The Tale of Sisyphus and Thanatos
Chapter 3
Chaos in the Underworld
As soon as Ares locked eyes with the newly awakened Thanatos, he rushed to the underworld and reported everything to Hades.
"Uncle Hades! You won’t believe what Thanatos is doing right now..."
"...?"
Expecting a fierce battle with a powerful monster, Ares looked like a child who had his toy taken away. Upon hearing the whole situation, the gods of the underworld were outraged.
"What? So all of this is because..."
"Who is this human, Sisyphus?"
"Dammit! Thanatos was just sleeping?!"
"Ares, are you sure you're not lying..."
"I swear on the River Styx, everything I said is true!!!"
With Ares's oath, so gods then ambushed Thanatos as he was bringing Sisyphus to the underworld. Specifically, they waited at the entrance and tied him up with ropes.
"Ugh! Hypnos, what is the aning of this? Styx, you too!"
"Do you know how hard we've been working while you were sleeping?!"
"I heard you were even snoring!"
Thanatos was bound and dragged like a criminal under the watchful eyes of Hypnos and Styx. Sisyphus, on the other hand, walked along in a daze, overwheld by the unprecedented situation.
"Ah... what...?"
The only one who welcod the temporarily negligent Thanatos was Charon, the ferryman of the Acheron River.
"Ugh... I barely had a mont of rest... Now I must row again..."
Thus, Thanatos and Sisyphus were brought before , Hades. Thanatos was tied up, and Sisyphus knelt, looking vacant.
"What, just because I slept for a few days, this happens? I only ant to sleep for one day!"
Thanatos defended himself loudly, standing beside the ntally broken Sisyphus. My head ached as if I had swallowed tis like Zeus.
"Reaping souls is indeed a strenuous task, Thanatos..."
"Exactly, Hades, you understand my plight! I only ant to rest for a short while..."
But the other gods standing by my side erupted imdiately. Hypnos, who had been tirelessly putting souls to sleep, was the first to react.
"What?! A short while? How dare you say that, Thanatos!"
Moros and Ceres, who shared so aspects of the death deity's duties, also spoke up.
"Thanatos! Do you call this a short while?!"
"You disrupted the cycle of life and death for days!"
Morpheus, who had been inducing dreams to keep people from dying, also expressed his frustration.
"Lord Hades! Thanatos must have colluded with Chronos! How else could such a 'short while' have lasted so long?!"
Many other gods and attendants condemned Thanatos’s actions. Sisyphus, who Zeus had labeled a grave sinner, was entirely overlooked.
"You insolent fools! Try doing my job for a day!"
"What?! I am busy every day distributing sleep to mortals!"
"And I tirelessly send minions to induce dreams every day!"
"Do you think we don’t work hard?!"
"Do you think you’re the only one working in the underworld?!"
Indeed, all the gods of the underworld were constantly working tirelessly. Even as the supre ruler, I rarely had monts of leisure. The busiest were certainly Thanatos and Charon, but the other gods were not lounging around either. Morpheus and Hypnos, for example, worked tirelessly each night with their minions.
Thanatos’s negligence for a few days ant the other gods had to handle an imnse workload.
* * *
I raised my hand to silence everyone and began to speak. It was ti to decide the punishnt for Thanatos, who had neglected his duties and caused this chaos using Sisyphus.
"First, we need to decide on a punishnt..."
"Tartarus!"
Hypnos, with veins bulging in his neck, shouted. Though he was the god of sleep, he hadn’t had a single mont of rest for days.
"Sending him to Tartarus isn’t a bad idea."
"Indeed, disrupting the cycle of life and death is a grave cri. Hades will make a fair judgnt..."
Ceres and Moros, who had spent days in the mortal realm harvesting souls, suggested.
"And since rely sending him to Tartarus might be too lenient, how about a punishnt where he has to keep pushing a boulder up a hill?"
"Morpheus! What a brilliant idea!"
"As expected of the god of dreams, your imagination is exceptional!"
"Tartarus! Send him to Tartarus!"
Morpheus’s mad suggestion revealed his deep resentnt towards Thanatos, who had rested while he couldn’t.
"You crazy gods! Do you think I wouldn’t rest if I were in your shoes?!"
"We wouldn’t just take a nap the mont we got the chance..."
"Thanatos! Stop making excuses and accept your punishnt!"
"Tartarus for Thanatos!"
As the underworld descended into chaos, I sighed and spoke quietly, using my divine power to ensure all the gods could hear.
"So, if we send Thanatos to Tartarus, who will now reap the souls?"
Silence fell.
The gods, who hadn’t considered this, looked at each other nervously.
"Well, death is akin to a deep sleep, right? Maybe Hypnos..."
"Ceres, wouldn’t your domain over destructive death make you suitable..."
"Hmm. We’d need to think about that..."
As I suspected. None of them wanted their workload to increase.
"Thanatos cannot be sent to Tartarus. Any god who has objections can take over his duties."
"Ahem. Well, lucky you, Thanatos."
"There's no other choice..."
"Sigh... It’s tragic that the guilty go unpunished. The goddess of justice, Dike, would be dismayed..."
"Hmph..."
"Instead, Thanatos will have to do extra labor for several days. He will also be barred from receiving offerings from mortals for a while..."
Considering Thanatos's heavy workload and his status as an ancient deity, I listed various punishnts. Thanatos, realizing there would be no more breaks for him, looked crestfallen as he untied himself and stood up.
"And I apologize for not being able to support you all adequately. I will request more assistance from Olympus..."
"But Hades, what about this human?"
The goddess Styx, who had been quietly frowning, pointed at Sisyphus.
* * *
I looked at Sisyphus, the mortal Zeus had sent Thanatos to capture. He was drenched in sweat and appeared half out of his mind.
"Now, your cris are..."
"Huff..."
"Don't be too scared. You have a petition in your favor."
I reached out and took the scroll from Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Recently, the river god Asopus had sent a petition on behalf of Sisyphus. The docunt detailed Zeus's assault on his daughter, Aegina, and expressed gratitude to Sisyphus. It also requested leniency and rcy for him.
"...Therefore, I humbly request so leniency and compassion for him."
As Minos, one of the judges of the underworld, read the petition aloud, the gods' faces turned pale.
"Sigh... Zeus again..."
"This ti, a river god was wronged..."
"Should we verify this with the goddess of mory, Mnemosyne?"
I nodded, and soon Mnemosyne read Sisyphus's mories and conveyed them to .
"Then, I will pass judgnt."
Sisyphus looked up with a glimr of hope in his eyes.
"Though ambushing the god of death and disrupting the cycle of life and death is a grave sin..."
But...
"The reason Thanatos ca for you before your ti was not your fault."
It was because of Zeus, who sent Thanatos in a fit of rage after his cri was discovered.
Sisyphus was not entirely blaless, though. His plan to evoke my sympathy by not holding a funeral was deceitful. But this too was confird by Mnemosyne, the goddess of mory.
"It's true you tried to gain my sympathy with the funeral, but you were known as a benevolent ruler in Corinth. The real bla lies with..."
I glanced at the shaless god. Thanatos, who had used Sisyphus, looked away and cleared his throat.
"...Had Thanatos brought you here, Minos would have likely acquitted you."
"Then...!"
Minos awkwardly added, "If it’s related to Zeus, then... um..."
I ignored it for now.
"So, I will defer your punishnt until you have lived your full lifespan in the mortal realm."
"...! Thank you! Thank you, Pluto!"
Sisyphus, relieved, bowed repeatedly. Though he would forget everything about the underworld.
As I nodded to Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness, she approached Sisyphus. Her power of oblivion took hold, and he began to forget his experiences in the underworld.
"Ah...? Ah..."
"And rember, I will also judge you for imprisoning Thanatos."
Sisyphus, with his mind clouding over, would forget all he had seen. He would pay for binding Thanatos in his basent when he finally ca to the underworld. Perhaps he would spend centuries working at the outskirts with Phaethon.
"Morpheus, send a ssage to Olympus and summon Iris to the underworld."
"What? Why summon the goddess of the rainbow...?"
What? A grave sinner, so Thanatos was dispatched?
"I will personally go to Zeus and protest."
This nonsense must end.
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