Hecate started in surprise and leaned in to listen.

Stupid woman! Not thinking that my blood would become a curse and flow…. Stupid Triton! Not knowing my curse was twofold when he cut off that magnificent tail! I should have watched him cut off his own tail! How infuriating! How maddening!

As Echidna shouted, red blood began to stream from her eyes, and her laughter soon turned into wailing.

Sob sob sob…. My pitiful fate. Poor Echidna. Dying like this without even seeing those bastards destroy themselves. I should have seen my blood, embedded in that woman’s heart, flow all the way to Triton’s heir… They’ll be happy, not knowing my curse is twofold. Those stupid fools!

The curse was twofold? Hard to believe. Hecate, who had been listening intently, unconsciously moved closer to where the voice originated. At that moment, Echidna’s mouth, which had been chattering incessantly, stopped abruptly.

…….

Has she been discovered? A tense Hecate quietly erased her presence. After some time passed, Echidna, who had been silent seemingly having let down her guard, began to mutter and sob again.

D*mn it…. My mind is going, and I keep hearing things. This is my world, so who could be here…. Sob sob, I shouldn’t have left those things that made me like this alone…. No! They will be unhappy. Yes, yes… let them love more, seemingly ready to die without each other! That love will destroy you! Ahahaha!

Echidna’s voice, howling in madness, cracked and became difficult to hear. Only revenge, anger, and pain appeared to remain in her already collapsed soul, forcibly sustaining her.

To hide another curse behind a large curse…. She needed to know exactly what it was. She sensed it wasn’t simply a connection where Livia would die if Echidna died.

Hecate picked up pieces of Echidna’s blood and nightmares scattered on the floor. She put the sharp black fragment, with red blood dripping from it, in her mouth and rolled it around with her tongue. The stinging, impure taste scratched the roof of her mouth and seeped deep into her insides.

After completely absorbing it and making it her own, Hecate slowly opened her lips.

“Poor Echidna. How resentful you must be. Not being able to see Triton die… If you could at least see that human woman die, this bitterness might ease a little…”

The voice that flowed out was not Hecate’s, but Echidna’s.

Yes, that’s right! I should have at least seen that betraying woman die!

Two identical voices echoed in the empty space, appearing to come from two Echidnas conversing.

“That woman will die. Because there are two curses. Right?”

Yes, my curse is twofold. That woman will definitely die. Hahaha! The more that stupid Triton loves her, the closer he’s driving her to death!

“…Love? That becomes a curse? Can that really kill that woman?”

Of course! That woman and I shared blood for our contract. My blood is constricting her heart. With just one word, that black blood will burst her heart!

“Then perhaps that word…”

Wait.

Echidna’s voice, which had been muttering madly, suddenly stopped. A strange silence pressed down on the unconscious world.

The space filled with darkness and blood rippled greatly. As a tense Hecate slowly took a deep breath, Echidna’s head, which had been shedding bloody tears in the darkness, rattled and turned backward.

There…

Her neck, turned 180 degrees, stared intently at where Hecate stood. Her face, with blood tears flowing down, twisted grotesquely, and an eerie voice emerged.

You, you’re there?

Echidna, who had been whispering, approached where Hecate was, like a snail, leaving a trail of blood under her skirt.

Hecate neither startled nor avoided, but watched Echidna approach. Though the sight chilled her, someone like Echidna did not frighten Hecate.

…Hecate, my god.

Echidna knelt at Hecate’s feet and looked up at her with black eyes. Red tears flowed down beneath her eyes that seemed empty and pitch black.

Why do you abandon me? I was your most intimate servant. Don’t side with that arrogant and impudent Triton, but help me, your follower.

The desperate voice penetrated Hecate’s ears. Echidna reverently kissed the hem of Hecate’s skirt, trying to show her devotion. A ridiculous sight. After all, Echidna had first turned her back on Hecate.

“You forsook me and cultivated your own power. How can I call a betraying follower a follower?”

That’s because you didn’t respond to my prayers!

Echidna suddenly changed and shouted.

After being abandoned by Triton, I tried to drive him out. I desperately needed your power! But you didn’t answer my prayers then! Because you were afraid to confront Triton! Because you were scared!

A foolish statement. No god would risk threats for the personal revenge of a mere follower.

Moreover, what was someone like Echidna to Hecate…

I needed revenge, and no one helped me. In the end, you betrayed me first, Hecate! You punish me for that? You condemn me? How could you!

“Foolish Echidna…”

Hahaha! It’s fine! I’ve succeeded in my revenge! That woman will die, and Triton will suffer enough to die! That’s enough. I, I… That’s enough!

“Tell me what the second curse is. I can force your mouth open if necessary.”

My curse is a blood curse. My blood holds her heart. If by any chance a child is conceived in that human woman’s body, oh, it will be an even more certain curse. My blood will pass on to that child too… That woman, who would face death for her family, can she really endure that?

Echidna, shedding bloody tears, brimmed with madness. She spewed out words of curse and then screamed seemingly ready to tear apart. The black space shook in response, and the sound of cracking could be heard from far away. A sign of collapse.

“No, Echidna. You still have work to do.”

Aaagh! Aaagh! Let me die! If I die, that woman dies too! Let’s all die, let’s just die! Aaagh!

Boom!

No more time to waste. Hecate froze Echidna’s mind to prevent further collapse. Echidna, touched by Hecate’s cold breath, stiffened like a statue.

Her collapsing world also froze in place. Hecate emerged from Echidna’s cold and dark world.

Echidna, neither physically nor mentally free, remained isolated in her own world, but no one remained to pity her.

In darkness, forever…

***

Hecate, who had escaped from Echidna’s consciousness, staggered to her feet. She wiped her pale face with her hand and turned to look at Triton with a faint sigh.

“We need to hurry. Echidna is destroying her own soul. I barely stopped the collapse, but it’s only a matter of time.”

Echidna’s death connected to Livia. The curse on her heart could be undone with Triton’s tail and the connection severed, but that didn’t mean she was completely free from danger.

My curse is twofold. That woman will definitely die. Hahaha! The more that stupid Triton loves her, the closer he’s driving her to death!

Echidna said the curse was twofold. That Triton’s wife would definitely die…

The trap that Echidna had set could not be flimsy. Her persistent grudge had not diminished even until the moment she shed bloody tears.

‘Besides…’

Hecate hesitated whether to convey this information. She couldn’t imagine how much more crazed the already deranged sea god would become upon hearing this news.

But it was too important to hide. Having already learned it, she couldn’t withhold it.

After deliberation, Hecate opened her mouth.

“And there’s good news and bad news. Or perhaps… they might be the same thing.”

Triton gazed at her quietly, seemingly listening attentively. Beneath Hecate’s black cloak, her eyes, whether purple or red, flashed.

“It seems your companion is with child.”