Chapter 368   Sky Wings (6)

Team: HH, Yahiko, thursdays, Seven(temp)

“If this isn’t your handiwork, who the hell did it?”

“I told you, it’s not us. It’s some other guy’s trick.”

“Who else here could do that besides you? That’s enough of your whining. Bring Cain or whatever his name is to me!”

Agora, the center of the holy territory where Hades’s subordinates came and went busily.

There, Aether and Kahn were glowering at each other. The faces of Victoria, Galliard, and Creutz, who were standing behind them, were also stiff.

As the two spoke to each other, their voices steadily became louder and their auras became fiercer, as though they would draw their swords at any moment.

As time went by, more and more people gathered around them.

But no one actively tried to restrain these two.

The atmosphere naturally became worse. In fact, even the spectators began separating into different groups.

Paneth’s party had long gained the trust of Dis Pluto after making significant contributions. Aether’s favorability in the army was quite high.

But the same was true for Yeon-woo and his party.

They filled up the supply shortage and repaired the soldiers’ armors for free. In particular, when it was rumored that they had helped Hades in the creation of his new item, Kynee, many people looked at them more warmly.

Since it was a clash between these two groups, it was natural that Dis Pluto would pay attention to it.

That was why.

“What the hell is all this fuss about?”

Dis Pluto’s 13th Corps Commander, Chanal, brought a large number of soldiers to help mediate between them.

Originally, he would have just ignored this situation by saying it was an incident between players who weren’t worth anything.

However, Yeon-woo and Paneth were important allies, without whom Dis Pluto would not have been able to kill gods easily.

Therefore, it was difficult for him to side with either. For now, all he could do was to listen to both sides as much as possible.

He wondered what the hell had happened since they had no knowledge about any problems between the two sides.

First of all, he needed to understand the overall situation so that they could either solve the problem or know which side to choose.

However.

“The 13th Corps Commander doesn’t need to worry about this.”

Aether snorted and refused to explain, as if it didn’t concern him.

At that moment, Chanal’s expression hardened.

It was only at that moment that Aether realised he’d made a mistake. This was the 13th Corps of Hades’s army, after all. He was like one of Hades’s limbs. On top of that, he also possessed divinity.

This meant that Chanal, who was basically a de facto member of the Forsaken Gods, was not someone he could disrespect.

But.

[A god of 〈Olympus〉, Poseidon, looks at you with interest.]

[Hestia is looking at you.]

[Demeter is looking at you.]

[Hera is looking at you.]

Feeling the eyes settle on his body, Aether felt as though his heart had shriveled up in his chest.

‘Dammit! Right. This could be in my favor, too. Now that it’s reached this point, I just need to do the best I can. It’s just the Olympians; there’s nothing to be afraid of.’

The Protogenoi species had new blood, but that was it.

In fact, it was much easier for him to ridicule from the transcendents because he had fallen far from his position in the old days.

Even when he had been a member of Arthia, Aether never received a lot of attention.

That was the reason he’d tried to join the Devil Army. In the end, he wasn’t able to attract the Heavenly Demon’s attention, so he ended up having to turn to Paneth.

And now, he’d managed to grab the attention of several gods which he so longed for while acting like a puppet in a show rather than of his own free will.

Aether couldn’t help but feel incredibly miserable at that moment.

He felt like just sitting down and crying right then.

Everything sucked.

He felt sad that he could only be manipulated and used without anything going as he wanted.

For a moment, he felt it would be better to just commit suicide than live such a miserable life.

Unfortunately, he didn’t even have the courage to do that.

-Dogs just bark like dogs. And they do as they are told.

As Paneth said, he was just a dog. A dog that barked when it was told to bark and wagged its tail when it was told to wag it.

-An oracle came during the night. Limit ‘Cain’s’ influence that‘s spreading in Dis Pluto to a minimum. And if the chance appears, kill him without hesitation.

Regardless of what Cain was up to, Aether didn’t think it had anything to do with him. Even though they had met a few times before, he didn’t have any particular quarrel with him.

There were rumors that he was a new rising star, but Aether was never interested in stuff like that.

However.

He knew it very well now.

The main reason behind Poseidon and the others’ oracle.

-He’s an enemy who needs to be punished immediately. Perhaps the only way to describe him would be ‘the evil in the dark.’ However, he and his party are obscuring Dis Pluto’s wisdom with their sweet words and actions. We have to stop this first.

So Paneth decided to remove Yeon-woo and his party’s influence from the equation before dealing with them directly.

However, in order to do that, it was necessary to get a proper understanding of Yeon-woo’s party.

What their personalities were like. How powerful they were.

Very composed.

-So you will confront them.

Aether was chosen to be the bait.

And the eyes of four gods were firmly fixed upon this bait, observing how he behaved and how he thought.

In particular, Poseidon’s eyes were filled with ridicule. Contempt for the descendant of an old god who couldn’t even regain his former glory so long after his fall.

“You should still explain what happened so that we can sort out your quarrel.”

Although he was annoyed, Chanal forcefully calmed himself and tried to speak nicely.

However, his voice was laced with anger. As though he would kill him without hesitation if he dared to act so rudely again.

Only then did Aether get to the point.

Kahn seemed to have a lot he wanted to say, but Aether didn’t give him the chance to intervene.

“Haaah! Look. It’s this.”

“A broken spear. Why are you showing me this?”

“Would you believe me if I told you this was a perfectly fine spear just two days ago? And that this was also the holy spear that Paneth used to cut Megaera’s ankles?”

Chanal’s eyes widened at that.

Following the death of the titan Astraeus, Megaera’s death had been a big boost for Dis Pluto.

Was this really the spear that helped with that?

“At that time, there was a problem with the spear’s durability, so I wondered how to repair it. When I returned to the holy territory, I coincidentally heard that Cain and his party were doing repairs. Since he’s an ally and a fellow player, I thought he could be trusted, so I had him repair it...”

“And this is how it came back. Is that it?”

“No. When I received it, I was sure that it had been repaired.”

Chanal frowned as he understood what Aether was trying to say.

Aether quickly continued before Chanal could reply.

“But it was just fine on the surface. I got the spear back, and while I was using it to practice this morning, it suddenly shattered easily.”

Chanal frowned.

What if he had taken this spear and gone into battle without checking it?

It was almost certain that an accident would’ve occurred.

Aether acted desperately as though he’d been wronged.

“I wondered if I’d made a mistake, so I checked the weapons and armors of the other people. But I was able to confirm that there were no problems with the items other than mine.”

“...”

“And even though my spear had been damaged in battle, it would not be broken so easily. Who would be able to stand still in a situation like this?”

Aether threw the spear in his hand to the ground.

“That is why I’m arguing like this. But the party leader won’t even show himself, and his teammates are simply repeating that they’re innocent, like parrots.”

A ripple swept through the crowd.

Whether it was because of Aether’s earnest expression or another reason, the soldiers all watched on with firm expressions.

From what he’d said, it appeared that the other group had the intention to get rid of their rivals, the Paneth team.

“That’s not true!”

Kahn tried desperately to explain that it wasn’t them. But the atmosphere was already set in the opponent’s favor.

Realizing that his acting had worked well, Aether forcibly squeezed his twitching lips together.

[Poseidon mockingly admires your excellent acting.]

He didn’t need to know that.

Chanal rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache incoming. He realized that this issue was much more complicated than he expected.

In recent years, the influence the players had on Dis Pluto had increased significantly, resulting in this strange situation.

Wherever players gathered, there would soon be different groups and factions. It was his job to prevent any major issues from happening.

But this time, there was no way for him to handle this situation.

Both sides had made so many contributions that they had already exceeded the level that he could easily restrain.

In fact. Just from looking at their performances, it was unclear whether he’d be able to fight either Yeon-woo or Paneth. He was not confident that he could defeat Lam, Hades’ Apostle.

‘What should I do?’

They couldn’t let Yeon-woo and Paneth go head-to-head as they wished.

In the face of the breakdown of the agreement when the titans and giants might attack at any moment, they couldn’t afford to lose either.

‘Where the hell did Lam go?’

In this situation, it would be much better if the person who was in charge of the Player Corps came over to deal with this.

Recently, she’d been busy running around under Hades’ orders, and she didn’t have the time to intervene.

“Without a proper explanation, we can only use force.”

Following Aether’s solemn words.

Cha-chaeng!

All the party members drew their weapons, and it seemed they were ready to leap at Kahn’s party at any moment.

Kahn and the others’ expressions became hard when they saw this.

They didn’t think they would reach the point of drawing blood, even if they were to have a war of words.

Victoria, Creutz, and Galliard also put their hands on their weapons.

But Kahn stretched out his hand to stop them. Then he shook his head at them.

Yeon-woo was their leader. Without his permission, they couldn’t draw their weapons easily.

Hwaa—

Then, he released the momentum he had been hiding all this while. Immediately, the thick scent of blood seemed to fill the air as his sharp aura stung their skin.

Surprised, Aether and the rest took a step back reflexively.

‘Who is this guy...?’

Aether’s eyes twitched slightly.

This was because he didn’t expect this son of the Iron Lion, who was only a puppet of the Devil Army, to be so powerful.

He didn’t think there would be such a large gap between them.

“You’d better sheathe your blades. I actually hate the smell of blood and iron.”

Kahn stared at Aether as he growled out those words.

But Aether couldn’t just turn back as he wished. Instead, he spread his arms wide while the corner of his lips twisted.

His arms flashed before being covered in light.

〈White Light〉. His signature skill activated.

“So what if you don’t like it? I’m sorry, did you think I’d back down?”

As the tension reached its peak, the atmosphere around the Dis Pluto soldiers degraded.

Watching the two sides, Chanal couldn’t help but frown.

To take out a weapon in front of a commander like him was the same as ignoring him and Dis Pluto. Just as he was about to shout.

Clang!

A heavy sound rang out suddenly, and Aether, who had been hit by something, flew back violently, bouncing on the ground a few times.

He rolled a few times on the group before he came to a stop.

Khan and the others stared with wide eyes.

“Ke—kek...! Kek!”

Aether coughed up blood as he tried to get up. The attack had been so sudden that he didn’t even have the chance to see what happened.

He wanted to see just who dared to do something like this.

However, a kick to the back of the head forced his face into the ground once again.

“How dare you pull out your weapons in Lord Hades’ territory without receiving his permission? You guys are crazy. You’re really crazy.”

Lam growled out as she stomped on Aether’s head a few times, making it impossible for him to get up. Her sharp voice was like a clap of thunder in the ears of everyone nearby.

Without hesitation, she swung her spear and cut off Aether’s right hand, which was still glowing white, before turning her eyes to the rest of Paneth’s team.

They couldn’t even pay attention to Aether’s screams as they retreated nervously. Unfortunately, the fact remained that they had drawn their weapons.

Shwack—

Lam drew a horizontal line with her spear that was glowing with black light.

Immediately afterward, their right hands were also cut off, causing a shower of blood to squirt out.

“Kuaak!”

“Ack!”

She was truly unrelenting. Even though they were valuable allies who had helped their troops numerous times, she didn’t care.

There was only one thing that mattered to Lam, and that was Hades’s prestige.

She would not forgive anyone who disregarded that, even if they were soldiers in the same army.

To take out a weapon in the holy territory was to insult the god it belonged to. Naturally, she would be extremely angry.

What was more shocking was the fact that although the main force, Paneth, was missing, she had still disabled this powerful party with one spear without them being able to put up a fight.

“What about you guys? What are you doing? Do you plan to pull out your weapons, too?”

Lam’s eyes turned to Kahn and the others, who were still in shock.

At that moment, the three standing behind Kahn could only nervously look at each other.

“.....”

“.....”

“.....”

Then they quickly pulled their hands away from their weapons.

How could such a small body contain so much power?

Kahn could feel that his collar was soaked in cold sweat.

* * *

“...”

『.......』

Yeon-woo, who had rushed over urgently with Doyle, couldn’t help but look at the scene before him blankly.

Aether, the cause of the situation, was currently lying with his head buried in the ground.

He hadn’t expected him to be in Tartarus and intended to cut off his head anyway. But he had unexpectedly come to bother him first.

In the pocket watch, Jeong-woo was also quiet. He must have had a lot of thoughts on his mind after seeing Aether for the first time in so long.

Yeon-woo patted the watch gently while murmuring.

‘Don’t worry too much.’

『.......』

‘Because I’ll definitely make sure to slit his throat.’