The thief lurked quietly through the corridor toward the large metal safe and began to carefully pick the lock. Had he taken a moment to consider his current situation he might have realized that it had all been far to easy. The fact that he had seen neither hide nor tail of Cerberus, Hades' relentless three headed guard dog, should have made him uneasy. His mind, however, was fully occupied with thoughts of the vast fortune that he had been promised in exchange for raiding Hades' magical armory.

with a click the vault door opened and the thief began place the items in his sack. Just as he was placing the last item, a metallic purple glove, into his sack, he realized something. Each and every one of these items was worth far more than the fortune he had been offered. With these twelve items even Hades would not be able to stand in his way.

His greedy thoughts, however, were suddenly interrupted by a sharp pain in his hand. The glove that he had been holding had somehow come to life and driven its claws into his flesh. He felt his body become stiff as pain coursed through his body. Suddenly he heard laughter behind him. He turned painfully to see a blond young man standing behind him and realized with terror that he had been watching the entire time. Despite his pleasant appearance the man had an air of death about him that would have made the thief shrink back in fear if he could still move. Suddenly the thief noticed a slightly older and even more terrifying man with raven colored hair walking towards them followed by a large black three headed dog. He recognized this second man as Hades, the lord of the underworld.

"Thanatos!!!" shouted Hades, startling the blond man who quickly turned and bowed his head. "Why have you not captured the thief yet". "My apologies Lord Hades", stuttered Thanatos. "This wave of thieves is the most exciting thing to happen here in centuries. I wanted to see how long he could last".

"Fool!!!" Hades cried. "The other thieves were all eaten before we could question them. I locked Cerberus up so that we could finally capture one and find out who has been sending them and now you've let him die". "What's the big deal" argued Thanatos. "It's probably just another one of Hermes' pranks". "Nay" Hades responded. "Hermes would never employ such incompetents. His thieves are honorless but they have pride in their work."

While listening to this conversation the thief had begun to shake uncontrollably and his skin had turned a light shade of blue. He realized with a start that he was dying. Despite this he was not worried. His master had given him a spell that would save him from death no matter what danger he was facing so long as he had the twelve items of Hades nearby. With great effort he raised his left hand with the demonic purple glove still clinging to it and began to recite the incantation. Hearing his voice for the first time, the two gods ceased their conversation and turned to look at the thief. After a moment of listening the expression on Hades' face changed from a look of mild curiosity to one of extreme urgency. He rushed forward and lifted the thief by his throat constraining his vocal cords. Unfortunately, it was already too late. The incantation was over and the thief watched with joy as the purple glove disappeared. His joy receded, however, when he realized that the pain was still increasing. Hades considered questioning the thief but saw that there was no point. He released his grip on the man's neck and the thief died before his body hit the floor.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Viral's Gauntlet vanished" Thanatos cried. "Not just the gauntlet" Hades replied, glancing at the now empty sack. "It appears we have been outsmarted. That spell was designed to scatter those twelve items across the overworld". "What do we do now" Thanatos cried frantically. "We're sitting ducks".

"Calm down Thanatos" Hades replied calmly. "It's not as though we rely on those things much anyway. God's aren't allowed to fight directly with each other anymore and none of the demons in my army are good at using them. Things have changed since the days of heroes and monsters. To be honest even our wars have gotten fairly dull after demigods were banned. Even so, I'd rather not leave those things in the overworld too long. Who knows what kind of chaos they might cause if some idiotic humans found them".

"That'd be a disaster" Thanatos agreed.

"I'm glad I ordered you to catalog and organize the vault a few decades ago. Otherwise there's no way that we could find out which specific items are missing." Hades said optimistically.

"Yeah...", Thanatos said before pausing nervously. "Wait did you say I was supposed to do that..?"

"Thanatos!!!" Hades yelled angrily. "You're kidding me right? You had one job. One thing to do in the last century and you blew it off."

"Hey that's not true." Thanatos interrupted. "I've done plenty of things in the last century. There was that thing with the Wiccans. That makes two things. And I'm also responsible for feeding Cerberus on fridays... Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's like three more things a week."

As if on cue a large rumbling sound emanated from the guard dogs stomach. "So that's why he's been getting thinner" Hades muttered.

"It's not my fault" Thanatos pleaded. "It's those humans. In the past century they've invented television, video games, and high fructose corn syrup. How am I supposed to work with all those distractions."

"Just shut up Thanatos." Hades said with an exasperated sigh.

"Yes Sir" Thanatos replied