Prophet Prometheus (4)
I returned straight to the Underworld and handed the necklace I’d borrowed from Pandora back to her, then summoned every god who lived here. The news that they had all received a prophecy from Prometheus made them drop whatever they were doing and rush over. Even the perpetually overworked God of Death, Thanatos, was visibly hurrying for once.
Once everyone had gathered in my office, I brought up the subject of Prometheus’s prophecy.
“...No matter how well we prepare, we’ll still get hit by Gaia’s strike, he said.”
“It’s a fixed future, so we can’t change it...”
“What worries me is just how painful that strike is going to be for us.”
“Wouldn’t it make sense to at least station extra guards at the most critical locations in advance?”
“Styx. That won’t work. Any attempt to avoid the prophecy will only...”
The moment someone spoke, the office erupted into a chaotic din. If this were Olympus under the iron authority of the King of the Gods, Zeus, things would never get this rowdy. But the Underworld was different. Aside from the fact that I held final decision-making power and that I respected the ancient elder gods who had lived for eons, everyone here was more or less equal and free to voice their opinions.
In the early days after the Underworld’s creation, it hadn’t been like this. The stiff, rigid atmosphere had bothered me, so through persistent effort I had shaped this more horizontal environment…
“Hades?! Why are you just standing there?”
“Did Prometheus say something else?”
“Snap out of it, Hades! I’m the one who’s exhausted here!”
“Lord Thanatos… perhaps another cup of Nectar?”
“Ah. My apologies, everyone… I was lost in thought for a moment.”
…Startling. At some point they had all stopped talking and were simply staring at my mouth. I pulled myself together and relayed the rest of what Prometheus had told me.
After that blow falls,
If the world of the living and the realm of the dead are joined as one,
The gods shall claim victory.
“How exactly are we supposed to connect the living world and the Underworld?”
“The instructions are far too vague. How much, in what way, where?”
“I honestly can’t make sense of it either…”
“Does it mean we have to turn the entire world upside down before we can win?”
Even if the massive loss we would suffer could not be avoided, the question of how connecting the two realms would lead to victory… My head was starting to ache. While every god in the room was racking their brains to interpret the prophecy, the quiet voice of the Goddess of Forgetfulness, who had been staring blankly into space, drifted over.
“Hades, couldn’t we take our time thinking about that particular problem?”
“Lady Lethe?”
“Don’t we have a grace period until Gaia actually lands her blow? We don’t have to connect the living world and the Underworld right away, do we?”
She was right. Prometheus had indeed said that after we suffered heavy losses from Gaia’s attack, connecting the two realms would…
“It’s not like he’s telling us to mobilize the entire Underworld army and march on the surface…”
“Of course that can’t be what the prophecy—”
“Should we check how large a force we can currently muster in the Underworld?”
“...Were there any other prophecies, Hades?”
I stopped Morpheus before he could run off to tally our military strength and was still pondering the prophecy when Hypnos, who had been sitting with his arms crossed, asked me a question.
“Ah… now that you mention it, Prometheus also said something else…”
Hades, my friend, you’d do well to keep your lower half a little more… open! Clclcl!
…What on earth was he trying to say? That sounded like the sort of thing he’d say to Zeus, not me. Then again, telling me to keep my lower half “open”…
“That hack of a prophet…”
“What was that, Hades?”
“What else did Prometheus say?”
Both Styx and Lethe were watching me with eyes full of curiosity. I met the innocent gazes of the two goddesses for a moment before giving a suitably vague answer.
“...It was nothing. He was simply playing a prank on me.”
“That does sound like something Prometheus would do.”
“Always cackling with that sly little smirk of his.”
…Why did I feel like I had done something wrong?
The atmosphere in the room had grown strangely awkward when a lesser god entered the office.
“Lord Hades, the messenger you sent to Olympus has returned.”
“What did they say?”
Since Prometheus’s prophecy naturally concerned Olympus as well, I had sent a messenger ahead of time to bring back their official response.
“Yes. They said that because no amount of preparation can prevent the blow from Gaia mentioned in the prophecy, they will maintain the current situation.”
“That’s the rational choice. There’s no way to avoid a prophecy even if you try.”
If we concentrated our forces to defend one place, Gaia would simply strike somewhere else. Even if that somewhere else was the heart of Olympus itself.
“According to Lady Athena, the losses we suffer from Gaia’s attack will create the necessity for the two worlds to be connected.”
“The necessity to link the Underworld and the living world?”
“Does that mean all the humans are going to die?”
“We could ask Hermes to send us regular reports…”
“At the moment, it’s impossible to guess.”
“Could it involve the Omphalos stone that Demeter is currently using?”
Whatever the case, it was not something we needed to worry about right now. Trying to prepare countermeasures to avoid the prophecy might end up causing it to come true instead.
“I think we should end the meeting here. However, it would be wise to continue communicating closely with Olympus as we have been.”
That was enough for today. To win, we had to connect the Underworld and the living world… I was about to dismiss the gods when Lady Mnemosyne called out to me.
“Hades, I’ve been told a newly born god has been assigned to the Underworld.”
“To the Underworld? No one forced this on them, did they?”
“I’m not sure about the details… The news came from Olympus…”
There were many ways for a new god to be born. A mortal who accomplished great deeds and earned the recognition of the gods could ascend to Olympus. Children born to two divine parents would grow rapidly from birth. Mortals who were worshipped as gods after death could also ascend. In cases like Dionysus, a demigod who gained human faith could be elevated. There were countless other methods besides these… but until now, not a single newly born god had ever been assigned to the Underworld.
There were many reasons. First, the gods of the Underworld were too busy to have children. Second, the Underworld was a posting that most gods avoided like the plague. Even setting aside the fact that it was a dark, sunless realm devoid of the vitality of the living world…
“Oh ho, a new face after thousands… no, tens of thousands of years?”
“Our workload might finally lighten a little.”
“A new god… What should we have them do first? We should keep them inside the citadel so they don’t run away…”
“I’d appreciate it if they helped me reap souls.”
The Underworld had far too much work. Its reputation was so notorious that even Olympus knew about it—who would willingly come here? The fact that a new god had been assigned to the Underworld could only mean someone had been pressured into it, or that an ignorant god had volunteered without knowing any better.
“Then I will officially close the meeting. I’ll go meet this new god who has come to the Underworld, so the rest of you may return to your duties.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m already working…”
“Ahem. My apologies, Thanatos.”
Thanatos’s eyes were darting in every direction as if he were seeing hallucinations. Well, that was only natural. He had so many avatars active on the surface at any given time.
I sat upon the throne in the audience chamber inside the citadel and waited for the god who had been assigned to the Underworld. Just what kind of insane deity with bizarre tastes would actually want to work here?
With a slow creak, the massive doors of the audience chamber opened, revealing a man wearing winged sandals and carrying a staff entwined with two snakes—the messenger god, Hermes. He gave me an exaggerated bow, his face full of mischievous laughter.
That particular smile was one Hermes only showed when something amusing had happened…
“Greetings, Uncle! Hermes, messenger of all, at your service. Today I have brought you a new god!”
I’d thought you were the one coming to work here. So you personally escorted the new arrival? It was true that a newly born god might have difficulty finding the entrance to the Underworld on their own, and having the messenger god—who could freely cross the boundaries of the worlds—help was certainly convenient, but…
Tap. Tap. Hermes rapped on the now-closed audience chamber doors with a playful expression. As if that were a signal, I sensed a divine presence outside the doors begin to move.
Who could it be that he was going through all this theatrics? No matter how playful Hermes was, he had never done anything truly rude before…
With another creak the doors opened once more, and a beautiful goddess slowly entered. Bright, pale turquoise hair. A refreshing aura and a scent I felt like I had smelled many times before. That face…
“Mente? Why have you come to the Underworld?”
“E… hehe… U-um… Hello, Lord Hades.”
She was one of the Naiades who had served as a priestess in my temple in Thebes, the very nymph who had created the mint plant that had become my symbol—Mente. Wait… had Mente become a goddess?