The dunes quaked beneath their struggle. Mike's jaws still dripped with Titan blood, steaming where it hissed across his scales, essence burning through him like molten lightning. The taste made his body surge, his wounds knitting, his power swelling. Hunger roared in his skull, urging him to tear deeper, to rip until nothing remained.
Koios did not stumble. His vast frame steadied, his bleeding arm radiating starlit cracks that mended into stone-like flesh as the earth itself flowed to close the wound. He raised both hands, and the desert responded. The dunes collapsed inward, pillars of obsidian spines shot skyward, and the weight of mountains themselves pressed down on Mike.
The dragon's wings strained. His claws dug trenches in the glassy sand. His frenzy drove him forward, but every movement grew sluggish as the gravity thickened, crushing, dragging him to the ground. Stone bands erupted from the dunes, curling like serpents, wrapping around his limbs, his neck, his wings, pulling tighter with every thrash.
Koios' voice cut through the grinding roar of shifting earth. Calm. Measured. His face now relaxed.
"Do you understand why the Titans were cast down, young dragon? Not for rebellion alone. Not for war. But because we cannot die." His cold eyes narrowed, lightless and vast. "Immortal flesh cannot be erased. We were bound in Tartarus not because Olympus triumphed, but because Olympus feared an enemy they could never end."
Mike roared, flames surging from his maw, reducing stone coils to molten rubble. He lunged forward, jaws clamping down on Koios' thigh. His teeth sank into the flesh of the Titan, stone cracking like bone, blood of starlight spilling into his mouth. His veins lit crimson-gold as the power rushed into him, even as Koios' other arm came down like a hammer, crushing him against the earth.
"Unique," Koios rumbled, unflinching despite the wound. "You and your predecessor are Devourers. Not immortal. But a hunger that unravels eternity itself. That is why they lied of Kur's death, why they spread fear of the dragon. You are the only true enemy many divine have ever known."
Mike bit again, this time tearing a chunk from Koios' forearm. The Titan's starlit blood sprayed, staining the sands in rivers of silver and black. The power made Mike shudder, his scales burning hotter, the wounds on his wings closing in bursts of flame. But even as the strength filled him, his body shook under the pressure of the void strikes that Koios hurled at him, dense spheres of collapsing nothingness that exploded across his body, warping scale and flesh before his healing overtook the damage.
Koios' voice sharpened, turning persuasive.
"Why waste yourself on me? Why bleed against stone when Olympus laughs from their thrones, feasting on mortal prayers, chaining realms with lies? Think, devourer. Aim your hunger where it belongs. Join me. Devour Olympus. Break the gods."
Mike snarled, fire spilling past his fangs as his tail lashed through a dozen obsidian pillars. He lunged again, clamping onto Koios' calf. He tore loose a slab of flesh and swallowed, essence boiling into him until his vision blurred with crimson fire.
Bahamut's voice bellowed through the haze, his tone harsh, disdainful, cutting through Koios' sophistry like steel.
"Do not listen, hatchling. Koios hides fear in pretty words. They are insects who cower in the face of death. And only we can give them that death."
The Titan raised another wall of stone, intercepting Mike's next strike, his words riding the quake.
"Do you know what Olympus did the day of their so-called victory? When we fell, they butchered the earth itself to ensure no mortal ever remembered our names. The rivers of Hell were carved from our veins. The mountains chained from our bones. They call themselves gods, yet they are thieves. Parasites. Weak things that cling to fear and worship." His tone lowered, almost coaxing. "We fought for dominion, yes. But they? They enslave."
Mike's fire swept through the wall, shattering it into shards of molten glass. He lunged again, claws raking through Koios' chest. Starlight blood burst across his talons, each drop fueling his hunger further. The Titan staggered, for the first time his immortal composure breaking.
"Good!" Bahamut roared in triumph. "Feel it! Their bodies are nothing before you. Bite, tear, consume! Do not let his tongue weave lies into your heart. Titans are no better than the gods who imprisoned them."
Mike's eyes blazed crimson-gold, his voice a guttural growl between roars.
"Olympus, Titans, angels it doesn't matter. I'll devour every last one of you."
The battlefield quaked again as he hurled himself forward, his frenzy undiminished but controlled, his hunger only growing with every bite.
Mike's body was a storm of crimson flame and golden veins, every beat of his wings scattering molten shards into the night. His hunger drove him with a violence that had no rhythm, only controlled determination sharpened into destruction. Each bite, each claw strike, brought more of Koios' blood into him, more essence flooding through his body until his own aura pulsed like a furnace threatening to explode.
Koios met the frenzy with an immovable calm. His vast arms, layered in rock and shadow, deflected claws that split mountains. His voice never wavered, carrying over the chaos like the words of a philosopher carved into stone.
"You think yourself free, devourer? You are their weapon. Olympus needed only to let hunger off its leash. You do not fight for yourself, you fight for the same tyrants who caged us."
Mike's tail smashed through his defenses, coiling around the Titan's torso. He wrenched with impossible strength, dragging Koios down to one knee. His jaws descended, clamping onto the Titan's shoulder, teeth grinding through stone and flesh alike. Koios bellowed as his other arm lashed out, void bursting from his palm in a wave that detonated across Mike's ribs.
Scales cracked. Flesh tore. For a heartbeat, the dragon staggered. But then crimson-gold light surged across his side, mending, sealing, rebuilding stronger than before. The wound disappeared as though the void itself had been devoured.
Bahamut's laughter rumbled inside his skull, savage and victorious.
"Do you feel it, hatchling? Their greatest weapons break against you! Titans are not gods they are bloated cattle, and their blood is yours to drink!"
Koios' eyes narrowed, his voice dropping lower, colder.
"I have seen empires rise and fall, I have seen gods feast and rot but never…" His words cut off as Mike's claws raked across his chest, talons sinking deeper than before. For the first time, stone cracked and did not seal. The wound bled starlight freely, refusing to mend. His vast frame shuddered the calm facade started to crack.
Mike wrenched his claws free, holding the dripping Titan blood in his hand, watching as it hissed and burned across his scales before he swallowed it whole. Power roared through him, shaking the desert, turning the sky red-gold with his aura.
The Titan's composure fractured, his voice edged with something it had never carried before, unease.
"You… can kill me."
Mike's burning eyes locked on him, sharpened with purpose. His voice rolled from his throat like fire over stone.
"Not just you. All of you."
The desert fell silent again, the battle pausing for the barest instant as dragon and Titan faced one another. For the first time in ages, a Titan bled a wound that did not heal.