Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 191: Chapter 35: Oblivion_2

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The situation was now clear; the one clashing with Hades was the rumored Goddess of the Nether Moon, an ancient deity who had long resided in the Spirit Realm. However, before proceeding, the goddess decided to first understand the situation here.

“Excuse me, are you the River God of this place?”

Her tone was calm; looking at the aged visage of the ferryman before her, Hestia didn’t show any arrogance due to the difference in strength. On the contrary, she was quite polite.

It was her first time at the Acheron River, as well as her first encounter with this Styx River ferryman. Although the ferryman’s strength was not formidable, the Styx River seemed to be linked with the power of the Underworld, giving birth to a special force.

This force was not strong in itself, but it shared a part of the essence of the Underworld. It could cause all things to sink, making any being that came into contact with it dwindle in their obsessiveness through suffering. Neither deities nor mortals could avoid it; only on the ferryman’s wooden boat could one sidestep this force.

Of course, this power definitely could not affect her personally. After all, the Underworld was not the Spirit Realm, and even though the River of Sorrow shared part of the essence of the Underworld, it also wasn’t capable of touching the great symbols.

“As you can see, Your Highness Hestia, I am Charon, the ferryman of the River of Sorrow, currently serving Lord Hades by guarding the portals between the nether and the upper worlds,”

Charon rose from the wooden boat and bowed deeply.

“May I know your commands?”

“The strife in the Underworld has affected the surface; I come by the Divine King’s order to investigate the cause,”

“What do you know about this conflict?”

Originally planning to head directly to the center of the Underworld, Hestia felt, just as she crossed the gates of the Underworld, that the aura of the battling sides suddenly calmed down.

At the same time, a somewhat peculiar sensation drifted through the Underworld.

“I only know that Lord Hades has long desired to meet with the Goddess of the Nether Moon and the Goddess of Oaths, but to no avail,”

“As for the events that happened today, I am unaware, Your Highness,”

Shaking his head, Charon’s aged face didn’t show the malice he often reserved for mortals, only respect and submission.

Because of his godhood’s influence, he actually reveled in bringing pain to others. But when facing the elder sister of the Divine King, he still knew what he ought to do.

“I see… then I shall go and see for myself, thank you,”

Hestia nodded slightly, surmising that perhaps her brother wished to fully integrate the power of the Underworld, resulting in a dispute with a neighbor.

Without further ado, Hestia prepared to depart. But the next moment, that previously faint and peculiar aura suddenly intensified. The entire Underworld seemed to rejoice, and in an instant, even she was affected by that unknown power.

The goddess stood still. In that moment, she seemed to forget how she had come to be there, her purpose for venturing to the Underworld, and she almost forgot how to control her own power.

Her divine power fluctuated abnormally for a moment, fortunately, it was brief and Hestia quickly shook off the influence, but it still alerted her instantly.

“That is——”

With a serious expression, she felt wary of this special power. While its intensity was limited, like the Acheron River before her, it seemed to share the nature of another being.

Consequently, it possessed a high level of rank, making even the goddess not exempt from its effects.

“… Your Highness, it appears a new Styx River is being born,”

Perhaps because he was also a member of the Styx, Charon wasn’t more severely affected than the potent goddess. He recognized why this strange aura was familiar to him; a similar phenomenon had occurred when he was born.

Yet there was a difference. As one of the Styx Rivers, the ferryman could clearly feel that this new Styx River, like the Styx itself, was seemingly not solely under the influence of the Underworld.

At the other end of it, a vast and majestic world was connecting to the Underworld like Tartarus, through the power of the new Styx River.

······

“What is this?”

Compared to the two deities at the edge of the Underworld, above the Fields of Truth, Liana and Hades were equally surprised.

Hades’s figure was somewhat disheveled, but he was not gravely injured. Earlier, even though he had the upper hand, Liana soon realized after a brief exchange that she seemed unable to handle him currently.

This was not because the power of the Spirit Realm was insufficient, or even that it was lesser than half of the Underworld’s sovereignty, but because she herself had encountered a ‘bottleneck.’ There was plenty of power she could still draw upon, but Liana was no longer able to bear it.

Empowered by the force of the interface, Liana, with her divine power just below the eighteenth level, stood at the peak of mighty divine power, with greatness just one step away. Yet as the Goddess of the Nether Moon, she was not the master of this world; she could not touch the sphere of greatness before her divine power had reached its zenith, a force she was temporarily unable to bear.

In this situation, Liana and Hades were like two students who were already excellent but had also received extra credit. Although one had five hundred points and the other only fifty, faced with a test out of a hundred points, both ‘good students’ could achieve full marks.

However, fortunately, she had a Divine Artifact. If in the realm of divine power, Hades, bolstered by half the laws of the Underworld, stood equal to Liana, in the realm of Divine Artifacts, the Netherworld King’s Helmet of Invisibility paled in comparison.