“What was it? What actually gave you the thought that you’d kill me today?” Lukas Vann spoke to his ‘captive’ audience of one injured Aaron Hassan, who grimaced at the stab wound.

“Well… I thought… you wouldn’t… bring a knife… to a… conversation…” Aaron looked to his stab wound with annoyance and pain in his eyes, the wound itself wasn’t lethal, but it was painful.

“Of course I do. The fact that you don’t is almost insulting.” Vann dabbed at the knife, looking to clean it for no real reason in Aaron’s eyes… the knife would be used soon again after all.

“Normally… don’t need one.” Aaron ground out as he sat up, feeling the pain of moving with an open wound as he looked to Vann.

“But you know… we’re not so different…” Aaron said, making Vann raise an eyebrow at the words of Aaron, vaguely recognizing Aaron as really young, seventeen or eighteen… to be exact, Aaron was eighteen now, his birthday was in December and he’d been tossed into Tartarus during late September.

“How are we not so different? I’m actually interested in what excuse you have to give me.” Vann noted as Aaron smirked, swallowing back some of the blood in his mouth.

“Controlling… manipulative… hiding our true selves… willing to do whatever it takes to get what we want… We’re very similar.” Aaron explained to Vann, unaware that outside of the building, a reunion was occurring… or about to.

Outside, the fight between Echidna and the four Chained under Aaron’s lead, two of them being ‘temp workers’ in Aaron’s words, was coming to a close…

Echidna was winning. It would be shocking if the four of them hadn’t been informed that they weren’t likely to win, even with four of them. To put it in perspective, the difference in strength between tiers of Chained got worse the higher it went.

A Top-tier Chained could defeat about two or three High-tier Chained, while being capable of destroying maybe seven or eight Mid-tier Chained.

Echidna would be of similar strength to Typhon, and Typhon was a High-tier with the potential of a Top-tier Chained. This meant that Echidna, who had slightly more combat experience, would probably be just on the cusp of being a Top-tier Chained.

On a side note, these ‘tiers’ were thought up by Aaron to explain why some Chained were capable of easily defeating other Chained… it wasn’t accurate though…

Some outliers occurred though, like Sphinx being capable of fighting above his Low-tier abilities against humanoids.

Echidna was strong, and it showed considering she had taken down Medusa, Sphinx, Cerberus and Empusa at the same time, even to the best of their abilities.

The four defeated Chained sat there, with cuts and bruised limbs from when they attempted to fight Echidna up close, failing when she showed that her close-range abilities weren’t far removed from her ability to fight from a distance.

“Well… looks like Aaron was right… we’re not that strong in the big-leagues.” Sphinx said, self-deprecatingly as Echidna held up one of her blades towards his throat, a blade at the throats of all the now fallen Chained.

“Why? Why go against Vann and I? Why did that man try to persuade me to listen to his insanity?” Echidna asked, honestly confused, remembering Aaron shouting in her direction after the Auction, Vann incapable of hearing what she did…

And at Echidna’s questions, Empusa couldn’t help but giggle, causing Echidna to glare at the other woman.

“What’s so funny?” She shouted at Empusa who just made a note of sniffing the air for a moment, then giggling a bit more.

“Why do you even follow that guy?” Empusa asked before revealing her reason for giggling, she just had to hear this first.

“He… he helped me, promised to help me find my brother, Typhon.” Echidna noted, and Empusa scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“For someone helping you, he sure is keeping you in the dark. Typhon was released five months ago.” Empusa stated making Echidna widen her eyes.

“Don’t lie! He would have… he would have told me…” Echidna started off strong, but faded quickly, as if questioning what she had been told, only for a voice to go across the cratered courtyard.

“Clearly, sister… he didn’t.” Echidna snapped her eyes to the direction of the voice, Empusa’s giggles more pronounced as Echidna looked at the newest entrants…

Four other Chained, three of them looking very similar, and another larger one with bull horns, all humanoid but not being Cybernetic Chained… and leaning on one of the similar looking Chained, was a white haired, green eyed male who looked similar to Echidna.

“B-brother… is it really…” Echidna felt lost as she looked to the injured form of her brother, who pushed off of the other Chained, as he stumbled to stand on his own.

Typhon gave a surprisingly gentle smile as he stood as straight as he could as he stumbled forward to his sister.

“Of course it’s me… who else has my hair and eyes…” Typhon said with a hint of sarcasm as he stumbled, Echidna was quick to pull back her blades, rushing to Typhon and hugging him…

Causing him to groan in pain for a moment, but holding it in and returning the hug to his sister…

“Brother… I thought… I thought you… were still in the Cradle…” Echidna noted as Typhon smirked at her.

“What, me, stuck in that place? No… okay, I was… but Aaron… he helped me get out.” Typhon noted, making Echidna widen her eyes as she paled… well, the two of them were already pale really, but this seemed almost chalk white.

“He… he really did help you?” Echidna asked as Typhon nodded with a sad look.

“Sister, if he hadn’t I probably still would have been stuck there… and that guy you work for, Vann… he lied to you.” Typhon said bluntly, making the tears in Echidna’s eyes begin to flow, even as she clenched her fists.

“He probably knew… that I was with Aaron… if he really… really wanted to help you… he would have let you and I meet, instead of trying… to get you to kill Aaron.” Typhon was still in pain, causing his hitched breaths while he spoke.

“But… but… he always…” Echidna looked a bit lost as Typhon leaned forward, placing his hands on her ears.

“Listen. You have really good ears don’t you? Listen closely.” Echidna was a bit confused at Typhon’s words, but willed her ears to gather more information, now realizing what was occurring in the foyer of Vann’s mansion.

“But you know… we’re not so different…” Echidna and Typhon both focused on the words being exchanged, listening to the conversation between Aaron and Lukas Vann, the brother and sister moving closer as they listened.

“Controlling… manipulative… hiding our true selves… willing to do whatever it takes to get what we want… We’re very similar.” Echidna heard and looked to her brother with worry as Typhon gave her a small smile.

“Wait. Let him continue.” Typhon said as they walked to the door, ready to open it and enter the foyer where an injured Aaron was talking to Vann.

“Yes, yes, I do all those things, but from what I understand you don’t kill… or at least try not to.” Vann noted, and Aaron winced as pain flared in his stab wound once more.

“I don’t kill… I haven’t done that… in a long time.” Aaron said, looking to Vann with narrowed eyes.

“Another difference… I treat… those who follow me, as comrades… you treat them as expendable.” Aaron noted as Vann looked a bit annoyed.

“And that’s why between the two of us, I’m the one with an entire Area under my control, and you live out of a hovering bus. That’s why I’m the one winning, and you’re losing here.” Vann noted and Echidna widened her eyes at his lack of argument against Aaron’s words.

“So… that’s it? You don’t care… about Echidna, or the others?” Aaron asked as Vann shrugged, flipping the knife in his hand.

“No, why should I? They aren’t human, like you and I, they’re monsters… why should I care if they die? They should just obey the dominant species of the world that made them.” Vann said, making Echidna clench her fists in anger as Typhon held her back for a moment.

“You… I guess I was right… you are like me.” Aaron sighed… then stood from his chair, ignoring the pain as he rushed to Vann who widened his eyes and prepared to stab Aaron.

In return for his attempted stab, Aaron removed a longer blade, the warp in it signifying its nature as being made using the Japanese folding metal method, a gift from the Yakuza Family Head.

The dagger Aaron had slapped away Vann’s, who stared in shock as Aaron grabbed his arm, preventing him from moving his own knife, and Aaron stabbed upwards through Vann’s heart from below.

“Well… you’re like the old me that carried a knife everywhere.” Aaron noted, twisting the dagger he held, before pulling it out and pushing Vann back, watching the man fall on his back, bleeding out from a punctured heart.

The doors to the foyer opened, and Aaron turned, ignoring the blood on his hands as he looked to a crying Echidna and a smiling Typhon as Aaron waved at his friend.

“See you made it… like my present?” Aaron groaned towards the end as he fell on his backside, still sitting up, but holding his side as it burnt in pain.

“Hey, my sister isn’t a present… but thanks… thank you Aaron.” Typhon noted as his sister helped him hobble his way to Aaron, who was lying in pain.

Movies always have one of two things happen to the villain. A long drawn out chase/fight that results in a fiery explosion of death, or an epic fight ending… and the second thing that could happen was the villain dying without trouble.

The truth was a bit of both, more on the second options side. People died, and anyone could be killed in so many different ways… the majority of those ways quick… but not always easy or clean.

In this case, Aaron looked to his injury and bloody hands with a sigh… then looked up when he saw Medusa holding bandages and giving him a pointed look.

“You’re done acting like that, yes?” Medusa asked, and Aaron nodded with a small smile.

It would be an hour later, with Typhon still occasionally fidgeting in pain despite his nigh-regenerative abilities, and Aaron wincing every once in a while.

Their group had gathered, Jiang and Ronové agreeing to do nothing, instead leaving in separate directions after telling Echidna that should she ever need them, they’d be there…

Typhon glared at the two with the intent of spontaneously developing heat vision or a death ray from his eyes. He did not succeed, though he wished he did.

Echidna also helped out Cyclops, and everyone was surprised when Cyclops tossed his bottle on the floor and held his fists in the air after being Synchronized by Echidna’s ability.

Everyone seemed much happier with Typhon and Echidna being united, knowing that their chances of completing Aaron’s plan had spiked… no one but Typhon was surprised when Medusa and Aaron stood really close to each other.

All ended well, and with any luck they’d be out of the prison in a few months. A happy end-

A boom resounded, cutting Aaron’s thoughts off as Empusa got blasted off to the side, Typhon flying with her as they stared at the sight, uncertain of what was just seen.

“Huh?” Eins spoke; more booms resounding as each of the Chained, with the exception of Echidna who dodged the source of the sound, Mino ignored it with his ability.

“Sniper!” Aaron shouted before Medusa was shot away from him as he glared into the distance, only glad that no one was bleeding, signifying that it wasn’t live rounds being used but instead rubber bullets…

The speed at which they fired proved to be deadly though, as Aaron noted that he’d probably get broken bones if he got shot from bullets at that speed.

Before he could even formulate a plan, the gates of the mansion were slammed open, falling off their hinges as four things entered the courtyard, all four robotic.

Three of them were hound-like in shape, but all of them were around three metres tall on all fours as robotic growls echoed from their maws… as for the fourth one, Aaron’s eyes widened in recognition.

“The Enforcer?” Aaron still recalled the giant robot which he had partially dismantled upon entry into Tartarus, though he wondered about his sanity considering he took it on alone back then.

“Incorrect. This unit is a different variation, known as The Warden.” The voice that appeared was clearly from a speaker system, but Aaron didn’t recognize it.

The hatch on the front of the Enforcer… the Warden, opened, and Aaron looked to see a man with short black hair and glaring blue eyes… not electric blue though.

“Prisoner 63977387, you are to be brought in to the Ascension Chamber. Failure to comply will result in pain.” The man spoke, two people walking in behind the four robots as Aaron’s eyes snapped to them.

“John, you sound quite boring. Why were we even brought in?” The female spoke, whose hair was in a low hanging pony-tail reaching her lower back and wearing an outfit out of an Arabian night’s film, despite her pale skin and electric blue eyes.

“Yeah John, we’re not normally brought in for small cases like this.” The man was holding a staff over his shoulders lazily as he glared around, Asian in descent and wearing interlocking armour of some kind, his eyes electric blue.

“Please, do not call me by my name when I’m working.” The man sitting in the Warden sighed looking to Aaron who was looking at his friends with worry.

“Anyway, ignoring these two, Prisoner 63977387, you will be taken to the Ascension Chamber. Will you comply, or will we be forced to make an example out of your friends?” Aaron looked to the people who had followed him for his time in Tartarus, Typhon holding his stomach as some blood leaked from his mouth, the force of the bullet likely reopening his wounds.

“I…” he looked to every one of his followers, not wanting to say it, but knowing it was necessary, even as he looked to Medusa whose eyes were wide as her head shook in denial.

“I will comply.” Aaron stated, knowing that his group was at a disadvantage, everyone was slightly injured, and Typhon, one of their two strongest was heavily injured and probably out of the fight before it even began.

“Aaron, don’t do this!” Typhon growled out as he stood on shaky legs, the woman with the Warden looked interested at this.

“Oh? From what I can see you should have torn muscles and fractured bones, as well as slight brain haemorrhage… a normal person would have died quite a while ago… a Biological Ascended?” Typhon didn’t quite understand her meaning, but Aaron was quick to label that as what the ‘officials’ called Chained…

Ironic, in that Ascended could mean ‘to be above it all’ and yet Chained would mean ‘held down’… a true show of how the two groups differed in their views.

“Sol, no working on Ascended, you know we’re just supposed to pick up the newbie.” The man spoke as he looked to Aaron, ignoring Typhon who clenched his fists at the words of the man…

Typhon finally understood what these people were there for, they were going to take Aaron, turn him into a Chained…

“Hey, you think we’ll let you turn him into things like us?” Typhon asked, as the woman raised her hands in a ‘what can you do?’ pose.

“Ascended, imbecilic they usually are. We will not be turning the prisoner into an Ascended like you, or even a Robotic Ascended… no, he’s going to become a Lord.” The words of the woman called Sol were confusing to everyone as the man in the Warden robot palmed his face.

“Solomon, Lu Bu, shut up and go get him so we can leave.” Upon hearing the names of the two, Aaron’s eyes widened as he mentally ran through his knowledge of the Chained/Ascended and their naming conventions…

All Chained were named after monsters, demons, spirits, those kind of things… but these two were named after historical heroic figures…

Solomon was the aforementioned person in Solomon’s Lesser Key, which lists the 72 Djinn or Demons, like Baal or Ronové.

As for Lu Bu, Lu Bu was infamous as the greatest warrior of his time according to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which took place in historical China.

From these two names, Aaron remembered that Chained seemed to follow three distinct naming conventions, with a few outliers like Leviathan who was biblical, but Chained are typically named after the 72 Demons, or Chinese monsters, and Greek monsters…

Following this, Aaron remembered his prison number, 63977387. O-D-Y-S-S-E-U-S. Odysseus. While Aaron was notably in trouble, he found the name meaningful.

The Greek king of Ithaca and the main character of Homer’s epic, the Odyssey, which later went on to be the defining term for all great journeys… Odysseus the traveller, the adventurer… surprisingly the name was fitting for Aaron…

Aaron also thought if it weren’t for Solomon taking up the Arabian side, one could almost consider Aaron appropriate for the role of Ali-Baba, what with his Open Sesame statement.

“So… you’re going to turn me into Odysseus?” Aaron asked pointedly, making the three look to him with widened eyes.

“Well, he’s not stupid, I’m glad. At least he isn’t like the kid. Just shouts his name at people all the time.” Lu Bu joked making Aaron wonder who they were referring to.

“Before that… fight me.” Typhon growled, his Nano-bots moving across his body as he attempted to take on his armoured form, and while it hurt, he managed to get the form.

“Oh… that looks… interesting…” Lu Bu noted, holding his staff in the manner one would hold a spear, before black particles appeared at the tip of the staff, forming a spear tip.

Lu Bu seemed to also be capable of using Nano-bots, though his seemed to be based around the staff, unlike Typhon’s which were based on his wrists and ankles.

“Lu, he’s already half dead, just hit him. Now come along, Odysseus, we’re going to have such fun with you.” Solomon said in a musical tone as Aaron looked to Typhon with a glare, shaking his head.

“Typhon. Don’t worry. You know who I am; you know I’ll be fine.” The Warden raised an eyebrow at that name, wondering where he had heard it before.

“But… Aaron…” Typhon seemed reluctant as the Nano-bots slowly went back to their places as anklets and bracelets as Aaron smirked, holding his side as he raised two fingers to his head in a mock salute.

“Khul Ja, my friends… The gates seem bigger than they first appeared… but you know who I am.” Aaron left to Solomon’s side, throwing a look to Medusa, who widened her eyes as she activated her ability.

“Well, aren’t you the noble one… we’ll leave your pet Ascended alone, they should be useful to you when you gain your Lordship.” Solomon noted as Lu Bu huffed, his own Nano-bot spear head vanishing into the haft/body of the spear.

“They’re boring, not even putting up a fight… Hey John, let’s go!” Lu Bu turned and walked, Solomon and Aaron following as the Warden turned with the man inside being annoyed.

“Stop calling me that! I’m the Warden; I’m supposed to be the one in charge here!” The group moved away, Aaron being placed on one of the three giant robotic dogs, while Lu Bu got on one, Solomon on another. With that done, they left, leaving behind Typhon’s group.

“Damn it… Damn it!” Typhon slammed his fist on the ground, a crater forming as Echidna was quick to be at his side, Empusa following.

“We just, we just let them take him! We didn’t even try to fight!” Typhon growled as Medusa stood, the rest of their group looking lost and unsure on what just occurred… it was way too sudden for some of them, Sphinx and Cerberus both looked at each other with uncertainty.

“Relax… I’ve got orders for us.” Medusa spoke; the group pausing to look at her as Medusa smirked, pointing at her eyes.

“He left a message. He told me three things…” Medusa looked into the distance, hoping to see Aaron’s retreating figure.

One. Split up, survive, and grow.

“Well, I’m glad you were so quiet during our transportation… quite the interesting person you are, Odysseus.” Solomon’s words meant little to Aaron who looked to the woman with a raised eyebrow.

“Thanks, I’d rather be interesting than boring.” Aaron noted as he was placed in cuffs and forced to walk towards Area 12’s massive entrance… much larger than the Area 7 entrance for prisoners.

Chained from a distance looked to be watching, and Aaron noted one particularly giant snake-like one in the distance, it looked to be slightly larger than even Leviathan, at least in length.

“Too true, little Odysseus… it’s really curious though…” Solomon noted as they entered the massive walls of Tartarus, the gate behind them closing as Lu Bu and the Warden moved forward.

“Why is it that our boss knows who you are, Aaron Hassan?”

Two. Odysseus has multiple meanings. To hate him… having him mourn… and to be lost… Aaron reminds us that despite being a good fit for the name, that isn’t his name. He is Aaron Hassan, and he is not lost.

“Your boss? Is it Doctor Lionel? He seemed really uptight… does he still have trouble using the toilet?” Aaron joked as Solomon giggled, having gotten used to his weird humour over the week they had been travelling.

“Oh no, the Doctor isn’t our boss… our boss is quite a bit more beautiful than he is.” Solomon noted as they walked, Aaron’s face changing upon the mention of ‘beauty’, knowing she was referring to a female.

“A woman? I don’t know many, despite my attitude I don’t get around much you know?” Aaron noted as they walked closer to the Ascension room.

“Well, I wasn’t certain myself, but when she heard your name she perked up and grinned you know? The strangest thing… she didn’t seem to care much, until she found out your surname.” Aaron’s face blanked, thinking about Solomon’s words… then he began to pale, especially when the doors to the room opened, revealing the Doctor… and a woman.

The woman had brilliant white hair, a body a model aimed for, and crimson like blood eyes that flashed blue… and on her neck, a necklace with a key hanging on it sat.

“Y-y-you… not you…” Aaron looked panicked as the doors to the Ascension room closed behind him.

“Yes… me.” the woman grinned as she stepped forward…

For hours the guards outside the room could hear screams, though their faces betrayed no notion that they even heard anything.

Three… and the most important thing he told me.

“Oh, you scream so nicely, Odysseus… you scream so nicely… we’ve been at this for, what, four months? I’m sure you’ll be finished in another six or so.” The voice resounded in the skull of the young man being hung in the centre of the room within a glass chamber, before a button was pressed, gasses released in the chamber causing him to scream in pain, his throat felt as if it bled from torn vocal cords at this point…

And yet, the woman with white hair who looked in to see what happened smirked, looking to the Doctor who had been flipping the switch and adjusting the Ascension process for the man in the chamber.

“Doctor… don’t play like that… he’ll kill you if you keep on that, won’t you, little Odysseus.” The woman stated, leaving, remembering the glare of the man’s eyes, one electric blue, the other a brown, to be replaced further into the procedure…

Yes, he hadn’t broken, not like the others…

Aaron will be back, for it is he who opens the gates to heaven.