The halo breed episode 91 – 92

THE HALO BREED
SEASON 5
HELL IN HADES

The Author

EPISODE 17

Fractious Frenzy

There was a furious blast of energy all around him, as if Lord Lastor was in great fury.
The ground under Sena shook violently as if an earthquake was ripping through it. A massive wind blew in the darkness, lifted Sena high and slammed him with such force on the ground that he coughed out blood and whimpered with pain. His legs and right arm were filled with agony, and he could not move them. Maybe the slam on the ground had broken his limbs.

“We will meet, Breed!” he heard Lord Lastor’s voice, but this time it sounded far away, like an echo. “Welcome again, to hell in Hades!”

Gr-aning with pain, Sena struggled to his hands and knees and raised his head slowly.

He saw it then.

In the distance, not very far away, was a circular patch of light with two chairs in it. There was a dark figure on one of the chair. It was too far away to know whether it was a man, woman, or demon.

But that was the only source of light, and that was the only direction he could go, friend or foe. Sena coughed and again he tasted blood in his mouth.

Painfully, agonisingly, he used his left arm to drag himself towards that patch of light. It was not easy because every little movement caused the severest of pain to shoot through him. Tears came to his eyes but he bit his lower lip to stop himself from whimpering.

It was agony, raw torture, and only a man as strong as him, as determined and resolute as him, could survive the physical and emotional torture he was going through.

An inch at a time, a fraction at a time…

Sena drew closer to that s₱0t of light!

***
It seemed like an eternity!

It tasked his very essence of living, and made him go through a nightmarish experience he had never experienced since his childhood, not even the bitter experiences in the Underworld.

Every pain in the nerves was increased a thousandfold within Hades. There were moments he shed tears, and moments he went insane as his mind and resolve began to wander. Most of his fingernails tore off, and his fingers broke as he dug into the dark ground beneath him and pulled himself towards that circular pool of light.

And, halfway through, using both hands, he leveraged himself forward on his right hand, and his wrist just snapped!

That was when the tears fell down Sena’s cheeks!

His backbone was throbbing with unbearable pain, both his legs were broken, and now his right wrist. The pain was nerve-wracking, a fractious, non-ending cauldron of torture that scre-med at him to just lie still and die if that was what it was meant to be.

But, even as tears washed down his face, he dug his left hand into the hærd ground beneath him, and dragged his huge frame forward. Eventually, his fingers snapped, simultaneously, and the scre-m that tore through his throat made the ground shake beneath him.

He should have given up then, but even though he slobbered, even though tears of blood fell down his face, even though he was almost insane, the Halo Breed used his thumb, the heel of his palm, and his chin to drag himself forward.

Inch by inch… relentlessly!

Then, finally, he collapsed into that circle of light, and lay in a stupor of pain!

There was a dark form in the chair alright!

But it was not a physical entity!

It was black, but smoky, diffusing and fusing in a dense spectrum, but its white eyes remained fixed on Sena. There was a white rod-like stick in his hand on which his arms were resting on.

When he spoke, black smoke emitted from that cave-like mouth, and swiftly merged with its body again.

“Thou persevered! Thou earns the respite! Thy path is carved! Be replenished, he who walks for the Spirits!”

It extended its hand, and a dense smoke passed rapidly from its hand across Sena’s body, and suffused him completely. He did not feel pain, or felt choked. To the contrary, it was a pleasant feeling of warmth tinged with a little cold, and when the cloud finally ascended back into the entity, Sena lay in the patch of circular light unclad.

And there was not even a scratch on him!

He did not dwell on great relief, but he promptly got to one knee and bowed his head to the smoke entity.

“I’m grateful for your mercies,” he said softly.

“Thou earned life!” the entity said in its deep voice. “Perceive thy path then, Breed of the Halos! Yonder lies two ways, a white, and a golden!”

Sena turned his head and looked.

There were indeed two doors in the distance.

One was draped by a white light, and the other was draped in a strange golden light.

“If, perhaps, thou hast changed thy mind, and seek the comforts of thy abode on earth, thou shalt be exalted, nonetheless, for thy bravery!

The gold entrance, alas, will lead thou to the belly of Hades without turning back! Thy choice, Traveller!”

Sena Kukah got to his feet and walked towards the doors.

He was no longer functioning with feelings. That part of him was dead.

All he knew was that he wanted to get his hands on Lord Lastor, so even though he could see the delectable Grace and Kharisa through the white door, he shut his mind and approached the golden door.

This was it.

This was his call, and if he perished on this route, so be it.

It was not a path for the righteous because it led to Hades, to death.

Sena was not righteous, and neither was he of evil heart.

He had done and taken some decisions that mocked him as he reflected sometimes, decisions that a righteous soul would not have dared to take.

But this was not a mission for the righteous, or a mission for the dead.

This was ultimate evil that needed to be vanquished.

And there was only one who could do it, whether in pain and strife, or in gallantry and with wits.

The one the Spirits had moulded long before he saw the day of light. One whose existence and training for many years had been geared towards one goal: enter into Hades!

Without hesitation, he went through the golden door.

EPISODE 18

The Patient Breed

Sena found himself in a tunnel that was illuminated by a strange blue light.

He could hear voices on either side of him, soft voices that played with his mind, sending er*t*c images that were hærd to dispel, but he forced himself to move on.

Stopping would be lethal, he knew, as the soft mo-ning voices continued to ply on his mind. He could see a door handle in front of him and knew this could lead to the exit. It was just four paces away, but even though he walked fast and even broke into a run, the handle remained four paces away all the time.

It was as if he was just walking at one place, and he became very perplexed. He even tried lunging, and although he jumped high into the air and landed out of breath, the exit door remained just where it was; a few paces away.

It was not possible to go back because when he turned he found himself facing a wall of burning fire four paces away, and the same fire was burning furiously on the roof above him.

The corridor was narrow, and the blue walls on each side of him were hærd and solid. He felt along them, seeking for weak s₱0ts to break it down, but there was none.

Going forward yielded no results, and the walls were unbreakable. Fire behind him, fire above him, and there was nowhere else to go. It seemed that he was hemmed in solidly. There was no help from the floor either. He dropped to his knee and examined the floor inch by inch, but it was impenetrable and without any weak s₱0ts.

There was no way out of the corridor, and it would be futile to expend his energy on trying to do otherwise. For a minute, he was assailed by a strong sense of distress, and felt like attacking the walls and running at the door again. He knew these would be futile efforts, and if he gave in to his frustrations, he might end up putting himself in a weakened position.

Slowly, Sena stretched out fully on the floor, put a hand underneath his head, closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep. He breathed gently, unaffected by the raging fire around him and the door that he never reached.

He did not know how long he slept, but he opened his eyes slowly when he heard his name being called. The Breed found to his surprise that he was no longer lying on the floor, but on a very comfortable bed with his head on a comfortable pillow.

A kind-faced elderly woman was sitting at the foot of the bed wearing a beautiful blue dress, and there was a smile on her face.

There was a lacy, head covering around her head, and her blue eyes appraised him frankly.

“You slept,” she said in a lovely voice. “Ah, the first one who didn’t go into panic and a scre-ming fit. All of them, all those that passed through here, all the souls, none of them thought to sleep. Instead, they scre-med and ranted and quite honestly hurt themselves, some quite fatally, I’m afraid. But you just slept! Why did you do that?”

Sena sat up slowly and yawned.

He felt very refreshed and strong once again after the ordeal in the gloom he had been welcomed with. He yawned and stretched luxuriously.

“Well, that was refreshing,” he said finally. “I really needed that rest.”

“You did,” the entity said with a serene smile. “My interest is why you chose to sleep.”

“There was no way out of here,” he said without much fanfare. “The fire stayed where it was and was not a threat, I could breathe easily. I did not find any weaknesses, and so I knew this was a s₱0t I could neither use brawn or wit to escape out of. Only option left was to wait.”

She nodded sagely.

“And in so doing you learned a very important virtue in Hades, Breed of the Halos, the virtue of patience, even when it is hærd and drives us to the ends of our tether. Well done. Eat, dress, and be on your way then. May the Spirits that sent you have good returns from you!”

There was a puff of blue light, and she disappeared.

White clothes lay folded neatly at the foot of the bed, and on a low stool-like object beside the bed were two slices of fruit-food and water-food he had eaten in the Desolates.

He got dressed quickly and slipped his feet into the sandals beside the bed. He then picked up the slice of fruit-food and began to eat slowly, savouring the spicy taste of it. It was nothing like any food he had ever tasted, at least not in Densua, but it was delicious.

He bit a piece of the water-fruit, then stored the slices for later because he did not know what awaited him on the next step of his journey. He got to his feet and then the floor simply fell from underneath him, and he was soon spiralling in the air. It was a rapid fall as his body was caught by a gust of hot wind and tossed violently so that he found it hærd controlling his limbs.

Sena knew he had to break his fall because he did not know what surface he would land on. If there was a hærd surface beneath him, he would be terribly hurt. He was falling through bright space, like daylight, and he tried to bring his arms across his head and tuck his knees against his chest to minimise the effect of a hærd fall. He fell for a long, dizzying time, and he cringed at what might happen to him if he landed on hærd rock.

Then, as suddenly as his fall had started, it ended!

He smashed down on a hærd surface with such brutal force that he gro-ned with agony and lay winded. He had landed on his back, and for a moment he was scared he had broken his spine. Even in his agony, he moved his hands, feet and neck, and when they moved, he breathed a little easier.

“A sacrifice!” a voice scre-med with relief. “It is a new Traveller! We don’t need to gamble to see who gets left behind! He will do!”

Sena, dazed and barely able to move, tried to turn himself to see who was speaking.

“You’re a lucky man, Safo!” said a cold, ruthless voice. “You’re spared death for now. Leave him be and come and tie up this skunk that just joined us!”

Sena could make out the dim outlines of many people approaching him, and noticed that the one who had spoken was quite tall and muscular. They were wearing leather thongs, he thought, and as he tried to focus on them well, the leader swung a great club in his hand straight into the side of Sena’s head.

He mo-ned as the huge club thudded against his head, then he lost consciousness.

He did not see that about twenty of these people had now gathered around him holding clubs and other crude weapons, their eyes fierce, their l-ips clenched.

Darkness engulfed him!

Tbc