The order of Hades became stricter and more stable after Hades's return.
The four rivers of the Styx flowed endlessly, and souls began to flow orderly according to the initially established judgment mechanism.
The giants patrolled the edge of the abyss, Thanatos and Hypnos performed their eternal duties, Themis began to enact the laws of Hades, and Mnemosyne created her memory corridor in a secluded corner, recording the past that flowed into the Underworld.
However, Hades's heart was not completely immersed in the tranquility of this kingdom that belonged to him.
Cronus's final malicious curse, especially the word 'reincarnation' mentioned within it, and the sinister power coiled around the throne of the gods originating from Eros, were like invisible thorns, pierced deep into his divinity.
He needed answers. And the most likely source of answers was the curse itself.
On the day Metis went to the Temple of Nyx, he alone entered the deepest part of the Underworld—an absolutely dark place bordering the abyss of Tartarus, absorbing even light.
It was not empty. A cage, built from the heaviest dark iron and frozen despair at the beginning of the world, stood silently, like a cancer growing on the edge of the abyss.
Outside the cage, the Hundred-Handed Giants stood like three silent mountains, their six enormous eyes burning in the darkness with the eternal flame of vigilance, watching the existence that once ruled the world inside the cage.
Inside the cage, the former God-King Cronus was now bound by countless dark gray chains, threaded with runes of 'silence' and 'isolation'.
These chains not only imprisoned his divine body, but also sealed his divinity and the source of his power more deeply.
His majestic body curled up, losing all its radiance, like an aging dragon whose teeth had been pulled and whose muscles and bones had been crushed, only occasionally an uncontrollable thin silver light, symbolizing the divine power of time and space, flickered on his body and was ruthlessly absorbed by the chains.
Hades's appearance caused no noise, but his very presence was like a boulder thrown into still water, disturbing the deathly silence of this absolutely confined place.
Cronus seemed to sense it, and his lowered head, hidden by his hair, shifted slightly, then slowly rose.
When Hades saw these eyes, his heart stirred slightly.
Contrary to expectations, the pink madness and eros belonging to Eros in these eyes had disappeared, leaving only a murky and empty, almost nothingness.
However, beneath this emptiness lurked not a return to reason, but another deeper and more disturbing chaos.
"Ho... Ho..." Cronus laughed like a roar, his cracked lips writhing, his gaze not looking at Hades, but staring into the darkness of the void.
"Here it is... Starting again... Cycle... The gears are turning... Devouring... No one can escape..."
His voice was hoarse, broken, and full of delirious whispers.
Hades watched him quietly, no emotion in his violet eyes, as if observing an experimental subject unrelated to him.
He did not rush to ask questions, just waited patiently, analyzing the information that might be contained in these broken words.
"Devour... Devoured... Uranus... I... They... Who's next? Is it you? Is it him? Or... her?" Cronus's murky eyes rolled randomly, sometimes focusing on Hades, sometimes scattered, as if he saw countless overlapping phantoms.
"Blood... The throne stained red... Oaths are wails... Hahaha... It's all fake... Love is a chain... Power is poison... Eternity is a joke..."
He suddenly began to struggle, the chains emitting a cold clatter, but unable to break free an inch.
"Reincarnation! Damned reincarnation!" He suddenly screamed, his voice filled with fear and hatred from the depths of his soul, as if the word itself was a nightmare he could not escape.
"We are all in the circle! Can't get out! Can't break free! You! You?! Hahaha... You will lose too! Lose worse than us!"
Hades seized the key.
He spoke slowly, his voice especially clear and cold in this deathly silence: "What is reincarnation?"
Cronus seemed excited by this question. He sharply raised his head, his murky eyes fixed on Hades, and in his eyes flashed an extremely brief, almost pitiful mockery.
"Reincarnation? You don't know? How could you not know? Haven't you already touched it? The boundary between life and death... The alternation of decay and rebirth... You hide in the depths of Hades, secretly weaving your web... You think you can define it? Control it? Foolish!"
He laughed madly, but in his laughter there was a wail.
"It's a trap! It's a curse! Yes... It's a cage! The cage you built yourself!"
"Cage?" Hades acutely caught this word.
Cronus's laughter abruptly stopped, and on his face reflected intense fear, as if referring to some taboo, one whose name could not even be uttered.
He frantically shook his head, the chains clattering.
"Can't say... Can't say... It will change... Twilight will come..."
He curled up like a frightened child, and his mouth began to mutter chaotic whispers again, mixed with meaningless syllables and broken words.
Just as Hades thought he could not get more information and was about to leave temporarily, Cronus, in extreme chaos, suddenly surfaced a deeply buried fragment of memory.
His movements stopped, and his eyes became strangely clear for a moment, as if he saw a scene that should never exist in the perception of this world, through infinite time and space.
In a tone of fear, stunned and incredulous, he murmured a name:
"Moebius..."
The moment the name 'Moebius' was uttered, it seemed to touch some invisible mechanism!
At that moment, Hades felt his divinity—the complex system composed of [Subterranean Wealth], [Secrecy], [Plant], [Decay], [Purification], [Lava], [High Temperature], [Ash], [Forging], [Knowledge], [Summary], [Innovation], and [Soul]—as if thrown into an invisible, self-circulating, indistinguishable 'ring' with no distinction between inside and outside!
An extremely absurd, logically disordered perception enveloped his consciousness.
The boundaries between life and death blurred, the definitions of past and future trembled, and the law of cause and effect seemed to groan under oppression!
It seemed he saw a snake, connected end to end, devouring its own tail, and on the snake's scales reflected countless versions of himself, from birth to death, and from death to life, cycling endlessly!
He snorted and forcibly calmed his mind, and for the first time, his violet eyes showed a true, profound shock and seriousness.
"Moebius..." He whispered the ominous name.
And Cronus, who had spat out this name, seemed to have exhausted his last strength. The brief clarity disappeared in an instant, and his eyes were again occupied by haze and madness, more severe than before.
He curled up on the floor, his body twitching convulsively, and from his mouth only meaningless 'ho-ho' sounds and intermittent sobs remained, unable to provide any more information.
He looked at Cronus, completely chaotic in his cage, and a huge wave surged in his heart.
Reincarnation... Trap... Curse... Cage... Moebius...
Cronus's whispers were like scattered puzzle pieces—chaotic, but pointing to a huge mystery enveloping the world of Chaos, far beyond what he had previously imagined.
Originally, he had thought that [Reincarnation] was his original path to great divine power and the perfection of the world's laws.
But now it seemed to be a huge conspiracy...
Hades took a deep look at the cage, turned around, and his figure dissolved into the darkness, leaving the edge of the abyss where the past God-King was imprisoned and the shocking secret.
He needed time to digest this information and reconsider his [Reincarnation plan].
More importantly, he needed to find out who 'Moebius' was...