Samael's fingers resting on Hades' shoulder transmitted a distinctive rhythm of Ether resonance. Guided by that trace, the Underworld King's divine will locked onto an aura, and in the next instant his pupils reflected a sight that made his eyes nearly split with rage.
Above the leaden clouds of deathly miasma, a ferocious dragon was gripping his beloved wife, Persephone, carrying her as it beat its wings across the endless plains. Below them, wailing and shrieking evil spirits clawed at the sky, desperately trying to drag down the goddess brimming with vibrant life.
"You know what you should do, Lord Hades, don't you?"
The Ancient Serpent cast a sideways glance toward the still-entangled battlefield behind him, where several grotesque shadows lurked. The meaning behind his smile needed no explanation.
Hades' face darkened. He flicked his fingers forward, and after a faint hum of steel, the Underworld Sword was pulled back through the air under its master's authority.
Shk!
Forced into submission, the Lord of the Underworld clenched his teeth and drove the blade into the ground, chanting in a low, restrained voice.
Crimson-black light patterns spread outward in rippling waves, reaching the feet of the Titans and monsters still locked in brutal combat with the human Heroic Spirits. Hades twisted the sword hilt in reverse.
At once, hundreds of divine-seal puppets seemed to sink into a mire. An alien force tugged at them inch by inch, dragging them into the deep vortex formed by the reverse-spinning crimson-black light.
Roars shook the heavens as monsters large and small thrashed wildly, their claws gouging deep furrows into the ground.
But as the silver-white divine seals on their foreheads dimmed and their consciousness fell silent, they were dragged one after another into the boundless abyss of the Tartarus caverns.
Even the two mighty Hecatoncheires were not spared, eventually swallowed by the spreading darkness.
As the battlefield grew quiet, the Ether pillar that had pierced heaven and earth slowly faded. In the instant before the ground vortex closed, Samael did not forget to toss in the sea god's amber that imprisoned the last giant, Briareos.
Hum!
Hades pulled his sword free. The crimson-black light twisted, shattered, and finally dispersed into nothingness.
Flames burned in Hades' eyes as he glared viciously at his enemy and growled coldly,
"Is that enough?!"
"Not enough. I want you to personally swear an oath before the Goddess of Oaths. You will not aid Zeus, and you will not interfere in Olympus' struggles for divine authority!"
Those words only stoked the Underworld King's anger further. Yet as he lifted his head, he seemed to realize something. His gaze froze as he stared in shock at the turquoise pillar of light descending from the sky.
That clear, cool female voice belonged to Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, who was now walking toward them, olive branch in hand.
Behind her, the fearsome dragon rapidly shrank down to a miniature form. It hopped onto the Queen's shoulder, lazily licking its claws, looking gentle and harmless.
"My love, why are you standing with these rebellious gods against your father? Do you even understand what you're doing?"
Hades snapped back to his senses, his body going rigid, disbelief written across his face.
He never imagined that even his own wife, the Queen of the Underworld, would side with these outsiders.
"Father? I was nothing more than a tool he used to bind you to him! If not for the mediation of the Goddess of Justice, even the four months I'm allowed on the surface to reunite with Mother would have been taken from me!"
Persephone clenched her teeth, her words overflowing with resentment.
Clearly, the Queen of the Underworld harbored deep bitterness toward Zeus.
It was hardly surprising. During the war between the old and new gods, Zeus had used a calculated seduction to gain the support of the elder Titans, uniting with Demeter, the goddess of agriculture.
From that union, Persephone was born, and as the years passed, she grew ever more graceful and radiant.
By then, Demeter had long seen through Zeus' boundless lust and infidelity. The way he repeatedly lingered on their daughter Persephone had filled the goddess with dread and unease.
To keep her daughter out of Zeus's grasp, Demeter hid her away in a cave.
Yet Zeus, whose talent for infidelity was unmatched, still found the young and beautiful girl and forced himself upon her.
After being violated several times, Persephone gave birth to a horned son, Zagreus.
The newborn Zagreus crawled up Mount Olympus, climbed onto Zeus's throne, and waved Zeus's thunderbolts with his tiny hands. On the surface, Zeus laughed heartily and hinted that the child would one day inherit his throne.
But the God King, already driven mad by authority and bound by the curse of divine kingship, gradually began to harbor ill will toward the child.
The jealous Queen Hera incited the Titans to abduct Zagreus, plunging the situation into chaos.
The Titans slipped all the way to the outskirts of Olympus without being noticed, easily seized Persephone's son, strangled him, tore him apart, boiled him over a fire, and finally devoured him.
If not for the compassion of Themis and Athena, who salvaged the child's heart, sealed it in a small box, and brought it back to Olympus, her son would have vanished completely.
Even so, when Persephone begged her father Zeus to save the pitiful child, his solution was to swallow the heart himself, preserving Zagreus's consciousness.
Later, Zeus took Semele, princess of Thebes, as a lover and placed Zagreus's consciousness into her womb. From this union was born Dionysus, the god of wine, now one of the Twelve Olympians.
A flawed god born of a mortal womb could never threaten Zeus's throne.
Meanwhile, Persephone, who wept day and night, never even had the chance to reunite with her son. Seeking solace, she went into the valleys to pick narcissus flowers, only to be abducted by Hades, whose desire was at its height.
The narcissus was the sacred flower embodying the will of the Lord of the Underworld. By touching it without permission, she violated a taboo—this was the original reason Persephone was detained in the Underworld.
After losing her daughter, Demeter fell into profound grief. She abandoned Olympus and searched frantically across the world. Her unbalanced authority caused vegetation to wither and life to vanish from the land.
Only when the situation became impossible to contain did Zeus remember this so-called daughter of his and hypocritically send for her return.
But by then, Persephone had already eaten the food of the Underworld and was bound by its authority.
In the end, Demeter appealed to Themis. Through the Justice Goddess's firm advocacy, Persephone was granted four months each year to ascend to the surface and reunite with her mother.
Having endured repeated calamities, Persephone was no longer an innocent, naïve maiden.
Her son's murder and her own exile to the Underworld were both, in one way or another, inseparable from her father Zeus.
So expecting Persephone to share some harmonious, loving bond of father and daughter with Zeus was pure nonsense.
And just now, amid the fierce clash between both sides, Samael secretly released the Colchis ferocious dragon. Using the token of War God Mountain, it successfully abducted Persephone and brought her here.
Already brimming with resentment toward Zeus, the Queen of the Underworld proved decisive. With War God Mountain acting as intermediary, she openly switched sides the moment she arrived, immediately pressuring her husband Hades to choose a new stance.
Even if she could not directly turn the Lord of the Underworld, Persephone intended to drag her husband back to his throne, forcing him to stay out of the conflict and side with neither party.
"My love… he is still your father. If you betray him like this, who will bear the fury of his thunder afterward…?"
Hades spoke with a hint of tragedy, offering a bitter warning.
Of course, there was another reason for his unusually humble tone. His marriage to Persephone owed much to the help of that very brother.
Watching Zeus fall into crisis while standing aside left Hades feeling deeply conflicted.
"You're scared? You useless coward! If you won't agree, I'll go back to War God Mountain with him right now!"
Finally given a chance for revenge, Persephone was utterly resolute. A cold smile curved her lips as she casually pointed at a certain dark-haired, serpent-eyed handsome man at the front.
Samael's mouth twitched. His expression of detached amusement froze as he silently cursed to himself.
Why are you dragging me into a marital argument?