The ground trembled. Not from footsteps. Not from storms.
From will.
Cronus stood in the center of the chaos like a god already crowned, his scythe dragging through the dust as if the earth itself bent to his presence. His cloak tore in the wind. His eyes glowed with time forgotten—eyes that had seen the rise of the Titans and swore they'd never see their fall.
Zeus stood across from him.
No crown. No throne. No kingdom behind him.
Only thunder in his bones. Lightning in his breath.
His fingers twitched, and the sky answered.
A single bolt slammed down at his feet. The ground hissed and split. Sparks crackled around his armor, and his eyes burned gold.
Cronus spoke first.
"You dare challenge me with the sky? That sky belongs to me."
Zeus raised his hand. Lightning coiled around his wrist like a serpent.
"Then I'll take it back."
He didn't wait.
[Skill: Thunderstep]
He vanished into light.
Cronus snarled. The scythe moved—ripping open the air where Zeus had just been. But Zeus reappeared above, hurling a bolt as thick as a river.
Cronus spun the scythe in a wide arc—time slowed. The bolt froze midair.
[Skill: Epoch Rewind]
Cronus reversed the lightning back at Zeus.
But Zeus caught it. Redirected it. Slammed it into the ground below Cronus's feet.
The earth exploded.
Cronus flew backward, caught mid-air by his own time magic. He righted himself and glared.
"You learned some tricks."
Zeus wiped blood from his chin.
"Your existence taught me how to."
Their energies clashed in the sky—lightning against time. Storm clouds warped. Rain fell up. Thunder screamed sideways.
Far off, Hades walked slowly across the battlefield. Quiet. Focused. His helm already in place. The bident at his side pulsed with stillness.
He didn't run. He didn't shout. He didn't need to.
As he walked, shadows moved.
One Titan turned to face him—Coeus.
The Titan of Intelligence. One of Cronus's last commanders.
"Shadow-born brat," Coeus said.
Hades didn't stop.
He raised the bident and pointed.
[Skill: Null Omen]
The wind died.
So did sound.
Everything near them froze.
Coeus swung his blade, but it made no noise. He stepped forward, but his foot didn't touch ground.
Hades blinked.
And Coeus fell—his mind cut from the world.
One Titan gone. No fanfare.
Back above—Zeus and Cronus clashed again.
[Skill: Temporal Rift]
Cronus carved through the sky. The tear in time cut open a void of slow-motion—everything moved like syrup inside.
Zeus gritted his teeth. He roared and—
[Skill: Sky Tyrant's Surge]
Lightning exploded from his body in all directions, fracturing the temporal field. His body reappeared at the edge of the rift, burned, bloodied—but alive.
Cronus appeared beside him instantly.
He swung the scythe. Zeus ducked. The blade sliced the side of his helmet.
[Skill: Divine Counter]
Zeus grabbed Cronus's wrist and slammed a bolt point-blank into his chest.
Cronus flew backward, crashing into a mountain face.
But he rose again, slower this time.
"You're bleeding," Zeus said.
"I have bled before," Cronus answered, "and I still rule."
"Not for long."
Elsewhere—Demeter dragged a Titan through a wall of vines.
Her armor was covered in green thorns. Her eyes shimmered like moonlight through leaves.
The Titan she battled—Crius—swung his club through her midsection.
[Skill: Verdant Decoy]
She burst into leaves.
Reappeared behind him.
[Skill: Grove Rend]
She slashed with a curved sickle. Roots erupted from the ground, coiling around Crius's arms and legs, locking him in place.
Then Hestia arrived behind her—burning.
Her flame was not wildfire. It was hearthfire—calm, contained… until it wasn't.
[Skill: Hearthbreaker]
She slammed her hand into the ground. Fire tunneled under the battlefield. Exploded beneath Crius.
He screamed as divine flames engulfed him.
Demeter reached out. Called her vines back.
Crius dropped, scorched and bound.
Hestia exhaled.
"Another one down."
Back at the sky's edge—
Cronus and Zeus were now trading full-scale divine attacks.
Cronus threw his hand up.
[Skill: World Pause]
Everything stilled. The sky. The ground. Even Zeus.
Cronus moved forward. Slowly. Methodically.
He raised his scythe.
But Zeus's eye flickered.
[Skill: Stormmind]
He was still thinking. Still aware.
The moment Cronus swung—
Zeus countered. Moved just enough.
The scythe grazed his shoulder.
Zeus's fist met Cronus's ribs. Lightning poured into the Titan's body like a flood.
The time field shattered.
Both were flung apart again, crashing into the shattered hills below.
Their breaths came heavier now.
Cronus stood, blood dripping from his mouth. "You are not stronger."
"I don't need to be," Zeus answered. "I just have to make sure you fall."
A few ridges away, Poseidon dragged Hyperion's unconscious body across the rocks. He looked up at the storm above. At Zeus.
"He's still fighting…"
He turned his head, and in the valley below, he saw Asterius, the last of Cronus's enforcers, tearing through the frontlines.
Poseidon tightened his grip on Triena.
"I'm not done either."
He jumped.
Water exploded from his boots, launching him across the battlefield.
[Skill: Tide Reign]
A wall of water shaped like a serpent crashed into Asterius, pulling him away from the defenders.
Asterius roared and turned, his arms glowing gold with raw Titan energy.
[Skill: Pillar Break]
He slammed the ground. The water shattered into steam. But Poseidon was already in front of him.
[Skill: Deep Crash]
Triena hit his chest like a thunderclap. Bones broke.
Asterius coughed blood.
Poseidon kicked him into a boulder.
"You're in my way."
Back in the sky—
Cronus raised his scythe once more. Time rippled. Space thinned.
[Skill: Omega Rend]
The blade struck forward in a path meant to erase Zeus completely—past, present, future.
Zeus closed his eyes.
Lightning burst out.
But not upward.
It burst inward.
[Skill: Absolute Thunderheart]
Zeus became a bolt. Not wrapped in lightning.
He was lightning.
He slammed into the Omega Rend and passed through it—shattering it like glass.
Cronus's eyes widened.
Zeus reformed behind him.
Punched him in the spine with thunder wrapped around his fist.
Cronus fell to a knee.
Zeus floated above him, chest heaving.
"This is your last moment, old king."
Cronus growled.
"I am time."
"And I am done waiting."
Zeus raised his hand high.
The sky screamed.
[Skill: Final Skybolt]
A bolt larger than any mountain formed overhead. It wasn't fire. It wasn't storm.
It was divinity, forged from will.
Zeus hurled it.
Cronus rose and met it with the scythe.
They clashed—
Time against thunder.
Age against youth.
Father against son.
The world split.
A crater a mile wide burst into existence.
When the light cleared—
Zeus stood alone.
His armor was nearly gone. His hands bled.
But Cronus was down.
Buried under stone. His scythe snapped. His chest barely moving.
Zeus didn't smile.
He looked at the others.
Poseidon, still fighting. Hades, already done. Hera, still breathing. Demeter. Hestia.
All of them.
Still standing.
The war wasn't over.
But the end had begun.