Chapter 100: Typhon (12)
After experiencing one defeat and one victory, the members of Olympus had grown noticeably tougher.
Above all, everyone now knew that Typhon had suffered wounds so severe he could barely stand. Still, their worries had not completely vanished.
“Sigh… It’s good that the soldiers’ morale is up, but a new enemy named Eurymedon has appeared.”
—Yeah, that’s true. Even Lord Poseidon admitted he’s strong.
—So we have to fight Eurymedon on top of Typhon now?
—We’re screwed…
—Come on, what’s there to be afraid of? We have Lord Poseidon with us.
—Tsk tsk. That’s true, but no one knows how long someone who isn’t even fully healed can keep fighting for us.
—You’ve got a point…
At Artemis’s lament, the surrounding gods nodded and voiced their own opinions.
Though each opinion differed, they all agreed on one thing: the emergence of Eurymedon was giving every god a massive headache.
Eventually, unable to watch the commotion any longer, Athena had no choice but to step forward. If things continued like this, it wouldn’t be the soldiers’ morale that collapsed; it would be the gods’.
“Ahem… Everyone, there is no need to worry. Yes, he is indeed a formidable enemy, but we will not have to risk our lives against him right away. Even if that fool charges in blindly, this war is already as good as won by us.”
Athena’s sudden declaration instantly drew the attention of the noisy gods. Yet no one properly understood what she meant and simply stared at her in confusion.
(While inwardly thinking, “Who could possibly understand when you cut off both the front and back of the explanation like that?”)
***
The same was true even for the central gods of Olympus.
“Hmm… I don’t get it. Eurymedon, was it? That guy was definitely a terrifying powerhouse. He absolutely qualifies as a new enemy. And saying we’ve already won the war feels way too premature to me.”
“I agree with Apollo. If there are more Gigantes besides him, we’re still at a clear disadvantage—no change there.”
Athena nodded at the words of Apollo and Hephaestus, then looked around at everyone staring at her and nodded again.
It was only natural for them to think that way, since they still didn’t know the plans she and Hera had drawn up.
So Athena sent a telepathic message to Hera.
Only the two of them knew the full framework of the war plan.
—Lady Hera, may I reveal the plan now?
—…Yes, at this point they need to know. Go ahead and tell them.
“Good. Your anxieties and concerns are perfectly reasonable. However, I want you all to understand that everything happening right now is, to a certain extent, proceeding according to plan.”
“What?!”
“Sister, what do you mean by that?”
“…”
“Damn it! So you’ve been moving us around like chess pieces again with another plan only you knew about?!”
“I’m disappointed. You didn’t even tell me.”
In order: Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite voiced their complaints, but Athena didn’t bat an eye and calmly began explaining the original plan.
“Please direct your grievances to Lady Hera and me later. The original plan was as follows.”
“…”
***
The plan devised by Athena and Hera began with the sealed gates that Hestia was guarding.
In terms of pure military strength, Olympus was overwhelmingly inferior to Typhon.
“Lady Hera, with our current forces we cannot defeat Typhon and his army. No matter how many times I run the calculations, there’s no solution.”
“Yes… that’s exactly what I’ve been worrying about. It was the same during the Titanomachy; in the end, Zeus alone could not drive out the Titans.”
“Then…”
“We would need at least Poseidon or Hades to make a move…”
Olympus was not stupid. The moment Typhon stole the automatonic technology, everyone could see as clear as day that their side had fallen far behind in military power.
Even Hephaestus had limits to how many golems he could produce. It was impossible to fill every gap in their troops and overall military strength with his automatons alone.
That meant, in the end, they Hades and Poseidon had to be dragged into this war somehow.
Poseidon could at least be negotiated with, but Hades was considered flat-out impossible. No, the best they could hope for was that he wouldn’t stab them in the back.
In fact, during his meeting with Eurynome, Hades had even threatened that he was keeping open the possibility of siding with Typhon.
“…What are we going to do?”
While Hera and Athena were agonizing over this, they caught sight of Aphrodite’s son Eros strolling by, playfully carrying his arrows.
At that sight, a single idea flashed through both their minds at once.
“Lady Hera!
Yes! You thought of it too!
***
And so Hades was struck by Eros’s golden arrow.
As a result, his already-existing desire for children was magnified to an extreme, leading him to abduct Persephone.
“Ehhh~ Why didn’t Lord Hades fall in love like he was supposed to?”
Eros grumbled as he watched, but Athena and Hera ignored the boy’s whining.
They could feel that things were twisting far more than they had planned.
“…Abducting Persephone was an unforeseen variable. And using the Gigantes and Typhon’s subordinates to do it, no less.”
“This is a bit…”
Ignoring Eros’s complaints, Athena and Hera were flustered. How could they have known Hades already had feelings for Persephone?
From the beginning, Hera knew that a single golden arrow wouldn’t make Hades fall in love in the usual sense.
Among the three great gods, Hades was the one least interested in love and the most coldly rational. Even Poseidon, who often played with Eros, had shown no dramatic change after being shot by a golden arrow.
(Though apparently on the days he was shot, he did give flowers to his wives more often.)
“Above all, all we needed was to temporarily divert Hades’s attention to another goddess…”
Hera pondered the unexpected development. Would this ultimately benefit Olympus? Or would it become a massive liability?
But then…
“No, actually—this might be for the best. The aftershocks of the war will reach the surface anyway. It wouldn’t be bad for Demeter to be down there in the aftermath. Once everything is over, I can just apologize to her later.”
“But Persephone’s safety—!”
“Don’t worry. Persephone has the thing Poseidon gave her.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll leave the cleanup to Zeus. Let’s focus on our own tasks. I’ll drop a subtle hint to Demeter. Zeus will be in a bit of trouble, but that’s something a king has to endure.”
In the end, even if the surface suffered heavy damage, everything had gone far better than expected. With Hestia’s and Poseidon’s permission, they had slightly loosened the seals on certain gates, and they had kept Dionysus on standby in case of emergencies.
In short, every contingency they had prepared so far was working perfectly.
“The fact that Lord Poseidon was living among humans, Lord Zeus’s defeat, Tiamat’s appearance, and the Gigantes turning out even stronger than anticipated—those were unexpected variables. But at the very least, nearly all of the underground maneuvering up to this point has been our victory.”
“…”
The gods of Olympus fell silent before the far more ruthless and terrifying machinations of Athena and Hera than they had ever imagined.
‘They carried out plans that could have caused a far greater catastrophe with just the slightest misstep…’
‘…as if it were nothing?’
‘And they casually weakened the seals on things imprisoned across the three realms—who’s going to deal with the consequences…?’
‘If the sea or the underworld ever finds out about this…’
More than the fact that every piece had fallen perfectly into place, the gods were terrified by how boldly—how fearlessly—the two women had executed it all.
***
There were no more variables left.
Typhon’s grievous wounds and the enormous mess his side had created were now slowly strangling them.
To be precise, all the secret preparations they had made before the war had begun were now flowing in a direction that harmed themselves instead.
Their fatal mistake may ultimately have been losing the battle of wits against Athena and Hera, and betting everything on Typhon’s absolute victory.
“Lady Clotho, is this truly the fate of our commander?”
Eurymedon sighed and looked at the eldest of the three Moirae sisters standing before him.
The Moirae had never been allies nor enemies; they were beings who always remained perfectly neutral.
“Our role is only to weave fate. What becomes of it in the end is up to you.”
“As big sister says. But we do not yet see Typhon’s thread of life coming to an end.”
“Even for us, it was impossible to foresee that an immortal being and Zeus’s arch-nemesis would be reduced to this state.”
Eurymedon, now leading the army in place of the fallen and recovering Typhon, let out another sigh at the answers from Lachesis and Atropos.
In the end, it meant that all the things Typhon had set in motion had woven this very fate.
‘So we must prepare ourselves as well. According to reports, Zeus has fully revived…’
“Moirae goddesses, as a child of Gaia I propose a transaction.”
At Eurymedon’s words, Clotho, the eldest who spins the thread of fate, replied,
“If the transaction is just under the oath between Lady Gaia and Lady Nyx, we shall accept it.”
With her ever-expressionless face, Clotho spoke. Eurymedon steeled himself and declared,
“I desire the fruit the Moirae sisters personally cultivate—the one that allows escape from fate ‘just once.’ In exchange, until the loom you weave begins to move again, we will undertake no action whatsoever.”
At Eurymedon’s proclamation, everyone present except the Moirae cried out in shock.
—That’s absurd!
—That’s far too much, Commander!
—Do you really think Typhon eating that fruit will let him defeat Zeus, huh?
Though an uproar erupted, Eurymedon paid it no mind.
‘Now is the time to bow our heads. Keeping Typhon alive and preserving our forces comes first.’
Eurymedon was certain: they did not yet possess the strength to face all three realms at once.
Therefore… even if this became a self-inflicted wound, they had no choice but to swallow it.
***
News of Zeus’s resurrection quickly reached Olympus as well.
Thanks to that, the already sky-high morale soared even higher as Poseidon drove Typhon’s forces back.
With Poseidon, the newly returned Zeus, and even the new god Dionysus who had rescued Zeus himself, their victory now felt inevitable.
“Our victory is assured!”
“All that’s left is to drive out those wicked beings and everything will be over!”
“Let us raise a toast to victory!!”
The news of Zeus’s revival was enough to momentarily loosen even the tension of Athena and Hera, showing just how certain Olympus now was of triumph.
At that very moment,
Poseidon, unlike the others, was meeting with three goddesses.
“What brings you here, sisters Moirae?”
Poseidon greeted them warmly; it had been a long time.
Normally the goddesses of fate were not welcomed anywhere, but Poseidon was different.
‘Aside from the Protogenoi of Greek myth, they’re practically absolute beings I’d be a fool not to stay on good terms with them.’
Whether the Moirae knew his thoughts or not, they smiled, a stark contrast to their demeanor with Eurymedon.
“Hehe, it’s been so long I almost forgot your faces.”
“Has it really been since the Charybdis incident?”
“Sigh… Please do something about Charybdis. Big sister Clotho thinks she’s cute and lets it slide, but that girl has stolen my shears more than once or twice, you know!”
“…So, why exactly are you here?”
“…”
_____________________________________________
TL Note:
Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for early access:
- Plus Tier: 7 chapters/week
- Premium Tier: 9 chapters/week
For this novel specifically, check the collection under “Poseidon's Chronicle”
Link: https://www.patreon.com/cw/Vritratls?utm_source=search
Binge-read ready:
Plus Tier → 40 chapters available
Premium Tier → 83 chapters available
Also, All my other novels are included in the Premium tier—no extra payment needed!
Your support keeps the chapters coming—thank you so much! ❤️
_____________________________________________