Divine Artifact

"Swish, swish—"

In the Spirit World, Ryan put the finishing stroke on the painting and gazed at his work with satisfaction.

The God King had been pierced through the chest, yet his expression was not at all ferocious. He spoke softly and gently, as if imparting wisdom to his child.

Opposite him, the God of Space-Time held a knife and wore an expression of shock and fury, while the Titans each looked different. At the bottom of the scene, Ryan had thoughtfully drawn cracks in the earth resembling a human face. That was Earth Mother, who had been watching all along.

The next moment, although Khaos was deeply unwilling, the origin force of art and painting still connected with the Spirit World. Unlike the stars, which had physical forms, Ryan could not devour all the origin force of Khaos's stars. But now, if no god representing painting appeared within three hundred years, Khaos would never give birth to such a god again.

"That isn't necessarily true. Perhaps a 'God of Painting' will be born who possesses superb painting skills but not the slightest bit of creativity."

After sensing the state of his absorption of the origin, Ryan once again confirmed that it was difficult for him to absorb origin force related to matter. That had been decided by his original origin.

Unless one day in the future he could reach a realm above Great Divine Power and completely comprehend the root of all things.

Besides painting, art and inspiration surged in as well. The former was stronger and could last a thousand years before being drained dry. As for the latter, pure inspiration was like memory—it already belonged to Ryan.

"You are the first painting in the world, so the origin of painting should favor you. You are the first work of art in existence, so art regards you as its source. You recorded the end of the era, so history should have a share of you as well," he said.

Thus, the origin force within the Spirit World began converging on the scroll. As expected, a thousand years later, once the origin related to Khaos had been completely devoured, a Divine Artifact would be born.

With one step, Ryan vanished from the palace. The next moment, he appeared out of thin air inside the hollow mountain beneath his feet.

There was nothing unnecessary here. Only a small pool sat in the center, its spring spouting liquid that seemed both illusory and real. Ryan casually placed Death of the God King into the pool and let it gestate on its own.

The pool was the external manifestation of the Spirit World's root. The other Divine Artifacts that had yet to emerge were all inside it.

Ryan turned his gaze toward the pool. Surrounding the spring were the three transformed Divine Decree Stone Tablets.

"Are these the Creation Artifacts? In essence, they are Sacred Objects on par with Great Divine Power."

"Even in the records of later generations, the Khaos world had only a few creations this powerful."

Ryan sighed with emotion. He knew that Gaia had never noticed the true power of the three Divine Decree Stone Tablets.

Unlike the other Divine Artifacts, the Divine Decree Stone Tablets were unfinished forms. Only after they were 'used' would the power contained within them gradually reveal itself. In the original history, Themis used them to write the laws, and was therefore respected by the gods. Even jealous Hera had never dared offend her. The wise Metis relied on them to create hydrography, which was why her child had once been the destined God King.

But now, they belonged to the Spirit World. Even though the final tablet was not yet complete, their power remained extraordinary.

After looking over the slowly changing prophecy, Ryan shifted his gaze to the area around them. Three slightly inferior embryos revolved around the tablets. They were Divine Artifacts spontaneously gestated by the Spirit World.

"Time, space, and life. Unfortunately, the origin force of space is still too scarce. After all, I didn't obtain the corresponding Divine Office before this."

Ryan shook his head. Although the three embryos whose forms had yet to settle were all powerful, the one representing space was clearly inferior to the other two, because the Spirit World's spatial origin came only from Cronus.

Even so, once it emerged, it would at least be a high-level Divine Artifact—enough to drive any god mad with desire.

Of the other two, the part representing time had unified Cronus's temporal origin and the Time Sequence, as well as the past, present, and future symbolized by history, the Calendar, and Prophecy.

It was already very close to becoming a Creation Artifact, but still fell short by a little. Ryan estimated that it would need to endure the passage of one or two more eras before making up for that deficiency.

As for the embryo of life, it had been gestated from most of the life origin force taken from the Life Treasure Bottle.

The complete Life Treasure Bottle would gradually grow stronger as Khaos flourished. It should have become a Creation Artifact symbolizing the beginning of all things. But after losing most of its origin, it was destined, like the one gestated by the Spirit World, to never take that final step.

Unless, in the future, they could obtain power beyond the domain of life.

Besides these, the rest of the pool contained ordinary Divine Artifacts scattered in the corners, like the newly added scroll.

Some had been gestated from the concept of the moon, while others had been born from the origin force of change. They remained powerful within their respective domains, but their level of power was far inferior to that of the earlier few.

As for Sub-Artifacts one level lower, those products forged after the fact would not appear in the Spirit World at this point in time.

Every true Divine Artifact contained its corresponding origin force. Even gods with Great Divine Power would not ignore their existence.

"If I hadn't opened the Spirit World, I wouldn't have been able to obtain so many Divine Artifacts at once, would I? After all, only a world can directly gestate Divine Artifacts with origin force."

"But our New God King probably wants nothing more than to kill me—"

With a soft laugh, Ryan glanced once more at the embryo gestated from the origin force of space-time, then returned directly to the palace from before.

The mirror of space-time suspended in midair was already empty. During that brief interval, Earth Mother and the Titans had returned to Mount Othrys.

Ryan did not continue spying on them. The battle was over, after all, and level-eleven divine power was not enough to keep his peeping from being discovered.

But even without watching, he knew that the Titans had gone to the Divine Mountain to celebrate their victory, perhaps with some distribution of authority mixed in.

Although Cronus was the Second Generation God King, he was also the God King with the weakest divine authority. Unlike Zeus, he had no children and lovers to consolidate his divine court. Nor was he like the Sky Father, possessing supreme divine power with which to suppress all dissent.

Under his rule, the Khaos world would fall into an era of 'enfeoffment' lasting more than ten thousand years. The Titans would have absolute authority in their respective domains, and the Third Generation Gods would also be born during this period.

Now, because of Ryan, Cronus's origin was depleted, making it even less likely that he would do anything unnecessary. Barring accidents, he would first settle down and be a 'Son of Heaven.' Only after at least a thousand years would he try to do anything.

"But he'll send someone to find me—not only because of those two agreements, but also because he needs mortals to reinforce his kingship."

"If he can't make the gods prostrate themselves in worship, then having mortals resembling the gods honor him as their king wouldn't be a bad solution."

"Besides, creation itself is an act favored by Khaos."

Ryan gave a silent laugh. He was actually rather looking forward to creating life.

The Spirit World was, in the end, a world of Spirituality-based life. Khaos was the destination of all living creatures.

To grant living beings the seed of a soul, so that when their souls grew old and died, everything they possessed would return to the Spirit World—that was what Ryan wanted: a way to continuously draw in Khaos's power.

"There's faith as well."

Feeling the faint power transmitted from the lifeforms of the Spirit World, Ryan's expression grew somewhat strange.

First he had 'slashed' Cronus, and now Zeus had suffered as well. Faced with this unexpected benefit, Ryan decisively declared that if more could come, then he wanted as much as possible.