Judgment

As the Sun God made no effort to conceal his divine power fluctuations, the lively atmosphere inside and outside the Divine Mountain grew tense.

The gods who had been preparing to step forward also stopped. Although the Mist Snake had been eliminated, they were just as unwilling to meddle in the obvious conflict before them.

The Sun God's personality and ambition were well known, and he had never been a god skilled at socializing. Aside from his wife, Theia, even his children feared him more than they respected him. Naturally, none of the gods would speak up for him.

As for Ryan, there was even less to say. Of the gods present who knew him, aside from Themis, most were happy to see someone make a move against him.

This god, who was suspected to be even older than the Primordial Gods, had never truly made a move. Although Fate also caused the gods to fear, there had never been any power they could directly perceive.

Now that someone was willing to stick his neck out and test Ryan's strength, even the ancient Mountain God Urea could not help wanting to watch the show.

"Is something the matter?"

Under the gazes of the gods, facing the faint pressure of Hyperion's divine power, Ryan asked unhurriedly.

His calm tone and utterly unruffled expression made his attitude perfectly clear.

He had not taken the Sun God seriously at all—at least, that was how it appeared.

"—You know why I'm here, Ryan. I once went to the Underworld Soil to look for you, but you didn't even dare to see me."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Hyperion responded to Ryan's disregard with even more intense pressure from his divine power.

Light and heat surged around Ryan and rushed straight toward him. But soon, Hyperion discovered that despite his divine power pouring forth without pause, it vanished at the edge of Ryan's robes.

No, it had not vanished. Hyperion could sense that the power of the great sun was still there, continuing to move forward. Yet a distance barely a finger's width seemed to have been stretched millions of times. No matter how close his power drew, it was always just a little short of reaching the other party.

Faced with this situation, the Sun God glanced at the God King from the corner of his eye. This method closely resembled an application of the authority of space, but as far as he remembered, Cronus was the God of Space-Time.

But none of that mattered. As their powers met, he sensed Ryan's Intermediate Divine Power with extreme clarity. It posed some threat, but nothing more. This made Hyperion's resolve even firmer.

"Ryan, you should know exactly what I'm after. More than a thousand years ago, you deceived the God King with clever words and demanded Three Conditions, shamelessly stealing the concept of the moon. Today, I've come to correct that mistake."

In front of the gods, Hyperion still had to present some "reason." Although the Titan Ancient Gods who had truly experienced that era all knew that he had been one of the supporters at the time.

The Sun God had been more than happy for the Shadow Sun to expand his authority, and since he had not yet gained his freedom, he had not known that the moon of the future would become his daughter. But clearly, the Shadow Sun had never appeared, while Selene had been born instead, and Hyperion's thoughts had changed along with that.

On the other side, facing the Sun God's questioning, Ryan remained unmoved. Ever since his opponent had gone to the Underworld Soil last time, he had more or less anticipated that this day would come.

His opponent wanted the moon in his hands. Why wouldn't he want a "chicken" he could use to intimidate the gods?

If it had been another Titan, Ryan might truly have had no good way to deal with them under the difference in Divine Power Level. But Hyperion had chosen to cause trouble here and now. All that could be said was that he had personally planted the seed of his own disaster.

Feeling the lingering laws of the present world that had yet to completely disperse, Ryan did not answer. Instead, he turned to look at Cronus.

"Is this your intention?"

The God King beside him was stunned for a moment before decisively denying it.

"No, this has nothing to do with me. The God King's promises are never discounted."

Although he had wanted to say yes, then join Hyperion in subduing Ryan and see whether he could reclaim his Space-Time Origin, after thinking it over, Cronus ultimately abandoned the idea.

Now that Hyperion had taken the initiative to jump out, he could completely wait and see how things developed. If Ryan was not as frightening as he imagined, he believed his God Queen would certainly "disobey" the God King's command and "voluntarily" do something that would leave Cronus feeling regretful.

But if Ryan resolved the problem brought by the Sun God, he would absolutely not act rashly.

"Ryan!"

With a low shout, the Sun God, who had been ignored by Ryan, flared up again.

He had imagined many possible reactions from the other party—for example, refusing to hand over the concept of the moon and leaving directly by some means; or telling the gods about their former agreement and the Prophecy, then condemning him for his fickleness. But Hyperion had never imagined that the other party would simply disregard his existence.

He wanted to attack directly, but his fruitless probing earlier still helped the Sun God recover a little of his reason.

He calmed down and turned to glance at the God of Meteorology Crios. The result made him sigh in relief. His "in-law" gave him an affirmative look.

Because of the Calendar in the past, Crios had also harbored some dissatisfaction toward Ryan. He would not go so far as to stir up trouble himself, but he still dared to lend some support.

"Goddess of Justice, my sister Themis, this greedy god first stole Mnemosyne's memories, then schemed to seize my daughter's moon. I hope you can deliver a fair judgment and make him pay the price for his evil deeds."

With one ally, Hyperion still felt it was not enough. He tried to bring Themis over to his side as well. But clearly, the result was not what he had expected.

Gods and their Divine Offices influenced each other. At least, that was how the native gods of Khaos were. Aside from the former Sky Father, no one had ever been able to make the Lord of Law and Justice violate her instincts.

What was more, even from a personal emotional standpoint, between the friend who had lent her a Divine Artifact and the Sun God she had not seen for a thousand years, Themis would not hesitate in the slightest.

"The God of Spirituality was born before us. The ownership of Memory was decided by Khaos. As for the moon, that was an agreement the Mother Goddess witnessed together with us."

Themis shook her head, without the slightest intention of showing favoritism toward her brother.

She turned to glance at Ryan. If he needed her help, she would not mind standing on the side of "justice."

She might not be the Sun God's match before breaking through, but she was confident she could hold back Theia.

"An agreement? It was nothing but him threatening us with a Prophecy!"

With a cold laugh, Hyperion seemed to have forgotten how humble and wretched he had been when the Sky Father was still around. As the leader of the star gods, he had long since abandoned the caution and humility of the past.

"Since you're unwilling to help me, my sister, then you'd better not stop me either."

"Even though your Divine Office has already been elevated, you still aren't my match."

"And you, Ryan." Hyperion looked over with a cold laugh. He no longer intended to endure this.

"In front of all the gods, I'll show you that power is far more effective than words!"

The next moment, the sky brightened.