Among the remaining loyal Titans, Iapetus was perhaps the most pragmatic.
Father of Prometheus, he had always been known for his patience and foresight. The moment he realized Gaia supported Zeus during the Titan War, he had quietly disappeared from the battlefield and avoided committing himself to a losing cause.
Still, Cronus couldn't claim he had been completely abandoned.
Of the original Twelve Titan Lords, one unwavering supporter had remained by his side.
Crius.
They had been defeated together.
Captured together.
Imprisoned together.
For countless years, the two had occupied neighboring cells in Tartarus.
If nothing else, their brotherhood had endured.
BOOM!
Ancient mechanisms groaned to life.
The final prison within the Abyss slowly opened.
Massive bronze doors parted under the combined strength of the three Hundred-Handed Giants.
Inside waited Olympus's most dangerous prisoner.
The father Zeus feared most.
Cronus.
Two colossal pillars rose behind him.
Twelve chains pierced his body and bound him in place, suspending him above the ground.
Blue flames burned along the chains.
The cursed fire consumed flesh, organs, and divine essence without end.
Having gone ages without seeing a visitor, Cronus slowly lifted his head.
A red glow flickered between strands of matted hair.
A thin trail of white steam escaped his lips.
"Who are you?"
The pressure radiating from the former King of Gods was overwhelming.
Athena immediately felt the difference.
Compared to these ancient primordial-era deities, she belonged to a younger generation.
Powerful by modern standards.
Insignificant by theirs.
She didn't dare hide anything.
Athena quickly explained the Celestial Court's invasion and the disastrous battle unfolding at Olympus.
Cronus listened in silence.
After a long pause, his expression softened slightly.
"So."
"A powerful enemy has invaded."
"And Zeus wants every available force brought to bear."
"Even the Titans he imprisoned."
A strange smile crossed his face.
He hadn't expected such decisiveness from his youngest son.
Then laughter echoed through the prison.
"Well, well."
"So this is where the Titan gods are being kept?"
Everyone froze.
New figures entered the chamber.
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Athena's face changed.
"The Celestial Court!"
The newcomers wore the armor of the Celestial Court.
At their head stood a smiling Heavenly General.
"Our Emperor anticipated this outcome."
His tone remained calm.
"That's why we were sent here to wait."
Then everyone noticed what he carried.
A spear crackling with divine thunder.
A golden shield.
The Lightning Spear.
The Aegis.
For a moment, Athena's heart nearly stopped.
Had Zeus already fallen?
The Heavenly General immediately understood what they were thinking.
"Relax."
"Your King of Gods isn't dead."
He casually lifted the weapons.
"These are simply versions manufactured by the Celestial Court."
Athena and the others looked again.
The force present within the artifacts felt genuine.
Around the Heavenly General stood dozens of Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals.
Every single officer carried a Lightning Spear and an Aegis Shield.
Mass-produced.
The thought alone was absurd.
Still, hearing Zeus was alive eased some of their concerns.
The Hundred-Handed Giants no longer hesitated.
They immediately began freeing Cronus.
The moment the chains fell away, the former Titan King's body began healing.
Divine flesh regenerated.
Muscles expanded.
Ancient power awakened.
Within moments, his shattered form had regained much of its former strength.
His aura surged violently.
The increase was breathtaking.
Athena and the Hundred-Handed Giants immediately charged forward.
They needed time.
Time to free the remaining Titans.
The lead Heavenly General merely sneered.
Thunder gathered around his Lightning Spear.
RUMBLE!
One after another, the Heavenly Soldiers raised their own weapons.
Lightning erupted throughout Tartarus.
The entire Abyss was illuminated by divine thunder.
Athena's expression darkened.
The Hundred-Handed Giants stared in disbelief.
Mass-produced replicas?
This was a replica?!
The amount of divine thunder radiating from those weapons was terrifying.
"Go."
Cronus stepped forward.
"Free the others."
His knees bent slightly.
Steam poured from his nostrils.
Dark crimson patterns spread across his bare upper body.
Ancient power surged outward.
The primitive force of the Titan King shook the Abyss itself.
Black ripples spread through the darkness like a tidal wave.
BOOM!
Cronus vanished.
The former King of Gods launched himself toward the lead Heavenly General.
The Heavenly General reacted instantly.
His Lightning Spear thrust forward.
Thunder exploded.
Darkness split apart.
A new world of light briefly emerged between them.
Ancient power clashed with divine lightning.
The resulting shockwave spread throughout Tartarus.
At one point, the thunder detonated so violently that branching bolts spread through the darkness like the roots of a cosmic tree.
Black and white.
Light and shadow.
The two forces collided head-on.
Under normal circumstances, a single Heavenly General could never bridge the gap separating him from someone like Cronus.
Cronus stood at the level of an All-Father.
A true ancient powerhouse.
But circumstances had changed.
One Heavenly General wasn't the problem.
An entire army armed with Lightning Spears was.
The sheer volume of divine thunder pouring into the battlefield exceeded even what Zeus could have unleashed during his prime.
Equipment alone was compensating for the difference in power.
RUMBLE!
Cronus looked upward.
Thunder flashed continuously.
Gigantic lightning beasts formed within the storm clouds.
Each one looked ready to descend and devour the world.
The Titan King exhaled slowly.
Then he reached into the void.
A black sickle appeared in his hand.
The weapon was roughly his height.
Its blade was impossibly dark.
Curses.
Misfortune.
Death.
The weapon radiated all three.
Facing the overwhelming storm of divine thunder, Cronus chose not to meet it head-on.
He swung the sickle.
A black fissure opened through reality.
Cronus stepped inside.
The next moment, another crack appeared behind the Heavenly General.
The black blade emerged silently.
It swept downward toward the man's neck.
Everything it touched split apart.
Lightning.
Wind.
Space itself.
The killing intent contained within the strike was so cold and absolute that not even sound accompanied it.
SLASH!
A massive spatial rift tore through Tartarus.
The wound in reality stretched for miles.
Even the endless sea of lightning was split in half.
Yet the attack stopped.
Blocked.
The Aegis Shield held firm.
After all, the shield remained Zeus's greatest defensive artifact.
Even Cronus couldn't destroy it with a single blow.
And the moment his attack failed, the Heavenly Soldiers counterattacked.
The lightning beasts descended.
Thousands of them.
The charge resembled a stampede of divine monsters.
Cronus stood his ground.
His sickle danced through the air.
Lightning shattered wherever the blade passed.
The thunder struck his body repeatedly.
It accomplished nothing.
This wasn't simply a matter of power.
It was a matter of authority.
Rules.
Concepts.
If translated into Eastern mythology, Cronus's sickle would qualify as a primordial divine artifact.
A treasure existing on a fundamentally higher level.
SWISH!
A flash of white light appeared behind him.
The Heavenly General.
Using the lightning beasts as cover, he had closed the distance unnoticed.
The Lightning Spear pierced space itself.
Then it struck.
The weapon drove through Cronus's back and burst from his chest.
The Titan King grunted.
His hand instantly clamped around the shaft.
Without hesitation, he swung his sickle backward.
The Heavenly General raised the Aegis Shield.
CLANG!
The strike was blocked.
The Heavenly General immediately released the spear and retreated.
Cronus sensed his movement.
The sickle swept repeatedly through the darkness.
Space fractured again and again.
Incoming lightning beasts vanished into newly created voids.
Then Cronus sliced open reality before him and stepped through in pursuit.
The battle intensified.
Neither side showed any sign of tiring.
Dark waves rippled endlessly throughout Tartarus.
Reality itself fractured under the strain.
The entire battlefield became a chaotic dimension separated from the outside world.
Meanwhile, Athena and the Hundred-Handed Giants continued opening prison cells.
One Titan after another was released.
Once they learned what was happening, they joined the battle immediately.
Soon, Titan gods and Celestial warriors were clashing throughout Tartarus.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOOOOM!
Far in the distance, darkness and lightning consumed one another repeatedly.
Shockwaves swept endlessly across the Underworld.
Hurricane-force winds tore through the Abyss as the war for Tartarus truly began.