After Charon allowed them into the Underworld, he cleared a path through the crowd of spirits waiting their turn, who began tugging at their clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things that no one could distinguish.
Obviously, the group followed behind him and watched as Charon shoved them aside, muttering, "Parasites."
He escorted them to the elevator, which was already crowded with the souls of the dead, all holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits trying to board with the four of them and pushed them back into the lobby.
"Alright. Now, no one start getting any ideas while I'm gone." Charon announced to the waiting room, threatening, "And if anyone tunes my music station again, I'll make you stay here for another millennium. Understood?"
He closed the doors, shoved a key card into a slot on the elevator panel, and they began to descend.
"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked, her expression unpleasant.
"Nothing..." Charon replied.
"For how long?" Annabeth asked again, furrowing her brow.
"Forever." As if it was nothing, Charon added, "Or until I feel generous..."
"Ah." Annabeth was a little taken aback by this. She said, "That's... fair..."
She was about to say it wasn't fair, but decided against it. Still, Charon noticed she didn't seem to agree with his words. He raised an eyebrow.
"Who said death was fair, young lady?" He looked at the daughter of Athena and said, "Wait until it's your turn. You'll be dead soon enough, in the place you're going..."
"We're going to get out alive," Ikki seemed totally unconcerned, despite heading to the Underworld. He said calmly, "You don't need to worry about that."
"Ha."
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover suddenly felt dizzy. The elevator was no longer descending, but moving forward.
The air grew foggy.
The spirits around them started to change shape. Their modern clothes trembled and turned into gray robes with hoods. The floor of the elevator began to sway.
Ikki remained completely fine, unaffected by the change in the elevator.
The others weren't as lucky; Percy blinked hard. When he opened his eyes, Charon's Italian cream suit had been replaced by a long black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses had disappeared. Where his eyes should have been, there were empty sockets—like Ares' eyes, but Charon's were completely dark, filled with night, darkness, and despair.
He saw Percy staring and said, "What?"
"Nothing." Percy managed to say with difficulty, still staring at Charon's new form in bewilderment.
The son of Poseidon thought he was smiling, but it wasn't that. The skin on his face was becoming transparent, allowing anyone to see right through to his skull.
The floor kept swaying.
Grover, with a pale face, said, "I think I'm getting sick..."
At that moment, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. The group was no longer in an elevator but on a wooden barge. Charon was using a pole to push them along a dark river filled with oil, bones, dead fish, and other strange things swirling on the surface... plastic dolls, smashed nails, soaked diplomas with golden edges.
Ikki looked at everything with great interest. The place was so polluted and disgusting. No one would think it was a sacred river where countless unbreakable oaths had been sworn. Both by mortals and immortals.
"The River Styx," Annabeth looked around and murmured, "It's so..."
"Polluted," Charon finished. He nodded and looked at the four of them with his black sockets while saying, "For thousands of years, you humans, when you cross it, throw everything into it... hopes, dreams, desires that never came true. An irresponsible way of treating your trash, if you want to know..."
The mist spiraled up from the dirty water. Above them, almost lost in the shadows, there was a ceiling of stalactites.
Ahead, the distant shore gleamed with a greenish light, the color of poison.
Annabeth, wanting to make sure someone else was alive on the boat, grabbed Ikki's hand, who was standing beside her, looking at everything like a tourist visiting a historical site.
As soon as she grabbed his hand, Ikki looked at her and gave her a reassuring look while gently squeezing her hand. In that moment, everything disappeared like leaves in the wind. The panic she had felt vanished, and she felt completely safe and comfortable, despite traveling by boat through the Underworld.
Percy also panicked, his throat constricted. What was he doing here? The people around me... were dead.
Ikki noticed and placed a hand on his shoulder, reassuring his best friend, the son of Poseidon, as always. He felt everything disappear, his panic faded, and all that remained was an inexplicable feeling of safety.
The son of Poseidon muttered a prayer without realizing, though he wasn't sure who he was praying to. Down here, only one god mattered, and it was he who the group would confront.
The shore of the Underworld came into view. Jagged rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland for about a hundred meters to a high stone wall, which extended to the sides as far as the eye could see. From somewhere nearby in the green shadows came a sound, reverberating in the stones—the howl of a large animal.
"Old Three-Faces is hungry." Charon's smile grew more skeletal in the greenish light. He looked at the four of them and said, "Bad luck for you, godlings..."
The bottom of the boat slid over the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding the hand of a little girl. An elderly couple limping slowly, arm in arm. A boy in his gray robe, appearing no older than Percy or Annabeth, dragging his feet in silence.
The four of them disembarked as well, and before they followed the spirits, Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, partner, but that doesn't exist around here. Remember, don't forget to mention my raise..."
He said the last part to Percy.
He counted the gold coins in his pouch, then grabbed the pole. He hummed something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he pushed the barge back through the river.
The four of them followed the spirits down a well-trodden path. Ikki thought the Underworld would be scarier, but honestly, it just seemed like a place with a dark sense of humor. Did he feel at home? It was an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
They would walk, not quite knowing what to expect, until they reached a large, dark drawbridge or something like that. It resembled gates to Heaven. But the entrance to the Underworld seemed like a mix of airport security and a New Jersey highway.
There were three separate entrances under a huge black arch that read: "You Are Entering Erebus."
At each entrance, there were metal detectors with security cameras installed above. After that, there were toll booths operated by ghouls like Charon. The howls of the hungry animal were now very loud, but the group couldn't see where they were coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard the gate to Hades, was nowhere to be found.
The dead formed three lines, two marked as Service Attendant and one as Express Death.
The Express Death line was advancing nonstop. The other two were dragging.
"What do you think?" Percy asked Annabeth.
"The fast lane must go directly to the Fields of Asphodel," Annabeth seemed thoughtful. She spoke to confirm her point, "No contest. They don't want to risk going to judgment court, because it could turn against them..."
"Is there a court for the dead?" Percy asked, surprised.
"Yes. Three judges." Ikki didn't need to think to answer, he said, "They take turns in the magistracy."
"King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare... people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person deserves a special reward: the Elysian Fields. Sometimes they decide on a punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, neither good nor bad. So they go to the Fields of Asphodel..."
"And what do they do there?" Percy asked again.
"Imagine yourself in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever..." Grover answered in place of Ikki.
"Tough." Percy said, thinking about it.
"Not as tough as that." Grover looked in a specific direction and murmured, "Look..."
A pair of black-robed ghouls had pulled a spirit to the side and were frisking him at the security desk. The dead man's face seemed vaguely familiar to Percy and Ikki as well.
"You two remember? He's the preacher who was on the news."
Grover asked Ikki and Percy.
"Ah, yes." Percy nodded, remembering why the man was familiar.
Ikki also remembered the man. Percy, Grover, and he had seen him once or twice on TV in the Yancy Academy dorm.
He was a televangelist from upstate New York who had raised millions of dollars for orphanages and was later caught spending the money on things for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats and a mini-golf course. He died in a police chase when his 'blessed Lamborghini' plunged off a cliff.
"What are they doing with him?" Percy asked.
"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed, remembering the stories he had heard. He explained, "Really bad people get special attention from him when they arrive. The Furies... the Benevolent Ones will prepare eternal torture for him..."
The thought of the Furies sent a shiver through Percy.
The weight of the Furies brought a shiver to Percy; he felt like, at that moment, he was in their territory. The old Mrs. Dodds must have been licking her lips in anticipation.
He wasn't the only one who shuddered; Annabeth and Grover did too. The only one who remained unconcerned was Ikki; to him, the Furies were insignificant.
"But if he is a preacher," Percy thought and said, "and believes in a different kind of hell..."
"Who says he's seeing this place the same way we are?" Grover shrugged and said, "Humans see what they want to see. You guys are so stubborn... uh, persistent, about this..."
The four got closer to the gates. The howls were so loud that they shook the ground beneath their feet, but still, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover couldn't figure out where they were coming from.
Ikki could see clearly, and soon his friends could too—about fifteen meters ahead of them, the green mist flickered. Right at the spot where the path split into three, there was a huge, indistinct monster.
Poseidon's son, Athena's daughter, and the Satyr hadn't seen it before because it was somewhat transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, its image blended with whatever was behind it. Only the eyes and teeth seemed solid. It was staring at the group.
Percy's chin hit the ground. All he could think of saying was, "It's a Rottweiler..."
Ikki's lips twitched in response to Percy's words, although it was true. He seemed overly dramatic about it, considering he thought Cerberus would be a giant black mastiff or an alien German shepherd—something like that. In his mind, a giant three-headed alien dog was a funny concept.
But Cerberus was a purebred Rottweiler, except, of course, it was twice the size of a mammoth, almost invisible, and had three heads.
The dead walked toward it—without any fear. The two rows of the Service Attendant signs parted, each going to either side of the monster. The spirits in the Express Death row walked straight through the monster's front legs and under its belly, doing so without even bending down.
"I'm starting to see it better," Percy swallowed nervously. He murmured, "Why is that…?"
"I think…" Annabeth turned pale, moistening her lips before saying, "I'm sorry, but I think it's because we're getting closer to being dead people…"
"Probably, or maybe we're just getting used to the Underworld," Ikki said, trying to ease the nervousness of the three. His attempt made them slightly less tense, but it didn't help much.
The middle head of the dog stretched toward them. It sniffed the air and growled.
"It can smell the living," Percy said, pale. He shuddered as he saw the giant three-headed dog looking at him and his friends. Percy thought that he and his friends must have looked like juicy steaks to Cerberus.
"But it's fine," Grover said, trembling beside Percy. He said, "Because we have a plan..."
"Right," Annabeth's voice was low. She said, "A plan..."
Ikki thought the plan was kind of stupid, but didn't want to spoil his friends' effort.
The four moved toward the monster. The middle head growled at them, then barked so loudly that, except for Ikki, the others nearly had their eardrums burst.
"Can you understand it?" Percy asked Grover.
"Oh, yeah," Grover nodded and said, "I can understand..."
"What's it saying?" Percy asked, looking at the giant three-headed dog.
"I don't think humans have a curse word that big," Grover said after thinking for a moment.
The four looked at each other and began their plan. Percy swallowed and grabbed a piece of wood he had in his backpack, something Ikki had grabbed from a bed store during the walk to the studio and the planning of their plan. The piece of wood was a bedpost.
Percy raised it high and tried to channel happy dog thoughts to Cerberus—dog food commercials, funny dogs, fire hydrants. Trying to smile, as if he wasn't about to die.
"Hey, boy!" Percy shouted, trying to get Cerberus's attention. He said cheerfully, "I bet they don't play with you much here..."
"GRRRRRRRRAU!"
"Good boy," Percy said, faltering. He waved the stick. The middle head of the dog followed the movement. The other two stared at him, completely ignoring the spirits. He had all of Cerberus's attention, and wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
"Fetch!"
Poseidon's son threw the stick into the shadows, a perfect throw. There was a splash! in the Styx river.
Cerberus looked at Percy, who shuddered. The three-headed dog remained fierce and unimpressed.
Its eyes were full of hatred and coldness.
End of the plan. As Ikki had guessed, it didn't work. Who would even think of a plan like that? Using a piece of wood to play with Cerberus? Percy suggested it, and Annabeth wasn't against it. He agreed because he wanted to be the one to play with the huge Three-Headed Dog. But Athena's daughter, without thinking twice, had told Poseidon's son to do it, since it was his plan.
Well, it seemed he had to improvise. The monster now made a new kind of growl, deeper in its three throats.
"Uh," Grover turned pale. He looked at Poseidon's son and said, "Percy?..."
"Yeah?" Percy replied without looking at the Satyr.
"I just thought you'd like to know," Grover said, laughing nervously.
"Yeah?" Poseidon's son turned and looked at Grover.
"Cerberus..." The Satyr pointed to the huge Three-Headed Dog and said, "He's saying we have ten seconds to pray to whichever god we choose. After that… well… he's hungry..."
Ikki sighed and looked at the giant three-headed dog before saying, "Let me handle this."
He walked up to stand in front of the group, simply staring at the guardian of the Underworld, activating [Monarch's Domain] and successfully subjugating the monster. Through his ability, he simply dominated Cerberus's mind and made it his pet!
"How about it? You let us pass, and I'll play with you for a bit?" Ikki said, pulling a rubber ball from his pocket and looking at the huge dog, now released from its prison spell, who barked in agreement. It looked at the ball in his hand while wagging its tail.
Ikki turned to his friends, who were watching everything with strange expressions. Annabeth and Grover thought that their friend's perfect appearance had made the three-headed dog docile; it was the only plausible explanation.
Percy just felt relieved that he wasn't the reason for a giant dog.
He obviously knew more or less what was going on in his friends' minds, but ignored it and said, "You guys go ahead, I'll catch up in a bit."
Ikki spoke to them, the three looked at him and the giant dog, which seemed adorable. Seeing that there was no problem, they agreed with the plan.
"Alright. We'll go to the Express Death Line... it moves faster." Annabeth was the first to move forward, followed by Percy and Grover.
The three passed between the monster's legs.
Behind them, Cerberus remained terrifying.
Ikki showed the ball to the giant three-headed dog and said, "See the ball? Want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"
Cerberus licked its three pairs of lips, shook its rear, and sat down, immediately crushing a dozen spirits passing beneath it. Fortunately, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had already passed under the Three-Headed Dog; otherwise, they'd have been just meat. Very likely.
The spirits made a muffled hissing sound as they dissipated, like air escaping from tires.
"Good boy!" Ikki nodded in satisfaction. He threw the ball to Cerberus, who caught it with the middle mouth. The ball was barely big enough for it to bite, and the other heads began moving toward the middle one, trying to grab the new toy.
"Let go!" Ikki commanded. Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at him. The ball was stuck between two of its teeth like a piece of gum. It let out a loud, terrifying whine, then dropped the ball, slimy and nearly torn in half at its feet.
"Good boy..." Ikki nodded in satisfaction and grabbed the ball, ignoring the monster's slobber. He looked at his friends, waiting for him behind Cerberus on the Express Death path, and said, "Go ahead, I'll distract my new buddy here for a while."
"But..." Percy argued.
"Don't worry, with my speed, I'll catch up with you in just a moment."
The three nodded and, still a bit reluctant, moved forward.
Seeing his friends disappear, Ikki sighed. He played a little more with Cerberus until the three-headed dog destroyed the rubber ball and lay down with its ears drooping, full of sadness about it.
"Don't worry, buddy. I'd have to continue my journey anyway, but I'll come back to play with you. It's a promise..." Ikki said, rubbing the middle head, and the other two quickly barged in to be petted too.
The huge dog became even sadder knowing it would be left and let out a series of whines. Its huge tongue ran across his face, leaving him all wet.
"I get it, I get it. I know you love me and will be sad when I leave," Ikki said, wiping himself off, expelling mana from his body and evaporating the dirt and slobber from his skin.
He said goodbye to the three-headed dog and continued on his journey, but instead of going directly to where his friends were, he had some things to sort out in the Underworld, things that would give them an advantage against the owner of the place.
These were plans that left Hades with his hands tied...