Chapter 2614: Divine Judgment "Second match begins!" Hermes declared, his voice echoing through the divine coliseum. As if the words unlocked a cage, Hades erupted into madness. With a guttural roar, he slammed his black bident into the arena floor. The earth split open in a wide ring around the edges, spewing darkness. From that abyss rose a hundred coffins—arranged like the petals of a flower, each creaking open with a haunting groan. Out stepped horrors. Grotesque knights clad in shattered armor with glowing eyes. Rotting beasts stitched together with shadow. Skeletal mages clutching bone-carved staves dripping with cursed ichor. Though not magus-realm like the ones before, each undead pulsed with Sky Realm power—all of them stood in a realm above Gwen. Hades thrust a finger toward her, his eyes alight with bloodlust. "Tear her apart!" A wave of twisted creatures surged toward the Britannia Queen. But Gwen stood firm in the center of the arena, both hands gripping the golden hilt of her divine blade. She stared down her enemy with unwavering confidence. "You are the one behind years of death and suffering in Britannia... Today, your crimes will be judged!" As the words left her lips, the divine sword shimmered like a cage of trapped suns. She and the sword became one. The legendary Excalibur surged with power, bolstering her every movement. Divine energy coursed through her, enhancing her speed, strength, and awareness beyond the limits of her realm. She moved with razor-sharp precision—posture disciplined, footwork flawless. Drawing upon the sword techniques of Camelot, she unleashed her opening strike: [Heroic Slash]. Golden arcs of energy blazed with each swing, slicing through the undead like a divine scythe through rotten wheat. Heads rolled. Limbs fell. The spectators gasped in disbelief. "Is that... real?!" "She’s only in the Sky Realm!" "She’s cutting them down like they’re made of paper!" It took mere seconds for them to realize the truth. "The sword!" someone shouted. "That’s no ordinary blade!" "Could it be... a Tier 6 artifact? No—Tier 7?!" "How is a non-magus wielding a Tier 7 weapon?!" Indeed, Excalibur had been analyzed as a Tier 7 divine weapon—a treasure coveted by all factions in all the realms. To see it in the hands of a so-called "lesser" faction like Earth—and wielded by a Sky Realm warrior—shocked the crowd to its core. From the shadows at the edge of the arena, Hades watched, his grin faltering. Despite her devastating attacks, the numbers closed around her once more. Gwen resorted to hurling holy water flasks, burning away clusters of undead and slipping through their smoking remains—but each time, the encirclement reformed. Hades chuckled darkly, casting a spell once more. With a wave of his hand, the fallen undead began to rise again. Bones reknit. Flesh reformed. Darkness surged back into hollow sockets. He was cheating death as only the god of it could. "Hahaha!" Hades bellowed. "You think a few flasks of holy water can stop me? You won’t have enough to burn them all!" Gwen gritted her teeth. He was right—her flasks of consecrated liquid were running low. She hurled one into a dense cluster of enemies, watching them sizzle and scream, then darted through the gap it created. But again, the horde pressed in. Still, Gwen did not panic. Instead, she began chanting, her voice steady and filled with conviction. The runes on the divine sword flared. A flame ignited across the blade’s length, white and gold fire roaring to life. Hades’ expression twisted as tendrils of radiant flame crawled through the arena. The flame clung to his undead like a divine curse, stopping their regeneration mid-process. Skeletal knights crumbled into ash. Shadow-beasts howled as their patchwork bodies burst into sacred embers. The magic—pure, cleansing, relentless-was—was the perfect counter to necrotic power. "That’s... holy flame!" he hissed, stumbling backward. Gwen had prepared for this. The holy flame was a mid-grade spell that was effective against the undead. She had been studying it for weeks, and fortunately, the divine sword, filled with pure light energy, was able to compensate for her lack of talent. Gwen leapt into the fray once more. Every undead she cut burned from the inside out, their twisted souls shrieking as they were consumed. The crowd watched, stunned, as she carved a path through the arena like a blazing comet. Minutes passed, and Gwen had already destroyed half the undead swarm. Hades began to pant. His magic faltered. When he tried to reanimate the fallen again, backlash surged up his arm. He staggered, coughing blood. The spell rejected him, backfired. He fell to one knee, gasping, trembling. The once-arrogant god of death now coughed blood into the dirt, hunched and shaken. "Urgh!!" It was too much. From commanding ten magus-tier undead to hundreds of Sky Realm horrors, his soul had been stretched thin, fraying at the edges. Gwen saw her chance. "Now!" With one sharp inhale, she invoked the—[Immortal Gate]. Though she had only mastered the spell to the fifth stage, it was enough. Her figure blurred. The undead that remained could barely track her movements before they were cleaved apart in one, two, three brutal slashes. Smoke and dust rose behind her, like wings of judgment. She broke the final encirclement. Hades stood just ahead, barely upright. Blood dripped from his mouth, his left leg limp. And yet his rage had not faded—he roared, raising his black bident. Gwen charged forward. The divine sword at her side burned so brightly. "This is for Camelot— For Earth!!" "In your dreams!" Hades bellowed. He thrust his bident forward with both hands, pouring every ounce of remaining energy into the strike. Gravitational force warped the space around it—the very ground cracked and collapsed in waves. It was a finishing move meant to crush mountains. The two weapons met in the center of the arena. BAMMM!!! Steel screamed against steel. Light devoured darkness. A blinding flash swallowed the coliseum. For a moment, the world held its breath. Then the light faded. Two silhouettes stood at the center, motionless. And then— Gwen fell to her knees, coughing blood onto the stone. Her arms trembled. The golden sword clattered beside her. A collective gasp echoed through the stands. "She’s lost..." someone whispered. Across from her, Hades laughed. A hoarse, guttural sound. But it was not the laugh of triumph. It was strained... confused... almost hollow.. Hades was filled with disbelief. Then, a line of crimson spilled down his chest. The upper half of his body slid sideways and collapsed. A stunned silence swept across the coliseum. Then the crowd erupted. Cheers and gasps echoed from every corner of Mount Olympus. Hermes, still hovering above, blinked in disbelief before stammering out the result. "Errr... Victory goes to the Earth faction!" The announcement roared across the arena like a divine trumpet. Yet even as the spectators celebrated and Gwen began to rise— Something moved. One of the twisted corpses near Hades’ remains jerked unnaturally. Its limbs cracked, snapped into place, then slowly stood upright. The once-dull eyes now glowed with hateful violet light. "I... am not defeated..." came a rasping voice. "No... I am the god of the dead... I am eternal..." Gasps turned to screams as realization struck. Hades had not fully died. His soul had latched onto another vessel, dragging it upright like a puppet of vengeance fighting to return. But then a thunderous crack split the heavens. From the peak of Olympus, a single bolt of divine lightning screamed down. It struck the undead vessel, turning the corpse into a pillar of flame. "ARGHH!! NO!!!!" When the flames faded, all that remained were smoldering ashes scattered in the wind. Hades’ soul flickered one last time in the smoke, staring—not at Gwen, not at Earth—but at the being who had cast him down. It was Zeus, his brother. Hades’ final soul fragment trembled in the air, torn with anguish, as he realized his own family had forsaken him. Then, it vanished, dissolving into smoke. A fitting end for the god of death. ##### Author’s Note Thank you all for the incredible support and love you’ve shown for the novel. Your continued patience and encouragement mean the world to me. Next month, the duel between Kronos and Earth will finally reach its conclusion. Honestly, I’m still torn between two possible endings, so if you have any thoughts, your comments would be greatly appreciated. Once again, none of this would be possible without your support. Thank you.