The God of Underworld
Chapter 140 - 39

Chapter 140: Chapter 39

The walls of Herion trembled under the rhythmic pounding of catapults, the thrum of bowstrings, and the howling of monsters.

Upon its highest bastion stood Varn, cape fluttering, eyes hard as steel.

The leader of the Sentinels, the sworn defenders of Herion, gazed toward the horizon, where a towering abomination darkened the edge of the world.

Gaia, corrupted and maddened by the entity within her, loomed like a blasphemy against creation.

He turned his gaze back to the sea of horrors below the walls. Winged beasts, clawed giants, shadowy serpents, and flesh golems crawled, leapt, and slithered across the earth toward the city, screaming with soulless hunger.

Varn clenched his jaw. "Three days... can we even hold for three hours?"

That whisper of doubt made his stomach churn.

He slapped his own cheek hard enough to draw blood.

No. He wouldn’t allow that.

He was a descendant of Herios, the god-slayer, the first mortal to strike down gods. To falter in will now was to spit on the blood that brought civilization to this world.

"There’s no room for doubt," Varn growled. "We hold. Or we die and rise again until we do."

A chorus of screams pulled his attention as a monstrous chimera scaled the walls with disturbing speed.

Its body was stitched together from corpses of a dozen beasts, a mass of snarling mouths and grasping hands.

Without hesitation, Varn lunged, unsheathing a silver-edged Sentinel spear.

With a guttural roar, he plunged the spear into the creature’s skull, twisting as black ichor burst forth.

The beast gave a final shriek before collapsing down the battlements.

"Stand tall!" Varn shouted to the panicking soldiers nearby. "If you fall, Herion falls! There is no retreat! We are the shield! We are the wall!"

His voice rang out like thunder, drawing a cheer from soldiers and Sentinels alike.

Arrows rained down in deadly volleys, catapults launched burning stones, and mages chanted in unison, flinging divine fire and storm toward the enemy horde.

*

*

*

High above, the battle of gods raged against an enemy that defied reason.

Gaia—or what now wore her flesh—groaned, a sound like the earth itself crying out in torment.

From the shattered ground beneath her, tendrils of chaos erupted, twisting through the air, each lined with blinking bloodshot eyes.

"Scatter!" Erebus called as the tendrils lashed toward them.

The gods darted through the skies, narrowly dodging the deadly limbs. Each tendril that struck a mountain or cloud left behind a festering corruption that bled ink-black ichor.

Themis broke away from the main formation, rushing toward Astraea, who had collapsed after her meteor-like attack.

"Astraea, stay with me!" she urged, cradling the younger goddess.

"I’m fine..." Astraea said breathlessly, but her legs trembled.

"Rest," Themis ordered, drawing a golden circle of light around them—a domain of law and balance, shielding them momentarily from the chaos.

Just then, Hestia stepped forward, floating above Gaia’s corrupted form.

Her eyes burned with uncharacteristic fury as she drew the power of her Azure Lotus Flame, her divine weapon of fire that can cleanse even the most corrupted soul.

"Let this flame remind the world of its first warmth," she whispered, her voice echoing across dimensions. "Burn, sacred hearth!"

With a sweep of her hands, a wave of cerulean fire erupted from her, engulfing the tendrils.

Screeches tore from Gaia’s throat, her voice not of pain alone, but of rage.

The Azure Flame, divine weapon forged by the Cyclops, was burning not just her body, but the entity within.

"It’s working." Zeus’ eyes widened.

"Hestia! Keep it up!" Poseidon shouted.

Gaia turned her abyssal gaze toward Hestia, dozens of disfigured eyes focusing with malevolence.

But before she could act, a divine bolt of lightning crashed into her side.

"You look this way when I’m still standing?" Zeus snarled from the sky, his form glowing with golden power. "You’ve forgotten who you face."

Following his lead, Poseidon clenched his fists. A single punch toward empty air caused the sky to shudder.

Cracks formed in reality itself, and they spread like spiderwebs around Gaia’s massive form.

The very fabric of space trembled, shaken by his command over earthquakes and oceans.

Gaia shrieked again, staggering backward for the first time since the battle began.

"Haha!" Ares laughed, summoning a massive axe. "Eat this!"

He spun around before throwing the axe towards the mother earth.

One by one, the gods consecutively fired blasts of divine power towards the Primordial of Earth.

Gaia screamed, causing a massive blasts of wind that blew away the gods by several kilometres.

The gods barely had time to register what happened when the true horror unfolded.

Gaia’s body began to shift, her form melting like wax.

Bones turned into tentacles, skin became gelatinous membranes, and soon, a monstrous jellyfish-like monstrosity replaced her previous shape—covered in thousands of weeping eyes and writhing limbs.

A form completely alien and incomprehensible, a figure that seems to be the personification of madness.

Just looking at her made Apollo clutch his head, staggering mid-air.

"I—I feel... dizzy..."

Artemis screamed, backing away. "My thoughts... something’s whispering—!"

"No!" Erebus shouted, his eyes blazing. "Don’t look directly at her! Her new form carries the concept of madness itself. She’s... she’s definitely using the power of an outer being!"

The gods followed his words and looked away.

But even without looking, the pressure she exuded began to drain them.

Energy sapped, wills faltered, and the sheer weight of her presence pressed down on their minds like mountains.

Erebus grit his teeth, darkness surrounding his form.

"We can’t afford to hesitate," he growled. "She’s changing, no she’s evolving. If we give her time, she’ll transcend into something even we can’t comprehend."

He closed his eyes, steadying his mind, and whispered a name.

"Nyx."

Back in Underworld, the primordial night stirred.

Nyx looked up hearing the darkness call her name. Without another word, she snapped her fingers.

"I have heard your call. Use it. I gove you permission to borrow my authority."

And from the skies above Gaia, a black star fell. It was Nyx’s blessing, burning like a shadowed sun.

Erebus caught the falling star and swallowed it whole. His body pulsed with new strength, the very first being in all creation, older than the world.

With a roar, he plunged into Gaia, his sword forming from his own shadow, carving into her mass.

Each slice sent a ripple of black flame across her gelatinous body.

A beam of light shot past him, Hestia, who’d condensed her entire flame into a spear of divine fire.

"Let me help!" She cried, casting it directly into one of Gaia’s many cores.

It exploded in a flare of solar fury, burning a chunk of her body into nothing.

Still, Gaia endured.

Despite the pain, she continued to advance.

*

*

*

Back at the Walls.

Varn stood covered in blood—monster blood and his own. His armor was broken, his breath ragged.

Behind him, fires burned, and the air was thick with the scent of smoke and flesh.

Still... he stood.

Monsters continued climbing the walls, Archers had long since run out of arrows, Catapults had been destroyed.

Still... they fought with spears, with rocks, with their bare hands if they had to.

One of the Sentinels, a young boy named Elas, fell beside him, bleeding out.

Varn crouched, picked up the boy’s blade, and hurled it at an approaching wyvern, stabbing it through the throat.

He turned back to Elas, who whispered, "Are... we winning?"

Varn didn’t lie. He didn’t smile.

"We’re still standing," he said. "That means the answer is yes."

The boy chuckled, and soon closed his eyes.

Varn stood and looked once more at the sky.

He saw Gaia looming. He saw the gods faltering.

But he also saw them still fighting.

He raised his spear once more and bellowed to the soldiers behind him.

"This is the battle that will be sung until the end of the world! If we fall today, the world falls tomorrow! Fight, damn you all! Show the gods that we are not just mortals, but the children of Herion!"

A roar rose from the walls, and the defenders surged forward with renewed rage.

For the first time in eons, mortals and gods stood as one, against something beyond either.

The final day was not yet here.

But it was coming.