After recovering some of their energy, Alex and Achilles were ready to resume their passage through Tartarus.

As expected of a god’s regenerative speed, Alex’s leg muscles were fully healed by now. Nonetheless, Achilles, could not move his arms anymore and fighting was out of the question for him.

Looking around, he noticed they were in a very similar tunnel to the one beyond the doors of the Inner House.

As they walked around, the air was thick and humid and sweat had stuck to their skin, making any sort of movement quite unpleasant.

The dark tunnel was only dimly lit by the torch that was almost extinguished in their earlier fighting and the humidity of the air wasn’t on their side, hence they could only perceive what was directly in front of them.

Fortunately, the tunnel this time was shorter than the one from earlier, and soon enough, the diameter of the tunnel gradually increased until they found themselves in a similar room to earlier.

They would be cautious this time, having grown aware of the dangers of Tartarus.

Shining a torch onto the walls of the room, they noticed it consisted of the same unbreakable, black and glossy material that was found in Cronus’ prison.

As the air was a bit dried here, the torch ignited more intensely and the more intense flames unraveled their location.

*Tak* *Tak* *Tak*

As he was discussing with Achilles, they started hearing sharp sounds, reminiscent of a woodpecker’s beak coming into contact with trees.

There was also a sour smell diffusing in the air.

“It smells like….iron, copper and other metals….” Alex listed.

Achilles stated “It’s blood. The smell of dried blood in this place is sickening.”

*TAK* *TAK* *TAK*

The noise was getting closer and when Alex saw its source, he threw the torch into the air in fear.

When the torch hit the ground, it seemed to react with a flammable substance and the entire place was now brightly lit.

There was a man, if you could even call that a human.

His…Its eyes were blood-red and ghostly, as if all of the ocular blood vessels in there were ruptured and bleeding.

The skin of the ‘man’ was not normal human skin but instead formed a hard gray crust, like calluses all over its body.

On the man’s feet, ‘he’ was wearing shoes, but unlike normal shoes, these were the colour of lava, like you heated up metal in an industrial furnace. They were emitting nasty fumes into the air and made it hard to breathe.

The ‘creature’ was…dancing around in those shoes.

As if it wanted to speak, it opened it’s mouth, but instead of teeth and a tongue, it was just a bloody gorge.

Alex wanted to vomit at the scene and even Achilles looked uncomfortable, turning around to avoid seeing this.

The flames blazing through the room also revealed something else.

On the walls of the chamber, they discerned engraved writing.

Alex tried to decode the script and came up with “Pontifex of Medena, the clergyman who partied endlessly while his knights massacred those who did not believe in his cult. He pretended to be a god and was thus sent to Tartarus. To fulfill his wishes of becoming a god and partying eternally, he was given Ambrosia and burning shoes to dance for all eternity, healed to full health every time his body could not hold on.”

As he read through, Alex’s face turned blue and sweat dripped down his forehead.

‘It’s…terrifying. Is this how they punish souls sent to Tartarus? Cronus’ punishment looks like a playground compared to this’ He thought to himself with his hands covering his mouth.

Under the text, there was an additional note written in blood, dried blood that had turned brown.

“Be afraid of the Furies. For we will punish you in Tartarus as you have punished the mortals and the undeserving.”

As he was reciting this line, Achilles told him “Alex, let’s get out of here.”

“Yes.” He was still traumatized, although this pontifex seemed to deserve this fate of his.

The flames that ignited earlier began to slow their combustion, and extinguished as fast as they ignited, rendering the room dark again, perhaps for the better.

There was a door to leave the chamber, and they rapidly exited the room.

They were back in the tunnel.

Achilles was rubbing his glabella and quietly spoke “I knew we would see terrifying phenomena in Tartarus…But I just didn’t expect…This…”

Alex nodded.

With their shock receptors now on overdrive, they quickly ran through the tunnel.

The next room was also as traumatizing.

“The king who enjoyed luxurious banquets while his population suffered from starvation. He would be given no food or drink in Tartarus, and his hunger would only continue to increase as eternity passed.”

Once again, there was the same quote in dried blood under this note.

On the floor of the room was a man, who didn’t look one ounce like a king. He was so hungry he started eating his own insides, and he didn’t have a lower body anymore.

Alex couldn’t handle it anymore and vomited, his stomach turning weak at the scenes he’s just witnessed.

Achilles also looked a bit disoriented, and they made sure to quickly leave the room.

When they were in the tunnel again, Alex stated “I don’t want to continue anymore…”

Fighting was one thing, but the mental anguish caused by this gore was entirely something else.

Achilles didn’t pay no heed to his words and continued walking, although each of his steps was slow and reluctant, indicating they felt the same about this.

Alex followed along and concluded he would need some rest after this was over.

The next room was as excruciatingly horrible as the rest.

“The Executioner who cut the heads of the undeserving. He shall have his own head cut and re-stitched a trillion times and every time, get the glory of seeing his own beheaded body.”

The two sprinted out of the chamber and into the next.

“The one who lied to the gods. He shall have his every limb and member cut up, starting from the least vital to the most vital. And when is on his deathbed, his body is to be re-stitched for the process to start again.”

They weren’t in a mood to spectate this at all as they left the room.

The chamber they found themselves in afterwards was different.

Instead of the usual, they seemed to be in the insides of a temple. It was entirely constructed of black marble and thick pillars served as the foundation for the structure.

The temple was also brightly lit by wall torches that blazed with green flames and showed that there was nothing happening here.

No tortured souls, fortunately.

There was, however, at the other side of the temple, a staircase that led up to an unknown location, and just as they were about to explore it, the sounds of someone coming down the stairs alerted them and they halted.

Three ‘women’ came down from the staircase and stopped in front of them.

They looked like normal humans in the sense that they had ordinary hair, skin and facial features but their other attributes were nothing short of monstrous.

One of them had a large number of eyes everywhere on her body, and the eerie thing was that each eye held a pupil that followed their movements in coordination with the other eyes, shaping into a horrifying orchestra of sorts.

The second one, had, instead of fingers and toes, sharp knives, and she somehow looked like the most normal out of the three.

The last one was bleeding endlessly from every orifice of hers, dying the ground a deep red.

The three all started laughing in unison, and Alex backed off.

Achilles also looked nervous too.

“We’re the Furies. Welcome to the realm of us, three sisters. How do you like our little creations and torture methods?’ They all asked in unison, as their voices eerily merged into a singular voice.

‘They’re the Furies? The ones who derived all of those punishments? No matter how deserved those punishments were, people who can brainstorm such things are, for sure, very deranged people.’ Alex reflected.

As none of the two gave the sisters a response, they giggled and then spoke “Lost your tongues? Well, that’s the reaction we want!”

They continued.

“We were instructed to give you free passage, but we weren’t advised anything against playing some games with you before letting you go…”

Alex and Achilles glanced at each other, both of them getting a bad feeling and gulping.

“If we have to fight, I’ll instruct you on what to do.” Achilles ordered him.

Alex nodded, as beyond his speed advantage, he really wasn’t the best at fighting, one time almost losing to a mortal.

He put aside that shameful memory and got into a battle-ready pose.

The Furies noticed their little discussion and exclaimed “HAHAHAHAHA…..YOU REALLY THINK YOU’RE GOING TO FIGHT US? WHETHER YOU’RE DEITIES, MONARCHS, TITANS OR MORTALS, ALL IS POWERLESS AGAINST US IN OUR DOMAIN. WE HAVE OTHER WAYS TO DEFEAT YOU THAN FIGHTING, WEAKLINGS!”

The three sisters then held hands and an unusual pink fume started spreading in the air.

When the fume reached the two and was inhaled into their lungs, Alex felt his body and eyelids turn heavy and Achilles was in the same predicament as him.

The two then collapsed.