A hand was raised. The limb of a now ancient lifeform from another universe. One who cultivated a Dao instead of being beholden to a godly domain from assignment.

The zipping figure of Zeus' lightning bolt was sent a blaring noise across the Peloponnese. Its figure was akin to Helios rising in the sky. The very weapon that tore away any hope of victory from the monster king Typhon many years ago.

A hand was raised in front of it. Da Hai, with the aid of the Dao of Distant Seas, deployed his Chaos Immortal cultivation base with a level of respect he didn't typically show.

Distance became obscured. Certainly became an illusion. Destination became unreachable before Zeus' very eyes.

One could see, one could not reach.

KRAKAKAKOOM!!!

The lightning bolt Keraunos halted mere inches from Da Hai's open palm. It appeared to have been frozen in place, held against its will by another entity.

Yet that wasn't entirely true. Because from a more observant gaze, the lightning bolt was still moving. Still crossing crazy amounts of distances measuring in the billions of kilometres a picosecond.

It just wasn't reaching its target.

"This reminds me of that starry hand." Da Hai glanced up at the firmament of stars above this layer of reality. A suspicious thought crossed him, making him glance upward.

"By the fates. Why isn't it reaching?" On the ground, Zeus was straining hard to keep the lightning bolt on target. Keraunos was not a simple lighting bolt, it was the culmination of his attack potency.

A regular lightning strike would've been pointless to use against Da Hai. And in the subject of the godfiend, Zeus just couldn't get a handle as to what he was.

During their martial exchange, Zeus unleashed a string of boxing and grappling practices. Everything that had been deeply ingrained into him from the moment he learned to walk. Things gods not heroes found themselves using against monsters as they were bestial, nor opposing deities like the Gigantes as they relied on their size, strength, and godly domains.

Da Hai was well trained as well. He also had strange magics that went against what he was used to. Tools that made him question just what the drakon like creature had stolen.

The last thing he expected when he wandered into that bar in Knossos, was to find the most difficult fight in his immortal life.

'Ok then, let's try this.' Zeus maintained the structure of the first Keraunos. While Da Hai was distracted by it, he strained himself to form a second one on his free hand.

A second existence destroying lighting bolts fired towards Da Hai, who for the most part seemed unbothered. "Truly, the most impressive display so far was your martial prowess. To compete with me in the Dao is folly."

In a showcase of his enlightenment into the secrets of the Dao, Da Hai churned his Dao fruit. In that same moment, the sky swirled with him as the epicentre. Wind, rain, and lighting gravitated toward him, as if he was the lord of the sky.

One splits into two, becomes three, propagates all things. That was what Pangu had said.

"And even the explosive power of your lighting bolt can be eroded away by the the meanings of my Dao," Da Hai calmly explained. And then he went to touch the two bolts. "

"It doesn't matter what you do." Zeus shook his head with exasperation. "I am immortal, impervious to death. You are a mere monster who flew above your station. Fate has already decreed the outcome."

"Your fate is just another world will playing pretend," Da Hai angrily retorted. His disdain for his own Heavenly Dao shot through when he thought back to the sisters.

"Immortal. Every arrogant half bit Godking thinks they are. You think your godly regeneration is so unique? I haven't even struck with…hm?" Da Hai paused after seeing an image flash across Zeus' eye.

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At the same time, he detected an powerful Dao fighting back against his own. This Dao that he couldn't identify appeared like nature, yet it wasn't entirely. But it was denying the control Da Hai was exerting.

On Zeus' figure, Da Hai blared his divine sense. The of a silhouette briefly appeared before collapsing like it never existed. Like it was forgotten, erased, or removed, remembered only in a distant memory bank within the Dao fighting against him.

It appeared like a man as it lacked the hips of a woman. And on his back was a set of large angle like wings.

"A sceptre?" Da Hai noticed one image that failed to disappear. It had shown up earlier on Zeus as well.

"I am anointed lord of the skies!" Zeus declared from his place below Da Hai. "Crowned king by the Moirai and protector of reality. It is my sole duty to put monsters down!

"This fight could only ever end one way. You've already seen a god's inability to die. Eventually, you will pass out." With the sceptre's presence overlapping with him, Zeus squared his shoulders and straightened his back with an air of certainty.

"I did like you monster. Why don't you do us both a favour and surrender. The prophecy didn't state a total demise for you. I can easily make you a symbol of mine and a protector spirit at Olympia."

Zeus thought he spoke earnestly. He maybe sounded strained due to the pressure of battle, but did mean what he said. He was supposed to be fair judge as well after all, so he didn't think he should lie.

However, Da Hai's mind immediately flew to a cultivator's propensity of making demonic beasts their mounts. As a deity with an animalistic shape, he found it insulting.

Between gritted teeth, the sceptre Da Hai was seeing from his divine sense sent pulses in all directions. It was like a hammer, chipping away at the shell that was Da Hai's Dao.

A blade of water appeared in the eight headed serpent's hand. A cold look appeared in Da Hai's face. Then he swung.

With immense force, Zeus heard cracking sounds all around him. He felt the divine magic he used to create his lighting bolts dissipate without warning. He felt the air below his feet be overtaken by a ferocious pressure.

His body told him he was drowning in a sea. That should've been impossible, he was mid air and had not moved. Spacetime had not warped either, so he wasn't forcibly teleported like Hermes tended to do to prank mortals.

He felt the ozone around his body be ripped away. The lighting, clouds, wind, and rain that moved with his body, was rendered helpless in the face of this oncoming sea.

In his mind, he suddenly saw a pair of reptilian eyes glaring at him with all the indignation of a deeply wronged man.

"What…" Zeus blacked out for a moment.

…

A sceptre, a winged man, a blank silhouette. The departing sigh of an old memory filled his mind. A reminder of what was given.

Or was it arrested? Zeus couldn't quite remember. In that moment, he felt nothing but seawater around him. Nothing like the comfort of his elder brother's domain however. Not was it anything like his uncle's kingdom.

More primal, more vast, boundless even. Every droplet of water was like its own cell, rather than a force of nature. All components of a greater being who winded across the cosmos. Its slit eyes and flickering tongue remained an eternity away, in sight yet beyond reach.

"Pontus?" Zeus imagined the primordial. His mind was still his own, of that he was certain. His enemy seemingly possessed the power of one of the Protogenoi.

It would not be the first time Zeus dealt with such beings either. Even if he was crushed, he'd come back stronger than ever. Such was the nature of a golden blooded god.

"You are the one!"

In his imagination, she made herself known again. The ever presence of his mother's voice reminding him no matter how much he tried to forget.

"You have it!"

"That POWER."

"Forget those creatures my son. You need to be TRAINING!!!"

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? Your brothers and sisters are dying in that monster's stomach."

"Useless."

"Pathetic."

"Just why omnipotent power belong to someone so useless."

"STOP LAZYING AROUND!"

"It shouldn't have."

A thousand moments flashed by. The stinging on his cheek made his heart quicken. His will surged as he regained his bearing.

"Stop, just stop please," Zeus' small voice begged. "I know, I already know. Just please stop. I will fight."

His hands slipped onto his face, as if to hide. When he let them fall to his side, he had already taken a few breaths to temper those thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I'll do better, I promise."

Zeus then roared in a thunderous way. The sceptre that commanded all things and the winged man who founded all things, overlapped with him.

…

The silver haired youth who appeared just into his adulthood gasped. He stared down, then up.

Da Hai was still standing there, looking coldly at him. The ground beneath them was the same pulverized landscape. The only thing he noticed was that his lightning bolts were gone.

"The audacity to insinuate that," Da Hai said from on high. "Do not insult me again child. Take that as a warning."

Zeus narrowed his gaze. He took one step forward.

Then promptly fell to his knees. He coughed up mouthfuls of ichor, staring down in confusion. Then he realized what happened.

His mind had been entranced by Da Hai's attack that was laced with his Dao. It wasn't intentional, just a side effect of such a powerful Dao.

In the physical world, he had already been struck down. He was just feeling the damage after the fact. On his stomach, he traced a red mark where particles flaked off of him.

"I…I don't," Zeus murmured in greater confusion. Something felt incredibly wrong. A creeping fear edged at his mind.

It was a type of experience he'd never felt before, hence couldn't put into words. It was like every sector of his body was rearing away at a blankness teetering just beside them.

A thin, extremely thin layer of his body was gone. No regeneration occurred, no gold ichor flowed. It was as if it had been erased, annihilated, destroyed.

'Died!' Zeus felt the impossible become possible for the first time in his external life. His knees dropped to the ground, his palms being the only thing holding him up. His face frozen in a gasp.

"Destroying and reforming again. Hmph, what nonsense." Da Hai said as if he were about to give a lecture. "You've just never been struck on all fronts before."

"You are no more invincible than that fly buzzing about. As an immortal of the third celestial order, all of my existence are one. And all my attacks strikes all of you as one on all layers of existence."

Da Hai floated down to the keeling Zeus. "Death to as I would call it would be total annihilation on all fronts, not as how a mortal, or even an immortal or god imagined it. I can easily do the same to you."

Da Hai held up a second sword, which he then struck the area next to Zeus with the same method as he did the first. Which was to say, in the same manner as he wanted to kill Golden Immortals or Chaos Immortals.

"This fight is over. Don't test me again," Da Hai said in warning. "Now then. Answer my questions properly."

After all that, he was least expecting to be socked in the face. And that was exactly what happened.

A punch from a boxing method, followed by a quick jab, then another. The fourth never made contact as it hit water. Liquid that slid away to reform into Da Hai's Dao body.

Zeus was gasping for breath. Yet his face was flushed alongside a small grin.

"Come on then. To the end right? Let's fight."

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