War Breaks Out, Titanomachy (7) Prelude
War Breaks Out, Titanomachy (7) Prelude
The Titans under Cronus tightened their internal solidarity—in part, Cronus's way of enforcing discipline.
The emergence of a new divinity called Zeus, his formidable feat of freeing those imprisoned in Tartarus, the fact that Gaia stood at his back. Just as Cronus himself had rebelled with Gaia's support, Zeus too had Gaia behind him.
Some began to wonder: just as Cronus had overthrown Uranus, could Zeus defeat Cronus?
Cronus scoffed at such speculation, but one existence roiled his temper like a loach muddying clear water.
Prometheus!
The seer had stood before Cronus and denounced him. He had prostrated himself, begging the cycle of immorality to end, but Cronus ignored him. That defiance ultimately led Prometheus to side with Zeus.
Among the Titan gods, especially those who knew of Prometheus's prophetic power, unease spread.
Prometheus chose Zeus? Then Zeus will win? Should we defect to Zeus too? Maybe Prometheus knew the outcome all along and slipped away first!
As these anxieties crept in, Cronus could not stand idle—he had to enforce discipline among his subordinate Titans. The first scapegoat—no, the first target—was Prometheus's younger sister, Epimetheus.
"Brother..."
The gray-haired woman clutched her spear and gazed up at Mount Olympus, where her own flesh and blood now stood.
Behind her, countless Titan gods stood armed and ready. To Epimetheus, Cronus could not possibly lose.
An overwhelming disparity in strength. Even though they were Cronus's own children, even though they had slipped from his grasp many times, they could never overcome his experience and battle-hardened skill. Cronus had been building his power against enemies since before they were born, and he was no toothless, senile old lion. So no matter how she reasoned, her brother's choice seemed wrong.
—You will lead the vanguard and capture him yourself. Fail, and I will regard you as a traitor, entangled with Prometheus.
Therefore, kin must set things right—family must take responsibility.
If Epimetheus personally captured and persuaded Prometheus, the seer whose insight rivaled Gaia's could be turned back to their side, and Zeus's faction's morale would crumble.
Thus.
"...prepare the advance."
Epimetheus would personally take up her spear and ascend Olympus. She would stand at the vanguard and swing her spear against those descending from above.
"Captain, something's strange ahead."
"What is it?"
"There's a wide stretch of water."
At her aide's words, Epimetheus scanned the front.
"...a river?"
A river lay ahead—neither short nor long, but wide enough that a human would need at least thirty paces to cross.
Plunk.
Epimetheus tossed a boulder the size of a human head into the river. Watching it sink, she pursed her lips.
"Quite... deep."
"It seems they dug this to hinder us. What do we do?"
"Hmm..."
Epimetheus stroked her chin and began thinking seriously.
"...What if, the moment we try to cross, water surges up from below and swallows us?"
"Shall we ask for a volunteer?"
"No, I'll go."
Epimetheus gripped her spear with both hands.
"I'll cross at full speed—everyone!"
With a vigorous shout, she kicked off the ground, sprinted, and just before hitting the water, planted her foot and launched herself into the air.
Thud.
She cleared the river in a single bound. Landing, she scanned her surroundings.
"...nothing strange."
Nothing attacked Epimetheus. Relieved, she pointed ahead and signaled.
"Cross over."
Tap. Tap.
One by one, the Titan gods on the other side leaped lightly across. Not a single one stepped foot into the water.
"I thought it might be a trap." Epimetheus let out a dry laugh and leveled her spear. "...If this is all it is, then it's nothing much."
Her eyes brimmed with confidence in victory.
* * *
The war had begun in earnest.
The enemy had reached the mountain's foot before I knew it. I waited, hoping the welcoming trick I'd laid on Olympus would work.
'Shit.'
Clearing a gap at least twenty meters wide in a single bound... are all Titan gods monsters?
'How does not a single one think to walk across the water?'
If even one had stepped in, the river would have swallowed them whole, just as Neptune had arranged. But they simply leaped over the moat. Faced with the overwhelming physical ability of the Titan race, my modern knowledge became utterly useless.
'Whenever you use modern cheats, they usually walk right into them like idiots.'
Did I just not get what you'd call a protagonist buff?
Hup-cha-!
Heui-ya-!
Kiyooooh!
The Titan gods cleared the moat with ridiculous ease. I'd expected them to cross, but they vaulted over like skipping stones—a single kick and they were airborne.
"Hell. Their bodies are ridiculously fit for no good reason. And look at them climb the mountain like they're dropping by the neighbor's house. Damn bastards."
They climbed so effortlessly it made me wonder if fortifying Olympus had served any purpose.
"Tch..."
The woman at the front was pretty, but every sweaty bastard behind her I'd wish would just disappear right now.
"Epimetheus. Prometheus's little sister."
Prometheus wasn't here.
—Lord Zeus, you will certainly be victorious. Therefore, I shall prepare for the next step.
Prometheus, certain of my victory, had already set to work on Olympus's internal affairs. My task now was to crush the Titan gods.
I wouldn't kill them. To begin with, neither we nor they could be killed—everyone here was immortal.
"So those bastards are immortal, you mean? No killing them."
"That's right. The Titan gods cannot die."
The Titan gods were immortal.
Had they been able to die, Gaia would have ordered Cronus to kill Uranus from the start. But because they couldn't be killed, Gaia ordered Cronus to cut off Uranus's genitals.
—I am the supreme god of this land!
—Yeah, next god without a cock.
—Sob.
It was social death, not physical: destroying his authority, grinding it into the dirt. Tearing down the enemy commander crushes the whole army's morale.
The same applied now. Just as I had ripped apart Cronus's authority, they were now trying to demolish mine.
Come out, Zeus!
Stop skulking like a coward and come out!
Hiding behind women's skirts and trembling—and you still call yourself a man!!
The Titan gods hurled their curses up at me from below. Booming voices from the mountain's base rose all the way to the peak of Olympus.
They didn't do any damage at all.
"The dog barks."
Hiding behind skirts? Since it's actually true, it doesn't sting at all.
'But that's only if I'm just an individual.'
If it stopped with me personally, I could ignore any insult. But if the group's leader's authority is wounded and he doesn't step forward, it's not just me ignoring it—the whole group takes the injury.
Zeus is Olympus; an insult to me becomes an insult to Olympus itself. And an insult to Olympus is an insult to all the women gathered here.
"I'll smash them all so thoroughly they'll never dream of messing with us again. Scheming doesn't suit my temperament anyway. I'll crush them head-on."
"Then can we go down now?!"
"Lord Zeus, how long must we keep waiting?"
The heavily armed Hecatoncheires were itching to descend the mountain at once and confront the Titan gods face-to-face.
Even though our Heraes numbered one hundred and fifty, the enemy force, at a rough glance, exceeded five hundred—no, a thousand. On the surface, the numerical inferiority was clear.
Cronus was absent, but we did not have the protection of Gaia. Forced to fight by Olympus's strength alone, it would clearly be difficult... but.
"Hold on just a little. We have the advantage."
I am here.
My sisters are here.
The Heraes are here.
"We'll break them head-on, but we must account for the repercussions that follow."
I tightened my grip on Astrape.
"When Cronus arrives, that's when we go all out. Until then, we need to conserve our strength for what comes next."
"To conserve our full strength, we'd need to fight efficiently. Do we really have that kind of leeway?"
"Of course, Metis. Any leeway we lack, we can create."
Leeway, in the end, was something you could make. And conveniently, the goddess who would lead this opening battle to victory had just arrived.
"Hades!"
"...You've come right on time."
Hades's voice echoed all around us. She was nowhere to be seen, yet her voice rang out right beside me.
"...That thing. The helm the Cyclopes sisters made." Metis instantly recognized the unseen Hades's presence.
"Right. The helm really didn't suit Hades's looks, so she transformed it into a veil."
Swoosh.
Hades appeared from thin air—more precisely, she unfastened the veil around her head, lifting her invisibility.
Kynee. A special treasure the Cyclopes sisters had made for Hades, along with my lightning mace Astrape and Neptune's trident Triaina. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a weapon. Unlike Neptune, a melee dealer who fought on the front lines, and Zeus, a ranged dealer who hurled lightning from afar, Hades—closer to a mage—was given armor that could conceal her presence.
"Are you ready, Hades?"
"Of course, brother."
Hades wrapped the Kynee around herself again.
"I'll steal away absolutely everything."
Hades's invisible hand—a hand fast enough to filch semen from my cock in the dead of night without my knowing.