Chapter 60: Underworld’s Entrance

Rin then drove the car to Los Angeles in about an hour, soon stopping at Santa Monica Beach. During this time, everyone was enjoying breakfast and talking about what they did in the casino. Annabeth was on a high horse as she was able to beat Charlotte. Luke was hugging a sad Charlotte cheering her up. Thalia was smiling as she was able to destroy pretty much every guy there. Percy was happy as he was able to enjoy his time in the water. Grover was known as the redneck killer.

Everyone was able to enjoy their time at the casino but we're all equally confused when a whole day had passed and they only played for a few hours. Rin then had to explain how the place would trick your sense and make time seem much faster.

Soon after finishing breakfast everyone walked out and looked at the dark green ocean. Percy started to walk towards the water but Rin stopped him for a second. He then dips one of his fingers before his hand glows blue for a bit. “Hydro Cleanse,” he said out loud and the whole ocean glowed blue. After a few seconds, it stopped glowing and soon revealed a completely clear ocean. This had gone on for miles and miles.

Rin then signals for Percy to go ahead. Percy snaps out of his shock and starts to walk in the ocean. The rest of the group was looking at him with their mouths wide open. “What?” Rin asked as if he did not just clean an entire ocean in a few seconds.

The whole group then sat on some blankets that Charlotte brought. Percy took around 5 minutes to come back out. He was holding 3 pearls in his hands.

Percy then told the group about how he talked to Nereid and had gotten some information. First was how the three pearls were something that could help them. Second was that they should not make Hades mad. Third was to thank Rin for cleaning the oceans and reviving a few oceanic species that were detrimental to the environment.

Though before Rin could say he was welcome, a helicopter was flying over the ocean. Rn could already guess they were there for the ocean to become clean.

Rin told everyone to get in the car before raising his hand. “Fog,” Rin said before snapping his fingers. A fog then covered the beach which allowed no one to see the Lambo driving away.

Annabeth was looking at the pearls and wondering if there was enough for everyone. Rin then grabbed them all and put them in his palm. He then made his hand glow and opened his hand to show 9 pearls in his hands. Annabeth was stunned by what she saw. “How?” Annabeth asked. “Magic!” Rin said.

Though Percy opened up a window of the Lambo and a small paper flew in. Rin picked it up and looked at it with a small smile.

D.O.A. Recording Studios

Valencia Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

“Found where we have to go,” Rin said as he handed the paper to Annabeth. “What do you mean?” she asked. “This means Dead On Arrival,” Rin said pointing at the D.O.A..

Annabeth understood as the only place you would have to be dead to arrive would be the underworld. She went and told everyone that they knew where the entrance of the underworld was. Rin drove everyone to Valencia Boulevard in less than 5 minutes.

Everyone got down and they were able to see a black marble building with “DOA recording studio” etched in golden letters on the top. They quickly enter and see the receptionist in a white italian suit, and some shades on his eyes.

Percy walked up to him and looked at the nametag on him, which said Charon. “Chiron?” Percy misread as he has dyslexia. “No, I am Charon, we are two different people!” Charon corrected Percy. Rin walks past him and smiles. “Hello, sorry for my friend but we were in a crash while we were all going on a camping trip, and was wondering where this was?” Rin asked. Charon smiled at Rin’s polite attitude. “This is the entrance to Hell, the underworld, or the afterlife, whatever rows your boat, and you will be transported there once it is your turn,” Charon said with a smile. “Though with a little motivation I could put you all in the next boat,” Charon said with a sly smile.

Rin just smiled as he brought out a pouch of drachmas. He throws it at Charon and Charon catches it before looking inside. Charon’s mouth almost dropped to the floor when he saw what was inside. “Would that be enough?” Rin said smiling. Charon instantly got up and brought everyone onboard the boat. Though it was a tight fit so Charlotte had to sit in Luke’s lap, Thalia sat on Rin’s left leg while Annabeth sat on his right leg. They were both cuddling into Rin’s arms. Charlotte was embarrassed but Luke would tell her jokes to make her feel less embarrassed. Percy and Grover were glaring into the void as they kept thinking the world was so unfair.

Charon then got on the boat and had a long stick in his hands. He then pushed the boat off using the stick. The boat was soon being driven through a pitch black river. Though you could see many dilapidated things in it like baseballs, mics, cameras, and even computers. “Who would throw such a thing into a river?” Grover asked, mad at the pollution. “These are all due to the broken promises, dreams, and goals mortals have or never achieve,” Charon explained. Rin was then thinking about a certain spell he used earlier.

Rin was then reaching his hand into the River. “I would not do that unless you would like to die a very painful death,” Charon said. Rin just smiled as he dipped his hand in the river. Though instead of burning Rin to death, the river reached out caringly as if he were its owner. Charon could only see what happened with his eyes wide. “Let me help you, Hydro Cleanse,” Rin chanted. The whole River was cleaned out and looked to be an even shinier black. Rin then pulled his hand away.

“How did-, you know what I don’t care, I just want to thank you for cleaning her up,” Charon said, slightly bowing his head. Rin just nods and notices how Charon’s clothes seemed to be changing from his suit into a black robe that draped over his whole body. Charon quickly turns around and they have all made it to 3 paths. Charon stops the boat and tells them this is their stop. Rin then gets up still holding Thalia and Annabeth in one arm and jumps off the boat. Annabeth was terrified while Thalia enjoyed the thrill. Percy and Grover soon followed. Luke tried to do the same as Rin but made the mistake of accidentally saying heavy. This made Charlotte mad and pinch cheeks in anger. Luke then had to carry her over while his face was in excruciating pain. Rin had to shake his head at Luke as you never call a woman heavy unless you want to die.

Rin then leads everyone to the intersection of three paths. Each path had a metal detector, some cameras, and more black robed ghouls to make sure nothing bad happened. Then a loud howl was heard behind the ghouls as they got closer. No one could see anything happen at first, but when everyone got close, they all got dosed in dark green energy.

Though when Rin saw this, his eyes instantly slitted. ‘This place actually dares to instill death energy into my loved ones’ Rin thought to himself. He then activates his aura and mana at the same time. He used his mana to push out the energy from everyone in the group. His aura on the other hand made the entire underworld shake in fear. It could sense the warning Rin was giving it and instantly stood down.

The group had felt some pain when the death energy was put in them but felt warm when Rin had pushed it out with his mana. Thalia and Annabeth had felt Rin’s mana before so they look back to see his pissed off face but he quickly changes it back to a smile. They both knew that he was someone who would destroy a continent if it was involved in hurting one of his loved ones and that the underworld shaking was probably due to his anger. They then both go to his side and kiss both of his cheeks.

After everyone was better, they were able to see three signs. The sign in the middle said EZ Death, and the other two said Attendant On Duty.

“Let’s go through the EZ Death path,” Rin said. Though he saw a certain preacher being dragged away by what looked like a fury. Everyone walks towards the path only to stop when they see a huge, three headed, rottweiler. It stood on all four legs and the EZ Death path went straight underneath him. Everyone except Rin and Annabeth were scared by how menacing it looked.

They were even more afraid when it started to sniff the air and look towards them. Though when it caught onto Rin’s scent, he whimpered slightly. Rin told everyone to calm down and walked with them forward. Annabeth could not help it and grabbed a red rubber ball from her bag. She waved it in front of Cerberus but he instead looked at Rin for a small second.

[May I play the catch, Master?] Cerberus asked Rin. [You may] Rin answered back. Cerberus then looked at Annabeth and started to wag its tail to show it wanted to play. No one heard the conversation between Cerberus and Rin except one person. Grover was able to hear Cerberus call Rin master but was not able to hear Rin say anything back.

Annabeth was enjoying playing with Cerberus but sadly they had to keep going. Rin orders Cerberus to let them pass and Cerberus obliges. Annabeth could only look at Cerberus with sorrow in her eyes. “Don’t worry, I can summon him anytime and he can play with you,” Rin said. Annabeth didn’t question how he would do that but hugged him instead.

They all then continued on their way through the Asphodel Fields. They were able to see the Fields Of Punishment and Elysium. Though Thalia believed that Ohane was way better than Elysium.

While walking, everyone seemed to slowly lose color and become grayer except Rin as his eyes still shined their unique blue and gold colors. They were able to see a palace made out of pitch black obsidian in the distance.

They walk up to the gates. The gates were soon opened by two undead with rocket launchers in their hands. When they walked past the gates, they saw many different types of plants. Some even had skulls on them.

The palace doors opened by themselves when they reached them. They were then able to see a pale white man, with black hair, and black eyes. He was wearing what looked like a black suit that had a small red flower in his chest pocket. There also seemed to be a picture in the same chest pocket.

“Son of Poseidon,” Hades said. “It is quite bold coming here after you dared steal from me,” Hades said while looking at Percy with cold eyes.

“Lord, I would like to ask to speak,” Rin said walking up. Hades, mad at being interrupted, tried to use his aura to pressure Rin but it did not work. “You are very presumptuous for interrupting me, but I will listen,” Hades allowed.

“First we have been tricked,” Rin said. Hades’s eyes slitted. “What do you mean?” Hades asked. “This backpack had nothing important inside of it but just now it contains the Master bolt, and this backpack was given to us by the God Of War, Ares,” Rin said.

Hades took the time to think about Rin’s words. “I would like to ask if you could give us around an hour or two to retrieve whatever was stolen from you,” Rin proposed. Hades thought about it while looking at Rin.

Annabeth, Thalia, Percy, and Luke were enraged that Ares actually tried to set them up and glad that Rin had a silver tongue. “I shall accept your proposition demigod, but how would I know you won’t run away?” Hades asked.

“I have a gift that would calm your anger,” Rin said before pulling out a necklace with a black piece of ore on it. It looked exactly like the one Maria Di Angelo had around her neck right now.

Hades picked up the necklace and was surprised to see Rin had a piece of ore from the underworld. “What is this meant to be?” Hades asked. Rin did not answer and instead pointed to his ears. Hades then heard what seemed to be angelic words in his ears.

[Honey, is that you?] Hades heard in his head. “Maria is that you?” Hades asked as his cold eyes became warm instantly, there was even the threat of a tear rolling down. [Honey, It really is you!!] Maria said.  “How is this possible, how can you remember me, how are our kids?” Hades had so many questions. [I was able to remember everything when I got this necklace, also our kids have been living happily but they do not have their memories back yet] Maria said.

Hades looked at Rin with questions in his eyes. “The necklace allows you to talk to her and that is all I will say about it,” Rin said. Hades just nodded before slightly bowing his head. “Thank you,” Hades said.

Annabeth and Thalia were smiling with pride as only Rin could make a god bow down to them. Percy was just wondering who was standing in front of him as that was not the Hades he just saw a minute ago. Luke was just smiling while Charlotte was also dumbfounded. Grover was just beside himself.

“Now before we go and return what was stolen, could you please return Percy’s mother and send his stepdad to the deepest pit’s of the underworld?” Rin asked. “Ok,” Hades agreed and snapped his fingers. Sally Jackson soon appeared in front of Rin. Though when her eyes landed on Rin she was slightly stunned as Rin’s passive skills activated. RIn thought it was quick enough to negate the effects as this was his friend's mom and he does not want to seduce her but if she falls in love with him later on, then he will see if things can work out.

Rin walks out the way and shows Percy. Sally quickly runs towards him and hugs him tightly. “What are you doing here?!” she yelled at him as she checked all over him to make sure he did not have any injuries. “I came to rescue you, and succeeded,” Percy said with a smile. Before they could talk any longer Hades spoke once again. “Son of Poseidon, what was stolen from me was my helm of darkness,” Hades told Percy.

“Now I should send you back,” Hades said about putting them on a boat but Rin stopped him. “You don’t have to, we have a faster way to travel,” Rin said before showing a glowing pearl in his hand. Everyone else also took one out, while Percy gave one to Sally. Everyone then put them on the ground and smashed them. They all then were encased in what looked like a bubble and started to float up to the ceiling.

They soon passed right through the ceiling and somehow appeared at the bottom of the ocean. Though they were still floating up and when they reached the surface the bubble popped. Everyone then swam to the beach. Only to see a motorcycle parked on the beach. What stood out was the man who had a blazing red leather jacket with a skull helmet in his hands. He was also missing his shades showing fire in place of his eye sockets.