Page 69 of Chaos Unleashed

The difference here though is that unlike a usual street like this, every single house is entirely different, they’re all from various eras, different sizes, and styles from all throughout the many realms. There’s a house that I recognise from the Earth realm, there’s a tree house where I know druids like to live, there are caves and cliffs, there are examples of all kinds of houses from as many places as you can think of, as we start walking I even see an ocean, with a shoreline and everything.

It's absolutely incredible.

There’s also an overwhelming sense of peace here, and I take a breath; I’ve not felt anything like it before and want to soak up as much of the feeling as possible.

“Since we haven’t been stopped yet, I’ll explain a couple of things that I’m sure that you're all wondering about,” Hades says, his eyes scanning around us rapidly.

“Each of the houses that you see is a person's individual heaven. They’re entirely unique depending on the individual's beliefs and religions in life and what realm they’ve come from, that sort of thing. But they’re not simply the house; the house is just the front of their heaven; most have whole worlds inside them.”

“Wow, that’s pretty fucking cool,” Mayhem mutters, his eyes wide with wonder.

“We put members of the same family near each other, and of course, family pets are there as well. Each family has an optional communal area that’s just for them where, when the souls are ready and have accepted that they’re dead, they can meet up and hang out.” Hades continues to explain.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Farren

“That’s a nice touch,” Zev replies, “individual heavens but spaces for family to get together.”

“There are also communal areas for everyone, parks, restaurants, and all sorts of places where people can meet other souls,” Khaos adds.

“So, it’s kind of like a realm in itself,” I reply.

“Sort of, but there’s no threat to life here because everyone is dead, no illness, no suffering,” Hades explains.

“Except for in the punishment side, there’s lots of suffering there,” Khaos grins.

“It kind of worries me that you’re so happy about that,” Loki points out.

Khaos rolls his eyes, “Don’t even pretend that you don’t like torture as much as I do. I know full well that if I took you to that part, told you what some of the inhabitants had done, you would take great pleasure in torturing them.”

Loki thinks about it for less than ten seconds and then replies, “Fair point. I would.”

“Why do you have Helliers and Underworlders in this half?” I ask curiously. My gaze is on my creatures. Poca looks extremely at home here and bigger than usual, so I know that he’s letting more of his power out than he usually does. Meri is sitting up on his back, looking at everything curiously instead of fast asleep, and Oryn is flying as close to Poca’s side as he possibly can without landing on him and looking a lot more nervous than the other two. This is a situation that I don’t think any of us thought we would find ourselves in.

“We don’t have many, but every now and then, we get a soul or two who don’t like how things are run, who want to go back to their lives, and who struggle to adjust.” Hades replies.

“So, we need people here to help in those situations and keep it under control until we can get in extra help if we need them,” Khaos adds.

“I have to admit that I prefer this side,” I say.

Hades looks sad as he replies, “You have only seen the other side tainted by the princes. You should’ve seen it before; there were festivals and street parties, and it was just an amazing place to be somewhere that I was really proud to be called the god of.”

“I hope that we can get it back that way again,” I reply.

“I think it’s going to take a lot of healing before it's back to being as carefree as that sounds,” Rival says.

Hades frowns as he looks around at his realm, with an air of sadness cloaking him. “Unfortunately, I think you’re right. This side may look better than the other side, but the streets used to at least have a few souls out and about, talking to each other or on their way to places. There’s no one, and we’ve been walking for a while now.”

“Not to mention we should’ve been stopped by Hellier’s a long time ago,” Khaos adds.

As if his words have summoned them, three Helliers appear in front of us.

“Hades?”

“Commander Khaos?”

“Why are there only three of you?” Khaos demands and then looks at one of them, “What are you doing on this side?”

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