The silence spread from the battlefield of dead Titan subordinates to the four corps and the Titans. Neither ally nor enemy could understand what they had just seen.
‘Wh-what? What just happened?’
‘Did time stop?’
‘Is it a mass curse? Or a large-scale buff that makes enemies fall asleep?’
These were logical guesses. The monstrous Titan subordinates were the banes of Dis Pluto’s existence. Even if Hades and the generals could handle the Titans and Giants, the subordinates would pour out endlessly, attacking even after their limbs had been severed or jumping around crazily even after they were decapitated. They were exceedingly violent, and so before every battle, Dis Pluto members racked their brains thinking of ways to deal with them. And yet those horrible, implacable creatures had fallen like dominoes without even the slightest bit of resistance after one flap of a single wing.
It was an unreal and monstrous show of power. It was easier to accept the fact that Yeon-woo had killed a god. At least his mind-blowing martial arts could be assessed, but this was something completely different.
The Titans were thinking the same thing. ‘What is that?’ The Titan Toae wondered if he was seeing things or if they’d fallen under some kind of mass hypnosis. He had no other explanation. It would have to be a mighty curse to affect a divine being like him, but that was more believable than that the subordinates had just died in an instant.
He simply had no experience or knowledge that could explain what had happened. The attack of Hades’ soldiers was within reason, and it was true that they had been careless. They’d made this mistake in the past, too. He could comprehend their outstanding firepower as well. Hades’ generals and Apostle had always been acknowledged by the Titans and Giants for their skills. ‘But how could he kill them all at once? How?’
A player had simply appeared in the sky in black clothes and a mask as dark as Tartarus’ sky. After he spread one wing, the silence of death had overwhelmed the noisy battlefield. His connection with Cymo had been cut off, and when he tried to reconnect, he couldn’t see anything from the other side. The opposing force had shaken his divine level, and he felt so much pain that it was as though his soul were being ripped apart. However, he was so shocked that he couldn’t even worry about it. What was worse was that things hadn’t ended.
Yahhh! An ominous howl swept through his fallen subordinates and a hazy fog began to float over the corpses. The haze began to gather up in the forms of struggling humans in pain. It was souls—no, ghosts! It was the ghosts of the subordinates whose divine levels had plummeted. Yeon-woo had extracted hundreds of ghosts and was pulling them to him.
The ghosts formed an ashy fog that whirled around Yeon-woo as he slowly absorbed them. At this point, Toae became speechless. This player not only killed them but also controlled their souls? That was the domain of a god or a superior divine being like the gods from the beginning of time or gods of concepts—but Yeon-woo only exuded the level of a player.
Toae shivered as he looked at the colossal black wing. Six hundred sixty-six individually mighty powers were bound together, spinning like a cogwheel. When he realized what it was, Toae gasped. “Huh!” Death was looking at him, ready to take his life. It approached quietly, waiting for its chance. The only reason it couldn’t come closer was his soul power as a Titan. Without it, his breath would be taken any moment. It was a hand of darkness that could bring death to an immortal being, and the 666 gazes beyond the wing froze him in place.
He hadn’t felt this imperiled in a long time. Toae found himself shaking, but he pushed away his fear. “Hades!” he managed to choke out. The power to give death to gods—only one being in Tartarus had that ability.
“Hades is here?” The King of the Underworld himself had come. That made sense. There was no way a mere mortal could frighten a divine being like him. Toae didn’t know what Hades was planning, but he assumed Hades had chosen a player as a lure and was controlling him like a marionette. Hades probably wanted the player to become a war hero. Now that they’d been pushed into a corner, he was using any means possible to fight back.
The ability to master the concept of death was impossible unless one was a being of Hades’ level. After clearing his head, Toae felt livelier and more composed. He didn’t notice that the 666 powers were bound together by another Core, or that Yeon-woo’s method of controlling death wasn’t anything like Hades’. He was blinded by his denial.
Crunch! Toae ground his teeth. If Hades himself was present, they had no chance of victory. Retreat was the only option. However, as though he had read Toae’s thoughts, Yeon-woo suddenly flapped his wing again and dashed towards Toae like a bullet.
Boom! Toae’s face twisted. It was true he was afraid of Hades, but he wasn’t so powerless that a player could look down on him like this. Did he think he was Hades just because he had Hades’ favor? Toae decided to kill that player even though he had to retreat. He had to discipline this impudent mortal to keep his honor as a god pristine.
However, just as he was pulling out his holy artifact, Yeon-woo suddenly disappeared. Flash! The space in front of Toae opened, and Yeon-woo reappeared.
“What?!” Toae’s eyes widened. Was it a simple teleportation skill? Or a flashing skill? But techniques that manipulated space were impossible to use without the permission of the owner of the space.
Myeongbujeon had been the Titans’ territory for a long time, and Hades’ holy power had been sealed. It was now Toae and Cymo’s holy territory, and only they had the authority to change the rules. Obviously, neither of them had given this player permission. Then how...?
“Because this place is my territory right now.” Yeon-woo read Toae’s mind and offered his shocking reply with a smirk.
It was only then that Toae realized the rules of Myeongbujeon had been temporarily covered by something else. His senses had been muddled after his connection with his subordinates was severed, which was why he hadn’t been able to notice it previously. Was it...’Dragon?’
It was the domain of the old transcendent species that should’ve gone extinct with the Summer Queen, Binah. ‘No. These are demons? Gods? There’s too many!’ Toae wanted to shout, but before he could even speak, Yeon-woo already slashed his abdomen.
[Heaven Bracket - Flame Wheel]
Boom! “Urk!” Toae vomited blood as he was blown back. The impact was so great that shockwaves vibrated in the air, flames twisting around them.
Yeon-woo kicked off the ground to follow Toae, a crater forming under his feet. A deep trench opened below his steps when he began running. Pieces of the Ruyi Bang floated over Yeon-woo and assembled into a spear.
Yeon-woo gripped the spear with his right hand and pulled out Vigrid with his left, combining the two. Click! Black flames blazed along the blade after the two joined. As soon as Yeon-woo caught up to Toae, he dug his feet into the ground and braced his lower body on the ground. Spinning with his arms out like a top, he began to gain speed. With the movements of the One-horned tribe called Thunder Feet and Rotating Energy, he shot out the spear.
[Eight Extreme Swords - Jet Sun, Breakthrough]
[Vortex]
A whirlwind of flames rushed to Toae, who didn’t have a single opportunity to block them. He’d only just managed to regain his balance when Yeon-woo spewed explosive black flames at him. The condensed Holy Fire as well as Aura tore through the god’s body, cutting, piercing, burning, and leaving terrible injuries that he couldn’t protect himself against.
However, his misery hadn’t yet ended.
[Black Gubitara]
As soon as the blade touched his skin, Blood Flowers began to bloom. ‘Why? Why does this guy have the Asura King’s power?’ Blood Flowers consumed magic power and wore out mental capacities. This power affected gods as well, which was how the demon gained the title of “King of Kings” and continued to be infamous even after a long period of peace.
Vigrid slashed through his left calf, and blood spurted out only to evaporate from the heat before it could even fall to the ground. However, what scared Toae the most was that death grew closer with each flap of the wing. The touch of the 666 powers had reached his neck and was tightening around it by the minute.
The color of the touch that had taken his subordinates from him was growing clearer. He’d seen an illusion, but they really did exist. He couldn’t breathe anymore, and he was feeling faint as horror spread from his heart to his mind. Various diseases afflicted him, then poisoning, and all kinds of deaths. The 666 different methods of death unraveled like string and wrapped around Toae’s soul. As though they were competing to prove which of them was the best, the 666 powers dug in deeper. Even still, there was no conflict among the powers, and they supported each other, spinning like a wheel to complete the big picture of death.
It was at that point that Toae recognized Hades’ power. It was a more fundamental one, one of the processes of completing a "concept," which was commonly called the domains of gods and demons. He didn’t know how this human managed to have all these powers, but one thing was certain: he had fallen into death’s trap, and he couldn’t escape. The owners of the 666 powers who created the trap were enjoying themselves as if entertained by his death.
[Nergal bursts out laughing.]
[Izanami smiles faintly.]
[King of Seven Hells pats his armrest with a contented expression.]
[Aesma-daeva laughs.]
[Halphas laughs.]
[Hel laughs.]
......
‘Crazy...fools!’ He expected nothing less from his successors. There wasn’t a single normal being among the gods or demons, just beings that smiled with satisfaction at seeing death. Was this why their domains were over death? “Krrrk!” With that final thought, Toae drowned in the trap. The invisible touch tightened around his soul for the last time, and Vigrid seemed like a scythe of death floating right above it.
Slash! Toae’s head shot up in the air, blood gushing out like a fountain.
[Ksitigarbha nods with satisfaction.]
[Thanatos nods with satisfaction.]
[Dis Pater nods with satisfaction.]