Chapter 153: The Ten Fingers of Hades
That image of the monster spreading across the earth—everyone, from military personnel to people all over the world, would see it. The endless multiplication of these creatures stirred growing anxiety.
And then—
“Leo, look!”
Leo turned from the transport plane’s window at Freyja’s shout. There, writhing in a sickening brown mass, was something grotesque.
He couldn’t even tell if it was alive—but he felt, instinctively, that it was dangerous.
“What… the hell is that…?”
Not just Leo. Everyone aboard the transport plane, fleeing the battlefield, felt a surge of dread at the sight spreading beyond the glass. Yet, beneath it, relief too.
Because Gojo was here.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
『I don’t need to fight this myself』
The flesh mass spilling from Uranos’s back froze mid-motion. The chunk still attached to his spine snapped apart with a sharp *crack*.
Now, the flesh mass on the ground was fully free—able to move on its own.
『Let it drown in a billion corpses』
The flesh mass spread out below, multiplying across dozens of kilometers. No longer under Uranos’s control, it now moved autonomously—hunting for corpses, for enemies, for anything it needed to keep growing.
A monster beyond stopping. The strongest one of all.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
That slimy, squishy thing… it’s coming this way… Wait—look closer. Hands. Faces. Human faces. Twisting, writhing in agony.
A monster made of piled-up corpses?
Can’t just ignore it, so I channel magic into my right hand.
The mountain of corpses looms closer—then suddenly spreads wide, like a gaping mouth, lunging forward to swallow everything whole.
The yellow gem embedded in the tenth finger of the Underworld King shatters, and a powerful lightning bolt gathers in my right hand, taking the shape of a massive spear.
"This... is the pinnacle of lightning magic?"
I pull the lightning spear back, then hurl it like a javelin.
"—— God's Thunder (Keraunos) ——!!"
The lightning spear smashes into the mountain of corpses, instantly obliterating it and carving a tunnel-like hole through with a thunderous boom, plowing forward.
A terrifying storm of lightning erupts across the entire area. The corpses it touches are torn apart, shredded to pieces, then reduced to ash.
The spear, having carved deep into the corpse mountain, flies straight toward the "floating castle" in the sky.
It easily pierces through the powerful magical barrier, penetrates the floating castle, and vanishes into the distant sky. Aftermath lingers—crackling plasma remains, and the castle flickers with lightning several times before something shifts within it.
The castle explodes in all directions, enveloped in black smoke, gradually descending from the sky.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
"What... what just happened...?"
Uranos, standing on the wall of the floating castle "Avalon," is stunned, unsure what just occurred.
That barrier shouldn't break so easily... and the castle losing function, falling from the sky? Impossible.
Uranos understands that a human unleashed lightning magic.
But he didn't care. He'd always thought human magic was limited, nothing more than a nuisance.
Yet now, he couldn't hide his shock—this human had shattered Avalon's barrier, something even his strongest lightning spell, "Gai Borgh," couldn't destroy.
This was a magic he'd never seen before, even in his long life.
Uranos hovered in midair, unable to do anything but watch Avalon fall.
A surge of fury rises—unbelievable. Anger? He hadn’t felt such a thing in centuries.
As he turned to look back at humanity, a blinding light poured down from above.
Looking up, he saw a massive fireball. A small sun, dozens of times hotter than the infernal flames of Hell’s ultimate conflagration, descending slowly.
As it neared the flesh mass, the scorching flames evaporated everything, sinking into the ground.
A ring of superheated blast wave spread outward, incinerating every piece of flesh in its path. The earth cracked open, forming a vast hole—so deep, no bottom could be seen.
The entire area of flesh was eradicated by that single strike—but still, an enormous number of flesh masses remained, devouring the land.
This fire magic? Uranos had never seen anything like it. A man wielding a powerful magic he didn’t know… At that moment, Agalirepto’s words flickered through his mind.
—You’ll die today at the hands of the one who defeated me—
…Those words… weren’t bluffing, were they?
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
The red gem embedded in his right glove lay shattered. The spell he’d just used—highest-tier fire magic: Solar Prominence.
Its power exceeded even his imagination.
But the pile of corpses remained—still countless. Circling the edge of the massive crater, they advanced toward him.
Seemed they automatically attacked anything they perceived as an enemy.
Staring at the mountain of corpses rushing at him at terrifying speed, Uranos channeled magic into the glove on his left hand. The blue gem cracked—temperature plummeted instantly.
“Highest-tier water magic—”
The pile of corpses surged at me, exploding outward like a detonation.
"——Ninth Layer: Ice Hell (Cocytus)——!!"
The wave of corpses slammed into me, freezing solid. Everything within a kilometer radius—every single thing—was encased in ice. Not a single movement. Not a breath.
But from deeper within, more corpses surged forward. An endless, overwhelming tide. If I don’t erase them all… it won’t stop…
I channeled magic into my left hand again. The blue gem on “The Ten Fingers of Hades” cracked, and a violent wind tore through the air.
Clouds in the sky twisted into a donut shape, and a colossal mass of air plummeted down.
"Wind Attribute, Highest Tier Magic—Abundance Serpent-Phoenix (Quetzalcoatl)!!"
The moment the mass of air hit the ground, it exploded—blast waves tore through everything, shredding and hurling debris apart.
The frozen corpses shattered into dust. The moving ones were ripped apart, torn limb from limb.
It was like a condensed typhoon—pure, raging violence crashing into the pile of corpses. When the wind died down, only flat, open ground remained.
…Did I do it?
I thought I’d wiped them all out. But the scattered flesh fragments were already starting to drift back, rejoining, reforming. And from far away—more mountains of corpses kept coming. Endless.
They were absorbing the bodies of the demon army, growing without limit.
Guess I underestimated this pile. This monster’s power… it’s clearly top-tier, even among everything I’ve faced.
If I hadn’t had “The Ten Fingers of Hades,” I might not have stopped it. To finish this thing… I’ll have to erase it completely. No fragments left. Just bury it all.
Ignoring the avalanche of corpses rushing toward me, I pour magic into the orange gem in my right hand.
The gem cracks—shaking the earth, the ground heaving and rippling.
"Earth-element highest magic—Giant fissure of the world (Ginnungagap)—!!"
With a thunderous roar, the ground splits open. From the chasm, eight dragon-shaped creatures made of stone emerge. Their height rivals that of a Titan.
The stone dragons lock onto the mountain of corpses on the ground.
They descend like a waterfall, pouncing on the enemy crawling from above. Inside their mouths, layered jaws bristling with countless teeth—rows upon rows of gnashing fangs.
The stone dragons sink their jaws into the corpse mountain. The impact sends up a storm of dust and soil, blinding the air. The corpses, caught in those crushing jaws, are crushed flat.
As the dragons move like waves, the ground trembles with each step.
The corpse mountain splits apart, then rushes at the stone dragons. They bite into each other—this endless cycle of devouring, a hellish ouroboros of flesh and bone.
When the stone dragons vanish, the battlefield is littered with scattered body parts.
The number of corpses has dropped sharply—but the torn flesh writhes, crawling toward one another, trying to rejoin.
To finish off the remaining corpses, I extend my right hand, channeling magic into the black gem on my glove.
A black sphere appears before me—growing larger and larger.
It swells, bigger than anything I’ve ever seen, resembling Emily’s “Black Sun.” It slowly pulls in nearby pebbles, drawing them in like gravity.
"Dark-element highest magic—Destructive Black Sun (Dark Filament)—!!"
The sphere of darkness generated an unimaginable pull, swallowing everything in its path. As it rose into the sky, it tore apart a mountain of corpses rising from below, dragging them in with a hungry pull.
The pile of corpses fights desperately, but can't resist the overwhelming pull. Most of them vanish into the darkness...
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
Uranos couldn’t believe it. The string of spells the man had just unleashed… were they from the time of myth itself?
Once it starts rampaging, even Uranos himself can't stop it.
It's already down to less than one percent. If it drops any further, even if it can multiply, maintaining power will be tough.
Uranos thought it, and tried to teleport to the man in front of him. But in that instant, a chill ran down her back.
I looked — the man had raised his hand. Thousands of glowing swords materialized in the sky, raining down on the remaining flesh fragments.
Countless blades of light pierced the flesh mass—and vanished, purified.
The blade of light kept slicing through the flesh chunks, eliminating them with precision. The remaining chunks tried to dodge past the radiant sword and attack the man, but he shattered the blade into tiny particles and drew them back into his own sword.
The man swung his sword, and the light moved like a whip, slicing through the remaining flesh.
One after another, the chunks of flesh were purifying, vanishing completely—until even the last sliver was gone.
Uranos stood there, stunned, staring...
The man's whip of light lashed toward Uranos. I instinctively raise a magical barrier—but it shatters, and the tiny beam streaks straight for Uranos.
Damn!
I land on the ground in an instant, the man lowering his sword, locking eyes with Uranos.
"Did you enjoy the tour?"
"...Don't get cocky, human."