CHAPTER 104: DOMAIN EXPANSION

Zeus lay on the broken ground, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His body twitched from the last blow. Lightning wouldn’t come. His breath was shallow. His vision blurred.

Above him, Tartarus loomed.

The world itself bent around the primordial. Walls melted into screams. Space pulsed like a living thing, held together by pain. This wasn’t just a battlefield anymore. It was Tartarus’s body. His soul. His home.

A prison where the warden was also the god.

Hades fought still—circling. Dodging. Swinging his scythe in clean, deliberate arcs. But even his silver cuts only slowed Tartarus for seconds. Every slash birthed more chains. Every wound sealed itself with shadow.

"This is pointless," Tartarus said, voice rippling like thunder through a swamp. "You came to kill me in my kingdom. With what? Willpower?"

His arm lashed out. Chains shot like bullets. Hades blocked three—but the fourth caught his ankle and yanked him down hard. The scythe flew from his hand.

Zeus watched it fall.

He heard Hades grunt, twisting, black blood trailing behind him.

Everything slowed again.

And for a split second, Zeus didn’t see Tartarus.

He saw a streetlamp. A flickering light above a cracked sidewalk. A faint buzz. Rain on his face. The feel of cold air on skin that wasn’t immortal.

Something inside him stirred.

Something old.

Or maybe something from another life.

He had a realm.

Gaia had given it to him. A divine space made for him alone.

He’d only ever used it once. Long ago. Just to train.

But now...

His eyes flickered.

And then widened.

What if he didn’t enter Tartarus’s realm?

What if he replaced it?

He pushed one hand against the floor. The skin of the world screamed under his palm. The laws here didn’t like him.

Didn’t want him.

He didn’t care.

He closed his eyes.

And called it.

Not with words.

With will.

The ground shattered beneath him. Lightning surged from every crack. The screams of the walls fell silent.

Tartarus paused mid-attack.

"What are you—"

The entire realm twisted.

The sky above bent inward like glass being sucked into a void.

Then—

Crack.

The domain shattered.

Not Tartarus’s body. His world.

Every wall split. The screaming faces warped into static. The chains lost tension. The black fire sputtered.

And in its place...

A new sky unfolded.

Gray clouds. Endless. Churning with electric current. The ground shifted into marble and light. Tall spires erupted from the nothing. A storm rolled quietly above them, heavy and slow.

Zeus stood in the center of it.

Lightning now danced calmly across his shoulders.

His eyes glowed white.

A hum filled the air. Like a current looping around every atom.

Tartarus stumbled back, his form shrinking slightly. "What... have you done?"

Zeus exhaled once.

Then raised both hands.

"My realm now."

And the storm came.

Thunder rained like knives. Bolts struck faster than sound. The very air sliced. Zeus moved like a streak, teleporting mid-stride, his fists coated in godsteel lightning.

He crashed into Tartarus’s chest—no longer cushioned by the void, but raw and real. The hit sent the primordial flying across the marble floor.

Zeus didn’t wait.

He was there in an instant—grabbing Tartarus by the horn, spinning, and slamming him headfirst into the ground.

Lightning exploded upward in a pillar.

Tartarus roared in pain.

Not anger.

Not pride.

Pain.

Zeus stepped back. His body was glowing now—lines of stormlight ran across his veins like they had been burned into his skin. His realm fed him.

For the first time... he was home.

Tartarus swung wildly.

Zeus ducked.

Countered.

A clean uppercut to the chin. Then a spinning kick to the ribs. Bones broke. Tartarus grunted, black ichor flying from his mouth.

Then the chains returned.

Dozens. A final attempt.

They shot forward—but the moment they crossed into the airspace of Zeus’s domain, they unraveled. The storm stripped them into dust.

Zeus caught one mid-collapse.

And used it like a whip.

He lashed Tartarus across the back, leaving a massive gash that sparked.

Tartarus growled.

"You think you’ve won?"

"I know I haven’t," Zeus replied calmly.

Tartarus swung with both fists, creating a massive shockwave.

Zeus was thrown back, but caught himself mid-air, hovering. His cape billowed behind him. He looked like thunder given shape.

"You destroyed my realm," Tartarus snarled.

"No," Zeus said. "I consumed it."

Tartarus charged. Raw force. No tricks. Just power.

Zeus charged too.

They clashed mid-air.

Fist to fist.

The shockwave turned the realm inside out.

Towers cracked. Clouds tore. The ground flipped. But Zeus didn’t stop. He kept striking. Left, right, knee, elbow. Every blow was followed by thunder.

Tartarus hit back hard. His fists still held the weight of eons. One slam to Zeus’s ribs sent him tumbling. Another caught his jaw.

Zeus grunted. His lip split.

But the storm healed it.

The storm fed him.

He roared—and summoned twenty spears of lightning from the sky.

They hovered.

Then shot down like meteors.

Tartarus raised a shield of shadow.

It held—

But only for five strikes.

The sixth pierced through.

Then the rest followed.

The explosion lit up the entire realm in pure white.

When the light faded—

Tartarus was on one knee.

Breathing heavy.

Bleeding.

Zeus landed across from him.

Still glowing.

Still sparking.

Then he blinked—

—and Tartarus grabbed his throat.

A final burst of power.

Not from the realm.

From the being.

Tartarus’s body exploded in black flame. His horns extended. His muscles thickened. His presence swelled until it cracked the air around them.

Zeus choked, grabbed the arm—

—and then Tartarus drove him into the ground.

"You thought you had me?" he spat.

"I am the abyss. I lived before light. Before storms. You’re a spark. I’m the void."

Zeus coughed blood.

Then smiled faintly.

Behind Tartarus—

Hades reappeared.

Scythe in hand.

Silent.

Focused.

He swung—

But Tartarus caught the blade.

The three of them were now locked in place.

Gods of Olympus, shoulder to shoulder—

And a monster too old to die.

The domain trembled.

And the next moment—

Everything exploded into light.