After hearing Kraus's tale of the war, between the monster and the gods, a pang of surprising guilt is swirling inside my soul. I feel like everything that happened in the past is my fault, but it wasn't my fault because I'm not even born yet at the time. So many deaths, no wonder the harpies that I met were very hostile toward me, and no wonder Agnes called me weird when I befriend him.
I want to help Kraus's and Agnes's people, but to tell you the truth, I have no power or resource to do that. I keep trying to think of away, but there's none at the moment. The only thing I could do is offer my sympathy to them, but my sympathy won't help change their situations.
A small burst of air escaped my lip as I sigh.
Even after hearing the tale, my perspective of the gods still holds up. I still view them as all-powerful, benevolent, and merciful beings. Well at least, I still regard Adrestia that way, I can tell that my loyalty toward her is here to stay.
I live to serve her, and somehow, I feel that Adrestia is like a mother to me in some weird way. A mighty, stern, but kind mother. That thought put a slight grin on my face.
"Are you going to eat that?" Agnes asks me, I don't even notice the Demon fruit in my hand.
I look at the fruit, it seems strange on the outside, but it probably tastes delicious on the inside. I'm sure want to eat this, but I won't or not yet.
I reply with a simple, "Nope."
"You not going to eat that? Then can I have it?"
"No, I mean, I want to eat it, but I'll have to wait till I get back."
"Huh?"
"Just hold it for me till I get back." I toss the fruit to Agnes, and he catches it with his mouth then drops it onto his lap.
Kraus let out a small chuckle, "If you are going to leave then I can offer you a piece of advice. Don't eat or drink anything from there or you will be stuck there forever."
"That's it? Sound easy to me." A full grin form on my lips.
"I never actually been inside, so you might want to be careful."
"You're not stopping me?" I raise my left eyebrow raises as my gaze set on Kraus.
"I tried, but look at me, a broken arm and a broken horn."
I feel kind of guilty as I stare at Kraus's arm, "Sorry about that..."
The minotaur shrug, "You can keep the horn as a prize, it's your trophy for winning the battle, and don't worry about my arm. It will heal in due time."
"What? I don't want the freaking horn, keep it. What do I even do with it? Besides, keeping a trophy isn't my style, because it has no value to me, but getting someone to smile, now that is priceless."
For the first time, Kraus let out a bright smile that includes a laugh, "Hahahaha. You spare my life, and you even befriend a monster. Ms. Andre, you're the weirdest candidate I ever met and fought."
I join Kraus with my own set of laughter, "What can I say? I'm weird and that smile of yours, that's priceless."
"Weird bonding time," Agnes whispers to himself, while his right eyebrow perks up.
"If there is nothing else to say, will you excuse me?" I stand up and wipe the few specks of dust off my thighs.
"Wait, there still one more obstacle at the gate, you need to pass through Hades's guard dog, Cerberus."
"The three-headed dog," I let out.
"It's vicious, violent, and unrelenting—You might want to be extra careful around it, also that thing is even bigger than me."
"Thanks for the warning, I appreciate it." I nod to him.
"Good luck." Kraus nods his head back.
"Be careful," Agnes looks at me with worried eyes.
"I'll try, but no promise." I nonchalantly shrug.
"If you don't get back, I'm going to eat your fruit and scratch your bike." Agnes threaten me.
"Fine! I promise that I come back to you and please don't scratch it. I just got it..."
"I'll be waiting."
"Ta-Ta!" I wave once at both of them, turning around to face the cave and rest both hands against the back of my head as I walk toward it.
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Once again, darkness envelops my entire sight, I can feel the damp floor beneath my sole are soaking my shoes, as I stride deeper into the cave. The scent of rotten egg completely dissipates and replace by a smell of dread. I carefully step on the rocky floor as I make my way further up, then from where I am, I can see several small blue lights shimmering above on the cave ceiling.
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I squint my eyes as I try to examine the light from below. I finally realize that there are thousands of quartz or maybe more, that are gleaming with blue light and showing me a path. So I'm guessing, it leads to the gate of the underworld.
Taking out my Boomer, I slide my hand between the opening of the lever, under the stock, and push it down. After loading a bullet into the chamber, I pull the lever back in place. Afterward, I place my Boomer back into my thigh holster, then I breathe in a large amount of air into my lungs and let it out once more to calm myself.
Once again, I continue to walk and follow the shimmering path. After a few minutes of walking, I finally arrive at a massive cavern, I look down at the edge of the walkway before my feet, seeing the steep slope down, and my eyes widen when I notice the massive beast that is napping in the middle of the cavern. Its size explains why the cavern is so massive in the first place.
"How the hell am I going to get past that? I can't even see the door or gate or whatever it is." I whisper to myself and crouch down.
'Cerberus' Hades loyal guard dog, a massive dog with three heads that are almost identical to each other. While it's sleep, I can see the sharp, jagged teeth between its lips, and see a spout of small, blue flames coming out from its mouth as it snores.
The beast is so enormous that it is even bigger than my beautiful Goddess. Its body is cover with scales except for underneath its body, and each one of them is thicker than plate armor. Between those scales, a hue of turquoise light glimmer like a vein running across its body.
I could hear a distinct lullaby coming from inside my head, and when I look at the dog, I can feel something aching inside me.
Standing up on the edge of the entrance, I slide down the slope and begin walking toward it with my fists clench at my side. My lips press firmly together, while one of the Cerberus's head twitch as I get closer to it.
The Cerberus eyes open wide and revealing a blazing turquoise light behind those eyelids. The three-headed dog let out a terrifying growl as It begins to raise itself off the ground. All three of the heads give me a death glare while dragging their left paw on the ground, and leaving a trail of claw marks that my foot can fit inside.
The vicious-looking three-headed dog opens its mouth as I settle myself in front of the dog and close my eyes. I inhale the dreaded air, and then let all of it out while I place both hands on my heart. A smile props up with my lips, and my throat begins to vibrate as I hum the same lullaby that I keep hearing in my head.
The light shimmers along to the soft melody that I hum, the angry growl slowly disappears and replace by a gentle huff. It wasn't a sense of fear or anger that I was feeling earlier. It was the sense of familiarity that echoes throughout my soul, and it wasn't mine. I never met this dog before, but my goddess, Adrestia. She always comes by to spend the little time she had with Cerberus.
Flashes of her patting Cerberus while humming the same tune keep playing inside my head.
"She always comes here, does she?"
She always pets him right underneath its muzzle. I extend my hand toward Cerberus, it takes a sniff of my scent and presses its snout against my palm. I start scratching right underneath its muzzle.
The heads recognize my smell, maybe it's because Adrestia is a part of me in some way.
When I stop scratching, I couldn't help myself but giggle as it starts licking my hand, I move closer to its muzzle while the three-headed dog rests on its belly. I scratch underneath the muzzles again with all the strength I have, so it can least feel what I'm doing, and it certainly works as its short tail start to wiggle.
"You're a good boy, aren't you? Yes, you are!" I try to please all three of the head, and I manage it while breathing laboriously, as it takes a lot of work to scratch this massive dog.
"I truly want to spend more time with you, but I got to go." The Cerberus starts to whimper as I move away from it.
"Don't fret. I'll come back whenever I can, okay?" I don't know how the dog did it, but it manages to make several large puppy eyes with those frightening turquoise eyes.
"Aaawww..." I walk closer to its muzzle and rub its chins. Cerberus starts to huff happily while two of the heads start licking my head and back.
Dog drool drip down my body, and I shake it off. "You're not a mean dog, you protecting your master's home, right? There is nothing wrong with that. You're a good boy."
Every time I call Cerberus a good boy, it let out a happy huff. I look around the cavern, it's empty, and no one is here. He must be lonely, all by himself in here. I stride closer to its belly and take a seat on the ground while leaning my back on the dog's body.
I look down at the ground. There are various amount of silvers and gold coins that are lying on top of it. I pluck one off the ground, a silver one, a word come to mind when I examine it. 'Danake' however, I have no idea on the purpose of these coins. I put the coin in my shirt pocket and look around. I could see a run-down, wooden door behind the dog.
Is that the door to the underworld, it certainly doesn't look like it. I glance at Cerberus's head, "isn't that the door to the underworld?"
It let out a huff, agreeing with me or so I thought. I don't even know if it can understand me. It's peaceful in here, and I could just take a nap while lying against Cerberus's warm body. Unmistakably, the dog thinks the same way as it starts to doze off again.
For the first time, after awaken on Adrestia's island, I fall into the depth of slumber.
.................
...........
.....
...
Love.
Happy.
Pain.
Numb.
Grief.
Heartbroken.
Anger.
Rage.
Fire.
Betrayal.
Cold.
Lastly, sinking guilt and regret.
I wake up, shock and terrify. I can hear my own hard breathe, it was a nightmare, I couldn't remember what the horror was about, but it felt real. My forehead is dripping wet from my sweat, I look around and remember that I am in a cavern napping along with Cerberus. The dog snores as it sleeps with peace. Then I notice a tear running down my cheek again, just like in James's workshop.
Placing a hand on my chest, I can feel my heart thumping like a drum in a marching band. I glance to my side at the wooden door, and I look back at Cerberus's sleeping heads. I let out a smile and quietly stand up then walk through the door.
The moment I step through that door, a thick fog bombard my sight and disorient my sense of direction. Turning my body, I realize the door is gone so do the wall that adjacent to it. A Greek archway is standing at where the door supposes to be, and everywhere I look, an endless white fog blanket the land.
However, the view still not complete as unending rusted weapons poking out from the ground, standing upward like a gravestone, and decorating the land along with rusted armor, clothes, and various trinkets. The sound of water rippling echoes through the fog, catching my attention, I rotate my body to the source and start walking toward it.
As I walk toward it, I can see more and more belongings stacking on top of each other and litters across the ground. A river appears before me and stops me from going any further. Another sense of familiarity, but this time from an unknown source as I see a hooded figure on a small boat and heading my way.
"Charon The ferryman," I whisper out.
The boat stops in front of me, and the hooded figure extends his thin ghastly hand toward me. I press my hand against my pocket, feeling the coin inside of it, I take it out and place it on the hooded figure palm. He gestures to me to step into his boat.
I have been here before, James's did say that I was someone else before this. That might explain the Deja vu that I'm having. I carefully make my way into the boat and sit at the front while facing the hooded figure. The vessel begins to drift as the ferrymen lead it somewhere.