Hades- The King of the Gods

Cronus rose from his throne like a corpse dragged from its tomb. His frail skin stretched thin over corded muscles, his gaunt face shadowed by greasy hair. For a moment, he looked almost pitiful, this decaying tyrant clinging to the remnants of his throne.

Then he moved.

He blurred forward in a single heartbeat, the scythe slicing through the air toward Zeus. My brother yelped in surprise, barely raising his Thunderbolt in time to deflect the strike. Sparks exploded, illuminating Cronus's hollow face with flashes of pale lightning.

I lunged in behind him, shadows twisting up from the ground to form jagged darts that I hurled at his back. They shattered against an invisible barrier, fragments of darkness scattering like dying embers.

Cronus twisted without looking, his scythe sweeping across the floor. The blade glowed with a sickly green light as it cut through my shadows, slicing one of the darts in half mid-air before cleaving a chunk of marble from a pillar behind me. The entire column crashed down, shaking the hall.

Zeus let out a roar, thrusting his hand forward. Lightning crackled from his fingertips, slamming into Cronus's chest. The Titan staggered, but only for a breath. He raised his hand, and time itself seemed to bend around him. The lightning froze mid-strike, each bolt crystallizing into a fractal pattern of gold and white.

"Pathetic," Cronus rasped, flicking his wrist.

The lightning reversed direction, hurtling back at Zeus. My brother barely dodged, tumbling to the side as the bolt slammed into the ground where he'd stood, leaving a crater in the marble floor.

"His time manipulation is getting worse," Zeus hissed, climbing to his feet, armor scorched. "We can't let him keep control of the flow."

"Then break it," I snarled, lunging forward again. My shadows writhed out from beneath my feet, coalescing into a swarm of black butterflies that fluttered toward Cronus. Each wingbeat dripped with acidic darkness, dissolving the ground beneath them.

Cronus sneered and snapped his fingers.

The butterflies froze in midair, their wings halted mid-flutter. I felt the magic snap against mine, and my vision blurred as the flow of time around me twisted and warped.

He turned to me, his sunken eyes glowing gold. "You cannot fight what defines you, child."

I grit my teeth, fighting against the crushing weight of his temporal field. My shadows strained, cracks spiderwebbing through their forms. Then Zeus roared, raising his Thunderbolt high. Lightning erupted from the weapon in a blinding arc, slamming into Cronus's barrier.

The time freeze shattered.

My butterflies surged forward again, slamming into Cronus's chest. Darkness spread across his bronze breastplate like oil, sizzling against his divine flesh. He grunted, staggering back.

Zeus appeared beside him in a flash of light, his spear of lightning thrust forward. The tip pierced Cronus's armor, driving through his shoulder with a spray of ichor that hissed as it hit the floor.

Cronus screamed—a sound like collapsing mountains and howling voids. His hand lashed out, gripping Zeus's throat. Time rippled around them as Cronus's fingers squeezed, and I watched in horror as Zeus's body aged and reversed in pulses—skin shriveling and regrowing, hair turning gray then gold then gray again.

I surged forward, slamming my bident into Cronus's side. Shadows exploded out from the prongs, forming serrated blades that tore into his ribs. He snarled and swung his scythe blindly at me. I shadow-traveled backward, narrowly avoiding the blade as it sliced through the marble floor, cleaving it open like paper.

Zeus coughed, stumbling away as Cronus released him. My brother's eyes were wide, his hands trembling as he felt his own mortality brush against him.

"We need to end this now," I growled, planting the butt of my bident against the cracked floor.

"Agreed," Zeus panted, raising his Thunderbolt.

Together, we advanced.

Zeus unleashed a barrage of lightning, streaks of blue and white searing the throne room. I followed in the gaps between his strikes, shadows coiling around me like living armor. Cronus swung his scythe, deflecting lightning and shadow alike, but he was slowing. His wounds wept golden ichor, sizzling as it touched the floor.

We pressed him back, step by step, until he stood with his throne at his back. His breathing was ragged, his hair plastered to his gaunt face with sweat and blood.

But then… he laughed.

It was a deep, rattling sound that made the hairs on my neck stand on end. His eyes glowed brighter, golden light pouring from their sockets. His broken teeth bared in a grin that split his face.

"You think… this is victory?" he rasped, raising his arms. "You think… this is the extent of my power?"

The ground shook beneath our feet.

Cronus threw back his head and screamed.

The sound was deafening, shaking the columns, cracking the marble beneath us. His body began to glow, golden light bursting from every wound, every pore. His flesh bubbled and tore as divinity spilled out in searing waves. His armor melted away, revealing the blinding brilliance beneath.

Zeus staggered back, shielding his eyes with his arm. "Hades—! Move!"

But I couldn't look away.

Cronus's true form burned into existence, his silhouette expanding, warping, twisting into something inhuman. His flesh became molten gold, his eyes suns in his skull. The scythe in his hand grew to match his size, its blade spanning the entire width of the throne room.

Raw divinity blasted out from him, shattering the throne behind him, blowing apart the columns like brittle twigs. I felt the force crash into me, searing my skin, burning my lungs as I gasped for breath. Zeus grabbed my arm, yanking me back as the floor cracked and fell away into darkness.

"GO!" he screamed, his voice barely audible over the cacophony of destruction.

I shadow-traveled backward, my vision flashing black and gold as reality warped around us. Zeus flew beside me in a streak of lightning, his aura sparking with desperate energy.

We burst out of the crumbling throne room just as the ceiling collapsed behind us. The mountain shook with the force of Cronus's transformation. Towers crumbled into rubble, bridges snapped and fell into the abyss below. Fire and golden light erupted from the mountain peak, raining molten debris down onto the plains.

We landed hard on the broken stone steps leading out of the keep. I stumbled, falling to my knees as my body shuddered with pain. Behind us, Mount Orthys was collapsing in on itself, torn apart by the raging power of its King.

Zeus grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to my feet. His face was pale, streaked with soot and blood, but his eyes burned with determination.

"We have to move," he rasped, looking up at the inferno. "If he finishes his transformation there, this entire mountain is going to explode."

A massive, clawed hand burst out of the rubble, molten gold dripping from its fingers. Cronus's monstrous form tore free, his glowing body towering over the ruins. His face was twisted into something barely human—eyes blazing suns, mouth gaping wide enough to swallow cities.

I felt my stomach turn as memories surged up like bile. Memories of him devouring our sisters, his jaws splitting wide as he swallowed them screaming. Memories of Poseidon's final scream as Cronus tore his soul apart.

My legs trembled. Shadows coiled tighter around me, hissing in agitation.

"Don't freeze up on me now!" Zeus shouted, grabbing my arm and shaking me. "Hades! Look at me!"

I turned to him, my chest heaving.

"We can do this," he said, his voice low but firm. "Together."

I swallowed hard, tasting ash and fear on my tongue.

"Right," I whispered, tightening my grip on my bident. "Together."

Cronus roared, the sound cracking the sky itself. Golden light seared the clouds, burning through them as his divine form fully emerged. His scythe burned with solar brilliance, each swing cleaving the mountain around him into molten slag.

He rose from the rubble like a nightmare reborn.

Where once Cronus burned with pure golden brilliance, now his divinity pulsed with a sick, corrupted hue—like rotting light, dark oil swirling beneath molten gold. His body stretched high into the heavens, blotting out the dawn. A towering skeletal figure wreathed in blackened flames, crowned with two massive curved horns that arced forward like a ram's. His face was a colossal skull, empty sockets blazing with smoldering embers. Beneath his ribs, a swirling vortex of fire and shadows churned violently, as if reality itself screamed within his chest.

Tendrils of searing flame and darkness lashed out from his back, coiling through the storm-torn sky like monstrous serpents. His scythe had transformed into something beyond a weapon. Its blade, now the length of an entire city block, dripped with poisonous shadows and pulsed with lightning that cracked and shattered the clouds above.

Zeus swore under his breath, his grip on his Thunderbolt tightening until it glowed white-hot. "Shit… this just turned difficult."

"Understatement of the century," I rasped, fighting the terror that pressed down on me like a living weight. The ground trembled beneath Cronus's steps as he advanced, each stride gouging molten trenches into the earth. The air itself burned with his corruption, filling my lungs with bitter metal and charred ozone.

He raised his scythe.

"MOVE!" Zeus shouted.

I dove to the left as he dove to the right. The blade swung down, carving a canyon into the mountain. The entire peak behind us exploded in a cloud of shattered rock and screaming wind.

Before I could recover, one of Cronus's tendrils snapped out, slamming into me like a battering ram. Pain erupted through my ribs as I was launched backwards, bouncing across cracked stone until I smashed into a pillar, breaking it in half. Rubble fell around me as I gasped for breath, shadows flickering in and out of my vision.

"Hades!" Zeus roared.

Through blurry eyes I saw him teleporting with arcs of lightning, dodging the scythe swings as he hurled bolt after bolt into Cronus's burning chest. Each strike sent shockwaves through the monster, but Cronus barely flinched. He twisted, swinging his massive skeletal arm down and smashing Zeus into the ground with bone-shattering force.

My brother screamed.

"Zeus!" I staggered to my feet, bident trembling in my grip. Cronus turned his skull face toward me, his empty eye sockets glowing with swirling abyssal fire.

"This world… belongs… to ME," he rumbled. The voice wasn't just sound. It was an earthquake. A hurricane. It reverberated through my bones, cracking something deep within my spirit.

He raised his scythe again. I could barely breathe, shadows swirling weakly at my feet. My mind raced. There had to be something—anything—I could do. Anything—

A whisper cut through the chaos.

"Hades."

The voice rumbled through my skull like distant thunder. The shadows around me shifted, quivering with anticipation.

"You have proved yourself and as promised I am granting you the divinity of Darkness, use it well."

"Erebus…?" I rasped, falling to one knee. My entire body burned, every nerve screaming. "Thank... you."

I clenched my bident, I have been waiting for this moment, ever since he promised me, I could feel a new surge of energy. The writhing shadows around my feet flattened, becoming an endless black pool that spread outward, swallowing rubble, flames, and even light itself. The burning sky above seemed to dim as the darkness spread, rippling like liquid void across the battlefield.

Cronus hesitated, lowering his scythe as his skull face turned down to stare at the spreading blackness that now reached his clawed feet.

"What… is this…?" he growled.

I rose to my feet, feeling the darkness coil up my legs, merging with my flesh, my bones, my soul. My armor dissolved into liquid night, reforming into a sleek obsidian plate covered in shifting, glowing runes. The tips of my hair dripped darkness like black fire, and my eyes burned gold within a face half-shrouded in divine shadow.

"This…" I said, my voice layered with countless echoes, "…is my domain, a gift from a dear Uncle."

I raised my bident and the darkness surged upward, forming towering serpents that coiled around Cronus's skeletal legs, dragging him down. He roared and swung his scythe, but the blade passed harmlessly through the void. For the first time… he looked confused. Fearful.

Zeus coughed, pushing himself to his feet. His chest armor was shattered, revealing bruised, bloodied skin beneath. He stared at me with wide eyes.

"Holy… Hades… what did you do…?"

I turned my head slightly, feeling the shadows swirl with my motion. "I… just got a sweet upgrade."

Cronus screamed and stomped, shattering the serpents of darkness, sending ripples through my domain. I stumbled forward, blood running from my nose, but I held on. My vision blurred and cleared as the world shifted between black and gold. Cronus raised his scythe to strike me down, the corrupted blade screaming as it tore through the wind—

—and lightning engulfed his arm.

Zeus roared, pouring every ounce of power into the blast. His body glowed white-blue, the wind howling as his lightning speared into Cronus's elbow joint. Bone cracked, ichor spraying into the storm. Cronus staggered, his scythe arm falling limp.

"NOW!" Zeus screamed.

I didn't hesitate.

The darkness beneath Cronus's feet exploded upward, forming a colossal spear of darkness that pierced straight through his chest. The skeletal titan arched back, silent for a moment, before an inhuman howl tore from his burning lungs.

He grabbed the spear, trying to pull it out, but Zeus appeared above him in a flash of light, Thunderbolt raised high. He brought it down on Cronus's skull with a final, earth-shattering strike. Lightning and darkness surged together, cracking through bone, flame, and divinity alike.

Cronus fell.

His divine body collapsed like a dying star, crashing down onto the ruined mountainside with an impact that shattered the earth. Molten gold and corrupted darkness erupted in a dome of energy that blasted me backward. I hit the ground hard, skidding across shattered stone until I slammed into a broken pillar.

I lay there, gasping, my bident falling from my limp fingers. My vision spun wildly, black flecks dancing before my eyes.

It was quiet.

Slowly… painfully… I forced myself up on trembling arms. Across the battlefield, Zeus was sprawled on his back, chest heaving, his Thunderbolt dim in his grasp.

Between us lay a massive crater, steam rising from the molten rock within. At its center, Cronus's divine body was gone, leaving only his Titan form—a broken, withered husk of flesh and bone, his eyes closed, his scythe shattered beside him. Ichor leaked from dozens of wounds, sizzling against the cooling stone.

I swallowed, my throat burning. Every nerve in my body screamed in pain, every breath ragged and raw. But a heavy silence pressed down upon us, the kind that only came after a storm had torn the world apart.

Zeus coughed, rolling onto his side with a groan. "Hades… you alive…?"

"Barely," I rasped, collapsing onto my back, staring up at the ruined sky. The sun was beginning to rise again, dim and cold behind torn clouds. I could feel the darkness receding from my veins, leaving only exhaustion behind.

He laughed weakly, the sound raw and broken. "We did it… brother… we actually did it…"

"Yeah…" I whispered, my eyelids growing heavy. "We did…"

I let my eyes close. For the first time in what felt like centuries… it was finally over.