of plasma, trying to master the technique he had been working towards for a long time.
To become lightning itself. Lightning with thought and following his will. Or partial transformation at the very least.
Zeus wasn't merely summoning lightning and hurling it around anymore. He had gone beyond those crude blasts and shows of raw power. Now, he shaped the raw power and directed it as he pleased. He condensed it into beams as thin as his hair, but which were able to pierce through mountains. He was capable of forming lightning spheres of pure charge that floated like will-o'-wisps around him and could explode when he wished.
Since becoming lighting itself was harder, another breakthrough came first. Zeus hardened the electric current and began forming spears, chains and even armour. He solidified lightning and turned it into hard objects. He called this technique Lightning Solidification. Not because he needed to give it a name, as he was not a sorcerer, but because he was a child in all but physique.
Control was an important part of Zeus' training, since he thought it was important. As stated, he didn't have anyone teaching him. All he knew was from the comics he used to read. He tried some of those cultivation novels, but they were usually atrocious in his opinion. Translation was a problem mostly.
Another breakthrough Zeus achieved was to infuse his muscles with lightning. It was a problem at first, since the lightning would cause his nerves to fire speedily and in uncontrolled bursts, while his muscle cells depolarised all the time, making him a spasming, babbling fool. He needed to understand and master the electrical currents within his body first, and then enhance them. Then he had to increase his control again, so as not to simply flood his entire system. So his speed increased, but his perception was too slow and his muscles too weak to keep up. It was a long process.
.
As Zeus's speed grew faster, he didn't realise but felt it instinctively. He had not reached a new stage, but had unveiled a fundamental truth: his true form was not flesh and bone, but the sky itself, filled with a never-ending lightning storm. To become lightning, he no longer needed to learn or imitate anything. He simply had to be his true self. With that revelation, his body began to shimmer and dissolve. He took his true form, and his body became a pure lightning storm.
Zeus's senses suddenly exploded outwards. He no longer saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, or felt with his skin. He was the sky. Not the entire sky, not yet, but a large part of it, and he felt that there was potential for growth here as well. Every ion shift in the atmosphere, every swirl of spatial currents, every minuscule pulse of electrical charge danced across his awareness. He could feel Jupiter's rotation as a heartbeat and the stars as distant energies. The universe had grown smaller, while he had grown larger in a strange way.
It took quite a while for Zeus to get down from that special divine 'high' he was on and transform back to his physical form. He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. It was terrific for him, and he wanted to do it again. He wanted to reduce the time it took him to do so. Plus, he wanted to reach a level where he could partially transform his body into lightning, or do something more with it. Something he had just thought of.
.
.
A month passed this way.
The storm on Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, grew more powerful and dangerous through the months, as Zeus' training reached new heights repeatedly. A big smile could be seen on Zeus' face as he meditated. He had managed something he only theorised about, but was suddenly possible. Logically, Zeus told himself, it shouldn't have been possible, and yet, he had tried it anyway, just to see where it would take him.
He sat in a meditative position. Lightning rose from Zeus' pores like steam all over his body and acted like conductors, pulling in the powerful orange-red lightning of the storm around and absorbing it. Nothing happened for days until his body suddenly released a lot of lightning all at once, making it move to the side in arcs and coming together, beginning to form something that looked like him. This went on until, after a few hours, the process was complete, and a lightning copy of Zeus sat at his side.
A lightning Clone.
What was a body really? Was it a soul or was it merely biology? And what was needed for biology if not electricity?
Yet, Zeus understood what spoke against the notion that electricity alone could replicate life: will and consciousness. Electricity could animate, yes, but not create a copy or clone that could act independently. Sure, he could create one and then control it, but that wouldn't work fully. A lightning clone, made up of pure lightning, was unstable by nature, lacking something which grounds it. Some catalyst was still needed.
And then Zeus realised what that catalyst or energy was, which he could use: his divine energy. Not just the current of the sky, but the force that made him a god, that which defined him. So he went at it. By channelling this divinity into the lightning clone, he filled in the 'blanks' the missing central processor unit needed to stabilise the lightning form. Divine energy acted as a way to stabilise the lightning. It made the impossible rather easy.
The clone floated in front of Zeus. It was not just crackling with power, but holding it all together and even had a complexion that looked like Zeus. Zeus grinned. This was the beginning of something greater. The beginning of further training possibilities. He was now no longer alone. He had a sparring partner.
.
.
A powerful lightning shot through the air and forced Zeus to dodge it. The lightning clone appeared beside him and punched forward. Zeus turned toward it. His eyes narrowing, with a thought, Zeus moved his head to the side, dodging the attack and sending out one of his own. The clone managed to dodge as well and moved back slightly. Then he charged forward, and Zeus did as well, both of them pulling back their fists, preparing for a clash.
They collided mid-air, causing loud thunder to permeate the sky and the storm to roar.
Zeus vanished in a blink. His form teleported from one spot in the electromagnetic area and reappeared behind the clone, his fist clenched and charged with energy. The clone reacted with uncanny speed, twisting in mid-air, its form shifting and crackling. Their fists collided, erupting in a wave of sound and light that cracked the air above and split the clouds.
"Not bad," Zeus grinned.
The clone replied only with a silent discharge, forming twin blades of condensed lightning, crafted from ionised plasma. He swung the two blades through the air and sent out two slashes of plasma towards Zeus. Zeus ducked through the two slashes, channelling his own energy into his hands and clapping forcefully. A small explosion flared up, blinding the clone momentarily.
With a sweeping gesture, Zeus took control of the Great Red Spot and summoned a thunderstorm above them. Thunder cracked and lightning struck all around, aiming one powerful one at the clone. But the clone hadn't been idle. It struck Zeus hard. The fist impacted Zeus' face in full force. However, instead of being harmed by the attack, Zeus absorbed the energy into his body.
"BAHAHAHA! YES!"
His body was pumped with energy and glowed with divine power. His wounds, which he had accumulated in their hour-long battle, closing instantly, showcasing another technique, Zeus had learned: Lightning regeneration. Zeus caught the clone's arm before he could pull back and countered. He pulled back his arm and pumped power through it. Right away, it began to bloat and grow larger, filled with lightning and enhancing his muscles to a ridiculous degree. The pause was short, but not enough for the clone to change much. Zeus hurled his arm forward and smashed his monstrous fist into the clone's face.
As it flew through the air, Zeus pointed his finger forward. A small red bead of energy appeared there. A moment later, the small bead of energy turned into a column of plasma and zoomed through the air, destroying the clone's upper body. The lower body floated aimlessly in the air, and as it was about to dissolve into lightning, Zeus took control and reshaped the clone to have their fight go on longer. But this time, he created two more, for additional difficulty.
The four versions of Zeus clashed in the air, lightning flashing in every direction, tearing through the sky, which now belonged to Zeus.
.
.
Zeus landed on Mount Ida after almost a year of being absent. He had made monstrous progress and was now ready for something new. He was naked right now, the last vestiges of clothing having been destroyed long ago. His body, now long perfected beyond godly peak, showing every muscle full of explosive power, now crackled ever so often with residual energy as he walked forward. His breath exhaled, and tiny sparks of lightning flew out. He remembered that he was now back on the ground and needed to control his energy output again, lest he affect the surroundings and burn the ground. His eyes flashed with deep blue lightning, especially when deep in thought and not focused on the present.
He had been working on his speed. He knew that eventually, he would have to face Kronos, and as the god of time, he would always have the speed advantage. Only speed was invincible. So Zeus had been working on creating either a technique or a special move that would allow him to be faster than his father, who controlled time. A strike that would transcend time, if you would. But that was hard, very hard. He hadn't yet achieved lightspeed just yet. He was probably getting closer with each day, but whether he was there yet, he wasn't certain. But he needed more than just that. He needed a blow that moved not just faster than light, but faster than causality in a sense. It was not yet perfected. It was a theory, if anything.
"Well, look who decided to show up? If it isn't Zeus..."
Zeus was pulled from his thoughts and looked to the side, where he saw his grandmother sitting and looking at him. Her gaze was unreadable, a blend of amusement and simmering hunger that sent a chill down his spine.
"You've been gone for almost a year, child," Gaia said, her tone deceptively light. "Do you know what happens to those who disobey and ignore their elders?"
Zeus took a careful step back, eyes narrowing.
"Punishment?"
"Exactly," she purred, rising to her feet. Vines and the Earth began to stir around her, twisting from the earth and slithering toward his limbs. "You've kept me waiting far too long. I think it's time I take what you've been denying me."
Zeus's instincts screamed. He turned on his heel and launched into the air, but the vines were already upon him, lashing out with uncanny speed and precision. He knew Gaia wouldn't ask; she would just take. She was basically an unsatisfied woman who had been trying to drown and push down her lust and desire, but now no longer could, seeing how Zeus came along, having grown more powerful. And while he wasn't exactly opposed to the idea, as his hormones had grown as stormy as his power had, he had other plans. More important priorities. Still, she was Gaia. And that meant she caught him.
The vines wrapped around his legs mid-flight and began to pull him down, but Zeus, with eyes crackling, shouted in defiance.
"Noooooo..."
Lightning exploded from his body, the air turning white-golden as he dispersed into his true form: pure storm. In that moment, with his form turning into energy, he performed the basic ritual he had access to thanks to his Essence. A spark ignited across reality itself.
"No," Gaia whispered, a mix of anger, annoyance and longing.
A blinding pulse of lightning tore through space, and with it, Zeus was gone. Gone to another world.