Chapter 1498: Lord Hades vs G.o.dfather Hephaestus. I

1498 Lord Hades vs G.o.dfather Hephaestus. I

Ten minutes ago, right at the start of the invasion...

Whoosh Whoos.h.!.+

Lord Hades and G.o.dfather Hephaestus manifested away from each other in the desolate heart of the spirit realm, where ethereal mists swirled and the boundaries of reality blurred.

Hades, cloaked in shadows that danced like sentient tendrils, exuded an aura of austere authority.

His piercing gaze, like the abyss itself, bore the weight of tens of billions of years spent as the guardian of the underworld...His presence was an embodiment of the enigmatic laws that governed the souls and spirits of the departed.

On the other hand, G.o.dfather Hephaestus radiated an incandescent heat that defied the ethereal chill of the spirit realm.

Their eyes, two opposing cosmic forces, met in the middle of nowhere. A void that seemed to stretch beyond the realms of existence.

The air crackled with an unspoken tension, and the ethereal mists churned as if bearing witness to an epochal confrontation.

The only spectators to this holy cosmic standoff were the mindless wandering spirits, moving around the spirit realm with no thought in mind, no emotion in heart.

"Hades, you have grown soft." G.o.dfather Hephaestus criticized, "Moving us away from your precious little toy to not damage it? Here I thought you created that plane and gave spirits a new life out of boredom...You actually care about them."

Lord Hades remained silent, neither agreeing nor opposing his claim. This irritated G.o.dfather Hephaestus even more.

"You called us sell-outs for uniting under the three rulers and abiding by their systemic hierarchy, but aren't you doing the same?" G.o.dfather Hephaestus sneered, "The only difference is that you put yourself in a leaders.h.i.+p position and lorded upon those poor spirits, who can't object to you at all."

"Just be honest and accept the fact that you wouldn't have made it far in our hierarchy, which made it impossible for your ego to accept." G.o.dfather Hephaestus scoffed, "As for being loyal to the nonexistent master? It's a mere excuse to hide your true cowardly nature."

"Are you done?" Lord Hades remarked calmly.

"No answer again? I guess I hit the nail right on the head."

"The only thing you will be hitting today is yourself for daring to transgress on my realm."

The moment Lord Hades finished speaking, with a malevolent glint in his eyes, he extended his shadowy hand toward G.o.dfather Hephaestus, seeking to invoke the power of spiritual possession.

Hades aimed to infiltrate and control the fiery essence of Hephaestus's soul, dragging it under his own control!

In this spirit realm, it didn't matter what spirit it was, Lord Hades had absolute control over them!

But as his shadowy tendrils reached out to ensnare Hephaestus's spirit, they encountered an unexpected resistancea brilliant and resplendent barrier formed of three divine lights!

"Huh, you think so lowly of me to believe I haven't come prepared against this?" G.o.dfather Hephaestus smirked, "The only reason I dared to come down here is through the blessings of the three rulers."

The first was a radiant, golden light. It s.h.i.+mmered with the immutable power of divine order, pus.h.i.+ng back Hades's dark tendrils with a steadfast resolve.

The second was a pure, white light. It radiated a transcendent brilliance that repelled the encroaching shadows, cleansing the s.p.a.ce around Hephaestus's soul.

The third was an intense, golden light, a manifestation of unbridled cosmic energy.

It blazed with the ferocity of celestial flames, creating a searing barrier that scorched away his ethereal tendrils, leaving no room for Hades to penetrate!

As the three divine lights merged and intertwined, they formed an impenetrable fortress around Hephaestus's spirit, protecting it from the malevolent grasp of Lord Hades.

"..."

Lord Hades furrowed his eyebrows in disgruntlement and revoked off his attempt to possess Hephaestus' soul.

"Hahaha! If you were at your strongest, even the three rulers themselves wouldn't want to antagonize you in your territory." G.o.dfather Hephaestus laughed mockingly, "But now? Just their divinities are enough to cancel off your spiritual control over your own realm."

Lord Hades might have remained silent again, but he knew that G.o.dfather Hephaestus was right in his a.s.sumption.

His strength was barely 10% of its original as the universe had sealed a significant chunk of his powers and put him under constant agonizing pain.

This meant he wasn't just fighting G.o.dfather Hephaestus, but the universe, and even the three rulers' support!

"My turn."

G.o.dfather Hephaestus decided to unleash his full powers, realizing that his three divinities barrier wasn't a permanent one.

The moment its celestial energy gets exhausted, he would be played like a fiddle through his own soul!

With a resolute focus, G.o.dfather Hephaestus's colossal form began to swell with might, expanding exponentially until he surpa.s.sed the very scale of the stars themselves!

His fiery aura blazed with an intensity that outshone the cosmos, casting a radiant glow that painted the expanse of the spirit realm in brilliant hues.

Behind him, as if conjured from the fiery heart of a supernova, ten celestial stars took form. Each one radiated a unique and vivid color as if they were the very embodiment of fire!

If Felix and even primogenitors were to see him, their realizing of strength would be flipped upside down.

It was understandable as G.o.dfather Hephaestus didn't just create new stars, but real new ones, which could last for billions of years on their own until they collapse on themselves!

This was the terrifying difference between laws and elements.

"BEGONE!"

With a magnificent flourish, G.o.dfather Hephaestus hurled them into the cosmic abyss, their radiant trails of light leaving streaks of color across the spirit realm.

The stars streaked toward Lord Hades, blazing with an otherworldly brilliance.

In response to the celestial onslaught, Lord Hades was forced to match Hephaestus's t.i.tanic scale.

His form expanded in kind, growing to meet the colossal challenge posed by the fiery deity.

Lord Hades's shadowy presence loomed larger than the boundaries of the known universe, his power reaching its zenith in a bid to counter Hephaestus's a.s.sault.

As the ten colored stars closed in on Lord Hades's immense form, he didn't seem worried or bothered. He merely extended a finger and directed it at each incoming star.

With a mere thought, Lord Hades invoked the laws that governed all spirits under his dominion and chose ten random wandering spirits across the entire realm.

In an instant, these spirits were teleported from their distant abodes to the battlefield while the celestial stars themselves disappeared in the blink of an eye like they were a mere mirage!

"You should try better than that if you want to take me down." Lord Hades remarked calmly, "I might be weakened, but I am still in my home ground."

"Tsk, how annoying." Irked, G.o.dfather Hephaestus clicked his tongue.

This was a stark reminder that Lord Hades's dominion over the spirit realm was absolutean authority that allowed him to shamble the spirits' locations with the stars!

"What's next?" Lord Hades showed a faint cold smile as he eyed the waning brilliance of the divine s.h.i.+eld, "You are on the clock."

"Same as you."

G.o.dfather Hephaestus sneered, knowing that the longer the battle lasted, the more his armies erased the spirits, which would help him gain a much-needed advantage.

As expected, when Lord Hades s.h.i.+fted his vision to the heavenly plane and saw the ongoing ma.s.sacre, his expression couldn't help but turn colder.

"You should concentrate here."

G.o.dfather Hephaestus uttered as he gave birth to more than a hundred stars, each a brilliant and radiant sphere of celestial fire!

They orbited around him in a mesmerizing and chaotic dance, creating a celestial halo that blazed with a spectrum of colors.

The sheer number and intensity of the revolving stars lent Hephaestus an aura of unparalleled menace, making Lord Hades understand that he wouldn't let him a moment to concentrate on anything else but him.