“Boy? Boy! Don’t die. Where is your magical staff?” Screamed Garry as the corpses began to line up in front of the barrier. Seven days, that was for how long Elmar had charged the thing. Seven days of safety. And then…death.

Elmar couldn’t hear Garry anymore. He was in the land of plenty. With a smiling Hades in front of him.

“Tell me, Elm, what do you see. Now that you are dead?” Asked Hades as he sat on the same table as he always had. Elmar took the opposite sit. He should be angry at being forced to kill himself, he knew. But there was something cold in his chest that numbed all his emotions.

“I see greenery and blooming flowers. I see birds in the sky and I think to myself this place is too good to be true. But my opinion doesn’t matter anymore, does it? I am dead.”

The coldness spread through Elmar’s limbs, and he could see the same black, dead thing that he had seen all those months ago when he had first felt his mana stir.

“Do you know why I choose you? As my champion?” Asked Hades as he too looked around the underworld.

“You needed someone to do your dirty work.” Said Elmar with a shrug. Hades laughed.

“I can do my own dirty work. I picked you because you were born a stillborn. Your grandmother sacrificed herself to give you a chance at life. That is the dead thing you keep seeing when you search for your mana. You were stolen from me, 15 years ago. I do not suffer such slights.” Said Hades, and he offered a tray with an already peeled pomegranate to Elmar.

“What about Persephone? Is she dead?” Asked Elmar as he took one red fruit. He ate it. It was slightly sour, but refreshing.

“No, I didn’t lie to you. She is out of my reach, and you collected most of what I need. Now, with your sacrifice, I can collect the final piece myself.” Said Hades. A door appeared behind them.

“You have a choice.” Said Hades as he pointed at the door. “You can go through this door and be at peace. You already ate the pomegranate and died, so you are now bound to the underworld.”

“And the other option?” Asked Elmar, more to keep Hades talking than for any illusions that he had a choice.

“You can stubbornly go back to your body. You were wearing a life-extending ring when you committed suicide. It tethers you to the world of the living even as we speak. But you won’t be the same.” Said Hades. He took his tea cup and took a sip as Elmar mulled over his options.

What did it mean that he wouldn’t be the same? Would he become a shambling corpse if he went back? Devoid of reason and with a never-ending hunger? No, Hades would have told him if that was what awaited him.

He couldn’t leave his three companions behind. He was the strongest among them. The only mage. Lucius, despite who his father was, was a swordsman.

“Can I come back here and go through the door if I don’t like the outcome of going into my body?” Asked Elmar as he took another pomegranate fruit.

“No. You will be eternally bound to your body. And, when it gets destroyed, to the soil of the place where it was ripped to shreds.” Said Hades.

“But, I will be able to protect my friends, won’t I?” Asked Elmar. Hades looked at him with something like pride in his eyes.

“You were always brave, Elm.” Said the God fondly. “Had your life not have been stolen, I would have let you keep it.”

“But you did not.” Said Elmar with a sharp intake of breath. He preferred not to discuss his death, but he had a single question to ask.

“What will I become when I go back?” Asked Elmar with bated breath.

“A Litch.” Said Hades. “You will have to feed off souls. Sure, you can try to feed with animal souls in the beginning, but soon, your hunger will become too great for that.”

“It won’t.” Said Elmar stubbornly. Suddenly, he was famished, but the pomegranate tasted like ash in his mouth.

“We shall see. Just remember that I did want for you to be at peace, Elm. Now, open your eyes.” Said Hades. Elmar blinked.

He was laying on the floor with Garry holding his head and a bloody knife in the gnome’s hand. The knife with which Elmar had committed suicide.

“Thank the Lord you are better, boy. Don’t speak. Just…” But Elmar was already standing up. He touched his throat to see that there was a shallow cut there that still dripped blood. But his blood was ticker and black.

Elmar’s skin was gray now, and his fingernails were black. He opened the door and stepped into the rain.

“Boy, come back here. You will get the swelling sickness!” Screamed Garry, but Elmar knew nothing was going to happen to him. He was dead already. The dead did not have to worry about sicknesses.

The dead were outside the barrier and were looking at Elmar with evil grins. Elmar matched their grin with one of his own.

“They are controlled by the fire demon.” Hades told him in his mind. “Your first meal, child.”

Elmar looked down at his nails and willed them to become like claws, then he ran. The corpses slung at him, and he took many hits, but he didn’t feel the pain anymore. Soul after soul went into his stomach.

The souls of the dead tasted like rot in his mouth, but they made the hunger less. With each soul he took, his steps became swifter, his arms moved with greater strength.

A horn blasted in the distance and the corpses ran away. Elmar cupped his hands over his mouth and screamed.

“Care to see who will eat who’s soul? I will be here, waiting. Come, fire fiend, and let us fight.” Then Elmar went back inside the inn, where his three companions looked at him with fear in their eyes.