CHAPTER 499: THE FALL OF OLYMPUS 14

The collision sent both fighters sliding backwards, their feet carving grooves in the marble as they fought to maintain their balance. Zeus recovered first, his left foot planted as he pivoted on the ball of his right foot. His left hand swept out in a backhanded strike that would have crushed Adam’s temple, but the mortal ducked under the blow and drove his right shoulder into Zeus’s midsection.

The tackle carried both fighters across the battlefield, their bodies locked together as they crashed into the remains of a fallen pillar. Zeus’s back struck the marble column, cracking the ancient stone. Adam’s left blade swept up toward Zeus’s throat, but the god caught his wrist with both hands.

Zeus’s knee drove up toward Adam’s ribs, but the mortal twisted, taking the blow on his unbreakable hip bone instead of his vulnerable organs. The impact still sent pain shooting through his body, but it allowed him to free his right hand. His fist, reinforced with dark plasma, drove into Zeus’s solar plexus with enough force to crater the pillar behind the god.

Zeus’s grip on Adam’s wrist loosened, and the mortal tore free as he drove his elbow into the god’s temple. Zeus’s head snapped to the side, golden ichor spattering the marble as he staggered away from the column. Adam pressed his advantage, his right blade sweeping in a horizontal arc that would have opened Zeus’s throat.

But the King of the Gods had not ruled for eons by being predictable. His left hand came up, not to block the blade but to catch it, his palm meeting the flat of the weapon. Lightning erupted from his hand, travelling up the blade toward Adam’s grip. The mortal was forced to release the weapon or have his hand burned away.

Zeus’s right hand closed around the dark energy blade, his divine nature allowing him to wield Adam’s own weapon against him. The blade swept toward Adam’s neck, but the mortal caught Zeus’s wrist with both hands, his grip straining against divine strength. For a moment, they were locked in a deadly struggle, the blade hovering inches from Adam’s throat.

Then Adam’s left knee drove upward, catching Zeus between the legs with enough force to double over a titan. The god’s grip on the blade loosened, and Adam tore the weapon free as he drove his right elbow into Zeus’s spine. The King of the Gods stumbled forward, his balance compromised by the vicious blow.

Adam’s left blade materialised in his free hand, and he swept both weapons in a crossing pattern that would have shredded Zeus’s back. But the god spun around, his hands coming up to catch both blades at their crossover point. Lightning erupted from his palms, travelling up both weapons toward Adam’s hands.

Zeus’s eyes narrowed as he realised his fundamental error. When his lightning-wreathed hand had attempted to corrupt Adam’s blade, the dark energy had remained pristine, untouched by divine influence. The weapon was not merely a construct of power—it was an extension of Adam’s uncorruptible will, forged by marks that refused to acknowledge any authority beyond their bearer.

"Impossible," Zeus whispered, his voice carrying the weight of a god whose understanding of reality had just been shattered. "Nothing resists divine dominion."

Adam’s response was a cold smile that carried the satisfaction of a man who had transcended every limitation placed upon him. "Chaos can."

The King of the Gods stepped backwards, his form beginning to dissolve as he embraced his truest nature. Flesh became energy, bone became lightning, and divine blood transformed into raw power. He became a living thunderbolt, his consciousness distributed across electrical fields that stretched beyond the confines of mortal perception.

The transformation was magnificent and terrible. Where Zeus had stood, now crackling pillars of divine lightning twisted skyward, their peaks disappearing into storm clouds that had gathered with impossible speed. The air itself became charged with potential, every molecule vibrating with the barely contained fury of the storm king.

Then Zeus moved.

The first strike came from the northern peak of Mount Olympus, a bolt of lightning that descended with the speed of thought itself. Adam’s hands swept up, plasma barriers materialising in hexagonal patterns that formed a dome of superheated energy around his position. Zeus’s lightning struck the barrier with the force of a falling star, the collision creating a shockwave that vaporised the marble for a hundred meters in every direction.

But the attack was merely the beginning. Zeus’s consciousness danced across the electrical fields that now permeated the entire mountain, allowing him to strike from any direction at will. A second bolt descended from the eastern face, followed immediately by a third from the western slope. Adam’s barriers shifted and reformed, each impact sending cascades of molten plasma streaming down their surfaces.

The King of the Gods’ voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, his words carried on the electromagnetic fields that now controlled the very atmosphere. "This is what divine power truly means, mortal! Not the crude manipulation of energy, but the fundamental command of forces that predate existence itself!"

Zeus’s form materialised on the highest peak of Olympus, his body now composed entirely of compressed lightning. His arms spread wide, and the storm clouds above began to rotate, forming a massive vortex that drew power from the ionosphere. Lightning didn’t just fall from the sky—it erupted from the ground, burst from the air, and manifested in patterns that defied physics.

Adam’s plasma barriers strained under the assault, their surfaces rippling like water as they absorbed impact after impact. But he was not content to remain defensive. His right hand extended, and a sphere of superheated plasma formed in his palm, its core burning with the intensity of a star’s heart.

The sphere launched upward toward Zeus’s position, but the god was no longer there. His form had dissolved back into pure energy, dispersing across the electromagnetic field that now encompassed the entire mountain. The plasma sphere struck empty air, exploding in a burst of stellar fire that melted the peak where Zeus had stood.

"You cannot strike what you cannot pin down," Zeus’s voice boomed from the storm itself. "I am the lightning that splits the sky, the thunder that shakes the earth. I am everywhere and nowhere, mortal!"

But Adam had learned from his battles with gods who thought themselves untouchable. His consciousness expanded, touching the fabric of space itself through his mastery of reality severance. Reality became fluid around him, and he blinked sideways.

The blink carried him instantly to the northern face of the mountain, where Zeus’s consciousness was concentrated in a massive electrical storm. Adam’s left hand swept out, and a wave of plasma explosions erupted across the mountainside, each detonation designed to disrupt the electromagnetic fields that Zeus was using to maintain his distributed form.

The god’s lightning form wavered, forced to consolidate as his control over the local electrical field was shattered. Zeus materialised on a ledge fifteen meters above Adam, his body crackling with barely contained energy. His right hand swept down, and a column of lightning thick as a tree trunk descended toward Adam’s position.

Adam blinked again, stepping through space to appear directly behind Zeus. His right blade swept toward the god’s spine, but Zeus’s form exploded outward in all directions, becoming a sphere of electrical energy that engulfed the entire ledge. Adam’s plasma barriers snapped into existence around him, their surfaces hissing as they met the divine lightning.

The energy sphere collapsed back into Zeus’s humanoid form, but he was already moving. His consciousness rode the lightning that connected sky to earth, allowing him to travel at the speed of electrical discharge. He appeared on the eastern slope, then the western face, then the southern peak, each manifestation lasting only long enough to launch another devastating attack.

Lightning bolts the size of pillars crashed down around Adam, each one carrying enough power to vaporise a city. The marble of Mount Olympus began to melt under the sustained assault, flowing like lava as the temperature rose beyond what normal matter could withstand. Adam’s plasma barriers shifted and reformed constantly, their surfaces rippling as they absorbed the incredible energies being directed against them.