Gaming in the Underworld: Βασιλιάς

Turns out traveling through an unknown landscape with absolutely no direction was a great way to end up lost. Who would have thought. 

Tiamat had jumped back into my tattoo proclaiming that she was tired and needed some rest. Any doubts that she was in her teenage years evaporated then and there. Selene and I wandered the barren landscape for hours. I had lost track of time seeing that there was no sun or moon. The fact that my system was updating and couldn't display the date and time didn't help either. The update countdown hadn't even moved, suggesting that the flow of time in Tartarus was different to the outside world. Even having the domain of Time didn't help me. I could still slow down and speed up the world around me but it was diminished compared to how much control I had in the surface world. 

Selene and I eventually stopped at a ruined temple to some unknown god to rethink my plan. I took out a few warm bags of blood from my Inventory and offered a couple to Selene who accepted them gratefully. We sat in comfortable silence while sipping on the warm blood for a few moments before she spoke up. 

"Just like when we first met." 

"You mean when we danced through Budapest while hunting down Markus, William, and Viktor through two separate timelines?" 

"Yeah… it's strange, it feels like a lifetime ago now." Selene lamented. 

"Would you change anything if you could go back?" 

She looked at me as if I was stupid, "What? And lose you? Blake you're probably the best thing that's happened to me in my six hundred years of life. I wouldn't change anything…" she paused. "Actually, I sort of wish that we could have met sooner." 

"And you called me cheesy…" I hummed. 

Selene smiled and threw an empty blood pack at me. Catching the bag I vanished it into my inventory to break down for materials at a later date. 

"I can't help but to agree with you, I do wish we had met sooner. That and you're among the best things that have ever happened to me." 

She raised an eyebrow, "Oh? I'm not THE best thing?" 

I grinned, "Nah, getting these crazy powers is up there along with our girls. The best would probably be when you foolishly agreed to marry me." I joked. 

Selene chuckled, "I can always call off the engagement." 

"You wouldn't dare, you love me too much." 

She scooted over to my side and snuggled close. "Yeah, that's true."

"When we're done here let's go somewhere quiet, just you and me." 

"What about Lena and the girls?" 

"They can stay in the pocket dimension. I'm sure they wouldn't mind giving us some time for ourselves." 

"Seems a bit selfish." 

"It is selfish, we've hardly got to go on any dates." 

"We don't need to go on dates, you don't need to prove anything Blake. I know how much you care about me and the twins. Not to mention how you haven't left Lena behind." 

"I guess I'm just sentimental like that." 

Selene sighed in contentment and relaxed in my arms. One could almost forget that we were in the literal manifestation of hell in the Greek world. The ruined temple we were currently camping out in did a good job hiding us from monsters. While the monsters weren't really a threat, it got annoying having to kill them every few seconds. Selene's breathing leveled out signaling that she had fallen asleep. I quietly called Tiamat out into her human form and gestured at the sleeping Selene. Tiamat nodded and gently took over holding Selene so I could extract myself from her embrace. 

"I'll be back, I'll go explore a bit. I felt a large gathering of monsters nearby." I mentally communicated to Tiamat. 

My adoptive daughter merely nodded in acknowledgment before I teleported out of the temple silently. Back outside I looked around and pushed my senses outward feeling for the monsters. There were several 'hotspots' according to my senses. One a few miles away in what felt like a cave system, another by a body of water that didn't feel like water, and a few more further out. The largest one being muted but I could tell that it was some ways away. 

I checked myself to see if I had all my equipment before setting off for the closest horde of monsters. I drew my sword when I got close enough and peered into the dark opening in the ground. One glance told me that this was an opening to a series of underground tunnels and caves. I could smell the hellhounds from the entrance so I didn't need to wonder what kind of monsters I would be facing. I sheath my sword and took my wolf form. There was no way I was fitting normally and I didn't want to be caught crouching the whole time. I sniffed around and caught the scent of the hellhounds. Following the scent further into the tunnel system I emerged into a larger cave/tunnel and came face to face with a whole pack of hellhounds. 

The hellhounds blazing red eyes shot over to me and the hounds at the front of the pack growled. Several got ready to charge at me. Growling, I cut them off at the knees. My teeth tore through their flesh like paper. My claws shredded them to ribbons. It didn't take long for me to find their 'alpha'. The biggest hellhound I had seen all day lumbered towards me with teeth bared and saliva dripping from its maw. The hound leapt at me and bit at my side. Unfortunately for the hound my fur was denser and my skin thinker. Its teeth did little more than tickle me as I swatted the alpha away. I let out an earth shaking roar and pounced at the hound as it tried to get up. It let out a pitiful whine as I tore into its throat. With a vicious shake of my head I snapped the hounds neck causing it to go still. 

I turned my attention back to the rest of the hounds and growled out a challenge. The remaining hellhounds bowed their heads in submission as a few came forward to lick me clean of the blood that stained my black coat.

I snapped at a female hound when it got too close to my bits. Letting out a howl that the hellhounds picked up I dashed back out to the surface followed by my recently acquired pack. 

Dozens of hellhounds followed me out of the tunnels. With a pack this big I could fight the bigger hordes of monsters. Internally grinning at my fortune I made my way over to the next group of monsters. 

[Scene Break]

I had retaken my human form to see how the hounds would react. Aside from a couple of them sniffing me they seemed to still recognize that I was their new leader. Sword in hand I let out a low growl to signal the hounds to wait. Ahead of us there was a mixed group of monsters. Strange women with bronze legs and cyclops with crude weapons. I spotted a big fuzzy head with twin horns lumbering around the center as well as a big fuck off lion with golden fur. 

'Haven't seen the bronze legged women before but they smell like blood, the cyclops will be easy to deal with, but that lion…'

'The women are Empousa.' Alruna said in my head.. 

'What the fuck are Empousa?'  

'Empousai are basically vampires, they follow the goddess Hecate.'  

'How do you even know this?'  

'While you may have just skimmed that book I read it thoroughly in your memories. There's several mentions of them in that book.'  

'What about the lion then?' 

'Probably the Nemean Lion.'  

'So I should just nuke them all is what you're saying?' I turned my sword into its wand form. 

'Don't be rash, your pack will get caught in the crossfire.'  

I turned to look at my recently acquired pack of hellhounds. A few looked at me curiously, it would have been cute had they not been the size of tanks with flaming red eyes.

'I wonder.' I raised my hand and concentrated. 

In a flash of light the hellhounds disappeared, I felt a tingling on my chest. Taking a quick look I saw that a new tattoo had appeared. Now I had a dragon, a wolf, and a hellhound. I wondered if all my familiars would appear as tattoos on my body. As much as I liked tattoos I didn't want to be covered from head to toe in tattoos. 

'You still can't blast them all away with that spell.'  

'Why not?'  

'Just-'  

'You just want to see me fight them don't you.'  

'No my lord.' Alruna replied a bit too quickly. 

'You probably want to take part too, maybe fight the lion and the Minotaur?' 

'Yes, I admit my lord. I haven't had a good fight in a while.'  

'Fine, let's fight them then.'  

I felt shock coming from Alruna and chuckled. She was right, I hadn't called on her in a while, she deserved to have some fun. Alruna jumped out of my tattoo in human form. She didn't look like she was going to shift and I did not notice any weapons on her. 

"Do you want a weapon?" 

She grinned before holding out her hands which turned into claws. Specifically her claws when she was in Lycan form. 

"Huh, didn't know you could do half transformations." 

"You can too, you'd know if you weren't too busy fawning over your mates." She giggled. 

Before I could reply she charged into the monsters with a laugh. Shrugging I returned Dark Sister to its sheath and looked at my hands. With a bit of focus I managed to turn my nails into claws and smiled. I felt my fangs elongate in my mouth. 

"Old fashioned tooth and claw it is…" 

I jumped after Alruna with a roar. The Empousa hissed at me baring her fangs. I returned the challenge with a hiss of my own surprising the woman.

Using her distraction I pounced and tackled the Empousa into the ground. She clawed at my face trying to get me off, unfortunately for her it was just an annoyance.

I wrenched her head to the side and bit down hard on her neck. Her blood erupted into my mouth as I dug my fangs deeper into her jugular. She screamed in pain and began to claw at my body. I growled and bit down even harder. The Empousa's blood wasn't as good as human blood. It tasted like cheap vodka mixed with ashes. 

Her memories flashed through my mind. A school gym, giants throwing flaming balls, a kid that looked like Percy standing next to a young cyclops. I drank a bit more until I caught sight of what looked like an elevator with a massive horde of monsters standing around it.

'Those must be the 'doors' of death. Good, I know where it is now.'