TUChapter 31. The White Dwarf
TU31. The White Dwarf
"It's a White Dwarf, technically speaking," Aurora chuckled. She caressed the smooth surface of the orb before laying it gently in the centre of the platform.
A faint chime echoed, followed by a flood of brilliant light that washed over the circle. Runic symbols flared with a beautiful, piercing whiteness, and the ancient stone underfoot began to rumble.
"It's working as expected!" Aurora gasped, stepping backward off the platform. The orb spun, emitting a blinding radiance that soon coalesced, consuming the space entirely.
With a final, undulating bloom of energy, a circular portal manifested on the platform — ever growing in its diameter. Darkness boiled within it, clawing and grasping at the Hemera like thousands of demonic hands. As obvious as it might sound, the light proved to be their bane, preventing the shadowy tendrils from ever breaching the threshold.
The darkness shrieked and receded, its jagged claws twisting away.
Aurora flicked two fingers downward, guiding the orb as it descended into the dark spiralling abyss. "Without the Hemera, the journey to Erebus would be over before it even begins. That realm is the birthplace of the universe's darkest forces. Fighting the darkness without the light of life is a fool's errand."
The whirling portal stabilised, its surface reflecting a subterranean landscape like a perfectly still, dark lake. She studied the grim vista. The Hemera descended through haunting, storm-bruised clouds, hovering to shed its pure light over the rough terrain. Jagged, obsidian mountains and petrified granite tree stumps painted an eerie display of absolute desolation.
In the far distance, two massive structures loomed, grandiose and ancient. Between them sat a dark, unmoving crimson lake. There were no visible movements thus far; everything about the realm screamed of a deadly, suffocating quiet.
"So, one of those structures must be the Temple of Hades," Aurora pondered aloud, wrapping her arms around herself against a phantom chill.
"The one on the left was the Temple of Persephone," Austria added. She pointed toward the poorly maintained structure; one side of its colossal wall had crumbled into ruins, and half of its vaulted ceiling had collapsed into a chasmal hole.
"I see." Aurora drew her lips into a thin line, falling silent. She didn't realise her fists were clenched so tight her knuckles had turned white, not until Austria gently took her hands into her own warm palms.
"This is goodbye," Austria whispered, her voice incredibly soft. Millennia had chipped away at the sternness of her mother. "For now."
Despite her wavering heart, Aurora locked eyes with her mother. "I love you, Mother. This will be over before you know it." She forced a brave smile onto her lips. Then she embraced her, snuggling into her warmth and taking in the soothing, familiar fragrance of her perfume. It dawned on her now, the cruel irony of this farewell. She had finally gained her mother's love, only to be forced to part from it.
Happiness was a fleeting thing, she knew.
"You are the greatest love of my existence, sweet child," Austria whispered. A single tear trickled down her cheek as she held her daughter tightly. For a long time, they stayed like that. Wordless. Understood.
With a fluid nod, Austria finally pulled away, making room for a hyperactive Tachyon, who had been waiting eagerly at her side.
Aurora smiled, opening her arms. "Tachyon—Ooh!"
The cheetah Wildren practically launched herself at the Empress, pressing her head firmly against Aurora's sternum. Her spotted ears flicked, listening to the steady, rhythmic pulse of Aurora's heart.
"Empress, I'll be cheering you on no matter what!" Tachyon cried out, a stream of tears flowing down her cheeks to gather at her chin.
"It's fine, it's fine," Aurora murmured, gently brushing Tachyon's golden hair. "I will be alright, Tachyon."
"If it weren't for you—" A soft sniffle escaped the Wildren.
"I know."
"I don't know how to thank you enough for this forever life, for everything."
"Be happy, will you?"
"I promise!" Tachyon wrapped her arms tighter, as if wrestling with the urge to never let her go.
"High Judge Aeacus sent his regards, he really wanted to come, but…" Tachyon said, delaying the inevitable.
"I understand how busy he must be with the mess they left behind." Aurora pulled Tachyon tighter, feeling their shared warmth.
"Um, um," Tachyon squeezed closer. Just a minute longer, she wished. But she couldn't be selfish now. She pulled away as quickly as she had come, taking a short step back. "I'll see you soon!" she affirmed, wiping the tears that stung her eyes.
With a resolute nod, Aurora took the reins of the magnificent white horse from Achilles. The Golden King flashed a signature, roguish grin. "Silver Empress, we'll feast like there is no tomorrow upon your return. Be it ten thousand, even a hundred thousand years, I'll be right here, waiting to greet you at the pearly gate."
Aurora bowed sharply, and they clasped arms at the elbows in a warrior's farewell.
"Wait a minute!" Achilles said, raising a finger while his other hand fished something out of his pocket. "Well, since I didn't fulfil my part of our bargain... here."
He handed her a shimmering vial, a potion of Mnemosyne. "It's a gift for real this time. So, please, take it!"
"Are you certain?" Aurora asked, her fingers tracing the edge of the glass. Austria and Tachyon exchanged knowing smiles and giggled, bringing a sudden, light-hearted chill to the sombre air.
Twisting off the crystallised cap, Aurora stared at the sparkling liquid through the narrow neck of the vial. "To the knowledge of the gods. Here goes nothing." She raised a mock toast before tipping the contents onto her tongue. It tasted like sweet nectar. She waited a few minutes for a miraculous revelation, but felt absolutely nothing new.
"So? How do you feel?" Austria blinked, the suspense proving too much to bear. "Anything?"
"I feel nothing, to be honest. Does this even work?" Aurora questioned, wiggling the empty vial. "Was I supposed to shake it first? Or chant a few magic words?"
"H-How? Wait, it should grant immense knowledge and cognition!" Achilles whined, dramatically slapping his forehead.
Suddenly, a towering darkness eclipsed the shorter Wildren as Thanatos stepped forward, a smirk playing on his lips. "Do not blame yourself, Golden King. The potion served its purpose, but it does nothing for one who already possesses said divine intellect."
Tachyon clasped her cheeks, frowning hard in concentration. "I'm confused. Are you saying that Empress Aurora is none the wiser because she's already surpassed the intellect granted by the potion of Mnemosyne?"
"Well, I don't want to flatter myself," Aurora said, feigning a tone of light, mocking grief. She directed an apologetic smile at Achilles. "Sorry that it didn't work."
"Aww…" Achilles groaned, the mischievous light in his eyes dimming with theatrical regret. "Nothing ever works out right for us. Damn Tartarus!"
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"It's okay, Achilles. Look at me." She rested her palm on the man's broad shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze to remind him that he was not at fault.
"It's just…" He winced, his voice faltering into a quiet murmur. It was a rare, unkingly display of vulnerability. "Oh, I should have drunk it myself, if I knew it wouldn't do anything for you."
Aurora's lips curled upward, and a bubbling chuckle escaped her. Keeping the reassuring pressure on his shoulder, she looked deep into his beautiful golden eyes. "Now that you have realised as much... wiser indeed, you have become, King Achilles."
The others joined in, sharing her amusement. Realising the irony in hindsight, Achilles eventually threw his head back and laughed. "Indeed, indeed—Ahaha!" His canine fangs glinted in the Elysian light. He remained utterly charming in every setting, whether on the bloody battlefield or within a serene courtyard.
"The Fates are mostly unfair, yet rarely unjust. Haha, they've evened us out at last." Aurora grinned, offering him a proper, graceful curtsey with an elegant flutter of her fine clothes.
"Are you entirely sure you don't want to stay with us? Here, in Elysium?" Achilles probed, pushing his luck one last time. But when Aurora closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, he knew he had reached the limit. Like the granite mountains, there would be no changing her mind.
With a bittersweet swelling in her heart, Aurora took the reins of the magnificent white horse and hopped effortlessly into the saddle. She shifted her weight until her legs rested comfortably against the Pegasus's muscular flanks. The black-winged god, Thanatos, floated adjacent to her, offering a solemn, silent nod.
"Good luck, Empress!" Tachyon shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth like a cone. Austria waved enthusiastically, her spirits visibly high, while Achilles raised a palm in a feigned, nonchalant goodbye.
Aurora cast one last, fond glance over her shoulder. She missed them already, even as she steered the Pegasus away and toward the swirling portal.
Life was a tapestry of meetings and goodbyes, prologues and epilogues. Although she knew her own ending awaited her in the dark, she couldn't fathom how long her absence would feel to the virtuous shades remaining here.
Shaking the last lingering bits of doubt and hollowness from her mind, Aurora snapped the reins, urging the Pegasus into a brisk gallop.
"Let's finish what we started, shall we?" she called out to Thanatos. The God of Death flicked two fingers forward in silent agreement.
At long last, the final chapter of her journey was within grasp. She did not know exactly how things would transpire in the abyss, but her heart was absolutely resolute regarding the call of her destiny — and the final salvation of mortalkind.
The Sixth Apocalypse had to end, even if it cost her everything.
A flurry of black and white feathers drifted into the Elysian air as Aurora and Thanatos plunged into the void. The border of Erebus yielded instantly to their heavy presence. The humming, circular pool chimed one final, resonant note before shrinking its radius into absolute nothingness.
Just like that, the Astral Empress of Osten was gone from Elysium.
The great saviour, she truly was.
The majestic Pegasus soared high above the Realm of Darkness, faithfully following the White Dwarf as it illuminated the dark, twirling clouds below. It resembled a violent storm, yet it lacked the rumble of thunder; the only sound was the fierce rushing of wind past Aurora's ears. The terrain beneath them lay eerily quiet, still as a midnight cemetery.
She accelerated the Pegasus towards the distant temples. The massive, dark walls, forged from incomprehensibly ancient stone, stood magnificent and unyielding. She suspected these might have been the very first structures ever built in the entirety of the underworld.
Visibility remained incredibly poor. Aurora could physically feel the malice thick in the dead, suffocating air. In her peripheral vision, the shadows seemed to manifest into sentient, writhing shapes, desperately trying to grapple her. The white horse fluttered its massive wingspan, its muzzle hissing like a blazing furnace. It despised the grim atmosphere just as much as she did. Leaning forward, Aurora gently scratched behind its ears to ease the beast's nervousness.
As they breached the thickest layer of the dark atmosphere, the landscape finally came into full view, revealing a sprawling city of ruins. Undoubtedly, the destruction here was not born of natural decay. The remnants of a long-past war lay scattered, and the catastrophic damage inflicted upon the grand buildings was devastatingly clear.
It was the graveyard of a lost civilisation of gods. The aftermath of the Divine Finale.
"It has been an eternity." Thanatos glided near, his chilling voice echoing directly into Aurora's mind. He pointed a spectral finger at the sprawling ruins and rubble surrounding the two grand temples.
Amidst the collapsed columns and debris, a few towering pillars remained standing like bleached skeletons, stubbornly supporting the cracked pediments. The dark stone, once masterfully carved with tales of absolute divinity, was now fractured and deserted, left to rot for all eternity.
The gods truly had abandoned this place — or so it appeared.
"The Temple of Hades lies this way," Thanatos guided. She followed his lead closely. They flew past a vast plateau that served as the foundation for the ruins of Persephone's temple, gliding over the circular, crimson lake that reflected their aerial presence with unsettling perfection.
Eventually, they approached the grand Temple of Hades. The megastructure stood mostly intact; countless front columns still miraculously supported the thick, overbearing roof, with ancient friezes carved along its entire length. The most striking architectural feature that immediately drew her eye was a series of female warriors cast in full armour. Stretching from the floor at their feet to the ceiling above their heads, these stern statues served as load-bearing architectural pillars.
They depicted pale, breathtakingly beautiful women. However, one could not let their bewitching features deceive them; their rigid stances radiated an aura of immense, uncompromising strength.
Guardians of some sort? Aurora pondered silently.
"Ah, the Goddesses of Erinyes have caught your eyes, I see." Thanatos's unsolicited lecture drifted into the dead air, his tone sounding far more sophisticated than usual.
"Are they alive?" Aurora snapped, her shoulders tensing almost instantly.
"No, no…" he snickered, reaching out to brush his fingers beneath the chin of her Pegasus. "They are statues. Of course."
"Gaia…" she sighed, slumping slightly in relief.
The breezeless, freezing atmosphere did everything possible to instil a deep discomfort within her. It was as if the very realm was actively threatening her to retreat. This was no place for a mortal to tread. The unspoken warning etched into the landscape couldn't have been any clearer.
"Let's land over there." Aurora steered the Pegasus, making landfall in the vast, empty courtyard. The ancient stone underfoot was so intensely cold that the chill leaked straight through her boots. She scanned the desolation around her; she had never seen a place that struck so true to the concepts of absolute abandonment, timelessness, and melancholy.
Aurora thrust her hand toward the sky, recalling the Hemera to hover directly overhead. The brilliant orb cast long, distorted shadows across the cobbled floor. On the far side of the courtyard, the rays of light illuminated rows of dark pillars, revealing the incredibly fine carvings and geometric patterns etched into the columns and surrounding walls. The grand doors behind the colonnade remained shut tight, marking a definitive end to the light, as the radiance simply could not penetrate the heavy threshold.
"The Lord of the Underworld is inside," Thanatos said, his words dropping like ice. "The Soulkeeper."
Aurora surveyed their surroundings. The temple itself was fenced by long, impossibly thick walls that appeared to be hollow inside. It was as if an entire, elongated building was acting as a high perimeter wall; the only ways in and out were the reinforced gates positioned on either side. The torch lamps mounted on the stone were long extinguished, leaving behind only crumbling ashes and dark, stained oil trails.
"I expected some resistance—creatures, perhaps the Furies, or whatever else dwells down here. Yet this place is entirely empty." Her boots clapped against the stone, the sharp sound echoing loudly across the unnervingly still courtyard.
"They would have been a good warm-up for you," Thanatos mused, floating forward. His tar-black feet levitated centimetres above the ground. "But unfortunately, my former master needs no army. As far as I know, his domain was a few realms that remained unchallenged, even during the Titanomachy."
"This is nothing like Tartarus… Despite both being deep regions of the underworld, Tartarus actually has something. Tormented souls, terrifying creatures. Movement and motion. But here… there is absolutely nothing." Aurora's observation hung in the air as they halted at the base of a wide stairway leading up to the elevated floor of the temple.
"Stay here," Aurora commanded the white horse. The majestic creature tucked its wings neatly against its sides and gave a soft neigh of compliance.
She then began the long climb up the stone steps toward the temple entrance. The towering statues of the Erinyes possessed a gem-like spark in their eyes, an unsettling glint that almost seemed to track her movements.
The White Dwarf cast deep, dark shadows into the sockets of Aurora's eyes. Her jaw tightened against the suffocating suspense that hung thick in the air. The harsh sound of her own ragged breathing was distracting enough.
The massive doors were as high as the vaulted ceiling, standing at least a hundred metres tall. Their polished, shiny surfaces seemed to absorb the light entirely, much like pure obsidian.
She pressed her gloved palms against the freezing stone and frowned. "It's locked."
"Are you sure they aren't just heavy doors?" Thanatos quipped, arching a brow at her, though the expression was entirely obscured by his skull mask.
"Fine…" she exhaled deeply, stepping forward to press both palms against the seam of the doors. The rough, freezing surface bit through the material of her gloves. She positioned her boots firmly into a wedge in the cobbled floor, seeking leverage.
With a mighty shove, she mustered the full strength of her back and pushed with everything she had. The colossal stone doors ground open with a deep, bone-rattling resonance akin to shifting tectonic plates.
Eventually, the piercing light of the Hemera penetrated the grand hall, illuminating its long-hidden interior.
It was not empty like one would have expected.