The destruction continued.

It started with a sound.

Not loud. Not sudden. Just a thin, stretched noise—like something pulling too far.

Athena heard it first.

Her head snapped up. "No."

The sky above them—what was left of it—didn’t crack all at once. It sagged. A section of Heaven, far off to the east side of the battlefield, bent inward like it had lost support.

Then it broke.

Clean. Terrible.

A massive piece of white plain—miles wide—tore free and began to fall.

Not down. There was no "down" anymore. It dropped sideways into a tear in reality that opened beneath it.

Through the tear, another realm showed for a second. Dark. Red. Burning.

Then the falling piece of Heaven slammed into it.

The impact didn’t echo. It spread. A ripple across both realms at once.

Athena moved instantly.

"Everyone—east sector! Move!"

Her voice cut through everything.

Odin reacted before anyone else. Didn’t ask questions. Didn’t hesitate. He was already moving when the second chunk started breaking.

"Thor!" Odin barked. "With me!"

Thor didn’t reply. He was already running. Heavy steps cracking what little stability remained underfoot.

"About time something worth hitting shows up!"

Another section cracked loose. Smaller. Faster. Falling into the same tear.

Hermes appeared beside Athena in a flicker. Then disappeared. Then reappeared again. He was scanning.

"Bad," he said quickly. "Really bad. That tear’s not closing on its own."

Athena’s eyes moved fast. Mapping. Measuring. Calculating.

"The impact destabilized the layer boundary," she said. "If more mass passes through, the tear widens."

Hermes blinked. "So we stop it from falling."

"Yes."

"With what?"

Athena didn’t answer. She already knew.

"Thor!" she shouted.

He turned mid-run. Grinning like a man who finally understood his job again.

"Yeah?"

"Hold it."

Thor laughed. "Simple enough."

He leapt. Straight at the falling mass. Mjolnir wasn’t whole anymore. But he didn’t need it to be.

He hit the underside of the breaking section like a thunderclap.

For a second—just one—it slowed.

Then it didn’t. Kept falling. Dragging Thor with it.

"Oh, you’re joking," he muttered.

He slammed the hammer upward again. Harder. The impact split the surface. But it held. Barely.

"Odin!" Thor roared. "I’m not enough!"

"I know!"

Odin was already there. Gungnir flashed in his hand—broken tip, cracked shaft, still a king’s weapon. He didn’t throw it. He drove it upward into the falling mass.

Runes lit along the wood. Old ones. Heavy ones.

"Anchor!" Odin shouted.

The runes spread. Not fast. But steady. They dug into the fragment. Latched. Slowed its descent further.

Still not enough.

The tear below widened. Pulling. Hungry.

Athena landed beside them.

"Not just force," she said sharply. "We need structure."

Thor grunted. "Then structure faster!"

Athena ignored that. "Hermes!"

Already there. "I need contact points along the edge. Now."

Hermes didn’t reply. He vanished. Reappeared along the edge of the falling mass. Vanished again. Again. Marking positions. Fast. Too fast to track.

"Done!" he called out.

Athena moved. Her hands glowed—not with raw power, but with pattern. Lines formed between Hermes’s points. Invisible at first. Then visible. A web. Not of energy. Of intent.

"Hold those points steady!" she shouted.

Thor laughed again. "Yeah, sure, just holding a collapsing sky. No problem."

He shifted his stance. Drove his shoulder up. Pushed. The mass slowed further.

Odin reinforced the runes. Blood ran down his face. He didn’t wipe it.

"More pressure!" he barked.

"Working on it!" Thor snapped back.

The tear below them pulsed. Wider now. The realm beneath flickered again. This time they saw more. Mountains. Fire. Movement.

Something looked back.

Hermes reappeared beside Athena. "...That thing down there just noticed us."

"Focus," Athena said.

He exhaled. "Right. Focus."

Another crack split through the falling mass. A chunk broke free. Smaller. But faster. Dropped straight toward the tear.

Hermes moved. Gone. Reappeared above it. Caught it—

No. Redirected it. Barely.

The piece skimmed the edge of the tear and spun away into empty space.

"...That was close," he muttered.

"Keep doing that," Athena said.

"Yep. No pressure."

More cracks. More fragments. More falling.

Thor roared as another section pressed down on him.

"ATHENA!"

"I see it!"

She adjusted the web. Shifted the lines. Reinforced weak points.

Odin slammed his spear deeper. The runes flared brighter.

"Now!" he shouted. "Push together!"

Thor drove upward. Athena tightened the structure. Hermes stabilized the edges. Odin locked the core.

For a second—everything aligned.

The falling mass stopped.

Not completely. But enough. Enough to hold.

The tear below them flickered. Unstable. But not expanding anymore.

The battlefield held its breath.

Then—slowly—the fragment began to settle. Not falling. Not rising. Just held in place. Balanced on effort. Coordination. Will.

Thor exhaled hard. "I hate this job."

Odin gave a short laugh. "You love it."

"...Yeah."

Hermes dropped beside them, hands on his knees. "Next time we fight something that doesn’t break reality, yeah?"

"No," Athena said.

He groaned. "Worth asking."

The tear below them shrank slightly. Not closed. But no longer growing. The worst of it was over.

For now.

Gods around them relaxed. Just a little.

Ares cracked his neck. "That it?"

Kratos shook his head. "No."

He was looking at the sky. Not the fracture. Not the battlefield. Beyond it.

Athena followed his gaze.

More cracks. Not just one. Not just here. Everywhere. Small ones. Thin ones. Waiting.

Her expression changed.

"...This was only the first."

Odin straightened. He knew that tone. "Say it."

Athena didn’t hesitate.

"This isn’t damage we can fix one piece at a time," she said. "That collapse? It wasn’t random."

Thor frowned. "Then what was it?"

"A stress point. One of many."

Hermes blinked. "...How many?"

Athena looked across the sky. Across the fractures. Across the thin lines barely holding reality together.

"...Too many."

Silence. Not peaceful. Not calm. Heavy. Real.

Poseidon stepped closer, trident resting against his shoulder. "The ocean’s reacting too. It’s not just Heaven."

Odin nodded slowly. "Then it’s already spreading."

Kratos looked back toward Zeus. Still standing. Still carrying that storm.

"...He caused it."

Athena didn’t answer. Because that wasn’t the full truth. But it wasn’t wrong either.

She looked at the held fragment. At the tear beneath it. At the cracks still forming in the distance. Then back at the battlefield.

"...We stabilized this one," she said.

Thor gave a tired grin. "Yeah. Good work, right?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Athena shook her head slightly.

"No."

They looked at her. And for once—there was no strategy in her eyes. No solution. Just truth.

"We can’t keep doing this forever."

The words landed like stones.

Behind them, another crack formed. Thin. Small. Waiting.

No one celebrated the first collapse.

Because everyone knew—it wouldn’t be the last.