Chapter 295
Whoosh.
At that moment, the ground absorbed all the blood and flesh scattered across the battlefield, erasing the stench of death. The filth vanished, and in its place, the earth sprouted budding shoots of asphodel, which quickly grew and blossomed into gray flowers, creating an oddly serene atmosphere amidst the carnage.
It was the authority of Hades. But this wasn’t merely a matter of cleaning up corpses. It was the process of gathering the bodies and souls of the fallen and accepting them into the Underworld. Only after passing through this transition could the dead regain their former bodies.
“If I had just held on a little longer, I could have made it back alive.”
“It can’t be helped. We did our best.”
“Still, the gods promised we would live well in the afterlife, so I guess it’s not too bad. I don’t have any family left behind anyway.”
“You all owe me your lives, so you’d better visit often!”
Some lamented dying just before the battle’s end. Others accepted their fate with resignation. Some, with no lingering attachments to the living world, seemed even more eager for their new existence. And then there were those who, despite being among the dead, still boasted to their surviving comrades.
The living and the dead mingled, laughing and crying together, filling the battlefield with a chaotic yet strangely warm atmosphere.
Leonard watched this scene with a hint of regret. “...So resurrection is out of the question?”
“It is impossible,” Hades answered firmly, sensing Leonard’s thoughts. “If the King of Gods, who must uphold the laws of the world, were to violate causality, the repercussions would be catastrophic. It’s not entirely impossible if you rewrite the rules themselves, but the number of trial-and-error failures that would arise from that is beyond imagination.”