After Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, yet another three gods found themselves confronted by formidable opponents.
Facing Hermes, famed for his speed, the Sky Dragon of Osiris was not a whit slower.
Its massive, serpentine body twisted with startling agility, relentlessly pursuing the darting Hermes while spewing terrifying "Thunderbolts" from its maw.
Those lightning blasts, rivaling even Zeus's own thunder, left Hermes with no choice but to flee, daring not to take them head-on.
The battlefield bristled with danger at every turn.
Elsewhere, the Winged Dragon of Ra, the Sun God, clashed against Apollo, the Greek god of the sun.
Both commanded the power of the sun itself, their brilliance igniting the sky until it seemed as though two suns blazed overhead.
The collision of solar might at the very start was already so dazzling that none could keep their eyes open.
Meanwhile, the duel between Ares, god of war, and Obelisk the Tormentor was even more brutal.
Both were close-combat warriors who met head-on with sheer force.
Ares swelled himself to match Obelisk's colossal size, lunging with his short sword in relentless stabs, while Obelisk countered with his thunderous fists.
Neither dodged, neither retreated. Every strike landed with bone-crushing impact, and both combatants were quickly bloodied. Yet neither gave ground.
On the contrary, this was the very battle they craved. Ares roared with each swing, and Obelisk's deafening bellows answered in kind.
But as the battles raged, some gods watching from behind began to sense something was amiss.
"That divine power… so familiar," Hera murmured, her eyes narrowing.
"I've felt it somewhere before… Wait, that red dragon, it carries the power of Osiris, from the Egyptian pantheon!"
Once the thought of Egypt surfaced, she instantly recognized the resonance of the other two beasts as well.
"The golden dragon holds the power of Ra, the Sun God. The blue giant bears the strength of Set.
Damn it, how could that mortal be connected to those ancient relics of Egypt? No… that doesn't make sense. Egypt never possessed divine beasts that rivaled gods!
What did he do? Could it be that Egyptian gods themselves incarnated into these beasts? But if that were truly Ra, he should be far stronger… And since when would Set fight side by side with Osiris?"
Hera's mind spun in circles, unable to grasp the truth, that the Three Egyptian God Cards came not from Egyptian myth, but from the world of Yu-Gi-Oh.
Misled by the familiar aura, she inadvertently dragged Egypt's pantheon into unnecessary enmity.
Yet Hera's discovery was not entirely wrong.
In Yu-Gi-Oh, Slifer the Sky Dragon's prototype was none other than Osiris, god of the underworld and agriculture in the Egyptian Ennead.
The Winged Dragon of Ra was modeled after Ra himself, the supreme deity of the Ennead, father of gods, and Egypt's preeminent sun god, far loftier in stature than Apollo.
Finally, Obelisk the Tormentor drew from Set, god of strength and war among the Ennead, also revered as lord of storms, deserts, and foreign lands.
In Egyptian myth, Set was often cast as a god of strife and betrayal: driven by lust for his elder brother Osiris's wife, Isis, he struck Osiris down in treachery, thereby elevating Osiris into the god of the dead.
By all accounts, the two brothers should be bitter enemies.
Against these pocket monster-like god-beasts, the Olympians found themselves reeling under the unrelenting assault of Yu-Gi-Oh's Three Gods.
None could stand alone against such force, they were forced into rotating battles, relying on sheer attrition to hold their ground.
And yet, gods were still gods.
Even so disadvantaged, the Olympians somehow maintained their footing. Their defenses held, and true calamity was averted, for now.
Alaric, however, was growing impatient.
A Reality Marble was a world born from one's inner cosmos, the storm of self imposed upon reality.
Excluding natural extensions like spirits, any artificial world was subject to erosion by the greater "Nature."
Thus, sustaining a Reality Marble demanded colossal energy, draining its caster and allowing it to persist only for minutes.
On this point, even Alaric was no exception. His Reality Marble was the polar opposite of the ordered world, a sea of chaos brimming with entropy.
And his opponents were none other than the Olympian pantheon.
Already, he could feel the mounting pressure of the world itself pressing down on him.
"I must deliver a crippling blow before my Reality Marble collapses.
Even if I cannot kill them outright, I must at least leave them gravely wounded. Only then will they show me the reverence I deserve."
So Alaric resolved.
Originally, he had considered upping the ante, perhaps summoning more Pokémon legends like Kyogre, Groudon, or Rayquaza; or calling forth Yu-Gi-Oh's Nordic Gods, Odin, Thor, and Loki; or even unleashing the Royal Knights of Digimon, or the mighty dragon-gods of Highschool DxD.
But he quickly dismissed the thought. No matter how many he summoned, it was only a contest of numbers.
What he needed now was a decisive strike, a single force that would end all resistance.
"Then… it can only be this."
With solemn face, Alaric raised his voice:
"Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, gods of time, space, and the Reverse World! By your power, call forth your creator! Come forth, primal god-beast, Arceus!"
At his command, the three legendary Pokémon broke off from their battles, throwing back their heads in unison to roar skyward.
Their storm of attacks ceased in an instant, giving Zeus and his brothers a moment's reprieve. Yet that very stillness made them tense with dread.
"Damn it, what are they doing? This doesn't feel right!" Zeus muttered, grimacing as he struggled to recover his strength. Poseidon and Hades both nodded warily.
Normally, they would have rushed to interrupt such a ritual, but their prolonged clash had drained them utterly. They had no energy left for a preemptive strike.
Thus, they could only watch helplessly as the three beasts roared their chorus, heralding the descent of an even greater power.
Before their eyes, the three divine beasts who had so threatened their existence vanished.
But none of the gods rejoiced.
For in their place, they felt the crushing presence of something far mightier, far beyond the combined strength of the three.
A white beast emerged, its form akin to a celestial qilin.
Four golden hooves gleamed at the tips of slender legs, while its mane rose high from its head. Its face was gray, its eyes emerald green, pupils crimson.
Circular green patterns ringed its gaze, and from its torso extended a wheel-shaped crest adorned with four shining jewels.
Around its body orbited eighteen elemental plates, each glowing with immense power. And the being at their center radiated a force greater than any high god, the very might of creation itself.
In that moment, every god knew: the apex of divinity, the God of Creation, had descended.
Its name, Arceus.