Chapter 578: For Rats, The Bell Tolls

Chapter 578: For Rats, The Bell Tolls

Narrator: The next day. It is now March 8th, Year 175. Less than half a year after the end of The Final Great Chaos.

*Zeth and Sasha are walking through a sparsely populated area of Hell and specifically in some woods*

Sasha: I heard it was around here somewhere.

Zeth: What exactly are we looking for again?

Sasha: It’s an ancient structure that nobody has successfully explored the inside of. With the conflict against Hell over, this gives us the perfect chance to explore Hell.

Zeth: Is there anything specific you are hoping to get out of this?

Sasha: Not really.

*Sasha stops walking and looks up. She smells the air and then she has a happy calm look on her face*

Sasha: This whole area just smells like home for me. I don’t know why.

*They begin walking again*

Zeth: Maybe it’s instinctual.

Sasha: Maybe. I couldn’t say for sure.

*They keep walking until they come across a temple-looking place that has a bell on top of it*

Sasha: This must be it.

Zeth: Why does it have a bell on it?

Sasha: I’m sure we will find an answer by exploring the inside.

*They walk up some steps up to the entrance door. Sasha pulls on the handle to open it and then they go inside*

*They are now in a decently-sized room that is a bit dim. They see a door at the other end of the room*

Zeth: There really isn’t anything in this room.

Sasha: There has to be some point to this room.

*As they walk toward the door, the floor below them opens up and they fall down into it*

Zeth: How many times have we fallen through a trap door at this point in our lives!?

Sasha: Too many!

*They soon land in a room with water that goes up to their knees. They almost immediately start to feel pain*

Zeth: What’s happening!?

*Leeches start jumping at them*

Sasha: They’re leeches!

*Lifting up their legs, they notice many leeches have attached to their legs and have torn through their clothes to start sucking blood. Other leeches start attaching to the upper parts of their body above their knees when they jump toward them*

Zeth: I don’t like this at all!

Sasha: Just try to get them off!

*Zeth and Sasha start swatting them off but more just keep trying to attach to them*

Zeth: It’s no use! We have to get out of this room!

*There is a path they can take, but as they move, they start to feel light-headed and stumble*

Sasha: We have to do something to get them off us…!

Zeth: Maybe this will work…!

*Zeth activates Raging Star Mode and the raging aura starts to harm the leeches. The harmed leeches start to fall off of Zeth*

Zeth: It’s working. I can use it to help you too, but it will cause you more pain.

Sasha: It’s fine. Just do it…!

*Zeth reaches his arm out to where the leeches are on Sasha and they start being harmed by the aura. Sasha also receives some pain. Despite the pain that Sasha receives, it succeeds in causing the leeches to fall off*

Sasha: Thanks.

Zeth: The leeches shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Let’s continue on.

*They continue walking through the path and eventually come upon a room that just has stairs leading upward. Zeth no longer has Raging Star Mode activated*

Zeth: Maybe this leads back to the right path?

Sasha: I would hope so. Those leeches were something else. No leech on Earth could compare to them.

*They start walking up the stairs. In the walls, there are rats (which have black fur and red eyes) that are salivating. They start sniffing and then start scuttling around. Zeth and Sasha have alerted expressions as they walk up the stairs*

*They then enter a room that is well decorated. There is a mural on the wall at the end of the room with an altar in front of it. The mural shows an undetailed woman with long black hair. There are undetailed creatures surrounding her*

*Zeth and Sasha start walking farther into the room*

Zeth: What does this place represent?

Sasha: I don’t know.

*The rats in the walls are starting to react to their presence*

*As Zeth and Sasha get close to the altar, rats start coming out of holes in the walls. They all line up on the floor and look like they want to attack Zeth and Sasha*

*Zeth and Sasha have turned around to face the rats and then start taking steps back which brings them even closer to the altar*

Zeth: That’s a lot of rats!

Sasha: I feel like they are saying something to each other but I’m having trouble making out what they are saying.

*The rats are about to attack as Zeth and Sasha are backed up against the altar. Sasha unintentionally touches it with her hands and then it starts to glow. The bell on top of the temple starts ringing*

*The rats calm down and are no longer in an attack stance. Zeth and Sasha look confused*

Zeth: What’s happening?

Sasha: I… I don’t know.

*More rats come out of the walls and line up behind the ones that were already out. The rats get on their hind legs and look up while they start making chanting-like noises. Sasha doesn’t know what to make of this*

Sasha: I don’t understand…

Zeth: Did you do something to the altar?

Sasha: No, I just touched it when we backed up. Then it glows, the bell rings, and they do this.

*The bell stops ringing. The rats then stop the chanting noise and start bowing down*

Zeth: Are they bowing? What is going on?

Sasha: I don’t think I have ever been this perplexed before in my life.

*The rats end their bowing and get back in their normal stance. They start making regular rat noises*

Sasha: Wait… I think I can understand what they are saying.

Zeth: You can?

Sasha: Yes. Give me a moment.

*Sasha stares intently at the rats as they make noises*

Sasha: They are calling me things like “Lord”, “Master”, and… “Creature Goddess”.

Sasha: My name is Sasha. I’ve never been here before. Why are you giving me those titles?

*All of the rats stop making noises. One rat comes forward and is now the only one making noises*

Sasha: I’ll translate what it’s saying. It just said “Perhaps welcome back is not the right thing to say. What we should say is welcome new Creature Goddess.”

Zeth: What does that mean?

*The rat makes noises*

Sasha: It said, “Just over 1 million years ago, the Dark Goddess of Hell had Dark Creature Magic.”

Zeth: But what’s the point?

*The rat makes noises*

Sasha: It said, “This is very significant. The name of that Dark Goddess was Nayturah. She not only had the ability to summon dark creatures but could also understand them as well as take their form. She came to be called the Creature Goddess or Creature Deity.”

Zeth: Which are all things Sasha can do… So then…

*The rat makes more noises*

Sasha: It said, “Sasha is the new Creature Goddess. The previous Creature Goddess was worshipped here by the dark creatures of Hell. She would come to this temple to meet with her dark creatures alone and when she touched the altar, it would activate and cause the bell to ring to summon them here. It only activates for the Creature Goddess.”

Zeth: Whoa…

*The rat makes more noises*

Sasha: It said, “We would be honored to serve you, Sasha, just as we did the last Creature Goddess.”

Zeth: If this is true…

Sasha: I would be glad to add more to my dark creatures.

*The rats seem happy*

*The main rat looks specifically at Zeth*

Zeth: What?

*The rat makes noises. Sasha then heavily blushes*

Sasha: I- I- It just said, “Are you the new Creature Goddess’s reproductive partner?”

*Zeth scratches his head*

Zeth: Uuuuhhh, if by that, do you mean are we in a relationship? If so, then yes.

*Sasha looks at the rat*

Sasha: Zeth and I are together, but you could have asked that with regular terms.

*The rat makes noises*

Sasha: It said, “We’re rats, the only other term we use to describe a relationship is mates.”

Zeth: Fair enough, I guess.

*The rat makes more noises*

Sasha: It said, “As a rule of this temple, only the Creature Goddess and her mate are allowed to enter. No one else is granted access. Is that understood, Zeth?”

Zeth: It’s not my temple so if those are the rules, I guess I can abide by them.

*The rat makes noises*

Sasha: It said, “I think you both should take a look outside the temple.”

Zeth: Okay…

*The rats get out of the way so Zeth and Sasha can walk through. They take a different door than the one they entered through. They exit through the main entrance of the temple. As they look, Zeth and Sasha both open their eyes and mouths in awe. They see many dark creatures of different kinds all gathered outside the temple*

Zeth: There’s so many of them…

Sasha: All here for us…

*The dark creatures start bowing*

*In an overhead view of the area, there are many dark creatures all surrounding the temple and bowing*

Narrator: The stunning revelation leads to Sasha gaining the worship of many of Hell’s dark creatures!

Chapter 578 END

To be Continued in Chapter 579: The Forest Terror