CHAPTER 100: "YOU FORGOT ABOUT ME."

The chains hoisted Zeus higher, the metal groaning under the strain of divinity.

His arms were pinned. Legs bound. The thick chain around his neck pulsed with infernal power—tightening with every breath. Tartarus rose beneath him, floating in silence, wings of shadow curled behind him like curtains drawn before execution.

"You always thought yourself untouchable," Tartarus whispered, voice layered and slow. "Crowned by thunder. Worshipped by mortals. Feared by gods."

He hovered closer, Ares’s face twitching beneath the cracks. "Now look at you. Bound. Hanging like a trophy."

Zeus didn’t answer.

Not with words.

He closed his eyes.

The storm inside him stirred.

The air snapped once—then twice. Then exploded.

CRACK-KRAKABOOM!

His aura flared. Golden and white, the storm broke free of the chains—not all at once, but enough. Electricity shot through the bindings like wild snakes, and the one around his left wrist shattered.

Zeus clenched his freed fist, spinning in midair.

Lightning Flicker.

He vanished in a blink of blinding speed.

The next moment, Tartarus was struck across the face by a fist wrapped in skyfire.

He spiraled through the air, crashing through a wall of the palace and out into the open sky.

Zeus landed on the broken marble, chest rising, blood trickling down his lip. But his eyes glowed brighter now. He didn’t look tired.

He looked focused.

Tartarus flew back in like a comet, wreathed in black chains.

They clashed mid-air again.

Punch for punch.

Blast for blast.

Every blow from Zeus lit up the world, thunder roaring louder than war drums. Every counter from Tartarus left veins of void across Olympus’s sky.

Ares’s voice screamed inside the dark.

"Stop—STOP—I’m still here—!"

Zeus faltered for half a second.

Tartarus struck.

A chain wrapped around his leg, yanked him downward—Zeus flipped in midair, threw a bolt upward to break it—Tartarus was already there.

He caught the bolt in one hand, crushed it, and drove his other fist into Zeus’s ribs.

CRACK.

Zeus hit the mountainside. Rock shattered. A gorge split open beneath him.

Before he could rise—Tartarus was above him.

Shadow gathered.

Oblivion Surge.

The sky turned black.

An orb of pure annihilation formed between Tartarus’s hands and dropped—straight down.

Zeus’s body flared with stormlight. He reached up—

Aether Step.

He blinked out just as the surge slammed into the peak.

The mountain disintegrated.

A piece of Olympus fell.

From the clouds, Zeus reappeared—hovering, battered but burning with power.

His voice echoed through the sky.

"You’re not just fighting me," he said. "You’re fighting Olympus itself."

And the skies responded.

Stormcaller’s Wrath.

Wind howled. Rain cut sideways. Bolts of heaven struck down one after another, forming a cage of storm around Tartarus.

He roared and lashed out—but the tempest adapted. The lightning curved, bent, redirected itself to strike where he moved, not where he was.

Zeus extended both arms.

Chains of lightning shot from his fingers, binding Tartarus’s arms.

He flew in fast.

Blink-smash.

Aether Step.

BOOM!

Zeus reappeared behind Tartarus, punching his spine.

Aether Step again—reappeared above.

CRACK!

A heel to the skull sent Tartarus flying downward.

Zeus chased.

Spinning in mid-air, he summoned a bolt into his palm—light condensed into a spear of plasma.

Smite.

He hurled it.

It hit Tartarus mid-fall.

The explosion turned the valley below into a glowing crater. Steam rose. The sky flickered.

Zeus landed on the edge, breathing hard now.

Then—he paused.

From the center of the crater...

A shadow rose.

Limbs twisted. Horns longer. Eyes no longer shaped like any mortal’s.

Tartarus’s true form had begun to show.

"You’re learning," he said. His voice was now everywhere. Above. Behind. Inside Zeus’s head.

"But you’re late."

Chains shot from all directions.

Zeus spun, dodged two—three wrapped around his arm and leg.

He called the storm to him.

Thunder Shout.

BOOOOM.

The blast knocked the chains off, shattered the boulders nearby—but the force staggered Zeus too. He dropped to one knee.

Tartarus landed hard a few meters away, dragging his new form forward—like a titan of smoke and blood.

"I can feel him fading," Tartarus said, voice giddy. "Ares is almost gone. You’re breaking him with every strike."

Zeus didn’t respond.

He stood slowly.

Cracks glowed along his ribs. One eye was swollen.

But he raised his arms again.

A crown of stormlight formed above his head.

Storm Crown: Divine Presence.

Tartarus stepped back.

The earth bent under the pressure.

Even he could feel it.

"You think pressure will make me kneel?" he growled.

"No," Zeus said softly.

"It’ll make you burn."

And he flew.

Zeus flew like a spear of lightning.

He grabbed Tartarus by the throat and soared upward—higher—into the upper sky, past the clouds, into the stratosphere.

Then he spun—

And hurled him down.

SMASH!

Tartarus hit the ground so hard that Olympus’s foundations cracked. A chasm opened. Smoke erupted.

Zeus descended slowly, body wrapped in skyfire.

But just as he landed—

A chain burst from the rubble.

Not one.

A dozen.

Tartarus lunged from the pit, black wings slicing through the wind.

He caught Zeus off-guard, tackled him through the air.

They crashed through a floating temple. Through marble. Through glass.

Zeus landed hard, coughing blood.

Tartarus landed atop him.

Raised a jagged black blade.

Ares’s voice whispered—

"Don’t... don’t..."

But the blade came down.

Zeus caught it with both hands.

The edge pressed down, cutting into his palm.

Tartarus’s face came close.

"You’re losing."

Zeus’s voice was hoarse.

"I haven’t started."

He leaned forward.

And bit the blade—snapped it in half with a flash of divine lightning.

Then slammed both palms into Tartarus’s chest.

Aether Step.

BOOM.

They both vanished—and reappeared mid-sky, Zeus now above, holding Tartarus by the chains.

He roared.

Called the storm.

ALL of it.

The skies split.

Clouds vanished.

Aether turned gold.

And then—

World Authority: Seat of the Sky – Realm Law Rewrite.

The rules of Olympus changed.

Gravity flipped.

Heat inverted.

Storm became still—and then reversed.

Zeus hurled Tartarus down into the sky as if it were ground.

And lightning chased him.

A divine tornado formed above Tartarus mid-fall, dragging him upward even as Zeus forced him down.

The winds screamed. The sky cried.

The gods far below looked up and felt fear.

Tartarus struck the invisible wall of Olympus’s upper barrier—then exploded outward in a shockwave of black light.

When it cleared—

Zeus hovered alone.

Bruised.

Bleeding.

But standing.

Until—

Snap.

From his shadow, a black hand reached up and grabbed his ankle.

And a voice... familiar.

Not Ares. Not Tartarus.

A third voice.

Low. Cruel. Curious.

"You forgot about me."

Zeus’s eyes widened.

Chains surged from below—and dragged him down.