10 Titanomachy (IV)

The fight between the gods and the titans continued with no clear winner in sight, even with mighty Hades on their side, the Olympians were still hard-pressed, as Hades could not be everywhere at once and was mainly focused on taking down the heavy-hitters of the titans, which were all present in the frontlines of the conflict.

Hades was the only one who could face Atlas in direct combat and win, through Zeus and Poseidon could do the same if they worked together.

Atlas himself had suffered under the effects of the lighting spear of Hades for many days before Cronos had used his power not only on Atlas but on Kreios as well, making so that they returned to their peak condition. Such was the power of the Lord of Time. Seeing that the threat had grown beyond the capabilities of his loyalists to contain, Cronos decided to call upon the rest of the Titans.

His decision was met with mixed results, while logically having more troops would mean a faster end to the conflict against the Olympians, many of the Titans that would participate were their children, and they feared that they would either be captured or worse be killed by the Olympians.

But they swelled their discontent and did not say a word of disagreement to their king. They knew that they had to be united against the Olympians, for the house that is divided will always fall to the sands of time, and even the Titans with all of their arrogance knew of that fact.

But it seemed that they were not the only ones who brought reinforcements to the war. Hades had somehow managed to convince the Furies to join the Olympians, which surprised the titans as the Furies were always known for their neutrality not even interfering when the Titans led by Cronos rebelled against their father.

Of course, some guessed why the Furies joined the Olympian side, Cronos constant aggressiveness against them when their neutral stance made so that the chances of them involving in the Titans activities were equal to zero, but thanks to the actions of Cronos that was no longer the case.

Their effect was seen on the battlefield against the Titans, Astraeus one of the children of Kreios had attempted to get revenge on Hades for the humiliation done against his father, reasoning that Hades was weak after he fought with Atlas. And it was true, even with his regeneration the wounds took time to heal themselves.

But Astraeus had miscalculated the time of the attack, and he paid dearly for it. As he approached the last place Hades was seen he was ambushed by the Furies, and before he could attack he felt a strange sensation in his left arm, it soon became painful when green scythe-like blades exploded out of it in a shower of gold, soon a centipede head came out of his hands.

The creature started attacking him as soon it was fully born, it was one of Megaera's brood having infected the Titan's left arm without him noticing and using it to spawn a new type of monster.

Astraeus did not waste time and acting without thinking he ripped off his arm, but he was covered in the black tar of Alecto and was drowned in the illusions of Tisiphone, which showed endless nightmares that terrified the young Titan. And with no other Titan insight, Astraeus was captured by the Furies, or so they thought before he managed to manifest enough willpower to teleport himself out of the sight of the three goddesses of vengeance.

It was frustrating without a doubt, but the creature spawned from Astraeus' left arm had managed to survive and it would become a very good addition to the forces of their master.

~~~~~~~~

Hades was already growing tired of the war. There was only so much death and destruction you could see and so before it lost all the enjoyment it once had. He had the power to crush mountains and make lakes completely dry, but he was feeling... bored. He wasn't horrified by all the destruction, the Earth had survived much worse than this, and it will eventually recover.

It was just that, this war was getting boring, the addition of the new Titans made things slightly interesting. He hadn't met them yet, which was surprising since it has already been a few years since them, the Titanomachy was said to have lasted a full decade. Nine of the Ten years have already passed, and Hades was feeling that the time to free both the Elder Cyclopes and The Hecatoncheires, he had thought of bringing their existence to light, but in the story, they were said to be forgotten by all except the Titans and the Primordials, and there would be questions regarding how exactly he knew of their existence.

Hades continued to think before he felt the earth rumble, and the skies brighten, which was impossible. Hades looked at the horizon and saw two suns rapidly approaching his position. Helios and Hyperion.

"My lord, do you want us to intervene in your fight?" Asked Megaera, she had become far more respectful and, dare he say, adoring when it finally got into her mind that he didn't care for her appearance. Hades though looking at both her and her sisters, alongside his assembled army of minor gods and the new addition.

Hades had not expected them to be so effective against a Titan to the point of nearly capturing him, he was sure that the new teleportation ability shown by Astraeus was made in the need of panic, it was after all already possible to do so, he just never needed to train himself so that he could use it.

He had paid the price, the cost of it being his left arm being mutated into a monster and then forcibly ripped out by the Titan himself, the monster had survived and had been made a part of his forces. As it had been born from the arm of Astraeus, it carried his power, being capable of coating its blades and mandibles in Starlight or firing it from its mouth as a laser beam.

"No, It won't be necessary" He answers her, before being covered in red light and flying in the direction of the two suns. He had figured how to use all of his powers so that he could fly with all of them, either by creating constructs or coating himself in them, right now he was using Dark Energy to lift and then propel his body at rapid sonic speeds.

He stopped just in front of the two Titans, which did the same, and even with all of the light, Hades could see the features of both. Hyperion was clad in a suit of armor, that wasn't exactly a piece of divine steel but more another layer of his skin, Hyperion actual skin was entirely composed of light that looked like fire, he barely had facial features, eyes, and mouth that were simply brighter than the fire that composed the surface area of his body.

Helios was far more humanoid than his father, but still largely different from a human, his body was composed of fire much like his father, but he was different while Hyperion was chaotic, his flames were orderly and maintained the shape of a humanoid body without any chaos. His hair was a stream of fire that went up without any destination, his face was calm as if he did not find the situation dangerous.

"Hyperion, Helios, we finally meet," Hades said to both Titans with his usual calmness.

Hyperion scoffed "To our utmost displeasure, surrender now rebel if you do so King Cronos may grant you his mercy"

"Oh, please we both know that 'mercy' is an inexistent concept within my dear Father's heart"

"If those are your final words, then there is no need to speak any more!" Hyperion launched several beams of light in the direction of the Olympian, who simply raised a barrier of darkness that devoured all of them.

Hyperion frowned at this, if there was an enemy he didn't want to fight, it was Hades, their powers were their respective opposites, the eternal conflict between light and dark was known to all beings, mortal or divine, and many gods have risen from those two concepts. But Hyperion believed in his powers, he believed in his light, that light that would banish Hades' darkness to the pit it belonged.

He would be severely disappointed.

Hyperion moved at speeds impossible for a being at his size and launched millions of bolts of light from every single possible direction, their target being Hades, who responded by launching his bolts of darkness that canceled each one of Hyperion's attacks.

Hyperion then released a blast of blinding light directly under Hades, the massive explosion could be seen from miles and the cloud of superheated dust joined the ash storm above. Hades then appeared covered in a dark sphere that had protected him from all possible damage that would have been done by the attack, by absorbing all the light that hit it.

"My turn"

Hades then raised his right hand and fired a gargantuan beam of darkness at Hyperion who responded by firing his own. The two beams clashed and everything present at ground zero was immediately destroyed. Hyperion put everything that he had in the beam clash, but even then he was steadily being pushed back, his feet creating trails as his light grew weaker and Hades' darkness stronger.

"Helios! You stupid child, come help me, what are you waiting for!"

"He's waiting for this"

A black spike pierced Hyperion's chest, surprised by the sudden attack he forgot about the clash he was having with Hades and paid the price. The black beam overwhelmed its counterpart, and hit Hyperion in full, he was launched backward by the sheer power, his armor was destroyed and followed by his body. When the dark receded and Hyperion was visible once more, he couldn't be more miserable.

His once glorious golden armor was now fully gone, his ever-burning skin had been extinguished and golden blood dripped from a thousand different wounds, wounds that would have killed a mortal a million times over. Hyperion was in shock, his mind trying to find how had this happened to him, a being who was there when the world was not even fully formed, who saw what was on the edge of the universe itself, who fought and defeated a Primordial being.

How had this happened?

A light then descended upon him, this light was different from his own, while he was chaotic and furious this one was calm and orderly. This was the light of Helios Titan of the sun and son of Hyperion.

"Why?" Hyperion groaned out from his bloodied lips, for this was the question that haunted him, he now knew the reason why Helios had not intervened on his behalf, it was because he was allied with Hades and the Olympians.

"You know why" It was such a simple response for such an act of betrayal, but Hyperion knew what or rather who Helios was mentioning "D-don't tell me it was because of that mortal who-" Just as he was about to insult the one who Helios once cherished, the latter jammed his hand in his torn torso, causing Hyperion to scream in pain and anger.

"Do not ever insult her" Helios calmly spoke as he reached deep into his Father's essence and grabbed something that was gifted to Hyperion so long ago by his father. "Why, why, why did she matter that much to you!? She was just a mortal, she would die before you even blinked!"

"To you, she was just a mortal, but to me, she was everything," Helios looked straight at Hyperion's eyes making the latter feel true terror for the first time in his existence "She was my world, and you took her from me" Helios then pulled and Hyperion screamed in agony.

At the expense of time that might have been just a few seconds or a couple of centuries, Helios pulled something that had been merged with Hyperion since the Pangea supercontinent formed. A multicolored light soon appeared in Helios hand, it was a sphere that was constantly changing color, from vigorous yellow, to dull red, to explosive blue, to serene white, and many other different colors.

Hyperion's mind collapsed, his mind not being capable of sustaining his consciousness after what Helios did. Seeing that Helios was finished. Hades flew to the Titan and asked in a serious tone "Is it done?"

"Yes," Helios answered his gaze never leaving the sphere and the unconscious body of his Father. Helios could feel his powers increase as he held the sphere that looked like a mini star that was constantly changing colors, for it was exactly that, the sphere symbolized all the stars in the universe.

The young Yellow Suns, the dying Red Suns, the serene White Dwarfs, the incomplete Brown Dwarfs, the raging Neutron Stars, and many others. With this, the user could potentially not only create stars but also use the destructive or creative power of all of them, through only Ouranos the original user of the power had managed to reach that level.

"I assume that you also got what you wanted" Hades nodded at him, lifting his left hand and forming a fist, soon light began to form but it was different, while the center was a bright white, the edges were completely dark to the point one would be confused if it was light instead of just shadows.

"Are your sisters and the others ready?" Hades asked he would test his new power later there were more important things to do now.

"They are"

"Good, then we can begin" Hades looked at the downed form of Hyperion "Now we where are we going to put him?"

~~~~~~~~

The capture of Hyperion and Helios and his sisters' defection sent shockwaves through both sides. For the matter was unknown to even some of the Olympians, the only ones that knew about their defection were Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, who kept their mouths shut on the topic not telling either their most trusted lieutenants or their bed warmers in the case of the latter two.

After their defection, it was like something had broken, and many other Titans defected to their side as well, among those were Leto and Asteria children of the Elder Titan Coeus. Another that defected was Prometheus, who had a secret meeting with the three brothers: Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, the topic being about humanity.

Naturally, these betrayals enraged the Titans and their fury on the battlefield increased tenfold. But even with the new additions, the war was going nowhere, and seeing this Rhea called her children to Mount Olympus for she knew what must be done to end the war.

~~~~~~~~

"My children, I have important news for all of you" Rhea began, looking at all of them, they had grown, and not in a good way. Rhea never wanted her children to fight a war, but the situation had spurred out of control. She could do nothing.

"What are those news mother?" Hades asked her, and Rhea wanted to smile at her firstborn who had already realized so much, of course, the incident with Atlas had made her fearful that she could have lost him, which logically wasn't something to be surprised this was a war, after all, casualties were something to be expected.

But she was never a rational being.

Rhea sighed "I want to talk about my long lost siblings the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires"

She then explained everything to them, how both the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires had been sealed in Tartarus by their own Father, Ouranos, and left to rot, they were sealed there for centuries forgotten by all except the Titans themselves. In the war against Ouranos they had been freed by Cronos to help him but only to be sealed later on when Ouranos was defeated by Cronos the one that had freed them.

Their second Prison was harsher than the first while before they had some type of freedom, now all of them were shackled and weren't allowed to even move from their position. While also being tormented by the monster Kampe on orders of Cronos.

"What are their capabilities Mother?" Zeus asked, briefly looking a Hades with no small amount of jealousy, not that the latter particularly cared about it. Rhea wanted to sight at her youngest behavior but she decided it wasn't important right now.

"The Cyclopes: Steropês, Argês, and Brontês, are great craftsmen and builders, they can forge and build anything that you could ask for" Zeus' eyes glistened with greed at that new information "The Hecatonchires Briareos, Gyes, and Kottus have stronger physical might than even Atlas himself, they can help to defeat the Titans"

"Very well then" Zeus began with a massive grin on his face "Then I will-"

"Lord Zeus!" A minor god entered the room in a sudden hurry "Iapetus has returned and he is destroying our forces, we need your help!" Before Zeus could respond to the god's plea another minor god entered the room "Lord Poseidon! We need your help Coios has arrived and he has managed to wound Lord Oceanus!"

'This is convenient' Hades thought seeing the stupefied looks on both Poseidon and Zeus, he was waiting for a minor god belonging to his army to arrive and say that Atlas had arrived at the battlefield. But seeing that none had arrived, he spoke out.

"Well seems that I am going then"

"Fine by me," Hera said, which caused both Demeter and Hestia to nod, the latter with a worried look in his direction.

Poseidon gritted his teeth but gave out no audible complaint as he followed the minor god to the seas, he always had a short temper. Zeus looked hatefully in his direction, clearly disliking the whole situation, but knew that Hades had higher chances to succeed than him, which irritated him to no end.

With the meeting over Hades left the room to prepare his journey to the Underworld.