Everything freezes.
The world locks into a still frame. The roar of the sea vanishes, swallowed by absolute silence. Lava hangs in mid-air, glowing droplets suspended. Steam becomes frozen glass. The entire battlefield turns pale and dead under the weight of Cronus's will.
He is the only thing that moves.
Cronus walks through the stillness, his footsteps echoing like solitary heartbeats in a void. His eyes burn with that same, terrible glow cold, knowing, and endless. He stops before his frozen sons.
'Temporal Severance.'
He whispers the words and swings his scythe. The blade does not cut through air or flesh, but through the very moment holding them together.
Time resumes with a shattering jolt.
Poseidon and Hades's barriers explode before they can fully form. Zeus's prosthetic arm flares with runic lightning, the divine metal screaming as it catches the impossible weight of the attack. The force of the blow catapults them backward, cracking the frozen reality around them like broken glass.
Poseidon moves on pure instinct, his eyes flashing blue-green. He feels the danger a heartbeat before it arrives.
'Aqua Bastion!'
A dome of spiraling water encases him just as Cronus materializes behind him.
The scythe tears through the barrier as if it were paper. The razor edge skims Poseidon's shoulder, slicing through armor and flesh. Golden ichor sprays across the molten stone.
Hades dashes forward, Helkarion trailing silver flame.
'Silver Slash!'
His newfound divinity pulses outward,syncing his brothers' wounded rhythms. Their breaths match. Their movements steady.
But Cronus is already gone.
He reappears above them, his scythe glowing brighter. 'Acceleration Fold.'
To him, the gods are statues; their attacks are slow, drifting waves. He dives straight through the heart of Zeus's lightning arc, slashing downward, then across.
Zeus barely has time to cross his prosthetic arm in a desperate defense. The blow sends him skidding backward into a fiery fissure, lava hissing as it meets his divine blood.
Poseidon's eyes narrow to sea-green slits. He feels his pulse sync with the ocean's depths. 'Leviathan, now!'
The colossal serpent bursts from a distant rift, its maw opening wide. Water erupts from every broken fissure, forming a storm of liquid blades around it. Cronus turns just as Leviathan's tail whips across his chest.
The strike lands true. Cronus staggers, time distortions flaring wildly around him like fractured glass.
Zeus reemerges from the lava pit, roaring, his prosthetic arm glowing white-hot from absorbed heat and lightning. He hurls himself at Cronus, driving a thunder-clad punch directly into the Titan's ribs.
"Stay down!"
The blow detonates, shockwaves ripping the mountain open further. A entire section of Orthys shears off and slides into the churning black sea below.
But Cronus still does not fall. His body flickers, his form blurring as past, present, and future bleed into one.
"You cannot defeat what has already happened."
He raises his hand.'Temporal Overlap.'
Three versions of Cronus appear at once, each moving independently, each striking a different target. One clashes with Leviathan, another deflects a blast of Zeus's lightning, the third lunges directly for Hades.
Hades meets the charge, Helkarion sparking with silver flame as it blocks the scythe. He slides back, boots digging deep furrows into the rock.
"Enough of these tricks!"he snarls.
He swings his Helkarion in a wide, devastating arc. 'Silver Vortex!'
A ring of devouring light rips through the overlapping timelines,tearing two of the Cronus manifestations apart into raw, dissipating energy. The last one stands, breathing heavily but a bloody smirk remains on his lips.
"Well done… my son."
Before Hades can react, Cronus teleports behind him. The scythe slashes downward, but Helkarion catches it just in time. Sparks explode, the very air vibrating under the immense divine pressure.
"You've improved," Cronus hisses. "But you're still too slow."
"Maybe," Hades grinds out, teeth clenched. "But I'm not alone."
Lightning strikes from above. Water surges from below. Leviathan wraps around Cronus once more, its body shimmering with concentrated divine energy. Zeus descends in a blur, his fist a beacon of destruction, the runes on his prosthetic arm burning white.
'Volt Strike!'
The hit lands point-blank. Cronus roars as the force hurls him backward, his body crashing through several jagged spires of stone. Leviathan's coils tighten, dragging him toward a fissure of boiling, molten rock.
Hades's voice rings clear over the chaos: 'Harmony Synchronization!'
Their combined divinity pulses as one—lightning, water, death, and harmony blending into a single, massive surge of power.
For a moment, it seems they have him. Cronus's scythe falls from his grasp, clattering against the rock. The Titan is half-submerged in the lava, immobilized.
Then, the lava freezes mid-flow.
Cronus lifts his head, his eyes igniting like twin suns.
"Did you think time would not serve its master?"
The lava reverses, flowing backward. The entire fissure rolls in on itself ashes re-forming, stones un-breaking. Cronus rises, unburned, his scythe flying back to his grasp.
He raises his hand once more. 'Temporal Collapse.'
The world shatters into a chaos of slow and fast fragments. One heartbeat stretches into an eternity, the next is compressed into a microsecond. Zeus stumbles as time around him warps unpredictably. Poseidon's instincts flicker a moment too late. Hades's movements stagger out of sync with reality.
Cronus steps through them like a phantom, every strike precise, every wound deep and debilitating.
Zeus hits the ground hard, blood spilling from his lips. Poseidon falls to one knee, his trident shaking violently in his grip.
Cronus looks down at them, his own breathing unnervingly steady. "You can't win. You are still bound by seconds."
Then, from the swirling smoke, Hades rises again his eyes burning with a fierce, amethyst light.
"Then let's see how you face what lies inside your own mind."
He vanishes.
Cronus scans the battlefield. The sea boiling, the mountain collapsing into itself. Zeus and Poseidon struggle to stand amid the ruin. He raises his scythe, poised to deliver the final, ending slash.
A ripple of shadows moves behind him.
Hades steps out of the black haze like smoke reforming into flesh. His eyes glow with a cold, piercing purple. His expression is unreadable, a mask of grim determination.
Cronus turns instantly, his instincts screaming a warning.
He swings his scythe down in a brutal, decisive vertical arc.
Hades dissolves into insubstantial mist. 'Phantom Dispersion.'
The blade passes through harmless vapor.Cronus's eyes narrow in fury and confusion.
In the same instant, Hades reappears behind him, his palm glowing with a dark, viridian energy. He presses it against the center of Cronus's back.
'Gleam of Nightmare.'
The spell does not create a monster; it reaches into the target's soul and reflects their deepest fear back at them.
The world convulses.
Cronus staggers a single step forward, his breath catching. For a second, nothing seems to happen. Then, his eyes widen in raw, undiluted horror.
A whisper tears from him, low and guttural. "No… not this…"
He does not see a monster. He does not see his sons. He sees himself.
A younger Cronus stands before him, holding the same scythe, wearing the same armor, but his eyes are empty. Cold. Condemning.
"You failed," the reflection states, its voice a hollow echo. "You devoured your own bloodline to keep your power. You chained your legacy in fear."
Cronus swings his weapon in a blind fury. The illusion swings back with perfect, mocking symmetry. Their blows meet, and time itself ripples around them. Cronus locked in combat with his own reflection, each strike tearing the ground further apart.
Hades takes a step back, stunned by the feedback.
He feels 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 hesitates. He freezes, his grip on Helkarion slackening. "Father…" he mutters, the word catching in his throat as the truth dawns. "You're not afraid of us. You're afraid of you."
Cronus roars, thrashing wildly. The illusion mimics his every motion, feeding the madness. He strikes the air, the ground, the sky, his own scythe cleaving through time itself. Waves of raw, warping energy erupt from him, distorting the battlefield.
Zeus rises unsteadily, blood still streaking his face. "What's happening to him?"
Hades answers, his voice low. "He's trapped in his own nightmare. But it's breaking him apart."
Poseidon stands beside him, trident leveled. "Then we strike now, while he is vulnerable."
Hades gives a single, grim nod. 'Harmony Resonance.'
Energy ripples outward,syncing their movements once more. Leviathan's body shimmers back to full strength, roaring as it rises from a sea fissure.
Zeus clenches his prosthetic arm, the runes glowing a defiant gold. "Let's end this."
They charge as one.
Zeus leaps,a bolt of living lightning. Poseidon surges forward, a wave of relentless ocean. Leviathan's tail carves through molten rock.
Cronus, lost in his frenzied battle with the phantom, swings blindly at enemies that are not there. His strikes tear the fissures wider, lava spilling freely. His breath comes in ragged, painful bursts.
The brothers close in.
Poseidon's trident strikes first, its tines sheathed in water pressure sharp enough to split the air. Zeus follows with a lightning-charged punch that shatters the stone beneath their feet.
Cronus howls, a sound of pure anguish. His armor splits. Sparks of golden ichor spray into the air like dying stars.
Then, in a moment of eerie, terrifying clarity, his movements slow. His eyes, mad and desperate, fix on Poseidon.
He pours every last shred of his divine power into his scythe. 'Scythe—severe life!'
The blade ignites in a final,brilliant azure light, cutting through the illusion. His nightmare shatters. His focus returns, singular and full of hate.
Poseidon's instincts scream. He tries to raise his trident, but he knows he is too slow. Cronus is already there.
The scythe falls, a final, azure arc of death.
Hades sees it feels the killing intent, sharper than any weapon. His body moves before his mind can form a thought.
He coats Helkarion in pure, concentrated silver flame and swings with all his strength. 'Silver Severance.'
The clash is deafening, a sound that seems to break the sky.
Cronus's attack meets Hades's blade.For a single, stretched heartbeat, they are locked. Then Hades's silver flame shears through the azure energy.
Cronus's right hand flies free, severed cleanly at the wrist. The scythe spins away, clattering uselessly against the stone.
Cronus staggers back, clutching the stump of his arm, golden ichor streaming down like molten fire.
Poseidon freezes, staring at the space where death had been a second before. His eyes, wide with shock, shift to Hades. The brother he had scorned for centuries. The ingrained hatred in his gaze flickers, fractures, and finally dims, replaced by a stunned, silent acknowledgment.
Cronus falls to one knee. His breath comes in ragged, wet gasps. His divine aura flickers, fading like a guttering candle.
Zeus stumbles forward and picks up the fallen scythe. It is impossibly heavy, humming with the last remnants of Cronus's power.
He looks down at the Titan King,his jaw clenched tight. "This ends now."
He raises the weapon high. The runes along his prosthetic arm flare to life, channeling his will. 'Scythe Severe—life.'
The strike falls.
The blade cuts deep into Cronus's chest. A massive surge of divine backlash splits the sky, lightning tearing across the horizon in a silent scream. Cronus gasps, his eyes wide with a final, profound disbelief.
Zeus's grip trembles violently. He isn't strong enough to fully control the scythe's might, but it is enough.
Cronus's divinities—Time, Destruction, and all the others sever from him in a blinding burst of white light. The power leaves him, and he slumps forward, silent and still. The scythe remains buried in his chest, pinning him to the ravaged earth.
Hades steps forward, his movements heavy with a final, weary resolve. He opens his palm.
'Gate of Tartarus.'
A vortex of black flame spirals open behind him,the air groaning with the pressure of the abyss. From its depths, chains of soul-energy, cold and silent, erupt. They wrap around Cronus's inert body, coiling like serpents before dragging him backward.
The Titan King's eyes open one last time. There is no rage, no defiance. Just a vast, empty silence as he looks upon his sons—the architects of his end.
Then the chains pull him through. The gate snaps shut, and its absence is louder than any explosion.
Silence, true and absolute, swallows Orthys. The only sounds are the hiss of cooling lava and the low, weary crash of waves against the broken shore.
Zeus falls to one knee, his breath a ragged sob. Poseidon leans heavily on his trident, his head bowed. Hades remains standing, a solitary sentinel staring at the scorched, empty circle where his father had vanished.
"It is done," Hades states, his voice stripped of all triumph. "The scythe remains in his chest. His divinity is severed. He will not wield it again untill scythe is not removed."
A grunt is the only reply Zeus can muster. Poseidon merely gives a slow, exhausted nod.
The world stays still. The three brothers stand amidst the ruins of their father's kingdom and their own war. Half the island has sunk into the sea; the rest is a scar of torn rock and drifting steam.
After a long moment, Zeus pushes himself upright, his prosthetic arm dark and dead. "He's gone… right?" The question is less a doubt and more a need for confirmation, a final anchor in reality.
Hades doesn't answer immediately. He finally turns from the void, his eyes meeting his brothers'. "Tartarus holds what nothing else can." The words are 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 holds his gaze and nods once. It is a small gesture, but in it lies the foundation of a new understanding.
Zeus lets out a shaky breath that seems to carry the weight of the age. "The age of Titans ends here."
They stand in a silence that is no longer hostile, but shared. Survivors. Kings of a broken world.
Hades is 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 is the first to move. Without a word, he walks to the edge of the shattered cliff and steps off, falling seamlessly into the welcoming waves below and disappearing into the deep. A crack of thunder splits the sky, and Zeus vanishes within the storm. Hades opens a portal of swirling shadows and steps backward into the gloom of the Underworld, the portal winking shut behind him.
Mount Orthys is left alone, a tomb for an age, its silence broken only by the eternal sea.