My new working place was located exactly as Persephone described it, in other words, inside of an active volcano. Luckily, the whole thing was isolated from the flow of magma, using an advanced form of magic and likely a technology that eluded my comprehension, for now.
The entrance looked quite inconspicuous as it was masked. The intention was to prevent people from accidentally wandering in a facility they had no place to be, as long as they were alive. Waving a hand, Hades opened, what I assumed, were the main entrance doors. At the same time, he also spun some form of magical formulae, which likely served as an entrance code. In a few quick steps the whole delegation, including myself, Medusa, and both Gorgons were ushered in.
Unsurprisingly, there was artificial lighting providing visibility for passersby. Of course not in the form of torches and candles but rather something similar to modern times LEDs, or maybe it was magic-powered. Another thing added to my backlog of less pressing and important questions. Although I might get the answer sooner rather than later, given how awed my close acquaintance was, by the unreal sight.
I could not blame her for that. Certainly, I was not a witness to such a level of technology and comfort for more than three hundred years, including my second and current lives.
"The lights, are pretty, but what magic does that?" asked Medusa, not being able to hold back her curiosity, or rather it was the obvious bewilderment of her daughters who were unable to look at anything else with their little snake eyes.
"Yes, these lights are not powered by magic but by magma from the volcano. Though not directly, there is boiling water and spinning magnets involved in the process, which then produces a flow of particles to light up things. It also does many more things than that, like it provides the right temperature, moves some things around, and also powers parts of the Charon system," the dread queen explained.
A geothermal electrical solution then. Well, Persephone was once again proactive in her explanation, given it was a scientific topic in which she was interested. But it was quite surprising that even the soul management system, Charon, was powered by electricity. Personally, I would have expected it to be fully magic-based. Yet, since I was going to work with it, as part of my new profession, I decided to wait with the questions after the employee onboarding was finished, should it not answer all my questions regarding the functioning of the Underworld.
Passing through the entrance corridor, I learned that this place was mainly used as storage since it was usually the least visited place by the inhabitants, which until now consisted only of Hades and Persephone and the teleportation-transportation formulae was a thing. This might be a problem should an incursion into the Underworld occur, but given the current technological level of humanity, it was unlikely that the storage near the entrance would be in any form of danger. As stated before, each pantheon, or a god-pretender faction, tends to keep to their own business in their territory. In conclusion, positioning storage here made sense, from a practical standpoint.
Shortly, a literal light at the end of the tunnel came into view, as my group exited the storage and entrance passage, right into the open space reminiscent of a modern office building. There were various tables and stations, along with several enclosed spaces, some completely and others with transparent walls. The familiar look of the place was nearly nostalgic. I certainly could not help it, but feel gleeful for obtaining such an accommodating, perfectly safe working environment.
Passing through the office-like open space, the explanation for different stations and their purpose were given, but most were intended for some kind of scientific research. Not something I had a great experience with, considering that in my first life, I was just a salaryman, and in my second, the only time I came close to researching something was during Type 95 testing, where rather than being a researcher, I was the lab rat for maniacal crazy scientists. But then again, should my new position not be satisfying enough, I would likely have an opportunity to do some research of my own, increasing my human resource value along with my qualifications.
"Is that a soul, projector?!" said Persephone rapidly approaching a pedestal in front of her.
"Yes, it is, let me show you," answered Hades waving his hand in a gesture activating the pedestal, making it glow.
Suddenly a person appeared atop the pedestal - a soul projector, as it was called by Persephone. The person atop was Phoibe, at least I supposed she was, based on her mannerisms and Medusa's recognition of the person, or rather a soul. I suppose it was still the same woman, even if she was not exactly alive. Persephone soon explained that Phoibe's current state was something akin to a projection since they could not simply give her a new body, as that would require some rather rare resource. Of course, the Underworld's management would not waste resources on possible employees, if the new potential hires did not accept the job. By the looks of it, it was Phoibe who was more distraught about the situation, rather than Medusa, who was enjoying herself perhaps way too much recollecting embarrassing moments with, for all intended purposes, the ghost of her close friend.
"But that is a feature from the new Charon version, did you already install it? How? Why?" said the dread queen looking confused.
"Technically it is a Charon, 2.0.11... I had to do a few fixes since there was no time to properly test things... Either way, great job Persephone, the deployment of the new version was quite a smooth experience," proclaimed the king of the Underworld.
"Thank you! But did something happen?" Persephone did not stop probing.
"Sadly yes, the original Charon system started to fail," said Hades, nestling his forehead in his palm.
Of course, having a new system that worked perfectly was a great thing for the company that operated it. But at the same time, it was automation, which could take other employees' jobs. Which might not be great for my future career prospects.
"Oh, Phoibe, I love speaking with you again, but Arachne has to yet talk with Sappho, it is not quite fair to either of them, for you to hoard all the time for yourself. What would your teacher say?" said Medusa to her disembodied companion, interrupting my stream of thoughts.
"That's..." answered the hologram of consciousness of a woman's soul, somewhat unsure how to react.
All I could do was to give her a knowing look, although unsure if she could also see me. I would have to ask Persephone or Hades for more information about the pedestal and how the whole system worked.
"Don't worry Phoibe, I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Goodnight for now," said Medusa smiling, eyes looking happily at the projection.
"Oh, Medusa... Goodnight," answered the projection, moving her hands along my close acquitance's left cheek, despite not being able to touch the living.
A moment of silence followed and while I initially thought it was just everyone present having their own thoughts on Medusa's antics, it soon became clear that was not the main reason, as the silence stretched to an uneasy length.
"Sir Hades, would you be so kind?" I asked pointing towards the pedestal, also known as a soul projector, interrupting the silence, in clear intention to ask for a conversation with Sappho.
Even if I would have preferred to have this conversation in a more private setting, it would be rude not to introduce Sappho and Medusa in person. Especially, since that was what my close acquaintance most likely expected to happen. How unlike Medusa to be this selfish, but it was likely driven by her curiosity. Hopefully, Sappho would not embarrass me in front of my new employer.
"Apologies Miss Arachne, but the lack of Sappho's soul was how I found out that the Charon system was not working properly," answered Hades, my question.
Of course, why should Sappho's soul be there, if it can reincarnate on its own? Why should not the system that was already overloaded, not fail in this one instance? It was just logical, that there must have been some errors, and through the sheer probability of statistics it failed when Sappho's soul was involved. There was no need to feel illogical and blame the delay of my reunion with Sappho on Being X. After all, he was not involved in this life of mine, as I established earlier.
"Damn you Being X," escaped my lips, before I could even register such a thought in my mind.
Could it be perhaps the effect of my newfound ability to process several things, as an uplifted being? I would have to experiment on this matter later and in private. Either way, it must have been my second life speaking through, given back then Being X was way more involved and tortured me with neverending war, just for his amusement and in order to break me. And he dared to call himself the God, such a sadistic being.
Then, I noticed something wet on my cheek. It did not take a genius to figure out, that the source of that wetness was indeed a slow-rolling tear. As it seemed, despite being a monstrous being, supposedly so-called "god" or uplifted human, some of the bodily processes were still automatic and so humanlike. Hopefully, none of my prospective colleagues, and more importantly employers, noticed my momentary lapse of emotions. I would rather not have them think of me as incapable of performing my new job tasks without uttermost focus, because I was emotionally compromised.
Alas, that was likely not the case, as most of the gazes were pointed towards my person. Which was not good, as both Hades and Aphrodite, could get a bad impression of my person for being so unprofessional. At the same time, there was the problem of my close acquaintance, looking about to cry, readying herself to leap at me, in an attempt, to comfort me and perhaps even herself. In that case, a distraction was in order.
"Sir Hades, if I may?" I asked, deciding to focus on something more useful than self-pity.
After all, there were still some matters unattended from what I understood. And personally, I would rather be informed of the possible troubles now, than when it might be too late. Admittedly at the same time, I would be able to have my mind focused, or soul, or whichever part of me did the thinking nowadays, onto something more useful.
"Yes?" the king of the Underworld said somewhat surprised at my sudden question, probably not expecting me to talk so soon.
"I noticed that there might be more matters to discuss, as you mentioned before," I said, readying myself to ingest new vital information, while also paying attention to Medusa, and whether she managed to calm herself down and act professionally.
She looked surprised, and so were her daughters, confusion visible on their faces. This would likely earn me a lot of questioning from her at a later date.
"That is... Of course, now is as good a time as any, focusing on the task ahead and all," started talking to Hades acknowledging my initiative, which should show my ability to prioritize important matters and adapt to the situation at hand.
"That damned Xemha! He showed here and decided to run his idiotic circus on this world!" spoke once again Aphrodite, who until now was mostly silent, if not agitated, likely to share further information about whatever was happening and whomever this Xemha individual was.
"What do you mean by that, Lady Aphrodite?" asked Persephone.
"That cursed bastard playing god, demanding respect and worship, based purely on his own ego," seethed the Aphrodite.
Now that sounded quite familiar. I could only imagine how someone like her, who was much less patient and logical, must have been at odds with such an individual.
"Should we ask later, Lady Aphrodite?" asked Persephone, unsure what to me of Aphrodite's sudden emotional outburst.
"No. No, I'll explain... That idiot Xemha, is a primordial, like me. Unlike me, he belonged to a different group, a less benight to the other sapient species and more of the "worship me as your only god" kind of group. Except, my group of humanists and his group of egomaniacs had a deal. The deal was that this planet was off-limits for any of them. I can see that you want to know why. Simply put, it is because humans, unlike other species do have a "soul" - the metaphysical side of their own being, which in essence is somewhat similar to my species of primordials, if we can be called such, since unlike every other sapient, we did not have initially a physical form, nor did we evolve over time, we just came to be along with the universe. We can talk about the nature of primordial existence later, Persephone, alright? Anyway, Xemha decided not to honor this deal and is now conquering this world, as we speak, which he started by taking over Olympus. And also unlike me, he is at his full strength," lengthy explained the local primordial.
The Primordial in question sounded a whole lot like Being X, the similarities were too much to be a mere coincidence. Yet, as Aphrodite stated, there were a number of similar individuals, to this Xemha. So much for calling himself the only true "god" of the universe. Whether I wanted to prove or deny Xemha's identity as Being X, I would have to confirm the information in a person, which for obvious reasons, as I valued my life and free will, had no intention of doing.
There, of course, might be another option, for which existed only a single piece of evidence and that was the existence of Being X, as I have confirmed so myself. The option or rather hypothesis, if not outright conspiracy theory, was an idea that Being X might not be primordial, but rather something else entirely. His whole game this time, would be to put me in such a situation, where I would end up having to overcome his representation, or something similar in this world, which he then could increase the number of his worshippers in other worlds.
Although, admittedly this last option was quite out there, for which I suppose had my inhuman anatomy to blame. Which, of course, was not good as such an idea occurring to me meant, that something must have fundamentally changed on my person. Which of course might have been Being X's plan as well.
I suppose my personal performance review was long overdue. And perhaps I should include loyalty and logical tests as well, just to figure out how much my personality wore off course.
Of course, my problems only started with the need for an introspective review, there was also the case of how secure was to stay in the Underworld. To which Aphrodite explained that we were perfectly fine, undetectable, and even if detected, there was no means for Xemha to get to here directly. But there was no such a way as a perfect barrier, eventually, its weakness would be found, yet even to that, Aphrodite had an explanation, apparently the barrier was her "dead", or practically lobotomized, brother known as Tartarus. The reasoning was, that it was impossible for one primordial to occupy the same space as another, thus Xemha was kept out. Although she admitted, that there was a way for the other primordial to get here, to do that he would have to reduce himself to a lesser being, which Aphrodite insisted, Xemha would never ever do.
While Underworld might be technically a pillbox, a sitting prime target without the ability to move, it was at least according to all known intel located far in the rear and was built sturdy. Perhaps calling this place a pillbox might not do it justice, a bunker might be the better definition.
Either way, this fortified position, gave me at least a time to prepare for what was inevitable to come. And there was some positive news as well if Tartaturs was lobotomized, practically dead to the world, who said the same could not be done to this Xemha, or even perhaps to Being X, if he was primordial or at least something similar. Maybe this Xemha even knew Being X. I would have to interview Aphrodite thoroughly.
At the same time I was discussing the security of the Underworld with Aphrodite, Persephone finally learned during her separate conversation with Hades, what Xemha taking over Olympus, meant for her.