Chapter 137: Meeting Thanatos
Mark stood up calmly as he cracked his neck to one side while ignoring the intense barking and seething from the Cerberus. He knew that it was a gamble to carry out a plan like this. Mark did not know if it would work. The River Styx was an unfamiliar place to Mark, and Mark did not know if the souls of the undead would bother grabbing hold of inanimate objects.
But Mark knew that if they did grab hold of it, it would definitely be the end of the fight. Mark and Charon were unable to fight against the souls of the undead when they were pulling him down into the River Styx when he died the first time. That meant they had more than enough strength to drown Cerberus!
Drag!
BARK! BARK!
Cerberus was being dragged into the river as it struggled desperately to try and free itself from the chain. It managed to drag itself forward a little, but the chain would only pull it back some more and try to draw it into the river. But Cerberus was not giving up! It pulled itself forward desperately as it tried to escape! It was not going to go out like this!
That human dared to attack it and trap it like this, so it was going to make sure it killed that human properly! Cerberus was going to end Mark if it was the last thing it did!
The amount of bloodlust and anger shining through Cerberus's eyes would have been enough to make any average man piss himself, but Mark just laughed in the face of Cerberus's anger as he rolled his shoulder before taking off into a mad sprint!
Woosh!
Cerberus's eyes widened in shock as it saw Mark running towards it, and it immediately tried to get a bite out of Mark to end his life when Mark came close, but Mark easily used his momentum to avoid the bite before slamming his fist into Cerberus's unprotected nape!
BOOM!
[Lightening Surge]!!
WHINE~!!
Cerberus whined in pain as it felt a jolt of electricity travel through its entire body! It immediately felt its strength leave it as the pull from the chain became too much for it to fight against, and it was miserably pulled back until it splashed into the waters of the Styx!
Splash!!
Cerberus tried futilely to fight against the souls that were pulling it down into the water, but it was not able to put up a good fight since there were just too many of them, and before it could get another bark out, it was already dragged underwater.
Mark breathed out heavily as he rolled his shoulder in pain. Mark didn't know if the injuries from these trials would be reflected in the real world when he goes back, but he hoped not. If it's reflected, then Mark was going to be feeling this body pain for the next few days at least. That would be a pain in the ass. If an Anima attacks while he is like this, then he won't be at a hundred percent.
Mark waited for the system prompt to appear telling him that he passed the test, but he didn't see anything after some time, and he raised a curious brow while wondering what was going on. Mark looked around curiously, thinking that there was still something else that needed to be done, and he finally released a small 'Ah!' and snapped his fingers as he recalled what was missing.
He hadn't gone through the gate yet.
...
[Test Conditions]
-> The user is not allowed to use all his skills during the fight.
-> The user must kill the beast.
-> The user must walk through the gate after defeating the beast.
…
Mark couldn't see anything around here that resembled the gate, so he decided to just walk a bit and see if he could find it somewhere else. Mark walked away from the Styx and started making his way into the unknown part of hell, after walking for a few minutes in the dark, Mark finally came across a large black gate that glowed with an ominous dark light.
Mark walked up to the gate and inspected it calmly to see if there were any traps on it. Mark did not trust anything down in this place after what he just went through. He gently touched the door and pulled back in surprise as he heard the door groan and it slowly started to open.
Mark took a step back to avoid being hit by the door, and he watched as the door finally opened up to reveal a dark veil that was obstructing him from seeing what was on the other side.
Did they really want him to walk through something like this? It looked like a one-way trip straight into a trap! The veil was eerily similar to the veil of death from that popular magic book. Was it called Harry Potter or something?
Mark sighed in resignation as he started to walk forward. He had already gone through hell down here; whatever was on the other side of this door was probably not as bad.
Mark's vision cleared as he passed the veil, and he saw himself in a dark room with nothing in it but a single fireplace burning in the distance. There was a man standing on the opposite side of the room. He was wearing a black shirt and trousers, and he had long black hair framing his angled face.
He was looking at Mark with open hatred and irritation, and Mark could only raise a brow in surprise as he saw the man. Now, who the hell is this bastard?
[Comment from GoG: That's Thanatos. I know you're prone to doing this, but try not to piss him off. He has a bad temper, so anything can trigger the bastard.]
That is Thanatos? Mark could only blink in surprise as he turned back to look at the god of literal death! Thanatos was nothing like what Mark imagined he would be like! Mark thought that he would see someone with a massive scythe wearing black robes that flowed in the wind or something, not a normal person that looked like he was one step away from pissing Mark off.
Thanatos remained silent no matter how long Mark stood there, and Mark started to become a little irritated as well as he watched Thanatos watching him. Say something, you fucking bastard.
"Tch."
Thanatos finally clicked his tongue in annoyance, and Mark immediately saw a prompt appear from his system.
[The User has passed the final test. The Trial of Thanatos has been completed, and the user will now gain his gift.]
Mark read through the system message very quickly, but he noticed that Thanatos was moving before he could see what the gift was. Mark looked up as he saw Thanatos walking away, and he raised a brow as Thanatos said something just before leaving.
"Don't think this makes me acknowledge you, mortal. As far as I'm concerned, you still have to prove yourself to me. Your mere existence is an insult to all the other gods, and in time, we will be rid of you. You and that fucking pesky patron god of yours. But for now… I am content with your performance."
This fucking bastard was really getting on Mark's nerves. Mark narrowed his eyes in anger as he was about to speak up to Thanatos, but another message from Sozin immediately pulled Mark back.
[Comment from GoG: Mark. No. I understand your anger, but he is not someone you should speak against; he will eradicate you with a finger and there is nothing I can do for you since you are in his domain. Bear with it.]