Urrrng—
Stuck in Astraeus’s body, the Ruyi Bang trembled.
Checheche—
Astraeus’s body scattered with black smoke and began to be absorbed by the Ruyi Bang.
A letter was engraved at the end of it.
στερία
Astraeus’s name was engraved, and the Ruyi Bang split apart again, falling into Yeon-woo’s hands.
All those who had been watching stiffened. A few of them couldn’t understand what had happened.
What Yeon-woo had done was beyond anyone’s imagination.
Sealing a god.
The Authority that made gods and demons consider the Great Sage as the evilest had activated. The souls of gods and demons were forced into the prison of the Ruyi Bang, and their Authorities would be given to its owner!
[You are absorbing Divine Blessings.]
[You are absorbing Divine Blessings.]
…..
[The process of awakening your Demonic Divine Dragon Body is continuing.]
Crunch, crunch—
Yeon-woo could feel the amount of Divine Blessings in his body multiply after killing Astraeus and gaining the title of God Assassin.
His soul was boosted, cells stiff. His senses were greatly sharpened.
[Be careful of outer impact.]
But even in such a situation, those who had been watching the battlefield couldn’t step up easily.
The killing of a god was shocking, but it was more unbelievable that the ceasefire was broken in just a few seconds.
Hades and Typhoon were both rulers of Tartarus. A ceasefire in their names had great meaning in that it could influence their statuses.
However, the ceasefire had been broken by a mere mortal who wasn’t even in Dis Pluto.
Although Astraeus was considered one of the weakest Titans, she was still a ‘god’ with a divine level.
A supernatural had been killed too simply.
Even in Tartarus, where all kinds of strange phenomena happened, a god had never been killed before.
No one had imagined it.
But it just happened.
Hades’s subordinates quickly looked towards Hades. It was to rescue Hades, who had probably been impacted after the ceasefire among greater beings was broken.
If Hades was in a critical state, Typhoon and the other Giants with him could come back to attack again.
But…..
“Hahaha! A crazy bastard like the Great Sage and Allforone existed!”
Hades burst out laughing, looking at Yeon-woo. He was acting completely different from his usual cynical side. And he didn’t seem injured at all.
‘How…..?’
‘Maybe…..?’
His fast subordinates were able to see what had happened.
The ceasefire of Hades and Typhoon was largely of two identities, Dis Pluto and the Titans and Giants.
But Yeon-woo wasn’t affiliated with either.
He had fought with Dis Pluto, but he wasn’t Hades’s subordinate, and he wasn’t connected to the holy territory either.
His sudden interference hadn’t broken the ceasefire.
‘What an incredible coincidence!’
‘It’s not. It’s too miraculous to be called a coincidence.’
‘It can’t be…… something he did out of calculation, right?’
They suspected that what Yeon-woo did wasn’t impulsive but thoroughly calculated. They trembled because if it was really planned, it was truly incredible.
This wasn’t something possible with just calculations. If just a little went wrong—if the system judged him as an ally of Dis Pluto, there would’ve been a great penalty.
You had to have guts to attempt it.
“What’s everyone doing, not protecting him?!”
Dis Pluto got themselves together on Hades’s cold command and began to move to protect Yeon-woo.
Because the deal was broken, it was possible the Titans could attack.
But…..
『How…… amusing…….』
Typhoon’s eye was opened through the clouds again, like he was thinking the same as Hades.
The eye was definitely smiling.
『Very…….』
With those words, he quietly vanished. The column of light that surrounded the Titans was gone, and a silence descended onto the battlefield.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone was blankly looking at Yeon-woo, who was standing alone in the middle of the battlefield.
* * *
Kahn and the rest of them arrived half a day after the battle was over.
They had heard from Brahm that the temple of the King of the Underworld was surrounded by Titans and ran at full speed to arrive.
What greeted them was a messy battlefield where the battle was already over.
Soldiers were sitting on the ground, gasping for breath.
They all looked exhausted.
There was a rotting smell from the corpses of the monsters, but they didn’t have the mind to clean it up.
The castle walls were half-crumbled, and most of the barrier was caved in.
No one in the party could tell what had happened.
Only Brahm, who was once a divine being, realized the situation and mumbled.
“Things are more messed up than I thought.”
He thought that the situation in Tartarus was worse than he expected.
Anyone could tell after looking at the holy territory.
A holy territory was a location where the god’s will descended. It was the only house where a god could stay in the lower world. If such a place was in critical condition, it was obvious how bad things were around it.
“Did you follow Cain?”
Just then, someone quietly approached them.
She was a small woman with short hair that came down to her shoulders. But the eyes that flashed through her lion’s mane of hair were sharp. The aura she gave off was violent as an aftermath of the battle.
However, the party was surprised for another reason.
She was a player like them.
They had heard that players left for Tartarus to train themselves, but they didn’t know they would meet one so quickly.
“Yes.”
Brahm nodded on behalf of everyone.
The woman scanned the party and spoke in a dry voice.
“Lord Hades ordered me to take you to him. Follow me.”
The woman only said what she had to and turned around. She didn’t seem to care whether the party followed her or not.
Kahn looked at Brahm, wondering what to do.
“Let’s follow. It looks like Hades sent his apostle.”
Brahm nodded and quietly followed after the woman.
The rest of the party looked at the woman with surprised eyes as they walked behind her. An apostle of Hades? That meant she was as powerful as Benteke, who was Poseidon’s apostle. No, just based on her aura…..
‘She seems stronger. How powerful is she? I’ve never heard of there being such a strong person.’
Kahn looked the woman up and down as he muttered to himself.
The woman stopped and glared at Kahn.
“I’ll warn you now. Don’t do anything unnecessary. Here, your neck will be slashed if you do anything like that, and no one will blink twice.”
Kahn rubbed his neck unknowingly. He felt shivers in that short moment.
The woman began to walk with those words again, but Kahn was left standing there in a cold sweat.
‘She…… might be on the level of the Nine Kings.’
* * *
“Long time no see, Hades.”
There were glares from all around. A murderous intent to run at the person who called their master’s name boiled in the air.
Brahm didn’t care.
He was once one of the three main gods of 〈Deva〉. Though he had lost his Authority after gaining a physical body, leaving the heavenly world, and being defeated by Agares to become a player’s subordinate, it didn’t mean his personality from the past had disappeared.
Moreover, Hades was one of the few who was well acquainted with Brahm.
It was because they both hated the heavenly world.
Hades waved his hand on his throne to calm his subordinates down. Then, he rested his chin in his hand and smirked.
“My generals are still on edge from the battle. I hope you understand.”
“I do.”
“Great. Anyways, it’s been a while, Brahma. You’ve come in a hilarious state.”
It could seem like he was laughing at Brahm for not even being a mortal.
But Brahm knew that Hades always spoke cynically since Hades always viewed the world coldly like he did.
However, although he had changed a bit after meeting Sesha, Brahm seemed to have gotten even more sharp and thorny.
Brahm shrugged.
“I’m in a rather pathetic state….. but it’s fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yes. I feel free after throwing away those annoying things.”
Hades narrowed his eyes, as if he was trying to find something. Then, he snorted when a smile spread across Brahm’s face.
“You were a psycho who used to shout at Shiva; I can’t get used to this side of you.”
“Why don’t you throw away your heavy burden, too? You’re too hard-working, unlike your brothers who always wreak havoc.”
“Thanks, but I’d like it if you didn’t say meaningless things.”
Brahm internally clicked his tongue. In fact, he didn’t think that Hades could abandon his responsibilities either.
That was how important it was.
The responsibility of being the oldest brother of Olympus. The obligation to stop the Titans and Giants. The sincerity to rule over the Beyond properly.
It was what made Hades into the Hades of today.
‘The problem is that they’re slowly consuming him.’
The guy who was suffering from all the responsibilities couldn’t help but crumble trying to stop the rebellion of the Titans and Giants, no matter how strong he was.
‘But he didn’t ask Olympus for help, and he even kept it a secret from his wife, Persephone…… Is there something else going on?’
Brahm thought to himself, but he didn’t ask Hades.
Although gods and demons were tied to their many societies, each of them was an individual being. It would be disrespectful to ask Hades why he made his decision.
Aside from that, Brahm was more interested in quickly making Kynee and finding clues about where Cha Jeong-woo was. There was no need to do more work than necessary.
“But where did you send Master?”
He was still connected to Yeon-woo, but the connection was so faint that he couldn’t see Yeon-woo’s precise location. Even if he spoke to him, it wasn’t delivered because something was blocking it.
“Hearing the words ‘Master’ from Brahma. Ha! It’s worth living all this time to see this.”
“Don’t try to change the subject. Where is he?”
Hades pointed to the ground.
Brahm frowned.
“The underground?”
“In prison.”
“What…..?!”
“He dared to break the ceasefire under my name.”
Brahm gripped his forehead. It seemed like his master had caused another incident.
Looking around, he saw the faces of Hades’s subordinates were dark. But they weren’t malicious. They just looked a bit uncomfortable, like they weren’t quite sure. A few of them even seemed relieved.
“Seems like our master found another sly way to cause chaos.”
“Pretty sly. He got Astraeus.”
“……!”
This time, Brahm was surprised. The others had blank faces, not knowing who Astraeus was.
“Cain…… caught a god.”
“……!”
“……!”
The feat of killing a god was legendary among players.
There were rumors about Allforone on the 77th possibly being able to do it, but it had been done by Yeon-woo?
“She’s puny for a Titan, but….. that’s still incredible. Hahaha!”
Brahm laughed, saying Yeon-woo was qualified to be his master. The expressions of Kahn and the others became stranger.
Then, Brahm smiled coldly. He wet his lips. A type of magic message dug into Hades’s ear.
『The secret of levels could leak into the lower world; are you okay with that?』
Hades snorted. He responded with his physical voice.
“Do you think I won’t be able to handle it? Those who can’t are just fools.”
The subordinates and players looked at him with questioning eyes, not knowing what he was talking about.
“You’re the same as ever. You don’t change easily. Fine. Then, back to what we were talking about.”
Brahm smiled again then asked with serious eyes.
“What’s our master doing below?”
Had he already begun to create Kynee?
“I don’t know.”
“What…..?”
“He was the one who said he wanted to be stuck down there.”
-I’ve committed a crime, so I’ll accept my punishment. Please lock me up.
Hades thought of how Yeon-woo had walked past his shocked soldiers and spoken to him confidently.
From what he saw, Yeon-woo wasn’t one to surrender himself that easily.
It was clear there was something he had in mind.
What was he trying to do this time?
Hades smirked, unaware of the fact he was doing so. For the first time in his boring life in Tartarus, there was something that stimulated him.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the underground prison.
[The awakening of the Demonic Divine Dragon Body is near complete. The process of formation is commencing.]
Crunch, crunch—
Yeon-woo was recreating his body while withstanding immense pain.
