Pantheon Online

Chapter 303 Rise of the True Gods (Part 1)

303 Rise of the True Gods (Part 1)

A few days later, a fan of Ragnarok sat on a chat site for Pantheon Online. Concern grew in his mind as he read through the latest chat thread.

What's going on in Pantheon Online?

-Yo, does anyone know what's been going on in the game? It's been crazy lately!

-Yeah, the Redfist Pantheon was annihilated by a single player! Even their leader, who was Tier 2!

-That's insane! -Totally!

-Yeah, but what about what happened in Elvahen? The Eldens' country? A new Pantheon was created, and they started a massacre! Everyone's saying they're trying to wipe out every Pantheon there!

-Damn! That's hardcore!

-I saw that! Apparently, several teams are going to band together to fight them!

-That fight will be epic!

-Hoho, you peasants know nothing! There are super powerful low Tier players appearing in the game now. If you watch enough streams, you'll notice they're doing something strange. I'm thinking the game has been hacked!

-No way!

-You're full of it!

-I'm telling you the truth!

-The hell?! You mean...the entire game is being manipulated?! How can someone do this? Are we playing against bots? No way! We could never beat these guys at this rate.

-You idiot! You can't even remember your own name...you just want to believe any bullshit anyone tells you! Don't forget how we ended up losing that fight because you decided to retreat instead of fighting to win, fool!

-Shut your face, you jerk! It's true, isn't it? It looked like she cast an attack spell and she couldn't move afterwards! Her entire body froze stiff and she dropped dead instantly. Look, it's right here on Redfist's stream! Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me! Everyone knows that other newbie did something to her!

-How are we supposed to trust something you say?! There's no way those weird new players are actually going out there attacking each other! They're probably using cheats or something similar! I've seen plenty of people playing this game complain about getting killed by things they never encountered before. There's no reason why everyone has to jump on the bandwagon without trying anything themselves first.

-I'm telling you the truth! She wasn't killed with magic! Then there was that group of kids we ran into yesterday! Those kids were all terrified! But when they saw us coming at them, one girl raised a hand, and all hell broke loose. She didn't use fire, instead, she threw ice shards everywhere at lightning speed. They came at us from impossible angles! That little brat made our whole team useless! We could barely even dodge her attacks as we ran away from her. All six of my men died after taking too many hits. The four guys from another team who went along with it were a bit lucky though, two escaped with minor wounds, but the others got ripped apart while running away. It's only because their leader fought back so fiercely that we survived.

-Are you seriously saying that children beat your entire team? You must have been drunk for sure!

-They weren't that strong! Our leader took care of that brat before we escaped, and that kid said his other friends had already defeated five other players and he would take care of us all when he respawned! How can you defeat someone if they're stronger than you and you don't know what's going on? If he was telling the truth then he's pretty powerful! -And it looks like you're not willing to do anything to find out more about what they did to beat you guys. Let me give you some advice: Don't believe everything you hear. It'll be some kind of trick. You just need to figure it out, and you'll be able to defeat them.

Colt leaned forward in the chair, furrowing his brow. "Why am I getting messages about this?"

Mike sighed from the chair on the opposite side of his brother's desk. "We can't ignore these chat room screenshots we keep getting sent. Something massive is going on in the game, and I can't plan to counter it without the details. Why won't you tell me what happened to you? I've seen the streams, but I think you know more than what it shows."

Colt glanced up at Mike and nodded sadly before continuing. "I lost, Mike. That's all there is to it. All I can say is these people are players we need to avoid." he muttered quietly with a troubled expression as he remembered his fateful meeting with Mikijah. His eyes darted away as he continued talking. "And apparently, rumours are spreading through the chat rooms about the Skardian Pantheons trying to find the guy who beat me..."

"Damn it, Colt!" Mike barked. He stood and started pacing back and forth, muttering to himself while tapping his chin thoughtfully.

Colt groaned and rubbed his face wearily. He sat silently for several minutes while his younger brother paced back and forth, deep in thought. Finally, he spoke again. "Sorry, I can't say more than that right now. I wasn't planning on talking about it at all. The last thing I want to do right now is talk about that. I still haven't decided whether or not to take down these players ourselves when the time is right."

"Yeah, you're right. It's probably better to wait," replied Mike as his eyes narrowed while studying Colt's expression. 'There's more to this, but something is stopping him from talking about it. I'll need to go over this conversation later, and see what the hidden truth is.'

"There's one other problem, though. They're all pretty damn strong. And the way they're using their spells, I have no doubt they have other hidden abilities. But I'm afraid of how strong they might be and if we could even survive a direct confrontation."

'Sorry, Mike. This is the best I can do to clue you in. Paul won't forgive me if I give you all the details right now. Your smart enough to figure out from this that we're dealing with something new. Something completely unexpected.' Colt sighed as Mike raised his eyebrows.