The God of Gravity part 4: Nine Guardians

Riddles

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  “Answer me!” Darius yells but the goddess just looks at him like he doesn't amount to anything.

  “Stand down, Darius,” says Mila, realizing the danger they've gotten themselves into.

  He notices the expression on her face so he mutters, “Yes, my lady.”

  “Why are you after Leo?” she asks the goddess.

  “You do not have to know” she answers. Her voice is disturbingly soothing as a morning breeze. “I believe he is there—in your realm. Step aside.”

  “Like h*ll, you will!!” Darius curses.

  “Your mouth can surely move more than your body, boy.”

  He grits his teeth, his grip tightening around his dagger. Mila is worried that he's gonna lose his temper and charge at the goddess. Instead, he sighs and clicks his tongue.

  After feeling a little bit of relief, Mila says, “No,” confronting her with a resolute gaze. “this is my realm. I decide who comes in and out!!”

  “So be it,” says the goddess, raising her fist into the sky. 

  Aurelia's eyes glow yellow, letting out lightning arcs. Darius strengthens his stance. Mila's eyes go fully black. And Hera steps backward to give way. *Thud* Something lands and the back of a man in advanced armor and cape is in front of them. 

  “Father!” the sisters exclaim.

  “Hello, girls,” he says, not breaking his stare at the elven goddess. “I'm sorry for not visiting you very often but here I am.” He smiles at his daughters over his shoulder. “Is Leo in there?”

  “Yes, father,” Mila answers.

  “The four of you, go and find him. I'll hold her off.”

  “Are you gonna be okay, father?” asks Aurelia, holding his hand.

  “Yes, I can handle this.” His words and smile are pure and honest. His daughters are eased a little if not at all.

  “We love you, father,” says Mila. “please be fine when we get back.” She kisses his cheek as well as Aurelia on his other cheek. His heart flutters a little, visible in the redness of his face. 

  The goddess couldn't care less about interrupting such a reunion. She says, “Rai, the former King of the perished Olympus. What do you think you are doing?” Her right eyebrow rises a little.

  He clears his throat when he diverts his attention to her. His daughters leave and are on their way to the entrance. “Be careful, my daughters,” he says.

  “We will!” they answer.

  “Darius,” he calls him.

  “My lord?”

  “Protect my girls.”

  “Understood!” he nods and follows jumping into the hole to the Underworld.

  “That boy...,” Rai mutters. “he has become strong. Strong enough to even restrain himself. I'm proud.”

  “Now,” says the goddess when they're finally alone. “would you mind explaining to me?”

  “Not at all,” he says, narrowing his eyes.

  Landing on the bottom of the entrance, Mila senses something wrong while Aurelia is looking up, worried about their father. 

  “Is he gonna be okay?” she asks.

  “He's gonna be okay,” says her sister, walking ahead.

  “Of course, he will be,” Darius adds. “Your father is cr*zy strong!” He shows her his bicep.

  “Shh!” Mila shushes them. “Something's strange.”

  At the distance, the curving tunnel is illuminated by pale blue light, slowly getting bright until Mila knows what it is.

  “What the heck is that?!!” Darius yells.

  “Souls!” she answers, stepping forward. “They're escaping!”

  Hundreds of souls cry in agony as they pour out like blue slimy liquid in a tube. Their faces look like they're stamped on it as parts of the whole. 

  “ARGHHH!!!” Aurelia screams, disgusted and afraid as she holds Hera in her arms, almost suffocating her.

  “Oh, m... man...,” Darius shivers, his eyes widening.

  Mila holds out her hands and as soon as the souls reach her, they get absorbed in her palms. The ground shakes and the soil beneath her gives off, making her slide backward. She breathes faster, then exerts to hold her ground. For a whole minute, the souls continue to pour out and get absorbed by Mila, making her hair and skin catch fire with the color of blue. The fire does not radiate heat, instead, making the wind wintery cold.

  They stop pouring out but individual souls fly and try to escape on their own. Not that they could, since Mila can command them to either go back or be absorbed. Right now, she's glowing like a light bulb in the tunnel. Aurelia, Hera, and Darius are staring at her as they follow behind. 

  “Are you okay, my lady?” Darius asks.

  “I am,” she says, returning to normal. “Anyways, the thing we must be concerned about is why the River Styx is overflowing. This won't happen if Charon is doing his job. Or perhaps...”

  “Someone killed him,” Aurelia mutters, staying close to her sister and grabbing her arm.

  “No, Charon is immortal. As long as a matter of his body exists, he can fulfill his duty.”

  They have reached the end of the tunnel. The River Styx is full of souls, passing the level of the shore. Some of the souls are at their feet but all they could feel is the cold breeze.

  “Ugh...,” Aurelia reacts disgust. “Mila is this fine—”

  “Yes, souls can't hurt us.” She looks left to right, looking for something.

  “But why did you absorb them?”

  “You want them to suffer eternal purgatory?”

  “Oh...”

  “Alright,” she says, turning around to look at them. “Here's what we're gonna do. Darius, watch over Hera and try to find Charon there.” She points to the left where the souls are coming from. “You cannot sense him so make sure you check with your eyes.”

  “Understood,” he nods, holding Hera's wrist.

  “Meanwhile, my sister will come with me to check this side. We'll let each other know if one of us finds him.” He nods again. “Let's move out.”

  They go on to search for Charon in their separate ways. Aurelia is holding Mila's arm too much so they can't run.

  “Is it always spooky in here?” Aurelia whispers.

  “Apart from the river overflowing? Not at all.”

  “You're just saying that because this is your realm.”

  Mila smiles, looking at her anxious sister. “Don't worry, if something comes after you, I'll protect you.”

  Tightening her embrace around Mila's arms, Aurelia says, “I can handle myself. In fact, if something shows up, I'll protect you instead.”

  “Okay,” says Mila, smiling while her sister is skeptical, looking around.

  At where Darius and Hera are, the level of the river is getting shallower as they go on. Darius is holding Hera's wrist, afraid that he might lose her. Or perhaps, afraid of being left alone in this uncanny underground creek of souls. Hera on the other hand is at ease, knowing that he will protect her.

  “So, Lord Darius,” she says. “how did you and Leo become friends?”

  “Friends?” he scoffs. “we're never friends.”

  “I thought you're—”

  “We're not friends, okay? We're rivals.”

  “But you're helping us bringing him back, you know.”

  “That's right.”

  “That means you're friends,” she giggles.

  “I said, no!” he growls in a whisper. “I'm gonna bring him back so we can have a rematch. He's gonna be the greatest King of Olympus and I'm gonna defeat him to become stronger than any King of Olympus that has ever existed!”

  “Yup,” she smiles, closing her eyes as she has her chin up. “you guys are best friends.”

  “You want me to throw you into the river?”

  She opens her eyes and her smile dissipates when she sees something at the distance. He looks there to find out what she spotted. Instantly, he touches his earbuds.

  “My lady,” he says. “We found him.”

  A bolt of lightning strikes near them. The sisters are already here. Gasping, Mila discovers the miserable state of Charon. He's been tied on the wall of the cave. His limbs have been decapitated from his body and tied up on the wall apiece. His boat is in shambles on the shore. He slowly turns his head like a dead dry branch to look at them.

  “Charon!!” she exclaims, running to aid him.

  “My... la... dy...”

  With his dagger, Darius unties Charon from the wall. They let him lie on the ground. “What happened?” she asks but all Charon could do is inhale painstakingly slow for the moment.

  His right hand slowly moves beside him, gradually folding some of his fingers to point at himself, right at his rib cage. There are words written on each of his ribs. 

  “Something is written on his ribs,” she notices and starts to read it out loud. “To regain what has been stolen, riddles mustn't be left unanswered.” The letters glow blue and in their heads, they hear Guiseppe's voice.

  He says, “All of you are now bound to my contract whether you like it or not. You must solve my riddles. All of your lives and the God of Gravity's life are at stake. Fail once, you lose. First riddle: A little girl is picking berries and flowers from a rich land, gathering them inside her basket. She throws away the berries but eats the flowers. Where does this girl reside?”

  “Asphodel Meadows,” Mila answers without sparing a second.

  “Correct. A clue for the next riddle: The next riddle is found on a creature that doesn't have a single head but has a hundred humongous teeth. Have fun, my lady.”

  The light from the words disappears, leaving Hera, Aurelia, and Darius in awe. They heard everything and how easy Mila answered the first riddle.

  “Who was that?” asks Aurelia.

  “It's Guiseppe,” she answers.

  “That weird guy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don't understand. Is he the one who did all of this?”

  “Might be.”

  “Why?”

  “I don't know.” She kneels, lifts Charon's body, and throws him into the river.

  “What are you doing?!!” Aurelia and Darius exclaim.

  “He'll be fine. Now, it's the only way he can ferry the souls to the Underworld.”

  “But warn us next time,” says Aurelia, sighing as Mila throws the rest of Charon's limbs into the river. 

  Dusting her palms against each other, Mila says, “Let's find my pet.”

  “Pet?” asks Darius.

  Aurelia adds, “You mean Cerberus?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “He doesn't have a ‘single’ head but has 126 teeth.”

  “Oh...,” the three of them realize.

  “It's so easy for you to guess, my lady,” Hera remarks as Mila summons a cloud underneath them.

  Flying to where the river flows and ends, she answers, “Jasper's riddles are much more difficult.”

  “I'll give you a treat if you can guess my riddle, Hiroki,” says Jasper, sitting on the front passenger seat at the right. 

  “I'm driving,” says Hiroki, looking at the road. 

  They're in a pickup truck with Philip and Icarus in the backseat. The dirt, muddy road is bending around and through the green hills. They even encountered a road that is submerged in the swamp but not enough to reach halfway to the truck's back bed to flood it.

  Jasper doesn't care about what Hiroki said and continues confusing him with his riddle, “I stretch for hundreds of thousands of miles but you can hold me in one hand. At where I end, I start all over again. I'm not special but using me, you can turn the world upside down. What am I?” He smirks, looking at Hiroki.

  For a second, Hiroki tries to think while frowning. Them realizes that it doesn't matter for him. “Just shut up,” he says.

  “You're no fun.” Jasper hits the back of his head.

  “Hey!” 

  “Can you guys guess?” he asks, turning to look at Icarus and Philip at the back.

  Icarus looks at the window, not minding him but Philip tries hard to think, rubbing his chin. “Ruyi Jingu Bang?” he guesses.

  “Nope, wrong!”

  “What? But you can hold it in one hand and it can stretch infinitely.”

  “But can you turn the world upside down with it?” Jasper questions, chuckling.

  “Wait a second.” He tries to think again, this time, more intensely.

  “How about you, Icarus?”

  “Globe,” Icarus answers, without looking at him.

  “Wrong!” Jasper laughs. “So close!”

  “Then what is it?” Philip asks.

  “A map.”

  “A globe fits every definition you said,” Icarus reasons.

  Jasper chuckles while shaking his head. “Yes, but technically, the globe does not have a definite ‘end’ unlike the map that has four edges where it literally ‘ends’ and ‘starts’.”

  “That makes no sense,” says Hiroki.

  “You're driving, Hiroki,” Jasper comebacks. “Shut up.”

  Hiroki frowns, looking at the road. For hours, they continue to drive on this worst road in the Realm. The truck is covered in mud but never leaked inside. Jasper does everything he can to be occupied, sometimes messing with Hiroki and sometimes talking to Philip and Icarus.

  “Are you sure we're gonna be fine just the four of us?” asks Philip.

  “Yeah, I think,” answers Jasper, sitting back with his hands behind his head. “We just have to gather information if what that bloated Ammar said was true. While doing that, we must point out the people who follow the God of Chaos for our lady. Then it's up to her to decide on how to treat them.”

  “But how are we gonna find them?” asks Icarus.

  “We search the whole swamp, I guess.”

  “That's impossible,” says Hiroki. “Not only the marshes are so wide, but it doesn't even count the thick forest swamp.”

  “I know it's a drag but I'll be searching alone.”

  “Then what's the point of us coming along with you?”

  “So I could have someone to chat, of course.”

  “Ugh,” Hiroki complains. “I can't believe it. Here we are, in the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles away from the ship and you just expect us to sit around while we wait for you?”

  “Pretty much,” says Jasper, not treating it like a big deal.

  “That's it, we're out of here.” He stops the truck on top of a hill surrounded by the swamp. 

  “What? We're still far away.”

  “Guys,” says Philip but Hiroki doesn't listen.

  He says, “We're gonna turn around now. So, get off.”

  “Hey,” says Philip again.

  “No,” Jasper argues. “just a little bit further.”

  “There's a woman,” says Icarus. 

  The two of them stop arguing and look at the right where Icarus and Philip are looking at. There is a woman on the ground. She's full of mud and her clothes are torn up.

  Jasper smirks, opening the door to step outside. “Well, poke my eyes because I've seen this woman before.”

  “Who's that?” asks Hiroki, leaving the truck.

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