“Is… is it over?” Hades looked back towards Kronos, all of them waiting with bated breath to see what happened next. There was a sudden, deep sound that they couldn’t place for a second… until they realized that Kronos was laughing. He was laughing, a deep, belly laugh that shook the valley almost as much as the roars of his giant. When Kronos finally stilled, he looked out over the carnage, seeing the gods and the titans who were frozen in disbelief and confusion. Kronos turned his head to Hekatonkheires and nodded.
“Go.”
The gods couldn’t hear him, but they read the command on his lips, fumbling for weapons as Hekatonkheires turned on his heel with impressive dexterity for a monster of his size and charged back into the fray. It was like a switch had been flipped and the battle resumed at full strength. The message was clear: this changed nothing.
“Now what’s your plan?” Erebus screamed, staring at the brothers.
Both Hades and Poseidon had the wherewithal to look ashamed. Erebus scoffed, but there was another scream that cut him off. They turned to find Nike in the hands of the giant, dangerously close to one of his gaping jaws. The image shocked all of them to action, determining that there was a time to talk politics later.
Hades and Poseidon were immediately pulled into combat by lesser titans and began cutting their way through the ranks to get to the monster. Erebus dissolved into shadows once more, reappearing high above the valley. It was the best vantage point to dictate his shadows, to send them out like sentient soldiers of his own. He leaned back against the cliff side, catching his breath and calming himself down for a moment. He felt a gathering churning in his gut, his power rising to his call once more, threatening to overtake him entirely. Erebus struggled with the notion to let itgo,but he knew that there would be nothing left if he did. It was elemental. It didn’t know bad or good, right from wrong. There was only power, and he needed to keep a grip on it, so he didn’t kill every living thing in the valley when he unleashed.
He felt the shadows taking over his veins like blood, the darkness in the sky and in the thunderclouds deepening in their answer. Erebus screamed, a sound that was lost on the wind, as he rallied his strength one more and prayed that he would stay in control. There was a heartbeat, then two, and suddenly…
“Erebus.” A soft voice cut through the utter chaos around him, and Erebus threw his eyes open.
Nyx was standing in front of him, her body barely containing the power within her. She looked like liquid starlight, like fire so hot that it was almost cool to the touch. Her train was made of comets, and he could see the outline of the moon over her heart.
“Nyx.” He said the word and it was reverent, like a prayer. Erebus lurched forward and wrapped her up in his arms, cradling the star to the heart of darkness. There was no hesitation as she tangled her hands in his hair, murmuring something that he couldn’t hear. Erebus pulled back slightly, cupping her cheek and rubbing his thumb back and forth.
“What are you doing here? The prophecy—” Nyx cut Erebus off with a shake of her head.
“I figured it out.”
Erebus felt his whole body go cold.
“What does that mean?”
Nyx sighed,“‘The night Nyx fights will be her last.’I amthe night, Erebus. Keeping myself from you, the way that we refused to work this out… I was fighting withmyself.That’s what was going to kill me.”
Erebus stared at Nyx in utter shock, his mind going a million miles a minute as they stood there. They clutched one another in the pouring rain, the sounds of the war below getting lost on the wind. There was a question building in Erebus’s chest and it had been incubating there for a while. He stood on the side of the mountain with Nyx in his arms and found that he couldn’t hold back for a second longer.
“Will you still have me, Nyx?” It was the only thing that she could hear. Nyx nodded, and Erebus felt like he might explode as the feeling overtook him.
“Yes,” Nyx said it aloud and tears fell from her eyes, mixing with the rain on her cheeks. Erebus gripped her tighter and pulled her to him, crushing his mouth to hers. He kissed her wildly, possessively, with every bit of his power and hers coming crashing together in the skies above them. It was like they were conductors, orchestrating the ripples of their strength in the sky and darkness around them when they came together. It responded to the united front of night and darkness, and ripples of black magic rolled off the mountain.
When Erebus pulled away, the look in his eyes was feral. He realized that it matched Nyx’s equally wild gaze.
“It’s time for this to end.” Nyx’s voice had taken on a tone that he had rarely heard from her, one that was both lethal and playful. “I’ve had enough.”
“You know that I love watching you work.” Erebus’s grin was equally devastating. There was something that crossed between them that was unspoken, nothing that ever needed to be said out loud. Erebus leaned down and kissed her once more, his hand tangling up in her long hair, and when he released her, they both vanished up into the skies.
The battle below was in full force although the gods were making a feeble showing. Hekatonkheires was moving through the lines without hindrance; no blow that seemed to strike him even made him stumble. Even Erebus could see that there was a measly number of gods left. Most of whom were stuck engaged with titans, waiting like sitting ducks for the giant to pick them up and finish them off.
Nyx and Erebus made their way down the mountainside as the powers of night and dark caressed in the sky, making ribbons of dark power ripple through the atmosphere. When they landed in the valley, there was a crack that split the earth. Erebus exploded into shadows as they burst forth from his skin, blanketing the entire battlefield in a blackness that it choked out the senses. He surrendered himself entirely to his darkest core, the strength of universes throttling out the light. He knew that with Nyx alongside him, she would keep him in check. She was the balance. There was no fear oftotaloblivion with her alongside him—just the right amount.
The valley filled with screams of gods and mortals alike as the darkness blinded them. From the crack in the earth, all the spirits and creatures of the night began to claw their way to the top. It was everything that Nyx encompassed, the essence of night, death, and everything in it. The shades of nightmares, the dreams of artists, and nocturnal creatures that only existed in the corner of your vision. They were now only illuminated by pockets of moonlight, as Erebus’s darkness only moved aside for the will of night herself. The gods and titans began to blink as pockets of the valley became clear to them. Most of the participants were too stunned to speak although some titans dropped their weapons and fled immediately.
The great crack in the earth expanded once more, and the creatures piling out of it increased. Now there were demons, monsters with a thousand eyes, the darkest things that were in primordial pockets of the earth that have never been seen by God or man. They filed out into the valley and began circling, waiting for their commands. Kronos began shouting something from the other end of the field and Hekatonkheires lurched forward, moving into action as he tried to capture the creatures of darkness. They all evaded his grasp, his many hundred eyes still useless in the light.
Erebus let his shadows go free, wrapping themselves around the giant’s arms but not tightening. Not yet. He turned and watched for Nyx, who appeared at the apex of the crack in the earth. She was in primordial form, the outlines of her body made up entirely by constellations. She stood over fifty feet tall, reigning over even Hekatonkheires, her hair rippling like water and shining with the light of a dying star. A black hole spun in the center of her chest, containing the strength of the cosmos, and her eyes had turned entirely white. Purple and blue clouds covered her feet as power crackled in the atmosphere around her.
As the gods slowly began to adjust to the dark, they looked upon Nyx. No one had seen this in a thousand years, and some of the gods began to scream. There was only one voice who laughed and that was Hecate. Erebus turned to find her, and she was standing over the body of a titan, one who had a scaled face, plucking a knife from between his eyes.
The atmosphere began to shift from shock and fear to tense anticipation. Erebus waited for Nyx’s command; the monsters and essence of night stood poised to eliminate every threat on the battlefield. Gods held their breath, unsure who Nyx was fighting for. Then there was Kronos, whose face was a stony picture of defeat.
“Ancient one,” he acknowledged, dropping a sword down as he stared up at Nyx’s form. “We have prayed for your return.”
37
