Chapter 175: All Are Ants
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
An azure energy beam shot straight into the sky, and the dense black mist was completely purified. Orin Vale slowly lowered his arms. All the Orin Vales did.
Watching the massive shadow get blown to fragments, all the "Orin Vale" figures were enveloped in light, dissolving into countless light particles that converged back inside the mobile armor.
"The Fallen Realm has completely collapsed," said Pal. "But all personnel should have been evacuated."
"The Eye of Argo?"
"An initial scan has been conducted."
As Pal spoke, Orin Vale had already reached out, swiping open a path to the Subspace and retrieving the small piece of jewelry.
The Eye of Argo, an item containing the divine power of Zeus, had been successfully acquired on this trip.
"An energy reading matching the characteristics of an Olympian God has been detected. Based on our projections, if you remove your armor and wear it directly, it will likely activate automatically and grant you... a portion of Zeus's divine power."
"That won't be necessary for now."
Putting it on could directly grant a mortal divine power. A foolproof operation, one-click godhood. It sounded powerful, but from the beginning, Orin Vale wasn't interested in this function itself. To him, its research value had always outweighed its practical value.
He still held the same view: knowledge was greater than the item itself. The Eye of Argo could only grant a portion of Zeus's divine power, and who was to say Zeus himself couldn't just pop out and take it back?
But if he could use it to study the secret of the divine power of Zeus, and by extension, the entire Old God race, and acquire that knowledge, not only would it be helpful when facing powerful Old Gods in the future, it might even provide inspiration for his own growth.
However, what he didn't know was that just a moment ago, during the brief instant the Fallen Realm shattered and Typhon manifested, the entirety of Olympus had been thrown into a tumultuous uproar.
"It's him!"
Hera gazed out from the rooftop of the palace, only to see the sky above Olympus roiling with thunder. Pale gray clouds drifted through the air as intense arcs of electricity tore through the sky, splitting open the thick cloud cover. They were followed by peals of thunder that sounded like the heavy blow of a giant hammer, exploding unsettlingly in her ears.
With a crash, a wine glass shattered into pieces on the luxurious floor, the red liquid spreading like blood.
"We must act, we must—"
Hera hurriedly turned and went back inside.
The Goddess of Discord followed the sound. "Mother? What happened? Where... are you going?"
She saw at a glance that the Queen of Heaven was carrying bags big and small, wearing her feathered cape, looking for all the world like she was ready to pack up and run.
"Typhon!" Hera shot her a glare, gritting her teeth. "Damn it, I should have known! So that's what was sealed in the Fallen Realm! I never should have let that fool Apollo go in there—"
She hadn't participated in the decisive battle against Typhon back then; she had fled with the other Gods early on. Of the Twelve Chief Gods, only Athena had remained by Zeus's side to face Typhon with him.
Afterward, Zeus had boasted to everyone that he had slain Typhon, so Hera had just assumed it was long dead. Otherwise, she would never have allowed anyone to mess around in the Fallen Realm.
"Now it has awakened. Back then, even Zeus was once defeated by it. And now Zeus isn't here... Say no more, we have to leave. The first thing it'll do when it wakes up is surely to sweep through Olympus—"
The Goddess of Discord's expression changed as well.
But she hesitated for a moment before asking.
"But it's alone, isn't it?" the Goddess of Discord frowned. "We have so many Gods on Olympus..."
"Not many now."
Hera pointed out the window.
A black cat was seen dashing down the mountain at an unscientific speed, followed by a goat. In the sky, an ibis flapped its wings for dear life. Each one of them looked like they wanted to get as far away from this mountain as possible.
"That cat is Artemis, the goat is Dionysus, and the ibis is Hermes."
The Goddess of Discord was stunned. "Why are they all so practiced at this?"
"Because this happened once before, many years ago. When Typhon attacked back then, Pan told us to turn into animals and escape. That's how we got away..."
The Goddess of Discord turned her head and was even more shocked. She discovered that Hera had already turned into a... cow?
The Goddess of Discord: "???"
"I'm about to leave too. I suggest you hurry up as well, daughter. Otherwise, when it gets here..."
"Hmm?"
The little cow was just about to ascend when she suddenly froze, stunned for a moment. A short while later, she transformed back into Hera, looking out the window with a strange expression.
"Now what?"
The Goddess of Discord followed her gaze and saw that, at some point, everything outside had calmed down. The wind had stopped, the clouds had scattered, and the sun was shining brightly, as if nothing had just happened.
The Goddess of Discord blinked and looked at Hera. "What's going on now?"
"I don't know." Hera's brow was tightly furrowed. "But it feels like... how is Typhon gone again?"
The Goddess of Discord mused, "Maybe it's just teetering on the edge of the seal?"
"How is that possible?" Hera frowned.
"Then... someone killed it?"
"Even more absurd."
The Queen of Heaven scoffed.
How much time had passed between sensing Typhon's manifestation and its disappearance? Not even a minute.
To dice up the storm titan Typhon in under a minute? Forget Zeus, even if they ganged up on it with every God on Olympus, it would be impossible. If someone really had that kind of power, wouldn't that make all of them on Olympus a complete joke?
"Then there are no other possibilities, are there?" the Goddess of Discord asked, puzzled.
"I'm not sure... but that is definitely impossible. I can guarantee it on my honor as the Queen of Heaven," Hera said, shaking her head. "There must be a more reasonable explanation..."
As they were speaking, a visitor arrived.
The Goddess of Discord turned her head at the sound. "Apollo, you're here. We were just discussing—hmm? What happened to you?"
Apollo's originally purplish-black face was now blasted to a sooty black. That was one thing, but his whole body looked as if it had been squeezed dry, his skin and muscles withered. He looked like a walking piece of salted fish jerky.
"What were you doing in the Fallen Realm, Apollo?" Hera frowned and reprimanded him.
Apollo sat down heavily, waved his hand, poured himself a glass of wine, and drank it in one gulp. He panted for a long while before looking up.
"You... will absolutely not believe what I saw."
Apollo looked as if he'd seen a ghost.
"That monster, that thing... it's something that simply shouldn't exist in this world."
"Typhon, was it? We sensed it here on Olympus too," Hera said grimly. "We never should have entered the Fallen Realm—"
"No, not Typhon, you don't understand," Apollo shook his head repeatedly, speaking with difficulty. "Typhon was released... but it was instantly killed by that monster."
Hera: "?"
The Queen of Heaven wore a bizarre expression, as if she couldn't understand what he was saying.
"Yes, you heard me right. That creature from the stars, a glowing fellow, he drained me dry, like a dead battery."
"Then he rose, moved in, attacked, and Typhon was dead. It didn't even take a minute. It was like squashing an ant."
Hera: "???"
As Apollo's information slowly sank in, the Queen of Heaven's mouth fell open uncontrollably, her face a mask of someone questioning her own divine existence.
"You're saying, something instantly killed Typhon like squashing an ant?" she said, stunned. "How is that possible? If that's true, then wouldn't all of us Gods on Mount Olympus be nothing but ants in its eyes?"
"No."
Apollo shook his head, thought for a moment, and said seriously.
"At best, we'd be considered plankton."
Hera: "??????"
(end of chapter)