Seeing the allied gods' massive force, even the Sea King was moved. According to their agreement, he wouldn't directly participate in the siege of Hades, but he'd send his army to clear the path and coordinate the battle. Afterward, he'd gain jurisdiction over the River Styx.
Regardless of victory or defeat, the three parties would have a reckoning. The Sea King's avatar could only don golden armor, wear his crown, wield his trident, and march alongside the gods. His army poured endlessly through the vanishing point Thea had observed earlier.
The Naga clan served as the Sea King's elite forces. Their upper bodies were human, their lower bodies serpentine. Male Nagas were formidable warriors; females were sorceresses.
The Sea King, who'd always taken Zeus as his role model, once harbored dreams of spreading his seed across the world.
Unfortunately, compared to Zeus' powerful genes that produced beautiful sons and daughters, his bastards were somewhat... less presentable. More sons than daughters, and most were giants and rough men.
Leading the sea clan army now was one of his sons, the notorious man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus, born of Poseidon and sea nymph Thoosa.
After the two forces converged and briefly restated their responsibilities and obligations, the army began its massive advance along the waterway toward the Underworld.
The death energy of the Underworld was lethal to ordinary people. Besides the gods, even regular Amazons, the sea army, the Flash, and Supergirl might not be able to resist it.
The gods' response was to advance methodically, pooling their divine power to temporarily transform the Underworld and force Hades into open battle. Otherwise, in the vast Underworld, no one could find him.
If he refused to fight, they'd simply transform the Underworld directly. For every portion of the Underworld's land lost, Hades' divine power would weaken proportionally.
Long-term, his refusal to engage would actually be good news for the gods.
The Greek gods were used to casual, easygoing ways. Even in such a serious campaign, they traveled like tourists.
The Flash was initially nervous. Seeing so many figures from mythology shocked him greatly—he felt like he was in a dream.
Fortunately, he had a cute girl beside him to ease his tension.
"Are these guys really like the myths say?" Barry asked Supergirl, pointing at the giants in the formation.
Kara shook her head. "I don't really know Earth's mythology."
Huh? That statement contained a lot of information. Barry was confused. "You're not from Earth?"
Kara's expression changed several times before she asked in surprise, "Wait, you are? But why are you so fast...?"
Supergirl quickly walked to Thea's side, looking distressed. "Sister Thea, I think I exposed myself..."
Ah, this innocent child! Thea had known Kara for years. Sometimes this girl with no guile made her want to laugh and cry. No wonder Martian Manhunter always protected her—compared to Superman, Kara was far too naive.
"It's fine. Barry's not an outsider. He's a very kind, good person."
Hearing he was a good person, Kara happily accepted this answer and went back to chat with her new friend.
Poor Barry looked at the front of the column, then the back, and realized—depressed—that he was the only normal person here.
Thea didn't pay much attention to their conversation. She was whispering with Diana.
With so many gods fighting Hades, she figured she could coast a bit. If the battle got intense, maybe she could check out Hades' treasury.
The Greek pantheon had an interesting quirk—the god of wealth here wasn't someone else, it was Hades himself!
That meant all gold and treasures buried deep in the earth belonged to Hades. Because this guy doubled as the Greek god of wealth, Thea had been encouraging various parties to attack this bastard. It involved old and new grudges, plus a tangled mess of interests, divine power, divine offices, and divine positions—extremely complex.
Thea was quietly discussing with Diana how to inconspicuously take Hades' treasury. Better yet, silently killing him on the battlefield would be ideal.
Diana could oppose the whole world for her lover. Now it was just taking some treasure from her evil uncle—she had no moral qualms whatsoever. Especially since she'd long known Thea's position was wealth, so she kept helping with ideas and solutions.
As the Goddess of Wealth, robbing the rich to feed... herself, she naturally didn't need a spatial bag. All wealth could be transformed into divine power and freely transformed back. The Wealth Goddess also came with what Thea called a "wealth space"—a tiny pocket dimension where anything classifiable as wealth could be stored.
But straight-up robbery lacked style. Best to make it a transaction somehow—like robbing his treasury and leaving a copper coin behind...
The massive group of people and gods advanced in a grand procession, making no effort to hide their trail, traveling tourist-style through the secret passage to the Underworld.
This passage was dug by old Poseidon, who knows how many years ago. God knows what grudges he and Hades shared.
The army emerged from shallow water. Before them spread a pitch-black river so wide it stretched to the horizon—the River Styx.
Thea, whose emotional energy mastery had reached a modest level, sensed immeasurable negative emotions from the water: regret, pain, torment, hatred—everything was there. She exchanged glances with the Blue Lanterns, and together they erected an emotional shield to protect ordinary people's minds from invasion.
This river posed lethal danger to everyone—humans and demigods alike. Only special ferries could cross.
However, the Sea King wasn't bound by that restriction. Wherever there was water, he had authority. The Greek pantheon had an interesting characteristic—their jurisdictions were extremely fragmented. Take wealth, which Thea couldn't forget: Hades had jurisdiction, but so did Poseidon.
What was buried underground belonged to Hades; what was in the sea belonged to the Sea King. But literal interpretation versus actual operation? Total mess. Hades insisted treasures on the seafloor were also "underground" and belonged to him. The Sea King flatly refused. The two fought plenty over such trivial matters.
The River Styx before them now had the same problem. When Zeus and his brothers drew lots to divide the world, Hades got the Underworld, Poseidon got rivers, lakes, and seas.
So here's the question: this River Styx was also a river, theoretically under the Sea King's jurisdiction. However, Hades argued the Styx was an inseparable part of the Underworld—since ancient times, the Styx had been a member of the Underworld family. The two big shots quarreled endlessly over this river.
Only because his own strength fell half a notch short of Hades did this quarrel never escalate. Now, borrowing the gods' spears, he was energized. Today he'd definitely reclaim jurisdiction over the Styx.
This was the Underworld's entrance. All the living had to pass through here. If Poseidon stuck his oar in, it meant all living beings could connect with him. Atlanteans who worshipped him would receive preferential treatment after death, and he'd harvest a large portion of surface faith too. This was a blatant struggle for interests—a struggle for divine power.
Poseidon waved his hand grandly. His ugly, rough-featured sons began taking out prepared materials to build a giant ship for crossing the Styx.