Walking a little to the left, I waved my arms. “Hey, fucker! Over here.” I tossed the handful of rocks in its general direction and one landed on his hoof.
#BullsEye #OrMoreAccuratelyHoof
Its head snapped in my direction and I wondered how intelligent it was. Hyperion acted like it was basically mindless, so I didn’t expect much reaction.
“You’re dead, bitch,” it snarled at me.
My head reeled back. #ItTalks #OhShit #NotFuckingMindless
The beast launched off the ground and barreled right for me. A shriek tore from my lungs as I darted in a random zigzag pattern to try and confuse him. Okay, in reality all that happened was me twisting both ankles and collapsing hard to the ground. As my face nearly ate sand, I splayed my palms out to catch my fall, before flipping over on my back to face the oncoming threat.
The Ery’s wings were snapped out as he lunged for me, but in a blur of movement Hyperion was there, sunlight exploding from his palms, blinding the creature and me all at once. I knew what was about to happen, so I was able to pull my dusty and scratched arm over my eyes to shield most of the light.
A hissing screech rang out, and the light died down just in time for me to pull my arm back and see the creature stumble backward, temporarily without sight.
“You call that a distraction?” Hyperion reached down and pulled me up into his arms. “You nearly got killed.”
I shrugged as he set me upright. “Underworld flu got me all disoriented.” The damn symptoms kept coming and going, and I was probably dying.#GoogleDoctorMePlease
Hyperion grabbed my upper arm and coaxed me toward the portal, but as we got closer we both froze in horror. The Erynomus, flapping wildly and blind, stumbled backward right into the shimmering swirl and disappeared into level seven.
#Oops #WasThatInThePlan
“So, what exactly does that mean?” I asked Gramps.
Hype shook his head. “We just sent the Erynomus to level seven.”
Fuck. Cronus was on level seven.
“Well, let’s go!” I pushed forward, ready to run into the portal and save my man, sprained ankles and all.
Hyperion reached out and yanked my arm, pulling me back. “We just blinded the most powerful demon in the underworld after you called it afucker. Let’s wait a few minutes until it moves on.”
Fair enough. “I didn’t know it could talk, for the record. You said it was mindless.”
Hyperion shook his head, walking over to that water tree thing. “It didn’t used to be so switched on. A lot has apparently changed this time around.” He waved me along. “Come on. If you really feel flu-ish, it could be dehydration.”
Once again, my stupid human body was holding us back. Limping over, I took the twig he offered, gulping the liquid down my throat. As it sloshed in my stomach, my gut let out a loud growl. Apparently, we were hungry. “Any fruit trees around here?”
Hype frowned. “No human food until level four, and they're mostly for looks, apple trees and all that. You should be able to go a few days without food though…”
A. Few. Days? Did he have any idea what he just said? “Don’t ever say something that horrible to me again,” I choked out, while my grandpa just shook his head at me again.
“Come on, we should be good now,” he said.
With that, Hyperion waved me over to the spinning portal, our departure kicking up a bit of dust.
Chapter 3
The second we landed on level seven, the oppressive heat from five was back again. I gazed at our immediate surroundings, hoping the Ery demon wasn’t about to take our heads off. But other than a few hoofprints in the black rocky sand, there was no visible sign of the demon.
The stench of sulfur hit my nose as I took my first step and a pool of lava bubbled up near our feet. This wasn’t the only lava either; I could see shoots of red in the distance, some as high as a hundred feet in the air. The oppressive heat was starting to make a lot of sense.
“Gods, this is exactly what I imagine hell is really like,” I muttered to Hyperion.
He nodded. “This is Hades’ masterpiece, depicted in most retellings of the underworld. It’s a truly vile place.”
#UnderstatementOfTheYear #BackAlleysOfNewYorkCityWereVile #ThisWasHell
