||Domain Declaration: Underworld.||
By Hades' Declaration, the surrounding space transformed immediately.
The grey sands covering the asteroid's surface turned black, while the figures of six illusory rivers appeared around them.
Along the meadows beside those rivers, hazy figures wandered aimlessly.
The entire area had effectively become a Pseudo-Underworld.
Hades had used his authority as the King of the Underworld to declare this neutral area a temporary Underworld.
Gollmiran was a high-ranked god in the Superior Stage of the High Tier Deity Realm. His domain was powerful enough to withstand being offset by most gods he knew who were at the same level as him.
However, that didn't mean it couldn't be broken. The current situation was proof of that.
He'd combined his domain with those of eight other gods. Although their Existence Realms were lower than his, they were still able to strengthen his domain and increase its power.
Even so, it was still broken.
Five of the gods whose domains he'd combined with his were in their true god forms, and even then, it was still broken.
He simply couldn't accept the reality before him, and the same was true for the others, as the shock they felt was beyond measure.
They knew the reason this had happened, but they refused to acknowledge it.
Reluctantly, one of them eventually accepted the reality before him, his lips parting as he spoke with a shaky voice.
|Mo-mon—!|
However, he never finished his words. Perhaps it would've been better if he'd remained in denial like the others, because then he might've lived a little longer.
A blade wreathed in dark divinity pierced through space before tearing effortlessly through the god's flesh, piercing their heart and emerging from their back.
|You talk too much.|
Hades' voice echoed out as he pulled his sword from the magic god's defenceless chest.
Simply existing within Hades' domain weakened the magic god far more than when Hades had been trapped inside their combined domain.
Under such circumstances, the magic god, who could've easily survived the simultaneous destruction of multiple solar systems, was effortlessly killed by a stellar-level strike.
|That was for the meteor.|
Hades retrieved the god's soul through Soul Invitation before turning toward the rest and continuing.
|Play time is over.|
His actions pulled them from their shock as they watched another one of their brethren fall before their eyes.
Roaring in rage, the others roused their divinities and charged toward the five-meter-tall Hades, who looked at them the same way one would look at mosquitoes they were about to crush.
He sliced off a piece of the massive asteroid beneath him, stored it within his subspace, then stretched out his palm and cast a magic spell.
|Dark Magic: Black Nova|
It was one of Hades' most powerful attacks, a spell that most High Tier Deities would've reserved as a trump card.
A sphere of pure darkness, no larger than a ping pong ball, emerged from his palm before slowly drifting toward the ground.
The instant the sphere touched the ground—
It became a hypernova.
A thunderous roar completely overwhelmed his sense of hearing. Even those tens of thousands of light-years away could see the hypernova in all its glory.
It was simply that massive.
Some who noticed the hypernova's light or sensed the enormous amount of energy it released either chose to flee from it or headed toward it to investigate.
As for Hades, his vision was consumed by the blinding light of the explosion, he couldn't hear anything, and because the spell had locked him in place, he couldn't even move.
His Pseudo-Underworld was automatically deactivated, along with every other Authority he had active. It was one of the effects of the Black Nova spell, as the caster wasn't permitted to do anything else while it was active.
His domain, however, fulfilled its purpose by amplifying the spell's power by almost 15% before it too was deactivated.
One might think it was only 15%, however, it should be remembered that this was 15% of a hypernova.
Everything caught within the spell's area of effect, including the asteroid he was on, had already been broken down repeatedly at the molecular level.
As for the gods of Borgeth, every defensive spell, skill, or technique they could've cast, along with every defensive artifact or treasure they might've activated, was rendered useless.
Teleportation was equally pointless, after all, the explosion expanded at a speed many times faster than light itself.
This was the power of Hades' Monarch Rank Authority of Darkness, and it wasn't even his full power.
Had they fought within a universe, every star system within the next few thousand light-years of their location would've been reduced to space dust.
The end result of the spell was nothing less than devastating. Nothing was left. Asteroids, stars, whatever it might've been, everything had been erased.
As for those the attack had originally been intended for, all Hades had to do was fly around and collect the souls from the bodies drifting through space, or at least what was left of them.
The darkness wasn't a problem, as his Authority allowed him to see clearly even within the deepest darkness.
|Soul Invitation|
The souls of the gods that still lingered around what remained of their physical bodies were pulled toward his hand.
Every defensive layer surrounding their souls had been completely destroyed. The hypernova dealt soul damage as well, after all.
Some had survived, albeit barely, as they'd been weakened to the point where even a mortal Legendary Realm Existence could kill them, but they'd survived all the same.
That was within expectations. They were gods, after all.
Surviving a supernova or two was well within the realm of possibility for them.
Unfortunately, this had been a hypernova, one cast by Hades, a god far stronger than all of them combined.
It was only natural that they'd be left in such a weakened state, and that also meant they couldn't resist as their souls were torn from their physical bodies while they screamed in agony.
Hades counted the souls as he preserved them and realised one was missing. Looking around, he spotted the last one still alive, the only High Tier Deity among the group.
|As expected of a Main Entity, you can survive my enhanced hypernova and still possess enough strength to resist having your soul pulled from your body.|
Gollmiran didn't have the strength to answer Hades. Even if he was in better condition than the others, he'd still been greatly weakened and barely had a single defensive layer left protecting his soul.
It was almost as though Hades' attack had inflicted even greater damage upon him because he was the strongest among the gods of Borgeth present.
Looking at the shredded bodies around him, despair was the only thing he could feel.
Hades ignored him, brought out the piece of the asteroid he'd stored away earlier, and sat on it. He then began cleaning the magic god's blood from his sword while thinking that Diablo's words had been correct.
'It was really the best way to stabilise my unstable power.'
He laughed jovially, causing Gollmiran to flinch in fear, but Hades couldn't have cared less. As for Gollmiran, he was on the verge of tears. His subordinates, who'd followed him for thousands of years, had all been killed, and he knew he'd be next.
'Thi-this is j-just horrible!'
He thought to himself while staring at the broken bodies of his subordinates drifting through space before looking back at the laughing Hades.
The amount of energy radiating from Hades' body was something Gollmiran had never expected to witness. The information he'd received had never mentioned that the being before him would be this powerful.
As he lamented his impending doom, his thoughts couldn't help wandering back to the circumstances that had led him here.
'I simply wanted to prove I was the superior one. I never expected this at all. If I'd known, I'd never have accepted this damn mission!'
He recalled the words of Borgeth's Master. He'd been told that Hades could never defeat him, and he'd been so full of himself that he'd failed to realise he was simply being used to probe Hades' power.
After all, even if he'd somehow succeeded in killing Hades through some force of nature, once Olympus came seeking revenge, he'd have been sacrificed as a scapegoat in an attempt to appease them.
However, he'd never considered that. He'd also forgotten the stories surrounding Hades and his brothers.
'They defeated the master of Olympus when they'd only just become High Tier Deities. It's only natural that he's grown stronger since then.'
Even though his injuries were healing at a visible pace, it would never be enough to defeat Hades. The gap in strength was simply too great.
From what he could sense, Hades could still unleash more than three additional hypernovas of that scale and still have more than enough energy left over.
He finally understood the true meaning behind Hades' words.
'Playtime is over.'
Hades had only been playing with them from the start, he hadn't taken them seriously at all. This was evidenced by the fact that they could not survive one of his spells while he was being serious.
Although he felt rage toward the Master of Borgeth for using him, Gollmiran was far too far away to take revenge, and besides, he doubted Hades was going to spare his life after discovering the latter's true strength.
|Have you recovered enough to fight? I'm done cleaning my sword.|
|What's the point? Just kill me already.|
|You survived a serious attack of mine. You deserve respect for that, even if it's only temporary, as I'll most likely forget your existence soon.|
|Hah! So I'm not even worth remembering, huh?|
Hades shrugged and replied.
|Your words, not mine.
So, are you going to make a last stand or die a dog's death?|
Gollmiran sighed, pulled out his spare weapon, and answered.
|It would be a dog's death either way. At least I have the choice of making it a little less disgraceful.|
|Let's begin then...|
Hades' words trailed off slightly as his body vanished. He reappeared above Gollmiran with flames flickering around his body before rotating his body and slashing down with his greatsword.
Watching Gollmiran's muscle movements, he snapped his fingers and redirected his momentum in the opposite direction, catching Gollmiran completely off guard.
Shocked by the sudden change in the sword's trajectory, Gollmiran widened his eyes as a deep cut appeared across his shoulder.
|Ssssss!!|
Drawing in a breath from the pain, he grabbed the sword while the flames tried to burn his arm, but Hades only smiled at the action.
Darkness enveloped the sword as it began corroding Gollmiran's hand, causing him to growl while forcefully pulling the sword free from his body.
|Tsk... Just let me hit you already!|
Hades released the sword and flipped through the air before extending both hands in front of him.
|Firestorm.|
Four eight-ringed magic circles appeared beneath Gollmiran's feet, and a firestorm erupted from within them, battering his body continuously and leaving faint burn marks all over it.
Hades' body flickered behind Gollmiran before a shallow slash appeared across his back. Flexing his fingers, Hades created a small dagger of darkness, plunged it deep into the wound, and rotated it.
He then jumped backwards to avoid Gollmiran's panicked swing.
Creating several more daggers infused with divinity, he rotated his body and threw them toward Gollmiran, who swatted them aside like flies before clasping his hands together.
|Infermum Sanction!|
Several pillars of fire appeared around them, before spinning toward Hades.
However, before Hades could launch another offensive move, Gollmiran's sword rapidly closed in on his head, forcing him to slide backwards to avoid being decapitated.
|I really wouldn't like to get hit by an attack I just used on someone else, you know?|
Quickly tracing his finger across the ground, he sent spikes of darkness piercing toward Gollmiran. Unfortunately, they were deflected with ease. Even so, they were only a distraction in the end.
Bursting out from beneath the ground, a giant spear of darkness shot toward Gollmiran.
Widening his eyes, Gollmiran realised he couldn't block it and could only grit his teeth as he tried to reduce the damage he'd take.
The spear pierced through his body and hoisted him into the air before another appeared, pinning him to the ground as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Seeing that, Hades recognised it as the perfect opportunity. Gollmiran noticed Hades charging toward him while cutting through the pillars of fire that were trying to ensnare him. He tried to pull the spear from his chest but failed because he lacked the strength.
Gritting his teeth, Gollmiran created a knife of flames and tried to cut the spear in half.
Before he could succeed, however, Hades activated his Domain and pulled him inside.
Gollmiran widened his eyes and tried to move, but it was already too late. His already diminished strength dropped even further. At that point, he couldn't dodge the sword coming for his neck.
The head of Gollmiran, Borgeth's god of death, rolled.