I Am Zeus

The ocean convulsed like a living beast as the three forces met.

Varuna's abyss flared, swallowing entire trenches into a void of red-black tides. His body loomed like a monolith of drowned flame, each step bending the sea into walls of crushing pressure.

Zeus and Poseidon answered at once.

The storm split the waters, bolts of lightning spearing down in rivers that vaporized whole swarms of abyssal creatures. Each spark carved the sea into blinding light, splitting it open as though sky itself had plunged beneath the waves.

Beside him, Poseidon's trident churned whirlpools into war machines. He drove the shaft forward and entire caverns of water collapsed inward, twisting into spears that pierced Varuna's form, ripping holes through his abyssal shell.

Varuna struck back. His hand swept wide, and the ocean itself obeyed, snapping into serrated currents that sliced trenches apart. Zeus blurred through the crush, his body streaking like lightning across leagues of water. His fist slammed into Varuna's jaw, thunder exploding through the depths.

Poseidon followed with a roar, his trident striking upward from below. The weapon speared through Varuna's ribs, splitting his form into torrents of water and fire. The abyss bled into the sea, but Varuna's shape reformed in an instant, his laugh echoing through the deep.

His counterstrike came like an earthquake. Abyssal spears erupted from every shadow, stabbing through the water with crushing speed. Zeus lifted his hand and the storm burst outward. Lightning arcs formed a barrier around him, each bolt catching a spear and vaporizing it into steam. Poseidon swept his trident in a wide arc, redirecting the spears into whirlpools that swallowed them whole.

Varuna surged forward, his body twisting into a tidal serpent taller than mountains. Its jaws opened, lined with teeth of coral and fire, rushing down to swallow the brothers whole.

Zeus blurred once more, reappearing inside its maw. His body flared white-blue, his fists hammering upward. The serpent's skull cracked in a shuddering blast of light. Poseidon hurled his trident into the wound, the weapon piercing clean through the beast's head. The serpent burst apart in a detonation of abyssal water, fragments of drowned cities scattering through the tide.

Varuna emerged from the ruin, his crown aflame, his body seething with power. He raised both arms and the sea itself twisted into a dome. Pressure crushed the depths, collapsing trenches and reefs alike, squeezing even Olympus's sea-spirits until they bled.

Zeus's storm exploded in answer. His body blazed brighter than dawn, the dome fracturing as lightning screamed in every direction. Bolts carved the ocean floor into glass, shattered pillars of coral, boiled creatures into ash.

Poseidon's fury followed. He summoned a tidal colossus of pure water, its eyes glowing green, its trident a mirror of his own. The colossus charged Varuna, swinging its weapon with enough force to split the seabed.

Varuna did not yield. His abyss surged, his form shifting into molten flame wrapped in black tides. He met the colossus head-on, his fist punching through its chest, detonating the construct into a billion shards of water.

But that gave Zeus his opening. The storm-god flashed into Varuna's blind spot, his hands crackling. He drove both palms into Varuna's back, lightning detonating through his core. The abyss screamed, fragments of drowned fire bursting outward in shockwaves that cracked trenches for miles.

Poseidon followed with his trident, stabbing upward into Varuna's chest. He twisted, the weapon tearing through abyssal veins, bursting them into torrents of black.

The sea convulsed under the clash.

Varuna's form flared crimson, his power surging even higher. He lashed out, fists hammering the brothers apart, each strike like a tidal quake. Zeus was hurled back through leagues of water, crashing into a trench wall that collapsed in a thunderous landslide. Poseidon was slammed into the seabed, the weight of the ocean pressing down as Varuna's abyss closed over him.

But both rose again.

Zeus erupted from the rubble in a flare of stormlight, his fist raised. He struck down, lightning carving through the ocean in a spear that split Varuna's shoulder clean open. Poseidon burst from the abyss at the same time, his trident spiraling upward, shattering Varuna's jaw in a spray of molten water.

The foreign god staggered, his crown cracking, his body seething with leaks of abyssal fire. The ocean trembled under him, cracks running deeper than the trenches themselves.

The brothers pressed the assault.

Zeus blurred across Varuna's chest, his fists striking in a storm of blows, each punch detonating like thunder underwater. Poseidon circled low, whirlpools answering his every step. He slammed his trident into Varuna's legs, splitting the abyss into geysers of dark flame.

Varuna reeled, but his roar shattered the sea. His arm swung wide, his fist hammering into Poseidon's side, blood spraying into the currents. His other hand caught Zeus mid-strike, crushing him in a grip of abyssal pressure that bent the storm.

Zeus's body sparked violently, his veins glowing white. Lightning burst outward, breaking the grip, shattering Varuna's arm into fragments of drowned stone. Poseidon rose from the blood-cloud with a roar, his trident spinning in a spiral that cut through Varuna's ribs, tearing them apart into swirls of black water.

Varuna faltered. His form flickered, his crown splintered, the abyss leaking from every wound. The ocean quaked, entire trenches collapsing, geysers tearing the surface apart in explosions that reached Olympus's coasts.

Zeus and Poseidon did not let him breathe.

The storm and sea surged together. Zeus's lightning coiled around Poseidon's trident, wrapping it in arcs of endless thunder. Poseidon thrust it forward with all his strength, Zeus's storm exploding through it in unison.

The weapon pierced Varuna's chest clean through. Lightning and tide detonated together, a force that split the ocean in half.

Varuna's roar broke into silence. His form burst apart into shards of coral and flame, dissolving into abyssal foam. His crown shattered, his essence scattering into the water like sparks.

The sea calmed in the wake of his fall. The abyss sealed, the rifts closed, silence falling heavy.

Poseidon fell to one knee, blood leaking from his side, his chest heaving. Zeus stood above him, lightning dimming, his eyes steady but burning.

The brothers had won.

But Olympus would never forget the scar it left on the sea.