Divine Ascension: Reborn as a God of Power-Chapter 66: Theomachy (Part 6)

Zeus charged, thunder erupting from every inch of his being, bolts spiraling from his fists as he brought his blade down while roaring like a lion.

But this time, Hades didn’t evade.

He stopped the blade mid-swing—with one hand.

I saw how his palm closed around the burning edge of divine skyfire, and the metal shrieked under his grip. Smoke hissed between his fingers, but Hades’ expression didn’t shift. His pale eyes locked with Zeus’s, filled with millennia of patience... and a final, cold resolve.

"You’ve ruled for so long brother, that you forgot there are others ruling beside you" Hades said. "Let me remind you, giving you a reminder of why I am a King."

He smashed his fist into Zeus’s chest, a blow so powerful that he broke the sound barrier just from getting shot.

Zeus flew backward like a comet, crashing into the foundations of the Temple of Prometheus. The ruins collapsed on impact, with dust and the golden flame of rhe temple erupting into the sky.

Then, I saw how Hades opened the Earth itself. Rifts started appearing on the floor breaking it and tearing it apart while an earthquake shaked the very mountaing we were standing on .

A great rift split Olympus from beneath the throne all the way to the far gates. Black stone surged upward in jagged spires. Chains that seemed forged of Stygian metal slithered from the cracks, dragging molten obsidian with them. The very Underworld was rising.

Hades stood at its heart, arms outstretched, his helm glowing like a black star.

"Shadows of all the death gods, manifest before me, your king."

And in the moment he said it, it happened.

The shadows of the gods—past and present—began to manifest in the air. Faint figures of the forgotten: Mycenaean war spirits, ancient kings, banished demigods, titans slain in the last war.

They whispered on what sounded like dead tongues. They obeyed him without hesitation.

The sky darkened, but not with clouds. With smoke, thick and heavy, rising from the very ground. The River Lethe wept upward through cracks in reality, its ghostly waters dripping into the battlefield. Where they touched Olympus.

Zeus clutched his chest, staggering upright, shaking off fire and debris. "This... This is madness!"

"No," Hades replied, hovering above the ruin, his cloak made of swirling ashes. "This is what you wanted when you challenged my authority."

The ground beneath Zeus gave way.

A titanic skeletal hand, the size of a mountain peak, reached up from the Underworld and grabbed him by the waist.

Zeus howled in fury and hurled a lightning storm into the air—but the hand did not let go.

Hades raised his own hand slowly.

And almost like on command, the sky dimmed and the stars vanished.

Then, it came the roar of the Erebus Gate—a void spiral that opened above Olympus, where the souls of the unjust were judged and discarded. No wind came from it, nor light. Only the heavy and crushing gravity.

"I am the gatekeeper," Hades said. "And I say the gates are open."

Zeus twisted free with an explosion of divine fire. The skeletal hand was obliterated, fragments of bone raining down in burning pieces.

But he was breathing hard now.

And Hades?

He was grinning, like if he was only starting, what made fear for what he had prepared.

His sword morphed into a scythe of black crystal, longer than any weapon forged in the sky. Every swing of it tore the air, revealing glimpses of the Underworld beneath reality—glowing cities of the dead, fields of ash, towers built of bone and silence.

He dashed forward, not running, but gliding on a trail of soot.

Zeus brought up his Aegis and parried the first strike, but the second shattered his defense, slicing across his shoulder in a spray of divine ichor. The wound hissed while the ichor blackened.

Zeus tried to counter, but Hades bent space around him, vanishing into his own shadow, then reappearing behind Zeus and driving his elbow into the god’s back.

"You seem tired brother, why don’t you go to rest," Hades whispered in his ear. "Permanently."

Zeus swung around, grabbing Hades by the throat in a surge of desperation. "YOU WILL HAVE TO TRY HARDER TO MAKE THAT BROTHER!"

And Hades smiled.

"No. I don’t think I need to."

And then he vanished again—sinking into the battlefield like oil.

Zeus stumbled back.

And then the entire ground beneath him exploded upward—a geyser of bone and chain and cursed fire.

Hades rose with it, fully armored now in black adamant, crowned with the circlet of Oaths Unbroken. Behind him floated six burning circles—divine seals of the Underworld’s deepest laws. Each seal pulsed with power old enough to predate Olympus itself.

This was Hades, High Warden of Final Judgment.

Zeus tried to scream, tried to call more lightning—but one of the seals ignited and swallowed the spell, reducing it to smoke.

Another seal pulsed and Zeus’s knees buckled—gravity warped around him, tenfold heavier. Marble cracked under his feet.

And then came the scythe again.

One strike across the chest—his armor split.

Another down the leg—bone broke.

Hades stood over him, raising the final seal.

"Let the world remember," he intoned. "Even kings fall."

And the seal dropped—

But before it could land, a golden flash exploded between them.

A new figure stood in the smoke, arm raised, blocking the strike.

Athena.

Face grim, armor scorched and her spear was humming.

"No more," she said. "Stop now Hades."

Zeus, broken and gasping, looked up at her with wide eyes.

And Hades... simply stared at her with a neutal expression, like if he wasn’t interested in her.

Faster than a blink, I saw how now his scythe had stopped just above Athena’s raised arm, its black edge trembling with momentum. The light from the final seal flickered and dimmed, pausing mid-air like if it was floating.

Athena stood between them, with her spear braced, her Aegis shield raised in her other hand. And her eyes—storm-gray and sharp as ever—locked with Hades’.

"Enough," she said again on a calm but measured tone.

However Hades still didn’t lower his weapon.

"You interfere," he said, voice low as the underworld itself. "Why?"

Athena’s reply was immediate. "Because you’ve made your point."

Behind her, Zeus coughed harshly, still on one knee, sparks of weak lightning crawling across his damaged armor. His eyes burned with humiliation, rage... and something else. Fear.

His chest rose and fell in shallow bursts. He wasn’t out of the fight, not yet—but he wasn’t getting up soon either.

"I’m not here to absolve him," Athena said. "But I will not let you kill him either."

Hades tilted his head slightly. "So you still are with him, do you believe on tiranny?"

"I believe in strategy," she replied coldly. "He needs time."

The god of death stepped back a single pace. The seals behind him rotated slowly, radiating shadows that were still pulsing.

"Very well," he said. "Let the war pause on your blade."

He lowered his scythe, but only slightly.

Athena held her ground. Her armor was cracked, her spear scratched, the Aegis chipped on the edges—but her stance never wavered.

Behind her, Zeus exhaled shakily and whispered, "This... doesn’t end here."

"No," Athena agreed without turning. "But it won’t end with you buried in rubble either."

She took a step forward, interposing herself fully between the two brothers.

"Recover. I’ll hold him."

Zeus hesitated. His pride flared visibly, his lightning twitching against the ruined stones—but another spasm of pain arched through his back and forced him down again. His teeth clenched, blood trickling from his mouth.

Athena turned back to Hades, eyes narrowing.

And then she moved.

The goddess of wisdom surged forward, spear flashing. Her strikes were clean, precise—every angle calculated to probe, test, and deflect. I knew enough abot her to know she wasn’t aiming to defeat Hades. She knew better than that.

She only was stalling. But even that required godlike control.

Hades met her with one swing of his scythe—black steel whistling through the air. Athena ducked low, dragging her shield across the ground to intercept the blow. Sparks flew. The Aegis rang like a cracked bell.

She twisted, using the momentum to swing her spear in an upward arc.

Hades caught the shaft with his free hand and shoved her backward.

Athena flipped in the air, landed in a crouch, and rolled to the side just as a seal detonated where she had stood—blasting a crater into the marble floor.

"You’re delaying the inevitable," Hades said, walking forward with slow, measured steps. "Your old man will pay for what he did"

"I prefer if you don’t do it," Athena replied, circling him, her eyes scanning for patterns. "Even flawed ones like hime deserve forgiveness."

Hades flicked his fingers. Chains of black iron erupted from the ground, snaking toward her.

Athena leapt, driving her spear into the wall and using it to pivot up and over the assault. The chains struck where she had been, exploding into smoke and shards.

Behind her, Zeus sat slumped against a broken pillar, hand clutching his chest. His lightning had begun to steady—just barely. The burn marks across his side were closing slowly. His divine core pulsed again, regaining strength, but it would take minutes more.

He looked up, saw Athena dancing between death and shadow, and I saw how something flickered in his eyes.

It was...gratitude? Guilt? Or maybe regret?

He turned away.

Athena lunged forward again, her spear crackling with her own divine energy. She launched a feint, then reversed the grip and struck for Hades’ side.

Hades blocked with the haft of his scythe, the impact sending a shockwave rippling across the floor. His cloak whipped around like a living shadow, trying to entangle her legs.

She stabbed down and anchored herself, twisting away before it could trap her.

"Still clever," Hades murmured.

"Yep." Athena replied, voice sharp.

From the throne, I could feel the battle tipping again.

Zeus still was healing.

Poseidon, now far to the left among the broken archways, was watching silently, while he was on his own process of healing also, his expression was unreadable. The sea still churned at his feet, but he wasn’t intervening. Not until he ended healing himself.

And I... I remained still.

Not from fear. But because I needed to watch this, ignoring the historic and epic fight context, this was a perfecrly good moment to observe and measure the abilities and powers of the top dogs of Olympus.

Athena parried another strike and called back, "How long?"

Zeus groaned. "Two more minutes."

"Then you’d better live that long," she muttered, and launched into a renewed assault—every blow echoing through Olympus like the ticking of a divine clock.

While Hades pressed forward, inexorable as ever.

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