In Pursuit of Kronos' Scythe (Completed)

X - The Scythe That Keeps Missing - Part IV

Piotr Mikolaj

They tiptoed into the dungeon. 

Thanatos had an aesthetic sense that was worse than Ares. The dungeon's walls were a dull brown. The water dribbled down from the stone ceiling was a deeper shade of grey. There were no icy stalactites hanging down from the roof of the cave, no bats, and no sparrows. No sign of living. It looked as if the dungeon was dead. But there was this constant growling that made Piotr unease. It sounded like the breathing of a monstrous creature.

Swallowing his fear, he advanced further. They scouted from pillars to pillars. Apart from preventing them to be seen, they had to avoid their skin from being cut by the stalagmites. Star-shaped mist rose from the sharp tips, like the poisonous spores of some fungus.

Calyssa almost dozed off as the mist hit them. Koby didn't allow any moment of delay and urged them forward. They rounded a pillar decorated with a chain of dead crows. It looked like a clove of roasted garlic but smelled like burned hairs. The Symphony pinched their noses in disgust as they heard angry murmuring. Crouching behind the pillar, they eavesdropped. 

Thanatos was playing cards with three of his minions.

"All of you are a bunch of mice oldies. Cowards! We could've won the battle if you didn't run away. Didn't you feel discriminated? The Olympians earn the people's worship and they have their own realms to govern. We, the minor gods have been totally ignored. Or worse still, we're forgotten. There's not even one pantheon built under our names, and we have to all squat under this cave for millenniums." Thanatos threw out a card with a scythe picture.

"Chill, Thanatos. Don't rue too much, you'll get old faster," Geras the God of Old Age cooed. "I come to think that actually, Hades treats us quite well. At least, we still have a concrete shelter to protect us. Have you heard of the story of the Piotr's boy? One of the quest seekers from Hephaestus' realm? He used to live in cardboard."

Piotr felt his eyes roll in their sockets upon the mention of his name. Tharalea and Cytherea patted his back, trying to calm down his flaring temper.

Geras continued, "So, the moral of the story is, don't rue too much. You'll get old faster." He stamped three cards on the scythe's card released by Thanatos. The cards showed the pictures of a white potion, a mirror, and a young smiling girl's face. Three of these images combined forces and formed a mini twister, before gulping down the scythe.

"Oh, I can't believe that I won! Fourth times in a row. Now, payment time." Geras tapped his fingers on the table, and the other gods put bundles of chinking coins on it.

Hypnos the God of Sleep stretched his limbs. Piotr didn't have the chance to study the god's physicals just now in the fight. Now, crouching at a mere twenty feet distant from the god, he couldn't help but think the god looked like Askew, the automaton troll he once created.

Hypnos had short curly black hair that was plaited around his head, making him look like he was wearing a turban. Instead of having wings at his back, they grew from where his ears should be. The left wing on the left side of his face was smaller, jutting out like the ear of a teacup. The right wing was so much bigger, almost the length and width of a pigeon's.

Hypnos exercised his fingers and said, "My bed is calling. I need to get back to my cave, my own cave." He emphasized the last three words with higher intonation.  

The other god, which Piotr didn't manage to know the name or see him show his power just now because he was the first one that ran away, rolled his eyes. "Let's play one last round. We can actually combine synergy and get our money back from him."