Chapter 325 (2/2)

“If you were searching for Olympus, then you came to the wrong place. This here is underground, and that place is much higher up,” Hades said as his eyes were dyed in a pitch-black hue. “However, I can’t let you go if that was your ultimate destination.”

Ka-gagagagak, kwa-dudu—

The monster started rushing forward while continuously shooting out that nightmarish glare, and Hades, who was standing on the other end of the dark cave, extended his arm toward the incoming monster.

Shu-aaaaah—

Pah-saaaah—

The hide of the monster that resembled a massive snake instantly turned into powder and scattered away.

The monster couldn’t come any closer to Hades. No matter how resilient its life force was, and no matter how strong its powers of regeneration was, in the end, a life form with only bones remaining on its body would have no way to move forward.

Boom—

Hades stared at the corpse of the monster as it collapsed to the ground. He then lightly tutted while studying the lengthy creature that was huge enough to almost completely fill up the massive cave. “Tsk. It was merely prey?”

Hades muttered as if he lost all of his enthusiasm just then, but then again, a predator would never show up here alone even if its mind had dulled considerably.

“Even measly preys have started infiltrating this place?” he muttered to no one in particular as he started to walk away.

His destination was above ground—the world of humans.

* * *

Ruuuumble—

Su-hyeun’s arm transformed into a “flame.”

He stared at his arm in amazement. The arm that was now made of fire didn’t seem to weigh anything, and he couldn’t sense any high temperature from it either.

Although he could only change his arm, for now, this much was already good enough.

“You’ve finally taken your first step,” said Apollo.

After turning himself into a flame, he had been leisurely coiling around Su-hyeun, but he revealed his humanoid appearance once more.

He floated in the air for a while, and then, while looking a bit bored, he stared at Su-hyeun’s arm and said, “Well, you should be able to practice it by yourself from now on.”

“Is this the ‘Transformation’ you’ve been talking about?”

“Right. Although it’s only your arm, for now, that is definitely Transformation.”

“Transformation,” a technique available through the godhood of fire, allowed the wielder to turn his body into fire. Not only did this ability nullify physical impact, but it also made releasing one’s aura so much easier.

“Now that you’ve succeeded in Transformation, it should get easier for you from now on. Besides, you getting this far in only two days is quite fast.”

“Is it really?”

“Indeed. Even other gods need about one year to succeed, so you’re incredibly fast compared to them. Although, I could do it even before I started walking, so there’s that.”

For the past two days, Su-hyeun had learned many things while staying next to Apollo. He also learned that gods were classified into different types as well.

There exists a “species” that was born with godhood qualifications, and then there are those beings that polished their abilities and eventually acquired the necessary qualifications—all of them were combined under one umbrella and were called “gods.”

Apollo belonged to the former. He was an existence born with godhood, and even his genes were different from the rest.

“It’s pretty unfair…” Su-hyeun thought.

He learned from Apollo that the latter species, those who became gods by acquiring godhood, were extremely rare.

It wasn’t as if you automatically became a god after acquiring one or two qualifications and you also didn’t live for eternity either.

“Has anything happened outside?” Su-hyeun asked while activating “Transformation” once more to change his arm into flames.

At the same time, he grasped the sword and lightly swung it with his flaming hand. He wanted to experiment if he could properly swing his weapon even if his body was made of flames.

“Nothing much, for now,” Apollo replied nonchalantly.

Su-hyeun stopped swinging the sword at that reply and turned his head. “For now? Does that mean something will happen soon?”

“Maybe. It’s possible.”

Su-hyeun’s eyes quietly gleamed at Apollo’s reply. As a complete god, the sun god did possess the ability of some foresight.

“How long do we have left?” Su-hyeun asked.

“Not a lot. Maybe even—”

“It seems that you’ve not been warned by Zeus to never teach humans about the future that hasn’t happened yet.”

Ku-gugugugu—

A cold air that was icy enough to send shivers down Su-hyeun’s spine rushed in. His whole body froze up. He grasped his arm with goosebumps breaking out only to discover that his skin had already turned dark.

“Death Aura?” he thought.

It was a familiar sensation.

The sensation of cold air was just an illusion. Rather than coldness, this aura was far closer to death itself. Also, it was the aura the Lich King wielded back then and something Su-hyeun currently wielded as well.

“You finally came, uncle.”

Su-hyeun chased after Apollo’s gaze. Inside this space completely blanketed by flames, only a section of the fire had turned into a pitch-black color.

It was Hell Fire, also known as the flames that burned in the depths of hell.

It was a fire under Apollo’s control, but at the same time…

“Your father asked me for a favor, so I took it on, but never did I guess that you’d cause such a scene and make a run for it.”

This fire also belonged under the authority of the god of hell, Hades.

Hades walked out from the black flames with his bent back. Su-hyeun’s whole body froze up even more as he stared at the god of death.

“This…is a god?” he inwardly asked.

The sense of presence Hades gave off was a whole other class compared to Apollo’s. It was a feeling that made one think that merely getting closer would cause one to lose their lives, that they would immediately be embraced by death itself.

“For sure, there’s a reason why you’d be interested in him. Even if you have helped him out, to think that he acquired two different types of qualifications of godhood at such a young age…”

Hades’s blackened eyes were peering right through Su-hyeun.

Su-hyeun held his breath and stared back. Even though merely holding that gaze caused his breathing to nearly stop, and his whole body felt like it was rotting away, he still endured and held on.

Hades continued the stare-down with Su-hyeun for a little while longer before smiling faintly. Then, he looked beyond Su-hyeun’s position and opened his mouth, “By the way, you don’t have any desire to show yourself here, it seems?”

“…?”

Who was he talking to just now? Su-hyeun looked behind him, but he couldn’t see anyone.

Hades continued as he disregarded Su-hyeun, “If you don’t come out now, I will kill this man, so how about it?”

“Well, this is…”

It was a familiar voice.

“Troublesome. Indeed, quite troublesome.”

Su-hyeun reflexively turned his head in the direction of the new voice.

Whooooosh—

Soft breezes were flowing out from the Palm Leaf Sword.

As for the voice that he heard just now…

“First…brother?”

It belonged to none other than the Bull Demon King.