Gathering of the Gods

With a casual gesture, Ryan brought an unconventional goddess of beauty into existence, but he did not take the matter to heart.

Ceto had little presence in later generations. Only her monstrous children appeared in human epics, where they served to glorify the magnificent achievements of the demigod "heroes."

Though she was also a monster, compared with King of Ten Thousand Demons Typhon, she could not even measure up to Typhon's many offspring.

But now, as a goddess, Ceto might leave some new traces in Khaos's history.

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Seven hundred years passed after Metis was born and Ceto was reborn.

The world never revolved around a single person. Although Ryan had lived in seclusion for seven hundred years, it did not affect Khaos's world from flourishing ever further.

A hundred years after he returned to the spirit world, a full moon once again appeared in Khaos's sky, which had been dark for nine hundred years. She was Selene, the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, the Moon Goddess.

This goddess, who should have been powerful along the original trajectory, was extraordinarily weak instead. Having lost all concepts related to the moon, her limit was only Weak Divine Power—and she had the moon, the largest luminous body in the night sky, to thank even for that.

This infuriated Hyperion greatly. He had suppressed his son because the sun could not be divided in two. But Selene, his daughter, should have become the best assistant in his rule over the stars. Instead, she had left him deeply disappointed.

Hyperion hesitated for a long time over this, but in the end, he still went to the Underworld. In his view, as long as he did not seek a prophecy from Ryan and allow himself to be ensnared by Fate, there was nothing frightening about the so-called God of Spirituality.

The Twin Gods of the Night, who had retreated in the past, had most likely made the same mistake as the two generations of God Kings, binding their own hands and feet because of prophecy.

Thus, Hyperion searched throughout the Underworld. He tried to find Ryan and make him return the concept of the moon. The Sun God was unwilling to cause trouble for the sake of a sister with whom he was only ordinarily close, but his daughter was different if she had the potential to attain Great Divine Power.

Yet Ryan could not be bothered with Hyperion's actions at all. After searching for several years, the Sun God could only release his power around the Underworld Moon in fury, but he could not touch the luminous body so close at hand.

Returning empty-handed, Hyperion sought out Cronus again. He thought Ryan had relied on the God King's decree to seize Selene's power. As long as Cronus revoked the order, the concept of the moon would return to its original owner.

But Cronus flatly refused him. Not to mention that the matter of the moon's ownership had been a vow he made to the world— even if it had not been, he would not have shown any kindness to this brother with whom he had always been at odds.

Besides, others might not know, but Cronus knew it perfectly well. Judging from his own Space-Time Origin, before the concept of the moon had gathered the past, it might indeed have been controlled by Ryan because of the God King's authority. But after the past had gathered, it was probably gone for good.

Thus, to conceal the truth of his damaged origin, Cronus was even less likely to accept this unreasonable demand.

Rejected again and again, Hyperion flew into a rage. Yet as he sensed the God King's increasingly powerful aura, he felt somewhat helpless. In the end, he could only return to the sky and vent his fury at his surroundings.

During that period, the sun in the sky recklessly released its power, and the temperature of the entire world rose with it. Fortunately, the earth was mostly inhabited by gods at the time, so no disaster was caused. Still, because of this incident, the Third Generation Gods of Khaos learned that an ancient god controlling the Underworld Moon and Spirituality existed in the Underworld—one who rarely ventured out.

Several more years passed, and Astraeus and Eos were born one after another. The former was the son of the God of Meteorology and Eurybia, the Sea Power, as well as the God of Constellations. The latter was Hyperion's second daughter, the Goddess of Dawn.

Unlike the myths recorded in legend, there was no scene of assault this time. Or rather, Ryan had never thought that this part of the myth had much truth to it in the first place. It was said that the goddess of love and beauty had cursed Eos to fall in love only with mortals, but judging from her later actions, she did not seem like a goddess who guarded her chastity.

Thus, after little more than a hundred years, the two new gods came together of their own accord. They gave birth to the Four Wind Gods and numerous star gods, most of whom were quasi-gods without Divine Offices.

There was only one exception among the star gods: Astraea, the Star of Justice and Goddess of Purity. Though she was not very powerful, she was a genuine True God, and the other star gods regarded her as their leader.

The Anemoi, the wind gods, were far more powerful. They tore parts of the Divine Office from their grandfather, the God of Meteorology, and each came to represent one of the four directions of the wind.

They were Boreas, God of the North Wind; Notus, God of the South Wind; Eurus, God of the East Wind; and Zephyrus, God of the West Wind. With their birth, the air currents of Khaos became more changeable.

At the same time, on the earth and in the sea, the Ash Tree Goddesses and the Goddesses of Vengeance were born one after another.

They were formed from the divine blood Uranus had left behind. The former were called the Meliae, while the latter were called the Erinyes.

Perhaps because Ceto, the Danger of the Sea, had drunk some of the divine blood before the Goddesses of Vengeance were born, they regarded Ceto as their eldest sister and remained in the Outer Sea with her.

The three Ash Tree Goddesses, meanwhile, went to Mount Othrys to pay their respects to the God King. Rhea, who had become the God Queen, kept them at her side.

On the other side, Iapetus on the Divine Mountain had a God Child of his own. He and Clymene, the daughter of the Lord of the Outer Sea and his niece, gave birth to three gods in succession. All of them would become famous in later generations.

The original God of Strength and later bearer of the sky, Atlas; Creator of Bronze Humans and Foresighted Fire Thief, Prometheus; and Hindsightful Dullard, Epimetheus.

Unlike his two brothers, who were weak, Atlas displayed extraordinary divine power from the day he was born. He possessed the potential to attain Great Divine Power.

For this reason, the Lord of the Outer Sea personally came to congratulate his nephew and grandson on his birth, blessing him never to be invaded by the sea.

Of course, while his siblings were all working hard, Okeanos, who loved fathering children, had not been idle either.

Over seven hundred years, thousands of children were born in the Khaos world, and rivers and lakes began spreading across the earth.

Most of them were Regional Gods, but there were still several True Gods among them. They were Eurynome of Waterweed Pasture, Goddess of Boiling Water Perseis, Goddess of Foresight Pronoia, Doris, Goddess of Gentleness, and Philyra, Goddess of Healing.

As their children increased in number, the conflict between Pontus and Okeanos grew increasingly fierce. Their children had fought several battles in the sea, but none had produced any clear result.

Even so, anyone with eyes could see that if they had not been wary of the God King on the Divine Mountain, a war between the two sea gods might have broken out long ago.

Besides that, amid the births of so many gods, another baffling incident occurred.

Around the thousandth year after Cronus ascended the throne, many Mountain Gods and River Gods on the earth noticed a jade-green light flying out from underground and heading toward Earth Mother's dwelling beside the Eastern Sea.

Afterward, the land of Khaos shook inexplicably for three years. It was Earth Mother's anger, but there were no further consequences.

Later, the God King Cronus visited Earth Mother and borrowed the Life Treasure Bottle, but returned empty-handed. Only when the Goddess of Justice and the God Queen Rhea came with him to ask for it did they obtain what they wanted.

But to the disappointment of the three Titan gods, although the Life Treasure Bottle, as the source of life in Khaos, could create living beings, none of them possessed consciousness.

Left with no choice, Themis had to abandon her plan to create life for the time being and continue her preparations.

Thus, several hundred years passed, and the preparations that had lasted a total of fifteen hundred years finally ended. On that very day, the Goddess of Justice and Law finally stood atop Mount Othrys and began legislating for the mortal world.