Birger Age. (3)

** Birger's POV**

They wanted me to make a choice. The human mind is a feeble thing. The only reason I lasted this long as a human was because Malum had been erasing memories. Now… it wouldn't work.

I had to make a choice. I had to become something other than human. Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, Angel… anything other than human.

I had terrified of the thought of… losing myself. Not being me, anymore.

I suppose I was no longer me at all though, Seeing as how I'm slowly becoming insane.

I had been seeing vision and hearing voices for the past month or so. I knew I was in a bad place but… I tried to push through it.

My entire body hurt. My eye burned. One of my lungs was collapsed. I could no longer feel my left arm. I was bruised and battered and my organs were completely damaged.

I had to make a choice… and so I did.

My life slipped from me slowly. I accepted it.

I was not dying, for I would be back here, and yet I still felt the pull of Anubis. He still held a grudge.

As I felt something tug against my being- against whatever I had in place of a soul- and I didn't resist it.

I turned to Malum with a somber grin. "I'll be back, I guess."

He nodded slowly, uncertainly, before speaking. "Very well, Brother. Be safe."

I turned to Lucifer as my eyes grew heavy. "How long… do I have?"

My eyes shut before he could answer.

Underworld, here I come…

The underworld was much different from what people thought. There was Hades, Hell, Irkalla. They weren't names of the different hells, rather, the names of different sections of the Underworld that different pantheons ruled over.

I awoke with a gasp. I sat up quickly and noticed my body had been healed. In front of me was a red river that stretched for miles. There was dessert everywhere, surrounding the river. The sand was a dark grey and it didn't seem like there were any structures or vegetation. I stood up and heard something slosh within the east side of the river.

It was a boat. A man was laying down inside of hit with his head hanging off the side. He had a piercing that was attached from his left ear to his bottom lip, connected by a chain the swing with the movements of the boat. His darkly tanned skin shone from the heat of the sun.

"Aken!" I shouted at the man.

He awoke with a grunt and lifted his head up for a moment. He turned his head around while leaning against the edge of the boat with an arm.

"min 'anti?" He said while looking at me.

He spoke Arabic. I sorted through my memories for a moment, trying to recall the language before speaking.

"'ana... Birger. laqad jit liliqa' 'Anubis" 𝘐 𝘢𝘮… 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘳. 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘈𝘯𝘶𝘣𝘪𝘴.

He shook his head in confusion before yawning. He stood up and picked up a paddle. He swung the boat next to me and I hopped on quickly.

"Odd that Charon or Mahaf did not alert me of your arrival." He said slowly while looking into the river.

I nodded. "It was a last minute decision. I'm also not a soul."

He continued staring into the river. "But you are here, no? You are not alive, you are human, you are in the afterlife. If not a soul, than what?"

I stayed quiet at that. I didn't have an answer for him. I wasn't in my body, rather it was a form created from my consciousness that looked to be my body. I've never really thought about it before.

Make no mistake, I am not dead. This is simply one of the many places I visit whilst my body is… broken beyond repair.

The last time I came here, my body would not heal. I had to give Anubis an offering in order for him to heal my body, otherwise I would be stuck in a non-functional body for eternity.

Aken pushed a paddle into the river and started rowing. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, being in a place meant for the dead while not being dead. It felt unnatural. Wrong.

The seconds turned to minutes. Then hours. We rode along the River Styx for a while, before I saw the other river's environments meet in the center.

There were 5 rivers that flowed within the underworld.

Styx was a red river surrounded by desert. The river Styx is the most famous and the main river of The Underworld, circling the it seven times thus separating it from the land of the living. In Greek, the word Styx means to hate or abhor. The river was named after the nymph of the river, a daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, who was said to live at the entrance of Hades and to have prehistoric roots in Greek mythology. According to Herodotus, the river Styx originates near Pheneus and flowed out of Oceanus, the great river of the world.

Homer used to call Styx "the dread river of oath", since Zeus used a golden jug of water from the Styx to settle disputes among the gods. The water of the river is also where Thetis dipped her son, Achilles, with the goal of making him immortal, although forgetting one of his heels. Cerberus, a terrifying three-headed dog, which Hercules fought during his final labor, waits on the further side of the Styx where Charon lands with the shades of the departed.

Cocytus was a blue river that had ice that hung from the shore of a barren tundra. The river Cocytus, also known as the River of Lamentation and Wailing, flowed in a deep cavern in Tartarus. According to Homer, the river was a branch of river Styx and flowed into the river Acheron, on the other side of which lies Hades. If any of the souls of the dead had not yet received a proper burial or could not pay the necessary fee for their transportation, Charon refused to ferry them over, and the riverbank of Cocytus would become their wandering grounds, where they would cry and scream for eternity. This was also the river where the punishment of murderers took place.

Phlegethon was a river of fire, directly to the left of Styx, and had a desert biome like it. The River Phlegethon was also called the River of Fire because it was used to travel to the depths of the Underworld where the land is filled with fire—specifically, the flames of funeral pyres. The river leads to Tartarus, the place where the souls of the dead were judged and where the prison of the Titans was located. The Roman poet Vergil used to describe the surroundings of the river: "With treble walls, which Phlegethon surrounds/Whose fiery flood the burning empire bounds." Plato also described it as "a stream of fire, which coils round the earth and flows into the depths of Tartarus".

According to a later myth, the goddess Styx was in love with Phlegethon, the god that dwelled in this river, but she was consumed by his flames and sent to Hades. Eventually, Hades allowed her river to flow parallel to river Phlegethon, thus reuniting with her lover once more.

It was all bullshit. Styx, like Karma, is quite frankly, a bitch.

Acheron was a river that was a mix of brown and green water, which was surrounded by a lush forest. In some myths, Acheron is considered the principal river of the Underworld, displacing the Styx. The river was also known as the River of Woe or the River of Misery, and it was believed that the ferryman Charon used to transport the dead across the Acheron from the upper to the lower world with his boat. The Roman poet Virgil also called it the principal river of Tartarus, from which the Styx and Cocytus both sprang.

In Dante's Inferno, the Acheron river forms the border of Hell, while Homer described Acheron as the river into which Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed. The river flows near the ruins of the Necromanteion, the oratory of the dead, while Plato, in his dialogue Phaeadon, identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world, excelled only by Oceanus.

The final river, Lethe, was a yellow river that… was surrounded and a mix of black and white fog. The word Lethe actually means oblivion or forgetfulness, since the waters of this river erased the memories of the dead in order to make them oblivious to their earthly existence. The word is also related to the Greek word Aletheia (truth), which through the privative alpha literally means "un-forgetfulness" or 'un-concealment". The river takes its name from the Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness and daughter of Eris, who watches over the river. It was also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness) and flowed around the cave of Hypnos, the god of sleep.

Each river had its own purpose. Styx being the main river used for transportation of souls, while also being used as a form of oath when drank.

Cocytus being the river for the sinners, wether they were murderers or simply couldn't pay the 'fee.' They would be stuck for… well, forever, most of the time.

Phlegethon was a river of fire that went directly to the Christian hell. It was used as a way for the people that are stuck in Cocytus to repent for their sins. Most would relive their life's worst point until they regretted it with every fiber of their being. The ones that could afford the toll typically worked as a sort of secretary for a few years.

Lethe was used for the ones who had traumatic pasts that couldn't be healed. They would drink the water and forget their past. It was also used if a soul wanted to go through with the process of reincarnation.

As we approached the center of the underworld, where the 5 rivers met and joined as one, I grew anxious. It was always an odd sight, seeing a desert meet with a frozen tundra that had spikes of ice that rose hundreds and thousands of feet in the air. Seeing that lush forest that connected to a black and white fog.

It looked like a crossover of Minecraft biomes, for gods sakes!

Yeah, I play games too! I didn't live under a rock, y'know!

The rivers also led to different areas of the underworld. This was the main area, Duat, where the Egyptian pantheon reigned supreme.

We finally reached the center, I saw a familiar island that sat between the 5 rivers. The water surrounding it shone like a rainbow. On top of the island sat a large scale.

The Scale.

The Hall of Judgment.

When a person dies, they come here, first. Their heart would be weighed against a feather of Ma'at, The goddess of truth and justice. The heart was the seat of the life spirit, Ka. You likely know of it as your 'soul'. The Weighing of the Heart showed the gods wether you were kind or sinned beyond redemption. Hearts heavier than the feather of Ma'at were rejected and eaten by Ammit, the Devourer of Souls.

I had never taken this test before, as I do not have a soul. I am glad for that, in this one instance, because I will never see pure truth about the things I've done in the past. The things I regret.

The scale was a simple looking thing, aside from it being 10 feet tall. The three golden chains hung from a pulley system and connected to two flat metal plates on each side. On the right, there was a single silver feather. Ma'at's Feather.

A man walked from behind the scale. He stared at me as the ferryman rowed to the shore of the small island. His golden skin shone in the sun. His lean body led up to the head of a jackle. A canine-like creature that was dark as night. He grinned at me, baring his teeth.

As we hit the shore I hopped of the boat and strode forward. I stopped in front of him and he opened his arms wide.

"Birger! So good to see you again!" His voice held a slight accent. "You are here to pay your dues, I hope?"

Anubis. The ancient Egyptian god of death, the afterlife, mummification, the embalming process, funerals, and cemeteries. He was a vain god.

"No." I said simply. "I've come for something else."

His grin slowly faded but he kept his teeth bared. "You are a man of your word, Birger Age?"

It was a question that was more of a confirmation.

"I am." I said. "You will get your due."

I looked at the scale for a moment before turning to him. I gazed into his eyes and saw death. It did not scare me.

"I need a ride to helheim."

Anubis grunted and shook his head. "Very well… on the condition that you pay your due within a year."

I grinned at him. "Make no mistake, Anubis. You will get it. Sooner than you think."

He huffed. His canine nose twitched. "Very well."

He turned to Aken. "'ahdarah 'iilaa alnuwris." 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦.

"Mafhuma." Aken responded. 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥.

I stepped back onto the boat and Aken started rowing. I heard Anubis' voice from behind us.

"I will have your life, Birger Age." He said. "It will be very… enjoyable."

I ignored him as Aken rowed. Soon, we were in the river of ice, Cocytus.