The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Ereshkigal - Day 1 - 120 Days Remain

She found Lilyth in her workshops, mindlessly playing with a levitating large lump of some metal. One moment, it would be a ball; her fiancé would shape it into some object, shake her head, and reform it back into a ball.

Ereshkigal knocked on the door and asked:

‘May I come in?’

‘Sure,’ Lilyth answered listlessly.

‘I hope you aren't mad at me,’ she said softly.

‘Why would I be? It is not your fault I am useless.’

Uh, oh.

‘You aren’t useless,’ Ere said cautiously. ‘Just…’

She wasn't sure what to say.

‘Just a cripple,’ Lilyth finished for her. ‘I’ll be fine. I just need to process this mess. Not the first time an injury prevented me from doing something. At least this time around it wasn't self-inflicted due to lack of self-control. And hey, I get to spend more time with you and Phoebe, so it is not all that bad.’

‘Yep,’ Ere beamed. ‘Though I do recognise that staying home and being forced to stay home are two different things. So… while I cannot fix your lungs, what I can do is help you figure out how you can travel with your friends without being a liability.’

Ereshkigal didn't bother softening the blow, as she knew Lilyth was probably thinking that anyway. And they should face it: in her current condition, Lilyth was a liability.

Maybe I should teach her [Shadow Walking]? Nyxie can then supplement that with some Air bullshit of her own? I remember hearing something about high-level Storm spells letting people turn into electricity.

Ere took a chair, sat down next to her wife and took her hand into hers.

‘Now… Nyxie agreed to look after Phoebe for the afternoon so that we can have some time just for us.’

That elicited a weak smile from Lilyth.

‘I think a candlelight dinner and some cuddling is exactly what the doctor ordered.’

‘That’s the spirit!’

‘I hate how there are no streaming services here for some proper “Netflix and Chill”. Maybe once I get the mission control stuff set up, I will try to figure out how to pirate TV signals from some other universe.’

‘You wouldn't be the first one to try, actually. Maybe you’ll be the first one to pull it off.’

‘Challenge accepted then!’

Ereshkigal kissed her.

‘How about tomorrow you show me what you are working on here, and then I’ll show you exactly what I do every day?’

‘That's the most romantic way I have ever been told to "Go to Hell", sweetie.’

Lilyth - Day 2 - 119 Days Remain

I found myself in the cold and dark realm again, exactly in the same spot my last visit ended. I was short on specifics as to why I ended up there. Ere was supposed to take me to work, but we seem to have been separated.

‘Ere?’ I asked.

She immediately appeared next to me and after a wave of her hand, a warm glow surrounded.

‘How the fuck did you end up here?’ she wondered out loud, so I told her about my previous visit to that dreary realm.

‘Interesting,’ she summed it up. ‘The should-not-have-happened kind of interesting anyway. I will look into it.’

‘Is it a problem?’

‘I would classify “a soul still very much bound to me ending up in hell without my knowledge twice” to be problematic. Yes.’

‘Could it be tied to me being a Hell… wait… we are in hell?’

‘Yup! The outskirts of it anyway.’

That wasn't reassuring.

‘You could call this entire part of the afterlife “gen pop” in Terran prison system terms. Above us, there is low security for people who committed minor transgressions. Basically, people who end up here are mostly irredeemable, but didn't commit any serious no-nos or do things that piss me or any other gods off. They end up a level below in maximum security for their individualised punishment. Below THAT there is super max and we won't ever talk about that place. Don’t take it to mean though that this place is all rainbow and sunshine. Here, you’ll find serial killers, cult leaders, people who don't return overdue books to the library, you know, people who deliberately victimise others. Scum of the earth.’

‘So wait… pickpockets and up in the same place as murderers?’

‘Depends on why they stole. If it was because of “my family going to starve” that will end up on the better levels. Making it a living, however, gets you an express ticket here. I won’t ever expect you to make those judgments. That will forever be my burden. What I want to ask of you is to become my eyes and ears in all the levels of hell. Patrol every now and then. Report on weird going ons. Sometimes people inside get… overly rowdy, so giving me a heads up will let me handle things before they get ugly.’

‘Ugly?’ I was confused.

‘The Realm of Death, like all Realms, has its, let’s call it natural, inhabitants. This particular layer is where hellborn come from.’

‘And they live alongside… what… dead mortals?’

‘Some do, yes. Most live in their own districts, however. Still… This is where the potential “fuckery” comes from. The hellborn just like the condemned souls are prisoners here. If you ask me, it is unfair to some of them, but those are Mom’s orders. Basically, before I was “born”, her original idea for handling dead mortal souls was having a race of wardens responsible for running the place. This backfired… spectacularly. Multiple times even. What you, Deirdee and Persephone are is actually the fourth generation Hellborn. Mortals-turned-wardens. Well… Deirdee is actually a third-generation Hellborn, but don’t tell her that. In general, everything I am telling you right now is hush-hush’

I nodded and, suddenly, felt stabbing, burning pain in my left wrist.

‘Fuck!’ I spat and saw that a really complex glowing sigil was now visible there.

‘That’s a geas,’ Ereshkigal suddenly began imitating Marlon Brando. ‘You're a part of the family now, so you are allowed to know certain things. The geas will burn if you are about to break the omerta. Try to push through the pain and you die. Capiche?’

‘Capiche,’ I nodded.

‘Good. You don't want to sleep with the fishes,’ Ere’s clothes actually turned into a black suit with pink stripes, a brown trenchcoat and a rabbit-eared fedora for that bit.

‘Yes, Don Erleone,’ changing into my suit, now somehow black and the shirt pink, I kneeled on one knee and gave her a chest salute.

‘Raise then, my loyal made woman.’

I did, and Ere threw her hands around my neck and kissed me.

As we walked towards the light in the distance, Ere began explaining my duties to me. Basically, every now and then I would have to go into the Gen Pop area for a few days and basically spend some time along with the locals. It wasn't something I would have to do that often as most of the time people inside the city were too busy with debauchery and tormenting each other. I would have to learn to protect myself first, however, and Ere was already arranging for someone to teach me how to survive there.

Apparently, there was some second-generation Hellborn guy who wanted out of hell for a long time and Ere had used his services before.

‘Do you actually trust him?’ I asked.

‘Fuck no,’ Ere shook her head. ‘Especially not with you. But he is the best Shadow Walker I know of, and that ability will help you both here and with your friends. I will teach you the basics, but he will be your sparring partner. Whenever you are with him, though, either Nyx or I will be with you to ensure that if he tries something he won't live long enough to finish the thought.’

‘Are Hellborn THAT dangerous?’ I asked, seriously scared now.

‘This all happened before I was born, but I am told that Mom used to have a husband. I am short on details but either the first or the second generation of Hellborn was responsible for that. Might explain why the First have been wiped out to a man though. As I understand, the problem with Hellborn was that while the original members of each generation were loyal to a fault, their descendants sooner or later began to question their purpose and rebelled. Mom then tried a different approach with the Fourth, but people who volunteered to become eternal, if sterile, wardens tended to be… the wrong people to do it, so she finally gave up and made me.’

It gets better and better.

‘So a question. I am a fourth-generation Hellborn. Won’t I immediately be recognised as an “imposter” then?’

‘Not really. New members of the Fourth, while uncommon, still appear from time to time. Mostly whenever a victor of one of mom's twisted games asks for immortality or power and either pissed her off during the trial OR was very… vague with their request they get turned into one and yeeted here.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Yeah, I will have no issue roleplaying as someone who was fucked over by gods or Lady Madness specifically for that matter.’

‘That’s the spirit!’

Azhylum, as the city was called, turned out to be a sprawling metropolis so large it seemed to span continents. It had everything you could want from one too: skyscrapers, sounds of gunfire, neon lights, screams of agony, music and mushroom clouds.

‘I’m supposed to go inside?’ I asked Ere as we stood on a cliff overlooking the city.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘If you agree to help me that is.’

‘If there is a way for me to help you shoulder your burden then I will.’

‘Thank you, my love. Now let's head home. I think that's enough of a stay in hell for you for one day. I will show you the other levels tomorrow.’

‘Sounds like I plan,’ I wrapped my arm around her lower back and dragged her towards me.

Aki - Days 2 & 3 - 118 Days Remain

Pik-Cas definitely didn't improve with the passage of time. If anything, the falling-apart fishing village looked even more decrepit.

A harsh winter perhaps?

We arrived there the previous evening and decided to wait until morning before we began our search.

‘Didn’t expect you lot back,’ the innkeeper muttered upon seeing us.

‘You do realise we will be paying you money, right?’ Persephone rolled her eyes. ‘Also half of our group is related to or married to people in charge of the province. Like birdie here is the daughter of Duchess Ireela.’

She pointed at Ren.

We ended up getting his best two rooms after that. Granted, those were his only two rooms, but still that made them the best by default. He actually cleaned them before we entered too!

Of course, us being the local government meant we had to eat the local food.

‘Is it too late to sleep in the woods?’ I asked while trying to swallow the overtly salty and oily fish.

‘Unfortunately,’ Deirdee grumbled. ‘I’m half-tempted to ask Ere to take me back to the realm of the dead.’

‘Me too,’ Persephone muttered.

Luckily, the breakfast next day was mostly tasteless porridge that only slightly reeked of fish and afterwards we could just eat some real food on the road.

‘You know,’ Persephone made a torment sigh, ‘back on Varlia I teased Lilyth about eating her prey by pushing it into her body so that she wouldn't have to taste it. I think I owe her a massive apology.’

‘Damn… I wish I could do that,’ Ren moaned in despair.

The worst part was that Persephone still hadn't relearned how to teleport, so if we weren't done by evening we would have to stay in that inn… again.

The way she explained it, she kept the knowledge of the spells she had actually learned because death didn't erase the memories, so reacquiring the ability to cast them was a snap, but anything she got from the interface or runestones, however, was gone. The grimoire she got as quest reward did have the spell, but actually learning it without cheating involved a lot of trial and error.

‘Afterall, you don't want me to end up teleporting only your skin,’ she said, which prompted us to tell her to take as much time as she needed.

Needless to say, we were highly motivated to complete our task quickly and efficiently.

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