While speaking, he snapped his finger. In that moment, time itself stopped as another one of the villagers coughed out blood, their face going pale before the entire world turned dark for them.
The villager fell flat on the ground, his breathing stopped.
As the next second arrived, Hades snapped his fingers again. For him, his time was the most important. And these mortals held no value for him. It was just a small village on the outskirts after all.
"Stop! I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" The Village Elder exclaimed, but even then, Hades didn't stop. The sound of his snap resounded like a heavy well in everyone's ears, a woman falling lifelessly on the ground.
"Good. Since you'll be telling me everything, I suppose I don't need anyone else." Hades hated showing himself to the mortals. In the first place, he didn't plan to leave anyone alive who saw the scene of the Sky Fortress falling.
This was a dark blot in the history of Olympus and mortals didn't deserve to live after seeing it. Q
He snapped his fingers again. The ground itself split apart, dark flames coming out of earth, swallowing most of the villagers in its scary embrace.
Only one person was left alive. It was the Village Elder, who had just watched all his people die. Hades left none alive, not caring if it was a man, woman or child.
"If you don't want to face their fate, you better be as honest as possible. You can't afford to waste my time."
The Village Elder looked at the lifeless bodies of the villagers, some of whom were his family as well. Seeing their lifeless bodies before his eyes, tears streamed down his wrinkled face.
To save their lives, he was willing to do anything. But he was just realizing how little value he held. The man didn't even think twice before killing them. This was how much the gods cared for them.
"My patience is running out," Hades stated, stepping closer.
He placed his finger under the old man's chin, raising it. Like a puppet, the old man's body kept rising in the air, unwillingly.
"You want to know where they went?" The old man asked, looking in the scary eyes of Hades.
"Correct," Hades affirmed.
The old man clenched his teeth. He was already old and with his family and Village gone, life held no value for him. After a long time, he felt like he was truly free of the mortal bounds, already prepared for his death. And with this freedom, came courage.
"They went to..." The old man stated before taking a brief pause.
"I told you, my patience is running out!" Hades said impatiently. "Just tell me where they went!"
The old man gathered his remaining strength and looked straight into Hades' eyes. "They went to prepare your funeral!"
As the old man finished speaking, he spat directly on Hades' face. Although his spit couldn't even touch Hades, burned by Hades' flames, the old man's act of defiance sent a ripple of shock through everyone who watched it.
Hades gazed at the old man, his expressions dark.
"I wanted to save time, but there's no need anymore. I'm going to enjoy it..." He grabbed the old man's head, his body hanging in the air.
Hades didn't waste a second anymore. At first, he didn't want to try this method as he felt disgusted to devour a mortal's soul, but he was truly angry now. He wanted to show the old man what hell was.
The old man's body shriveled up, his pain etched across his face. Hades could feel the satisfaction seeping into his bones as he relished in the torment he was inflicting.
Hades watched as the light of life faded from the old man's eyes, his soul ripped apart forcefully, piece by piece to make it as painful as possible. If Hades hadn't forcefully kept the man alive, he would've already died from the pain alone.
Hades wanted him to be alive until the last moment. This was the punishment for a mere mortal defying the dignity of the divine.
"Do you think after killing you, it will be over? I'll bring the souls of all the Villagers with me and have those souls be tormented for an eternity!" Hades told the old man, who was bleeding from all his orifices.
The old man's bloody pupils trembled. "D...evil..."
The old man took his last breath, watching the devilish smile on Hades' face.
"I've been called worse."
He tossed the old man's lifeless body aside, looking in one particular direction.
He hasn't just destroyed the old man's soul for the sake of punishing him. He had also extracted the old man's memories, which allowed him to see everything the old man saw from the fall of the Sky Fortress to the appearance of Raven.
"It seems you were right," he said, glancing at Apollo. "It wasn't a betrayal. He was able to escape. And I saw another familiar face. Zephyr... He has come out of hiding. If I'm not wrong, the other Traitors should start coming out as well."
"Can we catch up to them?" Apollo inquired.
In response, Hades started laughing. "Why are you so serious?"
"Can we really laugh in this situation?" Apollo didn't understand why Hades suddenly started laughing when he was serious until now.
" If you had seen what I saw, you would've been laughing as well. It's just as I expected, one item couldn't protect him from the curse. Everything is back to normal. In fact, it seems worse for him. Moreover, thanks to this, we were able to bring that rat Zephyr out of his home."
Seeing Raven pass out after taking off the earring, Hades was able to gather a lot of information, most of which made him pleased.
The first good news was that Raven hadn't recovered. The second good news was that Zephyr was alone. Once they found Zephyr, they could reach the other Traitors through him, all of whom had been hiding all this time. And lastly, it hadn't been long since Zephyr left, carrying Raven. It wasn't hard to catch up to them.
Before leaving, he glanced at someone behind him. "I made that old man a promise. Don't forget to collect their souls. And return to Olympus."
Hades' smirk widened as he looked in the direction Zephyr had chosen.
"It's been so long. I had forgotten this feeling... The feeling of going after a prey."