Chapter 40
"Lord Hades! Please help us! A monster, half-snake and half-human...!"
This is... a prayer from my devotee.
A desperate prayer from someone who has formally become a priest.
As I focus briefly on the devotee's vision following the plea, I see something.
Faintly passing by is a monster with a snake's lower body and a human's upper body... a Gigas!
Have we finally caught their trail?
"Goddess Styx, it seems a Gigas has appeared in the living world. I'll need to descend into a human body for a moment, so..."
"...! I'll inform Olympus right away!"
Goddess Styx puts down her nectar and moves swiftly.
I too quickly left the banquet hall.
"What...!"
"A Gigas?!"
It's too far to run from the Underworld to Thebes.
My devotee has enough faith to accept me...
Descending into that human's body to assess the situation is the fastest method.
***
"Hehe... Eating one or two humans won't even be noticeable..."
"Restrain yourself, we need to use them as sacrifices for the summoning."
Near the middle of a mountain a bit away from Thebes, in a dark cave.
Muscular monsters with snake lower bodies and human upper bodies lick their lips as they look at the humans dragged into the cave.
About 10 monsters, each with a body as large as several adult men combined.
As Hades guessed, they were the Gigantes, adversaries of the gods.
"Ugh... Mom..."
"Apollo will help us from the heavens..."
"Lady Artemis, please answer our prayers."
Dozens of people were trembling in a corner of the cave.
They were ordinary civilians kidnapped by the Gigantes near Thebes.
Among them was Penedeia, a female priest of Hades' temple.
Thinking no one would dare touch a priest of the Underworld, she had ventured outside Thebes without worry, but...
'So this is why people were occasionally disappearing near Thebes...'
She never imagined that monsters far surpassing humans would capture her.
"Hahaha! Do you think the Olympian gods watching from the sky can see inside this cave?!"
"If you wait quietly, we'll kill you without pain!"
The Gigantes mock the people who are crying in despair.
The gods did not respond to their desperate prayers.
Because not all wishes reach the gods.
Prayers not offered at a god's temple, prayers without many offerings,
Prayers not from nymphs, demigods, or formal priests are not easily heard by the gods.
'Is the reason they kidnapped us for that ritual going on over there?'
While all the other monsters had male faces,
The monster in the middle of the cave was different.
A beautiful female-bodied monster standing on a magic circle made of blood, chanting spells.
"This many sacrifices should be enough to summon Him..."
"Lord Enkelados. The preparations are now complete."
"Is that so? Push the humans in!"
One of the half-human half-snake monsters called another monster holding a huge club.
He must be the one commanding these monsters.
"You, come here first."
"Kyaaaah!"
A rough hand grabs a woman's hair and throws her.
The female-bodied monster reaches out, grabs her heart, and rips it out, sprinkling it on the ground.
"Ugh... Aaaaah!"
"No. I don't want to die-urk!"
Splat.
"Don't make such a noisy fuss."
It's useless to try to escape.
It's useless to try to resist.
All humans brought here can't escape,
They'll just be sacrificed for that bizarre ritual.
The man chosen as the next sacrifice shouts.
"Do... do you think the gods will stay idle? You'll watch your demise from the Underworld!"
"How scary. Hahahahaha! If only Goddess Athena would come!"
As the leader-like monster with the club mocks him, the cave fills with laughter.
As these inhuman beings who don't even fear the gods laugh loudly, the humans become even more terrified.
"Hm. When we defeat all the Olympian gods, I'll make Athena my wife."
"Of course that's possible for you, Lord Enkelados. But first, we need to hurry and summon Him..."
"Shut up, are you ordering me based on your defeated husband?"
The leader monster rebukes the female-bodied monster for urging the ritual.
Penedeia, the priest of Hades, closes her eyes and offers the most desperate prayer of her life.
'Lord Hades! Please help us! A monster, half-snake and half-human...!'
"Hey, bring that woman in black clothes over here."
"Yes!"
It's her turn next.
The Gigas who received the order roughly grabs the priest's long hair.
Penedeia, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, clasps her hands and mutters.
'Please... I beg you desperately. These terrible monsters here...'
As the hopeless prayer continues,
In that moment that feels like an eternity,
'Don't worry now, I have arrived.'
Salvation has come to the mortal.
***
The woman who was praying while her hair was grabbed suddenly raises her head and faces the Gigas in front of her.
Instead of the pupils a human should have, deep darkness swirled in both of her eyes.
"Huh? This one's eyes... Guuurk!"
A black shadow from beneath her feet shoots up, piercing through the Gigas's wrist and neck in order.
It was too pitiful a death for a monster that could stand against the gods.
"Divine power? Even an Olympian god shouldn't be able to do this while possessing a human body...!"
"You came here without divine objects or weapons, how brave!"
As she slightly waves her hand, a black line connects the surrounding Gigantes rushing towards her, or rather, him.
The pitch-black divine power tears through space and also rips apart the monsters' bodies, harder than steel.
Crash! Boom!
What remains now is... Enkelados, who blocked the female-bodied monster while deflecting the attack with his huge club.
And the female-bodied monster frowning behind him.
"Who are you? One of the 12 Olympian gods?"
"Plutus, the god of wealth... No, I am Hades. You've heard my name, haven't you?"
"...One of the Big Three!"
The bident only answers to Hades himself, not his avatar.
The Styx Sword is at the waist of his main body in the Underworld.
The Kynee, the divine object made by the Cyclops, was placed in the Underworld's treasure vault.
The human body that offered the prayer is an ordinary female priest, not a hero or demigod.
However, the identity of the god who has descended here now is Hades, the ruler of the Underworld.
"Damn worm bastards..."
Mere careless Gigantes were no match for him.
***
I succeeded in descending at a critical moment.
If I had been a little later, my priest's head would have been crushed by the Gigas's hand.
"Plu... Lord Hades!"
"Master of the Underworld..."
"The wealthiest one, the Lord of Souls has come to the living world to save us..."
The surrounding humans murmur.
However, they seem to feel relief rather than fear at the name Hades.
It's natural, as they were about to be sacrificed in that horrible ritual...
I glanced at the humans kneeling, clasping their hands, and shedding tears, then turned my gaze back to the Gigas holding the club.
The one who met my eyes flinched for a moment, then ordered the female-bodied monster behind him.
"Hm. The likes of you are no problem. Once He arrives!"
But I had already grasped the entire situation when I descended here.
Including what that ritual was.
"The strange formation on the ground is similar to the trap you set on Naxos Island."
"...!"
"The dense divine power of the earth, the feeling of praying for someone to descend somewhere, it's similar to the magic Goddess Hecate showed during the Titanomachy..."
I waved my hand to send the humans out.
Because this entire cave and mountain might collapse from now on.
"Hurry up with the ritual!"
"I have no intention of stopping it, so prepare slowly. I need to see with my own eyes who is siding with you lot."
Although the two monsters are extremely wary of me, I have no intention of stopping the ritual.
The magic formation on the ground, made by grinding up numerous humans and pouring in the earth's divine power, is for a god's descent.
I must confirm here who is siding with the Gigantes.
The gods will notice from the energy released when the descent ritual succeeds.
Before long, the gods' attack will overturn this mountain.
Gaia must know this.
Despite that, the reason for trying to make someone descend is...
"Gaia's declaration of war. A provocation and warning for the failure of the trap set on Naxos Island."
"What nonsense are you spouting, you!"
"By the way, who are you behind there? All Gigantes are male. You're not a Gigas."
The female-bodied monster trembles as I hit the mark.
She was a monster with a snake's lower body like the Gigantes, but she didn't feel like a Gigas at all.
Probably a different monster that just looks similar.
"I am Echidna, wife of Typhon! I will kill all of you hateful gods!"
Typhon's wife, so that's it.
The motive makes sense. Gaia must have taught them about the strange ritual on the ground.
"Come to me! Great Titan who exists everywhere and never disappears!"
Stab!
Echidna raised a dagger high and stabbed her own chest.
She collapsed, but powerful divine energy spreads from the wound, shaking the cave.
Rumble-
My body stiffens.
Time gradually slows down.
Soon, Echidna, who had fallen to the ground after stabbing her own chest, stands up and looks at me.
This is a fight-fire-with-fire method that even Gaia wouldn't approve of...
It seems the Earth Mother really wants to drive us out.
"It's been a long time, my eldest son, Hades. Did you miss your father?"
To think they would drag Kronos's consciousness, trapped in Tartarus, to the living world.