Chapter 21: I'll Take You To The Underworld

The cave entrance loomed over us, looking like a giant maw more than anything, with massive stalactites hanging down its outer rim. It was enormous and it had to be, considering that it had to be large enough not only for the path we would be traveling down but also for the river that ran alongside it. It looked foreboding but honestly I was mostly glad we wouldn't have to squeeze down narrow tunnels. Aside than hearsay I didn't dare trust I knew very little of the monsters we would be encountering on our way down but I did know that whatever we would find I wouldn't want to encounter in narrow tunnels.

The worst part was that while I had a bit of an idea of what could be found in the actual underworld, this cave was a liminal space, not part of the surface world and not quite part of the underworld either, and such a place would house things that would be bizarre to both worlds. Of all the places I'd ever been it was the closest thing to uncharted territory I'd ever entered and I was more than a little nervous as a result. But still, I did my best to keep it together, trying not to freak out and worry any of the others.

Yume and Selene seemed most on edge, which made sense if both of them associated the underworld with evil gods, but Athena seemed nervous as well. She didn't know how powerful we were so as far as she was concerned she might as well be walking towards certain death. That wouldn't be scary to one of the Olympians normally but in this case if she died she would just reappear on Olympus, where a squadron of goblins probably stood ready to grab her if she showed up there.

Anna and Alisha seemed pretty put together and I drew comfort from their surety. Both of them could probably send sharp-edged death hurtling at anything that stomped, slithered or scuttled out of the shadows, which probably explained why they were so calm. Then I remembered that I no longer had to just envy them for that ability and picked up a small rock from the ground. If I saw something dangerous I could just use a Qi Burst and throw the rock at it. The Qi Burst allowed me to throw small objects at roughly the same speeds at which the metal balls fired by dwarven muskets flew except the rock I was holding was about fifty times as heavy as one of those small metal balls and would be that much more devastating for it.

The weight of the rock reassured me more than I was willing to admit and I suddenly no longer felt so bad about this trip, a bit of a spring in my step as we slowly descended into the bowels of the earth.

The first monsters we found were less bizarre than I had feared, though no less pleasant for that. The ceiling above us had continued to rise as we descended and eventually it was a good thirty feet above us. At first I thought that to be a good thing until I noticed the stains on the ground and the awful stench wafting off them and chanced a look up. As I had feared, there were bats hanging up there. Except they weren't the size of normal bats. They were almost as big as us, with huge wingspans and maws big enough that their bites would be seriously dangerous and not just because of all the diseases they could spread.

I had some hope that we might be able to sneak past them but the moment we approached them one blinked its weird yellow eyes open. At first I was relieved they weren't orange goat eyes but then I realized that just because it wasn't a creature of the black goat that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

And then it shrieked, sending out a shockwave. The noise was painful and made all of us clutch our ears. Some of the looser stalactites fell from the ceiling and we had to scramble to avoid them, but that wasn't the true danger. No, the sound hadn't been an attack. It had been a warning cry that woke up the other bats. Dozens of them woke up and descended upon us.

With any other party I would have been worried. With this party of women I trusted with my life, though?

“Yume, field-wide Stupor, then Sen," I commanded. “Alisha, air lances to pick out the stragglers. Selene and Anna, keep Athena safe.”

Immediately Yume sent out a wave of light blue magic that made all the bats falter for just a moment. Not long enough for them to plummet to the ground but long enough for them to slow down long enough that she had time to use a Qi technique. She grabbed the hilt of her blade with one hand and the sheath with the other, then gathered her Qi for a moment and then pulled the blade out of the sheath and slashed forward in the same motion. Instantly a dozen slashes appeared around us in a dome, carving through all of the nearest bats. Before they even had time to rally Alisha sent out a dozen air lances. Once upon a time that would have meant she'd sent out a cluster of air lances to pelt an area but these days her fine control was much better and each of these dozen lances was targeted at a specific bat. All of them hit their target but not all of them managed to strike a killing blow, but I took care of the few survivors with a thrown rock and a swathe of fire from Helios Edge.

In only a few moments we'd gone from being surrounded by foes to being surrounded by corpses. I looked back to see Anna with two sapphire wings wrapped around Athena and Selene with her shield out guarding Anna's exposed back.

I was about to congratulate everyone for the good work but then I felt my instincts twitch. I picked up a rock, charged a Qi Burst, spun around and flung the rock, hitting another bat right between the eyes, which ended up popping its entire head like stomping on a tomato.

“How do you always know when something like that is coming?" Alisha asked. “I couldn't even see that one.”

I shrugged. I'd gotten pretty used to noticing things like that.

“Because he's a lucky bastard," Athena said. “I will admit though, that was very well done. Quick thinking and efficient fighting. I wasn't even able to lift a finger to assist.”

I shrugged again. “We have to at least demonstrate that we're worth the price you agreed to pay us.”

“True," she said. “I no longer feel quite so bad about promising you all those magic items.”

**

By mutual consent we ended up leaving the bat corpses behind, other than taking their fangs with us. Despite their size there was relatively little meat on them and none of us wanted to risk getting sick from eating it. Normally I wasn't too worried about that but those bats looked nasty and the fact that most of the bodies had landed in the carpet of their own shit on the ground hadn't made them any more appetizing. I was feeling quite smug about my decision to grab a few fishing rods back in the capital because the river running parallel to the path we were taking was not just a constant comfort but also a constant source of food and drink.

Once we'd traveled long enough that we were beginning to get exhausted we sought out a nice open spot and set up camp. We'd learned the hard way while going through the Crystal Crown's dungeon that exhaustion was the only reliable metric by which to judge when to rest. In that dungeon there had at least been an illusion of a day/night cycle but in the darkness of this cave there was no way to tell time. I was pretty sure Athena could have used that weird power of hers to tell us exactly what time it was but in the end it didn't matter much. We were too tired to continue and so we decided to rest.

It turned out that out of our entire party only Anna, Yume and I could fish and so instead of trying to teach Alisha or Selene the three of us who could do it sat down near the river and started fishing as soon as we'd set up enough of the camp that Selene and Alisha could do the rest. I had expected Athena to just sit by and watch but she actually did her part in setting up the tents and even helped Alisha chop some vegetables.

It took a good long while for us to catch any fish. Apparently everything in the river was carnivorous so only live bait worked at all. In the end we each caught some type of arapaima, long fish with tapered tails. They were quite rare on the surface, to the point where commoners would never eat them if they could sell them to some nobles instead, but right now they were the only thing we managed to catch and so we would of course be eating them ourselves. The three we managed to catch were each about three feet long, so even after our somewhat amateurish attempt at deboning them there was still more than enough meat left over to feed all six of us. I particularly enjoyed the fact that their scales were huge and thus very easy to remove, so we were able to eat them skin-on without having to worry about any of the scales getting caught in our teeth.

In the end we each got a fillet with some mixed vegetables Alisha had cooked in a small pan, the sweet and slightly crisp vegetables a perfect compliment to the rich fish with the crispy skin.

Despite Athena being there dinner conversation was rather relaxed, though I did notice Selene being a little bit subdued. So after dinner I sat down next to her.

“Mun for your thoughts?" I said.

She startled a little but then said: “It's nothing, I just...”

I waited patiently, not saying anything. It clearly wasn't nothing. Something was clearly making her uneasy.

“I understand that this Hades is apparently not a bad guy but going down to the underworld still feels weird. These dark tunnels leading down into a world of the dead right beneath our feet...”

“The underworld isn't that bad," I said. “I understand that with Hel being an evil monster assembling an army of the dead you're a bit anxious to head down there, but I assure you the underworld isn't like that.”

She looked up at me.

“Most of the underworld is just a place," I said. “A normal place where normal people live. The people are strange compared to the surface world, with fewer Wood Elves and High Elves, different types of beast-kin and way more Dwarves and Dark Elves, but they're just folk living normal lives. I mean yes, there's all those realms of the dead down there but they only make up a small part of the underworld.”

“Normal people leading normal lives?" she asked skeptically.

“Well, normal under the circumstances," I admitted. “Remember Shackled Hollow?”

She nodded. Shackled Hollow was a town we'd visited on one of our journeys, unique for being built on a rock disc floating above the ground and chained to the surrounding ground so it wouldn't float away. Underneath that disc of rock had been a vibrant and bizarre ecosystem of insects and mushrooms and from what I'd read large parts of the underworld looked exactly like that, to the point where I assumed that underneath Shackled Hollow the underworld had actually been abnormally close to the surface world.

“Kinda like that," I said. “The people down there live normal lives, they just do it in ways that seem weird to us. But don't worry, we'll seem just as weird to them once we get down there.”

“So it's not all dark tunnels full of monsters?" she asked.

“Gods no. We're not even in the underworld right now. This is a connecting place in between, like a road from one domain to the other.”

“Then it's not a very well maintained road," Selene said.

“True," I said. “I'm a little worried about those merchants that disappeared.”

“You think something got to them?" she asked.

“Possibly," I said. “There is very little literature on what can be found in these caves. For all we know there's a band of hobgoblins waylaying travelers down here.”

“Hobgoblins?" she asked. “What are those?”

“They're a type of goblin that's mostly found underground," I said. “They're bigger, stronger, paler and just as nasty as the normal variety. They don't like coming up to the surface so they're rather rare up there, but down here they're as common as the normal ones are above ground.”

“You sound like you've seen them before," she said.

“I have," I said. “I've fought two Dark Lords who had units of hobgoblins. They're much stronger and more dangerous then normal goblins but these days I don't think they'll be much of a threat to us anymore.”

“We have become rather strong, haven't we?" she asked with a smirk.

I smiled back. “Don't get too used to it. Sooner or later we'll find something that's still a challenge to us so we can't let our guard down.”

“Yeah," she said, then stayed quiet for a while before she said: “I'm scared of going to Olympus. An army that can subdue the gods...”

I nodded. “It will be scary," I agreed. “But if we can get the Heroes to help us then I believe we have a chance.”

“It's not just that," she said. “With all the help we're gathering I'm sure we can overcome the odds, but... If that army has goblins in it... The thought of what they're doing to those goddesses...”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Apparently I hadn't been the only one to realize it. “The best thing we can do for them is keep moving so we can free them as soon as possible," I said.

“Yeah," she said. “It's just... it reminds me of... back then...”

I felt my breathing hitch. Barely a week had gone by where I hadn't thought of the time Selene had gotten captured by the Dark Lord she'd been sent to slay. He'd tried to torture her until she was so ready for the pain to stop that she'd beg to have his goblins violate her. Alisha and I had saved her before it had come to that, but still. She had barely spoken of it, choosing to bottle everything up. But now it came spilling out. She was shaking. And I couldn't blame her. The thought of being helpless, being tortured, having to pray for rescue you couldn't even be sure would come...

I reached out and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close.

“I'm so sorry," I said quietly.

“We've gone over this," she said. “It's not your fault.”

“I don't mean that," I said. “I should have realized this would remind you of back then.”

She gave a rueful chuckle. “Not like you could have known what Athena would end up telling us.”

“Yeah, but..." I started but then shut my mouth when I realized what stupid idea I'd been thinking of.

“You were about to say I should have stayed back at the villa, weren't you?" she asked, annoyed.

“Yes," I admitted.

She sighed. “I can't even be mad at you because you stopped yourself before making that stupid suggestion.”

I didn't say anything.

“The best thing I can do to stop feeling this way is to keep moving forward. And letting you all brave this without me would have been the absolute worst thing I could have done.”

I nodded, chastised. “I still want to help you deal with it.”

“You are," she said. “You're here for me, with me. That's the best we can do.” She paused. “Well, there's something we could do to take my mind off it, but I don't think that's a good idea right now.”

I chuckled, then leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I love you, you know that?”

She smirked. “Yeah, but feel free to keep telling me from time to time.”

“As often as you need it," I said.

We stayed quiet for a while before she said very quietly: “You do know I love you too, right?”

“Of course," I said. “Why are you asking?”

“I don't really say it all that often," she said.

“You show me every day," I said. “Every smile, every little gesture. You don't have to say it. Trust me.”

She smiled at me. “Sometimes I forget how observant you are.”

“Why would you forget that?" I asked. “I think I'm pretty good at noticing things.”

She raised an eyebrow in extreme skepticism and then her gaze flicked over to where the others were sitting before it landed back on me.

What had that been about?

**

Later on we decided on watch shifts, which was actually pretty comfortable nowadays. With the five of us we could get away with each person taking a shift an hour and a half long and still be rested enough to get through the rest of the day. Of course that was assuming that Athena wouldn't join our shifts, but then...

“Why are you talking about five shifts?" the goddess asked. “There's six of us here.”

I blinked. “Don't tell me you're actually willing to take a shift.”

“Fuck you, Tailor," she said. “So long as I'm traveling with you I'll do my part. So, do we still make the shifts last an hour and a half?”

I considered. “Might as well. That gives everyone nearly eight hours of sleep.”

We discussed the idea of making four people take two hour shifts and alternating who would get to sleep in but in the end we decided against it for the sake of fairness.

And so I found myself taking the third shift and a very smug-looking Alisha had informed me that I had to go wake up Athena at the end of my shift.

Oh, I'll wake her up alright, I thought maliciously as I trudged off to sit near the fire.

It's kind of amazing how obsessed you are with her, Syr said as she appeared behind me, leaning her back against mine.

This again?, I asked, annoyed. Couldn't she just let it drop?

I'm just saying, she said.

Can you really blame me?, I asked. Everything I've done for the last ten years has been to spite her.

I could hear the raised eyebrow in her tone as she said: I'm not sure how assembling a harem of gorgeous women and railing them almost every day spites a goddess of wisdom.

I narrowed my eyes. Did I ever tell you you're a smartass?

The frequency has gone up dramatically since Athena gave us this quest, Syr said. But seriously, why are you so obsessed with her?

I hate her, I said. Seriously, with our history, can you blame me?

I would understand if you simply didn't care about her, she said. The opposite of love isn't hate, Felix, it's indifference.

I growled. How am I supposed to be indifferent towards her when she constantly gets in my way?

Yeah, Syr said, her tone even more smug now. Think about that one for a moment. Have you wondered why this goddess might be trying so hard to get a rise out of you every time you meet?

Because she just can't let my insolence go?, I suggested.

For being such a sharp thinker you really have a blind spot a mile wide when it comes to her, she said.

You can just come out and call me a blockhead, I said. Because I seriously don't get what you all are trying to tell me.

If you can't figure it out then it's clear you're not supposed to get it yet, she said. Don't think too hard about it, I'm sure you'll realize it sooner rather than later.

Awesome, I said. Thanks.

You're welcome, she said. Blockhead.

So, what about you?, I asked, trying to change the topic.

What about me?, she asked. I'm not obsessed with Athena.

I growled again. You know what I mean.

She sighed. Yeah.

So?, I asked.

It's weird, she said. The last few weeks I've barely been getting anything. I've seen brief flashes of what she's seeing but that's all. I'm worried she's taking over my body more and more.

I pressed my lips together. I hope not. But I do have another idea of what might be going on.

Yeah?, she asked.

Olympus isn't entirely part of this realm, I said. You can't just walk there, you need to travel there by magical means. So maybe you're having a hard time spying on her because she's out of phase with the physical world.

That might actually be true, she said.

So, those flashes you're getting, I said. What were they?

I wanted to wait a bit before I talk about it, she said. I want a bit more context for what I've seen, but I can speculate.

Please do, I said.

I saw mounds of glistening black goo, she said. The black stuff is piled on top of otherwise pristine marble, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's in Olympus. The black stuff looks very close to the flesh of a Dark Young.

So what, she's brought Dark Young to Olympus?, I asked.

Possible, she said. But they didn't seem animated enough. Even weirder, in another flash I saw her sitting on one of those mounds and with it I got a flash of accomplishment and satisfaction, as if she's proud of some sort of achievement.

Please don't tell me she's turned the Olympians into goo, I said.

I'm not sure, she said. I hope not, but right now I can't be sure.

Awesome, I said.

**

We talked for a while longer until my time was up and I went to wake Athena up. I was about to pull out one of my magic items, a whistle that made a disproportionately loud sound when blown, but then I paused when I opened the flap of her tent.

She wasn't peacefully sleeping as I'd thought. She was curled into a ball, clutching the pillow in her arms, and she was shivering as tears ran down her cheeks. I'd never really considered the situation from her perspective but as far as she was concerned all of her kin were being tortured or worse while she could do little but beg the mortal she hated the most for help. And I hadn't exactly been sterling company for her.

She deserved all of it for the way she'd treated me the last ten years but maybe she also deserved a bit of a break.

I gritted my teeth as I considered going easy on her for even a moment but in the end I decided to put the whistle away again. I told myself I just didn't want to wake the others up as I reached out and stroked Athena's cheek, wiping one of the tear tracks away.

She jerked awake in terror before her eyes landed on me.

“Time for your shift," I said, surprising myself with how gentle my voice sounded.

“Y-yeah," she said and got up. I pretended not to see the way she'd been crying and she seemed grateful for it.

I waited until she'd sat down by the fire before I headed back to my tent.

**

The next morning we made our way deeper down the cave. If everything went according to plan we'd be reaching the underworld proper before the end of the day.

On the way down the resistance we encountered kept growing. Giant insects, more bats, at one point giant fish-like creatures came out of the river beside us. There was nothing we couldn't handle, though the fish creatures would have given a normal group of adventurers some trouble. They'd been slippery and had tough hides and they'd used a natural basin to ambush us from, but none of that was enough to trouble a group like ours.

I was beginning to wonder if Athena even had combat capabilities at all because so far no fight had been tough enough to require her assistance. In fact they'd all ended before she could do anything. She'd almost summoned something that felt like a miracle against those fish monsters but by the time she'd finished charging it we'd already won.

By the sixth group of monsters the deep dark cave was starting to lose its terror and I was starting to think I'd been worrying for nothing when things went awry. We'd come to a fork in the road.

“Well, what now?" Alisha asked. “What does the map say?”

I kept looking back and forth between the fork in the tunnel and the map in my hands.

“We might have a problem, ladies," I said, my voice not as steady as I would have liked. “According to the map there's only one tunnel here.”