When time met it's end chapter -42
The wind cut across the deck like a blade, but Abyss didn't flinch.
Leyla stood frozen, staring at the dark cracks crawling across her brother's chest - veins of blackness that seemed almost alive.
Abyss rose to his feet slowly, rolling his shoulders, then cracking his neck with a sharp pop.
His eyes were calm. Too calm.
"The disease," he said simply, brushing a thumb across one of the cracks, "and the darkness of the monsters I consumed in Tartarus."
Leyla blinked. "D-disease? Darkness? Abyss... you-"
Her breath caught. "You escaped Tartarus? The real Tartarus?"
Abyss nodded as if she'd asked him whether he went to the market.
"How... how did it feel?" she asked, voice trembling. "To be down there..."
Abyss looked out over the sea. His expression didn't change - but something heavy flickered in his gaze.
"I always thought Tartarus was sentient," he said quietly.
"A prison that knows you. Watches you. Changes every few minutes like it's trying to confuse you. Break you."
Leyla swallowed.
Abyss continued, "The walls smelled like flesh. Moving. Warm. Breathing. You don't stand on ground - it stands on you. It's disgusting."
She shivered despite the warm lantern light.
Abyss added, almost casually, "But you get used to it."
Leyla stared. "...No normal person should 'get used to' Tartarus."
"I'm not normal," he answered.
The wind howled across the deck. Darkness pulsed once beneath his skin.
POV Shift - Aphrodite & Elysium
In the palace of Cadmus, surrounded by gold lamps and embroidered curtains, Aphrodite sat with her legs crossed as she sorted through her "Book of Eligible Girls."
Every page sparkled - portraits, names, ranks, divine bloodlines.
And beside her?
Elysium.
Arms folded. Head lowered. Pouting.
Aphrodite raised a brow. "Alright, why the face? You look like Hermes stole your lunch."
Elysium hesitated, cheeks turning rose-gold.
"I never wanted to admit this but... I-I like Abyss."
Aphrodite froze.
Elysium continued quietly, twirling a golden strand of hair, "I see him as something I want... but I'm scared to reach for. Do you know that kind of feeling?"
Aphrodite's eyes WIDENED.
"Wait. WAIT. Elysium-are you telling me the girl you saw in Fate wasn't you?!"
Elysium shook her head rapidly.
"N-no. I said she was dangerous because I... I was jealous. I wanted it to be me. Or at least someone I ship with him."
Aphrodite leaned in.
"...Who?"
"You need to tell me this much at least."
Elysium blushed bright gold. She leaned forward and whispered a single name.
Aphrodite recoiled so hard she knocked her book off her lap.
"BY THE GODS-THESE TWO?! Fate is broken. That pairing should be ILLEGAL."
Elysium sighed, hugging her knees. "I know..."
Aphrodite suddenly snapped her fingers.
"Alright. Enough romance crisis. I need answers - what can you tell me about Harbingers? Zeus mentions them. You mention them. Nobody explains anything."
Elysium nodded and raised a hand.
A floating sentient library appeared behind her - thousands of shimmering pages orbiting her like stars.
She plucked one book from the swarm and opened it.
"There are fourteen harbingers," she said.
"Cosmic pillars. Each one a concept that existed before many gods."
Aphrodite leaned forward.
"First: Abyss - the Chaos."
"My son is a cosmic pillar?" she whispered.
Elysium didn't stop.
"Zeus is the Sky.
Kronos is Time."
Aphrodite gasped. "Kronos? That Kronos? He was a harbinger?!"
Elysium smirked.
"Yes."
"And who's stronger?" Aphrodite asked. "Abyss or Kronos?"
Elysium laughed softly.
"Oh, Aphrodite... only a fool believes Kronos could ever stand a chance against Abyss."
Aphrodite blinked.
"...oh."
Her fan snapped open.
"I need wine."
Aphrodite watched the pout on Elysium's face, her lower lip trembling like a child denied candy. She reached forward, placing both hands gently on the Harbinger's shoulders.
"Don't be sad," Aphrodite whispered, lifting her chin with two fingers. "Come on... let's do what you enjoy. Sing."
Elysium blinked, then slowly nodded, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
She stood - not still, but drifting in small steps, her hips swaying with the rhythm that hadn't even started yet. Light pulsed from her feet as she moved, leaving soft pink trails that faded like heartbeats.
"I always... live for that rush," Elysium breathed, placing her hands over her chest.
"When I see my boy crush..."
Aphrodite stepped beside her, hands clasped in front of her heart, and joined softly:
"Whenever you look away
your thoughts just fly away-"
Elysium spun lightly, a half-turn that made her hair swirl like golden ribbons as she sang back:
"Whenever I see him it gives me that rush that make me want to
blush..."
Aphrodite circled behind her like a guiding muse, her voice gliding in:
"Your love is a wandering ray
searching for what you can't say-"
Elysium closed her eyes, raising her arms as if catching falling light. Her voice grew brighter:
"Whenever I look away
I still come back and say
that I love him...
want him...
to foresee...what I can never say"
As she covered her face embarrassed that happened when she looked at smug Aphrodite face but she continues singing
"i don't know what I want or what to get he always make me flush ohhhh"
Aphrodite then continue as she whistle"cause you know what you need you need that little lips brush"
Elysium looked away
"i am living for that rush for that pretty brush.... I can't help but going all mess and feel pretty all I want is that rush I am bond to that impossible crush"
as she twirl around manafasting many pink formed image of love scenarios she made in her head
"i want that pretty face darlin we're living for that rush I Wana get you next to me cause all you need found with me"
The last note tapered as she pressed her palms together in front of her lips - not shy, but finally calm.
Aphrodite placed a hand on her back, warm and motherly.
Elysium drew a deep breath, the last of her sadness fading.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I needed that."
Pov back to the titanic 2 kitchen
The ship groaned softly as it cut through the black water, the cold night air slipping through the cracks like a ghost. Most of the crew slept in the lower cabins, but the kitchen lights still glowed faintly-warm, golden, and tired.
Ethan stood barefoot on the cold tile floor, rummaging through a metal cabinet for anything edible at this hour. Clarita sat at the table, an empty plate in front of her, her fingers tapping anxiously against the rim.
She wasn't hungry. Not really.
She was thinking-too much.
A pot clanged when Ethan finally found crackers. "Midnight hunger is real," he muttered, trying to lighten the mood.
Clarita didn't smile.
After a long hesitation, she finally spoke, her voice soft and unsteady:
"Ethan... do you think we should tell Abyss?"
Her foot tapped nervously. "I-I just... I don't know how he'll take it. About Lance."
Ethan stopped moving.
He didn't turn around right away. He knew this conversation would come eventually.
"It's Abyss," he said, trying to sound reassuring as he placed the crackers down. "He'll take it like a champ."
Clarita stared at the plate again. The golden glow of the lamp made her eyes look more tired than usual.
"You don't know him like I do," she whispered. "He pretends he's fine. But I know him. I know what Axel's last words did to him. Hearing that Lance-his childhood friend-joined Kronos..."
She swallowed.
"That's not something Abyss just walks off. Not after everything."
Ethan stepped closer, his expression softening. Slowly, he placed a hand under her chin so she would look up at him.
"Maybe not tonight," Ethan said quietly. "He's carrying enough already. And tomorrow... he wants to head to Rome. I don't know if that's for vengeance or answers."
He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
"But whatever he chooses... we're with him. All the way."
Clarita exhaled shakily.
"I just... don't want him to break."
"He won't," Ethan said.
But even he wasn't sure.
The ship creaked again, as if listening.
Above them, on the deck, Abyss stood alone in the cold-after he convinced Leyla to sleep while those who cared for him were already debating whether to tell him the one truth that could either steel him...
...or shatter him too bad winds never lied to abyss he knew everything abyss now want only one something
The ship settled into its midnight rhythm-engines humming, wood groaning, waves tapping against the hull like a slow heartbeat.
Down in the kitchen, Ethan and Clarita's conversation continued in low, tense voices.
They thought the room was soundproof enough.
They forgot one thing.
Abyss's wind never sleeps.
Even when he does.
Thin currents slid through the vents, drifting lazily through the halls like invisible threads-quiet, curious, always listening. They curled under the kitchen door, wrapped around the table legs, and lifted the shaken voices just enough for them to ride upward.
Up on the deck, where the cold bit hard and the stars were sharp, Abyss sat alone-shirtless despite the freezing air, the black cracks pulsing faintly across his skin like sleeping thunder.
His eyes were closed.
He wasn't trying to eavesdrop.
But the wind he breathed-the wind that was part of him-brought fragments to his ears anyway:
"-should we tell Abyss...?"
"-Lance... joined Kronos-"
"He'll take it like a champ."
"No... you don't know him... it'll break him-"
"He wants to go to Rome... maybe vengeance..."
The words were faint. Muffled.
But each one hit like a stone sinking into water.
Abyss didn't move.
He simply exhaled, and the night air trembled around him, as if the world itself was bracing.
Lance.
Kronos.
Vengeance.
The wind coiled around him, reacting to the storm behind his stillness.
For a moment, the cracks along his ribs flickered-darkness shifting under the skin like something alive.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Resolve.
If Kronos wanted time...
Abyss would end it.
"kronos I will make you wish you never existed you would wish you stayed in the womb"
Pov changed to temple of time
The Temple of Time was silent-too silent.
The air itself felt paused, every grain of dust hanging motionless like tiny prisoners.
Abyss stepped inside.
"Kronos. Show yourself-if you were ever a man."
A low chuckle rippled through the chamber.
Kronos emerged from the shadows, robes folding like clockwork gears, eyes burning with old arrogance.
"You?" the Titan laughed. "Trying to frighten me with titles? You're not even a manifested Harbinger. I fear nobody-least of all a boy."
Abyss walked forward, unfazed.
"Good. Because I am the nobody."
The floor cracked.
Wind ripped forward-not as a breeze, but as a gravitational pull. Kronos was drawn in against his will, dragged into Abyss's range as the demigod's fist slammed into his jaw, followed by a conjured wind-dagger striking his side.
Kronos snapped his fingers.
The wounds rewound-vanishing cleanly.
Abyss smiled.
"Didn't you notice? You healed the surface. The shard stayed inside."
Kronos's expression shifted.
The buried fragment detonated with compressed force, staggering him.
That ended the arrogance.
Kronos conjured a colossal scythe, light bending around its edge.
Abyss answered with a greatsword of volatile, storming wind.
The clash was unbelievable-time and air themselves buckling like woven threads being torn apart.
Each strike felt like the collision of two timelines.
Abyss dipped suddenly, driving a low blow to Kronos's foot, then locked his arms around the Titan and slammed him down in a feat of raw, merciless power.
"I'll put you on a leash, false god."
Kronos laughed-too calmly.
"Haven't we been here before? You said that line sixteen times."
Abyss froze.
A loop.
He forced a smirk, pretending panic.
"A time loop? How... how did the Fates not see that?"
Kronos leaned closer, pleased with himself.
"In my domain, I control the rewinding. The outside world can't sense anything. And the Fates?" He scoffed. "Their madam-Mira-one of my allies."
Abyss kept acting.
"Oh? Then... when was the last time you rewound time?"
"Just now."
That was all Abyss needed.
Reality snapped.
Abyss repeated calmly, "I'll put you on a leash, false god."
Now awake inside the loop.
Now knowing exactly how to break it.
Kronos struck first, sending Abyss flying and freezing every layer of time around him.
Abyss hung suspended-unable to move, yet seeing dozens of versions of the moment at once.
"What-what is this?" Abyss muttered, eyes flickering.
"A multi-aspect freeze," Kronos said proudly. "You'll feel this seven times."
A beam of temporal force shot into Abyss-echoing through every frozen after-image.
Abyss fell back, barely slowing-only to be caught in another time stop as Kronos rushed in for a relentless combo, the Titan striking again and again while Abyss hung partially frozen.
Abyss exhaled.
"Enough."
He looked around-not panicked, but studying.
"I noticed something... you're not freezing me. You freeze the space around me."
Kronos's eyes widened.
Because suddenly-
Time stopped.
Not Kronos's doing.
Abyss's.
The freeze collapsed around him like shattered glass as if nothing could exist around abyss.
Kronos stepped back.
"A Harbinger ability...?!"
Abyss didn't even answer.
His form blurred-wind turning him translucent, then titanic. A massive shape of storm and pressure manifested, every movement bending the air as if the world struggled to contain him.
He slammed into Kronos.
The Titan couldn't keep up-his rewinds were too slow, his domain too fragile, his confidence completely shattered. Abyss overpowered him blow after blow, controlling the timeline inside Kronos's own throne room.
Abyss knocked Kronos down so hard the ground bent beneath the titan's knees as abyss ripped the arm of Kronos off and fed it to him.
Kronos's voice trembled for the first time in eons.
"W-wait... let's make a truce! I-I'll stop trying to revive her myself, I swear-!"
Abyss leaned in, his aura crushing the air between them.
"Fine."
He smiled without warmth.
"Not because I care.
But because your revival to gaea benefits no one... except Zeus."
Kronos swallowed, defeated.
The Temple of Time flickered-its clocks skipping, stuttering, losing rhythm under Abyss's presence.
And for the first time in eternity...
Kronos felt what mortals feel.
Fear of the end as abyss punched Kronos one last time the titan jaw almost snapped abyss then spoke
> "changes the time to nighttime" abyss still has to go to room his fighting with Kronoss take hours that it's already morning his team would sense his absence though Kronos defeated did what abyss asked but inside know he won't take that disrespect and need to strike later
Though at Elysium and Aphrodite of course at Cadmus palace cause it's best to step at when bored
Aphrodite leaned back in her chair, swirling a cup of ambrosia in her hand. "Alright, Elysium, enough teasing. Who exactly are the other Harbingers? You've been teasing me for ages."
Elysium floated forward, her golden hair catching the light as she conjured a shimmering board out of thin air. Symbols spun around its edges, forming lines and nodes for each Harbinger.
"You already know Abyss," Elysium began, writing with a glowing quill:
Abyss > Chaos > Absence, Creation & Destruction
Aphrodite nodded slowly. "Of course. My son. The chaos incarnate."
"Then Kronos," Elysium continued, her tone slightly serious as she etched the name:
Kronos > Time > Vengeance & Flow
Aphrodite's eyebrows lifted. "The one that almost caused you to faint in the Temple of Time..."
Elysium smiled faintly, then added herself to the board:
Elysium > Love > Humanity & Motherhood
"You," Aphrodite said, nodding, "the only one who actually listens."
Next came the Boogyman:
Marmon> Terror > Fear &
Aphrodite leaned forward. "A living nightmare... makes sense."
Elysium continued, moving to Zeus:
Zeus > Sky > Sovereignty & Divinity
"Of course," Aphrodite muttered, "I should've guessed."
Then Atlantos:
Atlantos > Ocean > Primordial Water Forces
Elysium added, "You may have met him. He was a water spirit that almost killed Poseidon before he ascended."
Oblivion came next:
Oblivion > Death > End
"And his opposite?" Aphrodite asked, intrigued.
Olivian > Beginning > Dawn
Elysium wrote with a delicate flourish. "Balance, of course."
Sytrhina followed, and Elysium's tone softened.
Sytrhina > Rebirth > Cute, chaotic fairy energy
Aphrodite raised an eyebrow. "Adopt her?"
"I would," Elysium said wistfully, "but she's... mentally unstable. Too chaotic for me."
Arthur's turn made Aphrodite pause.
Arthur > Lights > order > hope> Fragments of Aether dropped into Apollo's temple
Elysium explained, "Kinda. He's... an anomaly, fragments given form." Aphrodite just shook her head in disbelief.
Then Mirage:
Mirage > Shades & Illusion
Elysium blushed faintly. "Close to Abyss... I envy her a little."
The next Harbinger was mysterious. Elysium hesitated:
Harbinger of Siege & Imprisonment > Eternal Punishment
"I don't know the name," she admitted. "But that's all I have."
Finally, Kytrhone:
Kytrhone > Calamity Titan > Foundation & Stability
"He created a whole race of Calamity Titans," Elysium added. "Son of Atlas. Simple, terrifying, structured... unstoppable."
And Mira > fate thread>inevitability and destiny
"Interesting...."Aphrodite said
Each name she wrote had arrows, crosses, and small notes pointing to their powers, traits, and quirks. Aphrodite leaned closer, studying the board like a general planning for war.
"So..." Aphrodite said finally, tapping the board. "This is your roster. Fourteen pillars of the cosmos, some of them... my children, some of them... outright nightmares. And you, Elysium, you've seen them all?"
Elysium nodded, floating back. "Every single one, mother. And every single one will shape the coming age."
Aphrodite's eyes narrowed, thoughtful and calculating. "Then we prepare... and maybe, just maybe, I'll keep my son out of too much trouble."
Elysium rolled her eyes "i know for a fact they want to get themselves out of trouble with your son"