by Thomas Green
Hades arched an eyebrow but said nothing, pondering my request. After a short but awkward moment, he asked, “What led you to that idea?”
“I’ve found the way Lucas coordinated his escape attempts. Earlier, I saw a woman on security camera footage that I could not find in person. She hides in the Upper Prison and whoever shelters her is Lucas’s insider.”
Hades flashed a smile. “That sounds promising, indeed.” He opened a drawer, rummaged through papers, and took out a rolled-up parchment.
I sat on the chair across the table.
Hades spread out the parchment, showing the ancient schematics of this prison. Apparently, the room disposition was original from the times of ancient Greece and they never updated the schematics. I wondered how this place has remained functional for all this time. “All rooms are being utilized though,” he said.
I glanced over the map of hallways. Where did Lucas hide the girl? I reflected on his actions. What was his first move? If Loki getting time in woodcarving room was indeed a part of Lucas’s plan, then the plan’s start was the killing of Keith Gamma… and the subsequent slaughter of guards. “What about the rooms vacated by prisoner’s deaths? There had been some promotions to the Upper Prison, but not nearly enough to refill all the rooms.”
Hades’s face hardened and he rolled up the parchment. “Let’s go.” He rose and we marched out of the door. “I’ll take East, you West.” He handed me the schematics.
I nodded, took the paper, and walked in the designated direction. The empty rooms were scattered through the prison. With no good guiding principle, I simply barged into each of them. Empty, empty, empty… and then I stepped into a room with the lights on and pop-music playing.
Staring in disbelief, I turned my gaze toward the woman lying on the bed. She wore a dress matching the Upper Prison, had blonde hair, sky-blue eyes, and was reading romance novel, Love in Clouds.
She smiled when she noticed me. “Congratulations, you’ve found me.”
I realized she didn’t need to hide. Nobody watched the Upper Prison and the only one who knew all new prisoners was Hades. As long as she didn’t bump into him, she could live here as a standard prisoner. I raised my rifle, aiming at her. “I’ll need you to come with me.”
“No, that’s not what you should be doing.”
A chill ran down my spine. Her voice carried too much confidence and no hint of surprise. She expected me to find her. I lowered my rifle. “And what should I be doing?”
“Protecting your loved ones,” she said and reached to the night table. From the top drawer, she produced a sheet of toilet paper with text written in blood. She handed me the paper. “You will fall from the Heavens.”
Breathless, I took the paper, reading: Stage 5: When they find you, unblock Lucifer’s memories.
Lucas 12
LIKE DROPLETS OF RAIN, memories splashed on my mind. I lay tied to a table, Evelyn standing above me with pliers. This was the third torturous illusion already. But as the memories of my escape plan seeped into my mind, I didn’t care anymore.
“So, not going to tell me?” the illusionary Evelyn asked.
I smiled at her. “I will be home soon.”
She raised an eyebrow. The illusion wasn’t programmed for stuff like this. “What do you mean?”
“That I will soon be back to the real you.” I slowly exhaled, and then re-sharpened my mind. “But now, I need to go.” I closed my eyes and stretched out my aether, blending it with the energy that made the illusion.
The hardest part of the torture illusions was stopping myself from ending them. Ever since I loosened my collar, my ability to absorb aether was more than sufficient to shatter the spell. But until now, that would have spoiled my escape.
When my aether blended with the one creating the illusion, I drew it in, as if taking a deep breath. The imagery shattered, the fake Evelyn disappeared, and I lay tied up in the cell. The absorbed power flowed through me the extraction mechanism unable to drain the energy quickly enough.
I waited, allowing the aether to be extracted, not caring about the pain. Shame I couldn’t make a plan where I didn’t have to spend so much time in extraction.
Tul Sar Naar wasn’t the best maintained place. Mold filled the ventilation system, and the aether extraction system wasn’t cleaned any better. When aether was extracted and transferred, tiny fragments remained in the wires, just like mold in ventilation. The key part of my escape was ensuring this residual aether contained some of mine.
To fill the lines with my aether, I had to be extracted a lot and often. That all parts of my escape plan ended with me in extraction were not an accident. I needed to be here for as long as possible. Now, when I reached out through the extraction wires, my residual aether was everywhere. I reached deeper and deeper, stretching my power into the maze of wires, reaching further into the prison.
Once I reached all the way into the reservoir tanks in the aether liquefaction factory, I started drawing the power back inside me. And with my energy came all the aether extracted from others. Ungodly amounts of aether flooded backward through the system, drawn into my heart. The system was designed to prevent this from happening, the key part being the limiter placed as a gateway between the prison and the factory portion.
This was why I had to disable the limiter, which I did during my last escape attempt.
Sharp ringing of alarm echoed through the complex. But the power was already flowing into me, filling every fiber of my being. The intoxication of aether overwhelmed my mind and I had to bite my tongue not to scream.
I drained the power as fast as I could, not caring for anything else. Minutes passed and aether overflowed from my body as my physical form couldn’t contain all the power. Yes, my aether reserve was absurdly large, but even that had limits.
The connection to the extraction system was severed. Someone must have used an emergency disconnect on all extraction cells. Shame. I reached with my aether into the collar around my neck, blending it into the aether of the collar’s aether bomb.
I devoured the energy, disabling the explosive.
Yes, I could have done this even before I could loosen my collar. But without the other preparations, doing so wouldn’t have led to my escape. As much as I hated to admit it, I wasn’t sure I could fight Hades even with my full power. I may have been a fallen angel, but I was new to the whole divinity thing with only about two years having Lucifer’s soul merged with mine.
Hades, on the other hand, was a three thousand years old pretty-much-god. Without the boost of power I now gained by absorbing the aether from the extraction system, I would have little hope of getting past him. Not to mention Persephone, who was probably Hades’s equal.
I formed the combat, octagonal pattern through my entire body and tore my hands from the shackles, steel screeching. I grabbed the collar and broke it from my neck.
I freed my legs and stood up. My throat itched, too used to the collar. I rubbed the raw skin and stepped toward the door.
Time to go home.
The cell’s door slid open and two guards stood at the other side, rifles in hands. They didn’t raise them, standing frozen like statues. I passed between them, hitting the doorframe with my head.
Only now, I realized there was a crown of horns sprouting from my head and a tail weaving behind me. I walked between the two men and turn westward in the hallway.
To truly escape, I had to destroy this place so it could never be rebuilt. To that end, I had to kill Hades and Persephone, on whose magical abilities the entire aether extraction and liquefaction system stood. And then I had to destroy the complex.
The fastest way to do all three was to aim straight for the engine room. If I were to destroy the mechanism that kept this flying island in the air, the fall would destroy everything, irreparably. Hades and Persephone would do anything to stop me from doing that, which would mean coming to stop me in person.
That would save me a lot of searching.
But
I also had to hurry because the excessive aether was leaving me fast and without the extra power, I would most likely lose to Hades. I dashed forward in the hallway. The door at the end did not open.
I lowered my head, raised my shoulder and rammed into them sideways, fully powered with my aether.
Metal screamed and I ran through as if it was made of paper, leaving behind a gaping hole. Good. I crossed a long corridor, one more door, and stopped.
Mina stood across the next hallway. She glowered at me. “Stop being stubborn.”
I shrugged. “Isn’t that how you taught me to be?”
“Yes.” She clicked her tongue. “But Luci’s pissed.”
Okay, that was a problem. The last time Lucielle was angry with me, I survived by accident. “How angry?”
“Very,” she whispered. “Agree to the deal. Or this will end badly.”
Goose bumps covered my back. Mina never whispered. Somehow, that made her ten times more threatening. “How about a little game? I try to escape for one last time. If you catch me, I will sign the contract.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s the trick?”
“I don’t need tricks with this.” I put on a cheeky grin. “Because you cannot catch me now that I have no collar.”
Her cheeks split, mouth extending from ear to ear, revealing a nightmare of fangs. Her hair extended, now reaching all the way to her knees and her eyebrows stretched past her skull’s frame. Mina’s palms split and her forearm bones stretched out. They twisted and turned, forming a pair of swords. She grabbed the hilts and swung both blades through the air. “Deal.” She bolted toward me.
Okay, taunting her was more effective than I expected. I formed two globes of aether, one in each palm, and made them spin. She got to me and slashed.
I slid under the strike. She spun to stab with the other blade. I weaved to her side, aimed my hand, and released the blast. The explosion shattered the wall behind her and sent her flying through. I bolted away, maintaining an eastward course. When I reached the corridor’s end, she was already back through the hole.
I spun, smirked, aimed the second blast at the floor, and released it. The blast shattered the floor, revealing a gaping hole of pipes, far too long to leap over. “See you later,” I shouted and ran past the next door, forcing my way through the steel.
Yes, I had no way to defeat her, but that didn’t mean she could catch me with ease. I crossed a room full of control panels and kept running. The few guards who were in the hallways cleared a path, realizing they had no hope of stopping me.
I maintained the eastward direction. From time to time, after I ran through a sealed door, I checked the walls for aether with my magical sight. The extraction system’s lines provided guidance toward the engine room since that was the main mechanism using unprocessed aether.
I recognized the technology room I passed, the one that contained the aether flow limiter. But this time, I ran down the stairs, following the glowing line that led downward. I reached spiral stairs and stomped down.
The air turned colder. I spread out my aether and leapt backward. A vortex of ghostly, green aether exploded where I stood a second ago. Interesting. I focused on the energy, watching its flow. Through thin lines, it seeped down through the stairs while similar tendrils reached up from under my feet.
That I didn’t see any other energy on the stairs suggested this wasn’t a trap, but rather an active spell. Now, where was the caster?
Most likely somewhere down. I focused aether into my palm, making a small but fast spinning globe. After I dodged the next attack by running backward, I aimed my palm down and let go.
Like a heavenly drill, the blasting spell dug through the stairs. Dust and shards filled the air.
I leapt into the hole, falling through. Stairs passed by me. Cold blew at me from the bottom. I must have dug all the way out of the prison, so beneath me was open air. I grabbed the wall, digging my fingers into the steel. My fall stopped, but dust clouded my vision.
Light green aether exploded around me. The attack tore at my aether shielding, piercing at dozen spots, tearing my flesh like a hundred thin blades. Pain exploded through me.
This pain was all too familiar, it was exactly the same as extraction. Okay, this was Persephone. I screamed out, but held onto the wall, watching carefully where the energy drained. After the explosion turned into tendrils of light, those drew downward, but under a heavy slope.
I let go of the wall and continued falling. By the rough angle, I had to estimate the distance needed get to the spell caster’s level.
After I felt like I had fallen far enough, I grabbed the wall. My arm shouted with strain. I kicked the wall and leapt forward, landing on the stairs.
An aether explosion roared behind me. I dashed downward, forming a globe of aether in my palm. The floor got a lot colder beneath my feet and I reached the bottom. A hallway lay before me, inside which stood Persephone. She wore a formal, white dress and held a staff with a glowing emerald on top.
I aimed the blast at her and let go. Shimmering, green shielding covered her, and a shockwave rushed back at me within a second. I grunted and staggered backward. Okay, she was a lot stronger than I thought she would be since this was supposed to kill her.
The wall behind me exploded inward and Mina burst through.
I ducked, but her sword still hit my shoulder. Blunt impact sent pain through my body and slammed me into the wall. The deal offer worked well though, since that was why she made her sword blunt. With a sharp sword, this would have killed or severely impaired me.
She towered above me, aiming her sword at my chest. “Give up.”
“Never.” I formed two blasts of aether and blew up the wall behind me. I leapt out, grabbing the wall from the outside. We were at Tul Sar Naar’s lowest level. Gaps in the steelwork beneath me revealed swirling mist. Around me were dozens of pipes and tubes as this part of the fortress wasn’t built into the house-like building of the upper levels. The stairs I went through were a giant, steel tube, now with three holes around the bottom.
In the direction of Persephone, another tube followed forward into a globe-like dome. That was where I needed to go. I grabbed the wall, bending the steel beneath my fingers, and swung on the tubes’ outside wall. The steel in front of me burst open and Mina’s hand reached out, grabbing my jumpsuit.
She pulled me to the wall and Persephone’s spell exploded around me, making me scream with pain. With my mind blanking, I moved my aether from the jumpsuit, and pulled myself up. Fabric tore, and Mina’s hand held nothing but a piece of cloth. I flung myself to the top of the tube and slid forward, doing my best gecko impression. The steel screamed under me. This time, I dodged Mina’s hand shooting through the tube.
Once she withdrew the hand, I postured up. Persephone’s aether wreathed me and exploded into the draining vortex. Ignoring the stabbing pain, I formed an aether globe in my palm, made the energy spin, and fired at the tube in front of me. The spell severed the tunnel in two. The steel beneath me shook as this part of the tube lost most of its support.
I leapt forward, caught the top of the open half of the tunnel in front of me and swung inside. Over my shoulder, I glimpsed Mina catching Persephone to stop her from falling.
I bolted forward. The door in front of me had a frame of black aether. I didn’t have the time to avoid Hades’s traps. I ran through and entered white space. Suddenly, I floated mid-air with no sense of direction or purpose.
Impressive. I stretched out my aether, reaching everywhere I could. Hades’s illusion was perfect, so I couldn’t feel his presence or energy. But it had to be there. And so, I split my aether into tendrils. One half reached outward while the other half retracted into me in a tornado-like pattern, covering the entire area around me.
The tendrils switched their roles, providing instantaneous drain of aether around me. Sure enough, I instantly felt power drawn into my heart, meaning I was draining something.
This also stopped anyon
e from coming too close to me as I would absorb their aether. Within seconds, the white space collapsed, shattered like a mirror.
I stood in a circular room. In its center floated a giant, green crystal within a glass column. Dozens of tubes led to and from the column. The crystal was undoubtedly the aether engine keeping the prison in air.
In front of the column stood Hades, darkness-made helmet on his head. Next to him was Sora, his katana drawn, and Amarendra, maces in hands. Sora still had a collar, but Amarendra did not.
I was less than thirty feet away from my goal. Before I made a step forward, my body suddenly felt as if every limb weighed a ton. I collapsed to my knees, held in place. Panic surged through me. I reached out with my aether and activated my magical sight. I stood in a blob of blue-yellow aether, Amarendra’s colors. With my aether formed into tendrils, I started filling the room.
“The gravity well should hold him,” Amarendra said, eyes cold and voice steady.
Hades glanced at Sora, who nodded. “He won’t escape from this,” Sora said.
The door opened behind me and Mina and Persephone entered.
“We’ve got him,” Hades said with a wide smirk. He turned his gaze toward me. “Out of all the hundreds of escape attempts I have witnessed, yours ranks somewhere around the seventh or eighth spot.”
This confirmed that the ultimate barrier to overcome when escaping was indeed Hades himself. That others got further than me meant they managed to leave the prison but were caught before reaching land. Worse, aside from Persephone, he now had Mina, Sora and Amarendra to aid him. I kept working with my aether, filling the room. “Almost top five… not bad.”
Mina started walking toward me. “I’ll take him.”
Damn it. I couldn’t fight all of them at the same time. My body ached, my aether shields wavered and tiredness clouded my vision. The increased-gravity trap Amarendra was using on me was beyond tiring. The easiest way out was to let it happen. Mina would take me; the deal would be signed, and I would spend the rest of my existence working for Lucielle.
