Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The titanic aberrations' heavy, suppressive footsteps sounded like war drums being pounded in rhythm, sending surging Ether tides rolling outward. Ahead, the dust churned and drifted apart, revealing a landscape scarred beyond recognition.
Wingless nymphs, broken-minded giants, headless humans, one-armed heroes, half-rotted divine monsters… corpses lay piled against corpses, crushed beneath bricks and stone.
The shattered, collapsing line of defense burned fiercely. Flames roared skyward, severed limbs and spilled organs strewn everywhere. The reek of scorched flesh made the stomach turn. Blood and dead silence swallowed the field, not a trace of living breath left. The battlefield looked like a hellscape.
To destroy their lives, to crush their civilization. That was the true meaning of harvest. That was the mission of the titans.
Attack! Attack! Attack!
One aberration after another, star patterns flashing violently across their bodies, let out meaningless roars and stormed across the sea of fire.
Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech!
But just as the giants were about to trample what was now little more than a name of a defensive line, sharp whistling shrieks split the air one after another. Divine runes pulsed, drawing in howling Ether particles as javelins, arrows, and cursed shots came screaming in like a meteor shower tearing across the sky, slamming into the positions ahead.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rolled like muffled thunder in rapid succession. The ground shook violently, and dust blasted up hundreds of meters.
The leading titanic aberrations were torn apart one by one, blue-green blood and mangled limbs spraying through the air. Their bodies, riddled with holes, crashed down, exposing the forces advancing behind them: the Ekkedna Armory's armaments, and a dense, endless tide of humanoid combat weapons.
"Woo!"
Above them, Nike, the goddess of victory, her delicate cheeks smeared with black soot from the war, beat her tattered wings as she circled in the air. A bleak, tragic horn call echoed over the slaughtered field.
"Dawn is here! All city-states, confirm survivors!"
Athena rode her pegasus hard, her features twisted into something feral and violent as she bellowed toward the blazing battlefield, her voice nearly splitting.
"Sparta, form up! Meet the enemy!"
"Roar! Roar!"
Wild shouts gathered into a lion pack's roar. Earth and stone flew as Spartans tore off warped helmets and drew short swords, or threw aside broken spears to pull free their spare weapons. They raised shields, bent out of shape or shattered, and packed together, bracing a solid shield wall.
"Athenians, you're not dead yet!"
"Thessaly, hold the line!"
"Corinthians, to me!"
"Good lads of Thebes, get out here!"
"Troezen…"
"Arcadia…"
"Calydon…"
One figure after another crawled out from beneath rubble, pushed up from among the dead, emerged from behind trenches, or sprinted from bunkers. They surged toward the battered flags of their city-states, gathering on the shattered ruins and roaring as one.
Humans from every city-state were building a new fortress on the ruins with their own flesh and blood.
"The end is coming! Greece is vast, but we have nowhere left to run!"
"No matter what city you're from, no matter your birth, behind you are your brothers and sisters, your parents, your wives!"
"The living, take up your weapons! The dead, pick up your heads! Fight for Greece! Fight for me!"
Athena raised her scepter of victory and hammered it against her divine sheepskin shield, roaring as she clamped her knees to her mount and dove toward the onrushing tide of titanic aberrations.
At the same time, answering the Goddess of Wisdom's signal, Hecate, the God of Death, the God of Sleep, and the Ferryman of the Underworld poured their authorities into their Noble Phantasms and smashed them into the ground.
Hum!
In an instant, dense, twisted light sigils spread and flowed across the earth, linking and merging into a massive magecraft array spanning hundreds of miles. Columns of gray-black smoke rose into the air.
All across the battlefield, corpses still clinging to their last obsessions and blood-soaked courage struggled up from the ruins. They picked up their heads and set them back onto broken necks, shoved severed arms into their shoulder sockets, or dragged half a body forward, crawling on elbows and ribs.
They stomped over broken stone, pushed through flame, and as their flesh and bone burned fiercely, their whole bodies became roaring torches as they charged ahead.
These evil spirits, these warriors, were returning from hell.
"Whoosh!"
At that very moment, a sharp whistling sound tore through the sky above the Acropolis behind them. Golden-green flames burst brilliantly within the clouds.
At last, it was complete.
Samael caught Atalanta's whistling arrow signal. Bracing himself on his spear, he rose from the ruins and looked around at the soldiers who remained. Fewer than thirty percent were still standing. His eyes burned red, his teeth ground together, and his voice was on the verge of hysteria.
"The defensive line has fallen. The final moment is upon us! Greeks, clear the way forward for your compatriots!"
"Charge!"
"Charge!"
"Charge!"
At that moment, a Colchis feral dragon with one horn snapped off and shattered scales dove downward. The Ancient Serpent leapt onto its back and led the charge himself.
To face the titans, the city-states had gathered more than two hundred thousand troops here. After the brutal battle, fewer than thirty percent survived. Only around fifty thousand remained.
But anyone who could survive under such merciless conditions was an elite of the city-states, every one of them exceptional.
Driven into desperation, these wounded beasts no longer feared death. Instead, their blood surged as they bared claws and fangs, launching a savage, ferocious counterattack.
The hymn of humanity is a hymn of courage.
Before the towering tide of the titans, the fifty thousand soldiers looked as small and fragile as splashes of water, about to collide head-on with the vast wave of aberrations.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the same time, streaks of divine might etched with godly sigils slammed into the titan horde ahead, like a dense rain of meteors crashing to the ground. The titanic aberrations surging onto the Peloponnesus Peninsula were ruthlessly scoured by the bombardment.
As the divine light faded, figures clad in battered armor and wielding god-forged armaments stood proudly upon a battlefield shaved down by dozens of meters.
Boom!
"What are gods? More arrogant than humans! More lustful than humans! More indolent than humans! More violent than humans!"
Thunder filled the sky. Amid branching arcs of lightning lashing and intertwining, Zeus drove his chariot forward, thunder scepter in hand, shouting with towering pride.
As his eyes turned completely silver and lightning gathered within them, the king of gods descended from the sky, landing before the Olympian gods. His cold, unrestrained declaration rang across the battlefield.
"Greed begins with the gods!"
"Ravaging begins with the gods!"
"Power begins with the gods!"
"And thus…"
"Sacrifice begins with the gods!"
The Olympian gods struck their shields, instinctively lifting their chests. Wild arrogance spilled across their faces as they laughed heartily and shouted together.
"Indeed!"
"Indeed!"
"Indeed!"
In that instant, Zeus swung the thunder scepter forward. Forbidden old gods crawled up from the sea and the soil, while the lofty new gods surged bravely ahead.
The proud gods would never allow humans to charge in front of them.