Chapter 54

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I awoke to the sound of Hyperion moving again, this time closer to my humble home, which meant it was time to move, once again, "Fucking oversized simp," I muttered, hastily jumping out of the bed to gather my belongings, among them, my grimoire, my diary and my sword.

My diary contained a detailed recap of what I had lived inside this hellish prison so far, from day one to today, it was a therapeutic way to deal with the horrors of this realm, horrors I would try to downplay to keep my sanity, no food… acid water, and everlasting nightmares… this place was designed to drive anyone inside insane, and to a point, I think the prison had done its job, and while I loved to tell myself, I was not crazy…. Well, I now had a higher killer count than Hitler.

I could feel their pain, every time I closed my eyes, and at the same time I didn't care, I don't know how that made sense, but it was what it was, "Alright," I sighed grabbing my stuff, running out of my cave, for what I could feel Hyperion was close, too close for my liking, I still had nightmares after our first brief encounter, he was too strong for me to handle… for now, I estimated I would be able to fight him in about two hundred years or so if I continued to consumed souls at the pace I was going, but for now… I had to run.

As I ran through the greyish ground, I felt two strongly familiar presences approach in my direction, Hestia and Hades…. Could it be? Had they come to break me out of here?... no, remember….

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[85 YEARS AGO - TARTARUS]

I remembered that day… the day the nightmares started to take forms… forms that could hurt me, I woke up to find Hestia, Artemis, Apollo, Hades, and Persephone in my home at the time, I was elated… and did what I had wanted to do for years… hugged them, they had come for me… but I soon discovered, Tartarus likes to give hope… so then it can later crush it.

They were all fakes… illusions tricks this prison was used by taking information from my mind, since that day… I have lost count of how many fake Hestias I have killed… how many fakes I have eliminated to keep my mind at ease, and the funny thing is… it pained me to do so… I wanted them to be real…

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"I have to admit… this time, Tartarus is going all out for me," I whistled, their presence felt… real, more than the last attempts this prison had done to break me. Perhaps the punishments were simply evolving as I grew… this place was after created to break anyone… so it's only safe to assume, it will stop at nothing to break me.

I inwardly smiled, as I ran through the volcanic wastelands… that one would think they were a landmark, but they are not… they just pop out whenever they feel like it, anyway, I ran through the volcanic wastelands towards the fakes… if there was one thing I was not going to allow this fucking prison was to break me… at least not more than I already was.

Boosting my already abnormally high speed with mana, I reached their location in a few seconds, where I stood above them, looking down from a cliff, "Hello there," I greeted, a somewhat cynic smile on my face, the fake lookalikes turned their gazes upon me, shocked… well that was new, normally they would start trying to remind how much of a failure I was.

"Adam…." the Hades fake, muttered in shock… "I can't---" I couldn't accept this… this insult, to what I once loved, and still love… so I cut his already predictable speech about how I should give up with a violent mana blast.

To my surprise, the fake deflected the attack with ease, his face showing concern, "I'm impressed, it seems this time behind this cruel illusion there is a real warrior," I chuckled.

"Adam… how many have you killed…." Hades asked.

"Fake, you couldn't possibly fathom the amount of dead bodies behind me," I replied darkly, jumping to the ground level, "Now… let's skip the chat where you tell I should kill myself, and go straight to the part I break you two apart," I snarled in disgust.

"Adam…." The Fake Hestia cried, this only added salt to the injury… they felt so… real.

"I'm sorry…" Hades muttered and moving faster than I could see trying to punch me, these fakes were strong… stronger than me, but I was not going to leave until I killed them… no illusion would torture of them would torture me.

"No!" Hestia screamed, grabbing Hades by the wrist and stopping his attack before it even reached me, "No…. he has suffered enough…." there they were again… her tears.

"Remarkable," I laughed, "I must admit this place sure know how to keep my on my toes," I didn't know why... but I found myself crying, tears falling down my cheeks… "Now… you will have to either k--" I was stopped when I saw Hestia moving faster than I could possibly defend myself against, but instead of attacking me like I had expected, she hugged me… her hug felt warm, protective, yet fierce and sad.

"It's okay…" Hestia whispered to my ear, her voice carrying more sadness than it should be allowed, how could they make her fake break out of character, she is supposed to always be happy, "I'm here," she added in a soothing tone.

"I… this is not fair," I cried, this was not fair, using her image... Why was this place doing this to me… THIS WAS NOT FAIR!

"Everything will be alright," Hestia soothed, "I won't let you suffer down here anymore,"

Well…. Tartarus had finally done it, well done… it had broken me, tearing what little of resolve I had left… as I hugged what could be my end in tears, it seems I wasn't as strong as I thought I was.