Prophecy

"Honored God King, before the Prophecy, I hope you understand one fact: prophecy has always been observation, never creation."

After taking another sip of the sweet juice, Ryan explained solemnly, "I cannot change Fate. I only observe it, or even just observe a part of it."

"Moreover, observation is not without a price. Once you know it, it knows you as well."

"What do you mean?" Faced with this unfamiliar domain, the God King was somewhat confused. "What does 'it knows me' mean?"

"Fate was originally uncertain. Although it has fixed trajectories, it is not inherently impossible to change."

"But if you try to observe it through prophecy, Fate will instead become an unalterable destined conclusion. You can only delay its arrival or distort its meaning, but you cannot make it disappear completely."

"Then, do you still want me to make this Prophecy?"

At the end, Ryan asked the God King in return.

Ryan had not fabricated his earlier words. This was information he had received after obtaining the Divine Office of Prophecy.

Whenever anyone tried to directly observe Fate, whether or not they borrowed the hand of another god, they themselves became part of Fate.

No one could lift themselves off the ground by pulling on their own hair, so no existence could defy the shackles into which it had transformed itself.

After learning this, Ryan decided that he would never prophesy his own fate.

As for the "prophecies" made by certain gods in later generations, Ryan actually preferred to call them Fate's curses.

Elsewhere, after hearing Ryan's explanation, Uranus breathed a sigh of relief, then hesitated again.

The price of prophecy was immense. This made him less wary of the Mother of Night, who controlled what was destined, but he still wanted to know his own ending.

The First God King.

Thinking of how Ryan had addressed him at the foot of the mountain, Uranus finally made up his mind.

"I believe in my own strength." Facing Ryan's gaze, Sky Father spoke thus. At that moment, he had just obtained the God King's Throne, and his powerful strength had greatly bolstered his confidence.

"Make the Prophecy, Ryan. Whatever the result, in the name of the God King, I promise you one reasonable request."

"I believe that with my current strength, nothing is destined to remain unalterable."

As the Firstborn God King and the symbol of Paternal Authority, Uranus, who already stood at the pinnacle of Great Divine Power, took another half-step upward.

He now stood at the same level as the Primordial Gods. Even Gaia, who was not skilled in combat, was no longer his match.

This filled him with tremendous confidence. He believed that even if the result of the Prophecy was unpleasant, he could, as Ryan had said, delay its arrival and distort its meaning.

Heh. The gods of Khaos are always this confident.

Ryan chuckled inwardly. Things had ultimately developed exactly as he had expected.

Meeting the God King's gaze, Ryan lightly nodded. In the next moment, a mysterious white light appeared in his dark eyes.

This was not a deception disguised as prophecy. Ryan was genuinely investigating Uranus's future.

But the result was obvious. The Divine Office he had obtained from a single prophecy was extremely weak, and even the power of the Divine Office of Spirituality was several times stronger than it.

Within a void, Ryan saw nothing. With his current strength, he was still far from being able to glimpse the fate of the God King.

But that did not stop him from making his first Great Prophecy.

"One Era." Under the gazes of the gods, Ryan spoke. "You will rule the world for one Era."

"You and the Earth Mother will also give birth to new children, but unlike us, they will not possess sacred and perfect appearances."

"One day in the future, your Firstborn will raise a blade against you, and your royal authority will be shaken because of it."

Bang! "Nonsense!"

Before Uranus could react, Okeanos could no longer endure Ryan's words.

Although he had only been born three days ago, the eldest of the Twelve Titans already possessed power approaching the level of an ordinary divine power. Violent strength surged through him as he boldly pressed it toward Ryan, attempting to stop this unfamiliar god's wild claims.

He had succeeded. Ryan fell silent. But he had also failed, because Sky Father spoke.

"Stop, my child." With a wave of his hand, Okeanos's divine power was easily quelled, and Uranus turned his gaze toward him.

"You should not attack a guest."

The God King's tone revealed neither anger nor joy, but everyone present felt the suspicion he now harbored.

"Father, I swear to the world that I will never challenge your God King's Throne."

Seeing his father speak, Lord of the Ocean knelt on the ground and expressed his loyalty to him.

Uranus gave no response.

An oath did indeed bind gods, but it was not fatal.

Even now, before the authority of oaths had been granted to the world, breaking an oath would at most cause one's divine power to fall and one's Divine Office to waver. But if one could seize the God King's Throne, everything could be restored.

"Respected Seer, is this the entirety of the Prophecy?"

Sky Father ignored his son and continued asking Ryan, whose prophecy had been interrupted.

If this was everything, then the Prophecy was nothing special.

He would split his Firstborn into three parts and cast them respectively into the depths of Tartarus, the dark void, and the depths of the earth, ensuring that he could never oppose him again.

"No." Ryan's answer clearly did not suit him.

Under Lord of the Ocean's furious gaze, Ryan smiled at the God King. "His Highness Okeanos will never be the true wielder of the blade, Your Majesty."

"The Prophecy shows that the one who topples your throne will receive the help of another of your relatives."

"Where everything begins is where it will end."

"And the Firstborn who wields the blade will certainly not be your eldest child."

As soon as he finished speaking, the eyes of the remaining eleven Titans in the Great Hall all changed. Only Lord of the Ocean breathed a sigh of relief.

Although, in the complete Prophecy, he might also become an accomplice, Okeanos was certainly not the primary culprit.

If everyone was guilty, then no one was guilty. He understood this very well. Unless his father wanted to sit alone upon the throne, he would not be punished.

The Great Hall fell silent for a while before the Earth Mother finally broke the stillness.

Her gentle face was filled with worry. At this time, Gaia was not yet the calculating Mother of Gods.

She looked toward Ryan, who had just made the Prophecy, and asked solemnly, "Honored Ryan, wise Seer, may I ask whether you can offer any further hints?"

"Because of your Prophecy, suspicion will fill the relationship between father and children, and the newborn divine court will rarely know peace. I imagine you would not wish to see such a scene either."

But faced with Gaia's implicitly threatening request, Ryan calmly shook his head.

"I am truly sorry, respected Earth Mother."

"It is not that I am unwilling to offer an interpretation. Rather, in this regard, the prophet himself is less wise than the listener."

"After all, I am merely an observer and a relayer. The truth of Fate is still very far from me."

Finally, Ryan gave Gaia an answer she could not refute.

"If you still harbor doubts, you may go beneath the Black Night."

"I believe that in the realm of Fate, Her Ladyship of the Night, the destined Ananke—one of the three aspects of the Lady of the Night—will be able to offer a more detailed interpretation. As her eldest sister, you certainly will not return empty-handed."