At this moment, inside a palace with deep crimson curtains hanging down, a chaotic and crazed wail echoed through the air.
The black floor, gilded with golden patterns, looked especially eerie under the reflection of the scarlet waves of light.
A ferocious and terrifying soul was spinning rapidly in midair at the center of the palace, letting out a piercing howl.
It floated through the air, but after flying a few meters, it suddenly crashed into the edge of a cage made of blazing orange flames.
The scorching heat of hellfire stimulated its soul, causing it to let out even more frenzied howls.
Its shriveled and slender arms desperately reached out from the cage, trying to grab the giant in front of it.
In front of this cage of flames stood a huge gilded writing desk.
Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, was sitting in a deep crimson velvet chair behind the desk.
One hand supported his cyan face, while the other rested against his chest, his fingers occasionally tapping on the desktop.
Hades' brows were lowered as he watched the mad vengeful soul before him with some boredom.
This crazed and ferocious soul before him was one he had just captured from the millions of souls that had poured into hell.
It seemed to be formed from several skeletal souls combined together, its long and shriveled arms like bare branches in winter, stretching out in all directions.
The shape of the soul kept changing in midair, as if they were entangled with each other one moment and trying to tear themselves apart the next.
These unconscious souls were driven mad, constantly pouring their wails toward Hades, making the entire palace unusually restless.
Hades frowned.
With a stretch of his hand, the deep crimson spear traced a golden arc through the air and easily pierced the ferocious soul's body.
In an instant, the illusory skeletal phantom was severed at the waist, turning into several light ripples that dispersed in all directions.
The spear slowly fell, but Hades' gaze remained fixed on the cage.
Before long, the huge fragmented soul gathered again from all around the space, reforming into its previous chaotic and crazed shape.
The chaotic ghost stretched its deformed body once more and let out a long, piercing shriek.
Hades stopped paying attention to the undying soul before him and lowered his head to record in the papyrus notebook on the writing desk, this type of soul is immortal and indestructible. No method can completely eliminate it.
Every time they disperse, they turn into orange mist, reconstruct their bodies within a few seconds, and appear again in the space they originally occupied.
Just like...
"Just like a god."
Hades muttered to himself, his pen stopping on the final stroke in the notebook.
He slowly raised his head, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the experimental soul in front of him.
If he had to find an existence similar to the kind of soul before him, the only thing Hades could think of was those gods living in the heavens.
And himself.
Gods possessed the trait of immortality and indestructibility. No matter what challenges they encountered, they would never fall into true death.
Like Hades himself, he could even continuously release his own powerful strength through death.
He had also never seen any existence capable of threatening his life.
Even though his current strength was only one-tenth of his complete form.
As he thought about it, Hades suddenly remembered Viktor, whom he had fought earlier.
A thought began to form in his mind.
If there really were a human capable of threatening his life, perhaps that dog thief was the most likely one.
Hades could not help but sneer.
He absolutely would not let that dog thief off easily.
But judging from the current situation, Hades realized one thing.
These millions of souls released into hell were very likely unrelated to that detestable dog thief.
To be able to collect so many immortal and indestructible souls...
Hades was not doubting whether Viktor had the ability to do so. It was simply that these immortal and indestructible souls could hardly possibly appear in the mortal world.
Every one of these souls possessed traits like those of a god.
Given the opportunity, they might even have the potential to become gods and replace those noble heavenly gods far beyond the world.
Hades could not help thinking that the source of these souls was very likely those heavenly gods who only cared about their own interests.
"Is it another plan by that group of gods?"
Hades tightly gripped the shaft of the pen in his hand. His immense strength caused the solid-gold pen to bend slightly.
Ever since he had parted ways with the group of gods in the heavens, Hades had never contacted those things again.
This had caused the celestial realm and the underworld to remain in a delicate standoff, outwardly peaceful but inwardly disdainful of each other.
After all, the gods of the celestial realm could not descend into the underworld, and the gods of the underworld could not ascend into the celestial realm. The two sides had simply continued facing each other like this.
And now, he had settled down and was too lazy to fight with the gods of the celestial realm.
He was now a god with a family, living a carefree life in the underworld.
However, the gods of the celestial realm still seemed to be considering stirring up trouble, dissatisfied with the stalemate between the two realms.
And now, these souls had suddenly trespassed into his territory.
It was difficult for Hades not to think that this had been deliberately done by that human.
Although he could not figure out the other party's purpose for the time being, he had to deal with the problem at hand first.
These tens of millions of immortal souls that had suddenly entered hell had to be strictly controlled.
Otherwise, once these souls spread to every corner of hell, all the dead of the underworld would live in a world filled with pain and wailing, and the entire underworld would lose its peace.
Because these souls possessed the trait of immortality and indestructibility, ordinary methods could not destroy them, making them extremely difficult to deal with.
Hades held his forehead and let out a deep sigh, a strong sense of oppression welling up in his heart.
He took a deep breath, then suddenly stood up and slammed his fist heavily onto the writing desk, gritting his teeth as he complained, "A bunch of failures. In the end, I still have to clean up your mess."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hades stood in front of the writing desk, anger flashing in his eyes as he issued the command of the Lord of the Underworld, "Tell all my soldiers that when they see these undead, don't eliminate them. Bring every single one of them back to me."
His voice instantly became deep and imposing, carrying the impact of raging flames and a mechanical echo as it thundered outward.
The entire underworld trembled because of this deep echo, the sound spreading across the countless lands of the underworld.
Whether it was the scorching lava or the lush grasslands, everything trembled slightly under the powerful sound waves.
Even the silent River of the Dead rippled faintly.
Under this command, countless cyan undead and undead soldiers clad in mysterious steel armor all raised their heads.
Their gazes gathered toward the enormous castle built from blocks of orange flames.
Hades' command was deeply implanted into their minds, even awakening the undead sleeping within the earth.
Mysterious armor appeared out of thin air, rapidly covering their cyan, ghostly bodies.
For a moment, countless bones grew beneath the armor, giving these undead tangible bodies.
As undead soldiers appeared one after another, they quickly formed orderly ranks and began patrolling this world of hell.
The rumbling footsteps spread throughout the entire underworld, echoing through the deep void.
Hades still stood in front of the writing desk, breathing heavily as he stared angrily ahead.
Only when he sensed the countless undead soldiers beginning to move did he slowly close the paper notebook in front of him.
At the same time, his gaze still met that dull, empty-eyed, ferocious soul before him.
"Ugh..."
The soul opened its mouth, revealing black teeth, and a heavy hiss came from its throat.
Looking at the scene before him, Hades fell silent for a moment and began thinking where he stood.
After returning, he had only remembered dealing with these souls.
Now that he thought about it carefully, he always felt as if he had forgotten something particularly important.
"What was it again..."
But Hades racked his brains for a long time and still could not remember.
Yet he had a strong intuition.
It seemed like it was time to consider changing to a new hat.
———
Golden, warm sunlight passed through the sky and spilled onto this springlike land surrounded by vast snowy plains.
Under the sunlight, the green grass shimmered with life, while the snowy plains reflected a crystalline glow.
On this grass-covered land stood a magnificent wooden house built from wooden boards and vines.
A wooden table and several finely carved wooden chairs were placed around the wooden house.
Erika sat upright on a wooden chair, her posture dignified and her expression calm.
On the wooden table in front of her stood a pitch-black one-eyed crow.
A teapot with exquisite patterns seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand. It gently floated up and slowly filled Erika's teacup with tea.
In the air, a gentle and polite voice said, "Please enjoy."
Erika elegantly picked up the teacup and took a small sip.
She felt warmth flow from her throat to her stomach, a kind of warmth that was almost impossible to imagine in this hell.
Just as she finished tasting the flower tea, that ethereal and mysterious voice sounded again, "As expected, you're a living person."
'Huh?'
Erika immediately became somewhat flustered upon hearing this.
Because just now, the powerful aura of the owner of this garden had brought her enormous pressure.
Even with Professor Viktor beside her, it had been difficult for her to calm down at once.
And now, these sudden words made her even more confused.
Was she being tested again?
Why were the people of the underworld all so deep-minded?
"However, little girl, you seem rather special."
This time, that mysterious and ethereal voice carried a little more gentleness, without the same pressure as before.
"It's just that the person I invited wasn't you, but the gentleman on you."
"Why don't you dare appear directly before me? Are you afraid of me?"
Hearing this, Erika did not dare say anything more, because she knew that the other party was talking to Professor Viktor.
Sure enough, Erika clearly felt that although she herself had no intention of speaking, her mouth opened and closed on its own, "Madam, since you wish to meet me, why don't you appear in person and let me have a look at your elegance first?"
At this moment, Erika seemed to have completely changed as a person.
A confident and cold air radiated from the girl's body, appearing particularly contradictory, "Are you afraid that others might misunderstand?"