Chapter 224
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 224
Chapter Title: Cocytus's Warning
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-Boom!
-Boom!
Mountain-sized giants collapsed before me.
The giants who would one day threaten even the gods knelt in front of me, drenched in their own blood from head to toe.
"Grooo... "
"Ughhhh..."
No matter how kindly one tried to put it, their condition was far from good.
It was the sort where they were barely clinging to life by a thread.
No, rather, the mere fact that they were still breathing after all that made it clear just how tremendous the gods' blessings were in this world.
"After shredding 108 vital points and 12 extreme meridians like that... and they're still holding on to their last thread of life..."
This was practically zombie territory, wasn't it?
Staring at the fresh blood soaking my black sword blade, I felt more exasperation than surprise.
The ones groaning at my feet were still self-healing their wounds in real time...
"Good... very good."
The result was a bit absurd, but I was quite satisfied with this round of swordplay.
The Nine Hells Sword, composed of sixteen sword paths: eight blazing heats and eight piercing colds.
I'd finally met an opponent who withstood half of it—the Nine Hells Eight Heat Scripture—in full.
Of course, "withstood" just meant they hadn't croaked yet, but hey, that was something.
"Most don't even survive past the Cold Scripture with a breath left, and no one's ever stayed sane after the Heat Scripture."
It was a sword one could scarcely believe came from a human hand—grotesque and vicious, the sword of hell itself.
Those who face it first shudder at its otherworldliness, then tremble in fear, writhe in agony next.
And if they somehow survive the wounds and pain to the end, the grim reaper that follows claims their final breath.
The reaper marching through the hells to drag sinners who clung to life until the last to the abyss.
We called that reaper by the name of Terror.
"Usually, by this point, they realize there's no hope and let go themselves."
Overwhelming terror that cannot be resisted devours everything in those who face it.
Their thoughts, actions—even their primal instincts and will to survive are swallowed by hell.
What's left is an empty shell that ultimately releases its own breath.
"Is it because they're the Sea God's sons? Or the Earth Mother's blessing? Or maybe the power of a divine oracle?"
No, no.
It wasn't just a matter of toughness, grit, or mental fortitude.
These ones still had something they believed in.
In this world where the abyss yawns beneath the earth, beckoning with open arms.
They withstood the sword that embodied that abyss without being consumed by terror because they had a hope strong enough to rival it.
"What do you believe in? What lets you cling to life even after beholding the calamity of the Nine Hells Nine Thousandfold, reduced to this mangled state?"
Ah, right—they're not even ten years old yet, from what I heard.
Is that why?
They don't even know what true fear really is, so they can endure like this?
"Eh, whatever."
At the end of the Eight Heat Scripture, in the Abyss Scripture, the feel of the sword tip had changed.
Dull and rough, scraping against something hard at the end.
It was unmistakably the sensation of churning through flesh into bone.
The human sword bearing the sixteen hells of the Nine Hells Nine Thousandfold had pierced the Earth Mother's blessing that quietly reigned over this mythic land.
"Kuhhuhu..."
A shiver raced up my spine for the first time in ages, and ecstasy tightened my chest.
For a demon like me, was there greater joy than confirming that the teachings I followed and the enlightenment I'd reached had encroached upon divine power?
"Well then, shall we wrap this up?"
The twin giants most famous and infamous for their cruelty in this land.
With the sound of their heads falling, I would declare to this land.
The return of the new Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The beginning of a nation for heroes cast out and scorned like demons and asuras simply for being strong and extraordinary.
The two giants knelt before me.
A pitch-black sword rose high above their heads.
".....Ugh."
"....Euh."
No matter how much self-healing was underway, with their extreme meridians and blood vessels shredded across their bodies, they couldn't even hold themselves up.
Yet instinctively sensing death's approach, they rolled their eyes and shrugged their shoulders.
But the sword was already aimed at their necks, and once a blade falls, it never turns back.
If not for the intruder.
-Groooar!
"?!"
My body reacted even faster than my thoughts.
The falling sword path veered off course, and my eyes followed it.
A colossal pressure hurtling in, shaking the earth itself.
At its center, a massive trident rippling with terrifying divine power flew straight at me.
Just before my sword extended to clash with the trident's prongs, a thousand thoughts flashed through in that instant.
-Whoooosh!
Judging there was no time to consider retreat, I poured every ounce of power in my body into the sword.
-KABOOM!!
"Grrraaah!!"
It felt like blocking an earthquake with my own body.
The moment I saw the trident's divine power, I'd unleashed my internal energy, divine power, and demonic energy alike into the swing—but compared to the power surging in that trident, it looked like a child's tantrum.
'Deflect it like this?'
Impossible.
Too heavy to deflect, and it was enveloping me from all directions.
'Twist its trajectory?'
Impossible.
It was coming in on a surface-wide envelopment; no trajectory to twist.
'Then there's only one option.'
Forces too immense to withstand head-on must not be met head-on.
Simply entrust your body to the flow and ride it.
I shifted my sword intent and adjusted my stance.
Instead of the oppressive hellish weight, wind currents from all directions infused my sword.
'...Now!'
-Leap!
With the massive trident bearing down from every side, my body sprang up light as a breeze.
-KABOOM!!
"Urk!"
The trident's unrelenting momentum shoved me away without mercy.
-Thud!
But the trident's goal wasn't to kill me—it was to separate me from the twins.
As I retreated, it slammed into the ground like a barrier, shielding them.
-Clang!
"Hah!"
At the same moment, the sword I'd manifested shattered as if its lifespan had ended, flickering with black flames, and I couldn't help lamenting the loss.
A trident, an earthquake, and the twins' bloodline.
Anyone living in Greece would know the intruder's identity without being told.
"Tch... So those brats' backing was you, huh?"
[....]
As if answering my call, he gripped the trident and revealed himself.
Blue hair rippling like the deep sea, skin blue as a dark tidal wave.
His massive frame was a masterpiece that never failed to inspire awe—a perfect specimen of a sea person, straight out of a painting.
But the usual rough yet jovial sailor was nowhere to be seen.
His face hardened with fighting spirit, anger, and regret, the King of the Seas glared at me.
"Poseidon."
[Brother-in-law.]
"Still calling me that?"
Poseidon.
My future wife's brother-in-law and the great Sea God ruling Greece's oceans.
And the older brother who'd been a fine drinking buddy and spear arts teacher to me.
I let out a wry chuckle and shook my head.
Under normal circumstances, I'd have let it slide.
After forcibly blocking that strike earlier—and even riding its flow—the manifested sword had shattered, my arms were throbbing like they might be broken, and my churning guts threatened to send blood surging up my throat.
Yet, even so.
I couldn't just let it go this time.
"Step back."
[That's my line. How can a father stand by and watch his sons' peril? If you don't withdraw now...]
"Cocytus's Warning."
[...!!]
"They crossed the river of no return by their own choice."
Cocytus's declaration was as inviolable as an oath on the Styx.
A war declared in the name of the unreturnable river retreats only at the victor's decree.
No matter if one of the Three Great Gods—no one could defy this rule.
[So you'll make me your enemy after all?]
-Groooowl...!
Poseidon yanked up his spear with a low growl, and the earth trembled faintly in response.
But even he couldn't interfere with my ritual now.
"This is war. That's what war is."
Drawing on the healing magic I'd learned in Greece and the restorative pills from Asclepius, I steadied my body as best I could and rematerialized my sword.
No matter how mighty and dangerous the god blocking me now.
I couldn't let the inaugural founding of my cult and nation—the climactic turning point—end in vain like this.
If I yielded to Poseidon here and spared the enemy who'd dared invade my land.
What nation would respect us? What god or hero would take my ritual seriously?
The heroes I'd poured my all into raising, the woman I'd devoted my heart to in this world, the divine cult of the teachers I'd come to revere once more—they couldn't start out on a path of thorns.
That was the responsibility of a sovereign, the protection owed as a god.
Sensing my resolve, Poseidon scowled and bellowed.
[Hah...! Little god. No matter how grand a step you've finally taken, you dare oppose a son of Cronos?]
[Of course!!]
-!!
My roar erupted from my dantian, widening Poseidon's eyes.
[Of course I must!! If the heavens block me, I'll tear them down! If the earth rises, I'll smash it to dust!! Without that resolve, how dare I declare my ambitions to the world!!]
[...Hah! Then you'll have to withstand my spear!!]
Realizing there was no turning back, Poseidon leveled his spear, and I raised my sword to summon hell once more.
[What a pity!]
[Likewise!]
The earthquake-summoning spear and the hell-imbued sword.
Two authorities that transcended high and low charged at each other.