Myth: The Spiritual Dominator

The underworld, the field of truth.

While the ground and the abyss were fighting each other, the underworld under the moonlight, sandwiched between the two, was very quiet.

There was still some time before the noise from the abyss was heard. At this moment, in the Field of Truth, one could see endless buildings rising one after another, and silent creatures coming in and out.

Everything seemed in order, like a grand silent movie. In the center of the Pluto Palace, Hades was holding a wine glass and drinking by himself.

The Queen of the Underworld went to the earth to inquire about the situation, and the other gods of the underworld were deliberately not called.

In front of him, only Charon, the ferryman of Acheron, the River of Pain, was sitting upright, his old face full of respect.

"Your Majesty is truly a man of foresight. He knew long ago that those guys were unreliable."

"Without your order, Eris could easily do things for the God King behind your back - this is the natural difference between us. In this underworld, only I, Charon, was born because of you!"

The voice came from the heart, and every word was sincere.

Charon seemed to be really accusing the gods of the underworld of betrayal and speaking up for Hades.

But what he said was not without reason. The previous gods of Hades were born from the power of the two original gods, so they would naturally be closer to each other. In addition, there was an absolute gap in power, so it was not surprising that they would choose to betray each other at this time.

Of course, strictly speaking, this cannot be considered betrayal.

Just like Hades himself is one of the main gods of Olympus, it is really difficult for others to say anything about the situation where the Goddess of Discord is acting on the orders of Zeus.

I just don't know, does Hera know that the golden apple was given by Zeus? Probably she doesn't know... Hades thought calmly, not without malice.

"Okay, there's no need to mention this kind of thing anymore."

"Everyone has their own aspirations, so today, you are the only one here, right?"

After drinking the pomegranate wine, Hades put down the glass and waved his hand slightly.

The gods of the world often forget his existence, but he will never forget them.

Regardless of other things, at least Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, has to stay in the sacred mountain half of the year. Even if he does not take the initiative to pay attention, many things in the human world cannot be hidden from him.

Of course, the golden apple was not learned in this way. In fact, as the lord of the underworld, although Hades did not reach the great power, his perception in some aspects was still superior to that of the gods.

It's like the abnormal fluctuation of world power, that's it.

So even though Hades, like Zeus, didn't know why this happened, and he couldn't even judge that this fluctuation was a tilt of the world's power toward the outside, Pluto could still detect what changes had probably taken place in the world that he was not aware of.

So the subsequent events were logical. Hades was not blind, even though he was on high alert. The Golden Apple incident was also completely planned by Zeus, and Erebus was only responsible for making the gods of the underworld serve him.

Without the cover of the Dark Lord's authority, Hades, who held great power in the underworld and wore an invisibility helmet, easily investigated the unusual movements of the gods of the underworld.

But even though it was clear, there was no law in the underworld that prohibited the gods from doing things for the God King. So Hades couldn't do anything directly about this situation.

But since they were unkind first, he had no choice but to be unjust later. Since you do not recognize that you are Hades' subjects, then you should not even think about sharing any of the benefits of the underworld.

"Charon, how are your preparations going?"

Putting his worries aside, Hades asked calmly.

He had been preparing for this for a long time. Upon hearing this question, Charon, who had been waiting for a long time, had a hint of joy in his eyes and answered as calmly as possible.

"Your Majesty, after all these years of accumulation, the power of the River of Pain has accumulated enough. After all, I have no other place to use it... Because now the souls flow into the underworld through the River of Oblivion, the existence of Acheron is basically meaningless.

"Your Majesty, as long as you give the order, I will expand the territory for you!"

"Haha, it's not really about expanding territory. It originally belonged to the underworld, we just went to occupy it."

Nodding in satisfaction, Hades' mood visibly improved.

Among the rivers of the underworld, not counting the river of fire that he himself divided out, there are only three that are truly innate.

Styx of oath and hatred, Cocytus+Lethe of oblivion and lamentation, and Acheron of pain and immobility.

The first two, one flows into the abyss, communicates with the outside world, holds the power of oath, and is the Styx, which is the most well-known river to both humans and gods; the other carries the souls of the dead and goes straight to the depths of the spiritual world. It can wash away the memories of the past, leaving only the dead's lamentations and nostalgia for the past.

But only Acheron seems to be useless.

As the river of the underworld that coexists with Hades, the River of Pain actually has some authority over the underworld, just like the other two rivers of the underworld. However, perhaps in the original myth, because the soul's final destination is still the underworld, Charon, as a ferryman, can still guard the gate of the underworld and make anyone who crosses the river pay a price for him.

But no one needs him to cross the river now.

Mortals will not come, and the gods do not need them. So although he was born a Styx, Acheron's power was surprisingly weak, and no matter who looked at him, they could not find any direction for his growth.

After all, he couldn't possibly go to the earth as a river god and try to unify the many rivers. Regardless of whether the God King would have any objections or the reaction of the Lord of the Ocean, Styx alone was a threshold he couldn't get around.

So Charon was an idler in the underworld for quite a long time.

Hades thought so at the beginning. Even for him who was short of manpower, Charon had little presence.

This situation continued until the time of Typhon's disaster, when the undead Evans reported his discovery to him. From then on, the River of Pain had its first real meaning. (See 3-168)

After personally sealing the [Crown of Silence] at a great cost, Hades, who finally found the entrance to Helheim, the Land of the Dead, ran into trouble again.

In this alien world filled with the breath of death, he once again encountered rejection.

Unlike Asgard or any of the fragments of the Nine Realms, that world rejects living things, which is determined by its innate laws. Unfortunately, as the god of Chaos, Hades does not have the possibility of dying like the gods of the Nine Realms.

But for Hades, encountering troubles is a normal situation. After all, his life as a god has always been on the road of constantly solving problems, and he has never eaten pie in the sky like Zeus.

So after just a little thought, Hades came up with a solution.

Since the environment rejects him, he must either change himself or change the environment.

As the god of the underworld, Hades has no ability to change himself. Even if he did, he couldn't turn himself into a dead person. In this case, changing the environment is the only solution.

For this purpose he summoned Charon and decided to use the useless River Styx to achieve his goal.

There are three rivers of the underworld. One flows into the abyss, one flows into the spirit world, and the third flows into the kingdom of the dead. Since we can't collect the ferry fee at the gate of the underworld, we can collect it at the gate of Helheim.

As the Styx possesses some authority over the underworld, allowing Acheron to break into Helheim means that the laws of the underworld will erode and assimilate this interface.

Although Helheim is powerful, it is impossible for it to be comparable to the entire underworld without the World Tree.

The result of erosion is unquestionable given the power gap. And once the assimilation led by himself is truly completed... Hades doesn't know what kind of benefits he will get.

However, before Poseidon, the sea had a master; before Zeus, there were three generations of gods and kings on earth; but only in the underworld, there was only one master from beginning to end.

He is Uranus of the underworld, the original Hades, the incarnation of the underworld, and the one who has made the greatest contribution. So for him, strengthening the underworld is strengthening himself.

Let the Styx open the way, and he will even select the undead who can enter and the capable demigods in the world to enter, speeding up the occupation of Helheim. By then -

"Ok?"

boom--!

His expression changed slightly, and Hades suddenly stood up from the throne.

Just now, a huge tremor suddenly came from a distance, shaking the underworld and even the palace. And that direction seemed to be the abyss?

"Charon, did anyone just enter the underworld?"

Grasping the key point immediately, Hades asked seriously. Charon sensed it from a distance and exchanged senses with the Akron River.

"…Your Majesty, yes. Not long ago, the God King entered the underworld."

"..."

"...I knew that whenever he was around, nothing good would happen!"

Cursing inwardly, Hades never expected that even though he didn't care about his golden apple, Zeus would still cause trouble for him... But thinking of this, as another bigger vibration came, Hades couldn't help but snort again.

"But fortunately, I was prepared for this."

The ground shook, and the tremors continued. The previous tremors were obviously not isolated. But Hades just walked forward slowly and reached out to knock on the pillars in the palace.

The clear sound echoed in the hall. Ordinary people might not understand what it meant, but when Charon heard the noise, his eyes widened.

"Haha, it seems you heard it too? That's right, few people know that as the God of the Underworld, I also control a considerable portion of the underground mineral deposits. The materials that ordinary gods regard as treasures are nothing more than that to me."

"So Charon, I learned from my previous lessons and made sufficient preparations when building this Pluto's Palace."

"Before," Hades clenched his fist and spoke word by word, "Do you know how many times my palace has been destroyed?"

"three times!"

"And every time, it's an unexpected disaster!"

"But this is only the past. From now on, it will never collapse again, because I built this palace using the same method as I built divine weapons! Except for the lack of authority and power, in terms of materials, this is an extremely gigantic divine weapon!"

"Humph, in this case, unless a great divine power attacks my palace directly, the aftermath alone will not be able to harm it! Let Zeus do it himself, it would be best..."

Hades didn't say that it would be better to have a few legs broken.

As for being beaten to death, that was of course impossible, and Pluto would not have such a dream.

"Your Majesty is truly amazing, farsighted and wise! This time, it is destined to be foolproof!"

The praise came from the side, and Charon, who had made up his mind to hug her thighs, flattered her without any embarrassment.

If you ignore the huge difference in appearance, he now actually looks somewhat like Zephyros.

"Well, there's no rush to celebrate. Let's wait until this is over."

Hades coughed lightly, then came to his senses and felt that he had been a little too emotional.

But this is normal. Anyone who has his house demolished repeatedly will have this reaction.

"Charon, since there is a problem, don't leave in a hurry. Other places may not be as safe as here, and I also want to see what kind of enemies Zeus has provoked in the abyss."

······

boom--

At the gate where the abyss and the underworld meet, the huge shaking sound became more and more intense.

Inside Tartarus, Zeus was slowly retreating.

Although he was furious and a little emotional at first, Zeus was still Zeus after all.

For a man like him, unless he is forced into a desperate situation, it is simply impossible for him to put aside the pros and cons and fight to the death with others.

So after gradually calming down, Zeus began to approach the gate of the abyss.

As the king of gods, Zeus gradually discovered during the battle that the abyss was not only rejecting him, but was also rejecting the other side, but its size was not as big as his.

The closer you are to the portal, the less suppression you will feel on yourself, and the greater the suppression on the opponent.

In this situation, there is no need to say how he should act... It is impossible for him to lose, and it is impossible for him to escape.

As the king of gods, he could not be defeated by an unknown person, even for the stability of his royal power.

After 300 rounds of fighting, he was slightly ahead, but considering the conflicts among the gods on the sea, he had to retreat temporarily. Okay... Zeus arranged the script silently, but his hands were still not relaxed.

Everything is foolproof, there won't be any accidents... But in the midst of a great battle, Zeus did not notice that below his body, a huge creature that seemed to have merged into the chaotic and deep void of the abyss was quietly approaching him.