CHAPTER IX- What do we say to the God of Death?

Passing through the gate wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, honestly.

It was quite okay I guess. As okay as passing through the portal to Hell could be.

The first thing I noticed once I was inside was the smell (beside the obvious heat). Smell of smoke, strong and persistent, a lot stronger than what it was outside, by the city gates. I almost coughed my lungs out because my nose and throat burned with ash the winds carried.

Tears formed into the corner of my eyes before I could even have them opened, and once I did, I was greeted by Dante's Inferno.

Okay, probably not because I had never The Divine Comedy, so I didn't know what Dante's Inferno would be like, but I assumed it would be something like this:

Black and red sky and lava. Lava everywhere. Even the ground looked like solidified lava. There was also a big fucking bridge following the path, but I couldn't see what lied across it, because a huge black gate blocked it. There were also some big obelisk things close to the river of lava, and big black claw shaped things coming out of the water, like a bloodied finger of some sorts.

My vision was still bright, however, and it took a while for my eyes to adapt to the new lighting, and when they did, I could see- not very far from me, something black kneeled on the floor.

I decided to check it.

Like so many decisions after, that one was a great example of a bad decision (it goes right beside thinking that I should have entered that evil guy's paradise to retrieve the Amulet for bae).

It was a charred corpse of some unfortunate soul. The smell of burnt flesh was so awful I had to cover my nose with my free hand.

I didn't fucking sign up for this.

I wasn't going to move forward towards my certain very painful death, bad decision coming here in the first place. I turned to the glowing 'O' shaped gate, and started to head back, but once again Uriel's final words pestered me:

I am sorry you have this burden bestowed upon you now, but this is your destiny. You alone can close the jaws of Oblivion.

Fuck you, then Uriel. I never asked for any of this and yet here I am relying on some prophecies of dead men.

But I did promise him on his deathbed that I'd help with this thing, because like it's the only way to save the kingdom and yada yada. Damn it. What did he see in me after all? Guess I'll never know for sure.

I shook the thoughts of giving up from my mind and continued walking in the fiery grounds of Hell. Who knows if old grandpa father-in-law Uriel would haunt me forever.

As I approached the big stone bridge, I noticed something coming towards me, from the path in the right (there were two paths beside the bridge, one in the left and one in the right).

Shit, it's one of the spawns of Satan.

Luckily for me, it wasn't one of the spawns of Satan, it was an armed man who wore the sigil of Kvatch- the wolf thing- probably one of the men Savlian sent into the gate earlier. I thanked every God I knew for it not being an enemy.

"Thank the Nine! I never thought I'd see a friendly face again!" The man exclaimed, as he got closer to me. His dark hair was completely damp with sweat, and he had a pretty bad burn in his left hand (probably stretching all the way to his arm but it was hard to tell because he wore heavy chainmail), all his skin had melted, and the red flesh was apparent. I don't want to know what happened. "The others were taken! They were taken to the tower!" The man talked on in some barely understandable language, probably due to fear and pain.

"Woah there, mate, you're okay now, no need to rush," I had the man seat down on the floor. He was much distressed and it wouldn't hurt for me to help, "How about a potion to fix that burn, huh?" I didn't allow him to object, so I carefully laid my sword on the floor, pulled the red potion I drank yesterday to cure my stomachache out of my bag and handed it to the man.

"Thank you, thank you so much." He drank the whole content of the bottle in like three seconds, and cleaned the corners of his mouth with his sword hand, "Did the Captain send you here?"

I wasn't technically lying…so I nodded, "Now, tell me what happened."

All information I can get from people would be useful to find out how to close this thing, or even what I will be dealing with- to avoid potential risks.

The guard continued, much calmly, "Captain Matius sent us in to try and close the gate. We were ambushed, trapped and picked off." The man's blue eyes couldn't keep looking straight at me, they shifted between the gate, me, the horizon and his wound (which, to my surprise, was already practically healed, only a little bubble remained in his hand- those damn potions work really well), "I managed to escape, but the others are strewn across the bridge."

"There's a way to cross it?" I shifted my gaze from the soldier's blue eyes to my surroundings, and noticed a huge ass tower like the Eye of Sauron, right on the top of a hill close to the bridge, "You escaped from there?" I pointed at the tower.

"Yes, that horrendous tower…" The man replied. I eyed him, then eyed the tower, then I eyed him back, expecting that he would understand my eye language, which he did, but not in the way I wanted, "No, no, no! I won't get back there!" The guard scrabbled up to his feet and ran away, almost leaving me there by myself.

Ungrateful bastard.

But I yelled at him, annoyed and kinda scared at being left alone in the realm of Satan, "Hey, wait- No! I need your help, man!" I continued, when the man stopped running, "I- we need to close this gate!"

"You are right, I can't leave poor Menien to his fate." He turned back to me, "And you helped me… you were kind…I must help you too," The guard slowly made his way back to where I was, this time, determined, "I'll take you to the tower. We'll find my friend, close the gate and get out of here,"

"After you then," I agreed, gripping harder into my sword.

The man led me through a rough path that followed the course of a river of lava, close to the big bridge. I was surprised I wasn't dead by now due to the heat irradiating from the lava or the place itself.

There were some fallen block things and unfinished bridge structures that contributed to the overall creepiness of the place, not to mention the blood claw things that sprang up form the solidified lava ground the guard and I walked on.

"Do you have any idea of where we are, exactly?" I wondered, as we jogged through the plains.

"In one of the plains of Oblivion, that is sure." The guard replied, slightly turning his head back to me, "From what I've read, I'd say we are in the Deadlands- Mehrunes Dagon's domain."

Well, that's just fantastic…

So there we have it: the final clue that Mehrunes is behind all this shit and not only those creepy assassins with superiority complex.

Uriel was right- again. I'm getting scared at the accurateness of the prophecies that guy made.

Two for Uriel zero for Amaya.

But does that mean…I can close the gates for real?

"Do you think we will find more of those hellish monsters?" I asked. Oh how much of a dumb girl I was. Can't say I'm much better now, but I like to think I've improved at least a bit.

Before the guard could reply, two mini spawns of Satan materialized in front of us, "Watch out!" The man exclaimed.

The monsters looked like satanic gremlins.

If it was not me fearing that my life could be taken by those things I would've laughed.

But I wasn't laughing.

I didn't have time to gasp (as I would've done out of sheer surprise) because one of the monsters charged onto me, throwing fireballs as big as my head in my direction.

I dodged the fireball by roughly throwing myself to the left, doing a barrel roll on the floor. That gave me enough momentum to see the guard fighting one of the two gremlins, while I prepared myself to fight the second one.

For a second, I was reminded that I couldn't fight to save my sorry ass, nor I had the courage to do so, but I could manage to run and hide behind one of the big pieces of rubble.

I'm a bloody coward.

I peeked from the rock I was hiding in, and to my surprise, one of the gremlins had come for my ass. I crawled backwards on the floor, still holding my damn sword, my eyes fixed on the monster- in its big and sharp claws, more specifically- and the way its teeth showed.

The gremlin didn't take any haste, it jumped onto me, attempting to claw my face as I screamed in bloody fear. I put both my arms in front of my face to shield it from being torn apart by the monster's claws. The leather armor I wore was not sufficient to protect my arms, which was evident because I started to feel pain- sharp pain- and the smell of blood.

Somehow, I managed to kick the thing off me, and this time it didn't take me any time at all to get up (ignoring the pain) and step very hard multiple times in the thing's head until it was barely solid. Like crushing an egg really.

When the monster lied dead, I studied the damage it caused to my arms.

Shit.

The leather had held the damage very well, because I could only see about a couple of bleeding rather deep cuts in each forearm. Of course, they were bleeding and the pain was sharp. Sharp as fuck to be exact. I haven't always been one to endure pain, because I would always complain and whine constantly whenever I felt pain, and this time it was no different.

Before I noticed, I let a few tears run loose.

"Are you hurt?" I heard the guard's voice from behind.

Sniffling, I turned around to face him- he had just finished killing the other monster imp thing- and he looked alright enough I guess, "YES! I AM BLEEDING! MY BEAUTIFUL CRIMSON BODY FLUIDS!" I raised both my arms to him, displaying the wounds in them, "LOOK AT THIS! IT HURTS!" I felt the thick liquid against my skin. Am I allowed to say that I was panicking?

"Calm down! There is no need to shout! We don't want other beasts to show up." The man scolded, rushing back to me.

I sniffled harder, cleaning my nose with the back of my hand, "I suppose…"

"Let me see your arms," The Kvatch guard sheathed his sword and made me stretch my arms so that he could see my bleeding cuts. He gently examined them for a while before saying, "Take a deep breath…" I obeyed, "They are nothing that would potentially kill you- though you should consider wearing heavy armor next time. Just take a potion and they'll be gone."

I dropped my sword to the floor as I searched in my inventory (it's RPG-esque to call my gear 'inventory') and surprisingly my healing potions were still intact. I took the glass container filled with red liquid from my purse, pulled the cork of bottle with my teeth and drank the liquid.

I had one healing potion left. As long as I have it, I don't need to fear pain too much. But of course my actions didn't live up to my expectations.

"You are not a soldier, are you?" The guard asked, as I drank the delicious raspberry cheesecake flavored drink.

I drank the entire potion, and when I finished, I threw the bottle away, liking the corners of my mouth with my tongue, "I'm glad you've noticed." I watched my wounds heal, mesmerized, as I felt slight tingles where the cuts were. It was oddly satisfying to see the flesh heal until only little scars remained. Too bad only the flesh healed, and my armor continued to be ripped. Oh well.

"Who are you, then?" The guard interrupted my little moment. Oh yes, I am not a soldier but I am a Barbie girl.

"I am but a simple girl," I started, humbling myself up, "Who are you?" I put emphasis on the last word because why not.

"Just Ilend Vonius…just a city guard." In times when we cannot keep asking people their names because of more pressing matters to attend to, having little conversations like this help.

"And I'm just Amaya Kedves, charmed." I smiled, collecting my sword from the floor, "Anyway, you've seen how amazing my skills with this piece of crap are, right?" I pointed to my sword with my free hand, "That's why we need to work together here- I'm fast, you can fight… you see where I'm going with this?"

"Not quite."

"The tower. We're heading there to find your friend."

"I know, and the way to close this damn thing might be there, even. At the worse, just a clue about how to close it."

"See? We are getting somewhere." I gestured for us to continue our journey to the Eye of Sauron, "After you."

Ilend was probably confused about me and my intentions, but I didn't give a flying fuck to what he thought.


The rest of the trip to the tower was kinda blur-ish for my taste. I don't remember much, just almost dying a couple of times because I freaking suck with a sword. I was mostly empty headed for all the way, not paying attention.

However, after Ilend and I pushed open the massive door leading to the Eye of Sauron, my mind suddenly came back to function, kinda like when you throw your TV remote on the floor after it stopped working and it miraculously start working once more.

We had passed through millions of hallways inside the tower heading upwards, going after a stream of fire, but all of which looked pretty much the same. Progressively, as we climbed the levels, the enemies became more anthropomorphic- and tougher. They were no longer gremlins, but Satan himself.

If you ask me how I'm still alive today, knowing I couldn't fight for my fucking life, I'd reply with a shrug and comment, 'What do we say to the God of Death? Not today'.

At some point we opened a door leading to a bridge suspended into the air, which led into another tower. Inside the tower, I could see a spiral staircase leading upwards. The black colored walls were tainted red and the room smelled metallic, like blood. I hoped that the paint in the walls was not in fact blood. Close to the door, there was a mutilated corpse hanging upside-down. I put my hand in front of my mouth to avoid puking after such sight.

Before Ilend and I could start walking upwards, a blood-shrieking scream of agony filled the room.

"Menien!?" Ilend jumped up, recognizing the voice as his friend's.

"RUN!" A male voice called from the upper level. Menien, I assumed.

Ilend and I exchanged glances, but I was sure he would rush to find his friend.

Which he did five seconds after.

"For fuck's sake! When someone tells you to 'run' you get the fuck out!" I shouted, as I followed the guard upwards.

As we ran as fast as we could upwards, another bone-chilling voice joined in, "I see your friend has come to join us again!"

Shit!

We arrived at the upper level, and waiting for us was one of the anthropomorphic spawns of Satan guarding a cell with a man inside. His red and black armor had some fresh spills of blood, and he was smiling. "You never should have come here."

Ilend yelled something and charged into the monster. Their weapons (Ilend's sword and the monster's mace) clung against each other's in a dance of death.

I, on the other hand, rushed to the cage where Menien was being kept. The guard was a 50 something year old man, due to his white hair. The man wore only ragged pants and he was severely wounded, he had countless bleeding whiplashes all around his bare chest- probably stretching all the way to his back- and he was barely able to keep himself up.

I tried to kick the cell open- no use obviously.

"It's no use! Only the Dremora Sigil Keeper has the key!" Menien pointed at Satan's minion with his arm- I noticed that all his fingernails were missing- making me look at the thing once more.

Ilend was on the floor for some reason. And the Dremora- thing stood triumphant.

Now Amaya, what do we say to the God of Death?

"NOT TODAY!" I gripped my sword so hard my hand hurt, as the Dremora charged to me. I maintained my sword in front of my body at all times, but instead of engaging in a one-on-one fight I hid behind the cage where Menien was.

Then, the devil-thing and I started a Tom and Jerry style chase, he circling Menien's cage after me and I running around in the opposite direction.

If it weren't me running for my life in order not to engage in personal combat (because if I did it would mean certain death to me), I would've found this situation very comical. Looking back now, it was kinda ridiculous actually.

"I will feast on your flesh, mortal!" The Dremora shrieked. Or should I say, alternatively, Dremoron?

"Only if you catch me!" I replied.

I used to play with danger sometimes, but in truth I was almost pissing myself. Now, the only dangers I play with are avoiding tax collectors.

After some seconds in this merry-go-round of death, the Dremora shrieked and suddenly stopped chasing my candy ass. I was dizzy from running in circles for long so it took me a while to realize the demon knight was sprawled on the floor and his head was missing, and beside him stood a very healthy Ilend. I stared at the demon's corpse for a while, as I breathed heavily, then back at Ilend. "Still got your breath, girl?"

"Just enough to curse you." I replied.

"They key, girl! The key!" Menien shouted, bringing me out of my trance. I regained my breath and proceeded to look for a key on the demon's corpse. "Quickly, quickly! We have no time!"

I found the said key- it was big (almost as big as my hand), and rusty- and quickly ran into the cell where Menien was, unlocked it and watched the man stumble out, his feet too sore to keep him up by himself.

I helped him walk towards where Ilend and the Dremora's corpse were, and made the man seat down against the wall. "Oh, my friend…you look awful." Menien observed, talking about his guard companion.

Ilend gave a half-smile, "You don't look very good yourself, old pal."

"What a touching reunion." I commented.

I shook my head and remembered where I was, and why I was there. I need to close this shitty gate of Hell. I threw my sword on the floor and searched my bag for my last remaining raspberry cheesecake potion, "Here, take this," I handed the bottle to Menien.

"Thank you." The white-haired man replied, in visible pain.

"So," I started, watching the guard drink the potion, "Now that your friend is safe, Ilend, we must move on." I noticed Menien -who somehow drank the entire content of my potion in like two seconds- staring at me, his eyes were green- just like mine. He was probably wondering who the hell I was.

Ilend eyed me, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"I can't leave him here alone- not again." The black-haired guard replied, helping his friend stand up. For some reason, some of Menien's lashes were cured by the potion, but not all…I wondered about that for a second, but decided not to bother with that plot hole.

I was almost as tall as both guards.

"But what about the 'we will close the gate together' thing? I don't want to go alone, I just- I just entered this gate so I could find that blasted priest and be done with questing and risking my precious little life! I'm too young and pretty to die!" I grabbed Ilend's sleeve, like I often do. I don't know if it was the heat of this Hell or the ash in my lungs or even the sounds of chains I could listen in the distance, but everything made me feel so small and fragile, like if one of those satanic gremlins could break me in a single touch, "You left me alone for five seconds and those evil demon gremlins almost ripped me apart! I'm telling you, I'm not competent to fight!"

"Ilend…" Menien started, glancing at his friend then at me, then at my hands grabbing his friend's sleeve.

"Don't." Ilend sighed, referring to Menien,"Girl-" He continued, but I interrupted.

"Amaya." If he's gonna be an asshole he better at least use my name.

"Amaya," He put extra emphasis in my name, as he now stared at me- his blue eyes widen, "Have you ever disappointed a friend by being a coward and leaving them behind?"

"No." Came my reply. Okay, if you don't count me almost running away from this place the first opportunity I had and if you count Uriel as my friend which I don't.

"Then you can't possibly know how I'm feeling. I must do what I must do," My hands softened the grip into his sleeve and he gently removed them, "Go on, press forward. Close the damn gate. I'm sure to tell Captain Matius of your bravery."

"How can someone still be brave if they are terribly afraid?"

"That's the only time they can," Ilend gave me a reassuring smile, but instead of making me… I don't know…'braver', it made me even more jumpy, even if he directly quoted Ned Stark, "Don't think so little of yourself…You aren't even a soldier, yet you are here now, about to close this demon's gate. If that's not bravery, I don't know what is,"

Ilend helped his friend start to make the move towards the ramp which led to the door out of the torture chamber. I picked up my sword from the floor, not before cleaning my sweaty forehead with my sleeve.

"I'm going back to Savlian, no way I'll face this place alone." I walked behind both men, slowly, so I wouldn't run over poor injured Menien, "I can't fucking fight!"

"Then don't." Menien joined in, slightly turning his head to me, as he walked with Ilend's help, "Just run to the top of the tallest tower- The Sigil Keep- the Sigil Stone at the top is keeping the gate open." He continued. Suddenly, my eyes widened- that was it! Nobody said I needed to kill every single one of Satan's minions to be done with this place. I might be a coward but I have just proven to myself that I can succeed if I don't engage in one-on-one combat, "If you were to remove it, it will close the gate."

"So I just need to…" I scratched my head, "Just…take it?"

"That was what the Dremora said, anyway," Menien replied.

I was inside Hell already, so why not find Satan's throne room?

Unexpectedly, I just felt a sudden urge to run away and find the shitty stone and be over with this place. I had a mission to close this gate and then find Martin- might as well finish it soon. It was unbearably hot.

As quick as one could say 'Mike Wazowski' (and before I could convince myself that I was basically committing suicide), I pushed both men aside and ran towards the door.

"Good luck!" I heard them shouting behind me.

"She's doomed, you know that?"

"And? So are we."

With that, I ran as fast as I could down the ramp- through the path we came from, then crossing the bridge and arriving in the dim lighted corridor Ilend and I were before.

I had to think fast.

I noticed a door glowing yellow I hadn't noticed the first time I passed through that room. Well, maybe I didn't notice because I was too busy dodging fireballs.

I walked to said door and inspected it. Surprisingly, it was locked and upon further inspection I found a seemingly random keyhole (which was weird because all other doors were unlocked).

I had to control my shaking hands to be able to unlock it, and when I did, the door led to a corridor leading upwards. I had to keep going upwards to find the Sigil Stone and close this thing.

I ran and ran up, cleaning my sweat with the back of my hands, and tried to keep my soaking wet hair out of the view. The top of the corridor looked exactly like the other room I had been in previously, only with another door- guarded by a fire gremlin.

I decided I had no time for this shit, and since Ilend was no longer with me, I couldn't hide behind him to protect my sorry self.

This time I patted my back for the most formidable decision of running away instead of engaging in combat. I could do the Naruto run for all I cared.

And so I did.

Not the Naruto run but actual running. The Naruto run is quite impractical to be honest.

I ran past the gremlin and into the door, which led me to a room with platforms on both sides, leading even upper. Right in the middle, a fiery beam shot to the sky.

I guessed I still had to go up. I couldn't think too much because the gremlin was getting close, so I ran upwards, almost tripping on my own feet.

At the top there was another door. I tried to open it but it was locked. I looked for the Sigil Key but fear took the best of me. Fuck! The gremlin thing was close, and I panicked.

I managed to get the key, unlock the door and ran inside.

The last floor was- well- pretty upwards. Once I stepped inside it, I could see the glowing fire beam's end. I didn't stop to think if I was in the right place of even if the damned stone was there, I just made the run upwards, in a very sick shaped flight of stairs that were taken directly from my nightmares, ignoring the two Dremora overlords and three gremlins.

For a moment, I thought the monsters would catch me, devour my intestines and skin me alive so I could become the real life symbol of House Bolton. I am not ashamed to admit that while I ran upwards, I started crying.

Once I made it to the top, I had a couple of seconds to decide what to do (that was the advantage I had). My eyes quickly scanned the room and there it was- The Sigil Stone. Right there, held on top of a platform surrounded by fire, under my very nose.

I didn't think twice, so I ran up to the stone and pulled it out of the platform (ignoring the fire involving it) where it was with my both hands because that stone was the size of my head

I held the stone against my chest with all the little force I had left. I was expecting the stone to be hot, but it was not- it was in fact colder than my icy heart.

And nothing happened once I took the stone from its pedestal.

My first thought was that it didn't work, and that I was going to become sushi in the hands of the monsters that approached in an alarming speed.

But, the place started to get hotter and hotter and I heard the monsters getting closer and closer to me, so I closed shut my eyes.

"Shit."

I always thought I'd die saying either 'whoops' or 'shit'.

Guess the God of Death finally won. I thought to myself.

But apparently the superior entity didn't want me to die at that time and no other time until now so… yay?


Nyeeello everyone! How'd you like this chapter? I liked it a lot! My personal favorite part was Amaya running away other than fighting, because...same.

So, next chapter is finally the encounter everyone is waiting for! BUT! Hear me out here: I had the entire chapter written down already, but my pc finally went to shit and I lost it all. I had this one saved in ff net's backup but that was about it. I don't know when I'll be able to post the next chapter, I'm sorry! I promise it will be worth your wait!

Anyhow, thank you all for reading! If you would be so kind as to leave a review I would really appreciate it! Byeee!