After that day, Livia was afraid to even close her eyes. Whenever she fell asleep, bad nightmares would inevitably overwhelm her.

Yet in her isolated state, there wasn’t much else she could do either.

As she spent time idly like this, useless thoughts kept surfacing.

‘…Why am I here doing this?’

Livia sat slumped down, staring at the floor with a gloomy face.

How many days had passed? No, had any days passed at all? Maybe it had only been a day? No, it could have been ten days.

It became increasingly difficult to gauge the flow of time.

Being deep underwater meant it was always dark outside, and the surroundings were excessively quiet. Unable to meet anyone, merely repeating the cycle of sleeping and waking, her head was constantly foggy.

It was similar to when she was trapped in Triton’s fourth trial. Like that terrible time in the desert when she was alone after her trusted scorpion died…

During the trial, Livia had crawled into a dark cave and spent years in oblivion. The fierce chills and severe cold that would rise from time to time were evidence of the loneliness she had experienced.

She had endured by curling up in the darkness, bearing the choking solitude and sadness.

No, thinking about it now, she hadn’t endured at all.

In the end, hadn’t she desperately called out Triton’s name and begged him to save her? She felt exactly the same way now. She was at the point of wanting to beg and plead to be taken out of this place.

‘It’s suffocating.’

As Livia quietly gazed up at the dim water above, for the first time she was seized by the urge to go outside the sea.

She missed those times when she would take her sheep to the mountains and fields, wandering for days on end across unfenced land.

She hadn’t known being forcibly bound to one place for so long could be this painful.

For Livia, who had lived as a shepherd freely roaming vast meadows, confinement was nothing short of poison.

Though it shouldn’t be possible, she felt like she couldn’t breathe properly.

‘Ah…. Could this be another of his trials right now?’

Perhaps Triton’s fifth trial hadn’t ended. Or maybe the sixth trial had begun without her knowing?

Livia, who had been thinking absent-mindedly, shook her head with a bitter smile.

It was too much of a delusion.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Livia suddenly stood up and approached the window. Though she couldn’t see well around her as it was covered by a massive veil, she couldn’t just keep waiting for him forever.

She still didn’t know what had happened to Lete’s soul that Zagreus had taken that day.

Since she couldn’t go meet Zagreus, she had hoped he would at least visit in her dreams, but seeing how he hadn’t appeared no matter how long she waited, that method also seemed impossible now.

Of course, she had her suspicions.

It was probably due to Triton’s influence.

Who knew her god would be a man with such tremendous jealousy and obsession.

‘Is it because he’s a god that even the size of his jealousy is greater than humans’?’

Given his extraordinary nature, that could be the case.

“…But locking me up is too much, Triton.”

What’s the big deal about a mere kiss…!

We’ve mixed bodies, given hearts? Imprisonment over just one kiss!

Seeing how her feelings went back and forth several times a day, she felt like she might go crazy if this continued.

Livia, who had been glaring out the window, stepped back and took a deep breath.

Yes, she knew that his anger wasn’t just because of the kiss with Zagreus. It made sense for him to be angry since she had deliberately deceived and used him.

If she had openly said she would use him, she now knew Triton would have willingly let himself be used after playing a few crude jokes.

But she couldn’t help not knowing then what she knew now.

Livia regulated her breathing and jumped toward the window while standing on her tiptoes.

Thud!

However, an invisible barrier blocked her.

“Ouch…”

Pushed back by the transparent barrier, she fell backward and groaned while rubbing her b*ttocks. But she wouldn’t be Livia Horn if she gave up after one failure.

She jumped up and leaped toward the window again.

Though she fell in exactly the same way as before, she didn’t give up. In fact, even though she knew she couldn’t cross because of the barrier, she was forcing herself to move because she felt her depression would only grow if she didn’t do at least this much.

Thud!

“Ugh…!”

Hitting the invisible wall, falling, hitting, falling…

Would Triton return first? Or would she break this wall first?

No, perhaps her body might shatter into pieces instead.

As if determined to find the answer herself, Livia kept repeating her falls endlessly.

Until she collapsed from exhaustion, hundreds of times like that.

***

Crackle.

Triton, who had been dealing with the endless waves of black insects and Titans, suddenly furrowed his brow. The barrier he had left at the Golden Castle was shaking.

…What could be causing it?

He briefly withdrew the trident he had been wielding and raised his other hand to create a translucent water droplet.

The sphere spinning above Triton’s hand trembled, and tiny cracks began to appear from within. A sigh escaped from Triton’s lips as he watched.

“Livia. This temper of yours…”

Well, he hadn’t expected her to wait quietly in the first place.

That’s why he had set up the barrier to prevent possible intrusion from ‘them,’ and had Phorkys, Sympho, and Neo take turns patrolling. Not satisfied with just that, he had thoroughly drained her energy and put her in a deep sleep, but it seemed she had finally regained consciousness.

He hadn’t fed her those rare items for her to use her strength like this…

“You should stay still, Livia. I’ll be there soon enough…”

Clicking his tongue, Triton settled the matter for now by making the Golden Castle’s barrier even thicker. Though he couldn’t hear her, she was probably spewing harsh words at him.

Triton smiled briefly imagining that scene, then gripped his trident again and looked down at the Titan clan members crawling up from the bottom. Darkness from the abyss settled in his sapphire-like eyes.

The giant sinners caught in the gap between the deep sea and h*ll.

Triton had long protected the sea from these ancient losers of war.

Originally, it should have been the god of the underworld’s responsibility, but because the bottom of that h*ll happened to connect with his sea, at some point Triton also became responsible for dealing with them.

Until now, he had dealt with the Titans and their leech-like insects without complaint, but…

‘I can’t do that anymore.’

He no longer wanted to show understanding, trust, or generosity when it came to matters of the underworld. Moreover, it was unacceptable to clean up after their poorly managed affairs.

‘So, I must send them back to where they belong.’

Triton looked down expressionlessly at the Titan clan crawling up the black ravine like insects, then turned away. With Livia regaining consciousness, he had no leisure to deal with them one by one.

“Actius.”

“Yes, Lord Triton!”

“I’ll need to block the ravine, so arrange the formation.”

“If you’re blocking the ravine, surely…?”

Triton didn’t bother answering Actius’s surprised query. Triton leaped up, cutting through the dense seawater, and entered among the sparsely rising peaks.

It was time to provoke the anger of this world’s true mother, sleeping beneath the earth and sea.

Boom!

The trident in his hand forcefully pressed down inside the quiet peak. The massive pressure crushing the surroundings compressed the sleeping goddess’s throat.

Boom!

He pressed down on the ground once more. A huge whirlpool centered on him churned randomly inside the narrow peak.

Boom!

As he struck the ground again, a dazzling blue light rippled from the trident imbued with Triton’s power. The force forcibly raising and awakening the submerged land was violent and fierce like a tyrant. But without this level of disturbance, the submerged land would not boil up.

Boom! Boom boom! Boom boom!!!

After several more pressure strikes, finally a bubbling sound could be heard from beneath Triton’s feet.

How… very… noisy… you are… child of the sea.

At last, the voice Triton wanted emerged.