Welcome to Tartarus

I fell for about five seconds before I hit the ground roughly at about 110 mph. I was okay, however, thanks to a unique property of time magic:

Notes from Dr. Walter's "Time Magic 101"

All lethal vectors made by and made against a time mage during a time dilation are applied at the very end of the dilation.

Normal actions, such walking, lifting an object, or opening a door, could be done without hinderance during a time dilation. However, anything that hit me really hard would only affect me at the very end of the dilation. Likewise, anything I hit really hard would only feel the effect once the dilation ended.

In combat, this allowed me to easily neutralize otherwise fatal impacts with a special kinetic barrier called a parry so long as I was able to time the duration of the parry with the end of a dilation. My hope was that the parry would deflect enough of the force I had absorbed from hitting the ground essentially at terminal velocity to keep myself from being flattened to a pancake once the dilation ended.

The only question now was if I had enough magic to perform the parry.

As my time dilation neared the ten-second mark, I prepared a parry and activated it to test it.

A sharp pain shot through my left arm, but a momentary barrier flickered into existence. It vanished a second later as it was supposed to.

It worked.

In my elation, I created a second parry and ignited it, just to be safe. Again, needle-like pain covered my left arm like a sleeve of ants, but the barrier appeared and disappeared within a second of each other.

Excellent, I thought.

As the first dilation reached its final seconds, I prepped the second dilation to fire off as soon as the first would end. I did this because I was afraid of mistiming the parry that meant to save my life. It was a technique I had practiced thousands of times, but without my kinetic magic being at its full power, there was no contingency barrier to save me if I mistimed it. I figured it was better to be safe than a puddle on the ground.

With the second dilation secured, I used the remaining seconds of the first to reorient myself now that I was standing on solid ground.

Priscilla stood not fifty feet away from me. Most of her body was obscured by the black strands of her fully extended wing which was aglow with brilliant light. It was difficult to tell if she was okay from the distance, but given that she was still on her feet, I presumed that she was still raring for a fight.

The other light in the darkness came from the blazing blade of the zweihander that had sent me to the afterlife. Clutching the blade was a man I believed to be Apollo. True to his namesake, he was handsome and built like a freight train. He was easily six and a half feet tall and his jawline would give a paint scraper a run for its money.

He wore what every doctor wore: a white doctor’s coat over a blue button-up shirt and a pair of khaki pants. A sparkling, golden tie adorned his neck and a pair of polished leather shoes shod his large feet. His clothing did little to hide his bulging muscles lurking beneath the surface like a jaguar ready to pounce. His long brown locks were a thing of envy; he didn't deserve such nice hair. I don’t know what kind of conditioner he used, but his hair was certain to make even Priscilla jealous of their flawless sheen.

I was surprised he was able to move at all since Priscilla had nuked him with not one but two of her two most powerful attacks.

He was definitely in rough shape, however.

The proud armor that once shrouded him now lay in molten scraps on the ground around. Blood stained his once spotless coat, and his golden tie was a crumpled mess. Even his perfectly polished shoes were now a little scuffed on the edges. They were definitely going to be a lot more scuffed once I was done with them.

I made a beeline for Priscilla. The second time dilation began seamlessly as the first ended. I felt the shift happen, like a slight shift in temperature, but the transition was so smooth I would likely have missed it if I wasn’t looking for it. My mother's blade was definitely better than the Mocles Saber, just as I imagined it would be and more.

It took me about ten seconds to reach Priscilla, so I didn’t have time to see if she was injured.

I prepared a parry and counted down the last seconds of the second dilation.

Three…

Two…

I activated the parry. Pain filled the entire right half of my body as the translucent barrier flickered into existence. I stared at it with jaws clenched, agonizing that the paper-thin barrier was the only thing standing between me and certain death.

Don't let me down, I thought.

One…

The full brunt of my fall collided with the surface of the parry the moment time lurched back to its normal pace. I redirected the impact upward away from us like a slugger swinging for the fences. The shockwave from the force threw up a cloud of gray dust, temporarily obscuring everything around me. I held my breath and shielded my eyes as I stumbled my way to breathable air. When I was clear of the cloud, I realized, to my relief, that I was still in one piece.

The parry had worked.

I had survived.

“Titus?”

I looked up at Priscilla, who frantically fumbling for her necklace. Remembering how she had nearly killed me in our first encounter, I raised my hands up in alarm.

“It’s me!” I shouted. "The one who won't ever hit you back!"

Priscilla grabbed Archie from her neck and raised the golden monocle to her right eye. Gold fractals of light traced the surface of its lens as magic coursed into the artifact, granting her true sight, though I noticed that the light was much fainter than the first time she had used it.

After a moment’s glance, Priscilla nodded curtly, released Archie, and pointed frantically at Apollo.

“He’s out of magic,” she shouted. “Finish him off!”

"You got it!"

Apollo, hearing her, immediately moved to run away, but before he could take a single step, I activated Kairos's third and final dilation. Both Priscilla and Apollo froze in place while I alone was able to move.

Payback time, I thought smugly.

I ran up to Apollo as best as I could through the mounds of sand that blanketed the ground as far as I could see. I thought it was strange that the Gates of Tartarus consisted of nothing more than gray sand.

But something felt off about the sand. It was too soft and lingered in the air for too long to be ordinary sand.

About halfway to Apollo, I realized that the shifting material beneath my feet was not sand but a bed of ashes vast enough to fill an ocean.

But where is the fire? I thought.

When Apollo was in striking range, I swung Kairos at his neck with all of my might. I was taking no chances with the man who had attacked us without warning.

But before Kairos's dark blade could cut through the wretch’s neck, a slender blade as pale as the moon emerged from the void and deftly blocked my attack. Then the blade shoved me back with enough force to send me reeling away.

You’re kidding, I thought.

As soon I regained my balance, I raised my blade to attack Apollo again, but the moment I saw Morpheus step out from a portal beside the frozen Host, I froze in place.

He was still wearing the blue Hawaiian shirt and the khaki shorts from before, but his wire-rimmed glasses were gone and there was now a bronze soda can in his left hand. Morpheus took one look at Apollo before shaking his head in disappointment.

"Poor creature," he scoffed.

I wouldn't have minded fighting Morpheus if Iris hadn't explicitly told me that he was stronger than her. Heck, I might have gone for it anyway if I wasn't Mortal. But throwing my life away needlessly was against cheon-sa doctrine.

“Morpheus!” I shouted. “What’s the deal? You were supposed to help us!”

The Warden took a sip from his soda can before turning to face me. When he saw me, he raised the can to acknowledge my presence.

"Hello, Titus!" he said warmly. "Welcome to Tartarus!"

He took a look around the dark pit around us as if he was seeing it for the first time. How he was able to move while my time dilation was active beyond me. But then again, I probably shouldn't have been too surprised. He was the Warden, after all.

“All I promised was that no harm would befall Lady Brightchild," he said. "Your lord is safe, and I will allow you two to leave with your lives. But I will not allow a Host to be slain by a mere dreamer. That would upset the power balance in the city.”

He performed several moulinets with his blade with the ease of an experienced killer.

“Though it has been a while since I’ve killed a dreamer,” he said as he finished the can and wiped the foam from his mouth. “If you wish to tempt fate, I would happily oblige, knight of Densus.”

I knew that fighting Morpheus was out of the question, so I immediately lowered my blade and backed away from the two Hosts.

Morpheus chuckled.

"Wise choice,” he said.

He examined the empty can in his hand.

"You know, you're not too bad, Titus," he said. "Once you're in the city, I'll treat you to some nectar at Marlette's. Or ambrosia, if you're an ambrosia kind of guy."

"Sure?"

He smiled as he tossed the can over his shoulder. He seemed genuinely glad that I wasn't going to fight him.

I quietly made my way back to Priscilla as I waited for my time dilation to end. There wasn’t much left to do now that the Warden was here.

I was uncertain of what to make of Morpheus. I definitely got bad vibes from, but he seemed to be on speaking terms with Iris. And I couldn't forget the fact that he was the assassin who had been sent to deal with a Seraph.

Either way, he probably wouldn't be too happy with our plans to escape the nightmare. We would have to confront him sooner or later.

He's dangerous, I thought. That much I know for sure.