Master of Death

Chapter 14 - Oaths

You are my home... You are my kingdom.

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In the underworld, Thanatos paces around the grand library with the book of the fallen god, Orrin. He has been studying the book for hours, reading each word with the upmost interest. The last few pages documented the slaughter by a legion of he imperial army and Ra's servants. After they made it to the deepest room, Ra appeared to steal the Spear of Rebirth from the temple.

"The pieces to my success are nearly complete," Thanatos reads aloud with a troubled expression concealed behind his mask. "With this I possess the power to resurrect my fallen warriors and lay waste to that which stands in my way,"

The god of death stops moving, thinking on those words for a long moment. A minute passes before his eyes widen and he slams the book closed. Ra is planning to raise an army that hardly any of the gods can even combat. There is little hope of humans surviving if the war progresses to the mortal realm, and this thought is troubling enough on its own.

After coming to terms with what he has just read, Thanatos makes his way to the grand courtroom where souls of the dead are tried and sentenced to various locations across his kingdom. There are a great number of souls lined up to be set on the scales, the majority of whom have recently perished in battles. As the god of death sentences souls without weighing their sins on the scales, he graces those who fought valiantly against Emperor Shin. Some are taken only to the least severe of all the hells within the underworld, though most are granted entry to the sanctuary of souls along the outer reaches of the kingdom. The long line is shortened significantly by the time he has sentenced half of the souls to where they belong for the time being.

Little time has passed when Karon, boatman of Styx, appears before his lord in a mist of shadows in the same moment the presence of a familiar artifact can be felt throughout the underworld.

"My lord, the goddess of spring has appeared at the river. She is after Orcus," Karon says.

The initial anger within Thanatos drives him to Styx, but the emotions that come afterwards do not allow him to act. Upon his arrival to the river, he finds Cerberus double his smallest size with his hackles raised as he growls at the glowing crystal waters. Not a moment later, both Orcus and Akina emerge from below the surface. Thanatos, stunned by the sight of the woman he once obsessed over, is rendered unable to stop either of them.

The beautiful woman robed in soft spring colours smiles wickedly at death. "Thanatos... Oh, how I've missed you. It has been far too long."

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I lose track of time for he next while under the constant cycle of Verethragna forcing himself on me, and me refusing him. When I finally think to ask my dragons how long it has been, they tell me that four days have passed. Four days I for the most part slept through. There is so little energy in me that I can hardly remain awake, and my skin feels filthy from all the times I have been touched by the god who now enters the room. As per usual, he has a gleeful look on his face.

"Awake already?" Verethragna asks alongside a broad grin, taking a seat on his throne beside me. He leans on his hand and stares at me intently. "You are looking quite wild in your appearance. You really must stop resisting me so I no longer need to lock you up,"

I glare at him harshly, but say nothing. I don't have enough in me to move, let alone speak. If he comes near me again, I'm not sure that I will be able to do anything against him. I watch then as the doors open once more, allowing a man literally robed in fire to waltz in. His aura is similar in ferocity to the god of war and victory.