The Underworld had never knelt.
Not to Olympus.
Not to the Titans.
Not even to the Outer Gods.
It was a realm beyond time, beyond light, beyond the rules of creation itself.
And yet, on this day, it bent.
Not in surrender.
In recognition.
For the first time in eternity, the End was complete.
And the one who had made it so—
Stood beside its king.
The Queen's Coronation
Demeter had thought she understood power.
She had seen Olympus rise. She had seen Zeus claim the skies.
But here, in this place beyond life, beyond rebirth—she felt something different.
Not just death.
Not just darkness.
But inevitability.
The Underworld had never been a prison. It had never been a punishment.
It had always been the End.
And now, she was part of it.
Before her, a second throne rose from the abyss.
A throne equal to Hades'.
Not lesser. Not secondary.
Equal.
Hades did not command her to sit.
He offered it.
And when she took her seat beside him, the realm itself shifted.
The Lords of the Underworld Kneel
Thanatos, the god of peaceful death, was the first to kneel.
He had guided souls to this realm since the dawn of time. And now, he bowed to the one who had given those souls something more than an end.
Hypnos followed, his eyes half-lidded, his voice a whisper of dreams.
Nyx, the mother of the night, bent her head—a gesture she had never offered to Olympus.
Erebus, the primordial darkness, knelt in silence, a shadow bowing before the new balance of the abyss.
Hecate, keeper of the crossroads, smiled. "It seems even the End must change."
And then, she too knelt.
The rulers of the Underworld had acknowledged their queen.
But there was still one last kneeling to be done.
The Order of the End Pledges Their Oath
From the great gates of the Underworld, they came.
Thousands of warriors.
Gods, titans, forgotten kings—all who had sworn themselves to Hades, all who had given themselves to the End.
They marched in perfect silence, their armor black as the abyss, their banners bearing the sigil of the End.
They did not kneel easily.
These were not mortals. These were not even Olympians.
These were the Order of the End.
The strongest warriors of the Underworld.
Hades' chosen.
And yet, before Demeter, they fell to one knee.
As one, they spoke.
"We are the blades in the dark."
"We are the keepers of the last gate."
"Where the world ends, we stand."
"Where the gods fall, we rise."
"And where our king walks, we follow."
"Now and forever—"
"Hail to the Queen of the End."
Hades Declares the Underworld Reforged
Hades stood.
The moment he did, the Underworld obeyed.
The rivers of the dead stilled. The shadows twisted into silence.
Even the gods of the abyss listened.
His voice was not loud.
It did not need to be.
"The End has been reforged."
His black robes billowed, untouched by the laws of existence itself. His gaze, infinite and unshaken, swept across the gathered lords and warriors.
"We are no longer simply death. We are the certainty that follows."
"And those who seek to challenge it will kneel—"
"Or they will cease to be."
And at those words, the entire Underworld trembled.
Olympus Feels the Shift
Far above, in the divine plane—
The gods felt it.
Zeus, seated upon his new throne in the sky, felt the tremor in the fabric of creation. His storm roared in answer.
Athena, beside him, turned her head, her eyes narrowing. The game had changed.
Hera, her power ascending alongside her king, simply nodded. She had expected nothing less.
But the others?
Ares, watching from the depths of the war halls, felt the first flicker of unease.
Apollo, still weakened from Zeus' judgment, clenched his fists. They had waited too long.
And Hephaestus, silent and forgotten, watched the shifting balance of power—and knew war was inevitable.