Zeus was the strongest of all gods, and I must admit I wasn't ready to face him as an equal. Neither my body nor my will was prepared for such a trial. When the system vanished completely, I felt a void in its absence. And yet how else could one temper body and spirit, if not through battle?
"Hephaestus won't get away with mere broken bones," Zeus declared, brushing dust from his mighty shoulders. "This time, he's earned a punishment far worse."
"You won't find him," I replied.
"I'll make you tell me where they are," he growled.
Lightning tore down from the heavens, all of it drawn to Zeus. His body absorbed the furious current until it reached its peak then he unleashed a blast of raw electricity. My shield took the brunt, absorbing the strike and reflecting the bolts, but the force behind his elemental wrath dissolved them into nothingness. Realizing the futility of defense, I stopped resisting.
The world slowed.
I saw arcs of lightning twist and shift, forming patterns as if weaving fate itself. My body surged with will, my heart pounded faster. In an instant, I moved with inhuman speed my shield cleaving a path through the storm, my spear glowing red-hot in my grasp. At the last moment, I lowered the shield and drove the spear at Zeus's chest.
He raised an energy barrier just in time it dulled the blow, but couldn't fully stop it.
Over time, I had learned to redirect the energy absorbed by my shield into my spear. The barrier cracked and split, and the tip of my weapon pierced Zeus's chest. In retaliation, he brought a thunder-charged fist down on my helmet.
We were hurled apart, crashing to the ground several meters away. Rising to our feet, we locked eyes. I wiped a trickle of blood from my nose. My body wasn't as strong as it once was but with a sheer act of will, I forced the pain down and willed the flesh to heal. No longer bound by the system, my will knew no limits.
"Not bad for a mortal," Zeus said coldly.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished and reappeared right in front of me, moving with lightning speed.
I raised my shield just in time to block the blow from the right but before I could react again, he shifted to my flank, slamming a fist into my liver. A current surged through me, searing my nerves. Pain exploded inside but I held firm, bracing myself for the next strike to my chest. I brought up the shaft of my spear his blow knocked me back, and the ground bore the gouges from my heels.
He was already in the air, plummeting from above with a devastating blow charged with thunder. I raised my shield his fist collided with it in a shattering impact. The force drove me into the earth, my body bending under the pressure. The stone cracked beneath us, forming a crater as a shockwave of lightning erupted from our clash, filling the air with ozone and sulfur.
My hand clenched the spear with such force it felt like an extension of my will. Long-forgotten skills surged back into memory. I felt every inch of the weapon my resolve flowing into its core.
I launched a flurry of strikes at Zeus. A sharp thrust at his leg made him recoil, lifting it defensively. Seizing the moment, I lunged for his shoulder, forcing him to pivot once more. My fury gave him no respite. Each blow rang out as it clashed against his shield woven of lightning. He hid beneath its crackling veil, but I kept pressing, pushing harder with each step.
The spear, now humming with energy, trembled in my grip.
And then I saw it.
A brief flicker lightning parting just for a moment, revealing a weakness. I struck, and the spearhead drove into Zeus's chest, just beside his heart.
Lightning retaliated, searing my flesh and burning through every nerve. Zeus seized the shaft, trying to stop the weapon from going deeper. I gathered what power I had left and released it in one final surge.
The blast hurled us apart.
Zeus staggered to his feet, one hand pressed to his chest. Blood leaked between his fingers. I barely managed to rise my body no longer obeyed. The lightning had scorched nearly every nerve no healing could fix what was gone. I moved only through sheer force of will.
"I admit it… you're strong," Zeus said.
He straightened to his full height. The wound in his chest closed in an instant. The scars of battle vanished, as if they'd never existed.
Once more, he stood before me unbroken, unshaken, and full of divine power.
"As long as the flame of Olympus burns and the faith that feeds me lives on," he added with a smirk, "you will never defeat me."
He drew his strength from the inexhaustible flame of Olympus. No matter how many blows I struck, he would recover again and again. I, on the other hand, was limited. My trump card could level the playing field but if he became mortal, he would still be vastly more powerful, fueled by an endless source of belief. And I would be left with nothing.
"You've already lost," Zeus said confidently, almost indifferently.
"I'll fight until I collapse to my knees… until the spear, slick with blood, slips from my hands! And even then, you won't break me. I'll spit in your face," I said, raising my spear once more. These words were not just for Zeus I spoke them to all the gods.
"Then I will rip your heart from your chest," Zeus growled.
He raised his hand to the sky. A storm of lightning answered his fury, descending in a blinding pillar of pure energy. The bolts converged upon him, feeding him the fury of the heavens.
Heaven's wrath descended upon me. The space around me burst into violent discharges there was nowhere to run. I raised my shield, and runes flared across its surface. A translucent barrier closed around me like a dome. Lightning slammed against it with fury but could not breach it.
When the storm subsided, I cast the shield aside. In that very instant, two fists appeared before me. With blinding speed, they crashed into my chest, slamming me into the rock, carving a path through stone with my body.
One blow followed another, wave after wave. My body filled with will. As if some unknown force lifted me skyward along with him, and the spear in my hand, trembling with purpose, pierced through his neck. We soared upward, and at the peak I tore the weapon free and drove it into his chest, hurling Zeus downward.
As we fell, I hammered him with the shield, smashing it against his head.
He crashed to the ground with a deafening roar, sending dust and stone flying. Not giving him a moment's rest, I drove punch after punch into his face. He caught the shield with one hand no matter how hard I pushed, it would not move. With the other, Zeus grasped the spear's shaft and slowly began to pull it from his chest. I poured more will into the weapon and drove the tip deeper once more. Lightning surged across his body, lashing back at me, burning my flesh. I clenched my teeth and did not relent.
A new bolt struck from the heavens as powerful as the wrath of the world itself. It hit me point-blank, flinging me several meters away.
I crashed down. The skin where the bolt struck was charred black like coal. A web of seared lines traced across my body, as if lightning had left its mark. My head rang. My vision blurred.
"Your defeat is inevitable," said Zeus. Through the cacophony of chaos, I barely heard his words.
His wounds began to heal before my eyes. His neck cracked and he stood tall again, renewed, as if the battle had only just begun.
"Wait, Father!" came a female voice.
A figure appeared not far away. A woman in battle armor stepped onto the field. A helmet with white plumes adorned her head; a spear and shield were in her hands. Her armor resembled that of a Spartan, yet it bore the elegance of Athenian design.
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