[BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURE DETECTED. INITIATING SCAN...]
[PRIMORDIAL CORE CONFIRMED: ISLAND-CLASS, MAJOR GOD-TIER LIFEFORM.]
[HOSTILITY CONFIRMED.]
[DEPLOYING DOMAIN.]
[ACTIVATING PERSONALITY SIMULATION.]
A deep hum reverberated through Tartarus as the Titan lifted their heads and roared, as if welcoming their lord's descent.
Two radiant eyes drifted slowly downward. What finally entered Rovi's sight was a colossal "head"—or rather, an interstellar battleship-fortress, like the Zeus he'd encountered in the Imaginary Number Sea.
Its voice shifted from cold machine audio to something deep, resonant, and heavy with authority.
"I am Cronus—King of Titans, Sky God of Atlantis."
"Primordial one. Cease your impiety against the gods, and I may consider sparing you—allowing you to leave Tartarus."
"Oh? You actually have a fully developed personality?" Rovi arched a brow, genuinely surprised.
The instant Cronus appeared, Rovi had assumed he could "assimilate" it the way he had Zeus. In that split second, he'd even flooded his thoughts with chaotic nonsense, intending to jam the other's mind.
It hadn't worked.
"Atlantis?" Rovi murmured.
"Atlantis is the origin of our pantheon," a clear voice said at his side. Shaking off her surprise, Athena stepped forward. Her armored gown caught the lava's glow, tinting it faintly red, as she came to stand beside Rovi.
"Before Greece, it was the land we once ruled."
The Greek gods had come to Earth from beyond the stars. Under the oldest machine god—stellar-class Chaos—they crossed the cosmos in search of new resources when their home system's energy ran dry. Their first landing hadn't been Greece, but a continent across the ocean.
There, Cronus—the previous-generation machine god—rebuilt an interstellar civilization: Atlantis.
Only after long ages did Zeus and the upgraded Olympian machine gods replace the Titans.
"During their long reign, the Titans developed their own personalities," Athena said softly. "We Olympians never reached that stage. The White Titan that descended from the heavens destroyed everything—leaving only shattered mechanical bodies drifting until we reached Greece."
So the Greek gods were not truly Greek, but Atlantean in origin.
Rovi had known all along.
He wasn't surprised—only amused. "A formed personality… interesting."
By now, Cronus's sharpening consciousness had also noticed the white-clad war goddess at Rovi's side.
"An Olympian god?"
"Where is your machine-god body?"
"It's been damaged beyond repair, god of old," Athena answered plainly. "The era of machine gods is over."
"Oh?" The flowing light within Cronus's eyes tightened, spilling something almost human—first shock, then exhilaration. "Then you Olympians have fallen that far?"
"Even Zeus? Bwahahaha! So it's true—our chance has come again, the chance of the Titan gods!"
Athena didn't reply. She neither confirmed nor denied Zeus's current strength.
She was leaving him a pit to step into.
"In that case, I'll deal with you here first!" Cronus had awakened by accident, but now that he was awake, he had no intention of sinking back into slumber.
It had never been that the Titans couldn't escape Tartarus. They'd feared the Olympians' combined might—terrified of Zeus's ability to unify and command the entire Olympian system.
Individually, the Titans were not weak.
But the power Zeus could draw from the whole had been a force that made them wary.
And now… perhaps that force was truly gone.
Athena hadn't lied.
Cronus still had the means to test truth from falsehood.
[DOMAIN FULLY DEPLOYED—PROOF OF THE SKY MANIFESTING.]
Data streamed and reconfigured. Though Zeus had seized dominion over the sky and all creation, Cronus still retained traces of his former Authority—and the full performance of an interstellar fortress, the flagship of a fleet.
In that instant, Tartarus boiled even harder.
Crimson radiance burst outward.
The Titans were infused with divine power—
Their bodies strengthened. Their movements synchronized.
A flagship, naturally, could serve as a commander.
"In the name of Cronus—Titans, slaughter these two! Then go to the surface and reclaim our homeland!"
"Bwahahaha!"
Cronus's laughter grew wilder, more rampant, echoing through Tartarus.
Rovi and Athena weren't worth his notice. He was the Titan King—the King of Titans!
"ROAAAR—!"
The Titans answered with furious bellows.
Athena's expression tightened. She gripped spear and shield, silver hair streaming as her crimson eyes narrowed.
Rovi, on the other hand, simply smiled.
"Go on. Go on. Go on, my children!"
"I am the lord of all things, the King of Titans—I am… Bwaha—!"
Cronus's massive body suddenly listed, lurching as if struck. His glowing eyes widened, snapping toward the side.
Athena stared, momentarily at a loss.
The Titans—who had been facing Rovi and Athena—turned in unison.
Then they drove their fists straight into Cronus, who was still laughing.
"What…?" Cronus went blank.
[INFORMATION SCAN: FLAGSHIP AUTHORITY COMPROMISED.]
[TITAN CONTROL: INEFFECTIVE.]
His authority over the Titans had been stolen?
No—it was devoured.
Rovi's attempt to devour Tartarus was real, but that didn't mean he hadn't done other work under cover of that grand spectacle.
He'd severed Cronus's control over the Titans.
More than that—he'd seized the "link" Cronus used to command them and taken it into his own hands.
"You—mere human… a mere human dares…" Cronus trembled with fury.
Because it was exactly what Zeus had done to him back then.
The same trap—
And he'd fallen into it twice?!
Humiliation. Humiliation. Humiliation—
"Kill him, Titans!" Rovi spread his arms wide. "Flatten Tartarus for me!"
"ROAAAAAR—!"
The Titans roared back, hammering Cronus with fists empowered by Cronus's own blessing!
Using his own spear against his own shield.
In that instant, attack and defense inverted.
So who was the true King of Titans?
Without a doubt—
"I am the King of Titans!" Rovi laughed wildly.
Rage. Shame. Drown in it, Cronus!
And then...
Come. Kill me!