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The blessings of Athena, Ares and Zeus were with him. Stygius thirsty for action even after the rough path the prince had to follow to reach the Bone Hydra. Winning the guardian of Asphodel a second time before moving on, treating his wounds at the fountain as he proceeded to walk past the lava filled area into the small Underworld paradise… Elysium.
Everything there left an impression on the prince, from the blue and green hues to the chilly air the area had… More so, the encounter he had there during his last attempt, an old friend who he had treated harshly only to feel awful afterwards. Shaking his head, Zagreus pushed himself to the next room, a sweet Dedalus upgrade coming up for Stygius if he managed to beat the brightswords in the room.
They moved fast and so did he, his footing as swift as he could manage with the small help from Hermes and his boons, which he picked up during his endeavors through Asphodel. He had managed to clear the room, effectively, swiftly too, not even damaged by traps but not unscathed. He truly hoped for a fountain room next, or Charon’s shop since he did have some coin to spend for a healing snack. So full of hope, Zagreus walked to the two doors that would signal his fate and the Dedalus hammer in front of them. The sword in his grasp shuddered and the prince himself did some tests, slamming his blade down to create two shock waves instead of one, bigger in range too thanks to his last picked up upgrade.
Much to his dismay, his hopes of a resting spot afterwards were drained the minute he laid eyes upon the possible passages. One orb above the well structured doors showed a lightning bolt, Uncle Zeus’ blessing resting behind that one, while the other one held a nice coin reward. Feeling his pockets, Zag decided that his obols were enough for his Elysium visit and even beyond that, after all he had barely spared any, mostly dashing past the shops laying in his way beforehand. So, with a deep breath, he decided to enter the passageway that his uncle was hiding behind… Little did he know what awaited for his arrival.
Not only the room was layered with traps on every wall, even on the start and end of the two bridges that connected the areas of the place, but it even had a bunch of enemies waiting on stand-by too! Everything from greatshields to longspears to strongbows, they all started attacking relentlessly from all the sides and the prince was seriously trying to keep up with everything, Stygius only helping so much in combat without his knock back effect, making Zagreus regret his previous upgrade choice.
But… He did it! He won! He managed to reach the next doors! And yet… There was no reward, no blessing to his disposal, no boon for him to choose. That is when it dawned on him, he must have missed one… And right he was. Suddenly he saw a spear flying towards his chest, but he was too slow to react, too hurt to get his reflexes working. The blade of the weapon already sliced through his heart, the spear vanishing the minute his body hovered off the ground, the minute his body was dead.
Zagreus knew that feeling, it was well known to him now that this is how death felt like, or at least the closest thing immortals had to the mortal sense of death. He couldn’t open his eyes, he couldn’t move his limbs, he only felt himself floating into a nothingness of an abyss… And soon he started hearing whispers. They were deep voices, audible as if they were right next to his ears, telling them to let go of all hope, of all the will to live and fight, to let go of everything and just return back to the House where he ‘belonged’.
Soon after the voices the hands followed, bloody red hands spurting up from darkness, Zagreus couldn’t see them but he could feel them. They gripped everywhere, his legs, his arms, his chiton and sides, everywhere they could to pull the prince down into the running waters of Styx. That wasn’t all, it was in addition to the piercing pain he had in his heart, as if something pierced through it once more to just drown him in the desperation of his loss and defeat. It was at that moment that he opened his lips, screaming an inaudible message.
“PLEASE STOP! LET ME GO! I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK! I WANT TO KEEP GOING! BLOOD AND DARKNESS LET ME LIVE!”
Surprisingly, someone heard his screaming plea, someone who ‘happened’ to be close by, someone who was in charge of death itself. With his presence there the voices ceased, the hands stopped their furious gripping, withering slowly back into darkness. A clawed hand gripped the blood piercing through the prince’s body and broke it, letting it spill down in the abyss below without any traces. His golden eyes still shadowed by his hood and yet, bright as ever looked down at the figure of Zagreus, pain lingering in them as he held the corpse in his hug. But Thanatos could feel it, he could feel the power of his mother combined with Zag’s own. With that surge of will and energy, the God of Death could only smile and breathe life into the body once more, vanishing soon after, not lingering for his old friend to see him or even catch a glimpse.
Once Zagreus opened his eyes, a huge surge of adrenaline rushed in his veins, causing him to dash straight to the fallen warrior of Elysium and slice through him multiple times. He found himself doing the same to his leftover soul spirit, which tried to reconstruct using what little to none power it had left in it. Moving to the passages once more, Zagreus accepted the blessing of lightning in his step from Zeus but something felt different. Looking around the room, the prince of Underworld noticed something, some purple butterflies flying around and about, mainly around where he had once died. Placing one flat palm on his chest, Zag took a very deep breath, grasping reality once more. A small smile rested on the prince’s lips as he chose the next door, one with a centaur’s heart and when the known ‘Guh-dong’ sound rang in his ears he knew… He knew that Thanatos had something to do with him defying Death himself, but they would have time to talk about it back home… Now Zagreus wanted to win against his old childhood friend and try to reach as far as he could!