After having recovered a bit, Alex stood up with the help of Achilles.

'The path is no longer obstructed, we should get going'

Alex then too the lead and approached the staircase. Looking up, they noticed it was lacking any form of lighting.

Fortunately, their torch survived all of their misadventures, albeit extinguishing in the process.

The torches on the wall were brightly blazing with a soft green flame.

Therefore Alex took up their own torch to the lit torches and it, accordingly, ignited a green flame. With the problem of lighting now solved, the two made their way up the staircase.

As they climbed and climbed, he heard the voice of Achilles.

"What did you dream about?"

Turning around, he perceived that the latter wasn't doing very well. His face was completely emotionless, but it felt like the lack of emotion was forced, as if through blocking every expression of his, he contained his inner feelings.

Alex supposed that internally, Achilles would be like an erupting volcano.

While his own nightmare was, well, a nightmare, he very speedily recovered from it. It didn't seem to be the case for Achilles.

"It was a dream about my home country. It felt like the future I would have lived if I wasn't recruited into Olympus, and I loathed every part of it." Alex replied.

All of the current happenings felt very serendipitous to him, as none of this would have ever been his reality if he just ignored the message in his spam folder, as every rational adult would do.

"How about you? Can you tell me about it?" He asked Achilles in return.

"I fought to the death with my lover."

...

"I still vividly remember having to strike the person I love the most with my spear, the sensation of their lifeless and cold body." Achilles paused, both in his words and his steps.

From the higher standpoint he was in, Alex looked at the man's poker face.

He continued "I had no control over my own body, and Patroclus was attacking me and saying the words that I didn't want to hear the most."

As Achilles was speaking, he unexpectedly started ramming his own head against the wall, and said.

"Patroclus told me 'Why did you leave me to die?'. How could I ever respond?" His head started bleeding profusely and Alex jumped and pulled the man away.

Now face-to-face, Alex told him "If you're just going to believe an illusion as reality and...hurt yourself because of it, then why did you even say yes to coming with us?"

Achilles, with blood dripping down his face, listlessly stared at Alex.

"You came with us so you can see Patroclus, right? If so, then why did you settle for a fake Patroclus if the real one is only an adventure away. I think, if you can't even go face them and clear your disputes, then you don't truly love them." Alex told him bluntly.

The man was still staring at him with no reaction whatsoever.

Alex was still not over, though.

"You said it yourself earlier. To love and adore a person is to be able to bleed for them, fight for them fulfill their every wish, and for them to be able to do the same."

As he said these final words, Achille's eyes reddened and he started tearing up, as his tears and blood mixing together.

Alex let go of him and resumed climbing the staircase, leaving the man some space.

Achilles was someone who was heavily hurt by the past, losing the person he was willing to spend an eternity with, and thinking it was his fault.

No matter how hurt he was, he should clear up everything with feedback from the actual person involved, and take out the weights he has been enduring on his shoulders, and search for what made him happy.

There had to be something.

When beings are mortal, they have to be resourceful with their time, and they can't waste time trying every single thing so find what makes them truly fulfilled and satisfied.

But Achilles is immortal, someone for whom the sands of time have stopped tipping.

Perhaps the human mind cannot grasp immortality. Even Alex still found it hard to understand that he was going to be here forever, but it was still as magical.

Humans might be born under the greatest of curses, that of mortality, but they can reflect, they can prioritize feelings, people and objects and learn the true value of everything.

When this curse is broken, such as is the case for Alex, it felt magical that he had all the time in the world to become whoever he wanted, to do everything he wanted and to spend happily.

Alex's stream of thoughts was interrupted, as he reached the end of the staircase.

In front of him was a flaming door with the silhouette of Cerberus, an exact replica of the one they entered Tartarus through.

He sat on the stairs and waited for Achilles.

It didn't take too long for him to come.

Achilles was climbing up the stairs with his head held up high, and although his face was messy from the tears and blood, his eyes were now glowing and his laps were raised, forming a slight smile.

Additionally, he could move his arms again.

As he approached the flaming door, he turned to him and asked "Did I make you wait for too long? Let's go to Asphodel!"

Alex shook his head and stood up.

There were two gates to open, and as Alex put his hand on one of them, extinguishing the illusionary flames, he exclaimed "Achilles, let's open the two doors at the same time!"

The latter nodded and they both pushed the gates at the same time, opening the heavy gates.

As they let go of of the gates when they were fully open, they went through and...

*BAM*

The two gates shut violently closed.

And here the two were, in the Asphodel Meadows, the limbo of the Underworld where souls with an equal amount of good and bad deeds went after death.

'It's...flaming?' Alex thought to himself with a frown.

There were rivers of lava shielded by rocky hills everywhere, and the soil was a dark ashy colour.

The temperature here was also unpleasantly hot, as their sweat glands were abnormally active, trying to cool down their bodies.

Looking around, this realm went as far as the eyes could see but there was no sky, and instead a cave ceiling that was quite high up.

While they were observing the place, unusual sounds alarmed them.

It was the sound of shrill groaning.

Locating the source of the sound, they noticed a grey blob of matter navigating on the ground, and it seemed to make that sound.

'This is bizarre.' Alex was weirded by the bizarre moving creature.

"I think I know what's going on here." Achilles declared.

Alex listened carefully.

"I theorize that The River of Purification, Phlegethon, has spilled over to Asphodel, causing the current magma pandemonium, and this stupid soul decided to jump into it."

Alex was confused and asked him in response "Why would someone willingly jump into a flaming river, haha?"

"The River of Purification, as it's name infers, can purify sins through the flames. If a soul stays for too long in it however, it will start purifying traits, personality and the attributes of a soul, and eventually, vaporize it into nothingness." Achilles replied to him comprehensively.

Alex nodded as he understood.

"Can we...save it?"

"The only way to save it, I suppose, is to vanquish it forever, releasing it from its suffering."

While they were speaking, the grey blob transformed into a beast-like figure and surged at Achilles.

By now, his arms were mostly healed, and he could move them, but fighting would still be an extremely hard task for him.

Alex bolted at the creature and punched it, vaulting it a distance away.

The blob then transformed into a ferocious wolf and charged at him again. This time, just as he was about to perform a rudimentary attack, he heard Achilles instruct him "Attack it with an uppercut and jump into the air, then kick it back to the ground."

Alex nodded and carried out the attacks, making the ground under them rumble as the 'wolf' was thrust into the rocks.

Jumping a distance away, Alex got ready for any incoming attacks.

This time, the blob became a speedy leopard and rushed at him.

"Move to the left, then kick it!"

As the leopard almost assaulted, he dodged its attack and moved to the left, before rapidly kicking it and sending it flying to a wall of rock and breaking it into pieces.

"Wow..." Alex was surprised by the strength he could show by incorporating martial techniques.

The 'leopard', that was on the ground now, started turning into an elephant.

However, it then turned into a monkey, then a lion, then a chimera, then a centaur, switching back and forth into different forms before going back to its earliest shape, the grey blob of matter.

It was back to groaning as it did earlier, and as Alex approached it cautiously, he almost got the impression that it was...screaming for help.

He had an idea he wanted to try out.

Back in the village of Atreksos, he was able to contribute to the healing of the older residents through entering their dreams and sending them messages from their families, which ignited hope in their recovery.

Since dreams are just the manifestation of a person's subconscious while they were sleeping, it should also work while they are awake..?

Alex wanted to try saving this poor soul through entering its subconscious.

He hence put his hand on the blob and while it felt unpleasantly slimy, he resisted the urge to remove his hand and willed to enter the soul's subconscious.

After closing his eyes, he opened them again.

He was in an unfamiliar place.

It seemed to be Earth, but the sky was red and a lot of things did not make sense, like trees that grew their foliage in the ground and their roots in the sky.

As he was here, he heard something.

Turning around, he saw a humanoid creature.

Actually, he was now completely surrounded by these creatures.

They had no mouths, nor eyes and ears yet they could speak. Nevertheless, their speech was completely incoherent and didn't mean anything at all.

This was a bit scary and he moved aside but he then noticed that now, everywhere around him in this realm was occupied by these creatures.

This was a bit unsettling as they spoke unintelligible sentences and stayed completely still.

Just as he was about to leave this scary place, he heard one of the creatures speak.

Concentrating on what it said, he heard the phrase "Pleeeeeeaaaaaseee kill meeeeeee..."

Alex's head started to hurt and as if it echoed, all of the humanoid creatures replicated that one and started saying "Pleeeeeeaaaaaseee kill meeeeeee..."

This was maddening.

'Is this how a broken soul's subconscious looks like?' Alex was shocked at this chaos.

He then willed to leave the realm, and as he felt his consciousness flowing, he heard the creatures screaming even louder "PLEAASE KILL MEEE!!!"

As he woke up, he saw he was still in Asphodel, and Achilles was behind him.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked Alex with a worried tone.

"This creature wants to die...." Alex frowned heavily as he remembered what he saw and heard earlier.

"I won't ask how you got to that conclusion but I'll trust you. What are you going to do?" Now, that was the question Alex didn't want to confront.

'Can I really kill a soul eternally, even if it wishes to die, and not be a murderer?' Alex pondered on the dilemma.

Would he take the soul of its suffering and end it?

Or would he evade any responsibility or guilt by leaving it?

Alex almost felt like there was a countdown left for him to decide and rapidly processed all of the options.

He was decided.

Under the gaze of Achilles, Alex grabbed the blob and went by the flaming river, and then, he reluctantly dropped it.

As he watched vapour rising into the air, he almost collapsed from guilt but in his ears, he felt like he heard an echo.

'Thank you....'

Achilles then told him "I think you made the right choice."

Alex nodded and spoke his feelings "I would be able to escape the guilt if I just left it there, but the guilt of leaving it in that state, would be much, much greater. The things I saw, this soul, this person was suffering immensely, and would have continued to do so for all eternity."

When they were discussing, an unknown voice nearby said "Ughh, the Phlegethon has even reached this point, wait, what are you two Elysians doing here?"

Achilles and Alex turned around and found the person speaking to be a resident of Asphodel.

Similarly to the ones he met in the House of Hades, this soul from Asphodel hosted a ghostly appearance and didn't have any human physical traits.

It then said "Let me lead you two to Asphopolis."

It seemed to think they were from Elysium, and none of the two objected to clear it up, and instead nodded and followed the soul.

Over some of the lava rivers, bridges were built and they traversed using those.

After a while, they found themselves in a totally different environment than the flaming hellscape.

This place was lush with greenery and there were entire fields of flowers in front of them. To be precise, they were all Asphodel flowers, with their characteristic white and magenta petals spreading in the shape of a star.

On top of that, from their position, they could observe a....city?