The skies had become red from warfare, a bleeding heaven of deep clouds that overlooked miles of land. Between the stone circles of cities lay a wasteland of craters and fires, the plumes of battle blown in the wind alongside the tattered banners of humans. Flittering through the thundering atmosphere were devious designs of vile monsters, a trail of mayhem in their wake as they plunged into fortresses and dove through ranks of centurions. Yet, even these beasts appeared like mere moths to the orchestrators of the war, the two titans that hovered above the land in a stare-off that stretched between mountain ranges.
The Overworld had become a battleground. It was the day of reckoning; the Underworld queen Medusa had launched an attack on earth, and the goddess Palutena had come to humanity’s defense.
The war itself had endured over a grueling week, but time was nebulous to the two deities. Both had persisted day and night, channeling divine magic in attempts to thwart the other. Their infantry clashed on multiple fields, resulting in spans of corpses that neither giant could recognize from their outstanding heights. It was an all-out battle for the planet, and so the two fought at their most powerful forms, their gigantic manifestations inspiring their respective armies to battle on.
But as time pressed forward, an outcome neared. Palutena was on the back foot, as she had been since the war was sparked. Her allies had been subdued by Medusa’s schemes, outsmarted and outmatched -- even Pit, her most trusted soldier and friend, had fallen victim to Medusa’s unstoppable attacks. Hopelessness was instilled in Palutena since then, a lingering doubt that she could overcome the Underworld menace; a seed of despair that had taken root, and now crippled the goddess.
Palutena’s hover above her human kingdoms had begun to falter, her body dragged to the ground as her magic became depleted. “Scatter…!” she mentally signalled to the mortal troops under her, battalions caught up in a melee against Medusa’s minions. The distressed tone of a goddess was appropriately ominous, with the humans gazing up to see the impossible mass of their protector falling upon them. They dropped their weapons and fled, as did the monsters they had been fighting -- but few could escape the wide-sweeping fall of Palutena’s landing, her legs crashing into a forest with a terrifying quake of noise. Luck alone determined who was flattened beneath the goddess’s body, and who survived in the shadow of her fringed white dress.
Crouched after the fall, Palutena was stiff, wincing from the deaths she caused -- but it was a trickle to the total toll. Her position, humble as it were, did amuse her opponent. Medusa plainly grinned at Palutena as she drew closer, choosing to stride across the distance with footsteps that both crushed and magically deteriorated the nature beneath her. Each footfall added to Palutena’s upcast glare, her teeth bared in rage.
Medusa snickered, “Have you finally come to terms with your defeat, Palutena?” The snakes of her hair hissed with a laughter of their own, staring down at the goddess with a reptilian delight shared by their master. “You claim to defend humans… but all I’ve observed is you extending their suffering. Ill-befitting of a so-called goddess, I say--”
“You will never surpass me, Medusa…!” Palutena interrupted fiercely, her head snapping upwards at her foe. “Humanity… b-believes in me…! I can’t… fall here…!” That anger-induced energy, however, could take her only so far. An attempt just to stand resulted in her falling back to her knees -- more than just her magic had been worn to its limits, as even her stamina was low after so many encounters.
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