Coreoth XXV:

Underworld

A/N: Alright, I'm going to go through this chapter fast, so I can get with the others and the action all building up to the beginning of Tolemac, the sequel.

Underworld, Third POV...

Lok stared out at the huge plain of red grass. "This is the afterlife? Seems kinda boring."

Cowl smiled. "This is the Fields of Asphodel. This is we people who were neither too good or too bad go. To the west," Cowl pointed to the west where a glow was coming, the glow similar to that of lava, "is the Field of Punishment, Hel. To the east," pointing towards the sun which was rising, "is Elysium, also called Valhalla or Heaven."

"Okay then. So what do I do? And where does the path lead?"

"To the Door of the Underworld."

"So I can just walk to it and go through it and I'm alive again?"

A silence stretched for half a minute till Cowl started laughing. He laughed for at least three minutes before he gained control. He wiped tears of mirth away. "That's a good one Lok. No, if that was the case then everyone would simply escape. No to escape you need this." Cowl streched out his hand and a key appeared, made out of crystal. "The key of Death. Use this and you'll come back."

Lok took it gingerly. He thought about the uses, of how he could bring anyone back to life with the key.

Cowl noticed the look on his face and smiled sadly. "It's one use Lok."

"Oh. Well, coming back to life still sounds easy."

"There is one more thing left. The Reaper."

"The Reaper?" It might've been Lok's imagination but the air around him, normally warm, suddenly dropped and Lok could see his own breath, and the sky grew darker. This lasted for a few seconds.

"Yes, the guardian of the Underworld. My presence here is masking your existence from him. But when I leave he will find you. If his scythe touches you, your soul will be reaped, you will become a shade. And nothing will stop him. You will have maybe two or three hours before he finds you, three to four hours to get to the door, walking. Good luck Lok." Cowl stepped back into the door, vanishing.

Lok began to run.

Two Hours Later...

Lok was walking down the path. Despite the fact that he just ran what felt like a half marathon he felt fine. Maybe being dead had it's benefits. As Lok walked along he came across something, a river, thirty feet wide. It snaked next to the path, curving in from the southeast where a castle was visible in the distance. The water itself was as black as night and was filled with stuff. There were diplomas, a teddy bear slowly falling apart, a few books that weren't quite finished. Then Lok saw something that made his heart stop. A dark gold cube-like object floating near him.

He hesitantly reached out to grab it. His fingers brushed the object and his bones seemed to vibrate, like the sound of a drill. He grabbed the cube and examined it. It was puzzle like a rubix cube, though much more complex. He brushed away some mud revealing two letters. He stopped breathing. The letters were E.L. Eathon Lambert. Memories came flowing back.

His dad had made him a puzzle when he was five. He made this puzzle. It had been his favorite and he never could solve it. When he was eleven it vanished. Lok took it and pushed a few cubes and moved it around. He smiled as everything clicked together. "Took me long enough to solve it," Lok muttered. He then turned his attention back to the river. "What is this river?"

"It is the River Styx, the river of lost things and death," came a voice behind Lok. Lok jumped then turned around and saw a familar figure. It was a boy of maybe sixteen. He had light brown hair and his eyes were blue and very light and bright. He wore a loose white shirt and cotton trousers. Though he looked normal he was somewhat transparent, and seemed wavy, like he was mist in a light breeze. Lok was trying to place him, he looked so familar. Then it clicked.

"Dewrder. It's you," Lok realized. Dewrder smiled sadly.

"Yes Lok, it's me. And I seen you've joined me in Annwn."

"Not exactly Dewrder," Lok said uneasily. "Maybe I should explain a bit first." After ten minutes Dewrder got the story of what happened to Lok.

"I see. Well then," Dewrder froze. Even the pomegranate scented breeze stopped. After a minute it went back to normal. "Lok, you need to hurry. Thanatos is coming."

"Who?"

"The Reaper. He's after you. I'll lead you to the Door, but we need to move now!" Dewrder began to run down the path while Lok quickly followed. As Lok ran he noticed that by looking out the side of his eye he saw that Dewrder was made out of moving images, images of him from all years. They were memories.

"What will happen if the Reaper gets me?"

Dewrder shuddered. "His job is to reap the souls of the dead. A single touch of his scythe will remove your soul from your body, which will then come here. Thanatos makes sure that no one escapes."

Lok gulped. "But can't I use a shield to stop him?"

"No, his scythe negates all magic."

Lok began to realize that coming back to life was going to be much harder than he originally thought. Lok kept running till he saw the Door.

It was solid black and appeared to be made out of onyx and bone. It was twenty feet tall and fifteen feet wide. It had intricate decorations on it, showing various scenes of death. A man getting beheaded, a woman burned at the stake, a man slowly drowning, a young woman being choked. The scenes werer vivid and most very gruesome. The Door was mostly in front of the river, off of the path. Lok began to think about how to get through it when the area got much, much darker. And then the Reaper appeared.

He was tall, close to seven feet tall. He was surronded in a dark haze, a dark aura. He was clothed in a long ragged cloak that brushed the ground and was swept back and was stiff like the tails of a coat at the back and was blacker than the darkest shadow. Whenever the cloak touched a piece of grass or any vegetation, they curled up and turned brown and died. His feet were clad in simple black moccasins. His face was hidden by the hood of his cloak, but glowing red eyes shone out. But the most terrifying thing was his scythe.

It was shaped like a shallow S and was six feet tall. And instead of the traditional one blade it had two. The first was like a streched out S, maybe two feet long. The second one was similarly shaped but shorter and lower and at a very slight angle. And at the top was a short little knife blade, so the scythe was good for stabbing and slashing. The Reaper trailed it on the ground, and the earth where the scythe touched it froze. Just looking at it Lok felt the need to run and hide under a rock. It felt like his very soul was slowly being drained.

"Lok," Dewrder snapped Lok out of his stupor. "I'll try to stop him. You get to the door," Dewrder rushed the Reaper. Lok turned back to the door and then figured out something. He activated his powers and used it to gather all the stones around and made a bridge. He began to run across it to the door.

Dewrder flew back like someone had punched him with a giant fist. The Reaper walked slowly towards Lok, but each step was like twenty. He swung his scythe and an arc of shadow flew towards Lok. It hit just behind him and sent him flying onto the mainland. The bridge blew apart in a shower of stones. And the Reaper advanced on Lok. Lok watched agape as he strode over the water, not even a rippled passing through the water.

"You lost boy," the Reaper said, his voice causing the very air to tremble. His voice was no louder than a whisper, yet it sounded like a shout. He now stood above Lok. "Now it is time for you to be truly dead." His scythe was raised. And then it came down at lightning speed at Lok. Lok raised his arms in front of him and closed his eyes. He knew it could do nothing, but it was instinctive. Oddly enough Lok felt nothing. No pain, no darkness. Nothing at all. Lok opened his eyes and stared in amazement.

Around him was light blue sphere. His crystal was glowing, and though Lok couldn't see it his eyes were glowing the same blue. And in the sphere was the scythe, suspended. The Reaper's eyes were wide with surprise. "What's going on? No magic can stop my scythe!"

Lok didn't know what was happening either, but he didn't think it would last. Lok gave a push and the sphere expanded like a balloon, but much faster, throwing Thanatos back and making his scythe fly away. Lok scrambled up and began to run to the door, making a bridge again. Thanatos got up, his hood falling down revealing his face. And it was a face Lok would not forget.

At first it looked like the face of a man in his mid-forties, with curly black hair that was slowly starting to grey. His eyes were crimson, but looked kind. His skin was tan and looked like the skin of a man who spent a lot of time outside. But then his real face was revealed. It was a skull, a skull that wasn't quite human. It was shaped wrongly, the mouth too large, with two fangs jutting from the top. His crimson eyes glowed from the empty eye sockets. These two faces were over one another, letting Lok see both. He snarled andd began to run at Lok when Dewrder tackled him down, holding his arms down. "Go Lok! Go!" he called.

Lok continued to run. Thanatos's eyes glowed bright red and his scythe got up. And flew at Lok. Lok dodged it as it stabbed at him. It began to slash erractically, with Lok bobbing and weaving. He got a small cut and leaped back. With that little cut he could feel his soul, his identity, slipping away. Memories flowing away. "Everheal," he whispered. Already his soul was coming back. Lok began to see just how deadly that scythe was. Lok got pushed up against the wall, and he knew that his time was limited.

The Reaper grimaced with annoyance, then smiled. "Perhaps I should get this dead weight off of me!" The scythe spun around and flew at Dewrder. Lok screamed. He had no idea what the scythe would do to a ghost, but Dewrder was terrified of the Reaper for a reason.

The scythe drew close to Dewrder but at the last second Dewrder flipped around so that Thanatos was above him. And then the scythe entered Thanatos. He gasped in pain and then the scythe slid out of him. But it was too late, he was wounded fatally. Dewrder pushed him off, and the Reaper landed on his back, his eyes staring up, his scythe next to him.

"Go Lok! Get out of here!" Dewrder screamed. Lok nodded and ran up to the door and put the key in the door. The door swung open and the key fell into Lok's hand. It then began to dissolve into multicolored sand, with Lok already jumping through the door. The Door swung shut behind him. Dewrder watched and smiled.

"He escaped didn't he?" Dewrder jumped and saw the Reaper. But he looked normal. His face was normal, no skull. But it was contorted with pain. "I knew he would...Always...knew."

"You knew? How?" Dewrder demanded, confused.

Thanatos laughed. "It was my job to test Lok. If he died, oh well. But I knew he wouldn't, he is one of the chosen heroes. But me dying is nothing more than a...a happy side effect."

"You want to die?"

"For so long I have lived, doing my job. Thousands of years with no replacement. My soul slowly slipped away. But now I am free, and I have a replacement. I am free to be reborn." Thanatos smiled one last time. Then his whole body went slack. His eyes grew dim and sightless, and his chest stopped moving. He was dead. But unlike normal people, he dissolved into dust which was blown away by a wind.

Dewrder puzzled over what the Reaper had said, about his replacement. Then he realized who the replacement was.

It was him.

Dewrder went over to the scythe and slowly reached out his hand. At once he felt the scythe's power, the ability to take away the soul of any living thing. He felt the scythe in his hand, perfectly balanced. He felt like there were thousands of him, collecting souls. Shadow dripped out of the scythe and formed around him, becoming the cloak that the Reaper had always worn. Though he couldn't see his own face, it had become darker, and his eyes became crimson orbs.

Dewrder had been reborned as Thanatos. And his revenge on Speare would come soon, Dewrder could feel it.

And as a cool wind blew over the Underworld, the New Reaper began to laugh, the sound going over the whole area. And bringing a chill over everything.