Jagged blue runes twisted like living lightning across Rain's body, surging with the trident's power as his form expanded. The weapon echoed his transformation, stretching into an immense, divine water trident, the sea itself roaring in response. The release of energy was so immense that even Ruin, impervious to William's fiercest attacks, squinted against the overwhelming force.
"Fascinating," he muttered.
Ruin's grip tightened cruelly around William's wrist and throat. With a brutal twist, he ripped William's arm free from its socket and slammed him headfirst into the ocean floor.
BOOM... CRACKLE!
The seabed detonated, shockwaves tearing through coral reefs and ancient stone. Lifeless sea creatures spiraled outward as cracks veined through the dark abyss.
Before William could even gasp, Ruin disappeared. He reappeared above, his foot descending like the blade of a guillotine.
William's heart froze. His pupils shrank.
BOOOOM!
The ocean floor erupted again, rock and sand exploding in every direction like shrapnel.
Then the pink light arrived.
Eve's radiant chains wrapped themselves around Ruin's limbs and neck, their length infinite and unyielding. The final link snapped into place, imprisoning him.
"GET OFF HIM, YOU MONSTER!"
Her voice thundered like divine wrath. Hovering with the grace of a goddess, Eve defied the sea, her hair flowing like a fiery halo, her eyes ablaze with unrelenting fury.
The ocean quaked violently as the chains tightened, but Ruin simply tilted his head. And shrugged.
SNAP!
The bindings shattered.
HYAK!
William convulsed, blood erupting from his mouth. He looked down in horror to see Ruin's leg impaled through his abdomen, pinning him like an insect.
Through the haze of blood, he glimpsed Eve hurled mercilessly, her own constructs turning against her as Ruin smashed her against Atlantis' towering walls.
The leg wrenched free. The same blood-drenched limb struck once more.
CRUNCH.
William's body crumpled under the devastating blow. His shattered form ricocheted off Atlantis' barrier, the protective shield flickering weakly before he plunged into the abyss, limp and broken.
Darkness enveloped him. Agony gnawed at the edges of his consciousness. Then, through the blur of pain, he saw it.
The ocean had risen.
A colossal titan of water towered above, wielding a trident as immense as mountains. Within its chest, Rain floated, his eyes blazing with power, his indomitable will surging through the living sea. The trident in his grasp radiated an energy beyond comprehension.
Ruin raised his arm just as the watery spear descended.
BOOOOOOM!
The ground beneath Ruin fractured and caved. Atlantis' walls trembled violently, the seabed splitting open as torrents of water surged upward. Ruin remained standing, unyielding, but the earth beneath him crumbled, dragging him under the overwhelming force of the strike.
The ground trembled violently, torrents of seawater surging skyward as Rain's thunderous strike reverberated through Atlantis' foundations. Within the watery titan's chest, Rain's eyes burned with an intense brilliance, his divine will pressing against the ocean with unyielding authority.
For the first time, Ruin hesitated. He lingered in the crater, shadows writhing like boiling tar around his figure. His scale-armored flesh split open, bleeding streams of darkness as grotesque tendrils coiled outward in chaotic patterns.
Then came the voice, low, guttural, not Ruin's, not human.
"You dare mock the sea… with the sea?"
The abyss itself seemed to awaken. Shadows exploded outward, twisting into a monstrous form. Ruin's body stretched unnaturally, elongating as wings of solid darkness unfurled like tattered sails over the deep. His head cracked and reshaped, crowned by jagged horns that speared outward, his maw filling with rows of obsidian teeth.
What emerged was no longer just Ruin, but a monstrous dragon, a nightmarish rebirth of Nereuson. This grotesque shadow of the ancient sea god loomed above, its scales glimmering with an unholy blend of void and ink, its eyes burning like infinite, suffocating stars. Each thunderous beat of its colossal wings whipped the ocean into a frenzy of whirlpools, consuming the sea in its boundless, ravenous hunger.
Ruin had fully embraced the draconic form of his stolen vessel.
Atlantis groaned as the barrier quaked violently, rippling under the crushing weight of the two titans battling to reshape the sea around them.
Inside his titan's heart, Rain's breath hitched. The ocean recoiled against him, the very element he commanded shrieking in anguish, as if betrayed by its own corrupted twin. Yet, his grip on the trident tightened, his gaze blazing with unrelenting defiance.
The water titan hefted its weapon. The shadow-dragon dipped its head.
And the sea tore apart.
BOOOOOOOM!
The massive trident collided with the dragon's jaws. Light and shadow bellowed together, the impact sending colossal walls of water surging like tidal meteors, slamming into Atlantis' defenses. The city shuddered, spires fracturing as terrified Atlanteans scattered in panic.
The dragon clamped its teeth onto the trident, shredding through divine water as if it were flesh. Rain strained within, his titan shuddering under the relentless assault. For an agonizing moment, it seemed as though the ocean itself might collapse around him.
But then Rain bellowed, his voice resonating through the titan, carried by the power of the sea itself.
The trident burned with celestial fire, runes flaring like constellations etched along its gleaming shaft. The titan lunged forward with unstoppable force, driving the dragon back and fracturing the seabed in a cataclysmic eruption.
Yet Ruin only roared with laughter, a haunting, infinite sound that reverberated through the abyss. From his wings spilled endless darkness, a venomous tide that corrupted the sea. The waters around Atlantis dimmed to a desolate void, as though the sun itself had succumbed to the deep.
This was no longer a battle of man versus beast. It was ocean warring with abyss. A clash of gods.
The ocean heaved violently as Rain surged forward, his immense form encased in writhing blue runes that blazed like thunder incarnate. Every step he took churned the sea into tumultuous spirals, his trident radiating the fierce brilliance of a storm-forged weapon destined to strike down gods. Facing him, Ruin uncoiled, a monstrous dragon of shadow, his oily scales seeping darkness like ink bleeding into the depths. His vast maw yawned open, revealing a void filled with jagged obsidian fangs.
The two titans clashed.
CRAAAASH!
Rain thrust the trident forward with a roar, the weapon growing to match his colossal size, its prongs shimmering with an untamed oceanic aura. Ruin's jaws clamped down on the divine metal, his teeth grinding fiercely against it. The impact erupted into a deafening thunderclap, sending shockwaves through the abyss and warping the water into a crushing dome of pressure. Cracks spiderwebbed across Atlantis's barrier as towers trembled, their foundations groaning under the strain.
From the depths of the dragon's shadowed skull, Ruin's voice slithered out, guttural and mocking: "You wield the trident like a child brandishing a torch... do you truly wish to continue this fight?"
Rain roared, veins straining as the glowing runes carved into his flesh blazed brighter, searing his skin with fiery lines. He drove the trident deeper into the dragon's throat, the ocean quaking under the force. Whirlpools erupted around them, swallowing Atlantean ships into their spiraling doom.
But Ruin moved faster. His claws slashed forward, each talon a blade of darkness cutting through water and nearly reaching Rain's true form. Rain faltered, pain coursing through him, but he steadied himself with a defiant howl, sweeping the trident in a devastating arc.
WHOOOSH... BOOM!
The strike tore through the ocean like a meteor, carving a canyon into the seabed and shattering hundreds of tons of stone. Ruin's left wing exploded under the blow, disintegrating into a storm of black smoke. Yet the shadow-dragon laughed, his wing reforming instantly, darker and sharper than before.
In the distance, Eve clawed her way out of the rubble of a collapsed spire, pain wracking her body as she gasped for air. Pink light flickered unsteadily from her fingertips as her eyes locked onto William's lifeless figure drifting downward, blood spiraling like a crimson comet in the deep.
Her heart seized. No. Not him. Not now.
Despite the agony piercing her ribs, Eve surged forward in a burst of radiant pink energy, her grief, fury, and desperation propelling her toward him. She had one goal: reach William before the last spark of life left his eyes.
Meanwhile, Rain's roar thundered across the ocean floor. The runes on his body spiraled up the trident, the weapon humming with a power that shook the very seas.
The titans clashed once more, the ocean splitting apart with such ferocity that Atlantis itself trembled, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Ruin's shadow-dragon form roared, a sound like grinding tectonic plates, as his claws tore through Rain's chest, ripping away half his torso in one grotesque motion. Blood and seawater surged into a violent storm, but before the fragments could scatter, Rain's massive body rippled, flesh reknitting, scales and sinew weaving back together with the raw fury of the ocean itself. He retaliated in kind, gripping Ruin's jaw and tearing half his head free with a sickening crack of bone and shadow, only for black matter to bubble and surge, reforming into an even more monstrous visage.
They collided again, their clashes so cataclysmic the sea floor caved beneath them, entire trenches collapsing into new abysses. Each strike shredded their forms, each counter rebuilt them, until it was less a battle and more a relentless cycle of death and rebirth between two primordial forces.
Rain plunged the trident into Ruin's chest, skewering him like a beast on a hunter's spear. Ruin only laughed, ichor bleeding into burning clouds around the wound as he snapped his own body in half to escape, shadow-flesh crawling back into place as though daring Rain to try again.
Above the chaos, the currents pulled William's limp body deeper into the abyss, blood unfurling around him like a crimson shroud. His eyes fluttered weakly, the glow of life fading with every heartbeat. Darkness embraced him, drawing him toward the eternal silence of the deep.
Eve fought against the relentless currents and the chaos of jagged debris, her body aching and battered from Ruin's brutal assault. Her lungs screamed for air, her strength waned with every passing second, but she refused to let him slip into the abyss. Each stroke of her arms was pure torment, every kick a desperate battle against the merciless black ocean.
At last, she reached him. Her fingers clenched around his arm, pulling his limp form against her before the void could claim him. For one heart-stopping moment, fear gripped her, his body was icy, his breath barely there, but then, his eyes fluttered open, faint light meeting hers in a fragile connection.
Relief surged through her, shattering the exhaustion etched into her features. Tears mingled with the seawater, drifting away as she held him close, refusing to let go.
Behind them, the battle between Rain and Ruin spiraled into utter chaos. The dragon's tail tore Rain's arm from its body, but a torrent of water erupted to replace it instantly, reforming into a new limb. Rain retaliated by slamming Ruin into the ocean floor, stomping relentlessly until the shadow-beast's form was reduced to pulp, only for it to reconstitute, growing sharper, darker, and more terrifying with each revival.
The ocean roared in protest under their clash, trenches caving in and shockwaves pulverizing coral into dust. Each time one fell, they rose anew, fiercer, more relentless, feeding on the escalating fury of their conflict.
And amidst this storm of destruction, Eve clung fiercely to William, her body shielding his from the chaos, her eyes blazing with unyielding determination.
Rain's eyes burned with unrelenting fire, every rune across his massive form blazing with raw power. He spun the trident in a lethal arc, carving through the water with divine precision. Ruin lunged forward, teeth snapping and claws ripping enormous chunks from Rain's torso, each strike sending shockwaves through the ocean depths. Flesh shredded, scales fractured, and the water churned into crimson maelstroms, yet Rain's form regenerated instantly, his body reforming stronger and faster, driven by the unyielding will of the sea.
Ruin countered, his shadowy coils wrapping around Rain's leg and wrenching it from its socket with brutal force. The shadow-dragon roared, releasing black ichor into the surging currents as he slammed Rain into the seabed with devastating impact. Rain convulsed, but with an earth-shaking roar, he drove the trident into the dragon's chest, piercing Ruin from heart to spine. Shadows dissolved and reassembled, and Ruin's monstrous head shattered into fragments, only to return, even larger, more grotesque, and deeper in darkness.
Their battle reshaped the underwater world. Towering waves surged and collapsed, coral reefs crumbled into dust, and vast trenches tore open in the seafloor. Each strike of Rain's trident cleaved the abyss, while every sweep of Ruin's wings consumed entire currents, twisting them into swirling voids of darkness.
Amid the chaos, Eve pressed forward, her body aching and exhausted but unyielding. The currents fought against her, but she refused to let go of William. Her arms wrapped tightly around him, weaving radiant pink energy to shield them both from the crushing depths and the razor-sharp debris. His lifeless form rested against her chest, his faint breaths merging with the rising storm of her fury.
At last, she reached calmer waters, pulling William tightly into her arms. Tears mingled with the salty sea as her face pressed against his. "You're not leaving me," she whispered, her voice trembling yet resolute. William's faintly flickering eyes met hers, and a fragile smile of gratitude crossed his pale, weary features, a glimmer of hope in the encroaching shadows.
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, Rain let out a thunderous roar, charging at Ruin with unyielding determination. The shadow-dragon surged forward to meet him, and they collided with an earth-shattering impact. Rain's trident slashed through Ruin's side, scattering massive fragments of shadow and scales, but the dragon regenerated almost instantly, becoming even more jagged, darker, and deadlier with each strike.
Rain's colossal arms pummeled Ruin's wings, crushing them again and again, only for them to regrow, expanding wider and sharper after every regeneration. Blood and ichor poured into the ocean, swirling with the seawater into crimson maelstroms that threatened to engulf Atlantis itself.
The two titans were locked in an unending cycle of destruction and rebirth: tearing, regenerating, escalating. The fury of their battle beneath the waves was unstoppable, a clash of gods that defied comprehension.
Through it all, Eve clung to William. Even as his body healed, she kept her arms wrapped protectively around him as she watched the chaos unfold with wide, fearful eyes. Her light was a fragile beacon in the overwhelming darkness. She held on to him, and in that moment, nothing else mattered.
[AN - Insert Kaiju battle music immediately!]