Hecate’s voice, clear yet somehow eerie like striking an empty ceramic bowl, scattered in all directions. A heavy silence pressed down over the damp, dark underground prison.

Triton’s eyes, which had been staring at Hecate, moved quietly. After calmly looking back and forth between Echidna and Hecate, he suddenly burst into soft laughter.

“…Ah, aah! Livia!”

Triton laughed while holding his forehead. His hand slid down, covering his eyes. His clear laughter spread widely, cutting through the darkness of the underground prison. After laughing heartily enough to shake his shoulders, he suddenly lowered his hand and stared into the darkness, quietly muttering.

“Yes, I knew she would bear my offspring! There’s no way I wouldn’t have sensed it…”

The corner of his mouth curved upward smoothly, inappropriately cheerful for the setting. He stroked his lips as he thought of Livia.

Running away while carrying a child, how pitiful…

It couldn’t be easy for a human body to carry a god’s child, how much must she be suffering out there? Triton shook his head with genuine concern. Thinking of her, that small and fragile body, carrying a baby shark while struggling in the underworld, made his heart feel like it was being torn apart.

‘You should have stayed obediently by my side, Livia.’

She should have been by his side in any situation. Even if Triton had really cut off his tail, Livia should not have left him.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your joy, but don’t forget there’s also bad news.”

“Let’s hear the bad news.”

“It seems the spell cast on her is affecting the child as well. According to Echidna, it’s transmitted through the bloodline…”

“Isn’t that something we can resolve by bringing her back and undoing the spell?”

“Well…”

Hecate took a moment to catch her breath, then spoke with a troubled expression, seemingly sighing.

“It seems Echidna’s spell isn’t just one. It appears she placed a double curse on your companion.”

A double curse.

No, come to think of it, Echidna had already placed several spells on Livia. She had linked Echidna’s own death with Livia’s, and even exchanged blood with Livia while pretending to hand over her golden dagger.

Bang!

A loud noise echoed as the underground prison shook. Ice pillars that had shot up sharply around Echidna were so sharp they looked ready to pierce her at any moment, but they were merely Triton venting his anger.

‘Such a cunning and wicked witch…’

He should have killed her decisively from the beginning instead of throwing her into a labyrinth. He should have cut off her breath for good when she crawled up his knee and reached for his trident with a face full of greed.

It was his fault for not being ruthless enough then. All this karma was clearly his fault for not handling things decisively when they happened.

So this time, he must not make the same mistake…

Triton thought as he crushed the sharp tip of the gleaming ice pillar.

He would cut out the rotten parts to prevent future trouble, and take definitive measures to ensure Livia would never dare to leave him or even think about it.

In that sense, he was convinced that an heir would be… a very good means.

Paternal feelings for a child not yet born weren’t particularly real to him. But his feelings for Livia were different. His clear obsession and desire for the companion who had slipped from his grasp were so vivid they drove him nearly to madness.

Beloved Livia…

My human, who I desperately want to see despite betraying me again.

“Triton, we must hurry. Echidna is dying. Since we can’t be certain how her death will affect your companion and child, we need to bring her here quickly and break the spell.”

Hecate was right. Without delay, Triton left the hellish underground prison. Small whirlpools formed beneath his feet with each step he took.

‘You’re carrying my child, Livia…’

A part of him had coiled inside her, stubbornly taking root in that small body. The thought made Triton shudder.

A part of him had become a part of her.

Not only that, but he now had in his grasp the family that Livia would die for.

A very solid connection that would ensure she could never betray him again.

The rising excitement heated his heart. A faint red light swirled over his greatly expanded chest. With his breath swelling, he summoned his subordinates, including Phorkys, Actius, and Dugong.

When Triton, who had been secluded in the depths of his inner fortress pouring out his fierce power to find the missing Livia, suddenly appeared, his subordinates rushed over in surprise.

Although Triton had become so fierce that no one dared approach him, somehow his expression was bright. Before his stirring subordinates, Triton smoothly raised the corner of his mouth and said:

“I have good news and bad news to tell you.”

Could it be… has he found her!

What other news could make Triton happy at this moment? Just as Actius and Dugong looked at him with swelling expectations, news more shocking than finding Livia burst from Triton’s mouth.

“It seems a small shark has entered Livia’s womb.”

At once, gasps erupted from the generals’ mouths. A small shark! That means… could it be that the human woman was carrying a god’s child!

“Oh… my goodness!”

“I-impossible!”

It was certainly good news, but the problem was that Livia had disappeared without a trace.

The entire world was searching for her due to Triton’s anger, yet still not even a strand of her hair had been found.

So it was difficult to accept this simply as joyful news.

“Actius.”

“Speak, my lord.”

“I sense my heir’s energy from the underworld. That should be reason enough, so go to Hades once more and tell him to find my wife. If he doesn’t find her by tomorrow…”

He now had a justification to overturn the underworld. He was the kind of person who would gladly take that justification and do something as crazy as starting a war.

Triton, smiling beautifully, caressed his trident and whispered.

“I will have no choice but to force open the gates of the underworld myself and personally turn the place into a wasteland.”

Actius looked up with a pale face in surprise, but soon bowed deeply, indicating he would follow his orders.

With his wife and now the matter of his heir at stake… he couldn’t just silently watch the underworld’s negligence.

The eyes of all the predators lying low at Triton’s feet gleamed sharply.

Without delay, Actius headed to the underworld, carrying Triton’s message.

***

Zagreus’s palace was located in the deepest and most secluded part of the underworld. The black palace, built with fine onyx and obsidian, was magnificent but not bustling. This was because no one came and went from Zagreus’s palace.

This place was entirely his space.

In that quiet darkness, within his private space, Livia was sleeping.

It was the first time Zagreus had let someone into his castle. The fact that Livia was the first made his heart swell.

A pure space where no one had ever been admitted…

It wasn’t that he particularly rejected others, but he didn’t have any desire to keep them close either, so he always chose to be alone.

When he recalled the whispers about him—”blasphemous birth,” “leech god who doesn’t die even when killed,” and such—he didn’t want to keep others close.

The very existence of others provoked his murderous intent. And Zagreus had never tried to suppress the rising urge to kill.

Thus, naturally, the area around him became empty.

He had never been dissatisfied with that. Rather, being alone was comfortable. He detested formalities and cumbersome things. Especially… being under others’ gaze.

Not becoming the heir to the underworld was for a similar reason. Zagreus thought he didn’t fit that position.

But now his thinking has changed a bit.

The weak are trampled upon.

The countless spirits he had seen in the underworld proved this, and his own situation—hiding his body in darkness to avoid the eyes of Zeus and Hera—was another example proving this.

Hunting, too, was an act of the strong devouring the weak. Weren’t the nymphs of death who died by his hands also trampled upon?

And what about his own image confronting Triton, that king of the sea?

“They call you a dirty b*stard child made of noble blood. That just means you’re a mongrel, right?”

Even after hearing such insults, Zagreus had to back down. Not only that, but he also lost the thing he desperately wanted for the first time in his life.

Because he wasn’t qualified, because he lacked power, because he was weak…

But his father, Hades, had said something different.

“You are not weak; you are pretending to be weak. Wake up now and look at yourself. How long will you keep imprisoning yourself?”

Zagreus could no longer bear his weak self. That’s why he decided to believe Hades’ words.

To become strong, to not lose to anyone, to be not a hidden existence but one of fear and dominance…!

So that… I can grasp whatever I want.

“……”

Zagreus quietly looked at Livia, whom he had laid on his bed, then slowly kissed her forehead.

Despite his vehement denials, it seemed he too had the blood of that shameless rogue flowing in him.

Seeing how he longed for something that wasn’t his.

But rather than living weakly while denying himself, it was better to accept himself as he was and become strong. He didn’t want to feel that misery and devastation again.

He rose from his seat after sprinkling the powder of Hypnos, the god of sleep, on Livia’s eyelids.

Leaving his castle, he went to Hades’ palace.