The moment the hag's bony hand was about to touch Thea's shoulder, a dazzling, radiant brilliance shot into the sky. The gray-toned world suddenly gained a splash of color—something the dead once possessed, the power of emotion, the light of life once bloomed.
The Underworld's oppressive environment, operating for tens of thousands of years, suddenly gained some vitality.
Many souls who'd been lost for millennia recalled distant memories. Their cloudy eyes shed tears, and their dead bodies seemed to be injected with vitality once again. This process was extremely brief, but its significance would be extremely profound.
Unable to hold back any longer, Thea finally drew the holy sword. This top-tier divine artifact symbolizing the will of all living beings—the sword's very aftershocks vaporized the hag who'd been the catalyst. She went all in.
Gripping the sword in one hand, she sprinted a few steps to reach the dumbstruck Hades. "You bastard. I've been waiting for this!"
Without waiting for a response, her right hand slashed horizontally. The holy sword sensed her intent. Learning it was about to slay the King of the Underworld—even if just an avatar—the sword was thrilled beyond measure. Seven-colored light flashed continuously. The coordination between person and sword reached seamless perfection. Hades' head, smeared with wax, was horizontally sliced off.
Hades shouldn't have gone down this easily. If the two fought fairly, who would win was still uncertain. But his attention had been drawn away by the entire Underworld's upheaval. He didn't care about countless walking corpses, but the powerful corpses he'd carefully collected all showed signs of losing control.
Like Arachne, skilled at weaving webs—the moment her self-awareness returned, she broke free from Hades' control. Realizing she couldn't escape the Underworld immediately, she directly activated her innate ability to weave a small world and hid inside.
Rebellions erupted one after another. The stronger the being, the stronger their will. Given even the slightest opportunity, they could unleash astonishing energy.
Hades hadn't encountered anything like this in hundreds of millions of years. Caught completely off guard, he wielded the power of death. Supposedly, no one could defeat him in the Underworld—this was limited by the rules.
Naturally, Thea couldn't defeat him in the Underworld either. But everything had exceptions. A hero couldn't beat the demon king, but could seal him.
Thea didn't need to defeat Hades. She only needed to release the tiniest bit of all living beings' free will, and the Underworld was thrown into complete chaos.
Especially since Hades had a bit of a collector's habit—he'd gathered many corpses of powerful figures from past and present to awaken in the Underworld and serve him. These people in life weren't necessarily much weaker than him, and some were even stronger.
Like the corpse he used as a throne—none other than Cronus, the father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.
This was Gaia's own son, the second-generation God King of the Greek pantheon. Until Zeus overthrew him, he'd been the undisputed leader of the divine system.
The Sword of Victory and Oaths also awakened his self-will. Combined with Thea slaying Hades' avatar, this ancient God King finally awakened from chaos.
Hundreds of millions of years of loneliness left him momentarily confused about where he was. As the biological son of Mother Earth Gaia, he wasn't some evil spawn born from a mixture of wills like the giant aberrations. Cronus's ability to control the earth was genuine.
This God King didn't care whether the Underworld counted as earth or not—he directly began absorbing power from the earth to replenish his long-dried body.
Thea really hadn't recognized this giant for who he was. Earlier he'd just been a throne, barely looking human-shaped. How was she supposed to know who he was?
Never mind her—even Diana might not recognize him. They were juniors too far removed from the second-generation God King.
However, though Thea didn't recognize him, Hera certainly did. That's right—Hera was also his daughter. The relationships in the Greek pantheon were just that messy... The skeletal figure before her was her own father!
"Oh my god...! Let's get out of here!" The noblewoman who usually valued grace over comfort and would walk rather than run was finally panicking. She grabbed Thea's hand, ready to flee.
The thing was, Cronus wasn't exactly a good guy either. The paranoid tyrant, worried his children would overthrow him, swallowed them one by one after they were born. Only when Zeus rose to power and overthrew him were his siblings finally rescued.
This traumatic memory wasn't exactly pleasant for Hera. She didn't want to stay even one more minute.
Thea plucked a candle from Hades' head, looking thoughtful. Since she'd already cut off his head, taking a few more candles—surely old man Hades wouldn't mind, right?
With a flick of her wrist, she pocketed all seven or eight candles. The moment the candles touched her hand, she received information. Zeus was right—these things could indeed help her return to the original timeline. She just needed a quiet location to recite some prayer praising Hades.
"Hey, do you know this prayer?" Having just cut off her enemy's head, then turning to praise him—Thea had no problem doing this. But Hera's face wasn't that thick. She gave Thea an odd look.
"No need for prayers. Using the candles, I can go directly to my Mount Olympus." Worried Thea might misunderstand, she added, "After that, you can go back on your own."
Mount Olympus it was. Anything was better than the current environment.
Countless undead spirits rushed toward them. Hades returned once more, his blood-red face covering the sky again. Now he was too furious to speak. He also understood the characteristics of his candles. On one hand, he controlled the low-intelligence corpses to attack them, giving them no time to breathe. On the other hand, he spent energy suppressing the self-awareness of the stronger beings.
If there were fewer enemies, he might have succeeded. After all, he still controlled the divine authority over death. Unfortunately, there were too many enemies—he couldn't control them all.
Never mind others—just take the second-generation God King Cronus. This one continuously absorbed power from the Underworld's soil. His hatred for Hades ran deepest, and he resisted most fiercely. Though his true consciousness hadn't even recovered one percent, his powerful divine force already began surging through the Underworld, forcing Hades to devote more than thirty percent of his power to suppressing him.
Hades struggled desperately. Thea and Hera cooperated well at this moment. The two carved out a bloody path.
The benefits of being skilled in both magic and combat showed here. Teaming with Diana, she could play the mage. With Hera, she could guest-star as a warrior.
She used magic power to form a thin membrane around her body to block the blood plasma splashing everywhere.
The Sword of Victory and Oaths could trigger purification effects even when cutting down ordinary corpses. As for whether they reincarnated or rested eternally after purification—she didn't care.
Initially, controlled corpses desperately attacked them. Slowly, the situation changed.
Many conscious corpses pushed their way to the two women's side and automatically separated them from the outer ring of corpses.
Like the death knight before Thea—not riding his horse, just pulling the reins and jogging along with them, constantly speaking.
"Quick, my consciousness can't hold much longer. Hurry and kill me!" The death knight stretched out his neck...