The Seraphic System
Chapter: 118
(The Mark Of Kronos)
-{Leto}-
Leto watched intently from the crevice, the strange constructs had pulled her into, their hands working at the chains binding her wrists and ankles.
The metal bindings bit into her skin, bound tightly around her, the powerful enchantments actively suppressed her from accessing her Divine Power in a way that she hadn't been subjected to before.
But she could feel whatever artefact Kronos had acquired beginning to weaken.
The constructs around her worked at the chains with surprising efficiency, their movements coordinated in an unsettling way as they went about working on the main lock.
Her eyes calmly flickered to the battle raging before her.
The Angel was shockingly putting up a fight against Kronos, her eyes able to pick up the golden light covering his body, while Gravity warped around him, and covered him like a cloak. It was his shield against the relentless grip of Time.
Orange power dominated the area.
Multiple frozen attacks and shockwaves lingered in the air, suspended in what would become a devastating release of force if Kronos's domain was retracted.
Regardless of that, the Angel was holding his ground.
Leto analysed his technique, and found herself surprised and hopeful. To her practiced eye, it was clear that the Angel was anything but normal.
His manipulation of the Space around him bordered mastery, falling just a bit short of Kronos' control over Time.
Time and Space were intertwined, and by warping one, the Angel created pockets where the other couldn't fully take hold. It wasn't exactly a counter to Kronos's power. It was a loophole. A loophole that the Angel was exploiting mercilessly.
Even with Kronos using a Host instead of his real body, he had access to a significant amount of power. The fact that this stranger had found a way to move within the Titan King's Domain spoke to either brilliance or preparation. Possibly both.
It felt too perfect of a match-up to be a coincidence. It was as if this battle was fated to occur.
Her gaze shifted to the battle above. Another Angel fought against Atlas and a second entity she didn't recognise. The power being thrown around up there made the ground tremble even at this distance.
How had it come to this?
Strangers standing against the King of Titans on her behalf.
Leto was not accustomed to being rescued. She was accustomed to surviving on her own, and never needing the help of others. She had never, in her life, needed to ask for help, much less needed it during the long game of the Gods.
Her mind worked through the situation even as her body remained bound.
The ambush had been well executed.
Kronos had caught her near her favoured beach, springing a trap before she could access her full divine power. Time manipulation at the level of Kronos left no room for a reaction from her.
But Kronos had made a mistake.
He had assumed she was merely bait.
Naturally the bait had worked, Artemis had come for her. Her fierce, proud daughter, charging into enemy territory with silver eyes blazing, expecting some sort of fight only to be quickly subdued.
Then that loyalty became the weapon they used against her.
They forced Artemis under the sky.
Leto had watched her daughter crumple under the infinite weight, her body trembling as Atlas stretched his shoulders for the first time in aeons. The sight had hardened something inside her.
She had offered Kronos anything to stop her daughter's suffering. But as expected he had watched with cold amusement, dismissing her as irrelevant now that her purpose was served.
That dismissal was his second mistake.
Leto had not been idle in her captivity.
The Sky Matrix that held the burden in place was ancient. Crafted in an age when the Gods ruled unchallenged. But Leto knew its construction intimately.
She had helped build it. The three of them had worked together in those early days, each contributing their unique expertise to create something that could bind the very Heavens.
Zeus hadn't ever expected it to be used against one of his own, so he hadn't really cared who had helped in the making of it, he just needed a suitable prison that fitted his 'taste.'
Metis had provided the framework.
Her domain of Knowledge allowed her to design rituals of staggering complexity, integrating multiple divine concepts into a cohesive whole. The coordination required to balance the sky's conceptual weight across a single point had been her masterwork.
Hecate had established the boundaries.
Her power over thresholds and limits defined where the Matrix began and ended, creating the container that held the conceptual force in check.
And Leto had woven the veil. Her Kalyptourgy, the magic of concealment she had mastered as part of her Domain, hid the Matrix's workings from outside observation.
Her Onomaturgy, the power over names and words learned from Mnemosyne herself, bound the components together and allowed the seal to be held by someone, in which that someone would need a willing participant to take that weight.
It was all this that had created such a seal.
She had done it at a time when Zeus' praise was worth… something. But it would seem not all was wasted. It was this blessing that allowed her to know every thread of the construct. Every weakness.
In her bound state, she could only access power equivalent to a strong Demigod. Kronos's chain had seen to that. But she didn't need strength for what she intended.
She just needed to be careful.
Leto had been working on the Matrix since her capture. Subtle manipulations that wouldn't trigger the fail-safes. Shifts in the components she had originally inscribed, still thrumming with her imprint. Loosening threads in the veil that concealed the mechanism's core to her eyes.
She was close.
If she could destabilise the Matrix enough, the burden would shift. Not released entirely, but redistributed in a way that would have given Artemis a chance to escape.
Her daughter could warn Olympus and Kronos's plans would crumble.
The plan was solid and it was something that she was close to finishing.
Then the intruder arrived.
At first, Leto had thought him a messenger. A young man moving through shadows with a presence that barely registered on her senses. Then he began tampering with the seals.
At a brutish level.
His actions were skilled but uncoordinated with her own efforts. When he disrupted certain wards, the resulting cascade triggered alarms that shattered her concentration. And he didn't seem to really care about it as he rampaged through everything.
Her influence on the Matrix snapped like a broken thread. Frustration had flared. Days of careful work, undone in moments by someone who didn't understand what he was interfering with. It briefly made her feel a genuine resentment.
Then understanding followed.
He was there to rescue them. The man accompanying him had taken Artemis to safety. Leto found herself in the arms of an Angel, which raised questions she didn't have time to consider.
Her plan had failed. But his had succeeded.
She could accept that trade.
Then he got caught and the trade became a little less acceptable… but she could admit it wasn't quite his fault. From she had gathered another powerful 'ally' of Kronos had arrived.
That's when she had started planning for another escape when they were inevitably captured.
What she hadn't expected was his transformation. Power wrapped around him that put him on par with her own full strength. He engaged Kronos directly. Not a distraction or a delaying action, but an actual battle.
And he was still standing.
Even while fighting the Titan King, he had allocated resources to free her.
Leto considered her options as the chains weakened around her. She could flee once free. Find Apollo and bring reinforcements. It would be the safe choice.
Alas, 'safe' had never been her preference.
She had spent millennia playing the victim.
The forgotten Titaness, mother of two Olympians who rarely visited, tolerated but never valued.
She didn't resent that identity, but it wouldn't be very honest of her to say that she didn't want more. And watching this stranger risk his life for her and her daughter stirred something she had suppressed for a long time.
An ambition to grow. A will to conquer. A desire to be more than what she was.
The chains cracked.
Leto felt her power surge back, flooding through channels that had been blocked for days. Her divine form flickered at the edges of her perception, ready to manifest.
In any case, she wasn't going to leave her daughter or their saviour alone.
Light exploded across the battlefield, blinding even her sight.
-{Kai}-
The world of light consumed everything in sight, the mountain, the sky, and even the air found itself taking a second seat to the pure ball of heat that expanded out, light and holy power dominating the area in a burning wave that made my skin tingle.
I allowed myself to be soothed by it for just a moment, watching the Titan who warded off the scorching holy light with his own power.
For a brief moment, the Titan king was visibly blinded by the light that I could see perfectly through. His arm moved up, as if attempting to try to shield his eyes, his two golden eyes narrowed and wary.
That only lasted less than a second as he assessed the situation, and apparently not liking what he found, orange energy exploded out from him but wavered under the sheer output of angelic power I had released.
And in that moment, the sealing matrix activated.
My Sealing skill sat at the edge of apprentice rank, barely adequate for what I was attempting. The knowledge I had cobbled together came from too many sources.
Fragments of the Architect's sealing device that I had studied after his defeat. Observations from Kronos's own seal, the small part I had got my hands on anyway and binding arrays I had glimpsed within Heaven's deepest vaults.
All of it mixed together with my basic understanding of seals and a touch of artefact inscription.
It was a patchwork and a bit of a gamble, considering I wasn't some sort of master at sealing.
Multiple wooden clones had helped construct it while I fought, working from preset bases I had dropped from my inventory the moment the battle began.
I hadn't been completely over my head. I was fighting an older Titan who was considerably more powerful than me.
Chains erupted from the matrix below, bound to points of the intricate combined large seal, circular emblem, glowing in a dark bronze colour that pierced the world of light.
The seal itself was complex.
In its centre there was a large symbol of two human hands crossed at the wrists, palms facing outward with fingers fully extended and slightly spread, forming an X shape that symbolised unity and protection.
The chains were linked to my own and each link was inscribed with symbols that burned with accumulated power. Binding runes that pulled at Kronos's essence, trying to anchor him to a fixed point in reality.
Suppression sigils that countered his connection to the Domain of Time through targeted patches of space being twisted into swirls. There were even containment seals that sought to compress his power inward, forcing it to turn against itself.
A nasty mix.
The chains wrapped around his arms first, causing him to yank back and narrowly avoid the other chains that merely came to drain into the aura that permeated around him, fighting against the world of light that I had created.
Through the world of light, I saw Kronos's eyes widen.
I didn't have time to appreciate or enjoy his true surprise as every scrap of concentration I had went into maintaining the seal, my chakra reserves burning through my coils like fire through dry kindling.
The Rinnegan spun in my eyes, helping me visualise the flows of energy, but even that felt like it was straining under the weight of what I was attempting.
My body burned.
My angelic reserves screamed in protest. The semi-divine form that had been sustaining me flickered dangerously, its countdown coming close as I poured more and more into the seal.
The chains tightened.
I looked at how long I had left on my Semi-Divine form… less than three seconds.
Kronos roared.
Orange light exploded outward as he pushed back, his power flaring with renewed intensity. The chains groaned, several links cracking under the strain as time seemed to catch up to them, the material eroding as it turned to dust.
The Titan King got the room to move, pushing out of the main sealing zone, his body moved, slow but undoubtedly making his way out of the seal with a moderate pace.
I grit my teeth.
That wasn't good.
It was at that moment that Mahoraga finally moved.
The wheel on my familiar's back spun rapidly, each rotation marking another step in its adaptation. Where before the temporal field had slowed it to a crawl, now Mahoraga pushed through with unstoppable momentum.
Kronos noticed his movements immediately, a momentary confusion flickering in his eyes. His attention got split for just a fraction of a second, orange light condensing around the approaching Shikigami in a concentrated bubble of frozen time.
The same technique that had held everything else in stasis.
Mahoraga didn't slow, the bubble of orange parting around him as the golden wheel behind him spun faster. Cracks formed in the temporal bubble as my Shikigami's piercing blade came down in a devastating arc aimed at the Titan King's exposed flank.
Kronos's eyes flashed with cold fury.
He abandoned his attempt to escape the sealing zone entirely, pivoting to face the new threat. His fist connected with Mahoraga's chest before the blade could land, and the impact was cataclysmic.
My Shikigami practically exploded under the sheer might
Fragments of adapted flesh and bone scattered through the frozen air, suspended in orange light like grotesque ornaments. The sheer force of the blow had been enough to tear through Mahoraga in a single strike, the Titan's power concentrated into one devastating attack.
Mahoraga was already regenerating but was shot back.
But it had cost the Titan something of equal value.
The power he had been using to hold back the chains wavered. His focus had shifted just enough. His momentum toward the edge of the seal had stopped.
And the chains caught up.
Bronze links wrapped around his other arm, his torso, his legs. They pulled tight with renewed vigour, the sealing matrix drinking in the momentary lapse in his resistance.
More chains erupted from the cardinal points of the emblem, each one latching onto whatever part of the Titan they could reach.
Kronos snarled and expanded his temporal domain outward, the orange light intensifying as he fought to regain control.
I pushed harder.
In truth, I didn't know if this would work.
These weren't the seals that had originally bound him. Those had been crafted by beings far more powerful and knowledgeable than I.
But it was all I had.
The chains pulsed brighter.
More of them erupted from the ground, wrapping around Kronos in layers. Each one carried a different aspect of binding. Physical restraint. Magical suppression. Temporal anchoring (this one was the most complex and most effective). Soul-binding.
Kronos's muscles bulged as he strained against the bindings. The chains that had wrapped around his arms began to stretch, metal groaning as his raw physical might tested their limits.
He roared again, and this time I felt the true depth of his power.
Orange light erupted from every pore of his being. The power that had been oppressive before became absolutely crushing. The chains that bound him began to age, years passing in seconds as rust spread across their surfaces.
More importantly, the energy that was being used sped up considerably and I felt myself being pushed back, sliding across the air despite my gravitational anchoring.
The seal was failing. I could see it in the way the symbols flickered, in the way the chains lost their lustre and withered away.
My chakra reserves hit near empty, then they kept draining. With no other choice I began burning through life force now, via the usage of the lesser Grail, the effect was immediate, green and blue energy coming to stream up the chakra that was powering the seal.
The world narrowed to just this, Kronos resisted the chains, something alien in his eyes as he stared at them with some sort of intrinsic fear.
His gaze locked with mine for a second before he was forced to deal with the assault. Time slowed down as the struggle between us made my mind become foggy, the sole goal to seal the Titan that had given me one of the hardest battles of my life was set in my mind.
Once more I was fighting way above my weight class but that didn't put me off, besides the genuine threat of dying should this fail I wanted to burn the bastard for hurting Hestia.
Another Chain blew away, the temporal power infused with Divine Power rampaging and going for a counter-attack against my sealing technique. I felt my grasp loosen slightly as power raged towards me.
Then warmth touched my hands.
Leto stood beside me, her presence was sudden and unexpected. My wooden clones seem to have done the job and now her hands covered mine, her fingers intertwining with my own.
I guess the seal wasn't the only thing my wood clones had succeeded at. That was good… I had been concerned about the waste of Chakra due to just how much it took to make them.
Divine power flowed from her into the seal, tingling over the surface of my hand, the incredibly potent energy surged out and blended with mine, its ability to adapt showing
The chains blazed with renewed light. Silver mixed with gold, her divinity layering over my construction, reinforcing what I had built.
Kronos's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Are you sure you want to do this, Leto?"
The voice could be barely heard over the buzzing of the world of light.
Leto didn't respond, instead, she pursed her lips as she focused, her already serious expression becoming slightly solemn.
Kronos pushed harder, and even with Leto's help, I felt the seal straining. The chains held, but barely. His progress had slowed from a rapid break to a grinding crawl, but he was still making progress.
Kronos grimaced, his large body expanded, muscles swelling and thick veins bulging across his arms and neck, skin stretching taut over them in raised lines that gleamed with a yellow hue.
He turned his torso sharply, waves of orange light shooting from his skin in rapid bursts that covered the bronze chains in spreading patches of red-brown rust, the metal links bending and making grinding noises as he pulled his arm outward with a loud crack that carried over the broken ground.
The added energy flowed along the chains' surfaces, making the outer parts harden and shine brighter, but gaps appeared where orange glows leaked through small openings in the links.
Sweat dripped from my forehead and cheeks, my eyes squinting at the bright circle on the ground below, as his head stayed fixed with eyes staring directly ahead, his arm inching forward bit by bit.
A heat throbbed in my chest, warmth moving through my arms and legs like flowing liquid, my eyebrows furrowing as new tingling spread inside my body.
I needed more.
The fact that Leto was struggling with me was… a sobering realisation.
My body shook as my chakra just dropped below one per cent capacity, my chest began to burn, more noticeably than my entire body. The divine shard pulsed.
The Rinnegan pulsed in my eyes.
Through the fog of exhaustion and pain, fragments of memory surfaced, hazy recollections of that desperate moment when I had tapped into the Outer Path's summoning.
But now, with Kronos's orange domain clawing at my senses, I barely had time to focus on it as the prime source of this attack. Perhaps Leto could fight off Kronos, but I refused to rely on an outside force.
The divine shard in my chest ignited without warning, a searing blaze that ripped through my core like molten fire forging through flesh, pain so intense it drowned out the clashing powers.
I wobbled in the sky, my glowing wings flapping once as I looked down in confusion.
My soul felt like it was being slowly twisted, as if torn apart and stitched back with threads of light too bright to comprehend, an immense presence stirring within, gazing outward through my blurring vision.
My Rinnegan activated and the last of my chakra vanished.
I couldn't form coherent thoughts, only endured the inferno raging inside, the relentless pull dragging something colossal, my body trembling as if on the brink of shattering.
Kronos seemed to notice, his eyes going deathly still as a massive blast of energy found itself directed at me, his complete disregard for himself allowing the seals to drive him back.
The Outer Path awakened fully.
My vision was flooded with a blinding white.
Behind me, the air was torn apart with a deafening crack, a rift splitting the fabric of space like thunder rending the heavens, unleashing a torrent of light that wasn't my golden holy glow or Kronos's temporal orange.
Kronos froze mid-struggle, his armoured form rigid, eyes widening in raw shock that contorted his hooded features, a flicker of primal fear flashing across his golden orbs for the first time.
His temporal waves faltered.
From the rift emerged something. I couldn't quite make it out as I focused solely on pushing Kronos back.
The sealing matrix below transformed in an instant, my patchwork runes erupting, chains coming to blaze with incandescent power as inscriptions rewrote themselves in swirling scripts of unknown origin, symbols etching into existence with cosmic weight, each one bending the air around it as the bindings surged with renewed, unstoppable force.
Leto trembled in my arms.
I blinked.
When had she gone there?
The seal beneath us transformed, my soul feeling like it was tearing a part in equal measure, causing me to let go of the seal as I gritted my teeth at the sheer lance of agony.
Kronos's eyes met mine through the chaos.
And the mountain shook.
-{Kronos}-
Kronos felt the strain on his host's body, ignoring it with ease as he stared at the annoying Angel that had proven to be a far larger threat than the Titan King had given him credit for.
The wide set of skills that felt… odd for an Angel or any being to have was a jarring experience and Kronos could admit the application of Gravity magic to nullify his Domain of Time had been a startle.
Now, this Angel had shown himself a bigger threat than he expected. But the power gap couldn't be breached. And Kronos found himself needing to deal with the unknown threat battling two very powerful allies of his.
And then the Angel had played what Kronos was sure was his last move.
A move that had genuinely stunned him and made him realise he should have gone full force straight away. It couldn't be helped that he was enjoying being free once more in the limited capacity he was.
Still… the strange seals weren't all-powerful and luckily he was able to resist them.
Even with Leto joining. He was stronger, he was submerged in time itself after all with an affinity that would make the very small number of beings that had managed to play with time and survive envious.
It had been close, even with that strange large creature that seemed to somehow overcome his time abilities.
Until now.
He stared at the being behind the obviously pained angel or the being behind him.
An ethereal silhouette stood behind him, wings unfurling in a colour that was simply white and a robe that fluttered. The sheer size of the being was enough to make it tower over the Angel as two deep eyes gazed at him.
There was a recognition of when two ancient beings met each other, yet, the being behind him felt a lot older than him and furthermore a lot more dangerous.
Which was strange since the power coming from it wasn't overwhelming or not as overwhelming as Kronos would have thought it would have been.
He felt a shiver pass through him.
What was this?
The Angel had done something, perhaps a message? But it appeared to be harming him greatly.
He couldn't focus on it too much.
The chains around him blazed with renewed intensity, their inscriptions rewriting themselves.
This wasn't the Angel's work anymore.
The sealing matrix beneath him transformed, crude patchwork becoming divine architecture. What had been bronze turned to blinding white-gold. The symbols that had been flickering with borrowed power now burned with authority that predated the Titans themselves.
Kronos strained against the bindings with everything he had.
They didn't budge.
For the first time in a long time, genuine fear crept into the Titan King's heart. Not the cautious wariness he had felt when facing Zeus and his brothers. Not the calculated concern of a general assessing unfavourable odds.
This was primal.
This was the fear of a predator realising it had become prey.
The presence didn't speak.
Didn't need to.
Its attention settled on Kronos like the weight of a collapsing star, and the Titan felt his domain of time shudder. His mastery over the fundamental force of the universe, the power that had made him king among his kind, wavered like a candle flame before a hurricane.
The chains tightened further.
Still, Kronos managed to regain his bearings and attempt to defy it.
Kronos roared, pouring every ounce of his divine essence into resistance. Orange light clashed against white-gold in a storm of opposing forces that tore the remaining ground apart. Mountains crumbled in the distance.
The sky itself seemed to crack.
But inch by inch, link by link, the chains pulled tighter.
His gaze found the Angel again. The young one who had orchestrated this. Who had somehow, impossibly, called upon a power that should no longer exist in this world.
Those strange eyes with their purple ripples met his own.
Just who what trick had he pulled now?
-{Gabriel}-
The clothing store was bright.
Fluorescent lights were overhead, casting everything in that artificial glow that humans seemed to find acceptable. Racks of fabric stretched in every direction, organised by colours and styles that Gabriel couldn't begin to understand the purpose of.
She picked up a shirt with some sort of cartoon animal on it and tilted her head.
Why would anyone wear this?
A group of young men walked past, their conversation dying mid-sentence as they caught sight of her.
Gabriel didn't need to look to know they had stopped walking entirely. She could feel their stares, their hearts quickening for some strange reason.
She ignored them with ease.
Though she did look at herself in the mirror curiously.
Golden hair that caught every light source and seemed to glow from within, her emerald eyes reflected back at her curiously. While she wore the clothing they called a 'sundress.'
The store clerk had dropped an entire stack of folded jeans when Gabriel had walked in, so she was more than a little interested if perhaps she had something on her face.
She put the shirt back and glanced over at Azrael.
Her sister stood near a rack of dark shirts, looking profoundly out of place despite her attempts at blending in. The Angel of Death wore black jeans and a simple sweater, her dark hair pulled back in a style that was meant to appear casual.
It didn't work.
At least she thought so, since she was recovering just as many stares as she was.
Gabriel suppressed a smile.
They were being ridiculous and she knew it.
Kai had left with Michael and Kai only a few days ago… desiring to go alone and unnoticed, sneaking in and doing what they needed to do, then proceeding to slip out once more so as not to gain attention.
It was something that meant they were frustratingly meant to remain in Heaven, waiting for a potential message of distress if they encountered something even remotely dangerous as they had agreed.
And yet here they were.
Two of Heaven's most powerful Arch-Seraphim, pretending to shop for mortal garments in a store that smelled aggressively of perfume and new fabric, all because they had been too restless to stay in Heaven.
Gabriel had tried to focus on her duties. She really had. But every few minutes her thoughts would drift to Kai, to the dangers he might be facing, to the thousand ways a "secretive" mission could go wrong.
She had found Azrael pacing the halls of the Sixth Heaven and suggested they relocate somewhere closer.
Just in case.
So they decided to go shopping… for the twenty-sixth time on the last day.
Gabriel picked up another shirt, this one with words she didn't recognise. She was fairly certain it was meant to be humorous based on the crude imagery.
Humans were strange.
A woman with a small child walked past, the mother's eyes going wide as she took in Gabriel's appearance. The child pointed and said something about a princess.
Gabriel offered a small wave that made the child giggle and the mother walked into a display stand.
Azrael appeared at her side, holding up a jacket with an expression of genuine confusion.
"Why does this have so many pockets?" she asked. "What could a human possibly need to carry that would require seven pockets?"
"Perhaps they lose things often," Gabriel suggested.
"They have two hands. How many objects could they reasonably hold?"
Gabriel opened her mouth to respond when the air shifted.
A shade materialised between the clothing racks, its dark form invisible to every human eye in the vicinity. A Shade construct, its appearance looking like it had been woven from shadows.
Azrael went rigid.
Her hand shot out, intercepting the shade before it could reach Gabriel. Dark energy flowed between them, information transferring in an instant. Gabriel watched her sister's face carefully and saw the moment her expression changed.
Azrael's eyes went wide. Her jaw clenched, teeth grinding together audibly.
"What?" Gabriel asked urgently.
"Kai and Michael said they might need backup..." Azrael revealed, her silver eyes turning troubled and shifting crimson.
"Might?" Gabriel stepped closer, her previous amusement evaporating entirely. A cold weight settled in her chest.
What did might mean in this occasion?
"It seems they weren't sure, which is good but if anything can hold off Michael I don't like it in any range of Kai." Azrael cursed, her black lips pressed into a thin line. "The message took a while to get since we weren't in Heaven."
Gabriel's blood ran cold.
Something that could hold off Michael. Her brother, one of the strongest beings in Heaven. And Kai was there, in the middle of it, probably doing something reckless because that seemed to be his default state of being.
She grabbed Azrael's arm, the jacket with seven pockets falling forgotten to the floor.
"Where are they?!"
-{Galadriel}-
She couldn't see him.
The ball of light that had erupted from her master's position was blinding even to her eyes.
It hurt to look at it directly.
Galadriel hovered at the edge of the battlefield, her form flickering between corporeal and ethereal as she tried to find an angle that would let her glimpse what was happening inside.
Her connection to Kai was still there, thrumming with strain and pain and desperate determination, but the visual was lost to her.
She disliked this situation thoroughly.
The Titan King's power had been suffocating even from this distance.
And Kai had charged straight into it.
Because of course he had. Her master was many things. Resourceful. Impossibly stubborn. Cold to his enemies. But caution had never been among his virtues.
He collected dangerous situations the way other beings collected trinkets, diving headfirst into conflicts that should have killed him a dozen times over.
She had been there through it all after all… mostly hiding under his shirt and having to avoid the attacks that did hit him.
It was infuriating.
It was terrifying.
It was... very him.
Perhaps the other Angels had been correct to send everyone with him, but Galadriel knew her master had truly tried to merely sneak out and had nearly succeeded at that.
The light pulsed again, and Galadriel felt something shift within it.
The confusing magic known as a sealing matrix her master had been preparing, the patchwork construction she had watched his clones assemble throughout the battle, had activated. She could sense its power straining against Kronos's domain, two fundamental forces grinding against each other.
Galadriel's gaze swept the battlefield, cataloguing threats and positions with practised efficiency.
The battle above continued to rage, Michael's golden light clashing against the Titan and the Devil in displays of power that shattered what remained of the mountain's barriers.
That was what she made out of it anyway, she wasn't nearly powerful enough to perceive.
Percy and the others were somewhere below, hopefully safe, hopefully-
She froze.
At the peak of Mount Othrys, something stirred. It had been there the entire time, but now it was waking. Far later than it had any right too considering the sheer power being thrown around the immediate area.
Scales the colour of dried blood shifted against stone. A neck uncoiled, then another, then another. Heads rose from the peak like terrible flowers blooming, each one larger than buildings, each one opening eyes that burned with hatred.
Ten heads.
Twenty.
Fifty.
They kept coming.
Galadriel counted and lost track, her mind struggling to process what she was seeing.
A hundred heads, perhaps more, each one attached to a body that defied comprehension. Wings that could blot out the sky began to unfurl. A roar built in a hundred throats simultaneously.
The dragon of Mount Othrys.
Or as Kai had said, the Dragon named Ladon.
It had awakened in face of the sheer amount of magic firing around.
And it was looking directly at the ball of light where her master fought.
-{Kai}-
Confusion clouded my mind.
What had I done? I didn't remember having any summons, I had been planning on trying it with Galadriel… but this wasn't her.
The presence behind me shifted.
I felt its attention settle on me for just a moment.
A new seal came to form over mine, combining with it and looking infinitely more complex than mine, to the point I would have blushed in embarrassment had I not been distracted from the sheer pain wracking my body.
The new seal expanded rapidly, runic-like lines weaving into my patchwork like threads of starlight stitching through coarse fabric, each symbol pulsing with ethereal glows that outshone my bronze links, the combined matrix shimmering in layers of gold and silver that bent the air around Kronos's struggling form.
Kronos's eyes bulged, his hooded face contorting as veins throbbed across his forehead, his mouth opening wide in a roar that vibrated the shattered mountain below, chest heaving as he flexed his arms against the tightening chains.
His hood burnt away, leaving an unfamiliar face with two burning eyes.
The bronze links dug deeper into his armour, metal groaning as they compressed his limbs, his skin rippling under the pressure while ichor seeped from fresh cracks.
He scowled.
His orange aura began to flicker wildly as the seal's power invaded, slowing his movements inch by inch, his legs buckling first as the runes latched onto his essence, pulling it inward like a collapsing star.
He thrashed, massive fists pounding against the bindings, each strike sending sparks flying and cracks spreading along the chains, but the seal held, runes multiplying to reinforce the weak points,
His body gradually folded as the matrix contracted, compressing him into a smaller form, limbs folding against his torso while his roar weakened to a weak glare, golden eyes dimming as the light enveloped him completely.
"You can't do this." Kronos gritted. "Name your price and I'll make it happen. If you desire to save these Gods, then it'll be so. Do not forsake a potential ally."
"Ally?" I said, barely able to speak the words. "I don't think recent events have shown you as much of an 'ally'"
"I am merely using the support from the Khaos Brigade, they mean nothing beyond that," Kronos said, his veins glowing. "I can tell you more of their workings."
"You seem rather serious." I chuckled. "Sealing really is a bastard isn't it?"
He opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was a mass of orange power in what I could only assume was Kronos without a host.
It was then that I realised there was no vessel or anchor nearby to contain the seal's core.
Shit…
The orange mist didn't waste any time, curling into a massive ball and then exploding in a wave of speed, attempting to get out of sight.
I focused my last shreds of attention inward, the matrix shifting toward my chest, chains retracting into my skin with burning trails that seared my flesh.
It was a quick and hurried thought, made by someone who was on the brink of passing out.
If there was nothing else to seal Kronos in, I'd just have to use myself…
Kronos's compressed form vanishes into the glowing emblem now etched over my heart, the weight settling inside like a caged storm, my body shuddering from the internal pressure.
A new mark was set on my chest, one I looked at with tired eyes.
It raged, as if the being inside was trying to get out already, which was most likely the case and I found my skin rotting.
My teeth grit at the sheer pain.
The presence behind me was holding out its arm, taking control of the seal as my body and soul seemed just about done with hosting his presence, actual damage occurring in my soul.
Finally, the seal abruptly stopped glowing and faded, the pain vanishing along with the light.
I dropped to my knees in the air, the final barrier around the mountain shattering in a cascade of sparkling shards that rained downward.
The dozens of concealment wards crumble from the strain of super-class clashes, exposing the peaks to the open sky.
A piercing gaze locked onto us instantly, eyes like storm clouds boring through the distance, space rippling faintly as if pierced by lightning, the presence radiating fury that made the winds howl and clouds darken.
Zeus's form manifested in the far horizon, his bearded face twisted in rage, brows furrowed deeply, lightning crackling around his clenched fists, his muscular frame tensing as alarm widened his eyes momentarily.
My jaw clenched tight as blood trickled from my lip, glaring back through blurred vision, a stray thought flickering of sealing him too, my hand twitching toward my chest despite the impossibility.
The presence behind me shifted and followed my gaze.
Zeus' eyes widened further, pupils dilating as his presence recoiled, the gaze averted sharply, storm clouds dispersing as he withdrew almost in a hurry.
It was a few seconds of standing, as I simply looked around at the sheer destruction. My body gave out then, leaving me boneless and plummeting toward the cracked ground below.
"…"
Fighting the King of Titans wasn't my best idea.
I took a moment to breathe, watching Leto carefully as she observed the scene with a detached sort of interest, though there was a profound shock in her eyes and I could see her re-evaluate me.
That had been… intense.
I gazed towards the battle that Michael was embroiled on, noticing a lack of demonic attacks while Atlas' large form peeked from the side of the mountain.
Rizevim… I hadn't expected to see a Devil here and a Lucifer at that. But perhaps it was wishful thinking to think he had gone down, especially with the presence of actual Demons.
The question was where had he gone?
I wouldn't be able to find out, even the giant body of Atlas was moving at a speed that felt wrong, every movement shifting the air with shockwaves we could feel from here.
Galadriel moved and I focused on her next, allowing myself to release a sigh of relief, she wasn't wounded too badly.
"Master." Her voice echoed in my head, feeling oddly soothing.
"What is it Galadriel?" I asked, sitting up and looking at my Familiar.
Leto's attention drew on me.
"Danger." She replied mentally, her eyes flickering up.
I looked up, staring back at dozens of heads glaring down at me from the distant peak of the mountain.
Mahoraga took that moment to reform and I stared flatly.
Damn it.
-{Michael}-
Michael flew forward through the inky storm.
His fourteen wings cut clean paths as he closed on Rizevim, sword raised high with holy energy crackling along its edge.
He slashed downward, the blade carving a bright arc that sliced through a bolt of corrosive energy, the impact sending dark shards scattering like broken glass.
Rizevim twisted away, his massive inky wings flapping to propel him backwards, but the tip of the sword grazed his arm, opening a gash that sizzled with golden light, black blood oozing from the wound as his skin blistered around it.
Atlas hurtled through the air with enlarged fists clenched, his colossal hand sweeping in a wide grab toward Michael.
Michael dodged left, his body blurring as he spun mid-air, but the edge of the Titan's fingers clipped his side, tearing fabric and drawing lines of ichor that dripped in shimmering trails.
Pain flared through his ribs, bones creaking from the force, but he countered instantly, thrusting his free hand forward to unleash a beam of condensed holy light that struck Atlas's chest.
The beam impacted with massive vaporising explosions that barely left a mark on the metallic sheen that had become his skin, but succeeded in forcing the Titan to reel back through the clouds.
Michael backed away carefully, in time as an arrow from Artemis' bow streaked across the distance, its silver tip glowing as it pierced the black tempest near the rapidly approaching Rizevim, exploding in a burst of divine shards that shredded part of his inky covering, exposing pale skin underneath with shallow cuts that wept dark fluid.
Rizevim snarled, his body jerking from the blast and sent a massive blast of demonic energy burning through reality towards the Goddess.
A blast Michael was forced to block, further annoying the devil as he retaliated with a nasty whip of his tentacle limb, the appendage lashing out toward Michael while corrosive spheres formed along its length.
It was safe to say the battle had progressed, not as much as he would have liked. And the wounds for beings of their level were considered surface-level more than anything.
Michael parried the limb with his sword, the clash vibrating up his arm as sparks flew, but one sphere detonated close enough to splash acid across his shoulder, eating through his robe and blistering skin in red welts.
He grit his teeth, holy aura flaring to stop the damage as he flew upward to avoid Atlas's descending fist, the punch compressing the air into rippling shockwaves that buffeted nearby clouds.
Rizevim pressed the advantage, demonic wings beating to launch him higher, his hands weaving threads of dark power into a net that expanded rapidly, tendrils reaching for Michael like grasping fingers.
Michael sliced through several with quick sword strokes, the severed ends dissolving in puffs of smoke, but one wrapped around his leg, burning flesh and pulling him off-balance, muscles straining as he kicked free with a burst of holy energy that obliterated the tendril and made the nearby tendrils burn.
Artemis released another volley, three arrows flying in rapid succession, each paced with divine power as they targeted Atlas's legs. Large vaporising explosions briefly halted Atlas' surprisingly quick approach to Michael.
The large explosions of silver light spread out with sparks, clearing up a few moments later to reveal small burn marks. But a lack of piercing that made Artemis visibly annoyed.
Atlas' large eyes glared at her.
Michael quickly went forward, summoning a large attack that barrelled into the distract Titan's chest and forced him back.
Another flick had multiple circles forming and creating a massive attack behind him, generating a beam of light that punched towards the recovering Rizevim.
His hand flicked, another purple circle allowing the beam of light to pass through and multiplying the attack with a glimmer of purple.
That was followed by more arrows that streaked through the sky.
Michael approached Atlas, covering his sword in a condensed beam of plasma-like light that covered his sword, slashing it and allowing the condensed beam to explode, impacting Atlas' raised arms and drawing a line of blood.
Atlas quickly stepped back, the movement causing a landslide on his awkward position half on the mountain, his massive foot sliding down slightly as another massive fist rose, billowing towards Michael with a gathering shockwave.
Michael met the charge, erecting a barrier of light that shimmered into existence, gaining another flash of purple and gaining purple veins that visibly empowered it till the point Michael's form was obscured by light.
The shield absorbed the Titan's shoulder bash with a boom that cracked its surface and sent Michael skidding backward through the air, arms numb from the recoil.
The shockwave erupted out and sent chunks of rocks out of place.
A massive detonation occurred, Rizevim struggling with his previous attack as its heat actively began burning the world below. Rizevim gritted his teeth in the distance, burns wracking up on his arms as he narrowly avoided.
Michael didn't miss the opportunity and followed up with a series of light lances from his palm, the projectiles streaking toward Rizevim, two hitting his chest and burning holes in his inky armor, forcing the devil to cough blood as he recoiled.
Rizevim countered with a demonic wave, the dark blade curving through the air and slicing across Michael's wing, feathers singeing and falling as pain lanced through his back, blood dripping from the cut.
Atlas capitalized, his fist connecting with Michael's side in a glancing blow that shattered the erected barrier and cracked more ribs, the impact hurling him sideways through swirling mists, his wings laboring to stabilize.
Artemis stayed at a distant hover near the mountain's peak, her bow drawn taut as she fired steadily, arrows providing aerial explosions that served as annoyance to the enemies without closing in, her form tense as she aimed carefully to avoid the immediate zone where movements blurred too fast for her to engage directly.
Michael pressed on, summoning spikes of holy stone to materialize in the sky around Atlas, the formations hurtling toward him and impaling his arm, drawing more ichor, but the Titan ripped free with a grunt, his size allowing him to close despite the injury.
Rizevim dove in, his sword clashing against Michael's in a flurry of strikes, each block jarring Michael's grip, cuts opening on his arms from near misses as the devil's corrosive aura ate at his defenses.
The Arch-Seraph landed a solid thrust into Rizevim's thigh, the blade sinking deep and eliciting a roar of pain.
Atlas's backhand caught Michael across the chest, tearing his robe and bruising flesh beneath, pushing him further back across the sky, his wings laboring to stabilize as ichor trailed from new gashes.
Michael appeared a ways away, his body burning.
His eyes assessed the damage coldly.
Rizevim's eyes gleamed with malicious glee as he raised his arms, shadows coiling around his hands like living smoke, condensing into a massive scythe of darkness that materialized, its blade curving wickedly and crackling with embedded energy.
The spell or technique obviously caused some sort of backlash as Rizevim's hand visibly became red, a pained grimace flashing through his features.
The weapon swung in a test arc, releasing static bolts that shot upward into the sky, lingering as jagged rifts that hissed and gnawed at the surrounding air, distorting clouds and leaving trails of void where atmosphere dissolved.
He advanced from Michael's left flank, the scythe sweeping to swat away an incoming arrow from Artemis, the silver projectile exploding on contact in a flash of divine light, only for the released energy to twist and funnel into the static rifts, absorbed like fuel into the voids, empowering them to expand slightly with absorbed power.
Atlas mirrored the approach from the right, his colossal bronze body gliding through the air with ground quaking momentum, fists clenched and aura pulsing as he closed in.
The two super class foes converging in a deadly pincer, their combined presence compressing the sky between them, winds howling from the pressure.
Michael looked at the manoeuvre carefully.
Michael's breaths came shorter now, wings drooping slightly from fatigue, feathers matted with celestial blood, but his eyes hardened with resolve.
He had endured enough and the building worry at Father's situation had finally reached its limit.
He allowed them to come close.
Channeling deep into his reserves, he invoked the god class spell Layered Detonation, his body glowing as circles of holy power stacked around him in rapid succession.
Waves of explosive light erupted outward in successive bursts, each detonation blooming with solar flare intensity, brilliant flares that scorched the air and illuminated the heavens like newborn suns, the blasts chaining into a cataclysmic cascade.
Rizevim's eyes widened and Atlas' massive body began to backtrack.
His power domain activated in tandem, amplifying the spell fivefold, the explosions swelling to monstrous scale, light waves rippling with intensified force that vaporised everything in sight nearby clouds vanishing and vaporized floating debris, the sheer output making the sky tremble as if the firmament itself recoiled.
Rizevim's inky form shredded under the assault, the darkness evaporating in steaming wisps as burns erupted across his pale skin, flesh charring black and peeling in places, forcing him to scream as he was hurled backward through the air, wings tattered.
Atlas fared little better, the amplified flares slamming into his bronze body like divine hammers, scorching his metallic sheen and cracking the surface in deep fissures.
Ichor fell from the wounds as he was blown back, crashing into the dominating mountain with a thunderous impact that sent avalanches cascading down its slopes, his form embedding in the rock face momentarily.
Michael breathed, backing away from the both of them but already preparing larger attacks with the time that was being given to him.
The Titan and Devil recovered quickly, as was expected of their power.
Michael gathered his power for another strike, sword glowing as he advanced, wings spreading wide despite the ache in his ribs, until a sudden shift rippled through the ether, a presence blooming like dawn breaking over the horizon.
He felt it instantly.
Father…
His eyes lifting upward in a mix of wonder that brightened his gaze and confusion that furrowed his brow, his heart racing past the calm beat of it as he controlled his breathing carefully.
Rizevim froze, his features twisting into an unknown expression, skin paling further as his eyes widened, body trembling, from the pain or something else was left unknown.
It was on the other side of the mountain, but the light shining through couldn't be hidden. And most of all neither could the power.
They both knew that aura and that presence.
Rizevim hesitated, emotions flashing through his eyes rapidly, bat-like wings faltering, then bolted in a blur of demonic speed, dark trails streaming behind him as he fled across the sky.
Atlas snarled, his bronze face contorting in anger at the devil's cowardice, fists clenching as he glanced after the retreating form, but Michael moved to intercept Rizevim, wings propelling him in pursuit with a burst of light.
The super devil slipped through a rift of shadow, vanishing before Michael could close the gap, leaving the Arch Seraph hovering in frustration, sword still raised as the sky echoed with the fading remnants of battle.
Michael narrowed his eyes but accepted the loss…
Truth be told it was a relief.
Now, he could focus on one target.
The Titan looked confused and Michael had to admit a part of him was as well.
How was this possible?
Artemis sent him a glance, one which he didn't return as he focused on Atlas wholly.
He needed to finish this and with only Atlas to focus on, he found himself pushing forward at full power.
-END-
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