The River of Styx appeared to be a vast ocean beneath the stone ceiling, very high like a sky. Darkness and mist surrounded the entire waterscape, making the beyond a mystery. Almost like a nightmare, yet full of curiosity.

Roger glanced at the water from the edge of the boat. Strange apparitions drifted beneath the dark water surface. They seemed to be people, moaning as they floated over the abyss. Some wore robes and others wore modern clothing. They must the souls of the people who died from different ages.

Roger leaned forward, reaching to touch the ghosty water.

"Don't!" Charon, the ferryman skeleton shouted. "They will bite you!"

Roger stepped back, shivering until Charon laughed.

"I'm just playing!" Charon pointed his bony finger at the water. "They can't hurt you."

Roger looked again and poked at the water. It felt cold, like ice, and it sent him a shudder through his skin. He sat back down, preferring not to mess with the water. "What are they?"

Charon continued to push his paddle through the water while he stood at the back of his boat. "The dead, of course. I talk to them a lot, but they never listen to me. Rude as hell."

"How come the girls and I aren't with them?"

"The river is for the dead. It keeps our world separated from the living world. If someone kills you here, your soul will join the flock in the river. Swimming mindlessly in the void for eternity. But you won't be alone. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Roger rubbed his upper arms, feeling a chill drifted through him. Swimming through a river as a ghost forever sounded boring-and terrifying too. "What a shitty Afterlife."

"What did you expect? Walking through a golden gate in heavenly clouds? This is the real Afterlife, buddy! Nobody gets an easy pass to eternal paradise here. Good or bad, the Underworld decides your fate. If you want to live in heaven, head to the Hall of Judgement. It's a good place to determine where you can go here."

"So anyone, good or evil, can live in paradise here?"

Charon shook his finger. "No-no-no. If you are good, you can head to the Elysium or Fortunate Isla. If you are bad, you will go to the Torture Fields where the Daemons torture you for pleasure. If you are super bad, you get locked up in the Tartarus forever.”

Roger stared at the Cerberus, laying near the front of the boat, cuddled up like a dog, snorting. They have been riding on the boat for maybe an hour or two. With nothing else to do on the boat, the girls preferred to sleep until the boat reaches their destination. "Labda said that is where the monsters came from."

Charon cleared his dry throat. "All monsters go straight to the Tartarus. If they are good, Hades will give them jobs and luxury. Better to be his servant than living in the Tartarus.”

Roger turned toward the ferryman. "How do you know Katina, Labda, and Cilla?"

The skeleton glared at the Cerberus and chuckled. "I knew them since they arrived as humans. I told them only the dead can cross the river. And guess what? They kicked my ass! Can you believe that?”

Roger rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, no.”

“Exactly! No soul has ever laid a hand on me. Maybe because they thought I was freaky or powerful. I’m just the ferryman here. Not even I thought I could defend myself without injuries. HAHAHAHAHA!”

“So what did you do?”

Charon shrugged. “I let them cross. What else could I do? I didn’t want to become a pile of broken bones! And allowing a few living mortals in wouldn’t matter. I didn’t expect them to survive, anyway.”

"Did you meet Hercules?" Roger asked.

Charon chuckled. "Yup. He was a pleasant fellow. Unlike the amazons, he paid me to cross the river."

"With what?"

Charon held up two golden coins. "Obol coins. Used to cover the eyes of the dead. Only the living can pay me to enter the Underworld."

He placed the coins back into his pocket and pushed the paddle through the water. "The fee is one coin. He gave me the second to help him bring Cerberus back with him."

"How? Your boat is small."

"I can expand it. Wide enough to hold an army of fifty people."

Magic. Roger might as well believe in it. "What happened next?"

Charon drummed his fingers on the paddle. "I came back to pick up Hercules. He dragged Katina, Cilla, and Labda with him after Hades transformed them. They got what they deserved, but I was still kind to them."

Roger knew it was their fault, but he kind of felt sorry for them. Since he met them, they weren't bad after he got to know them.

"So tell me, clap. How did you meet them?" Charon asked.

"It's a long story."

"We still have a mile to go, and time doesn't matter here."

Roger stared at the front. He could only see the fog drifting past the boat. "Are you sure this is a river?"

Charon held out his arms. "Yes, this is a river. The biggest river ever! It stretches across the entire Underworld continent. There are other rivers too, but I only row in this route."

Roger shrugged. "It must be boring."

Charon pointed at the river. "Not if you are never alone here. I got plenty of souls to chat to. So chat with me."

"Alright." Roger explained he was a cop in a human city called San Francisco. His partner and he investigated a zoo where they encountered a snake woman. His partner sadly got killed, and before Roger met the same fate, the Cerberus saved his life. The Cerberus girls told him there are monsters escaping from the Underworld, all with the help from Medusa. She unleashed the monsters to escape to the living world. The Cerberus followed her, and Hades wanted them to stop her.

After they met, Roger let them stay at his condo to avoid the humans. Medusa and her new golem henchman broke into a museum to steal the stone head of Cetus. She planned to resurrect the titan to conquer the Earth. Roger and the girls tried to stop her, but she animated a T-Rex skeleton to distract them while she escaped.

The next day, two monster women attacked Roger's police station and captured him. Medusa bargained for them to kill the Cerberus while she prepared the resurrection ritual. If they killed Katina, Cilla, and Labda, Medusa would give them a place by her side after she conquers the world. Fortunately, the Cerberus defeated and rescued Roger. They forced the monster women to tell them where Medusa was hiding. The monster women told and escaped before the Cerberus tried to send them back to the Underworld.

During a rainstorm, Roger and the Cerberus found Medusa's hideout, but she already resurrected the Cetus in the bay. With luck, they found a city map marking where Medusa and her henchman went to watch the city's destruction. Their new location was an abandoned prison island called Alcatraz, the perfect spot to watch the sea titan.

Roger and the Cerberus reached the island and confronted Medusa. Without warning, Medusa turned the Cerberus into a puppy from her magical staff. Her henchman tossed the puppy off the building, which sparked rage inside Roger. He shot a rocket at the golem, blowing him into pieces. To fight Medusa, he blindfolded himself and tried to shoot her with his shotgun. Medusa kicked him off his feet and tried to force his eyes open so she could turn him into stone. Roger kept his eyes closed until the puppy Cerberus attacked Medusa's snake hair from behind her. He pulled out a large blade and sliced Medusa's head off. Then he destroyed the staff to return the Cerberus back to her normal size.

With Medusa's head, they climbed up the tallest building in the city that matched the Cetus's height. When the Cetus approached them, Roger held up Medusa's head and turned the Cetus into stone. The Cetus's stone body crumbled and crashed against the building. After they fell, Roger and the Cerberus found themselves near the shore of the Styx river. And that was how they appeared in the Afterlife.

Charon clapped his hands. "What a story! You reminded me of Perseus! He defeated the Cetus. You should meet him if you go to the Elysium."

Roger smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

He never thought the ferryman in the Underworld would be super friendly. Maybe he was insane or being happy kept him from going mad. Roger doesn't know much about Charon except he was the ferryman who escorts the dead across the spirit river. Meeting him for the first time truly changed Roger's expectations about Charon.

The skeleton ferryman pointed his paddle straight ahead. "There we are! We're almost there!"

Roger glanced at the front. A dark small beach along a mountain wall appeared in the fog. They were now close to the Underworld. What horrors or amazing things would Roger see?