Chapter 1: Augustus

I sank through the ground at a blinding speed, with Helios still gripping my neck with a vice grip. We eventually fell into a large domed room that I could not see the end of. There was a river that was a milky white, another which was a putrid green, and a red river, which was constantly bursting into flames. I could tell these were the Lethe, the Styx and the Phlegethon. The ground was hot to the touch, like a road on a sunny summer day in Rome.

Someone grabbed me by the collar, and wrenched me in the air. The powerful man turned me to face him, and I looked Helios right in the eye. His eyes burned with pure hate. Acting quickly, I head-butted Helios, and he dropped me. I swung with all my might, and connected with the breastplate of Helios, sending him soaring back a few yards. He got back up once again, but a flaming rope wrapped around his neck, and wrenched him backwards. I was about to laugh, but the same thing happened to me.

I was pulled backwards with an inhuman force, and landed on my back. I slid for a while and eventually stared in the eye of my restrainer.

Her face was leathery and haggard, with slit pupils and yellow irises that blazed with inhumanity. Her teeth were pointed and crooked, and her breath smelled like dead rats. She had leathery wings like that of a bat across her back, except the fact that the wingspan was increased by tenfold. She held a blazing whip in her clawed hands, which was wrapped around my neck. Her feet were like that of an overgrown, under-cared eagle, with talons and slight webbing.

She unwrapped the blazing whip from my neck, and I touched my burned and calloused skin, which oozed and bled. She picked me up by the collar, and shoved me backwards into something that felt like the back of a breastplate. The hag snapped her fingers, and a breastplate appeared in front of me, and clamped itself to my chest. Two other hags came and grabbed my arms, and pulled me skyward with blinding force and speed.

After a few moments, I laid suspended in the air, chained by my hands and feet. I struggled and screamed "DAMN YOU!" but then there was a piercing pain like none I have ever felt before all over my torso. I made a strangled scream, but it didn't come out as much more than a petrified squeak.

"I wouldn't advise that," the hag said in rapid-fire Greek, which I could barely translate. "Every time you struggle, the spikes drive in farther!"

With that encouraging note, she flew off, along with the other two hags. I stared across the great room, and saw a man who looked sickly pale and thin. "What are you in here for?" The man said. He sat upon a floating apple tree in the middle of a lake that looked like a spring of fresh water.

"I was dragged down here by Helios," I replied. "I should be in Elysium!"

Unfortunately, I let my anger get the best of me, and the spikes of the armour drove farther into my chest. I screamed once again, and went limp.

"Ah, sounds painful," the man said, and I raised my head, too tired to even sneer. "I am Tantalus, for your information."

"Augustus Julius Pontius," I said, and on instinct, I tried to present my hand for a shake, but that was stupid. First of all, I was chained to a wall. Second, he was chained to his tree. Third, we were way too far from each other. And lastly, the spikes drove in a little farther.

I cried out once more, and hung my head.

"Good luck..." I heard Tantalus say, and he drifted off into the fog of the spring.

Unfortunately, I felt that I was going to need it.

I hung on the wall, motionless for a few hours, with the spikes in my torso causing me constant pain, and the shackles chafing and cutting my ankles and wrists. The three hags eventually came back, who I deciphered were the Furies.

"How do you think he is doing, Tisiphone?" One of the Furies asked another in Greek.

"He looks weak, Alecto," the one that must have been Tisiphone replied, also in Greek, which was hurting my brain trying to translate it all. "What do you think, Maegaera?"

"I agree with you, Tisiphone," Maegaera replied.

Alecto, Tisiphone and Maegaera took turns whipping me with their flaming weapons, and each time they did so, the spikes drove in farther and farther, and my screams became weaker and weaker.

Summoning what strength I had, I screamed, "Father, Avgerinos, Sophia!" I said, but faltered when I said: "Aziza... HELP ME!"

With my last mighty bellow, the ground seemed to tremble, and the Furies seemed to wait to see if any aid came.

Eventually, the three hags cackled, and Alecto said, "No one will help you now, Roman."
"Cum sum liberat, vos moriteur mortis," When I am free, you shall all be put to death! I spat in Latin at the three demons.

"Bona Fortuna, Roman," Good luck Roman, Tisiphone replied in Latin, and they all continued lashing me, sending the spikes in farther and farther. I silently prayed to any god that would listen to help me, because I would need it.