Tales of Tartarus - (1)
The place was called Tartarus. The deepest hell in the Underworld, a realm of the abyss. It was the most profound and secretive location beneath the earth, where even the dwelling of the goddess of night, Nyx, existed. It was also the prison that held the Titan gods who had been defeated by us Olympian deities.
And now, I was heading there.
If someone asked why I would bother going to a prison shrouded in fog that even gods avoided, the answer was simple. First, Tartarus was close to my domain, the Underworld, and it held the most dangerous criminals. Although the three Hecatoncheires brothers guarded it as gatekeepers, I still had a duty to inspect it periodically. If the Titans ever escaped that hell, the primary responsibility would fall on the three brothers, but the secondary blame would land squarely on me for failing to respond quickly enough.
I left the bedroom with the Styx sword strapped to my waist and light cowhide sandals on my feet. The fortress of the Underworld was bustling with administrators and lesser gods who worked diligently for the people every day.
“Let’s put off assigning today’s new souls for a bit. For now…”
“Lord Moros has temporarily handed over his duties… Oh! Lord Hades!”
“It’s nice to see so many refusing reincarnation and choosing to stay here.”
“I’ll go on ahead and wait. Let’s meet up in the living world sometime and share a meal.”
“If you can avoid Lady Lethe’s blessing, that is. Hahaha!”
Administrators held parchment scrolls in one hand while issuing instructions to souls with the other. Senior soldiers explained shift rules to new soul guards. Young souls, translucent and playful, passed through buildings in mischief. Elderly human spirits chatted with neighbors while waiting for reincarnation.
This was the everyday scenery of the Underworld I ruled.
As I walked slowly, observing my people, more and more souls noticed me. Administrators and lesser gods tried to follow and attend me, but I waved them off, intending to go alone. That was when a familiar face appeared.
“Hades, where are you going?”
Her eyes looked dazed and unfocused, as if she were extremely tired, and her voice was listless. The goddess with silver hair that fell to her waist and clothing that clung to her body was Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness. She usually stared blankly at the riverbank from the River of Lethe. I wondered what had brought her all the way here. The great flood had ended long ago, so there wasn’t much work left for her to help with.
“Those eyes… Are you wondering why I came all this way…?”
Her voice, which could induce drowsiness, lingered in my ears. Her soft, drawn-out tone made me wonder if it wasn’t encroaching on the domain of the god of sleep, Hypnos. She shuffled over and looked up at me with those vacant eyes, as if urging me to get moving already.
“Haaam… It looks like you’re heading to Tartarus. I’ll come with you.”
She seemed more like the goddess of sleep than the goddess of forgetfulness. Since walking to Tartarus alone would be rather lonely, I nodded.
Tartarus was the very bottom of the Underworld, a place humans feared most. The path leading there was guarded by the countless soul soldiers I had stationed.
“We greet Lord Hades.”
“Glory to the Lord of the Underworld.”
The translucent-armored soldiers holding spears bowed their heads to me and Lady Lethe. I offered appropriate encouragement to the guards who worked hard protecting the road to Tartarus today as well.
“May glory shine upon Lady Lethe as well.”
“Yeah… Yeah… Keep up the good work…”
We passed the hearths that Hestia had personally made and brought down to the Underworld, heading deeper into the darkness. The descending path grew narrower, and a chilling aura began to permeate the air.
After passing through the oppressive space for a long while, a vast road finally appeared, revealing a bronze fortress shrouded in mist within an open area. As we drew closer, the massive bronze gate crafted by Poseidon himself and the endlessly stretching thick bronze walls greeted me.
The three Hecatoncheires brothers who guarded this place… There they were.
Giant gods, each possessing fifty heads and a hundred hands, stared in our direction. With three hundred eyes from the three brothers all fixed on us at once, an indescribable feeling washed over me.
“Hey there, Hades. It’s been a while.”
“Hmm? Is that Hades? You must be busy with Underworld affairs…”
“Have you finally married the Lethe standing beside you?”
The countless heads attached to the three giants’ bodies greeted both me and Lady Lethe. It had been a long time since I last saw them, so I returned the greeting warmly. But marriage? Lady Lethe and I weren’t in that kind of relationship.
“You’re holding hands, so it must be true.”
“Didn’t Hades already have Styx?”
“Hahaha! You two look so affectionate. How nice.”
Holding hands…? What were they talking about? I was certain we had come down here with some distance between us. But when I listened to them, I felt warmth in my left hand. It was the soft, small hand of a goddess. When I glanced to the side, Lady Lethe quietly let go with the same dazed expression as always. Although… it seemed like a faint blush had appeared on her face.
“Please restrain your power of forgetfulness just a little more.”
“Tsk… Can’t I even hold your hand…?”
Lady Lethe, who wielded the power of oblivion, could gradually erase the memories of surrounding living beings without doing anything. Of course, there were clear limits. The more wary someone was of her, the stronger they were, the less effective her power became. Still, she could take advantage of my momentary carelessness to play small pranks and make me forget for a short time. If I distanced myself even slightly from her, everything would come back to me.
To think she had made me forget that she had secretly approached and taken my hand earlier. As expected of the granddaughter of the primordial goddess Nyx, a Protogenos. From now on, I would need to stay more alert. Who knew what prank she would pull next?
I circulated a faint amount of divine power. My head cleared instantly, and Lethe’s power was swept away in the blink of an eye.
“You always keep only Lady Styx by your side. It’s too much…”
“I don’t recall doing that?”
I shook my head at Lady Lethe, who spoke in a sullen tone but still wore her usual vacant expression. And I certainly hadn’t kept only the goddess Styx by my side. Though the Styx sword was another matter.
“Kehahaha! Not yet, huh?”
“Hades, both Zeus and Poseidon have found their partners. Why are you still…”
“Why not ask the goddess of marriage and family, Hera, to arrange a match for you?”
Zeus’s wife was naturally the queen of the gods, Hera. And Poseidon had held a wedding with the sea goddess Amphitrite. Of course, I had been invited to the underwater ceremony and witnessed thousands of sea creatures that spoke like humans. Among them was a seahorse that had cried, saying its father had recently gone to my Underworld. I later found it in the afterlife and granted it some small conveniences. Was this the weight of being a god of the dead?
As the king of the Underworld, it could be seen as responsibility, or perhaps a burden placed upon me. The increase in my people meant an equal increase in the sorrow of those living in the upper world. Though the power of the Underworld grew stronger with every war, famine, or great flood, I could not simply rejoice.
“Anyway, tell us what’s been happening outside.”
“Weren’t you the one who said you would create living beings?”
“I wonder if Zeus, who saved us, is doing well.”
I relayed the recent events from the outside world to them in moderation. One might say I could have simply sent a messenger to inform them periodically, but this was a show of respect. Respect for the three brothers who had accomplished great feats in the war against the Titans. If the master of the Underworld came down here personally to speak with them, they would not feel slighted.
“What?! You’re going to wipe out the race called humans?”
“Hmm… A great flood… Poseidon must have had a hard time.”
“Prometheus has really gotten on Zeus’s bad side. Tsk tsk…”
“Indeed. His prophetic abilities were so helpful during the war…”
The three brothers—Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes—showed great interest in the outside stories I shared. With a total of about one hundred and fifty heads buzzing and chattering at once, the surroundings instantly filled with noise.
At that moment, a loud sound suddenly came from the gate separating Tartarus from the Underworld.
BOOM!THUD!
It was the sound of a prisoner trapped in Tartarus pounding on the bronze gate! The three brothers, Lady Lethe, and I immediately stopped talking and went on alert.
Inside Tartarus, scorching storms that even gods feared raged without pause. The place was filled with power that suppressed the divine strength of the Titans, making it difficult to exert force beyond a certain level. Entering from outside met almost no resistance, but trying to exit from inside caused the raging storms to grow increasingly fierce. Therefore, few could approach the bronze gate, endure the strengthening storm, and actually knock on it.
Only those among the Titans who ranked in the top ten in strength could manage such a feat. For example…
“The voice I just heard undoubtedly belongs to my eldest son, Hades! Please… Please let me out of here!”
It was my father, the god of agriculture and time, Cronus.