"To be honest, I already suspected it... saving all these souls is probably impossible. But..." Thanatos paused for a moment, walking up to a hill by the lakeside before continuing, "I shouldn't underestimate a human like you. You might not be just an ordinary background character."
I didn't understand what Thanatos meant. Was there something that made me different from other background characters?
"Your fate should've ended today... but something happened! Why aren't you dead yet?" Thanatos growled with irritation.
Yes, something happened to me. I wanted to know too. Why didn't I die like Jason and Tiphys?
"It proves you're tampering with your destiny," Thanatos said, clearly enraged. "Once, I was tricked by a cunning human. He deceived me and escaped death—twice!"
It seemed Thanatos was talking about Sisyphus, the king who dared to defy the god of death without fear.
"That incident brought me shame. I wanted to disappear into the earth itself... but this time, I won't let that happen again," Thanatos pointed his scythe at me. "Do you know what I did to him after I caught Sisyphus again?"
The punishment for Sisyphus—the trickster of the gods—was eternal labor. I'd heard the story: he was condemned to push a boulder up a hill endlessly. Every time he reached the top, the boulder would roll back down, and he'd have to start again. Forever.
"You and Sisyphus share something—you both resist death," Thanatos continued. "Now I'm starting to believe you might really be capable of saving these pitiful souls."
He turned his gaze toward the background character spirits still fighting over the obolus. "As unlikely as it seems... I can't afford to take you lightly. I won't give you time to think or plan an escape."
Thanatos paused, then pointed his scythe at me and made a chilling declaration before the crowd of spirits:
"Whoever captures this one and brings him to me... I'll reward with an obolus."
Great. Just great. Now I was really in trouble.
The horde of wandering background spirits, driven mad by Thanatos' promise, surged toward me in a frenzy. Their faces were terrifying—they looked ready to rip me to pieces.
"Obolus... obolus... obolus!" they shrieked.
Their cries would probably haunt my dreams forever.
I had to run. But where?
The boat? Maybe I could escape by boat. But I didn't have an obolus to pay Charon. No way he'd let me on for free.
The entrance gate—yes! I ran there, only to have my hopes dashed. The spirits must've predicted my move—they were already there, blocking the path.
Gone. My only hope was gone.
I watched as Thanatos put Jason and Tiphys onto Charon's boat. He paid their fare himself. The ferry took them across the lake while Thanatos stood there laughing.
The boat disappeared from sight. Thanatos had left me behind to face the starving spirits alone.
I stood there, stunned, helpless, thinking only one thing:
I'll remember this... Thanatos.