Chapter 168 - The Underworld

"...Tell me a joke Charon"

"Khaaarrrr..."

"Very funny. Your only good eye is leaking by the way"

"Khar..."

"That's a fashion statement? Huh, fair enough dude"

During our ferry trip to the Underworld, I'm now nattering with new best friend Charon and boy, he really is such a charm. If it isn't obvious, I'm getting extremely bored on this ferry ride...

There's not much to see other than this never-ending darkness that we currently float down, this cave hasn't exactly got much in the way of lighting so it's just down to me to do something, anything really. Might as well make some 'conversation' with the lich ferryman.

"Heh, are you actually understanding him Ikarus?"

"Of course she can't sis, just orangey doing orangey things"

"What? I can understand him kid, he literally just said you'd look so much better as a girl"

"He what!?! Erk, you're so irritating at times orangey"

"Kharrr..."

At least my stupidity always brings a smile to most of the party, as if I could understand what 'khar' means. It obviously doesn't mean anything otherwise we'd be able to translate it.

...

Eventually, after a painstakingly long time inside this dark tunnel, we finally come across a growing light at one end of the tunnel that shows the first glimpses of the underworld itself.

Like a world of pure beauty, this world looks like something out of a fairytale. Despite only really being able to witness the plains, trees and the river we float along at this moment, this place is as beautiful as the underground sanctuary we were just in.

The vibe and feeling of this place reminds me of those old animated movies created by that evil company that has the mouse mascot everyone knows and loves. Apparently, the guy the company is named after had his head frozen in order to be brought back to life someday, I'm not saying it's true, just one of those funny conspiracy theories that floats around.

Anyways, back on topic onto this cartoony looking Underworld region we're in, my best guess we've just entered the Elysium portion? The place of fallen heroes, heaven and everything nice about the world.

Ah, can't forget about the residents we can see from the boat, the floating souls or ghosts around the place make it feel a little eerie. They don't look or seem hostile, if anything it's like they can't even see us.

"Kharrr..."

Charon finds a suitable spot to stop on the river and points one his skeletal fingers away from the boat, pretty sure this is our stop so we all awkwardly get out and onto a grassy mound.

"Guess he's not going to wait for us then..."

Charon the ferryman immediately starts to row the boat back into the rocky cave we just came out of, had a feeling we'd have to find our own way out but this could be tricky. Unless I can just TP out, that seems like a pretty easy solution. Guess we won't be needing him after all.

"...Hey Geld, you have any idea where we need to go inside this place? I already know Dio will be held in Tartarus, but how do we get there?"

It's obvious us two are going to be taking command this trip, mostly because his master seems to know way too much and I'm an Underworld nerd.

"From what I've been told Queen Ikarus, we just need to find the entrances to the next regions. According to my master, heading down the Underworld is really easy, it's getting out which is the hard part. I'm pretty sure we've ended up in Elysium so we'll need to head through here, then to Asphodel, lastly onto Tartarus"

Three Underworld regions that are ripe for the picking filled with souls of the undead. I actually don't think there's any loot in these plains nor do the ghosts wish to speak to us living but this journey wasn't for something this tedious, or fun. We'll just try and get through here as fast as possible, speed running the entire underworld or something. I just realized Hermes would probably like me, I swear he's been down here before as well.

"Let's just hope we don't run into anyone who wants to kill us. I mean, it's inevitable but still"

"Heh, we really need to get you a red flag Ikarus since you keep jinxing things. Would a tattoo also work?"

"That's actually not a terrible idea Petra, I'm already a walking red flag so might as well get a permanent reminder"

"Uh huh... we'll be okay, right?"

(Zeki) "Why is everyone so worried all of a sudden? As if the dead can harm us!"

(Nathan) "I'm pretty certain they'll be more than just these souls about Zeki, the Underworld has to have deadlier things around"

"Nat's right, there must be powerful enemies ahead before we find my Lord. Hopefully, they're intelligent enough to leave us alone"

At least our party is willing and ready to go so the denizens of the Underworld await! As much as I'm brilliant at setting red flags, this time around I really don't care, this place would be a little boring if we don't wonder into something unique. The floating souls around here do basically nothing after all, guess it would be a peaceful existence after death but as if I'd ever want anything like that. Chaos is the way to go, actually mean being chaotic more than anything else. Not that void like state that's also happens to be part of Greek mythology.

'Let's get going then. I never understood why the Underworld was my favourite part of this, maybe it's all the death related to it...'

__________

"Really? Couldn't they have come up with something better? A big backless doorway that must work like a portal seems unoriginal as hell!"

"Heh, always love your moaning Ikarus but you're tempting fate again"

"Uh huh Ikarus, you're going to get us in trouble at this rate"

"You lot are too superstitious, as if orangey stating the obvious is going to be the direct cause of us getting attacked"

"My Lord has told me once about tempting fate and that it's sometimes better to remain quiet. Maybe that might help you a little Ikarus-sama?"

"Dionysus believes in superstitions Lotte? Didn't think a God would believe in something like that"

(Geld) "I'm erm, not really sure what to say"

After walking over a couple of hills and admiring the heavenly beauty of this Underworld region, we traversed a few hills and a couple of trees and have found this. I know that Geld said getting down is easy enough but to think the we'd be through Elysium this quickly, what's the entire point of existing if we're actually just going to speedrun this dungeon? I was beign saracastic earlier, at least let me have some fun down here.

Anyways, we all inevitably walk up to the closed door standing on top of a flowery hill and wouldn't you know it, Petra was completely right. I'm the walking red flag of the group but I don't care.

A blue womanly figure starts to rise from the ground and immediately, Zeki runs up armed with Ares's spear in hand trying to give her a quick stab but hitting an invisible barrier.

'As if that woman wouldn't have spawn protection dumbass, this world ain't that simple'

Anyways, might as well do a quick scan to see what we may be up against.

'Status'

[<Unfortunately Ikarus, status scans seem to be restricted inside this dungeon and Aesa is unsure why. The person forming ahead of us should able scanned but we're unable>]

'Really? Huh, that's pretty weird, any theories Aesa?'

[<Maybe the rulers of this place have added extra precautions? It's different to scanning Gods or unintelligent undead, we should be able scan her>]

"..."

Anyways, continuing on from Aesa's observations, the woman has now fully raised up from the ground and does nothing except staring blankly at us all.

Describing the women's appearance, she's blue skinned, red eyed and barely dressed at all rocking a simple bikini that could work as video game armour. I guess she would be considered a beauty as well, just maybe not in the humanoid conventual sense.

----------

---The snake doesn't exist! Figment of your imagination...

https://i.ibb.co/gjgsRDy/Alecto.jpg

----------

"Heya, erm... Are you guarding that gate or something?"

"..."

The woman just continues to stares at us making my question feel dumb as hell, I don't think she's being rude but I'm not too sure.

"Do you erm, speak or anything?"

"..."

Still no response, she doesn't look braindead but you never know. I think she understands me though.

"What about a name? That's a good starting point, right? You have anything we can call you?"

"Alecto"

At least it's good she understa-, wait, it's one of the fabled fury sisters! Play this cool Ikarus, don't be fangirling over an Underworld deity. It doesn't matter how cool or badass she looks, she'll probably try to kill us in a second.

The three fury sisters, or the Erinyes are basically just deities of vengeance and punishers of severe crimes. In all honesty, I can't go into great detail about their myths simply because they seem more comparable to a boogieman legend rather than actual mythology. It matters little what I've heard about them though, myths don't always translate directly into this world so best just move on and see what else the Underworld presents. If she'll let us pass that is.

"Can we enter the doorway behind you then?"

"No"

'Of course, things are never that easy'

"We kinda need to go throu-"

"No"

While she's rudely cutting me off, a snake starts to form from one her fingers and rapidly grows to an unnatural size. I'm not opposed to fighting with this woman, is just that I literally can't gauge her strength in the slightest. Pretty sure the sensing aura check inside this place is nerfed as well.

"Hey Geld, did your master mention who we may have to fight inside this place?"

"Sorry Queen Ikarus but he was lacklustre with the specific details"

Just judging from the fact that snake is getting bigger and bigger, all of us ready our usual weapons of choice, this is going to end in combat one way of another...

Zeki's the first to kick off the approaching combat lunging forwards with Ares's spear but it's obvious how much he neglects arm to arm combat just with how much he fails alone. Within a matter of seconds, the snake finds itself chomping down on one of his arms and refuses to let go.

"Fuck! Fucking bastard, let go of me!"

He manages to break free from the snake's grasp mostly because Petra's telekinesis sword art cuts its head cleanly off. That spear is a bad influence on him, mostly because Zeki's useless enough as he normally is. His only real use is fire and without it, he basically just becomes a passenger or bait. Well, can't forget those 'useful' planets of his but I'm trying to be serious right now.

Almost instantly though, multiple other snakes form from her fingers after losing the first, can already tell what sort of fight this is going to be now. Oh well, I've been longing for more intense battles, let's hope this delivers...

All us magic users, even including Ariza start to turn the hilltop into a fiery-beamy mess of magic coating all over the multiple enemies ahead of us. This seems as useful as a smoke screen but we still persist with this approach, at least temporarily.

Using the cover of our attack, both Nathan and Geld go to start cutting off some of the heads, Nathan using that broadsword of his while Geld uses his absurdly huge two-handed sword. Nathan aims his blade cleanly and precisely stabbing through the head of the one he's fighting. Geld just roughly cuts off the entire thing similar to how Petra does it, guess we've got two head decapitators in the party as of now.

It doesn't take long for us magic users realize the woman and snakes seem impervious to our magic so quickly change things up to be a little more melee based to deal with the last snake or two.

All of our party, now excluding Ariza go to pile up on the other snake while me and Petra fight together taking care of our own. In all honestly, there's not much to tell other than us lovebirds dispatching ours extremely easily especially considering we both can attack from range, both Excalibur's ranged cutting attack and Petra's sword art makes easy work of our prey cutting into the fleshy body almost in sync.

Even the other members of our party dispatch there's easily enough, albeit I'm pretty certain Zeki got bitten again. I guess he's the closest thing to a tank we have in our group so he'll be fine... probably.

Once again like this fight is starting to drag out, the fury seems to have endless amounts of these snakes as ten, yes ten, grow out from every single one of her fingers. This is starting to piss me off now.

This takes us all back a little and even ends up with me needing to backtrack a little being surrounded by three. Unfortunately, all the speed in the world isn't enough to avoid multiple snapping snakes...

'Argh! Status'

[Name: Ikarus | Species: Phoenix | Level: 578]

[Health 149,334*/166,666*]

[Stamina 74,821*/80,000*]

[Magicka 166,666*/166,666*]

[You currently have 2334 unassigned points]

'Oh, it wasn't as bad as it seems, think that's ten percent of my health though'

[<Warning, Ikarus has snake venom currently running through veins and will continue to drop until removed. Aesa suggests finding Ariza for help>]

'Yeah yeah Aesa, haven't got the time right now'

"You okay Ikarus?"

"Yeah Petra, it has more bark than actual bite. Still hurts a shit tonne though"

While Petra's overly worrying for my safety, I notice her sword art aiming for the neck of the fury Alecto but almost as if she has a forcefield around her, the samurai blade just hits air. At least that kinda confirms killing the snakes are the key to this battle but seven against ten of those bastards isn't an easy challenge. However, putting my dropping health aside, this still feels like an easy battle to win.

'Aesa, activate plot protection and star blaze'

[<Ikarus really can take unnecessary risks at times but Aesa will comply, both are now confirmed>]

Plot protection is simply because it'll freeze my health in place and star blaze since it's a decent ability but nothing too world ending.

Pretty certain Aesa's saying that because we just figured out those snakes have good resistance to fire. However, I've already proved once before that extreme resistance is still not perfect against star blaze, that shit basically consumes their souls. I'm so freaking cringe at times.

"I'm taking care of this so everyone, get back!"

Everyone does as asked so I hurriedly draw the attention of the floating snakes connected to the woman, now set to become the centrepiece while my ever-growing fireball grows within me. If this doesn't work, I'll just activate something else, I've already wasted my immortality for today.

"Fuck! Why the hell does that still hurt even with plot protection? This is such bullshit!"

[<Aesa never said anything about -plot protection- removing pain. This one is on Ikarus for assuming unfortunately>]

Snake bite after snake bite land against my body causing me unimaginable pain despite me trying to swinging madly at them all, definitely got one of two there but I'm basically a walking snake treat right now. At least I know for a fact my health will be stuck like this, hopefully this plan pays off as well.

My fireball starts to consume us all causing the snakes to let off hissing sounds and scaly skin to burn. At least it's good this plan of action will in fact work, albeit extremely slowly and painful like. Those fuckers won't stop snapping despite imminent death approaching, I'm continuing to widely swing my blades just hoping to stop them in said action. Visibility always sucks inside this ability after all.

All the snakes eventually burn up from the ability so once the fire dwells and visibility returns, I see the fury Alecto still standing unaffected from my hellfire causing me extreme disappointment. At least the snakes are now gone but still, as if that didn't harm her in the slightest. I guess there are creatures out there with complete resistance to fire like us but still, you'd think she'd share the same fate.

"Little unorthodox but... You are worthy. You may precede..."

Like how Alecto came into this world, she sinks back into the ground leaving our party victorious. I use that word loosely though considering how bit up I must look right now.

"Erk! That fucking snake bitch man! My arm is killing me"

"Stay still Zeki, I've got to get the venom out first"

Of course, Zeki's pissed we don't get to kill her but the rest of us are just happy that test is now over. Ah, I've still got that venom running in my veins as well, the throbbing in my shoulder is a stark reminder of how painful that shit is.

"Ariza, can you give me a hand as well?"

"Uh, of course Ikarus. Come here and I can heal both of you..."