Lord of the Underworld

The bone scythes crashed down, the impact shaking the floor.

Liviana dove beneath the first sweeping arc, rolled, and shattered the skeleton colossus’s leg bones with a savage rake of her claws.

But the fragments crawled back together, while the next strike was already sweeping down like a scythe.

“The bones are just a shell! Hit the core, there!” Tairaku shouted.

Deep in the ribcage, behind the interlocking bones, lay a clutch of skulls, pulsing blue like a heart.

Findergwyn loosed two arrows in the blink of an eye.

The first blew the chest open, exposing the glow; the second punched into it, the light guttered, then flared back with a shriek.

The colossus recoiled, ribs snapping shut again in a jagged cage, bone plates sliding across one another as if to shield the pulsing core. 

“Go for the core, again and again!” he cried, shifting as dust rained from the vault.

Right in front of the second colossus, Meiruna planted her feet, fingers outstretched, lashing his chest with bolts of frost.

"Kekkai shugo!"

The colossus shrieked, bone scythes whipping out in a wide arc. 

Tairaku yanked her close; his barrier flared to life just in time, caught the strike, shuddered under the weight, and shattered into glowing shards as the blade recoiled.

“That was damn close. Be more careful!” he snapped at his sister.

A dull rumble rolled through the hall; a slab tore free and smashed down beside Findergwyn, bursting into shrapnel.

“If we don’t finish them soon, this whole place will collapse!” he called.

“Then let’s end it quickly!” Meiruna shot back, drank an Essence, and sent wind blades knifing into the heart cluster of the colossus’ chest.

Findergwyn’s arrows followed in the same heartbeat.

A piercing scream; the blue in the skulls that formed the heart went out, and the whole body toppled like a mountain of bones.

“Yaaay! One down already!” Glizzy cried in relief.

The second colossus froze, dust sifting from its rib arches, the core in its chest pulsing slow and heavy.

“Something’s not right,” Tairaku muttered.

No sooner had he spoken than the loose bones around them began to crawl, dragging themselves toward the giant.

“Oh noes…” Glizzy whispered.

Before their eyes, the survivor absorbed its twin, ribs, skulls, vertebrae sliding into place.

It swelled to twice its size; its arms became four immense scythes that clawed at the ceiling.

The glowing heart vanished behind new plates of bone.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Liviana snarled, teeth bared.

Dust swirled through the air, bones scattered across the floor, and the roar of the battle shook the very walls.

---

On the far side of the gate, the tremors carried through the stone.

Rocks slid from the ceiling, but no one moved.

Every gaze was fixed on the Lord of the Underworld, who had appeared only moments ago.

Hades.

Lucius stepped in front of Melissa, his gaze locked on the figure in the half-light.

“What do you want?”

The god studied him for a moment, impassive, before he answered.

“What I have always wanted.”

Hades clasped his hands behind his back; his voice was quiet, yet every word rang like judgment.

“Freedom.”

He stepped closer, unhurried, each stride even, as if he had all the time in the world.

“Since the dawn of time, I have watched over the Underworld. While the others scheme and wage wars, I keep order. I ensure the dead remain at rest.”

“And you’d rather be like them, meddling in other worlds, playing games? Is that it?” Lucius growled.

The corner of Hades’ mouth twitched, no smile, just patient irony.

“It isn’t a matter of preference. I’m bound to my task by a divine mandate. Those chains can break only one way.”

His gaze cut to Melissa.

“Through a successor. A regent. A new Lord of the Underworld. Or a Lady…”

Melissa’s heartbeat quickened.

She had stood silent, only staring. 

And suddenly she was the little fawn again, the one who had once stood at the gates of his Realm of the Dead.

Lucius caught the god’s gaze fixing on her.

He turned to Melissa, shocked, then back to Hades.

“You can’t mean…?”

“Who else?”

Hades’ tone was matter-of-fact, almost mild.

“She already carries divine power, the gift of her former patron, whose domain overlaps with mine more than any other’s. Chthonios.”

Then he turned to Melissa, who stared wide-eyed before finally shaking her head. 

When she spoke, her voice broke:

“Never… I will never be your tool."

Hades remained unmoved.

“You despise us. And yet, who better to keep order than one who despises the gods?”

Above them, a stone block crashed from the vaulted ceiling; dust sifted down, while the battle’s roar beyond the gate thudded dully through the hall.

Hades lifted his head slightly, then looked back at Melissa.

“You hear it already. Everything here is coming down. A decision will soon be inevitable."

Another tremor ripped through the hall.

Stones clattered from the walls; cracks spread like dark veins across the skulls set into the masonry.

Beyond the gate, thunder rolled, as if a storm of bone and iron raged there.

A bone-rattling crash made the doors shudder, while their companions fought on against the skeletal giant.

"One wonders what will crush them first, the bones, or the collapsing stone."

Hades left the question hang.

"We have to help them!" Melissa cried, starting forward, but Lucius held her back.

“Wait, stay here!”

A resounding blow against the gate shook the hall.

Melissa spun, hearing their screams, feeling the despair inside their voices.

“They can’t hold out alone!” she gasped.

"No," Hades said, cool as a stone.

At the next thunderous impact, she tore free of Lucius, took two steps, already shifting to join the fight.

Then a slab of the ceiling gave way above her; Lucius reacted instinctively.

“Watch out!”

He yanked Melissa aside, shoving her clear with all his strength.

A deafening crash, and the world exploded in dust and pain.

When Melissa blinked again, she was on the ground, half-buried under rubble.

Her heart lurched. 

Lucius lay beside a shattered pillar, his chest torn open and bleeding, every breath a tortured rattle.

"Lucius!” 

Her voice broke as she shoved the stones off and rushed to him.

He struggled to keep his eyes open; a faint smile played on his lips.

“…I told you to… watch out.”

“No… no, no!” Her hands trembled as she tried to close the wound, but blood poured through her fingers.

“An Essence! Quick, from your belt!”

But the vials were shattered, their contents seeping into the floor with his blood.

“The threads draw together,” Hades intoned, as if delivering judgment.

“In the end, you will choose what was always inevitable.”

He raised his hand; a casual gesture, and beyond the gates, the skeletal colossus collapsed as if its strings had been cut.

It crumbled to dust and the rumble died; only fine sand and chalk still trickled from the vault.

“The dead have served their purpose,” Hades said, without a flicker of feeling.

“They should rest,” he added coldly, casting a contemptuous glance at the fallen Yashari priest, “not be used as weapons.”

His gaze dropped back to Melissa, who was still desperately trying to staunch the bleeding.

“So,” he sighed, “time for the inevitable choice.”

Melissa froze.

“With the power of the Underworld in you, you could pull him back from death’s grip,” Hades continued. 

“All it costs is your assent.”

“No!” Lucius rasped, coughing blood at his lips. 

“Don’t… do it.”

She pressed her forehead to his; tears mixed with dust on her skin. 

“How… how can I lose you after I’ve only just found you?”

His breath rattled; his fingers were cold in hers. 

“If you do this, I’ll lose you,” he forced out.

“And if I don’t, I’ll lose you too,” she answered, her forehead against his, knowing he would soon succumb to his wounds.

He tried to smile. 

“Then let me go. You… stay free.”

Her gaze flickered. 

Freedom.

Is Freedom staying unbound, or choosing to protect what I love?

Hades’s voice cut in, dry: 

“He has minutes. Perhaps less.”

Melissa dug her fingers into the dust; her look wavered between despair and fury, then fixed on Hades. 

“What must I do?”

Hades’s eyes glinted cold. 

“Simply repeat after me.”

“I hereby swear to take up the regency of the Underworld, the Realm of the Dead.”

Melissa repeated, her voice shaking.

At her words, a cold current spilled from the portal, drifting through the hall; the blue flames in the braziers shrank.

“I swear to guard the paths of souls, to keep the gates and thresholds, and to turn unrest into rest. I accept the burden without crown, without glory, only with duty...”

She echoed him, and a deep thrum reverberated through the stone.

At last the god lowered his voice.

“…for as long as I reign there.”

Something unseen tightened around Melissa’s chest; she closed her eyes, tears streaming, but spoke the words: 

“…for as long as I reign there.”

The air quivered as the portal flared.

An invisible seal closed around her heart, and a surge of power flooded into her, cold and alien.

Lucius’s eyes fluttered open, barely conscious. 

“No… Melissa… you mustn’t…”

But the oath was already spoken.

Behind Melissa, the air split wider into a pale, ragged seam, the remnant of the dark portal the book had pried open, the gateway to Hades’s, to her realm.

Violet sparks flared out, dancing like falling stars around her body, lifting her and wrapping her in shadowed light.

Her horns cracked audibly, retracting and spiraling out anew, longer, more elegant, as if carved from ebony. 

The old break sealed; both horns now burned with fine runes that ran like links of light.

Shadows swirled, fluttering like torn veils, then settled into new lines around her form. 

Black garments closed tight around her, clasped with gold at shoulder and waist.

The hall shuddered, the air vibrated, and yet in the midst of it Melissa seemed the still center of a storm.

A new goddess was born.