kscans

It happened about fifteen years ago.

Hades, the ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology, began his invasion of Japan. The government-controlled supernatural defense agency, the Mutual Aid Society, and many other organizations temporarily formed an alliance to counter the army of death gods he led.

While they were holding their own against his forces, the battle wouldn’t end unless something was done about Hades himself. The one tasked with storming this final stronghold was Satou Hideo, who at the time was still a fresh-faced company employee.

“Just one person? I’ve been thoroughly underestimated. What an utterly peace-drunk nation.”

Hades sneered at the young Satou, still awkward in his business suit. No one could blame Hades for this reaction. Though Hideo was indeed among humanity’s upper echelon at that time, he was far from the strongest.

The power difference between them at this point was about 7:3. If he let down his guard, he could lose, but conversely, if things went as expected, Hades should have been able to win without much trouble.

“Shut up. Once the other battlefields are cleared, reinforcements will head this way.”

“Hmm? Piecemeal deployment is foolish… No, perhaps you’re targeting me to create chaos on the other fronts.”

Hades laughed again at the “foolishness.” He was confident his subordinates wouldn’t be shaken by such simple tactics.

“…Let me ask you one thing,” said Satou.

“Very well. I’ll answer in recognition of your reckless courage.”

“I understand your objective, even if I don’t agree with it. But why choose Japan as your battlefield?”

Satou had already heard Hades’ intentions from other death gods. To restore respect and authority for death by flooding the world with it. From a human perspective, this was the height of annoyance.

While he could understand the goal, Satou couldn’t figure out why Japan had been chosen as the starting point.

“That’s simple. This country is the most peace-drunk of all.”

A wealthy, peaceful country untouched by the flames of war. If a storm of death were to rage through such a place, the world would receive a cold splash of reality.

Japan’s tranquility wasn’t just Japan’s alone. People from other countries might mock Japanese people as being “peace-drunk,” but that was precisely the point. For those very critics, Japan and its people served as a kind of symbol of peace.

“…What an inconvenience.”

“Is that all you wanted to ask? Then come at me. I’m feeling a bit sluggish myself.”

“Cocky bastard… Unfortunately for you, I’m in an extremely bad mood today. You’re going to pay for this.”

Satou had made a mistake at work that day. Although he’d been scolded, his boss and seniors comforted him, saying everyone makes such mistakes and not to worry about it.

However, Satou himself couldn’t forgive his own error. It was trivial… truly trivial and could have been prevented. It was pathetic.

Brand new employees tend to blame themselves excessively. This principle, which Satou would later discover as a leader of others, applied to himself as well.

But Satou was different from ordinary new hires. When he found someone on whom he could rightfully place blame, he had no qualms about dumping everything on them.

Making a mistake at work, the stagnating economy, crows ransacking the garbage dump, buying a lunch box only to find it didn’t come with chopsticks—

“—It’s all YOUR fault.”

Satou projected all the world’s inconveniences onto Hades, fueling his righteous indignation.

“Die, you skeleton geezer!!”

And so began the battle, in the name of taking out his frustrations.

As Hades had predicted, the tide of battle flowed in his favor. Though Satou persisted stubbornly, he couldn’t find an opening and was gradually cornered.

After about thirty minutes, Hades nodded deeply.

“Despite being a degenerate modern human, your strength is admirable. For that, I shall pay my respects.”

The power of death. He would lay Satou to rest using the authority of death itself.

Hades activated his power and sealed Satou in a coffin of death.

“…I’m surprised. You’re actually resisting.”

The authority of death was a power that indiscriminately imposed the result of death.

Hades was surprised that Satou could resist it.

—But this was just the beginning.

“However, it’s futile. You may delay it slightly, but as long as you’re human, you cannot escape—”

With a hollow crack, the coffin shattered into pieces.

From within emerged Satou, somewhat battered but still brimming with vitality. Brushing back his disheveled hair, Satou said,

“Don’t use instant-death techniques right from the start, boss. It’s a letdown. I’m a spoiled gamer from the coddled generation.”

“…Impossible.”

Ignoring the shocked Hades, Satou pulled out a small ampoule.

“Th-this stuff works wonders…!!”

He pressed it against his neck and injected the contents all at once.

It was an enhancement drug created through alchemy. It might look sketchy, but it was harmless if used as directed.

“—Now then, let’s start over.”

Readying his weapon, Satou declared a reset. The battle resumed.

His authority of death was ineffective. This initially threw Hades off his game.

But he was still a god. He quickly regained his composure and intensified his attacks, determined to overpower Satou with raw strength.

(What is happening…!?)

But Hades couldn’t finish him. Satou was getting stronger. Not just in output, but in technique as well.

Doping? No, that couldn’t be it. Satou had been using performance enhancers even before being sealed in the coffin.

The initial assessment was 7:3. But now it was 6:4. And this was just ten minutes after the battle had resumed?

(Has his latent ability blossomed? No!!)

Fifteen minutes. The power difference became 5:5.

Even at this point, one could still attribute it to a last-minute awakening in the face of adversity.

(T-this… this isn’t simply…)

Seventeen minutes. 4:6. The scales had finally tipped in the opposite direction.

Eighteen minutes. 3:7

Nineteen minutes. 2:8

Nineteen minutes and five seconds. 1:9

(Evolution!? No… no, no, no!!!!)

As a god, Hades knew that all life forms possessed resources for advancement.

Among them, humans had considerable resources available for evolution.

This varied somewhat by individual, but… had Satou used these resources to gain power? No.

Even if one poured in resources for not just an individual but an entire species, power couldn’t be gained this rapidly.

Moreover, if he had evolved, he should have deviated from the human form.

Satou Hideo was simply getting stronger. For no reason at all. He was becoming stronger without paying the price that others would have to pay. Skipping out on the bill entirely.

“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!!!”

Twenty minutes. 0:10. All possibility of victory had vanished.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

Hades’ all-out attack couldn’t even leave a scratch on Satou’s skin.

“W-what… what are you!?”

In Hades’ eyes, the human before him had disappeared.

What should he call the being before him? Some unknown entity. That was all a god could describe it as.

Hades probably wasn’t aware of it himself, but his heart was being eaten away by fear.

Not fear of defeat. Not fear of being temporarily killed. But the sheer eeriness of a being beyond comprehension.

“Satou Hideo, 19 years old. A rookie salesman with a ‘new driver’ sticker.”

The eyes that had once looked up to Hades now completely looked down on him.

Nothing could more eloquently describe the situation than this.

“Well, I could finish you off now, but… before that!!”

“Gah!?”

Suddenly, Satou tore off a bone from the fallen Hades.

“W-what are you…!?”

“You guys don’t really die in the true sense, right? Then I need to settle this in another way~”

After parting ways with two close friends, Satou’s delinquent tendencies had sharply declined.

However, he was still a minor. Those tendencies hadn’t completely disappeared.

“You know hunting games? There are games where you strip materials from defeated monsters to make weapons and armor.”

“Y-you! My body…!?”

“Materials harvested from the King of the Underworld. They ought to make some pretty nice weapons! Kyahahahaha!!”

This was the beginning of the feud between Satou Hideo and Hades.

Incidentally, those harvested materials were left untouched due to Satou’s busy daily life and still lie dormant in a corner of an alternate dimension even fifteen years later.