Shimmer: Journey To Death

Ruling the Underworld

     We watched as the light went out of Hades's eyes. When he was gone completely, I turned to the others.
     "So...I guess...I guess I am the Ruler of tge Underworld now. God of Death. But uh...I...I am not sure I can do it alone. I don't want to actually. So...would any of you like to...to stay and help me rule this place for the next 500 years," I asked the others.
     Ley answered first. "Of course," she said. "I would never leave you, not after you saved me twice."
     "You shall be the Goddess of Honoured Death. When someone dies after having done something worthy and honourable, they will come to you," I said. She answered with, "They shall live in the Land of Honour, where they will be treated like royalty and given the respect they deserve."
     Teigra agreed to stay. She would be the Goddess of Natural Death. When someone died of old age, disease, or natural events like childbirth or earthquakes, they would go to her and live in the Land of Nature. It was a place of beauty and wonder, and they too would be honoured for the wisdom they had gained over the years of their lives.
     Jay decided to stay immediately after Teigra. Since he was a phoenopire, he would be God of Temporary Death and Forced Death. Those who died in battle without honour would go to him, as well as those phoenixes who died before their Final Death and those killed and brought back by the zombie fungus. They would live in the Land of Temporance, where everything was temporary and the scenery constantly shifting, or the Land of Choice, where they were never forced to do anything for having been killed without their choice. Those phoenixes who died who leave a bit of their soul in the Land of Temporance with every death, until their Final Death when they would be reunited with the rest of themselves and they would go to Colla.
     Ajax was to be the God of both Violent and Peaceful Death. If they died at peace with the world, they went to the Land of Unity, where no battles were ever fought and they could live undisturbed. If they died hating the world and bitter at those around them, they went to the Land of War, where they fought their battles endlessly.
     And I...I would be the God of Permanent Death. When a phoenix died their Final Death, they would come to me. Those zombies that finally were killed would come to me, as would all of those who died and stayed dead. They would live in the Land of Permanence, where everything was dependable because it never changed.
     There would also be the Land of Babel, where all the dead souls could come together and talk.
     Hades's soul was lifted from his body. He looked to Jay. He would go to the Land of Choice because he had been forced to die. He walked through Jay, towards his new home. The souls of his family followed. They had been tied to his life force and had been forced to die when he had. We all walked off, to set up our lands. Teigra, Jay, and Ajax had become gods in a flash of light as I gave them their roles. They looked basically the same, but their eyes and hair were more liquid now. Not metallic or crystalline like Ley and I, just liquid.

Ley's Point of View
     I walked off in a seemingly random direction, tugged by some force that way. I stopped at a valley with a river winding through it. It had many waterfalls and plateaus inside of it. I raised my hands. My eyes flashed and the valley became gilded in silver and gold, many copper towers soaring high out of the soil. Mercurial flags flew from the towers, each adorned by a glinting silver cat eye. Little filigree copper men stepped from the walls of the towers. They held cleaning things and tools for farming and set to work, cleaning the towers until they gleamed and growing silver fruits in the blink of an eye. Around the fruit trees they would layer grow gardens that suited theur master's tastes, and the cleaners would decorate accordingly. I smiled at what I had done with the valley. To me it looked like a place for honoured souls to live in.
     I looked back to where Colla had stood. I smiled at the memories that flooded my mind. I wasn't entirely sure, but I think...I think I loved him.

Teigra's Point of View
     I walked until I came to a wide flat plain of cooled volcanic lava. I brought out my guitar and my harp. I used the harp first, playing gentle songs that told of the beauty of the flowers, the grasses, and the rivers. Grass sprouted in little patches, flowers bloomed all over the place, and a river wound itself a new path through the plain. It was a winding, lazy path. I set the harp down.
     I grabbed the guitar and played a song that told of the spirit of life, the strength of the trees, and the crystals in the boulders that had been on the plain before. The souls of deer, bears, sheep, fish, and more were drawn to the plain and made new homes. Trees grew up everywhere, the trunks growing into peculiar shapes I recognized as homes to live in. The boulders split in half as crystals formed inside them, amethysts and rubies and diamonds and even more growing to enormous size. I looked across my field as I set down my guitar. I smiled and wished Jay could be here with me. He would enjoy all of this and he loved my rock music. I loved him, and now we could stay together for the next 500 years, defying death to rule it.

Jay's Point of View
     My lands were very close. I worked on the Land of Temporance first. I set the first landscape, a bustling town like my old home Relsser. I put in the green fields, the thick walls, and the one to two story buildings. The market in the center and the inn where Teigra, Colla, and Ley had stayed when they came, the inn where I first kissed Teigra. I loved her so much it hurt sometimes.
     I moved onto the Land of Choice. It was very laid back. There were gently sloping hills and a river falling from a mountain nearby. No one would be forced to do anything here. I thought back to Jet. She had been kicked out of her town very young. I don't remember where I learned that from, but here she would not have had to leave. I missed Teigra, and I looked forward to seeing her again when we came together for the Land of Babel. I had something to ask her.

Ajax's Point of View
     I put my hand on Luna and let my power surge downwards through her. The Land of War was a shifting one, going suddenly from mountains to hills to plains to valleys and so forth. I felt bad for those who would live here. They would never cease fight unless they went to Babel. The Land of Unity was just a plain with a cluster of houses in the middle, becoming more spaced out as they got farther from the middle. I smiled at Luna. I really didn't need girls when I had Luna. I loved her more than anything. She had always been there for me since I saved her from drowning as a calf-pup. I looked forward to making Babel.

Colla's Point of View
     The Land of Permanence. The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of that was Ley. She would always be permanent to me. I made a swirling river of silver and black surrounded by a plain of green interrupted only by occasional splotches of orange. There were homes around the edges of the rivers. I looked to Marmalade. She was pawing happily at the grass. She was much happier here than she had ever been by my side, I could tell. I let her stay there to guard the souls who would live there as I turned and walked back to the middle of the now open throne hall with tears in my eyes.
     When I got there the others had already arrived. Ley looked over at me, worry coloring her eyes as she saw my tears. I shook her concern off as I wiped my tears. I'm fine, I mouthed to her. She just nodded. We all raised our hands. We created a land of green, orange, black and silver, of cooper and gold, white and a rainbow of countless other colors. They went well together, and I guessed they were a summary of the colors that were in the others' Lands. I looked at them when we had finished. I was looking for ward to ruling the underworld with them. I walked over to Ley and hugged her around her head. She wriggled out of my embrace and jumped onto my back.
     "I think I love you Athaleyah Diata," I whispered.
     "I think I love you too Shimmer boy," she whispered back. I watched as Ajax sat with Luna and Teigra played tag with Jay, Teigra collapsing into a giggling heap as he caught her and kissed her. I walked around the palace with Ley on my back. We changed it little by little, making it silver, black, green, orange, mercury, white, blue, and red; the colors of ourselves and our friends.

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Okay guys. This is the last chapter. But the story is by no means over. For the story of Jet and Sebastian from the Pod Teigra came from, head over to Hopeless Love. What do you guys think of me writing a new book in this world about the future of the world, about 500 years forward after Colla and the others come back into the world, based on the prophecy from chapter 8/part 9. Tell me in the comments. See you all Monday to check what you all thought of a possible new story. See you Wednesday in Hopeless Love. Love all you land sharks and thanks for all the support throughout this story. 0)