Prelude

Nearly three hundred years had passed since the last time Ryan met the Earth Mother.

Ryan's strength had increased again. Although he had remained in the Netherworld all these years, with the implementation of the Calendar and the Moon's orbit, he had still reached Divine Power Level 9, nearing the peak of Weak Divine Power.

Among his many Divine Offices, the changes in the Time Sequence had been the most drastic. It was now a powerful Divine Office capable of supporting him all the way to Divine Power Level 12. Iapetus, one of the Twelve Titans, was even weaker than him now. After all, mere words were far too insignificant.

But Ryan did not care. He knew that he would soon possess a true foundation on which to establish himself in the Khaos world.

According to the vague sensation from his Divine Office of Prophecy, that day might be today.

····· Othrys.

It had been three hundred years since the God King imprisoned his children.

At first, Uranus, who had committed the atrocity, was still somewhat worried. He was uncertain whether his plan had truly worked, so he checked on the Titans' condition at irregular intervals and even cut open Gaia's abdomen again. But the final result reassured him. The Prophecy had indeed been stopped.

His children obediently remained there, and the laws corresponding to their Divine Offices showed no signs of major disorder. Aside from the Earth Mother growing weaker by the day, nothing unexpected had happened.

Uranus finally relaxed. He had proven with facts that Fate could be stopped by power.

From then on, he no longer fretted over it. He had once searched for Ryan's whereabouts. After all, he had defeated the Prophecy, so the God of Prophecy was no longer anything to fear. He intended to vent the worries it had caused him in the past. He would let the Seer know that before true power, nothing was absolute.

But to Uranus's disappointment, he searched across the land and sea and used the authority of the sky to scour the world, yet he still found no trace of Ryan.

Perhaps he has taken shelter in the Eternal Night Land, or somewhere else.

At least when it comes to running for his life, the Seer is quite capable.

In the end, the God King gave up the search empty-handed. He did not want to provoke any other Primordial Gods, but with nothing else to do, he could only remain beside his God Queen all day, releasing his desires day and night.

On this day, as usual, the sky sank slightly until it met the peak of Mount Othrys.

The sky and the earth pressed together because of the actions of their incarnations. This was far from the first time it had happened. But now, in the empty Khaos, there was not even a single bystander.

"It's time," Themis said.

Unlike her brothers and sisters, the Goddess of Justice and Law had always been taciturn.

She was not close to her kin, and her power was not great either. At this time, no one in Khaos cared about justice, nor did anyone care about law. The God King wantonly wielded his power, while the weak Themis could only silently watch.

Because of this, she had covered her eyes. Unlike the explanations in later myths, she did so at this moment simply because she did not want to see any more of this chaos.

But now, with the God King about to be overthrown, she was the first to encourage her younger brother.

"Yes, it's time," Rhea said as well.

Perhaps because their Divine Offices were similar, the goddess of the Passage of Time had always been close to her youngest brother. As a goddess, she was inherently unsuited to the identity of the Firstborn. Thus, she not only did not resent her younger brother, but took pride in his courage.

"You're right."

"It's time."

Cronus raised his head.

He extended his hand and pulled the Prophecy's Scythe from his mother's flesh. It was not beautiful; it even looked somewhat crude. The flint blade gleamed, while plant vines coiled around the handle. When Cronus gripped it, he felt boundless pain and despair.

That was the pain Gaia had suffered while giving birth to the Scythe. Only the Titans who had shared her suffering could wield it.

The sky and earth were joining together. Inside Gaia's womb, Cronus could clearly see the scene. His hand trembled slightly around the handle, from both fear and excitement.

Even now, the fear Uranus had instilled in him over the course of a thousand years still remained. He feared his father, just as anyone would fear pain. But he still summoned his courage, because the God King's Throne lay before him.

I will succeed, he thought.

He gripped the handle and swung down with all his strength. An era came to an end.

····· Underworld.

Rather than standing on the ground, Ryan hovered in the sky. Under the effect of his divine power, he looked down upon this land.

"It's about to begin."

Ryan glanced up at the space above the Underworld. As if looking through the layers of earth, he seemed to see that scene destined to be recorded in history.

He had not gone up to watch, not only because it was a war between the Sky Father and the Titans, but also because he had something more important to do.

"It's about to begin for me, too."

Ryan was somewhat excited. Only he knew that he was about to do something Khaos would never permit.

But at this special moment, no one could stop him.

Ryan quietly gazed ahead. At some point, the Moon that had originally hung over the land had vanished. Its creator, the source of its existence, had taken it down and carried it through the layers of earth to an unfamiliar place.

Now, the silver-white orb hung above the Underworld.

Its gentle, brilliant light illuminated the Netherworld, which had not seen daylight for ten thousand years. In the unseen depths, the power belonging to the Nether Moon began to gather toward the Moon. This was not only because a Nether Moon ought to exist here, but also because of the vow made by the future God King.

But Ryan knew perfectly well that once the true Nether Moon was born, Khaos would certainly reclaim this authority. This was the World Consciousness's usual trick.

It had no subjective consciousness, only instinct. Thus, it never cared who something ought to belong to. It merely acted according to its own rules.

"But from now on, this will never happen again."

With a faint smile, Ryan reached out and straightened his silver-white robes. On this important day, he still wanted a sense of ceremony.

He took the Divine Decree Stone Tablet in his hand and hung the Life Treasure Bottle at his waist. The Essence of Space-Time swirled around him as Ryan walked toward the Moon.

As if he had touched nothing at all, the Lord of the Moon arrived inside the Moon. Unlike the radiance outside, this place was utterly dark. The chaotic Time Sequence that had once been bound by the God King's order wandered here. Past and future were indeterminate, and time had no measure. This place was more like the beginning of creation, when everything was still so chaotic.

Looking at this scene, Ryan reached out and lifted the silver-and-gold intertwined Space-Time Origin. He scattered it and merged it into this space.

The original Origin dispersed and began combining with the chaotic Time Sequence here. But after losing its former condensed state, it was dissipating at a speed hundreds or even thousands of times faster. If nothing unexpected happened, Cronus would reclaim this Origin instinctively within three months at most—perhaps even two. By then, Ryan would have no grounds to accuse him of breaking his vow.

But now, this Origin would not even last a day.

The Spirituality Origin that had been hidden for an entire era surged from Ryan for the first time. It wrapped around the Moon and its creation. Through it as a medium, the Time Sequence, Prophecy, Nether Moon, and even the authorities absorbed by the Moon during its orbit—such as light, celestial bodies, and change—as well as death and desolation, which had just gathered after it arrived in the Underworld, and every other concept all converged with Spirituality at this moment.

They merged together, madly torn apart by Spirituality and interwoven into an indescribable chaos of color. It also seemed like absolute darkness, with all things reduced to emptiness.

Only Ryan stood here. He was the sole existence in this place.

"I've finally waited for this day."

Ryan was filled with emotion. He could feel that the world's will had locked onto him. Without a doubt, his act of having Spirituality devour the other Origins had enraged the world. Khaos did not care whether those Origins belonged to him. It only cared that things it had once controlled were about to escape its control.

Thus, it issued an unseen Summoning. Every god still existing received this special message, similar to the rumbling of the laws when a god was born.

Every god learned that in the Underworld Soil, beneath the earth, a god who governed Spirituality had defied the world's will. Those who stopped him would be rewarded, while those who helped him would be punished by the world.

But just as Ryan had calculated, time passed second by second, and nothing happened.

At the very center of the Moon, in the dark and chaotic void, Ryan's divine body disintegrated on its own and transformed into matter that merged with the environment.

At this moment, within the Moon, the earth was the chaotic void. Above the Abyss was a sheet of darkness, while Ryan's spirit moved across the surface of the water.

Amid the emptiness, a voice split the silence. This was the first of all things, from which everything was born.

"Let there be light!" he said.

And in the next moment, the dark void had light.

He saw that the light was good, so he separated the light from the darkness.

He called the light day and the darkness night. There was evening, and there was morning—the first day.