Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 170 Rule of the River Styx

Seven years later, at Agreed's seclusion

The sinister vortex of souls had materialized and enveloped Agreed's body. At this moment, Agreed's soul had surpassed that of most gods, yet he still had not successfully mastered the fourteenth-order forbidden magic.

The most crucial step in mastering the fourteenth-tier magic is to first successfully master 'Descent of the Styx'. Once you learn Descent of the Styx, you will naturally learn the other fourteenth-tier magics. To successfully master Descent of the Styx, you must fulfill a prerequisite: conquer the Styx!

What does it mean to conquer the River Styx? It means that you need to challenge the sum of all the souls of all life in the universe with your own soul, and you need to challenge the full power of the dark side of the universe! This is an impossible task even for the gods, and the River Styx has always been called a forbidden land of life by the gods because it is a product formed by the convergence of extreme death. It does not allow any life to enter its interior alive. The only result for any life that enters it is that it will be torn to pieces.

But... Tutankhamun did it! This is why the gods were so afraid of him; he accomplished what was impossible for a living being.

Argreed inherited all of Tutankhamun's legacy, so he actually knew that the correct way to conquer the River Styx was to 'become one with the river,' meaning that Argreed had to completely throw his soul into the River Styx and merge with it, so that he would ultimately be the River Styx and the River Styx would be himself.

This move was extremely dangerous; the slightest mistake could lead to certain death. Agreed hadn't been prepared, but time was running out, and he had to make a choice.

That day, Agreed unusually stepped out of his secluded chamber and spent a wonderful day with Hea, a day he hadn't seen in a long time. As if entrusting his last wishes, he handed over all the methods he had prepared to Hea, and arranged all the related matters. Only after all his concerns were resolved did Agreed resolutely enter the chamber again.

He had to take a gamble; those damned gods had been forcing him to make the most difficult choice.

Agreed activated his soul vortex to tear open the entrance to the River Styx. Then, Agreed's soul entered the River Styx without hesitation. Upon sensing Agreed's presence, the River Styx immediately pressed down with absolute destructive power. In an instant, the endless soul power disintegrated Agreed's soul, turning it into the purest soul power and merging it with the River Styx.

What Styx failed to discover was that the essence of those soul powers was actually incompatible with Styx itself. After Styx devoured those soul powers, it immediately changed. Like ink entering a water tank, the soul powers within Styx began to be continuously polluted and assimilated by Agred's soul power, turning into its own power.

Styx quickly realized what was happening and began to mobilize its power to purify Agreed's soul power. The situation had now become a classic drama of whether Styx would devour Agreed first or Agreed would assimilate Styx first. The two sides were frantically devouring each other, and for a time it was difficult to determine a winner.

After an unknown amount of time, a delicate balance was reached between Agred and the Styx River, neither able to gain the upper hand, resulting in a protracted tug-of-war. At this moment, Agred immediately unleashed his trump card. He tore open a spatial gap leading to his true form, and a crystal ball, under his command, detached from its original location and arrived at Agred's position before exploding. The surging and pure soul power instantly poured into Agred's soul, giving him an overwhelming advantage.

It turned out that the crystal ball contained the soul power that Agred had collected from all the low-level undead under his command. For this moment, Agred had deliberately killed all tens of millions of low-level undead under his command to accumulate this soul power as the key to turning defeat into victory. Although this soul power could only bring him a small help, it was enough to win at the critical moment.

This tiny difference was instantly magnified infinitely, and Agred's advantage snowballed, gradually forcing the Styx to take the shape of Agred. In the end, this life-or-death battle came to an end, and Agred won the victory, becoming the rightful ruler of the Styx in this universe!

Agreed diverted a small portion of his surging soul power back to his original body, thus transforming his original body into his current avatar in the prime material world. Agreed had become a higher-dimensional life form, but there was no other way, as he currently had no vessel capable of containing his soul power, which was enough to destroy the universe.

At this moment, Agred's long-dormant, dust-covered body stood up under the control of the soul power. With cracking sounds coming from his bones, Agred gradually took control of this body he had not seen for so long. Ten years had passed since he last emerged from seclusion.

Agreed pushed open the heavy alloy door and walked out of the secret chamber. The ghost dragon guarding the door immediately prostrated itself on the ground to express its respect to its master. Heya received the news of Agreed's emergence from seclusion immediately and rushed over. Upon seeing him, she pounced on Agreed to express her longing.

Agreed carried Hea back to the room, where the two reconnected after a long time. Through Hea, Agreed gained a preliminary understanding of the current development and status of the Shadow Kingdom. Later, Agreed took over all related matters from Lester and others for review.

Not long after emerging from seclusion, Agreed unexpectedly summoned Mammon from his soul sea to this place using a summoning ritual in his secret chamber. Mammon emerged from the seven-pointed star mark, bowed politely, and asked, "What brings you here, my most esteemed client?"

Agreed got straight to the point: "I need you to answer some questions for me. I'll ask, you answer, and this is your reward." With that, Agreed pulled out a crystal ball filled with soul power and tossed it to Mammon.

Mammon accepted the crystal ball without even glancing at it, saying, "Don't worry, I'll answer whatever you want to ask. As for the reward, there's no need to count it; I'm sure you won't treat me unfairly."

Agreed demanded, "Fine! I'll ask you if the messages about me were passed on to other realms of gods by demons?"

Mammon casually admitted, as if it were none of his business, "That's right, it was Lucifer who personally delivered your message to all the gods. Now, let's move on to the next question."

Agreed asked again, "Will the demons join the war?"

Mammon laughed heartily and said, "Don't worry, we're not like those gods who can send their true forms to the material world at will. The price would be too high for us. So you can rest assured that apart from providing intelligence assistance, we won't take any other actions."

"One last question, do you have the exact location of the Soul Sea?"

Mammon looked at Agreed with a complicated expression. Asking a demon about the location of the Soul Sea was like asking someone where their ancestral graves were. Agreed's meaning was clear: he wanted to take revenge on the demons and even wanted to storm into the Soul Sea and exterminate the demon race!