Chapter 44: Book Two: Chapter 10

“Look out!” Cilla cried, but the lion leaped directly toward Roger. Since the only human didn’t enough time to move, he ducked.

But then, the Cerberus tackled the lion, pushing him away from reaching Roger. Both of them crashed and rolled toward the dune.

The Nemean Lion rose to his feet while the girls remained on his both, clenching their arms around his thick neck.

“You’re going back to the Tartarus, bitch!” Katina shouted.

As if he was saying no, the lion roared and charged. He hopped and back kicked like a bull trying to throw the beast girls off.

“He’s moving too fast!” Cill cried, her voice bouncing up and down by the lion’s motion. “We can’t choke him!”

The Cerberus girls may be strong, but the lion was bigger. Roger wondered how Hercules managed to defeat the giant lion. All he did was grapple the lion with his bare hands. After all, he was the son of Zeus. Perhaps all half god humans possessed powers that could match anything from beyond limits. Monsters were different, born with their own limits without god-like powers.

“Hold on!” Labda shouted as she raised two fingers up and thrust them into the lion’s neck.

The Nemean Lion groaned as he fell into the sand, head first. He turned silent.

Roger raced toward the girls. “Did you killed him?”

They dismounted off the fallen lion and tipped his head.

“He is out,” said Labda. “I struck his pressure point on his neck. He should remain unconscious for the entire day.”

“Damn, I wished we killed him,” Katina complained through her panting breath.

Roger rolled his eyes. She is so bloodthirsty…..

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“We better keep moving before he wakes up,” Labda suggested. “The lost souls will not follow us out here.”

Roger looked around. “Anything else out there?”

“Only neutral souls in the Asphodel Plains…..” Labda glared toward the dune distances. “Unless the monsters from the Tartarus are wandering here.”

Roger gulped at that thought. Anything could wander in the desert, waiting to ambush anyone. The creatures could hide in the dunes or swim beneath the sands. Or they could even fly through the dark air, high above the desert area. But Roger knew the girls could protect him, including himself.

“We’ll kill them if we encounter anything,” he said.

Katina smiled at him. “Now that is what I am talking about!”

At least she liked something from him.

*****

Roger kept his eyes scanning the barren wasteland as he followed the Cerberus across a flat dune mount. He wanted to stay aware of anything that might try to ambush him and the girls. But so far he saw nothing hostile.

He only saw dark figures floating around the dunes, wearing black hoods and keeping their heads down as if they were crying. He assumed those phantoms were the neutral souls, sentenced to wander through the Asphodel Plains endlessly. Pretty much, they were the same as the souls in the River of Styx. However, Labda explained when the souls become part of the desert, they lose their memories and identities, becoming similar to machines. Mindless, except they weren’t swimming through a void in the water. Death didn’t seem pleasant to Roger at all.

The Cerberus stopped at the top of a dune, and one of them pointed their finger straight.

“Look, Roger! It’s the Hall of Judgement!” Labda shouted.

“What?” Roger rushed up toward them and followed their gaze.

Miles across the desert stood an enormous stone mountain, bigger than the gate. On the stiff cliff below the mountain wall was a rock-cut architecture with a giant doorway behind six Doric columns. It looked like someone carved the White House’s front porch without painting it white.

“That is where every soul gets judged if they manage to survive from the gate,” Labda explained.

Roger turned to her. “Do we have to go through there?”

“Are you chicken?” Katina teased with a chuckle.

“It is the only way,” said Labda, “but we will make sure the manager of the hall will not judge you.”

“We have our ways with words,” Cilla giggled.

Roger wasn’t afraid, but he doesn’t want to become the mindless souls in the desert and the souls in the river. Good thing the Cerberus was his guide in the Underworld.