Dying Ichor

FORTY-SEVEN

   "I warned them. I pointed out their faults. Now, look at where you ended up... down here with a breaking soul."

Elias was paralyzed. He couldn't move at all, nor could he make a single sound. The most he could do was twitch a little at the unfamiliar voice of some god, but no matter how many times he wanted to look up, he couldn't.

He was an unmoving soul, but he felt extremely restless.

The god stared down at Elias' form as they walked across Hades' realm. The mortal was the cause of all this nonsense he presumed. He's heard a thing or two of Elias' situation, but he didn't think something like this would happen to the boy.

A soul like his from a different world doesn't belong here in this timeline, especially in the Underworld. It was why Elias turned out to be so limp and silent.

When Elias first arrived down in the Underworld, Charon had noticed his strange presence and was even more alarmed when he recognized Elias as Hades' favorite mortal. He wanted to take Elias over to the palace where Hypnos was at, but before he could, the soul was snatched away, and Elias disappeared.

The god carefully grabbed Elias' cold cheek and tilted his head up, meeting his dead gaze. Elias was out of it. He didn't even notice himself being grabbed. All he saw was a mask covering the god's face before his grip loosened and Elias' face was released.

The god frowned underneath his mask. Elias' skin had turned ashen-grey in such short time. There was not a single thought or emotion behind those glassy eyes. A soul shouldn't look like this.

Elias was a withered version of himself.

"Stupid thing, aren't you?" The god berated. "You died because you were stupid. If you didn't want to attract the gods' attention... you shouldn't have tried to stick your nose in places where it should be. Stupid, foolish thing... now you're dead and even your soul can't sustain itself."

No response. The god expected that.

"The gods are all fools. Even the ones who cherish you. Fools, all of them. But I've a bone to pick with you... I really can't stand you. There are so many things you did wrong. You should've just kept quiet and lived here without making a fuss... or you should have killed yourself if you couldn't stand to be away from your world before meeting Hades. This is all your fault."

Elias twitched. The god gripped his soul a little.

"No, that's not true. Not everything was your fault. It's all because of those goddesses. They have to take the blame when this is all over."

They stopped at a desolate place in the Underworld. The god carefully sat Elias down on the ground with strange markings already drawn. Elias was still, not much surprise there.

"You're a foolish, stupid boy," the god continued to berate him as he fixed Elias into the drawn circle. "You're so weak. How could you allowed yourself to get killed? You can't stay here. Your soul can't handle being in this place. You should've run from whoever attacked you... now I have to fix you up myself. What a waste of time."

The god stood up and walked around the circle, staring down at Elias' limp form heatedly. It was strange for the man to just keep walking around and around, but when he finally stopped, he suddenly murmured out a few words here and there with a dark rasp to his tone. It wasn't something a mortal or regular god could understand, only people who have inhabited the Underworld long enough knew what was happening.

The god was fixing Elias' broken soul. And it was failing.

The circle underneath Elias' transparent body had glowed a little in the beginning, but eventually faded out several times until the glow completely vanished. The god frowned heavily under his mask. He didn't expect it to be this troublesome.