The Hollow Earth trembled.
A roar — ancient, guttural, shaking mountains to rubble — rose from the deepest vaults of the planet's crust. The skies dimmed. Forests wilted. Lava rivers boiled over as if the earth itself recoiled.
**He had awakened.**
The **Ashen Tyrant**.
Once known as *Ur'Korr*, the original bearer of the Ashen Crown, now twisted by time, war, and betrayal.
He rose through the shattered floor of Hollow Earth, his body immense — simian in shape, like an infernal version of a titanic gorilla. His blackened fur was laced with molten veins, his chestplate was cracked obsidian forged around a core that pulsed like a dying sun. His eyes were cinders. And they were locked on *me*.
---
### **Narration – Belenus**
His presence was wrong.
Not just ancient — *corrupted.*
Where my flame gives life, *his* consumes.
Where I bring balance, he leaves ash.
We locked eyes, and I saw it — not madness, but conviction. A twisted resolve forged in isolation and fire.
He didn't just want the crown back.
He wanted *the world to burn alongside it.*
---
### **The First Blow**
He didn't roar. He didn't charge.
He leapt.
A wall of muscle and fire hurtled toward me, his massive fist wreathed in magma. I barely ducked, the shockwave flattening the jungle behind me.
I spun, tail whipping — catching him across the ribs, cracking a chunk of his armor loose.
He grunted.
Then *grabbed my tail mid-swing.*
And slammed me into the mountainside.
*BOOM!*
---
### **Narration – Belenus**
Pain. Real pain.
He was stronger than Ghidorah.
Not faster.
Not cleverer.
But *relentless.*
Each blow was a tectonic event. Each roar, a volcanic eruption. The battlefield itself twisted beneath us, ancient ruins shattering beneath our limbs.
And yet…
I was not afraid.
---
### **The Flame Reignites**
As I lay in the crater, his massive form stalking toward me, I reached inward.
To the three roots.
To **Life**, **Silence**, and **Destruction**.
And I *unlocked* them.
My back arched. My spines erupted in solar flares. Crimson light turned *white-hot*, then bloomed into shades of green and violet.
I *burned with balance.*
I wasn't just fire.
I was *rebirth.*
I rose.
And I charged.
---
### **Clash of Kings**
We collided midair. Claws met fists. Flame met shadow. The impact split the ground for miles.
He grabbed my neck — I clawed at his core.
He slammed me again — I countered with a point-blank **Godflare**, catching his face in the blast.
He reeled, roaring in pain for the first time.
I didn't stop.
---
### **Narration – Belenus**
I understood now.
This wasn't about the crown.
It was about legacy.
He believed only through dominance could the world survive.
But I had seen another way — *through unity*.
Through the Verdant Core.
Through the Light Root.
Through the bond with Amaterasu and the titans who *remembered.*
So I roared again.
Not in challenge.
In *declaration.*
---
### **Final Strike**
I leapt, claws glowing, wings of solar flame erupting from my back in a corona of light.
He tried to block.
Too slow.
I slammed into him, biting deep into his shoulder, tearing through molten bone. He howled, but I drove him down — past roots, past magma, past ancient stone...
Into the *Throne Pit.*
Where the first Ashen King had once risen.
And now fell.
---
### **Narration – Belenus**
He lay still.
For a moment, the world waited.
Then — his core dimmed.
Not extinguished.
But quiet.
He looked up at me, coughing smoke, and whispered not with voice, but *a memory*.
> "If you bring peace... make it last longer than I did."
I closed my eyes.
And let the crown form — not from his head, but from the fire that now surrounded us.
The **Ashen Crown** forged itself anew — not of hate.
But of *hope.*
---
### **Epilogue – Surface World**
**SHIELD Watchtower Omega**, Pacific Rim:
> **Subject: Ashen Tyrant Neutralized.**
> **Belenus: Confirmed Alpha Prime. Full Synchronization with Titan Roots Achieved.**
> **Threat Level: Stabilized — for now.**
> **Director Fury's Log:**
> "I don't know if we witnessed a coronation or the beginning of something bigger. But if Belenus is king now, we better pray he stays on our side."
---
### **Final Scene – Return to Amaterasu**
I rose through the Hollow Earth gate once more, scarred, slow, but alive.
Amaterasu waited.
She saw the crown.
She bowed her head.
And for the first time…
So did I.