The God of Underworld

A voice echoed across the vast marble halls of the Hades domain, reverberating through obsidian walls of his fortress and gardens blooming with fire and mint.

"You idiot!"

The source was unmistakable.

In the middle of Hades' private garden — where glowing pomegranate trees floated in the air and ghostly koi swam through streams of liquid shadow — Erebus had his face planted into the soil, his legs twitching pitifully.

Nyx, goddess of primordial night, stood over him, repeatedly stomping her foot on his head, her shadows flaring with every movement.

"You let it get away!? Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

STOMP!

"Do you think this is some game, Erebus!?"

STOMP!

STOMP!

Erebus muffled something, his voice buried under several inches of divine dirt.

Off to the side, Hades watched silently, arms crossed, sipping from a crystal cup of underworld wine.

His expression was unreadable. Beside him, Nekyria, his daughter, sat cross-legged on a floating rock, munching on a blood-pomegranate with mild curiosity.

Erebus finally managed to yank his head out of the dirt, coughing shadows. "I told you already! It was too strong! I couldn't beat it, much less kill it! What do you want me to do?!"

"You should've stalled it! Trapped it! Delayed it! I don't know, used your brain for once!"

STOMP!

"GAH—Would you stop that!?" Erebus yelped, shielding his head. "Gods, you're worse than Hemera in a bad mood!"

Nyx's eyes narrowed dangerously. Shadows wrapped tighter around her form.

Erebus gulped, shielding himself with his arms while shaking his head, "T-That was a joke! A joke! Please don't hit me with that, I'll really die!"

Just as she prepared to stomp him again, a firm hand touched her shoulder.

"Enough," Hades said calmly. "There is no time for that."

Nyx stopped, chest rising and falling with sharp breaths. Her eyes flicked toward Hades, and after a beat, she exhaled and stepped back.

Erebus quickly scrambled to his feet, brushing dirt off his robe and bowing slightly. "I—I really am sorry. But I didn't let it go completely empty-handed…"

He raised his hand and conjured a black flame, within which danced a faint trace of green corruption, a shard of the entity's essence, barely visible, but unmistakable.

"I marked it. Through its wound. I know where it went."

Nyx's eyes glowed. "You… what?"

She cracked her knuckles, her hair floating starting to defy gravity as her aura flared up. "And you didn't tell me that the first time!?"

"You didn't give me a chance to explain!" Erebus muttered, rubbing his ribs. "You jumped straight to violence!"

"I'll do it again if you keep whining," Nyx shot back.

Hades stepped between them, stopping their argument before it could escalate, his voice calm but sharp. "Where is it now?"

Erebus straightened, all joking gone from his face. His shadow twisted as he pointed eastward, toward the deepest crust of the world.

"It's gone to Gaia's Domain," he said grimly.

Silence fell.

Even the koi in the shadow-stream paused mid-swim.

"Why would it go there?" Nyx asked slowly. "It's a place of life. There, Gaia is virtually invincible."

"I don't know," Erebus shook his head, "I didn't try to chase after it. I immediately headed here to report back, so I don't really know why it decided to go there."

Hades hummed. "It certainly not to hide. Gaia would find it the moment it step foot in her territory and kill it."

Nyx's jaw clenched. "Damn entity. Damn Gaia. Why must all things be so complicated!?"

"Well," Erebus raised a hand as Nyx and Hades stared at him, "What if it's trying to corrupt Gaia like it did with the Giants?"

The two paused, their minds coming up with the plausibility of that happening.

"Gaia has connections with her children," continued Erebus, "If the entity had corrupted the Giants, why can't it do it with Gaia?"

Nyx furrowed her brows, "If that was true, then since Gaia's a Primordial, the entity must be taking its time trying to corrupt her in fear of retaliation..."

"But now that it has been found, it had no choice but risk it all and corrupt her all at once." Continued Hades.

Erebus grinned as he snapped his fingers, "Absolutely what I was thinking!"

Hades grunted as he stretched his arms, "Well then, let's forget all pacts and prepare for war. I will gather all my patrons and send an oracle to Herion."

Nyx blinked. "Why Herion? Why involve mortals at all?"

Hades smiled, "If the entity managed to corrupt Gaia, it will quickly need strength to stabilize itself and prevent Gaia's consciousness from fighting them. Since the entity gains power the more advanced the civilization is, then it surely will attack the most advanced one first. In this case, Herion."

Nyx narrowed her eyes, "So the battlefield will be a mortal state?"

Hades nodddd.

"But how should we beat her?" Asked Erebus, "She's indestructible in Earth. That's her domain."

Hades smiled, pointing at the ground. "Then, let's simply bring her down to the underworld."

*

*

*

Gaia's domain.

It was a sanctuary unlike any other, a place of life's origin. Endless plains of emerald light stretched across floating landmasses suspended in a sea of stars.

Trees as old as time whispered in forgotten languages, and the hum of creation resonated in the air like a lullaby.

In the center of it all, on a throne woven from living vines and stardust, Gaia, the Primordial Mother, opened her eyes.

Her irises shimmered with eternity, her presence alone able to quell storms and split mountains.

But just then...

A sudden presence clung to her spirit, a foul and ancient, completely foreign yet somehow embedded within her.

"What... is this?"

She looked down, and there it was.

A presence she hasn't noticed. Like a corruption.

"Wha—?"

However, before she could voice any questions, a shadow flickered and a figure walked out.

The Entity.

It stood before her, a grotesque humanoid mass of shadows, glowing sigils, and cosmic rot, its form ever-shifting, sometimes many-limbed, sometimes none.

Gaia's eyes widened, sensing the corruption from her soul seems to be coming from that being that appeared.

The entity tilted its head, as if studying her.

Gaia clenched her fists.

"You dare taint me?"

She rose from her throne, and the very domain trembled.

Roots shot out from beneath her, mountains cracked and realigned, and an army of elemental avatars formed behind her, lions of magma, serpents of sky, wolves of ice.

Her power awoke.

She struck first, sending a massive tendril of Earth's will to crush the entity.

Lightning danced around her shoulders, and meteors fell from above, not summoned, but birthed from her sheer fury.

But the entity slipped through them like mist.

Her attacks landed on nothing.

Just then, the entity leap out the Giant King's body.

It had left Porphyrion, his body slumped at the base of the throne, blood leaking from his ears.

Then, the fragment of the entity went straight to Gaia, who tried to dodge, but was proven futile.

The fragment easily entered her.

And then the pain came.

A burning agony in her mind.

The entity had already seeped into her soul. Its essence was crawling through her thoughts, wrapping around her core like vines of corruption.

"No," she growled, clutching her head. "You will not... break me."

She screamed, and the entire domain shook.

The floating continents cracked. The ancient forest caught fire. The sea of stars turned pitch black.

Yet no matter how she fought, the entity didn't lift a finger. It merely watched, letting her burn herself out while it coiled tighter within.

Gaia fell to her knees, her form flickering between divinity and something lesser. Her limbs trembled. Her breath came ragged. Her elemental constructs collapsed into ash.

"You are... nothing..." she snarled, trying to rise.

The entity finally moved. Intensifying its corruption to Gaia's being.

Her scream echoed across realms, before it turned silent.

Her form soon twitched, then went still.

The throne of Gaia, once a symbol of life, twisted and blackened. The vines curled into spikes, and from the earth beneath them, eyes and mouths bloomed like tumors.

Gaia's body surged in size. Her once-beautiful form grotesquely transformed.

Tentacles burst from her back, eyes opened along her limbs and neck, and her hair turned into a writhing mass of roots and serpents.

She rose from the cracked platform, now a colossal eldritch abomination, equal parts divine and horrifying.

She was no longer Gaia.

She was no longer the Mother.

Now, she's only the Vessel.

The entity, now in full control, let out a shriek that shattered the sky within the domain.

And then, the world began to crack.

Veins of purple corruption spread across the edges of the Earth. Mountains trembled. Oceans recoiled. Birds screamed as the skies turned sickly green.

The world was no longer safe.

Subtlety was gone.

The entity would now move in full force.

It had a new body.

And through Gaia, it would devour all creation.