Persephone's Peril
Near Mt. Etna, a group of beautiful nymphs and goddesses were playing ball. Among them was the goddess born to Demeter, the Earth Goddess, and Zeus, the King of the Gods.
"Kyahaha! Throw it over here!"
"Lady Kore, catching it with flowers is cheating!"
"So what? You can use your powers too!"
The goddess, who looked to be in her early twenties with radiant golden hair and striking beauty, spoke as if she were a living flower. "Haa... Mother really does see me as too weak."
"The Earth Goddess does?"
Her true name was Persephone. Her nickname was Kore.
"Yeah! Even if I go out to play for a little while, it's always 'watch out for monsters' or 'beware the Gigantes'... Ugh!"
"Lady Demeter must love you very much, Lady Kore."
While playing with the many nymphs as the Goddess of Spring and Seeds, Persephone suddenly tilted her head, a puzzled expression crossing her face.
"Hm? Can't you all hear that sound?"
"The birds singing?"
"I can hear the cool stream flowing through the forest..."
The other nymphs and lesser gods hadn't noticed, but as the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, she could feel it clearly—the intense vibrations rumbling from beneath the earth.
KUAAANG!
PUHWAAAK—
Suddenly, monsters with the lower bodies of serpents and the upper bodies of humans burst from the ground nearby. They were the Gigantes, the sworn enemies of the gods.
"Kyaaaaah! Monsters appeared out of nowhere!"
"G-Gigantes?!"
"Oh gods... Zeus, save us!"
The nymphs panicked at the sight of the massive, grotesque creatures. But there was no time to be shocked—more and more Gigantes kept erupting from the earth.
PUHWAK. KUGUGU...
The nymphs tried to flee in every direction, only to freeze in their tracks. Gigantes now surrounded them on all sides.
"Krahaha! Are these the gods' creations? They look quite delicious."
"That golden-haired one looks like a goddess—let's capture her!"
"Don't forget our real goal is to dig out our brother sealed beneath the mountain!"
"Then let's kill every witness and tear Mt. Etna apart, brothers!"
The nymphs trembled in terror at the monstrous conversation. Each Gigante was as powerful as a lesser god or a human hero. The only one who could possibly stand against them...
"Hah!"
PASSSSS—
"Kuhk! Kuhk! Poison?!"
"What is this? Cough... Is it a divine authority? Take down that goddess first..."
"Kuk...! The plants are binding us..."
Could it be that only a god could face them? Yellow pollen spread from Persephone's hand as she glared sharply, and the Gigantes couldn't hold back their coughing fits. Flowers and plants rapidly sprouted from the ground, entangling them.
"...Lady Kore!"
"Zeus, help us!"
This was the authority of the Spring Goddess. Though her power over spring and seeds wasn't suited for battle, Persephone's divine status was exceptionally high as the daughter of both Demeter and Zeus.
"Cough... There was a goddess who controls poison and plants?"
"Hah, but there's only one of her!"
"It's not poison, it's pollen, you monsters!"
Yet the Gigantes gathered here were no pushovers either. Even though Persephone's divinity ranked just below the Twelve Olympians, hundreds of Gigantes had appeared...
"Peloreos! Let's overturn Mt. Etna before Olympus notices!"
"Thoas, you worry too much."
"Kruh! Olympus? If those bastards come, I'll slaughter them all!"
"We should be careful—Zeus might see us. Pallas."
Four Gigantes commanders whose strength rivaled or nearly matched the Twelve Olympians. Persephone stood no chance of surviving.
KWAAAAANG!
While many Gigantes dug into Mt. Etna, the rest surrounded Persephone and the nymphs. The monsters approached with mocking smiles, clearly intending to toy with them first.
"Kruh. I want to hear you scream."
"Wh-what do we do... Kyaaah!"
"Save us! Lady Demeter! Aaaah!"
The nymphs around her were being devoured or torn apart by the Gigantes one by one. No matter how Persephone fought back, she was alone against overwhelming numbers.
"I'll take that goddess."
"Pallas. Keeping all the fun to yourself?"
"Uwahaha! If you have complaints, come at me too."
"Haa... Tch."
Persephone gritted her teeth and forced out what little divine power she had left. Even when she grew plants to obstruct them or hurled pollen and divine energy, the Gigante called Pallas was simply too strong—clearly comparable to the Twelve Olympians. And there were still three other Gigante commanders besides him. Even if her mother Demeter came personally...
She couldn't defeat all these monsters.
SEUWIG—
The Gigante in front of her loosened his grip and slowly approached. His serpentine lower body moved in a chilling manner as he pressed toward the goddess.
"Already giving up, goddess?"
"My father is Zeus, and my mother is the goddess Demeter! All of you will die a miserable death! I, Persephone, swear it!"
"Huh? What, a curse?"
Even a curse capable of destroying an entire city with a single word was useless. For the first time in her life, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter felt true helplessness.
The monster grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, now right in front of her face.
"Eek..."
But she couldn't resist at all. Her divine power was completely exhausted, and ichor flowed from her wounds, soaking the ground beneath her.
DUDUDUDU—
Born into the envied golden bloodline and living a life without want, she now faced death at the hands of this grotesque monster.
"You seem like a young goddess. Blame your fate."
HUUNG—
Just as Persephone squeezed her eyes shut to endure the coming pain, she felt a strange sensation at her side—then a large, masculine hand gently pulled her close.
'Huh?'
PUHWAK—
When Persephone cautiously opened her eyes, she saw the Gigante with its head burst open in a gruesome death... and the black-haired, black-eyed god who had pulled her onto his chariot.
"Are you alright?"
* * *
It didn't take long to realize who had saved her from certain death. The aura radiating from him far surpassed even her mother Demeter, one of the Twelve Olympians. Perhaps... it rivaled even Zeus, the King of the Gods. There was only one black-haired god she knew of who possessed such power.
'The Lord of the Underworld, Hades...'
At their comrade's death, the surrounding monsters charged all at once, but a two-pronged spear tore through the air from the god's hand and shot forward.
KWAAAAAANG!!!
A black beam of chilling energy sliced across space, and the Gigantes caught in the destructive black currents vanished as if evaporating.
CHCHCHCH...
HUUUUUNG—
The Gigantes recoiled in horror at the terrible destruction carved into the earth and the sky split in half by clouds.
"Huk... Huk!"
"Kwaaaah! What kind of god is that?!"
"This power...! Is it one of the Twelve Olympians? Ares? Hephaestus?"
"Nonsense! How could someone like this..."
With Persephone riding behind him, Hades urged his chariot forward once more. Gigantes, each at least equal to a lesser god, fell helplessly. The moment he swung his spear, it was invisible, and the serpent monsters' attacks couldn't even scratch him.
PUHIHIHING! PURURURUK!!!
The ghostly horses pulling the chariot trampled the Gigantes' lower bodies, and whenever a chilling black spear strike followed, monster corpses littered the ground without fail.
KWAJAJAJAK! PUHWAK—
"Kuuuuk!"
"Eurytos! Let's attack together!"
"You create an opening, Thoas!"
The Gigantes tried to hold him back to buy time to free Typhon's body. The three commanders Persephone had seen earlier all rushed in, surrounding the black-aura chariot.
Just as the Spring Goddess was about to cry out in alarm, a cold smile deepened on Hades' lips.
SEUK—
The two-pronged bident was thrust into the earth. A massive fissure spread outward, temporarily connecting the world of the living and the dead. The air grew heavy as black energy erupted from the ground.
What emerged from the bottomless rift were soldiers of the Underworld—translucent ghostly warriors wielding spears and swords, pouring forth endlessly.
"Damn it! That's Hades, the god of the Underworld!"
"Aaaah! Die!"
"Even if he's one of the Three Brothers, he's alone!"
"They're already dead, coming back to the living world!"
KWAJIK! KUUUUNG!
The Gigantes ripped up trees and swung their fists in resistance, but the Underworld soldiers multiplied beyond counting. An army of translucent dead, their numbers grown since the dawn of humanity, successfully sealed off the Gigantes trying to free Typhon.
"Peloreos! If we take down Hades, we win! Get it together!"
"For Mother Gaia!"
A diagonally swung spear strike extended into the sky and blew away another Gigante's upper body. No monster could regenerate when half its body was completely erased by the power of the Underworld.
"Take this!!!!"
Thoas brought a wooden club down toward Hades' head as he retrieved his spear from the chariot. The attack carried all his strength—power enough to shatter a mountain.
CHEEEEEEONG!
But the Lord of the Underworld drew a black longsword from his waist and blocked it effortlessly with one hand. The collision of immense forces produced a deafening roar that devastated the surroundings.
KUUUUUNG. KWAKWAKWANG!!!
Even in this chaos, Persephone riding behind Hades remained completely unharmed. And she realized that the Lord of the Underworld had never once allowed a single effective hit.
'He's toying with monsters each comparable to an Olympian god...'
The Twelve Olympians included Zeus and Poseidon, but they were grouped together with Hades as the Three Brothers. The rumor that even all Twelve Olympians combined couldn't defeat one of the Three Brothers—it was true.
Right after the battle began, one of the Gigante commanders, who had only now noticed the cold smile Hades had been wearing, charged forward in excitement.
"Damn it! Don't underestimate us, Hades!"
"Wait...! Eurytos!! Don't charge in recklessly..."
SEOGEOK— PUHWAK!
"Kwaaaah!"
But when the jet-black longsword flashed, both arms of the charging Gigante were severed. Eurytos, who had boldly rushed in, rolled across the ground spewing blood.
"Ugh... Uuu..."
"He's stronger than I thought...!"
Persephone had heard many rumors about the Lord of the Underworld. That he must look hideous and terrifying because he ruled the dead... Most of the rumors were ominous. As a young goddess who had never even attended an Olympian banquet, she had believed them. Even the humans' tales of him as a merciful god—she had thought they were just stories, since she had never seen him herself. It wasn't uncommon for humans to sublimate their fear into faith...
But now Persephone could see that all of it was wrong.
The gentleness with which he had softly embraced her waist to save her from danger. The strength comparable to her father Zeus. The meticulous care he showed in protecting her throughout the battle. And finally, his face—cold and handsome, nothing like the monstrous appearance she had imagined.
A small, entranced whisper escaped Persephone's lips.
"He's so cool..."