Mike's scales still glowed crimson-gold, the raw power coursing through him like molten rivers. Koios knelt in the sand, one hand pressed against the wound Mike had torn open in his chest.
His massive head tilted downward, eyes dimmed to pale embers. When he spoke, his voice lacked the thunder of before. It was heavy, cracked by something deeper than pain.
"So this is it… After millennia of war, betrayal, and chains… I am felled not by gods, nor by Olympus, but by a fledgling dragon with hunger in his bones."
Mike stalked closer, fire dripping from his jaws, eyes burning with the unrelenting hunger to end him. But Koios raised his hand to beckon.
"If you will consume me, then do it with purpose. Destroy Olympus. Tear down the parasites who sit fat on thrones of stolen power. That is the only justice left to this world."
Bahamut's snarl ripped through Mike's skull, rattling his very bones.
"Pathetic! Do you hear him, hatchling? That is the stench of cowardice. He begs for you to fight in his stead. He dresses his fear in grand words. Flesh like his turns sour before the teeth. Better to leave him to rot."
Mike froze, chest heaving, torn between the surging hunger and the dragon's wrath. His throat burned with fire, but the words that erupted weren't Bahamut's, they were his. Human words sharpened into divine truth.
"Fearless warrior?" he spat, voice raw, shaking the dunes. "You were the terror of Olympus. You led armies that shook heaven itself. And now look at you, begging me to finish what you couldn't. What happened to you, Titan? Where did the fire go?"
Koios' eyes narrowed faintly, shame flickering in their vast depths.
Mike's roar cracked across the desert, rage and grief sharpened into contempt.
"You call yourself immortal, but humans are greater than you. Do you hear me? Greater! We take every breath knowing death stalks us, and still we fight. Still we build, still we love, still we stand! Mortality doesn't break us! The very thing that shattered you is nothing more than a childhood lesson to us. And you—" his voice broke into a low hateful growl, "you are pathetic."
Koios' massive frame trembled from the insult that cut deeper than any claw. His teeth bared, his voice a low rumble that finally cracked under fury.
"You dare, mortal? You dare call a Titan less?"
Mike's eyes gleamed brighter, fire warping into something different, wisdom wrapped in violence. His lip curled into a near-smile, the thrill of the fight seeping into his veins like an intoxicant.
"You're not even worth fighting anymore."
That tore it.
Koios erupted, void and stone exploding outward in a storm that ripped dunes into whirlwinds. His fists came down like avalanches, his roar shaking the horizon. The Titan of the North no longer spoke in calm, calculated tones, he screamed like a beast provoked past all measure.
Mike welcomed it. He screamed back, scales blazing, wings unfurling as he launched himself into the storm head-on.
The fight itself was becoming joy, a crucible where his humanity and divinity twisted into something new.
Bahamut's voice thundered approval, violent and gleeful.
"Yes! Now you understand! Battle is not survival, it is truth! Show him what it means to be a devourer!"
Mike struck, fangs sinking into Koios' arm again, drinking deep of his essence even as void tore into his side. Pain and power clashed inside him, but instead of recoiling, Mike roared laughter through the blood in his mouth.
The human who had once feared losing control now felt it, control, sharpened by divinity. And he craved more.
The desert howled as two beasts of flesh and essence collided, one born of the first dawn, the other forged in fire and devouring hunger.
Koios slammed his fists into the earth, the ground splitting into fault lines that radiated outward for miles. Pillars of voidstone shot upward, each tipped with jagged black edges meant to pierce dragon-scale and pin the dragon down. But Mike only laughed, his voice a jagged roar that rattled the sky. He wove between them, wings shredding through stone like paper, his talons digging trenches in the earth as he surged forward.
Each strike of Koios was immense, a mountain's weight condensed into a single blow. Each blast of void could have leveled cities. But Mike met them with claws and flame, his scales bleeding, but his body was healing even as the void tore across his chest and wings. Every wound filled him with more furious joy and every bite he sank into Koios filled him with more strength.
Mike bit down on the Titan's thigh, tearing a river of molten blood that hissed as it struck the desert floor. He swallowed, essence erupting in his veins, and his roar shook the horizon.
"More!" he bellowed, his voice dripping with hunger. "Give me more, Koios!"
The Titan staggered back, eyes narrowing with both fury and doubt. His void surged again, a storm of black lances cutting into Mike's flanks, shredding wing-membrane, driving him back. But the dragon only screamed louder, his laughter bleeding into his roars.
Bahamut thundered in his skull, half-warning, half-exultation.
"Yes, hatchling! That is the taste of true war! You drink eternity with every bite! Let the Titan feel fear, let him know what it means to face something that cannot be chained!"
Koios tried to smother the storm with words, even as his fists shattered dunes into dust.
"You devour, but devouring will not save this world! Olympus will burn it again, as they did before, and even your hunger will not endure against eternity!"
But Mike was beyond persuasion now. His eyes burned with crimson fire, but behind them was clarity. Cold, cutting clarity.
"Eternity is worthless if you spend it kneeling!" he roared, snapping through another wave of voidstone. "Humans, mortals live for moments, and those moments make them greater than you! You're just an old coward hiding in shadows, while I—" his wings spread wide, blotting the sky—"I enjoy this!"
And it was true. He felt it, every strike, every tear, every clash of power, it no longer drained him. It fed him. The pain of the void searing his side only made his blood boil hotter. The resistance of Koios' flesh beneath his claws thrilled him more than helpless prey ever could. He was no longer surviving this battle. He was reveling in it.
He lunged again, jaws wide, fire spilling between his teeth. Koios caught him with both hands, their clash shaking the desert to its foundations. For a heartbeat they locked, dragon and Titan, neither yielding.
Then Mike sank his claws into Koios' chest and roared laughter in his face.
"You feel it, don't you? You're afraid. Because I am not just devouring you, I am enjoying it. And that makes me stronger than you'll ever be!"
Koios' expression twisted, shame and fury battling across his stone-carved features. His body erupted with void and earth, a storm desperate to crush this dragon before the truth of his fear consumed him.
But Mike dove head first into it, wings tearing, fire splitting the storm, jaws snapping for more blood. His humanity had given him contempt. His divinity had given him wisdom. But now both had fused into something far more dangerous, joy.
The joy of battle. The joy of becoming something greater. The feeling of euphoria he got in the very first trial when he became stronger, now drove his divine purpose.