The moment Zeus's fingers wrapped around the hilt of the stormblade—
[DING]
The world froze.
No sound. No movement.
Just static hanging in the air.
A faint pulse echoed in his skull—low, clean, and familiar.
Before his eyes, flickering like lightning caught in glass, a translucent screen appeared.
[Divine Weapon Acquired]
▸ Name: KERAUNOS
▸ Type: Godblade – One-Handed
▸ Rank: ∞ (Primordial Tier)
▸ Bound To: ZEUS
▸ Attributes:
Channeler of True Storms
Soul-Linked Conduit
Skybreaker Class Weapon
Conducts divine mana + atmospheric energy
Ignores conventional durability
Bonds with wielder's emotion
Grows with the user
Passive Effect: Lightning surrounds the user, increasing reaction time and speed by +300% during combat
Special Skill: [Heaven Splitter] – Call forth a continental bolt of lightning. Instant. Cooldown: 3 Days.
Special Skill: [Thunder Echo] – Redirect all physical projectiles using magnetic arcs. Passive.
Special Skill: [Skylord's Will] – Temporarily seize control of the sky. Weather becomes a weapon. Duration: 10 minutes.
Would you like to designate this as your Main Weapon?
▸ [YES]
▸ [NO]
(This action is irreversible until the next Divine Awakening Phase.)
Zeus blinked slowly.
He looked down at the blade.
It hummed.
Like it knew.
He glanced sideways—his siblings were still there, watching, unaware. Their weapons hovered in front of them, and the Cyclopes had stepped back.
The system pulsed again—waiting.
Zeus gave the faintest smirk.
"You're damn right."
He focused on the screen.
[YES]
[KERAUNOS has been equipped as Main Weapon]
Weapon Slot 1 – Locked.
Storm Authority has increased.
New Path: Storm Monarch Tier – Activated.
All Sky-type skills boosted by 40%.
The screen vanished in a blink—like mist breaking under sunlight.
The forge rumbled faintly beneath his feet, as if acknowledging his decision.
Zeus raised Keraunos, letting its blade catch the firelight.
The lightning arced once—clean, smooth, radiant. It coiled around his arm like a serpent of light.
Poseidon raised a brow.
"Feeling dramatic today?"
Zeus tilted the blade just enough for sparks to flick against the ground.
"Feels like it missed me."
He turned and faced the others.
"Let's get to work."
Mount Othrys
At the edge of the storm
The sky boiled above like a sea of black fire. Thunder cracked, not from Zeus, but from the sheer pressure of war building on the peaks of Mount Othrys. Lightning arced across the clouds, but it didn't fall. It circled. It watched.
Cronus stood at the front of the gathered Titans.
Hyperion. Coeus. Crius. Iapetus. Klymene. Perses. Astraeus. The younger ones too—brutal, hungry, half-wrapped in armor and chaos. They lined the mountain edge in tight rows, weapons gripped, eyes sharp, their breath rising like steam.
Behind them, the Titan Host stretched for miles. Legion upon legion. Creatures older than myths. Beasts forged in stars and storms.
Cronus wore no helmet. No armor. Just his cloak—black, shredded at the edges—and the sickle in his hand. The same one that cut the sky. The same one that felled Uranus. Its blade glinted with time itself—dripping slow, golden light that reversed everything it touched. Grass grew and died beneath it. Rocks cracked and healed. The air warped.
He stepped forward. No wind dared move. The world… listened.
"You've seen it," he said, voice deep, cold. "The world shifting. The cracks forming. A new name whispered like a disease through the stars—Zeus."
His eyes burned. No metaphor. Burned.
"My son. My mistake."
"He thinks because he crawled out of a cave, freed a few beasts, and lifted a blade, he can challenge the throne of the Titans."
Cronus paced slowly, sickle dragging against stone, leaving no scratch—only age. The stone aged where it touched, turning to ash.
"He calls gods to his side—children, infants who've barely lived a century. They cheer like they've already won."
"But we… we are the ones who shaped this world. We are the ones who bled to tame the stars. They stand on our bones. On our laws."
He stopped. Looked across them all.
"This is not a battle."
"It is not a rebellion."
"This… is a correction."
He lifted the sickle high. Storm clouds recoiled. The sky twisted, howling like something had been wounded just by the sight of the weapon.
"When they come," Cronus said, "let them come with blades, with names, with pride."
"We will bury it all."
His voice sharpened, words cracking like stone.
"Let them know the age of Titans never ended."
"It only… paused."
The ground shook. Not from Cronus. From the legions. From the fury behind their chests. A sound like a god waking.
He pointed the sickle toward the horizon. Toward Mount Dikti. Toward the new gods who dared rise.
"March."
"Take back the sky."
The Titans roared.
And the war began.
Mount Dikti – The Summit Ridge
Moments before the war
Screech.
Wings sliced the wind as a massive black bird descended from the clouds, landing with a thud at Zeus's feet. Its feathers shimmered with storm-light, and its eyes glowed with flashes of lightning.
It gave a single call. Low. Grim.
Zeus stood at the front—his cloak torn at the edges, boots planted deep into the stone. Behind him, the gods stood ready. Hades. Poseidon. Hera. Demeter. Hestia. And the army they'd gathered: nymphs, giants, spirits of wind and flame.
And the Kouretes. The ancient warriors. The guardians who danced and clashed blades to mask his infant cries from Cronus. The ones who trained him with no pity and no mercy. They now stood silent, armored in celestial bronze, their weapons resting across their shoulders, waiting for the command.
Zeus looked to the horizon. The sky itself was darkening—no longer stormclouds, but something worse.
The Titans were marching.
Thunder cracked in the distance like a heartbeat made of war.
Zeus slowly stepped forward, then turned. His eyes scanned his siblings. His allies. His protectors.
Then—
He spoke.
"They're coming."
His voice wasn't loud. But it didn't need to be. Every god, every soldier, every flame that danced in the wind listened.
"The ones who ruled before us."
"The ones who call us mistakes. Children. Nothing."
The wind picked up. His hair sparked with flickers of lightning. His grip on Keraunos tightened.
"Cronus thinks the world belongs to him because he ripped it from his father."
"Now he wants to rip it from us."
He paused. Looked over his shoulder toward the direction of the coming storm.
"Let him try."
He faced them again—his brothers, his sisters, his people.
"He ruled with fear. With silence. We were born in that silence."
"But look at us now. Standing. Breathing. Armed."
He raised his blade to the sky. Lightning danced down its edge and kissed the ground like fire.
"This isn't just a war."
"This is the end of an age."
The Kouretes banged their weapons together, the clang echoing through the air like the forge of gods ringing across mountains.
"We fight not to survive… but to replace."
He turned fully to face the field of gods behind him, voice rising.
"When they fall, the world changes."
"We are not echoes of the past. We are the start of something new."
He looked at each sibling. His voice dropped low, sharp.
"We were born running."
"Now we stand."
Then louder, lightning now storming in the sky around him—
"And when they break against us, when Cronus sees the truth he buried rise again…"
"He'll know."
Zeus spun his blade and pointed it forward—toward the storm of Titans that now darkened the valley.
"The gods have arrived."
And the earth itself shook with their roar.