CHAPTER 124: LIMBO

Hermes rubbed his temples. "Alright. We know Eirwyn is down there. But... how do we even reach the Core? And if it’s really nothing, how could he even exist there?"

Magni folded his arms, pacing with a swagger. "Ah, Brother Modi, that is the trick of it. He does not dwell in the mouth of the black hole itself. No, a quarry waits at its edge. The precipice. A horizon separating existence and non-existence."

Hermes frowned. "A horizon?"

"Yes." Magni’s grin turned sharp. "In your mortal tongue, it would be Limbo. Neither alive, nor dead. Neither here, nor gone."

He spread his arms wide. "It is a wasteland where nothing can be born... yet nothing could truly die either."

Ymir shifted uneasily. "That sounds... cursed."

"It is." Magni said brightly. "A graveyard of the gods’ enemies. A forest of corpses. The banished roam there, stripped of names, stripped of selves. Undead husks who know not that a world above ever existed."

Hermes stiffened. "You mean the monsters killed by the gods?"

Magni nodded. "Yes. The worst of the worst. The gods tossed them into Limbo, like trash. But as I’ve said, nothing truly dies there. They shuffle, they wander, forever prisoners of a cage without bars. Unable to recall the world above, believing that is the only place they can be. Only gods or their companions can enter it and drop their kills there."

Ymir’s face tightened. "And we’re going there?"

Hermes looked at the wolf-dragon. Its head was bowed, ears twitching. "Only gods or companions of gods can enter, you said?"

"Correct, Brother Modi." Magni gave a dramatic flourish. "But lucky for us, this beast is the key. A hound of snow, favored by gods. It can dig a path."

Hermes crouched, looking into the beast’s eyes. "Will you help us? Take us to the Limbo?"

The wolf-dragon let out a low growl. Its body shifted, uneasy, as if the very idea frightened it.

Hermes turned to Magni. "Translate for me."

Magni began speaking, but the beast’s ears pinned back, reluctant.

Ymir knelt forward, pressing his palm to its muzzle. "Please."

His voice was soft. ’’You came back for me. You want to help us, don’t you?"

The beast stared at him, eyes shining like cold lanterns. Then... it gave a slow nod. With a rumbling growl, it pawed the ground.

The stone trembled. Cracks formed. The beast dug, claws tearing through molten rock like paper. A dark crevice yawned beneath them.

"Hold on!" Hermes shouted.

The floor gave way.

They fell.

Darkness swallowed them whole.

***

"Ughhh—!" Ymir’s muffled voice echoed. "Magni, get your foot out of my mouth!"

"Ah, but rejoice, my prince," Magni said cheerfully in the pitch black. "This is part of our mating ritual. You honor me by tasting my heel!"

Ymir spat, shoving him off. "Try that again and I’ll snap your ankle."

Hermes groaned, rubbing his back. "I can’t see a thing."

Finally, they landed with a heavy thud. The air was cold. Too cold. And silent.

Ymir sat up, shivering. Then he lifted a hand.

A small ball of flame flickered into life.

"Well," Hermes said, brushing soot off his clothes. "At least that new trick’s handy."

The little flame wobbled, nearly sputtering out, but Ymir cupped it carefully. "Don’t get used to it. I can barely hold it steady."

Magni leaned close, eyes wide. "Behold, the birth of a star in the hands of snow! My prince, you light up my world!"

"Shut up." Ymir muttered, but the flame glowed brighter in his palm, almost like it reacted to the praise.

Hermes stood, eyes narrowing. "I can feel him. Eirwyn’s presence. It’s stronger here. This way."

The wolf-dragon sniffed the air and growled, padding forward into the dark.

The silence didn’t last long.

They heard it—soft, broken sobbing. The sound of a child crying.

Hermes froze, his chest tightening. His breath hitched. "That... can’t be..."

Ymir looked at him. "What’s wrong?"

Hermes’s voice cracked. "What if it’s... mine?"

"Yours?" Both Ymir and Magni asked, not knowing about the possibility...

Of Hermes having a child with Eirwyn.

The sobbing grew louder. Echoing. Leading them. The wolf-dragon stiffened, growling deep. Shadows shifted in their periphery.

Then...

From the dark, a massive serpent slithered out!

"HISSSSS!!!"

Its scales were black as tar, eyes glowing red. Bigger than the wolf-dragon, its body coiled like a mountain came alive.

Hermes pulled Ymir back. "Look out!"

The serpent lunged, jaws wide and about to gobble them up. The wolf-dragon intercepted, snarling, but was slammed aside by the snake’s tail. The ground quaked as it hit the wall of this narrow space.

Magni summoned an axe made of fire and molten rock. "I am no expert in fighting leviathans. But I do know that when fighting snakes, you go for the head!"

He swung, slamming into the serpent’s face. The beast shrieked, scales cracking.

Hermes raised his hand, fire coiling in his palm. He shouted, blasting it with a stream of flame.

But the serpent only hissed louder, pushing through the fire.

Ymir stood frozen. His ice shimmered in one hand, fire in the other. They flickered against each other, unstable, threatening to cancel out.

Hermes yelled. "Balance them, Ymir! Don’t force one over the other. Let them mix!"

"I don’t know how!" Ymir shouted back, sweat dripping. "They fight each other!"

Hermes ran beside him, grabbing his wrists. "Listen! Fire wants to move, ice wants to stay. Let the ice shape it, let the fire give it life. Don’t split them—combine!"

The serpent lunged again. Hermes pushed Ymir forward. "Now!"

Ymir roared, slamming his hands together. A burst of steam exploded outward, scalding hot and freezing cold at once. The serpent screeched, its flesh cracking where frostbite and burns met.

Hermes’s eyes widened. "That’s it! You made boiling ice!"

Magni laughed manically. "Hot snow! My prince invents weather!"

Ymir gritted his teeth, shaping another blast. He hurled it at the serpent’s head. The beast shrieked, smoke and frost rising as its skull split.

The wolf-dragon pounced, biting its throat. Together, with one last strike from Magni’s ax, the serpent collapsed, shuddering before going still.

Silence. Then....

The sobbing returned. Higher this time, almost like it was above them.

Hermes looked up. "...Where?"

The flame in Ymir’s hand flickered higher, and a small figure stepped into the light.

A little girl. Her appearance was somewhere around 4 or 5 years old.

She had caramel-brown hair. Soft, wavy. Her face carried both Hermes’s sharpness and Eirwyn’s gentleness.

She smiled through her tears. "Father..."

Hermes froze.

The girl ran forward, throwing her arms around him. Her small body shook. "I’m so glad you came. I waited... so long."

Hermes’s throat went dry. His arms shook as he reluctantly wrapped them around her.

"Father?" Ymir’s eyes widened in disbelief, his flame flickering.

Magni blinked, then grinned wide. "Brother Modi... you sly fox. You’ve been busy!"

Hermes ignored him. He could barely breathe.

His nightmare has come true.