Bonds

The Terror From Beyond Time And Space (III)

Resistance was minimal.

The constructs generated by the systems left behind by their long-absent prey had proven to be ineffective in combat- save for one incident. Whether as the result of degradation or flawed design they could not say. The amount of data collected so far was not enough to derive any conclusions.

And though the mortals were by all accounts harmless, they would probe their offensive and defensive capabilities to gauge how much of a threat they truly were.

They did not wish to be caught off guard a second time...

So, they continued to toy with the two half-breeds. Demigods and demititans. The unstable results of reproduction between primitive lifeforms and faulty constructs. The progeny were supposed to be the highest of functions of the mortals, and if true, then the race was not worth any consideration in future planning.

They focused the function's four eyes on their current prey. Not that it was needed, as they knew exactly where the two stood from just their EM fields and the minute changes in air pressure from every breath they took. No, it was another stimulus to see the creatures' reactions.

As expected, the female did not react. The creature- the target of the construct Kronos's ire -could do little more than struggle to breathe as the device around her neck discharged. Her body rigid as the electrical current flowed through her weak body.

The male's reaction however, while predictable, was more interesting.

The offspring of Kronos put the well-being of its mate before its own, communicating reassurances their species' primitive way. As it ran towards the girl, Annabeth, it once again tapped into its sire's authority and began to alter the flow of time. Creating a separate, accelerated path for itself while simultaneously decelerating the primary flow by several magnitudes.

The method was possibly an imitation of the greater powers. Perhaps even some form of siphoning from the shards of power that their enemy had used as the foundation for the strange new reality. Like so many other things, it needed to be explored.

But such exploration was outside of this function's scope.

Combat was its purpose.

They requested more energy as the male continued to run towards its mate. Power poured into their form, which they quickly manipulated to alter the localized gravitational forces in two significant ways.

First, decreasing their progenitor's element in a sphere around their form until time flowed faster for them than the son of Kronos. The male demititan appearing to stand still in comparison despite its best efforts.

Second, they dramatically increased the gravity surrounding their claws by an order of magnitudes. The crystalline weapons- composed of materials normally only found in the heart of the densest collapsed stars -growing as hot as a star under the unimaginable pressure.

They launched one coiled limb at the stationary male, bolts of plasma arcing through the air as the super-heated crystal traveled. Claw met flesh and there was a moment's hesitation as the child of Kronos's enhanced defenses attempted to deflect the blow. The damaged construct had conveyed that its offspring were bestowed a blessing that left them invincible to all manner of harm known to the world.

But they were not of this world. They came from one long since passed.

The near-molten crystal incinerated the outer layers of flesh, with only the harder tissues within being cut. Such temperatures should have reduced the creature to ash, but its unique properties prevented that outcome. To the near-blind eyes mortals possessed, the attack would be rather unremarkable. But when viewed on another spectrum, watching the blessing trying to thwart the attack and then reconcile with the aftermath was an array of auroras and explosions that surely would have overwhelmed the lesser beings if they possessed the ability to perceive even a fraction of it.