“I’m just saying Typhon; I’m twenty one, same as you. Is it that hard to believe that I’d be curious about things like sex?”

“No, no, my sister is still innocent, my sister doesn’t even know about the word sex let alone what it means, she most certainly did not ask Aaron stupid questions about Toy Maker’s length. I’m imagining horrible things, and I should stop.”

Aaron, Medusa and Empusa just decided to ignore the byplay of the sibling rulers of monsters as something which Typhon would lose eventually… he’d have to at some point.

Besides, Echidna wasn’t really interested, she just asked the question ‘how big was he’ to mess with Typhon… and hopefully messing with him over time would lead to him being more accepting when she finally did end up in a relationship.

Really, she felt like a fifth wheel for a double date at times, even if Empusa and Typhon weren’t actually dating yet, and Medusa and Aaron were quiet about their relationship.

“Right, you’re imagining things… so where are we headed again?” Echidna asked as Aaron looked into the rear-view mirror to look over to her.

“Well for now, the border between Area four and Area five. I hate this place, but we need to be findable.” Aaron reminded and Echidna agreed with the last bit, not so much with Area’s though, as Area five wasn’t a fun place.

Filled with hypocrisy, inequality, it was a place for people who were terrorists after all, who were majority religious extremists, something she found silly.

They thought themselves to be helping God, Allah, Yahweh, whatever you wanted to call the being, but if said being was perfect, would the being really need their help in the first place?

The idea of helping God should be sacrilegious really.

But still, between Area five, and Area four which was filled with slave trading and rapists who were almost like extreme versions of gender discrimination from centuries ago, Area five was definitely preferable.

“Alright, but who would be joining us? You said we would need a bit of help for our trip?” Echidna asked as Aaron found the ‘border’…

To be honest, borders were non-existent in Tartarus beyond the areas near the walls, but there was an idea of which Area was which due to sudden changes in architecture or other smaller hints, like with Area six and the sudden sound of engines.

Looking for these differences would determine which Area a person was in, so they knew they were around the border of Area five thanks to the sudden older looking buildings.

So after stopping, their group got out of the GT-R that was kind of iconic for their team now, even if Echidna didn’t know much about the story behind it, she did know that Empusa had owned it but never used it before Aaron and Typhon came along.

“Well, I decided on two. I would have picked the triplets but they wouldn’t have the resources needed… how are those three by the way?” Aaron asked in a bit of a distracted manner as Empusa thought for a moment.

“They are doing alright, they are still individually the lowest ranked amongst Chained in our group, but as a team they are strong enough to cause problems for Mino.” Empusa noted, and Aaron smiled at that, knowing the triplets had been childish, but glad to hear that they at least trained after his kidnapping.

“That’s good. Okay, so that erased the triplets from the selection, I didn’t want to bother Mino since you mentioned he was busy with a project… and you still haven’t said what the project is, but I’ll trust your judgement.” Aaron frowned at that as Typhon rolled his eyes, knowing that Aaron was just being a busy body really, he wasn’t too interested in what Mino was doing actually.

“And obviously I wouldn’t be calling on Cerberus or Sphinx since those are a package deal and both are in hiding after their encounter with Lu Bu and Solomon.” Aaron thus dropped the members of their group even more as he sighed.

“That left only two, Manticore as he is called now, and Cyclops who is a required factor.” Aaron noted, aware that while he could mess with cars and such, they weren’t his specialty, meaning focused repairs were something Cyclops was required for.

“Okay… those two, I’m fine with.” Echidna noted, as she only really disliked the triplets, and to a lesser extent she disliked Sphinx.

He was way to gaudy and extravagant if given the opportunity… Aaron was the same, but at least he had some kind of filter, and he was only like that with his words and some actions.

Sphinx wore a gold pinstriped suit and a Pharaoh’s Headdress with a gold mask. It was too much.

And besides… everyone liked Manticore and his voice. Honestly, Medusa spent a while trying to persuade him to go into making audio-books for trading, get some good will with the people in Tartarus.

Of all the people in Tartarus, more than half were born in Tartarus at this point, and those people rarely had an education to know how to read beyond recognizing certain words, so even if they would appreciate a book, they couldn’t read.

Manticore refused though, stating that he was an ex-assassin, talking that much would be strange as it was. He was a quiet man who kept to himself, rarely acting out with a group.

As for Cyclops, Echidna rarely met him during the past ten months, as he had secluded himself in Area six where he was essentially king, and she and Typhon rarely moved beyond Area ten and Area eleven.

It would be another hour before their new ride appeared, a boring hour spent just talking and hanging out until everyone just decided to do their own things, with Echidna humming to a song, Medusa and Aaron discussing science, and Empusa and Typhon wondering how to better their own abilities.

Their new ride was… questionable, to Echidna, but Aaron just took one look at it and burst out laughing… she didn’t blame him, not when a hot pink Jeep appeared.

“Typhon, Typhon, I’m making your hair that colour next!” Typhon glared at Aaron, and Typhon wished cruel death upon his friend but knew he couldn’t kill said friend…

Typhon’s hair was most notably not green anymore… but it wasn’t back to its normal white either. It was now blue. Like ocean blue level.

See, Aaron had wanted to dye Typhon’s hair green for quite a long time, so finding him with green hair not due to Aaron annoyed him.

So he just got a different colour and did it anyway.

On that note, after pink Aaron figured orange or somehow getting stripes or polka-dots was next… the last two were difficult, but he’d figure it out.

Out of the Jeep stepped… three people? Well, two of them were recognizable as Cyclops and Manticore, and the third… that Spanish guy from Cyclops’ Garage?

“You’re alive… it’s good to see you again Aaron.” Manticore greeted as Aaron narrowed his eyes at the man, pausing for a moment.

“…I’d ask you to say that again but I can guess you’d refuse.” Aaron stated as Manticore raised his hands as if saying ‘of course’ and Cyclops walked over, a smirk on his face as he held out his hand, Aaron reaching over and shaking the hand of the magician of vehicles.

“Nice to see you again man.” Aaron’s smile vanished as he looked to Cyclops with a blank expression before his eyes widened.

“Nice to see you too, but what happened to your accent?” Aaron shouted as Cyclops rolled his eyes, their handshake over as he crossed his arms across his barrel chest.

“It’s called a stereotype. I was the drunk of the group, most drunks have that accent, figured it worked.” Aaron was just staring as if he had been walking down a street and then a unicorn walked by, listening to Cyclops’ new accent.

Speaking of, he actually had the same accent Jaeger did, that of a ‘Southerner’ or ‘Cowboy’ in the North American Coalition.

Yeah, with the whole Spanish Fall of 2042, it had far reaching consequences that even hit the Mexican’s who were generalized into one group, a near global apartheid against them.

For those who don’t know, Apartheid was a South African movement that segregated white people from other races, believing whites to be superior, this ended around 1996.

Due to the Spanish Fall, anyone who was similar in appearance was grouped into ‘Spanish’ and then discriminated against near globally, very few places still accepted them, one of the major places South Africa, due to their own history with Apartheid and making the connection, they accepted these new ‘minorities’ into their borders willingly.

Due to these changes in borders as well as other issues over time, the United States of America eventually became the North American Coalition after taking Mexico and Canada followed soon after, and Italy had grown enough to compete with its neighbours in warfare.

The Euro-war lasted a while, and lots of problems occurred within said war, but by the end of it, England was the winner, renaming themselves to be the European Kingdom after taking in the landmasses of Italy, France and Spain.

Ahem, now that the history lesson was over with, Aaron snapped back to reality as he blinked, shaking his head.

“Cyclops… that’s weird, even by my standards, faking your accent for months just to match a stereotype is weird.” Aaron stated as the group as a whole looked at him with dull eyes, even the mechanic who Aaron recognized, but recalled that he had never gotten his name.

“We’ll have to disagree there, you’re the one who makes references no one gets and decided you’d hang around Chained when the rest of Tartarus is scared of us.” Cyclops reminded as Aaron laughed, patting Cyclops’ back in jest.

“Good point… whatever, we’re all weird.” Aaron joked in return, and the group just savoured the small reunion for what it was… unfortunately, most good things come to an end, and in this case, it was started by Cyclops speaking out.

“Aaron… you were taken from our group for ten months, you’ve lost out on quite a bit of time… and you’ve been through things I can’t imagine.” Cyclops looked to Aaron who looked away for a moment as Cyclops chuckled.

“Don’t try and hide it. I might have been passive about it when I was a drunkard, but I’m someone who looks out for others. Aaron, you don’t need to go out and fight right away you know… you can rest, relax for a while you know?” Cyclops asked, and Aaron looked at Cyclops in a new light, just for that comment.

Typhon and the others were a bit ashamed for not having considered that Aaron had been through some horrible experiences…

Oh they knew it, intellectually, but they hadn’t acted on the knowledge, instead trusting Aaron to be strong enough to get through whatever problems he was going through on his own.

Medusa was there for him, but she knew he wouldn’t speak about what he was feeling with her… that old adage of men keeping their pain away from their women held true, even when the person was a genius.

“…Thanks, Cyclops… I think I needed to hear that. But… we’re not in a position for me to be relaxing.” Aaron sighed as he spoke, looking up in all seriousness.

So focused was their group that they ignored the Spanish mechanic getting into the GT-R and driving it away… it would need to be stored properly this time, they had beaten up the guy who sold it last time.

“Well… I can’t argue there, you say we’re going on a trip again?” Cyclops asked as Aaron nodded, thinking about how to explain his plans to his group.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Yeah, except this time we’ll be stopping in Area five, three, and possibly nine. As for the other Areas, we can do those later, but these three Areas need to be visited.” Aaron alone knew why this was necessary, but his group didn’t question it, so used to his plans making sense in hindsight that they just accepted it.

“So we’re going to Area five now right, why didn’t we stop by Area three first?” Manticore asked with a questioning glance in the direction of Area three as Aaron shook his head.

“No, not yet… Jaeger has been oddly silent in the past ten months from what Typhon and Empusa told me, he hasn’t been sighted in these months…” Aaron crossed his arms in thought.

“I’d almost think he was dead if it weren’t for the fact that Jaeger is dangerous to the point of practically being a Chained himself. No, Jaeger’s preparing for something, but until he comes to us, we are not going to him.” Typhon’s eyes brightened at the idea but then recalled that Aaron was admitting that they weren’t going to Jaeger…

“No point in kicking a hornet’s nest, rather steer clear until he comes for us, and his base should be in Area three.” Aaron explained his reasoning as the hung out on the highway, knowing few people would dare use such a visible path.

Tartarus was a dangerous place, and only those who were strong, or had power in other forms, could get away with being noticeable… others would end up dead.

The tall tree catches the most wind and all that.

“As for Area five, I chose that because we’re closest to that Area not counting Area three. As for Area nine… I think Typhon isn’t welcome there for a while.” Typhon looked unrepentant for what he had done to the Area the last time he was there.

Said ‘last time’ was when he and Jaeger had worked together to fight Leviathan in his monstrous Biological Chained form and Leviathan had ended up being tossed into a massive building.

Said building was still broken and in the process of being repaired, not to mention the other damage caused by Leviathan…

“That Area is mostly filled with normal people so we shouldn’t worry about them.” Typhon scoffed at the thought that some normal person could scare him. Jaeger was the only normal person he respected; Aaron was once the same…

But Aaron wasn’t a normal person anymore, no he was now a Chained, a Lord at that… the reminder sobered Typhon from his arrogant train of thought as he looked to the floor.

Seeing that Typhon was busy thinking about something, Aaron instead continued with his explanation… if what Typhon was thinking about was important, they’d get to it later.

“My reasons for being in Tartarus are… well, before I was in this place, I just wanted to see something inside. Now that I’m inside, I have two goals. One, to destroy this prison… and the second would be to explore.” The second goal was admittedly less important, but everyone there knew that to Aaron this goal was possibly just as important…

After all, Aaron, beyond the planning and insanity, was an explorer; he enjoyed finding new things, new places, and occasionally new people too. Aaron was a modern day explorer, searching not for the lost relics of the past, but instead searching for the things which could not be seen by the average man.

Tartarus was one such place, the largest of them all… and so it was obvious that Aaron would have Tartarus be the greatest project he had undertaken…

Exploring for Aaron usually took a month at most to satisfy his curiosity on whatever he was looking for… this was the first time he had spent almost a year on exploring…

Maybe not the first… he had stayed with a certain girl for a year after all… funny how humans could live to about one hundred, one hundred and twenty with a little advancement in medical science…

And yet of one hundred years, one was more than enough for someone to change your life, for the better, or for the worst.

“Luckily for me, it seems the two goals are tied to each other.” Aaron confirmed, surprising the group as Aaron smirked, tapping the side of his skull as he looked towards Cyclops and Manticore

“While Typhon and the others heard this, I still need to tell you two about my ability as a Chained.” With this, Aaron began to explain how Odyssey of Victory worked, Cyclops and Manticore asking about the smaller aspects of the ability…

To Aaron’s surprise, Cyclops easily kept up with the conversation where Manticore would occasionally get lost, and to Aaron it just confirmed once more that Cyclops was smarter than he appeared… in fact, now that he wasn’t constantly drunk or sleeping, he could actually act on his knowledge and intelligence.

“Well, with that explanation done, Odyssey to Victory has determined that quite a few things would need to be done to succeed in our plan to destroy Tartarus. One condition is that we need to find certain things in each Area.” Aaron explained, making the group wonder what he meant… find ‘certain things’ in the Areas?

“Whatever these things are, why weren’t they used before to aid in escaping?” Typhon asked as Aaron shook his head in response to the question.

“No one would know where they are, let alone what they were. What we’re looking for is… think of them as generators.” Aaron didn’t want to go into detail on Zeta Generators…

Having generators the size of a room capable of powering an entire state was very rare, and how they worked was a secret kept by everyone. Even Aaron didn’t know how they worked, but he had a theory involving extreme perpetual motion generating a huge supply of clean energy forever.

But explaining what a Zeta Generator was would go over the heads of everyone in his group, even Medusa and, with his newly shown intelligence, Cyclops. If even Aaron didn’t understand them, he didn’t expect the others to.

Not to mention that Zeta Generators, while practically old technology by modern standards having been made in 2020, were still technologically more advanced than anything, and there were only a set number in the world, there were mostly just rumours, even when Aaron had access to files not for his eyes…

And yet, from what he understood, Tartarus had thirteen alone? Even if Australia was big, it wouldn’t necessitate the use of thirteen Zeta Generators.

“Okay, we’re looking for generators. Are we going to destroy them or something?” Oh lord, Aaron widened his eyes as he looked to Manticore while shaking his head.

“Pardon the swearing but fuck no. Destroying generators like these would be a huge mistake, trust me. If you have any idea what a nuclear bomb is like, picture that, in a smaller space.” Medusa and Empusa paled while Manticore nervously gulped and shook his head, knowing from history lessons what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Forget I asked.” Aaron was glad that Manticore got the drift so quickly, even if Typhon, Echidna and Cyclops were a bit lost on what a nuclear bomb was… bomb, they got, but nuclear…

“Excellent, because Tartarus has thirteen of these generators, and I don’t want to even consider the idea that destroying one could possibly set off a chain reaction.” Aaron shivered at the idea… he’d hope to be on the other side of the hemisphere if that happened…

While theoretically the Zeta Generators created clean energy, he had no idea what type of energy it was. He thought motion, but even that wasn’t enough to describe these generators… they seemed to deny the rules of physics…

Lots of things the Chained did denied those rules too, but these generators especially… the theory of energy was that energy could not be created or destroyed, merely transferred.

Yet the Zeta Generators ‘created’ energy from practically nowhere? They sounded like something out of a fantasy to anyone who actually studied science and understood how that worked.

“Wait, thirteen? If there’s one in each Area… but there are only twelve Areas. Where would the last one be?” Typhon was quick to ask, once he got out of his deep thought, knowing that he’d later talk to Aaron about his problem… whether Aaron wanted to or not.

“Hidden away, even I don’t know where it is, though I do have an idea.” Aaron considered his theory, but decided not to hope, trusting a hunch was a sure-fire way to get your plan ruined…

Plans should be made with certainties, facts, and logic, not baseless ideas…

“So there are twelve generators, one in each Area… and you know where all of them are?” Echidna piped in, having just stayed silent to listen into the conversation, she had been marvelling at how quickly Aaron had changed from the joking guy she met a week ago into a serious leader.

“Well I know the locations roughly, but the reason we’re going around all the Areas is to give Odyssey of Victory some information. My ability works based on information, facts. Even if I have a suspicion, my ability will neither confirm nor deny it, instead just not working.” Aaron disliked that part of his ability, but found that it made sense, and with his eidetic memory and his ability to compartmentalize information, it was a perfect fit.

So without any information, he could not accurately use the ability, but with enough information, he would have a step by step plan on how to do anything, as long as he had the methods.

He had already known the layout of the walls, had known about the existence of Zeta Generators, and now he knew about the Chained, Lords, the Areas, the locations of the Zeta Generators based on maximum accessibility, with all this information, his goal of destroying Tartarus was possible to plan out.

But if he wanted to refine his plan, he needed to know more, to confirm the locations, to meet the local Chained, to see the enemies they might face.

Without this, his plan wasn’t complete, even if it was a good one, he didn’t trust it for knowledge that it could be better.

“Okay, so we’re just going to go confirm that the generators are there… though I do know where the generators for Area seven and one are.” With that said, Aaron looked to the sibling rulers of monsters, who widened their eyes after they realized what he was saying.

“Wait, the Cradles?” Typhon asked in surprise as Aaron nodded, noting that Echidna frowned at the mention of their previous training grounds.

“Yeah… the Cradles hold tech that shouldn’t be in Tartarus, and your weapons even came from them. The only reason why a place in Tartarus would hold tech like that, and have it be powered without a viable power source, would be if the generators were either inside or underneath those places.” Aaron explained, not going into detail on the Cradles and their purpose…

The Cradles weren’t just training places for Typhon and Echidna. They were meant to be training places for every Chained, one Cradle for the Biological ones, and the other for the Cybernetic ones…

The issue, Aaron found, was that Typhon and Echidna were both placed in the wrong Cradles. From what he had seen during his time in the Ascension Chamber, the Cradle in Area one was meant to test the body more than the knowledge, and vice versa with the Cradle in Area seven.

This meant that Typhon and Echidna were both trained incorrectly… or were they? Typhon had come out of the Cradle with knowledge of fighting styles like Chinese Kenpo, even if he had digressed from it for quite a while, and Echidna was stronger than a Cybernetic Chained had any right being.

Physically, that was. Cybernetic Chained were meant to be strong of the mind, with their technological advancements and skill getting them through fights, while Biological Chained were meant to capitalize on their powerful bodies.

Even the Hydra triplets, as weak as they were within the group, were strong enough when together to take out a Chained higher ranked than them. The three were individually lower ranked Chained, but when together they could fight Middle-ranked Chained equally.

So Echidna and Typhon had gotten the ‘wrong’ training, but had come out better for it… so if they got the correct training, they might jump in strength…

But it wasn’t just this that confused Aaron, though he’d think about it another time.

“Other than the Cradles, I have no idea for the rest, but for Area’s we’ve seen, like Area six, I have knowledge of the Areas themselves, so that’s enough for now.” Aaron clarified on his reasons for not revisiting certain places, not adding in the fact that just about anywhere they went people were now terrified of Typhon and any who travelled with him…

Aaron remembered a few times where someone almost held him hostage only for Typhon to end them. He disliked killing, but he wasn’t so naïve as to believe that keeping his hands clean in Tartarus was possible… he had already killed at least three people in Tartarus after all, counting Toy Maker, that one slave trader… and Echidna’s old boss, Lukas Vann.

“Okay, so the Areas you haven’t been to would be the first five, ignoring Area four…” Everyone in the group, even Manticore and Cyclops frowned in disgust at the rumours of that place.

“And we cut past Area eight and nine to get to Area ten… oh, and obviously Area twelve.” They all silently agreed to leave Area twelve for last, knowing that no normal humans lived there unless they were subservient to a Chained.

Area twelve was the land of the Chained, and while Chained were welcomed, humans were treated as second-class citizens in that place, much like women in Area four, they were looked at as less than they were.

And while he was no longer a normal human, Aaron couldn’t stand the idea of racism like that. Even back before he met Dawn, who taught him to be kind; he knew that certain things didn’t sit right with him. Torture for pleasure, rape, racism, it was things that had little meaning in his eyes that Aaron disliked.

“Okay… so that leaves us with seven Areas to cover… are we going to rush through it?” Cyclops asked as he patted the eye-catching Jeep in question.

“No… while rushing would get the information faster, it would also mean sacrificing a few other things, such as possible recruits… by the way, Empusa, you mentioned that there were more than one Chained in Area five? Who are they?” Aaron asked as he was reminded of the need for new members… thirteen Chained was quite a bit, ignoring the Chained in Area twelve, it was the largest gathering ever.

“Well, I rated them based on willingness to join, but we can’t tell until we meet them… one who definitely won’t join us would be Leraje, a Cybernetic Chained with a poison that blocks blood flow.” Aaron frowned at that, already equating that to gangrene and rotting…

“There are about three others known to frequent Area five but all three would be difficult to find. I’m pretty sure we’d only have luck finding Fenghuang, a Biological Chained with bird features that can for some reason set himself on fire… how is he not in Area two?” Empusa asked herself as she read that bit of information… being able to set yourself on fire, he’d be a hit with the arsonists of Area two.

“Well, let’s assume we’ll run into issues with Leraje, and that we’ll be attempting to convince Fenghuang to join us… by the way, what about the other two Chained?” Aaron asked as they got to the Jeep, this time letting Empusa drive as she checked the two names.

“Well one is a bit of an arrogant guy called Berith, he’s Cybernetic and can shape metals… a natural blacksmith, but he’s also apparently a compulsive liar.” Aaron frowned, lies were… necessary, at times, but someone who lied all the time seemed annoying.

“As for the last one… I’m really against him joining us…” Empusa looked at the name with a frown as Aaron sighed, rolling his eyes.

“What’s wrong with the last one?” He asked, and Empusa sighed, even as the Jeep began to move, once more falling into the role of driver/information dealer.

“The last one is Satyr. He’s a Biological Chained, goat half at the bottom. He… he’s basically like the triplets, a prankster. He’s usually in hiding in Area five, because he always manages to piss off the people in charge, sometimes literally…” Aaron blinked, and then looked at Empusa, staring at her from his seat next to her, the others in the back listening.

“Wait… he pisses on people?” Aaron asked, ignoring that Satyr actually looked like how Romans represented him, not the Greeks.

“Yeah, They’re all people we’d dislike too, but that’s a bit… we’re just lucky that he somehow found a way to wear pants.” Aaron inwardly agreed that having legs with backwards bending knees made most pants a bit… strange.

“What’s his ability?” Aaron asked, strangely interested in this guy who literally pisses on people he doesn’t like.

“We’re not sure on that. He seems very good at escaping when he makes someone angry, though he hasn’t been seen in three months since he uh… pissed off Leraje.” Aaron’s face blanked at that, before he turned to look to the road ahead.

The sound of Aaron’s laughter was loud and confused anyone close enough to hear it, wondering what was so funny it caused someone to laugh that hard.

Unfortunately for Empusa and their group, this laughter was also the death knoll for her argument against Satyr.

Aaron would probably force the strange and disgusting prankster to join them if they found said prankster.