Miramor froze, its voice cracking into panic.
"How… how can it be possible? How… how… how?!"
It staggered back, shields of shimmering force snapping into place in a frantic blur.
"What… what did you do?"
Hades didn't answer. Shadows gathered at his side, mineral dust swirling in with the darkness. His hands moved with slow, deliberate precision, forging a spear that seemed to devour the light around it. He poured into it everything—power, energy, divinity, every thread of force he commanded.
"MIRAMOR!" Hades' voice cut like a blade. "Let me show you the true power of a king."
Miramor's nullification field flared to life, a dome of shimmering distortion. It had erased countless attacks before. But this time, the darkness in Hades' weapon bled through its edges like ink through water.
Hades' grip tightened. His stance was grounded. The earth beneath him cracked and sagged. With a single motion, he hurled the spear.
It moved like lightning, a streak of black, leaving a tearing trail in the air. The first shield shattered in an instant, then the second, then a dozen more. They didn't break; they disintegrated like ash in a storm.
The spear pierced through Miramor's chest.
No pause.
No resistance.
A black hole bloomed where its heart had been.
Silence followed.
Hades closed his eyes and let his divinity of secrets probe the scene. Illusions could linger. Traps could fake death. But this time, every sign was genuine. Life was gone.
His shoulders dropped. The pressure in the air lifted. With a slow breath, he stepped forward, reached into the fading form, and withdrew a glowing white core.
Fatigue crashed over him. Muscles leaden, body aching, he let himself fall to the ground.
---
Meanwhile,
Far away, Hecate teleported to the eastern edge of the Underworld. She appeared before a vast, chill lake, the air so cold that it froze anything—yet the lake water itself did not freeze.
"Rantor! Come out. We need to talk."
Silence.
"I'll give you one last chance. Come out."
Still nothing.
Her expression hardened. "Fine."
'Arcane Tempest.'
The sky blackened, violet thunder splitting the clouds. Continuous bolts struck the lake with a deafening crack, erupting water into steam and shards of ice. The shockwave rolled for miles. Millions of volts of electricity flowed through the lake.
With a deafening roar, the attack tore through the water.
The lake exploded upward, and a colossal black tortoise carrying glaciers on its back, each peak jagged with centuries of ice, emerged.
Rantor didn't waste time. A beam of condensed energy burst from his mouth, cutting the air with a howl.
Hecate raised her hand. 'Mirror Shield.'
A silver aegis shimmered into existence. The beam struck, vanished into the shield's surface, and re-emerged in reverse, smashing back toward Rantor.
He withdrew into his shell just before impact. His own rebounded beam struck his shell but did nothing.
He remained withdrawn, and then his shell began to spin—slowly at first, then little by little gaining speed and momentum until it reached hurricane force. The water surged upward into a spiraling column, pulling everything toward him. Stones, monsters within range—all were ground into fine particles.
Hecate was also pulled toward the vortex, but she scraped her boots against the ice. 'Crossroad.'
A crimson X burned beneath her feet. She used her binding spell on herself to anchor in place.
'Glaciate Domain.'
As the words left her mouth, the world responded to her command. The roaring waters became still sculptures. The wind halted. Even Rantor's tornado hung in the air like glass.
Hecate's palm rose.
'Arcane Nova.'
Concentrated pure arcane energy formed and took the shape of a sphere. It shimmered with violet radiance like a star in a void. It drifted forward lazily, like a seed swaying in the wind.
Rantor's eyes widened in his frozen prison.
He could sense formidable power behind its harmless appearance.
He tried to break free, but every effort was futile.
The sphere made contact.
The world went black. A dome of annihilation expanded outward, vaporizing everything in its path. Shockwaves from the explosion were felt clearly from the other end of the Underworld. Dimensional cracks spiderwebbed across the sky.
When the chaos cleared, a crater stretched for miles. Rantor lay at the center, shell scorched and cracked, body bleeding. But his kind possessed more vitality than almost any creature alive. Tissues were regenerating at a visible rate, closing his wounds.
Rantor recognized Hecate as a formidable opponent, but he still chose to retreat from the battlefield instead of surrendering. His legs pushed against the ground.
Hecate's brow lifted. "Impressive. Even Cronus would hesitate to take that head-on. And you… You're still breathing."
She snapped her fingers. "Not for long."
The ground erupted as an Earth Golem lumbered forward, fists like boulders. A Skeleton Giant rose, purple fire blazing in its skull. A Venom Tree Serpent slithered into existence, its fangs dripping acid that hissed and burned through stone.
The serpent coiled around Rantor, biting deep into his wounded plates. Poison seeped in, halting his regeneration. The Golem and Skeleton pummeled his injuries.
Rantor still didn't stop; he retreated while stomping and occasionally releasing a concentrated beam at them.
As they were not enough to stop him, Hecate raised her hand.
And more magic followed: Curse, Spectral Bind, and Gravity.
The giant tortoise staggered; his body weight increased severalfold, and an invisible hand bound his every minimal movement.
Suddenly, energy flared within Hecate. Her divinity was now just a step away from reaching the mid-level of a chief god. Her gaze shifted toward the south, and she smiled.
"Huh… It seems my dear husband achieved his objective."
As the poison and curse started taking effect, Rantor vomited blood from his beak.
"With the effect of poison and curse, he'll die… eventually," Hecate muttered. "But I don't have centuries to wait."
Her gaze sharpened. "I need to create a new spell, one with enough penetrating power to pierce his defense."
She began crafting and talking to herself as magic gathered. "For high penetration, the structure should be pointed and aerodynamic, like a lance or an arrow. Add a spinning property to enhance its sharpness and speed."
"Structure is ready. Now, time for its main power. I can use arcane, darkness, crossroads, night, ghost, and nether energy."
She paused. "…And Moon."
Her face shadowed at the memory. The past clawed at her mind, but Rantor's pained roar dragged her back.
"No. No distractions."
Energy swirled around her—arcs of every divinity she possessed. She studied each one's nature. Only the Nether energy remained at the end, weak but with the strange ability to enhance and evolve others.
A thought clicked.
"Hades used this for fusion and to enhance his spells. Maybe… I can follow his style and create what I need."
She tried.
The energies fused for a moment. Then they flared violently and exploded, ripping chunks from the ground.
She coughed, shielding her face. "How does that fool manage it…?"
She tried again. Failed again. And again. Each detonation shook the battlefield, her frustration mounting.