Olympus.
Beset by troubles on all sides and worn thin by constant strain, Zeus leaned back against his throne, rubbing his forehead as he closed his eyes to rest.
Just then, a gentle breeze drifted in from outside the hall, carrying with it a soft, lingering fragrance. The weary God King felt his spirits lift at once, his body moving instinctively as he followed the scent.
By the time he came back to himself, Zeus realized he was already standing before the resplendent palace of his wife, Hera.
Hera sat askew upon her golden throne, her posture heavy with loneliness. Her flawless white arm brushed at the tears she let fall deliberately from beneath her exquisite face, her expression tinged with sorrow.
Suddenly aware of how long he had neglected her, Zeus felt a flicker of guilt rise in his chest and stepped forward slowly.
Without her usual fury and jealousy, Hera appeared all the more fragile in her tearful resentment, pitiful and heartbreakingly vulnerable, enough to stir genuine tenderness.
Warmth flared in Zeus's heart. He reached out naturally, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders, murmuring soft words of comfort.
But the instant his bronze-toned, powerful arm touched her pale skin, his mind, dulled by emotion, was pierced by a sharp, needle-like pain.
Something's wrong!
The God King jolted awake, but it was already too late.
Under Hera's cold sneer, solid chains surged forth from the golden throne, slithering like venomous serpents as they coiled around Zeus's limbs and bound him tightly.
Almost at the same moment, a trident tore through the air and revealed its true form. A surge of briny sea air rolled in from the right side of the throne as the vast, profound authority of the ocean descended like billions of tons of pressure, smashing apart the faint trace of divine power Zeus had just gathered.
Zeus let out a muffled grunt. As he struggled to retaliate, Hera interlaced her fingers and barked a cold command. The chains constricting his limbs tightened further, biting into his flesh like colossal pythons.
Forged by Hephaestus himself, this artifact of confinement flared with shifting divine runes, greedily siphoning the captive's power. Even Zeus found himself unable to break free in that instant.
If those runes were allowed to fully brand themselves into his body, sinking into his blood, marrow, and divine core, he would end up just like Hera once had been—a pitiful prisoner bound to the golden throne.
"Get away!"
On the brink of disaster, the enraged God King slammed his right foot into the ground. A strange, mysterious rhythm rippled upward from deep within the mountain, accompanied by the faint creaking sound of a spinning wheel echoing in their ears.
Poseidon and Hera froze, their control faltering for a split second.
Seizing that fleeting opening, Zeus roared in fury and summoned the Thunderbolt Scepter. Lightning exploded like bursting fireworks, tearing through Hera's temple as countless exquisite furnishings were reduced to fragments and ash.
Dark clouds churned overhead. Razor-sharp arcs of light gathered and plunged downward, the summoned thunderous force crashing mercilessly toward Hera. The blinding divine might washed everything in white, making it impossible to see clearly.
Zeus knew full well that to escape this predicament, he first had to deal with the wife who controlled the golden throne.
Even if she took the hit head-on, it would only leave her gravely wounded, not dead.
For a traitor who dared to overturn divine authority, that was already leniency.
Yet at that very moment, the air to the left of the golden throne twisted unnaturally. A figure appeared in the instant before catastrophe, both hands bracing a shield. The golden divine shield slammed into the ground, interposing itself squarely between the Thunderbolt Scepter and Hera.
Boom!
Zeus's furious strike crashed into the golden shield. The deafening explosion carried mountain-shattering force, warping and tearing at space itself. Behind the shield, Athena let out a low, suppressed groan.
But if she retreated even a step, this carefully laid rebellion would collapse entirely.
Athena clenched her teeth, the sculpted muscles of her arms taut as she spread her stance and lowered her center of gravity, redirecting the force outward.
The floor beneath her, carved with dense arrays of runes, shattered inch by inch. The entire temple shook violently as dust rained down. Divine patterns on the walls dimmed and peeled away, spiderweb cracks racing across every surface.
The faith Hera had accumulated over thousands of years and poured into this place was nearly exhausted.
So strong.
The three conspirators felt their hearts tighten at once. Holding nothing back, they drove their divine authorities to the limit, pressing harder to complete Zeus's confinement.
Poseidon raised his trident high. In the distant storm seas of Oceanus, colossal waves surged skyward. Twelve beams of light, each a different hue, rose from the heart of a vast whirlpool, intertwining and converging into a gray-black tide of chaos.
Above Olympus, sea-blue light patterns bloomed in response, resonating with the gathering storm.
As Poseidon swung his weapon down, the chaotic torrent formed from the fusion of the Twelve Machine Gods' authorities poured forth like an inverted celestial river. It slammed into Zeus's back with terrifying force, shattering the divine barrier around him and knocking him off balance. The restraining chains tightened yet again.
Athena stepped in immediately, bringing down the Scepter of Victory to bat aside Zeus's other arm, preventing him from summoning a second Aegis Shield for protection.
Repeatedly losing the initiative, Zeus was shaken to his core. He had gravely underestimated this rebellion.
Athena, inheritor of the God King's bloodline, no longer lagged behind him in sheer power. As for the Aegis Shield, that supreme defensive artifact could withstand even a full-force strike from the Thunderbolt without breaking.
Poseidon's authority over the sea was equally fearsome. That sudden surge of chaotic waves earlier had unleashed a level of power Zeus had never anticipated.
Hera herself was not particularly strong, yet the binding chains she controlled were creations into which Hephaestus had poured his very life's work. Even Zeus had once been helpless before them.
What infuriated him most was that the three of them had not only joined forces in secret, but had also resorted to underhanded tactics, concealing their reinforcements and muddling his mind.
Even with his god-kingly might, he was now at the end of his rope. If this continued, imprisonment was inevitable.
There was no choice left. He had to gamble everything.
Zeus's thoughts raced as he clenched his teeth and made his decision. He stomped both feet into the ground, the muscles along his back swelling violently. Dense silver-white lightning filled his eyes.
Above the Oceanus Sea, storm clouds gathered in an instant. Thunder accumulated rapidly within the churning darkness, condensing into a sharp spear of lightning. With a brutal sweep, it split the sea apart, revealing three bronze secret gates on the ocean floor, each engraved with dense, complex runes.
You brought this on yourselves!
Zeus squeezed out every last fragment of power still under his control, forcing it into resonance. His silver-white gaze locked onto the sea, where waves towered thousands of feet high, as he swung the Thunderbolt Scepter with everything he had, staking it all on one final move.
Boom!
The lightning spear plunged straight into the three bronze gates without resistance. Above the dim, ashen sky of the Underworld, it traced a brilliant arc like a silver meteor, hurtling toward a distant point in midair.
...
At the same moment, in the Caucasus Mountains.
The group gathered at the mountain's base sensed the overwhelming divine pressure in the heavens and instinctively looked toward Olympus.
Watching the storm clouds where silver lightning writhed like dancing dragons, Medusa unconsciously tightened her grip on Samael's arm. Worry filled her eyes as she murmured,
"Will Athena be in danger?"
Samael gently patted the back of her hand, smiling calmly.
"Don't worry. She'll be fine."
"But if Zeus used the Thunderbolt Scepter…"
Medusa's unease lingered as she pressed on, her concern for Athena unmistakable.
As if responding to her fear, a pillar of silver-white light descended from above the Oceanus Sea, sending monstrous waves crashing across the surface.
Samael narrowed his eyes as he looked into the distance, a cold curve forming at the corner of his lips.
"Then Zeus will only lose faster."
...
Meanwhile, in the Underworld, the Pure Land of Bliss.
A silver-white pillar of light, covered in dense, tadpole-like divine runes, smashed into the ley lines, attempting to activate the [Taboo of the Gods].
Yet the instant the blended power of thunder and fate touched the ground, layers of dark-golden light surged outward. With overwhelming force, like mountains collapsing, they shattered the silver pillar piece by piece.
Pfft!
Back in Hera's temple on Olympus, the silver lightning sigil on Zeus's forehead dimmed abruptly. He spat out a mouthful of dark, reversed blood, his face turning deathly pale as the Thunderbolt Scepter slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor.
With the divine power he had used to resist completely drained, the restraining chains of the golden throne seized their chance. One by one, suppressive divine runes burrowed into Zeus's blood and marrow, wrapping tightly around his divine core.
Barely holding on, Zeus stared at the Thunderbolt Scepter lying on the ground, still faintly wailing, his eyes burning with fury and despair.
Which bastard had installed a restriction woven from the power of fate on the inner side of the Pure Land of Bliss?!
...
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