Godslayer's Legend

Hestia was almost as nervous as she had been when her siblings had risen against their father, Kronos.

The reason for this was very simple.

Hades was currently even stronger than their father, Kronos, had been.

Hades had attained the ability to wield cosmic energy, and his existence realm had surpassed the limits of the Monarch Realm.

This confirmed to Zeus, Poseidon, and the others who had once been uncertain that Existence Realms higher than the Monarch Realm truly existed.

And given Hades’ current level of power, it was highly likely that he knew how to attain those higher Realms.

What was more, Hades also possessed their father’s scythe, a cosmic weapon whose true capabilities they still did not understand.

It was the same weapon Kronos had used to fell the Protogenoi Ouranos, arguably one of the strongest beings to ever exist in Olympus.

That weapon was now in Hades’ hands, and Hades was capable of wielding its full power.

Even though Hestia knew that Hades did not detest her in the same way he did the rest of their siblings, it did not change the fact that there was still a level of fear toward Hades’ current power within her heart.

The Palace of Hades was empty.

Hestia couldn’t sense anyone’s presence within it, not even Persephone’s.

As she moved deeper into the palace, she noticed Hecate and Thanatos in the distance, but they were the only people besides Hades that she could detect within the entirety of the Apex World.

The silence within the grand Palace of Hades made its immense size even more apparent as Hestia walked through its vast halls, eventually reaching the throne room.

There, seated upon the throne of the Ruler of the Dead, was Hades.

He was slouching back, one elbow resting on the armrest, his face supported by his palm, and his eyes closed.

Hestia, as well as the other Olympians, had all concluded that the reason Hades had finally allowed her to enter the Underworld was because the backlash from Causality had become too much for him to endure.

They believed that he was finally feeling the pressure caused by the Law of Causality’s actions, forcing him to reopen the Underworld so that Olympus’ systems could continue operating properly.

That was what they had assumed, but the moment Hestia laid eyes on Hades, she immediately understood that every one of their assumptions was completely wrong.

Hades was perfectly fine, and he wasn’t even pretending otherwise.

He made no effort to hide or conceal any trace of his power from her, allowing her to sense that his strength was complete.

None of his Authorities had been weakened. In fact, he possessed more Monarch Rank Authorities than she remembered him having, surpassing even the number possessed by Zeus and Poseidon.

She couldn’t see cosmic energy, but she could sense that something invisible was preventing the sparks of Causality that occasionally appeared around his body from reaching him.

When he moved his right hand slightly forward, more sparks appeared, but not a single one of them touched him. It was as if the Law of Causality itself was attempting to affect him, but something was distorting its influence away from him.

’This is the Law Distortion effect of a Singularity Existence! I’m sure of it!

But how? Is it because of cosmic energy? Can someone achieve such a ridiculous feat of power with cosmic energy?’

She barely managed to keep her expression from changing, taking a deep breath to calm herself before opening her mouth to speak.

"Hades."

The moment she called his name, he immediately responded.

"I know why you’re here. You’ve come to bother me about unsealing the Underworld, haven’t you? Really, Hestia, why are you so persistent?"

Hades finally opened his eyes, his obsidian irises faintly reflecting the dim light as he continued.

"Health, home, unity, the symbolic heart of Olympus. Do you value maintaining that facade so much that you would risk your life coming here?"

Hestia remained silent for a moment after Hades spoke, and finally, Hades sat upright on his throne before speaking.

"This is my domain, my Underworld. I could decide to kill you where you stand, and there is nothing you can do to fight for your life."

"But you won’t," Hestia responded.

Hearing this, Hades showed an expression of faint surprise before speaking.

"You seem awfully confident."

The moment he said those words, he raised his right hand, and Kronos’ scythe appeared. Its handle extended while its blade curved around Hestia’s neck, coming close enough to tear her skin and spill golden blood from the wound.

"Why are you so confident that I wouldn’t simply pull this scythe and remove your head, just like I did Ares?"

Despite being on the verge of death, Hestia forced herself to remain calm before responding.

"Because I’m not the target of your anger."

When she spoke those words, Hades froze for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"Now, that’s a better response than I expected. If you had said something about ’family’, I might have actually had to reconsider my opinion of you."

The scythe vanished from his hand, and Hestia’s wound slowly healed. This was a natural result of Hades not imbuing any energy into the scythe when he used it against her. Because of that, its ability to prevent regeneration was not activated.

Leaning back on his throne, he asked,

"Say, Hestia, do you think I am justified?"

This was a question far heavier than the casual manner in which Hades asked it.

Justification was a simple word with a heavy meaning.

It was what higher existences often sought in order to present themselves and their actions as being right.

"We were justified." "I was justified." "They were justified."

Statements like these had been used as reasons for wars, conflicts, and bloodshed throughout millions upon millions of years.

And now, Hades had directed that question toward his sister.

Attacking Dodekapolis, killing Apollo, Dionysus, Athena, and Ares, sealing off the Underworld, and causing chaos throughout Olympus that affected billions of mortals who had absolutely no understanding of what had happened.

Was he justified?

When faced with this question, Hestia surprisingly didn’t hesitate to answer.

"Initially, you were. However, you lost your justification the moment your retaliation against Zeus involved innocent mortals who were completely unrelated to your conflict with him."

Hearing her response, Hades silently nodded before muttering,

"I lost my justification, huh?"

A dry laugh escaped his lips as he placed both arms on the armrests of his throne and looked toward the ceiling before speaking.

"You’re saying that I should have stopped after killing Zeus’s children because he killed mine, and that I shouldn’t have sealed off the Underworld. Is that correct?"

"Ideally, yes."

The word "ideally" in Hestia’s response caused Hades to raise an eyebrow.

"Ideally?"

Taking a deep breath, Hestia explained,

"Even if you didn’t stop at killing them, their deaths would still have caused innocents to become involved because of their positions as Main Entities, and the destabilisation of the universe’s systems caused by their deaths."

"So what should I have done then, Hestia?" he asked. "Because my son was the Progenitor of godslayers, I should have simply endured everything and done nothing, because retaliating would harm innocents?

Tell me, what damage has my son ever caused Olympus? What damage has my son ever caused Zeus?

"The only thing damaged was his pride, because he couldn’t accept the fact that the Child of Destruction spoken about in prophecy was his brother’s child."

Hades scoffed after speaking, and when Hestia attempted to respond, he raised his hand to stop her.

"You know what? Don’t bother answering. I don’t care for your answer anyway. It’s all useless in the end."

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs as he continued.

"We may call ourselves Higher Existences. We may fancy ourselves as Kings and Rulers of enormous regions of space throughout this universe and the many vassal universes Olympus has conquered through war over hundreds of thousands of years, but we’re all so predictable.

Very, very predictable, all of us."

Hades scoffed again before shaking his head, closing one of his fists as he continued.

"Since this is all Zeus’ fault, why don’t I take a page from his book?"

Hades rose from his throne and spoke.

"The unsealing of the Underworld is what you seek."

He took a step down the dais the throne sat upon.

"To restore order to Olympus’ working systems."

He took another step down.

"To allow you to properly function in the ongoing war."

Finally, he completely descended from the dais, standing at the same eye level as Hestia.

"Why not make it a game?" he said.

Hestia immediately frowned, but Hades ignored her reaction and infused magic power into his closed fist, creating a pair of dice.

He walked toward her, handed her the dice, and then spoke.

"Take it and toss the dice onto the floor."

For a moment after he said this, silence filled the space.

Hestia couldn’t understand what Hades was attempting to do. She couldn’t understand why he was giving her a pair of dice and asking her to throw them.

While she stayed silent, Hades continued.

"This offer is very limited. If you refuse to take it, then we shall see how the next few decades of the war will proceed for Olympus."

Hearing this very blatant threat, Hestia bit her lip and finally took the dice from Hades’ hands.

"What is it for?" she asked carefully.

Hades rubbed his chin before responding.

"It’s a surprise. The god of the Underworld’s surprise."

Turning around, he walked back to his throne, took his seat, and gestured toward the floor.

"Toss the dice, Hestia. Let’s leave things to chance."

For a moment, there was silence.

Finally, Hestia threw the pair of dice. They bounced across the floor, hit each other, and then fell onto their sides.

The upward-facing side of one die showed two dots.

The upward-facing side of the other showed four dots.

Seeing this, Hades spoke.

"Wow, a perfect half. Very well then."

He looked up at Hestia and continued in his True Voice.

|For two months, every four years, I shall unseal the Underworld.|

Hestia’s eyes widened in shock at Hades’ words. She wanted to object, but Hades continued speaking.

|During those two months, the systems of Olympus shall function normally. The reincarnation path shall fulfil its intended purpose. But once those two months end, I shall reseal the Underworld for another four years.|

"Wait, Hades, don’t—"

"This courtesy is the greatest I can offer you, dear sister," Hades said, cutting Hestia off.

Hades raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, forcibly expelling Hestia from the Underworld.

Darkness temporarily covered Hestia’s vision, and when it disappeared, she found herself falling onto a field of flowers on a planet within the nearest galaxy to the Underworld.

The moment she sat up, she sensed something containing immense divinity appear from her own shadow.

It was an hourglass radiating the divinity of her father, Kronos, and the moment she touched it, the sand within the upper half of the hourglass began falling toward the bottom.

Immediately, the universe trembled, and she felt the distorted systems of Olympus begin returning to their proper functions as the Underworld was unsealed.

The laws of life and death began operating properly once more.

Souls began flowing through their cycles, and from every section of the Underworld, Arbiters of Hades rushed out, spreading across planets to capture the lost souls that had been wandering through the waking world.

As Hestia sensed all of these movements, she looked at the hourglass lying on the ground before her, its sand slowly falling toward the bottom, and immediately understood.

That hourglass was the timer for the Underworld’s opening.

The moment the sand completely reached the bottom, the Underworld would be sealed once more, and the universe would once again enter a period of stagnation, a recurring scar in time that would remind all of Olympus of Hades’ wrath.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!