Introduction

Welcome to one of my best AARs. This AAR is about a character from Titan Quest, a machae daemon found in Act 4 (Hades) by the name of Keuthonymus, who has a God complex and helps the resistance against Hades' monsters. This AAR is based on exactly that - Keuthonymus' rise for power and his downfall. Enjoy!

Chapter 12 - The Devastation

As soon as the Gigantes got close, herogirl produced that shockwave again that distorted things around her and froze them in time. As soon as all of the Gigantes froze, heroboy ran in and began hacking at them. He managed to destroy two of four of them before those unfroze. Herogirl began to quickly shoot at one of them and by the time he reached her, she dealt with him. Heroboy then walked up to the last one and produced a single lethal strike that demolished that Gigantes so bad that parts of his armor flew back in Keuthonymus’ direction.
- “Looks like if you want the job done right you have to do it yourself.” Keuthonymus said.
- “It’s about time you stopped hiding behind others.” Heroboy said to Keuthonymus.
- “Me? Hiding?”
At that moment Keuthonymus squeezed a powerful laugh, however in reality he was getting scared.
- “You can’t take us both.” Herogirl said.
- “Ha, like that makes much difference.” Keuthonymus mocked and then clenched his fists.
A dramatic music started to play in the midst of all this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJoUeAj4nbo
Heroboy prepared both of his blades. Herogirl tightened an arrow on her bow. Keuthonymus suddenly released lots of energy. The energy wave knocked both heroes back. When they turned back to see, Keuthonymus was towering above them about 10 times his usual height. He took a massive spear out and grinned in the most evil of ways, revealing his sharp teeth.

- “Looks like he at least brushed his teeth properly.” Heroboy commented.
- “Thanks to this little baby.” Keuthonymus said and showed them the ethereal toothbrush.
- “I want me one of those.” Heroboy said.
- “When we kill him, we’ll take his.” Herogirl said.
- “First manage to land a hit on me and then talk of killing me.” Keuthonymus said to them and then thrust his huge spear downwards at herogirl.
She saw that in good time and jumped out of the way. When the spear hit the ground it cracked some of it.
Heroboy quickly ran up to Keuthonymus’ feet and began slashing them with his swords. Keuthonymus laughed at his attempt and a second later kicked the heroboy into the wall of the throne room.
Herogirl then equipped a scatter arrow and shot at Keuthonymus’ groin. The arrow hit it and burst into many pieces, all of which hit Keuthonymus on the legs. Keuthonymus found the groin shot to be slightly painful as well as cheeky.
The heroboy quickly set up a flag to help boost their morale, but here Keuthonymus was swinging with his spear again. Heroboy moved out of the way, but his battle flag was smashed apart. Again, the blow from that stab was so strong that it cracked some of the ground on the impact.
- “He is right. We can’t possibly kill him.” Herogirl lost hope.
- “Don’t give up!” heroboy cheered her up and then produced a lethal strike at Keuthonymus’ little toe.
Keuthonymus screamed from pain and withdrew his foot. From all this anger he created a big fireball in the palm of his other hand that wasn’t holding the spear and then launched that fireball at them. The fireball smashed against the throne room floor, creating a puddle fire. Gladly the heroes both stuck right up against the walls, so the fire didn’t get them.
- “Hey! Heroes!” the voice came from above.
Heroboy and herogirl looked up and on one of the ledges saw Callicrates. He threw something down into the throne room. When the objects fell down they turned out to be a Stymphalian Talon sword and Artemis’ silver bow. Heroboy took the talon and Herogirl took the bow.
- “Thanks!” they saluted him from below.
- “Another traitor!!!” Keuthonymus shouted and then thrust his spear at the ledge Callicrates stood on.
The ledge broke, so Callicrates quickly jumped at Keuthonymus. In the air he got his Phorkos trident out and stabbed Keuthonymus in the right eye just before falling down into the abyss.
- “Why you little!!!” Keuthonymus got enraged from the sharp pain in his eye.
Heroboy and herogirl liked the new toys that Callicrates gave them, so after a smart look at each other charged at Keuthonymus and began attacking him.
The Stymphalian Talon pierced into Keuthonymus’ feet really well and every wound from it caused lots of bleeding.
The silver bow of Artemis just made herogirl’s shots very powerful and when she tried a scatter arrow it really hurt Keuthonymus.
He got infuriated and stabbed his spear downwards at them again. Once again he missed, but cracked the floor. The cracks followed in heroboy’s direction and a bit of floor beneath him fell through. Heroboy quickly grabbed onto the edge and pulled himself up.
Keuthonymus kept on stabbing the spear, but the heroes were so small compared to him that he couldn’t get them at all. Herogirl then shot at Keuthonymus’ nose with a scatter arrow, which then released the shards which smacked him all over the face. Heroboy then stabbed the Stymphalian Talon into Keuthonymus’ little toe again. That was so painful that Keuthonymus fell down. Heroboy and herogirl took this chance to get to his face. Heroboy began stabbing the talon into Keuthonymus’ head, while herogirl was shooting her arrows at it.
Keuthonymus swung with the spear horizontally, knocking both heroes off their feet and then quickly got up. He then aimed his spear precisely at them as both of them got up (they were next to each other) and with a huge grunt proceeded to stab his spear at both of them at once.
The heroes saw that and quickly jumped out of the spear’s path. The spear smacked deep into the floor, producing cracks all over it.
- “Uh oh! I think this place is going to be several hundred miles below in a few seconds.” Herogirl said.
- “You think?!” heroboy answered and both of them proceeded to run for the exit out of the throne room.
The floor wobbled for a bit and then began breaking. Keuthonymus didn’t realise that and began wondering where he can escape. However by the time he realised to shrink back, both of his feet sunk down and he began falling.
- “This cannot be happening! I’m the ruler of the underworld!” Keuthonymus shouted.
Heroboy and herogirl here reached the doorway of the room and turned around to stare at Keuthonymus.
Keuthonymus sunk even more down and more of the floor fell through. He grabbed onto one of the edges but that broke off and Keuthonymus began falling all the way down into Tartarus with the floor debris, screaming:
- “I am the mightiest ruler of the underworld! I’m one of the GODS! I hate you human heroes and I hate you Pylades! May this world buuuuuuuuuuuurn…”
Keuthonymus fell both: off his rule of power and down into his death.
- “Someone is angry.” Heroboy commented.
- “I wonder who will be the ruler of the underworld now.” Herogirl said.
Here Persephone came from behind them and began saying which sort of made them jump:
- “The underworld doesn’t need a ruler yet. The shades are free. And that freedom will last until the next ruler can keep it going.”
- “We’re glad we took this greedy daemon down.” Heroboy said.
- “Can we go back home now? I miss my daddy.” Herogirl said.
- “Of course. Here.” Persephone said and created a portal, “this will take you home.”
- “Just one last thing.” Heroboy said, “Could you get me one of those ethereal toothbrushes? I really want one.”
- “I’ll ask the other Gods to mail it to you.” Persephone promised.
- “Thanks very much.” Heroboy said and then him and the herogirl entered through the portal.
Here Hermes came from behind Persephone and began:
- “So, you’re gonna look for a new husband to rule this place?”
- “Yeah. I cannot wait to find the one who is worthy.” Persephone replied.
- “You need to go out more.” Hermes said to her.

THE END of Keuthonymus' rule.

Chapter 11 - The Revelation

Heroboy and herogirl then descended via a few flights of stairs and soon found themselves to be in Keuthonymus’ throne room with Keuthonymus sitting in the centre of it, with 4 Gigates standing beside.
- “And finally I get to meet face to face with my current enemies.” Keuthonymus said.
- “Prepare to die, Keuthonymus!” herogirl shouted and shot an arrow at him.
Keuthonymus didn’t even get up from his chair when he caught the arrow in mid air with just one hand.
He then was about to say something when he saw someone else enter the throne room, causing his jaw to drop to the ground… literally. It was no-one other than Pylades.
- “Pylades? Is that you?” Keuthonymus thought he was dreaming. But after a while he realised that the Dream mastery cannot possibly take advantage of him. No mastery can.
A rather twisted music began to play (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3KN_bLjzpM) as Pylades began speaking:
- “I am sorry Keuthonymus to have confused you with all this, but I reckon now you should know it all.”
- “How dare you to call me Keuthonymus?! I am Lord Keuthonymus to you!” Keuthonymus got angry with his attitude.
Pylades continued:
- “Actually not anymore. I AM the one who ordered these two heroes to come here. They might seem like ordinary humans to you, but what you don’t know is that they are the children of the hero who helped you defeat Hades. Therefore I knew where to find some skill and talent.”
- “But why would you ask them to kill me?!” Keuthonymus asked angrily.
- “Why would I ask them to kill you?” Pylades repeated the question, “Ask any other daemon and they will tell you that you are a bad ruler. You were an amazing daemon to fight beside when we had that resistance against Hades and his army. As soon as you came onto that throne, you forced your rules upon us. You promised us freedom, but instead we got prison. You promised us life, but instead we got death.”
- “You know Pylades, you were my most trusted unit. I never expected this from you.” Keuthonymus said, “I loved you more than just a right hand man. I loved you as a close friend. And this is how you repay me?”
- “I’m sorry ‘friend’ but good things don’t last forever. Unfortunately our proper friendship ended a long time ago. Now it’s just your ego, which needs to be destroyed.”
- “Callicrates! Get in here and kill this traitor!” Keuthonymus shouted.
- “He won’t come.” Pylades said, “I just told him about everything and he resigned from his post.”
- “You… you won’t get away with this, Pylades!” Keuthonymus warned, “It looks like no more of nice Lord Keuthonymus. From now on I’ll be Keuthonymus the tyrant. Prepare to die, traitor!”
- “We’ve heard that too many times before.” Pylades mocked him.
However at that moment one of those Gigantes stabbed his spear into Pylades. Pylades was taken by surprise. Heroboy and herogirl were about to take action, but it was too late already as Pylades began dying. That giant lifted him up whilst still attached on the spear and tossed him to the side. Pylades’ dead body flew all the way to Tartarus.
- “Now the traitor is gone, I must take care of his hired assassins.” Keuthonymus said.
- “Actually only my bro is an assassin.” Herogirl said, “I’m a haruspex.”
- “Whatever.” Keuthonymus said and then clicked to his Gigantes to attack the heroes.

Chapter 10 - The Invasion

- “Lord Keuthonymus, the heroes are coming here! They’re coming here!” another machaean messenger this time came into the throne room.
- “What?! They’ve managed to defeat whole Callicrates’ army?” Keuthonymus did not want to believe that.
- “Well they were winning, so Callicrates pulled back.”
- “Is he insulting me by retreating?!!!”
- “No sir. He just wanted to spare some army for defence of the palace.”
- “Oh. Well in that case go and prepare the Gigantes. If little demons can’t do the job, then we’ll use some which can have those heroes for dinner. Make haste!” Keuthonymus ordered.
- “Yes sir!”
When the messenger left, Keuthonymus didn’t know what to do. He was actually scared now. What kind of mortals entered his realm now that huge armies can’t beat them, and what exactly did they want from him. Were they Hades worshippers and came for revenge? Did they want his ethereal toothbrush? Did THEY want to be the underworld leaders?
Keuthonymus was especially scared for that last one. He wasn’t sure if the Gigantes would be able to beat those heroes, so he needed a plan B.
After an hour or so and stocking up on lots of health potions, the two heroes reached Keuthonymus’ palace.
- “So… this is his palace as it seems.” The heroboy said.
- “It’s about time. Let’s get inside and teach him a lesson.” Herogirl said.
- “Be careful. We don’t know what monsters lurk in there.” Heroboy warned.
- “Don’t be such a sissy.”
They then pushed on the main doors, but those were tightly locked and were too thick to destroy. Knowing that it was useless to pummel it, they decided to go around until they came to a back door. The back door was wooden and so heroboy managed to just kick it open, and both of them went in.
They went through a few dull corridors. There were some small demons running about the place and looking hungrily at the human heroes, as well as a few Cerberus-wannabe two-headed dogs who couldn’t lie down and relax. Herogirl managed to pick each one of those off like little rats.
After those corridors, they went through a metal door that led into the lobby of the palace. There they saw the main door but from the inside. A few machae guards were there.
- “Hey, stop right there!” one of them ordered.
However herogirl just launched an arrow in his face. The other three then attacked her, but heroboy jumped into the centre and span around, mortally slashing at all three of them.
- “I could’ve handled them.” Herogirl said.
- “You’re welcome.” Heroboy gave a response.
They then entered through the next set of doors and found themselves in a big room, surrounded by lots of machae and melinoe warriors, as well as a few Gigantes who were armed with gigantic hammers and spears.
Heroboy began humming a song and herogirl joined in - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMiqIK0xg14
Hearing that tune really helped to boost their morale and so both just blindly ran into the thick of the battle and began hacking anyone they could see. Heroboy was throwing knives and flash bombs all over the place and then finishing everyone off with his two mighty swords. Herogirl was throwing nets at everyone and then finishing them off with her speedy arrows.
However after destroying a couple of dozen of machae and melinoe, the heroes got surrounded by three Gigantes. Two had superlong spears and another one had two swords.
- “Hey, watch this!” Herogirl suddenly said.
She then concentrated some energy and produced a massive wave of energy outwards that distorted everything on its way, causing the three Gigantes to be petrified in the process.
- “Awesome!” heroboy commented and then lethally smacked one of the giant monsters, causing it to evaporate, leaving only some armor behind.
Herogirl then began repeatedly firing arrows at another one and causing him to end up the same way as the one by heroboy’s hand. The third one got unfrozen at this moment and swung his massive swords at them. Both swings missed, so he then produced a wave of fire in their direction. Herogirl dodged it, but heroboy got caught inside it.
- “Brother!” she shouted.
However once the wave of fire cleared, heroboy stood there with barely a single burn on his right hand. He then began hacking at that Gigantes rapidly with both of his sword. The Gigantes swung with his swords, but by the time one of his swords reached the heroboy, he got killed and also evaporated, this time into a blue vapour rather than a yellow one.
More machae and melinoe were coming. Callicrates also came. Heroboy recognized him from the previous battle.
- “I wonder if that’s Keuthonymus.” He said.
- “I don’t know. Just kill him anyway.” Herogirl replied.
- “I am not Keuthonymus.” Callicrates interrupted them, “Lord Keuthonymus is even more powerful than I am.”
And at that moment he proceeded to stab heroboy with the Phorkos trident again.
- “You give me a headache,” Heroboy then said, “literally.”
And after saying that, he blew into his horn, summoning three ghost warriors, all of whom began prodding Callicrates with their blades.
- “Ou! Ouch! Au! That hurts!” Callicrates was screaming but still not falling back.
Herogirl in a meantime was one-shotting ordinary machae archers who were still quite inexperienced. However a high warden machae came up behind her and stabbed his spear into her torso. A bell-like sound was heard again, and she quickly took out a health potion and downed it. She then turned around and shot the machae high warden in the face. He survived the shot and attempted to stab her again. She avoided the stab and shot at him once again at a point blank range. He was still alive after that, so herogirl quickly collected some energy and then shot three arrows in a rapid succession at his face, bringing him to the ground for good.
Callicrates at this moment took enough damage from those ghost warriors and so began running back for his life. He didn’t know where those heroes managed to pull out those tricks from.
Another Gigantes approached the heroboy and herogirl at this stage. He looked pretty tough.
- “There’s another one!” herogirl warned the heroboy.
- “I know.” Heroboy said.
Herogirl quickly began firing arrows at him, but being so huge he still somehow managed to dodge all those arrows.
- “That is impossible!” she commented.
The Gigantes then swung with his arms and produced a powerful shockwave that knocked both of them off their feet.
- “Woah!” heroboy couldn’t believe it.
Both of them quickly sipped on their health potions and got up. The Gigantes produced another wave, but the heroes took a step back out of its range. Here the heroboy swung really fast and at each swing released a handful of knives. The knives flew at the Gigantes. Some hit him, but that barely did anything. Herogirl then proceeded to do that wave of energy again, but when she began concentrating, the giant got up to her and hit her with his axe. She fell down.
Heroboy then quickly dropped a flag again that can boost the morale and also continued humming that awesome song. Both him and herogirl felt stronger. He began hitting the giant monster hard, while the herogirl shot that special arrow at the ground beneath the giant’s feet, which exploded into lots of little bits, all of which grazed him. Their strategy was working and eventually they brought him down, or more like caused him to evaporate like the other oversized armor bags.
- “That was the first tricky bad guy we’ve faced here.” Herogirl commented.
The remaining machae and melinoe army got very scared and began retreating.“Yes, run, run like the cowards you are.” Heroboy shouted behind them.

Chapter 9 - The Slaughter

- “This underworld is starting to bore me to death.” Herogirl said to heroboy.
- “Why? Are the monsters too easy?”
- “Not just that. The whole place is kinda dull. How do the dead live here?”
- “Well the underworld is not supposed to be a nice place.”
- “In that case I hope I’ll never have to come here.”
- “But you will. We all do.”
- “Well if I do then I’m not going to let any underworld ruler to control my life.” Herogirl said boldly.
At that moment both of them got close to that labyrinth. There was a machae standing at the entrance. They saw him and herogirl proceeded to shoot an arrow at him.
The machae quickly moved out of his spot, managing to dodge the arrow and screamed:
- “The mortals are here. Lord Keuthonymus, they are here!”
Heroboy and herogirl looked at each other.
- “Did he say Keuthonymus?” Heroboy asked.
- “That’s what I’ve heard too. That means Keuthonymus is in the labyrinth.” Herogirl said.
- “Why would he live there?”
- “Maybe he is Minotaur’s brother.”
- “Maybe so.”
So both heroes entered the labyrinth. It truly was a confusing place. Every corridor looked exactly the same. They went on further, sometimes guessing where to go.
Suddenly they came to a room with 5 machae archers. Heroboy quickly ran towards them, while herogirl aimed at them. Just as the battle began, a few machae came from behind them, and a nearby Muse began singing a song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NZlwe4bwEE
- “Crap! They’re everywhere.” Heroboy said and gulped a health potion.
Afterwards he proceeded to take down every single one of those archers, whilst herogirl shot down those machae that came from behind them.
They then proceeded to the next room, which was kind of big and had lots of ways out of it. That is when the real ambush occurred. Lots of machae and melinoe began streaming out of every corridor leading to the room, even from behind them and they were truly surrounded.
- “No. Now they’re everywhere.” Herogirl said.
- “I only have 13 health potions left.” Heroboy said.
- “It would suffice. Trust me.” Herogirl replied.
- “As you say.” Heroboy said and then set up a battleflag to help boost his and herogirl’s morale.
The machae were firing arrows at the heroes from everywhere. The heroes actually began to struggle now. Some of the melee machae and melinoe also came out and went up close to the heroes. Heroboy managed to take down those melee units one by one with his two awesome swords, while herogirl concentrated on the archers.
Suddenly a melinoe blade dancer came up to the herogirl and swung its swords at her, producing a scratch on her right arm. Herogirl looked at the scratch and then cursed:
- “You bitch!”
The blade dancer gave a crooked smile and continued spinning her swords. Herogirl threw a net at the blade dancer, trapping her.
- “Ha, not so tough now eh.” She mocked the blade dancer.
And straight after went ballistic with her arrows, destroying the blade dancer completely.
A couple of machae wardens entered the room now and both charged in at the heroboy. Heroboy quickly threw a flash bomb at his feet, which disoriented the machae wardens as well as every archer that was aiming at him.
- “Good job, brother.” Herogirl commented.
The two then spent the next few seconds slaughtering as many daemons as they could, while those were disabled.
Herogirl then took out a special arrow and aimed it at a massive, juicy group of monsters. Once she was sure it will get them, she shot it. The arrow hit one of the melinoe and on impact exploded onto lots of bits, hitting all the nearby monsters and managing to kill most of them.
- “What in Keuthonomaechia was that?” one of the master archers asked another one.
- “I think they call it a scatter shot. Only most skilled hunters can use those arrows.” The second master archer replied to the first one.
- “So you’re saying we’re not good enough yet to use it?”
- “No we are. It’s just Keuthonymus never bothered to supply our armies with those.”
- “No wonder we’re losing.”
At that moment heroboy reached those two and stuck his sword in their throats.
Here Callicrates entered the room too. He was the last one to enter it. The room was literally filled with monsters. There was hardly any breathing room. He seeked the heroboy out of the crowd and charged for him. Heroboy saw a high warden charging at him and so blew in his war horn. Callicrates got stunned by the shockwave from the horn for a split second, but then recovered quickly and began stabbing heroboy with his Phorkos Trident. It actually did hurt heroboy a fair bit and he began drinking health potions fast.
Callicrates still kept on doing it, hoping that heroboy will run out of potions. However heroboy changed his strategy and set off one of those flash bombs again. Callicrates got blinded for a couple of seconds. When he got his vision back he saw one of heroboy’s swords smacking him really hard. Though this strike would be lethal to a normal machae, Callicrates survived it.
What followed after that was heroboy going crazy with his swords, and herogirl added a few arrows too. Callicrates began to bleed badly now and so proceeded to run to the back of the army. A couple of other wardens got heroboy’s attention now, and grandmaster archer got herogirl’s. However those were defeated in just a few seconds.
Callicrates understood that this was useless and that he is just losing his army, so he commanded them all:
- “Retreat!!! We need to retreat!”
The daemons heard him and began running back into the rooms they came from. Heroboy and herogirl chased one of the daemon groups and took those down, until all the others ran out of their sight.
- “Cowards!” herogirl shouted.
- “Don’t worry. We’ll get them next time. They’ll be BACK.” Heroboy said.

Chapter 8 - The Anger

Keuthonymus was sitting in his throne room, getting a foot massage from one of epiales and sipping on some mortal blood from pools of Erebus, when he was disturbed.
One of the machae stormed in and began saying:
- “My Lord, we lost, we lost!”
- “Not another loss. Why can’t you kill two puny heroes?!” Keuthonymus got angry and kicked the epiales off his foot.
- “There’s worse my Lord.”
- “WORSE?!?! What could be worse?”
- “Pylades got slain. I am sorry.” That machae said with a trembling voice.
Here Keuthonymus closed his eyes and felt an enormous fire explode within his body. He just wanted to turn himself into a giant and to stample all over his kingdom. Pylades was his best friend and his right hand man. Keuthonymus would never forgive the man or beast who would take Pylades away from him. He opened his eyes, burning with a purple flame and stretched his hand out. He then began force choking that machae who brought him the bad news.
- “My L-l-lord, please s-s-stop.” The dying machae was saying.
Keuthonymus quickly stopped the force choking and then said:
- “Go and tell Callicrates that I want him to deal with the mortals. Also tell him to take ALL of his army. Those mortals are not to be underestimated. I would’ve killed them myself, but I am too busy with other issues. Now GO!”
- “Yes My Lord.” The machae said and sprinted out of the throne room.
Keuthonymus then collapsed back into his throne and picked his mug up. He was out of mortal blood, so threw his mug on the ground and commanded to the guards:
- “Get me more human blood from pools of Erebus!”
Two guards quickly shot off to do so. Keuthonymus then looked over to that epiales he kicked earlier.
- “You. Back here.” He pointed at his foot.
The epiales quickly resumed massaging his foot.
The machae messenger came up to Callicrates, who was a machae High Warden and was the head guard of Keuthonymus’ palace.
- “What do you want?” Callicrates asked the messenger.
- “Lord Keuthonymus said that he wants you to take your whole army and to find those heroes who are causing us all the trouble.”
- “Didn’t Pylades defeat them?”
- “Unfortunately he got killed. Those two heroes defeated the whole army.”
- “Impossible!” Callicrates couldn’t believe it, “Pylades was my friend. I definitely will miss him. Well if Lord Keuthonymus wants me to dispose of those heroes, then this is what I’ll do.”
Callicrates then assembled every machae and melinoe from the palace and told them that they will be heading into the City of Keuthonymus to kill two mortal heroes. Most of them laughed at the idea, but he warned them with a serious tone of voice that those heroes were not to mess with.
And so the army consisting of over 150 machae and 100 melinoe, all of various ranks and classes headed off towards the city.
However half-way there, Callicrates came up with a better idea. He decided to head into the former Minoan labyrinth and to base a strong ambush there. Labyrinth was a perfect place because the mortals would be lost in it and it will be extremely easy to surround and ambush them. The only problem was to lure them there.

Chapter 7 - The Loss

Several melee machae just charged to the front line and ganged up on the heroboy and herogirl. A strange tune began playing out of nowhere - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iap7PpYNcXQ
Herogirl was still busy with the archers. She was so good that each shot managed to take down a machae archer. Heroboy though got busy with these melee machae. Even being surrounded didn’t scare him. He would just spin from time to time, hitting three targets at once, like a demented merry-go-round.
- “We need some reinforcements!” Pylades shouted.
Some troglodytes from the neighbourhood decided to join the fight and to help out their fellow daemons. The troglodytes could take in at least 3 of herogirl’s arrows before going down, so that meant they could last 3 times as long.
Heroboy in a meantime faced the warden machae. The machae stabbed his spear into the heroboy, but all that happened there was a bell sound. Heroboy momentarily took out a potion and drank it. The warden machae then tried to stab again, but heroboy produced a quick cross cut, which hurt the machae, which then he followed with a jumping overhead hew. The warden machae didn’t survive that.
- “What is that human made of?” Pylades couldn’t believe it when he saw that and then aimed an arrow at the heroboy.
He shot it and when the arrow hit the heroboy in the torso, he just ignored it and continued slaughtering other melee machae.
Here the herogirl got closer to Pylades and began shooting the archers near him. That archer who found her hot, suddenly stopped firing and began wolf-whistling. The herogirl saw him and then shot an arrow in his face.
- “I told you not to get distracted!” Pylades said to that archer’s dead body.
- “Then why are you getting distracted?” Herogirl shouted over to him and shot.
Pylades dodged the arrow that she shot at him and began backing away.
Heroboy in a meantime handled all of the melee machae and moved onto a few Empusae. The Empusae were semi-naked so they could attract guys, but the heroboy didn’t even pause to look at their bodies. It’s as if he had such a strong will not to allow his hormones take over. Or maybe he was just frigid.
Herogirl took care of most archers. The only ones remaining now were the master archers, including Pylades.
- “We need to retreat!” Pylades shouted to his daemons.
- “Retreat to where?” one of the master archers asked.
- “To the city of our Lord Keuthonymus.” Pylades replied.
- “But then the heroboy and girl will attack our homes.” The master archer said.
- “Well sometimes you have to worry about saving your own skin.” Pylades said, “You might care about the future of your people, but I care about the future of me.”
Empusae and troglodytes were dealt with by now and only those 5 retreating master archers were remaining.
- “Shoot them while we still can!” Pylades commanded.
All 5 of them shot at heroboy. Heroboy seemed to stop and go back a bit. They just began getting a feeling of hope, when the next second he just returned and continued heading in their direction. Herogirl was also coming.
Heroboy then threw a knife and it hit one of the master archers. As they began running away, that master archer was greatly slowed down.
- “Come on man! What are you doing?” Pylades shouted to him.
- “I can’t go any faster.” Master archer admitted.
Here heroboy caught up with him and killed him. Herogirl also caught up and shot an arrow towards other master archers. It hit one of them, but did not kill him. He turned around to shoot, but she shot another arrow, which killed him.
Pylades and the surviving two master archers then stopped and fired at the heroes again. The three arrows all headed for the herogirl, but only one hit her. Others were ‘avoided’ somehow.
Pylades continued running away, but the other two master archers stayed and took another shot. That was their mistake. Heroboy reached them in no time. He produced a single lethal strike at one of them, causing him to fly miles back and roll on the ground like a rag doll. The other one just received an overhead hew and also died.
Pylades was the only one escaping now. Heroboy and girl ran after him through the outskirts of the city. Pylades was getting cornered by cliffs from all sides. Just as he was to make another turn, herogirl shot an arrow which hit Pylades in the back, causing him to topple over down one of the cliffs.
They then each drank a potion and stopped to check on the loot that the machae dropped.
- “Meh, just whites and yellows again.” Herogirl said.
- “Some gold too.” Heroboy said and picked it up.
- “So where is the treasury of this so-called Keuthonymus?” herogirl asked.
- “Must be somewhere nearby. Dad said that it used to belong to Hades and it required 4 stones to open it. Maybe it needs the same stones this time.” Heroboy explained, “He also said there was an annoying shade always standing by it and dreaming of how to rob it.”
- “I just want to kill this Keuthonymus and to get over all of this.” Herogirl said.
- “OK, in that case let’s not waste time and continue.” Heroboy agreed.

Chapter 6 - The Challenge

Keuthonymus wasn’t pleased with mortal heroes visiting Keuthonomaechia, so he set up lots of machae guards closer to the entrance so they will dispose of the heroes before those get to see too much. Once the hero falls, his or her soul instantly gets transported to machae school to do the machae course. It’s like doing school all over again.
And so Keuthonymus’ army increased in numbers due to successful defeat of many curious heroes and their sidekicks who were too underlevelled to visit this place.
However one day Keuthonymus had to face a challenge. The two heroes that entered Keuthonomaechia this time were very skilled. The first one was a rapidly fast male who dual wielded two swords. Second one was a female and looked like his sister. She wielded a bow with lots of sharp arrows.
- “Pylades, I want them dead!” Keuthonymus said angrily to Pylades who was now a machae master archer.
- “But my Lord, we’re trying our best. However they’ve managed to defeat us even when we ganged up on them 20 on 2.” Pylades justified.
- “Fine. In that case next time do it 50 on 2, or 100 on 2! Use your intelligence, it’s not that hard to just get more army next time.” Keuthonymus told him off.
- “But my Lord…”
- “What’s with the ‘but’ now?”
- “I don’t have much intelligence. I’m an archer so specialise in dexterity.”
- “You don’t need lots of intelligence to figure this out. Now go and next time you see me I want to hear that they’ve joined our machae school.”
- “Yes sir.”
Here Pylades left Keuthonymus’ huge throne room and began assembling the army.
The reports from various machae messengers came that the two heroes were now approaching the city of Keuthonymus (the section which used to be a city of lost souls) and so perhaps were nearby Keuthonymus’ treasury, wanting to rob him.
- “We must not disappoint our Lord Keuthonymus. Show no mercy to those heroes, for they’ll show no mercy to us.” Pylades instructed them.
The army set off to the city of Keuthonymus. Pylades still remembered the time when they humans had a war on daemons there back in the day. Now it was the other way around, he was commanding daemons to fight against humans.
The army consisted of 50 skilled machae archers, of which 5 were master archers, including Pylades himself; and also 20 skilled machae fighters, of which 1 was a warden. They also had a couple of Empusae on their side, defending the city.
After waiting for hours in the boring old city of Keuthonymus, they finally spotted the two heroes descending some hills.
- “There they are!” Pylades pointed.
- “The girl is kinda hot.” One of the machae archers said to him.
Pylades then slapped that machae and said:
- “Don’t let that distract you!”
- “Yes sir.” The machae said.
The two heroes saw the army and were not intimidated by it at all. They just kept on bravely jogging towards it as if they were on their way to Sunday lunch. The army kinda began getting scared now.
- “Archers! Fire!” Pylades shouted.
Here every single machae archer aimed and released a rain of arrows on the two heroes. Majority of the arrows just missed. The male just got hit by one of them, which didn’t slow him down at all. The girl just ‘avoided’ the only arrow that flew towards her and in turn shot one of her own. The arrow got one of the frontline machae archers square in the face. Without waiting any more, she fired another arrow, successfully hitting another machae archer.
- “Fire again!!!” Pylades screamed on top of his voice.
The archers fired once again, but none of the arrows landed on any of the heroes. It seemed ridiculous. The heroboy at this stage reached the front line and began butchering the machae with his two blades.
- “I said – FIREEEEE!” Pylades screamed with a high-pitched voice.
None of the archers understood him and so just looked in his direction.
- “What are you waiting for? Shoot!” Pylades screamed at them.
The archers began shooting, but the herogirl took down two more within a second. It was time to unleash the melee machae fighters.

Chapter 5 - The New Age

Now that Hades was defeated, the underworld needed a new leader. The mortal hero who defeated him didn’t want to be one. He left through a portal back to Greece. The shades then turned to Keuthonymus, hoping he could bring back justice and peace into the underworld. Without any doubts whatsoever he agreed to this. He couldn’t believe this moment actually came true.
Now he needed to refurbish the place and install some new rules. He had loads of time to think on the rules while he was still dreaming of snatching the throne from Hades, so he didn’t need that much of a thought now, and by the next day his rules became known throughout the whole underworld, or how it was now known as a realm of Keuthonomaechia.
The following are the rules that Keuthonymus forced upon the whole underworld:

1) Thy shall ALWAYS do what Keuthonymus makes you do
2) Thy shall NEVER question what Keuthonymus makes you do
3) Thy shall take up a machae course
4) Thy shall row your own boat across Styx (Charon is on pension)
5) Thy shall not form rebellions against your Lord
6) Thy shall get drunk 3 times a week
7) Thy shall not set a foot on the overworld
8) Thy shall feed Cerberus at least once a week
9) Thy shall go to Tartarus if thee defy your Lord Keuthonymus

Keuthonymus then provided homes for all the shades and daemons. He combined the Elysian fields and the City of Lost Souls into a single location – City of Keuthonymus. The shades and the daemons didn’t get on with each other for the most part, but there were exceptions, like when a male shade would fall in love with an empusa, or a female shade with a machae. Or friendships similar to Pylades and Keuthonymus formed around the city as well. Keuthonymus encouraged the meetings of shades and daemons as often as possible.
Keuthonymus also made sure that factories now produced better weapons. He designed a special suit for exceptional machae warriors called Homados. That suit has a special magic power to make you superfast at attacking. You may have a knife or a huge hammer – you’ll still attack just as fast with a knife as with a hammer. However Keuthonymus didn’t promote either of the two weapons. As a member of machae course you’re supposed to use spears and bows. He also is responsible for the following items: Keuthonian Spike, Alala helm, Palioxis, Proioxis, better Rancors, and a Santa cane.
Although his rules were tough, the shades and the creatures of the underworld actually loved him. Hades never spent so much effort on battle gear of the inhabitants of his realm. And also now those unreachable Elysian Fields were reachable by anyone (except for the condemned ones in Tartarus who broke Keuthonymus’ rules). However during the first week, no-one went to Tartarus. The underworld life was at its peak, and even shades and daemons began making peace. An Epic age has begun.
However mortal heroes won’t stop with their curiosity and Keuthonomaechia was a new favourite travel destination for them during holiday time.


Picture caption: The Lords of the Underworld
1) Mehrunes Daegon - Deceased
2) The Scorpion King - Retired
3) Lord Slash-a-lot - Resigned
4) Hades - Deceased
5) Keuthonymus - Currently rules

Chapter 4 - The Siege

- “Good job, mortal. You probably are wondering why I’m working for both sides. Well that’s because I am the most clever one in Hades, I know that working for both sides will give me the best of both worlds. Mwhahahaha”
- “Weirdo.” The human said quietly and left.
The human made his way through Tower of Judgement, and eventually reached Hades’ palace.
In a meantime, Keuthonymus and the shades readied an army just outside Hades’ palace, on the other side of Elysium, so they can storm in and help the mortal to defeat Hades. They’ve been waiting there for a long while.
- “What are we waiting for, Keuthonymus?” Pylades asked him.
- “I wanted the mortal to do most of the dirty work, so then we can come in at the end to clean up any remaining mess. That way we won’t lose anyone.”
- “That’s clever, Keuthonymus. You should be the ruler of the underworld, I reckon.”
Keuthonymus’ eyes here lit up and he felt a strong surge of fire pulse through his body. Even his magic gems pulsed a few times with a bright light.
- “Woah, what was that?” Pylades asked.
- “I am just excited to beat Hades once and for all. Just the power that I will possess!...”
- “Calm down, Keuthonymus. We still have job to do.”
They waited for longer.
- “So?” Pylades asked.
- “All right, let’s go in… SLOWLY! The Arch generals are still alive and they can kill you in a blink of an eye.”
- “As you say, master.”
Keuthonymus loved being called a master. This was just the beginning of a long excitement for him.
Him and the army entered Hades’ palace. It seemed that most of the monsters were slain already.
- “Tell me this, Keuthonymus, does it hurt you to see your machae brothers being killed?” Pylades asked him as they were walking through Hades’ palace.
- “Not really, because once I will become the ruler of the underworld I will force everyone to take up a machae course.” Keuthonymus admitted.
- “I see. Even me?”
- “If you want power and to be my right hand man, then you would take it.”
- “OK. I’ll think about it.”
A couple of Gigantes vindicators by nearby doors seemed not to have been killed. They saw an army of shades and a daemon helping them, and got confused. However after a few seconds decided to attack.
- “Puny mortal, why didn’t he kill them?!” Keuthonymus cursed.
The shades then attacked both Gigantes, but barely were damaging them. Keuthonymus then thought that he must do everything himself and so charged in and slaughtered both Gigantes with ease.
However as soon as they walked in through the doorway, there was Dactyl standing there.
- “Watch out!” Keuthonymus warned his shades.
However here Dactyl produced a powerful wave, and all the shades within range have died, only Keuthonymus survived that.
- “Stay back!” he shouted to the other shades who were still behind.
He then ran up closer to the Dactyl and began saying:
- “No stop! I am leading the resistance into a trap.”
- “You’re lying.” The Dactyl said.
- “Am not!”
- “Are too”
At this moment Keuthonymus has had enough and so paralyzed the Dactyl in an instant.
- “Come on! He will be fully functional in a minute.” Keuthonymus shouted to the shades.
- “Is it safe?” Pylades asked.
- “It will only be safe when Hades will be gone.”
Another Gigantes spotted them, but the archer shades shot at him. He lost a lot of health, which meant that Keithonymus only laid one hit to him and he died. He dropped a rancor.
- “Hey look, this is a rare hammer.” Pylades commented.
Keuthonymus came up to it and picked it up. After a little while he said:
- “Nah. Only extra poison damage. Just wait until I bring about the epic age into the underworld, we’ll get some better rancors and better of everything.”
- “You’re so cool Keuthonymus, I could kiss you.” Pylades said.
- “No thanks. Just bowing down will do.” Keuthonymus said.
They then walked up to an edge of a cliff and from there saw the whole Polis Demonae. The mortal had cleaned out the whole area. There were only scrap metal and broken loot lying about. Walking a bit further along the edge of the cliff, they could see Hades’ throne room. The mortal and Hades were already fighting.
- “What are they doing, Keuthonymus?” Pylades asked.
- “Quiet. I’m trying to watch a show.” Keuthonymus shushed him.
Everyone instantly shut up and Keuthonymus began enjoying the show. Hades suddenly grow some tentacles on one of his arms and they looked deadly.
- “Should we help the human?” Pylades asked.
- “He’ll be able to handle himself nicely.” Keuthonymus disagreed.
Within next few seconds Hades fell.
- “YES! He’s done it!” Keuthonymus was happy, but two seconds later his smiled faded away as Hades’ spirit rose and began casting various magic crap on the mortal.
- “How can he do that?” Pylades asked.
- “Quiet!” Keuthonymus ordered, “Episode two is coming up.”
It seemed that Hades began winning, but just as all the shades and Keuthonymus lost their hope, the mortal hero smacked Hades directly between the teeth, sending him to… err… away from Hades. Looks like countless hours Hades spent brushing his teeth with an ethereal toothbrush became useless.
All the shades cheered. But Keuthonymus, he didn’t just cheer. He literally burst alight from so much happiness. His biggest ever wish came true!!!

Chapter 3 - The Mortal

Pylades got back to the City of Lost souls and quickly went up to Callicrates. Hastily he began explaining:
- “Keuthonymus says there is a caravan of supplies going nearby here to deliver stuff for Hades’ army. We must assemble the army quickly and stop them.”
- “OK, let’s make this quick then.”
Callicrates went into the room where warrior shades tend to hang around.
- “Hey guys. We’ve got another mission. There is a caravan passing by these lands that is delivering supplies for opposition. We must stop it.” Callicrates informed them.
- “But we’ve stopped so many of these caravans already. The daemons do not get weaker.” One of the shades said.
- “They will…” Callicrates resumed but got interrupted again:
- “When?!”
- “Hey, I think I’ve got another idea.” Pylades said quietly to Callicrates.
- “What is it?”
- “The hero who defeated Typhon is gonna be here any minute. We should probably ask him to do this for us.”
- “Great idea. If he is so strong and mighty to kill Typhon, then to deal with a caravan would be a walk in a park for him.” Callicrates liked the idea.
- “OK then. Just be on guard when he turns up. Also there is another thing that Keuthonymus told me about but I suppose that can wait.”
- “No, nothing should wait. Tell me now, Pylades, tell me.”
- “OK, well Keuthonymus was given orders to send a message to some daemon upstairs. He wants us to intercept that too.”
- “OK, I’ll keep that in mind.”
- “Good, in that case let’s stand by the entrances to this place and if any of us sees the mortal then we should ask him for these favours.” Pylades said.
And here he headed for the other entrance, while Callicrates stayed by the front entrance to the plaza.
They waited for some time. Callicrates was getting worried that they might not be able to intercept the caravan on time.
However at that minute a heavily armoured dude went through the entrance to the place and seemed to be rushing for all the merchants and enchanters to quickly buy or sell his loot. He then walked up to some ordinary shades too. One woman was complaining to him about her lost love. Once the mortal got closer, Callicrates silently called him. The hero turned around and saw the shade calling him. He slowly walked up to him.
- “Hey mortal. I’ve got a favour to ask you. You hate these daemons too, right? Well their caravan is passing by these lands as we speak. Stop it in its tracks and I’ll reward you. Deal?”
- “OK.” The mortal said and then carried on his way.
Callicrates liked a man like this – just does what is asked of him and doesn’t ask any stupid questions. Seemed like a perfect man for the job.
The mortal hero carried on through the plaza and exited where Pylades was standing. However Pylades seemed not to recognize him and so just ignored him.
The human now entered Salt flats. They were there just so the tortured souls will be tortured even more. After being dipped in a salt solution their wounds begin to sizzle, giving extreme pain. The hero didn’t like the sight of some of those tortures so turned his eyes in another direction. He then saw the caravan some distance away and so approached it. There were only supplies standing by themselves, but no daemons around it. ‘Oh well’ he thought and began smashing at it.
Suddenly a group of machae wardens jumped out of nowhere and attacked him. He didn’t even blink and put all of them to rest within two hits each. He smashed the rest of the supply shipments and went back to Callicrates.
Callicrates now told him to speak to Pylades, as he was impressed with the task accomplishment and wanted mortal hero to meet Keuthonymus, but only if Pylades approves of it first. Hero found Pylades quickly and asked. Pylades was being kinda boring and just told the mortal to head for the daemon war camp.
Hero dude did that. He walked through smelly salt flats, fighting some massive monsters that got on his way and finally reached the war camp. He saw a lonely machae standing not too far away and walked up to him. He then stood still and waited. Keuthonymus noticed him standing there and asked:
- “Hey, you’re the mortal hero? Hey I have something to ask you to do for me. There’s an envoy that will be passing by Vale of Mourning when you get there, he is delivering a message upstairs – for general Proseia.”
- “Killed her already.” Mortal said.
- “Oh. Well can you still stop the envoy?”
- “OK.” The mortal said and headed off.
He made his way through daemon war camp. He still hacked through everyone with ease. Keuthonymus saw him take down 3 empusas with ease and was impressed with his skill. However he got slightly jealous too, because he thought the mortal would want to take the throne of Hades from him. But he tried to concentrate on overthrowing Hades for now, as he was the one sitting on that throne at the moment. Who knows, maybe some oversized spider will kill the mortal whilst he’s done enough favours for him.
The mortal reached Vale of Mourning and at that second a group of daemons, together with a machae warlord appeared from behind some rocks. The machae warlord was the one holding a piece of parchment. Human thought that this is the messenger Keuthonymus was talking about and so charged in and took care of everyone within seconds. He then picked up the message and tried to read it. It had weird machaean symbols all over it and he couldn’t read it, so he headed back to Keuthonymus and to give him what he wanted.

Chapter 2 - The Resistance

Big news came into Hades underworld a couple of days ago, that Typhon has been defeated on top of Mount Olympus by some human. Everyone was shocked. However Hades was happy. Now that the big Titan was gone from the overworld and Hades’ brother Zeus stopped spying on it, Hades decided to assemble a massive army of daemons and to march it into the overworld where he can steal a lot of human souls to power his shrines and magical mechanisms, such as an ethereal toothbrush.

He began everything by cutting out the already dead humans’ souls from their supposed resting places. He bribed Charon to stop working the boat and to smash the only bridge linking the two banks of the river. Charon, the fool he is, tried to do so with his oar. It’d take him thousands of years. He also tried to bribe the judges to stop judging the souls, but they defied him, so he set up Cerberus in the Tower of Judgement to make sure that no-one passes through to the judges.

All the shades who were stuck in the Plains of Judgement and Erebus areas have gone annoyed and angry. Some were confused and scared about what’s going on. Others wanted to show their dissatisfaction out loud. They began forming armies and marching for the Tower of Judgement and Hades’ Palace. They formed a massive resistance.

Hades found out about the resistance quickly and so to stop them from ruining his plans, sent some portion of his daemon army to deal with them. That meant that he had to slightly delay his invasion on the overworld and to only send a few scouts to go topside and clean the coast.

The war between the resistance and the daemons has been going for a few days now and so far it wasn’t looking so good for the resistance. A lot of shades were getting killed. It was just a matter of time before Hades will march his army to the overworld. However one clever shade named Pylades had discovered the interesting mind of Keuthonymus. It all happened when the resistance were retreating from the battlefield and Pylades accidentally stumbled into a dead end. Packs of machae were behind them, but he couldn’t go back now. He could hear them approaching. He was waiting for his doom, until he saw one machae reach him. He was looking machae in the eyes with hatred and waiting for that one to stab him. However machae didn’t kill him, and instead went back and told the other machae that it was clear.

Pylades told the news to Callicrates – the leader of resistance, and both of them decided to utilise this rebellious machae for victory. That machae was indeed Keuthonymus. Keuthonymus knew that the arrival of resistance was a good chance to overthrow Hades. Even though at the moment they were weak, with his help they could triumph. And if not then he had to keep a low enough profile and wait for the next golden opportunity to overtake the throne of the underworld. It was the best of both worlds for him.

- “What’s next then?” Pylades asked Keuthonymus.
- “My machae brothers are escorting a caravan full of supplies that is heading for the daemon camp. Make sure that enough of the resistance will be there to intercept it.” Keuthonymus replied.
- “How many machae are delivering it?”
- “Not many. But they’re all Wardens, so make sure you have some solid fighters in the army. I was also given orders to send a message to a daemon general in the overworld. I am delaying it as much as I can, but I’ll have to send it eventually. I’ll wait until you guys deal with the caravan first and then send it. I’ll send the messengers along the same path, so it will be easy for you to come across them.”
- “Brilliant. Thanks Keuthonymus. Have you heard that apparently a mortal hero who killed Typhon has entered Hades?”
- “If that is true, then make sure you get his help. If he is strong enough to defeat Typhon, then I am sure he’ll be very useful for us. And then we will defeat Hades’ army and I WILL BE THE NEW RULER OF THE UNDERWORLD!!! Mwhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!...’
- “Err, Keuthonymus?”
- “Yes?”
- “Someone’s coming.”
- “Oh right, sorry. Go back to your friends and tell them to intervene with the caravan.”
- “OK, I will. Thanks for your help.”
And on this note, Pylades left Keuthonymus to go back to the central plaza of the City of Lost Souls. Keuthonymus headed back for the daemon war camp. Two other machae were on his way.
- “Who were you talking to?” one of them asked.
- “What are you on about?” Keuthonymus played it dumb.
- “I’m sure I’ve heard two voices.” That machae justified.
- “Nope, you must’ve heard someone’s agonising scream at a distance.”
- “Maybe so. Hey, you gonna come to the pub tonight and get smashed?”
- “Sorry fellas, I’ve got work to do.”
- “How come you are so committed to stopping the resistance?”
- “Because they are a menace and if I stop them then I might get promoted. I am sure this is what all of us want.”
- “I guess so.”
And at this stage, the two machae left him and kept on scouting around the area. Keuthonymus went back to the daemon war camp, getting ready to send that message for the daemon general in the overworld.

Chapter 1 - The Machae

Machae are very interesting daemons of the underworld. They are very skilled in combat and battle tactics. They all are male, for female equivalent of that are melinoe. Sometimes groups of machae and melinoe hang around with each other and get drunk. But more about that later.

Anyone, human or daemon alike, could become a machae, but for that they must take up a machae course. First part of the course is basic training of the black arts. It lasts 3 years. Within those three years the student of Machaemany obtains a distinct machaean appearance. Machaean appearance includes grey skin, especially the face, where any hair is lost and the eyes sink deeper into the skull where they are protected during combat, the muscles harden, genitals shrink, and some areas of the body form a gem-like structure which represents a pool of dark magic. Those body structures glow and that glow is so strange that it looks a bit like a flame. The colour of the glow varies depending on the job of that machae. The field machae, i.e. those roaming about the streets and fields of Hades have that of purple colour. They are the most common type. The ones guarding Tower of Judgement have the glow of green colour, and those defending Hades’ palace have that of red colour. The Tower and Palace machae are those who have achieved more than average within their years of training and so they are quickly picked out to guard the two most valuable places of Hades’ underworld.

Once a being has achieved the first rank of machae they are to choose one of two main paths of their speciality: the path of melee and the path of archery. The second rank of machae is achieved after about 8-10 years of training and that rank depends on the path. The archery machae become Masters, while melee machae become Wardens. Since machae are hunters, the only two types of weapons they should use are spears and bows. With this in mind Wardens only use spears, whereas n00b machae who haven’t achieved rank 2 in melee school are those who still use hammers and swords. The next rank are Grandmasters and High Wardens in archery and melee schools respectively. These machae are truly tough and committed to what they do, and to achieve this rank requires further 9-12 years of training. Ranks 2 and 3 machae have also occasionally been sighted with a blue coloured gem-structures.

However there are even higher ranks. The next rank up are machae generals, and there are two different names for the generals of each of two schools. The melee generals are called Warlords, whereas archery generals are called Sentinels. However, even though generals are divided into schools, they are still required to have some basic knowledge of the other school. This proves the worthiness of their skills and intelligence in black arts. Generals are also required to be able to lead troops to victory. Because of such high requirements there is no scripted amount of further training required, it could be 1 year or could be 20 years.

The rarest and highest rank are Arch generals. They must have full knowledge of both schools. In history of machae, only three members have managed to achieve such peak. Their names are Dysnomion, Trophonios and Makaria, and all three serve Hades in his palace and command most of the troops. Because they are so good, Hades gave them power to never age, so that they can live forever and serve him for eternity unless slain in battle.

Study of Machaemany is the most interesting form of black arts in the underworld and many creatures dedicated their lives to studying them. One interesting character is Keuthonymus. He is a machae general of melee school. Although he is not an arch general, he studied some skills of black arts that no-one in the underworld other than Hades knows them. Keuthonymus had a very bright mind. Unlike many daemons, he was born a machae – meaning two machae brought him to this world rather than he transformed into a machae during training. Both of his parents were generals and so Keuthonymus had obtained all the best features of his parents. However, with all the knowledge that he had, he was a bit too big-headed at times and had a God complex. All his life he wanted to be an arch general, and to be the best one. But recently his hubris made him think that his knowledge in black arts can allow him to even overthrow Hades himself and to RULE THE UNDERWORLD FOR ALL ETERNITY!!! Such thoughts pleasured Keuthonymus beyond every pleasure in life. However being clever about it, he was waiting for the right time, as he knew that he only has one chance at it.