Moros did not smile—such expressions did not belong to him. His face remained as still and emotionless as the void itself, yet when he spoke, there was unmistakable approval within his cold tone.
"Good," he said indifferently. "You deserve... a reward."
He slowly raised a single finger.
At the tip of that finger, a thread of crimson fate-light condensed. It was thin and delicate in appearance, yet the pressure it carried was enough to make the surrounding space tremble. The beam shot forward and lightly touched Echidna’s forehead.
In that instant, the world seed to flash.
Echidna’s pupils expanded sharply. Her breath stopped. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
Then the seal shattered.
mories that had been forcibly erased surged back into her mind like a flood breaking through a dam. There were no fragnts, no distortions—everything returned in perfect clarity.
She rembered the first ti Sharky had looked at her without hostility. She rembered how she had transford into a human form for him, how she had placed the divine stone into his hand without reservation. She rembered following him through fractured tilines, choosing him over her own chaotic nature. She rembered the nights when war and fate faded into warmth and closeness.
Every smile he gave her. Every whispered word in the darkness. Every mont he returned to her in the tistream.
Every touch in that lost tiline. Every emotion she had once buried deep within her heart.
The intimacy. The trust. The bond that transcended ti.
Her body trembled violently as the overwhelming tide of mories crashed through her consciousness. Tears slid silently down her cheeks.
"Sh–Sharky..." she breathed, voice shaking. "So that’s why... he hesitated..."
Now she understood the conflict in his eyes. She understood the restraint in his raised fist. She understood the pain hidden beneath his calm.
It had not been a weakness. It had been love rembered.
Moros had already turned his back. His cloak of living shadow swirled slowly, resembling dying universes collapsing into silence. Even without releasing any visible power, his presence made the entire realm feel suffocated.
His voice drifted across the darkened sky like the final judgnt of existence.
"Now it begins..."
The air grew heavier.
"The world shall once again welco..."
A brief pause, as if even fate itself bowed to the declaration.
"The Era of Darkness."
The next mont, Moros vanished.
There was no explosion, no light, no distortion. It was as though reality had quietly erased his presence, unwilling to acknowledge him.
Only a lingering chill remained in the air.
And the certainty that sothing inevitable had already begun.
---
High above the mortal realms, within the radiant halls of Olympus, the sky suddenly dimd for a brief, unsettling mont.
Just as Echidna’s sealed mories had shattered, other sealed mories also shattered.
Inside the War God’s palace, Ares staggered mid-step. At first, it was nothing more than a flicker in his mind. A misplaced sensation. A fragnt of familiarity.
Then—
mories surged violently through him, breaking through the unseen restraint that had bound them for so long. Images, voices, humiliation, fury—everything returned with brutal clarity.
It was revealed that Moros had sealed both his and Echidna’s mories.
Ares clutched his head as the truth resurfaced.
He rembered Sharky.
Not rely the recent events of Phobos erased, Deimos annihilated, and Enyo and Keres kneeling and serving Sharky, but further back. He rembered the past tiline. The humiliation. The overwhelming defeat. The way Sharky had looked down upon him as though he were insignificant.
His jaw tightened until the muscles along his face trembled visibly. The fury within him had already reached its peak, yet it was not finished tearing him apart.
Then another mory surfaced. It ca without warning. It was about Hera and Sharky.
How they stand too close. The sacred halls are dimly lit. Conversations that lingered far too long.
They spent night nights where the Queen of Olympus had lowered her guard, where distance had dissolved into intimacy.
She didn’t behave like the Queen of Olympus but like a woman in Sharky’s arms. They beco intimate many tis.
A connection that had no right to exist.
Ares’s breathing grew heavy. The war-aura around him intensified, cracking the marble beneath his feet. These were not rumors planted by enemies. They were not illusions crafted by tricksters.
Hera—Queen of Olympus—had shared warmth, trust, and closeness with the very man who had humiliated him, erased his sons, fucked his wife and daughter and shaken the foundation of Olympus.
The realization struck deeper than defeat. Deeper than the loss of Phobos and Deimos. This was not rely an insult.
It was betrayal engraved into the past itself. And now, with the seal broken, he rembered everything.
Ares’s veins pulsed with violent war-aura, crimson energy seeping from his skin like steam from molten iron. His fists trembled uncontrollably as rage overtook reason.
"SHARKY!"
His roar shook the pillars of Olympus.
Without hesitation, Ares stord across the divine corridors and burst into Zeus’s private war chamber. The massive doors slamd shut behind him with a thunderous crash.
Inside, Zeus stood alone, calmly sharpening a lightning bolt, sparks dancing along its edge.
He looked up, mildly irritated. "Why do you shout like a wounded boar?"
Ares’s face was twisted beyond recognition—rage, humiliation, and fury woven together.
He stepped forward, voice low but trembling with intensity.
"Father... I rember everything."
Zeus’s expression changed slightly.
"Everything... from the altered past?"
In that distorted tiline, when Zeus had returned to Olympus, Ares had claid his mory was blurred—he could not recall why they had rushed back from Earth, nor what had transpired. He had tried countless tis to recover it, but the barrier in his mind had always stopped him.
Until now.
Ares nodded violently, fists shaking.
"Yes, Father. It was Sharky Valor." His voice cracked with hatred. "The sa man who touched my won. The sa one who killed my sons. And in the past... he corrupted Hera."
The chamber fell silent.
Zeus’s hand stopped mid-motion.
The lightning bolt in his grip flickered erratically.
"Are you... certain?" Zeus asked quietly.
Ares’s eyes burned.
"I saw it clearly. Flashes. Images. Your Queen... with Sharky."
Zeus’s knuckles whitened around the weapon.
But Ares stepped even closer, his voice growing colder, more controlled—more dangerous.
"Father... Sharky is not rely a powerful outsider. He is a threat to Olympus, to you and to all of us."
Zeus’s gaze darkened, storm clouds gathering within his eyes.
"And what," he asked slowly, "do you expect to do?"
Ares did not hesitate. "War."
Inside the war chamber, silence lingered only for a mont before Zeus began to pace slowly across the vast marble floor. Each step echoed heavily, and faint arcs of lightning flickered within his storm-white eyes. The air grew dense with restrained fury.
Ares did not retreat.
"Let strike first," he demanded, his voice burning with impatience. "Let avenge my son and reclaim Olympus’s honor."
Zeus stopped walking.
He raised one hand.
"Fool," he said coldly. "If Sharky Valor truly exists beyond the constraints of ti... then we must move carefully. Not rashly."
Ares’s temper exploded. He slamd his fist down onto the stone war table, cracks spidering outward beneath the impact.
"He humiliated my house!" Ares roared. "He killed my sons! He touched what belongs to Olympus!"
Zeus’s expression darkened instantly.
"AND YOU HUMILIATED YOURSELF BY LETTING IT HAPPEN!"
The thunder in his voice shook the chamber.
Ares froze.
For the first ti since entering, he took a step back.
Zeus’s gaze was rciless.
"This war," he said slowly, every word heavy with authority, "if it cos... will not be yours to start."
The ssage was clear.
Ares was not to act without command.
His fists tightened until his knuckles paled, war-aura flickering uncontrollably around his body. Rage burned in his chest like molten iron, but he did not defy Zeus again.
Not here. Not now. Without another word, Ares turned and exited the chamber.
The doors closed behind him with a dull echo. Though silent, his eyes burned with naked bloodlust.
After Ares stord out of the war chamber, the massive doors sealing shut behind him, Zeus remained alone in the vast hall of thunder. Lightning crackled faintly around his body, arcing between his fingers as storm clouds gathered above the ceiling like restrained wrath.
He did not move for a long ti.
"If Ares speaks the truth..." Zeus muttered under his breath, his voice low and heavy, "then Hera betrayed in the past."
The thought alone caused the lightning around him to flare violently before he forced it back under control.
"And Sharky Valor..." His eyes narrowed slightly. "He must be watched closely."
Zeus did not trust Ares completely. The God of War was impulsive, driven by pride and humiliation. mory alone was not proof.
He needed certainty.
With a slow lift of his hand, Zeus summoned a presence from the edges of the chamber. The shadows rippled, and from within them stepped a slender figure with silver-glowing eyes and a faint, amused smile.
Hers.
ssenger of the Gods. The fastest being in Olympus. Master of stealth and deception.
The small wings at his ankles shimred faintly as he knelt gracefully before the throne.
"You called, Father of Gods?"
Zeus’s voice lowered into a near whisper, yet the command within it was absolute.
"Hers... Follow Hera. Follow Sharky Valor. Listen then, watch everything every single detail. I want to know if Ares’s claim is true."
Hers raised his head slightly, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
"So the Queen has secrets," he said lightly. "Interesting."
Zeus’s gaze sharpened instantly.
"Do not let Hera sense you. Do not let the goddesses sense you. And under no circumstances allow Sharky Valor to notice your presence."
The chamber grew heavy with unspoken threats.
Hers only bowed again, his expression confident.
"As you command."
In the next instant, space distorted faintly—and Hers vanished, slipping into the realm between realms like a silver streak no eye could follow.
Zeus stood alone once more, lightning dancing silently in his palm.
Olympus was beginning to tremble beneath truths it had long forgotten.
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