No More Olympus

Part 1: The Fall of Olympus

"What do you know of the Greek gods?" Professor Wallace King asked as he repeatedly swung a pickaxe into a suspiciously flat cave wall located deep within Mount Olympus.
"You mean like Zeus and those guys?" responded the only other man in the cave, twenty-one-year-old grad student George Ramirez.
"Exactly," King nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Well, I think I saw that Disney movie 'Hercules' when I was a kid," George began.
"It's Heracles," King corrected.
"What?" George asked.
"Hercules was his Roman name," King explained, "In the original Greek, his name was Heracles. I'm sorry I interrupted, continue."
"I also got lucky in the back of the theatre during the second Percy Jackson."
King paused his mining to process what he had just heard, a look of mild disgust in his eyes.
"Good a place as any, I guess," He shrugged.
King took one final swing at the cave wall with his pickaxe, breaking open a large gap that greeted them with stale air, throwing up debris the two began to choke on.
"Oh my god," said the twenty-one-year-old grad student, "What the hell is that?"
"That, my dear boy," King marvelled, grabbing his flashlight and walking through the crack, motioning for George to do the same, "Is a breakthrough..."
"Holy shit!" George exclaimed as he walked into the cavern. Inside the cave was almost an entire city, covered in dozens of ancient-looking structures and centuries-old waterfalls that had slowly eaten away at the rock they ran on and were filled with green algae. All built around a large main street leading to a staircase that must have had more than a hundred steps that led to a smaller mountain at the south side of the settlement. "What the hell is this place?"
"Olympus," King said proudly as he slowly approached the ancient stone steps that looked as if they had not aged a day.
"Ha-ha, very funny," George said dryly as the two walked up the stairs passing level after level of temples that seemed to grow more and more luxurious as they went up, "No, seriously. What are we looking at here?"
"What if I told you," King began, "That this was once the home of a race of people older than humanity's concept of time itself? A race of immortal warriors, mages and clerks who were so advanced that their strength was greater than any modern weapon more than two thousand years later, a strength that seemed to be beyond reality itself."
"I would say that you're going nuts," George said, still overwhelmed by the city he found himself marvelling, "That you're saying gods are..."
"I'm saying the Greek gods are real," King smiled.
"And you know this how?" George asked, struggling to keep up with what he was being told.
"Because I'm one of them," King responded, continuing up the steps, "At least their blood."
George paused, "I'm going to need more than that."
"On his deathbed, my grandfather told me the truth about my ancestry," King explained, "How the king of the gods would descend from Mount Olympus to consort with mortal women. Women who would go on to birth legendary heroes and kings, one of whom was my ancestor. These bloodlines either through hubris or accident slowly began to fall one by one, leaving only mine, leaving only me, the last mortal son of Zeus."
"That's a great story," George rolled his eyes, "If not a little self-indulgent."
"Self-indulgent," King repeated, frowning at the taste of the words on his tongue, "All world superpowers have tried to find this place, the English Empire, Nazis, Soviets, even the Americans who hired us to do this very job have been looking for decades. All of them failed, except me and do you know why that is?"
King's face was now inches away from George's face, making him extremely uncomfortable.
"They were too busy with the ark of the covenant," George awkwardly chuckled.
"I know that's a joke, but it's not too far from the truth," King shrugged, continuing his path up the stairs, "No, it's because this place, as well as all evidence of the gods, has been enchanted to remain undiscoverable to all except those with the blood of Zeus, my blood."
George's heart raced as these realizations took hold in his mind,
"You still haven't answered my question," George reminded him, his voice struggling to remain stable, "Is that why the Army guys are here, for the strength of the gods? Are we looking to make weapons?"
"They are," King said honestly, "But that's not what we're here for, we're not looking for the power of the gods. We're looking for their knowledge."
"And what are we going to do with that?" George asked, slowly calming himself down.
"These are beings who watched over us for centuries and knew the hidden secrets behind the creation of our universe," King explained, "Imagine what we could gain from their wisdom, cures to diseases, the code to perfect economics, hell even world peace. Humanity would finally be able to save itself from the certain doom we placed ourselves in."
The two men finally reached the top of the stairs, coming across a sizeable, flattened plane covered in long-dead grass on the top of the mountain. On the opposite side was the largest temple they had seen yet with a large banner with a pair of symbols resembling a lightning bolt and a lion hanging over the door.
"The temple of Zeus and Hera," King explained, looking upon the temple with wonder.
Surrounding the edges of the flat space were eight slightly smaller but no less brilliant-looking temples, each looking completely different from the last, each with unique symbols displayed above their entrances.
"Observe," King began, pointing to each of the temples one by one.
"The Swan of Aphrodite,
The Hammer of Hephaestus,
The Moon of Artemis,
The Grapevine of Dionysus,
The Caduceus of Hermes,
The Sun of Apollo,
The Dog of Ares,
And the Owl of Athena.
George, my boy, we are standing in the home of the twelve Olympians,"
"Then why are there only ten?" George asked.
"I can only assume Poseidon and Demeter have their own equally brilliant temples in the realms they rule," King explained, marching straight toward Zeus temple, not even stopping to observe the beautifully sculpted fountain depicting two water nymphs in an elegant dance.
"Wait, Professor," George called out, sprinting to catch up with him, "Shouldn't we call this all in?"
"Nonsense," King rejected, "As soon as we tell them what we've found, they will take over this cavern and hide their secrets for the rest of time. We need to learn what we can now."
The two pushed through the rotting wooden temple doors to find what appeared to be a throne room. At the very end of the room sat a pair of beautifully decorated if not exceptionally comfortable-looking golden thrones, with a collection of five smaller thrones on each side curving around a strange mystical black stone built into the floor. Each throne was wildly different yet still regal-looking as if they bought each one from whatever could be found in various king's garage sales.
"What is this place?" George asked, examining the marble pillars and detailed paintings that decorated the walls, paintings telling the story of a war between gods and titans in which gods ultimately were victorious.
"Zeus was a king," Wallace explained, "And like all kings, he needed a throne room."
The professors' eyes immediately found themselves drawn to what might have been the most unremarkable item in the chamber.
Between the two thrones was a small bronze pithos, no bigger than a football and decorated with simple Ancient Greek markings that King was quickly able to decipher.
"Pandora's box..." King read aloud, cautiously approaching the container.
"Really?" George remarked, "Of all the stuff in this room, that's what catches your eye."
"You don't understand," King explained, never taking his eyes off the box as if it was calling to him, "Pandora's box was created to contain the evils of man. But according to legend, it was opened thousands of years ago, yet it's closed, what could be locked inside now?"
"Maybe we don't want to find out," George offered, "Let's just leave it alone."
King placed his hand on the lid, allowing the cold, humming bronze to sting his skin, he felt its call, and before he could stop himself, he flipped open the lock and swung the top open.
George recoiled, preparing himself for whatever horror would emerge.
But none came.
The only thing he could see inside the box was some old coins, some decayed scraps of parchment and what seemed to be some piece of bronze metal the shape and size of a fountain pen.
The two men stood in silence for a few moments.
George broke the silence with a relieved chuckle.
"All that stress over an old urn," he smiled, "I swear all this god-talk is going to your head."
"I seek knowledge," King mumbled under his breath.
George raised his eyebrow.
"Are you okay?" George asked, carefully approaching King, who had not moved in some time, He noticed something behind the professor's ear. It was small and black and appeared to be moving, He reached forward to investigate before quickly recoiling as more words left King's lips.
"Humanity needs the knowledge of the gods if it hopes to survive," King continued, "All I ask is for your help...
...thank you, I appreciate your wisdom and kindness...
...the boy? He's no one, simply a student of mine...
...yes, I suppose you're right. He would only serve to obstruct us with what he knows...
...the box must be kept secret for the time being...
...the boy...
Kill him."
A look of panic spread across George's face as Wallace King raised his hands and blood-red smoke soon began to leak from his palms and immediately surround the two of them.
George quickly turned to run, only to find his legs had lost the will to move once he saw what had materialized behind him.
He looked up to see a creature nearly twice the size of himself with hooved feet, the torso of a man and the head of a bull.
The Minotaur quickly grabbed the paralyzed George in his massive hand, lifting him far off the ground as he opened his jaw.
As George Ramirez took his final breaths, Wallace King continued his conversation with the new mysterious voice he found in his head.
"Before we continue..." King began, "I need to know, how did the Olympians fall?"