Andrew Bailey & The Eternal Maze

Chapter - 21

The blood crystals that were just moments ago making life difficult for Ethena and Snow were now once again up and about,  preparing to make an encore performance. But not before the host that they met earlier just popped in front of them. The host looked translucent, almost like you could see right through him.

"Congratulations! My dear survivors, just moments ago it has come to my attention that officially, there are twenty five percent of you left! Which means that you have already cleared the first stage of this survival game! Some of you may be asking yourself that how can this be. The answer is simple, I had mentioned earlier that this was a survival game and it is. There was nothing to complete in this stage, your survival was the only thing to qualify you to the second round. So here's the door!"

Just like that out of the blue, a door appeared right in front of the ones who qualified. 

Ethena opened the door and a bright light just flashed before her, when she opened her eyes, there she was, in a place that was only mentioned in books The underworld. 

The underworld was where the Greek God Hades ruled with an iron fist, a completely separate place from Olympus. Everything there was bound by his rules. He was the law, he was the judge and he was the jury. Normally no one would want to step foot there.

The underworld was unlike anything seen where Ethena grew up. There was no sun, when you look up it's completely pitch black and for some reason, things were still visible. Dead trees were all around, roots all over the stone pavement that lead the way to several old mansions. It seemed like a ghost town, . The dead giveaway that it actually was the underworld was a giant gate behind them, with a giant two headed dog guarding it. Orthrus wasn't the usual gate keeper that was recorded in books, perhaps something happened or is going to happen.

The chilly wind blowing against the participants were keeping them dancing on their toes, with no sign of any adults telling them what comes next left them nervous and twitchy. Ethena went around looking for Snow and Bellows for obvious safety reasons but found neither. Just exhausted looking participants instead along with their torn and dirty clothes.

"How's it shaking everybody!"

From the gates where Orthrus was guarding, a figure came out dancing with a corny move from the eighties. Shrouded with black chiton, the only being in Olympus allowed to wear a chiton like that. As he walked forward towards them, with every step he took, dark flames were left from his trail. Though he was trying to play the fool by dancing as he walked by, it would actually take a fool not to know who he was. He was Hades, the ruler of the underworld. Do not let the weird things he do fool you, when he's angry, he could be as dangerous Zeus himself. 

As the participants bowed down in respect, Ethena noticed two figures behind him, it was strange because Hades wasn't usually escorted by anyone. He liked being alone and the only times he was seen with anyone is when something amusing or interesting to him is going to occur. 

"Hey there my fellow elites, I will be the second round's host. I'm sure you guys had a blast of a time with the whole survival game and I would like to award you for your efforts but unfortunately the second round still remains. So what I can do right now is offer you some hospitality. Till the time you get called, you may rest in the mansions prepared for you. Gorgeous aren't they."

The crowd clearly disagreed with Hades however they did not want to anger Hades. Like mentioned previously, he was extremely dangerous. Awkward cheers and whistling were given to support the idea of his mansions being 'gorgeous'. After all they were only going to be tolerating staying there for a short period of time. How bad could it be?  

As the group split up between male and female, it didn't take long before finding Snow among the crowd. Snow was searching high and low just to find Ethena and when she did, she was immensely happy to find Ethena. It worried her quite a bit thinking something may have happened to Ethena due to Bellows when they were transported.

As the female group entered the building, they were about to get a surprise. Every single one of them thought the outside was bad but they would probably just tough it out till they get called.

"It shouldn't be that bad right?" Snow asked Ethena.

"All we can do is cross our fingers and maybe it won't be that bad?"

It was bad, just entering the building made Ethena want to hurl. There was this smell that she couldn't quite describe. the moment you step one foot inside the mansion, you could just feel the difference of air quality between the outside and the inside. 

Seeing the lobby filled with cobwebs and dirty moldy furniture immediately made the girls in the group turned-off. What was crawling around the place, they did not even want to know. This was way beyond a hygiene problem. The girls in the group couldn't tell whether it was even possible to survive an hour inside. But could they reject the so called hospitality provided by Hades?
 
No way, impossible.

As Ethena and Snow headed into their rooms, they weren't surprised that the lobby and the room were about the same in condition.
Snow just grumbled that after this was all over, she was going to take a long hot bath and sleep for a day or two. 

"If you long for a shower, do you want to take one here?" Ethena asked. 

"Here? If the plumping actually works, instead of water, mushrooms might be the one pouring out." 

As they laughed at the possibility of that actually happening, something was about to happen that wasn't apart of the program planned. The very thing that would change Ethena's life would be appearing very soon........