Around fifteen minutes after the conversation with Ares ended, Hades could see an armored figure astride a black stallion entering the town square. The man dismounted, glancing around at the people in the square. Noticing Thanatos and Hades, he headed over to them. Confusion was visible on his face even through his plumed helmet as he glanced between the two. Finally, he turned towards Thanatos, making note of the clearly visible horns and tail. "Are you Hades?"
Hades snickered, holding up a hand to cover his mouth. "Incorrect. That would be me. But hi Ares. Glad to see you." Because Hades tended to choose very similar looking avatars for most of the games he played, he could understand why Ares thought Thanatos, with his horns and imposing figure, was him. Hades tended to use avatars that fit his username of Reaper.
Looking his elven form up and down, Ares put on hand on Hades' shoulder before speaking. "Bro, you look like one of those idols. If you weren't taller than me, I'd call you a wimpy pretty boy." Ares pulled off his helmet, holding it under one arm.
With a fierce grin Hades leaned closer to Ares, towering over him. For a split second, he let the amulet's disguise drop. With his pitch black eyes, dangerously sharp horns, and a pointed smile, his true form fully fit his friend's expectation for appearances.
Even though he was expecting something like it, Ares was still startled by the sudden change and jumped back with a yelp. "Holy mother of beelzebub! Frick, that nearly gave me a heart attack Bro!" He clutched his chest, faking being in pain. Suddenly he changed topics, gesturing to Thanatos. "Wait, who's the demon behind you then?"
Thanatos bowed gracefully, quickly introducing himself once he realized the man in armor was an acquaintance of his master. "I am Thanatos, a servant of Lord Hades." Ares introduced himself as well, though he didn't bow. "I'm Ares."
He turned to Hades, speaking in a whisper. "What class did you get to be able to have him on your side? I want a cool demon servant too." Hades chuckled softly. "Necromancer. Apparently demons are considered undead. Maybe because they are thought to reside in the underworld? I'm not really sure yet. I got lucky with my first summon. What class are you?"
Ares straightened up and held up one fist proudly. "Barbarian!" "That fits you well. But what do you want to do first?" Hades glanced around at the people in the town square. "Do you want to go hunt monsters, or find a quest maybe?"
Ares quickly opened his status window and tapped something on the screen. "Actually, I already got a quest we can do. Here, check it out." The quest menu appeared in front of Hades.
[Ares has shared a quest]
[Monster Hunt I]
[A farmer who lives on the outskirts of Etna Village is being plagued by monsters who attack his farm. He has requested you drive out the monsters, and offers an unknown reward in return.]
[Harpies driven out 0/3]
"Harpies, huh? Have you seen them yet?" Hades accepted the quest, then turned towards Ares. The armored man nodded once, turning serious. "It's pretty bad. Whenever the old farmer tries to go out to harvest his fields, the fricking harpies come to attack both him and the crops. He doesn't seem like a bad guy though, so I wonder why the harpies seem to have it out for him. The damn things don't seem to target any of the other farmers that are nearby."
And so the two friends, along with the addition of the demonic retainer, headed out of the village. They purchased horses with the money earned from hunting monsters previously, allowing them to travel faster than they would've on foot.
Along the way, Ares and Hades reminisced about their old adventurers together from various games. Each tale contained the names of people and places that Thanatos had never heard of, but he dared not bother the conversation between the two, and only rode beside them silently.
"Remember the time we first met? It was in Solace Online."
"Oh yeah! That was when I was attacked by those stupid twins."
"Stupid twins? Well, I suppose they didn't need to be too bright to trick you Ares."
"Hey! I take offense to that!"
(A/N: Anything marked with a '~' symbol is a flashback, or represents something that has happened in the past.)
~~~~~
Upon a tall mountaintop, two figures stood around a large bronze jar that was big enough to fit a man inside, laughter nearly bringing them to tears. "Hahaha! I can't believe you actually thought we were telling the truth." The two brothers, for they shared extremely similar features that marked them as twins, were laughing in glee at the unfortunate man trapped in the jar. Their usernames of Ephialtes and Otus were odd choices, since they sounded more like names than an actual username.
The trapped man, whose username was the rather ostentatious GodOfWar, swore angrily at the two, but could do nothing. The walls of the jar were strong enough such that it blocked all of his skills and abilities. All he could do was either wait for the time of the jar's abilities to run out, or wait for a kind soul to come help him out. "Just you wait! When I get out of here, I'm going to kick your fricking asses!"
He then went on to add a string of various curses and swears that, if it had to be put more politely, was equal to him comparing the twins to the waste produced by living beings, calling their mother a female dog, and his wishes for them to depart for the underworld. All in all, it was an impressively unending chain of insults.
Suddenly, the three were approached by a duo named Praecomors and Volucerdeo. The two were fairly famous for being the guild leaders of two of the top guilds in the game. Translated, their names meant Herald of Death and Winged God respectively.
The duo had been walking together, discussing a new event involving both of their guilds, when they came upon the odd situation.
The bronze jar was a capture item called the Pandora's Jar usually reserved for powerful monsters or bosses. Most players used it to restrain bosses during the boss raid events. The more powerful the player that used the Pandora's Jar was, the more durability and duration the jar would have.
Praecomors soon recognized the two figures outside of the jar as the infamous Player Killers, or PKers, known as The Twins. PKers were players who hunted down players instead of monsters, choosing to kill and steal from other people than find the powerful monsters that dropped the loot they wanted.
As if reading each other's minds, Praecomors stepped forward to draw the twins' attention while Volucerdeo quickly disappeared, activating a cloaking skill.
"Ephialtes, Otus, what a surprise." The guild leader's voice was strong and clear, no trace of hesitation in his eyes. "You two should know by now that I dislike players like you." Indeed, Praecomors harbored a dislike for player killers, and often even kicked out people from his guild who he found were PKers. Whenever he saw PKer incidents happening, he would step in, often defeating the PKers swiftly and cleanly.
"So what? Are you going to stop us?" The twins leered at the guild leader, with no sign of fear or hesitation. They were at a high enough level that even the top players of the game had to be wary of them. Together, they believed that they could easily take down Praecomors.
With a fierce grin, the herald of death held out one hand, calling forth his main weapon of choice, a gigantic scythe worthy of its name, the Eternal Death Scythe.
"Come, test your might against mine, if you dare!"