“Here, this will get you to the capital faster.” Said Rozimer, handing Elmar a teleportation ring.

“Rozimer, what is this?” Asked Elmar, confused. It was a strange-looking ring with runes on it, and it emitted mana like nobody’s business.

“A teleportation ring. That way, you can spend more time on your transformation training and won’t die. I am certain that whatever you have been searching for in the capital can wait at least five more months.” Said Rozimer with a wide grin.

“This…this is precisely what I needed. This is why I was going to the capital!” Said Elmar excitedly, and he took the teleportation ring before Rozimer could change his mind.

Now he had everything. The necklace, the life-extending ring and now the teleportation ring. His journey was over.

Hades, I have everything. How do I bring the items to your plane of existence?

Let me take control of your body for an hour. I will give it back to you with a boon.

Elmar looked at Rozimer, deciding to warn him.

“Rozimer, I will let a deity, Hades, take over my body now. Don’t be alarmed, he won’t do anything to you.” Said Elmar. Rozimer paled at the name.

“Are you sure about this, boy? I mean, playing with gods is dangerous.” Said Rozimer. Elmar nodded. Then his eyes turned white.

“Why, hello there.” Said Hades with a smirk. He played with the teleportation ring in his hand. Then he looked around.

“I have to say the real world is a bit rustic, but it has its charm. Do you have a ritual room, wizard?” Asked Hades, and Rozimer nodded. Terrified, he pointed at the upstairs staircase.

Hades walked leisurely up the stairs to see a room with all kinds of barriers on it. For explosions, for poison gasses. Even one against too much laughter in the room. He shook his head at the last one and entered it.

It was bare, save for an empty circle in the middle of the room. Hades went to the circle and placed the three items he needed on it. The two rings melted into the necklace and the medallion of it became more intricate.

“Elmar, my boy, watch carefully. You won’t see summoning from another world any other day.” Said Hades fondly. Elmar had done his job. What was more, his dept to Hades was paid in full. He did love it when there were no loose ends.

“Persephone, if you hear me, love, step through the portal that you are seeing now. It has been centuries, my dove, and I miss you.” Said Hades in the softest tone Elmar had ever heard.

While Hades had full control of Elmar’s body, the boy had something of a back sit. He could hear, taste and smell that which was around him, but he couldn’t move his limbs. It was a strange and unpleasant feeling.

He startled when a leg appeared before the newly shaped necklace. Then a lower body and finally a woman fully got out of the thin air. She was a beauty. With olive skin, dark, curly hair and deep green eyes. Elmar could see why Hades had fallen for her.

The woman looked uncomfortable when she looked around the room. Hades made a few steps forward, but she held up her hand, and he stopped in his tracks.

“How many souls did you doom for this to be possible? Whose body did you steal?” Asked the woman, Persephone, in a melodic voice.

“No souls, I returned them to the afterlife months ago. And Elmar let me use his body willingly. Didn’t you, Elm?” Asked Hades, and Elmar suddenly felt like he could speak again.

“Lady Persephone, before you spurn your husband, hear me out.” Said Elmar, knowing he had only one chance. “He is not that bad, despite always speaking in riddles and being underhanded at times. He does love you, enough not to replace you and to try his hardest to bring you to him. And you balance him and could probably curb his more sinister urges. So, I beg you, give him a chance.”

“He let our son die.” Said Persephone brokenly. “He could have allowed one revival. Just one. But no. Apparently, not even our son is good enough.”

Elmar tried to speak, to ask her more questions, but Hades regained control of him fully again.

“But I found his reincarnated soul. Followed it here, to this strange world. I allowed a sacrifice to be done for the soul and for our boy to have the chance to grow up, Persephone. Granted, as an orphan, but to have what he didn’t have the first time. And now he is a Litch, learning to heal his organs and flesh. He will live forever, this time. We can have the chance to watch him for an eternity, my love.”

Hades had a Litch son? Well, Elmar didn’t know that. Why didn’t the deity have his son bring back Persephone? Why did Hades saddle Elmar with this task?

“You let our son become a Litch!” Screamed Persephone, outraged.

“He couldn’t have survived as a human. This world is dangerous. It has all kinds of beings. He was being hurried by a fire demon, I took control of some of the thing’s corpses to speed things a bit.”

Wait, what? Elmar stood like punched in his skin, unable to move or speak. He wanted to scream. That son, Hades’ boy, was him? And Hades knew, of course the bastard knew, but he didn’t tell him.

All of Elmar’s life, he felt an emptiness because his parents abandoned him in the orphanage. Hades could have reviled himself in Elmar’s dreams. Could have been there when he felt alone and unwanted. Instead, the first time he had seen his first father was in the form of a man-eating rabbit.

Not only that, but Hades had tried to trick him to remain in the underworld. With a scream that ripped out of Elmar’s chest, he took control of his body, one hand punching through his flesh, and he tugged the soul of the God of the Underworld out of himself.