The Fall of Typhon
The peak of Mount Olympus, high above the drifting clouds, in the divine palace of the gods.
Typhon lounged at an angle, savoring his victory, when he began to find Cadmus’s prolonged absence strange. He had promised the human a goddess in exchange for playing the lyre for him. Surely the man hadn’t run away? But no mortal would refuse a reward like bedding a goddess. Perhaps this was one of Zeus’s schemes.
After a moment’s thought, Typhon decided to summon his monstrous subordinate Delphyne and order her to drag the insolent human back. That is, if it weren’t for the countless divine presences approaching from the distance.
“Are those worthless minions coming to challenge me again?”
No matter how many of the fleeing gods banded together, it would be—
“Typhon! I have returned!”
Zeus, standing atop a black cloud and wielding the Astraphe? His sinews had definitely been severed… That damnable human!
As Typhon hurriedly rose, black clouds gathered above his head and unleashed a ferocious barrage of lightning.
Flash— CRACKLE-BOOM!
“GRAAAAAAGH!”
It hurt. It hurt far too much. His entire body felt as if it were being scorched. Had lightning ever burned like this before? Typhon ground his teeth at the sheer power of Zeus’s bolts. When he had ambushed Olympus, they had not been this devastating. It was all because of that strange fruit the accursed Moirai had given him!
“I will no longer be caught off guard. Let us settle once and for all who deserves the throne of the King of Gods!”
With his stolen sinews restored, destructive blue lightning crackled around Zeus’s hands, radiating overwhelming might. A thunderous war cry erupted from his lips as the Astraphe was hurled once more.
“GRAAAAAAGH!”
Typhon refused to stay idle. As the god of storms, he summoned gales fierce enough to topple even the tallest mountains, devastating everything in their path. Zeus’s lightning was painful, but it was not yet enough to kill a weakened Typhon outright. A colossal hand wreathed in howling winds shot toward Zeus with lethal speed. If he could seize the King of Gods and crush him—
‘If I can subdue Zeus, the rest are nothing.’
Just as that thought crossed Typhon’s mind, a sweet voice reached his ears.
“Hey, could you look over here for a moment?”
It was a small, faint voice from the ground below. Yet its irresistible allure momentarily scattered Typhon’s focus, drawing his gaze downward. There stood a gorgeously adorned beauty—Aphrodite—smiling brightly as she met his eyes.
The hand that had been reaching out lost all momentum under the full power of the Goddess of Beauty’s charm.
“Zeus! You don’t mind if Mount Olympus gets a little damaged, right?”
“Stop talking and move, Poseidon!”
“Then I won’t hold back!”
The blue-haired sea god raised his trident high and slammed it into the earth with all his strength. As the masterpiece of the three Cyclopes, the Triaina’s power activated. The ground shook violently, and the entire mountain trembled.
“O Earth, quake. Reveal your depths to me.”
Demeter placed her hand upon the ground, her voice icy and resolute. The earthquake, bolstered by the Goddess of Agriculture, caused the earth to split at random, hindering Typhon’s movements and destroying his balance.
Next came Hestia’s warmth, which gently enveloped the gods, followed by the fierce flames that erupted from Hephaestus’s hammer, the god of fire and blacksmithing, incinerating everything in sight. Trees were hurled about like dust in the storm, and the ground itself exploded in the clash of the gods. Mount Olympus was gradually losing its original shape.
Some distance away from Mount Olympus, the cities of mortals were struck by catastrophe.
Flash— CRACKLE-BOOM!
Thunder continued to roar from the sky while violent earthquakes shook the land. Buildings collapsed and storms raged. People cried out to the gods in terror.
“Aaaagh! O Zeus! What sin have we committed?!”
“This earthquake must be Poseidon’s punishment! Did we offer the proper tributes to the sea in time?!”
“Kyaaa! Save us!”
Rumble—
People desperately fled the city, yet some still knelt in the temples of the Olympian gods, praying that whichever deity heard them would calm their wrath.
CRACKLE-BOOM!
Thunder and storms raged once more, toppling yet more buildings.
“This… this is wrong. The gods would never punish us like this!”
A priestess of Demeter living in the city clearly sensed the abnormality. The disasters that had already struck—thunder and lightning, torrential rains, earthquakes, and ferocious gales—were powers no single god should possess. And yet destroying this city would require only one god’s strength.
“Could it be… that the gods are fighting among themselves?”
The mortals soon realized the truth. What they were experiencing was merely the aftermath of that battle—the crumbs that fell while the gods ate bread, the sparks that flew while they mined metal. The true catastrophe was unfolding atop Mount Olympus.
“Ahahahahaha! War! It is war!”
Red divine power surged from Ares like a storm. The divine horses pulling his prized chariot snorted fiercely as they galloped through the air. The God of War laughed maniacally as he charged forward. His target was the monster’s face. It didn’t matter if his attacks failed to wound it. Unlike the previous battle, where he had only smelled defeat, this time he could sense the melody of victory drawing near.
“You… you insignificant worm!”
Typhon, relentlessly battered by the combined assault of the gods, roared in fury and swung his arms wildly. Once again, horrific scars of destruction were carved across the world. Ares’s valiantly charging chariot was shattered, and he was sent flying, slamming into the mountain.
“Ares!”
Even the leisurely drifting clouds were scattered, and the stars in the sky climbed higher in fear of Typhon. The horses pulling Helios’s sun chariot neighed in panic and fled upward. In the gradually darkening sky, Zeus’s lightning and Hephaestus’s flames illuminated the world.
CRACKLE-BOOOOOM!
“GRAAAAAAGH!”
Once again, blue thunder struck Typhon’s body, sending up plumes of smoke and delivering excruciating pain. As he howled in agony, shining arrows pierced him in rapid succession.
“I’ll aim for the right eye. You take the left!”
“Our next prey is quite the big one, Brother.”
The God of the Sun, Apollo, and the Goddess of the Moon, Artemis. The twin children of Zeus and Leto each loosed arrows infused with the power of the sun and moon. As children of the King of Gods and the Titaness Leto, both possessed the divinity of archery and were peerless marksmen. Their arrows never missed.
Then came the blazing flames of the blacksmith god wrapping around Typhon’s body, followed by the heavily armored Goddess of Wisdom striking the monster’s ankle. The coordinated assault of the Olympian gods continued without pause…
“If not for the meddling of those Moirai bastards, these fools would have fallen long ago!”
Yet the monster still stood strong. Victory clearly favored the Olympians, but Typhon was the ultimate weapon Gaia had poured her entire being into creating. He might grow tired and wounded, but he would not fall easily.
Watching Typhon remain defiant despite the endless battle, the God of the Sea grew impatient and prepared to unleash his full power. If he dragged the beast into the deepest ocean and drowned it, even an immortal monster would—
“Ugh. That damn monster… Rise, waves…”
“Poseidon! If you summon waves that reach the land, all the humans there will die!”
Hestia urgently stopped Poseidon as he tried to call forth a massive tsunami to crush Typhon. Since victory already leaned toward the Olympians, there was no need to sacrifice the lives on the surface.
“Then how long are we supposed to keep fighting like this…”
“Just wait a little longer! A variable will appear soon!”
Athena shouted while dodging Typhon’s kick, but Poseidon only let out a frustrated groan. Typhon, like the gods, was immortal. Judging by his ability to command raging winds, he clearly possessed the divinity of storms. Although the three Fates had tricked and weakened him, only Zeus and Poseidon could inflict meaningful damage. His incredible regenerative ability allowed him to instantly heal any wound that wasn’t delivered by the three chief gods.
“Kuhahaha! Except for those two, the rest of you are nothing but—Ghk!”
As Typhon lightly deflected Hera’s attack and sneered, a pitch-black, ominous slash flew toward him. He hastily raised his arm to block it, but golden blood—ichor—flowed from the wound, splattering across the ground. The injury was far weaker than one from Zeus, yet comparable to a direct hit from Poseidon’s trident.
Startled by this new variable on the battlefield, Typhon turned his head toward the direction the slash had come from. A black-haired god approached from a short distance away, radiating a chilling killing intent. He wore a worn, shabby helmet and carried a massive scythe in his hand.
“…Hades!”
“Uncle has succeeded. Now that monster’s end has come.”
That scythe was the very one Typhon had stolen from Zeus and hidden away—the Scythe! An adamantine weapon of supreme power, it posed a threat even to Typhon.
“I am Hades, one of the three gods who rule the world and the King of the Underworld. Hear my verdict, monster.”
The grim-looking god continued speaking as he lifted the helmet above his head.
“You shall be cast into Tartarus for all eternity.”
The moment the King of the Underworld fully donned the helmet, Typhon vanished completely from his sight—faster than even Hermes, the swiftest of Olympus, could perceive.