When the doors of the castle, and more specifically those of Hades's chambers, were revealed to the only entities that Rhadamanthys didn't want to see: Athena and Poseidon, followed by their respective bodyguards. The Wyvern stood up violently, furious and in turn, afraid of finding himself at a clear disadvantage in the event of a confrontation but certain that he would lay down his life to protect his goddess:
"How dare you come here after the chaos in which you plunged the Underworld!?"
Nekyia was reclining on a purple velvet couch finishing tasting a small bunch of grapes that her faithful guard dog had gotten for her. She inhaled deeply and with all the solemnity that characterized her new body, she put aside the golden bowl in which the fruit was located and settled on it as much as she could:
"Stand aside, Wyvern, I perceive that your cosmos come in 'peace'."
Rhadamanthys obeyed silently but didn't stray too far from Nekyia, his eyes traveled from Athena to Poseidon, from Sorrento and to the girl who accompanied the goddess and who was completely unknown but also he hated, much more than he should:
"Forgive me not offering you a seat but the Underworld is not what it was since the visit of the Bronze boys" Nekyia said, pretending to feel hurt by her lack of hospitality. "What brings you to this deserted and destroyed place? I have nothing more to offer you, Athena. You won the war, as usual."
"Hades...?"
"Now I'm Nekyia, if you don't care. You see, I have a new body, just like you have over the years using many pretty ladies, so... I apologize for how disrespectful I was in the past, be a woman is very much interesting. Well... Miss Saori, Lord Julian... Explain yourself about what do you want from me."
"We come to offer you a truce between the three armies. Fighting for control of Earth has brought us nothing but loss, enmity, and disgrace. We, the gods of the surface, will grant you permission to walk in our territory if necessary but, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to stop these wars that bring so much suffering."
"In exchange for? I know you, Athena, you wouldn't come here backed by Poseidon if you didn't have something more interesting to ask me."
"We want you resurrect the fallen warriors in the last Holy War."
"Have you gone crazy, my girl? I can't even stand on my own. Do you really espect me to bring three armies back to life?"
"We will give you all the energy, Poseid… Julian and I will be the ones who give you the cosmos to regenerate all the warriors."
"It's enough!" Rhadamanthys exclaimed, interposing himself again between the gods "All you want is to replace the losses your scum suffered in the last battle but for this you need my Madam... your pride as gods is repulsive to me, get out of here! We don't need your alms to resurface in our own territory!"
The Wyvern stepped forward willing to intimidate his guests, but Athena's guardian was much faster, creating a stalactite of ice that brushed against Rhadamanthys's throat:
"Control that mouth, Cerberus." She said sharpening heris eyes "The gods that have come in peace deserve the same respect as yours."
"You... I know that look, that voice." Nekyia said, standing up. This gesture forced Rhadamanthys to come to the aid of his queen, holding her carefully and guiding her to the Saint "You're the girl who allowed the passage of the Gold Saints through the twelve temples of the zodiac... The one who stood by me without knowing the true plan of yours. The ally of Gemini Saga, right?"
"I'm Piscis Australis, Elyn."
"Ah~ Piscis Australis." Nekyia raised an eyebrow, extremely interested in that girl who reminded him so much of the Gold saint of Aquarius. Yes... she had seen the fate of that girl by crossing her gazes as it happened with all living beings and suddenly her life, she was fascinating. "It's incredible that this piece has finally found a carrier... I like you, Australis."
There was a heavy and tense silence, but Nekyia really enjoyed it. She seductively examined Julian, it had to be admitted that Poseidon knew how to choose their bodies in an exquisite way; Athena too but she was always hiding under humans with the same appearance throughout the years... she was still a child, a girl too innocent and that she had barely known the suffering of losing part of her own. But the warrior of Pisces Australis was different, there were other types of emotions burning inside her... Finally, the queen of the Underworld sighed:
"Well, as you can see I am at a very clear disadvantage so... I will accept that truce but with a series of conditions if you allow me."
"Madam…"
"Shut up, Wyvern. And for the second time, step aside."
Without warning, the specter moved as if it was a puppet, dropping one knee to the ground and the very gravity of the place forced him to look at the ground. Nekyia showed herself dignified, powerful and imposing before Athena even with her weak cosmos, her new blue eyes shone sharp as a sword and reviewed one by one all the details of the body bearing the goddess of war. So many years facing her for now, ending up at her feet but at least, if that happened, she wouldn't allow herself to be trampled easily because despite having lost a lot of power and energy, she was still the deity that watched over hell and the most feared of all mortals:
"In the first place, only you, Athena, will give up the cosmos to resurrect the three armies. Second, my one hundred and seven remaining specters will be the first to come back to life, followed by the Marinas of Poseidon and the Saints of the order of Athena being the last to awaken."
"I accept your conditions."
"There is something else." Nekyia licked her lips, eager to pronounce those words to see how far the new Athena was willing to go "Not only will I be the one who has the chance to rise to the surface or travel by sea: My specters, the most powerful, will also be do it."
"Okey, it as long as you don't interfere in the life of humanity."
"Well... I didn't expect that I would like to negotiate with you so much, Miss Saori; you will be able to enter and leave the Underworld starting tomorrow to start the path of resurrection. Of course, you will do it alone and without protection, you must start now to trust me or what you long for will take much longer to arrive."
---
"Why,?! Why, Madam!?" Rhadamanthys exclaimed when they were alone "Why have you given in to that string of nonsense?"
"Because I need my army, Wyvern, I need them very much. Look at us, just you and me in this place that is falling apart, on your back lies the work of several of my people and although death doesn't affect you, there are other things that do. You can't carry so much by yourself."
"Don't worry about me, Madam! I can endure anything for your glory and even if you wish, destroy what remains of Athena and Poseidon's army."
The queen walked to her rooms in silence, each day she felt more energetic but sometimes even the voice of the only specter that accompanied her was insufferable:
"Ah~ always such a fighter."
Rhadamanthys paused for a moment. Those words had sound different from the tone of Hades that he had known for so many centuries but he soon returned to follow in the footsteps of the queen, believing they had been nothing more than his imaginations. Upon reaching her room, Nekyia began to undress to be able to lie on the bed and when she was completely naked, she observed for a moment her only companion with an attractive look. The specter was watching her but as he had always done, like a lapdog that he wasn't able to see beyond what his devotion allowed. He had turned to stone although of course... This was how her warriors should be:
"Tell me, Wyvern... do you know what are the consequences of the Thread of Destiny?"
He said nothing but waited ecstatically for Nekyia to continue with the conversation that she had started because he knew that she had already gotten used to the silence that he offered her in response to certain questions:
"When you exchange the soul or the energy of two beings, the surviving body completely loses its memories, it's "reset" so to speak. This prevents that if an old man takes the body of a child, he continues looking for his former loved ones to see them grow and thus, the saved life can continue without the course of life being altered. The Thread of Destiny is not part of immortality but serves so that that child who dies unjustly ... directs his destiny once more." Nekyia walked, naked and slowly towards Wyvern while a smile was drawn on her face, she caressed the shattered surplice that he was wearing and inspired his scent before continuing "However, did you know that if that child arrives by chance in the old man's city, he runs into a direct relative or touches an object that belonged to his other self... will he get all the memories of the two exchanged lives at once?"
The queen laughed liltingly at the latest revelation, a key to her loyal warrior. She searched him for a grimace of surprise, a slight movement in his expression but the Wyvern remained unmoved by her provocation although the stir inside him didn't go unnoticed by Nekyia. So, faced with so much passivity, she turned around and prepared to rest:
"Ah~ This was an interesting data, don't you think so... Rhadamanthys?
Hearing his name from Nekyia's mouth for the first time made him shiver. Although the appearance of the goddess was no longer the same with which she woke up, her tone when talking turned out to be exactly the same as that of Rhea: sweet, lovely, with a seductive touch that wasn't really meant to get anywhere... that girl, that goddess who perished in the flames, in his arms.
Still with those memories in mind, the Wyvern tried to hide his emotions under his eyebrowns; he knew it would be of no use but at least that way, he wouldn't show more weakness than he already knew his mistress:
"Don't worry... You did a great job, Wyvern, none of this will change the God of the Underworld at all. You can withdraw."
He obeyed without question but knew that what Nekyia had just said was a gross lie. Now, Hades lived with Rhea's memories from the first moment in the same way that Saori was capable of harboring all the memories of her past lives when she awakened the power of Athena. Everything made sense for the specter, the deity that now dominated The Hell lived with a human essence and her divine energy was dirty because of it. That is why Nekyia had accepted Saori's truce, because the mortal culpability that Rhea dragged on would torment her for years, centuries and millennia if she had refused and no matter how used the gods were to eternity, it was a price that no one would want to pay. Rhadamanthys regretted having chosen the new body for Hades so badly after discovering such a detail about the Thread of Destiny but likewise, if he had wanted to save Hades in another way, he would have had no other alternatives. It was time to accept a new weight on his back although it didn't bother him and didn't even pay more attention to his interior after that small lapse; he was a specter and would do anything for his savior.