"Ugh, it feels like someone's shoved a pair of tweezers through my nostril and into my brain. That stinging sensation is awful. The battle's already begun up there. The Father of Scales has been born. Unfortunately, just as we expected, that guy chose a shortcut and was therefore born as a Chaos Evil God."
As they made their way toward the depths of the planet's crust, Murphy rubbed his forehead and spoke to the people beside him:
"Hadēs is furious. It once saw the Father of Scales as a wayward junior and tried to guide him, but now he's fallen again right before its eyes. Maybe that reminded it of Parom, who went down the wrong path. In any case, the King of the Underworld Worms is roaring as it tries to enter the material world."
"In theory, it could, right?"
Triss leaned on her star staff, which glowed as it illuminated the bottomless abyss stretching below them. She said:
"Hadēs hasn't undergone the second binding of the artificial divine core, has it? It isn't bound by the Frontier Contract right now, so theoretically it can come over, right? And it's a god that's seen the wider universe, after all. If it comes, the Father of Scales is as good as dead, isn't he?"
"That's true in theory, but I won't let Hadēs risk being corrupted by the Lord of Everlasting Life just to come to the material world and kill one incompetent, stupid bug."
Murphy curled his lip.
"Old Shadows like 'Longevity' and 'Gluttony' never do anything as a one-off. I've got plenty of reason to suspect that the Father of Scales' fall is just bait.
"If Hadēs doesn't come, the Father of Scales will fully demonicize and eventually ascend as a new Chaos Shadow.
"If Hadēs does come,