"Where is she!?"
Kronos seethed to himself.
He had searched everywhere—and still, he could not find her.
It was maddening.
He had burned through massive amounts of divine energy, his senses pushed to their absolute limits.
He tried using his divine detection, flaring outwards in all directions, hoping to sense Rhea's energy.
But there was nothing.
She was gone, completely hidden, cloaked beneath layers even he couldn't penetrate.
His handmaidens were missing too.
That only fueled the fire.
Still, it had only been minutes since he began his search.
He told himself there was time.
He would find her—of that, he was certain.
But even that certainty couldn't stop the creeping, gnawing sensation clawing inside his mind.
Paranoia.
That cursed feeling that another child might escape him.
Just like the firstborn—Aetherion.
He had escaped at birth, slipping through his fingers like a wisp of smoke.
Kronos had sworn to himself that no other child would ever be allowed that chance.
And yet here he was—hunting Rhea, chasing shadows across the world, desperate to stop what felt inevitable.
"I must find that woman,"
he snarled under his breath.
"She won't trick me."
His mind spiraled with dark thoughts, drowning in fear masked by rage.
He tried everything.
Even considered using his time domain—searching for fragments of the present, glimpses of the past.
But then…
He felt it.
A pulse.
Rhea's divine energy.
Soft, subtle—but there.
He smirked, convinced it was the slip of energy at childbirth, flaring uncontrollably.
"She's given birth," he muttered."It must be that — she must have accidentally released her energy."
In his warped, paranoid mind, there was no room for doubt.
He didn't even pause to think.
Didn't question how calculated it might all be.
He forgot how her energy had behaved with his other children—how their births had not triggered this same wave.
No, he didn't care.
He wanted results.
He wanted the child.
In a flash of divine light, he descended—his titan form towering at 40 meters tall.
Landing with an earth-shaking crash, he stood before her like a walking calamity.
His cold eyes met hers.
Rhea stood there, trembling, clutching the baby.
Fear painted across her face—so perfectly, so believably.
It was everything he expected.
"I'll make you suffer,"
he said, voice like the end of time.
Without hesitation, he reached forward and tore the child from her arms.
She barely had time to react, to scream.
He looked down at the cloth child—no emotion, no thought—then swallowed it whole.
Rhea stood in stunned silence.
Her expression blank.
Kronos turned to her with a slow, cruel smile curling across his face.
"Did you really think you could escape me?" he asked mockingly. "I am Kronos, King of the Cosmos. You fool. You've only made things worse for yourself. Before, I might've let you live peacefully. But now?"
His grin widened unnaturally, his voice sharp with venom.
"Now, you will suffer."
But then—something shifted.
Rhea didn't look terrified.
In fact… she smiled.
A calm, steady, almost mocking smile.
Kronos narrowed his eyes.
"What are you smiling at, woman?" he snapped. "Do you not grieve the child I just devoured? Do you not mourn the child?"
Still smiling, Rhea looked him dead in the eye.
"I'm smiling at you, you pitiful man."
"What?"
"You're a fool, Kronos,"
she said, her voice now sharp and clear.
"You don't deserve your title—not as king, not even as the Crooked One. You've been tricked. So easily. So pathetically."
He staggered back slightly, confused.
"What are you saying…?"
And then—his stomach groaned.
A strange rumbling sound echoed from within him.
His body convulsed, his expression twisted in discomfort.
Something was wrong.
"W-what is this…?"
The nausea hit next.
Pain.
Deep and violent.
Not just physical—divine.
It burned.
His stomach rejected it all.
First, remnants of ambrosia and nectar erupted from his mouth.
Then… it began.
Figures.
Humanoid figures started pouring out—spilling from his mouth like stars torn from the heavens.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
They landed on the earth—two men and three women.
Their features were hard to make out, their hair clinging to their faces, matted and obscured by the remnants of Kronos' stomach acid, ambrosia and nectar.
It coated them like a thick mist, making it difficult to recognize them at first glance.
But there was no doubt—these were the lost children of Rhea and Kronos, the ones he had swallowed long ago, now back into the world.
They looked around in confusion, struggling to process what had just happened.
The world around them felt unreal, their senses overloaded.
But the one who was truly unable to comprehend what had occurred was Kronos.
He stared blankly.
His breath came in ragged gasps.
His stomach still burned with a lingering pain, even though most of its contents had already been expelled.
He felt sick—physically and mentally.
He couldn't move, couldn't muster the strength to scan the area with his divine energy.
All he could do was stare at the five figures that had emerged from him.
And then he noticed it.
A rock on the ground.
A faint, glowing line beside it.
A shattered potion bottle.
A cloth—unfolded, discarded.
The vial was empty.
Whatever had been inside it was now gone.
And in that moment, the realization hit him.
He had been tricked.
Like a fool.
Like a blind man stumbling in the dark.
But that wasn't the worst part.
From the earth itself, something began to emerge.
A shape.
A figure.
Slowly, rising out of the soil, stepping into the light with deliberate calmness—a young man appeared.
No, a teen.
But something powerful glimmered in his gaze.
Kronos froze.
Those eyes.
Those cursed eyes.
He knew them.
He had searched for them across the world, across earth, space, and all the realms in between.
This child—the one who had escaped him at birth.
The one he had feared from the beginning.
The one he believed was the harbinger of his downfall.
Aetherion.
The firstborn.
The child of prophecy.
Aetherion's smirk deepened as he stepped fully into view, walking slowly toward Kronos.
That smile… it was a deliberate taunt.
The calm confidence of someone who had planned everything down to the final moment.
Kronos gritted his teeth.
"What have you grrh done, boy?"
Aetherion met his gaze and replied coolly.
"Isn't it obvious? You've been fooled, Father. Utterly and Completely. And I must say…"
He looked around at the state of the mighty Titan.
"…what a pathetic sight this is. The so-called King of the Cosmos—brought low by a child."
As he spoke, Afrion began to shift.
His form shimmered—earth swirling around him—and he ascended into his divine earth form, radiant and solid like a mountain carved by the earth primordial.
He turned toward his siblings, still dazed but standing.
"It's time for you to go,"
he said, voice steady, arms raised as he summoned a swirling portal of emerald and bronze.
"Head in to the portal. It's safe there."
But before anyone could move, a gurgling voice interrupted them.
"I won't… allow it…"
Kronos coughed, bile and acid still dripping from his lips.
Aetherion didn't even flinch.
"Oh, ignore him," he said lightly, "He's not in the best state right now. As you can see—he's not the brightest star in the sky."
He didn't even look at his father as he spoke, treating him like an annoying background noise.
Kronos's fury surged.
His hands clenched.
He wanted to crush the boy—to rip his throat out.
But his body failed him.
The potion, the trap, the illusion—all of it had left him too weak.
Too exposed.
His power, once endless, now betrayed him.
And then, from the side, Rhea stepped forward—calm, strong.
She walked toward Aetherion, her eyes soft but resolute.
"So," she said gently, "it's finally time to leave."
She turned to look at the five children she had feared were lost forever.
Emotion welled up in her chest—but there was no time for tears.
Not yet.
She had to remain composed.
They had to move quickly.
The plan was still in motion.