"Finally... I have waited for you for a very long time..."
The masculine whisper seemed to pierce through space, resonating in the ears of Hebe and Pagos. The voice was refined and warm, the kind that made one instinctively feel its owner must be a person of immense kindness.
The emerald-green Growth Godhood erupted with a brilliant divine light. Green particles took flight like flowing jade, slowly tracing the silhouette of a male deity in the void until he fully materialized.
He had dark green curls and a handsome face, with eyes that held the profound mysteries of life. His long, pale hand lightly brushed the Golden Grain Staff as he looked calmly at the two intruders. A meaningful smile touched his lips.
The ancient Titan, Cres, the God of Growth!
"Cres, the God of Growth," Hebe said, facing him from a distance. Her expression was grave.
"Beautiful Goddess, meeting you is my honor. The glory of life you radiate is truly dazzling. May I have the privilege of knowing your name?" Cres's face maintained that faint smile, his handsome features glowing with a soft gold light—like the first budding sprout of spring. He projected an aura of vitality that made others feel an immediate, unforgettable kinship.
"..."
Hebe did not answer. Though he looked gentle and harmless, she had witnessed the entirety of the Titanomachy through her History Godhood. She knew this god was a classic "gentle blade"—every cut silent, every strike lethal. Any god who underestimated him had invariably paid a bitter price.
"Oh? Unwilling?" Cres let out a sigh, a trace of melancholy entering his pale green eyes. "What a cold goddess you are, Lady Hebe."
Hebe's pupils contracted. "How do you know my name?"
"Fortunately, that little fellow knew," Cres replied with a slight shrug. "That minor god's soul didn't taste like much, but his memories were somewhat useful."
"You devoured the spirit of Theodorus!?" Hebe realized. No wonder the God of Valley Breezes was missing from the ranks of the Wraiths.
"Alas, I had no choice. I was far too weak. I had to borrow a bit of power from that little god. Of course, I am deeply grateful for his sacrifice." Cres shook his head, his expression as calm as if he hadn't committed an act of supreme sacrilege. "It is a pity; he was the only god to stumble in here over countless ages. Otherwise, my recovery would not have been so slow."
"..."
He's a madman, Hebe thought. She and Pagos exchanged a glance, horrified by how casually Cres discussed god-slaying. Even Zeus, with his sovereign right to judge, dared not kill another deity lightly. A god's fall disrupted the perfection of the cosmic laws and invited the laws' loathing—a consequence no one desired. Yet Cres seemed entirely unaffected, as if he had found a way to bypass the universe's retribution.
"Speaking of which," Cres continued, looking at Hebe, "in that little god's memory, you were once merely a third-tier deity of Youth. Now, it seems you have ascended to a powerful Major God. The Life Godhood... the vigor and vitality of existence... what an aspirable power."
Cres stared at the golden-haired goddess. As he sensed the ocean-like divine life-force within her, an irrepressible greed flared in his eyes.
I want... to devour her!
"Your Lordship's Growth Godhood is also quite beautiful," Hebe countered, keeping her voice level as she sought to probe his defenses. "Lord Cres, as a deity of the Life-aspect, why do you collect such a dense aura of death?"
She looked at the Golden Grain Staff plunged into the River of Death, siphoning the miasma. She couldn't understand why a god of life would want to saturate himself in death. Was he trying to transform into a Chthonic deity?
"Are you curious? I can tell you," Cres said, his hand stroking the godhood atop his staff. "Provided you lend me something in return."
"And that is?"
"Your Life Godhood."
The green-haired god turned his head. The warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by a dark, predatory greed.
Whoosh!
A blade of frost, shimmering with black and white light, swept forward. Pagos's eyes flashed with malice as his crow-gold wings beat once, sending him blurring toward Cres's flank. The power of violent death brought by Plague and Pale Terror lashed out with a cold, tyrannical force.
The divine battle erupted instantly.
"How rude," Cres sneered. Green light pulsed, and pure life-force solidified into a shield that enveloped him.
Clang! Boom!
The sound of clashing metal and the resulting explosion of opposing divine powers shook the canyon. Soil and stone disintegrated into dust.
"Rise!"
From behind Cres, across a radius of tens of thousands of meters, countless emerald vines erupted from the earth. They formed a tidal wave of vegetation that blocked out the sky, coiling toward Pagos.
The exquisite Jade Bow appeared in Hebe's hand. She manifested her wings and blurred to a safe distance, drawing the bow to a full moon. Purification and Frost powers flooded the weapon. The bow shimmered with divine light, and a silver-white arrow streaked out with an unstoppable edge, aimed straight for Cres's core.
The sheer majesty of a shot from a Major God caused Cres's expression to shift. He was forced to recall his vines from their pursuit of Pagos, weaving them into a massive wall of greenery before him.
The arrow slammed into the vines. Purification energy stripped away the divine protection within the plants, while Absolute Zero froze them solid. The wall shattered with a roar, vines splintering in every direction. But green light surged again, and even more vines sprouted, managing to hold Hebe's volley at bay.
"Facing two Major Gods at once is indeed a bit troublesome," Cres shouted. "Awaken, my child!"
A majestic, booming command spilled from Cres's lips. He raised the Golden Grain Staff high. The hexagonal gem erupted with light, and a torrential river of green particles poured into the ground before him.
The sight was beautiful, but Hebe felt only a cold dread. The earth began to quake, and the entirety of Sphyttus Canyon shuddered violently.
In a flash, a gargantuan hand burst from the soil. Then a second, and a third. A giant nearly a thousand meters tall, sporting one hundred arms, hauled itself from the earth. Its massive eyes were filled with bloodlust and savagery. All hundred arms lunged simultaneously toward the hovering Hebe and Pagos, creating a localized hurricane with their movement.
"A Hekatoncheir!"
Hebe beat her wings to dodge the flailing arms. She was surprised, yet the logic held. In the Titan era, Gaia and Uranus had produced three Hekatoncheires (Hundred-Handed Ones)—monsters of fifty heads and a hundred arms with power enough to move mountains and seas. Because of their ugliness and fury, they were never recognized as gods and were eventually cast into Tartarus.
As Cres was a son of Gaia and held a Life office, his ability to create such a thing was logical. However, likely due to a lack of power, this creature had a hundred arms but lacked the legendary fifty heads.
The terror of a Hekatoncheir lay in its physical might. A single strike could shatter the body of a second-tier god. Furthermore, their skin, blessed by the earth, was naturally resistant to magic. In the ancient war, even the Titans struggled against them. Had they been more numerous, the throne of Olympus might have a different master today.
Hebe could sense Cres's bloodline within the giant. But while the original Hekatoncheires were intelligent, this creature was a mindless shell—a puppet.
A Bloodline Secret Art!
Hebe realized Cres had used a forbidden technique. He had siphoned his own essence to create a surrogate, transferring the karmic backlash of his god-slaying onto the puppet's soul. By sacrificing the creature's spirit, he avoided the laws' punishment.
Such terrifying intellect and ruthlessness, Hebe thought. She knew now that this was a fight to the death.
She and Pagos exchanged a glance. Being one soul, they moved in perfect harmony. Pagos's wings flared, and the Ring of Annihilation hovered above his head. His blade ignited with the purplish-red Infernal Flare.
"In the name of Pagos: Let the splendor of the Underworld illuminate this chasm!"
As he spoke, a phantom of the Nether Sun appeared in the dark canyon. Basking in its dark radiance, Pagos's aura skyrocketed. He dove toward the Hekatoncheir like a streak of black-gold light.
While Pagos handled the giant, Hebe turned her gaze toward the smiling Cres. Her violet eyes burned with battle intent. The Scepter of Life appeared in her hand.
"Domain of Life!"
Gold-green particles flooded the canyon like a rising tide. The miasma-choked Sphyttus Canyon was suddenly painted with vibrant life. Plants burst from the soil, blooming and growing at a frenzied pace. Flowers and jade grasses turned the battlefield into a dreamlike meadow, and towering trees rose from the dust. In this domain, Hebe's strength approached the peak of the Major God rank.
"A Domain of Life? What a gifted little thing you are," Cres noted, both impressed and regretful. He was stunned by her talent, yet saddened that such a genius would fall today.
Under Hebe's command, the vegetation converged into a massive green hand that lunged for Cres.
"Impressive. But in the arts of Life, no god has ever surpassed me," Cres declared. Even without the godhoods of Harvest and Agriculture, his mastery of life's essence was peerless.
"Rejuvenation!"
The Growth Godhood flared. The massive green hand froze mid-air. Its body began to shrink and regress; leaves curled, branches withered, and flowers closed. It regressed into a single seed that appeared on the verge of shattering.
"Anthem of Youth!"
Hebe countered. The seed stopped trembling. The office of Youth held things in their prime; the seed sprouted again instantly, regrowing into a giant hand in seconds.
"Thorn's Embrace!"
Cres's staff pulsed again. A mass of pale blue briars erupted from his feet, twisting into its own giant hand to clash with Hebe's. The briars were covered in ink-green, toxic thorns. They tore through Hebe's plants, spraying venom that caused the greenery to wither on contact.
"Hibernation!"
The Crown of Winter glowed. A thick layer of frost covered the thorn-hand, the power of slumber slowing its movements to a crawl.
"Wild Growth!"
Cres remained unhurried. The power of untamed growth allowed the briars to shatter the ice and shred Hebe's green hand into pieces. Broken flowers rained down from the sky, covering the canyon in a carpet of petals.
The scene was hauntingly beautiful. Cres frowned, sensing a discrepancy.
In a flash, the sound of wind being torn reached his ears. A streak of gold light pierced the rain of flowers. Hebe had appeared directly before him. Her right hand, cloaked in divine light, plunged into his chest.
Hebe had never intended to win a contest of life-magic against an ancient Titan. The Domain was a decoy to boost her speed, and the plant-hand was a deliberate failure. The rain of flowers, imbued with her divine energy, had masked his senses for this single killing blow to the heart.
But... the sound of tearing flesh never came.
Cres's smile remained as fixed as a statue's. His eyes held an eerie, vacant quality. Hebe looked down and saw no blood, no muscle. Her hand was buried in a trunk of withered wood.
Cres, the God of Growth, did not have a divine body!