‘She must be in the underworld….’

But Hades remained silent. Such a sinister god, never one to be trusted, so Triton couldn’t blindly wait, relying on Hades’ promise.

Triton rubbed his brow while wiping his tired face.

In truth, by this point, he had expected Livia to appear on her own. He felt certain that her body, marked with his seal, wouldn’t endure the thirst.

‘How is she enduring it? The burning thirst isn’t something one can simply bear through willpower.’

Like a fish that cannot survive outside water, his seal would torment her constantly, making her unable to breathe unless she touched the sea. The very idea that she could endure it defied logic. Unless someone helped her…

‘Then who is helping Livia?’

She was a woman who turned everyone she met into her ally, so she must have found allies elsewhere too. The thought that Livia relied on someone other than himself made his insides boil.

I thought she was in my grasp…

The existence of this woman who had slipped away like a grain of sand without anyone noticing drove him mad. Livia should be feeling thirst, yet he was the one who felt suffocated.

Have you somehow become my sea? That I cannot breathe without someone like you.

He couldn’t believe that a woman he had thought insignificant had become his entire world.

That small, dainty thing now seemed more beautiful than anything in existence, and when he held her, the overwhelming satisfaction that surged through him shook him to his core.

At times, his anger made him want to drag her back and tear her to pieces… but if he were to hold her in his hands again, she would be so precious that he would hesitate even to embrace her too tightly.

Livia, that’s what you are to me. So you must return to my arms.

His yearning sometimes turned to anger, sometimes to resentment, but in the end, only desperation remained.

Hate me if you wish, resent me if you must, just be by my side…

He hoped she would feel that the only place she belonged was beside him.

Love… what was it about this thing that made him so powerless?

Indeed, it was a concept said to have been named alongside the primordial god who created the universe. Something that shook the hearts of not only humans but even gods…

Because of it, Triton felt happy enough to give up everything in the world and simultaneously tormented enough to want to destroy the entire world.

Livia, Livia… my Livia.

If he took everything from this woman he wanted to give everything to, if he destroyed her, would she then stay by his side, unable to go anywhere else?

If he made her think of nothing, long for nothing…

His wretched frustration became a terrible obsession, clinging to him. The moment he felt that ugliness, Triton chuckled bitterly while running his hand through his hair.

It was a petty thought. It was also something he had already tried and failed at.

Livia without her will was not herself, she had said. She had sharply rebuked him, asking if all he wanted was her shell.

Even if only Livia’s shell remained, he would cherish and love it forever… but without will and mind, he couldn’t feel that it was truly alive.

‘What use is this kind of reflection? I can’t even find your shell right now.’

Triton had never felt so powerless before. With a self-deprecating grimace, he glared at the floor. More precisely, he glared at the underworld hidden somewhere below.

He had clearly sensed Livia’s energy in the underworld. But what was that energy blocking his power?

It wasn’t like the energy of any other god he knew. Rather, it was a power that felt familiar to him, seemingly from the sea.

The way it emanated power without hesitation, with arrogance, resembled his own way of using power. Not only that, but the rough yet refreshing wave of power also felt very similar to his own.

The only difference was that the way that power was controlled appeared imperfect and unrefined…

Triton felt a strange sense of dissonance.

That suspicious power he sensed greatly resembled when he had just been born and couldn’t control his power.

“…!”

At that moment, he felt cold water pouring over his head. A sudden and surprising possibility shook him.

‘Could it be…?’

A small possibility he had forgotten pushed into his mind. Triton urgently tried to sense that energy by closing his eyes, but his efforts proved futile. If his thinking was correct…

He wouldn’t be able to sense that ‘small power’ until it revealed itself.

While his mind raced with this slim possibility, Hecate, who had been silently waiting for him, approached.

“Triton.”

“…Hecate.”

Triton relaxed his stiff expression and looked at Hecate indifferently. In truth, he had been aware of her presence since she entered the palace, so he wasn’t particularly surprised.

“You look very tired. Considering you’ve been pouring rain like this without finding any trace, it seems she’s definitely not ‘here’…”

Due to the rain and wind he had summoned, the sea level had risen, rivers had overflowed, and the entire land flooded, the sea seemingly devouring it.

The wet land had become his domain and provided him with information, so Hecate also knew that Triton pushed himself to soak all the land.

“Have you also come to ask me to stop the storm, Hecate?”

“…That’s not wrong, but the order differs slightly. For your storm to stop, your wife must first return safely.”

She was indeed a clever woman.

As Triton quietly stared at her, Hecate waved her hand to create a black door. When she opened it, a dark and damp underground prison appeared. It was where Echidna was.

“I thought that if Echidna’s mind remained alive, even slightly, she might tell us where your wife is.”

Triton stared at Hecate with deep eyes, seemingly asking what she meant. The red lips in the shadow of her cloak curved into a smile.

“If the contract between Echidna and your wife remains valid, couldn’t that contract lead us to where she is?”

After hearing Hecate’s words, a gleam momentarily circled in Triton’s eyes. Slowly raising the corner of his mouth, Triton rose from his seat.

“Then we should hurry and dig into that woman’s mind.”

“I’ll do that. Echidna’s mind would be too murky and dark for you to enter… Your light might accidentally draw her attention.”

Hecate led the way into the black door. The damp and musty smell of the underground prison stung their noses terribly. The two gods, indifferently passing several guards protecting the inside and outside, stood before ‘Echidna’ who crouched in the narrow prison.

The woman who had lost her human form resembled a single lump. Deep in the sea, there existed creatures that continuously regenerated no matter how many times they were cut, almost immortal beings.

Echidna was nearly immortal, but the reason her presence seemed so faint was because she existed merely “being alive without dying.”

Triton had transformed Echidna’s body into ‘that thing.’

Her body, which continued to regenerate even as it rotted or was cut away, essentially imprisoned Echidna’s soul.

A state of merely being alive…

Hecate looked at Echidna, her old follower and high priestess, with complicated eyes. How had she become like this, consumed by such greed?

She felt pity, but only momentarily.

No one could match Hecate’s care for her followers, but the current Echidna was merely a betrayer who had abandoned her.

“First… I need to see how broken Echidna’s mind is.”

Hecate closed her eyes as she stood before Echidna. Hecate’s power enveloped Echidna densely, probing her soul. It must have caused pain, as sobbing sounds escaped from Echidna’s mouth.

‘Is this it?’

Echidna’s mind was completely mired in darkness and blood. Finding Echidna hiding in that place, resembling a dirty swamp, proved difficult. However, a faint voice heard from somewhere guided Hecate.

…two… die… someday… one… when… hehehe….

It was Echidna’s voice. As Hecate quietly listened, the voice became increasingly clear.

My stopped curse has begun to flow…. What’s happening? What could it be? Could it be… Could she be pregnant? Really? Hahaha! Hahahaha! Really? Crazy thing! I knew she would cause a big accident. Of course, I knew my thing would succeed!

It was an ominous voice. A child… Could it be that the human woman carried a god’s child?