A god's name was different from the one they held as a human.
A divine name was the name that defined a newborn god's existence, marking the moment one crossed from human into divinity.
Shiomi had never given it any thought. It was only recently that the Goddess Tiamat had bestowed upon him a divine name of his own.
A new god, born from the realm beneath the divine, who had thrown himself into battle again and again for humanity, fighting to take back Proper Human History.
His name was Tehom.
The moment Shiomi spoke it aloud—making his divine name public, declaring himself as a god—Zeus felt an immense presence surge back at him.
A fledgling god who should have been crushed under Zeus, now synchronized with Kronos Crown, made Zeus sense something subtle and dangerous.
Shiomi still wore the small body of a human, yet the instant he proclaimed his divine name, it was as if he became something entirely different—something Zeus could no longer ignore.
"Oh? Tehom?" Zeus's voice was perfectly flat. "So you are not some unknown demigod, but one who has gained a divine name of his own and established a complete existence."
"This is the divine name my mother, the Goddess Tiamat, granted me. And by the name Tehom, I will defeat you, Zeus, who wields the full Authorities of the Twelve gods of Olympus!"
Lightning crashed down in relentless waves. Some strikes Shiomi blocked head-on, others he slipped past. Between them, his own lightning snapped back at Zeus in counterattack.
Each bolt was on a completely different level from what had rained down over the Interstellar Metropolis mountain range before.
The gap in power narrowed further. He was still small, still outmatched, yet now he carried strength that could contend with Zeus—strength that could even injure him.
The Curse Gáe Bolg, the Spear of the Gods, even the Chosen Spear—Shiomi no longer needed to grip them in his hands. They moved as his will commanded, becoming lethal blades that struck at Zeus's body again and again from different angles.
"Why?" Zeus asked. "Now that you have become a god, why cling so stubbornly to walking alongside humanity? That Holy Lance goddess over there is the same. Why? Why do you gods choose this?"
Another exchange ended without Shiomi landing a decisive hit, and Zeus did not immediately press a counterattack.
In that brief opening, Zeus posed his question.
"Why? There is no 'why.' I was born human. I knew nothing of my past, nothing of my parents, nothing of any destiny. I was taught by my mentor, protected by my wise wife, cared for by my beloved daughters, and carried this far by countless companions. That's why I chose to become a god!"
Shiomi stared up at the face set into Zeus's hull, meeting those enormous eyes head-on, refusing to yield an inch in presence.
"To become a god for the sake of mortals… is stupidity beyond measure."
As Zeus spoke, a massive shockwave slammed into Shiomi, blasting him and his spears away.
"The one who's beyond measure is you! You treat humans like toys in the palm of your hand. You've never seen their lives as something irreplaceable, taking and giving them as you please. You should have vanished along with the Pruned Event, yet here you are on this planet, crawling back to life through the Fantasy Tree."
Shiomi steadied himself in midair and pointed straight at Zeus.
"Someone like you could never understand what it truly means to 'walk alongside humanity'!"
"Walk alongside humanity." Zeus remained unmoved. "...I'm sure Demeter told you. Roughly fourteen thousand cycles ago, after the war named the Great White War (Leucos), I—no, we—shattered even the colossal shadow of white destruction, Sefar. Yes. It was we who preserved the prehistoric civilization that should have been annihilated, allowing it to endure to this day."
As he spoke, his gaze swept across the battlefield: Orion and Artoria fighting Europa and Talos; the ongoing struggle in the Machine God's Corridor; and Storm Border waiting beneath the barrier, ready to provide support at any moment.
"But this time, you—Proper Human History—cannot become destruction. You are not even the embodiment of destruction, much less its divided spirit, the giant Ganymedes. So why? Why set out on this journey? Why insist on killing us Lostbelts, when the human order of this planet, the human history carved into it, has already been wiped clean into a blank sheet?"
Even as he spoke, Zeus's assault never paused for a heartbeat.
Thunder that would dismantle anything it struck—human or Servant alike—down to the soul itself poured down without end. Shiomi took it, defended against it, and forced his way back with counterattacks.
If Shiomi couldn't endure Zeus's attacks, Zeus wouldn't have bothered to speak at all.
"It wasn't us who turned human history into a blank page. You stole the world that had existed until now, and you still have the nerve to accuse us? You've got some gall." Shiomi looked at Zeus coldly. "You talk too much."
"Heh… hah… hahahaha!"
Zeus's laughter boomed out again, deafening and immense—whether in amusement or anger, it was impossible to tell.
"Don't be so quick to laugh. The roots of this Lostbelt's Fantasy Tree have already spread across the entire planet. It's the foundation that allows the Lostbelt to manifest and persist—and it's also the catalyst for the descent of the Alien God."
Shiomi raised both hands and gripped Fergnir, drawing lightning into the spear's body.
In Norse mythology, Odin—the great god known as the Father of Thunder—once wielded a divine spear that rivaled Zeus's Authority over lightning.
"Answer me, Zeus! Do you intend to rule this planet alongside the Alien God—alongside deities from entirely different mythological systems? Or do you actually have a way to deal with the Alien God?"
"Oh? That is not something you need concern yourself with. If you wish to walk alongside humanity, then do so as they do—without worry, without thought, without resistance. Bend like reeds in the wind. I alone will bear the burdens. You need only continue to exist, smile, and offer your reverence to us."
"So in the end, that's all you have to say, Zeus."
Shiomi's eyes opened fully. Within them, his heterochromatic star-like pupils shone. His voice was calm, steady, unshakable.
"Then fall together with your own thunder. You're standing far too high."
The lightning coiling around Gungnir shifted forms again and again. At last, with Gungnir at its core, it expanded into a massive thunderous cavalry lance. The spiraling blade rotated violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.
So before it could break apart, Shiomi swung Fergnir.
The divine lightning that filled the sky condensed into a blade and carved down toward Zeus's incomparably sturdy Machine God True Form.
Warth Tempest!
Whether it was a spear of thunder or a sword of thunder no longer mattered.
Forged from lightning itself, the strike fell forward with absolute resolve, cleaving directly into the colossal face set into the front of Zeus's hull.
Shiomi's roar merged with the crash of thunder, shaking heaven and earth in that instant.
...
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