Roger’s heart pounded inside his chest as the eight-foot-tall red-skinned man approached the Cerberus. He was tall as the Cerberus with long black hair, stretching down his back like a spiderweb from beneath his tall thick horns. A long-tail swung behind his back, and he has hooves instead of feet. He almost looked like a goat, or a demon, wearing a grey cuirass.

The furies gasped and bowed to him while holding the black iron chains bonding the Cerberus.

“Please excuse us, King Acrisius,” said Tisiphone. "They were about to-"

"I know why they are here!" Acrisius turned his glare toward the Cerberus. "And I never expected them to return."

“Well, too bad, sucker!” Katina shouted. “We are back to kick your red hot chill pepper ass!”

Acrisius burst out a peal of laughter, loud enough to shake the ground. “That is amusing! I never expected you could pull off a foolish joke while my furies lay you down before my feet!”

“Hooves?” Cilla corrected.

Acrisius snarled.

“How are you controlling the furies?” Labda asked.

Acrisius held up his left arm, curling his fingers together. “My blood. When Medusa and I escaped, we knew the furies would make our victory impossible. Fortunately, they love drinking a lot. I added drops of my blood into their goblets when they were drunk. With my blood flowing through their veins, they can only listen to my bidding. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

“I thought your blood can only create minions?” Cilla stated.

Acrisius lowered his arm. “My titan blood can do many things. Too bad it took me decades to discover its potential. But now you are here…..” He kneeled toward the beast woman and lifted Labda’s chin up to gaze into his eyes. “You will make a perfect guard dog for my new kingdom.”

Katina growled and snapped her fangs toward Acrisius’s finger, but he jumped back before she could get an excellent taste of his flesh. “We will never obey you, f**ker! We only obey Hades's orders….. Although he is a piece of shit too.”

“What did you do to Hades?” Cilla asked.

“You won’t care, after I force my blood down your throats.” Acrisius gestured to the furies. “Take them to the dungeon beneath my palace. Watch them carefully until my blood is ready.”

Tisiphone pulled Roger up and pushed his knees to the ground. “What about this one? He was accompanying the Cerberus."

Acrisius glared at the human. "Put him in the Tartarus. The prisoners are hungry. Hehehe."

Roger struggled. "You son of a-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a sharp knock on his head pushed him into darkness. He wanted to scream the girls' names, but it was too late.

*****

Heat came first, eradicating everywhere along with flames crackling, and the smell of sulfur and smoke lingered through the air by Roger's breath. He drew in every breath as he slowly got to his bearings.

His head spun, but it didn't take him long to realize he was lying on a caged floor, feeling the heat touched his skin. He sat up, surrounded by iron black bars. A cage?

Roger crawled toward the bars to survey the outside. His heart dropped as soon as he saw what was below.

A sea of endless magma, flowing through an enormous cavern. He couldn't see the walls, but he saw other boxed cages hanging from the stone ceiling. Hundreds, thousands….. Maybe a billion cages as far as Roger could see them.

Screams of people suffering through the hazy orange mist around the cages echoed like a choir of death. And the thermal condition made Roger’s skin sweat by every second.

This must be the Tartarus. Roger swallowed a frog down his throat.

He shook the bars, but none of them broke loose. No lock was on the cage anywhere.

He was trapped inside, locked for all eternity. And there was no escape.

Roger sat down, feeling his life drifting away from his body. If he is trapped in the Tartarus forever, then he would never see Katina, Labda, Cilla, or anyone else again. What a terrible way to die, if he could ever die in the Underworld.

“Mine mine mine,” a slithering voice whispered toward his back. “I never expected to sssee you here.”

Roger gulped and turned around. Then his eyes grew wide open. “Medusa?”