The Necropolis of the Gods.
Once a barren wasteland of ash and snow, the forgotten cave had beco an end-of-days world, a realm forever caught in the throes of its own destruction.
The ground never truly slept. It heaved and split in endless convulsions, mountains collapsing into themselves as earthquakes tore the land apart, while titanic tsunamis rose from nothingness to scour the surface clean.
The sky itself seed unstable—choked with ash, fire, or storm—casting no true light, only an oppressive gloom that pressed down upon the world like a sentence.
Nature there had shed all semblance of order.
It no longer followed seasons or cycles, but enacted ruin according to unfathomable whims.
In a single breath, sheets of black stone would erupt into sprawling forests of twisted verdure, their roots piercing tombs and bedrock alike, feeding on death itself. In the next, the forests would be erased as oceans crashed down from the heavens, drowning the Necropolis beneath crushing, lightless depths.
At tis, the world would ignite.
Rivers of lava carved glowing scars across the land, seas of molten tal surged and cooled into jagged labyrinths, and the air burned hot enough to flay flesh from bone. When the fires receded, they left behind not peace, but infestation—swarms of aberrant creatures born of catastrophe, their forms warped by lawless evolution and hostile intent.
These beings thrived where humans would perish in monts, drawing sustenance from poison, pressure, and ruin.
No corner of this realm offered refuge.
Every transformation was a calamity layered atop another, an unending cycle of extinction and rebirth that acknowledged no fragile mortal life.
This was not rely a land inhospitable to humanity—it was a world actively rejecting it, a crucible forged for apocalyptic entities and ancient sovereigns, where the presence of a human was an anomaly destined to be erased.
And at the centre of it all… were the beings who sought to reclaim the mantle of heaven for themselves.
"Free at last!!!"
A colossal werewolf aberration threw back its head and roared in savage delight as a tidal surge of mana swept across the Necropolis. The Beast Titan, Knodalon, had at last reclaid the greater part of his power, the final chains shattering as though they had never existed.
His roar echoed again, deeper and more feral, as raw mana thundered through his veins. For over a month, his soul had been slowly unbound, his body only partially released from its ancient confinent.
Yet despite this progress, the Titans had never been truly free—Yval and Yue's seals still bound them, shackles woven from divine law and will.
But now… everything had changed.
Standing at over a hundred tres tall, the massive creature enjoyed its first taste of freedom by taking in a big whiff through its snout. Each breath it took sent a massive gust of wind that uprooted trees and pushed waves.
"Hey, stop that. You're destroying Theia's garden."
Xiphos, the golem that bore the title of tal Titan, addressed Knodalon with a warning forged from ancient authority.
It had only recently reclaid full autonomy, its awakening systems still calibrating as millennia-old chanisms ground back into motion.
Rising more than five hundred ters into the sky and carrying the mass of a mountain, Xiphos was less a being than a moving monunt.
Each ponderous step compressed the land into fractured strata, while the air itself buckled and redirected, wind currents breaking and reforming around its titanic fra. Its existence was not rely felt—it was calculated, imposed upon the world with chanical inevitability, as though the laws of nature themselves were being overwritten by a relic that predated them.
"Krt, krt, krt… As if she cares about this small patch of land. By the ti we're done with the puny creatures, this entire world would be ours again."
"Theia will be furious."
"Heh, and where is she now?"
As the final two Titans to regain their bodies, they weren't privy to the departures of the other Titans. The only ones remaining within the Necropolis were both of them, the Herald who was sleeping and recovering from her long injuries, and…
"She left, with the others."
Agos, the Titan King, erged from the sphere of light like an apparition drawn from the dawn of creation. He assud the form of a human, diminutive beside Knodalon and Xiphos, yet no less commanding for it. At a glance, he was unremarkable: a man of dull aspect, neither imposing nor ornate.
And yet… an undeniable, unsettling handsoness clung to him, sothing that defied definition.
He felt primordial. Not ancient in the way ruins were ancient, but fundantal—like the first human to ever draw breath, the silent origin from which all others were derived.
Black hair frad a weathered face; black eyes reflected no excess, only depth. His skin was tanned and leathery, his build neither that of a warrior nor a sorcerer. He possessed the proportions of an ordinary man, one who could vanish into the crowded streets of the Hyades Republic without a second glance.
Yet his presence betrayed him.
Beneath that unassuming shell lay an essence utterly divorced from mortality… sothing vast, inevitable, and absolute.
"They're keen to explore this new world… so, they'd left first."
"Tch, they couldn't even wait a few days."
The Beast Titan clicked its tongue, clearly annoyed by its siblings' lack of patience. That said, if Knodalon were in their shoes, it would have done the exact sa thing.
"Agos, what about you? Why are you still here? And why are you in that form?"
"If I left, there would be no one to welco you back, right?" Agos smiled and glanced down at his human form. "Also, as you're aware, I'm mostly formless. I don't have to take the sa massive form as you must. Besides, it's more convenient to learn more about humanity when I'm disguised as one of them."
"Learn more about those tiny creatures? What for? We're going to wipe them all out anyway."
Knodalon felt it completely beneath him to even think about interacting with those weaklings. Without the Dragons around, the Titans were destined to take over the planet once more and reclaim their mandate of heaven.
Humans?
If they served the Titans faithfully, then so be it. The Beast Titan would spare a handful of those he fancied or pitied. But if they chose to reject their rule as the absolute sovereigns… There was no need for rcy.
"Don't underestimate them, Knodalon. There are plenty of them who are strong, with a few rivalling our strength."
"Hah! What a joke! As if those pitiful creatures could even hope to match our might!"
Titans stood at the apex of the food chain. It took dozens of Dragons just to take on a single Titan, and only the Dragon Progenitors could perhaps stand toe-to-toe with a few of them. But, humans? Not a chance.
"Underestimate them, and you'll be the first to pass on, Knodalon. Especially now, since our divinities had been separated from our souls."
"..."
The Titan King's words finally shut the chortling werewolf.
Yes, the Titans had reclaid their bodies—but that alone did not return them to their forr zenith.
Millennia of decay had eroded the unity between flesh, soul, and divinity, peeling their godhood away layer by layer.
What little divinity remained had been further fractured by Yue's interference, severed not only from their bodies but from their souls themselves.
To restore that lost wholeness, the Titans would require centuries, perhaps even thousands of years, to re-assimilate their divinities and fuse them back into their souls.
Until then, they existed in a perilous state: powerful, yet incomplete.
Vulnerable in ways they had never been before. Humans, fleeting and fragile as they were, now possessed the ans to slay a Titan and tear out its core, stealing the remnants of divine power that remained.
It was a reality the Titan King was struggling to correct, even as the other Titans spread across the world once more—stretching long-dormant limbs, testing their strength, and learning the contours of an age that had moved on without them.
"Agnosia was right. They've taken over the mandate of heaven. And recently, I've been sensing a different kind of divine power… as if the world had given birth to a new God. So, I'll give you the sa warning I gave the others… don't reveal yourself until we're ready."
Before the other Titans went on their journeys, the Titan King gave them a firm warning.
Never underestimate humans.
And even if they did, do not reveal that the Titans had fully resurrected until Agos was ready.
The other Titans, Pyrrhos, Infernal Titan, Anemos, Sky Titan and Theia, Mountain Titan, had gone on to discover the new world with those words etched within their minds. As for whether they heeded that warning… Only ti would tell.
"Alright, alright. So, we're free to go now?"
"... yes," the Titan King sighed resignedly. "Assimilate yourself with nature once more. Try and absorb as much of your divinity as you can. Until I'm able to figure out how to absorb our cores back into our souls… Don't antagonise the humans."
"Yes, yes."
The Beast Titan waved nonchalantly at the Titan King before turning into an afterimage. It was ready to hunt its first prey, and not even its king could stop its advance.
"Hah… Xiphos, you're free to leave, too."
"No, Agos. I'll stay here. The outside world doesn't interest as much. And besides… you're going to need a protector while you ditate, right?"
"Hah… Suit yourself."
At that mont, the return of the Titans didn't seem as triumphant as one might imagine. It was practically a scene where a kindergarten teacher was trying to ntor his students into doing the right thing.
"Let's just hope none of them gets into any trouble."
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