Hecate appeared before Triton and spoke thus:

“Echidna’s spell was completed using both the ancient power borrowed from me and the dark power she cultivated herself…. If she had only used the power borrowed from me, I could have recalled that power, but she mixed the two powers to make the spell more complex.”

“And so?”

“It means that even I would find it difficult to break carelessly.”

A spell that even the goddess of magic found difficult to break. Though Triton was stunned, he couldn’t retreat empty-handed.

“Difficult, but not impossible from what I hear.”

As if she had expected Triton to say that, Hecate quietly lowered her eyes that flickered beneath the torchlight.

The quiet goddess’s eyes wandered somewhere in the void. Under his expressionless mask, Triton hid his impatience and desperately wished.

That the goddess of magic would find a way….

That his newly acquired human, his companion, would not be reduced to nothing by Echidna’s schemes.

After rummaging through somewhere beyond this world for a long while with closed eyes, Hecate finally opened them. Looking up to gaze at Triton, she slowly nodded.

“Echidna completed the spell by sacrificing not only her own life but countless others. Life is inherently a powerful source of power…. However, paradoxically, due to the resistance of souls forcibly trapped in the spell, it became a powerful but imperfect spell.”

“Which means…”

“Though breaking it is difficult, it can be weakened.”

It was an ambiguous statement. Triton hadn’t sought out Hecate to hear such vague words.

“If the spell weakens, couldn’t it be broken?”

“Of course. But Echidna’s spell has a constraint of ‘time.’ If the time Echidna set in the spell is faster than the time it takes for the spell to weaken, then it would all be pointless.”

It meant they didn’t know how much time remained of what Echidna had given Livia.

Then… when the given time runs out, what would happen to Livia?

Triton’s eyes glinted dangerously. There was no need to think about it. That vicious woman wouldn’t simply let Livia go. It meant that both Echidna and her spell had to be broken.

“…Can we speed up the time it takes for the spell to weaken?”

“That’s something we’ll only know by trying. I cannot tell right now.”

The conversation had been strangely going in circles from the start. Triton stopped his questions and stared at Hecate’s deep-set black eyes. The goddess was looking back at him with an expression that seemed both smiling and not.

At that moment, Triton’s lips twisted into a smile as he spoke.

“What is it you want from me?”

Only then did the corners of the goddess’s lips curl up slightly.

“An island.”

“…An island?”

“An island. The size doesn’t matter. However, I want an island of my own that no one else can approach. The sea surrounding the island must always be fierce, and those who try to force their way should be swallowed by the waves. Don’t you think it’s about time this Hecate had her own domain?”

An island that allows no approach whatsoever….

It was a difficult condition, but it didn’t seem impossible to find if one looked. Since even the size didn’t matter, it wouldn’t be impossible to find an island meeting the conditions in this vast sea.

Hecate was a goddess hiding in the shadows of other goddesses. Though her power was by no means weak, with gods already attached to everything in the world, it had been difficult for her to have her own domain.

Even if she tried to rely on Persephone, that goddess spent half the year in the underworld, and the remaining two were moon goddesses, so it wasn’t easy to gain a foothold in this land.

However, Triton pretended as if he had heard an extremely difficult proposal and stared at her with a stern face before nodding.

“Very well. Seven days. I will find you a suitable island within seven days.”

A strange light flickered in the goddess’s dark eyes. Without hiding her joy, she nodded and said.

“Echidna’s spell seeks to destroy you using that human woman’s life as a medium. What is it you wish to prevent?”

“That Livia doesn’t become nothing. That she becomes my companion and shares immortality with me.”

“…I understand. Then Triton, god of the sea. There is something needed.”

Triton gazed at Hecate with his azure eyes as if telling her to speak.

At that moment, Hecate’s torch blazed up and silently showed the answer.

It was a giant heart-shaped flame. The torch spewed out a heart made of flames into the air.

A flame also rose before Triton. Dozens of sparks flew from the flame that pulsed like a heartbeat.

What this meant was one thing….

Triton muttered with a self-deprecating smile.

“So the answer is my heart, is it?”

Without hesitation, Triton grasped the burning flame in his hand.

The blazing heart made a fierce sound as it died out in Triton’s grip.

“Then I shall give it. For my companion’s sake.”

He said he would gladly give his heart.

Thinking that for your sake, for the days we would spend together in the future, such a sacrifice was nothing.

…That was just about ten minutes ago.

I had imagined you would be happy, and expected to tenderly kiss you when you were joyful, and yet….

But Livia Horn, you….

Were you kissing another man behind my back?

“…Triton.”

Livia, who had discovered him, stepped back with a deathly pale face.

Seeing those eyes trembling so detestably at him, rage surged up. The man who had made Livia step back moved forward to stand in front of her.

His attitude, as if protecting Livia from him, treated what was ‘his’ as if it belonged to himself.

“…Ha.”

Until now, he hadn’t known what it meant to be blind with rage. His heated head felt like it would burst at any moment, and the sound of grinding teeth could be heard between his clenched jaws.

Triton approached the two traitors who avoided his gaze with a fierce smile.

The power of the north wind, sensing his anger, swept through violently. In Demeter’s small garden, raindrops fell harshly, and the flowers that swayed back and forth broke with screaming sounds.

Following Triton’s footsteps, which seemed to be suppressing his fury, the once beautiful garden was being hideously destroyed.

As if hearing those screams, the garden’s owner could be felt hurrying over. However, Triton paid no mind and released the power of the sea.

The fierce power rose like a tsunami from behind Triton and rushed toward Zagreus. Though Zagreus also released his power to try to block it, in this completely wet space, it was naturally the sea god Triton who held overwhelming advantage with his power over water.

“Ugh!”

Though Zagreus tried to hold on with both arms, it was futile.

Moreover, this was not the land of the dead but the land of the living. It was too harsh an environment for Zagreus.

“Urk!”

With a violent sound, Zagreus’s body was finally lifted into the air and slammed against the wall.

When the startled Livia looked at him, a damp and cool hand grabbed her chin forcefully and spoke.

“Where are you looking, Livia? Your god is right here.”

Triton’s voice cutting through the sound of rain was chilling. Goosebumps rose all over Livia’s body.

As if all his previous displays of anger had been mere play, his current fury froze her soul.

“Was it because of that bastard that you begged to come to Demeter’s banquet, Livia? Answer me. I’m asking if you were thinking of him while being with me.”

The destructive energy emanating from his entire body choked Livia’s breath.

“Th-that’s not it, Triton. This is… there’s a reason, ugh!”

“Shut your mouth, Livia. Even if it’s you, I don’t want to hear anything right now.”

Standing under the pouring rain, Triton exuded a different kind of pressure than in the deep sea.

Her captured chin felt like it would break. Though Livia groaned and struggled against the merciless grip, Triton’s blue eyes looking down at her remained cold as ice.

Seeing that stern and freezing gaze for the first time, Livia’s chin trembled.

Seeing those eyes made her realize how generous and gentle Triton had been with her until now. They were eyes that looked like they would strangle her and kill her in the most cruel way at any moment.

The cool and sharp energy Triton emitted was enough to make her skin tingle painfully.

“Stay still and watch that bastard die, Livia. You’ll be next.”

After whispering these chilling words in Livia’s ear, Triton bound her body tightly with chains of water, threw her far away, and turned toward Zagreus.