I Am Zeus - Chapter 162: Hades Becoming

Chapter 162: Hades Becoming

The tree of dharma bled light from its roots. Its branches trembled as if the weight of the skies was about to crush it. The lotus lakes no longer shimmered; they churned black and red, boiling with every clash of gods and something beyond gods. Hymns once sung to uphold the world twisted into screams, as if the mortals who fed this realm with prayer could feel it breaking.

And at the center of it stood Hades.

His wings tore the air like night stretched across eternity, each feather a shard of shadow edged in white fire. His eyes burned crimson, steady and merciless. The bident pulsed in his grip, no longer metal or bone but an extension of his will—an abyss sharpened into a weapon. Every step he took bent rivers, cracked palaces, and made the sky recoil.

Shiva, Kala, and Prakriti stood before him, battered yet unyielding. Their forms carried the weight of creation, of time, of rhythm itself. But against him, against this Hades, even they looked like echoes.

–––

The first strike came from Shiva. His trident split the air, every step of his dance thundering across the battlefield. The serpent at his throat hissed, its venom dripping into the river and turning milk into acid. His rhythm pressed on the world, trying to force order through the chaos.

Hades didn’t yield. He let the strike land, the trident carving through his chest. Black and white fire spilled like molten rivers, but instead of falling, he laughed. The wound sealed around the weapon, locking it in place. His crimson eyes gleamed as he pulled Shiva closer.

“You try to bind me to rhythm,” he growled, voice echoing like caverns collapsing. “But death dances to no tune.”

His wings slammed shut, trapping Shiva inside a storm of feathers that cut like scythes. Each blade sliced through rhythm, turning the beat into silence. Shiva roared, his dance breaking free, but his chest bore marks that glowed with abyss.

–––

Kala advanced next. The Primordial of Time stretched his hand, his body unraveling into centuries. Grass grew and withered in heartbeats, rivers aged into deserts, palaces corroded into dust. He pressed it all onto Hades, trying to drown him under millennia.

Hades raised his hand, and the centuries bent inward. They cracked, splintered, and were devoured into the abyss that pulsed through him. His fire surged brighter, stronger, older.

“Time belongs to the grave,” he said. “You give me more to feed upon.”

He swung his bident. A wave of silence crashed outward, and Kala staggered as centuries tore from his chest, unraveling into ash. His ageless face cracked, lines spreading like broken glass. For the first time, the Primordial of Time bled.

–––

Prakriti screamed. Her form split into storms of oceans, forests, skies, beasts—creation itself given flesh. Her countless arms closed around Hades, trying to bind him with the fullness of life.

Hades spread his wings wide. Fire poured from them, not flame of the sun or hearth but fire of the pit, fire of decay, fire that consumed not by burning but by ending. Rivers shriveled into ash. Trees rotted before they could grow. Beasts collapsed into skeletons mid-roar.

He twisted his bident, driving it through Prakriti’s chest. Her arms shattered one by one, breaking like brittle branches. Her galaxies dimmed in her eyes as the abyss drained them.

“You call it life,” Hades whispered, leaning close. “But life always ends in me.”

He hurled her aside, her forms unraveling into storms that bled into the rivers.

–––

The Hindu gods screamed in fury.

Vishnu hurled his discus again, blazing brighter than suns. Durga charged, her lion leaping with fire in its mane, her weapons striking in endless arcs. Kali shrieked, her voice tearing through rivers, her necklace of skulls rattling like drums of war. Indra thundered, Agni burned, Hanuman’s mace split the skies.

All of it struck. All of it vanished.

Hades spread his wings and swallowed it whole. Their power dissolved into silence, devoured by the abyss that clung to his body. The gods recoiled in disbelief as their fury became his strength.

–––

Ares grinned, his sword bleeding sparks. “Look at him,” he muttered, awe and madness mixing in his voice. “He’s tearing them apart.”

Athena didn’t smile. Her knuckles whitened around her spear, her eyes never leaving Hades. “This is no victory. This is harvest.”

Apollo’s bow trembled in his hands, his light flickering. Artemis steadied him, but her silver glow shook. Poseidon pressed his trident into the ground, rivers surging, his jaw tight. Nyx’s stars dimmed, Gaia’s roots bled stone dust.

They saw it too. This wasn’t just Hades fighting. This was Hades becoming.

–––

Shiva roared and pressed forward again, his dance wild, his trident spinning like a storm. The serpent lunged, sinking its fangs into Hades’s neck, venom burning black rivers across his body.

Hades seized the serpent with one hand and tore it free, snapping its spine. The body dissolved into smoke, and Shiva staggered, his rhythm breaking.

Hades slammed his bident into Shiva’s chest. The abyss flared, and Shiva screamed as his dance faltered completely. His rhythm shattered into silence.

Kala rushed to cover him, centuries pouring from his hands, trying to wrap Shiva in ages to shield him. Hades caught them, devoured them, and struck again. Kala fell to his knees, his body unraveling into dust.

Prakriti tried to rise, birthing new forms, but Hades’s wings tore through them, shredding life into bones. Her scream shook the skies as half her body dissolved into rivers of ash.

–––

The Hindu pantheon broke.

Indra hurled thunder that never reached. Agni screamed until his fire collapsed into sparks. Durga’s lion shattered beneath a single sweep of Hades’s wing. Kali leapt at him, blades raised, but his bident pierced her mid-air, her scream cut short as her body dissolved into silence.

Vishnu’s discus spun once more, brighter than before. Hades caught it mid-flight, crushed it in his hand, and watched the sun within it die. Vishnu staggered, his calm shattered.

Hades raised his bident. “All of you… feed me.”

–––

The abyss roared.

His wings stretched wide, covering the battlefield. Fire dripped from every feather, rivers of silence pouring across the lakes, the palaces, the skies. Gods screamed as their powers bent inward, their forms unraveling.

Hanuman charged one last time, his mace glowing, his roar shaking the heavens. Hades swung his wing, and the mace shattered into dust. The god of strength fell into the rivers, his body breaking under silence.

Durga fought until her blades vanished, her lion already gone, her arms torn from her body. Agni burned until his fire was eaten whole. Indra thundered until his clouds dissolved into ash. Saraswati sang, her rivers flowing with melody, but the sound cracked, faltered, and ended.

One by one, they fell.

–––

Only Shiva still stood, his body bleeding, his dance broken, but his eyes burning with fury.

“You are not death,” he spat, trident trembling in his hands. “You are theft. You are rot. You are nothing.”

Hades stepped forward, wings towering, eyes crimson. “Then try to prove it.”

They clashed.

Trident against bident, rhythm against silence, fury against void. Sparks screamed, rivers boiled, the tree groaned as its roots cracked further. Every strike shook the world, every clash split skies.

But silence ate rhythm.

Hades slammed his bident into Shiva’s chest, the fire exploding outward. Shiva roared, but his voice cracked into silence. His trident fell from his hands. His body staggered, breaking under the abyss.

Hades leaned close, crimson eyes burning. “Your dance is over.”

And he struck.

–––

Shiva fell into the rivers. The tree of dharma screamed, its branches shattering, its roots bleeding light.

Kala lay broken, his centuries unraveled. Prakriti writhed, half her body gone, her voice faltering into silence. The Hindu gods lay in pieces, their forms cracked, their powers devoured.

The realm itself broke.

Lotus lakes boiled into tar. Rivers of milk turned black. Palaces crumbled into dust. The sky split, stars falling into silence. The tree bent under its own weight, roots shattering, branches snapping.

Hades stood at the center, wings wide, fire dripping, his bident blazing like a black sun.

He exhaled, and the realm collapsed.

–––

The Olympians stood silent.

Ares’s grin had vanished, his sword dripping sparks that didn’t feel like victory anymore. Athena’s eyes stayed hard, her lips tight. Apollo and Artemis held each other, their glow dim. Poseidon pressed his trident into the ground, his face pale. Nyx’s veil trembled, Gaia’s roots bled into ash.

They had come to fight a pantheon. Instead, they had watched Hades lay waste to it.

And in their silence, one truth burned in every mind:

This was not war anymore.

This was replacement.

–––

Hades turned, his crimson eyes locking on them. His voice rolled like caverns breaking.

“One pantheon falls. Many more will follow.”

He spread his wings, and the ashes of the Hindu realm scattered into silence.

The war was only beginning.

A/N

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by AiKurou