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.
Showing posts with label Pylades. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pylades. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 August 2009
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.
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 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!!!
- “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.
- “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.
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.
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