Ch.56Ep.56 The Betrayer and the Betrayed

# Tartarus.

A prison in Olympian society where criminals are incarcerated, it also housed beings powerful enough to rival the current 12 Olympian gods.

Most notably, those called the 12 Titan gods—those who were defeated in the Titanomachy and imprisoned in Tartarus.

“Graaaah!! How dare a mere mortal challenge me!”

“All size and no substance, aren’t you?”

“Die!!”

“Piercing spear technique.”

Whoosh!

As the woman summoned a massive spear and launched it, Titan Iapetus ducked his head in terror.

But this was merely part of the woman’s strategy.

“I was right, wasn’t I? Apart from being huge, you’re just a pathetic corpse.”

“..!”

The woman formed thousands of spears using her magical power and swung her arm.

Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!

The falling spears successfully inflicted critical damage as they tore away Iapetus’s skin.

The woman didn’t stop there.

“Absorb.”

Shhhhh.

She began devouring the Order flowing from Iapetus using her unique skill, Spirit Devouring.

“Aaaaargh!! How dare! How daaaare!!”

“Is ‘how dare’ all you can say? You really are thick-headed.”

Eventually, she clenched her fist as if about to crush something.

Simultaneously, Iapetus’s physical form crumpled like it had been pressed in a compactor.

“Ugh… ughhhh…”

The Titan, who despised being overwhelmed by a mortal, met his end.

The woman, Veichel, looked at what remained of Iapetus—now just debris—then approached a nearby wall, leaned against it, and sat down.

“Phew… So I can finally take down one of the Titans?”

Looking at the end result, one might think Veichel overwhelmingly defeated Iapetus.

But that wasn’t the case. In the beginning, she had nearly died several times.

Additionally, she still couldn’t fully control the power gained through Spirit Devouring.

Fortunately, her weaknesses improved over time; otherwise, she might have died before even getting to fight the Olympians.

“By now, they must have noticed something’s wrong in Tartarus.”

A Titan, one of the 12, Iapetus, had been annihilated.

Since they believe Outer Gods cannot infiltrate, they’ll likely suspect internal conflict or a traitor.

They’re assuming Veichel Breate has been eliminated, so the case will become even more mysterious.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, Radios.”

Now that she had enough power to defeat a Titan.

This meant she had risen to a level equivalent to the 12 Olympian gods.

Of course, she was still inferior to the apex predators among them—Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon.

But at this rate, she would surely reach their level too.

Having finished planning her next move, Veichel got up and disappeared deep into Tartarus.

She didn’t know.

That a mysterious pattern had begun to form on her right arm.

***

“Hehehe… Radios… Magnum…”

“How does it feel to be betrayed?”

“How does it feel? Hehehe… It’s killing me. I never thought… my life would turn out like this.”

Namgung Ihyun let out a bitter laugh as she sincerely answered Radios’s question.

Her body had already reached its limit, and no matter what, she couldn’t survive.

Since she was dying anyway, wouldn’t it be more beautiful to tell everything before death?

She briefly recounted her past, from when she encountered Yog-Sothoth.

Then about fighting the Guardian Spirit and being betrayed until now.

Although Radios despised her as an enemy, he quietly listened to her story.

After all, extracting information from someone who was going to die anyway was far more important.

Additionally, he had learned a method to bring her to his side even after death.

“Let me ask you. If given the chance, which side would you choose?”

“What… do you mean…”

“The Outer Gods, Olympus, or Kadinant?”

For just a moment, a strange light flashed in Namgung Ihyun’s eyes at Radios’s words.

The fact that he distinguished between Olympus and Kadinant meant that Radios and his goblin forces had completely separated from Olympus.

“Hehe… Which side would I choose?”

“Yes.”

“If I had the chance… I’d want to kill… those Outer God bastards…”

“Is that so?”

“If they ruined someone’s life… they should face… the consequences…”

Namgung Ihyun’s breathing grew fainter, and then she dropped her head and breathed her last.

It was too pitiful an end for a villain who had contributed to the destruction of an entire continent.

Radios silently looked at Elysse.

She responded as if she already knew what he was going to say.

“I think it’s not a bad idea. Even though Subduing Dead has a function to force commands, it’s better if there’s free will.”

“…But it’s a spell we haven’t even properly tested yet.”

“That’s exactly why we should use it now. If we use Namgung Ihyun as experimental material… couldn’t we end the trial and error?”

Well, Namgung Ihyun would indeed make good experimental material.

The main culprit who ruined an entire world reduced to a mere test subject.

It’s beneficial whether it succeeds or fails.

“Then… I’ll begin.”

Recalling the spell formula he learned from Rin, Radios cut his finger and began drawing a magic circle on the ground with his blood.

At the same time, malicious demonic energy tickled his ears just like when he learned from Rin, but.

He paid no attention and activated the Subduing Dead spell on Namgung Ihyun.

“Wandering spirit of the netherworld, the devourer of death calls you. Rise from the shadows and answer my summons.”

Screech!

The wail of a spirit brushed past his ears as Namgung Ihyun’s corpse gradually sank beneath the spell formula.

Once the corpse was completely absorbed into the magic circle, an arm wrapped in shadows first rose above the spell formula.

Crack!

The arm desperately clutched the ground as if it didn’t want to sink back down.

Soon, another arm emerged, providing perfect support to prevent the body from falling.

As Radios watched the Subduing Dead proceeding smoothly, he gulped.

“Ugh!”

“My lord?”

An inexplicable pain began to strangle his throat.

His posture immediately collapsed, and a confused Elysse looked back and forth between the spell formula and Radios.

Fortunately, only the spirit’s arms had emerged from the magic circle.

However, the problem was that Radios was in pain.

“Aaaaargh!!”

“My lord! Get a hold of yourself!”

He couldn’t hear her. Moreover, Radios was now screaming with his eyes rolled back.

What was the problem?

Elysse hadn’t eavesdropped intentionally, but she was somewhat aware of the Subduing Dead spell formula.

Radios had completed the spell formula without any mistakes, so it made no sense for him to be in pain.

Why was this happening?

While Elysse was fretting, Radios recalled his conversation with Rin.

-There’s only one more stroke left, but you can do that tomorrow. Go now.

At the time, he thought it was just adding detail to the spell.

Like adding one more lamp to illuminate a dark night.

But what was happening now?

‘If I don’t keep my mind focused, I’ll be swept away..!’

A pain he had never felt before was gripping his entire body.

Even when he was dying, even when he was battered fighting Cthuga, he had never experienced such pain.

He wanted to grit his teeth and suppress his screams, but he couldn’t even control his jaw properly.

“Aaaaargh!!”

Screams infused with magical power tend to cause damage.

Rumble.

Moreover, he had approached Namgung Ihyun without deactivating his goblin mask.

Normally he would turn off his skills after a battle, but today he forgot, leading to this disaster.

Everything around him began to be incinerated, and Elysse hurriedly summoned her scythe to block the waves of magical power.

“Ugh!”

At the same time, she realized that Radios had become much stronger than she had imagined.

‘He’s too strong… At this rate… he’s already surpassed the 12 Olympian gods…’

To gain such power without even obtaining an Order.

It truly meant that the day Radios would defeat Hades wasn’t far off.

But first, they needed to resolve this situation.

‘Since this happened as a backlash from using the spell—’

Just as Elysse was about to decide to find Rin.

A breeze blew in, and Rin appeared with wings made of blood, clicking her tongue.

“I can’t believe you caused such a major accident from the start… Hey, lady over there.”

“Yes?”

“Put up a barrier around the area. I’m going to clean up the mess this guy made.”

“Ah, understood.”

Elysse didn’t question why Rin called her “lady” and did as she was told.

This was the term Brina used to address Elysse when she was pretending to be a mischievous child.

Brina acknowledged her mistake even while playing the role of “Rin.”

She almost blew everything she had built up so far.

Anyway, Elysse put up a barrier to isolate Radios without complaint.

Brina bit her finger and let her blood flow into the spell formula.

The spell gradually stabilized.

“Phew… This got troublesome.”

But Radios was still in pain.

At this rate, he would glimpse into Namgung Ihyun’s past before she was reborn as an undead.

And not just any past, but what would be classified as the most important moment in her life.

What if he tried to interfere after seeing that past?

“He wouldn’t do something that crazy.”

No matter how meddlesome Radios might be, would he really think of interfering in someone else’s past?

Especially Namgung Ihyun’s past? Absolutely not.

“Why does this guy cause trouble wherever he goes? Really.”

“..?”

Brina showed her displeasure.

As far as Elysse knew, she and Radios had only met a month ago, so what did that comment mean?

But she didn’t think too deeply about it.

Once they had established a connection with the goblin clan, anything could happen.

‘Please come back soon, my lord.’

Looking at Radios, who had somehow shaken off the pain and lost consciousness.

She desperately hoped he would open his eyes again.