10.1

On the other hand, although Rey raged the expressions on his face like a fighter who was ready to give his all in one last glorious battle, inwardly he felt an immense weakness in his feet. Had it not been for the fact that they were locked in place, he might have fallen on his buttocks from the shock of the horrifying image that appeared within the darkness. "Edith wasn't wrong to be afraid of that thing that could exist under a lake," he said to himself reflectively.

Turning the pages of his book with his mind, Rey stopped on one in particular. Two pages shrouded by thousands of mysteries, many chants and countless strokes that formed the call of one of the most powerful creatures in history. So powerful, terrifying and indomitable that it was among the hundreds of pages that Heroclades had marked as unusable. It was a dragon, according to the books he had read in the Library of Knowledge; this type of creature poetry an intractable rage against any being that were not of their own kind, particularly humans and those that resembled them. Such is the hatred that there is no dragon who would hesitate to trade his life to destroy the object of his wrath.

No wizard in history has ever managed to make a contract with these beasts, the only way they were able to add them to their books was by a method of sealing. Therefore, claiming one means breaking the imprisonment for a short period of time, but the intelligent beast will choose with all its might to curse the user, meaning that claiming such a creature should be its last option, a very risky gamble. Despite the very strong expression with which he was looked at, Rey held his breath and waited a moment in response to any attack.

Nothing was happening, the little boy decided to move the luminous sphere away, but something caught his attention. Neither the huge pupil reacted to the light or the eyes followed it. After lowering the luminous sphere, Rey realized that it was only a decapitated head he was seeing. Next to it were some fingers, a foot, a breast. It was a dismembered body lying at the bottom of the lake. The crime of someone who had wanted to make his victim disappear after killing her.

Rey, with the tip of his foot, moved the stiff body of the feline and, even so, it continued to pretend to be dead. With a half-faced grin, he carried his fainting companion and tried to take steps forward to move the sphere forward on the spot. "Heroclades couldn't relocate if he had his barrier exposed, but it seems it's not that hard to do when I was able to fly. On the other hand, here, maybe because it's a smooth surface, it won't let me pass to advance... What if I create a rough surface with some spikes?"

The little boy succeeded, he didn't quite know how, but he managed to concentrate on creating protruding spikes and, as a result of the traction generated by the sphere, he was able to move forward. Wandering around the place, with several luminous spheres already lighting his way, the little boy saw two things that caught his attention. A golden cup on an altar and a kind of sunken boat far ahead. Rey tried to grab the goblet, but as he included it inside his core, within seconds a torrent of water flooded the interior of the sphere. With no other choice, Rey excluded it from the core along with his arm and returned it to where it belonged and immediately drained half of the water that nearly drowned his furry companion.

On the bright side, the water that remained inside was not as dirty as the water outside. It was clear and warm, so much so that it made you want to take a bath in it. With his hands he scooped up some of the clean liquid and proceeded to groom himself. White looked at Rey as someone who had made a mistake and wanted to cover up her mistake by taking advantage of the situation; if she could talk, she would surely tell him: "Try not to drown me next time". As soon as the little boy finished bathing and cleaning his clothes, he also bathed the little feline who looked at him with accusing eyes. With everything clean, Rey got rid of the water after separating the barrier in two and expanding the part that had air in it while opening the water compartment. Now, for Rey, there simply remained a second thing that caught his attention: the sunken boat. So, he continued on his way.

As Rey and White got close enough, they could notice how from inside the interior of the boat a human figure stood up. Like a butterfly seeking to come into the light, even as it burned in the flames of the fire, the figure moved forward and stretched out its hands without considering that it was hurting itself. Rey could not ignore the fact that there, below the water, was someone who seemed to be non-aggressive. After approaching, the little boy let the naked man with a long beard and a hunched body into his barrier.

At first glance the person had ceased to be, with the skin of a corpse brought back to life, without eyes, lips, ears or eyelids; anyone would assume that the said subject was someone who had lived a whole eternity in the heart of hell. He had lived so long in the abyss that he had become part of it, and no longer had any human features other than his head, two hands, legs and bones. His teeth were sharp and, despite having two lungs, he also had a stomach and digestive system. Therefore, it was not very doubtful that it had been feeding on corpses of its own kind to survive, which made it a ghoul of sorts.

Including a being as disgusting and ugly as this within his barrier could bring consequences, but Rey didn't see it that way. Whoever he was, however he looked, he had no hostile intentions against him and if he was not an enemy, he could be a friend.

Rey, looking him over from head to toe, proceeded to ask:

"If you can speak, tell me...who are you?"

Tears of blood streamed from between the open sockets of the eyeless skull. The subject wrapped himself up even more, covered his mouth and tried to hide his hideous appearance with the intention of not offending with his ugliness the kindness of the voice that had asked for his name.

"Oh, how good it feels to be able to breathe, to be able to see, to be able to hear. I am so grateful for this little relief you have given me. More I have to be thankful that you can speak and understand the language of the ancients," said the fellow as he knelt on the ground and leaned his forehead against the barrier. "And how could I forget those eyes of yours, lord and master? Though of me there remains the body of a 'ghoul'... my mind is still intact. My name is insignificant in your presence and must not occupy space in your thoughts, my gracious lord. I... I am but one of your convicts and not because I disown my work, but because of the wear and tear of my boat, that I have not been able to continue my penance as I was commanded.

Rey, as one who did not take into account the appearance of that subject, even of his interior, but judging his actions and deciding to reciprocate the respect and good treatment that was being given him, said:

"My name in this life is Rey. I have no memory or knowledge of my past incarnation... Where am I, what is this place, and how can I get to Heaven?"

Maintaining his debased posture and taking care not to soil where he spoke, the guy said:

"My lord, we are within the fifth circle of hell, right at the bottom of the river of hate, a river whose channel originates from a sacred source in Arkadia and travels through the golden cup that resides in the deepest part of the place. As here also lies the body of the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis, the lake is known as Styx, and is where those who hate and detest suffer. I see that you are still alive, and that you bathed in the waters... waters that strengthen the body of the living and make them invulnerable."

Rey was intrigued by the name Arkadia and now the word invulnerable. They were terms that were used when someone was going to refer to his father.

"If you want to get to Heaven, you must go forward. Where the rivers converge, a great swamp of different colors is formed; there you will follow the waters that burn with fire and a thousand flames. They will lead you to the entrance of the seventh circle. From now on you must continue on foot through the three planes of the circle of the violent, cross the pits of the eighth circle and turn off until you can reach the Ever-Changing Forest. Be very careful not to make contact with the water of the river Lethe, there lies the body of the goddess Mnemosine and, even if you are alive, it will make you forget how it did to her....

"You are very knowledgeable regarding the structure of hell" he said as he thought of the River Lethe itself originating in Purgatory, but the warning was believable to him.

"My Lord, perhaps in this, your new life, you do not remember. But my purpose is to guide souls through these parts. It is a pleasure to be of service to you... But... if I may ask a favor of you...".

Rey, as one who was suffering the grief of others, asked:

"You are tired, aren't you?"

The subject kept silent and weakly clasped his hands.

"On my way here, I met Cato. He had a question to ask and only I could answer it. Tell me: do you want to stop being?"

The guy raised his head and left his mouth open, but he didn't dare say anything either.

"I come from Heaven, the first circle of Paradise under the nine heavens. There I was born and I haven't seen anything particularly extraordinary or a God that my eyes could see... Purgatory is not the entrance to Heaven and Paradise I don't think is a place humans can ever get to, even if they are deserving of it."

As if knowing that there was no better world behind Hell made him lack the necessary purpose to continue suffering, that guide took a deep breath.

"Oh, my lord... Thank you for making me understand the meaning!" he replied gratefully for the knowledge. "Of all the things that existed in this world of torment and suffering, there were always those that depended on me and those that did not. Torment and suffering always depended on me... Isn't that so? Ha-ha-ha..."

Before the white eyes, the body that even looked human turned into a bubble and disappeared in thousands of imperceptible explosions. With directions in mind, Rey threw the small feline on his head and set out on his way while reading the floating book and ignoring everything around him. As soon as he emerged from the flaming waters and stepped out onto a red sandy beach, crowded by people shouting and fighting with each other, Rey focused his eyes in the distance. There were several landforms and at the end a dark mountain that appeared to be the Ever-Changing Forest.