CHAPTER 174: "THEN LET THEM COME.”

They thought they could cage him again.

They thought they could bury Thalorin’s hunger beneath decrees and seals.

Fools.

The sea did not ask permission. The sea simply was.

---

The Mortal Wreckage

Below him, the drowned city smoldered with half-life. Fires sputtered on floating debris, their embers struggling against creeping salt. Survivors huddled on rooftops, clinging to soaked banners, their voices too hoarse for prayer.

One boy—no older than ten—cupped his hands into the rising tide. His lips moved, whispering Poseidon’s name, not with fear, but with reverence.

That caught his attention.

Poseidon extended a hand. The water bent upward, forming a liquid stair that carried the boy safely to higher ground. The mortals gasped, bowing low, their bodies trembling not just from cold but from awe.

He could feel it—the beginning of something dangerous to Olympus. Not rebellion. Not war. Faith.

Faith was not given to gods. Faith was stolen by them. And now, Poseidon’s name was spreading like salt in wounds.

---

A Voice Within

They will come for you.

The voice was not his own. It rippled through his bones, heavy and endless, like the abyss beneath the deepest trench. Thalorin’s presence, subtle until now, stirred like a leviathan brushing its tail against the ocean floor.

They will send their hunters. They will call you parasite. Vessel. Pretender.

Poseidon’s fists clenched. "I am no vessel."

The sea surged, as if agreeing with him. The drowned bell tower groaned and collapsed entirely beneath the weight of the tide.

Good, Thalorin whispered, his tone sharp as coral. Then prove it. Prove to them that you are no boy clinging to mortal memory. You are the tide itself. You are hunger. You are eternity.

Poseidon did not answer, but the sea did—rising another inch, swallowing another prayer.

---

The First Messenger

The night sky cracked open.

A spear of golden light descended, slamming into the shoreline with force enough to turn sand into glass. Mortals screamed and scattered, shielding their eyes from the brilliance.

Poseidon did not move.

The light dissolved, revealing a figure clad in bronze, feathers of lightning curling from his helm. His spear hummed with raw power.

"Poseidon," the messenger declared, his voice loud enough to silence the waves. "By decree of Olympus, you are commanded to cease your claim upon the mortal shore and return to the Rift from which you crawled."

The mortals froze. All eyes turned to Poseidon.

Slowly, he raised his head. The sea stilled, listening.

"Commanded?" Poseidon’s voice was calm, almost amused. "The ocean obeys no decree but mine."

The messenger tightened his grip on the spear. "Then by decree of Zeus himself, you are to be judged. Yield, or be cast down once more."

Poseidon lifted his hand. The waves swelled like muscles flexing, forming behind him into a wall taller than temples. His eyes gleamed with abyssal light.

"Tell Zeus this," he said, each word laced with water’s crushing weight. "I do not yield. Not to him. Not to any throne above the clouds. The ocean does not kneel."

The wall of water surged forward.

The messenger barely had time to brace before it struck. The force hurled him back into the sky, his spear spiraling into the sea, swallowed whole.

Silence followed. Then, slowly, the mortals began to kneel—not to Olympus, not to the gods above, but to the tide that had shielded them.

To Poseidon.

---

Olympus Watches

High above, in the halls of Olympus, the council chamber burned with outrage.

"He dares strike down a herald?" cried Hera, her voice sharp enough to shatter glass.

"Not struck down," Ares corrected with a savage grin. "Cast out. The boy has fire in him... or rather, water."

"This is no jest," Athena snapped, her gaze cold as polished steel. "If Poseidon gains the faith of mortals unchecked, it will unravel the very order we built. Mortals are meant to fear us, not worship a rogue tide."

Zeus sat upon his throne, lightning crawling over his beard. He said nothing, but his silence was thunder waiting to break.

Aegirion, seated lower, spoke carefully. "What if he is not merely Poseidon? What if Thalorin is—"

"Enough." Zeus’s voice boomed. "Thalorin is dead. Banished. Sealed. This boy—this pretender—wears a drowned god’s mask. And I will tear it from him."

The sky rumbled in agreement. Yet Aegirion could not shake the unease coiled in his chest.

---

The Whisper in Blood

Back below, Poseidon closed his eyes. He could feel it—the council’s fury, their plotting, their fear masquerading as authority.

And beneath that, Thalorin’s laughter.

They scurry like crabs, snapping claws at the tide. Let them. Their fear is our weapon. Their faith, our feast. Do you feel it, boy? The city drowned, yet those who remain bend their necks to you. Faith fills you like wine. Soon, Olympus will not be your jailer... it will be your banquet.

Poseidon opened his eyes, sea-green irises glowing with untamed light.

For the first time, he did not reject the voice.

"Then let them come."

The tide surged outward, carrying his will across the coasts. Ports shuddered. Rivers reversed. Ships vanished beneath waves without storms. The world would know. The ocean had chosen its god.

And Poseidon was no longer asking permission.

The silence that followed the drowned city was not peace.

It was the silence of held breath, the pause before the next shudder of the earth.

Poseidon stood at the edge of the ruined harbor, bare feet sinking into wet sand that no longer belonged to mortals. The tide clung to him as though the entire ocean awaited command. His hair, dark and salt-soaked, shimmered faintly under the moon, threads of phosphorescent light weaving through it like veins of living water. His eyes glowed with abyssal depth, reflecting no stars, only the endless horizon.

All around him, corpses floated on driftwood, faces pale beneath the moon. Survivors wailed from rooftops and high towers, voices echoing across the waterlogged ruins. Yet the sound barely reached him.

For Poseidon, their cries were small ripples compared to the roar within.