Eon's many eyes flickered, not with surprise—but with satisfaction.
Eon (low, amused): "Yes… the arms, the axe, the armor. The fragments have taken root within you. As I knew they would."
Kratos stiffened, narrowing his gaze.
Kratos: "You knew."
Eon's lips curved into a faint smile, almost pitying.
Eon: "Did you think your strength was forged against my will? Every shard you claimed, every strike you tempered… all threads I laid before you. Your defiance only tightens the weave."
Asura's new arms pulsed violently, veins of cosmic light flaring as though answering Eon's words. He growled, clenching his fists.
Asura: "You mean… this power—"
Eon (interrupting, softly): "—is mine, still. A gift you cannot refuse."
Mithra's breath hitched, and Atreus glanced at her, both realizing the trap in unison. Their triumph at the forge had not been victory—it had been part of Eon's design.
Eon's Ruthless Counter
Kratos and Asura staggered upright, their fury blazing brighter than their wounds. With a roar, they lunged once more—fists and steel colliding against Eon's endless light. For a heartbeat, it seemed their rage might pierce him.
Eon's expression never changed.
With a flick of his hand, cosmic frost erupted across Asura's arms. The star-forged limbs froze solid, glowing faintly with pale blue dust. He strained, muscles bulging, veins bursting with Mantra—yet the bindings stretched him in opposite directions.
Asura (screaming): "RAAAAAAH—!!"
His voice tore through the chamber, but the frost only deepened, pulling his arms farther apart as pain wracked his body.
At the same instant, Kratos felt his strength collapse inward. The Leviathan Axe slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor, followed by the Blades of Chaos and Draupnir Spear. His runic armor seized like a vice, plates constricting around his chest until his ribs groaned.
Kratos crashed to his knees, torso pinned to the floor, every breath a choking struggle.
Atreus (horrified, shouting): "Father!!"
Mithra (desperate, reaching out): "No—stop it! You'll kill them!"
But Eon only stepped forward, his many eyes gleaming with cold delight.
Eon (mocking): "You believe rage makes you unbreakable. Yet it only gives me more ways to break you."
Asura's scream turned hoarse, his teeth grinding. He spat defiance through the agony.
Asura (roaring): "If you're that strong—then why don't you just END US already?!"
Eon leaned closer, his voice soft but venomous.
Eon: "Because I would rather savor your suffering. Every scream, every broken breath… is the price for the lives you've wasted. For every soul your rage and vengeance destroyed. You were never warriors—you were experiments. Lap rats. And I… am the hand that finally closes the cage."
His laughter echoed through the Nexus, cold and merciless, while Atreus and Mithra stood frozen between terror and helpless fury.
Eon's Cosmic Power
Eon raised a single hand. Galaxies swirled into a sphere of searing energy. With a flick of his wrist, the entire realm shuddered. A shockwave of cosmic force slammed into them:
Mithra screamed, flung backward.
Atreus dropped to one knee, clutching his head.
Kratos skidded across the floor, one arm bracing his body.
Asura planted his new arms into the ground, veins glowing furiously.
Eon (calmly): "I am the gravity that draws all things to their end. Kneel."
Kratos (glaring): "I kneel… to no one."
Asura (bellowing): "AND I BOW TO NO GOD!"
Together, they lunged at Eon.
The Clash Begins
Steel and cosmic fire collided. Eon met Kratos' axe with a glowing sword of pure starlight, sparks cascading like meteor showers. Asura's fists pummeled the cosmic barrier around Eon, each blow cracking reality itself.
Atreus fired runic arrows, trying to pierce the swirling defenses. Mithra summoned shields of light, deflecting bursts of cosmic flame.
But Eon moved effortlessly, weaving reality like silk. Every blow that landed seemed absorbed into his shifting cosmic armor.
Eon (smirking): "Your anger is meaningless here."
Kratos roared, swinging the Leviathan Axe, but Eon caught the blade with his bare hand.
Eon (softly): "I am inevitability."
With a burst of energy, he flung Kratos backward. Asura leapt in fury, his new arms glowing like twin stars, but Eon unleashed a tidal wave of cosmic fire, hurling him to the floor.
The Unbroken
(Agony pulsed across the arena—Asura's scream, Kratos's labored gasps, the sound of chains of cosmic dust grinding against their bodies.)
Mithra (desperate): "Father, stop! You'll tear yourself apart!"
Atreus (horrified, whispering): "No… they're… they're not giving in…"
(Asura's arms, stretched unnaturally wide, burned with a crimson mantra. The veins of light beneath his skin flared, forcing against the blue cosmic bind.)
Asura (roaring through the pain): "THOSE ARMS… ARE MINE!"
(With a defiant bellow, he wrenched them inward, the cosmic dust shattering in sprays of light. His fists clenched, trembling but free—blood and fire dripping from his skin, his rage burning hotter than the prison that tried to contain him.)
(On the other side, Kratos's chest heaved as his armor constricted, crushing him against the floor. His weapons glowed, pinned like stone—but his eyes ignited with the searing glow of Spartan Rage.)
(Flames erupted from his body, licking across his runes and weapons. The bindings cracked and warped under the surge of fury.)
Kratos (snarling, forcing himself up): "I… WILL… NOT… KNEEL!"
(He rose slowly, sparks and flames scattering, the ground trembling beneath his weight. Both warriors stood again, battered, scarred, but unbroken—facing Eon with eyes that refused surrender.)