TU12. Arrival

The pungent stench of sulphur assaulted their senses, carried on a searing wind that ravaged the skin of the new arrivals. Aurora wrinkled her nose, letting out a low grunt of disgust. As if the oppressive heat weren't enough, distant, wailing screams echoed endlessly through the cavernous expanse.

Her shoulders tensed as she swept her gaze across the jagged ceiling, hundreds of metres above. Veins of green crystal pulsed within the rocky panels, casting an eerie, sickly luminescence. Yet, the glow wasn't uniform; to her left, a separate cluster of rocks burned with an amber-red intensity, like a roaring bonfire in the dark.

The passage ahead wasn't entirely empty. A few lingering souls wandered aimlessly, unable to move on to their final judgement. Dark, leafless vines clung to the chasm walls flanking them, funnelling their descent onto a singular path. The thick tendrils slithered and thumped against the stone, writhing like living black snakes.

"Either they keep moving to escape this stagnant air, or something will eventually drag them out. It’s merely an illusion of choice," Aurora pondered aloud, walking past the despairing faces of the damned.

"Coming from Elysium, you can rightfully say which is better."

Aurora paused, snapping her gaze to Thanatos. Her silent glare asked the question for her. Do you even have to ask?

The soil beneath her boots was unnervingly soft, leaving deep footprints as she strode through the grim chasm. After a stretch of silent trekking, a sudden draft swept over her. A bright, yawning opening of glowing red lay just a dozen steps ahead.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Aurora said. "I was starting to think Tartarus was designed to simply bore us to death."

"I can assure you, Empress, it is anything but boring," Thanatos replied smoothly.

"Still no demons, though... I expected some resistance by now," Aurora thought aloud. She unstoppered her Everfeast and took a refreshing sip. The oppressive heat had stopped bothering her, her body already adjusting to the harsh subterranean climate.

"Don't you worry about that." The Grim Reaper offered a chilling grin.

The pair arrived at a steep descent, where unevenly cut rocks formed wide, treacherous stair steps. Gusts of hot wind, like the blast of an open oven, blew intermittently, fluttering Aurora's cloak and hair. The passage narrowed, bordered by a sheer ten-metre drop into a river of bubbling, red-hot lava below.

Aurora peeked over the edge of the cliff. The rippling heat haze warped the depths into a hypnotic, shifting painting. It felt as though she had descended straight to the Earth's core, but she knew better. This wasn't a physical location on Earth; it was an entirely different layer of reality.

A distant shriek echoed from the only direction they could travel. Aurora frowned, her gaze locking onto a colossal megastructure ahead. It resembled a massive, wide-based tower wrapped in spiralling external ledges. Glowing rocks embedded in its walls at irregular intervals provided a dim illumination.

"The Furies..." Aurora breathed the words.

High in the upper reaches of the cavern, she spotted the hideous crones hanging upside down, clawing at the stalactites like giant, grotesque bats. It appeared to be their lair.

"Concern yourself not, Empress. They are only a threat to the wicked ones," Thanatos remarked. He floated higher, spreading his majestic black wings wide, as if embracing the foul air of Tartarus.

A bizarre, black chicken with a large red eye embedded in its chest emerged from behind a withered tree. It pecked mindlessly at the barren rocks, searching for some food. The dark vines from the chasm walls seemed to sprout their own twisted flowers here, and the dark bird pecked greedily at their seeds.

Aurora watched the scene unfold with mild amusement. The creature looked utterly alien, perhaps some demonic mutation. A fleeting thought crossed her mind, wondering if it was edible, but she quickly dismissed it. She’d stick to her Everfeast.

"I could fly up and search for Hypnos's cave, but I wouldn't even know where to look," Aurora grumbled, weighing her options.

This subterranean void stretched as far as the eye could see. She couldn't tell if the realm followed a planetary curvature or if it was entirely flat. The chaotic, rough terrain of ash dunes, jagged chasms, and obsidian mountain ridges offered no easy answers.

Giving up on the idea of flying blind, she gestured forward. "What is that tower, anyway?" She pointed at the looming megastructure a few kilometres out. Every lingering soul seemed to be marching toward it.

"It serves as the trade hub, living quarters, and prison for the dead," Thanatos smirked, his tone dripping with slight smugness now that he finally held information she lacked.

"I see..." Aurora watched the endless parade of the deceased shambling towards its gates.

"Shall I be your guide, then?"

"Really?" She eyed him sceptically.

"Of course..." He paused, his grin widening. "Of course."

Aurora gestured smoothly with an open palm. "By all means. Lead the way, Lord of Death."

Tall, stern walls funnelled the pathway towards a singular, imposing arched door. It was the entrance to the tower of the dead. An oppressive air of melancholy saturated the atmosphere.

The souls formed a tight, suffocating crowd, the brilliant light of life completely extinguished from their hollow gazes. This place truly looked like Hell — the very definition of eternal damnation. Sluggish lava oozed from glowing cracks in the ground, running like molten canals towards the tower's base.

Coughs, wails, and sorrowful murmurs filled every dark corner. A gaunt figure lay curled on the cold obsidian floor, clad in nothing but a few threadbare rags. Other souls shuffled past in a daze, so densely packed that they tripped blindly over his frail legs. The area was suffocatingly overcrowded.

Aurora waded through the sea of the damned. There were no guards, no demonic overseers, and still no resistance. Not a single soul cared about her presence, nor did they spare a glance for Thanatos.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Occasional fights broke out in the distance. In one instance, a female soul stumbled into the feet of a hulking brute, instantly provoking his wrath. Before Aurora could blink, the woman was on the ground, weathering a vicious hail of kicks and stomps. It was cruel and entirely unjust.

Aurora’s feet pivoted instinctively, her frame rotating to intervene, but a firm grip on her shoulder halted her. Thanatos's.

"Empress, we cannot save her. We cannot save any of them," the Reaper murmured, his voice devoid of warmth. "They are the wicked. Save them today, and tomorrow they will meet the exact same fate... This is eternal damnation. Your intervention will make no lasting difference here."

"I..." A bitter lump formed in Aurora's throat. She forced her fists to unclench. "You're right." She stepped back into line.

Thanatos surged forward, carving a path through the horde. The mere sight of his towering stature and imposing black wings caused the dead to scatter like autumn leaves, opening a clear walkway for the Empress.

A splintered wooden platform had been erected near the centre of the hub, just right of the main tower entrance. A hooded man in a tattered black robe stepped up to the makeshift podium, unrolling a parchment scroll.

"Denizens of Tartarus! It is I, Sixus, the speaker of this fine establishment!" His high-pitched announcement spat through a row of yellowed, rotting teeth.

The massive crowd stirred, pooling at the base of the platform. Shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, they pressed in tight. Every hollow eye fixated on Sixus.

"We are in need of fresh labourers! If you wish to earn a place inside the Tower, form a line at the front gates!"

A ripple of murmurs tore through the masses. Faces twisted into sour grimaces and sneers. Labouring appeared to be a deeply undesirable fate. Yet, trapped with no other viable options, hundreds of souls reluctantly dragged their feet toward the gates to queue.

"Where are the enforcers?" Aurora asked, keeping her tone hushed. "I thought the punishments here were actively dealt out by someone."

"In some cases, yes. But mostly, the punishment here is entirely self-inflicted," Thanatos replied. He pointed a long, pale finger toward the gaunt man shivering by the far wall. It was much easier to single him out now that the crowd had gravitated toward the podium.

Unlike the Asphodel Meadows in the upper layers, where food and water flowed in abundance, this grim abyss provided no such luxuries. The man was agonisingly starved and parched, yet his frail, spectral body lacked the strength to change his fate. He couldn't fight. He couldn't escape the cycle of torment.

And worst of all, he couldn't simply cease to exist.

The dead can't die twice, Aurora realised. She drew her lips into a tight, grim line. She finally understood.

"Death is a mercy," she conceded softly.

Thanatos lifted his chin, his golden mask glinting under the sickly crystal light. "Indeed." His single word carried the immense, crushing weight of a granite mountain. It was a rare moment of genuine sombreness from the God of Death, prompting Aurora to offer him a slow nod of respect.

"We have seen enough, Empress." Thanatos turned towards the right, his finger pointing toward a looming, solitary plateau in the distance. "The cave is that way."

"We're not going into the Tower?" Aurora asked, easily matching his floating pace.

"Clearly not," he clipped.

"You brought me this way just to show me that, didn't you?"

"You would be correct," he admitted smoothly.

Leaving the suffering behind, the two departed from the crowded hub of the Tower. The wailing voices of the damned slowly waned, swallowed by the subterranean winds.

They made their way along the ash-covered walkway, passing hundreds of makeshift tents. The miserable scenery simply repeated itself in endless loops. Aurora had to steel her mind, forcibly tearing her gaze from the unsightly views. Reminding herself that these souls were no longer living people eased her conscience, if only slightly.

A colossal metal gate, towering over thirty metres high, spanned the gap between two jagged mountains. One peak protruded from the ground, while the other jutted downwards from the cavern ceiling, fusing to form an impenetrable wall blocking the passage forward. The gate's surface was carved with massive sigils and runes — symbols so ancient that even Aurora, with all her cosmic knowledge, couldn't interpret them.

"It's unguarded?" Aurora asked softly, stepping closer. She ran her palm along the deep, thick grooves of a runic symbol.

"Hmm..." Thanatos offered only a low, unhelpful grunt.

Aurora suddenly missed the bubbly energy of Tachyon and the talkative nature of Aeacus. But knowing they had fulfilled their own objectives and crossed over safely, she couldn't be happier for them.

From that brief glimpse of Elysium, a fleeting taste of heaven, Aurora felt a profound sense of peace. Life after death truly existed. Goodness and virtue were not meaningless cosmic jokes. She stood for something righteous, and the universe recognised it. If only she could return to Cartier and the others right now to tell them about this mythical revelation.

"You seem to be brooding," Thanatos noted, breaking her silence.

"I'm not," she clipped, shaking her head and refocusing on the task at hand. She inspected the massive gates, searching for a lever, a handle, or a mechanism, but found absolutely nothing of the sort. They were just two monolithic slabs of metal, weighing countless tonnes, set on hidden hinges.

She pressed her hands flat against one side of the double doors and gave a firm push. Nothing shifted.

"It's locked," Aurora declared. The metal was as heavy and immovable as one would expect from its titanic size.

"You merely need to push harder," Thanatos suggested lightly.

Aurora blinked a few times, unsure if he was mocking her. Squaring her shoulders, she straightened her back and channelled her mana into her arms. With a mighty heave, she pushed against the heavy metal surface.

The monolithic doors groaned in protest before slowly swinging outward. Aurora and Thanatos slipped through the gap, stepping out onto the eastern side. Behind them, ancient metal mechanisms whirred to life, startling Aurora as the thick gates violently ground themselves shut once more.

The air was significantly chillier on this side, lacking the suffocating sulphur stench of the hub. Patches of dark, twisted greenery clung to the landscape. It resembled a volcanic barren, where nutrient-rich, dark soils allowed thin screens of hardy trees and thorny bushes to surprisingly flourish.

To her surprise, a slow, muddy river sludged along a low ramp to her left. Looking out from her high vantage point, she spotted the distinct glow of campfires and plumes of rising smoke in the distance. Someone else was out here in the wastes, and they clearly weren't bothering to cover their tracks.

Listening to the occasional monstrous roars and anguished wails that haunted the chill wind, a harrowing pattern repeated over and over. Aurora came to a grim conclusion.

This is someone's personalised hell.

"We are close, Empress. The cave is just under the foot of that tree," Thanatos said, gesturing forward with open palms.

"What tree?" Aurora asked. She squinted, seeing nothing but the towering plateau of grey rock. Its jagged peak reached so high it seemingly pierced the crimson clouds of the subterranean sky.

Thanatos merely smirked, offering no verbal explanation.

Then, her eyes adjusted to the sheer scale of the structure. The vertical ridges, the flaking bark-like stone...

"Ah... a calcified tree stump. I should have guessed," Aurora muttered, puckering her lips. Her deadpan realisation caused the God of Death to let out a low, raspy chuckle from deep within his throat.

"I suggest we fly the rest of the way," Thanatos noted. "The hike down looks to be rather treacherous labour, don't you think?"

Aurora gave a discreet nod and raised her hand, summoning Ventiff to her side. The shadowy, amorphous mass drifted out from the aether with terrifying majesty, solidifying into its massive avian form. She ran her palm affectionately along its giant, lethal beak, and the beast responded with a low, rumbling purr of pleasure.

Turning, she caught the intense, thoroughly unreadable stare of the God of Death fixed squarely on the beast. Her eyes narrowed in amusement. "Do you... wanna pet her?"

"Why, yes!" Thanatos blurted, answering almost entirely too quickly.