Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Hell’s second layer, hidden high above.

The silver mirror hung suspended in the air, no longer easily accessible to Mephisto.

Its ’weight’ had become increasingly terrifying, and it continued to grow heavier every second. Dark serpents circled around it, ceaselessly moving through space, silently drawing in threads of gray matter, slowly and steadily increasing its volume. Despite his calm demeanor, Mephisto’s body trembled unconsciously.

This was not out of fear but merely a natural instinctive reaction of life. Mephisto, having leaped several ranks from an ordinary great devil to the lord of an entire level of Hell in a short time, grew stronger, but his body had yet to transform.

Just as a native deity needed a long time to recover once their divine body was completely eradicated, it was not an easy task to form a body that matched his current powers.

Like the former God of Meteorology, the reason he could stay active in the world soon after his transformation was due to his crafty use of his ’legacy’.

After infusing his origin into the first layer of Hell, Crius directly sculpted his current body based on his old divine physique, which is why he still bore no demonic traits to this date, looking no different from before.

A deity’s body is closely tied to their power. Theoretically, as a god of Hell, he should bear Hell’s characteristics—even if not a pair of curved horns, his eye color at least should be leaning towards that of the Lord of the Nine Hells. But because he took such shortcuts, none of this happened.

However, this likely won’t be the case in the future, as Crius, the last vestige of the Titan gods, is probably going to turn to ash today. And the body that he will spend a long time reconstructing will inevitably bear the unique ’traits’ of the Nine Hells.

"How beautiful, yet terrifying... But to achieve sufficient results in one strike, the more powerful it is, the better," he whispered to himself.

At this moment, the place where Mephisto stood was very particular—it was close to the border between the second and third layers of Hell.

This was not an actual location because, theoretically, each layer of Hell is situated ’below’ the previous one. However, the special spatial rules of the Mythic World make the conceptual ’below’ often not equivalent to the physical one.

Therefore, by the will of the World Lord, although Mephisto’s location was high relative to the distant battlefield, in reality, his orientation was from below, leading up toward the [Roaring Tunnel].

The reason for choosing such a position was obvious—though Mephisto couldn’t determine how terrifying this long-planned strike would be, by using the wipeout of at least one Demon God as a benchmark, he could roughly estimate.

So causing harm to the enemies was one aspect, and preventing the explosion from erupting within the Nine Hells was another. What’s more, the Overlord of the Middle Court had specifically instructed him to aim the final point outside the world... n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

So along this direction, by focusing the main force on the four Demon Gods and then ascending ’up’ to attack the other two Demon Gods still sleeping in the first layer, ending by dispersing the aftermath outward, this spot was indeed the most suitable location.

In silence, time continued to pass, with only the distant rumbling occasionally sounding. Around the silver mirror, the circling black serpents took on an increasingly refined and complete form.

At one moment, it seemed as though a threshold had been reached; even as gray mists continued to pour in, there was no further change.

No force could accumulate without limit, and at that moment, Mephisto knew, it was time to act.

"Come then."

As if a mortal were moving a mountain, with the surface of the mirror slightly adjusted due to the influence of the devil’s power, droplets of ’sweat’ streamed down Mephisto’s cheeks.

Yet Mephisto was oblivious to this, and as the last half-hour passed, he prepared to put an end to it all.

"To wield the power of life and death is a wonderful feeling... Heh, although you are also born divine, there is one thing that’s no different between you and me," he said, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth as he bowed slightly toward the silver mirror.

"For instance, both I and you will face death."

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Rip—

A massive Chain Sword grazed Crius’s skin, leaving behind a deep trail of blood. But he didn’t dare engage in combat and quickly retreated from the Divine Artifact’s master.

The blood was controlled so it didn’t fall but instead maintained its form with the power of the divine. The battles in Hell enriched the former Titan god with much knowledge, such as how to maintain combat effectiveness through a long fight with no rest. He even found amusement in the struggle, thinking that if he could do it all over again, he would fare much better.

Whoosh—

Seeing the Chain Sword’s master in pursuit, Crius continued dodging. The former God of Meteorology, having been blown up three times, was well-experienced with this. He could assure that although this Demon God, engulfed in Annihilation Demon Flame, had fallen more dramatically than he did, it would do the same again if given the chance.

To kill an enemy at the cost of grave damage to oneself. A concept that in the language of later video games would be called ’wide-range AOE’ turned into a single-target effect, Crius marveled at his opponent’s stupidity while also taking great care to avoid it.