Hermes screamed. Not in fear, not anymore, that took a backseat in this exchange, but in rage and humiliation. He should have chosen a different enemy to face. Kronos was just ridiculous in a 1v1. His body was slammed again and again into the hard ground; time itself halted very briefly after each impact.
Every strike came too early or too late; his reflexes betrayed him, no matter how fast he was, or how fast he thought he was. Space refused to obey him, and time worked against him. His speed and his divinity of thieves didn't help him in this. Or did it?
Kronos did not even look angry or tired. He acted like this was the easiest fight he had ever been in. The Titan of Time held Hermes by the throat with one hand, the god's feet dangling uselessly above the shattered battlefield. Kronos' other hand lazily twirled his scythe, its edge leaving faint afterimages, echoes of strikes that had already happened and would happen in the future.
"You are fast, little godling. Has Zeus not trained you? Has the little spark left you to your own devices?" Kronos asked, amused.
"Speed without the strength to back it up is a glass cannon. And what does speed matter to me?"
Hermes spat blood, trying to blind Kronos, who was still holding his throat and tried to vanish. But as he began to phase, time folded in weird ways. Before his mind could process what happened, he found himself exactly where he was. His eyes widened.
Kronos slammed him through the ground again, creating a large crater. His vision blurred as a loud roar interrupted them.
Sekhmet descended from the sky, like the personification of the end of the world. And in a way, she was. Sekhmet was the goddess of destruction of the Ennead. Her figure burned in a crimson-gold radiance, a mane of fire on her head, glowing eyes that promised annihilation. The very idea of survivability and eternity seemed to recoil from her presence. Where she moved, matter was destroyed, atomic bonds were torn apart, and they ceased to exist.
"Kronos!" she roared. "YOUR TIME ENDS HERE."
She struck, without saying anything else. The blow was not aimed perfectly as some other fighters would have. It was merely delivered in his general direction. The Titan of time used his power to freeze the attack in time, but the amount of power Sekhmet had used caused the green energy of time to twist and fizzle out, turning into neutral divine energy.
A fist of pure destructive energy slammed into Kronos' chest, the impact ripping through layers of time and space and erupting behind him in a powerful blast. The mountains behind the Titan ceased to exist, erased to dust.
Hermes was finally free from Kronos's hand and flung through the air, tumoring across the battlefield.
"Urgh..." he groaned in pain.
Kronos took a single step back. The attack's power staggered him, bypassing his defences and forcing him back. That was impressive for anyone. The father of the Olympians' eyes shone with green energy as he grew serious.
Sekhmet grinned, showing her white teeth and celebrating that she got him to be serious. She was a battle maniac, living to destroy. In a way, she was very differnet compared to Shiva.
She did not give Kronos time to prepare and turned into a destructive force, sending attacks and kicks, one after the other, and sometimes at the same time.
Her strikes came so fast that she created a storm of destructive death, each blow disintegrating space and undoing timelines that Kronos was creating to block and deflect damage. Kronos' afterimages were torn apart as Sekhmet's power burned through them, forcing the former Titan King to abandon several prepared outcomes.
"Impressive," he growled. "But not nearly enough."
He raised his scythe. Time was affected right away. Sekhmet scoffed at that.
"That trick again. I already dealt with this; you'll have to do better," she said.
But this time it was different. Time wasn't merely slowing down or speeding up for Kronos, no... time was peeled apart. Like one would peel off the layers of an onion, Kronos peeled time off of this moment.
Sekhmet felt it a second too late. Her movements began to stretch out in time, each action dragged through layer upon layer of temporal phenomena. Her power still affected her surroundings, still erased anything it touched, but now it did so through syrup-thick causality. What Kronos had done was to peel off her time.
That way, he divided Sekhmet's time into thousands of streams and equally distributed her power among them. The reason for this was that Kronos created a parallel timeline of the very moment he was in, meaning that Sekhmet existed in all those at the same time, and her power had to as well. Therefore, her power was divided equally among the timelines, making her that much weaker.
Kronos stepped forward, catching her punch.
"You destroy what you see in front of you, but have no imagination on how to use your power effectively," he said calmly, walking through a frozen, destructive energy beam.
He touched her shoulder, making Sekhmet scream. Her arm aged a billion years in a heartbeat, then rewound violently. Her bones were cracking as conflicting timelines affected her body at the same time. She clenched her jaw and, with a roar, punched forward, wanting to blast Kronos' midsection.
Only for the damage to undo itself. Kronos struck her ribs, and the blow landed before he completed his swing. Kronos' fist passed through her powerful skin, causing Sekhmet to stagger and cough golden ichor, her fire dimming more as chains of time wrapped around her increasingly.
She fought as much as she could, never giving in, not relenting. Gods of destruction do not yield easily. They were the manifestation of power and destruction, so it was not within her nature to ever stop.
But Kronos dismantled her piece by piece, slowing one limb, accelerating another, forcing her own power of destruction to grow erratic and tear her apart as temporal feedback slammed into her.
Her final strike, a desperate, above solar system level blast, was frozen mid-swing. Kronos clenched his fist, causing the explosion to collapse inward, with Sekhmet at the centre. The explosion held so much energy that she couldn't hold on to it.
Sekhmet's body pieces fell to the ground, smoking and smelling terrible. She had almost destroyed herself entirely through her own power. Kronos turned away, no longer bothering with her.
.
On another part of the battlefield, Heracles roared his victory roar. The sound shook the battlefield. Riptide's body lay broken behind him, ribs shattered, chest caved in, eyes dull and a large hole where his heart should have been.
Heracles snorted, tossing the heart aside, already walking away.
"Disgusting creature."
...
The water around Riptide moved, however, and sharks surfaced. First dozens, then hundreds. They did not attack Heracles because they had another, more pressing concern. They were here to save their general.
The first shark jumped out of the water and landed right on Riptide's mouth. It was slightly open, and the shark wiggled and moved until he was inside his master's jaw. And then... he killed himself. The shark's blood flowed into Riptide's jaw and flowed down his oesophagus, entering his stomach, where it was absorbed.
They were feeding Riptide.
One after another, the sharks tore themselves open, their flesh dissolving into biomass, blood, and pure energy that flowed into Riptide's body like rivers returning to the sea. It was where they all came from and where they all returned to. This was their job in the end.
Heracles stopped walking and turned around. He watched, stunned, as Riptide's body started to regrow. Bones grew, muscles reknit themselves... and a new heart formed, larger, denser, beating faster than before.
Riptide's eyes snapped open, and he took a deep breath. He had returned. Alive and ready for more.
Heracles grinned at the sight. This was what he loved.
"Oh?" he said, delighted. "You got back up?"
Riptide rose to his feet. His body was larger than before, and the scars were sealing as his soldiers had become part of him.
"I am the jaw that devours all that stands in front of my Lord," he rumbled. "And I have just feasted on divine biomass and ichor. You will die."
The two powerhouses collided again. The impact cratered the ground, shockwaves pulverising every weaker god or goddess who stood nearby. Unlike the fight between Kronos and Sekhmet, this was purely a matter of physical strength. Heracles laughed as they traded blows, powerful fists, claws and teeth, each strike breaking the other's bones.
Heracles got a good grab and smashed Riptide into the ground. But Riptide dragged him down with him. They rolled, grappling like the two brawlers that they were. The general's teeth snapped inches from the half god's throat. Heracles headbutted him, and Riptide bit his shoulder.
They separated, both bleeding, but both grinning. This was the ultimate form of manliness in their eyes. Only that one of them had something in mind.
Heracles charged at Riptide again, wanting to use what he had learned in this exchange to break the shark's bones and eat his heart. However, things had changed, and the sharks returned.
They did not attack him directly; they merely acted as a distraction. They lunged at him, feinted attacks and snapped at his legs, his arms. They are forcing his attention away from Riptide for just a moment. And Riptide took that window.
He dived into the waters and surged out behind Heracles. He opened his massive jaw impossibly wide and bit into Heracles' neck.
"AAAARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!" Heracles roared in pain.
Riptide's teeth bit through Heracles' divine flesh. Heracles roared, shock passing across his face as blood poured down his body freely. He was shocked because he was supposed to be protected by the Nemean lion's hide. But Riptide had found a way.
Riptide did not let go. Honour did not matter in this fight, not to Riptide. He didn't care about that useless notion. Victory was all that mattered. Heracles, in his desperation, continued to punch the large body of Riptide and used all of his power.
"MMpff..." Riptide felt those punches, and they hurt.
Even after his massive growth in power, he was still affected. But the large bite he had taken was doing its work. A monstrously powerful fist smashed into Riptide's face and forced him back.
This was a mistake on Heracles' part, though, since the flesh that Riptide had bitten was ripped off.
....
Heracles stood there, looking at the large pool of blood at his feet and then at Riptide, who was already standing back up again. To mock the Heracles, Riptide chewed and swallowed the large chunk of flesh and then grinned.
Heracles' rage peaked, and he clenched all his muscles. In the last ditch effort to kill the shark in front of him, he pressed all his blood vessels together and stopped the bleeding. His muscles were like steel wires as he pulled back his fist.
A powerful set of teeth bit him... between the legs.
"MMMMMMM!!!!"
The sharks had returned, and they used the pool of blood to attack from Heracles' blind spot. He shouted, and a moment later, Riptide was on him again, biting into his arm and ripping it out, while hundreds of sharks ripped out pieces of his body.
That fight was over.
.
Ra stood alone on a burning battlefield, surrounded by charred corpses.
Several gods and goddesses lay broken and burnt at her feet, some cut cleanly in half, others reduced to ash, others simply gone. Her Soul-Cutter Sword burned in her hand, its initial release blazing with solar flare, each swing slicing through souls and flesh alike.
She moved like a supernova. Her form looked deadly and powerful. She had unleashed her strength and managed to take on everyone who had attacked her up to this point.
She was breathing hard, though. The war had been going on for a long time now, and the constant fighting was wearing her reserves thin. She may be a god-king, but that didn't mean that she had limitless energy reserves.
Her fists glowed with power and radiation. She had delivered nuclear martial forms. She had created controlled, precise detonations of solar radiation, heat and fire, each punch evaporating those before it. The training with Poseidon had truly paid off.
Horus, the challenging ruler of the Ennead, had attacked her. He wanted to prove himself as the new ruler and worthy. He chased glory, but had been taken out by Hathor, who had trapped him inside a mirror. Hathor, daughter of Ra, had been her secret spy and worked for her. She didn't want to see Horus die, so she trapped him so that he couldn't bother anyone and could live after the war was over.
The immense heat on Ra's battlefield was suddenly permeated by cold.
Immense and indescribable cold... Absolute cold.
Ice slammed on the ground around her in an instant, freezing everything, fire, and motion alike. A prison of impossible frost locked Ra in place, suppressing her power and stealing the heat, making everything affected by the frost.
Ra looked up and saw a massive ice blade follow this initial attack. It cut through the ice prison with speeds higher than what Zeus had used before. She wasn't quite fast enough; after all the fighting, the strike tore through her side, nearly bisecting her. Ichor shot out of her body, but froze mid-air.
"AAARRRGHH!!" Ra screamed in pain and fury.
She had been caught off guard, something Poseidon had told her never to allow. No matter what she did, she should never underestimate someone. The smallest mistake could lead to the biggest loss. She flared her power and turned up the heat to combat the freezing ice. Surprisingly, the ice held.
From the rising steam, a figure moved forward. A woman, with pure white hair and cold, icy blue eyes, moved forward with grace until she stood before Ra. Two opposites facing one another.
.
At the centre of everything, the most important and violent fight was going on.
Poseidon spun his Trident. It elongated, reshaping into a long golden spear radiating tremendous power. Odin and Zeus attacked in tandem. Gungnir, imbued with the Odin Force, tore through space. Zeus' master lightning bolt looked like a monstrous spear, burnt and screeched like billions of birds.
Poseidon moved the spear through the air, deflecting the divine attacks with unimaginable precision. Every motion redirected the incoming force instead of stopping it. His movements were impossibly graceful and fluid.
He exhaled slowly. Steam rolled out, white, dense and bright, flooding the air surrounding the three kings.
The effects could be felt by them right away. It was hypnotic and disorienting. A hallucination caught Zeus, making him falter. But Odin didn't get caught in the illusion, tearing himself free of it right away. His power of wisdom and runes allowed him to recognise when reality was no longer present.
But as it turned out, that very brief moment was already enough time. Poseidon had vanished and reappeared in front of Odin with glowing fists.
'Recoilless: Vibration Knuckle'
The Vibration Knuckle struck Odin's face. Space-time seemed to wiggle like the surface of water after dropping a stone. Odin's face bent inwards, but didn't break... not yet. His body was launched backwards, smashing through layers of space like glass panes, his body zooming through the air before crashing into the battlefield far away. Only then did Odin's face finally crack and pop.
Poseidon turned around in the same moment after he had punched Odin. With one fluid motion, he thrust his golden spear forward and pierced Zeus through the stomach.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! HNNNNNHHH...!!"
The pain pulled Zeus out of his hallucination. The spear lifted him off the ground, divine blood pouring down the shaft. He looked like a piece of meat on a stick.
"RRRAAHHHH... YOUU... CURSE YOUUUU!!!" Zeus screamed.
Poseidon held him there and started the process of absorbing Zeus's essence into his weapon. Poseidon's Trident was no longer merely a divine weapon or a Soul-Cutter Sword. Together with 'Die Ewigkeit', it had transcended all those things and become a true part of him, capable of growing alongside him and increasing his tremendous power by absorbing souls and any kind of energy.
"NOOOOoooo!!!" Zeus roared as he felt it.
Then... the universe seemed to bend. Just as Poseidon had done to Odin's face, but this time, the space-time of the universe seemed to be affected. A fist appeared, having passed through time.
It didn't move, didn't teleport... it transcended causality and appeared in front of Poseidon's face.
Heat beyond a neutron star's core, combined with the density of a collapsed star, was compressed into a single point and struck Poseidon's face.
FULL. FORCE.
Reality fractured, space folded inward, time splintered as the sheer mass-energy conversion of the blow erased uncountable futures.
The impact released no explosion. At least not one that could be described with normal words. The shockwave rippled through the present, annihilating layers of certainty that seemed rigid just a second before.
*VRROOOOO--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM*
Blood, ichor, liquid... all sprayed across the void, making the battlefield freeze.
Odin, having recovered, thanks to his use of the full Odin Force and healed to some degree, stood upright. He walked forward, already using his hidden trump cards to recuperate and heal faster. He couldn't appear weak right now, not when he was here.
"You took your sweet time," he said.
The space where Poseidon once stood shimmered, and a figure stepped through.
Tall, radiant, powerful and with a bright smile on his face. The man had long black hair, a ripped physique, and the air of a monarch and king who rivalled and seemed to transcend those of Zeus and Odin. But all three of them shared the same dimension of their egos.
His body literally glowed, his expensive red and golden clothing hummed with stellar warmth, his eyes burned with barely contained power. He even wore a crown of light on his head.
"I came as fast as I could," the man said.
"Yeah, right. You waited until the last moment to appear with your usual swagger," Odin said.
*Cough*
Zeus spat ichor on the ground and wiped his mouth, looking at the man.
"Who are you supposed to be?" he asked.
"Haven't they taught you anything yet? Odin, and you told me he was supposed to be a God-King?" The man shook his head arrogantly.
"Why, you arrogant prick--"
"Stop that, Zeus. I am the one who asked him to come. You should really inform yourself better on the matters of different pantheons," Odin said.
"So what? Who is this?"
"This is Rao, the God-King of the Kryptonian Pantheon."
"Heh," Rao grinned. "This war... is over."
____________________
Heyoo! Tell me how you liked the twist. I want to end the arc but I'm having too much fun with it. But this is the last stretch.