Chapter 188
Caw. Caw. Caw.
The cries of ravens rang out from every direction, loud enough to pound against Suhyeok's eardrums.
He was completely surrounded by a semicircle of black birds.
His surroundings had grown dark.
Hades's figure had already disappeared.
And that wasn't all.
Suhyeok looked at the red message floating before him.
[If you fail to escape within the next 5 minutes, you will face eternal death.]
[Resistance to death is impossible.]
A strange smoke spread from the ravens' wings.
The grass covering the ground dried up wherever it touched.
And on Suhyeok's arm...
Web-like cracks were already beginning to spread.
He could tell instinctively.
The message said five minutes...
But in reality, his entire body would probably crumble apart within two.
By the third minute...
Some parts of his body would likely turn to dust.
By the fourth...
Everything below his neck would be gone.
[‘Divine Protection (S)’ partially resists the aura of death.]
[The entire process leading to extinction is postponed until the final 5-minute mark.]
As soon as the message appeared...
The cracks crawling up Suhyeok's arm began fading.
He had bought himself time.
But the result remained the same.
Five minutes from now...
He would still be extinguished.
Every second mattered.
Then suddenly...
Simulation activated.
[Authority ‘Simulation’ activates.]
[Time stops.]
The world turned black and white.
The flock of ravens swirling like a hurricane froze in place.
Right.
If time is running short...
I can just stop it.
Suhyeok hadn't expected even Constellations to be bound by Simulation's restrictions.
But whatever the reason...
It was good news.
He had more than enough time to think.
Suhyeok slowly examined the frozen scene.
He couldn't sense Hades separately from the flock.
That meant...
Hades was almost certainly one of those ravens.
Even if presence could be hidden...
Rank couldn't be erased completely.
Especially at this distance.
The problem was...
Every single raven carried an identical trace of Hades's Rank.
There was no way to tell which one was real.
Suhyeok couldn't simply cut down every raven either.
He had already tested that through Simulation.
Each time he destroyed one...
Their numbers doubled.
He'd also tried concentrating all of his firepower at once.
The result was the same.
If anything...
It only made the situation worse.
The more he tried to act inside this space...
The more disadvantageous things became.
Simulation presented countless possibilities.
But no matter which option he chose...
He couldn't solve the time limit.
Nor could he locate Hades among the ravens.
What am I missing?
This doesn't seem like something I can solve physically.
Suhyeok remembered the weakness Eye of Insight had revealed.
Hades's weakness was...
Guilt.
Most likely...
That guilt came from handing Mihyeon and Lee Seha's souls over to System.
Or perhaps...
From choosing to oppose Suhyeok in order to protect the Underworld.
But simply knowing the weakness didn't solve anything.
Trying to appeal to Hades emotionally was pointless.
Both of their positions were already too firmly established.
Hades had sided with System to save the Underworld.
Suhyeok intended to stop System...
And take revenge.
And even if he somehow persuaded Hades emotionally...
His revenge didn't target System alone.
The Constellations were included too.
What I'm trying to do from here on...
Is make sure the Tower and this world can never again become someone else's playground.
Hades may be different from most Constellations...
But in the end, he's still one of them.
His thoughts grew more complicated.
Still...
Eye of Insight wouldn't have shown him a weakness that was impossible to exploit.
There had to be something──
[Authority ‘Simulation’ presents an additional option.]
Use ‘Eye of Insight (Mythic)’ to identify the exact nature of the target's guilt and what caused it.
An option appeared out of nowhere.
It hadn't even existed on the list before.
Suhyeok instinctively knew.
Whether it was truly the correct answer or not...
This was the only path left.
[Option 48 selected.]
[The future created by this option will now be simulated.]
Suhyeok's vision flashed.
The scenery changed.
He now stood in a spirit-like state inside a familiar place.
It felt like...
The Underworld.
He froze.
...Wait.
This is the Underworld?
Suhyeok looked around with trembling eyes.
This was the ninth and deepest level of the Underworld.
In front of the enormous doors leading to Hades's office...
Countless administrators and soldiers lay collapsed.
Cerberus...
The guardian of the Underworld...
Was dead.
So were the Beasts that guarded each level of hell.
And that wasn't all.
Hades's subordinates lay sprawled across the ground, barely alive.
Even Constellations belonging to the Underworld had been beaten down helplessly.
"What?"
"That's it?"
"I thought you'd put up more of a fight."
"What a disappointment."
A figure casually cracked his neck...
As though he'd just finished warming up.
The one responsible for all of this...
The one who had devastated the Underworld...
Was System.
At the center of the destruction...
Thanatos knelt on one knee.
Dark blood spilled from his mouth.
He looked up at System with hatred.
"Kugh..."
"Why..."
"Why did you attack the Underworld...?"
Thanatos struggled to keep his fading vision focused.
System tilted its head as though it genuinely didn't understand.
"Why are you asking me?"
"I said I'd wait inside until Hades came back."
"You people attacked me first."
"So this happened."
"I even tried stopping halfway..."
"But you just kept coming."
System scratched the back of its head awkwardly and looked around.
"Hmm."
"Maybe I should've just come directly here instead of walking down from the upper levels."
"If I had..."
"Fewer of you might've died."
Its eyes passed over the corpses it had created.
