Deep within Hell, in the territory of the Olympus Pantheon in the Underworld, lay the Realm of the Dead ruled by Hades.
The gloomy hall should have been shrouded in deathly silence. Most of its cold, polished floor was dry and frigid, but on closer inspection, a few scattered drops of blood could still be found between the cracks. They were remnants of the vast blood waves that had swept through when the Seated Angel dragged the Underworld, an alternate dimension attached to the planet, into the open during the world's restart.
"Aaaah!!!"
A shrill, chilling scream rang through the dark and solemn hall. Anyone who heard it could feel the bone-deep agony of its owner, pain intense enough to break even an immortal God.
At the center of the eerie hall, a skeleton dressed in magnificent ceremonial robes sat upon the throne, two blazing blue flames burning within its eye sockets. It was hunched forward in anguish. Despite possessing no organs capable of producing sound, that horrifying scream had come from it.
"Creak..."
Its teeth ground together with a harsh rasp.
Hades lowered his pale skeletal arms from his chest, revealing a pitch-black palm print branded directly onto his bones. Upon closer inspection, droplets of blood could be seen constantly seeping from the scorched mark.
"Shadow, the Cult of Diablos, Cao Cao, Roland Augustus..."
As Hades stared at the handprint on his chest, the ghostly blue flames in his eye sockets burned even more fiercely. A sinister aura radiated from them as his voice uttered those names with bottomless malice and hatred.
"You insolent fools who dared defy the God of the Underworld. Your souls must remain in Tartarus for all eternity, accompanied by endless darkness, chaos, and solitude until death itself, before my wrath can be appeased!"
The agony in his voice was terrifying enough, but the undying hatred Hades bore toward those he had named was even more frightening.
Cao Cao and his group had lured Shadow into the Realm of the Dead under Hades's rule.
Shadow had crossed the Underworld while treating Hades as though he did not exist, then struck him once and left behind a wound that could never be erased.
The Cult of Diablos had created the Seated Angel, dragged the Realm of the Dead from the depths of Hell, and polluted that sacred land with towering waves of blood, world-ending rains of fire, and endless sulfur.
Then there was the Lord of Netheril, who had intervened at the crucial moment to save the entire world and ascended to the position of the world's strongest by stepping over every other faction's helplessness.
All of them were now targets of Hades's impotent fury.
Shadow's casual slap had passed through every layer of Hades's defenses and struck directly at the depths of his soul.
The sea of blood had devoured everything in the world, while heavenly fire had burned away the sins within people's hearts.
The Lord of Netheril had held the lives of the entire world in one hand, while the colorless water had shut down the world's laws with a mere thought.
Each of those things had awakened the fear of death within the King of the Realm of the Dead.
Here was a joke.
The mighty God of the Realm of the Dead, ruler of the final destination of every dead soul and sovereign over life and death itself, was afraid of dying.
What made it even funnier was that it was not a joke at all.
Aside from the world's strongest beings, those monsters who stood on the same level as the entities in the heavens, no one else in this world was even qualified to withstand a single one of their attacks.
The brand on Hades's body was proof.
Even the aftershocks of their attacks were more than enough to overwhelm beings whom ordinary people regarded as standing at the very peak of the world. Now, all those lingering effects had converged upon Hades alone, nearly killing the God of the Realm of the Dead on the spot and forcing him to return to his Divine Fire, where he would have slept until time awakened him again.
It was precisely because Hades understood this fact so clearly that he was close to madness.
He was the exalted King of the Underworld, a being who stood above more than 99.99 percent of all life in the world. Even Zeus, the God-King of the Olympus Pantheon, addressed him as elder brother.
But what had become of him now?
Over a year ago, Shadow had descended from the heavens and embedded the strongest members of every major faction into the ground with irresistible force, then forced them to sign a ceasefire agreement under the threat of a world-ending attack.
Great Red had offered no explanation before throwing the World Battlefield out of the Dimensional Gap and into the mortal world, forcing every faction to deal with that ultimate dumping ground on its behalf. With no other choice, they had begun an eternal war that could never be stopped.
The Hero Faction had run rampant, Evil Dragons had invaded, and their wealth and territories had been plundered and trampled. Yet the Infinite Dragon God had merely said in a calm voice that it wanted a quiet place.
Now the Lord of Netheril had appeared as a savior, using every faction's helplessness before an apocalyptic disaster as a stepping stone to prove that the world's strongest stood above all laws and taboos.
Hades, the mighty God of the Realm of the Dead, could no longer even control his own life or death.
His noble dignity had been trampled again and again.
Could a God who was constantly crushed beneath the feet of others still be called a God?
"Death... I must obtain that power of death as soon as possible. Once I possess it..."
His voice dripped with venom as he recalled those supremely arrogant figures.
He had occupied his divine throne with absolute authority since ancient times, yet in an instant, he had become a stepping stone for others to trample whenever they pleased.
For someone as proud as Hades, the humiliation was enough to drive him insane.
"Lord Hades, Olympus has sent a message regarding this disaster."
As Hades muttered to himself, a Grim Reaper radiating a powerful aura entered the hall.
"Is Zeus proposing a contingency plan, Pluto? Speak. How does he intend to move against Netheril and the others? I despise those false Gods, but if it is for the sake of defeating the God of Magic, I can accept joining forces with them. I will simply need time to prepare."
Hades instinctively assumed that Zeus's message concerned an attack on Netheril. After all, the Lord of Netheril had built his reputation by stepping on every faction in the world. Such an act was bound to provoke widespread resentment.
Driven into a corner, Hades was even willing to drag the Gods of Olympus into his scheme.
All he wanted now was to vent the rage born from being treated with such contempt.
Faced with Hades's certainty, Pluto fell silent for a moment. He carefully chose his words before speaking.
"Lord Hades, Zeus has shown no intention of declaring war against the God of Magic."
Hades's skeletal face did not change, but the two blue flames in his eye sockets suddenly surged as he stared at Pluto.
"Then what does Zeus intend to do?"
Hades spoke each word slowly, the pressure radiating from his body steadily increasing.
"Zeus wishes for you to attend the peace treaty conference, Lord Hades. He hopes to accelerate the negotiations with the other factions so that everyone can work together against any crises the world may face in the future."
"...Ha. Ha. Hahaha... Hahahaha!"
After a brief silence, Hades suddenly began to laugh within the still hall. His cold voice came in broken, almost hysterical bursts.
"Useless!"
His laughter stopped without warning, replaced by a furious roar.
"Let Zeus sign that childish peace treaty by himself. Pluto, send invitations to the Grim Reapers of the other Pantheons. Tell them that I intend to make every last one of those so-called world's strongest beings disappear."
They would accept his invitation.
Hades knew that those arrogant beings had also been driven close to madness by the condescending attitudes of the "world's strongest."
"Yes, Lord Hades."
Pluto nodded and accepted the command. However, before he had gone far, Hades's chilling voice rang out again.
"Also, kill Cao Cao and bring his soul back to me. If you cannot kill him, then retrieve whatever remains of the Dragon Eater after its death. Whatever Cao Cao and his group are planning, destroy it."
"As you command, Lord Hades."
Pluto nodded without expression and hurried from the hall to carry out Hades's orders, leaving Hades behind to continue suffering beneath the brands engraved upon his body.
...
Within a magnificent golden temple in Svarga, enormous golden pillars supported the hall, gleaming beneath the soft light of brilliant lamps.
At the center sat a rather irreverent-looking man clad in radiant divine armor.
Before him played a recording of Laugus explaining his theories from atop the platform. The man watched each scene carefully beside another tall and handsome figure.
"I never expected this world-ending crisis to have been caused by something like that. Surya, what do you think?"
With a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, the irreverent man shook his head in amused disbelief and addressed the man beside him, his brother Surya, the sun god of Indian mythology.
"I always knew there was something wrong with World No. 3, but I never imagined that this organization called the Cult of Diablos would nearly destroy the world immediately after emerging. Indra, this cult clearly has hostile intentions."
Surya knew his brother well enough to understand that Indra already had some kind of scheme in mind. He therefore said little, offering only a token warning.
After all, this was an organization that had nearly killed everyone the moment it appeared. Had a formidable savior not descended from nowhere and stopped them, they would already have fallen into eternal slumber.
"I don't see it that way. Don't you find these people who call themselves the Cult of Diablos rather interesting? The true nature of how the world operates... I've sat upon this throne for so long, yet I don't think I've ever seriously considered that question."
The thoughtful tone in Indra's voice caught Surya's attention.
Knowing that Indra had something more to say, he tactfully remained silent.
"If I remember correctly, the Gandharvas reported earlier that they had captured a strange outsider in the human realm. That outsider apparently claimed to belong to the Cult of Diablos..."
"That group was clearly suspicious from the start, and everything they've done only proves it. Besides, from the current situation, both Shadow and the Lord of Netheril seem to be enemies of the Cult of Diablos."
The corner of Surya's handsome face twitched.
Looking at the Lord of Heaven, King of the Gods, and God of War Indra before him, Surya could not resist warning him again. He had no desire to provoke two of the world's strongest beings for no reason simply because his leader had entertained another wild idea.
"Relax, my brother. I'm merely curious about the Cult of Diablos. Besides, the Great Heaven's trident is still here."
Indra spoke as though the matter were trivial.
Surya studied his expression, then considered his words and realized that Indra did have a point.
Although the God of Destruction, the Great Heaven, had been injured, Shiva's strength meant there was little reason to fear anything going wrong. Dealing with a badly weakened Cult of Diablos and keeping Indra under control should not be difficult for him.
"Very well, Indra. I'll investigate and bring the person claiming to belong to the Cult of Diablos here. Just don't cause any more trouble. I have no desire to watch that trident chase you again."
With those words, Surya rose and left.
He completely failed to notice the change in Indra's eyes behind him. Their former clear and foolish innocence had vanished, replaced by a mysterious divine gleam and a meaningful smile.
"The laws governing the world?"
Indra resumed watching the recording before him. He lowered his eyes, his expression thoughtful.
After a long while, he finally looked up at the man named Laugus in the image and raised one hand.
"I hope you can help me find an answer. If I take such an enormous risk to seek you out and gain nothing from it, I will be quite angry."
As he murmured to himself, violent lightning appeared within Indra's palm.
His wheat-colored fingers closed gently around it, shattering the lightning and transforming it into a Vajra.
"Oh, right. I heard Zeus has been accelerating the signing of the peace treaty. It seems even Zeus has been driven close to madness by those world's strongest beings. No, something this interesting deserves to be seen in person."
Indra narrowed his eyes.
As he thought of Zeus and gazed in the direction Surya had departed, the idea of attending the meeting suddenly appeared in his mind.
...
Several days after the apocalyptic incident named the "Old Testament," the world had more or less returned to normal.
The reason it was only "more or less" was that the disaster had still killed a considerable number of people. Countless buildings had collapsed, causing enormous economic losses across the world, and some ordinary people had unfortunately been caught in the destruction and crushed to death.
Of course, those people were already dead, and Cid did not believe their deaths had anything to do with him.
He had already done his best. Was it not perfectly normal for a few things to slip through the cracks?
As for Cid himself, everything he had arranged during that time had gone perfectly.
Kanon Kanase, whom he had left with Natsuki Minamiya, was being looked after extremely well.
Perhaps a little too well.
Even though Natsuki-chan was currently so busy that she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, she still found time to visit Kanon Kanase, who had already awakened.
Cid wondered whether he had forgotten to tell Natsuki-chan that Kanon Kanase was an angel capable of transforming.
As for the prisoners whom some unknown person had released from the Prison Barrier, Cid had questioned Natsuki-chan indirectly. With the exception of one or two whose whereabouts remained unknown, nearly all of them had been recaptured.
Then there was the Underworld, along with Rias and the others.
He had heard that martial law and a large-scale census had begun there. Apparently, a major disturbance had broken out within the Underworld's Devil government, leaving everyone extremely busy.
That was not important, however.
Cid had merely learned those details while casually asking Rias about Diodora's whereabouts.
According to Rias, they had discovered a corpse that had drowned in a septic tank.
Ah...
Cid did not understand why Rias looked both pained and relieved, as though she had finally avenged some deep grudge, but he could only offer his condolences.
And that brought him to the present.
Standing before the ruins, Cid fell silent.
His house was still gone.
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