Chapter 169: Opening the Gate
Sol was standing in front of the gate of the underworld when the world itself shook, a great thing was happening.
He was on the source of the Styx river, he could sense the river itself grew, it quivered as more and more water flowed out of the source.
Just like a broken dam, the source expanded and water burst out, the water level raised to such a height that it would threaten to drown the bridge.
"Fuck! I just got out of the strange world and now the underworld is about to collapse!" Sol cursed as he thought the underworld was about to be destroyed.
He banged at the locked door, but it would not open. He pulled out the cube that was given to him to unlock the door, but it did nothing.
"How to use this thing? Fuck! Open! Open sesame! Abracadabra! Open salami! Open!" He tried all kinds of chants to open the door or activate the supposed key, but it did nothing to the locked door.
"Damn it! I will just destroy the gate then!" he raised his armament and chipped at the lock.
The armament is supposed to be able to cut anything given enough time to sharpen its edge, Sol tried to cut the lock as fast as he could but not even a scratch appeared on the lock.
The Styx river was already touching the bridge's bottom, it was about to overflow, Sol could feel the deadly water about to claim his life.
He conjured a boat made of ice under him, so if the water finally went past the bridge, he would not touch it or be drowned by the river.
"Fuck! Where is the other! There were so many of us before but they are missing, I need help to open this gate!" he lamented.
His hand blurred as he increased his cutting speed, he did not care about power, all he needed was speed.
"Nai! Help me cut the lock!" He asked the knife for help.
It gave him an affirmative as the knife grew sharper, it was consuming the knife aura it had absorbed to a temporary boost in power.
Sol kept conjuring more and more aura, half to increase his speed while the other half for the knife to burn.
Even then, the lock was not cut, not even a hairline was made by the knife, "Is this thing invulnerable?" he could not help but wondered.
Suddenly the space was flipped on itself and more people appeared near him. Most of them were bloody, they were missing a limb or two, even the major demigod and higher was not an exception.
Some of them have burn marks on them. From that he knew that they were fighting against the same remnant he fought before.
From their condition, it seems that the remnant they meet was proportional to their strength, the stronger they are, the stronger the remnant was.
"Everyone! Help me! Open the gate, fast! The Styx river is overflowing, it seems the underworld is about to be destroyed!" he tried to bring everyone up to speed.
They looked around and realized the situation. The bloodied people started to go after the gate.
"Move, let us handle this," the God level people and major demigod told him to move aside as there were only so many people that could be in front of the gate.
Sol relent as he knew he was not strong enough to open the gate. He moved back to let the higher level people handle the situation.
They attempt to bombard the gate with their power but it does little to open the bronze gate; it was too solid even for a minor god to break.
Moreover, they were not in their peak condition, they still need to heal their missing limbs. They were just like Sol; they tried to open the black gate only to be thrown away by Apollo's remnant and their hand got burned. They have no choice but to cut them off.
The people who were missing were the people that did not have the heart to cut their own limb then end up dying and the people who overestimated their power and fought the Sun god's remnant head on.
They could only escape the strange world because Sol breaks the remnant, it lets them escape as well.
Normally no one under a major demigod could beat the remnant as it was stronger than any of them, Sol only wins by cheating his way. The strange world was supposed to isolate him with other people so he would only fight the remnant alone, but he conjured an army of creatures to fight on his place.
"Fuck! If only I'm in peak condition, then I can surely damage this gate!" a minor god ranted.
"Me too, but without both of my arms I can't use my domain!" another minor god complained.
Sol wanted to keep as much of his ability a secret, but that was not the time to hold back. He went toward them and conjured his healing dome on them.
"What are you trying to do?!" the Minor god he tried to heal asked him.
"I'm trying to heal you, I mean no harm," he tried to explain.
"Even my regeneration can't heal this wound for some reason, what a minor demigod like you expect to do?" the god jeered at him
"We won't lose anything if it fails, but if it succeeds, then we might be able to survive this," he tried again.
"You—" the man was was about to tell him to fuck off so he won't bother him, but the god suddenly stopped.
He could feel his missing limb was healing, even though it was not as fast as he wanted, it was an improvement.
Sol could not heal a god's wound in a blink of an eye just like him conjuring another body for himself as they were stronger than him. They also have resistance toward his ability.
Higher-rank people have resistance to lower-rank power but that not only influences harmful ability but also helpful ability.
It can be a double-edge sword, as the resistance could not differentiate between ability.
"Continue doing that! Don't stop, heal me faster!" the man told Sol to continue.
When the others heard that, they also urged him to heal them so they could heal quicker, Sol prioritized stronger people as we needed their power to open the gate.
"Eh? The river recedes, we are safe!" a major demigod said as the Styx river was getting calmer.
If they were to see from the sky, then they would find the river to have more and more branches, it almost covers the whole underworld.
"Don't stop, our goal is to open the gate, continue your attack! Destroy the lock!" a minor demigod said.
With no imminent danger, Sol helped to heal everyone before they pool their strength together. They tried to bottle up as much power as possible so they could break the lock with a single push.
They had gathered so much power and about to break the door open; it was then that Sol had a terrible feeling about it.
"Wait a minute, if the other side has a million of soul that are supposed to go to the underworld, won the flood through the gate when we break it open?" Sol realized.
"Fuck, I need to get away," he cursed as he tried to get away from the gate. He did not tell anyone else as they would be needed to open the gate.
He was halfway through the bridge when they unleashed their power at the gate, a booming sound resound as they concentrated their power on the lock.
The very fabric of space shook and was torn from the power carried by everyone's combined strength.
It shook for a minute before stopping. The light faded from the gate and they could see the lock was still there.
They were disappointed but suddenly the lock cracked, the more crack appeared that it became a spiderweb on the lock.
Sol turned back to see the lock shattered to pieces. The moment it shattered, the bronze gate was smashed open from the other side.
Flood of souls came from the other side that pushed the nearby people for dozens of meters before they could stabilize themselves.
Sol was not an exception. The flood crashed on his back and he got sent flying from twenty meters before he conjured a rope of ice that tied him to the bridge.
The flood continued for five minutes before stopping. The soul that just entered the underworld was nowhere to be seen.
Sol did not know where all that soul ran to, but he was happy that the flood stopped. It was a torture to be swept by the souls.
He could sense them as they passed through his body. If he were to describe the experience, then he would explain it in one word, "Disgusting!"
He had not recovered when a voice suddenly boomed through the underworld, "Who opened the Gate!?"
*Sorry the early update, i was trying to set update for tomorrow but it got sent today instead. any way, enjoy please