My eyes swept around frantically, hoping to find anything—anything—that might help me survive. And then, I saw something that just might save my life. I could only pray it would actually work.
That "something" was the row of human skull torches lining the path to the Acheron lake.
Without hesitation, I rushed to pull one from the ground. Then, I poured the oil from the torch all around me, and set the oil ablaze. Flames burst up instantly, forming a wall of fire that shielded me from the spirits. I'd heard that ghosts and monsters fear fire—so I just hoped what I'd heard was true.
"Screeeech!!!" the spirits wailed.
Yes—it worked!
The heat of the flames terrified them. Their blank, empty eyes widened in panic. A few brave souls tried to push through the fire, but quickly backed off, unable to muster the courage to face the flames. Some simply screamed in despair; others hurled curses at me in fury.
Still… it was only buying me time. The spirits knew exactly what to do to extinguish the fire. They swarmed the bone wall, searching for human skulls. With skulls in hand, they rushed to Acheron Lake, scooping water into the bone bowls to douse the blaze.
I had to admire their determination. The water started to weaken the flames. Soon, the fire would die out… and I think you know what that meant for me.
Yes—you guessed it.
They were going to tear me to pieces.
But… I wanted the fire to die out.
You probably think I've lost my mind.
But no. I truly meant it—I wanted the fire to go out.
Still wondering why I'd want the one thing keeping me alive to disappear?
Yes, the fire was my current lifeline. But it wasn't my last resort.
So what was my last resort? You're probably wondering.
Think carefully—where am I right now?
That's right. I'm in the underworld. A place where no sunlight reaches. And now you understand what happens when the brightest light in the underworld is snuffed out.
Yes… the underworld becomes cloaked in total darkness. And that is what I wanted.
It was the darkness—not the fire—that was my true salvation. My final trump card.
And so, I took that chance to escape.
The sudden darkness threw the spirits into disarray. They couldn't see me clearly anymore. The dim, faint glow of their own spectral forms wasn't enough to distinguish which one of them was actually me.
I pretended to be one of them, mimicking their voices and shouting, "Hurry! He went off to the right!"
And it worked. They actually believed I ran off in that direction. The hunger for the power of the obolus had clouded their minds, robbing them of all reason. The spirits ran around blindly, chasing after me in chaos. Some ran straight into the lake because they couldn't see. Others were torn apart by fellow spirits who mistook them for me.
I ran alongside them, blending in. Running with hundreds of thousands of souls in the pitch dark was tough. Fortunately, their faint glows let me track where they were, helping me avoid being trampled to death.
When the moment was right, I quietly broke away from the group. I made my way toward the spot where I'd started the fire. Earlier, before the flames had gone out, I had marked the spot by jamming a skull torch deep into the ground—just in case the spirits might accidentally kick it away during the chaos. I turned toward the collapsed bone wall.
When I reached my mark, I dropped to the ground and searched for the embedded skull torch. I found it. I felt around for the eye sockets—my directional marker. Wherever the skull's eyes pointed, that was the direction of the bone wall.
Now that I had the right direction, I took off running toward the wall immediately.
But when I got there—I stopped.
Someone grabbed my wrist, pulling me back from the wall's edge.
"Don't go that way… this way, hurry," a voice whispered nearby.