The Flood of Life - (4)
After finishing his story, Zeus vanished in a streak of lightning. Only then did I call the gods who had been waiting outside my office.
Zeus has left. Everyone, come in.
Both Zeus and I knew that many of the gods were dying to eavesdrop on our conversation, but we paid them no mind. I had already blocked all sound from escaping the room using my divine power.
“Lord Hades, even after the great flood ends, will there be even more work…?”
“Did Lord Zeus give you any additional orders…?”
I calmly explained the situation to the anxious gods. That Zeus had sworn upon the River Styx he would never again sweep the surface world clean without consulting the Underworld first. And that during the great flood, he would dispatch the Goddess of Wisdom Athena and her attendants to assist us.
“Phew… That’s a relief amid all this misfortune.”
“I was already worried about the workload, but if it’s Lady Athena…”
The Underworld grew warm and harmonious once more. Sighs of relief echoed from every corner, and the gods dispersed with slightly brighter expressions.
There were three days left until the great flood would begin.
On the day of the great flood, the King of the Gods, Zeus, spoke in a solemn voice as he summoned the North Wind God Boreas, who possessed enormous wings.
“Boreas, from this moment on, do not stir up any winds. Stay inside Aeolus’s cave for nine days. I will hear no objections.”
“…As you command.”
Boreas entered the cave of Aeolus, the wind god who kept the winds imprisoned, and ceased all his duties. From then on, the rain clouds that would fill the sky would never scatter.
Next, the South Wind God Notus stood before Zeus. As the god who symbolized the warm southern winds and rain of summer, he always appeared soaking wet.
“Notus! Pour down rain as much as you like until I tell you to stop. It matters not if the mortal world is completely submerged.”
Notus, water dripping from his damp body and wings, obeyed Zeus’s command and touched the clouds in the sky. Soon, violent thunder roared and a torrential downpour began to hammer the earth.
Shaaaaaaa—
The Goddess of the Rainbow Iris, who had received Hera’s orders in advance, drew water from the Milky Way and added moisture to the clouds. The day those rain clouds finally dried would be the day Hera’s command was lifted.
“Hermes! Tell Poseidon that the time has come. Athena! Take the attendants you have pre-selected and descend to the Underworld to assist Hades.”
The messenger god Hermes, wearing light traveler’s clothes and carrying the Caduceus—a staff entwined by two snakes—flew swiftly toward the sea. As Zeus’s son, he was also the god of thieves and travelers.
“For the next nine days, any god who dares help the living out of personal sentiment had best prepare themselves!”
Flash— BOOOOM!
Finally, Zeus’s thunderous shout, infused with his full power, echoed throughout the Olympian palace. The many gods who heard it trembled in fear and dared not act rashly. The King of the Gods had decided to punish humanity—who would dare interfere?
Poseidon, having received the message from Zeus’s herald Hermes, raised enormous waves that overturned the surface world. Human villages along the coast sank to the ocean floor in an instant. Next, he gathered all the river gods.
The command the great Sea God gave the river gods was simple.
“Open every single floodgate and let the water flow as it pleases.”
Among them were river gods who cherished humans, but none dared defy Poseidon’s order and they opened the gates. All living things near the rivers were instantly sucked into the deep waters. Then Poseidon struck the earth with his Triaina. At that tremendous force, every waterway burst wide open.
A terrifying deluge engulfed the entire world. Human villages, temples, orchards, and fields were obliterated beyond recognition in the sudden catastrophe. Humans desperately crawled toward mountaintops in hopes of surviving the gods’ wrath.
“Zeus! Lord Zeus! Why are you doing this?!”
“I don’t want to go to the Underworld yet! What exactly did we do wrong?!”
“How many offerings have I given to Poseidon all this time…”
“Glub… glug… I still…”
Those who had barely escaped drowning felt a moment of relief, only to scream in despair as the world turned into an ocean. Weak, fragile humans would die after just a few days without food or water. The only ones smiling amid the great flood were the sea nymphs, the Nereids.
Not a single human survived the nine-day deluge.
By the time no land remained anywhere in the world, the Underworld was busier than ever before. An uncountable number of souls surged across the five rivers that formed the boundary between the living world and the dead, flooding into my fortress.
“Lord Hades! The area we set aside for the souls is already full…”
“Let me see… next to Elysion, huh? I’ll take care of it right away, so handle the overflow somewhere else for now.”
“Ferryman Charon’s boat has sunk! Souls are falling into the River Acheron!”
“Send a messenger to Goddess Lethe to rescue the souls and have her assist…”
Even with three bodies, I—Hades—would still have been short-handed. One hand reviewed the endless reports coming in from every corner of the Underworld written on parchment, while the other busily exercised my authority across the entire realm to judge, assign, and sentence souls. My eyes darted everywhere, overseeing the whole Underworld, and my mouth was growing dry from constantly answering the messengers’ reports—when the news I had been waiting for finally arrived.
“Goddess Athena has arrived with the attendants from Olympus…”
“Send the attendants to Styx outside and tell Athena to come straight here. Hurry!”
Soon, Athena entered my office wearing full battle armor and carrying her spear. She saluted respectfully.
“I greet the Lord of the Underworld, my great-uncle Hades…”
“You’re here? Then sit down and start working immediately.”
I glanced at her briefly before turning my gaze back to the mountain of scrolls. Naturally, I immediately shoved half of the workload piled all the way to the ceiling over to her desk.
“Um… this is…?”
“You won’t need your war divinity for paperwork, so take that armor off already.”
True to her nature as the goddess of war, wisdom, and civilization, Athena seemed to have already foreseen what her future held. With a bitter smile, she awkwardly removed her armor and sat down across from me.
From outside the office came the constant shouting of various gods, the hurried footsteps of souls, and a ceaseless murmur of noise. Fortunately, the Goddess of Wisdom had joined the war against the mountain of documents. We were sure to achieve victory.
Athena, who had been buried so deeply in the parchment piles that her face was barely visible, cautiously spoke up after a while.
“Great-uncle, if you would lend me your name, I have a way to overcome this crisis.”
“If it’s a suggestion from the Goddess of Wisdom, I won’t lose anything by it. Proceed.”
After her rather suspicious remark, I saw her doing something, but I was too swamped with work to pay it any attention. After enough time had passed for Charon’s boat to be destroyed four or five more times…
“Lord Hades! The God of War Ares has arrived at the River Acheron!”
Athena, who met my eyes, gave me a wise smile from between the piles of parchment. A moment later, a handsome, muscular male god entered the office with a cheerful grin. It was Ares, son of Zeus and Hera, the God of War.
“Great-uncle Hades! Where is this massive war I’m supposed to join…?”
“Good. As a god of military affairs, you should be decent at command, right? From now on, you will guide the souls crossing the River Styx and send them here properly.”
“…Excuse me? What are you talking about? I’m sure Athena over there said…”
Listening to a bewildered Ares, the situation was truly ridiculous. Athena had sent him a letter while he was lazing about, claiming that if he came to the Underworld now, he could participate in an enormous war on a massive scale. She had even sworn upon my name that her words were true. So even though he had felt suspicious, he had believed her and rushed over.
But we were short on manpower. I had no reason to care about his circumstances.
“…Athenaaaa! You tricked me again!”
“I only said you could participate in the war against the mountain of administrative work here in the Underworld. Is there a problem?”
The screaming Ares was suddenly grabbed by a lesser god who appeared behind him and dragged away. To be precise, he couldn’t resist because I was watching with both eyes wide open.
At last, the long nine-day great flood came to an end. The gods of the Underworld could finally rest a little. Just as everyone was about to drink some nectar, another message arrived from Olympus.
“Prometheus’s son Deucalion has survived the great flood and wishes to revive humanity. Lord Hades, please allow the souls to reincarnate…”
So the prophet Prometheus had told his own son about the flood in advance. That was how he had been able to build an ark and save his life. But… he wanted to use souls to recreate humans right away?
I focused my eyes and ears on the surface for a moment and heard Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha talking.
“Hmm… Darling, Lord Zeus’s oracle says… if we wish to revive humanity, we must throw the bones of our great mother over our shoulders.”
“O gods! We cannot commit such a heinous sin! Please withdraw your oracle…”
“Wait a moment. Perhaps ‘mother’ refers to the earth, and ‘bones’ means stones?”
“Ah…! That could be it!”
When I saw them starting to pick up stones from the ground, I immediately shouted at the gods to quickly select souls for reincarnation and send them up to the surface.
“Damn it! The work still isn’t over?!”
“Hypnos! Goddess Lethe collapsed—what are you doing putting her to sleep?!”
“I didn’t put her to sleep! She just passed out from exhaustion!”
“Hurry up and sort the souls!”
The Underworld, which had been regaining a bit of peace, instantly turned into pandemonium again. Meanwhile on the surface, Deucalion and his wife threw stones that transformed into human shapes.
“Huh…? The stones turned into human forms, but why aren’t they moving?”
“Hmm, let’s wait a little longer. The gods must be busy.”
“Souls, move faster! It’s time to reincarnate!”
“Did you properly classify the sinners?”
“Send them to the living world in order!”
The souls emerging from the underworld slipped into the human forms under the gods’ guidance. Only then did Deucalion and Pyrrha breathe sighs of relief and begin throwing stones with abandon.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thududuk. Thud.
The stones fell endlessly onto the earth and successfully became humans, but the gods of the underworld were the ones exploding with frustration.
“Damn it! Can’t they throw them a little slower?!”
“What’s the rush?! Why are they hurling stones like that?!”
The Underworld was busy again today.