The air quivered, every atom screaming under the crushing pressure of the King of Erasure's presence. The sky bled black, swallowing sunlight until only a dim crimson glow lingered over the battlefield.
Apollo stepped forward, golden eyes locked on the figure ahead. Artemis followed, silent as the moon's edge. Behind them, Hermes tightened his grip on his caduceus, and Hera floated above the ground, divine aura spreading around her like a shield made of starlight and wrath.
The King of Erasure didn't move. He simply stood — calm, motionless — a living absence that drained the world around him.
Apollo raised his bow.
"Artemis."
She nodded, pulling her own bowstring back until it hummed with lunar force. Together, their weapons sang — sunlight and moonlight converging.
The arrows flew.
They exploded on impact, fire and silver light bursting across the plain, shaking the sky itself. For a moment, the heavens brightened again.
But when the dust cleared, the King stood there unharmed. A thin crack of energy ran up his arm — nothing more than a scratch — and then even that healed, vanishing into the void of his body.
His voice was quiet, but it reached all who stood there.
"You strike at shadow with light. Do you not understand? Light createsshadow."
He raised his hand, and the world convulsed.
Artemis blinked — and he was behind her. Before she could turn, his arm sliced through the air. The space between them folded, and Apollo's warning came too late.
"Artemis!"
The blow connected — invisible, soundless — and the twins were caught in its wake. A wave of distortion shredded reality, splitting them in opposite directions. The divine bond that tied them cracked under the force.
Their light flared — and went dark.
The God of the Sun and the Goddess of the Hunt fell in the same breath, their radiance snuffed out.
Hermes' jaw clenched. His heart hammered as divine panic surged through him. Without a thought, he blurred into motion — lightning tearing across the battlefield.
"Fast," said the King of Erasure, turning slightly, "but not beyond the concept of motion itself."
Hermes struck. The King caught the staff mid-swing with a single hand. The air bent around them. Hermes' eyes widened — he couldn't move.
"When you live between seconds," the King whispered, "you forget that I can erase seconds."
The world blinked. Hermes' body flickered — first his outline, then his form — until he faded completely, the space where he once stood now untouched, silent, empty.
Hera screamed his name.
Fury erupted around her. Her aura surged, painting the sky gold and white. Thunder and light cascaded from her fingertips, a mother's wrath shaking creation itself. She stepped forward, divine robes whipping in the storm.
"You will not touch another!" she shouted. "Not while I stand!"
She unleashed everything — storms, light, the full breadth of a goddess' fury. The ground split beneath her. The heavens trembled.
And the King walked through it.
He didn't resist her power — he consumed it. Her divine bolts vanished into his skin, feeding the abyss that was his form. Every strike made him stronger.
Hera's breath caught. "No… impossible…"
He appeared before her in a blink, the air collapsing around him.
"You are mother to gods," he said softly, "yet even mothers cannot protect what never was."
His hand pierced through her golden aura, reaching her heart. Light bled from her body, streaming into him.
From the ridge above, Zeus watched — frozen — as Hera's light dimmed.
"Hera!" His voice broke the sky open.
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Forgive me…"
The King's hand clenched, and her body dissolved into radiance — her final scream echoing across Olympus before it faded into nothing.
Zeus' lightning shattered the clouds, his roar shaking the world. He dropped to his knees, clutching at the air where her presence once lingered, the heavens burning with grief and rage.
The King of Erasure turned his gaze upward, toward the King of Olympus.
"Now you understand," he said. "Even gods can be erased."
The storm fell silent. The sky itself seemed to mourn.
And far in the shadows, unseen — Megumi Valentine's soul stirred, the faint heartbeat of defiance whispering through the void.