"Such powerful strength… I never imagined there'd come a day when we could possess power at this level. Hypnos, this feeling is just incredible." In Elysium, Thanatos, one of the twin gods who looked almost identical and had six-pointed stars carved on their foreheads, felt the surging Cosmo within him as he spoke. "This kind of power probably isn't that far from Lord Hades's, right?"
"Thanatos, watch your words! Lord Hades's power is not something you or I can speculate about. I hope you remember that now, and remember it in the future as well." Hypnos, the other twin god, exclaimed in alarm when he heard Thanatos.
"Hypnos, you're too tense. Lord Hades is still sleeping right now, and he still has new power to absorb. He won't care about what we say." Compared to Hypnos's caution, Thanatos seemed rather carefree.
"But still—power this strong. Why would that guy named Cain give it to us? What scheme is he plotting?" The moment the topic shifted here, Thanatos, for once, took on a serious tone.
"I don't know. But once Lord Hades receives Apsu's power, no conspiracy or trick will be worth mentioning in the face of His Lordship." Hypnos's words returned to a calm cadence.
"Hahahaha, that so-called primordial dark god Apsu is nothing special. He actually had almost all his divine power taken away." Thanatos laughed without any decorum.
"Thanatos, watch your words! No matter what, Apsu is still a great god on the same level as Lady Gaia."
"But even so, isn't his power still about to be absorbed by Lord Hades? Hahahaha. Just two more years. Once Lord Hades fully accepts these powers, that will be the day our Hades Army rules the earth."
"By then, Lord Hades's power will be comparable to the Creator God himself, hahahaha."
"And that war god who popped out of nowhere—thanks for his power too. Just a little more time, and your power and mine won't lose to the Twelve Gods of the heavens anymore. That will be the day our Hades Army reigns supreme!"
In Elysium, the twin gods raised their wineglasses and drank happily, their laughter echoing throughout all of Elysium.
What they didn't know was that at the highest point of Heinstein Castle, Yoma, wearing a tuxedo with a face full of stubble, was quietly watching them.
"The script is almost finished, hee hee hee. The power on both sides has to be strengthened until they're even. Otherwise, kid, your power really destroys the balance of this game. There still isn't enough power. We need more power, heh heh heh."
"And I've already picked out the power of another mighty god to balance the two sides. But that guy's power is troublesome even for me. Drawing out his power won't be easy. I'll need to make some preparations first. Just wait, kid. Just wait, Athena. Just wait, my brother who's been watching all of this from the heavens."
"I'll make this performance truly spectacular." Beneath the tilted top hat, a single blood-red eye revealed a thoroughly crazed expression.
"To think the one who freed us from our seal is merely a mortal." In a lava cavern where magma churned wildly everywhere, like the passage to hell described in books, a handsome man with a pair of pure white wings on his back looked at Meruem and spoke.
"Oh? No, you aren't an ordinary mortal. I didn't expect you to possess such power." Worthy of being the one hailed as the strongest in the Saint Seiya movie lineup—the master of the Holy-Demonic Angels, the king of the demon realm, the Son of Dawn, and bearer of many other titles: the fallen angel Lucifer.
He was also the man said to surpass even the gods. Unlike those so-called major gods, he could tell at a glance that Meruem was extraordinary. Of course, that also had to do with Meruem not concealing his strength.
But it also highlighted Lucifer's exceptional power. Meruem had been the same before other gods too, not particularly hiding his strength, yet none of them could see through him at a glance the way Lucifer did.
"Your power has surpassed those so-called gods in the heavens, and you are qualified to stand with me. You have broken our seal—what for?" Lucifer asked Meruem with clear interest. He didn't believe anyone would be so bored as to undo their seal for no reason.
"An alliance, O Lord of the Demon Realm, Lucifer. I want to ask you: how do you view the gods of the heavens?"
After a brief exchange, Lucifer temporarily agreed to Meruem's proposed alliance. Though he also hated Athena and wanted to rule the earth, he hated the gods of the heavens even more. And once the gods of the heavens learned he had broken the seal, they would surely gather an army to crusade against him—because at his peak, his power far exceeded those so-called gods.
Perhaps in the entire heavens, only the missing Zeus and the current ruler of the heavens, Apollo, had the ability to fight him.
The rest of the gods were not worth mentioning.
The Holy-Demonic Angels under his command, before their fall, had originally been members of the heavenly warriors. So each was a battle-hardened fighter, and Lucifer had four of them under his hand.
If forming a temporary alliance with the local power on the earth could help him recover to his peak state, it wasn't a bad option. Having just broken the seal, after many years his strength had weakened far too much. He needed a place to recuperate properly, so after the two reached an agreement, Lucifer led his Holy-Demonic Angels away.
"Heh, what's left are those sealed monsters. But these guys aren't like Lucifer, able to analyze the situation. At least when dealing with them, you have to use violence."
Sure enough, in the next several unsealing processes, those monsters basically tried to devour Meruem the moment they met him, not listening to a word he said. So Meruem killed them all and turned them into materials for Chimera Ant Army research and for cultivating a monster army.
Cultivating a monster army was the newest project Meruem had assigned to the Chimera Ant research unit. Because only a small number of monsters hadn't gone insane from being sealed for too long.
And even those monsters weren't as obedient as Meruem had imagined, in terms of causing trouble for the gods of the heavens. But the Chimera Ant-made monster army could still be used—every now and then, it could at least distract the gods of the heavens a bit.
"It's time to try and see whether I can use Apsu's and Mars's souls to reach the Ninth Sense."
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