Chapter 168: Betrayal
Chapter 168: Betrayal
"Atropos! Why are you helping this egotistical man! We must return the world to balance and open the gate of the underworld!" Thanatos shouts at the goddess of fate.
The fight between the top powerhouse of the underworld was in balance since Atropos joined the fight, She took care of the brother-sister duo while Pluto confronted Atlas.
"You are just saying this because you are losing! Not even the two of you can beat me!" She replied.
"How arrogant! Do you think you will ever kill us? We are death! We are unkillable!" the personification of death roared at the woman.
"No matter what you are, you can't run from fate! You have lost the moment you choose to fight me!" She did not back down.
The personification of death phase out of existence. He reappeared beside Atropos and swung his scythe to cut at the goddess, but his scythe somehow bent before it could touch the woman.
Hundreds of unlockable and invisible blades tried to hit the woman, but they missed as well, Thanatos and Keres could only grit their teeth as they could not hit the woman.
"I'm the master of fate and your fate is to never hit me unless you can rewrite fate then you will never hurt me," he sneered at them.
She was still talking when she vomited blood. She looked down to find a scythe blade was sticking out of her stomach.
She felt the pain, and she knew it was not an illusion, the blade really cut her, she did not see it coming.
She tried to attack the man that had appeared behind her, but he already moved elsewhere.
"Impossible! I clearly see that your fate, you are not supposed to hit me! You can't change fate!" she said in shock.
"Do you think the two of us just blindly fight you all this time? You take us for an idiot or what?" he jeered at her.
"Fate can't be changed, it's impossible! Only us, the sister of fate, can change people's fate!'' She was still in denial.
Atropos was one of the three fates along with her sisters, Clotho and Lachesis. They decide how people will be born, what they do in their life, and how it will end.
But when the pact of God was made, they were forbidden to meddle with mortal's fate, with no work to do, the sisters went on their own path.
Clotho went to the realm of god and decided to work for one of the major gods there, Lachesis went to the mortal realm and decided to be reincarnated as a human.
On the other hand, Atropos decided to work for Pluto. She was the one who decided how people will die, the one who cut the string of fate. The underworld was like a second home to her.
"Do you think your power can affect us forever? We are Gods not mortal, we can change our own fate," Thanatos chastise her.
"Even so, I can see fate, your fate did not change!"
"It was not easy to change fate, we needed to make a lot of preparation to deceive you. Do you think, why do we take so long to counterattack?" he asked.
"You," she was about to talk when her body was cut all over and she fell from the sky.
Keres appeared beside Thanatos and laughed at the downed person, "you just become a major God, but think you could take us both? Laughable!"
"Of course I can, do you think I can only manipulate your fate? I can manipulate mine too," they could hear the supposedly downed goddess behind them.
When they turned to look behind them, they found the goddess was unharmed behind them.
The fight continued between them while on the other side of the battlefield was Pluto fighting against Atlas.
At first, the Titan was not a match for the god of the underworld, but the longer the fight goes on, the stronger the titan becomes while the god of the underworld starts to grow tired.
"It has been millennia since our last fight and you already forget what I can do? Do you think why they call me the titan of endurance?" Atlas laughed as the god was getting pushed back by his attack.
Atlas can't appear and disappear like the brother-sister duo, but his physical ability allowed him to move like he was teleporting around.
Pluto blocked another devastating punch from the titan, just like before he used the underworld itself to block the attack.
But to his surprise, the space did not only crack, but it was shattered to pieces, Pluto was unprepared as the giant fist smashed at his body.
He tried to block it with his hand but he was still sent crashing to the ground, with just a single hit Pluto was already bloody, his bone cracked and he bled all over.
"This is the end!" Atlas declares as he was about to finish the bloody man, but Pluto did not stay down.
Black fog appeared around his body and covered his body in black armor, different from his last armor. This one looked savage with a lot of thorns and sharp edges. Both of his hands looked like a giant claw instead of a human hand.
He blocked the Titan's punch with one of his clawed hands, then used his other hand to send a punch at the titan's face.
Because of the disparity of their size, Pluto's arm hit the air as he could not reach the giant's face, but it did not stop him from hitting the giant.
An invisible fist hit the titan, sending his face knocked to the side. A loud booming sound could be heard as a testament to the power carried behind the attack, but the titan did not even take a step back.
He countered by punching the man with his other hand, but instead of being sent flying back, Pluto only got pushed back a bit before returning the favor.
Both of them exchange blow for blow as if both of them were invulnerable, but both of them were clearly bleeding from all the hits they took.
Pluto's black armor cracked and shattered over and over again, but it would always reform the next second.
The titan was bleeding all over as well; it was the first time the titan bleed in millennia. His blood was red, but people could see them glow silver from time to time.
"Tsk... I will need a new castle after this," he lamented as his castle was destroyed to the ground, not even a wall was left standing.
The other gods had left the area as they could not help in any way and would only become a burden.
They ran from the powerhouse's fight as it was too much for them to bear. The area had turned to a dead zone as the ground was razed and cracked; they left not even a tree standing.
Pluto punched the titan from above, sending the giant man crashing to the ground, he somehow was able to push the man down.
He conjured hundreds of giant chains and they started to bound the Titan, Pluto was planning to bound the man and imprison him once more.
He knew that even with the help of his domain, he would not be able to kill the titan as he had tried the same thing thousands of years ago.
"Where is your big talk? You can't talk now that I beat you?" he jeered at the titan.
"As expected of the ruler of the underworld, even Atlas is not your match!" a woman's voice could be heard beside the titan's body.
"Who are you!? Why are you here?" Pluto got a shock as he did not expect a demigod would suddenly appear on the battlefield.
"Are you stupid? I looked too highly of you, it seems. You are just as stupid as this brainless man," the woman pointed at the titan.
"Tyx! What are you doing here?" Atlas asked as he recognized the woman.
"I'm here to take what is mine," She smiled.
Tyx put her palm on the titan's body and suddenly she grew bigger and bigger while it turned the titan into skin and bone.
"Since you could not finish the job then, you don't need your power, just let me have it!" she took the titan's power.
"Who are you?!" Pluto moved back and looked warily at the woman. He had used most of his power and the woman suddenly became as strong as the titan at his peak, if not stronger.
"You don't know me? Thousands of years ago, I helped you gods fight against my people, but instead of being thankful, you attack me instead! You are not different from the mortals who betray their own benefactor!" She retorted.
"I'm here for revenge and to take what is mine!" she declared as Pluto suddenly felt he lost half of the underworld.
The river that runs through the underworld suddenly quivers as if they were awakened.
"I am Styx! The new ruler of the underworld!" she declared.