The Leviathan and the giant sea serpent opened their maws, voids of gathering power. A condensed beam of pure energy erupted from each, combining in mid-air into a colossal, sun-bright spear of destruction that illuminated the entire battlefield, casting long, stark shadows.
Hypnos smiled, an ear-to-ear expression of genuine delight. He merely raised a hand. A dark haze, thick as smoke, poured from his palm, coiling into a single, obsidian orb. The orb then flattened and stretched, morphing into a thin, seemingly fragile shield just large enough to cover his form.
The colossal energy beam struck the small, dark shield. The world turned white. The beam didn't deflect; it was utterly consumed, its path behind the shield pulverized into a deep, glass-smooth valley. The very soil vitrified, and the air filled with the sharp scent of ozone and scorched stone. As the light died, a thick, acrid cloud hung over the devastation.
Iris and Phorcys watched, their eyes fixed on the epicenter, waiting.
Suddenly, a single, black lance shot from the cloud. It moved with silent, impossible speed, piercing straight through the giant sea serpent's neck.
Sssssshhaaaa!!!
The serpent thrashed, its violent hissing a sound of pure agony as it fanged at the empty air.
Hypnos beat his wings once. The acrid cloud dissipated as if it had never been. Enraged, Iris thrust her hands forward, and a thousand lances of solidified light hurled towards him. Hypnos flew, his movements a fluid dance of slight tilts and gentle curves, effortlessly dodging the barrage. For the lances that could not be avoided, his shadow blades flickered, slicing them from existence. The remaining lances curved in the air, giving chase.
Phorcys, in his gigantic form, swiped a claw the size of a hill to crush Hypnos from the sky. Hypnos simply glided under the massive limb, his shadow blades becoming a blur as he flew along Phorcys's arm, each pass opening deep, weeping gashes in the Phorcys's flesh. Several of the pursuing light lances, unable to correct their course, slammed into Phorcys's arm and detonated.
Phorcys groaned, a sound of deep, rumbling pain. He smacked his own shoulder where Hypnos was about to arrive, but the Hypnos was already gone, shooting like a bullet toward the Leviathan and the wounded serpent.
The Leviathan, enraged, opened its maw wide and sprang to bite him in half.
SNAP!
The Leviathan's jaws crashed together. A terrible gulp echoed across the field. All the chasing light lances, bereft of their target, struck the Leviathan's face in a chain of searing explosions.
ROOOAARR!!!
The beast roared in agony, its thick skin and flesh burning away from its skull to reveal the wet, stark white bone beneath.
Phorcys, ignoring the beast's pain, turned his massive body towards the ongoing elemental battle between Charon and Nereus.
Iris hovered, a cold knot of disbelief tightening in her stomach. 'It can't be that easy. He was too strong to end like this.' She focused her divine senses, probing the heavily breathing Leviathan. There—a dim, fading, and dying trace of Hypnos's energy within its stomach.
A shaky, relieved sigh escaped her lips. 'He was gone.' She beat her golden wings, shooting towards Nereus to help him finish the others. She conjured a massive lance of light, aiming it at Charon, just as Phorcys swiped a gigantic claw toward the Charon.
Suddenly, a familiar energy beam shot from behind them. It struck Phorcys's claw, searing it to the bone, then swerved to slam into Iris.
The impact was colossal. Iris's shield held, but the force drove her from the sky like a fallen star, cratering the ground. She crawled from the rubble, her eyes darting to the source.
The giant sea serpent's head was severed, its body covered in wounds that looked like they'd been made by massive, sharp teeth. Her gaze then shot to where the Leviathan and Phorcys were now locked in a bizarre clash.
She focused on the Leviathan, and her blood ran cold. Its eyes were no longer its own. They were pools of absolute blackness. "He is…" she whispered, the truth dawning with horrifying clarity, "...still alive."
She tightened her grip on her now-cracked shield and armor, beating her golden wings to take flight again. Her sword blazed with a rainbow essence, and she flew straight for the corrupted Leviathan.
Phorcys, in a final act of brute force, grabbed the Leviathan's neck with his remaining good claw and tore the beast apart from the middle. But no normal organs or blood spilled out. Instead, a torrent of hot, corrosive black liquid erupted from the wound. The Leviathan's very head dissolved into the same sticky, acidic fluid.
AAAAAAA!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!
Phorcys's scream was not of victory, but of ultimate agony. The corrosive liquid splashed over him, instantly melting his lower body and his other arm. His gigantic form collapsed, crushing a nearby unit of soldiers into a pulp.
Iris halted her advance, her face draining of all color. Her hand trembled violently, and her grip on her sword and shield loosened.
Phorcys struggled and screamed, but he couldn't free himself from the devouring liquid. It crept over him, consuming his gigantic body in a grotesque, sizzling mockery of digestion.
A sliver of her divine duty pierced through the horror. Iris thrust her trembling hand forward. 'Purification.'
A golden light enveloped Phorcys. It did nothing. The black liquid continued its feast.
'Purification.' 'Purification.' 'Purification.'…
She chanted desperately, the golden light flickering over the scene like a futile candle against an absolute darkness. It was useless.
"Your petty tricks have no use on him." The voice was a cold whisper directly in her ear. Iris spun, her rainbow sword slicing through empty air. "Are you searching for me?" the whisper came again, from her other side.
She whirled around. Nothing. Then she sensed a presence behind her. She turned slowly and found an exact duplicate of herself standing there, wearing an eerie, knowing smile. A chill ran down her spine. She sensed another presence. Another Iris stood to her left.
The first fake Iris raised her sword and slowly, deliberately, drew it across her own neck. Golden ichor welled and dripped from the blade, then turned into a gushing fountain. As the doppelgänger's head was completely severed, it collapsed to the ground, a lifeless corpse.
Iris's pupils dilated. Cold sweat dripped from her temples, and her back was soaked. She looked at the second fake Iris, who still smiled.
'This isn't real,' she chanted in her mind, a desperate prayer against the sensory overload. But her nerves screamed otherwise. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to calm her mind, but the image of her own severed head flashed behind her eyelids.
She opened her eyes. A smiling, infant version of herself now floated at eye-level. Iris startled, and by pure instinct, she slashed. Her sword cut through the small torso like butter, and the sensation of slicing through flesh and bone was sickeningly real in her hand.
A wave of profound disgust and nausea overwhelmed her. Her sword and shield clattered to the ground. Her stomach convulsed, and she leaned forward and vomited.
Blurgh!
Grotesque, wriggling worms spilled out with the fluid onto the ground. Iris's mind went blank. Her wings gave out, and she began to fall, the darkness at the edge of her vision swelling to consume her.
Splash!
A shock of cold water hit her face. Iris jolted awake, gasping. Her vision was hazy, her entire body trembling. She rubbed her eyes, blinking rapidly. Phorcys lay dead beside her. Her gaze fell upon his face. His eyes, wide with a final, silent scream, were wrong. The pupils were pools of absolute blackness. 'He is dead.'
A pounding headache seized her, as if a metal band were being tightened around her skull. She held her head and examined her surroundings. Nereus was fighting a desperate solo battle against Thanatos and Charon. And Hypnos... Hypnos was, as usual, sleeping on his cloud a little ways away.
Then her eyes fell on her shield. It was completely fine, without a single crack. 'My shield was cracked defending from the Leviathan's beam... and Lord Phorcys melted... but he...'
The deep, horrifying understanding finally hit her mind with the force of a physical blow. Her frightened eyes snapped to the sleeping form of Hypnos. She mumbled the terrible truth, "God of sleep and… dreams."
As if hearing her, the sleeping god shifted slightly. Through the curtain of his wiry hair, she caught a glimpse of that same eerie smile. A deep, soul-chilling cold seized her.
---
Meanwhile, a short distance away, a duel of celestial and arcane power raged, a stark contrast to the psychological horrors unfolding nearby.
BOOOM!!! BANG!!!
A colossal explosion of clashing darkness and light tore through the void. The resulting shockwave rippled across dimensions, a visible distortion in the fabric of space that made the very stars seem to shudder.
'Aegis!' Helios and Selena shouted in unison, throwing their hands up to create multiple, shimmering layers of protective energy. The shockwave hit like a physical wall, shattering their golden and silver shields one after another with a sound like breaking crystal. It only stopped at the final layer, which webbed with fractures but held. Selena peered through the cracks, her heart sinking as she saw Hecate standing perfectly poised, her robes undisturbed, utterly unfazed by the force that had nearly broken them.
Selena bit her lower lip until she tasted the coppery tang of blood, her grip on her silver bow turning her knuckles bone-white. 'Every move is perfect, every counter flawless,' she thought, despair creeping in. 'She does not use magic—she reigns over it, its supreme and unquestioned mistress.'
Hecate gave them no quarter. While the after-images of the explosion still danced in the void, she etched a complex, fiery sigil with her staff, Nythra. From the emptiness behind her, thousands of crimson lances of pure arcane energy materialized with a low, collective hum, their points aimed with lethal intent.
'Lunar Hexfire.'
With a final, decisive thrust of her staff, she unleashed the storm. The crimson lances shot across the void like a bloody meteor shower. Selena responded instantly, her hands a blur as she fired a rapid, dazzling volley of silver arrows.
The arrows met the lances in a spectacular, silent display of shattering light, but the crimson barrage was overwhelming. For every arrow that found its mark, a dozen lances shattered it and continued their relentless advance.
'Solar Veil!' 'Lunar Veil!'
A final, desperate defense sprang up around the siblings—a shimmering, interwoven dome of gold and silver light. The crimson lances hammered against it in a relentless, percussive rhythm. The continuous, brutal impacts first fractured the veil, then shattered it completely. The remaining lances struck true, detonating against their divine forms.
Aaaaahhhh!!!
Their screams were swallowed by the ensuing concussive roar. The force threw them backward like discarded dolls, their divine skin blistering and burning in dozens of places. They survived, but barely, their bodies smoldering. Almost immediately, Selena's Charity Divinity activated, a serene silver radiance pulsing from her body that washed over them both, knitting their scorched flesh back together with visible, rapid speed.
Helios met his sister's gaze. No words were needed. In her silver eyes, he saw the same stark realization as conventional power was useless. They had to risk everything. They raised their hands to the void, their faces set in grim determination.
'Solar Manifestation.' 'Lunar Manifestation.'
A miniature, blazing sun and a serene, glowing moon condensed into being above them, pouring forth immense power. They joined their hands, and the two celestial bodies slid into one another, their edges merging into a single, awe-inspiring orb of eclipsed light.
'Solar Eclipse.'
Their auras erupted. Helios's skin and eyes blazed with the painful intensity of a newborn star, while Selena became a being of pure, concentrated moonlight. Between their joined hands, a tiny, impossibly dense orb formed, a volatile, writhing mixture of their combined essence. Helios's Diligence Divinity flared, focusing and intensifying the orb's power to a critical, screaming point.
The orb elongated, twisting and sharpening into the shape of a blindingly white arrow. A bow of pure, crackling celestial energy manifested in the air before them. As one, they took hold of it, their muscles straining as they pulled the string back with all their might, the void itself seeming to bend around the weapon.
'Equinox Ruinbolt.'
They released.
The white arrow shot forth, not with mere speed, but with inevitable, world-ending finality. It left a trail of pure white that bleached the color from the void itself, a scar of absolute light.
Hecate had not been idle. Her own formidable spell was already complete. A small, deceptively calm purple orb, no larger than her fist, had begun drifting from the tip of Nythra the moment their eclipse began.
'Arcane Nova.'
The orb moved with a slow, gravitational pull to meet the brilliant arrow. When they met in the center of the battlefield, they did not explode immediately. For a single, horrifying heartbeat, they struggled in a silent, grinding embrace, a sphere of devastating black and white energy swelling between them, warping space and sucking all sound from the universe.
Then, reality broke.
The sphere detonated. It did not expand outwards so much as it simply replaced the void around it with pure chaos. The shockwave that followed cracked the very space around it, creating fleeting, jagged rifts into nothingness. Helios and Selena, caught at the edge, were hurled away like leaves in a hurricane, their bodies broken and unconscious, drifting in the aftermath.
Minutes later, the cataclysmic sphere dissipated, leaving a strange, silent calm in its wake. Hecate materialized near the drifting, defeated forms of the celestial siblings. With a casual wave of her hand, she summoned a 'Spectral Hand,' a ghostly, five-fingered claw that emerged from the ether to bind them both securely in chains of shimmering, intangible force.
"You are both powerful," Hecate said, her voice calm but carrying a note of finality that echoed in the sudden quiet. "But you are still too young to face me."
Her triumphant gaze then lifted, looking past her captives to the distant, storm-wreathed epicenter where Hades battled Zeus and Poseidon. The tremors of their clash were a constant, physical pressure even here, a reminder of a far greater struggle. The cool confidence on her face froze, replaced by a flicker of naked worry that she would allow no one else to see. The whisper that escaped her was for the void alone, a wife's fear woven into a single, breathless word.
"Hades..."