Before Hyperion could turn, the world dimmed. The horizon folded inward, light itself bending and bleeding away into nothing. From the encroaching darkness, a voice, cold and resonant, whispered a single command.
'Eternal Night.'
The sky cracked open, and a massive black orb swallowed the world whole. Mountains, clouds, and the very air vanished into absolute shadow. Within seconds, Hyperion and Hecate stood isolated in a void, a sphere of perfect darkness where no sound, wind, or starlight could penetrate.
Hyperion's chin lifted, his gaze a physical weight of condescension. His golden aura, that of a God-King, erupted, not as a challenge, but as a demand for submission. "So, you are Hecate. The Witch of the Crossroad. I expected... more."
Hecate's lips curved into a blade-thin smile. Her own violet aura flared in response, a domain of arcane sovereignty that met his golden fire with unyielding pressure. "Then you know my deeds. You should know better than to stand in my way."
Hyperion's smirk deepened, a cruel, dismissive thing. "I know of your... tricks. But a woman's place is not on the battlefield. It is beside her husband, raising his children. Not dabbling in powers that will inevitably undo her."
"Then today," Hecate said, leveling her staff, Nythra, its crystal gleaming with malevolent light, "I will prove you wrong." 'Arcane Pulse.'
Several concentrated spheres of raw magical energy hurtled toward Hyperion. He merely adjusted his grip, his sword held low. 'Fire Enhancement.' Crimson flame, hot as a forge, erupted along the blade. He slashed, cutting the pulses from the air, but each one detonated on contact, the concussive blasts rocking the void.
Hecate was already moving, raising Nythra high. 'Arcane Tempest.' A dark violet cloud swirled into existence above Hyperion's head and rained down millions of volts of amethyst lightning.
'Solar Mantle.' A film of blinding white light enveloped Hyperion. He ignored the tempest entirely, charging through the lightning storm. His burning sword carved a deep red crescent of fire through the darkness, forcing Hecate on the defensive.
'Mirror Shield.' A silver, reflective barrier materialized before her. The crescent of fire struck it and a weaker, identical wave rebounded. Hyperion simply swatted the reflection aside with another swing, the follow-up strike slamming into the shield with enough force to web it with cracks. He closed the distance and drove his blade forward. The shield shattered into a thousand shards.
But behind the broken magic, Hecate was gone. In her place, a hundreds of floating fire spores drifted in the air. Hyperion's sword, carried by his momentum, brushed against one.
The spore flared, then exploded. The chain reaction was instantaneous. The void filled with a series of concussive detonations, each one igniting the next in a storm of fire and force.
Hyperion strode from the conflagration, his armor glowing from the heat but his body unscathed. His eyes, narrowed in irritation, scanned the absolute blackness. Finding nothing, then his eyes ignited with a golden glow. 'Clairvoyant.' His gaze pierced the layers of reality, finally settling on a corner of the void where Hecate was woven into the fabric of the darkness itself.
"Heuk!"
As he about to attack, suddenly a wisp of dark, necrotic fumes began to rise from his skin. 'A curse? And poison? Pathetic.' His body radiated a sudden, purifying golden light, the divine radiance burning the insidious magic away to nothing.
"Teleportation. Poison. Curses struck from the shadows," he listed, his voice dripping with scorn. "Is this the great Titaness's proof? These are the tools of an assassin, not a warrior! Fight me with honor!" He raised a hand to the empty sky. 'Sunflare.'
Millions of lances of golden and red flame ignited above, illuminating the entire void with the hellish glare of a miniature sun. With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, he sent them all streaking toward her.
"Tch!" Hecate clicked her tongue, realizing her curses had no hold on him. 'A purification divinity. I must be direct.' She raised Nythra, its crystal pulsing. 'Lunar Hexfire.' Millions of deep crimson arrows, burning with vengeful magic, materialized and shot forth to meet the solar barrage.
The two attacks collided in a cataclysm of gold and crimson. The resulting explosion tore through the void, the shockwaves ripping temporary, jagged cracks in the fabric of the Eternal Night.
As the light died, four silver lunar wolves lunged from the shadows. Hyperion roared, "Is this all?!" and met them with wild, burning swings. The wolves were agile, harrying him, their bites and scratches leaving shallow, stinging wounds.
'Gravity.'
An immense, unseen force slammed down on Hyperion, bending his back and driving him to one knee. The wolves seized the opening, their jaws clamping down on his limbs. With a surge of will, his golden radiance flared again, shattering the gravitational hold. He grabbed the nearest wolf by its neck, lifting it effortlessly, and with precise, furious slashes, decapitated the other three. They dispersed into clouds of silver dust.
He glared at the struggling beast in his hand. "Know your place, mutt!" His grip flared with solar heat, incinerating the construct into nothingness.
'Summon — Ghost Army.'
The air grew cold as dozens of deformed, pale specters materialized from the gloom, their forms shifting and unsettling. Hecate pointed Nythra at Hyperion, her voice a sharp command. "Kill him!!"
"Keee…heee…ho!" A cacophony of unearthly howls filled the void as the ghosts swarmed. Hyperion tightened his grip on the hilt. "Pests." His sword blazed with a more violent, raging crimson flame. He became a whirlwind of fire, wildly slashing through the spectral horde. The ghosts could not endure his divine radiance, dissolving into screams and smoke.
In seconds, the army was ash. But they had served their purpose. 'Glacial Domain.'
An extreme, soul-numbing cold permeated the void. Frost crystallized on Hyperion's armor and skin. He shuddered, his very blood slowing. He gritted his teeth, his voice a low growl. "Mere ice dares to extinguish the sun?" 'Overheat.'
A wave of extreme heat exploded from his body, a miniature supernova that not only melted the frost but pushed back the glacial cold, overpowering it.
'Aegis Maxima ' A multi-layered shield snapped into place around Hecate, protecting her from her own spell's backlash.
Hyperion shouted, his voice echoing with triumph, "Witch! You see? This is how a true master commands energy!" He brought his palms together, and a small, blindingly white orb formed between them. It began to siphon the overwhelming heat from his body and the fire from his sword, growing to the size of a football, pulsing with apocalyptic power. He slammed his hands apart.
'Solar Eruption.'
A wave of pure, annihilating heat and light radiated in all directions. For a moment, Hyperion was the sun. Hecate reinforced her defenses instantly. 'Aegis Maxima ×10.' Ten concentrated shields layered around her. The solar wave smashed through them, one after another, like a fist through glass. The final shield, with Hecate behind it, was hurled backward, crashing against the wall of the void with a sound like breaking reality. The wall spider-webbed, on the brink of dissolution, just as the eruption faded.
Hyperion stood triumphant, his golden form undimmed. "What happened, witch? Where is the Titaness who once cornered Lord Cronus? Has she grown soft? To think a Titaness of your lineage would adulterate herself with a inferior race. That bond is a stain on your grace, Witch. You carry the stink of his weakness, and it has made you hollow."
The words hung in the air, more damaging than any spell. Hecate's breath hitched. The strategic light in her eyes snuffed out, replaced by a cold, bottomless fury. The violet of her aura deepened to the color of a fresh bruise, and the air grew heavy with the scent of ozone and grave-dirt. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, yet it carried the finality of a tomb sealing shut.
"You will pay," she whispered, the words a vow etched in cosmic law. "You will pay dearly for this words."
'Solar Crash.' Hyperion's body became a comet of concentrated solar fury, a second sun hurtling toward her with impossible speed.
Hecate stood her ground, Nythra held before her. the words lost in the gathering power. 'Arcane Nova.'
A single, deceptively small violet orb drifted from her staff. It moved slowly, but Hyperion, locked in his charge, felt its threat on a primal level. He tried to divert, to stop, but it was too late. He crashed directly into it.
'Teleport.' Hecate vanished, reappearing at the opposite pole of the void. 'Aegis Maxima ×10.' 'Crossroad.' A glowing red X materialized beneath her feet as ten shields solidified around her.
The Arcane Nova burst.
It did not explode outward, but inward, then erupted in a silent, expanding violet dome that consumed everything. The void shrieked as it was torn apart, the Eternal Night cracking like a mirror and dissolving. When the light faded, half the void was simply gone, replaced by the scarred, open sky of Mount Orthys.
At the center, Hyperion hovered, his form severely burned. His magnificent golden armor and sword were now useless, slagged metal. Golden ichor dripped from a dozen wounds. His poroud mustache was half-seared away, and his vision swam, his breathing ragged.
A searing, foreign agony lanced through Hecate's own chest. It was not her pain, but his—a feedback through the soul-deep bond they shared. Her breath seized.
"Hades…?"she gasped, her vision blurring. For a terrifying second, she saw not the battlefield, but a glimpse through his eyes: a chaotic storm of corruption, a mind tearing itself apart. The connection was a torrent of rage and fury.
"KWAAAA!!!"
A cry, resonant with death and rebirth, echoed across the mountain, shaking the very air.
Hyperion, seeing her distraction, gathered the last dregs of his power. "Now you die, witch! 'Sol Judgement Invictus!'" A colossal beam of pure solar judgment, his ultimate attack, lanced toward the stunned Hecate.
Her eyes, still wide from the vision, refocused. There was no fear in them. Only a cold, absolute finality. She raised Nythra, not with a shout, but with a quiet certainty. 'Silver Judgment Arrow.'
An arrow woven from silver flame, an inferior version of a forbidden spell, shot forth. It met the colossal solar beam. There was no clash, no explosion. The beam of Sol Judgement Invictus simply unraveled, its power dissolving into harmless motes of light before the arrow's serene, unstoppable advance.
Hyperion's eyes bulged, his jaw slack. "Impossible! That power—!" His instincts screamed, and he twisted to dodge, but it was like trying to outrun fate. The silver flame took his right arm at the shoulder, passing through it as if it were mist, and flew on to strike the Northern Pillar.
BOOOM!!!
A huge silver dome enveloped the Northern Pillar, Atlas's palace, and the entire northern face of Mount Orthys. When the light faded, that part of the mountain was gone. Erased. The black sea rushed in to fill the colossal cavity.
Unconscious, his body burned and maimed, Hyperion drifted on the churning waves.
'Spectral Bind.' 'Gate of the Underworld.' Ghostly hands emerged from the black water, binding the fallen Titan and dragging him through a portal that opened beneath the waves.
Hecate did not watch him go. Her gaze was fixed on the peak of the mountain. There, a giant black phoenix, burning with twilight flame, beat its wings as it flew toward Cronus's castle.