Twin Gods of the Night

"What a miracle of creation."

"Seven-Layered Interface, each layer different. This is a new world, subordinate to Khaos yet independent at its source."

Beside the illusory Underworld Moon, Lady of the Night's gentle voice drifted over. Like her, it was elusive and uncertain, seeming both real and false.

She wore a black dress woven from the night sky. Anyone who saw it—human or god—could only know that the person wearing it was beautiful. As for exactly how beautiful, that could only be portrayed in dreams.

Even Ryan had only once glimpsed Nyx in the form of a young girl, at the instant the Primordial Gods were born. Other than that, the appearance of this Ancient God of Creation had never been known to outsiders. She was like the night itself, mysterious and hazy.

"What a pity." Nyx spoke cruel words in a tranquil tone. "If this had happened before, I could have shattered it. But now, its source has already been remade."

"Space-time and Fate have been combined with Spirituality. Unless Khaos is willing to give me all the remaining source power of space-time, I can't touch it either."

Nyx could sense that the Spirit World was right before her eyes, even covering most of the Underworld.

But it was useless, because Spirituality separated the two sides. Nyx could use the power of destiny to hold Fate's trajectory in place, but she lacked the authority over space-time needed to break through this barrier.

In many cases, divine authorities were absolute. Even if her power was enough to shake the entire Underworld Soil, she still could not tear open this barrier—just as the Zeus of later ages could not stop the God of Sleep's hypnosis.

"But Khaos won't do that."

Suddenly, an ageless male voice came from beside Lady of the Night.

The voice was deep and steady, but its tone carried a hint of mockery. Clearly, its speaker did not like Khaos's instinctive consciousness.

"This is a world without a self, just like our true bodies. It would rather be slowly drained of blood than understand the meaning of cutting its losses in time."

That was the Lord of Darkness, Erebus. His existence was even more secretive than Nyx's. After all, he was darkness itself.

"Perhaps we can talk." Erebus spoke.

Ryan knew that he was speaking to him.

"In the past, I ignored your existence because of your weakness. But the facts have told me that, as an Ancient God of Creation older than us, your power is far greater than you have shown."

That was what the Lord of Darkness said, and it was indeed what he believed. As the oldest gods, the Primordial Gods all knew of Ryan's existence. But after sensing his power, they stopped paying attention to him.

If Uranus had not later taken an interest in the "weakest Ancient God," even the Earth Mother would not have come to see Ryan, and there would have been none of the prophecies that followed.

In the Spirit World, Ryan hesitated in the face of the Lord of Darkness's invitation.

In terms of his source, Ryan, who had just completed creation, was extraordinarily powerful. He had plundered a huge amount of source from the world. Even without digesting it yet, its strength had far exceeded his imagination.

The Divine Decree Stone Tablet was especially important. Ryan had gained an astonishing amount of the power of the order of Fate from it, along with many miscellaneous powers.

Writing was one of them. The characters innately engraved upon the tablet were older even than Mnemosyne, the God of Writing. Ryan had used this power to create the Spirit Script belonging to the Spirit World.

Powerful sources piled atop one another. In Ryan's perception, if Spirituality were measured by Divine Office, it had already approached the strength of the sky. Once he fully digested what he had gained this time, he could even reach a higher level. In reality, however, Ryan's power was not very strong.

It was like the Primordial Sea God Pontus. Before his Divine Office was divided, the ocean was no inferior to the sky, yet he had never been a match for Uranus. This was not a difference in Divine Office, but a difference in actual power.

Divine Office determined a god's upper limit, while Divine Power Level determined a god's current strength. Ryan possessed a powerful source, but at present, he was like the newly born Primordial Sea God, with only a Divine Power Level of 11.

If the god outside had been anyone else, even Gaia, Ryan would have dared to go out and meet them. But the Twin Gods of the Night were different.

These two Primordial Gods had only a shallow degree of personification, and their power was therefore much greater.

Silence fell both inside and outside the Spirit World. After hesitating for a long while, Ryan finally abandoned the idea of avoiding them.

He could not remain in the Spirit World forever, slowly accumulating divine power over tens of thousands of years.

He still had many things to do. Besides, he had been born alongside the Spirit World. Even if they caught him, at worst, he would die once and suffer a drop in divine power.

As long as the Spirit World remained, he could reform his Divine Body at any time. They could not imprison him forever.

But by then, his grudge with the Twin Gods of the Night would be truly deep.

Having made up his mind, Ryan stepped forward. In the next moment, his figure appeared outside the Spirit World.

A silver-white shadow solidified from illusion, pale-purple patterns decorating his long robe. Ryan stood before Lady of the Night and nodded in greeting.

He was no longer the Ryan of the past. Even the Original Five Gods were no longer worthy of making him bow.

"Yue An, Her Highness Nyx, and His Highness Erebus, sorry for the wait. May I ask what you wished to discuss with me?"

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Lady of the Night scrutinized the young god before her.

Unlike the other male gods in the world at this time, Ryan had no obvious muscles, nor did he wear crude garments condensed from divine power. His silver-white robe looked distinctive, and his entire person gave off an unusual feeling.

"Hehe, you really are surprising, His Highness Ryan. You look completely out of place among the gods."

"I imagine you certainly didn't look like this in front of my unfortunate elder sister."

Accompanied by a soft chuckle, Nyx's elusive voice sounded again. For some reason, however, Ryan felt that she was being sarcastic.

"Perhaps. But if the Earth Mother had been able to set aside the arrogance in her heart earlier, perhaps she would not have ended up like this."

"Besides, I really don't see how you and the Earth Mother are 'deeply affectionate sisters.'"

Ryan gave a soft laugh, neither confirming nor denying Lady of the Night's assessment.

When one was still weak, one always had to "go with the flow." If he had possessed his current strength before, Ryan would not have needed to rack his brains over any "prophecies."

If he were a Great Divine Power now, then even if the Twin Gods of the Night sensed the world's will, they would simply pretend not to have heard it.

"However, His Highness Erebus, forgive my bluntness." Ryan smiled, his tone somewhat casual. "But could you come out and speak with me?"

"I'm really not used to conversing with a god I can't see. Since you invited me, you should at least come out and meet me face-to-face."

"You're right. I was discourteous."

The instant the Lord of Darkness's voice fell, Ryan saw his appearance.

A black hood covered his body. Its blackness was different from Nyx's black dress.

The dress's color was more like a changing "black," while the Lord of Darkness's hood was more like a black hole.

It had no color of its own. Only by contrasting it with its surroundings could one know that the place was "black."

Frowning slightly, Ryan realized that Erebus had not actually concealed his whereabouts. He had been standing there all along. His presence was simply so faint that it seemed as if he did not exist.

Compared with Nyx's verbal impoliteness—opening with "I could shatter it"—this Lord of Darkness was the truly difficult one to deal with.

This move was undoubtedly a show of dominance, but Ryan had no choice but to accept it. To him, this ability to hide was more threatening than simple strength.

The only three beings in this age who possessed the authority of concealment had gathered here. One could hide secrets within history, one could cover secrets with the night, and for Erebus, darkness itself was a secret.

After thinking briefly, Ryan spread his hand. The radiance of Spirituality emerged, transforming into thousands of nascent points of light.

These were embryonic soul eggs. As long as divine power was used to shape bodies for them, they could be turned into Nymphs or Daimons.

And this was the gift Ryan had prepared.

"The gods should be noble," Ryan said. "They may submit to someone, but they should not serve anyone. Treating one's own children as servants will ultimately bring disaster."

"Embryonic souls, a small gift. May the tragedy of the Sky Father never reappear in the eternal night."

A threat could only ever be answered by another threat. And in this world, the only thing that truly made the Primordial Gods wary was probably unpredictable Fate.

Ryan's meaning was obvious. If you cannot kill me, then you had better think carefully about the consequences of becoming my enemy.

It hasn't been easy. I've published eighteen chapters by now, and I've finally managed to sign a contract.

As a new author, I can see quite a few shortcomings in my writing. For example, some transitions are clumsy, I can't bring certain grand scenes to life, and some of the dialogue sounds unnatural. But there's nothing to be done. Recognizing a problem doesn't mean I can solve it.

I can only slowly accumulate experience. Hopefully, after writing more, I'll be able to produce a novel with an above-average level of prose.