chapter 34: TheDeath of a God

Hades had never feared death.

Because death could not claim him.

He was the ruler of the Underworld, the master of its laws, the final certainty for all things. Even the gods bowed before his dominion.

But this?

This was not death.

This was erasure.

And for the first time, Hades understood what it meant to be powerless.

The Colossus Awakens

The being before him was beyond anything he had ever encountered.

It had no true form, no singular presence. Its body stretched across eternity itself, its veins pulsing with galaxies, its breath reshaping the fabric of reality.

It was not a god.

It was something older.

Something that did not care for Olympus, the divine plane, or the rules of existence as Hades knew them.

And now, it had turned its attention to him.

A single eye, vast as a world, opened.

And in that moment, Hades ceased to exist.

The Unmaking

There was no pain.

No sound.

Only nothingness.

Hades had always understood power.

He had fought Titans, battled gods, shattered armies with a thought.

But this was different.

This was not destruction.

This was unraveling.

His body, his soul, his very identity—dissolving.

The Underworld felt distant.

His throne, his realm, his very name—fading.

And for the first time, Hades felt something he had never known before.

Fear.

A Will That Refuses to Break

But Hades was not mortal.

He was not a lesser god, bound by the limitations of the divine plane.

He was inevitable.

And even as his existence frayed at the edges, even as the Colossus' gaze sought to erase him, he resisted.

Not through strength.

Not through raw power.

But through will.

Because Hades was more than just a god.

He was the End.

And the End did not simply fade away.

A Voice in the Void

The Colossus paused.

It had expected him to disappear.

Expected him to break, to vanish like so many before him.

But he remained.

And for the first time in eternity, it spoke.

"You are not as fragile as the others."

The voice did not echo.

It simply became truth.

Hades lifted his gaze, his body still flickering between existence and nonexistence.

"I do not break," he said.

The Colossus regarded him, its form shifting through a thousand realities in a single moment.

"Then show me."

And with that, the trial truly began.

Foreshadowing: A Test Beyond Divinity

The gods of Olympus had always ruled through power.

But here?

Here, power meant nothing.

And if Hades wanted to survive, he would have to become something more.