Alcides the Berserker 2 (Patreon)

Alcides the Berserker 2 - or ‘My Twin Sister and I go through a wild journey in Ancient Greece’ (Fateverse, Herakles!SI)

It was morning and… it’s been long!

I am no longer a baby! I am now fourteen and lucky!

After all, I knew who I was and what I had to keep wary about. Herakles’ legend is one that I had grown up with as I had been given many books about Greek Mythology back in my previous childhood.

Herakles was, with good reasons, my favorite hero. He wasn’t exactly the ‘best’ hero, but he was the one that matched the kind of antiquated mindset that existed in this very time.

A man born with incredible strength but lacking moral understanding on how to use it for a while before becoming a cow herder and understanding the meaning of power in the name of good.

…I wasn’t that guy. Strength? Yes. But a need for a morality check? I didn’t need that. Not because I didn’t know how to handle morality itself, but because I wasn’t growing spoiled. I was Prince of Tiryns, in the region of Argolis which was somewhere in the southern section of modern Peloponnese.

Near Athens, but not too near- enough for the power of King Amphitryon, my ‘father’ to clash with those Kings ruling in the region. Not many tend to study much of Herakles’ birthplace, with Tiryns being a city akin to Troy due to its mighty walls built by giants and cyclops.

It was also a commercial hub that had many trade routes connecting to most of the major cities in Southern Greece, where a large portion of the Mycenaean Greek civilization originated from.

While it was all great compared to elsewhere, I also have to say that it wasn’t exactly the ‘best place’ for someone that comes from several thousands years in the future. Medicine was barely treated as a scientific tool, but accustomed to religious and magical affairs. Magic was, indeed, a common sight but not everyone could practice it and it required discipline not many practitioners could easily grasp.

It aided in patching issues such as quarantines against new sicknesses or even improving the production rates of some common resources that were used in town or sold abroad.

In my early childhood, I didn’t concern myself much with trying to do anything relevant, but I tried to make connections with my own family. King Amphitryon was a bit of an unreachable individual due to his chores that tended to take him out of the city to ‘stabilize issues in the border’.

My mother, Alcmene, was not someone I trusted. Since I knew who I was, I also knew that she was the one that was most desperate to appease Hera. Considering how she just tried to ditch me in an effort to let nature do her a favor and kill her only son, I knew she wasn’t trying to ‘save’ me or shit like that.

She even tried to have me change my name to Herakles and… had I not learned what it truly meant and the logic behind it, I would have been fine with it. But literally calling me, proof of Zeus’ infidelity towards his wife, ‘Hera’s Glory’ just felt outrageous to say the least.

I am quite sure my new mom is a bit of a psychopath and not in a positive way. I guess that’s what happens when you spend a three days-long night in bed with Zeus.

That shit bound to fuck your brain badly. And I have a feeling that the ‘psycho’ gene was present in our dynasty due to another reason: my beloved twin sister, Iphicles.

If I remember correctly, the original mythology had Iphicles as my twin brother. I don’t know if it was my isekai or just magic being a bitch that changed that element but… Iphi is adorable. She was not as strong as I was, but when the infamous arrival of snakes commanded either by Hera or Amphitryon (I have yet to determine if my father has son issues) attempted to kill me as a toddler, something amusing and yet terrifying happened.

I took care of the first snake through a wrestling treatment, the sight being so entertaining for Iphicles that, rather than crap her proto-diaper and whimper in fear as she should have, the girl just grasped the other snake’s neck tightly and broke it with her two tiny hands. All the while giggling.

That’s not to say that my sister is a murder. Iphi was just reacting to basic murderous instincts normalized by her ‘big brother’. Iphi was a ‘monkey sees, monkey does’ kind of student. If she saw me do something, she would make an effort to copy me.

We both started to walk earlier than most children, same for reading, talking and writing in Greek. To our parents, this was a boon- well, father at the very least. I could tell he held genuine paternal pride for his baby girl, but he seemed so withdrawn towards me. Maybe he liked to spoil his baby daughter more than his baby son. That job was meant for my ‘mama’ after all.

If only she could stop nagging me about trying to appease Hera ‘her way’.

After all, I had taken some basic steps to try and stabilize that issue myself without being an idiot about it. I took vows to not rape, take in women as slaves or even consider forcing anyone in marriage.

I would pray to her every morning and make sure that I construed my prayer in a way that was as formal as needed. All the while I would say I was being quite sinful in my mind. I may be praying to her by word, but my mind would always worship those fat milkers that had given me super-strength and affection in a time where I needed comfort.

Plus, the notion that I got Hera to squirt from a breastfeeding session left me with two thoughts: 1) that shit was dope and hilarious; 2) that woman hasn’t been touched by Zeus for a very long time because she climaxed by a baby suckling at her teat for milk.

And… I have nothing against my mother (or maybe a lot of things on a personal level), but I don’t think she is a valuable replacement to Hera.

Like, I get Zeus is trying to catch up with his libido, but to say no to that hot body that his wife has felt to me so… insanely idiotic. I mean, with a wife like that, he probably wouldn’t need to sleep around so much with other women. From time to time? Sure. But at least focus on finding good catches rather than VIP ones.

Still, back to my sister. The apple of my eye, the little angelic thing that picked things up quite fast and she was keen to watch me train for war with our father. She wasn’t allowed to fight him just yet as she had yet to beat her current instructors, but she was making progress.

Tiny body she had at the age of ten when I finally got through to beat our ‘father’, but she managed to make it up with her insane speed and ruthless precision with her strikes.

Iphi liked to be praised. By me, in particular.

She was quite perceptive, tended to love playing the lyre and found it pleasant to ‘teach me’ when our tutor, Linus of Thrace, tended to be too rough on how a lyre should be played.

I get it that it takes precision and discipline, but my body is meant to break rather than make. So, my strength tended to carry too much momentum when I would play the damn tool. Still, I made an effort to get it right. Why? Well, I had gotten a promise from my father.

Since I wasn’t planning to go for cow herding, I planned to go for a journey. I would go and become the ‘greatest hero of them all’. In truth, I just wanted to go around, do a lot of deeds and set a high record on how much you have to do to become the best hero ever.

And yesterday was just that.

I sat down, mustered my ultimate inner strength and went through all the tests Linus put me through. The Father of Lyric Songs was impressed by the hard work and had to admit I improved a lot since I first started studying under him when I was nine.

Five years, but the waiting was now over. Amphithryon confirmed it himself: I am ready for this journey. The rest of yesterday was spent by me packing all the things I needed for the long trip, saying goodbye around and… thinking about why Iphi was so calm about it.

I could tell something didn’t smell right about her ‘calm and yet faux sadness’, and I was given proof… today. I was walking out of the gates, but I wasn’t alone.

“Iphi.”

“Yes, Alci?” The girl walking beside me replied happily.

“I thought that we agreed for this to be a solo trip for me.”

“I don’t recall agreeing to this. I only knew you would have wanted that but… I can’t allow my brother to wander the world without me.”

I frowned. “Is this… about that thing I told you no about?”

“There’s nothing wrong in two siblings loving each other, brother,” Iphi replied calmly, smiling eye to eye. “After all, we only know each other.”

“I have a few friends at home and you tend to push away those that are women out of my circle,” I pointed out. “You are the one that refuses to make friends.”

She huffed at this. “Brother, they are all trying to become my husbands- or wives.”

“Our father wouldn’t allow you to marry a woman.”

“And you think that stops them? You are so naive, brother,” Iphi rebuked smugly. “In fact, we should discuss this once more. There is nothing wrong with two siblings trying to have a baby.”

I blame Alcmene for this shit. She had been trying to set Iphi with me because, in her mind, that would piss off Hera to focus on me and not her. Such a move half-backfired because my beloved sister may be a bit of a brocon, but she was not one that denied when I seriously told her that incest makes horrible babies.

That being said, I didn’t even want to consider the odds since… We were just half-siblings and I had divine blood in me. But the mere thought opened a door I preferred to keep closed shut with a lock or two.

“We are not making a baby. They would look ugly and be sickly, I told you that.”

“W-Well, then we will either test our amazing selves against fate or… just adopt.”

“...Then why would you bring up baby-making if you don’t want a baby the natural way?”

“Mom said it was good. Doing baby-making without trying to get a baby.”

“Our mother is insane, Iphi,” I remarked dryly, the tan girl pouting a bit. “And it’s futile, I will not mate with you.”

Silence ensued for just a few seconds and, just like a switch being flipped within Iphi, the topic changed.

“So, where are we going?”

I retrieved a map I had of the current time and, while it wasn’t perfect, had most of the city names and locations I needed.

“Athens. Then, we will take a ship to Crete.”

The girl blinked. “Why?”

“Do you remember what father heard of Minos and his war against Aegeos?”

Iphi nodded. “That they were paying tributes with children because Zeus willed it. And?”

“And we are going to stop that.”

Iphi merely shrugged, curious to see what I had in mind but… I knew already what we were up to.

Time to slay the Minotaur!

—-----d-d-d-d—---------

AN

Forgot to mention, Alcides knows what Nasuverse is, but he doesn’t know that he is in it just yet. And I don’t need to say that it’s going to be a surprise once I meet the Minotaur and learn the truth about him.