First of 3 updates this month, hopefully. Been busy enough with other things IRL for Christmas, but already at work on the next chapter of this, which could very possibly be the last this month, given how massive the final few chapters of the Titanomachy will be.

One or two of you have sent a review, whilst others have sent me PMs asking when this arc will be over. Some of you have been respectful about your reasonable misgivings and criticisms, which I appreciate you giving, whilst others uhh… not so much. I'll answer this question to you all now, though.

This arc will officially end some point in January of the new year. There really is only a few chapters left of it, so for those who enjoy the story overall, but have grown tired of this arc, you won't have to concern yourself with it much longer. For those of you enjoying it all regardless, well, strap in for the endpoint, because I'll do my best to have the arc conclude on a high-note.

Next arc will certainly be an interesting one for our boy Beerus though, I can say that much. Take your bets on what you think will happen.

The Olympian God of Destruction:

Chapter 31: The Titanomachy XXIV

"Hmph. Flashy as ever, that brother of mine." Koios quipped rather nonchalantly, looking up in amusement as the now fully dissipated celestial construct Krios had summoned to bludgeon Pan with. The Titan acting as though he wasn't in the middle of a battle himself and was merely an observer to his brother's bout, as he stood with a relaxed posture, with even his guard looking as open as could be.

That, of course, didn't stop his head from tilting and casually avoided a sweeping kick from Metis, who growled before using her momentum to swing her leg up near her chest, before attempting to thrust downward in a stomp over the Titan's dome. Something that the bigger deity easily avoided by simply taking a step back, resulting in the sole of her foot slamming down and deeply cratering the earth beneath her, as she put all her weight behind.

"Too slow, dear. You'll never hit anyone with sloppy kicks like that." Koios chastised, almost sounding like he was her instructor, were it not for the mocking nature of his tone. "Come now, you can do better than that!" He mockingly 'cheered', before purposely downsizing his body to be a closer match relatively in size to her, as she shot in with a punch he easily side-stepped, before swiping his leg low and clipping both of hers out from under her, sending her sprawling face-first into the dirt. "You're supposed to be the clever one, right? So, go on, show some of that tactical genius you apparently have, and at least get me to work a little!"

The Titan's purposeful taunts were met with a snarl, as Metis' radiant form pushed off the ground with her hands and feet, launching herself into a backflip as she attempted to slam her foe's head in with a vicious bicycle kick. One that missed as he simply leaned back with a smug grin, before she twirled in the air and swung her leg out for a heel kick that also missed his head as he took a casual step back again, before he began bobbing and weaving his body around the flurry of punches and kicks that followed.

Metis' eyes narrowed sharply with each attack that missed, observing, despite her escalating wrath, how her opponent hardly even looked at her half the time, and seemed to simply be picking her out through sensing alone. And that in itself seemed to be enough for him to be able to anticipate what she would do well in advance with his domain's ability, as he avoided all her strikes with the greatest of ease, as if she were little more than a child throwing a temper tantrum.

"Hmph. You know, swinging with such little grace, as you've been doing since our little scuffle began, isn't going to get you anywhere if you truly desire to defeat me." Koios snorted, as he ducked under a harsh swing of her shapely leg and got behind her, shunting his own foot forward into her exposed rear before she could react. His blow getting a grunting yelp out of his enemy, along with a humoured laugh from himself, as the power behind it knocked her off balance and sent her staggering forward unto her hands and knees, with her round backside presented to him up in the air. A sight he was most pleased with, and didn't fail to let her know about, just to get under her skin more. "Well, what you lack in fighting skill, you certainly don't in curves at least. Perhaps when your side is crushed, I may just take you myself as one of my consorts, and get some form of thrill out of you in bed to make up for the abysmal performance here."

"Sorry, but I think I'd rather let myself be chopped to pieces by Kronos' scythe than ever entertain that fantasy." Metis snarked back angrily, as she popped to her feet, twisted her body, and launched herself forward toward the elder Titan, who snorted a second time at her sassy response.

"How cruel. Allowing yourself to become one of my consorts would be quite preferable to such a violent end. At least in that situation, I'd be doling out pleasure rather than pain and humiliation to you." He teased, knowing well his words would only get on her nerves even more with Menoitios' influence, as she drove in to try for a combo. A feint for a gut shot with her fist, which would be instantly followed up by an uppercut using her palm, followed by a series of kicks to the abdomen and chest, before ending it off with a spinning elbow to his face.

Quite vicious indeed. Too bad he saw it all coming, ignoring the feint and grabbing the wrist of her other hand before it could snap up fully into his chin, using his own strength to yank her forward, pulling her off balance yet again when she tried to retaliate with a kick. There were many things he could've done at that point to counter her latest laughable attempt to damage him, each of which could very easily lead him to ending this farce of a fight in mere moments by battering her down. And inwardly, he knew that's what he should've been doing and, had he wanted to, could have already done by this point if he was so inclined, even without Menoitios' ability backing him up.

Honestly though, he was having too much fun at the minute toying with her. They may both be ascended, but she was no threat to him, when he saw all of her moves coming well in advance. Plus, taking her on was the only responsibility he'd expressly been given, and he was still doing that, just at his own pace to get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it by messing with her, which he believed was justified, given all the trouble she'd given them over the past year with her own plans. Case-in-point, how he brought his other hand to purchase on her fine ass with a SMACK that rang out for many miles, and got a shocked jolt out of his foe's body as she let out a rough gasp.

What really earned him a death glare though, was when he fully slipped behind her in that brief instant of jolted surprise, and thumped his pelvis against her hindquarters just for the heck of it, as if he were already humping her. An action that sent her stumbling forward again, until he yanked back on her arm, forcefully pulling her back into him and tugging most of her feet off the ground, leaving only her toes to graze the soil as his other hand roughly cupped her chin and tilted her face toward his own. His head peeking over her shoulder with the kind of aggravating smile that could get under just about anyone's skin.

"I'll give you one more chance, little Nymph. But this time, I'll do you one better." He said, laying it on as thick as he could for maximum effect, as his power pulsed slightly, temporarily freezing Metis in place with a shudder, and were it not for her glowing features, a blush as well, as he made his other leg sprout back out from his pelvis. The ten-inch large, erect, shining phallus punching out from between her slim-thicc thighs with its hide pressed over where her lower lips were, hidden by her ascended form, but still very much there, whilst his grapefruit-sized testicles emerged too and rested against her haunches.

"I've already grown quite bored of this farcical battle of ours, so how about this," He started, as his aura seemed to wash over her, briefly removing the veil that kept her goddess-hood hidden. He then swiftly pulled his hips back, dragging his member along through her legs and over her crotch, before CLAPPING into her with a thrust that whacked his nuts off her shaking tush and grinded his cock over her exposed clitoris. The action forcing a noticeable back-arch out of the goddess, as she failed to contain her heated, shuddering gasp from his audaciously sexual move that stimulated her sex, whether she liked it or not, as he continued. "You cease your resistance and quit trying to fight someone like me, who you have no hope of defeating, before denouncing the other rebels and swearing yourself to me."

Repeating his action from before, he thrusted through her legs again, grating his phallus over her nether-lips whilst slapping his balls off her buttocks and the back of her upper-thighs. Something that Metis grit her teeth at, whilst letting out a low, but audible noise of restrained pleasure from the added stimulation, whilst Koios smirked like a condescending devil, feeling some wetness drizzle over his member. "You do that for me, and I'll reward you by pounding you out in a way that you'll find most pleasurable, as opposed to painful. The choice is up to you."

Her choice was made rather quickly, when whatever strain had been there on her features vanished, and all that was left was the ugliest, darkest snarl Koios had ever seen, as she swung her free arm's elbow back. The Titan letting go of her as he dodged her attack with little effort, his cock slipping away from her thighs as he didn't bother to cover it up, knowing she wouldn't land anything anyway, as she came at him with her follow-up attacks: A series of high-speed, intense punches, slicing forearms and elbows, as well as sweeping and spiking kicks, all designed to try and batter him from every angle. His and her forms turning into total blurs as they entered into what seemed like a violent dance to any outside observer.

"Save your perversions for the desperate! I already have a consort, who is far better than your loathsome self will ever be!" The Oceanid roared with offence, divine veil obscuring her nether regions once again, as she pressed forward, firing on all cylinders with as many blows as she could, whilst keeping her blazing, infuriated eyes locked on Koios and nothing else. The nymph's enraged features growing angrier and more frustrated from the Titan's perspective, with every flurry that failed to so much as graze off his skin, as he nimbly evaded everything that she threw at him without missing a beat or breaking a sweat, his dick and balls bobbing away all the while with his dodges. A sight that most definitely only added to her outrage.

"Well, I guess that's that then." Koios commented casually, not caring either way, as once this war was concluded, he could take her if he still wanted her regardless. "If you want to play this the hard way, then that's on you, little Nymph." Leaning away from another slicing forearm, the Titan took the opening he had to swipe his own hand up and backhand the younger goddess across the face full-force, momentarily stunning her enough as her head whipped to the side and let loose ichor-infused spittle to push in and drive a knee into her hip.

The blow bent her body at an awkward angle over his appendage and earned him a blood-spitting, pained gasp before he grabbed the back of her head, swiped her legs out from under her whilst easily avoiding another swinging elbow in retaliation, and ploughed her face-first into the ground. The force of it producing a shockwave that was felt across the earthly and watery planes of the world, as it formed an enormously deep crater just that flattened some of the earth surrounding Olympus' base, while leaving the holy mountain itself mostly unaffected due to its insane durability.

"Just so you know, you're not being courageous by picking this path. You're just being stubbornly stupid." He chastised, before hurling her upwards by her head, sending her skyward at an absurdly fast speed with her body flailing and doing a cross between cartwheels and backflips in the air, as she ascended.

Gritting her teeth, Metis righted herself despite the intense dizziness and discombobulation she was under temporarily from having her face slammed so hard into Gaea's plane, forcing herself to a stop not even halfway up the height of Mount Olympus. Her crunched-up features from the face-smash quickly mending back to normal, as her eyes blazed with power and near uncontrollable fury.

The key word there being 'near'. For despite her ascending anger, the Oceanid, only just barely, was able to keep her mind from being totally consumed by her red-hot wrath, allowing her to still be capable of logical thought, as hard as that had become. With how this was going though, she knew it wouldn't be much longer before even her best efforts to maintain some degree of rational thought would prove useless, and she'd be totally consumed by her rage and thirst for Koios' violent end. She was wise enough still to realise that once that happened, and she became purely emotional in her actions, her defeat was guaranteed, especially against an opponent like hers.

The scales must be tipped. I cannot allow this battle to persist as it has with this dynamic any further. I don't have any more time to analyse him, not with my emotions becoming such a detriment. All I can do now, is hope that the limited information I have gained from observing him is enough to make my next move worth it, because if not, and it proves ineffective, then I'm doomed. She thought to herself critically, letting out a growl of rage at her situation that was most unbecoming of her, but she found herself unable to help it. She knew not why her emotions were going so haywire, and whilst she still could, she suspected an outside force from the Titan side to be responsible, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it presently.

It was just another hurdle she'd have to try and overcome in this battle, she thought with all the willpower she could muster to resist her strong, negative emotions, as she let out a war-cry and dove down toward Koios like a high-velocity meteor before he could come up for her. Her arm rearing back as she clenched a fist, her aura coalescing around it as she focused much of her power into it, as she cut a watery-blue streak through the sky in her fast descent toward her unshaken enemy.

"Oh, please, is that the best you can offer?" The older deity scoffed, seeing her rapid descent, before easily avoiding Metis' latest punch that he saw coming from a mile away. Her body looking to fly past him as he swayed away from her dive-bomb blow, before he countered with a punch of his own, blasting the wind and droplets of ichor out of her as he struck her hard in the abdomen. His counter-strike forcing her body to bend over his arm not only from the force he put in, but also from her own downward momentum ploughing herself into his fist. "You won't last much longer at this rate, little nymph."

Rolling his eyes then, the Titan slipped his arm away from her before she could clutch it to her torso to keep him in place. He didn't even need his divine insight to have seen that pitiful play coming. "It'd have been in your best interest to have given up earlier, and save us both the time." Raising his arms above his head, his hands clasped together before he brought them down in a clubbing axe-handle blow to her exposed back, nearly breaking her spine in half as he sent her crashing to the ground once more at his feet. The impact making the earthly and watery planesring and making the already deep crater he'd made with her before, even deeper.

Koios was almost impressed though that this time, despite how it nearly snapped the bones in her limbs to do so, she broke her fall with her hands and feet, the latter of which curled with her legs the moment she struck the ground, and shook alongside her arms. Almost. "Now that you've made your foolish choice, once this is all over, rest assured, once I've had my fun with you to make up for this waste of time," He grinned salaciously, making sure to stroke his dick in front of her when her eyes fluttered up to him, so that she knew for certain what he meant by that, and that her consent wasn't a requirement. "you'll be meeting your end by my brother's scythe, just like the rest of the foolhardy rebels."

"Ngh!..." Now or never…!The Oceanid thought to herself, grunting with pain and exertion as she raised and slammed her fist into the ground, the very same one that still had her aura coalesced around it. Her power pulsing outward in the precise manner that she wished it, as she smashed up a ton of dirt, soil and dust. The move creating a thick cloud of the aforementioned which covered several hundred metres all around herself and her Titan adversary in an instant.

It was an act that Koios quirked a brow at, and might've taken as a gesture purely out of frustration were he not able to read her like an open book, and see precisely why she had done so, even before the cloud properly formed. Sufficed to say, her gambit did little to worry the older brother of Kronos, as he floated in the air within the conjured cloud with a profoundly unimpressed expression while he crossed his arms.

"Really? Trying to use a dirt-cloud for cover? This wouldn't even work on me in my normal form, and you think this'd be useful against me in my ascended state?" He shook his head, almost insulted by her tactic, as he easily picked out where she was via sensing her. "And here I was thinking you couldn't get any more desperate." Turning around with another roll of his eyes and a sigh at her saddest attempt yet to gain an advantage, he thrust a kick of his own directly for her face, aiming to give her a foot-full to it for her troubles.

What he did not expect, and what had his eyes widening considerably, however, was when his foot struck home, and then passed right through her head, before her body suddenly evaporated into nothing but tiny, blue particles right before him! "Wait! Wha-Hrgk!?"

"What is it you were saying about this not working on you?" Metis hissed darkly in his ear, as her lithe arms wrapped around his neck and locked him in a rear-naked choke. And despite her growing rage, she found herself able to smile at the Titan for once, as she saw the shocked look on his face. "Looks like I managed to find a little weakness to your ability after all, and just in time too!"

Without elaborating any further, Metis put her aggression to use, swinging the lower half of her body back as she maintained her grip on his neck, and before the Titan could overcome his surprise, she drilled him in the back with her knees, packing all the power she could behind them! The blow, her first landed of the fight, earning her a grunt of pain that was like melodious music to her ears at this point, as it sent him staggering forward, off-balance and unprepared for her follow-up, even if he saw it coming, as she dropped down low just before he could right himself. Her knees bending deep as she crouched, cocked her arm back while focusing every last drop of power she could into it, and then swung it up right between the bastard's legs.

"Nnghaaaaaaaah!" Koios' agonised, higher-pitched gargle was almost orgasmic to listen to at this point for Metis, after the Titan's antics with her, amplified even further by the audibly loud KER-UNCH echoed out. And in that moment, Metis didn't mind the fact that his cock draped over her hand, feeling what had to be the single most sadistic form of satisfaction she'd ever had, upon hearing the Titan's balls be completely crushed by her low-blow, and feeling his whole body seize up and quake above her. The moment punctuated with the satisfactory shockwave of her strike blasting away the cloud of cover she'd formed.

"Oh, what's wrong? I was under the impression that you wanted me all over your genitalia." Metis snarled with faux-concern. Her eyes shining with vindictive, rage-filled bliss, as she smiled as widely and bloodthirstily as her sister Styx did after successfully spiting someone who'd earned her ire, especially when she saw him practically foaming at the mouth, near ready to pass out. Probably would've for a brief instant too, if he weren't in his ascended state. "Where did all that confidence go?"

"G-Guh!... You bitch!..." Koios managed to choke out as he glanced back at her, a small and swift flash of his power making his crushed nuts and vulnerable dick disappear behind the veil, a reactive move done out of fear that if he didn't, the nymph would grab his penis and yank it out in a most unpleasing way. "H-How in the world did you…!?"

"Counter your ability?" Her expression was as smug as it was enraged. "And here I thought you'd know everything I'd do before I even did it!" Bouncing off the ground, Metis spun herself in the air before swinging her foot out in an arc for his head, and on such shaky feet after getting his family jewels pounded into paste, despite seeing it coming, Koios was helpless to do anything except take it head on. The front of her foot impacting and bashing his nose deep into his face, sending out a spritz of ichor as he was sent careening off his feet and directly into Olympus' hide with a heavy BOOM!

"Honestly didn't know if it'd work or not, but I'm glad to see that it did."The Oceanid remarked, much more to herself than to him, as she watched his awkwardly positioned body being indented into Olympus' sturdy body several inches deep. Face fucked up, but mending rapidly, from her head-kick.

Her private training sessions with Zeus over the last year had led to more than simply sharper skills in combat and a bit of power growth. Over that time, she'd developed a new technique, one that had been shared with her consort – whom had developed his own variant along with another trick using his thunderbolt – and improved under their sparring sessions to what it was now, when used by her.

The creation of a copy of oneself through a highly precise usage of their meta-physical energy, in a similar vein to how they achieved instantly transporting themselves to other locations and shape-shifting into near whatever their imagination could conjure. In her use, she conjured a perfect replica of herself, which held all of her powers and could either be remotely controlled, or left to act of its own free will in whatever way she would've, depending on the situation.

The one downside was its fragility, as one hit landed, even a weak one that wouldn't hurt her at all, would cause it to disperse. The upside however, which in this case against her Titan foe made it more than worth it, was that when the copy was created, it temporarily masked her presence completely, making it impossible to detect the real her through sensing. Only the copy.

The true her could still be seen, of course, but that mattered little if she could keep her enemy's eyes off the real her while making her move.

And to think, prior to this battle, she'd been a little jealous of Zeus' version that combined his lightning with the copy for devastating damage. Unlike hers, his didn't totally mask the real version's presence, leaving him open to being sensed if their enemy was on high-alert, as had also been shown in their spars after he'd almost caught her out with the move many times.

"And you chuckled at me for espousing the benefit of subtlety over your more bombastic approach to it in response." Metis managed a light chuckle, which came out quite strained due to her still boiling anger that was, much to her chagrin, remaining as strong as ever, though thankfully, for the moment, had stopped rising.

She took the moment to pause briefly, as she heard the wind itself screech in protest, drawing her attention momentarily up to the heavens far away from her, where she saw that tail-end of what looked to be a ginormous, almost pitch-black tornado full of glittering stars bursting into nothing. Its end, which she barely caught, heralding the fall of multiple beings from the sky, as well as the halting of the air's movement all around her, no matter the direction.

The Oceanid didn't have time to decipher who exactly had been the ones to cause such an event, before she felt her own foe's power spike, drawing her attention back to him. In the back of her mind, she sent out her hope that whichever ally of hers was up there was doing well, as she made her next move on her current adversary.

"Y-You…!" Koios hissed, popping himself out of his indentation right as Metis came charging towards him again, and darting to the side just in time to avoid her foot being bashed into his face again, as she leapt in for a stomping kick. One that replaced most of his bodily indentation with a crater on top of it, as it struck the mountain's hide. The goddess blazing gaze never losing track of him as he backed away, cursing her name as one of his hands fell to his crotch, cupping it almost instinctively as the last traces of unbearable agony receded from it, leaving nothing but a phantom ache where she'd attacked his godhood.

"Don't get mad at me, Koios. You're the one who chose to toy with me, rather than take me down as fast as possible. Had you come in with that attitude, I have little doubt I'd have been defeated by now." Metis replied with a heated hiss of her own, boring a hole through his soul with her fiery glare. "You only have yourself to blame for that mismanagement of action, and believe me…" Launching herself off the mountain's hide, the goddess thrusted herself toward the Titan, seemingly with reckless abandon, but in truth, a gameplan for victory, with or without the Ophiotaurus' boon, as she felt a familiar power ascend in the distance. "In your defeat, I will make you regret underestimating me!"

Meanwhile… Furthest away from Olympus… High in the heavens…

"Graaaaaaaaah!" Theia's body was like a pure streak of velvet and sapphire light, as she flew across the skies, bellowing out a war-cry of vengeance as she smashed into Styx with a radiant fist to the Oceanid's face. The blow snapping her foe's head back, sending spittle and blood flicking out as she stunned her, leaving her most hated adversary incapable of responding to her properly, as she followed up with another devastating punch to the gut, which had the daughter of Oceanus curling inward with a hack of ichor. A knee to the chin coming after, rattling her teeth together along with her skull, as her head snapped back again, leaving her open as Theia's eyes fired another set of lasers directly into her chest.

"Guhg!" A gasp of pain followed from Styx, as she felt herself get launched back again. The searing-hot light of the Titaness' eyebeams severely burned her flesh, much like they had earlier when the fight had begun, and they'd consumed her entirely in a blinding, incinerating embrace that she'd only just barely been able to withstand and recover from. Thankfully before the Titaness had launched in to proceed with their fight.

Well, 'fight', wasn't quite an accurate descriptor.

"Haaaaaagh!" Stopping herself whilst her chest continued to be burned, Styx' face contorted in the worst possible mixture of hate and rage, as she let out a battle-cry and thrusted herself back toward Theia, uncaring and shrugging off the horrendous pain that came with her chest being seared and melted by the Titaness' lasers.

When she reached her foe, Styx wasted no time in shoving her hands out and, despite the scalding pain her thumbs were put under from doing so, she pushed them through the lasers and punched them deep into Theia's eyes, squashing them both inward and causing ichor to spill out as Theia screamed. Her lasers cutting off as she grabbed Styx's arms, but the Oceanid continued to force her thumbs deeper into her sockets, digging them in and grinding her eye-flesh to paste with an extra level of spite, before delivering a vicious series of kicks to the Titaness' torso. Each producing ample shockwaves as they pelted and bruised her skin and ribs.

Seeing that her regular strength couldn't seem to outdo her, Theia spread her lips wide and let out a roar accompanied by another beam of destructive, violet light that struck Styx in the gut, burning her abdomen rapidly as it launched her back and away from the elder Titaness. The older deity didn't let the new distance created last though, as she cut off her mouth-beam, steam rising out past her lips, before her body dissipated into a series of beautiful, velvety blue particles that rushed toward her prey.

Styx, partially nursing her belly, saw the particles coming and thrusted a fist out to punch them, only to have it, naturally, phase through them as they instantly coalesced into the familiar figure of Theia behind her. Acting quick and aggressively with a snarl as her wounds healed up, Styx shot the heel of her foot up to clip the Titan goddess in the jaw and stun her, the former being something she was successfully in, snapping the older deity's head back from the force.

The latter wasn't quite true, however, as Theia ignored the brief discombobulation to shunt her hand up and grab the offending foot, before pulling it and Styx toward her, where she slammed her own fist into Styx's chin. The blow smashing some of the Oceanid's teeth in the process and whipping her head back as well, as Theia's rolled back with a snarl of her own, grabbing on to Styx's flowing hair and pulling on it harshly, turning and pulling the eldest Oceanid over her shoulder ass-over-end in a flip that ended with her crashing her knee directly into the same spot she'd struck with her punch.

Styx' chin, which hadn't yet healed from the first strike, was broken apart even worse, shattering even more teeth as the bones of her jaw crumbled under the weight and power of Theia's kick, sending her ichor and tooth chunks flying out.

Styx glared at her foe as it all happened though, and rather than trying to disengage and recover, she grabbed the wrist of the hand holding her radiant hair in a vice-grip, and used it as an anchor for herself to hold unto whilst she lashed back with a kick of her own. The front of her foot smacking against the side of Theia's head hard enough to send not just her head, but her whole upper body sideways at an angle, leading to her releasing the younger goddess' hair, and give her a free opening to attack.

Theia's eyes regenerated just in time to see Styx' own knee zoom up as one of her hands grabbed the back of her head and held it in place to tank the vicious kick. Then the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth. All in quick and savage succession, each brutalising her face further than the last, smashing her crushed nose deeper into her features, breaking her teeth and bashing her jaw in so thoroughly, that by the time she'd let go and let her head snap back from the fifth kick, it hung loose and crumpled by her neck like a mangled piece of parchment.

Through it all, Theia let out numerous noises of torment, as her ichor spilt out, draping her enemy's leg in slim rivers by the end from the splotch left over her knee, but the fury in her own eyes never wavered. The emotion driving her forward despite how disoriented she was, to grab unto Styx's head with both hands, before propelling her forehead forth and ramming it into her adversary's own with a loud CRACK. She then used the brief instant where her foe's head whipped back and she was stunned to set her eyes ablaze and fire her violet beams out of her retinas once more, directly into Styx's unprotected orbs.

Though the eldest of the Oceanids shrilly screeched as her eyeballs were rapidly melted off her face into steaming piles of goop, she was swift to react once she felt the lasers burn through her skull and reach her brain, flipping herself backwards to avoid having her brain fried. This act held the consequence of much of her forehead and scalp getting scorched, as she slipped out of Theia's hands, pulling her knees up to her bosom as she floated upside-down, before propelling her feet forward in a nasty dropkick that landed square on the Titaness' mending jaw. The blow disrupting the healing process and almost tearing said jaw right off her face from the sickening impact that sent her head rattling back whilst her body staggered away.

Styx used her other senses to 'see' for her whilst her eyes steadily regenerated, rolling back around until she faced her foe again and pushed forward, something which Theia seemed to be in agreement on, as she did the same. Both smashing their fists into the other's face at the same time, whipping their heads and bodies back from each other, but only for a miniscule moment, before both roared – or in Theia's case, gave her best, gurgled approximation given her bashed-apart jaw – and launched into a salvo of attacks on the other.

Neither goddess attempted to dodge, deflect or even block the other's blows. The two forgoing any sense of grace or rationality in favour of pure, unadulterated bloodlust and vengeful, bloody mauling of their enemy, battering each other's bodies with harsh, resounding strikes that held little rhythm to them. Their only precision being in just how much pain it could inflict on the other as no body part was spared from the clubbing claps of their fists and feet, the calamitous crashes of their elbows and knees, the torturous thrashing of their forearms and shins, and the brutish bashing of their heads.

To any who got to watch such a display, merely calling it a 'fight' would be disingenuous. It'd be more accurate to call it a reckless, unforgiving war where neither side gave a damn about what happened to themselves, throwing all caution to the wind. Both goddesses out for blood and only caring about causing the other as much suffering as they could administer, before their foe, or themselves, eventually couldn't go on anymore.

Styx, already susceptible to her own feelings of hatred and spite, through her domain, was perhaps the easiest target of Menoitios' ability, which only escalated her rage and thirst for violence to immeasurable levels the longer she clashed with the older Titaness. There was nothing in her mind other than the red cloud screaming at her fight, to maim, to eviscerate her opponent as brutally as she could.

Theia, while not affected by Menoitios' ability, was indeed put under the influence of Styx's, which rolled off the Oceanid in literal waves of divine power, much like Iapetus' son's, affecting only her due to their proximity. For while the spiteful goddess and former consort of Pallas may be the matron deity of the river with her namesake, she also held dominion over one particular emotion due to this connection. One so powerful, that like with rage, it could blind a being from all rationality, and make them act only in the service of sating it.

Hate.

The older Titaness had started off the battle much like Styx had, in control of herself and wishing to end her enemy with her own hands. But as the battle had worn on, much like the Oceanid who fell prey to Menoitios' magic, she too fell prey to Styx', which was passively released from her more and more because of her rising rage and bloodthirst.

Both ended up stuck in their own world of causing the other anguish, battering their divine bodies to the point of brittleness as countless bruises, dents, and in Styx' case, scorch-marks littered their bodies. Their True Divine Forms struggling to heal them the longer their mauling of the other went on, disrupting the process and stacking wounds on top of wounds. Splotches, strands and rivers of ichor covering their fronts by the end as they turned the other into a complete mess of broken bones, pulped, glowing flesh and torn, bloody skin. Neither taking notice of all the carnage that occurred around them, not even when the air itself stilled and lost all its liveliness everywhere, nor when a new power emerged from the distance, which Styx would've otherwise recognised.

They were both well-past the speaking stage by now. There was no banter or mockery, like previous bouts. Just the primal grunts, growls, screams and bellows of two deities that, at present, lived for nothing other than brutalising their nemesis until the bitter end. An end that would come sooner than expected for one of them, as unbeknownst to either, another figure fast approached from the rear.

During that period… On the opposite side of Olympus from Metis and Koios' battle…

"Hmm. As expected, he was sturdy enough to withstand that attack." Krios mused, as his enhanced vision peered up high into the heavens, where he'd sent Pan with his constellation strike. His eyes able to make out the other god's glowing form reaching the apex of his ascent, and even see him through countless angles via peering through the countless constellations of stars hidden up in the heavens by Hemera's daytime. He must've been a good trillion-trillion miles up after that one.

"Looks a little disoriented, but he'll no doubt snap into focus again soon, and probably try to dive down on me. I could try and let him, but then there's the chance, even if its small at this point, with all that anger clouding his judgement, that he'll start screeching. I already know how bad that is when he's in his normal state, and I'd rather not find out what it's like when he's ascended." Mind made up, Krios brought his hand up above his head, a new pattern forming in his sclera from his zooming flecks with a thin golden line, which then also got highlighted around his hip in the form of a straight line that had curvature by the bottom. The air shimmering around him again as the heavens lit up for but a brief instant.

And then the Titan swung his hand down, and though he couldn't hear it, he saw how a construct of a spear more around the god of the wild's size appeared above their airborne body, right before he could right himself, and crashed down on his exposed back. The sharp, glimmering tip piercing through his spine and punching out through his gut in a glorious burst and gush of ichor, as it sent him hurtling down at frightening speeds twice as good as what the far bigger dipper had when sending him up.

In no more than a blink, they both came smashing down into the ground before him with a heavy BOOM that deeply cratered the already perforated earth, sending yet more chunks flying up and shattering from the force, whilst sending vibrations out throughout the endless lands and waters. The after-effect much less this time due to how focused his attack had been on a single point.

"Heh. Well, you're certainly a sturdy one, at least. Taking two hits like those back-to-back, and being run through on the latter, and yet still your ascended state remains." Krios noted, his tone genuinely a little impressed, regardless of the situation, as despite being gored so viciously, along with taking such an impact to his mother's plane, the skewered god of the wild, who was bleeding profusely from the harrowing wound given. His body squirming in anguish as his physical and astral beings felt the horrendous sting of such brutal impalement, animalistic, muffled groans sounding off from where his shaking head was buried face-first in the soil.

Best that I not waste any time, like my brother Koios might do. I've learned the hard way more than enough not to underestimate these rebels, even for a moment. The Titan god of constellations thought to himself cautiously, despite his inner urge to have a little more fun messing with the pinned god, as the same pattern in his eyes glowed, before a duplicate of his starry spear appeared floating a few metres above Pan's head.

"It has been fun, Pan, but I'm afraid this is where your part in all this ends." Krios said, paying no mind to the odd, dark-green glow that'd come over his foe's aura, before flexing his power and causing his second spear to drop with a violent thrust.

There was a flash of green then out of Krios' peripheral, which caused him to turn slightly as his construct-weapon came shooting down for Pan's finish. What the Titan saw though, made his eyes widen a bit, as a sharply horned, pristinely white, large goat of all things came charging in out of nowhere from a sprinting velocity that should've been utterly impossible for a mere animal.

"Baaaaa!" It bleated aggressively and with a slightly warped voice, full of blazing-hot rage just like Pan was, as it shunted forward at the last possible second, colliding its horns with the sharp tip of his descending construct, much to Krios' shock.

What was even more shocking, however, was when said goat, which was twice the size of a regular one, and coated all over with the same aura as Pan, glared at the construct trying to break through its unexpected defence of the downed deity. Its eyes radiating a deep mix of brown and green that flooded out of its retinas in shiny rays, as it dug its hooves into the ground, muscles bulging all over its quadruped form, before, with a mighty shout that most certainly did not sound like any goat Krios had ever heard, did the unthinkable. Its horns actually cracked his construct, forming innumerable ones similar all around it as it fought for dominance, and within no time at all, it whipped its head back in victorious triumph, shattering his constellation weapon into insignificant shards like brittle glass!

"What!?" The Titan exclaimed. Utter disbelief plastered over his wide-eyed features. The goat's out-of-nowhere rescue stunning him long enough for Pan to plant his hands on the ground, and bend his knees as the tips of his feet ground into the soil, pushing him up the cracking constellation made to keep him pinned with wet, ghastly sounds emitting from both broken bones and shredded organs alike.

"Grrrrrrrrr!" The deep, guttural, bestial growl pierced the airwaves was enough to snap Krios back to reality, as his other construct shattered to pieces as well, leaving the god of the wild with a massive, gaping hole in his torso that steadily patched itself up, as he rose to his feet. His raging aura wilder than ever as his spine became whole again, which Krios could see within the still closing wound. The god's snarling features looking more beast-like than ever before, with even more elongated, razor-sharp canines jutting out, with contorted facial features, becoming an even uglier and more dreadful mix between canine, snake and wild man.

"Hmph. And I thought you looked repulsive before." Krios jabbed, as he came fully out of his shock, readying himself for an eventual attack, as the pattern in his eyes began to shift into something else. "I'll have to admit though, I didn't expect a goat of all things to come to your temporary rescue."

Pan breathed out like no creature the Titan had ever heard, as the hole in his body closed up, before he brought himself down unto all fours, with his claws-for-hands digging into the ground while his hooved feet stamped in. The god having taken a ready stance for a lethal charge akin to a wild beast that felt cornered and was ready to lash out, as the enormous goat settled by his side in a similar stance, lowering its horned head for a charge as well.

"The goat is my sacred companion, and I, its shepherd." Pan said in a harsh, growly, distorted voice with such intensity that Krios almost instinctively took a step back, as his slitted, multi-colour-radiating eyes shone with a bloodlust so overwhelming, that Krios found himself being as on-guard as possible, whilst the new pattern in his eyes fully formed.

"Hmph. Another worthless follower then." Krios partially dismissed condescendingly, though inwardly, he wondered how an animal possessing such a powerful boon from its master that it could charge in at speeds that rivalled theirs and overpower his attack hadn't been sensed by him earlier? With the amount of power that was radiating off it now, it'd have been impossible for him to not feel its presence earlier, for what it had was far more than a simple boon. Its power was rivalling that of Pan's at the moment, which made the idea that it'd somehow hidden from his senses for this long totally preposterous!

Pan should've been far too enraged to think rationally enough to just send out such an unbelievable boon to an animal for its assistance, but he supposed it couldn't be ruled out that he had managed it despite his emotional state. There was also the idea that he might've granted it to the creature beforehand, but had it where it'd only trigger if it felt its master was in peril. Krios had no idea which of these was correct, or if it was another answer he wasn't considering, but he quickly shook away any such thoughts about it.

It didn't matter how it'd happened. What did, was that Pan had gotten his irksome little animal involved, and all that meant, was just another target for him to take down-

"Baaaaaaa!" Krios' senses came alight, his eyes widening again in alarm, as numerous other green lights shone briefly in his peripherals. On instinct alone, he pulled back as a second goat, which was just as big as the first, came barrelling out from a blind spot, charging right past him with its horns sharp and glowing, ready to gore him.

He was given no time to rest though, as what seemed like a dozen more came charging in at blistering speeds form various directions, all converging on him and forcing himself to leap skyward to avoid them, as they all crashed into each other with an ear-popping BANG!

All of them. Each and every one of them, held power that rivalled Pan's and the first goat, an utterly ludicrous sight, and yet, it's what was happening. He was now in a fifteen-on-one situation, and even if none of his foes could think rationally, this scenario was still a problem, given it'd still take only the smallest moment of carelessness from him for one of them to pounce and put him in trouble.

"I have no worthless followers, you bastard!" Pan roared in rage, blasting the ground apart in his wake, as he leapt up and shot himself through the air, mouth wide open and claws bared out in front toward his Titan adversary. "All parts of my flock are important, and I will tear you apart for what you did to them!"

"The only thing you and your fucking goats will do, is get exterminated like the pests you are!" Krios thrust his hand up, as a new pattern glowed on his back, the heavens themselves lighting up briefly above him and Pan, as a massive, hulking bear formed of stars and divine energy above their heads. Its predatorial growl just like that of a normal bear, only much more distorted, as it came pouncing down toward the charging form of Pan, who wasn't even a tenth the size of it.

"Baaaaaa!" The sound of one of those blasted goats rang out again, this time from the first that'd shown up, as it appeared above Pan from its own lunge off the ground, its hooves pressing down on its master's back, before using him as a launching pad to fire itself up and meet the descending bear constellation. The bear roared back in challenge and swiped down for it, which the glowing, aura-packed goat met with its shimmering horns, causing a localised shockwave from the collision as both stalled the other.

And much to Krios' chagrin, this left Pan open to continue charging and force the Titan to cross his arms in a block, as the wild, enraged deity slammed into him with his smaller body. His claws digging deep into his forearms and drawing small streams of ichor out, droplets being flicked behind as the two hurtled back, and Krios braced himself before grunting as his back impacted hard against the hide of Mount Olympus. The mountain shaking a little, and a small crater forming around his body, as he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Pan, who's snarling features were but inches away from his now.

Feet planted on the Titan's lower chest, Pan howled as his claws ripped free with a splatter of blood, and began swiping and slashing at his raised arms left and right, shredding apart skin and flesh alike in a grisly display from the Titan's appendages in a frenzy, sending ichor flying every which way as he attempted to tear him apart. To an outside observer, it would've been like watching a starved, vicious predator going out of its way to rip their prey apart, with the latter doing what little they could to defend.

"Get. Off. Of. Me!" This position didn't last long, though, as Krios roared to life, using his arm to shove Pan's claws out of the way, before smashing his fist into his face, sending the god flying away and to the ground, where he back-flipped and drove his hooved feet and clawed hands into the ground, digging trenches as he forced himself to a stop. All this around the time the bear and goat separated, the former being pushed back and guarding Krios, whilst the goat flung down, bounced off the ground, and came to a stop by its master. All of its kind herding around it in a formation to protect and aid Pan.

"Chaaaaaaarge!" Pan screamed in wrathful vengeance, kicking his flock of goats up into a frenzy, as they all launched forward ready to batter their way through the bear, and rip the Titan behind it apart. All while Pan himself leapt up into the air, well above the bear, and shot down like a comet toward Krios again with the utmost malicious intent to maim.

"Oh, fuck off!" Tired of this already, Krios' body glowed all over, various patterns zigging and zagging across his form, as multiple, starry constructs of animals, few of which Krios actually bothered to learn the names of, shone into existence from above. The reinforcements snarling as they joined the fray with the bear and battling back against the damned goats, whilst a spear constructed in the Titan's hands and twirled around, before being thrusted forth to meet Pan's attack, as he zoomed in with a claw outstretched.

Given Krios was the much more precise of the two, mainly for not being so consumed by rash rage from Menoitios, he was able to stab through the offending hand, right as his claw wounds on his arms fully healed. Then, with a nasty twist of the twinkling tip, he swiftly tore off half of Pan's appendage, taking off four of the five claws as well as a good chunk of his palm with a gory spurt of blood.

"Graaaaaaaagh!" This move did not stop Pan from charging in with a war-cry however, but Krios had had a feeling it wouldn't, and so brought the sharpest part of it down in an arc as he pulled back and Pan pushed further in with his other claw.

SWISH! SCHRRRIIIIP!

"Gaahgh!" The god of the wild screeched – thankfully not in the panic-inducing way – in pure agony, as most of his extended arm was sliced off in an instant, spraying out a furious amount of ichor from the stump.

And yet still, the god came rushing forward even then, pushing through the pain just before Krios could pull away a second time, and crashed his head directly into the Titan's face with a loud CRACK! The impact smashing some of the Titan's teeth in as well as partially breaking his jaw, as his own head whipped back then from the power behind the driving headbutt. His ichor spritzing up in a small arc, as fragments of his teeth flew out.

Pan wasn't done though, as his head shunted forward, mouth opening wide, as he chomped down on his foe's neck, his canines tearing through flesh in another spray of ichor as a sizeable chunk was torn off with a whip of the smaller god's head, like a bloodhound ripping into its meal. Just as he flung the massive chunk of flesh out of his bloody gob and went to bite in deep again, a head-dwarfing fist came crashing in to his chin, knocking him back and off his foe, while making his canines clatter together, some being broken apart by the power behind the strike.

"You… bastard…!" The Titan hissed, blood pooling out down his lips from his steadily repairing maw, as he clamped a hand down on the part of his neck that was savagely torn open like a simple piece of meat, leaving ichor spilling out from that end too, as he lashed back out at his infuriating foe. The Titan thrusting his constructed spear so hard out of his hand that it punched right through the god before him, who'd been regrouping, shooting into his chest and out through his back in one go. The shimmering spear flying off in to the distance at incomprehensible velocity with Pan's blood, bits of bone and some of his guts clinging and raining down off of it.

Pan somehow managed to stop himself from being flung back by the force, but looked worse for wear, as his wounds tried to heal as fast as they could. But there wasn't a chance in Tartarus that Krios was about to allow this cretin to do that again!

Roaring forth, another spear of stars formed in Krios' hands, which he set straight as he hurtled forth, running it right through Pan's belly, shredding apart a few ribs and organs along the way as it pierced through with a ghastly, blood-soaked SPLURTCH out of the smaller deity's back. The blow leaving Pan to gasp and hack up yet more ichor, which stained his teeth and lips.

Before Krios could do anything else, he spotted one of those irksome goats breaking away from the fighting down below – or rather, breaking through his animal construct – and leaping up in the air towards them, in order to aid its master once again. The Titan's eyes only narrowed sharply at this, not caught off-guard this time as he watched it zoom up in a green streak through the air, letting out its aggravating bleating noise that was fast becoming one of his most hated sounds, as another pattern formed in his eyes and lit up over his chest.

"You should've stayed and been taken out on the ground, you filthy animal!" What looked like a humongous spike appeared then above the high-flying goat, glittering with the stars that made up its construct, as it began to spin around rapidly before it fired down at blinding speed to put an end to Pan's sacred animal.

To its credit, it did notice the spinning spike hurtling down toward it, which would cut it off before it could reach them, but that hardly mattered, as with its attention grabbed, another spinning spike of stars formed beneath it, much too close for the creature to even attempt a dodge. Instead, noticing it too, it brought its front hooves down to block as best it could, while thrusting its horns up to meet the descending one. The sounds generated making nails on a chalkboard sound pleasant, as the creature desperately tried to fend them off.

And if it had a small moment longer, then Krios didn't doubt the foul creature likely would manage to overpower the spikes, supercharged as it was with Pan's power. Unfortunately for it, however, the Titan wasn't about to give it such a timeframe, before he finished its rat of a master off.

"Nngh!..." Speaking of, Krios heard Pan's agonized noise of exertion, as his still mending hand reached out and grabbed him by the side of his neck that wasn't still healing after a bite he'd taken out of it. And despite how it forced his impaling weapon to wetly grind down through more of his body, slicing through flesh and bone and sending yet more ichor pissing out in the process as it reached near his groin, he forced himself up enough to get his mouth near Krios' ear.

Trying to go for his infamous screech on me now, huh? Had he managed to break through the cloud of rage for a brief instant to go for it, or had this simply been on instinct? Either way, the world itself slowed down from the Titan's perspective, as despite his rather negative feelings toward the god, a part of him felt honest respect swell in for his sheer tenacity, if nothing else. He could well imagine that without Menoitios' assistance, this fight genuinely would've been far harder. Perhaps, were he fully in his right mind, the god of the wild might've even been able to fight him to a stalemate, if he'd played his cards right.

Pulling his head back whilst firmly placing a hand on Pan's shoulder to keep him in place, Krios gazed upon the anguished, but also furiously outraged features of his enemy, as he saw their mouth open wide, going for their true best weapon anyways. All that came out though, as Pan tried to use his panic-inducing screech, was a gargled cough and splutter, sending flecks and ropes of ichor out.

His lungs weren't healed enough to be able to produce that awful sound, after the first spear had gored through his chest. No matter how hard he tried in that tiny instant, his screech would not be coming out.

"It's over." Krios stated as calmly as he could, turning his constructed spear in hand, pulling it back and upwards in an arc, which produced a loud SCHLUCK sound as the starry spear tore its way up through Pan in a bloody geyser, going from near his groin to cutting right up out of his head in a single movement. The final blow almost leaving his body completely bifurcated, only his pelvic region remaining intact, as his torso and head split apart in either direction, the light fading from his eyes and his body, as his ascended state vanished into particles.

With said god's defeat, the boon that granted the goats their power disappeared as well. Their auras, as well as their enhanced sizes fading away, and leaving the creatures as little more than average goats, as they got mowed down by his animal constructs, with the one who'd made it out and near him being ripped to gruesome shreds by his two spikes right in front of him.

It didn't even have time to bleat before its top half was turned into mushy bits of flesh and bone, with its bottom half flopping out of the air, much like its master's mostly bifurcated body did, spilling what remained of its intestines and other organs out to the soil below.

In a blink, Krios' animal constructs vanished, leaving the pasted remains of the other goats behind, and him alone to watch a mighty tornado of black appear, and then blast apart. His eyes spotting multiple figures falling out of the sky by that point, as the air's movement deadened suddenly.

He paid no more mind to the two above who'd caused that, assured that his ally fighting up there would be fine. Instead, with the Titan's main objective complete, his gaze shot up to the skies, far-reaching east, where he could make out two deities clashing fiercely. One of which, in particular, whom had earned his deep-seated ire with the role they'd played in his son's fall.

Krios' scowl was mightier than ever, as he glared up at Pallas' former wife, his body already in motion toward the battle above, ignoring the new pressure and power his senses detected bursting forth as he did.

It was about damn time he got some retribution. With or without the Ophiotaurus' boon.

Around that period… Upon Olympus…

"Hgnn!" Zeus grunted with authority, as he brought his aegis up to block the Atlas-empowered nymph's swift and calamitous kick. The round, bronze shield miraculously holding up against the force, and absorbing much of the impact which would've undoubtedly splattered the young god apart and across his home's ruined courtyard had he been forced to take it with his body. The power still sent him skidding back, heels digging trenches in the dirt, with his muscly arms shaking from the intense vibrations brought upon by the impact, as the lithely-muscled blonde beauty endured the shock she received from the lightning-infused shield.

Hera pushed forward in that interim, her curvaceous body zooming forth ahead of anyone else's as Atlas' daughter whipped her head in her direction, snarling as she moved quicker, ready to pummel the foolish goddess for trying to challenge her. She'd barely even raised her arm for a punch, however, before she was struck by a wave of power that she recognised, one that briefly calmed and soothed her to the point of making her falter, even if just for the smallest of moments.

That alone was enough for Hera to strike cleanly, precisely, and viciously with an overhand that, due to her momentary weakness from Hestia's ability, actually had Kalypso's head buzz with pain, as it was smacked sideways, sending her glare thrusting toward the space Demeter drew in from. Out of sheer instinct drilled into her by her father, the nymph raised her arm up in defence to block the jumping kick her fellow blonde sent her way, bending her limb slightly as it forced her feet off the ground and sent her careening back toward where Zeus had rooted himself.

"Good teamwork, sisters!" The aforementioned god called out, his thunderbolt reappearing and then seemingly subsuming into his prepared fist. His hand turning a sparkling, electric-blue that popped audibly with the localised sound of beckoning thunder as it pulsed with cosmic levels of voltage.

Spinning herself around as she finally shrugged off Hestia's power, the domain-less nymph's breasts swayed in a manner that the silver-haired god forced himself to ignore, as she turned just in time to see Zeus wind back with a lighting-packed punch. Given her extremely heightened capabilities, she had more than enough wherewithal to wind up her own punch with a frustrated growl, harnessing the fullest extent of the boon her father had granted her.

When their fists clashed, the ground beneath them cratered, as Zeus felt his entire arm get eviscerated off his body, whilst Kalypso grit her teeth in agony as the lightning, much more potent this time, thanks to coming directly from the thunderbolt, coursed over her body with a deafening CLAP! Her insides, which hadn't even fully healed, becoming even more damaged and liquified within her, as her skin charred once more, and hair stood on end.

She endured it this time though, without losing consciousness. A feat she'd have been somewhat proud of, were it not for the fact she was left temporarily paralyzed after tanking it, thus leaving her open for Zeus' older brother, Poseidon, to dash in with trident in hand. The younger god, with all the ferocity of a typhoon, flicking his wrist and causing the weapon he held to spin at high-speed, as water swirled around it, making it look like he held a miniature, oceanic vortex in-hand, as he thrusted it into her.

"Kaaaah!" Ichor spilt and shunted violently, both from the nymph's mouth and her front, as the cyclops-crafted weapon drilled into her body, grinding flesh and bone away in a messy stew, as she was thrown back. A ghastly, swirly hole of golden-bloody flesh, mashed organs and bone fragments from her gut to her sternum, with even her breasts having been torn apart by the attack, leaving a sizeable trail of ichor gushing out in her wake, as she tumbled uncontrollably over the ground.

"Perhaps it was not a wise choice for you to do battle with all of us by yourself, Kalypso. Even with the boon granted to you by your father, we still have our ways of taking you down." Poseidon remarked, as the nymph came to a stop, surprisingly, on her knee. Though it was clear from her heavily laboured breathing and lack of immediate counter-attack that tanking two full-on blows from the Cyclopes-crafted weapons back-to-back was taking a toll on her. For even as she steadily healed her wounds, the shocks of electricity from Zeus' thunderbolt remained, pulsing around her body mockingly, whilst her nude form underwent tremors, courtesy of Poseidon's trident.

"Just so you're aware, Kalypso, the side-effects from being struck by my and Poseidon's weapons take some time to fade away. Even our eldest brother referred to them as rather troublesome. So much so, we almost beat him in a two-on-one spar between us not too long ago, even despite the power gap between us!" Zeus stated with a grin as his arm reformed, which earned him a rare chuckle from Hera.

"'Almost beat him'? More like he got frustrated enough by your weapons' side-effects that he used his own power to erase them off of him right as you charged him for the 'finishing blow', and then proceeded to punish you for thinking you'd won by… what was it again? Oh yes, by slamming the two of you all around Olympus, by the ear, until you both gave up and begged him to stop."

Zeus looked aghast, as did Poseidon. "We did not beg!" They both shouted, almost in unison. "We merely conceded, that's it!" Poseidon continued, getting an approving nod from Zeus.

"Sure, you did, brothers." Hera rolled her eyes. "And I suppose brother Hades was lying when he laughed about how both of you were practically crying by the end."

"He lies indeed!" Zeus shot back, getting a nod from Poseidon, before he said, "Poseidon was the only one tearing up that day. I was composed."

"Oh, my ass you were, little brother!" Poseidon growled comically, annoyed at being thrown under the mountain, so his younger sibling could try and save his own skin. "You were as 'composed' then, as Hera and Demeter typically are, when fighting each other just to impress Beerus!"

Demeter, despite the situation, blushed whilst Hera's face pinched into a nightmarishly outraged visage, as she whipped her around on Poseidon. "We do not fight just to impress him, you oaf! How many times must I say that!?"

"As many times as you want, because all of us know that isn't true." The younger brother sniped back fearlessly, earning him an even more outraged look from his sister, who looked about ready to stomp over and beat him to a bloody pulp for his insolence. "You're wound so tight when it comes to him, that I'm convin-whoah!" Poseidon's instincts flared, only just giving him enough time to raise his trident for the fist that made contact with it.

He was launched backward in the next instant, despite the block, the bones in his arms cracked in places, and in others outright broken, as he held in the shout of pain, while planting his feet into the ground to slow his momentum.

"You arrogant bastards think you can just ignore me for your worthless, petty squabbles?" Kalypso snarled, the boon of her father amplifying the strength of her anger at being dismissed to new heights, as she ignored effects of Zeus' and Poseidon's prior attacks. Toned body now looking fully healed outwardly, with the exception of the lightning still zipping around her body, and how sweaty it was from exerted herself so, whilst blitzing toward the skidding form of Poseidon.

He would've been paste, as she managed to reach him with a raised fist ready for his dumb, yet handsome face, when again she felt a pulse of warmth and calmness crash down on her, making her body go slack, sans the spasming of her muscles from the electricity. The tanned god eluding her as he skidded further back, but it wasn't long before she had other company, in the forms of Hera and Demeter once more, who scythed their legs into hers as they came in from behind her, at her sides. Her feet were off the ground in no time, leaving her almost parallel to the ground, if not for her legs, which swung up in the air.

A hand from each goddess was firmly planted on her face then, driving her down into the ground again by the back of her head first, forming a crater beneath them before they both pushed forward into a sprint. Kalypso grunted more in frustration than pain, as she dragged along with them, her head ploughing harshly through super-durable soil and granite enhanced by the magics of Gaea as they dug a trench with her. Her shapely, muscular legs whipping and kicking uselessly behind her, as more and more dirt shovelled into her eyes.

"Hrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaah!" The nymph's scream, which held the unfortunate consequence of getting some of said soil inside her mouth, heralded the bursting of her divinely-gifted power out from her, as she once more pushed away the effects of Hestia's ability that left her dangerously lax, before grabbing on to the lead legs of the sprinting goddesses dragging her through the dirt. A simple tug, and both let out a small, but no less satisfying yelp, as they were tripped up and off their feet, whilst Kalypso bounced back unto hers.

Not bothering to shake the soil out of her hair, the empowered nymph thrust herself in a spin, picking up enough speed quickly to make their forms blur and appear like a small twister of various colours. Despite the dizzyingly fast speeds she spun at, enough to make the two she clutched unto lose all sense of direction, the blonde beauty could still very much pick out where her other enemies were, and wasted no time in launching Demeter, then Hera, out at the recovering Poseidon and the now fully-recovered Zeus respectively.

Poseidon, not yet fully recovered, was knocked off his feet as bellowing Demeter crashed into him, sending both tumbling nearer to Olympus' edge in a heap. Zeus, meanwhile, fully-recovered fro his last clash with Kalypso, was more prepared to take Hera's full weight crashing into him at high speeds. His aegis and thunderbolt briefly vanishing as he braced himself before catching his sister in his arms. Her collision with him forcing him back, heels digging through the ground a solid number of metres before he forced them to a stop, body hunched over, legs spread and knees bent, with the gorgeous goddess' legs and back supported up in a bridal carry by his arms.

"Someone's getting a bit ahead of themselves, I see." Zeus commented cheekily, trying not to grin like an idiot, as he briefly gazed down at the indescribable beauty in his arms, whom looked up at him with faint surprise at having actually caught her, as well as a faint blush as she quickly realized the position they were in. Something the silver-haired god felt a stir for, both within and also around his loins. "Though I must say, there's something quite enrapturing about seeing you excited like this."

Hera blinked, before pitching her face into a frown. "You should save words like that for Metis, not me." She told him. Not knowing how else to respond to such a compliment or the oddness in her younger brother's tone as he spoke it, which to her, sounded rather flirtatious.

She never got to hear what Zeus' response – whatever it would've been – was, as the two's attention was snapped away from the other upon hearing a loud, SQUELCHING impactthat rang out throughout Olympus' courtyard.

"Guhurk!?" Hestia gargled in torment, blood pooling, bubbling and puking out from her mouth with hands raised and shaking as her siblings turned their eyes to her in alarm, whilst a lithely muscled arm ran through a now gaping hole in her body, which went from the centre of her gut up to her chest. The torn fabric of her bloody tunic rustling from either end as a sizeable cone of golden blood, chunks of flesh, organs and bone fragment spread out behind the eldest daughter of Kronos and Rhea. All whilst Kalypso's fisted arm appeared right out of her back in an ichor-glazed mess, carrying bits of flesh and bone that hung from bloody knuckles.

"I'm afraid I simply can't allow you to remain the kind of fixture you have in this battle any longer, with that intriguing, but irksome ability of yours." Kalypso growled, eying the goddess keeping her uncle's ability at bay.

"Guhk!..." Was all Hestia answered back with verbally, as more ichor bubbled up and puked from her mouth, whilst she stared down at the naked blonde in shock. Her blood soaking in to her tunic as it pooled out around the arm jutting through her torso. Her eyes, at the last possible second when they met Kalypso's, lighting up as she went to use an even more focused variant of her power on her.

It was an effort that the empowered nymph gave her credit for, given she'd her lungs, heart, stomach and intestines torn asunder by her blow, but the daughter of Atlas didn't allow her to do as she pleased this time. Her body already in motion, as she ripped her arm back from the younger goddess' body with a blood-soaked SPLURTCH, before she squared her shoulders and popped up with a monstrous uppercut packed full of her father's borrowed power on top of her own.

Hestia's head all but burst like a balloon in a shower of cruor, the instant her fist made contact with her chin. The now headless goddess collapsing to the ground with a wet, noisy THUD. Onethat, while the remaining Olympians didn't quite hear, seemed to carry enough weight behind it to have them openly feel it, as though it'd happened to them.

"Sister!" Demeter cried out, as if to punctuate that idea. Her eyes wide and face a mix between concern for her elder sister, and outright offence at Atlas' daughter daring to harm her in such a grotesque fashion, as she pushed herself up to a sitting position atop Poseidon, who'd ended up beneath her in their forced tumble. His trident lay clenched by his side. Their groins meeting as she straddled him in that small moment, and were it not for how either began to glare at Kalypso and her deed upon Hestia, one might've easily construed such a position as being more sexual in nature than it actually was.

The more perverted part of Poseidon wouldn't have minded if it was, either, but that side held an insignificant whisper in his conscience compared to the booming voice of outrage at Hestia's fall, with anger that seemed to multiply with the present passage of time. A feeling mirrored by Zeus and Hera too.

Kalypso took their darkening glares on the chin, as she assessed the situation as best she could. Hestia will only be down for a moment before she regenerates again and becomes a nuisance trying to battle these four. I could crush her beneath a rock or debris to halt that process, or throw her off Olympus. Neither is a permanent solution, but it would gain me more time with her out of the way to deal with her siblings. Kalypso thought to herself, while crouching and laying a hand over the stump of Hestia's head that was already trying to grow back, much like how her torso was repairing the damage she'd inflicted. Or, I could try what father taught me of, to keep an enemy down for an extended period of time through my magic. Amplified by his, her siblings shouldn't be able to disrupt it and bring her back, but given what those weapons of Zeus and Poseidon are capable of already, I wouldn't be surprised if they could bypass that…

If only those blasted weapons didn't exist. She was honestly going to leave Hestia be, given her ability wasn't that effective on her the first time, but it appeared whatever damage she'd sustained from taking Zeus' surprise lightning attack earlier had done more to her than what was merely physical. Like it'd targeted her resistance itself whilst shocking her and lowered it, somehow, allowing Hestia's ability to be more effective on her, which was exceptionally bad given she was fighting five-on-one, and made her incredibly vulnerable while holding power over her.

Not only that, but with the added shocks from Zeus after, and then Poseidon's goring of her on top of it, her movements felt sluggish and rigid now, along with this sensation of intense fatigue she could feel permeating her body, as she felt uncontrollable quivers. Not even her mind was completely spared, for she had to focus fully, so as to stop her thoughts from becoming literal static in her own head.

If she let them land anymore of those kinds of attacks on her person, she could very well end up getting incapacitated while conscious. She'd have to really pick it up a notch to stop that from happening. She wanted to make her father proud, and she couldn't do that if these younger gods beat her despite the power he'd granted her, and left her a quaking, paralyzed mess on the ground!

Either way, Hestia was going to be kept out of the equation for now. Without her, she could feel the waves of Menoitios' power traverse Olympus' peak freely. She, of course, being unaffected by them, but Hestia's brothers and sisters? She could almost see it melding into them, feeding off whatever anger or other negative emotions they had from her actions against their most beloved sister and quickly throwing them together to amplify their violent wrath and bring about rashness within them. Something that'd be quite useful to her, as she'd begrudgingly admit, allowing them the kindness of being unburdened by Menoitios' will would most likely lead to her demise before long.

Said will was apparent to her eyes, as each of their visages twisted into rage-filled masks, and to her other senses, as their auras spiked and flamed outward. Kalypso could but only throw up a nervous, but determined smile, knowing that it was now or never that she got the upper-hand again, and didn't let it go this time.

"You…bitch!" The nymph, despite herself, flinched all the same when she heard that venomous tone, full of righteous fury and condemnation. The murderous, enraged glares of the other four Olympians boring a hole through her soul. As if the mere act of hurting the eldest and causing a very much temporary termination from the battle was an unforgiveable sin.

It was Hera who had called her that, as she dropped to her feet out of Zeus' arms, the latter re-conjuring his aegis and thunderbolt in a flash. Likewise, Demeter rose to her feet, getting off and allowing Poseidon to rise as well, trident primed and with water appearing it swirl around its sharp tips menacingly.

No more procrastinating. Kalypso thought, readying herself for her four foes, as the muscles around her bare body tensed in anticipation. I wait any longer, then I give them the advantage. It's time to put my next move into motion!

Before she or the Olympians could say, think or do anything further, however, they all felt themselves be buffeted by an immense burst of air and whipping winds that suddenly hit Olympus' peak. The non-ascended gods, despite their attempts to ground themselves, felt their bodies be knocked back once more, forced to desperately clutch or stab whatever they could into the mountaintop, more than ever, in order to stop themselves from being flung off it all-together and far into the distance.

"Agh!... What!?" Unfortunately for Kalypso, rooting herself meant using both hands, and thus, Hestia's headless body, which now had its torso wound healed, was pulled away by the intense, chaotic air-current, tumbling and flapping away at incredible speed. The limp body in no less than a blink sent hurtling off the edge of Olympus opposite from the blonde who'd sought to keep her out of commission, flying well off into the distance and out of sight, for the time being.

As soon as she did, the torrential winds ended, and indeed, from Kalypso's perspective, it seemed the movement of the wind altogether, leaving the sounds of battles above them to become more muted.

No time to think about whatever that was… The Nymph thought, shaking herself from her stupor. Hestia's fate had been taken out of her hands, and the goddess sent off the mountain, but she'd surely be back soon, upon regeneration. I'll have to take down the other four quick before she-

The ominous crack of thunder echoed loud upon Olympus, cutting the Nymph's thoughts off completely, and forcing her to turn to Zeus, who now stood alone. His sister Hera having been blown away from him and further down the ruined courtyard's stretch, inching close to the other side with her hands dug into the ground, where Poseidon had dug in his trident right by the edge, with Demeter having elected to use both her brother and the trident to halt her unwanted flight off the mountain. A sight that Kalypso chanced out of her peripheral just to keep track of their locations.

Zeus' eyes were glowing and flickering with sparks of electricity, as the thunderbolt in his hand flared to life more than ever before, sparkling with untold power, as it melded into Zeus' fist again. Its electric discharge rapidly coursing throughout his whole body then, as to Kalypso's surprise his body began to morph. To change right before her eyes, as he started to release a much higher level of pressure, and his power soared skyward!

"N-No way… Is he…!?" Eyes wide like dinner plates, Kalypso shot into action with urgency, a terrified look on her face as she crossed the distance in an instance, pushing her exhausted body to the limit, looking to disrupt him before he could complete what he was doing to himself. Her fist readying and then thrusting forward toward his face, whilst it still resembled most of its usual visage, looking like she'd make it in time to stop him!

And then, Zeus' hand, turned a deep, glowing shade of brilliant blue and sparking with flicks of electricity that danced across the whole of it, zipped up in a flash, moving at a speed that the nymph, even with her enhancement, could scarcely perceive, and caught her punch, stopping her cold.

"W-What…?" Kalypso stared in awe, as she got a look at what Zeus looked like now, with his other hand and legs up to his knees looking identical to the hand that'd stopped her punch. His sclera now a pure shade of static blue, firing off sparks of electric discharge as his long, silver hair rose up above his head, lines of thin lightning criss-crossing around the various strands. The top part of his tunic having disintegrated, leaving only the lower section that stuck to him like glue, exposing his shredded abs and hard pecs, both of which appeared to have crackling patterns of lightning bolts etched into and running along them, glowing a darker shade of the colour his hands and feet did.

No. On closer inspection, they reached all around his body, trekking up along his handsome face, around his neck, and along the rest of his limbs before reaching the parts fully lit up, and she didn't doubt they reached all over his back as well.

This wasn't a True Divine Form. She could tell that right away, given the pressure he exuded wasn't nearly as strong as those who were, but it still far eclipsed what he'd been giving off prior. His raw power now, she could sense, was definitely far higher as well, enough to seemingly easily stop a full-force punch from her, which would've pasted him before. The state he was in now, it was like an in-between for his base state and ascended state, which was something Kalypso hadn't even been aware was possible. And that only brought up a myriad of questions in the Nymph's mind about this transformation of his.

"You seem confused." Zeus remarked, his angered tone slightly distorted, similar to one who'd fully ascended, but not quite the same, as lightning licked off his face. "Weren't expecting this now, were you?"

Snapping out of her reverie, Kalypso squashed the fear now crawling through her stomach as he glared down at her, and made to swing her leg up in a roundhouse to stun him and create some space.

The sudden expulsion of unparalleled voltage from the hand clenching hers halted her curvy leg before it was even halfway up, as she suddenly being electrocuted from head-to-toe, zapping a screech of agony out of her and paralysing her where she stood, even as the worst of the shock abated. Huge flickers of electricity prancing around her body as steam emanated from it, the rigidness and tiredness even worse than before, as her eyes swam, struggling to focus as hot ihcor drooled out of her mouth.

"I had not intended to unveil this until later, once the Ophiotaurus' boon was granted, so that I wouldn't have to worry about its drawbacks. It's no wonder my elder brother didn't last long in his True Divine Form before, when he forced it using his symbol of power. The strain on this pseudo-Divine Form alone is rather intense."

Ps-Pseudo-Divine Form…? Kalypso didn't know what to think of that, even as she struggled to keep track of most thoughts in her head, with all the static that was now invading her mind. So bad was it, in fact, that she didn't even register the first part of his sentence about the Ophiotaurus. All she caught was that one tidbit at the end.

"Seeing as you've decided to be so troublesome, however, and have dared to disgrace my dearest sister Hestia with such barbarism, this rage you have filled me with will not allow me to refrain from its use any longer, despite the timer I've put myself on now." The youngest Olympian said, voice filled with as much conviction as it was calamitous wrath, as he raised his other hand and balled it into a fist which shone and twinkled with a terrifying amount of lightning energy. "Suppose I'll just have to put faith in my brother Hades to get the job done soon with that boon-granting, whilst I deal with you!"

The fist that smashed into Kalypso's face then was nearly too fast to perceive, sparking and blasting her with lightning that seared through her skin. The goddess screamed as she felt her eyes burst from the discharge, her jaw caving in as her brain felt like it was being fried to a crisp, and she was sent hurtling back faster than the speed of light.

"Your side will fall today, Nymph! And rest assured, for your transgressions, I will personally punish you here and now!" Zeus roared behind her, leaving his fellow angered siblings to watch from the side-lines momentarily, as he gave chase to her shooting form, converting his own body into pure, heavenly lightning that zapped toward her with extreme prejudice, right as a familiar pressure permeated far away from Olympus.

Meanwhile… Far off from Olympus… Around the region of Aeolia…

"Gaaaaaaah!" Epimetheus cried out with an tormented gurgle, as a hole was punched through his chest, caving in his heart as a glowing, energy-coated fist punctured out of his back with a blood-spattered drizzle.

"Brother!" Prometheus shouted in alarm from his spot, kneeling on the ground after avoiding a particularly harrowing blow of his own and being forced to retreat, whilst his brother had attempted to cover for him and land a substantial blow on their old man.

"Nngh…" Blood pooled out from Iapetus lips, as well as his gut, as he felt his son's fist penetrate deep into his guts at the same time he'd caved through his spawn's chest and back. His expression appearing nothing like the stalwart and stoic Titan he'd always been. Not even his prior dispassion reigned over him. Instead, he appeared like a haggard old man who'd been put through the wringer. One who openly cringed and showed genuine distress for what he had to do, despite whatever faulty attempt he made to conceal it, for what he wasdoing to one of his sons.

Stubbornness certainly was one of the few traits he and all his children shared. As expected, neither of his sons had been wanting to go down easy, despite his swift attempt to end it early and thus not prolong both their suffering, and his own, for having to be the one who put them down like this. The land itself being a testament to this, for it was perforated with countless craters and littered with piles of broken debris from all the fighting. Plenty of which came from him having smashed one or both of his sons into his mother's plane, but arguably just many from them doing the same to him. Any and all wildlife, vegetation and trees of forests that'd once stood, housing nymphs inside them had been wrecked and destroyed in the struggle, no doubt killing them alongside their physical domains and leaving their souls to vanish forever.

When this was all over with, Prometheus knew he'd have to apologise to Pan for allowing such to happen.

"My son…" Both Epimetheus and Prometheus heard the emotion pushing through their father's tone, as the energy around his fist quickly covered his arm, then pulsed out over the wounded body of the Titan god of afterthought, making his already dulled radiance of his True Divine Form deteriorate rapidly until it was almost completely greyed out and devoid of colour. The younger Titan's other hand, which wasn't buried in his father's gut, clinging on to the nape of his neck as he felt his strength ebb away. "I really do wish it hadn't had to come to this… Much as I portray the appearance, I'm afraid deep down, this old fool doesn't quite have the kind of coldness or callousness which a few of my other siblings possess… Not when it comes to my own children, anyway…"

With that said, Iapetus made a pained visage, as his free hand reached around his son's head, grasping his jaw tight, before wrenching it and his head away in a sudden, violent twist that had the SNAP of his neck echo out. The noise earning a rough wince from both the father and remaining son, as Epimetheus fell limp in his grip. His dulled grey tone fading away in place of a deathly pale body that hung from his own father's arm, as his ichor, which had also begun to lose its colour, ran to the ground out of his front and back in a morbid display.

The energy covering his arm fading, along with his aura as well, Iapetus took care in gently laying his son's defeated body on the ground, whilst removing his arm from his chest, and forcefully pushing his domain's hold away from him. The act allowing some colour to return to the otherwise chalk-white body of his boy, as his healing factor kickstarted up, steadily regenerating the damage done to him and sealing up the grim wound he'd been dealt before the end.

Prometheus expected his father to rush at him then, and with his burning rage and lust for violence that he'd never felt before, but felt oh so natural now, his eyes burned with light, as he peered into the future, seeking what his parent's next move would be. Which was why his eyes widened in confusion, when he foresaw no such attack coming, despite his dad's previous promises.

"Might I ask of you to concede, Prometheus?"

The Titan god of forethought glared at his father, as he heard those words. Whatever anger was there, and there was much of it, along with a heaping thirst for violence, the younger deity found himself containing it, as he really looked upon his father. The weariness in his eyes, the slackening of his posture, as he rose to his feet, desolation dominating his features and, were his father of the sort, Prometheus didn't doubt there would've been tears falling from his eyes, with the way his shining skin creased around them.

There was no form of mocking or condescension in his father's words. There was but only a plea, something his father had never done before. His normally unflappable parent was showing a side to him that was unknown to Prometheus. One of grief. One of a Titan who'd much rather be anywhere than here, doing what he was, and was but only where he was out of duty.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, father. But you already knew that. You said as much yourself, earlier." Prometheus replied, suppressing the excessively harsh growl that felt all too natural to him, at the moment, as well as the desire to leap forth and try to ravage the older Titan where he stood.

"Hmm. I did, didn't I?" The Titan sighed tiredly, forgoing in sense of pride in maintaining the illusion of stoic strength. He couldn't be bothered at this point. Not when so much of his son's blood was staining his hand. "By my mother's comforting breast, I didn't think it'd be this hard putting duty first. I spoke such words with as much conviction as I could, and yet despite how I had resigned myself to it, and tried to close my heart as I have before, for the sake of this venture, I cannot hold in my repulsion anymore."

Iapetus made no move to attack, and so, wrestling to control his wrath as best he could, Prometheus made no move to either, even if the urge to by this point was unbearably harsh on him. He but only kept his defensive stance, even if he knew due to future-sight it would not be required.

"Repulsion for what, exactly?" The younger Titan found himself asking in a much snarkier tone then he'd intended, but pressing on regardless, while keeping his eyes locked on his father for any hostile movements. "Our defiance in not doing as you'd have wanted, or-"

"For myself." Iapetus' words cut right through Prometheus's snark and even his magically-induced anger for a moment, leaving him showing genuine surprise over his features.

"Here I am, forcing myself to do my duty in taking you both down, all the while trying to convince myself that I can convince my younger brother to spare you from the fate that awaits his own children. No wonder Klymene has chosen to avoid me since the first time you, your brother and I crossed paths in opposite sides of this war, preferring to refuge herself in the house of my eldest brother Oceanus."

Prometheus blinked at the mention of his mother, whom he also had not seen since his leaving of Othrys. The fact that she'd not picked a side, and had instead chosen to abstain from the entire situation by leaving for her father's domain not taking him by surprise though. She'd always despised it whenever he and his brothers or father didn't get along, after all.

"Last I spoke to her she was daring enough in the moment to call me an idiot for allowing such a divide as this to occur between us. Neither of your other brothers were there to witness such a confrontation… and I have kept it from them, so that their concerns, more so Atlas' than Menoitios', would be solely on winning the war, but I will tell you now, I have never seen her that upset before. And for good reason, I suppose." Iapetus turned his head to glance down at Epimetheus' now healed, but unmoving body, which would not wake for an hour at a minimum.

Assuming he wasn't put to the scythe. The elder Titan grit his teeth, while clenching his fists in frustration. "Who am I fooling, other than myself, talking about doing what I can to grant you both clemency. I have seen my brother's ruthlessness on full display before, and know he will take no chances of something like this ever occurring in the future. And to that end, it matters not what I say to him. He won't just put his own children to the scythe, but you two as well, and anyone else he deems as strong enough from this rebellion to be troublesome in the future. And I'm allowing it to happen… Aiding in his execution of my sons, and reducing them to weak shades at best, devoid of physical form and ability to interact with anything. And at worst, that which is no more entirely…"

Haa… Damn, I'd always thought he'd be able to toss us aside without too much bother, if the situation became horrid enough, but I guess I misjudged him. Prometheus thought to himself, battling down the wrath threatening still, for some reason, to engulf him and make him lash out with reckless abandon. His face pitching, with difficulty, into one of sympathy, which as far back as he could remember, he'd never felt for his father. It really does appear that this is weighing heavily on him…

It didn't just show on his face, or how his body sagged, though. It also showed in the fact that his gaping gut wound was still present. It hadn't even healed slightly, instead, oozing his father's ichor out of continuously and unobstructed. An impossibility unless his father had willingly enforced his domain's power upon himself, and ensured that the wound remained, perhaps as a way of punishing himself for allowing things to come this far.

"If you feel this strongly, then why don't you concede instead, father?" The younger Titan asked, trying not to sound too aggressive when he said it, as his father looked back to him. "Kronos may be of the ill sort to do something like that, but from my experience, his son, Beerus, isn't so cut-throat. The only Titan he truly desires gone, is his own father. The rest of you are despised because you choose to align yourselves with him. If you switched sides, I'm sure he'd be actually willing to grant you and anyone else who defects, clemency."

"Heh. So long as we grovelled by his feet, anyway." Iapetus shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, son. Really, I do, but I'm afraid my pride will not allow me to lower myself before him and beg for mercy. He as much as told us he'd make us all do that when first he met with us, upon bursting forth from his father's stomach, just before he fled from Othrys. I'd rather not prove such a disrespectful sort right by bringing his declaration into reality. Even leaving that aside though, joining you would only mean my own doom, for-"

"Your side is destined to win?" Prometheus scoffed and, unaware of just how rash his next words were, he said, "If you honestly think the Ophiotaurus will help you, you're going to be sorely mistaken."

Iapetus' eyes widened in shock. "W-What!? H-How do you…?"

"We've known about it since the very same day Kronos enacted it as his final solution. Your father, the primordial heavens Ouranos, revealed it all to us, in his desire to see Kronos burn." Prometheus unveiled, dropping the proverbial and literal grandfather of all bombshells atop his father's head with a voice more raised and aggravated then was necessary.

"Father… did that?" Iapetus stood stock still, as he processed that information in stunned silence. Once he did, something clicked, and he gazed upon his son with a look of dawning realization. "But… wouldn't that mean…"

Prometheus confirmed where his thoughts had headed. "As we speak, right now, our god that we sent to intercept Aegaeon is no doubt dealing with him at this very moment, securing the Ophiotaurus for us. And once he does, this war's outcome truly does become a foregone conclusion, much like how my future sight predicted it would be."

For repulsed and distraught Iapetus, the world almost seemed to deaden around him for a moment, as an explosion of force went off in the sky at that exact moment, before the very air itself ceased its motion, and the sounds of raging battles above became muted to his ears. Almost as if to herald the new power he vaguely detected pulsing outward, far away from where he stood.

Around that time… High in the heavens…

Large and mighty shockwaves rang out throughout the sky, creating distortions in the very colour of the heavenly plane itself, from the various battles of dozens upon dozens of deities. Amongst them, surpassing the power generated from all the minor gods, and contributing more to the heavenly warps with the greater clashes of power, was the bout between two gods – two Titans – in particular.

Or perhaps, it'd be far more accurate to say, one Titan's ferocious struggle against the other, who had yet to appear truly bothered throughout their contest.

Damnit… This is well beyond what I'd expected facing him in his True Divine Form would be like!... The Titan goddess of divine law and order thought to herself, as she barely avoided a harrowingly fast and powerful punch from Atlas that, had it landed, likely would've crushed her skull, before she swung her sword up in an arc in retaliation. Her blade, imbued with her godly aura, sliced through his marble-looking, radiant skin from his hip up to his upper right abdominal in a shallow cut that barely drew blood at all, before she darted back to create distance, as he made to grab her, missing by a hair.

By the time she'd reached her full distance back, the shallow cut was already gone, as was the blood, making it seem like she hadn't even slightly wounded him in the first place. The thought and sight of her latest failure made the anger that boiled within her since their altercation in the skies had begun rise yet again, as she growled out in naked frustration, before the massive Titan came barrelling forth toward her again. The Titaness being forced into taking a defensive stance that she was seriously beginning to hate being in, as his mountainous form was upon her in an instant.

Hot, heavenly sweat poured out of her shimmering form, as Themis desperately and narrowly avoided the storm of punches launched toward her head and torso with blindingly quick speeds that she almost couldn't keep up with. Her body becoming a blur of afterimages, as she ducked, swayed, reclined and weaved away with everything she had, coming terribly close to be caught anyway on multiple occasions as her sweaty skin felt the skin of his knuckles graze past her forehead, chest and gut and hips. Some coming even closer, forcing her to use the flat of her blade to deflect them away, which made her bones rattle each time she had to.

He was even faster now than when they'd started, she realised, as she tried to spot an opening where she could make her own attack back, and hopefully break the flow he was on with his. No matter how hard she focused though, holding back the tides of her ascending rage as best she could to stop herself from becoming too reckless, no such opening that she wished for seemed to be forthcoming. And as more and more of his rapid-fire punches seemed to be grazing off of her body, or being only just deflected by her sword, resulting in her arms quaking more and more from the collisions, one obvious fact became crystal clear. That being that if she didn't make something happen, her being struck would be an inevitability.

Huffing and puffing from the exertion of keeping up with and stopping herself from being swiftly steam-rolled by the larger Titan, she gritted her teeth harshly and focused on the her domain of divine law and order whilst evading and deflecting. In her haste, she pulled on its area of influence, and not for the first time during this fight with the Titan general, and enforced her will through it to try and gain the effect she desired on her relentless foe. Her eyes shining brightly in the process.

Atlas soon narrowed his eyes in response, as he felt what seemed like the world itself attempting to push him down and out of the sky. A force that could be described as being like no other, where it was less a physical presence actively trying to pull him from the air, and more an invisible, meta-physical one flipping a metaphorical switch off on his very ability to fly itself. He felt the sensation all the same though, not through his physical body, but through every fibre of his very soul itself.

With a monstrous roar though, the very depths of his soul came alight, showing in how his marble-looking body glowed brighter, as he halted his attacks for but the smallest fraction of a second. His aura flaring high, as his very will latched unto the intruding force attempting to take away his flight, and forced it away, keeping the metaphorical 'switch' turned on, as something unseeable, and practically intangible shattered around his bulky body into innumerable pieces.

That infinitesimally small moment was enough for Themis to let out an enraged roar of her own, as her blade swung full force, biting into his exposed neck whilst he was unguarded. In a perfect world, which Themis wished she lived in, that would've been where she lopped off Atlas's head and ended the battle as the victor. She was given a stark reminder that she lived in no such world, however, when her blade only cut past his skin, drawing a thin line over his muscly neck that sent a small spritz of ichor out with her blade finishing its arc, and little more.

"This is getting rather tiresome, Themis." Atlas grunted, the cut on his neck disappearing as quickly as it'd been made, once her blade swung away. "That makes it, what, the fifth time now during our skirmish, where you've attempted, and failed to utilise your main domain against me in any truly meaningful way? I would've thought you'd have recognised the futility of it by now."

Themis growled at the reminder. Already tired herself from hearing her ex-lover's voice, she swung her sword again, enchanted by her domain to be able to cut through anything, and went straight for the jugular a second time.

Despite her domain giving it such a boost, however, Atlas showed why he was considered to be Kronos' right-hand deity, as he brought his enormous hand up and closed it around the sharp, swinging metal before it could reach his neck again. His closed fist halting its momentum completely and keeping it lodged in place, only cutting through the skin of his palm and fingers, as it drew out some of his ichor which poured out from between his knuckles. Atlas' will and resistance being on a level too high in his ascended state for even her buffed blade to slash through.

"Leaving aside you bolstering this sword's cutting power, you've attempted to enforce laws upon me that made my body brittle, that stopped me from attacking, then defending, then making the accuracy of my attacks non-existent, and now, finally, you've tried to strip me of my ability to fly." Atlas recounted, not sounded the least bit perturbed, as he felt the Titaness try, and fail, to dislodge her blade from his grip by force. Only succeeding in drawing out a bit more blood from her nudges, which in the grand scheme of things, accomplished nothing of substance. "And yet here I float in the heavens, unbothered by the laws you've tried to enact so far. You're stubborn, I'll grant you that, much like myself, however, the difference is that it's getting you nowhere."

"I refuse to accept that!" She cried out in rage, letting go of her sword and flying back before calling on it, causing it to fade away from Atlas' hand and return to hers with traces of his ichor dripping from it. Once her grasp was firm, she didn't allow Atlas to be the aggressor this time, as she burst forth with a powerful THOOM echoing behind her, sword raised and poised for assault.

Atlas merely sighed, his face remaining stoic, as she came upon him, and he saw her eyes glow brightly again. That same feeling he'd felt several times before rearing back with a vengeance, this time trying to force him to be incapable of movement. The Titan general broke its hold over him even faster than he had previously, a recurring theme since she'd started using her ability on him, right as her sword swung down, cutting in from the top of his chest all the way down to his crotch, sending a small spray of golden fluid out before the wound vanished.

Just as he wound up and threw a punch for a counterblow, Themis' eyes flashed again just in the nick of time, making it so that he could not physically touch her, and thus, his fist sailed through her skull like she was a mirage, before he broke her magic's hold yet again. Luckily for her, that was right around the time she moved her head enough to avoid part of his beefy arm stuck in her skull, the brief moment allowing her time to swing her curvy leg up and slam it into his abdomen, which he barely even felt, and follow it up with another sword slash to his eyes this time.

The Titan general didn't so much as wince when it carved just deep enough through them and his face to render him blind for a brief moment as blood flew off him, nor did he even grunt in pain when she slashed into his torso seven times in quick succession, marking a jagged pattern over his front that thinly sprayed and spilt his ichor. By the time she went to finish her little combo, which involved thrusting forth in an attempt to stab him through his chest, his eyes were already healed, but even without them he'd seen the final attack coming.

Instead of stopping or dodging the blow, Atlas did what anyone else would've considered baffling, when he stood still in the air, and allowed the tip of Themis' blade to bite into him. The Titaness shunting forward with all her might, driven forward by both her own will and the rage and thirst for violence imposed on her. A harsh SQUELCH ringing out as this time, her weapon pierced in deep, running right through his heart and, as the hilt crashed against his chest, the sharp metal, stained and drizzling with his golden essence, burst through his back, jutting out a solid foot from the muscular surface.

This wasn't the first time he'd been run through like this, but rather the second. The first had come shortly after she'd bared her domain down on him the first time, and he hadn't quite been sure what was going on, until her sword punched through his gut and right out his back, as opposed to simply bouncing off his body, as it'd been doing up to that point. He'd been quick to grab her by the wrists as soon as it'd happened, and kept her locked in place so that no more damage upon him could be attempted, whilst he removed her domain's influence over him and then sent her into retreat.

Even though his heart was pierced, and he was skewered on her blade, like the first time, the pain he felt from it was minimal. It no doubt would've hurt a lot more were he in his standard form, but in his ascended state, where he was as perfectly fused with his domains as possible, his hold over the concept of endurance shined through. Said domain making what should've been even the most grievous of wounds and the incredible, near-debilitating agony that should've come with them feel like little more than a minor inconvenience.

"Refuse to accept it all you want, Themis. Denial will do nothing for you here." The Titan general said, almost sounding bored, as his hand trapped both hers and her sword's hilt within his grasp again, stopping them from any further movement while he wrapped a mountainously-muscled arm around her waist. Both actions in conjunction instantly getting the Titaness to squirm and flail her legs at his own in outraged and panicked protest.

"Damnit! Let. Me. Go!" She cried, eyes lighting up as she brought her domain to the fore again.

Narrowing his own glowing eyes, Atlas shattered her domain's hold on him so fast this time that even he had trouble ascertaining exactly what effect it was going to have on him. "As I made clear before, it's no use, Themis. The only thing you're accomplishing by spamming your domain against me, is getting me more used to it, which ends up with me breaking its hold faster."

"Grrraaaagh!" She screamed in frustration, even more rage peeling through her features in an ugly snarl, as her eyes lit up again, power radiating strongly through her every pore.

Atlas, initially, found himself being a little confused this time when he didn't feel anything trying to enforce its will upon him. He quickly found out why, however, when he noticed that the very clouds themselves had appeared above him, swirling darkly and ominously, before rapidly forming together with the boom of thunder and the peel of blood-red lightning. In the blink of an eye, it then began to spiral down toward them, forming into a near pitch-black, massive vortex that appeared to carry the heavenly stars themselves within it, blinking and glimmering within its dark, whirling body, which was so big it eclipsed even Olympus in size by orders of magnitude. The supernatural, abyss-like winds and lightning that carried with it rending and tearing space itself as it hurtled downward, the spiralling, drill-like bottom primed right for his head.

"Not bad." Atlas complimented, looking as unbothered about what she'd forced into existence with her domain as he was about her sword piercing him through the chest, as the vortex of doomed bared down on him. His tone turning dead serious and unyieldingly cold, as his eyes met her wild, frantic gaze with a level of calmness that sent a stab of fear through even the thick haze of rage and thirst for violence from Menoitios that was consuming her. "But not good enough."

KA-THOOOOM!

The impact was unimaginably fierce, and the forceful shockwaves that escaped from it were even more so. The sharp, whirling, red-lightning tipped bottom of the vortex sending massive sparks and jets of absurdly strong winds out in every direction as it crashed and grinded against Atlas' cranium at first, before consuming the nape of his neck as well as it travelled down, skidding and scraping down every muscle with a deafeningly horrid SKREEEEEE!

The power behind the dark tornado was as unbelievable as it was unrelenting, packing such world-shredding force behind it that had its target been any other Titan, even Kronos himself, none would've dared to directly tank it in such a brazen fashion. Not unless they wanted to take considerable damage in one of the closest things to a suicidal act that beings like them, whom death was a non-existent concept for, could get to.

For the Titan god of strength and endurance, however, whilst the domain-led attack was more painful than the sword stabbed through him, the only visible sign to show he was even affected by the vortex at all, was the way his head had been forced to tilt downward, along with the slight creasing of his temple.

"You must've forced several laws into existence at once, in order to produce something like this." Atlas commented, his expression even, as he addressed what she'd done. His voice somehow carrying easily over the whips and screeches of the wind. "More than that, you must've delved quite deep in order to force the Anemoi brothers into partially becoming one with this abominable vortex you've summoned. I can practically hear those bastards screaming in protest right now, being tugged along to your whims like this."

Atlas' marble-like body tensed then, his form beginning to glow brighter as every muscle throughout his body, inside and out, worked as one, tensing and bulging in unison as the Titan's eyes flared twice as bright as Themis' had. Each word that escaped his lips next coming dripped with unfathomable power as he glared down at his former lover.

"And all of it for naught in the end! Hrrraaaaagh!" A bestial roar erupted from the towering Titan, as his celestial strength boomed out of his body with a shockwave so grand, the world itself felt like it warped foran instant, ripped off-balance as if on command by the musclebound deity in a way that felt disorienting for Themis, despite being in her ascended state. The pulse of power utterly decimating the vortex that'd been crushing down on Atlas, and reducing it to nothingness in the blink of an eye.

All that remained, were shredded and torn open pockets of space all around the two Titans where the vortex had come down, as well as the limp bodies of eight nude, lithely muscled, winged male gods that had not been present before – at least not in such a physical sense – dropping down past them and out of the sky. Said place having went painfully quiet, as the wind itself ceased moving. The distant sounds of intense battle around them becoming much less hearable, due to the air's absence of movement.

"Boreas, Kaikias, Apeliotes, Zephyrus, Notus, Lips, Skiron and Eurus." Atlas started, calling the falling gods all by name. His voice reaching Themis with perfect clarity only due to their close proximity. "You may not have managed to do anything of note against me, but in having me rid the world of your attack, it appears to have had a backlash effect and knocked the eight brother gods of the wind unconscious, for the moment. Impressive, even if ultimately pointless, on your part."

A less than pleased sigh then broke past Atlas' lips, as Themis re-engaged her struggle to free herself from his grasp. One which, given how overly emotional and one-track-minded she was becoming thanks to his younger brother's influence, was rather pitiful, in a way. Her snarling visage glaring up at him, whilst his stern features lost most of their coldness, becoming softer as a result.

"I did try, you know." He suddenly said, voice tinged with a bit of regret, which despite the rage enveloping her being, managed to catch Themis' confused attention as to what he was referring to, which he was quick to elaborate on. "Before I am forced to end this, I just thought you should know, that I didn't just ignore your request, when you asked of me to convince Lord Kronos to allow you your rightful standing. After we slept together, I really did try to convince him to give you it. No matter what I said though, he didn't want to hear it."

"You fucking liar!" Themis hissed back wrathfully, but rather than get upset or annoyed, Atlas just shook his head, and to her surprise, appeared genuinely apologetic in that moment.

"I am not lying." He forced back with such absoluteness in his tone, that even as enraged as she was, the trapped Titaness faltered slightly. "I am many things, Themis, but someone who breaks a promise made intentionally is not one of them. I know you probably won't believe it still, but I hounded him for months trying to convince him to do it, but that only aggravated him more, until he soon gave me an ultimatum, that if I continued annoying him, not only would he not give you your station, he would also strip me of mine."

"What?" The Titaness' anger peeled away momentarily, face contorting into a stunned expression, unable to quite believe what she'd just heard, spouted so earnestly from the mouth of the Titan she'd resented.

"Out of my own selfishness, it should be obvious which route I took, after that." He smiled somewhat bitterly, his hold over her back slacking enough to where she could escape his grasp, if she was fast enough. "I tried and failed to keep my end of the bargain, and out of my own shame at such a failure, I did not go to you to inform you of it when I should've, which no doubt led you to believe that all I did was manipulate you for a sexual favour, and for that, however little it may mean to you, I am genuinely sorry for that." He stressed, and Themis could feel the sincerity overflowing from his tone, as he did.

To her greater surprise then, rather than try to finish her off immediately, like his earlier words would imply, Atlas removed his enormous, muscly arm from around her, before placing a hand on her shoulder, and pushing her back and away from him. Her blade SCHLICKING out of his chest with a bloody spurt as he let go of her wrists and hilt, leaving her to stumble a bit in the air, as she now floated just out of his immediate reach, with the wound made by her blade closing up completely. His torso, which had already healed from her previous cuts, now looking untouched aside from the splotches of his own ichor that stuck to his front and back.

"I was much too blinded by your betrayal to really pay attention and recognise why you would've left us. After thinking on it for some time though, in hindsight, it is rather clear why you did, and threw your lot in with Lord Kronos' children. Even still…" He said, while planting his handson his hips, staring her down unflinchingly. "A part of me wants to offer you one last chance to return to our side, so that I may make it up to you for that blunder of mine, but since I know you won't take that offer, I'll make it up to you another way for such cowardice on my part, by sharing with you some information on what's going on."

"Information?" Themis managed to control her flooding rage and violent urges, as she processed his words. Was he about to reveal their bid for the Ophiotaurus to her, not knowing that she already knew?

"It won't mean much, given what's soon to happen, but I'll let you know anyway, seeing as it's the least I can do." He continued, gaze turning toward where he could feel his brother battling.

With his eyes no longer on her, Themis found herself in motion before she knew it. His instincts spurring her to rash action before what remained of her rationality could stop her, as she closed the gap Atlas had made between them. Her face contorting back into a furious visage as she gave a fierce swing of her blade downward, aiming to cut through his head.

"Kuh!" Themis gasped violently, launching a huge, splitting glob of ichor from her maw, as her foe caught her latest sword swing with but two of his heavily muscled fingers. His digits only letting out a small trail of ichor before the hulking beast of a Titan drove his massive fist into her gut in retaliation. A deafening, wet, meaty THWACK following from the collision, as his knuckles, so big and strong, punched through her dazzlingly glowing form like she were made out of wet tissue paper. The Titaness feeling every one of her ribs snap and break from the powerful shunt through the front of her torso, as various organs were ripped apart, or outright pulverised from but one single blow.

It was only then, that Atlas gaze snapped back to her, his expression one of disappointment, but not surprise, at her rash action, as he dropped a bombshell on her. "Themis. All this boiling rage that you're feeling now, along with the building thirst for violence, which drives you toward increasingly more rash and predictable actions like what you just did? None of it is naturally your own. It's an effect brought on by my brother Menoitios' presence, and his domains gaining a stranglehold over you and your allies, without any of you ever realising."

Themis' eyes widened at that, the revelation stunning her briefly out of her rage again, leaving only the searing agony of having her ex-lover's fist ploughed through her abdomen, which began to ooze some ichor that dripped down the closest part of his arm that wasn't penetrating her body. Her gurgles of pain from her blood-oozing mouth being the only sounds she made, as his information rapidly disseminated over her strained mental faculties.

Once it'd digested, however, and undeniably driven by Atlas' brother's influence pushing her toward rasher actions, Themis' eyes shined brightly. Her sword vanishing away from Atlas' two-finger grip in that instant, before appearing again in her open hand that fell more to her side. The blade having an odd glow to it this time, as her senses jumped into overdrive, feeling out everything around her and locking on to the spot Atlas had been looking toward before she'd tried to foolishly attack him.

Without hesitation then, and whilst she still held strength and a sliver of rationality, her eyes shined bright one final time, before she thrusted the sword out of her hand at such high velocity that, even to Atlas' eyes, the glimmering sword seemed to blur as it shot down diagonally.

Instead of trying anything to stop her blade, Atlas simply chuckled in an almost fond manner. "There were a multitude of things you could've done or tried at this juncture, but given what I just told you, coupled with your highly precarious position, and my brother's continued hold over you, I suppose it isn't surprising that that was what you chose. Even with a part of you recognising, I'm sure, that it'd be your last."

Letting out a shaky breath, both from pain, and from scarcely controlling her manipulated anger, the Titaness of divine law and order stared Atlas dead in the eye with absolute conviction. Her will remaining as strong and defiant as ever, even as she felt her strength beginning to ebb away, due to her body being unable to properly heal itself from her grievous wound, with Atlas fist and part of his forearm still jammed inside of her. "We'll… win." She managed to choke out, as she placed a now shaking hand upon Atlas cheek. "My loss… to you… will be avenged, Atlas… T-That I… Promise…"

"We shall see." Atlas responded cooly, holding no belief in such a claim with what he knew was coming, as he placed his free hand atop her head. The massive appendage big enough to have his palm alone cover the entire top portion of her cranium and then some, whilst his digits fell down near the nape of her neck, as well as her ears for his thumb and little finger.

The audible SNAP that rang out then, was heard only by him, but carried more weight behind it than anything else he'd done in this battle, as he forcefully twisted her head to face the opposite way, breaking both the Titan goddess' neck and her hold on consciousness. The glow of her True Divine Form left her in an instant after that, as she completely sagged in his grasp, before he simply let go, and let her mangled body slide off his puncturing fist. Her mashed guts and ichor spilling out from her temporarily gaping abdominal hole as she dropped out of the sky, plummeting to the ground far below in gruesome defeat.

Atlas did not watch such a thing though, as his attention was pulled to where the sword had been thrown, and the massive pulse of power that arose from there. His eyes narrowing at how it accompanied a presence he knew all too well.

Around that time… In another location within the sky…

He may be an angry brute, but I'll give him this. Quite like those Saiyans, he's got some real tenacity to him. Beerus thought to himself, as his process of ascension neared completion. His whole body now almost entirely obscured by a dark-purpleshroud, as he watched Menoitios and the three remaining children of Styx do battle.

Well, 'battle' was a stretch. The only two really attacking him, and getting sent packing for it constantly, in the tiniest of glimpses he could make out of their high-speed scuffle, were Bia and Zelus. Kratos never threw anything at the enraged Titan, knowing well, thanks to Beerus' destructive aura erasing all hold Menoitios' power held over him, that any attack would be pointless. The berserker – for that was an apt word to describe the Titan god of rash action and violent rage, as far as the destroyer was concerned – was simply too strong at this point for any of them to even tickle, much less harm. And so, he retreated, fled and evaded everything instead.

Whilst Beerus could only catch the tiniest of spots in the confrontation, he was able to hear some of the taunts Kratos chucked at hyper-angry Titan to keep his wrathful attention firmly focused on him and chasing him down. And the god of destruction had to admit, for what Styx' bald, muscly son lacked in effective fire-power for his berserker foe, he certainly didn't lack when it came to trash talking.

"Come now, you thought that would hit me!? I knew you were dull, but I didn't think it possible you were this lacking in wit!"

"What was that supposed to be!? Are you trying to hit me or entertain me by bounding about like a feckless stooge!?"

"By Tartarus, with moves like that, I'll bet you attract more attention from perverse Satyrs looking for a filthy gape to pound then you ever have a goddess!"

"What's the matter? Can't even catch a lowly Daemon you worthless cretin? I don't doubt your superior brother Atlas would've long-since defeated me by now!"

"By heavens above! I can't imagine how much of a disappointment you must be to your mother! I certainly know my mother would've felt great shame birthing a disgraceful sort like you!"

Those were just some of many that Beerus heard, and honestly, were he not so focused on attaining his ascended state, a couple of them would've had him laughing, especially given the furious Titan's reaction to each. What was going on in front of him was one step away from a comedy show at this point. One that he'd give credit where it was due, was funnier than what some civilizations in his past life had tried in their actual comedy routines to keep him entertained, and not in a destructive mood for their pitiful worlds.

Of course, such an equilibrium could not last forever. Eventually, Kratos' rageful and rash brother and sister, entirely under Menoitios' ability's influence, ran afoul of him one too many times whilst fruitlessly attacking the monstrously strong Titan, and in his own rising rage, he inevitably had had enough of them.

"Grrrrragh! You damn brats!" Menoitios roared with such anger that even the most raging of storms would've been tame next to him, as he reached out and grabbed the gnats punching and kicking at his sides like the annoying pests that they were by their heads.

"Nngah! Unhand me you wretched Titan!" Bia cried out in outrage, throwing her useless kicks into his ribs and hip, as if that would accomplish a thing against him.

"Hnngh! You will suffer dearly for this!" Zelus was not better, throwing similar blows at his other hip and ribs, far too caught up in his emotions to recognise the futility of his actions.

And Menoitios had had just about enough of them. "Cease wasting my time any further and get out of my sight!" His voice boomed, before he clenched both hands, much like he'd done with Nike before them. A doubly loud CRUNCH following as he crushed their heads within his grip into nothing more than pulp! Their ichor spilling out along with lumps of flesh and broken bones from between his fingers as both instantly went limp, the radiance of their forms vanishing as they returned to their regular states.

Those were then burned away to charcoal even faster than Nike's had beenby his blazing aura, so much so he didn't even need to strike them to have them be reduced to burnt ashes that scattered in the end, as his fiery gaze locked on Kratos again before barrelling forward.

The aforementioned god sent a silent apology to his fallen siblings for not being able to do much for them, much like he hadn't with their sister, the goddess of victory before them, as he ducked his head and narrowly evaded a haymaker, before pushing back to avoid a follow-up knee from the Titan.

"Damn vermin!" Menoitios howled. "Quit avoiding me and fight!" Thrusting forward with violent petulance and rash activity, Menotios missed what would later go on to be coined as a 'spartan kick', as his annoying enemy side-stepped and backed away, forcing him to turn with a bestial snarl.

And as he did, he finally took notice of Beerus again, as the latter felt his eyes lock with that of the raging behemoth.

"Hnn. And just what do you think you're doing!?" Menoitios, from Beerus perspective, seemed to have enough meagre wits about him to recognise that something was going on, as he growled at him before propelling himself toward him, forgetting about the son of Styx in favour of attempting to rip him apart again, and presumably 'put him in his place'.

"Now who's avoiding the fight!" Styx' remaining child managed to fly ahead of the Titan's flight path, positioning himself between Beerus and Menoitios. "Come," He said, whilst raising up his hands, determined to keep him busy to the last. "Prove to me your so-called superiority then, by beating me in a test of strength! Unless, of course, you know you're too weak to win!"

Under normal circumstances, Beerus felt that such a taunt would yield little results even against a highly enraged and irrational adversary. And certainly, were Menoitios to wield less intemperance, he probably would've seen through such an obvious bait as well.

So consumed was he at this point though, by his own violent rage and propensity for rashness, that when his pride was attacked again, he briefly shifted his attention back to the smaller, lesser deity who had not stopped pissing him off with his verbal assaults. His flight path stopping near the smaller god, as he immediately wrapped his far bigger hands around his, and had the muscles from his biceps all the way up to his shoulders bulge, as he forced the bald god back.

"Nghah!" Kratos tried to hold in his pain, as he felt his divine muscles pop and tear almost instantly, but with every ounce of strength he could summon, being the very personification of it, just on a lesser scale compared to Atlas, he pushed back, forcing them to a stop just a few metres away from the destroyer god for a small moment. Anything to buy Beerus the time that he needed, so that he could take down this raging prick! "Y-You'll need more than that to win! Come on, you dumb, ugly brute! Where's your passion!?"

"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!" A beastly growl baring grounded teeth was what met Kratos, as his words only increased the Titan's anger, which in turn, boosted his power, at the expense of any rational thought that could be left in his thick head.

Beerus' keen ears picked up on multiple things in that moment, right as he approached the apex of his fused bond with his domain. The first being an explosive burst of wind and oddly enough, red lightning overhead, before it seemed like the air, in all directions, ground to a halt. The second being the grim sound of flesh and bone being torn apart, as Kratos' struggling arms snapped like twigs. Blood pissing out as the broken bones jutted out around his elbows, and Styx' remaining child howled himself this time, only in sheer, unadulterated agony.

"You dared to mouth off to me with measly power like that!?" Menoitios bawled furiously. His sclera releasing harsh flames of unending, uncontrollable anger as he glared down at the insult-heavy deity.

"Agh!... Heh!..." Kratos managed to force a mocking smile. "The only thing that's… measly here… is your intelligence, you pathetic kinaidos!"

Beerus knew not what that last word meant, but it was apparent with Menoitios' reaction that it must've been worse than any previous insult. The Titan sucking in a breath, as his body began shaking with newfound rage, doubling – no, tripling almost – from what'd it been before, which showed in the power that suddenly began radiating off of him in tidal waves. His aura reaching such monumental heights to coincide with his emotions, that it towered up in a fiery blaze more than double his own size. All as his face creased and crunched into the single most ugly-looking visage Beerus had possibly ever seen, and that said a lot given the sort he'd had to deal with in his old days.

"You…!" With a snarl that had his teeth ready to break themselves from how hard they gnashed against themselves, and eyes that looked like literal infernos threatening to peel out of his sockets with bursting flames, Menoitios' extremely muscled body tensed as he wrenched his arms back. The sudden, savage motion ripping Kratos' devastated arms right out of their sockets with a barbarous spray of ichor from either shoulder stump.

"Aaaaaaaagh!" Kratos couldn't hold in his scream of torment, no matter how hard he tried at this point, but his voice was muffled and mostly silenced into a wet gurgle when two bulky fingers latched on to the bottom corner of his mouth, and pulled. A disgusting SCH-KRIP resonating out, but only heard by the Titan and Beerus, as the former tore off the lower-half of Styx' son's jaw in a gory gush of more ichor, teeth breaking instantly from the crushing force exerted, as the tongue was ripped off with it and tossed away.

"Heeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Menoitios let out a full, deep, prolonged, guttural cry as he ripped what remained of Kratos apart with his bare hands, flinging clumps of flesh, severed and shattered ligaments and bones, mashed organs and outer parts of his dismembered body away with a ferocious zeal. His victim having long since exited their divine state as they were torn limb-from-limb, organ-from-organ in a sanguinary show of depravity.

Beerus bore witness to it all, and watched as what remained of the lesser god's head was dropped from the sky, spewing out ichor as what little remained of his face was unrecognisable to the destroyer god. The brutality of it all didn't raise any hairs on him, for he had seen worse, and dealt worse fates to planets who had not earned his favour by destroying them and the races that'd lived on them. What he did feel, as he watched the deity fall in bits and pieces, was a definite sense of respect for doing as he'd asked of him to the best of his abilities. Styx had raised a good, loyal son in him, for sure.

Menoitios then whipped his head back in Beerus direction, snarling at him like the out-of-control beast that he was, as he wasted no time on small talk, with bits of Kratos' flesh and ichor dangling and dripping from him, as he launched himself toward the destroyer with full intent to maim.

In such a scenario, it was a fifty-fifty chance he'd have made it in time ti disrupt Beerus' focus entirely and cut off his transformation, with how fast he moved. Unfortunately for the Titan, as he raised a fist to bludgeon Beerus with, circumstance was no longer on his side.

WHOOSH-SCHUNK!

"Guah!?" The flames of Menoitios' eyes dissipated somewhat, widening in shock as he was forced back several metres, a lancing pain erupting through his chest and out through his back, as he felt his own blood, even in his enraged haze, spilling over his radiant skin. His gaze shooting down to what had caused such a thing, only to see the hilt of a blade he vaguely recognised pressed against his bleeding pec, whilst the single sharpest metal he'd ever felt pierced through his majestic frame. "What…!?"

The Titan wasn't given any time to wonder how it'd become lodged in his chest, when he suddenly felt the recognisable pulsing of a deity's meta-physical energy, as their power skyrocketed completely, immeasurably, into the realm he was apart of. When his eyes looked back up, it was to see the fading sphere of dark-purple radiating with unbridled destructive potential, and then the being that'd been encased within it. Their dense aura the same colour, as their skin shone a dark-violet, with their physique trimmed down to a much sleeker one, and their bodily features having become much more cat-like, such as the face and hands, and the fading of hair in place of enormous, triangular ears.

Beerus' brighter-violet eyes, brimming with infinite destructive ability, glared out at the second foe to ever take in his True Divine Form, which took its shape from his old form. He did not smile in this instance, but scowl while baring his sharp teeth. "I hope you had your fun, because your little story ends here. You wanted to take me on by yourself so bad? Well then…"

Shooting forward with blinding speed, Beerus swung his sword down in an arc, which Menoitios, caring not for his foe's ascended power, tried to stop with his hand. An action that resulted in only his thumb remaining, as the rest of his digits along with half his hand were instantly cut through without resistance and severed from the rest of him. Something that got a cry of shock and pain from the Titan, as Beerus' free hand dove in and grabbed the hilt of the blade lodged through him, which he recognised as Themis', and kicked his current foe in the gut, pushing him back as he pulled the sword out of him with a flourish, sending his blood kicking out as it doused the blade.

The same couldn't be said for the wound he'd dealt, which had purple particles raising away from the remains of the Titan's hand where ichor should've fallen, but didn't.

"Consider your foolish desire granted. Just know this, Menoitios…" Tone shifting over to his most menacing and cold. As unforgiving and malicious as he'd been during his worst moments enacting destruction upon the once denizens of the long-erased universe 7.

"You won't last long."

Meanwhile… Far away from the rest of the fighting…

"Ugh!... What in Tartarus' name hit me!?" Aegaeon roared in surprise, as he quickly staggered up to his feet within the trench his body had dug in the ground after his body had been flung off its feet. His wide eyes zipping left and right, as his senses went into overdrive, pushing outward to find the source, the assailant behind the sudden blow he'd taken. One that'd launched him a good few hundred metres away from his charge, the Ophiotaurus, which he could hear, even from this distance, letting out what sounded like delighted laughter at his misfortune.

Bastard monster. He'd be sure to burn it as painfully as possible in the rite when he dealt with –

"Phuh!" Aegaeon's head whipped hard to the left, his cheek almost caving in with part of his skull, as the distinct feeling of powerful knuckles slamming into his face came with it. Ichor-mixed spittle flying from his gob as, without putting anymore thought into it, he thrust his fist in the direction he believed his mystery assailant to be in, and to his great alarm, hit nothing but air.

What the – "Argh!" A deep pain lanced out throughout his left leg, which suddenly buckled with the sensation of a heavy stomp into the back of his knee, forcing him to a one-legged kneel, before what felt like the pointed tip of a bulky elbow smashed directly into his face. The force of it crushing his nose and shattering some of his teeth from the compressed shockwave that emitted from the impact, sending a spray of ichor out as the son of Pontus let out a garbled scream of agony, as his body slammed backwards from the blow. His back impacting hard enough with the ground to form a sizeable crater, whilst his kneeling leg bent at an awkward angle with an audible CRACK, indicating some of the bones had snapped.

"Nghuh!... What the fuck!?" The bald god cried out, deep voice coming out nasally as his vision briefly blurred, his mind whirring at a million miles per second to understand what was happening. Who the heck was attacking him!? More importantly, how were they doing so without being seen or felt by his divine senses!? That shouldn't have been possible! "Ergh!... Damnit, show yourself, coward!"

Aegaeon was met with no response, other than the distant, highly amused noises of the bloody monster he was meant to sacrifice. And that only unnerved him even more. Rather than show fear though, he let anger take hold, for anger felt surprisingly easy to feel at present, along with a thirst for violence, as his body rapidly healed from the wounds sustained, and he pushed himself off the ground, quickly shooting up to his feet even before the bones of his leg had fully snapped back into place.

Letting out a snarl, his magic conjured up a simple, but sharp-looking spear in-hand as he readied himself in a crooked battle-stance, which righted itself into something more befitting of a warrior, the instant all of the previously snapped bones in his huge leg CLICKED back into place. "Cease your hiding, however you're managing it, and face me like a proper god should!"

"You can't be serious." Aegaeon heard a deep, masculine voice barely two paces to his right, and instantly struck out with his spear, hoping to stab through whichever fool had chosen to torment him. Like with his fist before, however, the sharp, heavenly bronze of his weapon bit nothing but cool air, leaving him looking the fool with his body torqued and thrust out with his spear for nothing.

"Face you like a proper god should? You flatter yourself too much." This time, the voice was to his left, same distance, and Aegaeon growled before torquing his bulky frame the other way, planting his feet solidly over the rich soil of Gaea, and thrusted forth with his spear, to strike nothing but the wind for the third time. Lucky in the sole sense at this point that the Anemoi rarely chose to be more 'physical' in their existence most of the time, otherwise he was fairly certain he'd be pissing them off something fierce with how he was shunting his weapon into them like a complete idiot.

An elbow, or what felt like one anyway, was driven into his gut then, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to keel over as yet more ichor-infused spittle launched from his yawning mouth. His face was then met with what he was sure was an uppercut that snapped his head – no, his whole body – back and almost made him drop his spear as his vision spun and blurred, and blood sprayed out from his bashed-in nostrils like mini-fountains. Aegaeon tried again, uselessly, to stab out with his spear where he thought his assailant ought to be, but was never met with the satisfying sound of flesh and bone being pierced through. Only the whistle of the wind reached his ears.

"D-Damnit… Kuh!..." Coughing up blood, the bald god stumbled backward, struggling to keep himself on his feet, until his healing ability returned his sense of balance. His rage was shooting higher long before that'd occurred however, and only found itself getting worse as whomever was toying with him continued to pepper him with gruelling blows to his face, chest, gut, sides and legs. Aegaeon tried to guard himself at certain points, but it was useless, seeing as he had no tell to go off for where his foe would strike him next, he'd just end up getting hit somewhere where his guard didn't protect. His body sent jerking and bobbing all over the place as he got his ass kicked by what seemed to be an almost imaginary foe, given they could not be seen, and made no sound around him, nor carried any scent. It didn't stop him from trying to land a shot with his spear, as if his foe was tangible enough to strike him, then surely, they would be tangible enough to be struck themselves, right?

Wrong. No matter how Aegaeon timed his counter-strikes, even going so far as to ignore the agony he was put under through certain blows to strike back as fast as possible before his opponent could potentially flee, he was rewarded with nothing but a miss every time. Said miss was then rewarded with another counter to his counter, which often did the most damage, breaking or even shattering his bones. After a certain point, a small pool of his own golden blood soaked the multi-cratered soil beneath them.

"Buh-Bastard!" More than just being painful, it was infuriating. Being battered so casually like this was enraging him to the point where rational thought was an exceedingly difficult thing to grasp. All he felt like doing, was finding out how to tag whoever the fuck was humiliating him like this and skewer them on his spear.

But then the lingering voice in the back of his head whispered to him, that what he should be focused on, was getting this cretin out of the way, even if only briefly, and then do the job he was given by Lord Kronos to do, in sacrificing the Ophiotaurus to gain its boon. Despite how difficult it was to listen to that small voice over the haze of rage progressively clouding his mind more, Aegaeon did so.

And as he did that, he focused as much as he could, the spear in his hand became practically weightless as his power spiked up, whilst the pressure around him became unimaginable in an instant. If this slippery brat couldn't be taken down while he was in his base state, then he'd go into his True Divine Form. And even if he still couldn't lay a finger on him, whoever it was that was tormenting him wouldn't be able to harm or inconvenience him in the slightest, allowing him to ignore their presence as he did what he came here to –

A sickening SQUELCH followed before Aegaeon could even finish the thought, scrambling his mind and making all the pressure he was exuding suddenly fizzle away into nothing, as his body went limp. He felt blood seeping and spilling out from his mouth and head, both down his chin and the back of his skull, along with the sharp bite of heavenly bronze running through his flesh and bone.

Through heavily blurry, bloody vision, the bald god realised why this was. He'd been run through with his own spear, puncturing up through the bottom of his jaw and right up through his cranium, shredding through his brain in the process, which is why his thoughts had mostly ceased and his power, which'd just been climbing high, plummeted as low as it'd ever been. His body slacking further as his wet-sounding throat let out a noisy gurgle.

It was only as he was on the edge between consciousness and unconsciousness from such a brutal, if temporary injury, that his rapidly fading vision finally made out the shape of a muscular, pale being in front of him, holding his spear in one hand while the other gripped the side of his head. All as the winds around him seemed to silence themselves.

"Didn't even notice me taking your own weapon from you in the last second, whilst you hastily tried to ascend to give yourself an advantage. If ever you had ability in combat, it's become quite decayed over time, without you having much reason to keep your reflexes and senses sharp." Hades said, sounding almost disappointed as he met his fellow god's bloody, blurry gaze with his dark pools. "That mistake will end up being your own folly this day, Aegaeon. For what I'm about to do now is only possible because of it, and how weak and vulnerable you are in this very moment."

Channelling his divine power through his pale, calloused palm, his metaphysical energy pulsed over the half-unconscious deity, and as it did, Hades scowled. "For your foolishness, not only in leaving yourself open like this, but also in serving my bastard father's whims, I shall damn you in this moment of weakness. And unless I feel generous in the future, or someone else takes pity on you, you shall remain damned to the fate of your stony prison for all eternity."

With his cold declaration made, Hades' dark aura pulsed outward only once, near-invisible to the naked eye in that moment, as divine flesh and bone, along with the fine craftsmanship of a bloodied spear, all turned to stone. Aegaeon, the god of storms of the sea named after him, saw nothing and felt nothing anymore. For though his presence still existed, it did so as but a statue of a man impaled on his spear, with even the remaining droplets and ropes of blood spilling out being turned with him, as his face remained ever fixed with the agonised, gurgling visage of a tormented, defeated enemy. One ever falling to his knees, but never quite reaching them. And if Hades got his way at the minute, he likely never would.

"Yet again, mother's advice proves most useful." The second eldest brother of the Olympians remarked, both silently complimenting and thanking his mother for the training she'd given them, as he turned away from his beaten enemy.

Had he not had the sense back during his training days with his mother to ask if it was possible to induce the same kind of shape-shifting effect they could do on themselves onto others, if they wished, he doubted this situation would've ended as quickly and easily as it had. All that was required to force it on someone else, and turn them into whatever you had in mind, was simple superiority over them, both in will, and in power. Both of which were rather easily achieved when your foe was hardly conscious at all, and had just been knocked away from their ascended state just before they transformed, provided you could react in time and take full advantage of such a small window of opportunity.

"Now then…" The pale god zeroed in on the creature both sides were interested in, which seemed to regard him with much less hostility than it had Aegaeon, and almost seemed happy to see his approach, as he teleported right next to it, and laid a hand on its head. The creature giving an odd sound of approval at the motion, as it made no attempt to flee. All as he felt the undeniable sensation of his elder brother ascending far in the distance, making a smile cross his face.

"Time to get that boon."

AND CUT!

Holy hell, this is finally done! I was expecting this to hit 20K before it concluded, and it ended up going to over 26K instead, despite some sections being shorter than others. Wow, that's chunky!

Aside from that though, for those wondering, any questions that this chapter raises, such as with Zeus, will be answered, so don't worry about them. Also, despite my words in the previous chapter's AN, the section with Kronos is missing from here, and that's intentional. As I was writing this, I came to the conclusion that it'd be better to move it to the next chapter, right at the beginning, as I think it'll flow better that way. Might be wrong on that, but we shall see!

Also, the above AN heavily implied it could be the case, but I'm just gonna say it right now, knowing how long next chapter will be, that it will most certainly be the final chapter of this month, though given how much time I'm spending with my family right now, it might not come out until New-Years-day. That won't effect this arc's conclusion happening in January though, so don't fret about that either.

In any case, Merry Christmas to you all, and I hope you had a wonderful time. Also, as always, hope you got some enjoyment out of this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one!