The next day, all the Olympus Gods left their temples, shedding their usual opulent robes for battle armor they were somewhat unaccustomed to.
From the Golden Gate on the mountainside all the way to the God Kings Hall at the summit, serious-faced deities, armed with weapons, could be seen rushing to and fro on Olympus, following orders from above.
However, in the central assembly square of the Olympus God Palace, a large group of mortals from the ground stood.
They were all unclothed, standing in their most natural state, completely naked in the assembly square, and separated into several phalanxes. Yet, they were not participating in some multi-person sports event, but rather maintaining a fervent and focused demeanor, quietly listening to the speech of the fully armed, beautiful goddess before them.
"Everyone, the survival of the world rests on this battle. Once the Snake-Footed Giants gain control of the world, neither the God Race nor the human race will have a place to stand."
Athena, with a stern expression, stood on the high platform in front of the square and addressed the naked mortals below:
"All of you here today will be heroes who save this world. Your deeds will be remembered by the Gods, and your souls will enter Elysium to enjoy eternal peace! Everyone, now is the time for you to prove your worth to the Gods, for Olympus!"
"For Olympus!"
The people below, with fervent expressions, shouted along with Athena.
Just then, a Nymph under Athena's command flew swiftly from down the mountain. She landed beside Athena and whispered into her ear:
"Goddess, the Giants are attacking."
Athena nodded in acknowledgment, then waved to the mortals below:
"Everyone, the time has come."
As her voice fell, the naked humans gathered in the square below immediately bent down and picked up bottles of various colored potions.
They uncorked the bottles and drank the potions in one gulp. Then, accompanied by terrifying sounds of flesh tearing, the bodies of these humans on the square immediately began to twist. They transformed into terrifying aliens, emitting roars that rose and fell across the square.
...
At the summit of Olympus, Zeus stood at the edge of the highest garden on the divine peak, looking down at the roaring monsters in the square, a satisfied smile on his face.
Demeter, standing beside him, frowned in displeasure.
"These monsters are truly disgusting."
She murmured.
"Is this the time to care about whether it's disgusting or not? The Giants have already attacked."
Zeus cast an annoyed glance at her, then looked into the distance.
There, "Strongman" Alcyoneus was leading the entire Snake-Footed Giants in encircling Olympus. The dust stirred up by their journey was already enough to bury entire city-states on the ground.
Zeus turned to one of his wives and asked her:
"Demeter, your Midas Touch Staff is with Ares. How much will your strength be affected?"
"It's still no problem dealing with these Giants."
Demeter stretched her full and maturely graceful limbs, replying.
"That's good."
Zeus nodded, then raised his palm.
A thick bolt of lightning rose inversely from his palm, shooting into the sky above Olympus, where it condensed into a dark cloud shimmering with thunder and lightning. This dark cloud descended to the ground in layers of electricity, forming a cage of lightning around the entire Olympus mountain range.
At this moment, Alcyoneus on the ground, seeing this, also employed the ability granted to him by the planet's inhibitory force when it created him.
This Snake-Foot Giant swung the greatsword in his hand, striking it heavily onto the earth. Immediately, the mountains shook, and the earth continuously trembled under Alcyoneus's will, trying to shake off the tiny creatures standing on it. Even the Olympus mountain range, the dwelling of the Gods, swayed and vibrated incessantly in this terrible earthquake.
"Attack!"
Alcyoneus, holding the greatsword personally forged by Hephaestus, pointed towards the summit of Olympus:
"Kill that Zeus! Seize the goddesses on the mountain to be our wives!"
Seeing the Snake-Footed Giants' overwhelming momentum, Zeus was not to be outdone. He slowly spoke, but his voice transformed into thunder, emanating from the clouds, saying:
"Olympus Gods, prepare for battle!"
Thunder roared, mountains shook. Under the heaven-and-earth anomaly caused by the God and Giant King, this epic war finally began. More than two hundred Snake-Footed Giants surged from afar, completely encircling the Olympus mountain range. On the mountainside, the Goddess of Dawn pushed open the Golden Gate of Olympus with her rose-colored fingers. Subsequently, Helius, God of the Sun and Selene, Goddess of the Moon, together drove the Sun Chariot and Moon Chariot, galloping side-by-side from the Golden Gate of Olympus, simultaneously charging into the sky. But this time, they were not to maintain the order of heaven and earth in this world, but to use their chariots as charging war chariots.
On the ground, countless Snake-Foot Giants hurled massive stones from their hands towards the Sun God and Moon Goddess in the sky, but the two Gods skillfully dodged them while driving their chariots. As they galloped, the flames on the Sun Chariot and the cool radiance on the Moon Chariot became increasingly dazzling. Finally, Helius cracked his whip, flinging the solar fire wrapped around him, which then slammed down fiercely onto the Snake-Footed Giants on the ground.
The solar fire, like a giant bomb, landed among the Snake-Footed Giants, instantly sending a nearby group of Giants sprawling.
And Selene, Goddess of the Moon, followed closely, emitting her own cool radiance. Moonlight filled the sky, descending but transforming into dense, sharp weapons, piercing the bodies of the Snake-Footed Giants with wounds large and small.
However, the Snake-Footed Giants were not to be outdone. Just as the Sun God and Moon Goddess suppressed the Giants on the ground, "Clytius the Magnificent" and "Mimias the Imitator" among the Snake-Footed Giants stepped forward simultaneously.
In the hand of "Clytius the Magnificent" was a huge divine bow crafted by Hephaestus. Countless runes were inscribed on the divine bow. As "Clytius the Magnificent" drew the longbow, the runes on the bow body immediately shone, directly absorbing the magic power diffused in the atmosphere, condensing into a Chamblue arrow on the longbow. And with the runes of the longbow, without Clytius needing to aim, this arrow directly locked onto Helios in the sky.
Meanwhile, "Mimias the Imitator" next to him held a slightly strangely shaped flower-shaped staff. As "Clytius the Magnificent" drew his bow, Mimias directly aimed this flower-shaped staff at it. Then, a magical gleam flashed across this staff, and the bud-like staff head at the top directly bloomed, transforming into a furiously blooming, strange flower. Subsequently, this staff transformed into a ray of light and disappeared, and in Mimias's hand, a divine bow identical to the one in "Clytius the Magnificent"'s hand appeared, locking onto Selene, Goddess of the Moon in the sky.
The two released their arrows, and these two magic-condensed arrows instantly transformed into two dazzling beams of light that pierced through heaven and earth. Like railguns, carrying the purest high heat and high energy, they relentlessly pursued the Sun God and Moon Goddess. No matter what evasive maneuvers the two Gods performed with their chariots in the sky, these two beams of light remained relentlessly behind them, chasing them without letting go.
Just as Helios and Selene were about to be directly struck down by these two beams of light, at the critical moment, Zeus in the sky descended thunder, accurately hitting these two beams of light and detonating these two immensely powerful magic arrows prematurely. However, Helios and Selene's warhorses were still impacted by the residual shockwave of the explosion, galloping away in panic, and only regained control after quite a while.
The first exchange of blows between the two sides ended with a slight victory for the Snake-Footed Giants. Subsequently, the heated war erupted without warning.
Led by Hermes, countless Olympian Gods and subordinate deities surged out from the Golden Gate of Olympus. They took their positions in the mountains, utilizing the complex architecture and terrain of Olympus, along with robust magical and divine defenses, to unleash long-range attacks, relentlessly assailing the Snake-Footed Giants on the ground. The latter, not to be outdone, immediately retaliated with torches and stones in their hands.
It might sound like the Snake-Footed Giants were no match for the Olympus Gods, with their natural phenomena and beam attacks. However, simply by virtue of the Snake-Footed Giants' sheer size, the seemingly weak act of "throwing stones" became incredibly terrifying.
Because the "stones" they were throwing at this moment were basically entire mountain peaks they had casually broken off from nearby mountains. To mortals, it looked like countless mountains were being hurled at the Olympus Gods.
Under such terrifying attacks, the defensive system on Olympus also began to totter. The light barriers became unstable, and even cracks appeared.
What made the Olympus Gods feel even more urgent was that eleven powerful Giants among the Snake-Footed Giants had yet to appear. While their subordinate ordinary Giants launched a fierce assault on Olympus, these eleven powerful Giants were using brute force to move all the nearby mountain ranges closer to Olympus.
They stacked these mountain ranges together, building an unprecedented "staircase." Clearly, these Giants intended to use this "staircase" to bypass the Golden Gate and countless defenses of Olympus, climb to the summit of Olympus, and engage Zeus in a decisive battle.
Noticing this corner of the battlefield, Zeus, as the overt commander of the entire army, was the first to lose patience. Thunder roared in the sky, and he appeared from within the lightning, holding thunderbolts, with clouds as his armor. He then grasped the aegis, a divine shield different from Athena's, and flew over these Giants.
Arriving above the Giants, Zeus roared and hurled immense thunderbolts at these rebellious Giant Race members who were building the staircase. But at this moment, the strongest among the Giant Race, "Strongman" Alcyoneus, stepped forward, blocking the path of all the Giants.
He swept the greatsword in his hand horizontally. The moment the sword's blade touched the lightning, the runes on its edge flashed fiercely, actually weakening the power of Zeus's lightning by more than half.
Zeus's face darkened at the sight. Looking at the blade, he felt something was off, but on the battlefield, situations changed in an instant. After withstanding the mighty lightning he released, Alcyoneus had already gripped his greatsword with both hands, leaped high towards him, and brought it down in a jumping slash. Zeus quickly flew to dodge and became entangled in combat with this strongest among the Giant Race.
The battle between the two God-King level deities was earth-shattering. Soon, their battlefield had moved far away, separated from the main army's battlefield, forming a single, isolated skirmish.
Amidst endless clouds and earthquakes, Alcyoneus, wielding his greatsword, fearlessly confronted Zeus, the strongest God-King openly present in the world today.
However, even though Alcyoneus had a greatsword capable of weakening divine lightning, Zeus was still Zeus. His fate line had not yet reached its end. At this time, he was still the strongest God-King, holding lightning and suppressing the three realms. Under Zeus's divine might, Alcyoneus was struck down again and again.
However, the leader of the Snake-Footed Giants was not to be trifled with. Besides his ability to control the earth, his recovery ability and immortality were also the strongest among all Giants. Even if Zeus blasted his flesh with lightning countless times, leaving him battered and bruised, or even directly shattering his head, Alcyoneus still stubbornly got back up again and again, recovering as if Zeus's attacks had never happened.
Zeus could defeat Alcyoneus countless times, but Alcyoneus could always stand up and challenge him again. Therefore, the battle between these two strongest beings became a stalemate, difficult to resolve.
But in doing so, while Zeus pinned down Alcyoneus, he was also entangled by him. The remaining ten Giants were left unattended. They had piled the staircase higher and higher, and it was already visibly taller than the Golden Gate at Olympus's mid-mountainside.
Hermes, leading the subordinate deities out to battle, carried a longsword and cautiously approached using his winged sandals. However, Enceladus stepped forward. This Giant, who had lost an arm in battle with the God of War, now had a metal arm replacing his left. This arm was formed from his previous long blade, and weapons forged by Hephaestus were top-tier treasures in heaven and earth. This long blade naturally possessed wondrous abilities; after Enceladus lost his arm, it directly replaced his left arm and grew sharp blades where the hand used to be, which did not significantly impact "The Trumpeter's" strength.
Seeing Hermes sneaking closer, Enceladus directly hurled the mountain in his hand at him and roared:
"Get lost, you little thief!"
Seeing a mountain directly hurtling towards him, Hermes, the weakest among the chief Gods, turned and fled in fright, no longer daring to approach that "staircase."
Just as the Giants' strategy was about to succeed, a huge divine power suddenly erupted from the summit of Olympus.
Under the impact of this divine power, the entire battlefield near Olympus actually reversed its season, arriving at a spring of renewed life. In the areas where the divine power spread, vegetation on the ground rapidly grew, covering the mountains and the battlefield. The entire battlefield, along with the "staircase" the Snake-Footed Giants had just built, was covered in vibrant green.
A moment later, a huge tree directly sprang up from the "staircase" built by the Giants, taking root and sprouting. It quickly grew taller than the Giants. The tree's roots also rapidly broke through the ground from the "staircase," its tendrils winding, and soon encompassed the entire "staircase" within its root system.