“Get down in 3… 2…” Seraxus shouted out to his warn down party members whom were spread about the dark circular chamber in the lowest depths of the Temple of Hatred. The four remaining party members Hajax, Zuon, Seraxus and Renault all went prone on their stomachs as the countdown ended silently, and as it did, a blastwave of dark black and purple energy shot out from a gray-scaled snake-like humanoid who stood in the center of the room wielding a giant jagged black sword with glowing red runes on it.

The shockwave passed over them just barely, giving Renault a chance to see in his party interface the already dead Gambit, and everyone else was running low on mana and health. Hajax struggled to use his remaining mana to heal up Seraxus who was in the front by himself, using all of his floating weapons to great effect in order to parry the powerful swings of the [Boss] labeled enemy before them. Each swing of his sword released a force of wind that made it hard to stand.

They were now all now level 42, with Seraxus being the exception at level 45, and his livestream viewership was sitting at 13 000, as many people tuned in to see the fresh high level content, but the battle against the boss had been going on for quite some time now, the boss now in his enraged state.

“He’s almost finished, just a bit more!” Renault shouted encouragingly as he and Zuon shot back up to their feet. Zuon, no longer wielding a simple bow, but instead a bow harp, strung the strings on the harp as he fired his arrow, playing music alongside the shot which echoed off the walls, enhancing the arrow with a pink glow.

“Songshot!” Zuon shouted out, his exhaustion audible in his voice. The impact of the arrow on the boss released a blast of pink energy which the light slowly reformed itself into glowing music notes which imprinted themselves on random parts of the bosses body.

“Aim for the notes for bonus damage, Renault!” Seraxus shouted. Renault nodded, lifted his staff up and formed a barrage of 12 tiny fireballs above his head. Once they finished forming, he waved his hand and they all shot forward and swarmed around the boss, hitting it from multiple directions while carefully aiming to not hit Seraxus.

“Firestorm!” Renault shouted out. As the bolts impacted the glowing music notes, the fireballs exploded and caused the notes to create secondary explosions of pink light. All of the explosions collectively released a shockwave that pushed Seraxus away from the boss as a puff of gray smoke enveloped him.

The Avatar of Hatred [Boss] has been Slain!

The pop up on their screens was a huge relief, as the creature let out a final horrendous howl before crumbling into dust, leaving a few pieces of loot and a bag of coins behind as the dust settled, alongside the large black sword he had been wielding.

“Hell yeah, how you like them apples, baby!” Seraxus shouted out, clearly addressing his audience now as he began giving them a speech. At this point, Renault, Hajax and Zuon had grown accustomed to just ignoring his monologue and the three huddled together, breathing heavily and covered in sweat - their armor and robes dented and torn respectively.

“Damn that thing was tough.” Hajax commented.

“That was definitely the guy for the quest. We’re finally done with this place.” Renault said with relief as he wiped sweat off his forehead.

“What is the deal with this place and all this stuff anyway? That thing seemed way harder than anything we fought so far. And this place was insanely hard to get to. You’re a Sage right? You know about all this lore shit, don’t you?” Zuon asked as he glanced around the chamber. There were sigils, runes, and other strange markings carved into the various pillars and walls of the room but it was difficult to see it all in the darkness.

“Lemme see what I can find out.” Renault grinned excitedly before waving his staff to turn it into a giant glowing orb of white light, illuminating the chamber so that the markings on the walls could be much more clearly seen.

“That guy gets way too excited about this lore stuff.” Zuon mumbled as he watched the look of excitement on Renault’s face as he ran to the nearest wall filled with symbols. The two then glanced over to see Seraxus was already circling around the pile of loot drops that had fallen, asking his audience to vote on what the stats of the sword would have before picking it up.

Renault used several of his sage skills to translate and identify the markings on the walls. The difficulty of translating and understanding them was high, it took a lot of effort on his part to understand the meaning of them beyond what his class skills would do for him on their own, gaining experience for them along the way, but eventually he began to weave together a story, one of ominous apocalyptic foretellings. By the time he’d understood the meaning of the symbols and the purpose of the chamber, he’d spotted his party members ready to start picking up the items from the boss.

“W-wait, stop! Don’t touch the sword!” Renault shouted to them with a look of serious concern.

“Huh? Why not, what’s wrong?” Zuon asked.

“We figured you wouldn’t mind if Seraxus took it, since he’s the sword user of the group.” Hajax replied.

“Is it cursed or something?” Seraxus asked with a look of excitement rather than fear.

“We-well, not exactly. According to this chamber, the person who wields that sword becomes the Avatar of Hatred. That last avatar took the sword to seal it here and prevent its power from escaping, he was actually once a Paladin of a light deity. The markings were made by him, he said the sword should stay sealed down here.” Renault commented with absolute seriousness. Naively, he thought his words would dissuade his friends from wanting the sword, but in actual fact they all beamed with excitement.

“Are you kidding me? This sword is freaking badass!” Seraxus shouted with excitement as he picked it up and equipped it instantly. Immediately upon equipping it, a black mist swirled out of the blade and wrapped itself around Seraxus, releasing a low swooshing sound before falling silent, all of them staring in amazement.

“What the heck kind of item does that? Has anyone ever seen something like that before?” Seraxus shouted with glee, half to his party and half to his audience.

“Wait stop, aren’t you worried about what the symbols say?” Renault warned.

“Oh c’mon Renault I know you love all that lore PvE stuff but, it’s really just a badass sword isn’t it?” Seraxus reassured him.

“Y-yeah… I guess.” Renault shrugged reluctantly.

“So what’s it do?” Zuon asked as they watched Seraxus fidget around in his inventory to see the stats of the sword.

“Well, it’s damage isn’t that great, better than my longsword but not by much.” Seraxus said as he held the black blade in one hand and his old longsword in the other, comparing them for a moment before causing his longsword to vanish into his inventory.

“Huh, it says that once I have this sword equipped, if I am killed even once, the sword will abandon me. That sounds a bit sketchy.” Seraxus read the item description outloud to his party and his audience.

“That’s a part of the curse I bet. I told you it was bad news.” Renault interjected.

“Hah, if any of you guys want this sword, I dare you to try taking it from me.” Seraxus challenged his audience with a grin.

“No one’s gonna be dumb enough to mess with us after watching that boss fight.” Zuon bragged while putting his hands on his waist.

“C’mon what else? It’s gonna have some crazy effect if that's the downside!” Hajax shouted.

“It says here that it captures the souls of those that it defeats, empowering its effects permanently. Each player’s soul it consumes increases its damage by 1 and my defense by 1, and for NPC’s it's 0.01. But it doesn’t work on evil aligned NPCs. Oh, the NPC bonus is doubled for good aligned NPCs. I can only consume another player’s soul once… and, yadda yadda, buncha stuff about unrevivable and debuffs to players and NPCs when I have their souls in the sword. Yo holy shit this thing is insanely OP It’s got 1% Lifesteal too! It says it’s an Artifact! Is this the world's first artifact anyone has ever found yet?” Seraxus shouted excitedly to his audience that now sat at 20 000 viewers.

“Are you kidding Seraxus? That thing is awful! It wants you to kill players and good NPCs so it gets stronger!” Renault protested.

“Relax lore nerd, it’s just a game. Imagine how high I could get this thing to scale?” Seraxus said with joy.

“We’re gonna be unstoppable yo!” Hajax and Zuon seemed to have joined in on the excitement.

“But, you’re not going to just go around and start killing city guards and stuff right? That’s gonna get us marked as red players, with bounties, and everything!” Renault spoke anxiously.

“Hah, chill, I’m not that stupid, we’ll just farm other players outside the safe zones to beef this thing up. Where’s everyone grinding these days?” Seraxus asked his audience and his party members.

“Mount Jitari is where the level 20’s and 30’s have been gathering.” Zuon replied enthusiastically.

“Alright boys, let’s take this thing out for a spin.” Seraxus nodded to his audience before motioning to Renault. “Renault, hook us up with a port to the Jitari base camp.” Seraxus ordered him, and his three party members looked at him with eager smiles. Renault hesitated, staring back at them from a moment.

“What’s wrong, you don’t have that portal location?” Hajax asked, confused for a moment.

“N-no, that’s not it. I got it. It’s just… we’re level 40’s, intermediate. Those guys grinding are all gonna still be beginners, isn’t that a bit mean?” Renault asked.

“I’m not gonna camp ‘em or anything. The sword only works once per player, just gotta beef it up. Don’t blame me, the game developers made the sword.” Seraxus shrugged.

“Yeah if they didn’t want players to kill each other, they wouldn’t have added PvP tournaments, or swords like this.” Zuon replied.

“But, that means you’re the Avatar of Hatred, y’know? That turns you into a bad guy.” Renault commented, to which Seraxus let out a long sigh.

“You right, you right… but it’s about the people, aint it? Let’s do a poll in the chat right now boys. Should we ditch the sword and be the good guys? Or keep it and be the Avatar of Hatred.” He said with a low growl, aiming his words at his audience. With this voting poll, a glimmer of hope shined in Renault’s eyes, surely the now 30 000 people wouldn’t want to see him and his friends running around killing lower level players, right?

The poll ended after 5 minutes, with a resounding 90% of the viewers voting in favor of keeping the sword.

“The people have spoken, I am now the AVATAR of HATRED!” Seraxus shouted out in the deepest, most evil voice he could muster, followed by a lighthearted laugh. “So, Renault, hit us with that portal will ya?” Renault still hesitated for a moment.

“It’s just a game Renault, c’mon. This makes for cool lore too, doesn’t it?” Hajax pleaded with him while gently putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Y-yeah, I guess.” Renault gave in to the peer pressure, as several blue runes formed around his hand. Moments later a portal opened to a small village built at the base of a towering rocky mountain in the distance. “Here’s the base camp of Mount Jitari.” Renault motioned them, and Seraxus and Hajax quickly stepped through.

“Let the hatred flow!” Seraxus shouted excitedly, his voice muffled now for Renault as he was on the other side of the portal.

“You comin’?” Zuon asked.

“Nah… you guys won’t need my help anyway. I’ll hang back for Gambit when he respawns so I can portal him.” Renault replied.

“Oh, right, good thinking, Gambit’s gonna want a piece of the action. Here -” Zuon thrusted an old leather coin pouch from the boss into Renault’s hands. “Your share of the loot.” Zuon replied before stepping through the portal. Renault maintained it for a few seconds, looking through the rift in space to see his friends under the bright clear sky, charging out of the village towards the mountains in the distance.

2 Weeks Later...

Renault strolled through Pellagrove, traveling over the log bridges as he made his way down to the market levels of the village. It was much quieter than it had ever been, hardly any other players were wandering around which was quite the change from the previous weeks.

“Yeah, I started in Puagas…” Renault overheard another player talking into his party interface in the village center, as he himself was perusing the books of a traveling merchant’s stand, looking for any texts he hadn’t gained Sage experience from yet.

“What do you mean I should restart now, what's wrong with Puagas?” The person continued, Renault unable to hear the other side of his conversation.

“Buncha PKers? C’mon it can’t be that bad… Really? Alright, alright, I’m deleting my char. I’ll restart somewhere else. Nah I’m still just level 1 it’s all good.” The player replied, then quickly disappeared from the world due to logging out. After buying a few books, Renault began making his way back to the upper levels, not before being approached by a few lonely desperate players looking for people to party with. With being a Sage, Renault could see that most of the players were carrying the debuff ‘Mark of Hatred.’ He’d seen it more and more since Seraxus began his hunt, it was a mark that their soul had been consumed by the sword, and imposed a -1% to all stats penalty permanently while their soul was still consumed by it.

Eventually he arrived back at Taeyal’s house on the upper levels where Beetzart was already eagerly awaiting him, Taeyal shaking her head disapprovingly as he ran toward the fence of the garden to get Renault’s attention.

“Renault, yo, check it out little man, it’s working! Check it!” Beetzart grinned while motioning to a row of various spinning and jingling plants that seemed to be set up in odd batches, almost like an orchestra.

“Whatcha got now?” Renault couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm.

“Using these farming skills, tend, growth boost, fertilize, pollinate, when I use em all at the right time… just listen, its great…” He started tapping his foot to a rhythm and began whispering his skill usage as his hands began to glow green and he aimed his farming skills at the plants in a very specific order.

The first notes hit like a truck to Renault’s ears, catching him completely off guard, the beginning of Beethoven’s 5th symphony could be heard clearly ringing from a set of flowers, then, moments later, several other plants began to hum and jingle in unison to join in as Beetzard waved his hands around wildly to keep the musical plant’s sounds in sync. He didn’t get very far into the song before he let out a puff of air and had to stop.

“Aaand,” He gasped for breath. “That’s it for my mana, that’s all I can get so far. So, pretty good huh?”

“Seriously Gramps? That was incredible! It sounds a bit different than the original but it still sounds good!”

“I enjoy it very much.” Taeyal smiled encouragingly at him.

“I still got a bit of leveling up to do if I want the whole song, but, I’m gettin there.”

“Y’know, if you wanted to play music, there’s a bard class for it right? They can play pretty much any instrument.” Renault replied. “One of my friends is even playing one, he could show you a bit about it.”

“Nah, instruments are something I already did when I was younger. This is like combining my love of gardening with my love of music, it’s perfect isn’t it? It’s like mixing together the beauty of visual art, and the beauty of musical art.” Beetzart spoke proudly while looking fondly over his flowers, and as he did he could see Taeyal gazing at him dreamily.

“I guess, but if you’re gonna go that far, why not make your own song for it?” Renault suggested. Beetzard paused for a moment as his eyes went wide, as if hit by revelation.

“Y-you’re right, that’s a gre-” He froze mid sentence, like a statue. A mere moment after he did, Taeyal lost interest and turned to go back to Gardening, as if he wasn’t there - despite this he was still frozen in place for a few seconds before he disappeared from the game world.

“Huh?” Renault’s eyebrows went up as he looked around confused. He checked his friends list to see that Beetzart had logged out of the game. He was about to log out himself to see what was going on, but before he could, Beetzart re-appeared in front of him.

“Huh, damn Simbox. Old thing just made me log out for no good reason.” Beetzart said dismissively.

“That’s weird, something wrong with the backup power supply? That happened to me once.” Renault suggested.

“Yeah, that must be it. Gonna have to have one of those Simbox guys come check it out. I’m no good with these things. Anyway… about that idea. Writing a flower song… I like it. Imma get started right away.” Beetzart said as he turned from Renault and towards the tiny house.

“R-right. I’m looking forward to hearing it!”

“Well it’s not gonna happen in a day. I gotta plan this out. Should be done after your next quest with your friends. Speaking of ‘em, you haven’t been doing any quests with them lately, you guys alright?” Beetzart paused in the frame of the open door to hear the answer.

“Huh? Y-yeah, they’re just… doing some sidequests…” Renault replied dismissively.