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!”

Groaning 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 spot 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 screamed 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 hard ground beneath him, and dragged his huge frame forward. Eventually, his fingers snapped, simultaneously, and the scream 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 naked.

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.

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