Meanwhile, at the eastern pillar, a storm of divine fury rages. Thunderous waves, tall as mountains, clash against the jagged rocks below. At the pillar's peak, Koios and Atlas stand unfazed, their figures stark against the tempest.
Suddenly, a massive whirlpool churns the ocean's surface, a monstrous shadow coiling in the depths below.
Atlas cracks his knuckles, the sound like splitting stone. His gaze is locked on the looming shadow. "They have arrived."
With a titanic splash, the surface bursts open. The massive water serpent, Leviathan, its body a map of unhealed scars from past battles, surges upward and lunges for the pillar.
Koios simply waves his hand. 'Axis change.'
The world tilts. Leviathan, the sea spray, and the very rocks themselves begin to fall backward, defying gravity.
"ROAARRR!!!" The beast roars, struggling against the inverted pull.
Poseidon leaps from Leviathan's head, a silver trident held high. Atlas meets his charge, launching himself from the peak. As they cross, Leviathan, adapting with brutal will, ignores the reversed gravity and fires a concentrated blue energy beam from its maw at Koios.
Koios's hand flicks again. 'Topography shift.' The air shimmers, and a great wall of mountain rock erupts from nothing, swallowing the energy beam with a deafening impact.
In the sky, Poseidon's trident meets Atlas's gauntlet. The collision is not a clash but a detonation. The shockwave shatters the surrounding cliffs and tears the storm clouds apart.
Leviathan stabilizes, its serpentine eyes burning with primal fury. It learns, adapting to the axis-changing trickery. With sheer bestial will, it forces its head forward, massive jaws snapping at Koios despite the unnatural gravity pulling it back. Koios dances aside, the wind from the bite whipping his hair. His mind, a calm map of probabilities, is flooded with chaotic, bestial impulses from the creature.
He can't find a coherent thought to manipulate—only raw, stubborn will. A cold dread settles in his stomach. 'This is a terrible match for his me.'
His one good eye flicks to the clashing titans. An idea sparks. "Atlas!" he shouts.
Atlas steals a glimpse, catching the desperate gesture. He dodges a piercing thrust from the trident and smashes his fist into the ground. A cloud of dust and rubble erupts. Then, he brings his golden gauntlets together in a thunderous clap.
The sound is not mere noise, but a physical wave of force. It hits Poseidon like a physical blow. Poseidon screams, stumbling back as liquid gold streams from his ruptured eardrums. He clamps his hands over his ears, his face a mask of agony.
Atlas doesn't hesitate. Divine energy concentrates in his gauntlet, making it shine with solar radiance. He drives a fist into Poseidon's torso before the god can recover.
"Heuk!" Poseidon vomits a torrent of shimmering, golden blood, hurtling backward to crash against the mountain wall Koios had created.
'Position exchange.' Koios snaps his fingers.
Atlas and Koios vanish, swapping places in an instant. Atlas now stands where Koios was, his fist already in motion, meeting Leviathan's descending jaw.
'CRACK!'
The punch shatters a fang the size of a pillar. The serpent recoils, roaring, blood pouring from its maw. Its serpentine eyes lock onto Atlas with cold, calculating hatred. As Atlas lunges again, Leviathan doesn't meet him head-on. It waits, then whips its massive tail with shocking speed, catching Atlas and sending him soaring upward. It doesn't stop. A blue energy beam erupts from its throat, aimed at the free-falling Titan.
Atlas twists in midair. He tucks his body, crossing his arms, and envelopes himself in a dense shell of divine energy. The beam hits him, but he becomes a meteor, piercing through the azure fire, descending relentlessly. He crashes onto Leviathan's head with the force of a falling star, driving the colossal serpent down into the mountainside.
Meanwhile, Poseidon rises slowly from the rubble, seawater streaming from his cracked armor. His trident pulses with a unstable silver light, feeding on his fury. Golden ichor paints a path down his chin; his eyes, twin abyssal tempests, fix on the Titans.
"You dare to stain me with your tricks," he whispers, and the entire ocean stirs in response.
The waves themselves become his rage. Columns of water spiral into the sky, twisting into serpents of liquid thunder. The storm's roar deepens into a divine battle cry.
Atlas turns, sensing the cataclysmic surge of power. He leaps forward, but Poseidon is a blur of water and motion. He reappears before Atlas, trident swinging in a devastating arc. Atlas blocks with his gauntlet, but the force is immense, hurling him backward through a half-mile of shattered cliff face.
Koios's good eye flickers with silver light.
'Thought link — Atlas.'
A faint, psychic channel sparks to life between their minds. Atlas's voice echoes in his head, strained.
"He's faster. The water carries him."
"Then stop chasing the wave. Make it crash against the shore."
Poseidon strikes again, his trident splitting the air with a sonic boom. Atlas meets him, golden gauntlet colliding with silver steel. Sparks and concussive force explode outward. The impact cracks the continental shelf, releasing geysers of boiling water.
Suddenly, Leviathan roars, its vast shadow rising behind Atlas. The wounded serpent coils, its scales glowing with desperate blue light. Before Atlas can pivot, Leviathan wraps its colossal body around him, squeezing.
CRACK.
The sound of shattering ribs is sickening.Atlas gasps, a spray of crimson and gold bursting from his lips. The light in his gauntlets flickers.
Koios's mind blazes in their link.
"He'll crush him! Swap now!"
He raises a trembling hand.
'Position exchange — Atlas with that cliff fragment!'
In an instant, Atlas vanishes. Where he stood, a giant slab of rock appears and is immediately pulverized to dust in Leviathan's coils. Atlas reappears beside Koios, clutching his mangled chest, his breathing a wet, ragged thing.
Koios exhales, a flicker of relief on his face. It vanishes as Poseidon materializes behind him, moving with the silent, inevitable speed of a tidal surge.
"Your mind games end here."
Koios's mind flares, reading the intent—a clear, sharp image of a downward trident slash aimed at his skull. He twists the axis instinctively to deflect it. But Poseidon alters his thought midway, a deliberate feint.
"You read minds, Koios. Then read this—"
The trident turns mid-swing, slashing horizontally. Koios is overcommitted. The silver tines tear across his face.
"AAAGHHH!"
The world explodes in white agony.Golden ichor sprays as his left eye is utterly destroyed.
Atlas turns, horror choking his voice. "Koios!"
Poseidon follows without mercy, driving his trident forward. The points punch through Koios's chest with a wet crunch, pinning him to the broken ground. He coughs, blood trickling down his chin. Poseidon stands over him, a victorious chill in his gaze. "Your mind games end here."
Koios grins weakly through the pain.
"They already have."
His ring glows. A faint, disorienting ripple passes through the air. Poseidon blinks, his certainty faltering for a split second as a fragment of his own hesitation echoes back into his mind.
Atlas seizes that single, fractured instant. He roars, lunging forward with his good arm, golden light blazing around his fist. The gauntlet, fueled by rage and pain, slams into Poseidon's ribs. The god's armor shatters under the impact, and he is sent crashing backward into the churning surf.
The sea explodes with his landing.
Koios forces himself onto one elbow, half-blind, one hand pressed to the ruin of his eye.
"He's too adaptive. He learns from every move."
"Then we break his partner. Leviathan dies now."
Atlas turns his bloody gaze toward the serpent, which is coiling again, blue energy building in its wounded throat. Koios lifts his trembling, blood-slicked arm.
'Axis distortion — fold direction inward!'
The serpent's beam lances out—and curves violently back upon itself. The beast flinches, roaring in confusion and pain as its own attack scorches its scales. Atlas uses that instant. He leaps, a golden comet, landing on Leviathan's snout and driving a fist downward with all his weight.
The blow cracks scales and bone, but Leviathan's tail, whip-fast, sweeps upward and smashes into him. Atlas flies through the air, another sickening crack echoing from his body.
Koios reacts, despite the darkness encroaching on his vision.
'Position switch — Atlas with that falling debris!'
Atlas's body vanishes, replaced by a massive piece of cliff rock that the serpent's tail obliterates. Atlas reappears mid-fall, using the redirected momentum to land hard on Leviathan's back.
Poseidon reemerges from the sea, his fury a palpable force. He summons waves taller than the pillar itself.
I will drown them both.
Koios catches the thought and smiles a bloody, grim smile.
'Axis change.'
He shifts the axis once more—redirecting the summoned tide downward. Instead of crashing upon the Titans, the mountainous waves implode, crashing down with apocalyptic force upon the already-wounded Leviathan.
The serpent reels, its body rupturing in a dozen places, scales tearing away to reveal bleeding flesh beneath.
Atlas sees his chance. He sprints along the creature's spine, every step a seismic stomp.
"The depths claim you!"
Leviathan snaps its massive jaws at him. Instead of dodging, Atlas dives straight into its mouth. Koios's one good eye widens in horror.
"Atlas!Don't—!"
Inside the beast's maw, Atlas braces his legs against the lower jaw and his arms against the upper. His muscles swell, divine light burning through his wounds, burning through the pain.
"Amplify strength — MAXIMUM OUTPUT!"
The golden radiance of his gauntlets floods his entire body. He becomes a star contained in flesh.
With a final, world-ending roar, he pushes.
The serpent's jaw cracks, then splinters, the sound a deafening report that silences the storm for a moment. Atlas drives his gauntlet upward, through the soft palate, punching straight into the creature's brain.
A blinding golden light erupts from Leviathan's eyes and maw. Its final scream tears the soul from the air. Then, silence. The colossal body goes limp, crashing into the sea below and sending a tidal wave racing toward the horizon.
Poseidon freezes. The rage on his face melts into something colder, more profound: a grief as deep as the trenches.
"You…killed my kin."
Atlas stumbles from the beast's ruined mouth, drenched in viscous, golden blood, his body a testament of broken bones and sheer will. "He fought well," he pants, each word a labor. "But his path ended here."
Poseidon's shattered grief refines into a silent, absolute wrath. He raises his trident. The entire ocean, every drop for a thousand miles, rises with him, a liquid mountain of vengeance poised to scour the world.
Koios, on his knees, clenches his fist. The psychic feedback is overwhelming.
"Atlas... his rage... it's the tide itself! Unfocused, wild... but there's no end to it!"
Atlas rolls his shattered shoulders, bones grinding as they knit just enough to hold. "Then I'll hit the sea until it stills."
Poseidon swings his trident down. The wall of water, miles high, surges forward.
Koios slams his bloodied hand on the ground, his voice breaking.
'Axis inverse!'
The tsunami reverses in midair, folding backward upon itself and crashing into the sea with a force that shakes the very planet. The entire coastline sinks several feet.
Poseidon vanishes. He reappears beside Koios, trident aimed for the heart.
"Koios!"
Atlas throws his broken body forward,his gauntlet intercepting the blow. The impact still blasts him backward, tearing a new chasm through the land.
Poseidon is an unstoppable tide. His strikes are endless, relentless. Atlas meets each one, each punch a localized earthquake against divine water and thunder. The ground fractures, and the shockwaves birth new, smaller storms.
Koios, vision graying, tries once more.
'Position shift — Atlas behind him.'
Atlas flickers, appearing behind Poseidon mid-swing. His golden fist smashes into the god's already-injured ribs. Poseidon skids across the shattered shore, his trident screeching against the stone.
Atlas advances, a limping, bleeding monument of endurance.
Poseidon rises, a grim smile on his face.
"So this is the strength that holds up the sky.Then behold the weight of all the seas!"
He strikes the ground with his trident. The very moisture in the air screams, twisting into a thousand razor-sharp blades, flying in from all directions.
Koios throws his arm forward, trembling, his voice a ghost.
'Axis compression.'
The air warps, bending and shattering the water blades. Some dissolve, others clash and explode. The effort is too much. Blood gushes from Koios's nose and his destroyed socket; the silver light in his ring sputters and dies. He collapses, completely unconscious.
Atlas feels the psychic link snap.
"KOIOS!"
Poseidon blurs again, faster, angrier. He swings downward, his trident glowing with the condensed light of the abyss. Atlas blocks, but the impact shatters his left arm, the bones turning to pulp within the gauntlet.
He roars, a sound of pure agony, and forces a punch with his other arm. The blow cracks against Poseidon's chestplate, sending shards of divine metal flying, but the god only grunts, gripping his trident harder.
Poseidon retaliates, a spinning strike that hurls Atlas into the air. A colossal column of pressurized water rises like a spear to meet him.
With the last dregs of his consciousness, Koios's fingers twitch.
'Position… exchange — Atlas… with core stone.'
Atlas disappears. A stone from the pillar's foundation appears in his place and is vaporized by the water spear.
'Axis… shift — gravity toward Poseidon.'
Suddenly, the local gravity around the god inverts violently. Waves, rocks, and debris are pulled downward toward him. The sea implodes into a concave bowl.
Atlas, now on the ground, slams his one good fist down into the earth. Poseidon catches it with both hands, the trident wedged between them. Gold against azure, their powers collide in a silent, expanding sphere of annihilation.
The world tears open at the seams. Mountains are leveled. The sea for miles around vaporizes into a superheated fog. Thunder screams from a clear sky.
From the ground, Koios, barely a whisper of life, forms one final thought.
'Exchange… position… Poseidon — with that monolith.'
For a single, crucial instant, Poseidon's form flickers, finding himself suspended in the air where a massive stone monolith had been. Atlas reacts on instinct, swinging with every last shred of power in his broken body.
The impact shatters both the rock and what remains of Poseidon's divine armor.
But Poseidon does not fall. He hangs in the air, grinning a bloody, terrifying grin.
"You think this is victory, Titan?"
He thrusts his trident forward,not as a throw, but as an extension of his will. It crosses the space between them, impaling Atlas through his good shoulder and pinning him to the ground like a specimen. Atlas bellows, gripping the shaft, his golden energy flaring, his muscles bulging, trying to wrench the divine metal from his flesh.
Poseidon presses down from afar, his fury a physical force. Atlas roars back, the energy erupting from his wounds, a final, blinding explosion of gold and blue that consumes them both.
When the light fades, the battlefield is a silent, radioactive ruin. Craters steam with boiling seawater. The air is thick with the smell of ozone, salt, and divine blood.
Poseidon staggers, his chest heaving. His armor is gone, his body a canvas of deep, weeping wounds, but his eyes still burn with abyssal fire.
Koios lies motionless, his ring dark. Atlas stands, barely, the trident still transfixing his shoulder, one arm a ruined mess, his breathing a wet, ragged struggle for air.
Then, an intense, unbearable sunlight tears through the lingering vapors and thunderheads. The atmosphere's temperature skyrockets. Poseidon looks up, shielding his eyes, and murmurs a single, venomous word: "Hyperion..."
His fierce gaze shifts to the crippled Atlas and the unconscious Koios. He is beaten, but not broken. The strategic reality is clear; the sun itself has entered the fray against him.
He points a trembling finger at Atlas. "You are lucky the sun favors you today," he snarls, each word costing him. "But the sea does not forget. Nothing will save you next time."
Poseidon raises his hand weakly. A crystal, dark as the deepest trench and glowing with an abyssal light, materializes in his palm. He crushes it. A portal of swirling, silent water opens and swallows him, leaving only the wreckage and the two wounded Titans behind.