The world of Tartarus, just one of many small realms crafted out of the aether in between worlds. Monolithic dark stone structures jut out of the ground made of hard angles and harder stone. Before them stretches on a wasteland of sanguine dirt. As they start taking steps away from the boiling river Pyriphlegethon, it gets eerily cold. First the cold only takes place in their extremities but after a short while the cold creeps into every single place, ignoring the clothing they wear like an invasive wind but no such thing blows.

“Those who perish amidst the cold, twisting rock, where good air is rarer than gold, do not leave; they join the ever growing mountains of the undead.” Agazuul quotes almost religiously. There was no sun for this realm but instead a singular distant red star which bathed the land in a red glow. As they traveled the red wastes they soon came upon their first challenge, Styx; a river that was over three hundred meters wide. The river, unlike Pyriphlegethon, did not flow with boiling blood, nor did it flow with ice cold water. Are those souls? Lixiss wondered as she stared at the strange sight of this black chasm flowing with a luminescent greenish-blue. They scanned the horizon but saw no clear bridges to get across.

“The undead are thrust into an eternal state of suffering, the living are the alien presence within this land and they shall be greeted by nothing else than loathing and raw hunger.” Agazuul quoted.

“So do not fall in?” Gadraek asked somewhat sarcastically.

“What’s gotten into you?” Carl immediately followed up with.

“I’ve read so many books about this place, but to be here is something entirely different.” Agazuul said, almost in awe.

“Oh fucking fantastic, first we lose people to that dipshit,” pointing to Carl; “and then this other fucker decides now to be a good time to lose his shit? For fucks sake.” Eira said.

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“What do we do now?” Mirva put in, somewhat quietly; but without wind and with no background noise even whispers travel far.

“Maybe I could…” but before Gileon could finish his sentence it was interrupted with a roar in the distance. It wasn’t that it was loud but rather that in these strange barren landscapes it traveled far further than it had any right to.

“We have to get going!” Carl shouted, fear easy to read in his voice.

Carl drew runes with his left hand onto the right in quick succession before using both hands to draw a quick circle, he seemed to conjure up enough power for more than himself as six of the mounts sprouted wings as did his own. Agazuul cut into his own flesh to accomplish much the same but only for his own mount. Neva Coh’Etriel help me in my plight, all I want is to cross this chasm, that is surely but little to ask of thee. Lixiss pleaded and her god answered, a web woven by a thousand spiders risen from the sanguine dirt.

It had almost seemed as if they overcome the first challenge but as they came about halfway across, the souls began to coalesce in a giant form. One smash took out half the web, but Lixiss was quite quick and while jumping across she pulled sword from sheath to swipe at the giant of souls. Many dissipated with a soundless scream. Carl called forth his burgundy flame like energy pulses to push away the amalgamation, and Agazuul came in to strike at it with godblood magic. All three of them seemed to innately understand the mission here; make sure the others cross safely. Carl’s blasts of energy were able to keep the arms of the soul giant away from destroying more of the web in case he couldn’t keep concentrating on the transmutation magic that allowed flight they would have a net to fall on, Agazuul tried to sever the connections that held the soul giant together but even with his best incantations he was barely able to make a difference. Lixiss put herself at the greatest risk of the three and yet she made the biggest impact, slashing away swathes of souls. True death is a kindness compared to this. Lixiss thought as she saw the faces of these tormented souls dissipate. As the others had made it across, and only the trio was left to make it to safety it seemed the soul giant grew tired of its effort but celebrations were short lived as more souls joined for an ever greater soul giant with six arms. They gave it their best, but the soul giant grabbed up the trio to swallow them in its mouth. A single shout could be heard amidst the gasps of shock but its contents were lost.