Dancing Like Butterfly Wings 🦋 yungi [▶]

25

On the other side, in front of Hades' palace.

Hongjoong, San, Wooyoung, and Jongho were slicing through spirits with their swords.

Yes, reinforcements had arrived. And they were all busy weakening the enemies.

The foes seemed endless, especially with the Titans arriving.

The giant creatures, as tall as Cerberus, roared wildly. Hongjoong jumped to strike one of them, but the Titan snatched the sword from the son of Zeus and threw it far into the sharp rocks.

“Kleopatra!” Hongjoong shouted loudly as he saw his sword transform into Seonghwa, who was coughing and spitting blood from his mouth. His body was covered in cuts from the sharp stones around him. The son of Hera was going to settle the score with that damn Titan.

Rising, Seonghwa ran to confront the Titan that was about to attack Hongjoong. Pulling one of the creature’s feet, he managed to lift the entire body of the Titan. “Don’t you dare touch Hongjoong’s fingertips!” He slammed the giant down onto the ground until its body was shattered. The impact also caused a destruction of the hard surface and large rocks.

He toppled another Titan and punched its stomach with a clenched fist, concentrating all his chakra there, crushing the creature into pieces and scattering its flesh. Its blood splattered in all directions, reaching a radius of hundreds of meters.

He tried to destroy another Titan by jumping onto the giant’s body, grabbing its head, and splitting it in two along with the rest of its body. Blood flowed rapidly, forming a small river of blood in front of the palace.

So powerful was the son of Hera.

Even though only one Titan was going to hurt Hongjoong, Seonghwa was determined to destroy all of them. He would not let anyone he loved get hurt.

“Who’s guarding Tartarus?!” Jooheon shouted as his hands never rested from parrying and attacking enemies with his sword.

“Aphrodisia!” Mingi answered loudly while shooting large fireballs at the spirits and Titans.

Ah, the child of Aphrodite, Jooheon thought. He would advise Yeosang on his negligence once this was all over. The kid really was incapable of fulfilling his duties.

But that was for later. For now, Jooheon instructed everyone to follow him. They all ran southeast towards Tartarus, with spirits and Titans chasing them. Once they reached the outer area of Tartarus, the battle resumed.

Hongjoong wanted to electrocute the giant creatures, but his superpower was useless here. Lightning couldn't penetrate the Underworld. So with a sudden idea, he shouted to Mingi, “Thanos! Open a portal to the upper world here!”

“Are you crazy?! All the spirits and Titans will rise to the upper world and wreak havoc on Earth if I do that!” Mingi deflected a Titan’s attack using earth bending and managed to knock it far away.

“Just do it quickly! Trust me!”

Reluctantly, Mingi opened the portal. Soon after, the thunderous roar created by Hongjoong was heard.

The spirits and Titans were successfully lured to the portal.

As they were about to pass through the wide gap above, a deadly lightning bolt struck from the portal.

Several Titans were incinerated, and the rest were weakened. All the spirits had fallen, but they would not die. The sons of Hades merely incapacitated them since the spirits still had to serve their punishment.

“Bring all those spirits here! Help me get them back inside!” It was Yeosang’s commanding voice. He held the wide-open Tartarus gate. Meanwhile, Cerberus stood guard inside, ready to welcome the return of the spirits.

All the demigods dragged the rebels to the Tartarus gate, throwing the creatures back to their origin.

“They’ve committed an affront by breaking the agreement! Add punishments to all of them, many times over!” Mingi requested from Yeosang with his excuse. In truth, he had a personal grudge because the spirits had harmed his beloved. But it wasn’t entirely wrong since the spirits had indeed broken their agreement.

“You can count on me!” Yeosang confidently said. He went inside and locked the Tartarus gate from the inside.

Terrifying screams were heard from behind the large door after it was shut. Yeosang tormented the spirits mercilessly.

Mingi outside exerted all the remaining chakra he had to split the Earth—more precisely, the Underworld land—creating a long crack and an abyss that seemed endless. Some Titans fell into it with a roaring sound, their cries fading as they fell deeper. After that, Mingi closed the long chasm, leaving no trace of the crack.

Everyone sat down, breathing heavily. With the cold air against them, they smiled in relief at their satisfying victory.

“So… is this it, finally?” Wooyoung said, lying on the dirty ground with San’s thigh as a cushion. Hard physically but mentally comforting. It felt like something was bringing the son of Eros peace from the son of Fortuna.

“Why? Are you still not tired? Want a second round?” Jongho asked with a mischievous grin on his face.

“A second round your ass! If you want to keep wrestling, go into Tartarus!” Seonghwa shouted, wiping the blood from his mouth. Actually, everyone was covered in Titan blood, a result of Seonghwa’s actions. He was truly amazing.

“Crazy, truly crazy. This is the first time we’ve been to the Underworld and fought spirits and Titans. So this is what it feels like,” San said. He could feel Wooyoung nodding in agreement on his thigh.

“But haven’t you fought Titans before in the practical exam?” Jongho asked, who hadn’t experienced that exam yet as he was still in his second year.

“Yes, but those were only artificial Titans. The ones we fought were real Titans!” Sihyeon answered. So before Jongho even experienced a fight with Titans in an exam, he had already fought real Titans. This way, the son of Ares was confident he could become the next champion after Yeosang.

After catching their breath and resting a bit, Jooheon stood up and said he would continue his duties in Tartarus. He entered the place as Yeosang came out.

“Wow, you’re so hot, like you have a high fever. Are you okay?” Seonghwa asked worriedly as he touched Yeosang’s face.

“I’m fine. The air in there is very hot. But I can handle it.”

“Oh, thank goodness then.”

“Looks like you’re the ones who don’t seem okay. Look at the blood on your bodies.”

“This is Titan’s blood, not ours. We’re not weak enough to bleed,” Hyungseob said.

“Oh, so I’m the one who bled the most here, meaning I’m weak?” Seonghwa retorted, remembering he was the only one who actually vomited blood. Hyungseob just smiled widely, showing his innocent teeth at Seonghwa’s judgmental face.

“Let’s go to Elysium. You can bathe and eat at my house there,” Yeosang invited.

“Great. I happen to have something I want to show you all,” Mingi said, making everyone curious. They accepted Yeosang and Mingi’s invitation and walked north towards Elysium with enthusiasm. It was as if the great battle that had happened moments ago never occurred. Meanwhile, Sihyeon and Hyungseob turned east towards Asphodel because they needed to check that field.

In Elysium, everyone except Yeosang and Mingi marveled at the beauty of the place. Their awe increased when they reached a lake.

A shimmering blue merman played with the water at the edge of the lake, completing the beauty of the surrounding environment.

“Phaedon?!”

“Oh, hi there, friends!”

So this was what Mingi wanted to show. No, more precisely, someone.

Someone who meant so much to his life.

Someone he would never let get hurt again.