"How should I address you, Goddess who presides over the Nether Moon?"
After following the girl in black robes through the portal, Themis did not hurry to look around. Instead, she asked for the unfamiliar god's name.
Within Khaos's currently narrow "divine circle," the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar god naturally aroused her curiosity.
"My lord gave me the name Lyanna."
The girl's voice was gentle, but when it reached the ears, it carried an overwhelming sense of authority. Themis knew this was the influence brought by the Divine Office of the Nether Moon.
In the current Underworld, aside from the recently appeared Oath Goddess Styx, only a few descendants of the Twin Gods of the Night occasionally manifested in the world.
But Styx had only just been born, and the six children of the Lord of Darkness who presided over misfortune, destruction, decay, sorrow, deception, and lust were not powerful either. In a vague sense, the Nether Moon was the ruler of the Netherworld.
Even in later generations, the original Nether Moon and Goddess of Forked Roads would become the Underworld's secondary sovereigns, possessing authority second only to Hades. This showed that the Nether Moon's status in the Underworld was far from ordinary.
Therefore, under the influence of her Divine Office, Lyanna's voice naturally carried a hint of a King's bearing, much like the Lord of the Outer Sea who currently ruled the ocean.
Hearing this, Themis nodded, but after taking only a few steps, she suddenly stopped. When she heard the footsteps behind her cease, Lyanna turned around and asked with her eyes why the Goddess of Justice had stopped.
"I'm terribly sorry, but Princess Lyanna, may I ask what this is?"
She had been focused on asking Lyanna's name. Only after Themis began observing her surroundings did she realize in surprise that she had arrived at a special place.
Everything around her seemed no different from the Netherworld outside. In fact, if the world had not suddenly turned black and white, Themis would have thought she had never moved at all.
Looking around, she saw transparent creatures resembling umbrellas drifting through the air. They "floated," with many tentacles trailing from beneath their umbrella-like bodies, as though absorbing something from their surroundings.
Themis could sense that this might be the power known as "Spirituality."
Though she had never seen them before, the Goddess was certain that these strange, grotesque creatures were indeed a form of life—a life distinct from the gods.
They possessed no divinity. The passage of time alone could leave marks upon them, or even erase their existence. Yet there was no doubt that these wondrous lifeforms she was seeing for the first time also possessed minds, even if those minds were still extremely primitive.
That was what she found most difficult to understand. In present-day Khaos, there were no intelligent lifeforms apart from gods, not even primitive ones.
"These are a kind of 'Ghost Jellyfish,' the weakest kind of 'Wandering Soul Jellyfish.'" Lyanna smiled faintly and explained.
"In the First Layer of the Spirit World, the Phantom Spirit World, they're at the very bottom of the food chain. But they reproduce very easily. Look—"
Following the direction of Lyanna's finger, Themis noticed a relatively large transparent creature not far away. It was splitting apart down the middle.
The process was very slow and lasted for more than ten minutes. When the final strand holding it together snapped, the transparent creature completely divided into two.
Immediately afterward, from the torn openings on the left and right halves, countless transparent threads emerged from within the bodies, forming the missing halves. The two "half-bodies" had both become smaller, but as time passed, each grew the missing parts and became two smaller, complete lifeforms.
"My lord says this is 'mitosis.'" Lyanna introduced it solemnly. "It's a primitive yet highly efficient method of reproduction. If the concentration of Spirituality is sufficient, their numbers can double in half a day."
"...My-to-sis?"
The brand-new term refreshed Themis's worldview. As the Lord of Justice and Law, she had always been taciturn and solemn, unmoved by external things. But today, she was genuinely astonished by what she had witnessed.
"It's mitosis," Lyanna corrected her. "Didn't you see the spiritual threads that emerged when they grew their bodies?"
"..."
The Goddess of Justice remained silent. She somewhat didn't know what to say.
"Let's go." Seeing that Themis "had" no more questions, Lyanna waved her hand, and another portal of light appeared before them.
Themis could clearly sense that the power the other party called "Spirituality" was extraordinarily dense beyond the portal—more than ten times denser than in the First Layer of the Spirit World where they currently stood.
"This is a portal leading to the Second Layer of the Spirit World, the Communication Spirit World, also known as the True Spirit World. Normally, only a few places in each layer of the Spirit World are interconnected. But the barriers between the first three layers were deliberately made easier to breach. Since you're an invited guest, we're taking the express route directly."
Following Lyanna through the portal once again, Themis was just about to say that she understood when the scene before her stunned her once more.
In the First Layer of the Spirit World, although everything had been turned "black and white," and she had encountered the strange "Wandering Soul Jellyfish" and "mitosis" immediately upon entering, those things were still within Themis's range of understanding.
They were nothing more than a special kind of creation. She had heard that the God of Spirituality had borrowed the Life Treasure Bottle from the Earth Mother. Thus, the birth of new lifeforms beyond plants was not particularly strange.
But what now appeared before Themis was a scene she had never witnessed before.
Two silvery-white Crescent Moons hung in the sky, while countless winged lifeforms flew and chased one another overhead. The ground was covered in all kinds of unfamiliar plants radiating an aura of Spirituality, and at least ten species of new lifeforms covered in fur or scales moved across the earth.
Not far away, about a thousand meters distant, stood a small lake. Many scaled lifeforms swam within it. At the bottom of the lake was another strange creature that repeatedly opened and closed, with a pearl growing inside it.
"...Are all these creations of His Highness Ryan?"
Looking at everything before her, the Goddess of Justice asked in disbelief.
When the Earth Mother had created plants, Themis had already considered it an epoch-making achievement. But after seeing these special lifeforms today, she suddenly felt the barrenness of Khaos's lands.
"Yes. My lord created the world in seven days. These are Spirit World Lifeforms that my lord created on the fifth and sixth days."
Very pleased by the shock this "foreign god" felt at the might of the Creator, Lyanna smiled as she explained.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Themis spoke again. "May I approach them and take a closer look?"
"Of course, but—"
With a light wave of her right hand, Lyanna summoned a portal of light for the third time. This time, Themis sensed no aura at all from beyond it.
"It seems you plan to stay here a while longer, so we can't continue upward layer by layer."
"I'll wait for you here. Later, we'll go directly to the Seventh Spirit World, to my lord's palace."
"At that time, you can state the purpose of your visit to my lord."
"..."
Only then did Themis remember that she had actually come to borrow the Divine Decree Stone Tablet. She hesitated for a moment, but still walked toward the numerous Spirit World Lifeforms.
She was very interested in such peculiar non-divine lifeforms that possessed minds of their own.
The name Lyanna was actually adapted from Diana, which came from Latin and meant "divine moon goddess." However, Princess Diana was more famous, so to prevent readers from getting the two mixed up, I changed it to Lyanna.
The same applies to Esther. In Hebrew, it means "star."
Before you continue