When Goes-With-Heaven and his sworn brothers Tiger-God and Green-Steppe were killed by the demon king Loves-Danger, their souls fell out of the World. And as it is with all souls that meet with such a Fate, they were conveyed downwards, through cracks in the Earth which are too tenuous and subtle for ordinary bodies to pass through. Thereupon they were in Hades. Being as Hades has no doors in or out, the tenuous and subtle cracks led their souls straight into it, but being as their souls were each alike to one another and of a unified will, they were not conveyed to distant parts of Hades, but they very soon reconvened, and not at all contented with being trapped here, spent their time thinking up designs to escape Hades and return to the districts of the Earth without reincarnating.
With-Heaven had heard tales from men of learning that parts of Hades were continuous with certain parts of the ocean, as well as certain forests, caves and mountains, but he heard also that Hades was incalculably large--many times larger than the World--as well as branching and convoluted in structure, so it could take years, if not decades, to find the continuous zones. He and the other two had no choice but to roam the empty passageways and desolate corridors, occasionally passing by the settlements of wayward spirits and the souls of people reluctant to reincarnate, not to mention monsters and devils of every sort, but these posed no real threat, for they could hold their own in a fight even without weapons. They encountered rivers and streams, too, in numbers, shapes and sizes that surprised them, some wide as cities, others narrow as tree trunks. And they were warned by some kindly beings who lived there that the rivers were made of acid that erodes one's soul, preparing it for reincarnation, then floats it away to sow it in an unpredictable World. They explained: "If you are in the rivers for too long, you will lose all your memories and your cultivation will be reset to zero."
Time there flows differently, so With-Heaven lost track of how many weeks it had been since he died. He met a wise man who, sensing the immense power of his soul, gave him a calendar, an enchanted timepiece and a few maps. Using the calendar and the timepiece, he reckoned it had been three weeks since he died. He then asked the wise man how to leave Hades without reincarnating, but the wise man only laughed and said: "Hades has no doors in or out. The only way to return to the World is by a miracle of Heaven. I would advise you to pray for that miracle, but it's no use: the Gods of Heaven can't hear you here."
In the fifth week after they died, With-Heaven, Tiger-God and Green-Steppe went to a large cavern whose ceiling was so high it could not even be seen. There stood a sprawling hall built of murky marble in a monumental style, containing too many wings and courtyards to fathom. When they went inside, they found room after room of great dining tables over which jeweled chandeliers hung, and at a few of the tables large armies of men were feasting. With-Heaven inquired at the reception desk and heard this place was an eatery where the souls of vanquished armies would go to enjoy a last meal before parting ways. And he requested a table for three. A servant showed the three warriors to another room with smaller tables and had them sit, and soon food and wine were brought out. Whenever they cleaned a dish or drained a goblet, more was brought out almost instantly, and they feasted till they could feast no more. Since it was obvious to With-Heaven that this establishment was run by a very distinguished soul, he asked one of the servants for an audience. The proprietor, who was a local prince, would not have an audience with just anyone, but he had seen the three enter and knew they were not ordinary warriors, so he met them in a back room. After telling the story of him and his brothers thus far, With-Heaven asked the prince if he would not sell them any weapons or maps. The prince replied thus: "Maps I have not, for I do not travel; but weapons I have in abundance, for my warlike clientele are always leaving some with me as a tip. I will let you have your pick, but in exchange you must swear to run an errand for me." With-Heaven said thus: "Will you tell us what the errand is, before we say yea?" And the prince: "I need a few knights to go ten to fifteen layers down--somewhere about there--to retrieve a treasure that was stolen from me. It was stolen by my younger sister, in whose crooked heart hatred and mischief fester. The treasure is a divine golden seed. It looks just like an ordinary seed, but is much larger and obviously, golden. My sister is immature and stupid, so if you just ask her to give it to you with enough gusto, she should comply. But the way there is littered with monsters, which is why I'm trusting you to take the weapons in advance. And, since this mission is of such dire importance to me, once you return with the divine golden seed, in addition to the weapons, I will give you an extra reward. Is there anything you especially need." With-Heaven said: "We need a way to get out of Hades without reincarnating." And the prince: "My word, a hefty premium, but I think I have just the thing to help you. What say you, knights?" With-Heaven was younger than both Tiger-God and Green-Steppe, but they saw him as their elder brother, so they nodded so as to say the decision was his to make. With-Heaven said: "Alright, we swear we will do it. Show us the weapons." And the prince conveyed them into the armory. With-Heaven chose an ancient sword; Tiger-God, a trident; and Green-Steppe, a mace.
After leaving the court of the local prince, the three warriors found nearby a downward staircase and followed it to the next layer. From there all they had to do was to locate the staircase leading to the next floor, but this was frustrated not only because the floors were dark and mazelike, but because they were teeming with hideous monsters too. The three warriors slew every monster they encountered. It took them almost an entire day, but eventually they reached another court. They went inside to find the prince's younger sister seated on a pink cushion--in fact, the whole room was covered in cushioned things and light-colored fabrics, except for the tables, which were wooden and crowded with hundreds of strangely-shaped porcelain wares decorated with geometric patterns, human and animal dolls of various sizes, unkempt stacks of leather-bound grimoires, wind-up clocks and other curios. The walls were so dark it would have looked like they weren't there at all were it not for the occasional mirror or painting. And the air smelled of tea and strawberries. When she saw them, with an annoying voice she said thus: "Who are you, who have just set foot in my paradise? If are not here on legitimate business, I will not show mercy." With-Heaven went forward and spoke thus: "Don't let the sight of our weapons fool you--we mean no harm. We were dispatched here by your older brother to retrieve the divine golden seed. Will you not give it to us, so we can return it?" She replied thus: "Correct, I will not. My brother is not mistaken in believing it to be his, but it is better off in my hands than in his, for he is bigheaded and overly serious. If he gets his hands on it, he will try to plant it again, and I cannot allow that." And With-Heaven, louder: "We will not take no for an answer. Just hand over the seed, and you will make all of our lives easier." Here Tiger-God and Green-Steppe joined him in using every sort of aggressive and persuasive utterance, especially those which are effective against young girls. But she: "While no bumptious and rude speech-form will convince me to yield it, I might be persuaded if you three first ran an errand for me." With-Heaven replied: "What errand." "About fifteen layers down lives my cousin, a treacherous and wicked man. So treacherous and wicked is he, that he stole an item from me which I regard as a treasure. It is an antique doll, about yea big. It is more valuable than all the dolls in this room put together. If you bring it back here, I swear on the Gods of Hades that I will give you the divine golden seed. And since this is so paramount a matter, I will even throw in an enchanted item of your choice from that table." With-Heaven sighed: "Very well, then we swear on those same Gods that we will retrieve the antique doll for you." And he and the others left quickly.
Another fifteen or so floors they descended, costing another full day, before they reached the court that belonged to the cousin. They went in without ceremony, finding the cousin seated on a large throne in the central hall. Other than him, the high-vaulted room was empty: there were neither servants nor guards. The cousin said thus: "Hail, travelers. Who are you, and wherefore have you sought me?" With-Heaven went forth and said: "We are here on an errand for your cousin." Cutting him off, the cousin said: "Wait, which of my cousins? For I have many." With-Heaven said: "The one whose antique doll is currently in your possession." "Right, that cousin. And what does she want?" "Naturally, she wants the doll back. Will you not give it to us to take back to her?" "I actually would be perfectly delighted to give you the antique doll to take back to her, for I love that cousin of mine very dearly and want to see her happy. But you will have to run an errand for me first, if that is not too much to ask." Tiger-God then spoke thus: "If you have every intention of giving the doll back to her, why are you demanding us to run an errand as payment?" And again the cousin: "Oh, I see what you're saying. Since it is my desire, I should simply be content to give it to you and ask you to take it back to her, without asking anything more. But I also know that you are currently bound by an oath to take it back to her, which means I can withhold it from you in order to ask an extra favor of you, and make good use out of you." With-Heaven cursed the cousin in his heart, but said: "What errand do you have for us?" "I have a different cousin who lives about fifteen layers or so down from here, and I don't like him very much at all. You look to me to be fighters of talent. Will you not assassinate him for me? If you do so, then as a reward, I will ask you to take the antique doll back to my female cousin." With-Heaven said: "We will comply, but not because we are compelled to by honor." And they set off yet again.
Another day they spent on foot, weapons tight in hand, before they came to the floor of the other cousin. But when they stepped into the cavern where his court was located, they were shocked and confused, for it was the same cavern and the same court that belonged to the local prince whose mission they had originally accepted, and to whom they were bound by oath. They knew there was no way they could kill this man. Green-Steppe said: "It seems we have gotten caught in a whirlpool; down is up and up is down. Brother, what is your call?" With-Heaven said: "No. Up is still up and down is still down. Even in Hades there is justice. In deceiving us and turning our hand against an undisclosed enemy, that wicked insect has violated his side of the agreement. We will go back and demand him to give us a different mission, and if he does not we will kill him and help ourselves to the antique doll." So they went back, returning on the same path they had come. When they reached the cousin's court, they stormed in, weapons drawn. The prince was on his throne as before and did not seem bothered by the bare blades. With-Heaven said to him: "Prince, I will try my best to reason with you. The man you dispatched us to assassinate is one to whom we are bound by an oath, to retrieve and item, and has never done wrong by us. Will you not give us a different mission? The circumstances that have made this one impossible are truly one-in-a-million, so anything else will do. But if you insist that we assassinate your cousin, we will consider our agreement null and void, and the three of us will turn our weapons against you, and the only red on our faces will be from your blood." The cousin responded: "I will not exchange this mission for another one. You must assassinate him, or else you will not be given the doll." And With-Heaven: "I will not contradict myself. Better to slay you for deceiving me." "And what, fiery one, is so disagreeable about contradicting oneself. You are telling me you need an excuse to turn your blade against me? And if you don't have one your face will turn red like a baby's? Are you ashamed because you fear the wrath of Heaven? True, Heaven will punish everyone it catches committing an injustice, but this is Hades, the Eye of Heaven does not reach here. Here souls are not burdened by their sins, but are equally equipped with mobility both latitudinal and longitudinal. For sin is only in the Eye of Heaven. The only ones here you should fear the wrath of are the Gods of Hades, for they gravely dislike it when people break oaths sworn on them, and are known to destroy the souls of those who have offended them in this way. You did not swear an oath to my cousin on the Gods of Hades did you?" "I did not. But to your younger, female cousin, I did." "Then what have you to lose from fulfilling the mission as I say?" "I have nothing to lose indeed, but there is one thing that bothers me, that I can't help but wonder." "And that is?" "Why is it that some of the denizens of Hades swear oaths on the Gods of Hades, and others do not." "If you knew a thing or two about those Gods, you would not wonder." "Then tell me about those Gods. I have never heard of them before."
The prince rose from his throne, gazed out the windows through which no light was shining, and spoke thus: "The Heavenly deities are not accessible from Hades, because it is outside of the world. Hence oaths cannot be sworn on them here. But the powerful souls of Hades desired the ability to swear oaths so as to create the semblance of order. From this desire the Gods of Hades were born. The number of the Gods is proportional to the size of Hades, but since Hades is horizonless, there are actually an infinite number of them. Whereas the Heavenly deities are merciful, the Gods of Hades are ruthless and take pleasure in killing. So one who breaks an oath sworn on the Gods of Hades can expect much more terrifying retribution than if he had sworn on the Gods of Heaven, or simply sworn on some mundane thing. Which is why not everyone is brave enough to swear on them. The Gods of Hades are themselves bound by an compact of faithfulness to one another, to hold fast their common objectives, and each God swears on the Lady of Darkness to uphold the compact. But this latter divinity does nothing in the way of actual enforcement of the compact, she only uses shadowy rumors and whispers in the dark to deliver news of transgressions to the other Gods, who then convene to destroy the offending member." With-Heaven replied: "That is all very wonderful news: it means, since I did not swear on the Gods of Hades that I would assassinate your cousin for you, I can lay you low right here and now and take the doll back by force. And I won't have a hard time doing so, since you clearly are not brave enough to swear on them." The prince said: "It is not that I lack the bravery to swear on them, but I cannot. I am forbidden. For members of the Gods of Hades are forbidden to swear on the Gods of Hades--so says the compact." And With-Heaven: "You are one of them?" "I am. The weapons you hold are of extraordinary quality--all the more deadly are they by virtue of being in your hands, extraordinary warriors as you three no doubt are. But even if your strength was multiplied by a hundred, you would still be no match for a God of Hades." With-Heaven said: "We shall see." Then he raised his sword and was about to strike, but his brothers restrained him.
Tiger-God restrained him with these words: "You can't fight him, brother. It would be suicide, and I don't want to find out what happens when you die in hell."
Green-Steppe then put his mace on the floor and spoke thus to the cousin: "Sir, let me have a word with you. I want to know something." The cousin said: "What do you want to know?" And Green-Steppe: "What happens when a God of Hades dies? How many Gods of Hades would there be then?" "Well, since the number of Gods of Hades is infinite, if one dies, there should then be infinity-minus-one." "I see, so if a God of Hades dies, then the number of Gods of Hades changes, more specifically, decreases by one." "That sounds correct." "But you said that the number of Gods of Hades is proportional to the size of Hades. So when the number of Gods of Hades goes down due to a death, that would mean the size of Hades gets smaller, would it not?" "What? No, Hades is infinite in size, and its size never changes. The number of Gods of Hades is infinite." "But didn't you just say that when a God of Hades dies, the number of Gods of Hades decreases by one, becoming infinity-minus-one?" "... That's not what I meant. You are trying to fool me into saying something inaccurate." "No, sir, I am just trying to get a true image of the Gods of Hades. Anyway, I want to ask another question: If you were to kill one God of Hades per year, how many years would it take to kill all of them?" "Well, obviously, you would be killing them for the rest of time. That proves what I just said, the number of Gods of Hades is infinite, even if you subtract from it." "You're right, it does, I think I am getting it now. Infinity-minus-one is just another way of saying infinity. But there is one thing I am still unsure of." "What is it?" "So we are in agreement that when a God of Hades dies, the number of Gods of Hades is now infinity-minus-one, but is still infinity, and there is no contradiction here. But, try to imagine this: Let us say I lived next to a bottomless abyss, and every year I dumped a small bucket of water into it. How many years would it take to fill up the abyss?" "It would take you an eternity." "Alright, but what if every year I dumped a large bucket into it rather than a small bucket. Shouldn't it fill up faster?" "I agree with you there. If the large bucket is twice the size of the small one, it should take half as long." "Because the bucket is bigger?" "Correct. Bigger numbers should add to infinity faster." "But, what if I had two abysses, one of which I dumped the large bucket down, the other, the small bucket, but each year I dumped both the buckets at the same time." "So you're saying, the total amount of times you dumped buckets was the same for both the big and the small bucket." "Yes, that's what I'm saying. Now, let's say I did this for an infinite number of years. After that much time, how much would be in the abysses?" "Infinite water." "But, since at the same time I dumped a small bucket, I also dumped a large one, shouldn't the abyss that had the large bucket dumped down it have more?" "You're right, I will grant you that." "So they would both have infinity, but one would have more than the other." "Yes." "Then you will agree with me that infinity can be more or less than infinity." "We are in agreement." "So, is the infinity that is equal to infinity-minus-one different from infinity?" "It must be." "Then if a God of Hades dies, and the number of Gods of Hades becomes infinity-minus-one, it has just ceased to be infinity, becoming smaller than infinity." "Well, I guess so." "So, we are in agreement, then, that if a God of Hades were to die, there would no longer be an infinite number of Gods of Hades." "Right...Wait." As soon as the cousin's voice ceased, a thousand incomprehensible whispers rattled in the air.
A look of terror on his face, the cousin shouted: "What have you done?" And he drew his sword. Hundreds of faint shadows in the shapes of arms, legs and faces appeared on the walls and undulated like so many creeping things. Churning madly, they spread to the floor, the ceiling, the windows and the doors, they embedded themselves into the chandelier, snuffing out the candles hanging there along with the candles that adorned the spaces in between the windows, and the whispering swelled until it was deafening. The cousin wanted to strike the brothers with his sword, but his body was frozen and his head was swiveling up and down, left and right. Less than a minute later, the tall arched windows shattered and in flew twenty or so dark, heavily armored beings. The whispering stopped instantly and the shadows faded away. The candles relit themselves. The cousin tried to flee, but four of the deities restrained him as a fifth spoke these words to him: "The Compact of the Gods of Hades states that, in the interest of transparency and confidence, no God of Hades shall speak a falsehood about the Gods of Hades. But you have just asserted that the number of Gods of Hades can be less than infinity, which is false. The penalty for violation of the Compact is death." And with one stroke of his sword, the deity beheaded the cousin. Then, in just as much time as it had taken them to show up, the deities vanished out of the broken windows, leaving trails of smoke and mist and ghostly howls in their wake.
With-Heaven, Tiger-God and Green-Steppe searched all ninety-nine rooms of the cousin's palace until they finally found the antique doll. They took it back to the court of the little sister, and when they gave it to her she beamed with the biggest smile they had ever seen. True to her word, she gave up the divine golden seed, then pointing at a table on the left said: "I am a lady of my word. Help yourself to whatever you fancy from that table." The three brothers browsed through the dozens of objects on the table, most of them were enchanted books. As With-Heaven could not read, he gave them to Green-Steppe and asked him which book would be most profitable for them to take. He said: "This one contains recipes for various A- and S-rank tonics and elixirs." With-Heaven said: "We'll go with that one." They took the book and the golden seed and left the little sister's court, heading up. When they arrived at the prince's court, they found him in the back room and offered the golden seed. The prince said: "Wow, I can't believe you actually did it. You were gone for so long, I thought surely you had been killed or ruined in some other way. The weapons are yours. And here is the extra payment I promised you." He handed With-Heaven an azure gemstone about two inches in diameter. He said: "Tap it twice, it will shine with a special light. The special light reveals things--things, doors, spaces--that are ordinarily too subtle for most beings to notice. For example, a hidden door that might take ten years for a being with ordinary senses to find can be found in ten seconds using this light. The traversable pathways that lead out of Hades are very subtle, but with this you should be able to find them with ease." Accepting the azure gemstone, the three warriors thanked the prince and exited.