Ch.61Ep.61: Protect

“This is a message from the Resident. Right now, all Great Old Ones must attempt to descend upon Kadinant…”

“So we have to carry out this absurd operation after all…”

The Boundary Resident, son of Yog-Sothoth and king of the Great Old Ones.

Cthulhu thought the time had come and drooled.

After all, the collective descent of the Great Old Ones upon Kadinant would be nothing but a self-defeating move.

According to intelligence, Kadinant was home to a goblin named Kraud who possessed a Divine Order.

Moreover, Cthuga, who had descended first, had been helplessly killed by a mere mortal.

And that human didn’t even possess an Order.

To make matters worse, that human was an apostle of the Blind Idiot God.

The Blind Idiot God’s power, Outer Devouring, was like deadly poison to the forces of Outer Gods.

To send all millions of Great Old Ones to a place like Kadinant?

He couldn’t even understand what purpose this would serve.

Even though Cthulhu was the son of Yog-Sothoth, disobedience was not permitted.

He belonged to the supreme hierarchy, and he must not refuse him.

But to carry out an operation that was essentially ordering them to die…

Despite his devastated feelings, Cthulhu reluctantly opened the gate to Kadinant.

“The descent begins in one hour. Everyone… prepare yourselves mentally.”

The beings of Kadinant have become thousands of times stronger than before.

From the start, with a being possessing a Divine Order there, it was questionable whether millions of Great Old Ones could win even if they attacked together.

But what choice did they have? When ordered from above, they had to comply.

“Resident… what are you seeing?”

Cthulhu couldn’t call Yog-Sothoth father.

For the forces of the Outer Gods, the only being called father was the Blind Idiot God, or the Blind Darkness.

The one who had been dethroned for unknown reasons and gone missing.

As Cthulhu sank into worry, an hour passed.

“Lord Cthulhu. All preparations are complete.”

“…We descend. All Great Old Ones! Descend upon Kadinant!!”

Boom boom boom boom!

Numerous lights enveloped the Great Old Ones, and they descended upon Kadinant.

Olympus also became aware of this situation, but…

“We will not intervene.”

Hades, whose authority had grown stronger than Zeus’s, declared they would not intervene in Kadinant.

The other twelve Olympian gods showed similar reactions.

For them, the operation to reclaim faith from Kadinant had already failed.

Their remaining hope was to lie low until Radios Magnum directly repelled the forces of the Outer Gods.

And when the right moment came, they would stab him in the back and take everything.

“Right now, we should focus all our efforts on addressing the anomaly in Tartarus—”

“It’s terrible!!”

Before Hades could finish speaking, a soldier on guard rushed into the meeting hall, shouting.

“Lord Hermes’s life signal has been cut off in Tartarus!”

“…What? Hermes’s signal is gone?! What does that mean?!”

It was Zeus who shouted.

Who was Hermes?

Known as the fastest among the Olympians.

Though his speed was unmatched, his combat power wasn’t particularly weak among the twelve Olympian gods.

If anything, he had mid-to-low tier combat power.

A god who went to investigate the anomaly in Tartarus.

One of the twelve gods supporting Olympus had died like this?

But the surprises weren’t over.

“That’s not all..!”

“What else now?!”

“The Titans imprisoned in Tartarus… Oceanus and Iapetus have also been confirmed destroyed.”

Boom.

The pupils of the twelve Olympian gods trembled at the soldier’s report.

Oceanus and Iapetus were among the twelve Titan gods.

Although they weren’t as powerful as the twelve Olympian gods, their sudden destruction made no sense.

“How do you know this information?”

“Huh? What?”

But Hades calmly pointed out the critical issue.

The soldier had detected Hermes’s life signal being cut off and also sensed the destruction of Oceanus and Iapetus.

What’s the problem, you ask?

None of the twelve Olympian gods had noticed these anomalies.

If a mere soldier noticed something that even gods couldn’t detect, wouldn’t that seem strange?

Now the other gods turned their attention to the soldier.

The soldier, trembling under the overwhelming pressure of the gods, suddenly curled up the corners of his mouth and said:

“Well, because I killed them?”

“..! Veichel Breate!!”

Veichel removed the mask she had been wearing.

The appearance of someone no one had expected.

Only Hades frowned, looking displeased.

Veichel noticed this and began to taunt him.

“Well, well, looks like that old man with the gray hair had some suspicion about my transformation.”

“…I considered it a possibility. Even though you awakened your Order, it was when you were on the brink of death.”

“You knew that beings with Orders perish, right? I knew that too, so I used a trick.”

Radios’s skill, God-Slaying Bullet.

A skill that brings death by destroying the Order of beings who possess one.

Since Veichel knew that Olympus was in the Underworld and even Poseidon was absent…

She had been hoping to die by Radios’s hand.

In fact, the God-Slaying Bullet wasn’t in the scenario, but it helped greatly.

“Originally, I planned to reduce my life force to zero and fall into the Underworld. But what do you know, I awakened my Order?”

The Order of Struggle.

Now it was a welcome restraint that allowed Veichel to control the greed given by the Spirit Eater.

But when she first awakened her Order, she thought all her plans had gone awry.

However, Radios’s God-Slaying Bullet took effect in her body.

With her life force hitting rock bottom just before annihilation, she was transported to the Underworld.

“I have one goal. First, that woman’s neck.”

Veichel formed a magic spear and pointed at Athena.

From the deception she had practiced to the way she had ruined her entire life—that damned woman.

Veichel had hidden her hatred until now, but seeing her enemy’s face, she couldn’t contain her boiling anger.

“So that’s what your face looks like… No wonder you couldn’t properly appear before your believers.”

“How dare you! You who were once my servant!”

“Yes! Once your servant, and now I’m going to take you down!”

Rumble.

As Veichel released her Order of Struggle, the twelve Olympian gods flinched.

The energy emanating from her was no longer that of a human inferior to them.

It was equal or superior.

The energy was strong enough to be considered mid-to-high tier among the twelve gods.

Zeus rose from his seat, surprised by Veichel’s energy.

But Hades frowned and asked about her true intentions.

“I see. You came to the Underworld to escape all eyes and grow stronger quickly?”

“Correct. Since coming here, it’s been nothing but fighting, and more fighting…”

Veichel recalled her journey of several months with a distant look in her eyes.

There was a time difference between Kadinant and the Underworld.

Although about a month had passed in Kadinant, much more time had elapsed in the Underworld.

Veichel had activated her Spirit Eater in the midst of constant battles, except when eating and sleeping.

To grow stronger a little faster. To achieve her goal a little sooner.

“I know well that I’m not strong enough to face both of you who possess Divine Orders.”

No matter how quickly she had grown stronger through the power of the Spirit Eater, what use was it?

Possessing a Divine Order meant being on a different level entirely.

If Zeus were to simply wave his palm, Veichel would be severely injured.

Yet why had Veichel revealed herself here?

“It’s a clone. No, more precisely, an avatar?”

“Correct.”

“You’re being cunning. Do you think we can’t catch someone like you with this kind of declaration of war?”

Rumble.

The air around them trembled as Hades seemed genuinely enraged.

Despite being an avatar, Veichel narrowed her eyes as she felt her entire body being pressed down.

But she had to say what she came to say.

“Go ahead and try to surround me. The moment you do, I’ll completely destroy the barrier around the Underworld.”

“..!”

“Now you understand the situation? Oceanus, Iapetus, Hermes… if I had the power to kill these three, what do you think would happen if I targeted the vulnerable parts of the barrier?”

“…What do you want?”

Hades gritted his teeth at Veichel’s threat and attempted to negotiate with her.

If she really destroyed the barrier surrounding the Underworld…

Olympus would perish from the invasion of the Outer Gods.

Veichel, confident that her threat had worked, pointed at Athena.

“Send that woman down to Tartarus alone. I have something to discuss with her in private.”

“How dare a mere human!!”

“Is that acceptable?”

“Lord of the Underworld! Are you really considering negotiating with such a wicked human?!”

Athena, seemingly insulted at being used as a bargaining chip, protested to Hades.

But he merely looked down at her with a cold gaze.

That gaze seemed to ask: Were you so weak that you couldn’t kill this one human?

In the end, Athena had no choice but to swallow her anger.

“It seems Athena agrees. But what will you do if we all go down to Tartarus?”

“What will I do? Don’t be naive. You don’t think I’ve revealed all my cards, do you?”

As Veichel showed a chilling smile, Hades stared at her expressionlessly.

She showed no trembling. Her resources extended beyond just destroying the barrier.

After much deliberation, Hades finally said:

“Athena, go down to Tartarus.”

“…I obey the command of the Underworld King.”

Accepting defeat, he ordered Athena to descend to Tartarus.

Upon hearing this, Veichel’s avatar began to rapidly turn to stone.

“Seems like we’ve come to an understanding, so I’ll wait in Tartarus. See you next time.”

Only silence lingered in the meeting hall after she disappeared.