Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 70,
Part 1:

After several days of walking, I have reached a paradisiacal area, through a path that some kind settlers indicated to me … a path to a Sanctuary dedicated to Orpheus.

At the end of the road, at the foot of a waterfall, there was a cave … its interior was very curious … some ruins similar to those of Kamba Outpost, Greek in appearance … and a TP !! Where will that TP lead? Katalina will be on the other side?
I approached the TP … I got on … I mentally prepared myself for the journey into the unknown and, with a flash and a strange sound, every cell in my body dematerialized …

… And I was materialized again in another TP… I blinked in surprise and looked around… more Greek ruins, a cave similar to the other one I came from… and the exit…

I went to the exit, framed by climbing plants of some species that were not like the normal ones of Next Island … I looked out and … My mind was not prepared for what I saw …

Some great Greek-looking temples in the distance … a marble or alabaster statue of cyclopean dimensions that represented a kind of warrior goddess … Athena perhaps?

There was a port with some ships at anchor … but of a kind that I had only seen as a child in old books and movies … it looked like a fleet of ships of Greek or Roman design … where the hell was it?
An old man dressed in a robe and a cape passed by me … he was leaning on a staff … he looked at me and, despite my armor and weapons, he showed no signs of strangeness … I asked him.

Transcription of recorded dialogue:
-Greetings, old man … could you tell me where I am?
-Greetings, foreigner … you just arrived, right?
-Er … Yes … but this area is unknown to me …
-That’s what they all say when they arrive, with those strange weapons and clothes that you use in your country … Boy, this is Greece.
End of transcription.

Incredible … this Portal does not lead to another place in Next Island, but to another time and place … ancient Greece … and, wait … this old man was not surprised by my appearance, but said that more people came before me … I decided to continue talking with him …

Transcription of recorded dialogue:
-Greece? Really?
-Of course, foreigner … do not be surprised, the gods have blessed us by being the best land in the entire Mediterranean Sea, except perhaps that area of ​​Etruria where now there is a king called Romulus … That is why so many of you come here?
-Yes, well … I’m an explorer, and I’ve been traveling from place to place for a long time, searching …
-Ah, like Odysseus, right?
-Ah yes, like Odysseus … Well, old man, I suppose I should go to the city and see what there is, and if I find my partner …
-mmm… you mean a girl who passed through here a few days ago? The one with blue hair?
-Did you see her, old man?
-Yes, she was as surprised as you, so I told her to go see Pentesílea, the Queen of the Amazons … you know, women understand each other better … To other people who have come here and I have been able to talk to I have sent them to other places, such as the great warrior with the golden sword … The Great MrKaneki I think told me his name was. I sent him to the Colosseum …
End of transcription.

MrKaneki … that guy took a sword that Katalina had lent him, a sword gift from the great Uber Kike, and we never heard from him again … and look, it turns out he’s here …

I said goodbye to the old man … Well, I already had a starting point, I had to go to the city to see this Pentesílea and keep looking for Katalina in this new and surprising world …

Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 70, Part 2:

I approached the city … at the entrance, behind the port, I saw what I later found out was the Thebas Market … dozens of people crowded in front of the shopkeepers’ stalls, seeing the goods that were sold there …

Sometimes someone with entropian clothes or armor would appear … there was even a guy with a helmet similar to the head of an alien and really ugly slippers in front of what looked like a craft machine …

At the exit of the market began a long staircase that led to the upper part of Thebas … and flanked by part of his personal guard (men and women dressed in armor like that of the ancient Greek hoplites) was a majestic-looking woman … Her Majesty Queen Pentesílea … I approached her slowly and genuflected respectfully as I felt her gaze fixed on me.

Transcription of recorded dialogue:
-Greetings, foreigner … who are you and why are you presenting yourself to me?
-Greetings, oh my queen! My name is Dante, and I come from beyond the Portal, looking for my partner, who arrived a few days ago.
-Your partner … if she arrived recently it will undoubtedly be Katalina, the warrior.
-Majesty, then you know her …
-Yes… she is a good woman, and she seemed brave and determined… that’s why I gave her a mission, with the promise of a good reward…
-A mission, Your Majesty? If not too much to ask, which one?
-Well, the cyclops in this area are a bit shy, they don’t usually bother, but … a giant Brontes has appeared, with a huge mace, and is attacking farms and cattle … I ordered Katalina to hunt down that damn animal …
End of transcription.

Cyclops ????? Like what cyclops? But those are mythological beings, product of the imagination of the ancient Greeks, who believed in strange gods … for a second I thought if there would not be minotaurs as well … I decided to find out where Katalina had gone.

Transcription of recorded dialogue:
-A Brontes … well … I think I should go help her … she’s my partner.
-Okay, Dante, go help her if it is your wish … she went to the Northwest, towards the city of Delphi … one of these days I must go to see the Oracle, to consult him about those renegade Amazons …
-Renegade Amazons, Your Majesty? But… You are her queen… don’t you obey her?
-No, Dante … they have formed a faction of their own that does not recognize my authority, and they call themselves Myrinians … But that’s another story.
-Close to Delphi … Thank you, Your Majesty, I’ll go find her.
End of transcription.

I got up and said goodbye to the queen, and headed for Delphi … little by little I left the city of Thebas and a more rural area appeared, with farmland … and a few miles beyond, my eyes did not believe what they saw …

Huge beings … tribal tattoos on the chest, huge clubs, with skin beads on their belts, almost bald heads … and a single eye in the middle of their face … Cyclops !!!!

Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 70, Part 3:

I spent a long time observing those beings … I felt as if I were part of one of those dusty books that my grandfather treasured, books about heroes and monsters of a remote past … at times my head refused to recognize what I was seeing: myths are sometimes not myths, but realities that have been forgotten.

Those Cyclopes did not seem very sociable with each other … they avoided looking at each other when they crossed, and their only desire was to search for food among the trees or to hunt some animal that had been left behind. By the way, I did not observe that any of those beings were female … How would they reproduce?

As my mind processed that, I noticed rhythmic vibrations on the ground. Automatically, the behavior of the Cyclops changed: they began to look at each other with their one eye wide open and their body language denoted nervousness … As the vibration grew, they began to separate and go into the trees … Soon the place was lonely.

I was surprised observing that kind of flight, when, suddenly, without warning, a couple of trees were uprooted and through the gap they had left, a nightmare creature appeared.

No doubt he was a Cyclops, but of such dimensions that he could have been a Titan like those of the legends, like Atlas.
The size of the mace he carried was enormous, his feet trampled the ground leaving large holes and his only eye looked evilly around him … in his left hand he carried the corpse of a cow like someone who carries a simple mouse … It was the Brontes.
Fascinating … not in a hundred lives that I lived could I have seen that spectacle … the being looked from side to side, began to sniff the air and, suddenly, following his nose, fixed his only eye on me …

That’s it … He has seen me … I hope he has already eaten and does not want to know anything about me or I will have problems …
Yes… there were problems… The Brontes threw the cow to the ground furiously, let out a huge, deafening roar and, brandishing the mace threateningly, began to run towards where I was half hidden.

I hardly had time to materialize the Viceroy and take out my Sparkbite when the Brontes unloaded the club with brutal force … I was able to dodge it with difficulty and I barely had time to cut it in the calf, which despite the magnificent edge of the laser blade , it just scratched him … Hell, i should have brought a Decimator !!!
The Brontes would not stop swinging his clubs, and I was able to dodge him a few more times as i fired my sword for, despite his size, he was so fast.

And smart … a couple more attacks and apparently he could foresee my way of fighting … the club hit me squarely and I was thrown a dozen meters away … I felt the Viceroy crack in places … damn Impact plates, there should have been bought from a reputable armory, not that store whose sign said “Queffe’s Surplus Shop.”

My left arm hung broken, my legs did not respond … as the being approached, I was able to activate my healing chip, and I began to feel the regenerative waves in my cells … and suddenly, it stopped: the chip did not have enough charge … I always the same thing happens, I forget to recharge it … and this time this could literally cost me my life.

This is not the entropian universe, with its TPs and resurrection circuits … maybe they won’t work here, in which case I won’t wake up in a Terminal Revive, but maybe I’ll actually end up dead.

I looked up at the evil eye of the being … his shadow covered me … with a gesture of triumph he raised his mace to give me the final blow … and then …

There was the sound of a lacerating chip, and as if by magic, the Brontes’s head detached from his body, falling at my feet… the being took a few steps sideways, headless, and finally collapsed.

In front of me, behind the corpse, a well-known figure in well-known clothes looked at me sarcastically.

I had found Katalina, or rather, Katalina had found me …