Dying Ichor

TWENTY-ONE

The first thing Elias though about hell was a cartoon man with horns, holding a pointy weapon with fire all around him.

He didn't expect to be standing in a dried of field, all the flowers and trees depleted with life with a new flowerpot in his hands. Elias looked up at the supposed sky, wondering if that faint light shimmering down on him was the so-called sunlight Thanatos spoke of.

Elysian Fields was shabbier than he thought. Thanatos briefly spoke about the place, but he sounded so sure the mortal would come to like it. There wasn't much to look around despite the various number of gem-like flowers throughout the fields, acting as if they were plants. Elias would've felt awed at the sight before him, but everything seemed somewhat similar and nothing out of the ordinary other than how cold the atmosphere was.

He felt shivers up his neck when Hades silently brushed past him, crouching down to a small patch of dying flowers. Carefully, the god of the underworld picked some up by their roots and rose back up to glance at Elias. Hades handed over the small flowers, Elias merely blinked in response.

"Pot," Hades grunted.

"O-Oh..." Elias hurriedly complied and stuck the pot out. Hades basically dumped the whole thing inside of it. "Excuse me... Y-Your Majesty, what exactly are we doing here?"

Hades didn't answer and kept on trudging further into the dead fields. He looked around for a while until he spotted another flower that was wilting. He dropped down to the same position he had and didn't hesitate to use his bare hands again, grabbing it up cautiously by the roots before planting it in the pot Elias was still holding.

Elias would've liked to question Hades again, but he was too scared to actually face the god. To him, Hades was the scariest despite how silent he was.

About an hour ago when he and Hades had bumped into each other, Elias stammered out many excuses and apologies as to why he was down in the underworld. Hades stayed quiet throughout the whole ordeal, but his hateful gaze never changed, and it was always aimed at Elias. Thankfully, Hades didn't do anything to Elias since the male explained Thanatos' situation and how he pulled him free from his chains.

Hades honestly wanted to bring the mortal back up to the surface and just dump him there, but when he looked back down at the broken pot, he felt angry all over again and roughly commanded Elias to follow him.

Now here they were, spending a few hours in Elysians Fields looking for nothing but dying plants, no matter how close they were to wilting away or how ugly they seemed. Hades didn't even bat an eye to the flowers made out gems and kept on searching far and wide in the fields. He hardly noticed Elias growing tired from carrying the pot around. And even if they filled it up to the brink, Hades would always get new ones for Elias to carry.

He didn't plan on stopping until he roamed all throughout Elysians Fields.

Elias wasn't going to say anything that could get him killed and if Hades wanted to go flower picking, that was fine by him. The only thing he had to complain about was the fact Thanatos said he'd enjoy this place. There was literally nothing around. There were very few souls who wandered around this place as well.

He honestly thought they were cool and was slightly obsessed with wanting to get close to one, but the second the souls saw Hades inching closer to them, they immediately dispersed with a low groan. Elias never really saw another one after that.

By the time they were finished, Elias collapsed underneath a dead tree and sighed. "Are we really done?"

Hades didn't look back at Elias, too focused with a dead plant that's right in front of him. "Mhm."