Chapter 8 Holiday at Elysium

We entered the launching area and met Candice. She was wearing the same armour but with a red scarf over her neck, probably to give it some groove.

"So, what weapon do you both prefer?" Perseus asked.

"Nothing in particular, just give me knives, I used them in gardening." Candice said.

Don't ask me why but I was pretty impressed by Candice. How she had related her gardening skills in this battle.

I was think about a weapon that would suit me but nothing came to my mind. Do I even know what I can use. I was looking at the armoury when a idea came to my mind. I was good at basketball and may it could help me with this.

"A do you guys have something to throw at long distance, I'm not talking about javelin but something heavy."

"Well I know something of that sort." Perseus ran to the armoury and brought out a wooden crate.

"Any idea on what he will get?" I asked Candice.

"Don't ask me" she said.

Before I could ask anything more Perseus returned.
"Go on open it." He said sounding enthusiastic.

I opened it and found a pair gloves in it. They were made of some metal I couldn't recognize and had something like a sling shot over them which was folded. I took them out and wore them on. They fit pretty well on my hands and the sling shot opened. It was more like a cross bow but extremely light.

"Wow, you can really lift the hands of hammer." Candice said

"What do you mean I can lift the hands of hammer?" I asked.

"Daniel, these gloves are made for only the people with strongest arms and it seems like you are one of them." Perseus explained.

"Since the stronger heroes use heavy swords and maces no one really prefers these."

All this explanation about them being heavy didn't settle with me cause if you ask me they were pretty light, just the weight of any regular glove. But I settled to ask about it later.

"So, how do I use them?"

"Its quite simple, you press the button to release the arrow while jabbing in the direction of aim."

"As you see it takes a lot of effort in fighting with them and eventually you get tired after sometime. But since it was easy for you then I think it suits you."

He opened the lower half of the box and gave me 2-3 dozen of arrows. He carefully inserted them into the the cartridge.

"Here you go, remember for regular arrows you need to push with index finger and for explosive arrows the ring finger. Use your thumb for opening and closing the crossbow."

"Alright that should be enough, let's go and join Theseus and Jason now."

He said it was enough but I had no clue that if I will be able to use my weapon.

We went to launching pad and stood on our place. The screen read 1 min to go before battle.

"Alright guys, we sneaked up on the other team and they are all planning to go for centre loot."

"That is great news, listen up this is the plan. Daniel you will support us with to your crossbow from the rear while the rest of us will go in front and ambush the fighting teams. Remember you can use revivals as arrows as well and hit us with them if anyone of us goes down."

"Sounds like a plan" I said trying to be cheerful.

The countdown started

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. Beeepppppppppp

And suddenly all of us were standing in a tropical forest.

"Let's take cover guys, near the center"

We started trekking towards the middle. It wasn't much of a view, just what you will find in regular tropical forest.

Did I mention that Jason had a really good sense of smell because he smelled a enemy who had been following us for a really long time.

The enemy hero wielded a dual sword and from what I could tell that was his favourite weapon.

Well its quite alright to feel embarrassed when I tell you guys I lost my cool and fired explosive arrows randomly in all direction expect in the direction of the hero enemy and gave up our location. We had to flee or others might have arrived.

"That was too close" I said panting after the long sprint.

"Daniel this ain't gonna work" Theseus said rudely.

"Cut him some slack would you, its his first game of tag" Jason said trying to cover for me.

"Sorry guys, its my fault, I know I have to steel up my nerves"

And that was end of the discussion and no one talked until we reached our spot. Luckily we didn't find anyone midway.

We all took our hiding positions, with me on top of a tree and others hiding behind different rocks or bushes.

In the middle was a crate that might have contained something awesome but none of us tried to go for it.

Then finally the time came when the first team arrived and tried to capture the crate and the second team invaded them. We waited for them to warm up and then I sent our signal by blasting a explosive grenade in the middle of battle field and everyone in my team charged.

Everything was going pretty much fine. Theseus and Jason were doing there back to back slash and hack thing, what surprised me was Candice attacking small group like an assassin and then hiding like she was never there. I don't know why but somehow Candice was more talented than I had thought.

At a point Perseus lost his sword and I thought things will start going wrong but he simply started fighting with his bare hands as if he never needed a sword
anyway.

I was constantly hitting my teammates with revives and we were doing great. I ended up using all my revives and we lost Theseus in the fight. Its obvious he didn't die or anything because we all are already dead. We finished of the last enemy and started wondering why the death match hadn't started yet. Just then an arrow came out of the right tree and hit Jason on his neck and he looked at it and smiled.

"Well seems like that is it for me" he said and disappear into dust.

And then the sirens went out and death match started.

What happened after that was quite blurry.
I remember watching a girl in full camouflage coming down the tree from where the arrow had come and walked over to the crate in the middle. She took out a staff with spikes at the end which gave me a feeling that I don't wanna get smacked with that in my face.

Perseus walked up to the girl and tried to talk to her.

"Hi, I know its not a fair fight. You can never win against the three of us at the same time so why don't you surrender" Perseus said trying to reasonable.

"Why doesn't anyone take me seriously?" The girl in camouflage said.

"Now you have insulted Sapphira the hunter of Artemis and you shall pay for calling me weak" she said.

And with that she smacked Perseus in the face with blinding speed sending him flying through the jungle.

Candice came to her senses and attacked. She was fast but not fast enough for the hunter. Sapphira took Candice's own knife and stabbed her in the abdomen.

I was too shocked to move but I tried to raise my hand to shoot. I sent a explosive arrow towards her.

After the dust settled I looked up, but she wasn't there. I saw a shadow pass over me and the next split second I knew a staff had impaled me right through my heart. I died  hearing the announcement that Sapphira was the winner of game of tag.

Well, so much for dying twice in a day.

Chapter 7 Holiday at Elysium

SIRI OF ELYSIUM

Yes, Elysium has its own AI(artificial intelligence). 

She is called Helen.

No, not the Helen of Troy; she is just Helen. Trust me, I almost made the mistake of asking her if  she was the real deal or if someone else is the Helen of Troy. Unfortunately a guy in our group wasn't so lucky.

"Of course I'm the real Helen of Troy" she shrieked shattering all our eardrums for eternity.

"You don't believe, do you?"

Well can't be helped boy, as a punishment you don't get your Ely-watch.(wondering what is ely-watch)

Just assume it as a regular smart watch but with awesome features like changing your clothes by selecting anything in the inbuilt catalog which is so big that even if everyone in Elysium started streaming through it,you will still be left with 90% of it even after a whole century. Pretty cool right!

Well then listen about this you can change your whole room's layout like you do in those simulator games. Also one more cool features of the watch are that you can join the matches.

The matches are basically lobies where you are randomly matched up with other souls and you can play either 1vs1 or team match. 

In the evening, we had a presentation where Thanatos gave us a lecture about all recreational activities we could do to pass our time in Elysium. Actually, most of us slept in somewhere middle as the list included 1,000 plus sports and mini-games.As we exited the hall we were greeted by a lively crowd, as if we were those popstars coming on to the stage in a concert. A banner hung upon us saying, 'Welcome Home Hero' and by the looks of it, I could tell no one had dusted it in a long time.After the welcome party, Cadence joined me and offered some random fruit punch. I didn't reply care but I took it.

"You know we can go for a match together" she said trying to start a conversation.

"Okay, what do you wanna do?"

"We should go for a match of tag which really popular nowadays" 

"Well if you say so"

I took out my Ely-watch and saw an invite saying Candece Grey wants to join me in a match for tag. I accepted and immediately we started vaporising into nothing. When I regained my conscious. I was in a room which looked liked those changing rooms that the footballers use with there jerseys hanging in the middle expect I had an armour over there. It had a black and red vibe to it. There were some more dudes in the room putting on their armour. I noticed some more types of colours. There was green and yellow, dark blue and grey, and camouflage.

I guessed that I should get ready as well. I picked my armour and noticed that I didn't know how to wear an armour. 

"New here fella?" a dude in same armour as me said.

"Let me help you with it" he had a big no huge body like the one you see in  WEE. 

"There you go all done, by the way my name is Perseus and you are?"

"Daniel" I said in a feeble voice.

"Here meet Jason and Theseus guys say hi to our new group member"

"Hi Daniel" they both said in unison."So Daniel I'm pretty sure you know the rules for the game." Jason speculated.

"Sorry but was I supposed to get a manual of some sort?" I asked biting down curses.

"Ok never mind that, they never give anyways. The rules are pretty simple, we have to hunt down the enemy team while they try the same. Each player will get a revive which you can use only on teammates. The final four surviving will be teleported to arena where they have to fight a death match and last one standing will win it for the whole team." Perseus explained. 

"Now what we want you to do is a bit different"

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Well, rather than fighting we want you to hide and scavenge the revives fromm falls n hero's and use it on us.

"So let me guess, you guys are trying to survive the match so that we have maximum members in death match, right?" 

"Brilliant Daniel, you are a lot smarter than I thought" Theseus said.Sirens went out and everyone got up.

"Party time boys, let's show them why we are called team NO MERCY" Perseus said.

"Holiday to Elysium" Chapter-6

COURTROOM?

As we entered the courtyard of Hades castle. I could here thunderbolts somewhere near by.

"Doesn't seem like mom is in good mood today". She said paying rather no attention to the black bolts. 

"Really?" I could not imagine the flower goddess causing  all this lighting (Hi I know you might be thinking that lightning is Zeus's stuff, my guess she is daughter of Zeus)

"Yeah, mom has issues with Uncle".

"Wait, what Uncle..... oh! I see".

Persephone must have demanded from Hades, to let her spend some time with her daughter on her birthday but since it was winter she could not visit her. So, to solve the issue Hades must have blasted Cadence to bits. Just another day in the life of a god.

As we reached the courtroom my ghostly spine started getting chills, i really didn't want to end up in fields of asphodel. Man I wish Persephone had given us same VIP pass of some kind to get us directly to Elysium. But seems like we are out of luck.

We entered the main hall and joined the other souls in the queue for getting over deeds configured.

Have you ever visited a court before? If you haven’t then it is great, because you wont like this once I tell you the details. Just like the train the courtroom of underworld was no exception. When we entered I saw 3 dudes sitting on office chairs, wearing formal clothing with VR headsets on their eyes. A display over them gave me glimpse of what they were watching but I didn’t understand a bit. The video was running so fast that my mortal brain(cough… sorry dead brain) couldn’t process it. From what I did saw was a first person video probably of the soul who was now standing in square box. After about 5 sec the guy in purple shirt removed his VR

“I don’t approve him for Elysium” he said

“Same goes for me” the one in white

“Alright the decision is done he is going to fields of asphodel, for stealing a jam bottle in grade 1 and not completing his homework on day 4/5/2016.” 

The poor soul was dragged out by guards, it tried to resist but in vain and was thrown into to the fields of asphodel right in front of us

(Really, you are sent to fields of punishment for not completing homework. Dude I’m so screwed)

Well it just hit me, these guys are the judges of courtroom in the underworld. 

Minos, and some other random names that I don't remember.(What, do you expect me to know everything, just look it up on google)

Alright where were we? 

"Cadence grey, your turn" a dude in white shirt shouted.   

 As soon as the judges finished watching her life, it was pretty clear that they were not impressed.

All of a sudden we heard a loud thunder and the ground shook. I did a 360 degree back flip and hit the wall. And then there was a sound booming through underworld.

"What do you mean you can't do it?" A female voice, probably belonging to Persephone.

"But darling rules are...."

"Do you think I care for the rules, you better do this Hades or I will make sure you have a pollen sneeze for the next 1000 years"

And with that everything went back to silence. A door opened behind the judges and a man in black robes entered the hall. He was followed by three furies. He signaled one of them.

The last one went to Minos and whispered in his ear.

"Alright guys change of plans, " Minos said while pushing a red buzzer.

"Candace Grey and Daniel Drake please enter the room leading to Elysium" a sign board read.

Well I will have to say, Persephone did grant my wish for the VIP pass. 

    

"Holiday to Elysium" Chapter-5

The Queen of Underworld

The sky was as dark as if it would never be morning. At distance, you could hear the wailing and screaming of the damned souls being punished in the 'Fields of Punishments'. In front of me was the Styx. Dark sluggish and threateningly dangerous. The landscape around was rocky and barren. People...i mean the dead souls were paying one silver coin and boarding a boat. I didn't have any. Charon turned towards me and stretched his palm.

'Sorry! I don't have any coins'

'Sorry! You can't board the ferry' he replied in high cold voice.

'then what I am I supposed to do?'

'Hmmm.... go back to the mortal world and haunt people'

'No!, thank you'. That was a horrible idea. 

'then rot in these plains. and don't even think about swimming the great styx. Its really a bad idea'

'I know'

'bye'. Saying so, he boarded on the boat and went away with everyone. 

Not knowing what to do, I just wandered in the borders of Erebos. Then suddenly, a strong sense of feeling came to me...it was pulling me towards a dark cave....the cave was emitting pure hatred......but it felt good to me. I went inside. It was filled with stalagmites and Stalactites dripping pure blood. There I saw a HUGE pit. It was darker that any black colour. High amounts of energy was being radiated from it....I felt a surge to jump in it......The pit felt good to me......it felt......like.....home. My brain went numb...few moments passed like eternity. I came to senses by a huge scream. I was dangling on the edge of the pit with one arm clutching a rock. To my surprise, the scream belonged to that girl who I met on train. She came rushing towards the edge and her face was filled with pure horror.

"What the heck were you doing? Are you completely out of senses. Do you know that you are about to fall in the deep abyss of TARTARUS!!!!. Hold my hand, you idiot!"

'What?' I thought. The powerful gravitational force of the pit was pulling me into itself. Somehow, I struggled with the help of the girl and came outside. Without second thought, both rushed out of the cave. 

Then, she spoke - "why did you go into that cave?"

"I don't know! I was literally pulled into it!' I said panting.

"Oh! It happens. That pit is one of the straight entries to tartarus. By the way, do you know whats tartatus"

"oh yes. Its the prison for monsters and ......really bad people who did really bad things..right?.

"Its more. I do not wish to speak of it"
"Right. By the way, aren't you supposed to be on the other side of river Styx....i mean ....in the plains of Erebos.."
"Oh......errr.r....that...." She was Blushing!

"CANDACE ! Here you are! I was so worried. Are you alright?". It was a 'beautiful but sad looking' woman in grey-green long dress and a crown on her head standing at a distance.

"Mom!" Candace ran towards her and hugged. Does that mean......she is Persephone.....Queen of Underworld?

Both turned to wards me. I bowed low.
"Rise! hero.". I raised. She turned towards her daughter.
"Is this that handsome young man you were talking about? You said you wanted him as your boyfriend. Right?"

This time both Blushed so much that my face literally became hot. It was a huge mistake. How can the princess of underworld ask me as a boyfriend? No, something is wrong. But to my Horror-

"Yes mom. Can I take him with me back to mortal world ? He is so cute! My friends...especially Anestesia would burn with jealousy"

"Oh yes, sweetheart...but you both have to make a dangerous journey through tartarus and reach the doors of death. There you will get back your mortal body."

You are right! If I were not death, I would have been dead by now!

"Excuse me!" I interrupted...
"yes!" Candace said in the most Girlish manner.
"I guess I heard something wrong"

"No, will you be my boyfriend?"
"errr....."
"Candace...is that the way you propose a guy? However, i think you both should hurry up....the court room has just opened and the ghosts are pouring in...I am talking with your uncle about your Elysium. Hurry up" Saying so, the queen of underworld transported us across Styx...Don't ask me how ! I had enough of embarrassment and I could not understand anything else for a few minutes.


Continued in part-6

"Holiday at Elysium" Chapter-4

The Underworld 

Details time!...Let me introduce you to the underworld...

Let’s start with the plumbing. Five different rivers flowed into the Underworld.

The least dangerous was the Cocytus, the River of Wailing, which looked tame enough. Its dark-blue waters wound peacefully through the plains of Erebos, with plenty of nice-looking spots on the riverbank for a picnic; but if you got too close, you would hear the cries of tortured souls churning in the current. See, the Cocytus was fed by the tears of the damned. Just being near it would send you into a state of depression. 

The second river was the Phlegethon, the River of Fire. It roared through the Underworld caverns like a torrent of burning gasoline, cutting channels through the black volcanic rock, lighting everything bloodred, filling the air with smoke and fumes until finally the river plummeted as a fiery waterfall into the deeper abyss of Tartarus, which was like the basement of the basement.

The crazy thing was, Phlegethon water wouldn’t kill you, even if you were mortal. Sure, it would burn like radioactive chili peppers sautéed in acid. It would make you wish you were dead. But the river was actually designed to keep its victims alive so that they could suffer forever—hooray! Many damned souls had to swim through it for all eternity, or be stuck in the fiery water up to their necks. According to some legends, the Phlegethon could eventually burn away your sins and let you go free if you were really, really sorry for the things you’d done. 

River number three, the Acheron, was the River of Pain. If you guessed it was painful, you win a chocolate! The Acheron started in the mortal world, near a temple of the dead in Epirus. Maybe that’s why ghosts were drawn to it and filled the river with their own pain and suffering. The Acheron meandered along until it plunged underground and tumbled into Erebos. There it widened into a dark, steamy, swampy expanse that caused pain to anyone unlucky enough to touch its waters or even hear its current. After a while, the Acheron split into two smaller rivers—the Cocytus and the Styx—that flowed in opposite directions until they both spilled into Tartarus.

River number four was my least personal favorite: the Lethe, River of Forgetfulness. Anyway, the Lethe looked harmless. In most places it was a gentle span of milky-white water that rolled over a shallow bed of stones, softly gurgling in a way that made your eyes feel heavy. You would think you could wade across this river, no problem. My advice? Don’t. A single drop of Lethe water would wipe your short-term memory. You wouldn’t remember anything that happened in the last week. Take a full drink, or wade into those waters, and your mind would be completely erased. You wouldn’t remember your own name, or where you came from, or even that the New York Yankees are obviously better than the Boston Red Sox.  I know—terrifying right? For some spirits of the dead, however, the Lethe was actually a blessing. Crowds of ghosts were always gathered at the banks, drinking from the river so that they could forget their former lives, because you can’t miss what you don’t remember. Occasionally spirits were even allowed to reincarnate—to be reborn in the mortal world for another life. If you took that chance, you had to drink from the Lethe first so that you wouldn’t remember your old life.

The fifth river of the Underworld was the Styx, the River of Hate. The Styx flowed through the deepest, darkest parts of the Underworld. Some legends claimed it was created by the water Titan, Tethys, and was fed by salty springs from the bottom of the ocean. The Styx circled Erebos like a moat, so you pretty much had to cross it to get into the Underworld. The current was dark and sluggish, always shrouded in foul-smelling mist, and the water was corrosive to mortal flesh. Mix sulfuric acid with sewage and a splash of liquid hatred, and you’ve got the Styx.

From where did i get so much information? Excuse me...I read !

The problem was, the souls had no reliable way to cross the River Styx. A few managed to swim it. Others tried, only to dissolve in the water. Many just wandered along the mortal side of the river,

wailing and pointing at the other side like, I wanna go that way!

Finally, one industrious daimon named Charon decided to go into business. And, we were dumped there. Charon ferried souls to the plains of Erebos by charging a small amount. 

I didn't have any!

(Cont. in Chapter-5)

"Holiday at Elysium" Chapter-3

The Fantastic Train Journey

Well, Journey to Underworld was horrible. A huge chariot full of screeching ghosts and live skeletons to keep them in control..........Not really!!!!.
IT WAS AWESOME..!!!!

The underworld express was luxury flying train. It did look a bit creepy.....decorated with skulls and painted with painful scenes of death but it did look like a giant roller coaster flying in the night skies with brilliant lights.

It landed down beside us and doors opened to reveal a cool compartment with dead souls chatting happily and drinking coffee (wait! can ghosts drink coffee....?) However, Mr. T gestured me to board the train. I took a seat besides a girl (hey! that was the only seat empty!) and the train took off.

The trip was unbelievably undeadly. Well, I heard that the trip to hell would be as a trailer of the real movie at hell. If its true, this would be like "Holiday to Elysium"! We were offered drinks (yes! it was cappuccino) , sweet music was playing which was clearly not related to death. People were( I mean the ghosts) playing cards, chatting, or even flirting. Then at last,

"Hello, How did you die?". It was the girl sitting beside me.
"well, shot by a gun I suppose. What about you?
"My Stepdad killed me!"
"What?" The thought of step fathers being evil was weird. Only later I found out that this was common for OUR kind.
"What? your stepdad killed you ! That's horrible, my stepdad is really cool. He takes very good care of me."
"Oh! so even you are like me! I wonder how I'am going to be a brave demigod!"

"Demigod!" I did hear that term. Demigods were children of a mortal and a god/goddess.
"Sorry, I'am not a demigod, by the way, who's daughter are you?"
"Persephone"
"Holy Zeus! So you were killed by the Lord of Underworld himself........you mean..."
"Yes, Hades killed me. But don't worry, my mom came before this train arrived. She promised my life back as my 15th birthday, which is today!"

This whole Idea of being a demigod....that too child of 'queen of underworld'........being killed by step dad......getting life as birthday gift.........to much to process.
 Before I came to senses..

"We reached!"- shouted Mr. Thanatos
 All I saw from the windows was..........Hollywood!

The train was above the Los Angeles city and was going straight towards a hill. Panic struck my heart. Did the train lose control?, breaks not working?, driver drunk?, or just a prank to scare us!, .......but no, we were about to bang to the hill.......we are going to die.....(Wait a min.....we are already dead!). So, we went straight into the hill and entered the UNDERWORLD.

"Holiday at Elysium" Chapter 2

The Underworld Express

Alright, before Thanatos comes and picks me up for our ride to underworld let me introduce myself. Hi there, my name is Daniel Drake and I'm 16 years old. I had been going to high school until just now. You can go on and call me a nerd but I was extremely good at academics( I have already my SAT). I was also on my school basketball team. But don't let this blind you. You might be like, "bro that is a perfect life right there"; give me a break alright. Its no use of having such a life if you totally suck at social skills( hi I'm a teenager, try and  understand). Okay may be that was too much. Let me tell you about my family. 

My mother's name is Rory Drake and until now, if some let me give the price of best mom award it will go to her for sure. I mean she is kind brave, after dad left her she was able to coup up with life. I always ask her why dad left her but she always ignores the question and that was the only thing that troubled me through my entire life. 

After dad left it might have been like 7 or 8 years when my mom got married to Bill. 

Wanna ask if I had any problems? Well to be honest no, I mean if my mom was happy then I had no problem. Actually, Bill was the coolest guy I had ever met. He is a hotel manager and he used to take us for out like every 2 weeks or so. I may go on and call him more like my brother rather than step dad. Also did I tell you I had a sister, oh wait she was in the last chapter right?( Daniel you dumb hay sack).  Her name is Casey and she is so adorable. If you have a younger sibling, you know what a pain they can be but in the end you have to say it is the best experience in your life. 

"Hi kid, sup?"

"And may I ask who you are, sir?"

Just then I noticed that he was actually talking to me. But how, I'm dead right? Just then it hit me, he was Thanatos the Greek god of death. But if you ask me, he didn't look much like one. I swear to god he was literally wearing a ticket collectors uniform.

Just then he offered me a ticket. I took it and it read 'the Underworld Express'. 

Next part coming soon........