[300 PS = 1 Chapter Bonus]
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In just a few minutes, I had already gone through seven chambers of Tartarus. That was farther than Skelly had managed in his attempts.
I, however, was at that very moment feeling a little... let's say, trapped.
The eighth chamber I fell into turned out to be one of those infested with Wretched Witches, each spamming their spherical spells.
"You're one, two, three... nine?! Damn! How do you all fit in this room?"
The Wretched Witches were wandering spirits of Tartarus who had practiced foul arts during their lives. In the Underworld, their singular goal was to eliminate anything living that crossed their path.
"Well, that's what I call a warm welcome."
I knew that charging forward would be suicide. Dodging randomly? A fruitless gamble.
But they had a pattern, albeit subtle, that governed how their spells were cast.
However, with so many Wretched Witches, I would only have a fraction of a second to identify the angles of each spell.
My natural reflexes wouldn't be enough for that, so I decided to use the [Athena's Tenuous Resilience] skill. That would help me predict long-range attacks as if I had a sixth sense.
When I came out from behind my cover, the first sphere came from the left. Immediately, I rolled to the right and ran straight at the first Witch.
She tried to get away, but I caught up to her with a quick jump, grabbing her by her tattered cloak.
My fist crushed her deformed face, and she exploded into a black mist.
[Ding! The Master got the "First Kill of Wretched Witch". Reward: 5 fusion points!]
The others didn't like that, of course. They intensified their spam of spells, but their pattern was becoming clearer by the second.
A spin to the left, two spheres coming from the front. A quick leap backward, dodging three at once.
I was dancing in the middle of the chaos of magic spheres, and they couldn't touch me.
"You're trying to get me, but all you're doing is annoying me!" I shouted as I advanced toward the next Witch.
The second one was taken by surprise when I grabbed her, spinning her around to use her body as a shield against the incoming shots.
"Sorry, nothing personal," I whispered before throwing her toward the third Witch.
They both exploded into black mist when they collided.
Their numbers were dwindling, but the remaining ones were starting to alter their attack angles as they moved away from me, forcing me to pay more attention to my surroundings and be more creative in order to reach them.
Soon, I couldn't block them all anymore and started using my Twin Fists to deflect those that got too close.
"Ugh, that was close," I muttered, but the adrenaline was sharpening my senses.
"Come on, Nishihara, you can do this."
I advanced toward the fourth and fifth simultaneously, punching each one and smashing them into the ground.
Four remained. One of them tried a surprise attack, launching a series of spheres directly at my back.
[Athena's Resilience] flickered in my mind, like a Spider-Sense, and I threw myself to the ground, rolling forward and grabbing one of the Witches by her floating legs.
"You're going to help me a little."
Quickly, I used that Witch as a shield as I advanced on the other three. The spheres ricocheted off her body, and I took advantage of the chaos to hit the others with quick punches.
The last one tried to escape. Of course, that was always what happened when they realized they were outnumbered. I ran towards her, dodging one last shot and finishing her off with a direct blow to the center of her ghostly head.
"Nine against one? That was fun. Skelly is going to be pissed when he finds out I got further than him on my first try."
I shook the dust off the Twin Fists and then made sure to burn the corpses of all the Witches with [Stygian Flame].
[Stygian Flame consumed 9 Wretched Witch corpses.]
[90 EXP earned.]
Since I had descended into Tartarus, I had already gained over 200 EXP — including the 90 I had just earned.
The only problem was that I didn't know how far I was from leveling up this skill.
Since my status window only showed my Fusion Level, and there was no progress information in the [Stygian Flame] description window, all I could do was wait.
When I got ready to move on, my eyes widened.
Looking at the chamber's exit door, I saw a symbol for the first time. It was an exclamation mark on a stone inlaid with blue and red gems.
This symbol meant that the next chamber was the Chamber of Punishment Sisyphus—an NPC from the game Hades.
Everyone had disappeared from the House of Hades. Could Sisyphus still be there, serving his eternal punishment?
The door creaked as I pushed it open, revealing a large, empty room except for a ramp and, at the base of it, a huge stone ball with a roughly carved face.
I took a few steps into the chamber.
"Sisyphus isn't where he should be. So where is he? Did he disappear just like everyone else in the House of Hades and... Wait, what's that?"
Amid the silence of the empty chamber, I heard a low sound that sounded a lot like... snoring, perhaps?
It was low and rhythmic.
My forehead furrowed as I followed the sound.
I circled the stone ball, and there was Sisyphus.
Lying against the stone ball, the legendary convict appeared to be taking a nap. He was a muscular man with unkempt hair and no beard, dressed in tattered rags of a green tunic. His hands, feet, and waist were all connected by chains.
"Hey, Sisyphus!" I called out my arms crossed.
He didn't move. The chain jingled softly as he shifted, using his hands as pillows.
"Sisyphus!" I shouted this time.
He shuddered, opening his eyes suddenly, and stumbled to his feet, as if he had just been caught in the act of doing something terrible.
"Megaera! I wasn't sleeping! I swear! I was just... reflecting on my eternal task, as you commanded!" He spoke quickly, his eyes wide.
"Whoa, calm down," I interrupted, raising my hands. "I'm not Megaera."
He stopped, blinking at me, confused.
"You... aren't Megaera," he said slowly and breathed a sigh of relief. "Who are you, then? A new specter? Some cruel new punishment Hades has devised?"
I laughed. "No, nothing like that. I'm Nishihara, but you might know me better as Zagreus."
The change in his face was instantaneous. The confusion disappeared, replaced by pure shock. He took a step back, almost tripping over the chain around his ankles.
"Z-Zagreus?" He looked me up and down, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "But that... that's not possible. You... you vanished! I... I heard..."
"You heard?" I asked.
As far as I knew, the only living things left in Tartarus were Cerberus and Skelly, and Skelly himself said he had never made it past the seventh chamber. Who had Sisyphus spoken to?
Sisyphus tapped the giant stone ball twice, as if tapping a friend on the shoulder.
"Bouldy here told me bits and pieces of what happened at your house, young man. And I'm sorry, young man, but I can't say I'm not partly glad. Megaera... She hasn't been around. No more whipping, no more screaming, no more insults. There's no one left to remind me of my punishment."
"I understand how painful this punishment must be for you, but please put your resentment toward Megaera aside because today I will free you from your punishment."
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