Titanomachy IX

As the tolling and ticking echoed throughout, every combatant present could feel a very significant and deadly change in the atmosphere. The Hydra themselves could feel it, deep within their cold-blooded heart. This area... it was temporary.

Every deity could feel it, their eternal lives had now become temporary. As each second passed and as the clock's hand ticked softly in their ears, their inevitable end was approaching. The King had decreed their deaths, but not without price. Kronos himself was under the threat of his own construct.

Zeus was currently overcome by fear. Having been born immortal, he had never felt the cold embrace of age before. He had to act now!

" If you plan to die, then do it by YOURSELF!! " Lightning raced around him, and he summoned a storm of epic proportions. It dominated a large part of the sky, obscuring the ethereal clock, with only it's eerie glow streaking through the dark clouds. Thunder rumbled and roared, as hundreds of cumulonimbus cloud formed above the leader of the Olympians.

" Oh Boundless Sky! I, Zeus, sender of Lightning and Rain! Declare that you fall onto my enemies! Smite them with righteous rage! " Zeus proclaimed, sending forth his strongest attack yet. Thunder rumbled, and lightning roamed freely in the clouds.

And so, with a mighty boom, the might of the sky raged upon the Mad King.

" What a foul power... truly, the irony! " Kronos looked on in disdain at the storm nested in the sky. It reminded him of his detestable father Ouranos. As bolt after bolt stormed his form, he merely stood motionless, scythe at the ready.

Kronos was simply enduring the attack, looking on coldly as his skin burned and flesh vaporized, as though waiting for something. And he was right, for the Hydra had made their move. It was a giant wave of poison, yet from a distance, it looked no different from a raging fire colored with more colors than even the rainbow.

The King finally moved, dragging his scythe quickly along the ground, sending another wave of purplish energy to match the Hydra's. As the attacks met, Kronos' attack dissipated while the other stopped in it's tracks. He had frozen their attack in time.

Zeus, seeing both the chance and the fact that Kronos had just essentially shrugged off his attack, sent another pulse of his energy into the colossal storm. Lightning awoke, and struck down at the Olympian, who had held out the Master Bolt. Strike after strike, he felt the Bolt's power strengthen by leaps and bounds.

" RAAHH!! " And with a hurl of his arm, the bolt sped off into the direction of the distracted Kronos.

However, Kronos merely grinned, and sent his own pulse of energy. The energy resonated throughout the land, and as if in response, the ethereal horizon clock had suddenly halted... and started rotating in the opposite direction. The mighty bolt suddenly halted, and started speeding back in the direction of the surprised Zeus. The frozen mass of poison also started moving, right back at the observing Hydra.

The time-reversing attack had varying effects. Zeus had suffered massive recoil and his arm was numb from catching the rogue bolt, while the Hydra merely shrugged it off and absorbed the energy.

Kronos had won this exchange, for even the electrocution he had endured earlier had reverted.

' So projectiles can be easily countered... ' The Hydra deducted. This was not looking good, they thought. If none of them were able to defeat Kronos, all of them would be die, or worse, suffer an eternity of continuous aging and suspended animation.

Deciding to do a similarly flashy attack, they started channeling Chaos from the 'In-between'. The energy welled in their body, and manifested outwards violently. Abruptly, the atmosphere in the area tightened and became weird, literally. Gravity started becoming stronger, and stronger, and stronger. Space started to bend and move crack right in front of the Hydra's five heads that encircled the now growing abnormality in space time.

By Chaos! Is that!.. is that a black hole! Everyone thought with widened eyes. The black hole was extremely small, no bigger than a man's hand. Yet, it still dominated the space around. The Hydra willed the small black hole, directing it's pull towards the Titan King.

In a way, the Black Hole was Chaos incarnate. They were powerful enough to trap light, and even space and time distorted and bent in their void-like maw. It was totally paradoxical in nature.

Feeling the irresistible pull of the construct in front of him, Kronos used his control of time to anchor himself into the ground. Since without time, movement along space is impossible, Kronos was able to ward off the pull successfully.

This was not a regular black hole however. Since the construct was born from supernatural means, it had supernatural properties as well. While the little anomaly was not able to harm Kronos, it was however, able to absorb some of his reserves.

Now, Kronos was unable to squander his energy, lest he be defeated. Dispelling the black hole, the Hydra immediately seized it's chance to get close. Applying the same Chaos enchantment that rendered Kronos' future sight useless, they transfigured into a more armored and bigger form.

The now fortress of scales and teeth went on a merciless offense as Zeus used his summoned clouds to rain disrupting bolts. Kronos fought back with his scythe, using the same paradoxical fighting style, albeit more conservatively this time.

Kronos swung through time, beheading two heads that clung to his legs, followed by an upward punch that decimated another that aimed for his neck. He was about to behead another that was about to bite his shoulder, but a well-timed bolt that rivalled his arm's size had shocked his muscles for a brief moment.

This went on for minutes on end, with the Titan King being whittled down slowly but surely.

Kronos was in dire straits, with only a small part of his mana reserves left. Deciding that he needed to get a moment of reprieve, he sent another pulse of energy once more. And again, both the Hydra and Zeus were sent back towards their previous positions.

However, he was not able to recover his numerous wounds. He looked terrible at this point, ragged and missing parts of armor, his previous long purple hair and beard were scraggly and slightly burnt.

Looking back at his construct that dominated the horizon, he saw that the clock was nearing it's end, and with it's end, so was theirs. Resolving himself, he channeled every drop of his power and let it outwards in one bright blast of energy.

--- To Be Continued ---

( If you notice the weird cliffhanger, it's because the chapter got too long.. so I split it. Remember to support the novel if you like it. Power stones, comments, reviews, anything is appreciated! That's all bye! )