Fucking Humans Never Change (3) Project Pandora
Let me be clear—in Greece, no Titan cares more about humanity than I do.
Athena might come close, but even she stands on the same side as me now.
Extermination of humans—no, of these human wretches!
"These things aren't human!"
My idea of humanity is nothing like these creatures.
Plundering the weak, raping, enslaving, dividing people into ruling and ruled classes—yes, humans do all that. But men loving men? That is not the love of all mankind!
"Is it because this is Greece?"
Because they're Greeks?
Because I'm too magnificent a man?
No.
On Olympus, under Zeus, there are countless goddesses. And Zeus holds command over all of them.
The goddess of the sea, the goddess of the underworld—both are women in this age.
A hierarchy placing men above women can exist. Zeus stands above all goddesses as the supreme being above all.
Humans look at Olympus and cry, "O great Zeus!", adoring every step Zeus takes.
So if Zeus rules over goddesses, wouldn't the natural order be for humans to build harems of their own, a form of polygyny?
If they revere Zeus and think, "I want to be like Zeus," would it not be natural for them to gather beautiful women and take concubines?
But men with men?
Something was deeply wrong. I don't know where it all went astray.
If the act of a man thrusting is hardwired into humanity at the genetic level, then humanity must be born anew.
Yes.
The time has come to be reborn as a new humanity.
"Thank you all for gathering here."
I donned formal attire and assembled the entire Twelve Olympians. Unlike usual, all eleven goddesses gathered at the Round Table listened to my voice with tense faces.
"There is but one item on today's agenda. Project Pandora."
At my words, the goddesses' expressions stiffened.
"Lord Zeus, do you mean to annihilate humanity?"
"I do, my wife Hera. I will create a woman more beautiful than any other and plunge the current humans into ruin."
Clap.
I clapped my hands. Hestia, her eyes trembling faintly, reached toward the hearth at the center of the Round Table. Blue flames roared to life, surging up to the ceiling.
"This is..."
"Prometheus x Zeus. As you can see, a bald man and a blond youth embracing. The names aren't written, but anyone can tell who they are."
Everyone was in shock. Those who knew had known, but this was the first time I'd brought such a scandalous book about myself to an official council.
"The problem is that this item was not discovered among humans."
"Then...?"
"A human-made object was discovered on Olympus."
At Athena's words, the goddesses gaped in astonishment. Thank the Fates none of them started glancing around to see whose it might be.
At least no one here was the type to read such filth.
"My wife Hera discovered it. She intercepted it before it could spread like a fad among the goddesses."
"It is utterly revolting. How dare humans bring something meant to defile the gods all the way to Olympus? When even a thousand songs celebrating the love between Lord Zeus and Lady Hera would scarcely suffice!"
Slam!
Hera pounded the table with her fist. Her anger seemed slightly off-target, but she wasn't the only one enraged by pairing me with a retired bald man.
"Indeed. They even had the gall to use the alias Lord Zeus once went by—Jupiter. I'm almost too embarrassed to say it aloud, but they named the blond youth in the story 'Jupiter,' 'Jupitere,' and the like. Yes, the very name Lord Zeus used as a childhood name and alias—Jupiter!"
Slam!
This time it was Athena who raged. Among all the goddesses here, she alone had met me as Jupiter. So she was especially furious at seeing the name Jupiter used so carelessly.
"Um... forgive me for asking, but..."
Ares cautiously raised her hand.
"I can't tell what's inside just from the cover. May I look? I mean, from the two naked men on the cover, couldn't it just be two guys doing muscle training together?"
"Ares...!"
Hera covered her mouth, choking up.
"Ares, that is not muscle training. That is..."
"Then why are they naked? What other reason would two men be naked together?"
Ah, gods. Because of these wretched humans, I have to impart forbidden knowledge to this innocent child!
Among my children, only three know the true nature of that book.
One is Metis. One is Hephaestus, the eldest and fairly knowledgeable in sexual matters. And the other is Apollo, who crafted the disease to wipe them out.
In other words, Ares, Artemis, and Persephone don't know the details. They only understand that humans insulted Zeus and therefore must be destroyed. I'd deliberately kept the information from them.
But now they need to know.
Because they are now full-fledged members of the Twelve Olympians.
"...If you are prepared to look, you may."
"Lord Zeus!"
"If you do not see and judge for yourself, misunderstandings will arise later. Some might later grumble about whether humanity truly had to be annihilated. If you choose not to look, you don't have to."
"...I will look."
Ares opened the forbidden book with a grave expression.
And then.
Riiip.
"Ah, Ares!"
She tore the evidence to shreds. Ares was so frozen in place she didn't even realize she had destroyed it.
"Why... would the great Father...? What is this...?"
Ares fell into confusion. The paper clutched in both hands fluttered to the floor.
Ang!
"...Heh. Heh heh."
Artemis furrowed her brow and turned her head away. For someone who found the act itself repulsive, that book must have made her want to shoot down every human from the sky that instant.
"..."
Thud.
"P-Persephone!!"
Demeter sprang from her seat and rushed to Persephone. Persephone had glimpsed the contents and promptly fainted.
"Athena, handle this. Let us take a brief recess until Persephone wakes."
The council paused.
***
At that same hour.
An old man with chains on both wrists arrived at the city, a small eagle perched on his shoulder.
Could you even call it a city, or was it a ruin?
The only things still gleaming in the city were two stone statues towering at the entrance.
Zeus and Prometheus.
Except for the statues honoring the two gods, everything else lay shattered and collapsed.
"This place is..."
"Promethepolis. Hic."
The old man frowned at the man slumped beside the statues. Bluish spots stood out on the man's face, and his complexion was so ashen he looked as though he could die any moment.
"How did it come to this?"
"We only loved."
"Loved?"
"Yes. A great love. A true love... one the gods could never understand. Heh heh."
The man tipped liquor into his mouth. As if trying to drown something in drink, he cackled with a face full of regret.
"Tell me, old man. What is love, in your eyes?"
"..."
The old man stroked the eagle's back. The eagle nuzzled its head against him as if offering comfort.
"Was this not the most prosperous city of all? How did it fall to such a state?"
"A plague spread. Every last man who loved another man fell sick. Only men caught the disease. The women... they fled, fearing they'd catch it too."
"Only the men? They didn't do... strange things?"
"Strange? What's strange about it? Who dares call it strange?"
The man raised his empty bottle high.
"One day, our world will come. A world that does not surrender to such a plague. Our love will spread across this vast world. And when that day comes, only then will people realize. That we—were never wrong!"
"...So this is humanity."
The old man shook his head, his face unbearably bitter.
"What in the world... are humans...?"
The old man looked at his own hands, tears streaming down.
"Ah, great Zeus. Even seeing this... even seeing this..."
Rumble-rattle.
Something rolled across the ground and stopped at the old man's feet. It resembled a muscular buttock, with a large hole in its center.
Ezeus Hole
正正正
"Even seeing this... do you still believe in humanity?"
The old man's legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
***
The council resumed.
Persephone, who had fainted from shock, regained consciousness. I changed the flame in the hearth.
"Project Pandora will proceed in two phases. The first is the Great Cleansing of humanity. First, we will wash clean the places where humans dwell with water. Neptune, the preparations for the Great Flood?"
"I can execute it at any time. With Demeter's help, the sea can now flood the land."
"Good. Hades, are the preparations in Hell complete?"
"Yes. Hell is fully ready to sort the dead. Beginning at the River Styx, those afflicted with the plague will be separated. For those who died unjustly, a fair and impartial judgment shall guarantee their next life."
All preparations for annihilation were complete.
All that remained was to execute once the threshold was reached.
"Apollo, what is the percentage now?"
"..."
"Apollo."
"...The current infection rate."
Apollo closed her eyes and quietly recited.
"Sixty-nine percent. It has already... surpassed the sixty percent threshold required to advance to the 'Great Flood' stage."
"And the remaining thirty percent of uninfected humans?"
"Nearly all of them are women."
The disease Apollo created afflicted only men. To be precise, it struck those who harbored the thought, 'I want to violate Zeus's backside.'
Women caught it too, but their numbers were less than one-hundredth of the men.
"What should we do about them?"
"If you do not intend to kill them, may I take them in as denizens of the sea?"
Neptune spoke first.
"I wish to make them sea-dwellers so they can survive the Great Flood. We could transform their lower halves into fish-like forms."
"Hm, approved. Then, before executing the Great Flood... I will begin preparing for the next phase ahead of time."
Creeeak.
A mannequin Hephaestus had crafted was placed at the center of the hearth.
It was still marble through and through, but its body and form possessed a beauty rivaling any goddess.
"This is...?"
"Pandora."
The seed of calamity I had devised while envisioning the Venus Statue.
"The children Pandora bears—the future generations of humanity—will be born lacking what the old humanity possessed. You shall each imbue this doll with a 'calamity' to bestow upon humans."
Humans will know poverty.
Humans will suffer from disease.
Humans will learn despair.
And as long as the humans of today do not touch it, it shall never be opened.
But if humanity itself breaks the seal?
"I will leave the choice to the remaining humans. If they love and cherish Pandora, a virtuous humanity will be born..."
Humanity will have brought the calamities upon themselves.
"But if they rape Pandora and leave her with nothing but despair."
Pandora's Box.
"The children Pandora bears will be born carrying evil."
That lies within Pandora's womb.