Hell felt him before he arrived.
Not as a shockwave.
Not as an invasion.
As a weight.
Every layer of the Underworld shifted as Delta crossed back through its boundaries. Torture engines stalled. Rivers of flame flattened as if pressed down by an unseen hand. Even the Ninth Depth stirred uneasily — not in hunger, but recognition.
Delta did not announce himself.
He never needed to anymore.
---
RETURN TO THE THRONE THAT NEVER MOVED
The Gates of Hell opened without command.
The Shattered Gate bowed.
Chains withdrew from pathways that had never known mercy. Demons watched silently as Delta walked forward through the black stone corridors toward the Throne Hall.
He wore the mask.
The Deltonic Saber hung quiet at his side.
His armcannon and shoulder cannons were sealed but awake—their presence felt like restrained annihilation.
By the time Delta reached the throne, the hall was already full.
Morvanna knelt.
Varkos knelt.
Selene knelt.
Legions filled the shadows, pressed flat by instinct alone.
Hades stood before his throne.
Waiting.
---
THE KING WHO NEVER STOOD
Hades did not draw his weapon.
Did not summon flame or shadow.
He only watched Delta approach, his expression carved from centuries of certainty finally beginning to fracture.
"…Asgard is gone," Hades said quietly.
"Yes," Delta replied.
The word echoed longer than it should have.
Hades nodded once, slowly.
"So are Olympus," he continued.
"And the Solar Throne."
"And half the lesser courts."
Silence.
"You no longer wage war," Hades said. "You erase lineages."
Delta stopped ten paces away.
"I warned them," he said. "All of them."
Morvanna trembled.
Selene lowered her head further, as though ashamed of witnessing something sacred and profane all at once.
Hades stepped closer.
"You were my Guardian," he said. "Named by my will. Given authority over Hell's borders."
The words used to mean something.
"Do you know what that made you?" Hades asked.
Delta did not answer.
"It made you necessary," Hades said. "And I do not allow necessities to become gods."
That word.
God.
Delta's fingers flexed once.
---
THE TRUTH FINALLY SPOKEN
"You crowned me with a title," Delta said calmly.
"Guardian of Hell."
Hades met his gaze.
"Yes."
"And you did it," Delta continued, "so I would never look at the throne."
The air tightened.
Hades exhaled slowly.
"You were never meant to rule," he admitted. "You were meant to contain."
Delta nodded once.
"Exactly."
For the first time, Hades raised his hand.
Chains ignited throughout the hall — ancient, black, inscribed with dominion runes older than gods. The very concept of Hell's authority surged forward.
Morvanna gasped. "My lord—!"
"This does not concern you," Hades said.
His gaze never left Delta.
"I named you Guardian," Hades said.
"And I will unmake you if necessary."
The word unmake echoed.
Delta tilted his head slightly.
"And now," he asked, "what happens when the thing you named… no longer accepts it?"
---
THE TITLE THAT BREAKS KINGS
Hades straightened.
Power rose around him — not explosive, but deep. The raw sovereignty of Hell itself responded.
"I am Hades," he declared.
"King of the Underworld. Lord of Endings. Keeper of Balance."
Delta stepped forward.
The chains froze.
"I was listening when you named me," Delta said quietly.
"But you were wrong about one thing."
Hades frowned.
"You didn't make me necessary," Delta said.
"You made me inevitable."
The chains shattered.
Not violently.
They simply… fell apart, collapsing into dust that Hell itself refused to reclaim.
Hades staggered back one step.
Just one.
But that was enough.
---
THE KILL THAT WAS NEVER A DUEL
"This was never about the throne," Delta said.
The Deltonic Saber whispered free of its sheath.
"But about the lie."
Hades summoned his spear — shadows coiling into its form — and thrust.
Delta did not dodge.
He stepped through the attack, passing through the king's reach as if causality had misjudged distances.
The saber drove cleanly through Hades' chest.
No explosion.
No scream.
Hades froze, staring down at the blade.
"…So this is how it ends," Hades breathed.
Delta leaned in close.
"No," he said calmly.
"This is how it's corrected."
He twisted the blade once.
Hades fell to his knees.
Hell did not resist.
---
THE BROKEN KING RISES
Hades' crown cracked as it slipped from his head, shattering against the black stone floor.
As his body collapsed, the Throne of Hell reacted.
It did not summon another ruler.
It split.
Cracks raced through obsidian and bone alike as Hell rejected the concept of a single king.
A voice rose — not one voice, but millions layered together.
THE GUARDIAN IS DEAD.
THE KING IS BROKEN.
Delta stood where Hades had fallen.
The throne behind him shattered completely.
No one moved.
Then Selene whispered, trembling:
"…What do we call him now?"
Hell answered before Delta did.
BROKEN KING.
The title settled into existence like a verdict.
---
THE WEIGHT OF THE CROWN THAT DOESN'T EXIST
Delta did not sit.
Did not claim dominion.
He simply turned to face Hell's gathered legions.
"I do not rule you," he said.
"I do not protect you."
"I do not balance anything."
His voice carried to every depth.
"But I will end anyone who believes they can own this place again."
Morvanna bowed deeper than ever before.
Varkos slammed his fist to the floor.
Selene wept silently.
Hell accepted him.
Not as king.
But as final authority.
---
ONE LAST LOOK
Delta glanced down at Hades' body.
For a moment — a single, unguarded moment — something human flickered behind the mask.
"…You should've let me leave," he murmured.
Then he turned away.
---
THE FOURTH WALL, FRACTURED
He paused mid-step.
Didn't look back.
"You thought Hell would change me," he said quietly.
"You thought power would corrupt."
A pause.
"It didn't."
He continued walking.
"It clarified."
---
AFTERMATH
Deep within the Ninth Depth, something ancient smiled.
Noctis felt it and closed her eyes in grief and awe.
Aurora felt it and knew her brother was gone in ways even she couldn't reach.
And the universe finally accepted the truth it had been avoiding since the beginning:
There would be no restoration.
No balance.
No return to order.
Because the Guardian of Hell was dead.
And the Broken King had taken his place.