Fors had already heard from Azik that Death had hidden the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse in the deepest reaches of the Underworld, so she was not particularly surprised. Still, she raised a question:
"Isn't that the same as keeping your greatest enemy's corpse right beside you?"
As far as she knew, the two most recent "wars of the gods" had both ended in defeat, with the fallen gods' divine bodies completely collapsing and disintegrating, scattering countless Beyonder characteristics across the earth. In particular, when the God of Combat had died at the Evernight Goddess's hands, a meteor shower had struck the entire North Continent. Sealed Artifacts formed from many high-level characteristics had caused widespread casualties, leaving certain areas shrouded in the glow of twilight. Any living creature that entered would rapidly age and die. Even now, those places had not been completely cleared.
And plenty of evidence suggested that even after gods died and their Beyonder characteristics were taken away, they still had a chance of reviving.
In that case, why had Salinger, who had inherited the position of Death, hidden Gregrace's corpse deep within the Underworld? Mr. Azik had said it was to gain better control over the Underworld and make contact with the leaked sef irah, but surely that could have been done elsewhere, rather than inside his own "headquarters"...
"Beyonders in the domain of death never reject powerful corpses they can control. My father was no exception.
"Moreover, the Underworld wasn't established through the powers of the Death pathway alone. It wasn't easy for my father to control this world. Although the Door Beyonder characteristics and authority had already been expelled from Gregrace's corpse, she still retained the corresponding status, making her the equivalent of a key to controlling the Underworld.
"Of course, he probably had other objectives