“Runes are the language of the world, crystallized into symbols that allow a proper wielder to bend phenomena to their will, as long as they are properly inscribed…” I scratched my head as I recited the lines from the magic book I’d gotten from the Quest.
The reward was a simple black, leather-bound book with no text on its cover. I could tell it was old just from the feel of its pages. The words inside were written in Runes unironically. Weirdly, even though the symbols never changed, I could somehow read the book as easily as plain English. It was a cool magic trick, since it seemed to ignore my dyslexia.
I’d hoped I could learn something before taking my literal trip to Hell, but it was probably stupid to assume I could learn magic in half an hour.
“Lucky if I understand any of this in ten times that,” I muttered, slipping the book back into my backpack.
A soft ringing came from my pocket.
Guess this is it.
Who would’ve guessed there was an entrance to Hell hidden in some random town in Massachusetts?
I pulled the gemstone from my pocket. It gave off a faint orange glow in my hand. As I slowly walked forward, the ringing grew louder and louder.
Until, finally, I just knew I’d reached it.
I stopped in a small clearing deep in the woods. There was nothing around me except trees and bare dirt.
…Was it broken?
I’m gonna be pissed if this was a freaking—
The scent of magic filled my nose as blue light spread across the ground. Symbols began to form, and the glow expanded into a circle around me.
A literal magic circle had manifested beneath my feet.
I crouched and touched the ground. Despite the strange symbols and glowing light, it felt no different from ordinary dirt.
The stone hummed in my hand, and I felt a faint pull toward the circle.
“Guess… I’m doing this.” I tightened my backpack and gripped the stone firmly.
“To Hell and back,” I muttered.
I pressed it against the circle, and the next moment I was gone.Thankfully, unlike my past two experiences with teleporation it wasn’t nearly as violent.Once my eyes adjusted, I realized I was standing inside a cave. The magic circle beneath me was the only source of light, but it gave off enough of a glow to reveal the mostly empty space around me. Its walls were nothing but normal brown stone.
I’d expected brimstone or fire, but I could work with this. The cave’s only unusual feature was a pool of water that appeared to be the only exit.
Well, I guess I know why Loki sent me now.
I set everything aside except for the stone, the paper, and my holy knife. Then I stepped into the water.
It felt right.
I’d always loved swimming, even before all this. But this was completely different. The instant the water touched my skin, my body felt a thousand times stronger. It took barely a second before I disappeared into the depths.
My body shot through the flooded tunnels like a jet. There was no light down here, but I could feel everything as clearly as if I had my eyes open.
Stalagmites, boulders, sudden dead ends—I flowed around them with ease. The currents bent to support me, twisting around my body as I dodged each obstacle at the last possible second.Faster, I could go faster! A boom thundered through the water as I finally burst from the tunnel. Sand and dust exploded around me while I shot into the open like a torpedo.I found myself in a huge lake.
The water stretched so far I couldn’t see the other side. A dim green glow shimmered through the depths, cast by clusters of strange plants rooted along the lakebed. Schools of fish drifted aimlessly through the light. Even they looked strange, with bright shifting colors, oversized eyes, and fins that seemed almost translucent.
One red fish slowly swam up to me, staring with wide, unblinking eyes.
I held out my hand, and it drifted closer until it hovered just inches from my fingers.
“Do you have food?” it asked.
…What?
“You can talk?” I asked, baffled. “Wait… I can talk!”
Weirder still, my voice wasn’t distorted at all underwater. When I opened my mouth, no water rushed in either.
Was this another one of my weird demigod things?
“I’m a freaking fish whisperer…” I stared at my hands in awe.
“What does whisperer mean?” the red fish asked blankly.
“Uh, nothing. Forget about that.” I pointed around the lake. “Do you mind telling me about your… home?”
“Of course, sir.” The fish’s face didn’t change, but its voice somehow sounded excited. “There is no one here who knows these waters better than I do.”
So I proceeded to have perhaps the weirdest conversation of my life.
The fish mostly talked about random things. The best sunspots. Which patches of kelp made the most comfortable resting places. Which parts of the lake had the tastiest moss. I guess even in the Underworld, fish had pretty normal priorities.
Thankfully, it wasn’t all useless fish facts.
I pointed south. “That’s where the food comes from, then?”
“Yes, sir,” the fish said, swirling excitedly through the water. “When the first light comes and when the light ends, food falls from above.”
“I see. Thanks, buddy.”
I gave the red fish a little pat. It spun in place, seemingly thrilled, before swimming away into the green haze.
After that, I slowly started searching the lake while making sure to stay near the bottom and away from the feeding area. Best not to get caught by some Devil fisherman. My demigod powers made exploring pretty easy, at least. For the next few hours, I swam along the lakebed, weaving between the plants and sand.
It was actually kind of nice.
It reminded me of going to Montauk with Mom.
For a while, it almost made me forget why I was here.
Then a burning sensation flared across my chest.
I jerked to a stop and pulled out the paper. It had lit up with black light, dark lines spreading constantly across the page.
Success?
That wasn’t too—
A foul scent reached my nose.
It was the most rotten thing I had ever smelled. Worse than the trash heap. Worse than New York City on its most disgusting summer day. Worse than anything I should’ve been able to smell underwater.
The lakebed suddenly began to shake.
A pressure settled against the back of my skull.
It felt like the overwhelming presence I’d sensed from Loki or Mr. Strada, except for one key difference.
This was evil.
An eye opened at the bottom of the lake.
It stared back at me with pure hate.
666.
My mind instantly conjured those numbers for some reason.
The paper in my hand shot forward before I could stop it, streaking through the water and sinking straight into the eye.
Then it started growing.
Flesh and limbs burst outward in a chaotic mess, twisting and forming with no thought for shape. Wet, pulsing meat unfolded from the lakebed like some horrible meat spaghetti
That was my sign to run.
A scream reverberated through the water behind me as I swam away at full speed.—Sona frowned as she stared down at the chessboard.
She was sitting at her favorite table, overlooking the Sitri lake. Her family’s lakeside manor had always been a pleasant place to go whenever she was upset. The fond memories of training here with her sister helped keep her grounded.
“Ah… I told you not to worry about those stupid dummies, didn’t I, Sona?” a melodious voice said from behind her.
Two hands reached around from behind and grabbed her cheeks as her sister draped herself over Sona’s back.
“I am not pouting.” Sona shook her sister off before turning to glare at her. “I am merely… thinking about the comments and advice my peers offered regarding my academy plan.”
Serafall Leviathan yelped as she fell onto the ground.
She was wearing a magical girl outfit, because of course she was.
“Mo~” Serafall floated up from the floor and draped herself over Sona’s shoulders again. “You know they only said those things to be mean. Being willing to accept advice is good, but those noble brats weren’t trying to help you. Their ‘advice’ was just meant to put you down. You can’t let it get to you, Sona-chan.”
Sona logically knew her sister was right.
Still, that did not erase the sting left by the sheer amount of ridicule her academy proposal had earned her. At the same time, trying to focus on that with Serafall around would only leave her more exposed to her sister’s shenanigans.
“How are things in Foreign Affairs?” Sona asked, changing the subject.
Serafall’s face sank into Sona’s back as she groaned. “...It’s going.” Her sister chuckled darkly. “Had a little chat with Azazel recently and made some progress, at least. We’re one step closer to not trying to kill each other twenty-four seven.”
“I’m hearing a ‘but’ at the end of that.” Sona reached up and patted her sister’s head.
Serafall melted into the touch before sighing. “The Old Satan Faction is making itself a super-duper pain in the butt, as usual. And as if that wasn’t enough, Hades is pissed.”
“Did someone try to forcefully recruit one of his reapers into their peerage again?” Sona frowned.
“Thank Satan, no…” Serafall shook her head. “We don’t know what has him so gung ho, but I’ll figure things out. You know I always—”
A roar rang out from the center of the lake.
The perfectly still water frothed violently as a titanic monster of red flesh exploded from the depths. Just looking at it made Sona’s head ache. Its body twisted and writhed, too large and too wrong.
Ice instantly raced across the lake.
The giant waves froze in mid-surge, locking into jagged walls of blue-white ice before they could crash against the shore.
“Sona.” Her sister’s face was blank. “Go inside. Now.”
An ocean of demonic power swelled around Serafall.
Then she disappeared faster than Sona could blink.