Beneath the Underworld lay the Netherworld.
"How is it? Has there been any movement from Heaven?"
For some time now, Hades, seated upon his throne, had been constantly gathering information about Heaven.
Ever since news arrived that the devils had lost their war against Heaven, he had been unable to sit still, terrified that the angelic army might suddenly come to attack his Netherworld.
With the Netherworld's current strength, even facing the devil race alone would be somewhat difficult. If they became enemies with Heaven, which was even stronger than the devils, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"Lord Hades, the meeting between Heaven, the fallen angels, and the devils ended yesterday, but for some reason, no information about the meeting has leaked out."
"No information?"
When Hades heard this, the flames within his eye sockets flickered rapidly. Clearly, even he had not anticipated such a development.
According to Hades' original calculations, there had been a ninety-percent chance that the devils would surrender to Heaven.
After all, even the three strongest Super Devils had suffered one death and two severe injuries. If the devils continued resisting, the only outcome awaiting them would be extinction!
To ensure the survival of his race, Sirzechs had to surrender. He had no other choice.
That was the only possible outcome!
Yet now, despite the meeting already having ended, no information had emerged whatsoever.
As an old schemer himself, Hades naturally understood what Heaven's actions meant. They were definitely preparing some major move afterward, which was precisely why they needed to suppress all information!
That naturally led to a new question: what was the God of the Bible planning?
"Could she possibly be planning... to rule the world?"
The more Hades thought about it, the more plausible the idea seemed! Hades himself wanted to rule the world, but because his relationships with others were terrible and many factions were hostile toward him, he had never succeeded.
But the God of the Bible was different!
Heaven's original angelic forces were already powerful. If the fallen angels and devils were added to them, calling it the strongest faction in the world would not be an exaggeration.
If someone with power like that claimed she had no intention of ruling the world, Hades would be the first not to believe it!
Therefore, the God of the Bible was definitely planning some major action next!
The reason she had sealed off all information was probably so she could launch a surprise attack on some faction without anyone noticing, swallowing it whole before everyone else had time to react!
Hades felt that he had completely figured out the God of the Bible!
If it were him, that was exactly what he would do at a time like this.
"Unfortunately, it's probably already too late to ask those old fellows from the Greek pantheon for help."
"I can only hope the God of the Bible isn't targeting me right now."
"You may all leave..."
Hades had just been about to dismiss his subordinates when something suddenly happened.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The vast Netherworld abruptly began shaking violently. It was like standing beside a military exercise, with deafening explosions everywhere, making it impossible to hear even a single sentence clearly.
But soon, the earth-shaking tremors vanished, as though they had never happened at all.
In their place came countless shouts!
Since when had there been so many people in the Netherworld?
"What's going on?"
Hades immediately sprang up from his throne. His instincts told him that this attack was absolutely no coincidence!
"Report!"
"Lord Hades, terrible news!"
At that moment, a Grim Reaper hurried in from outside. His expression was frantic, and he was so flustered that he even tripped while running.
"What exactly happened?"
"We're under attack, Lord Hades!"
Hearing Hades' voice, the Grim Reaper sprawled on the floor immediately sat up.
"It's the angels! And the fallen angels and devils!"
"They're all attacking our Netherworld!"
"What should we do, Lord Hades?"
The moment the Grim Reaper finished asking, he realized that Hades seemed to have frozen, standing completely motionless.
In truth, Hades really had been terrified...
Everything had happened exactly as he predicted!
"Damn it! They actually all came together?"
Impossible! There was no way they could win!
In an instant, Hades understood the severity of the situation and the absolute disparity in combat power between the two sides.
The Netherworld had absolutely no chance of victory. He had to make a decision immediately. First of all, fighting to the bitter end was not an option.
As for surrendering... no!
Hades might have been arrogant, but he possessed plenty of self-awareness. He knew perfectly well what kind of reputation he had in everyone else's eyes.
With his utterly rotten reputation, probably no one would accept his surrender...
So surrender was equally impossible. The only method that might free him from this predicament was escape.
But was that even possible?
Hades believed his chances of escaping were also extremely low. He was a thorn in their side, and if they caught him, they would definitely kill him!
He had to make his subordinates delay the enemy. Even if that meant releasing that thing, so be it!
At that thought, the flames in Hades' eye sockets burned even brighter, and his attitude toward the Grim Reapers below subtly changed.
However, because his face was nothing but a skull, none of the Grim Reapers noticed.
"Don't worry. Everything is within my expectations!"
Hades casually sat back down upon his throne, pretending to be completely confident.
When the Grim Reapers below saw this, their confidence instantly surged. Since Lord Hades had said so himself, he must still have some hidden card left to play!
Just as mentioned before, everyone knew what kind of reputation Hades had...
An old schemer!
How could someone like that possibly fail to prepare a backup plan in advance?
"Pluto, Thanatos! Go gather the Grim Reaper forces first. Use everything you have to resist the combined assault of the angels, fallen angels, and devils. I'm going to the depths of the Netherworld!"
These two were Hades' right- and left-hand men in the Netherworld, as well as two Grim Reapers he trusted more than most.
However... the reason Hades had singled out these two now was merely because he wanted them to volunteer themselves as shields!
Hades had already abandoned everything in the Netherworld. Right now, all he wanted was to escape this dangerous place as quickly as possible.
For that purpose, he was willing to gamble with the lives of every Grim Reaper!
"Yes, Lord Hades!"
After witnessing Hades' apparent composure, the Grim Reapers below felt as though they had been injected with a powerful stimulant. Their fear of Heaven's invasion disappeared entirely.
Pluto and Thanatos immediately left the altar where Hades was located and began gathering the Grim Reaper forces to resist Heaven.
Meanwhile, once every Grim Reaper had left, Hades immediately strode quickly toward the depths of the Netherworld, heading for that sealed place!
"Even sacrificing the lives of every Grim Reaper probably won't be enough to stop Heaven's advance."
"If I want to escape safely, I'll have to borrow that thing's power..."
Only him!
Only he could buy Hades enough time to escape!
...
Roar!
A monster's roar suddenly thundered across the skies of the Netherworld, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
Amid the tense atmosphere, a pitch-black monster with three heads burst out from the smoke.
It possessed razor-sharp fangs and blood-red eyes. There was no one present who failed to recognize it.
Without question, it was Hades' pet, the three-headed hound of Hell that guarded the Netherworld—Cerberus!
This monster possessed a special form of immortality, making it extremely difficult for any opponent to truly kill it.
However, the opponent facing this hellhound at the moment was the crimson-haired Satan of Destruction, clad in jet-black armor!
"So this is Cerberus?"
Although Sirzechs belonged to the Gremory family, his mother came from the Great King Bael family, so he had naturally inherited the Power of Destruction.
Sirzechs himself was an exceptional example. He had possessed abnormal levels of demonic power since childhood, something exceedingly rare even among the entire devil race.
That was precisely why he had been able to become a Super Devil and stand at the pinnacle of all devils!
Naturally, Sirzechs could not possibly lose to a little dog like this. In fact, defeating it would be extremely easy.
But being able to defeat it did not mean he could kill it.
After Sirzechs effortlessly severed Cerberus' head, it actually regenerated before long.
He could temporarily leave the hound to someone else, but others might not possess strength comparable to Sirzechs. Fighting the three-headed hound would still be difficult for them, and a single mistake could cost someone their life.
"Sorry, but to minimize casualties on our side, I'll have to take your life."
Sirzechs' gaze sharpened as dark-purple flames ignited in his hand.
Without question, these flames were condensed from the Power of Destruction!
An attack of this intensity had a very high chance of killing even Azazel outright if it touched him.
Although the three-headed hellhound possessed little intelligence, it still retained the instincts of a wild beast.
Staring at those flames, it lowered its body and growled several times before beginning to retreat.
Every instinct in its mind was screaming that if it continued fighting this enemy, death would be the only outcome!
"Trying to escape? It's already too late."
Sirzechs had no intention of giving Cerberus a chance to flee. Under his control, the destructive flames in his hand shot directly toward the three-headed hound.
Soon, the flame that had been only the size of an apple transformed Cerberus into a blazing hound.
The towering inferno even drew the attention of many people nearby, whether from Heaven or the Netherworld.
"As expected of Lord Sirzechs. He's incredible!"
"So that's the Power of Destruction?"
Sirzechs ignored them and silently searched for his next powerful opponent.
Originally, he had intended to demonstrate his strength during this war, but things had not gone according to plan. Heaven had deployed far too many angels!
Just like the fallen angels, the devils had originally needed to guess how many troops to send. In the end, they settled on only three thousand.
Yet unexpectedly, the angels had directly deployed more than ten thousand troops to attack the Netherworld! That was even more than they had sent during the previous attack on the Underworld!
Among them, Sirzechs could even sense quite a few presences that were no weaker than himself!
There was nothing he could do about that. If he tried competing with the angels for kills, it would definitely have the opposite effect and cause even more trouble.
So, like Azazel, Sirzechs chose to make a few token attacks, go through the motions, and slack off whenever possible.
As time passed, more and more Grim Reapers were captured by the three factions of the Biblical forces, then tied up and placed off to the side.
Elise had also issued specific instructions regarding this.
Hades, ruler of the Netherworld, could be killed, but there was no need to exterminate all the Grim Reapers. In a sense, they were merely employees working under Hades.
Once Hades was gone, these Grim Reapers would naturally surrender without a fight.
Thus, more and more angels, fallen angels, and devils joined the effort of tying people up. Only a small number of powerful individuals followed the leaders of the various factions into Hades' palace.
"No way. Did that bastard Hades already run off?"
After seeing the state of the palace, Azazel immediately covered his forehead.
Just as he had expected, Hades clearly had no intention of obediently sitting around and waiting to die. Running away was definitely the smartest decision he could make in his entire life!
"But escaping from the God of the Bible isn't that easy!"
Azazel himself had once considered running away, so why had he ultimately chosen to surrender?
Because escape was impossible!
The God of the Bible could sense disturbances anywhere in the world. Unless someone hid in another dimension for the rest of their life and never emerged, she would eventually catch them!
And what awaited them then would undoubtedly be countless times more terrifying than death!
Now Hades had done something Azazel himself had never dared to do. Naturally, he wanted to witness exactly what kind of fate would befall that bastard!
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
But just as the group prepared to advance deeper into the Netherworld, a bizarre scream suddenly came from within, causing everyone's expression to tighten.
Hearing such a scream in a pitch-black place like this was genuinely unsettling!
"What was that?"
...
Back in Heaven.
Naturally, Elise could see everything happening in the Netherworld.
After all, this was Gabriel and Gab's first time actively leading troops into battle. Elise naturally could not help worrying about how well they would perform.
So she was like an anxious mother waiting outside an examination hall for her children to return, constantly watching every movement on the battlefield. If anything happened to one of the angels, she would intervene without the slightest hesitation.
Fortunately, the qualities she had given these angels had not gone to waste!
The angelic side had actually managed to suppress the entire Grim Reaper force of the Netherworld without suffering a single injury, including powerful figures such as Pluto and Thanatos, Hades' right- and left-hand men.
How gratifying!
"Come to think of it, where did that bastard Hades go?"
Elise had also learned about Hades from the overworked Michael. How should she put it?
If she accepted that fellow as a subordinate, she always had the feeling that one day, while she was absent, he would rebel!
To ensure the stability of the Biblical forces, Elise could only reluctantly eliminate Hades!
"Sorry, Hades!"
"You'll be more valuable dead than alive!"
"So don't worry. I'll make sure to visit your grave!"
But just as Elise was praying for him, another disturbance appeared within the image she was observing!
A monster whose upper body resembled a fallen angel while its lower body resembled a dragon appeared within her field of vision...
There was no mistaking it. That was...
Samael, the Dragon Eater!