The gods had weakened over the years.
They hated to acknowledge it. They hated to even voice those words outwardly. As prideful as gods were, it wasn’t a matter of their bruised ego.
It was simply a truth they didn’t want to publicly acknowledge to anyone else.
When a god’s believers disappear, when they’re no longer worshipped and fade into myth and legends, they fade.
It was the way of the world; the old are lost to the sands of time and replaced with the new. In this case, the new was the humanity of the modern era, where their faith was replaced with worldly understanding.
To overcome this, they did something desperate. Rather than be supported by the faith and worship of their own regions and believers, they attached themselves to the concept of Western civilization.
It could be argued that they were the cornerstone of what is considered the Western world.
The Greeks set the bedrock of democracy; they created the concepts that are still in use today.
As long as the Western world exists, so too will the Greek gods manage to survive.
Almost like leeches, where they desperately grasp to it, they lost their own fundamental foundations.
The lands of Greece were more than their birthplace.
It was their seat of power, and they forcibly moved that.
Such a thing was impossible not to have detriments; and that was the collective weakening of their divine powers over time.
It had leveled out; they weren’t growing weaker by the day, as it were. But when comparing themselves to how they were in the past, it was like night and day.
They all knew it, yet even so.
Yet, even considering how much weaker they had become over the year, no one could utter a word. They couldn’t cry foul, they couldn’t rationalize it, and they couldn’t understand it.
Zeus was laying on the ground, defeated.
The world screamed at the Dragon’s words. The laws of the world twisted, tore, and were forced apart to make way for the imposition of a new reality upon the King of Gods.
As gods themselves, the onlookers could see the alteration that happened upon the tapestry of fate.
For the gods, hearing the words still felt like nails on a chalkboard, a fundamental contradiction to their existence.
As immortal beings, they heard the concept of mortality.
They heard the hate, the rage, and the defiance behind it. The intentions, the rage of an uncountable number of mortals who weaponized their wrath. Like an ocean of mortal souls, refusing to yield to authority, refusing to bow to immortal purpose.
A collective and unified fury that had them dragging down immortal thrones down to the earth.
Even those who weren’t targeted, those who merely heard it, could feel it down to their own divine souls.
Forced to acknowledge it, to cast their gaze downwards, to view their own ends, to carry with them the same thought.
Gods fade; that was an aspect of the world’s law.
But for the first time for many of them, they all had a similar thought they had to confront.
Am I going to die?
It was enough of a shock that all the retreating gods had stopped.
Even Dionysus, perhaps the most carefree god, dropped Arachne and Mr. Blueberry subconsciously.
It took him several moments to recover. Even as the lingering remnants faded, as the shadow of mortality that hung over them parted, he found his own breathing ragged and his heart beating quicker.
For Dionysus, he wasn’t unfamiliar with mortality; he was born a demigod.
For him, the effects were less than his fellow gods, yet this was still the extent to which he was affected.
The gods converged again once the initial panic faded.
Each of them carried a different expression as they met up at the edge of the gardens.
Poseidon carried his own son with him and the other demigods.
It seemed like it had taken them time to digest what just happened even after watching it. The effects of mortality linger, like a forgotten word on the tips of their tongues, yet still scratch at the back of their minds.
It wasn’t a physical attack.
It was mental; it was soul.
And the shock had yet to completely fade.
That wasn’t all either.
They saw, in the sky, a silhouette flying through the air before reaching its peak and then falling to the earth.
The body of a familiar entity to them, as the King of Gods hit the ground, bouncing across the rubble and torn dirt in front of them before skidding to a stop.
The terrifying King of Gods. Even his brothers, the strongest of their Pantheon, would recognize the fact that Zeus was the strongest of them all.
Yet, now he lay before them, defeated.
And the one responsible hit the ground in front of them.
Large and imposing, red scales and sharp claws.
The gods didn’t know what to say, in all honesty. They were still trying to rationalize what they had just witnessed.
“Well, this is awkward now.” Ddraig spoke up first. “Why don’t I—"
Before he could finish his words, a firm hand grasped Arachne from the back of the neck. Hera held her up in front of her. “Don’t move; if you do anything, I’ll squeeze this little brat’s neck and kill her.”
“Woah, Mom—"
“Ares, sit down and shut up," Hera hissed.
Things immediately became tense again.
Ddraig narrowed his eyes. “Really, you just had to not be an asshole. That’s it; that was the assignment. That was the line that had to not be walked over. It was so low to the ground that you would have to dig a hole. Yet, here you are, shovel in hand proving me wrong.”
“Hera, release her.” Athena demanded, also feeling the pressure of the situation. “We can talk about this calmly.”
“Yeah, just set the little spider down and we can be calm.” Even Dionysus was trying to ease the tension.
"A will fookin stab ya in the cunt, ya dumb bint.” Arachne struggled in her grasp.
“Not helping there, little spider.” Dionysus sighed.
“Sister, don’t make things worse.” Hades appeared with them as well. “You’re going to escalate…hostilities." He eyed the dragon looming over them.
Hades of course didn’t miss the beatdown that Zeus received. Things had already reached the tipping point, and any further escalation now could become catastrophic, opposed to merely their pride being stepped on.
Percy and the others hid behind Poseidon, who also looked over to Hera.
“Hera…. Put her down.” The Sea God joined in.
“All of you shut up.” She shot back. “Traitors, all of you. This has already reached this point, and now you’re trying to talk things out!?”
"A saved your stupid tree," Arachne growled. "Yer being a dumb bitch.”
Hera’s eye twitched, and while she was also rather furious at being so directly insulted, the girl did have a point.
Repaying gratitude with literal death was…a lot, even for them. At the very least, they had to observe certain niceties in public.
But after seeing her husband reduced to this state, Hera’s sense of propriety went out the window, and she was now focusing on something much more important.
Her husband, the king of gods, lay defeated.
What did that mean for her, the queen?
She had to take control of the situation.
“What exactly is your plan here?” Ddraig lowered his head so they were just about at eye level. “Your end game, huh? How exactly do you plan on walking away from this now? Are you going to kill her? Because that’s not an empty threat you can make.”
The queen stiffened, and her grip tightened ever so slightly. “If you move any closer, beast, I will snap her little neck.”
“And then what happens? Do you want a preview? Because if so, I invite you to take a gander over at your husband. Let’s pretend that you are capable of killing her in this moment. What do you think will be the consequences of that?”
She hesitated.
She wasn’t fully blind; she wasn’t unintelligent. She could recognize every word he said and understood what he was saying.
But the traumatic scene from before was still making her act a bit more irrational than normal.
The fact that her husband had been beaten had caused her to enter an internal crisis. Her sole motivation at the moment was to not lose her status, her own throne.
Because if Zeus were forced down from the throne, then she would have no place as queen.
“Hera –”
“This is your fault!” Hera snapped back at Athena. "It's your fault for making this…thing, this abomination! You brought this beast here; you are the one at fault. Or was this your plan, Oh great Goddess of Wisdom?"
Athena paused for a moment.
Because several eyes turned to her.
The planner, the schemer.
It was ridiculous, the notion absurd. Yet, also, how many past plans were absurd and ridiculous just as well?
Yet, Athena almost always came out on top in the end.
Now, she claimed that she didn’t know the girl’s father wasn’t human. She claimed to not know his identity or anything about the girl.
And at this moment, Olympus’s continued existence teetered on the edge as a result of a decision she had indirectly made.
“I did no such thing!” Athena immediately denied.
Ddraig was just silently watching them argue.
He wasn’t overly concerned about Arachne.
The truth is that she had something to protect her. He knew that it hadn’t been used yet, so if it activated, then he would be able to grab her and protect her.
“Well done, Hera!”
All eyes turned to the source.
Zeus was pushing himself up off the ground. He was beaten and bloodied and looked like he was dealing with the worst cold sweat of his life.
One of his eyes was bloodshot, and his breathing was ragged, but there was still a defiance burning in his gaze.
“This is our chance!” Zeus roared. “Poseidon, Hades, with me! We’ll kill this beast together!”
Hades didn’t move.
He looked at his brother incredulously.
“No.” He reached over and pulled his helmet off Percy’s head. “I’ll be taking my helmet back now.”
“Um…thanks?” Percy said awkwardly.
Hades looked at his nephew and shook his head. But he at least appreciated the fact that he had shown gratitude.
Zeus wasn’t surprised by Hades’ actions. Infuriated, but not surprised. He mentally promised himself to punish his brother later.
But he turned his attention to Poseidon.
“Brother, together.” Zeus clenched his fist. “We can…" He trailed off because he saw Poseidon unmoving.
He didn’t step away from Percy’s side; he didn’t make a move, and even his gaze showed full rejection.
There was a short beat before Zeus quickly shifted his focus. “Hermes! Apollo! Artemis!” He called out. “To me, we will fight this beast; if he dares to fight back, then Hera will kill the mortal!”
Hermes hesitated.
Less than dismissing Zeus, it was more fear.
Hermes was never the biggest fighter, and seeing the dragon smack Zeus around like that was difficult.
The messenger God took a few steps back.
Apollo as well; he held his hands up but all but vocally denied Zeus’s order.
Zeus’s gaze landed on his daughter, Artemis.
The Huntress.
And he noticed, with her too, the hesitation.
She didn’t move.
Fear? Trepidation?
It was hard to guess what she was feeling right now, but from the bottom of her soul, she saw the dragon shift its eyes to her and felt like prey instead of a predator for the first time in her life.
"...Aphrodite? Demeter?”
The two other gods.
Demeter looked away.
Aphrodite scoffed.
“Dionysus?” He looked towards his last son, knowing that Ares was in no shape to fight.
“Really, pops?” Dionysus gave him a flat look.
Zeus realized, in that moment. That no one else other than Hera was standing on his side. There was an invisible line drawn in the sand, and they chose to stay on the opposite end of it.
They all refused his orders.
He was king, and they ignored his orders.
“Well, well, well.” Ddraig finally spoke up again; his voice made the air rumble. “Look at who’s out of options.”
He spoke in clear ridicule.
“Got any more plans? Friends to call? Ah, who am I kidding, you don’t have friends. Slaves? Do you have slaves? I wouldn't pass you. Maybe some people will begrudgingly repay any debts they owe? Go ahead, call in some people; I’m patient, I’ll wait.” Ddraig urged him on.
Zeus didn’t respond.
The prideful, arrogant Zeus didn’t rise to the provocation.
Rather, Zeus just laughed.
Self-deprecating, he laughed. The others winced when they heard it; they’ve never seen Zeus so…defeated before.
“I see, so you’re all traitors. Rebels.” He forced himself up to his feet to steady himself. “This was a scheme, a plot to have me pulled off my throne.”
He turned around to look at Ddraig after passing his gaze once over the group of gods.
“You want to steal my throne!? You can’t have it.”
The King of Gods held his arms out and laughed, as if he had just won.
“Because if I can’t have it, no one can!”
With that, a loud, thunderous boom could be heard from miles away. It shook the earth; the quakes sent ripples across the entire country.
They all turned towards the direction of the explosion, and confusion was then turned to utter terror as they realized what happened.
Mount St. Helens just exploded.
To the gods, the mountain had a special significance that others didn’t really know about.
When the gods moved westward, so too did the cosmology of the Greeks move with it. Every significant, mythological, or historically important sight of their pantheon moved with them.
Even the bad ones.
Because Mount St. Helens became the mountain that sealed away their greatest enemy, the foe that near tore apart the Greek Pantheon before.
Bursting through the rubble, the earth, and what remained of the mountain, a titanic figure emerged.
Typhon had been freed.
While the others look on in horror, Zeus continues to laugh.
“My contingency! In case any of you traitors tried to usurp my throne! You want the throne, then go ahead and take it for what little time remains before he reduces Olympus to ash!”
It was enough that Hera dropped Arachne.
The queen, who had been threatening to kill her, felt the feeling of utter defeat in this moment as well.
“Zeus, did you lose your damn mind!?” Poseidon roared. “You released Typhon!”
Zeus laughed; he didn’t care. He didn’t care that Poseidon was pointing his trident at him.
“If I can’t have it, you can’t have it.” He repeated again and turned back to Ddraig. “And you can’t have it.”
Ddraig was looking at Typhon curiously, then went back to look at Zeus. "Did…you think I wanted your throne?”
The words caught Zeus off guard for a moment amidst his maniacal drowning.
“What do you think I would want your stupid mountain? I’m just here acting as a chaperone for the brat.” Ddraig shook his head. “Dumbass.”
Zeus. “But…you…”
He didn’t know the words to say.
Every god now glared at Zeus; many of them wanted to rip him apart, but the fact that there was an apocalypse walking right towards them held them from doing that.
“Anywho, come along, brat; I think it’s time you went home.”
“No! Go beat him up, Uncle Ddraig! "Arachne immediately denied.
“Why would I do that? Let these dumbasses throw themselves at him and die; I don’t really care.” Ddraig responded casually.
The gods heard that, but it was hard to rebuke him, especially when he slapped around Zeus like he was fighting a toddler.
“But! Percy’s mom lives in New York; if he goes to destroy Olympus, then he'll destroy New York too!” She puffed up.
“Wait, my mom’s in danger!? I have to go get her, Dad. Send me home, please.” Percy grabbed his dad’s arm.
“Percy, I love you, but I need you to understand this is far beyond just your mother. We’re going to have to fight that thing; I don’t have time to send you back.” His father sighed as he told his son the truth.
Ddraig didn’t care about humans. He wasn’t the type to go around slaughtering them, but that didn’t mean he just acted like some kind of hero or anything like that.
As a Dragon, he saw the world differently.
People died; it happened. More people would be born; the world would keep on spinning.
Though, ironically, he was a hair’s breath away from capitulating based on how Arachne was looking at him.
He always had trouble denying her when she gave him that look.
However, Arachne didn’t ask again.
She saw Percy’s frantic and horrified expression and decided to do the one thing she swore she wouldn't do.
She took out her phone and cried out without hesitation. “Da, I’m being bullied!”
@***@
A/N
Like father, like daughter, she pulls her ultimate technique out, calling for help.