" Now, if you would please. " Zeus said, unusually careful with his words.
" Hiss!.. " The Hydra only sneered contemptuously at the God King, and set their eyes on the box.
The obsidian box was made in complete secret, known to none but the maker, his king, and the fates themselves. It's black glow looked as if starved, eating away at the light that graced its obsidian hide.
The Olympians only looked on with confusion, as this sequence of events made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Well, most of them at least, Athena seems to have already realized something judging by her even more frantic scribbling.
Most of them had even flared their divine aura, establishing the boundaries between them and the monster.
The Hydra seemed to be in contemplation, and after about a minute, it took one last glance at the Olympians, searing their appearances into their many minds.
" Oh'. Humanity. We... Bestow. Your. Greatest. Tribulation.
Your. Reckoning.
And... Your. Most. Precious. Gift. " The Hydra cursed, chorusing a melody of grinding fangs and the booming of serpentine voices.
And, as the last word escaped from the maw of the beast, the monster's unholy manifestation cracked.
Crrk! CRACK!!
The figure shattered like a porcelain vase struck upon the floor, turning into a swirling tornado of energy.
" F W O O O ! " Tempestuous winds howled and wailed in a menagerie of impossibly diverse colors, slowly encroaching on the opened box.
And the tornado split into spires, one.. two... three.. on and on, like a rain of arrows. As they disfigured into spears of light, they gained inhuman hues.
Void black.. A sickly green... a dusty grey... the majestic sight now inspired fear and apprehension, and a looming sense of danger.
The Olympians dared not make a sound, some gaped, some stayed silent, some shook, one was scribbling their way to tomorrow, yet all of them collectively burned the historical sight into their minds.
Untold, unfathomable might, such that it is incomprehensible and indomitable in nature.
An absolute, so to say..
The spires moved in a peculiar fashion, they moved almost hypnotically, in patterns one couldn't naturally understand.
They were clad in malevolence, corruption to its core, yet incomplete, hollow vessels.
As each slithered their way disgustingly into the box, intruding presences manifested along the skylines, hailing from beyond.
" B O O M ! " With a thunderous cry, they streaked through the horizon, impacting the spires and burrowing themselves into them.
It was the avatars of evil, or simply known as the children of the night. Death, Strife, Plague, Vengeance, all manner of sin and depravity descended as avatars, allowing a part of themselves to be trapped within the box, in order to manifest themselves within mankind and thrive.
The Hydra simply made the vessels for them, as well as summoning them. How? Unclear. Primordials were mysterious like that.
...
The true genesis of mankind.
Only from suffering, will the fiercest flames break through the dark veil and light up the night.
" F W O o o O o ! " The wind shivered and trembled, the avatars merged with the spires and shot into the box, rattling it.
Zeus watched silently as the evils shook the box, this was a necessity after all. Many pantheons have differences, many pantheons have territories, many pantheons have power.
Humanity would link their pantheons together, subconsciously unifying the Gods enough to prevent them from destroying everything and everyone. Every meeting they had, Zeus just felt that the time in which they waged war on one another and end up in mutual ruin was inching closer.
Olympus was quite young after all, this will insure their continued existence.
Zeus might be arrogant, conceited, a jerk and an all-around horrible being, but there is a reason why he is the King of the Gods..
Everything has a reason, and Zeus did not get here with merely temper tantrums. He fought, He led, He reigned.
And with a snap! The Olympians watched as the box closed as the last of the evils entered.
What they did not see however, was one, very faint glimmer of the Hydra's energy. It was unmistakably pure, like the lone spark in the sea of the cosmos. It was gentle, and hid among the avatars of evil, almost as if it was alive, and quite meek.
The evils ignored the little light, as if aware of it's necessity. A single-sided reign of terror was doomed from the start, a balance was a necessity, it was fated, in fact.
The Hydra's last curse... Hope.
Why? Who knows, we do know however that it was probably to spite Zeus.
And as if it was all a dream, it was all gone, the Hydra had disappeared in a spectacle, and their purpose was achieved.
" What... was that? " Apollo asked numbly as he sat back on his throne.
" The true Arbiter of this world. " Zeus answered cryptically, unusually serious, as if he was reminiscing a distant memory, no, a nightmare.
" A true dominant force, a constant, an absolute. A primordial... " Artemis remarked, now suddenly more curious about her primordial relatives.
" A-ah.. that was pretty nerve wracking huh? " Hermes rather shamefully shared.
" Aye! I wonder what weapons I can make from just one o' those scales? The potential is limitless, I say! " The Forge God was only ever interested in forging.
" This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge success... " Athena muttered to herself, drowning in her notes and illustrations, already compiling some papyrus into books and the others into a scroll.
" HA HA HA! HYDRA! HERE I COME! I WILL FELL YOU~! " Ares was quite pumped, making delusional remarks as his Aunts and mother tried to wrestle him into control.
Zeus only watched them, face stoic.
And then he left.
" Sigh... " He breathed out as he looked out the balcony, even he could get tired of his situation.
" Pandora!" He yells, his voice travelling swiftly towards the young woman, who was trying bread for the first time.
She dropped a loaf, she was on her eighth one.
Scrambling, she hurried her way to Zeus, who was a whole mountain above her. Once she arrived, she adopted her newly-learned falling to one knee technique.
" Yes, Lord Zeus, what is it that you require? " She asked with outmost respect.
" I have an important task to delegate to you. " Zeus explained as he summoned the box.
" Uhm, what is.. that? " She asked, her beady eyes already boring into the obsidian box.
" This is... a gift. " The King said, not willing to say anything else.
" Oh.. okay! What do you need me to do with it? " Pandora inquired.
" Since it is a gift, you will venture out into those human settlements, and give this to them. A gift.. from the heavens.. so to say. " He declared as he pointed inland.
" I understand. " She said as she took the gilded box from his hands. She turned to leave when -
" Wait. "
" Yes Lord Zeus? "
" Whatever you do... don't open that box... "
--- To Be Continued ---
( Remember to support the novel if you like it. Power stones, comments, reviews especially, anything is appreciated! That's all bye! )