The Son Of Asclepius, Doctor of Divinity

Lord of the Underworld

After their little moment, (Y/N) gave Cerberus a scratch under the chin, fed him the treat and left the guard dog to its duties. The fields of Asphodel were up ahead, and any form of sound just disappeared. The cavern that was Hades opened its jaws and seemed to swallow the millions upon millions of ghosts and spirits that stood dormant, waiting for some sort of command or purpose. (Y/N) could relate. Luckily, the palace of Hades was just up ahead, so they began to make their way through the field. 

"Sssssso what'ssssssss the deal with thesssssse guyssssss? Do they jusssssst sssssstand here... forever?" 

"Yup" replied the junior doctor, popping the p. "Luckily, they lose their subconscious over time, so they don't actually know they exist to some level. They have some memories of past lives, but apart from that they just stand here like statues." 

They all looked slightly angry or confused at (Y/N), as if they recognised his heritage and family history of cuing death and restoring life. They came up to him and Elara a few times to speak, but their voices sounded like chatter and the clacking of bones, similar to bats twittering. Once they realised neither the demi-god nor dracaena could understand them, they would frown and move away. They were just in front of the lines to Elysium and the fields of punishment when one of the spirits managed to put a coherent thought together and recognised the Rod of Asclepius. Its smoky hand made a desperate grab for its base, but it just passed right through. Nearby spirits sensed the commotion and all seemed to recognise the rod at once, almost as if they had an interlinked hive mind. Even though they couldn't take physical form, their presences seemed to be getting colder, which was never a good sign. Tapping Elara on the shoulder, he mouthed the words, "Run." 

The two bolted off in the direction of a black tent where the crowd converged into two lines and flung themselves inside. Unfortunately, a skeletal guard just so happened to be standing where they crashed through the tent wall, collapsing it into a pile of bones and clothes. 

"Don't worry, it's an easy fix. I used to train Hades kids with this." 

Striking his staff to the ground, the serpent's eyes began to mildly glow a golden hue before the bones began to shake and shudder, renimating before their eyes. A few seconds later, the skeleton guard was back to normal, maybe just a few fingers swapped around. It grasped its shiny skull in confusion before looking at (Y/N) and Elara in frustration. As it swung to grab them, the two re-emerged from the tent through the flap. A clattering of teeth could be heard from inside, and soon enough more skeletons from different time periods could be seen rising from the ground in different parts of the field. Despite the immediate danger, (Y/N) found himself entranced by Elysium, or more specifically the Isle of the Blest. There were people there he probably knew whose children's grandchildren had gotten in. 

"C'mon, letsssss go!" screeched Elara, grasping (Y/N)s arm and pulling him in the general direction of Hades' palace, the sound of gunfire echoing as they took off.

In an underwhelming amount of time they were outside the walls of the Underworld palace. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open, as if someone had just entered. The doors were engraved with fine craftsmanship, possibly the work of Hephaestus himself. Up close, it could be seen that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times, such as an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask– wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls, but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. Scenes of death and torment hit (Y/N) harder than most people, so many places in the world had needed him throughout his lifetime but he was forced to stay within the confines of camp and help half-bloods, some of them going off and causing the deaths of untold amounts of people themselves. Inside the courtyard was one of Persephone's' infamous gardens. Multi coloured mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as a fist, clumps of raw diamonds. In the centre of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. Persephone herself once tried to convince (Y/N) to eat some seeds on one of his travels down in Hades, but he luckily resisted the goddesses magical charm. They had a weird relationship. Elara had reached out to pluck one from the nearest tree, but he slapped it out of her hand.