At the same time, on Olympus.
Above the divine seat, thunderclouds gathered and surged.
Thick lightning bolts as wide as water barrels kept falling, whipping the rune chains into blinding sparks.
Zeus's originally weakened aura and divinity rose steadily, while Athena, Hera, and Hephaestus, who were responsible for restraining him, had to guard against the falling thunder from the sky while also fighting Zeus's authority and gradually began to feel strained.
In the messy square, divine might pulsed and ether surged.
The mountain body shook and cracked continuously under the devastation from both sides.
Facing the three powerful Hundred-Handed Giants, Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis, who were responsible for dealing with them, also started to encounter dangers.
"Roar~~"
The one hundred and fifty heads of the three Titan giants let out earth-shaking roars.
Cottus, Briareus, and the warlike Gyges brandished their strong large hands, manifesting giant stones with divine power and throwing them one after another, launched a fierce assault with stones covering the sky and blocking the sun.
Facing this powerful attack, Apollo, Artemis, and Poseidon did not dare to test its edge lightly.
They could only each drive their bronze chariots and do their best to avoid the overwhelming giant stones.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
For a time, the giant stones thrown by the Hundred-Handed Giants pierced through the starlight, rubbing against the air to create dazzling fire trails.
They fell rapidly from the dome of the sky like a terrifying meteor shower descending upon the mortal world.
Boundless waves roared, the earth rumbled loudly, and even the vast heavens trembled and groaned.
The base of the towering Mount Olympus trembled under the heavy strikes of the three Hundred-Handed Giants.
Intense vibrations spread from beneath their feet all the way to the dark Tartarus.
The three Olympian main gods fighting them also tried their best to counterattack and regain the upper hand.
Surging ether torrents swept through, and whistling golden and silver heavy arrows fell one after another.
Both sides hurled weapons at each other, causing endless wails.
Close-quarters combat filled the air with endless sounds of slaughter and clashes.
The battle was exceptionally fierce and had entered a white-hot stage.
In contrast, Ares and Hermes in front of the divine seat, along with Aphrodite on the square, were in a completely different extreme.
None of them dared to make the first move and could only maintain a certain tacit understanding, glaring at each other from a distance.
No choice.
All three main gods were afraid.
Aphrodite was worried because of her little lover Adonis's illegal resurrection.
She feared both Zeus pursuing the matter and Apollo's side leaking the secret, so she could only brace herself to block Ares and Hermes opposite her.
Ares could not fight because his biological mother Hera and his old lover Aphrodite were on the opposing side.
He could neither hit nor curse them.
If he still wanted to get into that love goddess's bed in the future and live a good life, he could only turn a blind eye.
Hermes could not afford to offend anyone.
He was afraid that if he really went all out, when the reckoning came later, as the lowest-ranked among the twelve main gods, he would inevitably be used as a punching bag to vent anger.
With his smooth and slick personality, he naturally did not want to do such a losing deal.
Moreover, Ares's attitude beside him also made him apprehensive.
Who knew if he really charged at that love goddess, whether Ares behind him, driven by lust or under some charm, would suddenly stab him in the back.
He really would not be able to withstand that.
Thus, the three main gods, each fearing both sides like a thin pole hitting a wolf, maintained a delicate balance and frantically idled on the sidelines.
Finally, after stalemating for several hours, the fragile balance on the field was broken.
"Thud!"
Poseidon in mid-air failed to dodge in time and was sent flying along with his chariot, slamming heavily into the body of Mount Olympus.
The one who swung the giant club to deliver this strike was none other than Briareus, the good son-in-law whom the sea king had just married into the family.
Well... there's no way.
Having lost the dignity between his legs, with his ocean authority continuously suppressed and weakened for various reasons, and having consumed a large amount of divinity and divine power earlier to restrain Zeus, Poseidon was already half-crippled at the start of this second round.
But unfortunately, his opposing good son-in-law Briareus happened to be the leader of the Hundred-Handed Giants and the strongest among the three.
Therefore, the unlucky Poseidon inevitably suffered a brutal beating.
With the sea king's defeat, the unhindered Briareus immediately stepped forward and hurled the giant club in his hand toward Hephaestus.
Although they were Hundred-Handed Giants known for martial prowess, as their leader, Briareus rarely possessed wisdom.
He knew how to observe and think, and easily seized the key point of the attack.
Immediately, the craftsman god, caught between front and back, was caught off guard and was knocked down by the club, subconsciously loosening his control over the divine seat and chains.
Zeus immediately seized the opportunity, summoned thunder to shatter the shackles on his body, and completely broke free.
"A bunch of traitors who eat from the inside and work for the outside, you actually dare to betray this king!"
With the situation reversed, the god-king's chest filled with excitement.
No longer suppressing his inner agitation, he gnashed his teeth and vented his fury at the rebels before him.
His eyes blazed with divine light as he waved his hands forward and threw lightning continuously.
Strings of thunderbolts hit their targets, exploding violently in front with electric light and thunderous sounds.
Flames swirled everywhere, incomparably intense.
The footholds of the surrounding rebel main gods rumbled loudly and burned endlessly.
Pieces of mountain rock harder than refined steel turned to powder, leaving only patches of charred deep pits.
Athena, bearing the brunt, raised the Aegis with all her strength to block.
Hera drew the Heart-Seizing Bow and shot arrow rains of thunder to provide support from behind.
But as fierce lightning continued to smash onto the shield surface, producing deafening booms, the two slender figures were gradually pressed down and bent.
Even the Aegis shield itself, which could effectively isolate thunder, began to emit overburdened wails and show faint cracks.
Damn it!
How is this old thing so strong!
Athena and Hera cursed inwardly and gritted their teeth to hold on bitterly.
Seeing his daughter and wife still stubbornly resisting under heavy pressure with no intention of yielding, Zeus's anger grew even stronger.
He immediately summoned the Aegis shield, gathered dark clouds, and cast a waterfall-like thunder light toward the two figures on the field who were almost at their limit.
"Crack~~"
The Aegis shield, already at its limit, emitted a tearing crisp sound.
The golden barrier it propped up on the outside flickered and shattered.
The unstoppable thunder waterfall swallowed the arrow rain and thunder from the Heart-Seizing Bow and smashed straight toward Athena and Hera, who were already at the end of their tether.
"Boom!"
The ground shook and the mountain trembled on the field.
Broken stones flew everywhere.
However, as the spreading smoke and dust dissipated, a tall and straight figure supported Athena and Hera, standing firm and unmoving in the charred deep pit.
Behind him floated a golden wheel disc with twelve sectors.
That perfect circle seemed to contain infinite light, such that even the unstoppable thunder could not easily erase it.
"It's you!"
Zeus looked at the "prospective son-in-law" who had suddenly appeared before him and his heart could not help but feel stunned.
After sensing the vast divinity within the newcomer, his face showed a mix of shock and suspicion.
"How did you become a main god?"
As a familiar divinity fluctuation came through, Zeus suddenly realized and his face turned gloomy.
"Hestia gave it to you? Good, good, good! This rebellion actually involves her too!"
In this situation, the stance of this prospective son-in-law was self-evident.
Upon learning that another one among the twelve main gods had defied him, unprecedented anger surged in Zeus's heart.
If the rebellion of Athena, Hera, and the others was still just private resentment due to dissatisfaction with him, then even Hestia switching sides meant that this rebellion had risen to the level of wanting to subvert the entire Olympian divine rights system.
The kingship he had built upon it had its legitimacy denied.
"Lady Hestia has no intention of being your enemy."
Lorne answered honestly to clear his main god's name.
Then he released Athena and Hera's arms, put on a compassionate demeanor, and said leisurely,
"And my visit this time is not to pick sides, but to make a reasonable request here. Your Majesty, the divine war between you all has already caused the living beings on earth to suffer terribly. How about stopping here?"
The naturally suspicious Zeus did not believe Hestia's stance as spoken by Lorne.
He directly classified both of them as rebels and sneered with a dark face.
"You betrayed this king first, and you want me to stop?"
"Your perverse actions, to them, are also a form of betrayal, aren't they?
We are all the same..."
Lorne smiled and countered, his words carrying hidden barbs.
"You think you are worthy of accusing this king?" Zeus, pointed at and mocked to his face, flew into a rage.
His gaze toward this prospective son-in-law turned sinister.
"It seems you have forgotten how you walked out of the underground prison. Since you are so eager to die, this king will grant your wish!"
As he spoke, he raised his hand forward, activated his authority, and triggered the divine imprint buried within this prospective son-in-law's body.
The seven main gods, who had initially launched this rebellion were all cornerstones of the Olympian divine rights system and concerned the stability of his kingship.
Even though he hated to tidy up all these rebels to eliminate future troubles, in reality it was not appropriate to target any one of them.
But this prospective son-in-law before him was different.
Although he had successfully entered the ranks of main gods, he had only done so through Hestia's grace.
To the god-king family of Olympus, he was just an insignificant outsider.
He was the most suitable for establishing prestige.
Moreover, that hearth god divinity in charge of faith and sacrifices was crucial to the entire Olympian divine rights system.
Since his elder sister was not very honest and had given this thing to a subordinate god for nothing, it was better for him to personally recover it and select a more suitable owner for this divinity.
This little bastard had just run into the gun barrel.
Now was the time to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys!
At this moment, looking at the streaks of thunder arcs flashing on his body, Lorne could not help but raise an eyebrow.
"You want to kill me?"
"A disobedient dog has no value in being kept!"
Zeus sneered and slowly closed the five fingers of his right hand, preparing to detonate the divine imprint inside Lorne.
Feeling a destructive force brewing within his body, Lorne shook his head helplessly.
"Since you put it that way, I won't be polite either."
As soon as his words fell, he activated the extreme speed of the [Goat] and [Eagle], turning into a residual shadow, crashed into Zeus at a speed too fast to be seen, and then, before everyone's eyes, the golden light wheel behind him erupted with dazzling brilliance.
And that light seemed even brighter than the thunder divine imprint about to explode.
Looking at the strange smile appearing on the face before him, Zeus vaguely sensed danger.
An absurd thought roared in his mind.
He wants to... self-destruct?
As fierce white light and scorching hot winds swept forward, Zeus's brain instantly froze.
Boom!
Light orbs suddenly appeared in his field of vision, gradually expanding as they fell downward.
Terrifying sonic booms turned into peals of ground-level thunder.
Several huge mushroom clouds rose in the terrifying flashes and noisy roars, sweeping away the smoke and haze covering Olympus with violent winds.
In their place was a dramatic radiance like a shining star.
Huge wind pressure and shock waves converged in the middle of those mushroom clouds into enormous misty rings.
Under the cover of those rings, everything was annihilated.
The ground trembled, twisted, cracked, and surged.
The temperature kept rising, burning to the bone.
After an unknown amount of time, everything resumed playback from pause.
"Crackle... crackle..."
The world was burning.
That scorched stench meant everything had been ignited.
The entire Olympian sacred mountain seemed to have fallen into a black-and-white quagmire.
Temples were razed to the ground, not one but a whole stretch, spreading endlessly toward the distant horizon. The ground tore open countless wounds like infant mouths, as if revealing bottomless abysses.
And at this moment, on the square that was the core explosion point, the ground surface had turned into flowing crimson lava due to the high temperature.
Several bottomless molten caves belched rolling hellfire.
Looking around, everything resembled a cruel painting left by demons.
"Cough cough..."
Amid a dull coughing sound, Hermes pushed away the rocks on his body and looked with lingering fear toward the square where lava flowed.
Fortunately he was quite clever and slipped away in advance when he saw the situation turning bad, so he was only affected by the scorching winds and high temperature and suffered minor injuries.
In comparison, the slower-reacting Ares and the three Hundred-Handed Giants were much worse off.
The god of savage war now had charred skin covered in bloody wounds and lay coughing blood in the lava.
The three Hundred-Handed Giants, due to their massive size, took the full damage.
Some lost hands, some lost heads. Nearly half of their original one hundred arms and fifty heads were gone.
From afar they looked like a bald fleshy mountain.
Of course, the worst was Zeus, who had been at the center.
The god-king now had his chest blown open with flesh and blood flying everywhere.
One could even see the beating golden heart inside his chest through the broken ribs.
At the same time, nearly half the flesh on his originally somewhat handsome old face had been sliced away, exposing the pale gums and bloodied face to the air.
One of his lower body's thighs had disappeared without a trace.
Just one glance made Hermes feel a heart-piercing pain.
But it was only pain after all.
Main gods possessed nearly immortal souls and undying flesh.
As long as their divinity was not destroyed, they could resurrect again.
Accompanied by the frenzied writhing of flesh, Zeus's half-crippled body gradually recovered. His half-black, half-red face squeezed out an angry and twisted expression.
"Fuc#####!"
A string of curses poured out.
Just as this extremely furious god-king wanted to whip the culprit's corpse,
In the next moment, angry waves rose on the sea surface.
The sky shattered like glass.
Ancient giants, deformed divine monsters, ferocious magical beasts, majestic old gods... One terrifying phantom after another broke free from the chaos.
The Titan gods! Typhon's demon army!
Zeus's heart jolted.
His expression changed drastically and his newly regrown brain was filled with a series of question marks.
What is going on?
This, this is not right?
(End of this chapter)