Chapter 15: The Weight of a World and the Fall of a Giant
(In which a whisper from the Earth gives rise to the storm, and a boy becomes the judgment of Immortals.)
The journey to Mount Diablo had been—oddly—silent. A lull in the chaos. The kind of silence that didn't feel restful, but suspicious, like a serpent holding its breath before a strike. Albion flew steadily beneath Naruto, his wings stretched wide, cutting through the heavy clouds like blades. Despite the howling winds and distant rumblings of war, the air felt charged with a nervous calm.
Albion said nothing. But in the heart of the ancient dragon, something stirred—something that felt too human. Gratitude. A flicker, barely a whisper, but present nonetheless. Naruto had saved him. Pulled him back from the brink of madness, from being swallowed by a force more ancient and corrupt than either of them. Yet for every ember of thanks, there was a wildfire of resentment.
"I'll be merciful," Albion brooded, his eyes narrowed into slits. "But mercy doesn't mean forgiveness."
He loathed that Naruto had seen him at his weakest. That the boy had touched the root of his rage—and survived. He would never forget that humiliation. His pride would demand repayment. Someday.
But Naruto wasn't looking at Albion. His amber eyes were set forward, locked on the mountain looming in the distance. Mount Diablo didn't welcome visitors. It dared them. And today, it screamed of war.
Lightning fractured the sky like broken glass, casting jagged silhouettes across the battlefield below. Monstrous creatures milled about the base of the mountain—cyclopes, dracaenae, empousai. The very worst of Tartarus's misbegotten children, crawling from the depths like ants from a disturbed hive. But among them, standing grotesquely tall and horrible, was something else entirely.
A behemoth. Ten times the height of a man, with obsidian plates like molten armor and jaws that could crush boulders. And in those jaws—a human.
Naruto's breath hitched. The sight yanked at something primal inside him. Not fear. Fury.
"Give up, Olympian filth, or the human dies!" the creature roared, its voice booming like a thunderclap.
The mountain trembled beneath the weight of its rage.
From a high ridge, Piper McLean watched in horror. Her father hung limp in the monster's mouth like a rag doll, barely conscious. Her hands shook around the hilt of her dagger, guilt crawling like fire up her spine.
"This wasn't the plan," she whispered. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
Jason stood beside her, stone-faced but not unmoved. He wrapped his fingers around the pendant at his throat, a token from Zeus—a conduit of power passed from father to son. He could feel the divine spark surging within it, like storm clouds in his lungs.
"We can still turn this around," he said firmly, casting a glance toward the battlefield. "We will."
But the moment was spiraling. The plan was unraveling thread by thread.
Jason's thoughts returned to that moment atop Olympus, when his father had handed him the necklace. No ceremony. No speech. Just a look—a warning and a promise wrapped into one.
Use it well. Or not at all.
Now, he had no choice. The odds were against them. His friends were outnumbered. His girlfriend's father was about to be crushed. And the Immortals weren't answering prayers today.
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Naruto stood atop a ridge of broken stone, his eyes locked with the monstrous silhouette below. The air hung heavy with the musk of lightning and scorched rock. Enceladus, the bane of Athena, towered in the distance—his vast, grotesque form carved from ancient mountains and seething rage. In one calloused hand, he dangled a man like a rag doll, the captive's scream lost to the howl of the wind.
The sky above them roared with tension, clouds darkening, thickening like they were holding their breath. Albion circled overhead, wings cutting through the air like blades. Ella hovered just behind him, her mace shimmering with divine metal.
Naruto's hands clenched. He could feel the storm in his veins, the pulse of nature inside him thrumming like a war drum. Every instinct screamed at him—Go. He turned sharply, golden hair whipping in the wind.
"I'm going to save the man," he said.
Gaea stirred from his shoulder, the green of her eyes dimmed by worry. "Are you sure?" she asked quietly, her voice more ancient than the stones beneath them. "We could wait for a moment of distraction. Slip in, snatch him away. Less risk."
Naruto shook his head, eyes glowing with fierce determination. "No. That'll get him killed. I don't wait for hope to die. Not on my watch."
His command echoed like thunder: "Albion, charge!"
It was as if the storm answered.
Naruto's body was suddenly cloaked in shifting winds and crackling power. Alice, the wind nymph, flowed into him like a second skin, merging with his breath, his bones, his every thought. His storm-bike—the gift of the storm spirits, once a wild beast now tamed—twisted into something new beneath him: sleek, black, and seething with power. It looked like a spectral horse had been stretched into a ghostly motorcycle, arcs of lightning crawling over its frame like living veins. In his hand, he formed a weapon—a twisted fusion of nature and machine, a shotgun shaped from bark, steel, and divine lightning, humming with deadly promise.
He was no longer just Naruto.
He was the storm made flesh.
Then he moved—faster than a thought, faster than any eye could follow. The wind split around him, trees bowed, and thunder cracked in his wake. As he propelled forward, the air shimmered with speed and pressure. Sage Mode? This was that, and more. This was the wrath of the earth's spirit. This was the fury of a boy who refused to lose another soul.
He reached the captive in the blink of an eye. Wind curled protectively around the man, lifting him from Enceladus's filthy grasp just as the giant began to close his fist. The prisoner soared upward like a leaf caught in a tempest, carried to safety.
Enceladus roared, a sound like stone grinding on stone. But he was too slow.
Albion struck from above, flame pouring down his throat like divine wrath. The gigantes staggered, charred from the blast, but already his skin began to knit itself back together. He was immune to death. Patient. Silent. Eternal.
Then Ella struck—her descent like a starfall, mace gleaming as it met Enceladus's spear with a deafening clang. Sparks and fury exploded from the impact. But the giant met her blow without effort. He was anti-Athena: forged to undo her strategies, immune to her logic, an ancient counter to all wisdom and war. He smiled, the grin of something that could not die.
From the ridge, Jason Grace watched with lightning dancing at his fingertips, eyes wide. He had been gathering strength, preparing his own charge when the storm had exploded into being.
Who is that? he thought, his gaze flicking to the blur of lightning and wind that had plucked the man from death's edge.
He almost recognized him—something about the power, the way the earth had bent in recognition—but the moment passed too fast. The stranger wasn't attacking him, and Jason had a giant to deal with. The thought faded behind his training.
Jason launched himself toward Enceladus, trailing thunder and Roman steel.
Below, Naruto landed in a crouch, the man safe behind him, the storm-bike whirring beside him like a living thing.
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There was a silence—brief and taut—before the storm broke loose.
The clearing atop Mount Diablo, already scorched and cratered by the wake of monsters, exploded into chaos as the gigantes stepped forward. Enceladus—thirty meters tall, shoulders like siege towers, and clad in glinting obsidian armor streaked with veins of magic—stood like a monument to ancient rage. His spear, forged of something darker than night and laced with enchantments, shimmered with every movement. His breath hissed out in gusts of violet flame, too unnatural to be anything but cursed. His eyes were voids—ancient, patient, knowing.
He had waited centuries for this battle.
At the edge of the battlefield, Ella hovered midair, wings beating with nervous courage. Her scarlet feathers shone with firelight, and in her grasp was her mace—brutal in contrast to her sweet, shy love for books. But she was no longer the same harmless Harpy who once quoted encyclopedias. Now, with dragon blood pulsing through her veins, her magic had awakened. She launched fireballs from her palms, followed by flaming feathers that curved through the sky with calculated aim.
Enceladus raised his massive spear and spun it, dissipating the barrage with ease. A growl rumbled deep in his chest like thunder underground.
Then Albion struck.
The great red dragon soared overhead, wings vast and furious, his roar shaking the mountaintop. He unleashed a torrent of golden fire straight at the giant. The flames engulfed the massive form of Enceladus, who responded by hurling his spear like a comet. Albion veered, but not in time—the weapon slashed across his wing, forcing him into a spiral as he shrieked in pain.
Below, Naruto had already become more wind than man.
He fused seamlessly with the storm bike and Alice the wind nymph, his form clothed in armor that shimmered like rolling thunderclouds. Wind roared in his ears as he dashed forward, his boots barely touching the ground. Every step cracked the earth. Pressure built in the air around him as he manipulated it, trapping the gigantes in a localized vortex. It wasn't enough to fully restrain the creature, but it slowed him—just barely enough for the others to act.
"Let's go!" Naruto bellowed.
Jason heard him—and in that instant, something within him cracked open. The lightning necklace at his throat pulsed once, then twice. A storm surged through him, lighting his veins from within. His eyes turned a pure electric blue. Bolts snaked over his arms, his chest, even the tips of his hair. He launched himself into the air like a thunderbolt, colliding with Enceladus's armored chest with enough force to send shockwaves across the field.
Meanwhile, Leo—already halfway through a rant about how "flame giants were so last season"—unleashed his metal dragon. Festus breathed streams of white-hot plasma into the ranks of monsters surrounding the giant. Leo darted between his enemies, welding fire and hammer strikes with mechanical precision. Sparks flew, monsters howled, and Leo laughed, wild and furious.
Piper had reached her father and wrapped him in her arms, whispering charmspeak words of calm. The man, dazed and trembling, clung to her as if she were the last star in a collapsing sky.
But Enceladus would not fall.
He twisted, roaring with fury, his injuries already closing. New skin grew where fire had torn it. His eyes locked on Naruto.
"You think that will stop me?" His voice was low and venomous. "I am the bane of Athena. I do not die."
Naruto didn't answer. He vanished.
A flash of wind and lightning—there he was again, at Enceladus's side, slamming a compressed sphere of storm chakra into the giant's ribs. The air howled. Enceladus staggered but retaliated in an instant, sweeping his arm with brutal speed. Naruto was sent skidding across the mountainside, smashing through stone and shattered trees.
But he stood up again.
His face bloodied, his breath uneven—but his eyes blazed.
Ella screamed as she soared in again, launching a concentrated inferno of flame directly at the giant's eyes. For once, Enceladus had to shield himself. That gave Jason the opening—he rose high and summoned a pillar of lightning from the sky, crashing it down like the wrath of Zeus. The explosion rocked the mountain.
When the smoke cleared, Enceladus was on one knee, still alive—still healing—but he looked angry now.
"He's... regenerating faster," Jason growled, landing beside Naruto.
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Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"Nothing's working," Piper hissed as she dragged her father to safety. "He's... unkillable."
"No," Gaea whispered, barely audible through the war. She had landed on Naruto's shoulder again, her tiny, glowing form no bigger than a mouse. Her voice reached only his ears. "Take hold of the world again. Just a little. I give it to you freely."
Naruto clenched his fists. The last time he'd felt that power—he'd nearly drowned in it. But Gaea looked at him, eyes full of something ancient and sorrowful.
"Trust me," she whispered.
And he did.
He let go of hesitation. Let go of fear. Let go of the narrow limits that defined mortals.
For one heartbeat, Naruto became invincible.
His body pulsed as green light laced through his skin, veins glowing like tree roots. His hair whipped in every direction as the air around him bowed and churned under the weight of power. His eyes turned emerald—a brilliant, storm-born green that seemed to see through flesh, armor, and soul.
He raised a hand.
Enceladus—mid-swing, his spear crackling with corrupted lightning—froze.
Gaea's voice came again. "My children cannot die by Olympian alone. Nor by mortal alone. But you… are both. And more."
Naruto flexed his fingers. Gravity screamed.
The air around Enceladus warped. The colossal body of the giant began to lift—slowly at first, as if the earth resisted. The rocks around him shattered, caught in the wake of gravitational force. Albion roared in triumph.
The giant cursed in Ancient Greek, flailing, purple fire spraying across the sky—but he was rising, spinning, losing his footing on the world that birthed him.
"Float," Naruto whispered. "And fall."
He clenched his hand.
The gravity reversed, inward. Enceladus's scream was cut short as his own weight turned against him—bones cracked like thunderclaps. Armor crumpled like foil. His thirty-meter body twisted in upon itself with the groan of collapsing mountains.
Then Naruto breathed out. "Now... be forgotten."
The air itself howled as billions—yes, billions—of microscopic wind blades surged into place, forming a dome of slicing, screeching death. Each gust shredded whatever remained of the giant, breaking the immortality bond through sheer, incomprehensible force.
Enceladus was no more.
Just dust. And silence.
The monsters stilled. The battlefield, for one impossible second, was quiet. Even the storm seemed to hold its breath.
Jason lowered his arm. "Holy Zeus…"
Piper stared in disbelief. "Did he just…?"
"Yup," Leo said, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. "He bug-zapped a skyscraper-sized Immortal with wind and gravity like he was a walking science textbook of doom."
Gaea, still on Naruto's shoulder, smiled faintly. "Well done, my storm-born one."
Naruto didn't answer. He stared at the fading ashes in the wind, heart thundering, power slowly receding from his bones like a tide going out.
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The battlefield looked like someone had taken a cosmic lawn mower to it. Craters smoked. Trees were now toothpicks. A few stunned monsters staggered around like partygoers after a really bad concert. The air still sizzled with leftover lightning, ash drifted like snow, and the scent of scorched fur was strong enough to peel paint off Olympus.
In the center of it all stood Naruto, not even out of breath.
Jason was leaning against a broken pillar, sparking like a live wire. His eyes were still crackling with residual electricity, making him look less like a demiImmortal and more like a very smug storm cloud. Piper stood nearby, gripping her dagger tightly, her face still pale but proud. Leo was checking on his mechanical dragon, Festus, who was missing a wing but still gave a weak puff of smoke in greeting when Naruto passed by.
"Okay," Leo said, dusting off soot, "I'm not saying you're cooler than me—because that's literally impossible—but that was the most insane thing I've ever seen. You crushed Enceladus like a soda can. With gravity. Dude. Who even are you?"
Piper stepped forward, still slightly dazed. "You're not an Olympian, right?" she asked, her voice soft and awed. "Because... none of the Immortals ever fought like that."
Jason straightened, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "You're too grounded to be a Immortal. No offense."
Naruto looked at the trio. His orange cloak, still flickering faintly with residual energy, rustled in the breeze. His storm-horse—currently chilling in the form of a bike made of lightning—hovered silently a few feet away like a loyal shadow. He scratched the back of his head.
"I'm not an Olympian," he said simply. "I'm a ninja. A human. Or, if you want to call it your way, I guess I'm a kind of mage."
Jason blinked. "A human?"
Piper's jaw dropped. "You mean… like us? But you just went full supernova on a Titan-spawn."
Leo narrowed his eyes. "Wait—you're human, and you still have a pet dragon, a storm bike, and gravity powers?"
Naruto smiled sheepishly. "I help people. That's what I do. You were fighting for the world. That was enough reason for me to step in."
There was a long silence, the kind that doesn't usually follow conversations, but revelations. The three demiImmortals stared at him like he had just juggled three Minotaurs while reciting the Iliad in perfect Ancient Greek.
Piper recovered first. She stepped forward and, without warning, wrapped him in a hug. "Thank you," she whispered. "You saved my dad. You saved all of us."
Naruto stiffened at first—ninja reflex—but then relaxed. "You're welcome."
Jason clapped him on the shoulder. "You've got a place with us, anytime."
Meanwhile, a little away from the trio, Gaea moved through the wreckage like a shadowy breeze. She was no longer raging—her expression was... thoughtful. Deliberate. Where a thousand monsters and gigantes had once raged, only motes of power remained, drifting like stardust.
With a flick of her fingers, Gaea wove those remnants into glowing orbs—each shimmering with monstrous strength and ancient chaos. She held them in one hand and watched Naruto from a distance. His power had shaken the roots of the world. He had held her essence in the palm of his hand and not broken under its weight.
He was worthy.
But Naruto was busy with his new allies, so she didn't interrupt. Instead, she approached Ella the Scarlet Harpy, who was trying to brush soot off her book with a charred feather.
"These are yours," Gaea said gently, handing her two of the shimmering orbs. "For your fire, your innocence... and your flames."
Ella blinked, then clutched the orbs like rare gems. "Thank you, Earth Lady. I'll use them wisely."
Next was Alice, who stood by Albion's side, warily watching the battlefield as if expecting another army to crawl from the ashes.
"For your courage and loyalty," Gaea said. "He trusts you. That means I will too."
Alice accepted the gift with a nod, eyes flickering gold.
Gaea kept the rest. The largest, brightest one—an orb the size of a small sun—she saved for Naruto. But for now, she let him have his moment with the demiImmortals, standing tall not as a Immortal or a monster, but as something rarer: a human who had conquered the impossible.
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If you'd asked Leo, the day had already hit its weird quota—giant-slaying, spirit horses, ninja demiImmortals, and a flying dragon named Albion—but apparently, fate didn't believe in chill days. Not when the blond guy who basically crushed a Gigante like an aluminum can was now standing in front of them asking nicely for Jason's necklace. Correction: demanding it back.
Naruto stood there, calm and unreadable. His coat fluttered in the breeze like it had its own agenda, and his presence? It was like standing near a storm that hadn't decided whether it was going to flood the valley or spare you because you said "please."
"Now," Naruto said, voice smooth as wind sliding across steel. "I wish you wouldn't be alarmed. I wasn't just passing by… I came here for you."
Leo blinked. "Okay, see, that sounds exactly like something a supervillain says right before the world ends."
Naruto didn't even smile. "I came for that," he said, pointing at the silver lightning bolt pendant hanging around Jason's neck.
Jason stiffened. "What do you mean that? This was a gift from my father. Zeus gave it to me."
"No," Naruto replied quietly. "He took it. That's my power. It was stolen from me long ago, and I'd like it back."
The tension in the air dropped about fifteen degrees. Even the wind stilled.
Jason frowned. "That can't be true. My father isn't—"
"A thief?" Naruto cut in. "Immortals rarely create. They take. They claim. That pendant holds a piece of me—my power over the storm, the sky, the lightning. You feel familiar to me because you're wearing a part of my soul around your neck."
Jason staggered a step back. Piper reached for his arm instinctively, her eyes wide. She didn't speak—yet—but her instincts screamed that Naruto wasn't lying.
Leo cleared his throat. "Okay, hold up. Are you saying you're… like, what, an older Immortal? A forgotten one?"
Naruto looked toward the sky, as if listening to the wind before answering. "I'm not a Immortal," he said. "I'm human. A shinobi. A mage, if that makes more sense to you."
Jason swallowed hard. "Even if that's true," he said, voice tense, "I can't give this up. It's part of me now. My father… my identity…"
Naruto stepped forward—not threatening, but unshakably solid. "I'm not asking for your identity. I'm asking for what belongs to me. Don't make me take it."
Jason's eyes sparked with electricity. "I can't do that."
A breathless moment passed. The grass stopped rustling. The birds didn't dare chirp. Even the breeze held its breath.