Chapter 1077: Return to Hell

"..."

Arthur didn’t answer Echidna’s question. He silently narrowed his eyes, already feeling that this question-and-answer session wasn’t going to lead anywhere he’d like.

Echidna didn’t mind his silence, though.

"If anyone from Hell was going to know you still draw breath, then it should have been Diablo," she said. "No one else should have known.

Unless you had some specific series of actions you wanted her to take that required her to know of your survival, then the only reason you told your mother becomes the fact that you simply didn’t want to burden her with the knowledge that you were gone for good when you weren’t.

That’s why I say you’re soft...much too soft for the path you intend to tread upon."

Echidna vanished from Arthur’s side and reappeared on the seat opposite him, a soft smile on her face as she said, "You still have emotional limits that you refuse to cross. That’s dangerous considering the ambition you revealed to me during your last visit.

Get rid of them, or you’ll regret it later."

Arthur stared at her in silence, then exhaled softly as he shook his head.

"I don’t have any interest in explaining the reason behind my decisions to you, but..." Arthur paused, glancing around at Echidna’s children surrounding them before continuing, "I’ll have you know I’m content with your refusal because I currently do NOT have a need for your army.

When it’s time for Olympus to fall, however, things won’t be so different."

Arthur then pointed towards the Hydra.

"Take your eyes out of that one," he demanded. "I don’t appreciate being spied upon."

"And here I thought I’d get to enjoy a show," Echidna muttered with a light laugh. She glanced at the Hydra, and immediately, it groaned softly, wisps of red divinity that it didn’t even know it possessed seeping out of its body and flowing towards Echidna.

She condensed the energy in her hand, then constructed an Olympian rune from it before flicking it in the direction of the Hydra.

"I added a little something," she said. "A farewell gift, of sorts."

Arthur nodded in satisfaction, getting up as he said, "Good. I didn’t have to ask."

With those words, he turned around, the Cosmic Teleporter on his arm glowing as cosmic energy condensed to tear open a hole in the fabric of spacetime, creating a gate that led to Olympus’ Underworld.

"See you in a few centuries, Echidna."

He stepped in immediately after speaking, and the Hydra looked towards the Cosmic Gate before looking back at Echidna.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked with an eyebrow raised. "Follow your master."

The Hydra bit its lips, then bowed once before dashing into the Cosmic Gate, and seeing this, Echidna simply rolled her eyes with a soft sigh.

◇　◇　◇

When Arthur arrived in the Underworld, he headed straight to Persephone’s garden, where the goddess of Spring was together with her husband, Hades.

The instant he emerged from the Cosmic Gate after leaving the Hydra in Hades’ palace, Persephone turned her gaze towards him, and her expression immediately scrunched up.

"The hell? Did you sleep with her or something?"

Arthur froze, the words he’d been about to speak dying in his throat as his expression turned confused.

"Sleep with who?"

"Who else? Echidna," Persephone responded, looking at him as if the answer should’ve been obvious.

"Obviously not," Arthur immediately replied with an offended expression.

Persephone then gestured towards him before asking, "Then why is her scent all over you?"

Arthur looked down at his body, cosmic energy flowing into his eyes as he examined himself. However, despite looking himself over, he didn’t seem to notice anything different about his body.

Seeing the expression of confusion on his face, Persephone looked towards Hades, who also seemed similarly confused by what she was saying.

"Oh," she muttered, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "That conniving snake."

She looked back towards Arthur before continuing, "If you don’t want to be accused of infidelity by any lovers you have back in the Hell universe, I suggest that you cleanse your body before you leave."

Hearing Persephone’s words, Arthur narrowed his eyes before asking, "What did she do?"

"Well, clearly something only women can notice," Persephone responded before continuing with a more straightforward explanation. "To put it bluntly, she marked you. She basically put a neon sign on your head screaming, ’THIS ONE’S MINE!’"

Arthur’s brow twitched when he heard Persephone’s words, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I did think she was a little clingier than usual, but that’s what she was up to."

Arthur genuinely hadn’t thought anything of Echidna sticking close to him, and had simply attributed it to the woman’s usual behaviour. Understanding that she’d placed a mark on him while doing that, he was hit with delayed annoyance and felt that he should’ve at least smacked her once before leaving her lair.

"How do I get rid of it?" Arthur asked, turning his attention towards Persephone.

"You have the power of destruction, do you not?" Persephone asked in response. "Then just activate your Authority and use it to cloak yourself. Even if you can’t perceive the effect, it still exists, so your power of destruction should be able to do something about it."

Arthur nodded once, then activated his Authority of Destruction. However, a different idea came to mind, and immediately, a silvery power erupted from his body, flowing from the crown of his head all the way down to the soles of his feet.

Persephone flinched at the sight of it, an instinctive reaction to the power of nothingness, while Hades merely frowned at the strange energy.

After a moment, Arthur retracted his power before looking towards Persephone and asking, "Is it still there?"

Persephone silently shook her head, quietly rubbing her arms to get rid of the goosebumps that had formed on her skin during those short moments when Arthur’s Null was active.

"Good," Arthur said, walking towards the table where the two gods were seated before taking a seat there. He then looked towards Hades and asked, "Did you retrieve that thing I asked about?"

Hades nodded quietly, then raised an eyebrow as he asked, "What are you going to use it for?"

At this, Arthur rubbed his chin before answering, "Initially, I planned to just sock him one in the face, but..."

He paused for a moment, shaking his head before continuing, "Now, I don’t think physical pain is going to be enough. I want to deal some severe emotional damage, to let him know that the only reason his son is dead is that he tried to kill his brother’s child."

Hades was silent for a moment upon hearing those words, before exhaling softly and raising his hand. He drew a circle in the air, with the centre of that circle becoming filled with darkness.

From that darkness floated out a bifurcated corpse, and the sight of it caused Persephone’s eyes to widen in shock.

It was Hermes, whose death she had already heard about and whose presence she had already sensed disappearing from the universe.

She had also known that Arthur was the one responsible for Hermes’ death, but seeing his bifurcated corpse covered in blood, with his fearful expression eternally etched upon his face, made it impossible for her to feel nothing.

Persephone had known Hermes for most of her life, and there had even been a time when the two of them were close enough to be considered best friends.

Because of that, his death was certainly not something she felt good about. The problem was that the person responsible for his death wasn’t someone she could do anything about either.

Arthur seemed to notice Persephone’s complicated feelings about the matter as he cast a glance towards her, but he said nothing as he simply opened his subspace and collected Hermes’ corpse.

Out of consideration for Persephone, he chose not to mention, as he’d initially planned to, that he intended to sever Hermes’ head from his neck and join the two halves back together so he could use it to taunt Zeus later on.

"Oh, yeah," Arthur said, suddenly remembering something. "Echidna says she can see stuff through her children’s eyes. You should check Cerberus out to see if it’s got any bugs on it."

Persephone’s eyes widened in surprise at Arthur’s sudden words, while Hades simply waved dismissively and replied, "I already took care of that long ago. Cerberus informed me."

"Oh? That’s good then," Arthur said, nodding in satisfaction. Before he could say anything else, Hades asked him a question.

"When are you leaving?"

"Today," Arthur replied immediately. "The moment Larry gets here, Alexia and I are leaving. It’s time to return to Hell."

Hearing about Arthur’s departure, Hades quietly bit his lip before looking back towards him and saying, "Arthur, try not to be too reckless."

Arthur chuckled at Hades’ words, understanding that the man had completely given up on hoping that he wouldn’t make any reckless decisions, and had instead simply wished that he’d reduce the frequency of such decisions.

"Not sure I can promise even that much, Dad," Arthur said with a soft sigh. "Really not sure."

Just as he said that, Arthur immediately turned around, looking towards the empty space behind him as he said, "You’re late!"

Hades and Persephone turned their gazes in the direction Arthur was looking, just in time to see the space shimmer as a tall figure dressed in a three-piece suit, a long overcoat, and a fedora appeared out of thin air.

Slipping his hands into his coat, the man brought out a pocket watch, opened it, and responded, "No. Actually, I’m right on time."

Hades’ eyes widened in recognition at the sight of the man, and feeling Hades’ gaze upon him, the man looked towards Hades before saying, "Hello, Hades."

He then looked towards Persephone, the distance between them nearly becoming non-existent in an instant as he appeared right in front of her.

"It’s a pleasure to actually meet you, Lady Persephone," he said with a light bow. "The name is Larry, Grand Commander of the Drifters in this sector of the First Multiverse."

Persephone blinked at the unfamiliar term ’First Multiverse’, and at this, Arthur turned towards Larry and chided him.

"Dude, she doesn’t know about the multiverses."

"Oh? And here I assumed you’d have enlightened her," Larry responded.

"Haven’t had the time," Arthur said with a shrug, then leaned back in his chair and asked, "Have you met with Alexia?"

"Ah, yes. Vladi and I are acquainted," Larry replied, pointing towards the sky as he added, "I suppose the ship orbiting this planet belongs to her."

Arthur nodded before replying, "That should be a nine-headed Ophidian in my father’s palace. Send it to the ship for me, will you?"

He immediately got up after speaking, then placed his hand on Larry’s shoulder as he said, "And contact Nash for me. Tell him that I wish to speak to him about a matter regarding Luka."

Larry’s expression immediately changed at the mention of the Progenitor goddess’s name.

"That sounds like quite a serious matter," he said with a serious tone.

"Indeed it is," Arthur responded.

He moved away from his seat before adding, "I wouldn’t want to die twice at her hand if I can help it."

Larry quietly nodded, and Arthur removed his hand from his shoulder, his gaze moving towards Hades.

"This is it. Until next time, Dad."

Hades stared back at Arthur silently, and after a few moments, he nodded before responding, "Until next time."

With that, Larry snapped his fingers, and both he and Arthur vanished, reappearing together with the Hydra inside Alexia’s spaceship.

Larry then activated his Aspectual Authority and blasted open a Cosmic Gate that completely ignored the barriers of the Olympus universe, creating a spatial channel that connected directly to the Hell universe, which was billions upon billions of light-years away.

Alexia gave the command to her subordinates, who immediately moved the ship into the Cosmic Gate, and so began Arthur’s return to Hell.