Everything froze.
The world locked into a still frame. The roar of the sea vanished, swallowed by absolute silence. Lava hung in mid-air, glowing droplets suspended. Steam became frozen glass. The entire battlefield turned pale and dead under the weight of Cronus's will.
He was the only thing that moved.
Cronus walked through the stillness, his footsteps echoing like solitary heartbeats in a void. His eyes burned with that same, terrible glow—cold, knowing, and endless. He stopped before his frozen sons.
'Temporal Severance.'
He whispered the words and swung his scythe. The blade did not cut through air or flesh, but through the very moment holding them together.
Time resumed with a shattering jolt.
Poseidon and Hades's barriers exploded before they could fully form. Zeus's prosthetic arm flared with runic lightning, the divine metal screaming as it caught the impossible weight of the attack. The force of the blow catapulted them backward, cracking the frozen reality around them like broken glass.
Poseidon moved on pure instinct, his eyes flashing blue-green. He felt the danger a heartbeat before it arrived.
'Aqua Bastion!'
A dome of spiraling water encased him just as Cronus materialized behind him.
The scythe tore through the barrier as if it were paper. The razor edge skimmed Poseidon's shoulder, slicing through armor and flesh. Golden ichor sprayed across the molten stone.
Hades dashed forward, Helkarion trailing silver flame.
'Silver Slash!'
His newfound divinity pulsed outward, syncing his brothers' wounded rhythms. Their breaths matched. Their movements steadied.
But Cronus was already gone.
He reappeared above them, his scythe glowing brighter. 'Acceleration Fold.'
To him, the gods were statues; their attacks were slow, drifting waves. He dove straight through the heart of Zeus's lightning arc, slashing downward, then across.
Zeus barely had time to cross his prosthetic arm in a desperate defense. The blow sent him skidding backward into a fiery fissure, lava hissing as it met his divine blood.
Poseidon's eyes narrowed to sea-green slits. He felt his pulse sync with the ocean's depths. 'Leviathan, now!'
The colossal serpent burst from a distant rift, its maw opening wide. Water erupted from every broken fissure, forming a storm of liquid blades around it. Cronus turned just as Leviathan's tail whipped across his chest.
The strike landed true. Cronus staggered, time distortions flaring wildly around him like fractured glass.
Zeus reemerged from the lava pit, roaring, his prosthetic arm glowing white-hot from absorbed heat and lightning. He hurled himself at Cronus, driving a thunder-clad punch directly into the Titan's ribs.
"Stay down!"
The blow detonated, shockwaves ripping the mountain open further. An entire section of Othrys sheared off and slid into the churning black sea below.
But Cronus still did not fall. His body flickered, his form blurring as past, present, and future bled into one.
"You cannot defeat what has already happened."
He raised his hand. 'Temporal Overlap.'
Three versions of Cronus appeared at once, each moving independently, each striking a different target. One clashed with Leviathan, another deflected a blast of Zeus's lightning, the third lunged directly for Hades.
Hades met the charge, Helkarion sparking with silver flame as it blocked the scythe. He slid back, boots digging deep furrows into the rock.
"Enough of these tricks!" he snarled.
He swung his Helkarion in a wide, devastating arc. 'Silver Vortex!'
A ring of devouring light ripped through the overlapping timelines, tearing two of the Cronus manifestations apart into raw, dissipating energy. The last one stood, breathing heavily, but a bloody smirk remained on his lips.
"Well done… my son."
Before Hades could react, Cronus teleported behind him. The scythe slashed downward, but Helkarion caught it just in time. Sparks exploded, the very air vibrating under the immense divine pressure.
"You've improved," Cronus hissed. "But you're still too slow."
"Maybe," Hades ground out, teeth clenched. "But I'm not alone."
Lightning struck from above. Water surged from below. Leviathan wrapped around Cronus once more, its body shimmering with concentrated divine energy. Zeus descended in a blur, his fist a beacon of destruction, the runes on his prosthetic arm burning white.
'Volt Strike!'
The hit landed point-blank. Cronus roared as the force hurled him backward, his body crashing through several jagged spires of stone. Leviathan's coils tightened, dragging him toward a fissure of boiling, molten rock.
Hades's voice rang clear over the chaos: 'Harmony Synchronization!'
Their combined divinity pulsed as one—lightning, water, death, and harmony blending into a single, massive surge of power.
For a moment, it seemed they had him. Cronus's scythe fell from his grasp, clattering against the rock. The Titan was half-submerged in the lava, immobilized.
Then, the lava froze mid-flow.
Cronus lifted his head, his eyes igniting like twin suns.
"Did you think time would not serve its master?"
The lava reversed, flowing backward. The entire fissure rolled in on itself—ashes re-forming, stones un-breaking. Cronus rose, unburned, his scythe flying back to his grasp.
He raised his hand once more. 'Temporal Collapse.'
The world shattered into a chaos of slow and fast fragments. One heartbeat stretched into an eternity, the next was compressed into a microsecond. Zeus stumbled as time around him warped unpredictably. Poseidon's instincts flickered a moment too late. Hades's movements staggered out of sync with reality.
Cronus stepped through them like a phantom, every strike precise, every wound deep and debilitating.
Zeus hit the ground hard, blood spilling from his lips. Poseidon fell to one knee, his trident shaking violently in his grip.
Cronus looked down at them, his own breathing unnervingly steady. "You can't win. You are still bound by seconds."
Then, from the swirling smoke, Hades rose again—his eyes burning with a fierce, amethyst light.
"Then let's see how you face what lies inside your own mind."
He vanished.
Cronus scanned the battlefield. The sea boiled, the mountain collapsed into itself. Zeus and Poseidon struggled to stand amid the ruin. He raised his scythe, poised to deliver the final, ending slash.
A ripple of shadows moved behind him.
Hades stepped out of the black haze like smoke reforming into flesh. His eyes glowed with a cold, piercing purple. His expression was unreadable, a mask of grim determination.
Cronus turned instantly, his instincts screaming a warning.
He swung his scythe down in a brutal, decisive vertical arc.
Hades dissolved into insubstantial mist. 'Phantom Dispersion.'
The blade passed through harmless vapor. Cronus's eyes narrowed in fury and confusion.
In the same instant, Hades reappeared behind him, his palm glowing with a dark, viridian energy. He pressed it against the center of Cronus's back.
'Gleam of Nightmare.'
The spell did not create a monster; it reached into the target's soul and reflected their deepest fear back at them.
The world convulsed.
Cronus staggered a single step forward, his breath catching. For a second, nothing seemed to happen. Then, his eyes widened in raw, undiluted horror.
A whisper tore from him, low and guttural. "No… not this…"
He did not see a monster. He did not see his sons. He saw himself.
A younger Cronus stood before him, holding the same scythe, wearing the same armor, but his eyes were empty. Cold. Condemning.
"You failed," the reflection stated, its voice a hollow echo. "You devoured your own bloodline to keep your power. You chained your legacy in fear."
Cronus swung his weapon in a blind fury. The illusion swung back with perfect, mocking symmetry. Their blows met, and time itself rippled around them. Cronus was locked in combat with his own reflection, each strike tearing the ground further apart.
Hades took a step back, stunned by the feedback.
He felt the sheer, panicked terror bleeding from Cronus's divine aura. The spell had shown the Titan King what he feared most, and Cronus was terrified of himself.
For the first time, Hades hesitated. He froze, his grip on Helkarion slackening. "Father…" he muttered, the word catching in his throat as the truth dawned. "You're not afraid of us. You're afraid of you."
Cronus roared, thrashing wildly. The illusion mimicked his every motion, feeding the madness. He struck the air, the ground, the sky, his own scythe cleaving through time itself. Waves of raw, warping energy erupted from him, distorting the battlefield.
Zeus rose unsteadily, blood still streaking his face. "What's happening to him?"
Hades answered, his voice low. "He's trapped in his own nightmare. But it's breaking him apart."
Poseidon stood beside him, trident leveled. "Then we strike now, while he is vulnerable."
Hades gave a single, grim nod. 'Harmony Resonance.'
Energy rippled outward, syncing their movements once more. Leviathan's body shimmered back to full strength, roaring as it rose from a sea fissure.
Zeus clenched his prosthetic arm, the runes glowing a defiant gold. "Let's end this."
They charged as one.
Zeus leaped, a bolt of living lightning. Poseidon surged forward, a wave of relentless ocean. Leviathan's tail carved through molten rock.
Cronus, lost in his frenzied battle with the phantom, swung blindly at enemies that were not there. His strikes tore the fissures wider, lava spilling freely. His breath came in ragged, painful bursts.
The brothers closed in.
Poseidon's trident struck first, its tines sheathed in water pressure sharp enough to split the air. Zeus followed with a lightning-charged punch that shattered the stone beneath their feet.
Cronus howled, a sound of pure anguish. His armor split. Sparks of golden ichor sprayed into the air like dying stars.
Then, in a moment of eerie, terrifying clarity, his movements slowed. His eyes, mad and desperate, fixed on Poseidon.
He poured every last shred of his divine power into his scythe. 'Scythe—severe life!'
The blade ignited in a final, brilliant azure light, cutting through the illusion. His nightmare shattered. His focus returned, singular and full of hate.
Poseidon's instincts screamed. He tried to raise his trident, but he knew he was too slow. Cronus was already there.
The scythe fell, a final, azure arc of death.
Hades saw it—felt the killing intent, sharper than any weapon. His body moved before his mind could form a thought.
He coated Helkarion in pure, concentrated silver flame and swung with all his strength. 'Silver Severance.'
The clash was deafening, a sound that seemed to break the sky.
Cronus's attack met Hades's blade. For a single, stretched heartbeat, they were locked. Then Hades's silver flame sheared through the azure energy.
Cronus's right hand flew free, severed cleanly at the wrist. The scythe spun away, clattering uselessly against the stone.
Cronus staggered back, clutching the stump of his arm, golden ichor streaming down like molten fire.
Poseidon froze, staring at the space where death had been a second before. His eyes, wide with shock, shifted to Hades. The brother he had scorned for centuries. The ingrained hatred in his gaze flickered, fractured, and finally dimmed, replaced by a stunned, silent acknowledgment.
Cronus fell to one knee. His breath came in ragged, wet gasps. His divine aura flickered, fading like a guttering candle.
Zeus stumbled forward and picked up the fallen scythe. It was impossibly heavy, humming with the last remnants of Cronus's power.
He looked down at the Titan King, his jaw clenched tight. "This ends now."
He raised the weapon high. The runes along his prosthetic arm flared to life, channeling his will. 'Scythe Severe—life.'
The strike fell.
The blade cut deep into Cronus's chest. A massive surge of divine backlash split the sky, lightning tearing across the horizon in a silent scream. Cronus gasped, his eyes wide with a final, profound disbelief.
Zeus's grip trembled violently. He wasn't strong enough to fully control the scythe's might, but it was enough.
Cronus's divinities—Time, Destruction, and all the others—severed from him in a blinding burst of white light. The power left him, and he slumped forward, silent and still. The scythe remained buried in his chest, pinning him to the ravaged earth.
Hades stepped forward, his movements heavy with a final, weary resolve. He opened his palm.
'Gate of Tartarus.'
A vortex of black flame spiraled open behind him, the air groaning with the pressure of the abyss. From its depths, chains of soul-energy, cold and silent, erupted. They wrapped around Cronus's inert body, coiling like serpents before dragging him backward.
The Titan King's eyes opened one last time. There was no rage, no defiance. Just a vast, empty silence as he looked upon his sons—the architects of his end.
Then the chains pulled him through. The gate snapped shut, and its absence was louder than any explosion.
Silence, true and absolute, swallowed Othrys. The only sounds were the hiss of cooling lava and the low, weary crash of waves against the broken shore.
Zeus fell to one knee, his breath a ragged sob. Poseidon leaned heavily on his trident, his head bowed. Hades remained standing, a solitary sentinel staring at the scorched, empty circle where his father had vanished.
"It is done," Hades stated, his voice stripped of all triumph. "The scythe remains in his chest. His divinity is severed. He will not wield it again until the scythe is removed."
A grunt was the only reply Zeus could muster. Poseidon merely gave a slow, exhausted nod.
The world stayed still. The three brothers stood amidst the ruins of their father's kingdom and their own war. Half the island had sunk into the sea; the rest was a scar of torn rock and drifting steam.
After a long moment, Zeus pushed himself upright, his prosthetic arm dark and dead. "He's gone… right?" The question was less a doubt and more a need for confirmation, a final anchor in reality.
Hades didn't answer immediately. He finally turned from the void, his eyes meeting his brothers'. "Tartarus holds what nothing else can." The words were final.
Poseidon glanced at Hades—really looked at him. For the first time, he didn't see the cold ruler of the underworld. He saw a brother who had risked everything to save them.
"You… saved me," he said, almost grudgingly.
Hades didn't look up. "Don't mention it."
But Poseidon held his gaze and nodded once. It was a small gesture, but in it lay the foundation of a new understanding.
Zeus let out a shaky breath that seemed to carry the weight of the age. "The age of Titans ends here."
They stood in a silence that was no longer hostile, but shared. Survivors. Kings of a broken world.
Hades was the first to break it, his voice soft but clear. "Let us return to our domains. We will meet again here. To discuss… what comes next."
Poseidon was the first to move. Without a word, he walked to the edge of the shattered cliff and stepped off, falling seamlessly into the welcoming waves below and disappearing into the deep. A crack of thunder split the sky, and Zeus vanished within the storm. Hades opened a portal of swirling shadows and stepped backward into the gloom of the Underworld, the portal winking shut behind him.
Mount Othrys was left alone, a tomb for an age, its silence broken only by the eternal sea.