My Wives are Beautiful Demons

Chapter 832: The Underworlds are under attack.

Aphrodite was sitting on Vergil’s lap as if she had just won a personal war far more important than any conflict between pantheons. She made no attempt to hide her satisfaction. On the contrary, she was completely happy, settled with one leg crossed over the other, her arms around his neck, and a small smile on her lips that revealed exactly the reason for her good mood. Vergil had called her "my woman" in front of Persephone, and, to Aphrodite, that phrase sounded better than any ancient poem ever written in her name.

Vergil, on the other hand, seemed to accept the situation with the naturalness of someone who had already given up arguing about certain things. He was seated in a wide armchair in the small office at the back of the flower shop, with Aphrodite on his lap and an expression far too serious for someone in that position. One of his hands rested on her waist, not tensely, but firmly enough to make her even more satisfied. The contrast between the almost domestic scene and Persephone’s presence on the other side of the room made the atmosphere strange enough to feel like a diplomatic meeting conducted inside a bad joke.

Persephone sat in a chair in front of them, her legs crossed and her arms resting over her lap. Her face held an expression of controlled distaste, not exactly from jealousy or scandal, but from the simple inconvenience of needing to discuss a cosmic crisis while Aphrodite looked as if she were about to purr because of a possessive phrase. She looked at the goddess of love for a few seconds, then turned her gaze to Vergil, deciding to ignore it before her own patience ran out entirely.

Aphrodite noticed the look and smiled even wider. "Is there a problem, Persephone?"

"Several," Persephone answered dryly. "But I am choosing to ignore the ones that do not involve the end of the Underworlds."

"How mature."

"Do not test my maturity."

Vergil raised his eyes to the two of them, clearly unwilling to allow that to become another exchange of Olympian barbs. "Hades is trapped in his own realm," he said, returning to the main point. "And yet he is offering the Helm of Darkness as payment. His Divine Weapon. I want to know exactly what he wants and what you expect me to do with it."

Persephone became more serious. Her irritation with Aphrodite disappeared enough to reveal the real gravity of the situation. "Hades wants you to intervene where he cannot. Tartarus was sealed by him, but the seal was not created to solve the crisis. It was created to keep it from leaking outward. He is containing something, Vergil. Something that tried to break the structures between the Greek Underworld and the Mortal World."

Aphrodite lost part of her smile when she heard that. She remained on Vergil’s lap, but her eyes became more attentive. "So it was not just an internal rebellion."

"No," Persephone answered. "And you know that."

Vergil did not show complete surprise, but his expression hardened. "There is an organization trying to take the Underworld."

Persephone nodded. "Then you already know."

"I have killed some of them," Vergil said. "Spectre and Dante."

The name made Persephone narrow her eyes. She did not seem to know all the details, but she recognized the nature of the answer. Vergil was not talking about suspicions, reports, or rumors. He was talking about corpses. "Then they moved against you as well."

"They tried," Vergil replied.

Aphrodite rested her head on his shoulder, though now her expression was more serious. "This organization is not targeting only one infernal domain, is it?"

Persephone looked at her, and this time, there was no mockery in the answer. "No. It is not just the Christian Underworld. The Greek, Norse, and Buddhist Underworlds have also suffered recent attempts to create bridges to the Mortal World. Some were small, almost tests. Others were much more aggressive."

Vergil remained silent for a few seconds. The hand around Aphrodite’s waist tightened a little, not out of possessiveness, but because the information was beginning to fit into something much larger than the Deadly Sins. "They are trying to open simultaneous routes."

"Yes."

"For what?"

Persephone took a deep breath. "We still do not know for certain. But Hades’s hypothesis is that they want to create a traversal system between domains of death, hells, spiritual prisons, and the Mortal World. Not an ordinary invasion. Something more structural. If they manage to connect those points, they can move souls, monsters, the dead, prisoners, and sealed forces without depending on the laws of each pantheon."

Aphrodite fell silent.

Vergil did not like the answer. "And Hades sealed Tartarus to keep that from being completed."

"He sealed Tartarus so nothing else could come out of there," Persephone said. "That includes the invaders, the creatures they released, the ancient condemned who tried to take advantage of the rupture... and himself."

Vergil’s eyes finally widened slightly. It was not an exaggerated expression, but on his face, it was enough to show that the information had struck him. "He sealed himself?"

"Him and Thanatos," Persephone answered. "Both remained on the other side."

Aphrodite straightened her posture on Vergil’s lap. "Thanatos is trapped too?"

"Yes."

Vergil looked at Persephone with even greater seriousness. "They tried to break the dimensions."

Persephone nodded slowly. "Yes. Not only open portals. Not only invade a territory. They tried to weaken the fundamental separations between planes. Tartarus was the most severe point we could confirm, but it was not the only one."

She made a short pause before asking, "Did something like that happen in the Christian Underworld?"

Vergil released the air through his nose, without any humor. "I had to kill five Deadly Sins who attempted a rebellion and use Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a ritual. In addition, Famine was involved. War and Conquest were captured. Lilith nearly died. Sapphire and Sepphirothy were kidnapped."

Persephone went still. For the first time since entering the flower shop, her expression lost some of its rigidity and approached something like controlled shock. "Five Deadly Sins?"

"Lust, Greed, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth," Vergil answered. "All dead."

Aphrodite raised her face toward him, already knowing the story, but hearing it again with a different discomfort now that the crisis seemed tied to other Underworlds. Persephone, in turn, seemed to understand why his aura carried something so abnormal. "And the Authorities?"

"With me."

Persephone did not answer immediately.

The room grew silent enough for the distant sound of the street to pass through the flower shop wall. People walked outside, cars passed, customers perhaps looked through the windows, and no one out there had any idea that a conversation about the possible breaking of multiple worlds of the dead was taking place in the back of a flower shop.

Persephone laced her fingers over her knee. "Something similar happened in Tartarus. Not with Deadly Sins, obviously, but with ancient condemned, armed specters, and entities that should no longer possess enough form to act. They were instigated, organized, and directed. It did not feel like natural chaos. It felt like an operation."

Vergil narrowed his eyes. "And the Norse Underworld?"

"Hela suffered an attack," Persephone said. "I do not know all the details. The Norse do not like admitting weakness, especially to us. But the gates of Helheim are congested. Many Valkyries responsible for guiding the dead were wounded or killed. Souls are accumulating on the wrong routes, and that may cause larger ruptures if it continues."

Aphrodite frowned. "They wounded Valkyries?"

"Killed some," Persephone corrected. "Enough to affect the flow."

Vergil remained silent, absorbing everything. This was no longer a sequence of isolated events. Spectre, Dante, the Sins, Famine, Tartarus sealed, Thanatos trapped, Hela attacked, Valkyries dead, and attempts to create bridges to the Mortal World. The pattern was too clear to ignore. Someone was striking different systems at the same time, not to win a direct war, but to force collapses at specific points.

He looked at Persephone. "And the Buddhist one?"

Persephone answered without hesitation. "Naraka suffered artificial opening attempts. They did not manage to fully rupture it, but there was interference in the cycles of punishment and rebirth. Some souls were diverted before following proper judgment. The local guardians contained the crisis, but they also do not believe it was an isolated occurrence."

Vergil went still.

Aphrodite felt his energy shift subtly. There was no explosive rage, but his mind had already moved into another state. The same cold state she had seen when he decided a threat needed to stop existing. She placed one hand on his chest, not to restrain him, but to remind him that they were still there, in that room, and that Persephone had not yet finished.

Vergil looked at the goddess of the Underworld. "What do you want with all this information?"

Persephone uncrossed her legs and leaned slightly forward. Her posture stopped resembling an unwanted visit and began carrying the weight of an envoy speaking on behalf of a cornered realm. "An alliance."

Vergil did not answer.

Persephone held his gaze. "Not an alliance of friendship. Not an Olympian reconciliation with Aphrodite. Not submission to Olympus. A practical alliance to destroy every invader. Hades is trapped, Thanatos is trapped, Hela was indirectly wounded, the Buddhist cycles were attacked, and the Christian Underworld just suffered an attempted internal rebellion. Someone is using our divisions against us."

Aphrodite fell silent.

So did Vergil.

Persephone continued, lower and firmer. "Hades believes you are the only one capable of crossing these borders without being immediately crushed by them. You carry death, sin, demonic energy, and enough authority to enter where others would be rejected. The Helm of Darkness would be both payment and tool. With it, you could move through domains where even gods are observed."

Vergil looked at Aphrodite.

She did not answer for him. She only held his gaze, making it clear that the decision was his, but that she understood the gravity of the offer. The smile from before had disappeared completely. The Aphrodite on his lap was still his woman, still satisfied by the way he had defended her, but now she was also an ancient goddess who knew how to recognize when a threat was too large to be treated as ordinary Olympian intrigue.

Vergil turned his eyes back to Persephone. "And if I refuse?"

Persephone did not try to threaten him. Perhaps because she knew it would be useless. "Then Hades will remain trapped. Thanatos as well. Hela will try to contain Helheim alone. The Buddhists will reinforce their cycles. The Christian Underworld will remain on alert. Each realm will try to survive on its own."

"And the invaders will keep striking the cracks," Aphrodite completed.

Persephone nodded. "Until one of them opens."

Vergil stayed silent for a few seconds.

Then asked, "Who else knows this?"

"Few," Persephone answered. "And it is better that it remain that way for now. If mortals, lesser gods, or opportunistic factions discover that multiple Underworlds were attacked at the same time, panic will be less dangerous than ambition."

Vergil looked at the floor for an instant, thinking. In another time, perhaps he would have refused simply because it involved Olympus. Perhaps he would have said Hades should solve his own problems. Perhaps he would have let the ancient pantheons reap the consequences of their arrogance. But now the situation had touched something he could not ignore. They had kidnapped Sapphire. Touched Sepphirothy. Wounded Lilith. Used Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Tried to break borders between worlds.

This was already his problem.

"I do not work for Hades," Vergil said.

Persephone remained serious. "He knows."

"I do not work for Olympus."

"He knows that too."

"And if any Olympian god tries to use this to bind me in political debt, I will tear the pantheon out from inside its own temple."

Aphrodite smiled faintly. "Romantic."

Persephone ignored the comment with visible effort. "Hades does not want political debt. He wants survival."

Vergil stayed silent for another moment. Then he looked directly at Persephone. "Then tell him I will listen."

Persephone relaxed almost imperceptibly, though she did not fully show relief. "Does that mean you accept the alliance?"

"It means I will listen," Vergil repeated. "The alliance depends on what Hades has to say, what exactly is trapped in Tartarus, and how many bodies I will need to pile up before reaching whoever organized this."

Aphrodite rested her head on his shoulder again, now with a small and dangerous smile. "That is his version of being reasonable."

Persephone looked at the two of them for a few seconds. Then stood.

"Then come to the edge of Tartarus when you are ready."

Vergil raised an eyebrow. "I thought Hades was sealed inside."

"He is," Persephone said. "But there is an outer edge where I can still open passage for a short time. It will not be safe."

"Few things are."

"And do not go alone."

Vergil almost answered immediately, but Aphrodite lightly squeezed his shoulder first. Persephone noticed the gesture, and for the first time, seemed to approve of something from her.

"She is right to stop you from saying something stupid," Persephone said. "What is happening is not a war of pride. It is a war of borders. If you fall inside a sealed domain without support, perhaps even you will take a while to get out."

Vergil looked at Aphrodite, then at Persephone. "I choose who goes with me."

"Obviously."

"And you will apologize better before leaving."

Persephone closed her eyes for an instant.

Aphrodite smiled immediately.

The goddess of the Underworld took a deep breath, turned to Aphrodite, and inclined her head stiffly, but with more respect than before. "I am sorry for attacking you inside your shop. I was irritated, pressured, and chose to act like an Olympian idiot."

Aphrodite looked satisfied. "Now that is better."

Vergil looked at Persephone. "Better."

Persephone opened her eyes and stared at both of them with impatience. "Excellent. Now that my diplomatic humiliation is over, can we try to prevent the collapse of the worlds of the dead?"

Aphrodite settled herself on Vergil’s lap, smiling again. "We can. But after I finish enjoying my husband being protective."

Persephone turned toward the door. "I hate this flower shop."

"Come back anytime, customer," Aphrodite replied, far too sweetly.