(Greek Mythology) The Abyss
Chapter 53
*Clang!*
The crisp sound of jade clashing echoed clearly in the silent temple. Tartarus, his eyelashes slightly lowered, gazed at the chessboard. His slender, long fingers, like jade, were almost translucent, making even the white jade chess pieces in his hands appear rough.
From his first visit to the Abyss, Hades had become a regular. Before long, the two gods had become acquainted, transforming from strangers into friends who could drink tea and play chess together.
"I lost," Hades said calmly. He had never won against Tartarus in chess; this was perfectly normal.
* Losing to Tartarus in chess wasn't surprising. Tartarus was always very idle; given time to watch plays and cultivate, he had plenty of time to do absolutely nothing. After so many years of practice, unless someone was hopelessly stupid, their chess skills wouldn't be too bad, let alone someone as monstrous as Tartarus.
"Rapid progress." Although the tone was indifferent, it was indeed a compliment.
From initially losing without any surprise, to now having to take Tartarus somewhat seriously, Hades had indeed improved rapidly.
"Still far from it." Hades frowned. He was meticulous and wanted everything to be perfect, so naturally he wasn't entirely satisfied.
Actually, it's just his OCD and perfectionism acting up. ╮(╯▽╰)╭
"How long have I been practicing? How long have you been practicing? Take your time."
Tartarus has lived in seclusion in the abyss since the beginning of the world. When he last ventured out, only the first generation of gods existed; Uranus hadn't even been born yet. He didn't care about Hell. Aside from occasionally checking out the edge of the abyss and chaos, Tartarus didn't really have anything he absolutely had to do. He just found ways to pass the time, and playing chess was one of them.
Frankly speaking, Hades might not have lived as long as Tartarus had practiced chess.
As for why he played chess against himself, you see, Greek gods are naturally rather…lively. They generally have little interest in or patience for chess. Playing a couple of games occasionally is fine, but any more than that and they have to run away. Therefore, their chess skills are generally not very good.
Tartarus didn't care about chess skills; as long as he had gods to play with, that was enough. Even if he constantly took back moves like Hemera, it didn't bother him. He was just passing the time anyway. He was usually quite casual when playing chess; he rarely made moves just because he thought the pattern looked nice, but it wasn't unheard of.
The problem was precisely this casualness. These gods could win against him even with seemingly random moves, time and time again. It was incredibly discouraging for a god. Who would willingly seek out defeat repeatedly unless they truly loved chess?
Therefore, whenever Tartarus wanted to play chess with a god, everyone would unanimously say: "No way, we're not playing."
#His Majesty Tartarus always manages to utterly humiliate other gods in every way#
#Let's talk about that Abyss God who's been unconsciously undermining his own god#
Actually, Tartarus had also played chess with the laws of nature. Playing chess with the laws felt a lot like playing chess with an intelligent computer. The laws, devoid of emotion, certainly wouldn't lack patience, but the laws responsible for overseeing the world were obviously very busy, not as free as Tartarus, so Tartarus didn't want to bother them too much.
Therefore, before Hades appeared, Tartarus had always played chess with himself.
Here, sincere thanks are extended to His Majesty Hades for his outstanding contribution in preventing Tartarus from continuing his split personality.
"That's true." Hades' slightly furrowed brows relaxed. Gods have no shortage of time; he really didn't need to rush.
"Not playing chess anymore?" Hades asked, somewhat surprised, watching Tartarus put away the pieces one by one.
"Hmm, I don't want to play today." Although chess was one of Tartarus's hobbies, he didn't particularly enjoy it; it was only because a god was willing to play with him that he was somewhat interested.
Reflecting on how often he'd played chess lately, Tartarus realized he wasn't really keen on touching the pieces anytime soon.
Thinking of this, Tartarus suddenly felt a pang of guilt towards Hades. It was quite remarkable that Hades had played with him for so long without getting impatient.
"You should go out for a walk sometimes," Hades said. Hades himself was a homebody, but not as much as Tartarus. At least he would take walks in the garden in his spare time, while Tartarus, Hades hadn't seen him step outside the Abyss Temple in a long time.
Being suggested to go out for the first time, Tartarus, who had always been a homebody and had never received any such suggestion from anyone, was taken aback, his feelings quite complex.
Well, it's like all the gods around him, including himself, had long given up hope, but now a god is trying to cure him, even though this god himself isn't much better off.
After thinking for a moment, Tartarus realized he hadn't been out in a long time. Putting down his teacup, Tartarus asked, "Want to see the Abyss?"
The Abyss, apart from being carved out as part of Hell, is a boundless, empty space, naturally nothing to see. Those areas were sealed off by Tartarus to prevent gods from accidentally entering Chaos. Therefore, the Abyss usually refers to the lowest level of Hell where Tartarus resides.
Although the Abyss appears to the outside world as a prison for gods and various monsters, in reality, the prison only occupies one-tenth of the Abyss's area. However, given the vastness of the Abyss, one-tenth is still quite a large area.
If we divide the area outside the prison into three equal parts, the part closest to the prison is always empty because it's disliked. The middle part is inhabited by Amy and Eris, along with Daenerys and numerous flower spirits, both deified and not. Finally, in the deepest part of the Abyss, Tartarus, preferring tranquility, lives alone.
"So, Your Majesty Tartarus, I remember you've always used those flower spirits as maids. While divine power and runes are indeed convenient, and they're mostly used for serving tea and water and occasionally doing symbolic cleaning, maids aren't really that useful. But is it really a good idea to throw them so far away? Even if you like tranquility, this isn't the way to do it."
"The Abyss isn't as desolate and lifeless as outsiders perceive it. After all, Tartarus doesn't need to torture his eyes. Only the prison is desolate and lifeless; the rest of the place is actually quite beautiful. When Tartarus said he wanted to see the Abyss, he was referring to these places."
"Alright." Hades, unsurprisingly, also put down his teacup and agreed.
" Chapter 53