[3rd Person's Pov]
The fight between David and Atlas only got more violent as time passed.
On one side, David was managing to hold off the mighty Titan with nothing more than his own body and sheer will.
On the other, ever since his biggest blow got blocked, Atlas seemed to grow stronger and faster with his rage.
"Time to die, god-ling!" Atlas charged with his outstretched arm bent into a crook, aiming to slam into David's chest and tear him in half.
As much as his legs wanted to run away, David ran forward to meet him. Right before the thick arm smashed in, he ducked into a low-point tackle at one of Atlas's legs.
But He'd rather have better luck tackling a building.
"What's that pathetic blow?" Atlas grabbed David by the back.
He tore David away like an adult handling a puppy, then threw the demigod spinning high up into the air.
"This is how you tackle, boy!"
The Titan General slammed his shoulder against the back of David with a charging tackle, sending him flying up once more in the air.
David coughed up blood as the world spun around him faster than a Gyro Drop. He could feel Atlas preparing for another Shoulder Tackle—no doubt, this one will break his body into oblivion.
"I...I'm not going to lose!"
With a tremendous roar, David flipped his body in midair. Atlas halted in midst of his charge; surprised that the demigod was still capable of moving.
"Take this!"
David dropped on the Titan's forehead with his knee.
Both howled as their body poured more blood on the battlefield.
Atlas stumbled backward, holding his bleeding forehead. Meanwhile, David grabbed Atlas's legs, even though his face was scrunched up in pain.
Once again, he tried to yank his footings off the ground. Only this time, Atlas's balance was off due to his staggering.
Atlas's eyes widened with surprise as his gigantic body went down with such ease.
With a whoop of success, David clambered onto the fallen Titan's chest and pummeled down on his face.
"Your great physiques don't mean anything when you are down on the ground like this!" He claimed victoriously.
"We'll see about that," Atlas grunted.
A pair of rough hands shot out and grabbed David's arms in mid-punch. Atlas raised his upper body and headbutted David straight in the face.
The faintest gasp escaped as David stumbled, but Atlas prevented him from falling off by fastening his grip around David's arms.
"What's wrong, demigod!?" Atlas yelled, continuing the barrage of headbutts. "Can you still claim that physiques don't matter?"
David gritted his teeth.
Through the blood pouring down his eyes, he saw Atlas's head swinging in for another blow. He swung his body back as well and willingly met the Titan's headbutt with his own.
"Absolutely!"
Atlas grunted as lights flashed in front of his eyes. Before his vision regained, another impact rattled his brain against his skull as David returned the repeated head-smashing.
"I'll tell you till the death! It doesn't matter what species you are—what's important is the undying spirit!"
A groan escaped Atlas's mouth as David's attack got fiercer by each time.
He couldn't understand—each assault should be dealing more damage to the mortal than him, and yet there were no signs of the momentum faltering. If anything, it seemed to get stronger and faster.
'This power...where is this power coming from?'
Atlas tossed David aside, away from his body, and stood up. His forehead still stung badly, and his feet stumbled as the ground beneath him swayed like the waving ocean.
Still, David was in far worse shape.
The demigod was sprawled on the floor, struggling to get up. Atlas noted that his body was already broken beyond any means of normal recovery; by all logic of the universe, he should be dead.
Then, Atlas saw something else. A trickle of golden blood was dribbling down from his right arm—Ichor, the blood of the immortals.
It didn't take him long to piece all the puzzle pieces.
"I see," Atlas muttered, a familiar cruel grin rising on his lips. "So that's how you've managed to keep up."
"What the hell...are you blabbering about..." David panted, wiping his face. "I'm going to defeat you."
Atlas chuckled. "That's impossible, child. I'll admit; you're not so bad for a mere mortal. However, the secret of your indomitableness is nothing but a cheap trick by someone else."
For the first time during the fight, Atlas's words made David halt.
He eased from his fighting stance and frowned at the Titan, who made no effort of the situation; certain that he'll triumph now that he figured out everything.
"What are you trying to say, Atlas?" David demanded.
The Titan chuckled again. "You've missed by explanation, but this area is filled with Aither; the air of the gods.
It has an influence over all beings even with a hitch of immortal blood. That's how your friends managed to live—"
He nodded toward the small crowd high up in the stadium, who were murmuring in wonder and concern as the fight suddenly came to a stop.
"David!" Zoë yelled. "Whatever Atlas is saying, don't listen to it! He's trying to trick you!"
Her shouting was quickly echoed by the ones who surrounded her, everyone calling and encouraging David to continue attacking when Atlas was putting his guard down.
David shifted his foot, considering the option, however, Atlas put up a finger and tutted.
"Don't be in such a rush and listen. Your right arm is made out of the Immortal Apple tree from my garden, correct?"
"Yeah, what about it?" David said bluntly, "And that's not your garden. It belongs to the Hesperides."
Atlas snorted. "Who are my daughters, but that's beside the point. Even though the tree may be mine, it was birthed by someone else—the almighty Mother, Gaia."
The ground rumbled as Atlas mentioned the Earth Mother's name.
At the same time, the kaleidoscopic sky swirled maddeningly, forming what looked like one giant eye staring down angrily.
The Hesperides went quiet all of a sudden. Even Lipara hastily covered her mouth with her hands in shock and fear as the giant eyeball seemed to look around the battlefield.
"Ho ho, looks like the All-Father still recognizes his wife's name," Atlas said.
David glanced up at the sky as well, uneasy at the gigantic eyeball slowly blinking. "That's interesting trivia and all that, but what does that have to do with anything?"
Atlas spread out his arms. "You see, demigod; the Tree and the Titans share the same mother. If anything, it could be classified as a Titan—and you have been harnessing its power all this time!"
"What?!"
Atlas laughed out loud. The eyeball in the sky snapped in his direction, but it soon lost interest.
"Such Irony! For all your talks and actions of proving me wrong, all you've been doing was cementing my words! The only way a mortal such as yourself could stand up to me was to borrow my power!"
Atlas's triumphant words echoed throughout the room, even reaching the ears of the heroines up in the stadium.
"Harness the power of a Titan?" Reyna asked out loud, confused by the alienating concept. "Is that even possible?"
The Praetor glanced at Erytheia, guessing if anyone was to give David such additions, it would be the leader of the Hesperides.
Erytheia, who had her eyes shut through the entire laugh of her father, hobbled to the edge of the stadium with shaking legs.
"It's...possible." She finally admitted. "I gave him the immortal tree branch as an arm. With that, he is as good as being partially Titan as a demigod is partially god.
And even though Hera claimed the garden as hers, the tree still acknowledges Atlas as its owner, lending his power to the rest if needed."
"Well, that at least explains how he has been doing what he has been," Thalia muttered with her arms crossed. "But if he's only been loaning off of Atlas, then he can't beat him—can he?"
"No," Erytheia admitted. "I was hoping David will manage to defeat Atlas before he figured out "
"All of you are wrong."
Erytheia raised her head. Thalia scowled and scratched the back of her hair, then glared at the being who spoke.
"How do you know that, Nightshade?"
"Because I know him." Zoë pointed down at David, who was still standing motionless.
Her coffee-brown eyes didn't waver for a second as they reflected the back of the hero in them. "He'll find a way. I trust him."
On the ground, Atlas finally calmed down.
"...Are you done?" David said. He regained his combat stance without waiting for an answer.
"I am," Atlas said, grinning. "But why do you persist on fighting me, demigod? Your secret has been revealed—and I have nothing to fear from you anymore."
The Titan General spread his arms out wide. "All I have to do is unfold more of my true strength, and it's all over!"
David scowled loudly, frowning at his opponent. "True strength—are you saying you've been holding back this whole time?!"
Atlas chuckled. "The Ancient Laws prevent immortals, be they gods or Titans, to throw around our entire strength, or we'll gain the attention of the big man upstairs."
He pointed up to the eyeball in the sky. David had a good guess of who that eye belonged to, but even his instincts warned him that speaking out his name would be a horrible idea.
"But, we Titans aren't limited by the Ancient Laws as much as your gods; we were the ones who established the laws in the first place! And that means..."
Atlas started to chant in a language far older than Ancient Greek.
David couldn't understand any of it, but he vaguely recognized that it was the same language that the Hesperides used to open the door to the arena.
From up the stadium, the very same Hesperides startled. Erytheia stumbled backward in alarm as the ground shook, Aither howling in pain as over Atlas's skin, lines of hieroglyphics shone brightly.
"No..." she muttered in terror. Then, she leaned forward on the ledge as far as she dared. "David! Run! YOU HAVE TO RUN!"
Her desperate shouting carried even through the howling Aither. David looked up and saw Erytheia begging him to turn back and leave the room, joined by most of the Hesperides.
Except, of course, Lipara.
"What are you all talking about?" She demanded. "David! You can still do it! Keep on fighting!"
Meanwhile, Thalia and Reyna didn't join either side—though they were skeptical that David will manage to pull through if he decided to fight on.
"If the kid runs away, I'm going down," Thalia growled.
"You won't be alone," Reyna said, then took a glance at the huntress sitting next to her; who, out of everyone on the podium, no doubt ably cares more for David than any other individual.
Zoë's hands were clenched over her arms as she firmly looked down at David. She didn't join in the calls for his retreat, nor did she demand him to keep on fighting.
'I...I'll trust thee, David. Whatever decision thou makes, I'll believe it.'
And out of everything, of every call, her mind reached David.
He turned back to Atlas as a loud thunderclap demanded attention—silencing out the cries of the Hesperides into a small whimper as they backed away. Atlas let out a huge sigh, then grinned as he stood up.
"...You don't look so different," David remarked.
"Of course not." Atlas replied, "This is not a transformation. It's more of an unsealing."
He glanced up at the Hesperides—Erytheia, to be exact. He knew exactly who would give David the tree branch.
Even from far up and away, Erytheia nearly fell on her behind as she backed away in terror.
Atlas chuckled as he gazed back down at David.
"I'll be generous, child." He stated. "If you want to run now, run. I won't chase you."
David looked up at the Titan. "Why the sudden change?"
"Well, it doesn't matter if I kill you now or not; you'll end up dead anyway," Atlas said with a nonchalant shrug.
David clenched his fists. "We call that 'Living'."
"Yes, such a depressing thing to have a word for. I take you aren't going to accept my offer?"
As soon as David nodded, Atlas struck. Like a lightning crashing down on a treetop, his palm smacked David off his feet and sent him flying sideways into the crater.
With an ear-splitting bang, he landed on the steep slope of the crater. But Atlas was far from getting started.
David didn't have time to reminisce on how much the blow hurt. When he looked up, a giant foot was dropping from the sky.
He managed to lunge and roll away as Atlas smashed the whole slope into a cliff with a single drop kick.
The fissures on the ground spread in all directions like a titanic spiderweb. Not even the arena was safe from the destruction.
Erytheia, who had been closer to the edge than anyone, was caught in the web. Yet, her amber eyes were still fixated on Atlas.
"Erytheia!"
When Zoë shouted her name, she jolted out of the trance, but the stone beneath her was already crumbling away.
"Watch out!"
Thalia reached out and grabbed Erytheia by the arm and pulled her to safety. Erytheia looked up to find herself facing a very irritated daughter of Zeus scowling down at her.
"T-thanks..." The Hesperid muttered, gulping when she recalled how she almost sold off Thalia for her and her sister's well-being.
Thalia didn't take the gratitude and shoved her to her sisters, before peering over the now-ragged edge of the cliff.
The flow of the battle has changed dramatically.
David now found himself using every ounce of strength he possessed to not get caught while Atlas thoroughly enjoyed playing this cat-and-mouse game.
"What happened to your undying spirit, eh?!" Atlas roared.
He swiped the air with one arm. The disrupted current of air swirled into a colossal wave of sharp winds, tearing through the hard ground like they were made of wet tissues.
David only managed to save his skin by tumbling into a small trench-like hole, but that wasn't going to protect him forever.
Atlas clamped his hands into one giant fist and slammed it to the ground.
The earth crumbled like delicate cookies as another part of the crater got demolished with a single strike.
This time, the collapsed area was near the Sky—where Artemis was balancing the tremendous weight of the world over her shoulder.
The goddess of the moon could barely groan as her balance was thrown off, making the Sky crush down on her shoulder even more.
By now, she was wishing that she was a mortal; then, at least the pain would take her to Underworld at some point instead of just adding on and on for what felt like forever.
It was difficult for her to make out anything, but Artemis looked down her feet to see David picking himself up from the ground.
"...Run..." She wheezed. She was not sure if her voice would even be heard, but she couldn't resist saying. "...Run, boy..."
Of all the men she despised and loathed, David was certainly not the one she "Hated".
She didn't like him either, but from the few minutes they have met, David was more civilized than most brutes she had the most displeasure of crossing paths.
By all means, she didn't want to see him die for a lost cause.
Sadly, the plea of the goddess seemed to be unheard.
David gathered whatever strength he had left in him and lunged at Atlas for one last time. Once again aiming to take him down on the ground.
"Foolish mortal," Atlas jeered, "Did you think the same trick would work twice against me? The Titan General?!"
He quickly raised one of his feet in the air as David came in for a tackle. David's face slammed into the sole of Atlas's combat boots and bounced back.
David staggered back without so much as a yelp of pain, blood pouring down from his demolished face like a red waterfall. His legs dizzily stumbled hither and dither trembled violently, then gave away completely.
Atlas stepped on David's back. He chuckled as he could still feel David stirring, trying to lift himself to freedom. But that wasn't going to happen by a long shot.
"It's already over," Atlas declared. He reached down and grabbed David's limp right arm. "And now, to take back what's mine!"
He yanked the arm without a sense of mercy.
The spectators screamed and shouted in horror as the immortal right arm got ripped away from David's body—pouring gold and red blood to the floor, as Atlas raised the severed arm in the air with a roar of victory.
"David!" Zoë screeched.
Her fingers automatically closed around the silver bow and lodged it with an arrow faster than ever, as the eyes locked on Atlas's wide mouth with rage fueling her heart.
But before she could let her fury fly, someone pulled down the bow. Zoë whipped around to see who dared to...and found her oldest sister shaking her head in grief.
"Stop, Zoë..." Erytheia said in a miserable tone, tears pouring down her face. "It's over. We can't do anything more."
"Says you!" Thalia snapped back. She was being held back by Hygeia, furiously trying to make her way down.
Reyna was also being held back by Asterope in a more calm matter, as Reyna didn't try to actively jump off the cliff.
Even Lipara, who was most invested in the quest to defeat Atlas was wordless with shock at David's loss.
Slowly, Zoë's arm went down.
...Her sister was right; it was over.
Even if they all gathered to try and take down Atlas, it would be far from enough. Atlas was just that powerful.
Her eyes wandered aimlessly...then they found something. Something that made them widen with surprise.
The silver bow hit the ground with a small clatter. Erytheia closed her eyes, terrified at what was to come, but turned to the battleground to call out at her father and admit defeat.
But this time, Zoë stopped her before she could say a word.
"No," The huntress said. "I'm not giving up. There is still a way."
Erytheia tried to argue that, no; there wasn't any. But to yet another of her horror, Zoë ran off without hesitation.
She leaped over the wall of the stadium and ran along the jagged edges of the cliff with ease to where the fight happened.
Atlas raised his eyebrow as her daughter raced around in his direction. With a flick of his hand, he sent a gust of wind much fiercer than any arrow from a bow.
Zoë ducked under and leaped over the continued shots from her father and reached her destination. Atlas frowned, his intrigue turning to confusion.
"What are you planning, Zoë?" He shouted as Zoë stopped right next to the Sky.
The huntress took a deep breath, then snuck under the Sky.
"Zoë..." Artemis gasped, perplexed as much, if not more than Atlas as her lieutenant struggled through the low gap between the Sky and the Ground. "...Get out...run...!"
"N,." Zoë replied. "David hasn't given up yet, and neither am I!"
She reached up and touched the cold surface of the Sky.
Her knees immediately buckled as the weight of the Sky crushed down upon her shoulders, nearly rendering her unconscious, but she managed to hold on.
At the same time, Artemis felt the weight on her back get lighter; if she tried hard enough, she might be able to get out.
But she could never leave the entire weight of the Sky on one of her hunters—much less Zoë, whom she had already let down once in this room.
Zoë opened her mouth again, despite the Sky crushing down on her shoulders.
"...Lady, Artemis..." She said, "...Please...save, David..."
Artemis blinked sweat and tears out of her eyes.
"My lieutenant," She said, trying her best to keep her voice from shaking, "the boy is dead."
"No, he isn't...!" Zoë argued, a pained grin rising on her lips as she nodded down with her chin. "Look...!"
Artemis blinked again, and looked down.
Atlas was slowly lifting his foot away from David. No; he wasn't lifting it on his behalf.
Someone was forcing it up into the air.
David was getting up to his feet.
With nothing more than a single arm and gritted teeth, he raised the Titan's foot as he stood up.
Blood splattered to the floor from the mere effort, his limbs trembled violently as if he was upholding the Sky.
Despite all the odds stacked against him, he stood up once again.
"...How?" Atlas scowled.
The strength he could sense was pitiful. If he pushed down just a little, it would crumble. And yet, David was managing to resist and push forward.
"I...told you..." David planted his feet on the ground and wrapped his arm around the leg of Atlas. "I don't give up..."
Artemis found herself gasping in amazement. Even after all those injuries and suffering, that boy's guts hadn't even dented for a bit.
But what came after surprised her even more.
"...not just for me," David grunted. His arm wrapped around the leg he was pushing. "But for Zoë, Erytheia...Hesperia—for everyone who believes in me...I'll never fall down!"
With a tremendous yell, David threw the Titan into the air. Atlas, completely taken aback at this act, turned in midair to find that David had jumped right after his thrust.
"The son of Ares is scary, Atlas! We always find a way to repay our debt!" David shouted.
He locked his arm around Atlas's right arm, then held it securely with both of his legs.
"What are you doing?" Atlas growled.
He tried to shake him off, but David's clutch was more secure than ever by an unknown fountain of strength.
'Impossible! I took away the immortal arm!'
David and Atlas halted in the air for a brief moment, then started to descend back down, rapidly picking up the speed.
"An eye for and eye, tit for tat—and arm for an arm!"
CRASH!
Through the dust flying about, David felt warm, sticky liquid soak his arm—followed by a tremendous, pain-filled yell.
He collapsed to the ground as Atlas yanked his broken arm back, howling and yelling so hard that the ground shook. David was sure that if he wasn't so worn out, he'd be screaming from the loud volume as well.
As such, he had used every last bit of energy he had on the attack.
"That'll...leave, a mark..." He muttered as he fell to the ground once again. This time, his consciousness left his body as his face hit the surface.
Atlas breathed deeply, growling as he held the broken arm in his good hand. He stomped over to David, grabbed his tattered body, and lugged him over his shoulder.
He didn't care if the demigod was unconscious, or that meant that he won; this mortal was dying by his hand, no matter what.
With a hefty swing, Atlas thrust the limp body of David into the air and jumped after him; imitating the move David had pulled off just ago.
When they reached the top of their assent, he grabbed the demigod by the head.
"You've fought well for a mortal," Atlas said.
His right arm started to crackle with blue electric energy, which expanded massively in a matter of seconds.
"Be honored to be laid to rest by the full might of a Titan!" He snarled and aimed at the ground.
"Artemis!" Zoë pleaded desperately.
KA-BOOM!
With an ear-splitting thunderclap that would rival Zeus's Master Bolt, Atlas crashed down to the ground as a spear of lightning.
The Titan looked down at his hand, deeply embedded in the ground. However, his grin quickly faded away when he realized; the victim was nowhere to be seen.
Atlas whipped around, alarmed, but his surprise didn't last long. The culprit was in plain sight.
"Artemis..." He growled.
Auburn hair fluttered in the air, still in the momentum of her blinding dash.
The goddess Artemis straightened up.
She looked down at what she was holding so cautiously: the mangled boy, who had idiotically stood up one last time for the sake of the others.
He was more broken than any dead man she had ever seen.
Even as she held him in her arms, the blood from his various wounds oozed out his skin and smeared all over her clothing and skin—a crime that's usually punished by something far worse than death.
However, instead of expressing her wrath, Artemis touched the boy's face with her hand.
Her arms still trembling slightly from the weight of the Sky, she trailed her hand down his neck, chest, and shoulder, only to stop by the torn-off remainders of his arm.
He had sacrificed everything he could to try and save everyone.
The goddess tentatively leaned forward and, despite her instincts rebelling against it, pressed her lips onto his forehead.
"Ευχαριστώ, ήρωά μου."
("Thank you, my hero.")
A silver glow enveloped David's body. His various wounds started to close up, the bent and broken bones fixing back into place.
David winced at the painful procedure, but the session was over in a few seconds, and his shoulders eased.
With a grunt, he opened his eyes.
"Wha..." He looked around, still quite dozy from the pain.
Then he saw the moon goddess looming over him with a warm smile; something he hadn't expected to see at all.
"...uh, hello. Lady Artemis." He awkwardly said.
"Hello, indeed." Artemis agreed. She carefully lowered him to the ground and straightened up.
David, now noticing that Atlas was still well and standing, tried to get up after her but slipped right back down to the ground with a yelp.
"I'm not a goddess of healing," Artemis said over her shoulders, "You'd better rest, young hero. I wouldn't want to take the corpse of a man who saved so many lives...including mine."
All of her warmth and kindness disappeared as her silver eyes moved up to Atlas. The goddess outstretched her hands and a pair of long hunting knives flashed into her grip.
Atlas growled and raised his good arm.
Artemis crouched in her position, like a white puma ready to pounce on its prey in the snow.
"I've already bested you once, goddess." Atlas spat. "Don't believe for a second that you have the chance to—"
Atlas blinked.
Artemis was gone. An end a faint breeze trickled across his face.
He looked behind over his shoulder.
Artemis stumbled down to the ground, the knives slipping between her shaking hands as the goddess crumbled to her knees.
The Titan grinned victoriously.
"Foolish youngling," He jeered, "Did you think holding the Sky would have no after effect—"
Then, it hit him.
Atlas howled his loudest howl yet as ichor exploded out of every part of his body. He staggered backward, grabbing onto the countless slashes and hackings over his flesh.
"I knew the risks," Artemis stated over the horrid wails of the Titan General. "But...I cannot be afraid of taking one when a mere man had taken such many."
David blinked when the goddess gave him a meaningful look.
Atlas fell to the ground, finally, unable to move. With a heavy grunt, Artemis kicked the Titan toward the Sky.
The maimed Atlas spun into Zoë, but Artemis's weakened strength wasn't enough to push her out of the way.
Artemis swallowed an ancient curse word. "Zoë! Get out of there, now!"
"Zoë, quick!"
"Before he gets up!"
"Hurry!"
The Hesperides echoed the goddess's shouting, all of them urging for her to drop the Sky down on Atlas's shoulders.
Zoë grunted. Her arms trembled violently from the weight.
With every passing second, she wanted nothing else than to give this to someone else and never look back.
Besides, this was what she wanted.
To see her sorry excuse of a father defeated and trapped under his rightful punishment so that she and her sisters could be finally free for good.
"..."
But she couldn't do it.
Under the tremendous crushing force of the Sky, Zoë was close to death than ever before. And in that near-death state, she could see that Atlas wasn't alone.
His three wives were all huddled around him. Pleione, Aethra, and even her mother, Hesperia; all three of them silently crying.
Zoë recalled Niobe's despair after the missing of her youngest daughter.
She couldn't even begin to fathom how heart-wrenching would it be for a mother to see her daughter damn her husband for eternal punishment.
"...I...can't..." Zoë said through gritted teeth. "...Atlas...is...he...is..."
She was abruptly interrupted when the force crushing her shoulders suddenly get considerably light.
She looked up. Her eyes widened with a gasp. Atlas was back up—but he had taken the Sky with one arm on his own.
His silver-grey eyes bore down at Zoë.
Zoë, petrified by the glare, couldn't move or do anything.
"Get out." Atlas snarled.
With the broken arm, he backhanded Zoë out of the Sky. The huntress tumbled out of the Sky as the ground started to combust once more.
Zoë scrambled up to her feet. "Wait!"
She tried to call, but it was too late.
The Sky sank deeper than ever; the only remaining of the Titan Atlas was a pair of hands still separating the Sky from the ground.
The Hesperides gathered around her, quickly followed by Artemis, and the three demigods.
They all saw the hands sticking out of the ground and realized what happened.
Thalia, Reyna, and Lipara huffed, satisfied at the suiting punishment for the mad Titan.
Erytheia, Asterope, and Hygeia sighed in relief and huddled each other, rejoicing at the fact that they were finally, truly, free.
However, Artemis and David carefully approached Zoë. David, leaning against the goddess's shoulder.
Zoë was still rooted to the ground, staring at the remains of Atlas.
"I don't get it," Zoë muttered. "I don't, I—"
Whatever she was going to say, she couldn't finish.
"My lieutenant," Artemis called softly.
She tentatively reached out her arms, not sure whether Zoë would still appreciate her enough or not.
To her relief, Zoë didn't hesitate to take the embrace of her goddess.
Meanwhile, David shrugged himself off from Artemis. As painful as it was to walk on his own, he didn't disrupt the moment the two shared.
Even though Zoë seemed to believe she had changed much during their short days together, he didn't dare try and pretend he understood who Zoë Nightshade was, or what her life had been like.
Instead, he knelt in front of the hands and looked at them. He couldn't tell how he knew, but he sensed that Atlas was no more under the Sky.
Ironically, when the Sky finally overcame him, his spirit—or his concept of being was freed from the punishment, while leaving the body behind.
"...Let's fight again sometime. It was fun." He muttered.
Atlas didn't say anything in reply.
The fight was over.
MY gods; I'm finally done!
I wouldn't have to explain I had a hard time writing this chapter, right? It took me like, what, a month to upload this? Writer's block got me really good this time. Also, I started working a part-time job for the weekdays, so that made it hard to even start writing, but that's beside the point.
Truly, my deepest apology for making you all wait this long for the next chapter, and thanks to everyone who was patient enough to stick around and come back. Seriously, thank all of you. I hope this chapter was worth it.
We're finally heading toward the end of the TTC Arc! I hope the wrap-ups would be much easy to write than combat scenes.
I hope you all had a fun time reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!
Ta ta~!