Return to the Womb

Chapter 12: Return to the Womb

Another two hundred years passed.

No new gods were born, no changes brought by the activities of living beings—aside from more places where plants had grown, the earth looked little different from two centuries ago.

But on this day, the disaster Ryan had long foreseen finally came to pass.

Perhaps it had truly existed, or perhaps it was merely the God King's delusion. In any case, after another round of 'entertainment' with his children, the Sky Father declared that he had seen dissatisfaction and resentment in his offspring's eyes.

"So you've finally made your decision?" Uranus laughed wildly. He stood by the seashore, tossing the last child he had found, Rhea, onto the ground before him.

"You've been suppressing your resentment toward me in your hearts. Now you're going to raise your blades against me?"

"We haven't, Father," Hyperion said. "We all swore oaths. No one dares to do that to you."

"Yes—" Uranus cut off his child's excuse. "Oaths—a fine excuse. I can think of another one for you."

"For instance, you still have no weapons, don't you? If you want to sit on the God King's Throne, you'll at least need a long blade."

The Twelve Titans fell silent. They knew their justifications were meaningless, so they waited quietly for the God King's judgment.

Such things had happened many times before. The God King would always find some reasonable or unreasonable excuse to freely inflict punishment upon them. The Titans thought it would be the same as always—they would feel pain or be humiliated in spirit—and they had prepared themselves for that. But clearly, this time the outcome would be beyond their expectations.

At this moment, the gods still hadn't realized the severity of the problem, because Uranus was serious this time.

After all, in five hundred years, Gaia still hadn't borne him another God Child.

"Titans, listen to me. I've thought of many ways to deal with you—for instance, throwing you all into the Abyss."

Turning his back, Uranus's voice suddenly grew calm.

He didn't look at his children's expressions. He knew they would show fear, but they weren't truly afraid. Because unlike those monsters, they were real gods.

Abusing authority would bring punishment from the world. Imprisoning a few monsters without divine offices would only weaken his divine power temporarily. But if he imprisoned all twelve True Gods together, their corresponding divine offices would lose control, and the consequences would continuously rebound upon him.

The later Zeus did just that. After defeating the Titan God Race, aside from Crios and Cronus, all the Titans who submitted to him escaped disaster.

Because weather could be replaced, and time and space were never fully mastered. But if he dared to imprison the sun, the consequences would be enough for his elder brother to take his place.

It wasn't until later, when Zeus's many children were born and the sun, moon, and stars all had replaceable gods, that the Titan gods faded from the divine court under his oppression.

But Uranus had no substitutes now. For the past thousand years, he had ceaselessly pondered how to deal with these children. Only now did he finally have an idea.

How to make a god 'exist yet not exist'? As long as he was born, but also not born, that would suffice.

So the God King made up his mind. His supreme divine power began to surge. Two thousand five hundred years on the God King's Throne had nearly pushed him to take that final step. In terms of pure strength alone, he was no less than the Great Divine Power.

Under the terrified gazes of the Twelve Titans, Uranus turned the sky into a blade, condensing it in his right hand. He looked at the gods before him and pronounced the final judgment in the name of the God King.

"You are rebellious, cowardly, imperfect gods. You possess power, but you do not match it. So as your father, as your King, I mercifully grant you another chance."

The Titans were bewildered.

They didn't understand their father's meaning. Since a god had already been born, how could there be such a thing as 'another chance'?

It wasn't until the God King's right arm swept across the earth, until he grabbed his Firstborn, that the Titan gods finally understood what 'another chance' meant.

"Ah—!"

When the sky cut through the earth, Gaia's agonized voice resounded across the world. The Earth Mother, who had been waiting on the divine mountain for her husband's return, suddenly felt immense pain. The earth was being torn apart. As the personification of the land, she felt it viscerally.

That was the God King's power—she was certain of it. Supreme force was forcibly cutting open her abdomen. She felt something familiar being stuffed inside.

'Okeanos?'

Amid her pained wails, Gaia seemed to recognize the source of the aura.

"Ah—!"

The next moment, an even sharper pain came—this time it was Tethys. Soon, as one familiar aura after another appeared, Gaia lost even the strength to scream. When Cronus also returned to the Womb, she lay dazed on the Peak of Divine Mountain, staring at the sky that had been the same for ten thousand years.

That sky had once been her beloved, but now it was her enemy.

The two of them could not coexist in this world—she was absolutely certain of that.

"Gaia, are you alright?"

After an unknown time, Uranus's voice came from afar. The God King's tone was filled with joy, because he had finally solved the problem that had been troubling him.

"I no longer have to worry about my children," Uranus said cheerfully. "The prophecy can be delayed. This is feasible. As long as they remain in your womb, they have never truly been 'born.'"

"But you are defying my instincts."

Gaia's voice was utterly devoid of emotion. She didn't even know how she could still speak. "As 'embryos,' they will drain my power. But as already-matured gods, they will gain no enhancement from it."

"Yes, you're right. So I must thank you, my God Queen." Uranus's voice suddenly softened, as gentle as it had been a thousand years ago.

"I will remember what you have sacrificed for me."

"Now, let us celebrate this moment."

He pulled Gaia into his embrace, but the Earth Mother remained unmoved.

But the God King didn't care. He was the King of the Gods; all gods should offer him everything. His children were no exception, and neither was Gaia.

············

"It has begun."

Ryan lifted his head, gazing at the chaotic celestial phenomena.

Heaven and earth were pressing together again, but everyone who saw this scene felt a nameless dread. The Source Sea trembled faintly, as if something terrible was about to happen.

The gears of fate began to turn, and as the myths foretold, the God King's authority would soon change hands.

"The feast is about to begin, yet I am the sole spectator."

"Of the four surviving primordial ancient gods, only Gaia has achieved complete personification—and her fate will be the most tragic of all."

"Perhaps this is the beginning of Gaia's transformation. An experience etched into eternity, one that will make her never again trust a creature like the 'God King.'"

His eyes narrowing slightly, Ryan stepped out of the cave for the first time of his own accord.

Between the earth and the abyss lay a place that was, for now, empty—a place that would later be called the Underworld.

Eternal night and darkness intertwined there; the Earth Mother and the abyss converged. Though most of Khaos's myths unfolded on the surface, the Underworld was in truth the most fearsome domain.

Ryan intended to hold the next conversation there. If nothing went awry, the Underworld would become his new home for an entire era to come.