"Why? Why can you so easily crush me when our powers are clearly on the same level?"
This was the question that the giant ape demon lord couldn't understand and what frustrated him the most. From his perception, he and the Underworld God were beings of the same rank, yet the gap between them was terrifying. He had no ability to fight back.
"A worthless creature that only knows how to accumulate raw power thinks it can fight me?" Hades, the Underworld God, sneered disdainfully upon hearing the enraged roar of the foreign epic.
Boom!
Once again, Hades swung his fist and shattered the demon lord who was attempting to flee.
"Lord Hades, let me help you!" A sinister voice sounded from nearby, as an invisible force rushed toward the fragmented, still-reforming demon ape.
"Get lost!" Hades, irritated by the interruption, drew the sword from his waist and slashed through the air. Did someone really dare to try and steal his prey? They must be tired of living.
The blazing black sword energy swept across the void, rapidly transforming into a storm of sword qi. Painful screams echoed from within.
Even though Hades couldn't fully track the movements of Cyric, the God of Murder, he didn't need to see him. He only had to know where Cyric was hiding. As a god who favored assassinations, Cyric's defenses were not particularly strong, so one random slash would be enough.
"Hades, are you trying to claim this foreign epic for yourself?" Cyric, his divine body shredded and dripping golden blood, angrily shouted. "Aren't you afraid of incurring the wrath of the other gods?"
"The wrath of the gods?" Hades glanced at Cyric, then swept his gaze across the assembled gods. "Which gods?"
The gods who had been in Hades' line of sight took a step back in silence, signaling that they had no intention of causing trouble. Even some of the more powerful deities avoided his gaze. After all, Hades was a ruthless god who had ascended by slaying three epic beings in succession.
"This is my prey. Who dares to challenge me?" Hades asked again, his eyes sweeping over the God of Fear and the God of Tyranny. Even these fearsome gods avoided eye contact, not wanting to clash with him.
This newly risen Lord of the Underworld wasn't just incredibly powerful, but he also had strong connections with the epic Titans. Some rumors, although unreliable, suggested that after Hades became the Underworld God, several Titans had visited his underworld to see him.
With such overwhelming strength and an extensive network, any god with sense would think twice before opposing him.
"Fool!" Some gods cast sidelong glances at Cyric, who stood to the side, furious but not daring to speak further. In their eyes, Cyric's behavior deserved only one label: brainless.
To try and seize the spoils from such a deadly god in a situation where he had no justification was pure folly.
"This is your prey. No god will contest that." When Hades' gaze landed on Lathander, the God of Dawn, the widely respected deity didn't flinch, meeting his gaze head-on. While he acknowledged Hades' formidable power, it wasn't enough to make him back down. Even before greater deities, Lathander would not bow. He fairly acknowledged Hades' claim to the foreign demon lord.
"You dare to insult me like this! You'll pay for this. Destruction and the end will come for all of you!" The ape-like demon lord was infuriated upon hearing the gods refer to him as mere prey. To him, this was an unbearable humiliation.
Only the weak prattle on endlessly. The strong speak with their fists. This was one of Hades' creeds. Hearing the demon's threats, Hades showed no emotion and promptly blew him up again. He had heard similar threats countless times during his journeys through the void.
"You can do as you please!" After noticing the demon lord's unexpectedly strong vitality, Hades stopped repeatedly hammering him and instead sealed him away. He planned to take the demon back for study, to see how he might put this creature to use.
With those parting words, Hades took his epic prey and, driving his Underworld chariot, returned to his divine realm.
"So powerful!" Watching the Lord of the Underworld, calm yet able to slay a demon in an instant, many gods were impressed by his aura of overwhelming dominance. Some even began considering whether they should ally with him. Rumor had it that Hades didn't yet have subordinates to serve him.
"Alright, let's divide the world and prepare for the sacrifice!"
…
Roar!
As the sound of a majestic dragon's roar echoed, the massive tsunami that had terrified the pirate fleet collapsed, dispersing into smaller waves that merged back into the sea. The once-turbulent waters returned to a calm, serene state.
"It's the Sea God! The Sea God has saved us!"
"Oh, great Dragon God, I dedicate my heart and soul to you. Please protect us!" Some pirates, awed by the display of power from the Sea Emperor Dragon, began to worship it as a divine miracle.
This was a necessary step for many legendary beings who ascended to godhood: they would show mortals an overwhelming power, something they could never resist, to gain their belief.
"This tsunami wasn't caused by the Sea God. There must be another reason. If the Sea God wanted to destroy us, it wouldn't have bothered saving us," someone said.
With the Sea Emperor Dragon calming the catastrophe, the pirate fleet finally relaxed, no longer gripped by fear. Natural disasters alone didn't frighten them—being pirates, they had faced storms more than once.
"If the Sea God didn't cause this tsunami, then what did?" Soren, the fleet commander standing on the flagship, pondered as he gazed at the now-peaceful sea.
However, before he could reach a conclusion, another white line appeared on the horizon where the sea met the sky. This time, the approaching wave was even larger than the last.
"Another tsunami?" Soren's face revealed surprise as he saw the towering wave, over fifty meters high, rushing toward them.
He quickly estimated the scale of the tsunami. At full strength, he could probably protect his fleet from one such wave.
But if the waves kept coming one after another, there would be no hope for his fleet. Human strength simply couldn't compete with the power of nature—not for long, at least. Even as a legend, Soren knew his limits. He could briefly resist natural forces, but prolonged resistance was beyond him.
Fortunately, another dragon's roar echoed from afar, and the enormous tsunami dissipated into nothingness once more.
"Commander Soren, we've just received orders from Synapse. The ocean monitoring and warning department has detected unusual activity in our region and commands you to personally investigate the cause of these strange tsunamis."
"What's there to investigate? It's just an undersea earthquake causing them, isn't it?"
"Are you stupid? How could an undersea earthquake cause tsunamis this massive, and in such rapid succession?"
"Enough arguing! It's just an investigation, not a battle!" Soren, growing weary of his subordinates' bickering, sighed. He knew that his pirate crew was not well-regarded within Synapse. Pirates in Synapse were generally treated as laborers—expendable, even.
Thanks to his leadership, the pirates had barely managed to gain a combat unit status. But judging by the nature of the orders Synapse kept issuing, it was clear they considered his pirate force little more than cannon fodder.
This was the root of much of his crew's discontent, though few openly suggested leaving. Many pirates, however, had seen a future for their children within Synapse.
Most pirates didn't want their children to follow in their footsteps. They hoped their offspring could live safely and freely—and ideally have a bright future. Synapse could offer these things to their children.
For the sake of their descendants, these pirates were willing to endure a lot: the discrimination from Synapse's long-lived races, the unjust orders, and the role of cannon fodder.
Soren, a human legend who saw but couldn't change this reality, bore it all in silence.
"Humans have limits!" Soren mused, recalling his conversations with other legendary beings of different bloodlines since joining Synapse. He couldn't help but sigh. The gap between pure-blooded humans and those with special bloodlines was something no amount of skill or technique could bridge.
…
"How pathetic. A god, and yet toyed with like this!" Muria sighed as he watched the evil god's avatar, trapped in the area by the Earth Sovereign Turtle. Even its consciousness and divine power couldn't escape, and it was being beaten mercilessly by one Titan after another. Muria's eyes showed a hint of sympathy.
It was truly pitiable. The divine power the god had descended with had been drained by the Titans, and its avatar had been hammered into mush.
"Your Highness, we've detected an unidentified object falling from the sky 156 nautical miles southwest of Synapse. It caused a massive tsunami!"
As the battle was nearing its end, Muria suddenly received a report, though it didn't capture much of his attention.
After all, it was just a tsunami. To him, many things could cause one, including himself. If he wished, he could easily stir up a massive wave.
"Your Highness, I believe you should return to take a look. A group of islands is rapidly forming less than 100 kilometers from Synapse!"
The next, more urgent report, however, quickly grabbed his attention.
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