BANG!

With a powerful impact, the darkness split open and light flashed through the gap. Every gatekeeper of the underworld had to cling desperately to the gates as a being tried to forcibly open the tightly sealed doors of the afterlife. Despite their efforts, a terrible force pushed them back, causing screams to erupt from all directions.

“Gasp! W-what on earth is happening?”

“Lord Harges! At this rate, the gates will break! W-we must hurry to inform Lord Hades…!”

Even with hundreds of daemons clinging to the gates, they were no match for the one standing outside. Several weaker daemons had already collapsed, coughing up blood.

“The King has entered the Hall of Judgment. No one may interrupt the time of judgment!”

Harges, the leader of the daemons, gritted his teeth as he tried to block the gates that were being forced open. But the gates gradually opened under the pushing force from the being beyond them.

“God of the Sea! You cannot enter like this! When the King is present, formally…!”

“I have already waited a day for Hades. I have no more time to wait. Open quickly, or I will break down these gates.”

A calm voice swept coldly across the backs of the daemons. The anger and k*lling intent permeating the voice was palpable.

To force open the gates simply because he couldn’t wait any longer! Has the Sea God always been this arrogant?

The daemons were flustered, but this was not a power that mere lesser gods could stop. The massive force of the sea pushing against the black gates overwhelmed the daemons.

Just as humans cannot prevent death, the surging waves could not naturally be stopped either. Though called waves, the force pushing in now was nothing short of a tsunami.

A tsunami that devours everything resembled a disaster. The underworld daemons had no means to stop this disaster that was violently pushing its way in.

Finally, with a loud BANG, the gates of the underworld began to crack under the striking force.

Seeing the determination to break through the gates if necessary, the hesitant Harges made his decision. He urgently shouted to one of his assistants nearby.

“…Go to the Hall of Judgment! This is someone we cannot handle at our level. We must bring the King.”

To call the King who had entered the Hall of Judgment!

That was a more terrifying order than facing the Titans imprisoned in Tartarus. As the frightened daemon hesitated, Harges glared and shouted.

“Go now! Who knows what might happen if we delay further! If you don’t want to be eternally annihilated, hurry!”

Failing to prevent disruption in the underworld was a greater sin than interrupting the time of judgment.

Summoning Hades might end with just Harges taking responsibility, but if the gates were destroyed and criminals escaped and ran amok, it wouldn’t end with just Harges.

After confirming that the daemon was hurrying away, Harges took a deep breath and glared at the being beyond the now-still gates.

The Sea God seemed to have heard their conversation and was no longer trying to force the gates open. When he had suddenly tried to force the gates earlier, Harges had been startled, wondering if he intended to invade the underworld, but now it seemed that wasn’t his intention.

‘What on earth is happening? Why did this have to occur during my watch…!’

Harges opened the gates forcefully with a pale face. Through the gradually widening gap, a dazzling light not seen in the underworld entered.

Though called a disaster, the light that poured in was too beautiful to be expressed by that word alone.

The man who entered, cutting through the darkness himself, stepped into the underworld with a brilliance too dazzling to be described merely as radiant.

The exquisite figure emanating from his entire body appeared so splendid that it could enchant even the beings of death. Harges stared blankly, forgetting that this was the being who had made him sweat by threatening to break down the gates of the underworld with violent force.

‘I’ve heard that the Sea God is beautiful, but to think he would look like this….’

He was undoubtedly someone that men, women, nymphs, and animals alike could only gaze upon with bated breath.

Though towering enough to look up to, every line forming his body was delicate. His majestic frame looked as solid as rock, and the muscles and bones enveloping him were as smooth and soft as silk, making one unconsciously want to reach out and touch.

While staring at him seemingly entranced, the Sea God left his subordinates outside the gates and stepped forward to Harges.

Triton twisted the corner of his mouth in a smile toward Harges, who was standing dazed, staring blankly at his face.

“Instead of admiring my face with such a stupid expression, it would be better to guide me to your master as quickly as possible.”

“…!”

Despite his splendid smile, his words were filled with thorns and utterly scathing. Only then did Harges remember that this being had been trying to break down the gates of the underworld just moments ago.

‘What a fool I am…!’

With a face flushed bright red, Harges quickly lowered his eyes and hastily prostrated himself, saying:

“…Please calm yourself and follow me.”

***

Hades returned to the main palace, greatly angered by the message delivered by the daemon who had burst into the Hall of Judgment.

To dare to force his way through the gates of the underworld. It was enough to deeply scratch the insides of Hades, who valued order and discipline.

No one dared to treat the underworld carelessly. This was the place at the opposite end of life, the realm that governed death.

Even Zeus and Hera could not set foot here carelessly, yet the mere successor of Poseidon dared to…!

The sound of Hades’ footsteps, unable to contain his anger, echoed nearby. Like the hem of night’s skirt spread over the earth, darkness clung tightly behind Hades’ steps.

The temperature of the underworld dropped further, and the gray sky also turned pitch black. It was a sign that the master’s mood was extremely poor.

‘It has been hundreds of years since I last saw the King this angry….’

All the gods of the underworld cowered in fear. Only one did not tremble in fear—the Sea God himself, the very cause of his anger.

“Sea, how dare you act so impudently in this place.”

Finally facing Triton, Hades calmly expressed his anger in a voice full of coldness. Triton, who had been gazing at the river of the underworld through the window of the reception room, also moved his feet boldly toward Hades.

“I have only come to find my wife.”

At Triton’s words, deep wrinkles formed between Hades’ brows.

Did the Sea God have a wife? He searched his memory but couldn’t recall anything specific. However, Hades, with his closed-off nature, couldn’t know everything about the world. Glaring at Triton, Hades asked back in an angry voice:

“Why would your wife be here? Is she dead?”

“No.”

“Those who are not dead cannot enter the underworld. If she is not dead, there is no reason for you to look for your wife here.”

As Hades asserted in an icy voice, Triton let out a low laugh.

“How amusing…. My wife has already come and gone from this place several times without dying, yet you make such a foolish assertion. Has even a god become senile? Or is it because you’ve been in the dark for too long?”

At Triton’s statement, Hades’ deeply sunken eyes flashed fiercely. Simultaneously, black smoke began to pour from behind his shoulders, and the space they occupied began to fill with pitch-black smoke.

As the thick, black smoke of death enveloped Triton, sparks began to crackle around him. Black power and silver power collided, creating electrical currents.

The daemons guarding the reception room collapsed to the floor, clutching their throats from the malevolent energy emanating from their master, but only Triton remained upright, maintaining his provocative posture.

“Is it because you’re of Poseidon’s bloodline, or has your brain been pickled in seawater and stopped thinking… Your rudeness is excessive, God of the Sea.”

“When my beloved wife is dragged to the underworld, how could I not lose my mind?”

“…Dragged to the underworld? What do you mean?”

Just as Hades was asking with twitching eyes, Triton’s blue sea power began to push back the black smoke like a fog.

The space filled with half black smoke and half white mist.

As the two conflicting powers fiercely pushed against each other, Triton moved his lips and said:

“Persephone’s son…. He has tried to covet my wife several times. If you call him here, I will personally interrogate him.”

Persephone’s son.

As far as Hades knew, there was only one who could be called Persephone’s son.

Zagreus.

His very own successor.

‘…Has the Sea God gone mad?’

Hades’ face hardened with bewilderment beyond anger.