The God of Underworld-Chapter 134 - 33

The golden skies above Herion shimmered as two divine figures hovered overhead, the wind howling with their descent. Themis, Lady of Divine Law and Order, soared beside Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth, their presence calming the winds, their radiant divinity blanketing the city below in warm assurance.

Just hours earlier, Themis had been resting atop her marble spire in the Underworld, reading scrolls of mortal petitions and balancing the fates of the recently deceased.

Then came the urgent summons, Athena and Zeus, speaking together no less, informing her that Hestia had been attacked by the Giants, seemingly singled out for elimination.

A strange and dangerous escalation.

Without hesitation, Themis had departed.

Now, as they hovered above the capital of heroes, Herion, she was met with a serene smile from the ever-gentle Hestia.

"You’re here, Aunt," Hestia said softly, her voice like a warm spring breeze, despite the bruises still fading from her body.

Themis landed beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "How are you holding up?"

"I’ve recovered," Hestia said with a gentle nod. "Thanks to the Sentinels’ protection, I survived. I’ve made full recovery. Thank you for your concern."

Themis nodded, noting how her niece’s aura now burned brighter, more resolute.

She had always seen Hestia as the quiet backbone of Olympus, the eternal fire in the hearth, warm but passive.

Now... she saw a warrior flame burning in her.

"That’s good," Themis said. "So? What do you plan on doing now?"

Hestia looked towards the Horizon, "Probably go and look for other cities that needed help."

"Very well. I shall accompany you."

"Really? Then I’m glad," Hestia replied, eyes soft. "I’ve already said my farewells to Varn and the Sentinels. I left them with blessings of divine protection. Herion will stand strong."

Together, the two ascended higher, then vanished into streaks of golden and silver light, blazing toward the next battlefield.

*

*

*

Far away, beneath the skin of the earth, Porphyrion stirred restlessly upon his dark throne in the Giants’ lair.

Rage boiled in his blood. His massive form, once regal and sharp, quivered with raw, vibrating hate.

One of his brothers, a lesser Giant, had died.

Killed.

Slain by mortals, aided by Hestia.

That should not have been possible.

Porphyrion slammed a fist into the wall of black stone beside his throne, cracking it with the force of a mountain’s collapse.

The walls screamed with the echoes of his fury.

Deep within him, however, beyond blood and bone, something else stirred.

A presence.

A being.

A voice of whispers, writhing tendrils of corruption, a parasite hidden in the deepest part of his soul.

The entity.

It, too, roared in fury, though not because of the dead giant, but because of thr failure of killing the thing it feared. The flame.

The Azure Lotus. A power that could bypass its resistance, its very essence.

That thing could burn away its corruption. Something it cannot allow to exist.

It had to act.

The entity surged within Porphyrion, pushing against the boundary of control. It reached into the Giant’s consciousness, trying to take over, to issue new orders:

Kill her. Summon all giants to kill Hestia. Now!

But before it could fully possess Porphyrion again, a voice like breaking obsidian echoed through the black halls of his soul.

"Found you."

The entity froze.

The shadows around it flickered, then screamed.

Without any second thoughts, the entity quickly took over the Giant King’s body.

The mighty Porphyrion screamed in agony as tendrils of corruption bursts out of his body, turning him into a mass of writhing chaos and countless shifting eyes, tendrils, and mouths.

It turned, just in time to see the figure who had arrived from the darkness.

A man of infinite shadow, whose mere silhouette distorted the concept of light itself.

Erebus.

Primordial of Darkness.

The entity hissed, contorting its form into something vicious, tendrils lashing out, mouths opening across its mass.

Erebus smiled lazily, as though amused.

"What do you know, Nyx was right, you really are here," he said with a drawl. "Hiding inside a Giant huh? How subtle. Almost clever."

The entity howled and launched itself at him, a barrage of writhing limbs, screaming tongues, and void-warped fangs.

But Erebus merely snapped his fingers.

In an instant, the world around them vanished, no longer stone and shadow.

Now they stood in a domain of endless night, a plane beyond reality where the stars had died and even the laws of the gods bent to Erebus’ will.

His domain.

Here, he was invincible.

The entity paused, hesitated, then roared in desperation, flailing with all its strength.

Erebus stood there, completely unfazed.

He summoned a scythe — forged from the first darkness that ever existed — and rested it lazily on his shoulder.

Then, with a grin that bore both menace and joy, he beckoned.

"Come on."

The entity lunged.

Darkness clashed with corruption, and the infinite plain of darkness trembled under their fury.

Scythes cut through limbs, tendrils reshaped into maws, and every inch of space was torn as the Primordial of Darkness waged war against the invader.

The entity, a writhing mass of chaos, eyes, tendrils, and ever-shifting mouths, roared soundlessly.

It was stronger, faster, and more brutal.

Every strike of its shifting limbs caused fractures in the very fabric of Erebus’ dominion.

Shards of pure darkness shattered and scattered like glass under its blows.

Erebus twisted his body to avoid another lashing tentacle, spinning his Primordial Scythe into a wide arc.

He caught the entity’s limb mid-strike, slicing it clean off, but it regenerated instantly, even stronger, now with barbs and burning green flame crawling along its skin.

THWACK.

A punch to the gut sent Erebus flying backward, the weight of the blow distorting the space behind him.

He crashed into a crumbling plane of condensed void, and for a moment, his silhouette flickered, his form coming apart in strands of shadow.

But then, he reformed.

The shadows reknit his body like a tapestry of dusk, his armor of ancient darkness reforging itself with a hiss. He stood, coughing once, then smiled bitterly.

"Strong little maggot, aren’t you?" he muttered.

The entity didn’t respond. It didn’t speak in the way mortals or gods did. Its voice was one of intent, one that corrupted reality just by being.

And now, its intent was destruction.

Another rush. It sprinted across the void faster than thought, tentacles now glowing with strange runes and blazing unnatural fire.

SLAM.

It grabbed Erebus and smashed him through his own realm — floors of black glass, floating monoliths, and constellations of dead stars cracking under their impact.

It was like watching a meteor repeatedly strike the same point on a planet.

Erebus wheezed, impaled by one of the entity’s spears. He coughed up a wisp of black fog, his essence, before yanking himself free.

He rolled to his feet, steadied his scythe, and glared.

"You’re just a fragment... and you hit harder than a Titan in heat," he hissed.

The entity shuddered, the mass of its body convulsing with unreadable emotion. But its malice surged, as did its power.

It launched again, this time with too many limbs to count, too many angles to block. It struck Erebus in thirty directions at once.

The Primordial staggered, bleeding trails of ichor-black flame.

But he did not fall.

Because here, in this realm of darkness — he could not die.

Even if the entity tore his body into dust, the shadows would just restore him. Over and over.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t suffering.

Every strike slowed him. Every regrowth drained the fabric of his dominion.

The entity wasn’t just powerful, it was ruthless. Its power warped the very nature of this plane. Where Erebus was a master, the entity was a corrupting anomaly.

He knew it.

This thing shouldn’t even exist in this universe. The rules bent around it. The laws of divinity resisted it, but couldn’t repel it. This was a foreign reality trying to overwrite his own.

He was stronger than most gods. A being from the dawn of the world.

But this was a fragment of something older, something more anomalous.

And it was winning.

Erebus twirled his scythe, and this time, struck downward, cutting the concept of "distance" between them.

The entity staggered back, its mass folding unnaturally, then counterattacked by vomiting a blast of corrupted energy.

It struck Erebus directly in the chest.

He staggered, skin smoking, part of his arm missing.

He fell to one knee.

The entity hissed, its many mouths peeling open. Its limb turned into a spike, aiming for Erebus’ heart.

But the Primordial smiled.

"You’re wasting time, you know," he said, voice raspy.

The entity paused.

"You can’t kill me here. You can beat me until I’m nothing but regret and dust, but I’ll just keep coming back."

He coughed again, pulling himself up.

"And every second you spend here, someone else out there is getting closer to finding you."

The entity’s tentacles froze, quivering.

It knew who he was talking about.

Nyx, the Primordial of Night.

Hades, the God of the dead.

The two beings the entity absolutely doesn’t want to face at the moment.

They were too strong. So strong the entity wondered if they were really beings born from this small universe.

The entity let out a low, guttural shriek, like a siren being pulled through layers of flesh. The entire realm quaked. Then, it began to pull its form inward, folding itself into nothingness, attempting to escape.

Erebus stood shakily and hurled his scythe forward.

The weapon struck the entity just as it was folding, embedding itself deep into the central core of its mass — a twisted "eye" of white flame.

The entity screeched and vanished, it was wounded, but not destroyed.

It left.

The darkness fell still.

Erebus stood alone, his chest heaving. The scythe reformed in his hands a second later, summoned by his domain.

He sighed.

"Well," he muttered, "that went worse than expected."

He raised his gaze, and the stars of his realm began flickering back into place.

He turned toward a shadow and whispered, "I let it get away...Nyx is going to murder me."

Thankfully, his last attack left a ’mark’ on the entity.

He will know where it is hiding.

But for now, he must return and report this to his demanding sister.

He couldn’t win against the entity, but he was pretty sure she and her boytoy could do it.