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OPI Chapter 461: A Pact Broken
🕑 Added 2025-07-13 04:54:57 +0000 UTCAugust 8, Year 1503 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
Starfish Underworld.
The entire world was divided by two River Styx currents.
Thus, in overall layout, it closely resembled the human world of the Starfish Planet, which was split into four seas by the Red Line and the Calm Belt.
With the King of the Dead’s Citadel at the center, the Underworld was divided into four major regions.
Each region contained towns and villages of various sizes, as well as vast forests and mountain ranges.
At that time, somewhere in the far northwest—
The sky, blazing like a sea of fire, suddenly began swirling into a spiraling vortex of clouds.
Before long, a massive tornado, crimson as fire and cloud, formed between heaven and earth.
The undead residents in nearby villages and towns were horrified, their expressions turning pale with panic.
They had no idea what was happening.
Suddenly—
With a thunderous explosion that shook the heavens,
The fire-like tornado erupted violently, unleashing a tempest of gale-force winds and shockwaves in all directions.
On the scorched earth below, rows of pitch-black, withered trees were unable to withstand the terrifying wind.
Though their trunks looked thick and sturdy, they snapped like dry twigs, torn from the ground and hurled into the sky, vanishing into the distance.
Once the tornado dissipated and the fire clouds vanished, all became calm once more.
Only the devastation left upon the land bore witness to the calamity that had just taken place.
And beneath the vast sea of fire-colored clouds—
A strange figure had appeared at some point.
He stood roughly 7 meters tall.
At his waist hung two long sabers, forged of purple-gold and gleaming with a bright violet luster.
He had waist-length hair, pale and fluffy, his features sharp and well-defined, with piercing eyes.
But the most striking features were his bare chest—covered in dark brown skin—his jet-black wings unfurled behind him like ink, and the flames blazing at the back of his neck.
A Lunarian!
Who would have imagined that the true body of the King of the Dead—resurrected through the will of the Underworld and with the aid of the Underworld’s Will—was, in fact…
A member of the Lunarian race, once known across the Starfish Planet as a divine lineage, now nearly extinct?
“There truly are countless powerful beings across the heavens and worlds… I’ve already encountered someone strong enough to defeat me.”
“But for now, I need to hide the Underworld.”
“Hopefully they haven’t found me yet…”
The King of the Dead, long having forgotten the name he bore in life, gazed down at the land and muttered to himself.
Even though it was Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Ōtsutsuki Hamura who joined forces to defeat him, as a supreme being in his own right, he would never use that as an excuse.
As for what he meant by 'hiding the Underworld'—
It referred to communicating with the 'Will of the Underworld' in order to seal off the internal souls from emitting any presence to the outside world.
This way, even if someone possessed the soul coordinates, it would be extremely difficult to use them to locate the Underworld.
However, this kind of isolation couldn’t be sustained for too long.
Because it would also sever the flow between the River Styx and Hell.
Over time, this would cause the otherwise non-volatile waters of the River Styx to begin vaporizing.
And once vaporized, not only would the river begin to dry up, but the resulting vapor would also form rainclouds that spread across the Underworld—and to the dead, this rain was as lethal as highly toxic acid.
A single heavy rainstorm could utterly annihilate any spirit who failed to take shelter in time.
More critically, if there were no connection to Hell, the very source of the Underworld would begin to suffer. In severe cases, the Will of the Underworld could perish entirely, causing the entire Underworld to collapse and fracture.
As the ruler of the Underworld, he would naturally be affected as well. And once the Underworld vanished, the Starfish Planet would be left without a realm to contain the dead—causing the human world to be overrun by spirits, wraiths, and specters, filled with monsters and ghouls. And most critically, Hell could end up connecting directly to the human world. Although the King of the Dead doesn’t know exactly what kind of beings dwell within Hell, he’s certain that allowing such a connection would be anything but good. Only after a long and arduous period would a new Underworld be born and the balance restored.
In other words, those worlds where demons and humans coexist are often suffering from some kind of failure within their Underworld.
Naturally, the King of the Dead, fully aware of all this, would never keep the Underworld sealed off for too long.
He merely needed to buy himself around two centuries to fully recover his strength.
Two hundred years might feel like an eternity to humans, but to the River Styx and the Underworld, it was hardly anything.
At most, some of the river’s waters would evaporate into mist, resulting in the death of a portion of the spirits.
But as long as he later intervened to recondense the mist back into riverwater and poured it into the River Styx—then had the Will of the Underworld lift the isolation—there wouldn’t be any serious consequences.
“Hmm?!”
But just as the King of the Dead was about to commune with the Will of the Underworld,
He suddenly sensed a strange disturbance within his realm.
Instinctively, he expanded his divine sense to sweep across all directions of the Underworld, focusing especially on the location of the King of the Dead’s Citadel.
Gradually, the King of the Dead’s expression grew darker and more grim.
The Underworld Army of the World Government had invaded?
His Citadel had been seized?
At once, he realized the depth of Imu’s malice toward him.
Imu’s ultimate target was clearly him!
The King of the Dead was consumed with fury—but beneath that rage was a profound sense of disappointment.
He truly did want to cooperate peacefully with Imu—each ruling their respective realms of the Starfish Planet: the human world and the Underworld—while carrying out multiversal conquest within their own domains.
If needed, they could even help each other—for instance, offering the World Government a few resurrection slots, or providing rare resources from the Underworld.
He was even willing to assist the World Government in times of crisis, by possessing a user of the Revive-Revive Fruit and intervening directly.
From the King of the Dead’s point of view, there was never any conflict between him and Imu.
Which is why the current situation felt utterly incomprehensible to him!
But that feeling of disbelief quickly turned into hatred.
The King of the Dead felt that Imu had betrayed him—had broken their pact!
And yet, he couldn’t understand—what was the deal with the Underworld Army of the World Government?
It wasn’t until the King of the Dead noticed the presence of Enma that everything suddenly became clear.
And at that very moment, a powerful sense of crisis and dread surged within him—
Because he saw Enma flying swiftly in his direction—alongside Imu, who had appeared out of nowhere!
Without hesitation, the King of the Dead swallowed his fury and hatred, gritting his teeth as he turned and flew straight toward the estuary of the West Styx.
The scent of death itself forced him to calm down—and make the only rational choice.
In his current state, there was an 80% chance he’d lose to Imu. And if that happened, he’d be completely annihilated.
So he had to escape—and not just escape, but leave the Underworld of the Starfish Planet entirely!
Sure, doing so meant abandoning his title as ruler of the Underworld… but how could that possibly compare to staying alive?
He would return once his strength was restored—and take back everything that belonged to him!
The King of the Dead’s speed was astonishing—beyond imagination.
Moments later, the sonic booms and explosive roars trailing in his wake alerted the guards stationed at the West Styx estuary.
“What is that?!”
The one in charge of defending the area was the current host of the Armored Titan—
Matthew.
Under his command were ten Underworld warships—each carrying five hundred Eldian soldiers.
“Enemy attack!!!”
The moment Matthew roared out—
Every soldier tensed. In unison, they bit into their thumbs and instantly transformed into one colossal Pure Titan after another.
In the very next instant—
the King of the Dead descended like a black-and-red meteor from the heavens, slamming directly into one of the warships and obliterating it on impact.
[BOOM!!!]
A towering pillar of flame swallowed the shattered vessel and all the Pure Titans aboard.
“I want you to tell that shameless! Despicable! Damned Imu—!”
“One day!”
“One day I will return, and when I do, I will drag him into eternal damnation! He’ll regret everything he’s done!!!”
Emerging from the sea of fire, the King of the Dead unleashed a roar of pure fury at Major General Matthew, who stood atop another warship.
The roar was deafening—shaking the heavens, echoing in all directions.
Even Imu and Enma, still approaching from a distance, could faintly hear it in the wind.
