Hades

Hades is the eldest of Olympus's three ruling brothers, the King of the Underworld, and the commander who holds Tartarus against the imprisoned Titans and Giants. Cold and cynical after centuries of war, he nevertheless recognizes Yeon-woo as a worthy successor, opposes Olympus's effort to suppress the Black King's return, and spends his remaining existence ensuring that Dis Pluto and the Underworld can continue after him.

Biography

The Missing King Holding Tartarus

Hades withdraws from ordinary Olympian affairs after detecting abnormalities in Tartarus. He opens its bronze door with the Hecatonchires, summons the three Cyclopes to bring him the Fire of the Beginning, and then disappears from public knowledge for centuries while the prison's rebellion grows. What looks from outside like unexplained silence is therefore a concealed war: he has abandoned Apostles and lower-world attention to keep the Titans and Giants from breaking through his holy territory into the stages above. (Chapters 303–313)

When Yeon-woo reaches him with Persephone's request, Hades is still personally fighting on a collapsing front. He tests the mortal's motives, rejects an ordinary Apostle relationship because neither of them is suited to submission, and instead promises Kynee if Yeon-woo can reconstruct it and aid Dis Pluto. Yeon-woo's ability to restore the dead Cyclops Steropes proves that his Black King powers exceed a god who merely punishes souls, giving Hades a concrete reason to treat him as a possible successor rather than just another useful soldier. (Chapters 313–316)

Kynee, Dis Pluto, and the Choice of a Successor

Hades fights openly once Kynee is restored. His sword strokes shake Tartarus and repel multiple Titans at once, while the helm makes him silent as death and restores the symbolism and legends needed to exercise his full status. After Dis Pluto takes the sixth holy territory, he keeps his original promise and gives Kynee to Yeon-woo even though stronger enemies remain. He regards the artifact's legend as already recovered and values the mortal's contribution to his exhausted soldiers more than keeping its physical advantage for himself. (Chapters 349, 354, and 380)

That gift is also a declaration of succession. Hades protects Yeon-woo as his guest when Poseidon raises a weapon in the underworld temple, then tells the assembled Olympians that he intends to make the mortal King of the Underworld once Yeon-woo obtains a divine level. He rejects his siblings' fear of the Black King as attachment to an obsolete order and argues that the throne in his possession should ultimately return to its original source. This choice turns tactical cooperation into a planned transfer of office, domain, and future responsibility. (Chapters 382–384)

Persephone's Betrayal and the Formal Enthronement

Hades knows that Persephone has aligned with Mother Earth but initially refuses to expose or resist her. His guilt over forcing their marriage, his continuing love, and his habit of retreating from painful responsibility lead him to let her capture him and strip away his holy power. Yeon-woo rescues his failing body and confronts him with what surrender would do to Dis Pluto and the people who trusted him. Unable to recover his scattered divinity, Hades accepts that responsibility must now take the form of an orderly succession rather than another escape. (Chapters 384–388)

Because Allforone and the system prevent the incomplete title transfer to a mortal, Hades uses a formal enthronement and gives Yeon-woo everything needed to force the succession: the throne, power, holiness, divinity, legends, and authority over the Underworld. He charges the new king with preserving its history, leading Dis Pluto to safety, and eventually reconstructing Tartarus. Hades then spends his last energy holding back the Giants so Yeon-woo and the army can escape; his body later disintegrates, leaving Persephone unable to seize the godly ability of death he has already passed on. (Chapters 388–392)

A Legacy Returned Rather Than Abandoned

Hades's office continues through Yeon-woo, but its abilities unlock only as the mortal successor gains holiness and qualifications. Dis Pluto recognize Yeon-woo as their new king, the Cyclopes call him the successor of their former master, and the title “Death King” grows from a borrowed throne into Yeon-woo's own identity. Hades' Spirit Eating Sword appears later as a power created when the inherited throne's holiness modifies an existing absorption skill; it is a post-succession expression of Hades's legacy, not a physical sword transferred from Hades's hand. (Chapters 392, 430, 460, 491, 515, 525, and 726)

Later records of Rhea reframe the motives behind that inheritance. Long before meeting Yeon-woo, Hades mediated between his grieving mother and Zeus, investigated Tartarus and Erebus for evidence about the Tower, and accepted Rhea's request not to ignore someone who bore an aura like hers. The legends he transfers eventually make clear that he viewed the underworld authority as something received from the Black King and now returned to that source. His succession of Yeon-woo therefore fulfills both a political judgment about the future and a family promise whose relevance he gradually recognized. (Chapters 737–739)

Appearance and personality

Hades is presented as an adult man whose physical scale is less imposing than the force of his divinity: Yeon-woo notices that the greater god is not much taller than he is. In battle he wears Kynee, a black-bound helm whose activated holiness surrounds the throne with dark energy and lets its user vanish as silently as death. Near his death, Hades has an unshaven face and a failing, half-transparent body as his divinity and holy power disperse. (Chapters 354, 380, and 388–392)

His defining expression is a cold, cynical smile whose depth makes Yeon-woo compare it to Tartarus. Hades is proud, blunt, and intolerant of disrespect in his territory, yet his severity coexists with a soldier's respect for effort and a ruler's concern for followers. The cynicism is partly exhaustion and partly self-reproach: he describes a lifelong pattern of avoiding difficult responsibility. When Yeon-woo forces him to confront that pattern, his final smile loses its scorn, and he chooses to be remembered as a king who preserved his people's future rather than as one who simply disappeared. (Chapters 313–316, 380, 382–384, and 388–389)

Abilities and powers

Hades is a higher Olympian whose divine level, holy power, underworld domain, and accumulated legends reinforce one another. The corpus distinguishes his personal combat force from the administrative authority of the throne and from artifacts such as Kynee. By his final battle, much of that structure is deliberately transferred to Yeon-woo; later uses of the inherited powers belong to the successor and do not establish Hades as an active combatant after death. (Chapters 349–354 and 388–392)

Greater divinity and swordsmanship

At full strength, Hades's movements govern the surrounding laws and principles, while brutal sword swings split the air, pour down darkness, and shake Tartarus. He can knock several Titans into a mountainside with one attack and, during the Buwangji raid, kills Giant gods with successive strokes. His released holy power also manifests as black lightning and pressure strong enough to contest Poseidon and force other Olympians to treat violence in Hades's temple as a war-threatening act. (Chapters 313, 349, 380, and 382–384)

These feats are not inexhaustible. Centuries of defending Tartarus cost territories, soldiers, and resources, and opponents empowered by Kronos or Mother Earth can eventually exceed the balance he maintains. After Persephone extracts his holy power and his divinity begins scattering, Hades cannot restore himself. He can still erect a barrier and annihilate a Giant with the last of his energy, but those acts spend a dying remainder and buy time rather than reverse his condition. (Chapters 313–316 and 388–392)

The Throne of Death and the Underworld domain

The throne makes Hades the recognized King of the Underworld and carries ownership rights over Tartarus, godly authority over death, holiness, and powers that a qualified successor can unlock. It is not merely a title: Persephone needs its right of ownership to make Tartarus fully hers, while gods and demons of death recognize its bearer as a peer. Hades can confer authorization through blessing and enthronement, but the recipient's level determines how much of the domain can actually be assimilated and used. (Chapters 383–384 and 388–392)

Yeon-woo initially receives only an incomplete, pro tempore form because he is mortal and Allforone blocks ascension. Powers such as Underworld Domain Declaration and Eyes Within Darkness remain sealed until he acquires sufficient qualifications and holiness. This establishes the throne's central limitation: succession can transfer authority, legends, and potential, but it cannot make an unqualified vessel instantaneously equal to Hades. Later growth and the restoration of Dis Pluto are Yeon-woo's progression under that inherited framework, not continuing actions by the former king. (Chapters 389–392, 460, and 491–525)

Kynee

Kynee is Hades's great holy artifact and a symbol of his legend. Its holiness enables it to vanish like death and was decisive in the earlier war against Kronos; after the Cyclopes reconstruct it, binding the helm restores Hades's holy power and makes him overwhelmingly effective in the Tartarus campaign. The artifact nevertheless requires rare materials, craftsmanship, and the owner's holiness, so restoring its form alone does not immediately restore every trait. (Chapters 316, 346, and 354)

Hades gives Kynee to Yeon-woo after recovering the legend and symbolism he needed from it. Ownership then becomes part of the formal succession, so its later custody rests with Yeon-woo rather than Hades. This gift precedes the throne's final transfer and signals Hades's chosen future, but the two are not interchangeable: Kynee is an artifact, while the throne is an office, domain, and body of divine authority whose powers unlock according to the successor's qualifications. (Chapters 354, 380, 383, and 389)

Hades' Spirit Eating Sword

Hades' Spirit Eating Sword is a power bound to the Throne of Death that opens for Yeon-woo after Hades's death. It combines the throne's holiness with Bathory's Vampiric Sword and the Stone of Gula, allowing the user to drain vitality, damage the foundations of a soul, steal portions of stats and skills, and channel consumed energy into the Underworld territory. Greater holiness increases its strength and lets it connect with other powers. (Chapter 430)

Despite its name, the power is not shown as a physical blade Hades carried or handed over. Hades grants the throne and its holiness during the succession; Yeon-woo later develops this derived skill inside his own power system and remains its active user through the latest cited appearance. Hades is therefore the origin of the inherited underworld component, while creation, current custody, and later use of Hades' Spirit Eating Sword belong to Yeon-woo. (Chapters 389–392, 430, and 754)

Dis Pluto and granted holy artifacts

Hades commands Dis Pluto, the elite army that defends Tartarus through long attritional war. His relationship with the corps is reciprocal rather than a simple summoning technique: their faith and channels carry his holy power, while his survival and authority hold the organization together. He can also bestow divine artifacts, including Yin Eater, whose darkness can swallow and kill even a god when wielded by his Apostle Lam. (Chapters 349–380)

The army exposes another dependency in his power system. When Hades is captured and Lam's channel to him is severed, she loses access to his holy power, and Dis Pluto's position collapses. Hades therefore makes preservation of the corps a condition of Yeon-woo's enthronement. Their later restoration under Yeon-woo follows from the transferred throne and the soldiers' acceptance of a new king; it is succession of command, not proof that Hades continues directing them after his death. (Chapters 388–392 and 515–525)

Power progression

Relationships

• Yeon-woo: Hades's representative, ally, and chosen successor. Their relationship develops through mutual tests and battlefield service before Hades entrusts him with the throne, Dis Pluto, and the future of the Underworld.
• Persephone: Hades's wife, whom he loves while recognizing the harm caused by forcing their marriage. His guilt leads him to conceal her alliance with Mother Earth and initially surrender, but her betrayal ultimately precipitates his formal succession and death.
• Poseidon: His younger brother and principal opponent within Olympus over Yeon-woo. Hades repeatedly restrains Poseidon's aggression and rejects his fear of returning the Black King's authority.
• Kronos: His father and former enemy in the Olympian succession. Later family records show that Hades never truly resented him, even while helping remove him from power and ruling the prison where his remains became central to the Titans' rebellion.
• Athena: His niece and an Olympian aligned with his support for Yeon-woo. She helps defend his chosen successor and later continues the struggle against the forces that overrun Tartarus.
• Black King: The original source of the death authority Hades holds. Hades regards succession not as surrendering property that began with him, but as returning that authority to the being from whom it ultimately came.

Items

• Hades' Spirit Eating Sword: A throne-bound power that Yeon-woo develops after succeeding Hades. Hades supplies the inherited holiness and legacy, but Yeon-woo is its creator within his own skill system and its current user; it is not a physical sword remaining in Hades's custody.