Kanon had stayed with him until Saga calmed down and went back to sleep. But as soon as Kanon left, the lack of his presence made him wake up again, and Saga couldn't go back to sleep. He looked up at the clock Rhadamanthys had set on the bedside table. It said 5:30 and he groaned.
He couldn't take this anymore. Sleeping at Gemini was hard, but sleeping in the underworld was near impossible and all the stress from the last few days was causing him to be at his wits end. Every time he closed his eyes he could hear the darkness coming again. Every time he laid his head down on the pillow he heard the whisper of its voice. Kanon had to be wrong. It could not be sealed up like he said. Otherwise, how could Saga hear it so clearly? How could he feel it creeping around the castle? He had to go look for it. He had to destroy it.
He got out of the bed, put on his shoes, clothes, and the tiny coat that Kanon had gotten for him. With silent steps he exited the bedroom and walked out of the apartment, running down the empty flights of stairs of the castle. Outside he could hear the poisonous winds of the underworld roaring.
He made his way towards the main door and tried to open it, but it was locked. He gritted his teeth as he considered just breaking it down with the power of his cosmos. He only had a small part of his physical strength, but his cosmos was still as strong as ever.
He decided against it. He was sure Kanon and Rhadamanthys would notice it if he did that. Instead, he looked around and walked through different hallways, looking for a different way out of the castle.
Soon he found an open door that led to a type of courtyard with dead trees all around. He noticed the branches of one reached into an opening in the thick walls of the castle. He started climbing the tree with his usual dedication. Even as small as he was, he was still stronger than any grown man, so he didn't think much about the effort to climb the tree. And his small form even made it easy to crawl up the branches of the tree towards the opening on the wall.
"Saga what the fuck are you doing?!" yelled Rhadamanthys, from the door that led to the courtyard.
Saga started crawling towards the opening faster. He was not going to be stopped by one of Hades' disgusting dogs.
"Saga I'm talking to you!" called Rhadamanthys. Saga looked down and saw him climb the tree after him so he jumped straight into the opening of the wall. A small rectangular passageway just big enough for him to fit in. He was sure Rhadamanthys wouldn't be able to catch up to him and he smirked with smug joy, until he felt a hand close around his feet.
"There's a seal around the castle," said Rhadamanthys, pulling him back. "You're not getting out of here so come back, you crazy little bastard."
"I'm not crazy!" cried Saga, and hit him with a blast of his cosmos right into his face. Rhadamanthys fell back, taking with him Saga's shoe. "I'm not crazy! I'm not"
He couldn't be. He was sane. His mind had to be working right. It had to.
He kept crawling until he hit against an invisible barrier. He punched through with his cosmos and he jumped out before it reformed. He fell down carefully, but his right leg still stung from the impact. He touched his naked foot for a moment before running away from the castle. He had to get away before Rhadamathys caught up to him. He used Another Dimension to transport himself away from the castle, but he couldn't map a straight path through the underworld, and he was expelled in the middle of a barren field, next to a river of blood.
He looked around, trying to figure out where he was, but everything looked so different from the last time he had been in the underworld that he couldn't recognize anything. And besides, he soon realized that things looked much different when you were smaller. Trees and rocks blocked his vision, and he quickly lost his way. He stopped at a crossroads and had to struggle to read the signs at the top. They led to strange places that he didn't remember, but he recognized the name Cocytus. He realized that he must be very close to it. That must have been why his soul had been so restless. And if his darkness was locked, it would be easier to destroy it. He just had to destroy it and then he would be free. Clearly Rhadamanthys hadn't destroyed it because he was stupid, but Saga would get rid of it.
He set off on his way to Cocytus.