Chapter 111: The council judgement
The wind shifted, carrying with it the distant scent of burning pitch and salt-heavy steel. Poseidon’s gaze never left the lights flickering on the horizon. The Council’s fleet was coming fast, their sails drawn taut by the same winds that churned the waves at his back.
Each mast bore a banner — symbols of gods and realms united under one purpose: his downfall.
Thalorin’s voice curled into his mind like smoke.
They bring more than soldiers. They bring gods.
"I know," Poseidon murmured, the trident’s shaft warm against his palm. "Let them come."
The shore behind him had been reduced to chaos. Jagged spears of coral rose from the sand where the abyss had answered his call, and the twisted remains of lesser sea beasts — creatures dragged into existence by his clash with the Abysswalkers — now littered the coast. The battle had left its mark on him as well. His armor was dented, blackened in places where otherworldly steel had bitten deep. But he stood unbroken.
Nerissa appeared again, this time without her helmet, her dark hair damp with seawater. Her face was pale.
"They aren’t just bringing the Council," she said, voice low. "Zephyros is with them."
Poseidon’s jaw tightened. "The wind-tyrant."
"He’ll try to drive the ocean from you," Nerissa continued. "Force the air into your lungs, strip away your connection to the depths. And that’s not all — I saw the banners of Helion, and..." She hesitated. "...Aegirion himself is aboard the lead ship."
Thalorin rumbled inside Poseidon’s mind, So the coward comes to watch you fall in person.
Poseidon turned to her, his voice calm but unyielding. "Get to the trenchline. Prepare the tide gates."
Nerissa’s eyes widened. "You’re going to flood the entire bay? That will drown—"
"It will buy time," Poseidon interrupted. "If the Council wants war, they’ll get it in my waters."
---
The fleet approached with unnerving precision, dozens of ships cutting the dark waves like silver knives. At the head sailed The Aurion, a vessel as tall as a cliff, its hull carved from the bones of a leviathan. Standing at its prow was Aegirion. Even from this distance, Poseidon could feel the man’s contempt like heat on his skin.
Aegirion’s armor gleamed, worked from deep-sea gold that never tarnished. His spear — Tidebreaker — was slung across his back, a weapon said to pierce even the scales of ancient drakes.
Beside him floated Zephyros, his form wrapped in wind so tightly that it blurred the edges of his body. His eyes were white voids, and each movement left the sails of nearby ships snapping with violent gusts.
The fleet halted just outside the shallows, the water churning from the unnatural precision of Zephyros’ winds. Silence stretched across the waves. Then Aegirion raised his voice, and it carried easily over the distance.
"Poseidon! You’ve taken power that does not belong to you. You’ve broken the balance between realms. Surrender the essence you’ve stolen, and your punishment will be... swift."
Poseidon stepped forward until the water lapped at his greaves. His voice was steel wrapped in the roar of the sea.
"It was never yours to begin with."
A murmur rolled through the ships. Aegirion’s face darkened. "You think yourself a god beyond gods. But you are nothing but a drowned mortal in stolen skin. I will tear Thalorin’s essence from you myself."
Thalorin’s laugh rumbled through Poseidon like distant thunder. He still believes the essence can be taken. Fool.
"I’ll send him to the abyss to learn otherwise," Poseidon said under his breath.
Aegirion gave a sharp gesture. "Bring him to his knees."
---
The first strike came not from the fleet, but from the skies. Zephyros raised his arms, and the air itself howled in fury. Cyclones formed in an instant, spiraling downward to smash into the sea, sending up walls of water that crashed toward the shore. Poseidon drove his trident into the sand, summoning a barrier of solid water that rose like crystal walls around him. The cyclones shattered against it, breaking into sprays that fell as mist.
"Wind against tide," Zephyros’ voice carried, mocking. "Let us see whose will breaks first."
Poseidon didn’t answer. Instead, he called the deep. The tide gates hidden beneath the bay’s surface answered with a groan, and then the ocean surged inward with impossible force. Waves taller than the ships themselves rose from beneath, sending three vessels crashing into one another in a storm of splintered wood and screaming sailors.
Helion stepped forward then, golden fire igniting in his palms. His eyes burned with the sun’s fury, and his voice was like molten glass. "Burn him from the sea."
The sky lit up as spears of solar flame hurtled toward Poseidon. Each one hit the surface with explosive force, steam rising in violent bursts. The barrier trembled under the assault.
Thalorin’s voice boomed in his head. Strike now, before the fire burns the tide away.
Poseidon thrust his trident forward, and the water obeyed. Massive serpents formed from the waves themselves, their bodies shimmering with bioluminescent light. They struck at the fleet, wrapping around masts, dragging warriors screaming into the depths.
Aegirion finally moved.
With a single motion, he unslung Tidebreaker and hurled it. The spear cut through the air with such speed it screamed like a hurricane. Poseidon barely twisted aside in time, the weapon grazing his armor and carving a furrow in the sand deep enough to swallow a man whole.
"You won’t dodge forever," Aegirion called.
"Then stop missing," Poseidon shot back.
---
The battle became chaos. Zephyros hurled walls of air that split waves in half, trying to deny Poseidon his weapon — the sea itself. Helion’s fire scorched the waters until the surface boiled. And through it all, Aegirion advanced, leaping from ship to ship, every movement bringing him closer to the shallows.
The tide gates groaned under the strain, and the bay’s water level rose higher. The current pulled at the ships, smashing them together, but the Council’s gods fought fiercely to hold their positions.
Nerissa’s voice crackled through the conch-shell communicator at Poseidon’s belt. "The gates are at full capacity. If we hold them any longer, the backflow will—"
"Open them," Poseidon ordered.
The sea obeyed with rage. A wall of water roared out from the bay, taller than the cliffs themselves, smashing into the fleet with the force of an earthquake. Ships shattered like toys, their pieces hurled into the air before vanishing beneath the foam.
Zephyros screamed in defiance, wrapping the air around him to resist the pull, but even he staggered. Helion’s fire sputtered as the torrent doused its fuel.
Through it all, Aegirion kept coming, his eyes locked on Poseidon.
The two met in the shallows, waves breaking around their legs.
"You’ve cost the Council too much," Aegirion growled, raising Tidebreaker.
"You’ve cost the sea far more," Poseidon replied, his trident rising to meet the strike.
When their weapons clashed, the impact sent a shockwave racing out across the water, parting it for a heartbeat to reveal the dark trench beneath. Lightning cracked across the sky, and the roar of the ocean was deafening.
And then — the trench answered.
From its depths, black tendrils of abyssal water surged upward, wrapping around both warriors. Thalorin’s voice thundered through the storm.
Let the Council bear witness... to whom the sea truly belongs.