Facing my destiny (5)

{Tartarus, Unknown Time}

Odysseus POV

The blinding blue light of the Master Bolt suddenly vanished, plunging Tartarus into an eerie darkness. In that moment of stillness, I felt a surge of power course through me, and before I could even think, words began to spill from my lips.

"Οπάλιον σβέσον τὸ φῶς σου" (Opal dim your light)

My voice didn't sound like my own. It was deeper, primordial. I never grew accustomed to it, not even now when facing Kronos. I could feel the eyes of everyone - Kronos, Luke, Melinoe, even the petrified Titans - fixed on me in shock.

"Ἄκουε τὴν ἀπαλλαγὴν ταύτην" (Hear this fatal plea)

As I spoke the second line, the ghost train and the ground below us shuddered. I saw cracks appearing in the stone forms of the Titans, golden light seeping through like molten lava. But I couldn't stop. The words kept coming, demanding to be spoken.

"Οἱ τὴν ἄμμον τοῦ χρόνου ἐπιτείνοντες" (Spur the sands of time)

With each syllable, I felt a change coming over me. Every cell in my body screamed in pain, another thing I never got used to. The shadows around me began to writhe and pulse, responding to my words.

"Καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ἐλεύθερον ποιοῦντες" (And set the spirit free)

As I finished the fourth line, a sound filled the air - the harsh, metallic clang of chains breaking. But it wasn't coming from anywhere in Tartarus. It was coming from within me. I felt as if invisible shackles that had been binding me since my birth were shattering, releasing what I was always meant to be.

And then the pain hit, even harder than before.

Intensifying by the nanoseconds until it felt like every inch of my body was being devoured from the inside out. I wanted to scream, to fall to my knees, but my lips kept moving, more words pouring out, words I had never known and had never spoken before.

"Μαραίνει καὶ σήπεται" (Wither and decay)

The agony crescendoed. My skin felt like it was on fire, burning and shifting. Through eyes blurred with tears, I saw my arm, no my entire skin turning a deep, vibrant purple. The shadows around me weren't just moving anymore - they were being drawn to me, seeping into my skin like ink.

"Τελευτήσατε τὴν μοίραν ταύτην" (End this destiny)

My vision blacked out for a moment, and when it returned, everything looked... different. Sharper. More defined. I realized with a start that my eyes had changed. The whites had filled in with an inky blackness that seemed to absorb all light. Looking at Kronos' crooked face, I could see his aura, an aura of a god like being, red with a tint of purple, anger and beneath that fear.

"Σπάσατε τὰς γεινομένας ἁλώσεις" (Break these earthly chains)

As I spoke, I felt my body beginning to grow. My clothes stretched and tore as I expanded, matching Kronos in size. My spear, still clutched in my hand, grew with me, becoming a colossal weapon of pure shadow.

"Καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ἐλεύθερον ποιοῦντες" (And set the spirit free)

I locked eyes with Kronos. The purple aura around him grew, mixing in with Luke's. Good. They should be afraid.

"Τὸ πνεῦμα ἐλεύθερον" (The spirit free)

As I uttered the final line, a shockwave of dark energy exploded outward from my body. The petrified Titans shattered into countless pieces, their essence scattering into the void of Tartarus. The ghost train fell, alongside Kronos, Luke, Melinoe and myself. Luke was only saved from being obliterated by the fall by Kronos's quick action in shielding him.

For a moment, everything was still. I stood there, towering over the plateau, my newly transformed body thrumming with power. The pain continued to grow, but I could almost ignore it. Almost.

I knew I had to act fast. My final gambit had come to this. I had to kill them before Tartarus came. I knew that, but Kronos didn't, and that was enough for me.

I lunged at Kronos, moving faster than I ever had, faster than even when I teleported through shadows. My shadow-infused spear clashed against the Master Bolt and the Scythe of Time, the helm shining brightly, making Kronos intangible or at least trying to.

Kronos snarled, his face contorted with rage and disbelief. "Impossible!" he roared, swinging the Master Bolt in a wide arc.

I parried the blow, then countered with a thrust of my own. The tip of my spear grazed Kronos's side, drawing a line of golden ichor. The Titan Lord hissed in pain and fury, and I felt a surge of savage satisfaction. As I pulled back for another strike, I noticed with horror that the fingers of my left hand were slowly crumbling, turning to ash and drifting away on the stale air of Tartarus.

Ignoring the disintegration of my body, I pressed my attack. Black mass crawled over every inch it could reach, through the ground, the air, everywhere. It was mine to control, mine to command. Thousands of tendrils, hundreds of meters long, lashed out at Kronos. He flew into the air, propelled by the power of the bolt, but I could see he couldn't maintain his altitude indefinitely.

Kronos summoned lightning, turned intangible, and stopped time around him, but he could do nothing to stop my relentless assault. Some of the black mass gathered around my feet, launching me at the Titan Lord. As I soared through the air, I felt my right shoulder begin to crumble, ash trailing behind me, I was falling apart quite literally.

Hundreds of tendrils stopped inches away from Kronos as he froze time around himself, but I wasn't going to let time slow me down. In an instant, I was before him. I could feel the tug of time on my now purple skin, black mass spewing from every pore in my body, fighting against it. Then, I swung my spear.

Kronos raised the bolt and the scythe to block, but even if they were weapons of immortals, I was going to show him what the weapon of Achilles – no, my weapon – could do. I clashed against them, the darkness surrounding the spear beginning to crawl over the weapons.

The purple aura around Kronos grew, and now I could even see it in his face: his fear, his impending demise, his death.

I roared, bringing my spear down again. Kronos raised his weapons to block once more, but the force of the blow sent him crashing to the ground, into my black mass below. Millions of tiny tendrils wrapped themselves around him, making him kneel before me. His golden eyes widened in shock as I loomed over him, my spear poised for the killing blow.

"That's where you belong," I growled, my voice primordial, barely recognizable even to my own ears. "Kneeling in shackles."

As I prepared to deliver the final strike, I noticed more of my body turning to ash. My left arm was almost completely gone, and my legs were beginning to crumble from the feet up. Time was running out.

I brought my spear down, ready to end this once and for all. Mere inches away from Kronos' throat, I felt the pull of gravity, knocking my spear away from its target.

And then I heard it. A deep, rumbling voice that filled the air, a sound so ancient and primordial, even more so than my own.

"How long did you think you could keep yourself hidden from me?"

The very walls of Tartarus began to shift and morph, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape. Two enormous eyes, each the size of a small planet, opened in what passed for a face, and from one of those eyes, a person appeared, with deep purple skin and black armor depicting trapped, screaming monsters, and a spiraling face.

Tartarus had come too soon.