Chapter 221: Typhon

Chapter 221: Chapter 221: Typhon

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Typhon was one of the most powerful non-Primordial entities to have ever existed within the Greek world. Born from the negative essence of Gaia and Tartarus, his name had survived for millennia as that of a creature who had once brought Olympus itself to the brink of destruction. He easily ranked among the ten most powerful beings known to exist and certainly wasn’t just another monster or beast the gods could easily kill.

During his war against Olympus, Typhon had forced the gods to fight for their very survival. Even Zeus, armed with his Master Bolt, had needed the help of the other deities just to face him and barely manage to stop such a monstrosity. And even then, they had been unable to kill him, so the only solution had been to bury him and keep him contained beneath a mountain.

Alongside Echidna, Typhon had also given rise to many of the most feared creatures in Greek mythology. Cerberus, the Hydra, Orthrus, and many other beasts could trace their lineage back to them. It was no surprise that, over time, he became known as the King of Monsters.

"Certainly quite the story," Gyūki commented inside Damon’s mind, interrupting the redhead’s thoughts as he looked through his eyes at the enormous mountain known as Mount St. Helens in Washington. Somewhere beneath miles of rock and ancient divine restraints was Typhon, trapped there for centuries to prevent him from ever walking freely through the world again.

"Pfff. I could handle this Typhon guy by myself," Kurama cut in, his pride slightly wounded after hearing so much about another creature like him.

Damon let out a small laugh. "I’ve never fought Typhon and only know the stories about him, but I’m pretty sure he could kick your ass. If I had to compare him to something you guys would understand, I’d say that in shinobi terms he’d be something like a Greek mini-Jūbi."

"Nonsense!" Kurama roared from inside his mind, shooting to his feet. "I am the true king! Kurama-sama, King of the Bijū! There isn’t a beast alive that can defeat me!"

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Not even the Jūbi," the fox added with absolute confidence. That was enough to make practically every other Bijū roll their eyes at the same time. "Sure, Kurama," Gyūki muttered.

"What?" the Kyūbi growled, turning toward him. "Got something to say, octopus?"

"Absolutely nothing," Gyūki replied with a calmness that only irritated him further.

Damon shook his head as he began walking toward the mountain. "Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night."

"I’m telling you the truth!"

"Uh-huh."

"Damon!"

"Damooooooooooooon!"

The redhead ignored the protests that continued echoing inside his head and kept his attention on Mount St. Helens. Jokes aside, he couldn’t help feeling a certain tension running through his body. It wasn’t fear, but rather that internal excitement that appeared whenever he knew he was about to stand before something truly exceptional.

Damon had always felt a deep admiration for Typhon ever since Amaterasu first told him about him all those years ago. Maybe it was something as simple as Greek pride. Knowing that an existence of that level came from his own pantheon was strangely satisfying. In Damon’s opinion, anything capable of making Greece’s name stand out before the rest of the supernatural world was something worth taking pride in.

That was precisely one of the reasons the history of his pantheon bothered him so much. Greece had gods, Titans, monsters, and other entities with absurd potential, yet most of the time they had been too busy fighting among themselves to ever make proper use of it. If he could ever get all those forces to put their differences aside and work under the same banner, Damon was fairly certain Olympus could stand face-to-face even with the Hindu pantheon without having to lower its head.

And Typhon was perhaps the clearest example of just how much power had been wasted beneath their feet for centuries.

Damon wasted no more time staring at the mountain. Passing through the different layers of rock and tunnels with the Mist until he located the prison wasn’t especially difficult for someone capable of moving freely through practically any part of the Greek world. A few minutes later, the redhead was already several miles inside Mount St. Helens.

Damon continued forward. Rivers of magma ran along the walls and floor until they emptied into an enormous chamber. The entire place was illuminated by pools of lava scattered around, their light revealing through the darkness a monstrous body of absurd proportions. Massive divine chains extended from different parts of the mountain and were wrapped around arms, legs, wings, and other limbs Damon wasn’t even completely sure how to classify.

The upper half of his body still had a vaguely humanoid shape, although it was almost completely covered in thick grayish scales that looked more like stone than flesh. Several reddish cracks ran across his chest, arms, and neck, releasing a magma-like glow that lit up the chamber. From his head grew a mass of dark serpents that remained motionless while he slept, some so large they could have been mistaken for monsters on their own.

Below the waist, any humanoid appearance disappeared completely. Instead of legs, enormous serpentine bodies stretched and coiled across much of the chamber, several ending in reptilian heads that were individually restrained by chains. His arms were disproportionately massive, ending in hands large enough to wrap around a giant, while two enormous wings remained folded against his back.

Even the Hecatoncheir’s prison paled in comparison. That alone said quite a lot about how dangerous Typhon was compared to the giant with a hundred arms and fifty heads. Damon raised his head slightly as his eyes traveled over the entity’s blackish scales. "Well... Kurama. Still want to fight him by yourself?"

There were a few seconds of silence inside his mind. "...Yes," the fox replied, bringing his front paws together and looking off to the side. Gyūki burst out laughing at the Kyūbi’s obvious denial, soon joined by Son Gokū.

Damon shook his head and put the matter aside before raising his voice. "Typhon."

The creature didn’t even move. He appeared to be deeply asleep, his enormous eyes completely closed. Damon waited only a moment before trying again. "I know you can hear me."

This time, one of the massive chains trembled. "I suggest you leave this place and leave me alone."

The voice that rolled through the cavern was deep and monstrous, distorted to the point that it sounded as though it came from several throats at once. The walls shook with every word and some dust fell from the ceiling, but Damon didn’t even blink. "Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen, Typhon."

One of the creature’s enormous eyes slowly opened, revealing an intense reddish glow in the darkness. Even after millennia in chains, there wasn’t even a trace of exhaustion or resignation in him. Damon found only arrogance, rage, and a malice so deep that it seemed to have remained untouched throughout his entire imprisonment.

"Have you come to mock me, Olympian?" The voice shook the chamber once again. "I have no time to waste speaking with insignificant ants."

Damon made no attempt to correct him. In fact, he preferred Typhon to think he was insignificant for now. He wanted to meet the real King of Monsters, not whatever version he might show after learning who the person standing before him actually was. Unlike the Titans and many of the creatures imprisoned in Tartarus, who had one way or another of learning what was happening outside, Typhon had been completely isolated for millennia, unable to have contact with anyone unless someone with enough authority allowed it. For that same reason, Typhon truly didn’t know much about what had happened in the world during all that time.

"I actually came to free you."

That got his attention. Several of the serpents making up his massive body began to move as the chains holding him tightened with a loud creak.

"Free me?" A deep laugh came from Typhon. "Don’t make me laugh."

"Believe it." Damon crossed his arms. "But before you start going on about Zeus, your war against Olympus, or how badly you want to rip the head off every god you come across, I’ll save us some time. Zeus no longer rules. I’m the King of the Gods now. My name is Damon."

Typhon fell silent, and a faint spark of interest crossed his enormous eye. After a moment, a laugh-like vibration ran through his body as several of the serpents around his head began to stir. "What a surprise... I suppose Zeus finally got what was coming to him."

The creature let a brief moment pass before continuing. "And what do you expect that to mean to me? Olympus still stands." The enormous jaws of several of his serpents slowly opened. "I will not rest until I see it destroyed."

Damon slowly exhaled. Of course.... Apparently being hardheaded came included with being born into the Greek pantheon.

"I really don’t care how you take it." He shrugged. "And I also couldn’t give less of a fuck about how much you hate the Olympians. After all, I’m not the one chained beneath a mountain."

The chains tightened again. Damon continued before Typhon could respond. "Here’s the thing. I like you." Typhon went still at those words.

"Well, what I know about you," Damon clarified. "I respect your strength, I respect what you are, and I think having someone on your level buried beneath a mountain for all eternity is a complete waste."

"On that, we agree, so just break these chains and I’ll show you how much power you’ve been wasting all these years." The mouths of several serpents around Typhon widened into expressions that could hardly be mistaken for anything friendly.

Damon remained calm in the face of the provocation. "I’m willing to free you and offer you a place at my side. Olympus is changing for the better, and I want you to be part of what I’m building."

For a moment, only the movement of magma filled the enormous chamber. Typhon didn’t know exactly what to make of this deity’s bluntness. It was almost as if he genuinely didn’t care that much about what decision he made; he had simply come here, put his conditions on the table, and left the choice in Typhon’s hands.

"But I’m not an idiot either." Damon continued, pulling Typhon out of his thoughts. "If I free you and the first thing you do is try to destroy Olympus or start another war because you’ve spent millennia dreaming about becoming ruler of the world, then we’re going to have a problem."

The chains creaked as Typhon slowly tensed his body and fixed his red eyes on Damon. "Are you threatening me?"

"No." Damon calmly shook his head. "I’m just explaining how things are going to be, nothing more and nothing less."

For a moment, Typhon seemed torn between feeling insulted and outright enraged by how casually Damon spoke about killing him. A deep growl rolled through the cavern. "You’re no different from the other Olympians."

Damon tilted his head slightly before shrugging. "Well... we’re family, you know?"

"Hmm... hmm... hmm..." A dark laugh began rising from deep within Typhon, making the chains still restraining his enormous body vibrate. "At least you’re honest. I’ll give you that." The reddish glow of his eyes remained fixed on Damon. "Very well. I’ll take your word for it."

Silence once again took over the chamber.

Damon nodded; there wasn’t much else to discuss or anything more he could offer Typhon besides his word and the chance to regain his freedom. From that point on, whatever the King of Monsters chose to do would be his own responsibility, and Damon would deal with the consequences if the time came. After all, it wasn’t unreasonable to think Kronos or Tartarus might have considered recruiting him sooner or later. They shared an enemy, although Damon seriously doubted their true goals would be compatible.

With that in mind, he decided to stop overthinking it. The authority of the King of Olympus spread through the prison with a single thought.

THUM. THUM. THUM.

One after another, the enormous divine chains that had kept Typhon imprisoned for millennia detached from his body and crashed heavily to the ground. The entire mountain shook as the gigantic creature began to rise, slowly stretching his monstrous form to its full glory while a deep growl escaped from the multiple throats of the serpents surrounding him.

Damon remained where he was, watching him with a certain amount of anticipation. After so many years of hearing stories about Typhon, he finally had the King of Monsters standing completely free before him. Typhon stared back at him, neither of them saying a word.

An arrogant smile slowly began spreading across the creature’s monstrous face. Damon narrowed his eyes slightly. "What...?"

An intense reddish glow suddenly enveloped Typhon’s gigantic body.

"What the hell...?" Before the redhead’s eyes, Typhon began to shrink. The multiple reptilian heads vanished one after another and the arms capable of wrapping around giants took on increasingly humanoid proportions. Within moments, a creature that had occupied a large portion of the enormous chamber had been reduced to just over eight feet tall.

Finally, the glow disappeared. Damon blinked; standing before him was no longer the giant who had remained chained beneath Mount St. Helens for millennia. In his place stood a woman.

An extremely tall woman, standing a little over eight feet tall, with pale skin and long black hair that fell in loose waves around her shoulders and down her back. Her body had a powerful, mature build with pronounced curves, while her sharp features and intense red eyes gave her an imposing appearance even without any of the monstrous traits she had possessed moments earlier. She wore a simple black chiton held together at the shoulders by bronze clasps, the dark fabric wrapped around her body and secured at the waist with a matching belt. There were no horns, scales, serpents, or anything else that openly revealed what she truly was.

Her red eyes met Damon’s blue ones. The same arrogant smile remained plastered across her face.

Damon didn’t even know what to say; he was in shock.

"..."

Typhon raised an eyebrow. "What? Have you never seen a woman before, Olympian?"

Damon blinked again and shook his head. "What the fuck... you’re a woman. Hell, I didn’t even expect you could transform..." Damon looked the woman up and down; she was certainly attractive in her own way, and taller than him too, although not by much.

And honestly, out of every possible appearance he could have imagined for Typhon, this definitely hadn’t been one of them.

What Damon didn’t know was that, had he ever seen Tartarus’s true humanoid appearance, the resemblance would have been obvious. Typhon looked almost like a female version of the Primordial God. Although she had been created from the essence of both Tartarus and Gaia, there was practically nothing about her appearance that resembled Gaia. Even her powers and natural affinities leaned far more toward what she had inherited from Tartarus.

Typhon noticed and simply rolled her eyes. Another Olympian who thinks with his dick.

"It’s not that big of a deal. Let’s get out of here, I’m sick of this filthy place." The black-haired woman began walking toward the exit as though everything they had discussed before had already been settled.

Damon said nothing as he watched her approach. The moment Typhon passed beside him, her arm shot toward Damon’s head with enough force to make the air explode around her fist, but the blow never reached him. Time seemed to stop as Damon leaned his body just enough to let it fly past him. Just before Typhon could launch a second attack, Damon’s hand had already closed around her neck.

The woman’s red eyes widened slightly in surprise.

I didn’t even see him move..., thought the Queen of Monsters.

Damon rose several inches off the ground without releasing her, easily compensating for the difference in height between them while keeping his grip firm around her throat. "That’s strike one." His blue eyes locked onto Typhon’s. "And there won’t be a strike two. I warned you, you don’t want to play that game with me."

The initial surprise quickly faded from Typhon’s face, replaced by pure defiance. "Oh, really?" A provocative smile appeared on her lips. "And what are you going to do if I do?"

Damon narrowed his eyes and raised his arm even higher, causing Typhon’s feet to leave the ground completely.

Typhon brought both hands up to Damon’s forearm and tried to break his grip, first relying only on her strength and then applying more and more pressure, only for literally nothing to happen. Damon’s arm didn’t give even an inch.

Under Damon’s iron grip, Typhon looked at him with uncertainty, but there was no fear in her eyes.

The two remained face-to-face, Damon floating above the ground while holding the towering woman by the throat and Typhon still trying to free herself without success. "I already have enough enemies on my list." Damon’s voice lost every trace of humor. "And believe me, just because I have some respect for you doesn’t mean I can’t finish you off if you really force me to."

Typhon was about to respond when a burning sensation began spreading around her neck. Typhon’s heart began beating faster, but she kept her iron stare fixed on Damon.

The skin beneath the redhead’s fingers slowly began to burn as the power of Destruction broke through even the Queen of Monsters’ natural resistance. He didn’t need to do much more. The message was perfectly clear.

Typhon stopped trying to pull his arm away. For a few moments neither of them said anything. Their faces remained close, their eyes fixed on one another, neither willing to look away.

And without another word, Damon opened his hand.

Typhon fell heavily toward the ground and managed to catch herself before landing completely face-first. She stood back up almost immediately and brought one hand to her neck, rubbing the area where a few reddish marks still remained.

Damon descended back to the ground under the Queen of Monsters’ gaze. Slowly, an arrogant smile began spreading across Typhon’s face.

"How interesting... I just wanted to know if you really had the strength to back up all that shit you were saying." The black-haired woman lowered her hand from her neck. "I don’t like weakness, especially people who brag about strength they don’t have... like your dear brother Zeus." With that said, she turned on her heels and started walking toward the exit again.

"Damon, maybe freeing this woman wasn’t one of your best ideas. The first chance she gets, I wouldn’t be surprised if she stabbed you in the back...," Kurama commented mentally, still not entirely sure about any of this. Something about that woman gave him a bad feeling and brought back memories of previous experiences that hadn’t exactly ended well for the fox.

Damon simply kept his eyes on Typhon’s back before slowly lowering them toward the woman’s large ass.

"Don’t worry, Kurama. I know what I’m doing."

And with that in mind, the King of the Gods began following the Queen of Monsters toward the exit.

>>>> Picture )))

What up, boys and girls lol )