King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 40

King of the Underworld is Tired – Episode 40 (40/82)

Ominous Sign – (2)

“Lord Hades! Please help me! A monster that’s a combination of a snake and a human…!”

This is… a prayer from one of my followers.

A desperate prayer from someone who has formally become a priest.

Following the plea and briefly focusing on the devotee’s perspective, something appears.

Faintly flashing past is a monster with the lower body of a snake and the upper body of a human… a Gigas [a race of giants in Greek mythology]!

Have I finally caught the tail of these bastards?

“Goddess Styx, it seems a Gigas has appeared in the mortal realm. I need to descend into a human body for a moment…”

“…! I will inform Olympus immediately!”

Goddess Styx puts down the nectar she was drinking and moves swiftly.

I also quickly left the banquet hall.

“What…!”

“A Gigas?!”

Running from the Underworld to Thebes is too far.

My devotee has enough faith to accept me…

The quickest way is to descend into that human’s body and assess the situation.

* * *

“Hehe… it wouldn’t be noticeable if we just grabbed and ate one or two humans…”

“Hold on, we need them as sacrifices for the summoning.”

A dark cave near the mountainside, a little away from Thebes.

Muscular monsters with the lower bodies of snakes and the upper bodies of humans are drooling as they look at the humans dragged into the cave.

Over ten monsters, each with a physique that seems to be a combination of several adult men.

As Hades suspected, they were the enemies of the gods, the Gigantes.

“Ugh… Mom…”

“The god Apollo will help us from the sky…”

“Artemis, please answer us.”

Dozens of people were trembling in one corner of the cave.

These were ordinary civilians who had been kidnapped by the Gigas near Thebes.

Among them was Penedeia, a female priest of the Temple of Hades.

She had ventured outside Thebes, feeling secure that no one would dare to touch a priest of the Underworld,

‘There was a reason why people were often disappearing near Thebes…’

She never imagined that monsters far surpassing humans would capture her.

“Hahaha! Do you think the Olympian gods looking down from the sky can see inside this cave?!”

“If you wait quietly, we’ll kill you without pain!”

The Gigas laugh at the people crying and despairing.

The gods did not answer their desperate prayers.

Because not everyone’s wishes are conveyed to the gods.

Unless the prayer is offered at the temple of the god being invoked, or a large offering is made,

Prayers from nymphs, demigods, or formal priests are more likely to be heard by the gods.

‘The reason they kidnapped us is because of the ritual in progress?’

All the other monsters had male faces,

But the monster in the middle of the cave was different.

A beautiful female monster standing on a magic circle made of blood and chanting.

“This many sacrifices should be enough to summon him…”

“Enceladus [one of the Giants in Greek mythology, often associated with volcanic activity], preparation is now complete.”

“Is that so? Push the humans in!”

One of the half-human, half-snake monsters called another monster holding a huge club.

Perhaps he is the one commanding these monsters.

“You, come here first.”

“Kyaaaa!”

A rough hand grabs the woman’s hair, drags her, and throws her.

The female monster reaches out, grabs her heart, pulls it out, and scatters it on the floor.

“Ugh… Ughhh!”

“Ah. No. I don’t want to die!”

Thud.

“Don’t make so much noise.”

It’s no use trying to escape.

It’s no use trying to resist.

All the humans dragged here cannot escape,

They will only be sacrificed in this bizarre ritual.

The next man chosen as a sacrifice shouts.

“Do you think… the gods will stand still? I will watch your end in the Underworld!”

“That’s scary. Hahahaha! I wish the goddess Athena would come!”

The leader monster with the club laughs, and the cave echoes with laughter.

The inhuman beings who do not even fear the gods laugh wildly, and the humans become even more terrified.

“Heh. If I defeat all the Olympian gods, I will take Athena as my wife.”

“Of course, Lord Enceladus, you will be able to do it. But first, summoning him is urgent…”

“Shut up, are you ordering me, trusting your loser husband?”

The female monster urges the ritual, and the leader monster rebukes her.

Penedeia, the priestess of Hades, closes her eyes and offers a more desperate prayer than ever before.

‘Lord Hades! Please help me! A monster that is a combination of a snake and a human…!’

“Hey, drag that woman in black clothes here.”

“Yes!”

She is next.

The Gigas who received the order roughly grabs the priestess’s long hair.

Penedeia, biting her lip until it bleeds, puts her hands together and murmurs.

‘Please… I desperately pray. There are terrible monsters here…’

The endless prayer continues,

In that moment when a fleeting moment felt like an eternity,

‘Don’t worry anymore, I have come.’

Salvation has arrived for the mortal.

* * *

The woman who was praying while being grabbed by the hair suddenly raises her head and faces the Gigas in front of her.

In her eyes, instead of the pupils that humans should have, deep darkness was swirling.

“Huh? This guy’s eyes are… Keueok!”

The black shadow from under her feet soared up and pierced the Gigas’s wrist and neck in turn.

A death too futile for a monster that can even stand against the gods.

“Authority? No matter how much of an Olympian god you are, you can’t do much while possessed in a human body…!”

“You came to this place without divine objects or weapons!”

Then, with a slight wave of her hand, black lines are drawn connecting the surrounding Gigas who were rushing at her, or rather, him.

The jet-black divine power tears through space, and the bodies of the monsters, which are harder than steel, are also torn apart.

Kwaaaaa! Kuung!

Now all that remains is… Enceladus, who blocked the attack with a huge club, blocking the female monster.

And the female monster frowning behind him.

“Who are you, one of the twelve Olympians?”

“Pluto, god of wealth… no, Hades. You must have heard my name?”

“…One of the Three Main Gods!”

The Bident [a two-pronged spear associated with Hades] only answers the call of Hades himself, not an avatar.

The Styx Sword is at the waist of the main body in the Underworld.

The divine object made by the Cyclops, Kynee [a helmet that makes the wearer invisible], was placed in the Underworld treasury.

The body of the human who prayed is not a hero or a demigod, but an ordinary female priest.

However, the identity of the god who has descended in this place is the lord of the Underworld, Hades.

“Damn bug bastards…”

The Gigas, who were caught off guard, could not be his match.

* * *

I managed to descend at a precarious timing.

If I had been any later, my priest’s head would have been crushed by the Gigas’s hand.

“Plu… Lord Hades!”

“Lord of the Underworld…”

“The wealthiest one, the lord of souls, has come to this world to save us…”

The surrounding humans murmur.

However, they seem to feel more relief than fear at the name Hades.

It’s only natural, as they were about to be sacrificed in that terrible ritual…

I glanced at the humans kneeling, putting their hands together, and shedding tears, then turned my gaze back to the Gigas holding the club.

The guy who met my eyes flinched for a moment and then ordered the female monster behind him.

“Heh. You are no problem. If only he would come!”

But when I descended here, I grasped the whole situation.

I also know what that ritual is.

“The strange circle on the floor is similar to the trap you guys dug on the island of Naxos [a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, associated with Dionysus].”

“…!”

“Dense divine power of the earth, a feeling of praying for a descent somewhere, similar to the magic that the goddess of magic Hecate [a Greek goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, and crossroads] showed during the Titanomachy [a ten-year series of battles fought in Thessaly, Greece, consisting of most of the Titans (an older generation of gods, based on Mount Othrys) fighting against the Olympians (the younger generation, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus)]…”

I waved my hand and sent the humans out.

Because this cave and mountain may collapse entirely from now on.

“Hurry up and proceed with the ritual!”

“I have no intention of stopping you, so prepare slowly. I need to see with my own eyes who is siding with you.”

The two monsters are extremely wary of me, but I have no intention of stopping the ritual at all.

The magic circle on the floor, made by grinding countless humans and pouring in the divine power of the earth, is for the descent of a god.

I must confirm in this place who is taking the side of the Gigas.

The energy that is emitted when the descent ritual succeeds will be noticed even by the gods.

Before long, the gods’ attacks will overturn this mountain.

There’s no way Gaia [the primordial goddess of the Earth in Greek mythology] doesn’t know this.

The reason why she is trying to make someone descend despite that is…

“Gaia’s declaration of war. A provocation and warning about the failure of the trap dug on the island of Naxos.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, you bastard!”

“By the way, who are you behind there? All Gigas are male. You are not a Gigas.”

The female monster, stabbed to the heart, trembles.

She was a monster with the lower body of a snake like the Gigas, but she didn’t feel like a Gigas at all.

She must be a different monster that only looks similar.

“I am Echidna [a monster in Greek mythology, often described as half-woman, half-snake], the wife of Typhon [a monstrous giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology]! I will kill all you hateful gods!”

Typhon’s wife, that’s what it was.

The motive is explained. Gaia must have told her about the strange ritual on the floor.

“Come to me! O great Titan who exists everywhere and never disappears!”

Thwack!

Echidna raises a dagger high and stabs herself in the chest.

She collapses, but a powerful divine power spreads from the wound, shaking the cave.

Kuooh-

A stiffening body.

Time gradually slowing down.

Soon, Echidna, who stabbed herself in the chest and fell to the floor, gets up and looks at me.

This is a poison-to-fight-poison strategy that Gaia herself doesn’t like…

It seems that the Earth Mother really wants to drive us out.

“It’s been a while. My eldest son, Hades. Did you miss your father?”

To bring the consciousness of Cronus [the leader of the first generation of Titans], trapped in Tartarus [a deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked], to this world.