In front of him, time instantly slowed to a snail's pace. He was planning to stall everyone until their death! They all realized. Zeus tried to attack the Mad King, trying to do anything to stop this outcome, yet he couldn't.
The Hydra widened their eyes, yet not entirely surprised by this outcome. Gaea had told them what was supposed to happen, yet looking at the situation currently, things had derailed to a point where they might even lose.
This was really a wound on their pride, to think that they would let things escalate to this point. They were Chaos-born! To think that a simple deviation of fate were to cost them this much. But they were not afraid, for they still had one more trump card.
Drawing out their fullest potential, they manifested Chaos once more. In all of their past attacks, they had always manifested Chaos into vessels, such as their body or their poison breath. Yet now, like before, they would manifest Chaos directly into existence.
" RAAAAHHHHHH!!! " With a mighty roar, they released their most lethal domain onto reality.
Instantly, the world trembled in recognition, as if trembling in fear of what's to come. The energy moved without interruption, not even time was able to slow it down, it moved at it's own pace.
The effects instantly presented itself. Once more, the sky had turned into a variety of hues, as if it had forgotten it's original color. The Earth had begun shifting between states of matter, liquid Gold, solid water, clouds of dust, - the ground kept shifting and changing randomly, the deities present could barely even stand on the ground anymore. Space started bending, with some parts of the battlefield becoming farther and some moving closer and closer.
It was total havoc! Or Chaos, to be precise.
Kronos witnessed in horror as his control of time began receding into nothingness. His divine clock had started malfunctioning, and had even halted entirely, as if the concept of time had been taken away from it. Which was impossible! That construct was the personification of Time itself! If it had been bereft of time... what would it even be now!
As he looked on at his broken construct in despair, something started happening to him. He looked down and he saw, to his horror... an elderly hand.
" What?- what is happening to me!? " He exclaimed in terror, feeling absolutely powerless for the second time of his life. He stared once more, and saw that his body had switched from an aged one, to a young child's.
I kept shifting like this, with each interval becoming shorter and shorter until! -... he just stopped. Kronos, the Titan King, had frozen. The effects of Chaos' presence had robbed him of his most powerful gift - Time. Now he was timeless, in the worst sense possible.
If time had frozen for just a moment, theoretically, since nothing had happened, reacted and resulted from that brief halt in time, that moment was technically non-existent. With time, came action and reaction, movement. And now, Kronos was forever stripped of any Time whatsoever.
The Hydra sneered at their handiwork. They had mercilessly defeated the Titan King in such a cruel manner. Crawling with heavy steps toward the motionless statue, all five heads looked at his frozen eyes with poison.
" Oh' King... " They chorused.
" Look. At. You. Now... Pitiful. Prey. " They said with unhidden malice.
Looking one last look, they bared their teeth... and released the Chaos that wrought the surroundings. Why, you ask? This was not a regular time stop ability, Kronos was literally without time, therefore any action done to him would yield no reaction.
" Gasp! Urghh- AAAAA!! " The pitiful Titan groaned and gasped. Yelling as five monstrous heads lay waste to his mountain-like form. He was completely powerless, drained of any energy whatsoever.
" Ah-... My son, Zeus! Save me! Your Father! " Kronos pleaded, as he realized what the Hydra was doing... They. Were. Eating. Him.
Oh the irony! Indeed, the King who once devoured his own blood and flesh was now being eaten by another's relentless jaws.
" Rot for eternity! Monster! " The young Olympian scorned, watching in both horror and cold indifference as his father was torn to shreds in front of his very eyes. Every God and Titan present had set their eyes on this very historical development in terror.
His limbs and body were already mostly in the belly of the beast. It was only a matter of time until he was imprisoned within his enemy. Wailing in agony, Kronos pleaded and begged, sending shivers down the spines of all present seeing how brutal the Hydra was. The scene was sure to be embedded in the deepest parts of their minds... forever.
" Wait! "
" Stop! "
" Halt, Chaos-born! " Three voices suddenly rang in panic. They were three aged women, clad in void black robes that concealed most of their figures. Indeed, it was the dreaded Moirai, weavers of Fate.
" Please, lord Primordial! " Clotho the spinner of life, pleaded.
" We ask that you spare the Titan Kronos, he is destined for a different end! " Lachesis the apportioner, explained.
" What you are doing now will yield disastrous outcomes! Do NOT kill him! " Atropos the inevitable warned.
In response, only one of the heads rose to meet their eyes. The center head looked at them with narrowed eyes, in his maw laid the weeping head of Kronos.
" If. That. Is. What. You. Desire... " They started ominously, slowly closing their teethed maw.
" Wait! No! " They yelled in panic, they had certainly not expected the beast to ignore them!
And with a snap, the head of the Titan King disappeared into the bowels of the Hydra.
--- To Be Continued ---
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