CHAPTER 268: CHAPTER 26

"Nyx!"

Odin’s voice thundered across the battlefield, followed by the anguished cries of the other Greek Underworld gods.

The sight before them froze their hearts, a dozen enormous, pulsating tentacles had pierced through Nyx’s form, impaling her midair like a fallen star caught in a net of darkness.

For a moment, all sound seemed to fade, the clash of gods, the roars of giants, the chaos of the battlefield, everything was drowned beneath the weight of dread.

Then, slowly, impossibly, Nyx lifted her head.

She was still standing.

But something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

The left side of her once divine, flawless body had turned into something that defied comprehension, a writhing, twitching mass of black tendrils, each one sprouting countless eyes that blinked independently, mouths whispering in tones that grated against the soul.

The sight alone made even the bravest of gods recoil.

The tendrils moved, not with random spasms, but as if alive, sentient, and aware.

They twisted and coiled protectively around her, forming a living shield.

The tentacles of the Outer Fragment that had sought to devour her could no longer touch her; they simply slid away, repelled by the very corruption they had once tried to spread.

The battlefield fell silent for a heartbeat.

Even among the immortals, fear was palpable.

The Norse gods stiffened, hands gripping their weapons. Some, like Heimdall and Tyr, instinctively raised their arms, preparing for battle, for whatever Nyx had become might no longer be their ally.

But before anyone could move, Odin raised his hand sharply, halting them with a glare that silenced the entire host.

On the other side, Hecate, eyes blazing like twin moons, extended her staff, commanding the Olympians to stand down.

"Do not interfere," Odin said, his voice low but carrying power. "Not yet."

Nyx herself trembled, though not from pain.

She looked down at her left arm, or what was left of it.

The tendrils pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat, their many eyes turning to look back at her, as if mocking her weakness.

She clenched her fist, and the mouths on her arm opened, whispering incoherently, repeating words she wished she’d never hear again.

Just then, the countless eyes of the fragment locked into her, and its countless mouth all spoke at the same time.

"You...are one of us...?"

Her mind reeled, a storm of fury and disgust tearing through her thoughts.

No. No, I am not.

Ever since she first gained awareness, when she had devoured half of the Roman Pantheon, she swore to never fall back into that darkness, to never let the primal chaos consume her again.

That thing, that fragment, was everything she had left behind when she gained consciousness, when she became Nyx.

Her voice broke through the silence, filled with wrath and defiance.

"I am not one of you!" she screamed, her words echoing across realms, across the boundaries of dimensions.

Her eyes, once calm and distant like twin stars, now burned crimson, radiating divine fury.

A wave of Primordial power burst from her body, splitting the skies, shattering the void.

The tendrils of the Outer Fragment that had surrounded her recoiled, writhing in pain as if burned by her very existence.

One by one, the countless black tentacles of the fragment were severed, sliced apart by invisible blades of pure, divine essence.

Each cut was not just physical, it was a severing of connection, a rejection of the corruption that sought to claim her.

The other gods could only watch in awe and horror.

Even those who had lived since the dawn of time could feel it, the raw, unfiltered power of a true Primordial.

The very embodiment of the night, rejecting the call of chaos itself.

And in her heart, as she watched the severed tendrils dissipate into nothingness, Nyx thought bitterly, ’Even now, I can’t escape what I am. Even now, that thing calls me kin. But...’

She raised her head, eyes locking once more on the fragment’s core, and whispered under her breath, "I am Nyx! Primordial Goddess of the Night! Mother of Primordials! I am not the same to the likes of you!"

Her form began to blur, the line between divinity and void blurring once again, and the battle, once merely desperate, was now on the brink of becoming something far greater.

Odin saw the opening immediately, the faint tremor in the Outer Fragment’s movement, the way its massive form recoiled from Nyx’s unleashed power.

His eye blazed with divine determination, and with a thunderous roar that shook the heavens, he commanded his kin.

"She is our ally!" Odin bellowed, his voice echoing across the chaos, shaking even the foundations of Yggdrasil itself. "Stand with her! Do not let her efforts be in vain!"

The Norse gods, fueled by his words, erupted into a furious cry of war.

Thor’s lightning blazed once more, Heimdall’s sword gleamed, and even the weary giants rallied behind them, charging toward the writhing mass of the Outer Fragment with renewed vigor.

At the same time, Hecate raised her staff high, her threefold form flickering like reflections through dimensions.

"Olympians!" she shouted, her voice layered, echoing like countless selves speaking as one. "Attack the core Nyx pointed to! That is where its weakness lies!"

The Olympians roared in unison, divine light and fire gathering across the battlefield as countless gods hurled their might at the cosmic abomination.

But Zeus, he did not move at first.

The King of Olympus stood atop the shattered remains of the floating cliffs, lightning wreathing his form, yet his eyes were fixed solely upon Nyx.

For a moment, the thunder god felt his chest tighten. It wasn’t awe, nor respect, but fear. A primal, instinctive fear that clawed at his immortal heart.

That thing standing before him... that woman cloaked in shadows and stars... she wasn’t merely divine.

She was something older, something beyond comprehension. A being whose very existence threatened to unravel what it meant to be a god.

Zeus had thought himself the pinnacle of Olympus, the peak of might.

But now, looking at Nyx as her left half writhed with abyssal eyes and whispering mouths, as her mere presence warped the battlefield around her, he felt small.

Like a mortal.

He scowled.

No matter. Fear or not, Zeus understood the battlefield better than anyone. Whatever Nyx was, ally, monster, or something far worse, she was on their side for now.

And that was enough.

If it ever changed... well, Hades would deal with her. He always had a talent for cleaning up after the cosmos.

With that cold, calculating thought, Zeus raised his arm toward the sky, his divine power surging to its peak.

Lightning gathered, forming a luminous tempest above the heavens.

"Feel the power of the King of the Gods!" he roared, unleashing an unending deluge of divine bolts, each one splitting the void as they rained down upon the Fragment’s core like the wrath of creation itself.

Meanwhile, Hecate flew beside Nyx, her robes of midnight flame fluttering wildly in the chaotic winds.

Nyx was still tearing through the attacking tendrils, each slash of her hand obliterating the abomination’s flesh, her corrupted arm devouring what it touched.

"Nyx," Hecate called over the roaring storm, "does Hades know about... this form of yours?"

Nyx didn’t turn to her. Her eyes were locked on the enemy, her expression a mask of grim focus.

"No," she said flatly. "But he knows what I truly am, before I became Nyx. I have told him before."

For a heartbeat, Hecate said nothing. The winds howled around them, carrying screams of gods and monsters alike.

Then she gave a single nod, her gaze steady.

"If he knows, and still trusts you," she said, "then so will I."

That was all that needed to be said between them.

Hecate’s gaze turned toward the battlefield, where gods struggled against the endless tide of cosmic corruption. "But what’s the plan? We can barely scratch that thing."

Nyx’s lips curled slightly, a shadow of a smirk despite the storm of death around her.

"No plan," she said simply. "We do what we always do, force our way through. Sever its connection to the host. Just like we did with that one before."

Hecate’s eyes glimmered in understanding. She gave a small nod, raising her staff as divine power coiled around her like a galaxy in motion.

"Then I will open the way," she declared. "Everyone, attack when I give the word!"

The heavens seemed to hold their breath.

The gods turned to her, awaiting her command.

The Outer Fragment roared, its countless mouths howling in defiance.

And then Hecate spoke the words that had not been uttered since the the great Titanomachy.

"I will show you the beginning," she chanted, her voice reverberating through every plane of existence. "Heaven and earth split, nothingness births creation. Mortar of the stars, celebrate the eve of Genesis."

Her staff flared, brighter than the sun.

"Khaos Aidees!"

The world screamed.

The air itself ruptured, the fabric of space splitting open like torn silk.

A colossal beam of light erupted from her staff, piercing through the void and slamming directly into the fragment’s monstrous body.

Wherever the light touched, the world reverted, matter disintegrated into raw essence, the laws of reality shattered, and time folded back upon itself.

The battlefield momentarily transformed into a canvas of primordial birth, swirling energies of genesis and entropy, colliding in divine splendor.

For the first time since the battle began, the Outer Fragment reeled.

It screamed, not in rage, but in pain.

The gods saw their chance.

And the war between creation and the void reached its crescendo.