33 Azure and Scarlet

Careful, boy. If you wish to continue to provoke my ire I'll be happy to demonstrate how "vindictive and petty" I can truly be.

—Hera to Apollo

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A divine war renowned throughout the history of human civilisations. Humans twisted and weaved their own legends about it based on the few glimpses of the Great War that their mortal brains could understand and comprehend.

All of those stories, however, showed a striking likeness; this was one of those times when the cataclysm was so close that only the pillars known as Earth and Dream prevented the world from collapsing into its ruinous clutches.

Regardless, it was catastrophic.

The earth was said to be rupturing, with the oceans rising to touch the sky, the stars and moon descending from the night sky, the sun expanding to swallow the world, and so on and so forth.

Despite the strong similarities in ancient cultures all over the world, Future Generations dismissed it as mere myths, and those few who noticed and were brave enough to venture into the unknown in search of evidences of the Great War returned either empty-handed or broken-minded.

In spite of mankind's ignorance, the impact of the Great War would be felt throughout the cultures of the earth, influencing the world in its own uncanny ways.

It was given many names by them: the Great Destruction; the Divine Twilight; the War of Vengeance; the Cataclysm; the Rupture….

Ultimately, it was known as none other than the Titanomachy.

———

The final battle of the Titanomachy had begun, with war cries trembling the planets of the solar system; immortals faced each other in their designated battlefields throughout the solar system; Gaea and Hypnos oversaw all of it, erasing the chaos of war with their authorities; and Metis and Prometheus were frantically passing on orders and instructions to their compatriots according to the changes in the battlefields.

And, among the battlefields, the one designated between Earth and Mars stood out above the rest, capturing the attention of all transcendent spectators.

The fighters here were Hera, the Goddess of Marriage, and Krios, the Titan of Stars. They had both arrived in the outer space between the earth and mars in their chariot, which rode perfectly on the space, defying the material laws of creation.

Then Hera and Krios faced each other, descending from their chariots with weapons drawn and striding through the fabric of space as if it were the ground on earth.

There were no words exchanged. There were no jabs thrown. Only the will to win remained deep within their hearts in this never-ending moment, for the fates of all rested on their shoulders.

They had to win not for themselves but for their families, their compatriots, and their worlds to survive, because everything was on the line on the scale of destiny.

With the intent of victory, they both struck each other with mighty cries that sent sonic waves deep into space, once again defying material laws.

And immediately, with just the exchange of the first blow, the tides of battle were, for all intents and purposes, sealed in favour of Hera.

Krios stared in horror at Hera. 'Impossible…' he thought, astonishment marring his countenance.

The Titan of South decided to go all-out with his first blow, intending to end the battle with his improved power, but his attack caused no harm to the Goddess of Marriage; if it had just been that, he wouldn't have felt such utter horror; rather, his blow was completely absorbed by Hera, and he felt his control over the stars slip away to Hera.

Krios desperately tried and failed to hold on to the last vestiges of his power. His stars refused to heed his commands; rather, they betrayed him, kneeling to his arch-enemy as if she were their queen, and his heart bled.

Meanwhile, Hera floated in front of Krios, her face as serene as the night. She was encircled by spinning stars, almost like a miniature Milky Way. The stars of the cosmos obeyed her command with a simple wave of her hands, bending to her will and acknowledging their rightful ruler, as they should.

On Earth, mortals and gods gazed in awe at the night sky—the stars shining through the veil of darkness brightened all the more, illuminating the world in starry brilliance. They all began to swirl around each other, revealing the brilliant Milky Way for all to see in wonderment. And in the midst of it all was Hera, floating in a swirling ocean of starry light.

"You…" The Titan of Stars looked at the Goddess of Marriage with rage and fear. "What are you?!"

"I am—" Hera began as her hair grew longer and longer, until it curled up like a peacock tail full spread. It was dyed in palettes of blue and white, and her earthy brown eyes turned brilliant azure like stars. But her transformation into her divine form was cut short by Krios, who charged at her with a snowy hailstorm. "Those are my stars," he bellowed with a twisted countenance, utter fury overwhelming his apprehension.

Hera merely stared indifferently at the charging Krios. As she raised her hand to the infinite space above them, a crown made of the brightest stars in the cosmos began to emerge on her head. "—Cosmic Star Goddess."

With her solemn declaration, a colossal pillar of starry light erupted from her spotless hand, as large as the golden sun, slicing the darkness between earth and mars like a straight line drawn on murky paper.

Krios came to a halt, his dull eyes reflecting the pillar of stars, and something within him cracked with thunder.

Hera brought her hand down on Krios. "Begone, Titan," she said stately, and with that, the colossal pillar of stars descended in one vertical motion towards Titan of stars, tearing the fabric of space apart in its path.

Krios didn't even try to resist because there was no point in resisting such power, he realised, and so he closed his eyes, accepting the ironic yet most appropriate and magnificent ending for him: falling under the fury of stars.

And fall he did, opening his arms, and for a fleeting moment, he even seemed glorious and eminent to himself, but that was all just delusions in his mind, which was cruelly shattered by the stellar beam hitting him, and he felt pain unlike anything he had ever felt in his life, as his titanic being torn apart piece by piece—no, no, he didn't want this at all.

"Please save me, mother..." Krios pleaded with the last of his power, but all he got was a single crystal tear falling onto his bleeding face, and immediately, darkness all but consumed him.

ROAR!

The colossal beam of the Cosmic Goddess of Stars destroyed the Titans of Stars with a cosmic roar, unleashing a wave of stellar power that swept the entire solar system, proclaiming the Titanomachy's first victory for all to behold.

The beam of brightness faded, and serenity returned, at least to this area of the solar system. Hera hovered above it all, gazing at the space where her arch-enemy stood in deafening silence; for a brief moment, even she couldn't believe how powerful she truly was.

The space around her suddenly shimmered, and a faint whisper broke through it, "I am so proud of you…"

Despite hearing those galling words again, Hera didn't feel any anger; rather, a pang of joy and contentment filled her heart, and she raised her hand to her mouth and blew a kiss to the shimmering space. A smile bloomed on her face when she noticed the space beginning to shimmer somewhat restlessly.

Of course, someone had to interpret their moment; the voice of Metis blared in her ears. "Hera!" she exclaimed. "Mt. Orthys!"

"Do you have to shriek like that every time, Metis?" Hera scowled, but the Titaness of Wisdom had already cut off their connection.

"That—" The Goddess of Stars swallowed the curse, turning to shimmering space, "I am certain, she did that on purpose." she huffed.

A faint laugh mixed with a whisper echoed. "Go,"

Hera nodded, but she kept looking at the gleaming space, hoping for something more, but all she got was silence. Despite having a thorough understanding of the situation, she couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

The disappointment was quickly washed away by the storm of solemnity as she turned towards Earth and teleported to Mount Orthys in a flash of blinding light.

And from the shimmering space, a dreamy power emerged, sweeping the broken space between Mars and Earth and restoring it back to its previous state.

———————

The battle between Hera and Krios ended with an overwhelming victory for the Gods, but other battles did not follow suit as many expected; instead, the situation deteriorated as Titans flew into a frenzy of rage after experiencing the fall of one of their brethren.

On the planet Venus, Demeter, the goddess of harvest, and Koios, the titan of the north, faced each other. Their clashes of powers temporarily terraformed the hottest planet in the solar system into a natural and icy paradise.

To say Koios was irritated would be an understatement; Krios had foolishly gotten himself destroyed by Hera. They had never been on good terms, but he was his brother nonetheless. Now he was gone, and who knows how many millennia would pass before he could reform...? It's not like he was going to miss him, but… but..

Koios gripped his ice blade tightly; the hailstorm that engulfed much of the planet roared in response, echoing his feelings.

And his annoyance was exacerbated by the insane woman he was fighting, who just kept dodging his attacks without fighting back, as she seemed more interested in mindless conversation with him than the epochal battle.

"Hey!" The crazy woman, who was draped in the veil of nature, waved her hand at him, capturing the rest of his drifting attention. "Did you miss my question?"

Koios merely growled, unleashing swarms of colossal ice swords the size of large mountains at Demeter.

"Always so rude, Koios." Demeter chided him, deftly avoiding the ice swords. "All I asked for was your perspective on the relationship between life and death."

"Life and Death," Koios bellowed, absolutely irritated, "are obviously not related, but of course you would think otherwise, crazy woman."

"Oh, I am sorry," Demeter tapped her temples in mock realisation. "It just often escapes me that you are a titan of knowledge, not wisdom."

"You—" Koios raged, unleashing a slew of ice attacks on her and even directing the ice storm that covered most of the planet to crash into her.

"So allow me to enlighten you with the truth I recently discovered," Demeter continued, calmly facing all of his attacks. She then declared solemnly as her veil of nature temporarily bore all of his ice attacks. "Life and death are intricately intertwined; one cannot exist without the other. You see, everything in the world is constantly changing and evolving, so there is no such thing as an unchanging entity," she said as she plucked a red flower from her hand, which withered into ashes and fell to the ground, where a green plant instantly grew with a blooming flower, forming an eternal cycle. "Therefore, life cannot exist without death, because something must die in order for something else to live."

"That is the symphony of life and death."

On her green dress was a feather that was inconspicuous until she said those last words, at which point a pale light gathered around it, and it consumed her entirely, transforming her altogether and unleashing a terrifying aura that froze everything on the planet, including Koios.

Demeter emerged as life and death bloomed together all around her like a chaotic cosmos symphony, mutating and withering everything around her—from living to nonliving, from material to nonmaterial—nothing could escape her rooting clutches, dyeing it all in a deluge of scarlet shades of horror. From behind her back, a pair of large wings consisting of many butterflies hewn together and woven together by her own hair. Her wooden hand, full of red blossoms, grasped a scythe as red as the crimson moon for the final touch.

Death himself had bestowed his blessing on the Goddess of Harvest, temporarily granting her rudimentary control over the concept of rot.

Demeter immediately waved her scythe about, unleashing the power of rot on a planetary scale. "This is...this is fun!" she exclaimed as everything around her began to turn into ash, from the natural paradise to the hailstorm to Koios himself.

Koios knelt heavily on the scarlet ground, trying with all his might to resist the rotting that ebbed his titanic being but failing miserably. Nothing, not even him, seemed to be able to resist it, all slowly falling into the cold embrace of Death. It didn't take long to figure out the nature of this power, as it was very similar to his mother's authority, albeit much weaker, but it still completely crushed him in every category; it was utter suppression at every level of life.

"You—" Koios coughed up ichor, but it wasn't just golden; it was mixed with paths of red, like the blood of mortals. He instinctively realised what was happening to him—he was also mutating under her aura. Immediately, horror and terror filled his heart, but he refused to give up.

"You cheated," the Titan of the North whimpered painfully. "You are wielding the power of a Primordial."

Demeter looked up, sighing in exasperation. "The agreement only stated that Lord Riddler and Grandmother should not intervene in the final war—"

'Yes, yes.' Koios thought as he quietly attempted to activate the mark that his lord had bestowed upon his trusted subordinates—it was his last hope. 'Keep taking, crazy bitch....'

"...you should have been more specific. It is your obligation—" Demeter paused, her face turning as icy as the northern winters, and then teleported in front of a kneeling Koios, swinging her crimson scythe at his neck, beheading him—all in one swift action that the Titan of the North couldn't even register, before darkness all but swallowed him.

His head continued to roll on the red ground, leaving a scarlet trail, until it eventually stopped, revealing his face, which was frozen with a glimpse of hope, before it broke apart into ashes along with his body, marking the end of Koios, the Titan of the North.

"What were you thinking, Demeter?" The Goddess of Harvest chided herself, floating above the ashes of the Titan of the North. "Trying to reason with a dead and foolish titan.."

"Anyway," Demeter continued, her gaze raised to the bloody sky. "Mr. Riddler, how can I fully claim this marvellous power as mine?" She expressed her doubts loudly.

The Primordial did not respond, but someone did: "Demeter!" There came the heavenly voice of Metis, gracing her ears. "Mars!" And then the connection was severed as quickly as it had been established.

Demeter didn't bother to curse Metis as she was in a delightful mood, but it only lasted until she remembered who was fighting on Mars—Hades and Atlas. "Well," she sighed, recalling her previous hypocrisy with Hades, given how closely life and death were linked. "It appears I have some apologising to do." And so she teleported away to Mars in a boom of myriad butterflies, restraining her power of rot.

After her departure, a dreamy power swept all of Venus, returning the planet to its previous state before the war.

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