The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

It surprised Hao Ren, as the entrance to Hades was not only in the suburbs not far from Rome, but it was also exposed in the open without any form of concealment and disguise. It could even be considered as a landmark. Even the farmers who lived nearby knew of its existence. But they only knew that it was a scary place. They had no clue that it led to the abode of the dead as described in myths and legends.

It was a cave in the suburbs, where there were many horror legends related to it.

If any livestock got lost nearby, the shepherd would immediately and fearfully deliver as well as offer another animal to the cave. They believed that the lost animal had disturbed the gods. If they did not make such compensation, a Festered monster, reincarnated from the animal, would enter the village at night and spread the plague to every household. Some peasants claimed that they had seen the deceased coming out of the cave more than once, and the deceased wore a variety of clothes. They were swollen and rotten as if they had soaked in the river for three days and three nights. The dead would disappear when they came into contact with the sunlight. Travelers at night had seen smoke billowing out from the cave, and heard mourning sounds throughout the night. Every night when moonlight was absent, the mourning would get more terrifying.

It did not take Hao Ren and his team much effort to find the cave, which the locals avoided like the plague. Even Hasse did not have to search for it in his memories because the cave was only on the other side of the hill, shielded from the weather. The opening allowed five adults to pass through side-by-side. A large area outside the cave was barren as no vegetation could grow on the land. Even the nearby stream emitted an unbearable stench; the cave was dark.

Dark forces were surging in the cave.

“This thing is so conspicuous.” Hao Ren looked in awe at the cave. The supernatural forces in the cave, unlike the previous mysterious realms he had visited, were plain to see. “It needs no investigation. This place is apparently not right with even just a glance.”

Hasse faintly replied, “This is the difference between the Mythological Era and the periods after that.”

“In those days, these things were placed out in the open,” Hessiana said. “There were traces of supernatural forces everywhere—in the hills, in the wilderness, and even in the human settlements. The otherworldling gods did not even care to conceal themselves. They did whatever they liked. They would open a portal next to the human town at a whim, and no one dared to raise an objection. No one could threaten their rule over the human world. Just like the cave in front of you, it was essentially a sewage pipe and connecting beam of a lost-of-control laboratory. Would you disguise these things for fear of affecting the life of a nest of ants?”

Hao Ren was speechless and could only pout.

“The destruction of Olympus is a landmark event. Before this, the Sumerian war dragged on for too long, and the Egyptian war was not explosive enough. Only Olympus was completely destroyed under the constant attack of the demon hunters. With our deliberate publicity, this war has shaken the world and the first year of AD has been regarded as the dividing line of the Mythological Era and the twilight period. Of course, this is how demon hunters view it. But many otherworldlings share the same view too.” Hasse said. “You are now standing on this dividing line. Before this, all the gods are arrogant and proud; after this, the Twilight of Gods were awaiting them.”

Hessiana glanced at Hasse before turning to walk toward the cave. “Stop bragging, shall you? It is not something to be proud of.”

Hasse was stupefied.

The dark forces lingering inside the cave had distorted the natural light so much that it was already pitch dark ten meters inside the opening. Hass frowned. “The death of Hades has begun to show its consequences. The control system of Hades has begun to shut down, and without the filter function, the polluting energy in Hades has become twice as strong as before.”

Hao Ren knew that it was just a false space and time that Vivian created, he could not help but worry about the people of this era. “Would it not cause a catastrophe if the energy leaks out?”

“There has been indeed a problem in history, but not here,” Hasse said. “Nearby another entrance to Hades, the evil energy had polluted and wiped out the entire town. Had it not been for the big explosion in Olympus that resulted in the total annihilation of Hades by the space-time turbulence, the consequence of the leakage could have been more severe.”

Lily snorted. “It was the mortals who had to bear with the consequences when the gods fought. There was indeed nothing good about the Mythological Era.”

Hasse could only force a smile as his position was too embarrassing in this regard.

The deep, long cave passage seemed to lead to infinity. After a few hundred meters, the tunnel turned into a downward ramp, which was so long that Hao Ren thought that it would lead to the center of the earth. But it was just an illusion. After moving forward for some distance, he began to notice changes in the surroundings.

The air was cold; not the damp and cold of the natural environment in the cave, but it was a chill ran deep in the heart. The moss on the rock gradually thinned and disappeared as they moved forward, and the soil under their feet had turned into cold and slippery gravel, which seemed to be soaked with blood and venom and emitting an offensive stench.

Lily almost cried. “Why do I have a sensitive nose?”

Hao Ren took out the life-support collars from the dimensional pocket and gave one to each person, including Little Hessiana. “Put this one. The concentration of toxins and negative energy is harmful enough. Wearing this will save you energy.”

As early as a dozen meters into the cave, the toxins and negative energy in the surroundings had been at the lethal level to ordinary people. Hao Ren and his team could withstand it with their superhuman physiques. But as it got worse, they could no longer ignore it. As Hasse said, Hades was a dangerous dimension filled with harmful substances from the failed experiment. Hades, the only administrator here, was dead. There was no telling how bad the situation would become. To conserve magic and physical energy, the use of the life-support collars seemed to be a good idea.

Little Hessiana curiously fiddled with the life-support collar. At last, it was Hessiana that taught her how to use the thing. Little Hessiana was pleased with the device; even as a vampire, she did not like Hades a bit.

Suddenly, the road ahead opened up.

A vast space appeared before the eyes of everyone. The dark and cracked earth extended infinitely under the feet. The poisonous river and lava steaming with hot air flowed on the earth. The flames and steam continuously spurted out from the cracks. Each spout seemed to carry the mourning of the dead souls. There was a layer of chaotic rock-like substance in the sky; it was unknown whether it was real clouds or a rock layer. A dark red fluid as if lava were flowing in the air as if it would pour down at any time.

There was also a crack above the sky, spreading across the entire space. The crack glowed in red and through which, Hao Ren could faintly see another world on the other side, where war was raging, and explosions and collapse of the earth were ongoing.

That could be the scene of Olympus in the war. The last attack of the demon hunters had destroyed the dimensional structure of Hades, and now it seemed that it had produced a crack in the field of vision through which the scene of Olympus was projected into this world.

Such a vast place could certainly not beneath Rome. There was only one explanation for this scene: they had crossed a space-time boundary as they entered the cave, coming into the other dimension the gods of Olympus had created.

“What is that?” As Lily curiously observed the dark and scary place, she suddenly found something translucent that looked like fog floating in hundreds of meters in midair. The mist came and went, bearing a shapeless form. Sometimes, there were phantoms emerging from within the fog too.

Hao Ren also noticed those things, on which his eyes affixed. Suddenly, a few painful faces appeared in the fog accompanied by different scenes of death.

“What the heck?”

“It is Hades,” said Hasse. “Since it is Hades, it must look to be like one. So this vision is only normal in this place. Those are the souls of the humans that once lived under the rule of Hades. The twelve gods of Olympus ruled the human world as they wished, formulated the rules for humans to follow from birth to death. In the rules of Hades, all humans who have died in his territory are not free to go, unless they have paid enough offering before they die or their families had presented offerings on their behalf. Otherwise, the dead must serve Hades in the form of souls as fuel to power the three soul furnace of the Tartarus core. Now that Hades is dead, there is nothing to control the souls in the furnace, so these unburned souls were released.”

Hao Ren’s face turned somber as he looked at the souls in the sky that would have no closure for eternity although he knew that they were only illusions of history.

Hessiana lamented, “Sigh, the Mythological Era!”