The world shook.
A blinding white light erupted into existence, surging skyward like a newborn star. In an instant, it pierced the heavens.
The radiance consumed the center of the battlefield.
Boundless energy swept outward with unstoppable force, stripping away and annihilating everything in sight.
Zeus's expression darkened.
He had expected the Lightning Spear to crush several of the enemy's greatest gods in a single blow. Instead, a thunder god had stepped forward to meet him head-on. The divine lightning wielded by Tempest was so powerful that it could actually contend with the authority contained within the Lightning Spear itself.
Most of the spear's destructive power had been neutralized.
What remained was still devastating, but the Celestial Court had blocked it far more easily than Zeus had anticipated.
The situation immediately drew the attention of Olympus's elder gods.
One after another, ancient divine figures emerged from their retreats.
This was no longer a conflict involving Zeus's family alone.
The entire Olympian pantheon was under threat.
And for the first time, they recognized the Celestial Court as a genuine enemy.
The seventeen gods standing at the forefront of the invading force radiated divine power of astonishing purity.
Even Zeus's authority felt muddled in comparison.
Then there was the monster.
That terrifying nine-headed lion possessed neither divine authority nor godhood, yet it had casually devoured Olympian gods.
The thought alone was enough to send chills through immortal hearts.
Unlike the Twelve Olympians, many of the elder gods possessed far more specialized authorities. They weren't burdened by the sprawling collection of domains held by younger gods such as Hermes, whose portfolio had become absurdly bloated over the ages.
The battlefield descended into chaos.
Entire mountains were ripped apart and hurled into the distance.
From above, the destruction looked almost surreal.
Vast sections of the mountain range had been carved away as though some giant hand had scooped chunks from the earth.
Deep chasms split the land.
Peaks collapsed one after another.
Raging flames scorched everything they touched, reducing entire regions to blackened wastelands where no life could survive.
At the foot of Olympus, demigods and mortals fled in panic.
Only to run directly into the Celestial Court's armies.
The Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals promptly rounded them up and transported them into the Celestial Court Dimension.
The Olympian gods were stunned.
They had never seen such shameless behavior.
Kidnapping civilians in the middle of a war?
That was usually their thing.
When had the Celestial Court learned tactics like that?
The outrage was immediate.
Ares exploded with crimson divine power.
Blood-red energy engulfed both the God of War and his divine steed until horse and rider resembled a blazing meteor.
Their auras merged.
Their power climbed.
The atmosphere itself filled with the suffocating pressure of warfare and slaughter.
A pillar of scarlet light shot into the sky.
Ares charged forward, galloping across the air while leveling his spear toward his target.
Xingtian watched carefully.
Olympus possessed two gods strongly associated with war: Athena and Ares.
Yet Ares's authority over war was anything but weak.
Murderous intent flashed in the war god's eyes.
His spear glowed red.
The weapon tore through the air and drove straight toward Xingtian's chest.
Despite his massive size, Xingtian showed no trace of arrogance toward his much smaller opponent.
He swung the mighty Ganqi Axe sideways, intending to test Ares's strength first.
CLANG!
A crimson arc slashed across the battlefield.
Ares's spear strike cleaved through a mountain peak.
His warhorse reared up before stomping downward with tremendous force, kicking half of the shattered mountain through the air.
Moments earlier, Xingtian had struck him with a single axe blow and smashed him deep into the mountainside.
Now Ares was returning the favor.
Above them, Zeus raised the Lightning Spear once more.
Endless thunder converged around him.
Lightning coiled across his body, carrying enough destructive force to wipe entire regions from existence.
Then he charged.
"RAAAAAH!"
The King of the Gods crashed directly into Xingtian.
The Lightning Spear met the Ganqi Axe.
BOOM!
A flash of cold light burst between them.
The impact instantly swept away the surrounding air.
A visible boundary line appeared across the sky.
White above.
Crimson below.
The heavens themselves split into two opposing colors.
As both gods poured divine power into the clash, violent currents erupted in every direction.
Hurricane-force winds rolled outward.
The sky screamed.
The sea roared.
Massive waves rose and crashed across the ocean while black storm clouds consumed the horizon.
BOOM!
BOOM!
CRACK!
Lightning gathered from every corner of the battlefield.
Jagged bolts flashed through the darkness.
Then another figure emerged.
Sunpiercer.
The legendary archer had finally entered the fight.
BOOM!!!
Compressed energy erupted from his bowstring.
Released after being condensed to an absurd degree, the attack shot forward with the speed of lightning.
Space itself seemed to vanish before it.
A beam of light tore through the battlefield and raced toward Zeus's chest.
Except it wasn't merely a beam.
It was an arrow.
The Heaven-Shaking Bow.
The Sun-Slaying Arrow.
Sunpiercer's greatest weapon.
Zeus had been watching.
The instant the attack was unleashed, he immediately crossed the Lightning Spear before him.
Boundless thunder answered his call.
A vast defensive barrier of divine lightning formed around him.
The arrow struck.
The superheated energy pierced directly through the storm.
The lightning shield collapsed.
The protective shell shattered.
The Sun-Slaying Arrow slammed into the Lightning Spear itself.
Zeus's eyes widened.
The spear erupted with divine radiance as he pushed forward with all his strength.
Lightning exploded beneath his feet.
Heaven trembled.
Yet the arrow continued advancing.
Blood spilled from the corner of Zeus's mouth.
The King of the Gods was being driven backward.
Higher.
Higher.
Deeper into the sky.
Still, his arms never buckled.
His posture never broke.
Pride would not allow it.
Even now, Zeus refused to appear weak before gods and mortals alike.
RUMBLE!!!
The arrow carried him into the clouds.
Then the attack detonated.
The heavens exploded.
The resulting blast illuminated the world.
For a brief moment, the light surpassed the sun itself.
A tiny point of white brilliance expanded outward.
Colors shimmered within the explosion like fragments of a newborn galaxy.
The energy wave swept across the sky, erasing every cloud in sight.
When the light finally faded, silence followed.
The heavens above Olympus had become a flawless blue.
Not a single cloud remained.
"Excellent!"
The gods of the Celestial Court erupted into cheers.
"Sunpiercer's arrow deserves the first great merit of this campaign!"
The Olympian gods stared in disbelief.
The power of that shot was absurd.
It had forced Zeus himself onto the defensive.
Who could possibly survive such an attack?
Then the answer appeared.
The remnants of the white clouds drifted away.
A figure stood revealed.
Completely unharmed.
Zeus.
His Lightning Spear hung casually from his right hand.
On his left arm rested an ornate dark-gold shield.
The moment the Olympians saw it, their eyes widened.
"Aegis!"
The cry echoed across the battlefield.
The divine shield of Greek mythology.
Forged by Hephaestus, the God of the Forge.
There were two such shields.
One belonged to Zeus.
The other belonged to Athena.
Though fashioned from goatskin, Aegis was among the greatest divine artifacts ever created.
Zeus's version possessed unparalleled defensive power.
Even his own thunderbolts could not damage it.
When he wielded the shield, storms were born.
When it rested in the heavens, clouds gathered.
When Zeus raised it, skies cleared.
Only now did many realize the truth.
The storm clouds surrounding Olympus had been Aegis all along.
Zeus had carried the artifact with him the entire time.
Athena's shield was slightly weaker in terms of pure defense.
To compensate, she had enchanted it with powers representing fear, battle, savagery, and pursuit.
Later, she embedded the head of Medusa into its center, allowing it to turn those who gazed upon it into stone.
The dark clouds began gathering again.
Thunder rolled across Olympus.
Lightning burst through the darkness.
The air itself seemed to grow violent.
And Zeus, standing beneath the storm with Aegis in one hand and the Lightning Spear in the other, looked more like the King of the Gods than ever before.