Nertha fired from her borrowed bow and hit one of the charging Scorpion People through its throat. He or she—it didn’t matter—tumbled over a collapsed pillar and fell right before Nertha’s feet.
“You won’t trick me.” Nertha pulled out her sword and stabbed through the Scorpion Person’s neck. It shrieked a dying scream, and Nertha pushed further until the screaming died, and her sword’s iron snapped.
Another weapon was gone. Nertha stashed the arrows and sickle sword from her enemy and joined back into the fight.
Or rather, into the fray of battle.
It was another ambush inside the decrepit ruins. Whenever they thought they had a moment of reprise, it turned into yet another battle.
Days, weeks or even a month went by. They had lost track of time long ago, but time was running short—just like their strength.
“How much longer?” huffed Nertha; her brain was too tired to register the next attack properly.
A Scorpion Person launched itself at Nertha from her side and brought its sword over her head. In a flash of a moment, Nertha swung with her bow. It broke, but the Scorpion Person staggered backwards and was brought down by Nertha’s comrade, Lovis.
The gremlin-like individual had a crazy glint in their eyes, hidden underneath their wild blond hair. Nertha could never figure out who or what they were but was glad to have them and their two axes by her side.
And thankfully not as an enemy anymore.
“Lovis, cover me!” Nertha wasn’t good in sign language, but when she thumped her fist on her palm Lovis understood.
Two more Scorpion People charged at them, and the short Lovis was alone to hold them back. Amazingly they hesitated from the flourish of axes until they were too late to notice Bjorn cutting into their sides.
“Hey, why so slow?” Bjorn grinned at Lovis, who was screeching in a number of incoherent noises and sounds that Nertha guessed were insults? Hard to tell. “Oi, I’ll wash your filthy mouth if you keep ranting your mouth like that!”
“Argh! AÖLKF! KAF, LAkfa AW!” responded Lovis.
“That’s it!” Bjorn snapped. “When I find a piece of steel wool, you’ll–”
“Guys, focus!” Nertha picked up a new bow and threw a sword at another Scorpion Person fighting her girls. “We are outnumbered! Find Hessian and retreat before we get overwhelmed!”
Bjorn nodded and took in a long breath. “Everyone! Gather round and focus on defence!”
The remaining Reiszer slaves heeded Bjorn’s command and gathered into a circle to rush into the next corridor, leaving behind the large decrepit room they were fighting in for a new, much larger decrepit room.
They ran and ran with more Scorpion People pouring through broken ceilings and walls. Somewhere between the previous few levels and corridors, they had lost Hessian as he leapt into a horde to fight them head-on.
No one knew what was going on with him or where he took the strength to fight so many at once. But there was little time for answers. Even Hessian would be tired out soon in his condition.
He had multiple fractions and bruises and bled so much he was akin to a berserker of the old times—or so Bjorn confirmed when he did the same thing during the last encounter.
There was something scary about them, thought Nertha whenever she saw them charge at the enemy in a mad rush.
“There he is!” but she couldn’t dwell on this any further. Nertha, with her sharp eyes, spotted Hessian’s silhouette in the distance. They had arrived at another large and ancient dusty room that was barely lit by flickering torches.
A gasp escaped Nertha’s mouth when she saw Hessian stand in the field of bodies. Numerous Scorpion People were fighting him, but that wasn’t the reason why she gasped. Hessian had purple blood ooze from his legs, his arms and his abdomen where his top was sporting a large new hole—a bold but dangerous fashion statement.
Hessian had been struck multiple times by the monsters’ stingers.
“You are late,” Hessian huffed out a haze of purple and red. The right side of his face was popping with wine-coloured veins and his eyes were a terrible shade of red. “What took you so long?”
Nertha was shaking to see Hessian like this. He was changing, losing his sanity to the point she was afraid to come closer.
The only place where he wasn’t dripping with blood was the place where he held on to the lion brooch of that one Idarien boy he was so obsessed with. It was impossible to watch.
“Late for what? Clearly you have cleaned out the party.” Bjorn grinned and put a supporting hand on Nertha to signal her, “I will take over, watch the rear.”
He didn’t need to tell her twice; she couldn’t bare it to approach Hessian like that.
“Hessian, we need to retreat into a safer chamber; this place, it’s not–.”
“Safe?” Hessian finished the question. A shiver ran down everyone’s spine, including the remaining Scorpion People. “No place is safe until we finish our quest, our target. Speaking of, she’s here.”
They didn’t know what Hessian was referring to until the entire room began to shake from its foundation. Old rubble fell from the ceiling, and a column collapsed right between them and the Scorpion People.
The monsters grew irritated and retreated to the entrance of a back corridor.
The Reiszer acted no different as they gripped whatever weapon or shield they had and huddled closer with one another. Hessian, on the other hand, was grinning madly at the appearance of their target.
Fissures grew and ruptured from above with two massive black claws aimed straight at him. By a hairsbreadth did Hessian dodge out of the way and got caught by Nertha who held him steady before his knees collapsed.
“Raaaaaaa!” The Scorpion Woman screamed, clanging her sickle swords against one another with sparks spewing through the air.
“Oh, that ought to be our target.” Bjorn grinned. “What did you say, Nertha? Massive chest and hips? Well, it seems she’s bursting from the seams! Ha haha.”
Nertha gave him a dejected sneer, but she couldn’t help but agree. The chest of the Scorpion Woman was close to bursting from the bandages. Her lower scorpion body and hips were larger than any other Scorpion Person she had inspected.
Her ashen skin was marred with scars, brown markings ran down her strong and bandage-wrapped arms and middle. She sported a cross-like scar on her right shoulder which went up to her neck. More bandages came loose from her face as she barred her sharp canines at them; her green eyes swam in a sea of utter nothingness.
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Paired with that, the black claws of her lower scorpion body were the size of boulders, and her stinger was glowing in lights of toxic coral, lavender and juniper—her poison gland.
They had finally found her—after weeks of endless searching, sweating blood and grinding their bones—never wanted Nertha to run so much as right now.
“Raaaaaa!” the Scorpion Woman screamed again, and from the rest of the corridors, an entire army of Scorpion People emerged—in numbers that made their previous killings obsolete.
Hessian had a mad glint in his eyes as if he was entirely unaware of the dangers they were now in—or he was about to forget himself.
—✹—
LOTTE MEETS THE HEAD OF SECURITY
If you get Gilgamesh as a guide, better turn around and go home.
“Ghosts of Irkalla,” Lotte heard the ominous voice of their adversary echoing in the barren wasteland of the underworld. It was a woman’s voice who wielded a silvery spear and shrouded her face and body in a hooded cloak. She raised her hand and shouted, “Strip those interlopers naked!”
“What kind of command is that!?”
“Ha ha, this is Neti for you, our Head of Security,” Gilgamesh laughed as he and Lotte ran away from an army of ghost-like beings.
Neti, as far as Lotte knew from her past knowledge, was the guardian of the Seven Gates that all living and dead beings must pass through to reach or leave the underworld.
There wasn’t much known about her, except for the fact that no one could get past her as she was also the equivalent of the Greek deity and ferryman Charon.
And she was hellbent on catching Gilgamesh and Lotte with the full might of the underworld’s security force.
“Can’t you do something about her? Aren’t you a judge?”
“No, not really?” Gilgamesh dodged out of the way, sliced up one of the ghosts and pulled Lotte away by her neck before she got herself possessed—all at a moment’s notice. “Different jurisdiction; I have no say in her matters.”
“Then what should we do?” Lotte pried herself free from Gilgamesh’s grip and tripped, which made her incidentally evade a ghost’s attack for Gilgamesh to slice up one again. “Why is she targeting us? Don’t tell me you owe her or did something.”
“Oh no, nothing like that.” Gilgamesh shook his head innocently. “It’s actually your fault.”
“Excuse me!?” Lotte shouted and dodged a ghost which were more of a pest than a threat. “What do you mean by ‘it’s my fault’?”
“To be perfectly honest with you, Neti takes her job veeeeery seriously. Chthonic deities for you, no fun and all business.”
“Get to the point!”
“She wants to question you.”
Lotte furrowed her brow. “What’s the catch? That doesn’t sound that bad.”
“Remember what she previously said to the ghosts?”
“You don’t mean– NO!”
“Better keep running then.”
“OBVIOUSLY!”
Irkalla was an enormous cavern, as expected from the underworld. Space and time were not a tangible concept to grasp. However, Lotte found herself constantly running in circles and trapped in moments of deja-vu.
One turn was like walking backwards. One fall made you appear back from where you fell. A moment was like a year; A year was like a couple of minutes, and seconds… actually felt like seconds.
Lotte felt a headache forming, and she almost ran into a ghost if Gilgamesh didn’t pull her away and brushed back another. He noticed her distress and held his ground until she recovered.
“Gilgamesh,” Neti hissed and floated among the ghosts. Her long and dark robe revealing not a single detail of her body, making her appear like a reaper of souls. “Return this girl to me for questioning. Her being is not tangible. Dead yet alive. Alive yet dead. Like the Lady’s obstinate and pampered younger sister, she shall be stripped and questioned.”
“What an uncouth way to talk about a woman,” Gilgamesh chuckled nervously with the ghosts swirling around him, keeping little to no distance between them. Their white visages resembled that of a human with no lower body. “How about me? I shall stand in her place. I believe my body would appeal to you much more, no?”
“...” Neti stared blankly at Gilgamesh, her golden eyes glowing faintly underneath the hood. “Not interested, raper of womenkind.”
“Thought as much!” Gilgamesh launched his axe at Neti, who deflected it casually with her spear. He then hoisted Lotte over his shoulder and ran. “Besides, I stopped thinking that way long ago. Your comment was uncalled for!”
The ghosts waved around Neti in an agitated tone before she cut them off and landed on the ground. “Block off their paths; I will catch them myself.”
Neti beat the butt end of her spear against the ground three times before she launched herself after the pair.
She curved around stalagmites, slashed stone pillars in half with her spear and riled up the red sand. Flying right above them Gilgamesh’s life flashed right before his eyes once again.
He got distracted, and for a brief moment, he saw his lost lover, not noticing how Neti was gaining the upper hand.
Neti yanked Lotte by her top while Gilgamesh was still holding on to her waist.
Lotte was pulled from one side to the other before Neti simply grabbed Gilgamesh by his face and ground him against the sand and gravel. They all got launched through the underworld in a succession of tosses and turns.
“How persistent.” Neti stabbed in Gilgamesh’s direction, and he deflected the silver tip of the spear with his large golden axe. Reappearing behind him, Neti swung her spear in a flying motion at Gilgamesh’s throat, which he blocked just in time. “There are rules, King of Uruk; you have no jurisdiction here.”
“No, I don’t!” Gilgamesh struggled to keep up with his chthonic colleague as she flew and stabbed at him from a distance. “But as her judge, I must do my duty and protect her from having you strip her naked!”
“Stop spouting nonsense!” Neti became flustered and halted her attack for a moment. “This is a security inspection, not one I do for pleasure, you creep!”
Neti furiously stabbed and slashed at Gilgamesh, abandoning all her skill for her spear. “I take my job very seriously! No one, without exception, can just go in and out of the underworld like that! There are rules to uphold!
“Article 1, Section 1: ‘No one gets in unless they’re dead.’ followed by Section 2: “And no one gets out unless someone trades their place with them.’!”
Neti was effectively screeching at this point, ranting down the entire underworld paragraphs for the rights of the dead, detention of suspects and other important parts until she was nothing but wild gesticulations.
“You know how hard it is to keep those meddling heroes out? I don’t strip people because I want to see them naked! It’s for security's sake, damn it! Can’t have anyone smuggle a soul out or pornography in; I love my job, but DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH IT RILES ME UP TO DEAL WITH SOME OF THEM!?”
Neti huffed, her chest rising up and down. Lotte overheard the entire conversation and felt sorry for the deity—pitying her to the point where Lotte would have turned herself in willingly—if it were not for the stripping part.
“You are easy to ruffle, you know?” Gilgamesh abandoned his axe and grabbed Neti’s spear. “Time for a time-out!”
Still holding on to her spear, Gilgamesh swung it aggressively to the ground, smashing her down that way as well and stunning her. He then grabbed her by her neck and belt and launched her against a stone pillar, smashing it to pieces.
A helpless yelp escaped Neti’s mouth and squirmed in Gilgamesh’s hold. Lotte stirred awake when she heard Neti’s defenceless struggle against her judge.
“Stop it; you’re going too far!” Lotte cried out, shaking off the headache she had. “You’re hurting her.”
“Don’t worry; I will knock her down a peg. How about we remove your hood or clothes for a change?”
“W-what, NO!” Neti cried, kicked and punched powerlessly. “Don’t you dare pull off my hood! Please.”
Her voice was meek, but Gilgamesh had no mercy. “Too late.”
“Hey, stop!” Lotte’s demand didn’t reach Gilgamesh’s ears when he ripped off Neti’s disguise and down to her shoulders.
For a while now, Lotte thought of Neti as a scary skeletal grim reaper or scary old female doorkeeper who guarded the underworld with a frown.
What she didn’t expect to see was a petite young woman with short dark hair, silver grey skin and a pair of golden eyes– correction, six golden eyes—three on each half of her face.
The fearsome gatekeeper of the underworld had tears wheeling up in all of them.
“See? Don’t you feel much better, Neti?”
“NO!” Neti cried, still struggling to come free. “Get away from me, you despicable king and hated of all women!”
“Again, stop calling me in such a derogatory way. Let’s calm down and tal–”
“AHHHH!”
Gilgamesh was knocked out cold by Lotte.