Even Fate Was Curious
-BOOM!!!
“Ghk…”
Nerites lay sprawled on the ground, crushed beneath Thanatos’s boot. The bones in one wrist had been completely shattered, and the god of death’s sword was driven clean through his other hand. He had no strength left to resist.
It had been a reckless fight from the start. Nerites was a young sea god—one who governed little more than the waters around Cyprus. His opponent was Thanatos, the reaper who embodied the very concept of death. The gap in their fundamental ranks was already vast; the difference in combat power was even greater. On top of that, Nerites had only just regenerated after having his head severed, leaving him drained. Victory had never been possible. Even lasting this long bordered on a miracle.
“Grrraaagh!!”
In that hopeless moment, Thanatos yanked his sword free from Nerites’s hand. Then he leveled the blade at the sea god’s throat.
“Immortality is truly a pitiful thing. A fate that forces one to keep running without ever knowing rest. In that regard, you and I are the same…”
Dark divine power shimmered along the edge of the sword as Thanatos spoke with genuine regret.
“This much should grant you a brief moment of peace, at least.”
“…You crazy bastard…”
Whatever twisted philosophy the reaper held, to Nerites it was nothing but nonsense spouted while someone tried to cut his head off. Facing the prospect of losing his neck twice in one day, he could only stare at the descending blade.
Then—
-Thud!
“…Huh?”
“…Eh?”
A heavy hand suddenly clamped around Thanatos’s wrist. The moment both of them recognized its owner, identical looks of bewilderment bloomed across their faces.
“…What?”
“Brother Moros? Why are you…?”
His elder brother—who had never once interfered when Thanatos carried out a death—was now holding him back just as he prepared to finish the job. For a heartbeat, pure confusion flooded the reaper’s mind.
But then—
“?! L-let go of me! What on earth are you—mmph!?!?!?!?”
In the next instant, simple confusion exploded into utter chaos. The source of that chaos was his own brother, Moros, who had locked him in a crushing embrace and was now thoroughly plundering his lips.
“Mmph! Mmmphhh!!!”
His first kiss—stolen without warning by the last person he could have imagined. Even the god of peaceful death felt his mind short-circuit under the sheer shock and horror.
“Mmph—cough! Cough! Wh-what in the world are you—!”
“Forgive me, little brother! I can no longer restrain these feelings I hold for you!”
“Th-that’s—what kind of insane—!”
“I love you, little brother! Let us greet the blazing hour of destiny together!!!”
“Th-this is highly inappro—ngh! Ah! Don’t take my clothes off, you crazy bastard of a brother—aaaaaaah!!!!!”
Still unable to comprehend anything, Thanatos desperately tried to escape the thoroughly deranged situation. But he could not break free of Moros’s grip, which now radiated pure madness.
“Even Fate was curious! Your back! Let me see your back!”
“W-wait a se—gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
Like a beast in heat, Moros tore at Thanatos’s clothes, wrapped him in a crushing hold, and began biting and sucking with wild abandon.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate soul forced to witness this nightmare at point-blank range—Nerites—felt primal terror crawl up his spine at the chaos that had crawled out of the abyss. He could only edge backward, inch by inch.
“Wh-what the actual hell is this…”
A massive older man was aggressively wrestling a somewhat slender younger man. The sheer wrongness of the sight made Nerites’s stomach turn. For a fleeting moment he almost wished Thanatos had simply killed him and let him wake up later.
Then—
“Wow…”
“…Mmm…”
Thetis watched the two reapers with pure disgust, while Aphrodite flushed scarlet and desperately tried to look anywhere else. Seeing them, Nerites needed no process of elimination to identify the culprit.
“Aphrodite… you did this, didn’t you?”
“Uh… y-yes… well, I did, but…”
Aphrodite mumbled, clearly dodging a direct answer. She, too, seemed not to have expected things to escalate quite like this.
“…Your tastes are more extreme than I thought. Men… and brothers, no less…”
“N-no! I merely used the authority of the goddess of love to make him love the being he felt closest to in this place as passionately as possible!”
“…Isn’t that the same thing?”
“…Mmm…”
Aphrodite hung her head at Thetis’s dry remark. Yet behind the absurdity, a flicker of genuine surprise lit Thetis’s eyes.
She kept going on about being the goddess of love… I never imagined she possessed power like this…
Thetis had assumed Aphrodite was little more than a pretty face. To see her bind two such overwhelming powerhouses in an instant was startling—and a little alarming. Still, she forced herself to assess the situation coldly.
As nauseating as the spectacle was, from a strategic standpoint it was a golden opportunity. The two reapers were monsters who would normally be impossible to fight. Right now, lost in their “wrestling,” they were completely defenseless. The visual trauma might be lethal, but the opening was real.
“We need to move as fast as we can. I sent Kedalion ahead, but she won’t be able to escape on her own strength.”
There were still too many unanswered questions, but by now the guards—or even Tartarus himself—might already know what was happening. From this moment on, every second counted. With the barrier still a concern, they had to get out immediately. The group started to move.
Then—
-Whoosh
“Guhhhhk!!!”
“Gyaaaaaah!!!”
“!?”
“Huh?”
A sickening sound tore through the air. The two reapers, still locked in their embrace, were suddenly dismembered where they stood. Limbs severed, organs bursting free, heads split cleanly in half. The utterly unexpected carnage froze the fleeing gods in place once more.
And then—
“To think the reapers themselves would put on such a disgraceful display…”
“!”
A figure slowly descended between the two piles of meat. Black wings. Long, twin-tailed purple hair that rippled like living flame. In one hand she held a massive iron scythe still dripping blood.
The moment the gods saw her, their faces went rigid. Not merely because she had casually slaughtered the beings who had overwhelmed them—but because of what she held in her other hand.
“Ke… Kedalion!”
“That woman…”
The one-eyed girl hung limp and unconscious in her grip. That alone told them everything they needed to know about the fate of the other Cyclopes. The group instinctively raised their weapons again.
But then—
“Cough! Cough! Damn it… what in the world…”
“B-Brother, are you conscious?”
“Mmm… everything after I was struck by that arrow is… ! S-Sister?”
“Hic! S-Sister Keres?”
The reapers regenerated in an instant and rose to their feet. Seeing the woman standing before them, both younger brothers recoiled in pure terror.
That woman—Keres, goddess of violent death—spoke in a quiet voice thick with murderous intent.
“Pathetic. You couldn’t even handle trash like these and had to thrash around like fools.”
“W-we apologize, Sister.”
“Mmm… we have no excuse.”
“Tsk.”
She casually tossed the unconscious Kedalion into their arms. The two reapers flinched like mice before a cat. That alone made it clear: the being before them was on an entirely different level. The three gods began to tremble with instinctive dread.
Then—
“Interfering with the work of death… you have some skill, I’ll grant you that…”
“Hic!”
“Ghk!”
“But you overreached yourselves.”
In that instant, a sensation like their hearts being crushed raw slammed into the group. Keres had not taken a single step. She had not swung her scythe. She had merely released a sliver of killing intent. Yet the three gods understood at once: the crushing attacks of the two reapers earlier had been merciful by comparison. A normal human would have had their heart explode from that aura alone. They could not even think of fighting back; they could only shake in terror.
Keres approached them with a face full of bored indifference, as if looking down at worthless insects she was about to crush. Slowly, she raised her scythe.
“Damn it!!!”
Nerites forced every scrap of courage he had left and charged. But—
-Clang!
“…Huh?”
His sword was cleanly severed before he could even swing it. Watching a weapon infused with his father’s divine power shatter so effortlessly, Nerites was struck dumb once more.
Then the scythe was at his throat.
“Hic!”
“…”
Even though he had been watching her the entire time, he could not react—unlike with Thanatos. The gap was absolute. The only word that came to mind was despair.
With the blade resting against Nerites’s neck, Keres spoke in a dry, utterly uninterested voice.
“Boring.”
Cold ennui dripped from that single word. Blood began to bead where the scythe touched his skin.
“Just die alre—!”
“!”
-KABOOOOOM!!!
A massive explosion suddenly tore through the air. Something enormous swept past them, and Keres’s body was blasted sideways. Nerites tumbled across the ground. Yet despite the ringing in his ears, a broad grin spread across his face.
“Ow, ow… you’re late…”
Through the thick smoke appeared a massive figure—a man of strikingly ugly features, wearing gauntlets wreathed in flame.
Hephaestus.
The temperature around them began to rise. Moros and Thanatos’s expressions immediately sharpened with wariness.
“! Th-this guy…”
“! Mmm…”
Divine power on a completely different scale from the children here. Even the gods of death could not casually dismiss it. For a moment they were thrown off balance. It was no longer a question of whether they could win. A far more serious problem had just appeared.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“…Ghk.”
Hephaestus spoke in a freezing voice, his divine power radiating pure menace. He did not even bother asking who they were. They had gotten in his way. Therefore they would die. That simple, terrifying conclusion made the reapers unconsciously step backward.
Then—
-Whoosh!
“Hic!”
Hephaestus appeared right in front of Moros. A chill raced down the god of doom’s spine; he reflexively hurled the little Cyclops girl toward his brother.
And then—
“Guaaaargh!!”
A single blow punched straight through his abdomen. It was no ordinary punch—the iron gauntlet tore a clean hole through his gut.
“B-Brother! Hic!”
In the next breath the same man appeared before Thanatos. With that hideous face twisted by murderous intent, he drew back his fist.
“With this, the assassination is comple—!”
-Whoosh!
“!”
-BOOM!
A massive scythe came screaming toward the spot where Hephaestus had stood. He dodged, putting distance between himself and Thanatos.
Then—
-Whirrr-thud!
The scythe returned to its owner’s hand as if on a string. For the first time, the goddess of violent death showed something that could truly be called hostility. Keres fixed her eyes on Hephaestus and began to radiate an ominous surge of divine power.
“Cough! W-wait… hold on!”
“Sister! R-right now is—”
The two reapers tried desperately to say something.
But—
“…The timing is terrible. Truly…”
“What?”
With those words, Keres swung her scythe again—not at Hephaestus.
“Hic!”
“Tch…”
The blade flew toward Nerites and Thetis. Hephaestus launched himself forward and smashed it aside with his gauntlet.
-Clang!
With a sharp ring the scythe returned to its mistress. But by then Thanatos had already gathered the wounded Moros and Kedalion at her side.
“We’re leaving.”
“Huh? Ah… y-yes, Sister.”
“Cough! …Y-yeah…”
With that, the reapers melted into the darkness as if dissolving into shadow.
“Tch!”
“Those bastards! Kedalion—right now—!”
Nerites shouted urgently, but before he could finish, every trace of the reapers vanished completely.
The fight had ended in hollow failure. Nerites simply sank to the ground where he stood.
“Damn it!”
From the moment Hephaestus had left, responsibility for this place had effectively fallen on Nerites as the eldest. And he had failed. He had neither gotten the group out nor protected Kedalion.
If only I had more power… if I were just a little stronger…
If he had possessed strength equal to Hephaestus’s, none of this would have happened. Bitter frustration burned in his chest.
Then—
“Do you intend to end it here?”
“!…Hephaestus…”
“I have no intention of ending it yet.”
“…Ghk.”
His younger brother still burned with clear resolve. Nerites wiped the single tear that had gathered at the corner of his eye and rose to his feet.
“Neither do I.”
Willpower rang in Nerites’s voice. Seeing it, a faint smile curved Hephaestus’s lips.