Chapter 189: Targetting Lucifer

Hearing Persephone’s sharp berating, Hades scoffed heavily, resting his head back against the cold obsidian throne as a fresh wave of agony washed over his face.

"A divine curse has befallen me!" Hades spat out, his voice strained and hoarse as his knuckles turned white against the throne armrests. "And I cannot even detect its origin! It has been more than a month since these cursed spasms began!"

I blinked, standing completely invisible near the center of the hall right beside Paige.

’Wait a second...’ I called out to Paige mentally, turning my head toward her. ’A month? Paige, I only gave you the command to give him diarrhea two days ago after those jet explosions!’

Paige leaned her head against my shoulder, her long dark silk kimono rustling softly while her nine fluffy white fox tails swished lazily against my leg. She looked up at me with a playful, mischievous grin.

[Fufufu~ Oh, Seth! Messing with temporal causality in the physical realm is child’s play for us!] Paige explained in my mind, her tone casually dismissive. [When you gave the order, I simply anchored the conceptual vector to a point in his past timeline! So, as far as reality and his body are concerned, he’s been suffering from explosive divine spasms for over thirty days!]

I stared at her in speechlessly dazed awe.

She hadn’t just cursed him in real-time, she had retroactively rewritten his past month to ensure he experienced maximum gastrointestinal misery.

’Damn...’ I thought, a cold shiver running down my spine. ’That is brutally, terrifyingly ruthless.’

I genuinely pitied anyone who ever managed to make Paige their enemy.

Paige caught my thoughts instantly. A radiant, sweet smile curved her lips as her fluffy white fox ears twitched proudly. [Don’t worry, Host! My Host’s enemies are my enemies, so I don’t need to waste time looking for new ones to torment!]

I let out a quiet breath, offering her a approving nod. ’Fair enough.’

Back on the dais, Hades let out another low, agonized grumble as his stomach rumbled loudly.

Persephone stared down at him from the foot of the throne, letting out a long, exhausted sigh before clicking her tongue in disdain.

"And why do you think this affliction has struck you, husband?" Persephone asked coldly, crossing her arms over her dark silk gown. "This is the direct consequence of your own foolish impatience. You actually attempted to assassinate the holder of the Origin Astral Soul."

Hades opened his mouth to object, but Persephone cut him off with an icy, unyielding glare.

"You should be dropping to your knees in gratitude that I personally intervened to sever the Karmic threads connecting that failed ambush back to our Underworld," Persephone continued, her voice sharp as steel. "If I had not masked your divine signature, the Human Federation’s High Council would currently be standing outside our gates demanding your head on a platter! Not to mention the other chief pantheons, all of whom explicitly want the Origin user alive and stable to maintain global balance!"

Hades clutched his stomach, letting out a hoarse groan, though his dark eyes flared with stubborn, resentful pride.

"I am grateful for your intervention, Persephone," Hades growled out, his teeth gritted tightly. "Suppression of Karmic evidence was necessary. But I had no choice! The boy was newly awakened and vulnerable! That was the absolute best window of opportunity we will ever get to eliminate the ultimate threat before his authority matures!"

He slammed his fist against the armrest of the stygian iron throne, sending a faint vibration through the stone floor.

"What drives me into a fury is that someone managed to trace the contract back to my nether threads and slap this wretched, embarrassing curse upon my vessel!" Hades snarled, sweat dripping down his pale forehead. "The Fernando brat was far too weak and inexperienced to execute a conceptual curse of this magnitude. It had to be an outside party! Someone in the higher realms is playing a game with me, and when I find them, I will tear their soul to shreds!"

Persephone listened to his rant, her lips curving into a cold, mocking smirk.

"If you are looking for an outside party who favors the boy and possesses the authority to bypass your defenses..." Persephone murmured smoothly, "...you need not look far. Word from the mortal realm indicates that Lucifer herself has taken quite a liking to Seth Fernando."

The second the name Lucifer left Persephone’s lips, Hades’ rage exploded.

"THAT CURSED DEVIL WOMAN—!"

PFFFFFFFT.

A loud, echoing ungraceful fart ripped through the quiet, grand throne room.

Silence fell over the hall.

Persephone’s elegant posture instantly shattered. Her eyes widened in utter, unadulterated disgust. She took three rapid steps backward, clutching her silk handkerchief over her nose as she glared at her husband with pure revulsion.

Hades’ pale face flushed a deep red from sheer embarrassment, but his overwhelming humiliation only fueled his burning rage even further.

"I WILL KILL HER!" Hades roared, clutching his churning stomach while shaking his fist at the ceiling. "I will slaughter that silver-haired witch and rip the Authority of Death straight out of her cold, arrogant hands! I have been quietly plotting her downfall for centuries, but now that she dares to interfere in my private affairs and strike my vessel with this humiliating sickness... I will execute her once and for all!"

Standing right beside me in the center of the hall, Paige erupted into a fit of breathless, silent laughter.

Her physical foxkin body shook as she clutched her waist, her nine white tails swishing wildly in mid-air as she tried to keep her laughter quiet.

[AHAHAHA!] Paige cackled in my mind, her dark eyes sparkling with pure, unhinged amusement. [Oh, this is gold! Lucifer got dragged straight into the middle of this without doing a single thing!]

Paige wiped a tear of laughter from her eye, a devious smirk spreading across her face.

[Seth! I am going to leave subtle, forged conceptual nether clues inside the Underworld’s information channels right now! Hades is going to be one hundred percent convinced that Lucifer was the one who cursed him!]

I looked over at Paige, raising an eyebrow in mild amusement. ’Wait... why are you so hellbent on framing Lucifer and fanning the flames between them?’

Paige adjusted her silver reading glasses, her expression shifting into a confident, highly analytical smile.

[Because, Host, that foolish God of Death is drastically underestimating the Devil Queen simply because he hasn’t seen her in a real fight for a few centuries!] Paige explained smoothly, her tone filled with playful glee.

She gestured toward the ceiling of the hall.[Hades thinks the cosmos has been completely peaceful. What he doesn’t realize is that even during these quiet eras, alternate variants of Lucifer from parallel multiverses and divergent timelines, some female, some even male, frequently attempt to invade our universe to steal her Authority of Death!]

I tilted my head, genuinely intrigued. ’Parallel variants invade her?’

[Yep!] Paige nodded enthusiastically, her fluffy white fox ears twitching. [And our Lucifer personally slaughtered every single variant that dared step into her territory! By slaying and absorbing her alternate variants over the time, her conceptual control over Death has grown exponentially stronger, even while sitting around doing nothing in peacetime.]

Paige giggled, leaning against my arm. [Do you know why she spends her time hanging out in the mortal world eating fast food and watching anime, Seth? It’s because her raw authority has become so ridiculously dense that if she doesn’t keep herself grounded with silly mortal hobbies, her own power would end up corrupting her mind!]

Realization clicked in my brain. A highly amused grin spread across my face as I finally understood Paige’s plan.

’I get it,’ I murmured mentally. ’Lucifer actually loves a good fight, but because of the inter-realm peace treaties, she can’t just go around attacking other chief gods without a reason.’

[EXACTLY!] Paige beamed brightly, clapping her hands together. [If Hades gets convinced that Lucifer cursed him and launches an attack on her... Lucifer gets a completely legitimate, legal excuse to brutally demolish him! She gets to have the time of her life torturing him, Hades gets utterly obliterated for targeting you, and we don’t even have to lift a single finger!]

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud mentally, shaking my head at her sheer genius.

I reached out, gently patting Paige’s head between her soft white fox ears. ’That is a brilliant plan, Paige. You did an amazing job. If I ever run into trouble, I know I can always rely on you.’

Paige’s fox ears flattened happily under my palm, a soft purr escaping her throat as her cheeks flushed a sweet pink. She looked up at me with an immensely proud, satisfied expression, her nine tails wrapping gently around my waist.

[Fufufu~ Always rely on your system companion, Host!] Paige chirped happily.

Back on the dais, Persephone scoffed softly at Hades’ furious promises to slaughter the Devil Queen.

She knew better than anyone just how suicidal his claim was. If Hades actually attempted to challenge Lucifer in his current weakened, stomach-compromised state, he wouldn’t even survive the first three seconds of combat.

But Persephone held her tongue. If her arrogant, foolish husband wanted to march straight into his own execution, she certainly wasn’t going to waste her breath stopping him.

Instead, Persephone smoothed down the front of her dark silk gown, stepping back toward the base of the throne. Her dark, perceptive eyes locked onto Hades’ pale, sweating face, her voice dropping into a quiet, deeply curious register.

"Do as you please regarding Lucifer," Persephone spoke calmly, her tone devoid of emotion. "However... there is one thing I still do not understand, Hades."

Hades clutched his stomach, glaring up at her through gritted teeth. "What...?"

Persephone tilted her head slightly, her gaze turning razor-sharp.

"Why were you targeting the Fernando boy so persistently in the first place?" Persephone asked softly, her eyes narrowing. "What exactly did you see in the prophecy that made you risk everything to kill a mortal?"