King of Underworld

Chapter 27: The Story of Phaethon – (1)

This place was the Underworld, the place mortals feared most as they faced inescapable death.

It was also the residence of Hades, one of the great three gods who ruled over part of the world.

“Hmm…?”

Because of this, all sorts of things happened here.

Things so bizarre that humans couldn’t even imagine them occurred…

*Fwoosh!*

“What the…!”

No one would have thought the Underworld would be illuminated so brightly.

“Hades! Hades! The entire Underworld is filled with light!”

“I’m seeing it right now!”

The goddess Lethe rushed into my chamber in a panic.

I quickly dressed and stepped outside to survey the situation in the Underworld.

“What on earth is happening?”

“Has the god Apollo descended upon the Underworld…?”

“What nonsense! This could only happen if Lord Zeus’s lightning struck the Underworld!”

“That can’t be true! Where is Lord Hades?”

The souls were bewildered, much like vampires under the sunlight in some 21st-century creation from Hades’s previous life.

Of course… The Underworld was located so deep that no light ever reached it.

Although there were Hestia’s hearths placed here and there, emitting a faint glow, the light was minimal.

Most of the Underworld was dark, pitch-black, and cold.

“This must be because the god Apollo is angry!”

“Or perhaps Lord Zeus is fighting with Lord Hades!”

The entire Underworld was thrown into chaos in an instant.

Souls ran around, and the administrators tried to calm the situation while searching for the gods.

But were the gods composed…?

“What on earth is going on!”

“Hades! Have you had a conflict with the god Zeus?”

That was not the case either.

Starting with Hypnos, the god of sleep, who came rushing into my office…

No, Lady Styx. I haven’t.

“Only the god Zeus could cause something like this…!”

Well, first things first, we needed to get this situation under control.

“Morpheus, go down to Tartarus immediately and check if the Titans are still securely imprisoned!”

“Yes, sir!”

Next, I ordered the Underworld’s administrators to calm the panic among the populace as much as possible.

Since nothing seemed amiss other than the light, I also dispatched a lesser god to the mortal realm to investigate if there were any problems…

“Ugh! Lord Hades!”

…Huh? I had just sent them to check on the mortal realm, so why were they back already?

“Lo… Lord Hades! The sun… The sun is too close!”

What?

* * *

The lesser god who had gone to check on the mortal realm returned, scorched and bleeding ichor from various places.

Too close to the sun? What were they talking about?

“Lord Helios is driving his sun chariot close to the ground! The mortal realm has become a hell (Tartaros)!”

“Impossible… Could it be the work of the other sun god, Apollo?”

Helios.

The Titan god, son of Hyperion and Theia, who held the divine power of the sun.

He maintained his position as a sun god alongside Apollo, despite not being overshadowed, because he drove the sun chariot that even Zeus could not control.

Of course, it helped that he had sided with us during the Titanomachy, along with his sisters, the moon goddess Selene and the dawn goddess Eos, but…

Anyway, Helios had never once stopped driving the sun chariot.

“But this is clearly not the power of the god Apollo! The horses of the sun chariot were wildly rampaging!”

The divine horses, which were always ablaze, rampaging?

I had always trusted in Helios’s ability to drive the sun chariot flawlessly.

Had Helios fallen under Aphrodite’s spell…?

Or was he attacked by a Gigas… Or what on earth happened?

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the ominous clouds… no, the light began to recede from the Underworld.

As the Underworld returned to its usual darkness, the souls and gods sighed in relief.

“The light is finally receding. What on earth happened?”

“How about sending an emissary to Olympus to find out?”

“Although the situation has been somewhat resolved…”

“There’s no need for that; I’ve brought the culprit.”

The gods, who were discussing what to do next, turned their heads toward the deep, resonant voice that echoed through the room.

There stood Thanatos, the god with black wings, wearing a grim expression and holding the soul of someone who appeared to have just died.

* * *

That soul was the one responsible for illuminating the Underworld?

As everyone’s gaze focused on him, Thanatos frowned and continued to speak.

“…It’s a soul that was struck by Zeus’s lightning and fell from the sun chariot.”

“For now… Mnemosyne, please bring the water from the Well of Memory.”

The soul of a young man, barely in his late teens or early twenties, with striking golden hair… He bore a resemblance to the god Helios. Could it be?

“Gasp! Wh… Where am I? I was sure I…”

“Yes, kid. This is the Underworld. Did you drive the sun chariot in Helios’s place?”

“The… Underworld! So it is true…!”

“Confess everything that led you to be here, and explain why you fell from the sun chariot.”

The soul, who had been in a daze for a while, finally opened his mouth under Thanatos’s stern command.

“I… I am Phaethon, son of the god Helios…”

We listened closely to the story that the soul, Phaethon, began to recount.

Phaethon had grown up without his father, raised only by his mother.

When Phaethon became an adult, his mother revealed that his father was Helios, the sun god.

So, Phaethon left home and, after many travels, found his father.

Overjoyed to meet his son, the god Helios… Swore on the River Styx to grant any wish he had…

“The River Styx… Urgh…”

As he spoke those words, Lady Styx, standing beside me, groaned as if she had figured something out. Most of the other gods also seemed to realize the cause of this calamity.

To hear the rest of the story, I signaled Phaethon to continue.

“Yes… That’s where I made a foolish choice… I asked my father, who had sworn on the River Styx, to let me drive the sun chariot.”

“What?! You reckless fool…!”

“Hah! Even Apollo or Lord Zeus couldn’t drive that chariot! And you, of all people…!”

“Did you listen to Dionysus’s whispers or something?”

The horses of the sun chariot could only be controlled by Helios.

Phaethon, who had grown up as a human despite being of divine lineage, could never have managed them.

It was obvious what would happen if the sun got too close to the earth.

The mortal realm must now be filled with charred corpses and withered trees.

Had Zeus not thrown his lightning bolt to destroy the sun chariot, all life on earth might have perished…

“…The horses went wild, and the earth was completely… In the end, I was struck by lightning from the sky and ended up here.”

Phaethon, who seemed lost for words, began to sob quietly.

It was truly tragic that he had lost his life over a foolish request just after finally meeting his father.

“Sigh… I will temporarily hold off on your judgment. Wait over there for now.”

But that was separate from the matter at hand…

The sin of causing so much suffering to so many lives had to be paid for dearly.

Since souls from the mortal realm were flooding in endlessly, I set Phaethon aside for now.

Soon, his fate would be decided.

* * *

Shortly after, in the heavy silence, Phaethon knelt with his head bowed, awaiting his judgment.

Before him sat the god of the Underworld, Hades, at a large desk.

A deep, ominous voice came from the gloomy god, striking Phaethon’s ears.

“…I will pass judgment.”

In the presence of other gods, who were all silently watching the judgment of the sinner who had greatly affected the mortal realm,

Only Hades spoke of his crime.

“Your reckless actions have caused immeasurable damage to the mortal realm. The rivers dried up in the heat of the sun chariot you couldn’t control, countless villages and castles burned, and an untold number of lives were lost.”

The son of Helios kept his head bowed, shedding silent tears.

He offered no defense.

“Ignorance is not a crime. But you must bear the responsibility for the consequences of that ignorance.”

Phaethon braced himself for a severe punishment.

After all, he had witnessed the sight of countless lives perishing beneath the rampaging sun chariot.

“Aaaah! Apollo, save me!”

“It’s too hot… My flesh… is burning…”

“Water… I need… water…”

“Lord Zeus… Why…?”

He had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people begging for their lives as they were roasted alive.

And that was just what he had witnessed; countless other plants, animals, nymphs, and various forms of life had suffered as well.

Even though he hadn’t imagined that such a catastrophe would occur when he took the reins of the sun chariot,

He had to pay the price for the deaths of so many.

“You are hereby sentenced to at least several hundred years of hard labor in the outer reaches of the Underworld. This is the karma for extinguishing countless lives.”

At the mention of a

minimum of several hundred years, Phaethon’s lips tightened into a firm line.

But that wasn’t the end.

“In addition, you will never be allowed to reincarnate, and even after your sentence is complete, you will never receive the blessing of forgetfulness.”

The blessing of forgetfulness, overseen by the goddess Lethe, was essential for mortals, who had limited capacity to bear the burden of endless memories.

No mortal could withstand the accumulation of memory without reaching their mental limit.

Some of the surrounding gods, with softer hearts, looked a little sympathetic, but that was all.

They too believed Phaethon’s punishment was appropriate.

However, Hades’s words were not yet finished.

“…However, considering that your father, the god Helios, neglected you…”

Wha…?

“And that you acted without malice and that he hastily swore on the River Styx, I will show you a small measure of mercy.”

In his despair, Phaethon instinctively raised his head to look at the lord of the Underworld.

Mercy… really?