Just a single sword strike.
Hades, the Lord of Death who had inspired terror in countless living beings, along with his supposedly indestructible Surplice, vanished from the cold air of Elysion as though he had never existed at all.
All that remained was a slowly rotating void vortex emitting a faint pull, which gradually subsided and sealed itself shut, as if the universe itself were mending an insignificant wound.
After Hades' death, Axis could feel a Cosmo belonging to the God of Death being absorbed by his own power.
"Hades, your life has reached its end, and your power will serve me." Axis let out a cold laugh and activated the power of Mazahs.
Mazahs's ability allowed him to seize the divine power of any target he killed. What Axis intended to claim was Hades' divine authority over death. Yet the ultimate essence of death did not truly represent death. It represented life.
Hades had possessed the ability to resurrect at will. With this power now in hand, Axis would no longer need to summon Shenron in many future situations.
The Cosmo of death that had belonged to the God of the Underworld, the divine power of Hades, did not dissipate. It was absorbed into Axis entirely.
Axis could clearly feel a new thread of the power of death woven into his own divine energy. He could now manipulate the boundary between life and death.
"Lord Hades... truly... died?" Thanatos' voice trembled with undisguised shock. Even though he had already chosen betrayal, witnessing such a powerful Primary God erased so effortlessly sent a primal shudder through his very soul.
"Hades is dead... not even ashes remain..." Hypnos murmured. His expression was complicated as he gazed at Axis' calm silhouette.
Was this power of an Absolute God? They could't help but wonder.
A chief god was truly no more than an insect before him.
As expected of a mighty Primordial God, the power he wielded was beyond anything they could have imagined. And it made perfect sense.
Hades had been a Primary God, and for a Primordial God who was already approaching the Absolute God threshold, such beings could be crushed effortlessly.
Even warriors born from a Primordial God's divine blood could match Secondary Gods gods like themselves.
For a Primordial God on the verge of attaining Absolute God status, killing a Primary god in an instant was the most natural thing in the world.
Yet a far greater crisis followed immediately.
The rumbling was deafening.
The entirety of Elysion, that paradise constructed and sustained across countless ages by Hades' will and divine power, let out an ear-splitting wail the instant its creator was annihilated.
The ground of the paradise shattered like breaking glass. Bottomless chasms tore open across the landscape. The gardens, temples, and streams that had been conjured through divine power, false yet eternal, began disintegrating at visible speed, crumbling to ash and dust.
Massive fractures split the vault of the sky, revealing the chaotic, death-storm-ravaged void of the Underworld beyond. The entire dimension shook and collapsed like a tower of blocks that had lost its central pillar.
"Lord Axis!" Hypnos' face changed drastically as he called out in alarm. "The deep structure of Elysion and the entire Underworld was built upon Hades' divine power as its foundation! With his complete annihilation, the rules and forces maintaining this place are collapsing!
"If this continues, the entire core of the Underworld will cave in and dissolve into nothingness! The Realm of the Dead, the Courts of Judgment, even the imprisoned souls, all of it will be obliterated along with it!"
Axis nodded at this. In the original story, after Athena and the five Bronze Saints had successfully slain Hades, the same thing had happened. The entire Underworld had begun to collapse.
All of the Underworld, Elysion included, was a creation born from Hades' spiritual will. With its master dead, it would naturally perish as well.
"Thanatos, Hypnos. If I were to inject my power into this Underworld, would I be able to rule it?" Axis suddenly asked.
Thanatos added urgently, "Yes, my lord! Power equal to or greater than what sustained this realm must be infused immediately to restabilize the core rules. Otherwise, everything here will be utterly destroyed in a very short time!"
Although they did not know what Axis intended, they answered the question honestly.
The Underworld would naturally perish without its master, but if a new master were to take its place, the situation would be entirely different.
Under normal circumstances, could not replace Hades. But a Primordial God who was approaching Absolute God status certainly could.
The speed at which Elysion and the Underworld were collapsing was terrifying. In the distance, a magnificent complex of temples crumbled like a sandcastle, reduced to fine powder.
The fractures in the sky widened further. Violent death storms had already begun pouring through, tearing at what had once been a realm of tranquility.
Countless Underworld sprites that had existed by virtue of Hades' divine power let out shrill cries of anguish.
They knew the end of their world had come. The peaceful paradise where they could have lived for eternity was gone.
Masses of sprites had gathered around the Twin Gods, gazing at their masters with desperate, pleading eyes. In the Underworld, their duties had been simple: playing music, dancing, and attending to their lords.
"Perfect. My universe needs a proper 'Heaven' and a functioning 'Underworld' as well. This place will serve as the foundation." Axis unfurled his Divine Cosmo and attempted to establish a link with the Underworld and Elysion.
The hum of power was immense.
The vast and boundless Origin Cosmo within Axis erupted without restraint. This time it carried no destructive pressure. Instead, it radiated the vital force of creation itself, brimming with life.
At the same time, the divine power that had originally belonged to Hades emanated from Axis' body. He had just absorbed Hades' power, and now it could be put to immediate use in repairing the Underworld and Elysion.
Deep purple God of Destruction energy transformed into a framework of order. Golden-red divine power became chains of law that stabilized the fabric of space. Verdant life energy spread like nourishing rain across all things.
And at the core, the radiance of Chaos Starlight served as the primal driving force. The divine power that had once been Hades' became the true binding thread.
Under the command of the Origin Cosmo, the four forces merged in perfect harmony, coalescing into a majestic, warm, yet supremely authoritative surge of chaotic creation energy.
That divine power spread outward from Axis like a golden ocean, rushing in every direction.
The collapsing Underworld and Elysion suddenly stopped falling apart.
The yawning chasms in the earth were forced shut.
Shattered ground was smoothed as if pressed flat by an invisible hand, and new soil, denser and alive with vitality, was born from the chaos.
Upon the ruins of the withered flower fields, countless never-before-seen blossoms shimmering with divine radiance broke through the earth, blooming instantly and filling the air with an intoxicating fragrance.
Crystal-clear springs of life welled up from deep within the ley lines, gathering into winding streams and mirror-still lakes.
Axis intended to reshape Elysion into a divine planet of his own, one he could carry with him at all times.
The cracked vault of the sky was erased entirely. In its place appeared a clear, fathomless expanse of sky resembling the purest sapphire.
Golden sunlight, not from any star but from pure life energy, fell gently across the land, banishing the eternal gloom and the pall of death.
The pale, cold ruins of Hades' temple disappeared completely. On the same site, an even grander temple rose from the ground, its architecture blending the solemnity of ancient Greek design with the beauty of the cosmic stars.
This was the divine palace of Axis.
Because his power had been infused into it, all of Elysion expanded tenfold in scale, becoming a space larger than Earth itself, and incomparably more beautiful and abundant.
The chaotic, disordered laws of the Underworld were forcibly reorganized and restructured by Axis' divine power. Though Hades was dead, the Underworld had accepted the power of its new master and begun its rebirth.
Axis planned to take this universe's Underworld with him as well. Since it was now constructed entirely from his own divine power and will, he was its absolute sovereign.
Axis' divine power swept across the realm like the brush of a creator god, using the ruins Hades had left behind as its canvas.
Elysion and the Underworld were being remade and elevated at an astonishing pace. In scale, in the vitality they contained, in the divine radiance they emanated, they surpassed anything from the age of Hades a hundredfold.
The collapse ceased. The chaos subsided. In their place stood a vibrant, orderly new paradise suffused with warm, divine light.
Thanatos and Hypnos stared at the scene before them, their shock beyond words.
Erasing a Primary god with a wave of the hand. Remaking Elysion with a snap of the fingers.
Reconstructing the entire Underworld and rendering it more perfect and vast than it had ever been. What kind of power was this?
It had surpassed the very limit of what they understood a "god" to be. They were endlessly grateful that they had made the right choice.
"Is this... the new world you promised, Lord Axis?" Hypnos' voice was thick with awe and excitement.
"This... this is truly perfect!" Thanatos gazed at the garden brimming with life. He could feel the laws of death embedded within it, laws fundamentally different from Hades' era, embracing rather than suppressive, and for the first time, his eyes held a look of longing.
This lord's power was beyond anything Hades could have matched. Following him had been the right decision. Absolutely right.
"This is only the core. Once we reach our world, your real work will begin." Axis withdrew a portion of his divine power and hovered above the new temple, surveying the nascent paradise he had created with his own hands. "Thanatos. Hypnos."
"Here, my lord!" The two immediately dropped to one knee in reverence.
"I appoint you both to jointly oversee this Elysion I have created, along with the reborn Underworld system beneath it, and to refine everything within. You must familiarize yourselves with the new rules, guide the souls of the dead, and maintain order.
"Once the main body of my universe is complete, you will accompany me to the new divine realm and become the true sovereigns of the Underworld." Axis' voice carried the weight of divine decree.
"We obey your divine command, great Lord Axis!" the Twin Gods answered in unison.
Axis nodded with satisfaction, then departed Elysion and reentered the Divine Passage, intending to return to the surface world.
He would take the Underworld with him when the time came to leave this universe.
However, as Axis traveled through the Divine Passage, he detected the will of another god through his own Divine Cosmo.
It was an exceedingly faint divine will, barely perceptible, yet it contained a trace of the power of time.
Axis hesitated for a moment, then advanced in the direction of the signal within the Divine Passage.
The presence of temporal power here reminded him of a certain character.
A villain who had appeared in The Lost Canvas, one whose presence had, for a time, eclipsed even the final boss Hades in sheer gravitas.
He was the origin of mythology in the Saint Seiya universe, the terminus of creation, even the root from which the power of Cosmo itself was born. He was the brother of the Transcendent God Chronos: Kairos.
As the brother of Chronos, the God of Time, Kairos possessed a physical form and his own exclusive battle raiment. He commanded the forces of time and space, and in essence, he should have been at least an Absolute God.
Yet prior to the Big Bang, he had been sealed and cast down to the mortal plane by his elder brother for reasons unknown, forced to endure an eternal cycle of reincarnation in human form.
Although Kairos claimed to be the brother of the God of Time, his true identity and strength were certainly not at the Transcendent God level.
If they had been, his brother could never have imprisoned him, since their power should have been equal.
In The Lost Canvas arc, Kairos' actual performance had been underwhelming. He was certainly skilled at scheming and manipulation, but in terms of raw combat ability, he was not particularly impressive.
His real fighting power had been roughly equivalent to a top-tier Gold Saint. Despite wielding a portion of the God of Time's authority, he had ultimately been sealed by the Gemini Gold Saint.
Decades after the end of the Holy War depicted in The Lost Canvas, Kairos had finally broken free of the Gemini seal and regained a physical body.
But he was ultimately destroyed by Athena's shield. His soul, however, might still persist somewhere within the cycle of reincarnation. The prequel to this Saint Seiya universe was The Lost Canvas.
After a careful search, Axis discovered a cluster of consciousness and soul. This soul was weak to the extreme, barely qualifying as a Tertiary god, if even that.
Yet there were indeed countless chains binding it, sealing it completely. But from Axis' perspective, something about this being's condition was deeply wrong.
Even if Kairos were freed from his seal, Axis judged that his strength would not surpass the Primordial God level, let alone approach an Absolute God. Was this being truly the brother of a Transcendent God?
Or was he merely one of the Transcendent God's experiments, someone who only believed himself to be the Transcendent God's brother?
"Well, this is unexpected. To think I would encounter a Primordial God in a place like this. I have never seen you before. Who are you?" The soul of Kairos regarded the unfamiliar deity before him.
Ever since his physical body had been destroyed by Athena's shield two hundred years ago, he had been drifting through the Divine Passage, waiting for a new reincarnation cycle to begin.
But more than two hundred years had passed, and his brother seemed to have no intention of allowing him to reincarnate. Instead, Chronos appeared to want him confined within the Divine Passage forever, subjected to an eternity of torment.
"So you are the God of Time, or rather, the other God of the World, Kairos?" Axis looked at the soul before him.
"Impossible. You know who I am? Every trace of my existence should have been sealed away. There is no way you could know my identity." Kairos stared at Axis with an expression of utter disbelief.
His existence had been thoroughly erased by his elder brother. Even during his last reincarnation, he had barely managed to awaken his memories.
By all reason, no god should have been able to identify him. And this unfamiliar Primordial God was someone Kairos did not recognize at all. As a God of Time, he should have known every secret the universe held.
He had even foreseen the outcome of this Holy War two hundred years in advance: Athena would lead five Bronze Saints and, with the aid of the Pegasus Saint, successfully slay Hades. But wait. Something about the timeline was wrong.
Hades was supposed to have been slain by Athena, yet now it seemed he had died at someone else's hand. As the God of Time, Kairos could perceive what Axis had done.
He had killed Hades. He had remade the entire Underworld. This being was now the true Lord of the Underworld.
"Are you certain you are the brother of the Transcendent God? I sense that even if your seal were lifted, your power would not reach the Transcendent God level. It would not even qualify as Primordial God." Axis voiced his doubt plainly.
"Heh. Stranger god, I do not know how you learned of my identity, but I am indeed the brother of the Transcendent God. Though my strength does not match his, I too am a Transcendent God. You need not doubt that." Kairos replied.
Perhaps his opportunity had finally arrived.
A god who existed outside of time, one who bore absolutely no thread of fate. No wonder he had evaded detection by Kairos' brother.
"I know you must be deeply puzzled. You wonder how a Transcendent God could be sealed by his own brother, how he could have fallen to such a state. The reason is that I have a brother driven by utter madness. As the supreme existences of this multiverse, we were meant to represent its two halves.
"We should have governed this world together. But that contemptible wretch ambushed me and stripped away all of my divine power, leaving me with nothing but a broken divine core, the one thing he could not take."
"You are saying the Transcendent God stole everything from you. Then why did he do it? If he could take everything, why not simply kill you?" Axis asked with evident interest.
"Because he cannot kill me. He and I are of the same tier. We are brothers. Although he stole ninety-nine percent of my power, he still lacks a physical form of his own. He cannot reach the state of perfection. He can only maintain the appearance of a great clock and nothing more.
"The reason he took my power was to attain that perfect state. But the fool failed. And my power is not so easily controlled." Kairos said.
Axis nodded. The idea that the Transcendent God had stolen his brother's power in pursuit of a more perfect form was plausible enough. But the god before him could not be trusted unconditionally. Kairos was hardly a virtuous character.
"You are a god who exists beyond fate. What do you say to an alliance?
"If you help me escape this place, or better yet, help me reclaim my power, I will make you an Absolute God, second only to myself." Kairos offered.
This unfamiliar god might be his one and only chance to break free. He had to seize it.