Chapter 89: Typhon (1)
Pan, who had returned from the Underworld with Hermes, ultimately succeeded in completing his mission.
“Impressive. Who would’ve thought Hades would take a step back—no, two steps back!”
Zeus showered Pan with praise at the unexpected good news.
To think Hades would allow Persephone to spend two-thirds of the year on the surface—and even agree to renegotiate after the war!
Zeus never imagined such a concession.
But despite Zeus’s enthusiastic praise, Pan and Hermes showed awkward smiles.
What they saw in the Underworld… was nothing like they had expected.
***
At the time Hermes and Pan arrived…
The Hades who greeted them looked even gloomier than usual—tired, heavy, almost defeated.
“So… you’re here about Persephone, I assume?”
Hermes and Pan stiffened.
This was not the attitude of the stubborn Lord of the Underworld they knew.
—What do we do?
—I don’t know, you speak first.
—Hermes! As one of the Twelve Gods, you should!
—It’s fine, I’m the god of thieves anyway.
As they whispered about who should talk—
Hades waved his hand dismissively.
“No need. Just take Persephone back. But since I am the one making concessions, listen carefully:
If Persephone agrees to bear my child, she may stay on the surface year-round.
If not, she may spend only two-thirds of the year above.
We will renegotiate the remaining terms later.”
Hermes and Pan froze mid-whisper.
What?
Hades, giving Zeus exactly what he wanted?
That should have been impossible.
Hades, seeing their shock, simply waved them off.
He had far too much weighing on his mind already—Persephone’s situation and the chaos spreading within his Underworld.
***
After they left
“Are you sure about this decision?” Charon asked quietly.
Hades sighed and replied:
“Charon… She still must spend one-third of the year here. Besides, at this rate, she won’t leave Nyx’s infernal domain anyway.”
“Haha… Poseidon really got you this time, didn’t he?”
“That damned creature… He remembered that offhand remark I made.”
Hades groaned, then continued:
“More importantly, what of the new disturbances?”
“Well… strange Underworld monsters we’ve never seen before are appearing everywhere. Likely… Lady Gaia or Lady Nyx lent a hand.”
“Gaia, undoubtedly. She hates Zeus.”
“That she does.”
“We must prepare as well. Since I tricked them, I don’t know how they’ll respond.”
“Yes, my lord.”
***
Meanwhile, Hermes and Pan flew straight to the location Hades indicated.
What greeted them was a field of dazzling, colorful flowers.
“Oho… This must be the Elysian Fields,” Pan exclaimed.
It was beautiful—mysterious—divine.
However, Hermes sensed something wrong.
Strange… the real Elysium has no Underworld aura at all.
Yet this place radiated a dense, unmistakable underworld energy.
While Hermes pondered—
Pan, without hesitation, bent down to pluck a flower.
Since I’m here, I might as well take one to plant in my garden…
It was a catastrophic mistake.
The Western Flower Garden of Nyx accepted no unworthy hands—ever.
It rejected intruders with absolute violence.
Suddenly—
“Gyaaahhh!!”
Hermes snapped out of his thoughts, startled by Pan’s agonized scream.
“Pan! What’s wrong?!”
He turned to see Pan being swallowed into the ground—ensnared by the massive vine of a monstrous flower.
“Oh gods—what did you touch?!”
Desperate, Hermes conjured dozens of magic circles to free him.
But—
They flickered out instantly, powerless.
“Wh—what?!”
Hermes panicked.
“This is impossible!!!”
“AAAAGH!! Hermes! Don’t just stand there—help me!!”
Pan was being dragged deeper and deeper into the ground,
And Hermes—panicking because his magic wouldn’t work—froze momentarily.
Step… step…
“Good grief. And here I was wondering who caused the ruckus… Hermes, it’s you?”
A voice laced with exasperation echoed as light footsteps approached.
“Persephone! Perfect timing! This flower’s gone crazy and is trying to eat Pan!”
“…Of course it is. He touched a Sura-Destruction-Malice Blossom.”
“A… a what?”
Persephone sighed at Hermes—who couldn’t even pronounce the name—
And at Pan, whose mouth was now covered by a vine so only his bulging eyes begged for help.
Then she gently tickled the monstrous flower wrapped around Pan.
“Sweetie, that one’s bad for you. It’s harmful if you eat it.”
After Persephone tickled the Sura-Destruction-Malice Blossom a few more times,
The flower recoiled, offended, and promptly spat Pan out.
Ptoo!
Pan rolled across the field like a discarded radish.
Persephone shook her head, then looked at Hermes calmly.
“So—you came to take me back, right?”
“…Yeah. Lady Demeter is devastated.”
Persephone nodded.
Of course her mother would be.
But something felt strange— The world above didn’t seem nearly as devastated as it should have been.
By her calculations, one-third of the world should already be desertified.
“Oh! That’s because there’s a human helping Lady Demeter. Very cheeky, ridiculously cheeky, actually.”
Persephone blinked.
Someone was comforting her mother?
Surprising— But she quickly stopped caring.
She had no intention of digging into her mother’s personal life.
She might end up with a younger sibling soon, but she didn’t want to know how.
“So what did Lord Hades say?”
“Oh! He said you can stay one-third of the year underground and two-thirds above. But if you give him a child, you can stay on the surface all year.”
“…As expected. I knew enduring long enough would work.”
“What?”
Hermes frowned.
Endured?
What was she talking about?
There’s no way she could have prevented Hades from touching her—
“Mm-hm. You guessed right. I barricaded myself here the whole time.”
“…Uh, wasn’t this part of Hades’s Underworld?”
Persephone looked at Hermes like he was an idiot.
A god—this dull?
“Feel it properly. How is this Hades’s domain?”
Hermes focused—and finally sensed it clearly.
“Wait— Is this… Lady Nyx’s?!”
“Yep. Uncle gave it to me.”
Hermes knew exactly who “Uncle” referred to.
He could only gasp.
Wow!!
Receiving even a fragment of Nyx’s hellscape was extraordinary—
And giving it to Persephone was on another level entirely.
“At this point, even if we inherited Zeus’s blood… Isn’t half the Olympian pantheon practically raised by Poseidon?”
Hermes shook his head in disbelief.
Contrary to public belief,
The majority of the powerful Olympian gods had indeed been raised—or trained—by Poseidon.
If outsiders saw this, they might call it Poseidon’s Olympus, not Zeus’s.
***
Just as Zeus hoped,
When Demeter heard news of Persephone, she happily opened her granary.
“Fine. Zeus actually made an effort, it seems. Tell him I will open the granary. And I acknowledge that Persephone will stay underground for now.”
“Uh… Lady Demeter, will you not return to Olympus? We still need you to discuss management of the surface—”
Though her anger seemed resolved, Demeter showed zero intention of returning.
Hermes awkwardly pressed on. Zeus greatly preferred that Demeter be on Olympus for the coming crisis.
“Tell Zeus this: ‘Go to hell.’”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Hermes did not ask further.
Well… I knew this would happen. I’m going to get yelled at the moment I go back…
***
By the time Hermes’s slumped shoulders faded from sight,
Demeter glanced sideways at the unusually quiet “Njord” and spoke.
“Very strange. I never locked my granary… yet it was locked.”
“……”
“And I wonder who would do such a thing.”
“……”
Demeter watched “Njord” maintain his silence and feigned ignorance.
Eventually, she let out a small laugh.
“Ah well… I should thank them anyway. If the granary had been open, Zeus—distracted by the coming war with Typhon— Would never have apologized or acted quickly for Persephone’s sake.”
Although Demeter expressed gratitude, Poseidon pretended not to know a thing.
If other gods learned he had sealed it himself,
Acting as a human later on would become complicated.
“Er… I don’t know the details, But whoever locked it surely meant well. I’m sure they’ll appreciate your praise.”
“Hmph. Very well—tell them the goddess thanks them.”
***
Now that Demeter’s granary was open,
The surface races received enough food to survive for some time.
Meanwhile, King Celeus and Queen Metanira had nearly completed every task Demeter had commanded.
And that was precisely when the signs of Typhon began to appear.
Demeter’s grief and wrath had dried the earth so thoroughly that the boundary between surface and underworld became faint.
Because of that, countless foul beings began pouring out.
Three winters struck consecutively.
A curse spread from the underworld to the surface—
Brothers killing brothers, fathers killing their children.
Helios’s sun chariot and Selene’s moon chariot halted.
With sun and moon gone, the stars vanished.
Under the pitch-black sky, the cracked and trembling earth split apart;
Mountains collapsed and forests died;
And all manner of sealed abominations burst forth.
Beings that had never existed in myth were suddenly given names—
Emerging one by one to battle the gods.
“Hahahahaha!! I shall slaughter the creatures of the surface first!”
Most of these beings had serpent bodies with human torsos—Twisted and monstrous.
Later, the gods would call them Gigantes.
They were not immortal like the gods,
But they were stronger,
Their hides tougher than ox leather,
Nearly impossible to pierce.
And being born of fire,
They did not tire—
Their flesh regenerated endlessly.
“Wow… Lady Gaia really went all-out.”
Even Poseidon, watching in his human guise, felt compelled to admire the spectacle.
It was clear why the prophecy demanded Heracles.
Without someone who could overpower these creatures individually,
The war would never end.
Demeter, hearing Njord’s murmured awe, also nodded.
Gaia had created beings that exceeded even her expectations.
“Njord, shouldn’t you return to your human place for now? My anger hasn’t fully faded, But I too must attend to the surface and then head to the battlefield. These beings are far more grotesque and powerful than predicted.”
Poseidon nodded.
“Do what you must. With the warding rites you spread, The other races won’t fall easily.”
And indeed, the surface tribes held the monsters back.
The Gigantes who climbed to the surface were not the strongest ones, Nor were they numerous—Most were strange beasts or spirits.
The true battlefield was the isolated warzone the Olympians had prepared.
On the surface, races used the techniques Demeter commanded them to spread,
Creating safe zones, striking and retreating,
Harassing the Gigantes effectively.
“Graaah!!! You rat-like pests!!”
“Hit-and-run! If it gets even slightly dangerous, retreat to the temple! Only fight from afar!”
Whenever Hephaestus’s siege weapons or magicians’ spells struck,
The Gigantes were forced to fall back.
Even mighty monsters could not ignore the occasional blow that actually harmed them.
And their own attacks were blocked by the temples’ divine wards—
Leaving them nothing to do but rage helplessly.
They were furious… and powerless.
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