Reincarnated as a Phoenix

Chapter 168 - The Underworld

"...Tell me a joke Charon"

"Khaaarrrr..."

"Very funny. Your only good eye is leaking by the way"

"Khar..."

"That's a fashion statement? Huh, fair enough dude"

During our ferry trip to the Underworld, I'm now nattering with new best friend Charon and boy, he really is such a charm. If it isn't obvious, I'm getting extremely bored on this ferry ride...

There's not much to see other than this never-ending darkness that we currently float down, this cave hasn't exactly got much in the way of lighting so it's just down to me to do something, anything really. Might as well make some 'conversation' with the lich ferryman.

"Heh, are you actually understanding him Ikarus?"

"Of course she can't sis, just orangey doing orangey things"

"What? I can understand him kid, he literally just said you'd look so much better as a girl"

"He what!?! Erk, you're so irritating at times orangey"

"Kharrr..."

At least my stupidity always brings a smile to most of the party, as if I could understand what 'khar' means. It obviously doesn't mean anything otherwise we'd be able to translate it.

...

Eventually, after a painstakingly long time inside this dark tunnel, we finally come across a growing light at one end of the tunnel that shows the first glimpses of the underworld itself.

Like a world of pure beauty, this world looks like something out of a fairytale. Despite only really being able to witness the plains, trees and the river we float along at this moment, this place is as beautiful as the underground sanctuary we were just in.

The vibe and feeling of this place reminds me of those old animated movies created by that evil company that has the mouse mascot everyone knows and loves. Apparently, the guy the company is named after had his head frozen in order to be brought back to life someday, I'm not saying it's true, just one of those funny conspiracy theories that floats around.

Anyways, back on topic onto this cartoony looking Underworld region we're in, my best guess we've just entered the Elysium portion? The place of fallen heroes, heaven and everything nice about the world.

Ah, can't forget about the residents we can see from the boat, the floating souls or ghosts around the place make it feel a little eerie. They don't look or seem hostile, if anything it's like they can't even see us.

"Kharrr..."

Charon finds a suitable spot to stop on the river and points one his skeletal fingers away from the boat, pretty sure this is our stop so we all awkwardly get out and onto a grassy mound.

"Guess he's not going to wait for us then..."

Charon the ferryman immediately starts to row the boat back into the rocky cave we just came out of, had a feeling we'd have to find our own way out but this could be tricky. Unless I can just TP out, that seems like a pretty easy solution. Guess we won't be needing him after all.

"...Hey Geld, you have any idea where we need to go inside this place? I already know Dio will be held in Tartarus, but how do we get there?"

It's obvious us two are going to be taking command this trip, mostly because his master seems to know way too much and I'm an Underworld nerd.

"From what I've been told Queen Ikarus, we just need to find the entrances to the next regions. According to my master, heading down the Underworld is really easy, it's getting out which is the hard part. I'm pretty sure we've ended up in Elysium so we'll need to head through here, then to Asphodel, lastly onto Tartarus"