In Crete we trust

The trip to Crete was simple and interestingly enough lacking all comforts. Rhea and Demeter did not like luxuries, as such we first had the trip to Piraeus, then the ferry to Crete which would take us to Iraklion and from there 45 kilometres SSE was Gortyn, it was in the municipality of Agioi Deka. The archeological site was clear and easy enough. The problem is that no one had a clear clue where to go from there. And in this the fact that Rhea was Mother to Hades and as such my great grandmother did seemingly not help any. So as we were exploring the archeological places we saw all kinds of old things, but nothing that would aid us. It was hours later when we were near another building that I noticed something. There was a black hole, a pit that is darker than anything I had ever seen before. There was nothing there. I walked to the pit and asked Demeter what “Agesilaos” meant. They quickly looked towards me, almost shouting “Watch out” but it was too late, the pit swallowed me and it seemed that neither saw me go and that was the larger problem, the hole swallowed me and dragged me down. My instincts called forth Psychofagos, it shone and it cast waves of energy whilst setting an aura of protection around me. I then saw a lot more, the hole was a sea of arms dragging me down, dragging me to the bottom of wherever this was and about a minute or two thereafter the arms were gone and I was in free-fall towards the bottom. The bident slowed me and gave me a little light, but this darkness was nothing like the ocean, it was a much deeper dark and my eyes could not penetrate it with any kind of light. I went down and down and ended finally at the bottom of where ever I expected to be.  I reckon I had arrived in Tartarus. 

Even as Tartarus was dark, there was a lot more light here, or at least a lot more light for the likes of me. I could see a decent distance and I was amazed how this cave could go unnoticed by geological people up above. I started to notice a lot more. There were millions of bodies in all forms of disappearance, disappearance was the best word I could muster. The bodies were black, sooted black and some bodies moved, crawled over the ground, unable to stand. It was a view that called forth all kinds of pity, but I felt none of it. A little further the red glow of lava became clear. The bodies seem to avoid the lava, as should I I reckoned, but there was what could be seen as a path, close to the lava, where there were no bodies. I made for that strip and I was able to travel a decent amount further. The bodies were piling up higher and as I saw the lava stream split up, I also saw something that represented some ancient Greek fountain. I walked towards the fountain, but cautiously as it was a little away from the lava and now the bodies as I saw them were numerous. It was not one fountain, there were three fountains. They were empty, bodies all around them and in them, but no water. These fountains did seem to have had a function at some point. It took some minutes when I noticed that the three fountains were set around some symbol, it was in the ground, but I could not make it out, it was too dirty. I called for a shockwave and as the shock revealed the plaque, which was a silver plaque of a bident, the bodies started to move, there was a sound, like a hungry moan and they were set on me, and they were less then 5 metres away. The plaque bothered me, there was no reason for a bident to be shown here. I then remembered the work Hephaestus had done on my bident and the plaque made a lot more sense now, I turned it around and hit the plaque hard, very hard and the shockwave, pushed all the bodies away from me and blew whatever was in the fountains away as well and now there was a visible act. The fountains came to live. There was a blue stream coming from the three fountains all outwardly and it had a miraculous effect, the bodies hundreds of them were devoured and the bodies went to ash and vanished. The fountain now had something in them, but it was not water. It had a blue glow but was not liquid, it was gaseous and as the fountains filled up the higher part of fountain became some kind of faucet, sending the blue stream towards a higher place, but that was all I could see. Now with the knowledge I had gained, I cautiously touched the blue gas and it surrounded me, it went into me and revived me. I pulled my hand away. I started to comprehend the fountains and with that I went into the direction of where the stream went. It took almost 30 minutes to get to the next stage. This fountain was a lot larger and there were merely two of them there. Between the two was the same plaque and I repeated the exercise. These fountains had almost half a dozen faucets in each fountain, but not towards each other. And as I hit them the same thing happened, but now there was a much stronger effect. The one who got the stream from the one I had just cleaned was filling up, the other was not. I looked around and saw down the hill in the other direction three fountains, not working. Sliding on the air I got there in under 5 minutes and I hit this plaque as well and the effect was the same as the first one bodies all over the place, the fountain cleaning up and they all three started to work, the bodies disintegrating and the sounds of moans were clearly heard, but it mattered not, the blue waves came and devoured all in its path. I returned to the two large fountains and saw that the second one was filling up as well. I now started to see a stream that was a little below the surface. My Olympian sight saw what was or seemed to be a pipe that went up the hill and as I followed this path, I saw a third fountain, even larger than the second ones, more resembling the first fountain, but larger and slowly filling up. I also noticed that this fountain had two more holes, two more pipes I assumed and my plan started to take shape. I followed the first hole and it went in another direction, I followed that path and yes, there were two fountains a little over an hour from the largest fountain. And they too linked to two groups of three fountains. And as I cleaned the fountains, the bodies vanished and they too became the blue streams of gas. It was the third branch that was a different one, the two fountains were simple and clean, but when I went down, I noticed that there were larger creatures at the base of these fountains and there was a sound, not moans but growls. I readied my bident and moved forward. The power of my bident was not to be trifled with, the creature growled and snarled, there was a much louder growl, almost a scream and it was ready to attack me. It then hit me that it might have the same weakness and I slammed the plaque and yes that definitely had an impact, not a disastrous one for the creature, but it was howling. And it was now keeping its distance, and there was the rub for them, they were all attracted to the blue gleam like moths to the flame and the flame would consume them. The creature took minutes to devour, pulling back whenever it could, but the gleam was too attractive for it and minutes later it was also devoured, all whilst Mose cadavers had mere seconds to be devoured. And as I moved back to the highest fountain I started to see the waves of bodies, all attracted to the blue waves and I saw that the fountains were filling up more and more. As I came back to the largest fountain, I saw it was well over half full and it was pointing a new stream from the top of its pinnacle to the top of a hill and there I saw a building, not a large one, but a building none the less. I went up that hill and saw the doors, they were huge copper doors with the symbol of Hades. I entered, in there was a huge statue, a statue of Hades but as I looked at the stature, it was a statue made from one block of marble, solid and with an unrelenting gaze. And as I observed the statue, I noticed small details that were part of him and then I noticed his penis, which was decently huge, but much too detailed for any mason to carve. Then I looked back to the head, this was not a statue, this was Hades. I then noticed how only one bowl was filling up. I took notice of the second bowl and looked towards the other direction, the side I had not seen and there too I cleaned out all the fountains. Here two places had larger creatures, but they too were no match for me and no match for Psychofagos or the fountains. It was a few hours later when I returned and I saw that both bowls were now filling up and that is where they stayed. I noticed the overflow onto the floor and some went into me, but not into hades and it was then that I took a different step, I focused on the green stone and slammed my bident into his calf. It went into the marble and the green stone went from dormant to bright green. I kept the bident there and then I noticed the blue gleam entering his leg and the marble faded to show flesh. It was then that I removed the bident. I took a step back and saw how the body was slowly changing to flesh and the body showed the smallest movement. It was almost two hours later when the head moved and looked towards me. Another hour before he spoke. Hello grandson, I am Hades. It was not the family reunion I ever considered, but who is ready to meet family you never knew you had?

End of Season 1

Yes, yesterday I wrote article/story number 2500, now I have completed part of this journey. What I wrote today was the nightmare I had months ago, it drove me to write the stories that led to this story, the nightmare of months ago now in writing and we all have our moment when we think that we are the channel of gods, but to be honest, I never considered something like that and to be chosen by Hades himself is laughable, but it led me to the story you have read over the past few months. What comes next? I cannot tell, perhaps another nightmare (I hope not), and if it needs to be one, let it be one where I am the joy-toy of Laura Vandervoort (we are all allowed our delusional moments, aren’t we). But that is an optional story for an other day.