The Book of Gemma VOL. 2

44: A HADES HOLIDAY

The map had shown me a path to avoid every river except one, the river of hatred. In order to avoid it, I must walk through Tartarus.. The place of torment.

I peek over the cliff, my toes curling over the edge. You couldn't even see the bottom, dark thunderous clouds block any view. I was once told that falling to Tartarus from this cliff would take nine days to reach the bottom. I check the rope attached to my ankle, the large stoned statue of Poseidon tied to the other end.

"Here is my fall from grace."

I push the statue over the cliff side and I'm stripped from the ground.

Falling... Falling.. Falling..

I feel the weight of the Underworld grow heavier, my pace picking up as I plummet.

I look up to the sky, the sun fading from my view as the dark clouds rip through my hair.

I even closed my eyes as the journey down lasted for a few hours.

Tartarus is not under Hades control of land, so I would have to fight my way through it, cross the River Styx, climb the mountain to the Asphodel Meadows and finally reach the Palace of Hades. I can't lie to myself, I soaked up the last minutes of my free fall before knowing I had to endure the land of Tartarus. To drain my strength in fighting the monsters Hades has no control over. I needed that army of the dead from him, I will beg on my knees for it and if that doesn't work... fight til Hades takes his last breath.

The ground is coming faster and faster, the statue crumbling into pieces and my body landing deep into the ground. I wail out in pain as my knee shatters into the rough terrain. I heal my wobbly legs and look out into the darkness. It was as if my landing had sent a silence into the land, a new toy entering the play box.

I cut my rope from my ankle swiftly and began to sprint, I couldn't wait for something to find me.

The gravity was too heavy to soar over it, my feet felt like cement blocks. Even the air here was thick and smelled of rotting souls. The two rivers to my sides were the River of Wailing and the River of Woe and Misery. I knew I would have to cross the River Styx, the direct path about a half day's hike.

Tormented souls grab at my ankles as I run past them, it reminds me of Paradise. Each soul goes through their own personal hellish trials. I see one pushing a boulder up a mountainside, only for the boulder to always roll back down to the bottom. One filled up a jug with water to wash away his sins in a bathtub but the jug had cracks, water always draining from it before he could pour it into the tub. Another strapped to the ground as vultures pick at his liver, always growing back and repeating. Never dying, just... living in utter agony.

They beg for my help but I can see their sins clear as day written on their hearts, this was their judgment call. The horrors they gave to Olympus was just the same to the sinners I have damned. I needed to remember they were here for a reason.

Loud charging stomps had my feet lifting in the air from the vibrations.

...The giants... The Titans Zeus and his siblings banished here for eternity.

They knew I was here, my presence alarming among the sinners. Titans were not stronger than God's, just... bigger. I can do bigger, I guess.

I look back as I sprint, seeing the large foot a mile back take another step. The foot was the size of the compound back on Sky.

Oh fuck.. I don't know if I can do bigger.

It took Zeus ten years to defeat them, I don't have that kind of time. I don't even think my nightmares would do any damage to their minds, they were the darkness.