War Breaks Out, Titanomachy (1)
War Breaks Out, Titanomachy (1)
The Titan race boasted fearsome power even unarmed.
A mere gesture could snap an ox's horn. A simple stomp could shatter a beast's spine.
Gods were existences vastly superior to and far beyond any creature of the earth.
And now these beings had armed themselves.
Now they had armored themselves.
And now they charged in lockstep, a single, unified battle line.
To those who stood against them, it must have felt as if Cronus alone was bearing down upon them.
"Kuhahaha!"
With Cronus himself leading the charge, surely no one could withstand it.
"Forward! Seize them and violate them!"
"Waaaaaah!!"
The Titan gods loyal to Cronus ran as though treading upon the very air above the earth.
The ground that had once sucked at their feet like a bog could bind their steps no longer. Vines bursting from the soil could not ensnare Titans who raced through the sky.
"Everyone, to your positions!!"
At Gaia's command, the Golem Gigantes stepped forward one by one.
The golems born of Uranus's blood thrust their bulkier frames to the front, forming a solid bulwark.
"Useless!"
But their foundation was Uranus.
Slash!
The one being in the world who had carved Uranus now carved the golems Gaia had created—with the very scythe that had tasted his blood. What hope did they have?
"Keuhk...!"
"Mother!"
The moment a Gigas was cloven in two and fell, Gaia doubled over as if vomiting blood.
Rhea, assisting at her side, hastily supported her, but Gaia was on the verge of losing consciousness from the backlash of expending so much power.
"Rhea! Surrender peacefully, and I will pardon you—for now!"
Cronus aimed his Scythe and bluffed.
"Come back even now, and you alone shall be forgiven! But refuse—and I will cast Gaia and every last soul on this land into Tartarus!!"
It was blatant blasphemy against one's own mother.
Whatever one might say to another, such words should never be spoken to Gaia.
Yet no one dared to stop him.
"You, you bastard...!"
"No one shall hinder me! Not even those who were once my family!"
Cronus was already mad enough to commit such a sin against his own mother.
Mania filled his eyes, and his Scythe-blade was already thick with the blood of countless victims.
"I have already cut off my father's phallus! Do you think I cannot imprison my own mother in the deepest Abyss?!"
"Th-This...!"
"If you are truly the mother who bore me, then sacrifice yourself for my sake!! Gaia!!"
"Aaagh...!!"
She had been betrayed by the child she had loved. The child she perhaps still loved.
Puhaaagh.
Gaia could only spew blood.
She had once urged her own son to commit an atrocity against his father; now it seemed the karma of that sin was returning upon her, her insides churning in revolt.
And as that happened, all the Gigantes began to crumble into dust.
"Behold. This is the fate of those who challenge the Chief God."
Cronus spread both arms wide and slowly advanced.
Now that the Gigantes—the last line of defense—had collapsed, only Rhea remained to oppose him.
And naturally, Rhea alone could not stop Cronus, let alone any Titan under his command!
"I am—"
"O great Cronus!! I beg you, show mercy!!"
In that instant, a gaunt young man threw himself to the ground before Cronus and prostrated himself.
"Prometheus?"
"Yes! I, Prometheus, dare to entreat you, Lord Cronus—even knowing I risk imprisonment in Tartarus!"
Prometheus trembled as though he might collapse at any moment.
With the fury meant for Gaia and Rhea now directed entirely upon him, he quaked as if the overwhelming rage itself would kill him on the spot.
"Prepared to be imprisoned in Tartarus? Ha! Let's hear it, then. Whatever you say, you will be confined to the Abyss."
"Please, I beg you—halt this blasphemy of casting your own mother into the Abyss!"
"Enough. I've heard all the nonsense I need."
Thwack.
"Blasphemy of casting my mother into the Abyss?"
Cronus kicked Prometheus.
"I am the one who has already devoured his children! Do you think I cannot do the same to my mother?!"
"Aaagh!"
Cronus swung his Scythe at Prometheus.
The gaunt body and the long, wildly disheveled hair scattered across the ground.
"If you babble further, there will be no next time. Consider this my last act of mercy—given only out of regard for how your wretched body has still labored for me!"
Cronus did not kill Prometheus.
Instead, he severed his hair, leaving the scalp exposed, and called that punishment.
For one already so frail to be scalped as well could only draw sighs of pity.
But then everyone recoiled in shock at what followed.
"Please... stop...!"
With his bare scalp gleaming in the light, Prometheus spread his arms wide and barred Cronus's path once more.
At that show of spirit, every Titan who followed Cronus looked on with regret.
Why would he spend such resolve on nothing but getting himself killed?
Even though the Titan race was immortal, that very immortality could mean an eternity of living in unimaginable agony.
"Once, I can forgive. Not twice."
Cronus's voice was placid.
He laid the Scythe against Prometheus's waist, then raised his head and turned his gaze toward Rhea.
"Look, Rhea. You have made this happen."
"Ah, aah...!"
"He will live forever without anything below the waist, crawling across the earth on his two arms! Be split in half and die!!"
Cronus raised the sickle high.
Everyone shut their eyes or screamed and covered their faces.
Only one person—Prometheus—calmly stared back at Cronus.
"O Fate! Let a true light descend to cast down the false one!!"
Just then.
CRACKLE!!
The sky split apart, and a brilliant golden radiance fell like a thunderbolt.
No—it was a thunderbolt.
Bzzzt!
Striking the Scythe's haft with absolute precision, it sheared the blade from the pole, leaving only the shaft in Cronus's hand. It was a bolt of golden lightning!
"Graaagh!!"
The golden lightning surged down the shaft and struck Cronus in a flash.
With every crackling pulse, Cronus screamed in agony.
The lightning did not end with a single strike. It clung to Cronus's body like living flame, continuing to course through him.
Thud.
Before Prometheus stood a man with golden hair.
He was down on one knee, head bowed, the hand opposite his kneeling leg clenched into a fist and pressed against the earth.
Crackle. Bzzt.
The man rose to his feet.
Back straight, head raised in supreme arrogance—he stood like a great mountain.
"L'Amour-G-Thunder."
KWA-BOOM!!
A blue flash of lightning struck down from the dry sky.
The bolt blazing behind the golden-haired man was no natural phenomenon.
Bzzzzt.
Lightning began to erupt from the golden mace that had somehow appeared in the man's hand, and the Titans understood.
"How can he wield lightning...?!"
Lightning was not something easily controlled, even by a Titan god.
Lightning belonged to the sky—to Uranus.
"Could it be... Lord Uranus...?"
"Wrong."
The young man arrogantly cocked his head to the side.
"I am Zeus."
"Zeus...!!"
"You son of a bitch...!!"
Bzzt!
Cronus stomped his foot, and the lightning that had clung near him scattered in all directions.
His skin now glowed a heated red, and burst veins thickly webbed his eyes.
"So be it! You have appeared before me at last—so eager to die!"
"Appeared because I want to die? No, Cronus. If I had to say why I've shown up... yes."
Bzzzzzt.
As Zeus raised his mace high into the sky, the heavens began to darken in an instant.
"I am in the process of inheriting the throne, Father."
* * *
Squirrel Thunder—
Lightning surged and whirled in every direction.
Every time I swung the mace, lightning stretched out like a whip and blasted the Titan gods away.
'Seems I really do carry the bloodline of Uranus.'
Until now, I'd had no idea I possessed the authority to wield lightning so effortlessly.
Some people, once they get drunk on a weapon's power, simply realize they're the god of thunder and wield it as is. But I needed a tool first to draw out the power within me.
Didn't that other guy also study how to use his power through a hammer before reaching that point?
Same for me.
Aaaah— Ah—!
I surrendered my body to the rhythm and beat from my memories and projected the power residing in Astrape forward.
"PICA-CHUUUUUUU!!"
Without a moment's hesitation, I unleashed the lightning gathered in Astrape.
The electricity surging from my body branched into forked lightning and spread, instantly turning the nearest charging Titan gods into ash.
'Greek stuff is the best.'
You can fire off whatever technique pops into your head, and it still sounds like some grand, awe-inspiring skill.
Once I'm fighting as the chief god later on, I'll have to maintain a certain dignity. But for now, it means I'm free to fight however I damn well please!
"You brat!!"
Cronus swung his polearm to strike me.
I swung my mace faster and knocked the haft flying.
"You bastard!"
As his weapon flew away, Cronus immediately threw a punch at me.
I twisted my body to evade the blow, then drove my fist straight into Cronus's solar plexus.
"Too slow."
Thwack.
"I've gotten stronger. In Hell, that is."
"You, you wretch...!"
I was certain now.
I was at least equal to Cronus—or now beyond him.
The Cyclopes sisters. And then sex with 153 virgin Heraes—all of it had made me strong!
"Sorry, but that's not all I've brought."
Swooosh.
The battlefield had already transformed into a sheet of water.
Water soaked the earth up to the ankles, and I reined in my lightning.
"No one can rule the world alone."
Waaaaaaaah—!!
A roar of battle cries rang out from afar.
Over the hill visible on one flank of the battlefield, a unit of 'knights' appeared along the ridge.
"Wh-What in the world is...?!"
"Damn, cinema. Absolute cinema."
There were no white horses, but there were plenty of pale steeds.
Armored knights, clad in heavy plate that—though crude—rivaled full plate, something unimaginable in ancient Greece, appeared with the sun at their backs.
Flutter!
At their head stood a woman with hair of deep blue, proudly bearing a trident from which hung a flag like a veil.
"You who abandoned us! We have returned from Tartarus for vengeance!!"
Waaaaaaaah!!
At the momentum of the Heraes—the heavy infantry led by Poseidon—Cronus's Titans began to lose their fighting spirit, one by one.
"How...? We definitely cast you into Tartarus...! You should never be able to escape from Tartarus...!!"
"Someone gave us a hand. And told us to make absolutely sure we throw you into Tartarus."
There was one more among the abandoned who held a fiercer grudge against Cronus than any other.
"His message is this: burn Cronus's balls with lightning so he can never sire children again!!"
"!!"
"With reverence—remember his name clearly!!"
The secret art.
"[Uranus]!!"
My kick, charged with lightning, struck Cronus directly in the groin.