Chapter Summaries

Zeus gained the upper hand against Gaia while the gods watched, as Erebus briefly shielded them from an attack and then fought Ryan in the starry sky. After Ryan discovered that Erebus had been injured while testing the gods’ connection to Fate, he resolved to break Fate’s course in the Third Era and considered ending the succession of God Kings; Erebus then brought Moanda to the surface to serve as a guarantee in an alliance with Zeus.

• Zephyrus stayed beside Hera during Zeus and Gaia’s battle, and Hera praised his loyalty and promised him a chance at a higher position among the gods.
• A wave of darkness concealed the gods, and Erebus appeared before Zeus before returning to the starry sky.
• Gaia realized Erebus had joined forces with Zeus and resumed attacking him.
• Ryan fought Erebus, identified the injury Erebus had concealed, and drove him to withdraw from the starry sky.
• Ryan concluded that Fate’s resistance had to be broken in the Third Era and considered whether three generations of God Kings were enough.
• Erebus told Moanda he would take her to meet Zeus and make her the guarantee of an alliance.

Coeus refused Phoebe’s plea to claim authority over the stars, while Ryan discussed the coming end of the Third Era with Nyx and hinted that everyone would become his teammate. At Mount Olympus, Gaia’s power weakened under the world’s suppression, and she fled after cursing Zeus, who emerged as the uncontested God King.

• Coeus rejected Phoebe’s proposal to rule the starry sky together, and Phoebe stayed behind while he returned home.
• Ryan told Nyx that he had not settled on his plans for the Era’s end, then hinted that everyone would be his teammate when he acted.
• After three days of fighting, the world’s suppression weakened Gaia, allowing Zeus to overpower her before the watching gods.
• Zeus accused Gaia of slandering him and attacking the Divine Mountain, then offered to spare her if she abandoned her accusations.
• Gaia cursed Zeus and vanished from Olympus, while Hera reassured him that the curse was powerless and Zeus addressed the gods as their true God King.

After Zeus asked Themis to affirm his actions against Gaia, she challenged him over Metis and Athena and decided to leave the divine court to pursue justice among mortals. As Zeus returned to Olympus, he received a summons from an unknown visitor, while Gaia discovered that Tartarus's Abyss had rejected her.

• Themis judged that Gaia had endangered the world's order and that Zeus had been justified in responding.
• Themis questioned Zeus about Metis and Athena, but Zeus insisted the matter was personal and outside the divine court's laws.
• Themis realized she could not uphold both law and justice in the divine court, and chose to establish her own path among mortals.
• Themis covered her eyes, drew her golden sword, and warned Zeus that it would show him no mercy if they met in the mortal world.
• Zeus received a silent summons from an unidentified visitor and led the gods back toward Olympus.
• Gaia went to Tartarus's portal and discovered that the Abyss had rejected her.

Gaia traveled to the Abyss to enlist Tartarus in creating a child who could help her take revenge, but Tartarus rejected her and barred her entry. A mysterious branch from an alien Mother Tree then offered her a different pact, and Gaia agreed to bear its child in exchange for a share of its power.

• Gaia reached the boundary where Tartarus overlapped with the Underworld and tried to merge her power with the Abyss to conceive a new divinity.
• Tartarus rejected Gaia’s offer and prevented her from entering, leaving her exhausted and despairing at the Abyss’s entrance.
• A branch projected visions revealing its origins and showing Moanda with the Golden Apple Tree, helping Gaia understand how Zeus, Erebus, and Ryan had acted against her interests.
• Gaia considered attacking Erebus and Moanda but decided she needed allies because she could not defeat Erebus alone.
• The branch asked Gaia to serve as the Mother Tree’s maternal vessel, and Gaia agreed on the condition that she also received part of its power.
• Gaia and the alien remnant reached an agreement, and a new life began gestating in the Netherworld, destined to become the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.

Hades dealt with the damage Gaia’s outburst caused in the Underworld Soil and ordered Minta to find the daughter his elder sister had hidden. Meanwhile, Zeus met Erebus, accepted Moanda as a chief god in his divine court, and heard Erebus’s warning about the Primordial Gods.

• Hades learned from Evans that Gaia’s shout had destroyed many Soul Fires among the not-yet-awakened undead, then ordered the reconstruction of the Truthful Garden.
• Hades confronted Minta for neglecting his order and gave her one final century to find his elder sister’s hidden daughter.
• Zeus traced the lure to Mount Parnassus and confronted Erebus, demanding an explanation for his earlier attack on the gods.
• Erebus introduced Moanda as a candidate for Zeus’s divine court and explained that she could serve as a bridge between them, while her Golden Apples would remain his to control.
• Zeus accepted the agreement, and Erebus warned him that not every Primordial God was as incompetent as Gaia.

Zeus arranged Apollo’s service at Delphi, granted Athena a position and freedom to spread knowledge, and promised Euphrosyne to Zephyrus, who then brought Moanda to Olympus. After Erebus’s strange power began consuming Zeus’s body, Zeus withdrew to Asgard’s interface to suppress it and entered a long seclusion.

• Zeus sent Apollo to guard the Oracle at Delphi for ten years without using divine power, and Apollo accepted.
• Zeus made Athena a Main God and granted her request to spread knowledge and uphold the right of speech and thought.
• Zeus arranged for Zephyrus to marry Euphrosyne and sent him to Mount Parnassus with the God King Scepter to escort Moanda to Olympus.
• Zephyrus brought Moanda to Divine Mountain, where Zeus began a banquet celebrating Apollo, Athena, and the Goddess of Life before leaving early.
• Zeus discovered that Erebus’s power was eroding his body, used Asgard’s interface to resist it, and decided to remain in seclusion while his incarnation handled matters on Olympus.

Over the centuries, the gods’ churches and divine arts spread as humanity grew, until an unexplained cold wind threatened famine across the land. In the Eleusis Kingdom, King Kreios’s daughters brought the mysterious Mo Yi'er to the palace, where she revealed she was searching for a daughter who had been taken from her.

• Athena introduced divine arts, and the gods used them to empower mortal followers and expand their churches.
• An unprecedented cold wind swept south, killing crops and threatening famine; Zeus kept quiet about its cause after the culprit left Olympus.
• King Kreios struggled to respond as the cold and failing harvests endangered the Eleusis Kingdom.
• Kreios’s daughters encountered Mo Yi'er traveling alone in the wilderness and escorted her to their palace.
• Mo Yi'er said she had come to find her daughter, who had been taken from her, then accepted the eldest daughter’s offer to stay in her room.

Demeter disguised herself as an old woman and found shelter in Eleusis after learning that Hades had taken Persephone and Zeus would not bring her back. As an unnatural winter settled over the world, No urged Koen to pursue his questions about divinity, while accepting that his own life was nearing its end.

• Kreios believed Mo Yi'er might be a divine being and instructed his daughters to welcome her and ensure she was treated well.
• Demeter recalled discovering Persephone’s disappearance, learning from Hecate and Helios that Hades had taken her, and demanding that Zeus return her daughter.
• After Zeus refused, Demeter used her authority to stop the earth’s growth and left Olympus, causing a winter that threatened harvests.
• No observed the withered landscape outside Silver Moon City and told Koen that he would not live to see how the crisis unfolded.
• No rejected eternal life and encouraged Koen to pursue becoming like the beings of Olympus so he could resolve his doubts about gods and humans.

Ryan used the Well of Reincarnation and Uranus's blood foam to prepare the rebirth of Eros, a Primordial God who had died before birth. As Eros's new life began forming, Ares's fate-driven unease ruined his first secret encounter with Aphrodite on Mount Olympus.

• Eirene discovered a consciousness awakening at the bottom of the Well of Reincarnation and saw Ryan arrive, declaring the moment had come.
• Ryan explained that Eros could begin again through reincarnation, then used his power to make Eros an independent living being.
• On Mount Olympus, Ares sensed danger while meeting Aphrodite, could not respond to her charms, and was thrown out of her palace.
• Ryan sensed fate gathering around Eros's birth and brought Uranus's preserved blood foam to the Well of Reincarnation as Eros's vessel.
• Ryan dropped the blood foam into the churning well and called for Eros to enter the world and demand recompense from Him.

Ryan oversaw the birth of the Love and Desire Twins, Voros and Eros, and decided to let others determine which would reclaim winter. In Eleusis, Demeter grew attached to the infant Demophon and began using Hestia’s power to make him immortal and impervious to harm.

• Ryan watched the cocoon absorb divine blood, memories, and power until it shattered and gave birth to Voros and Eros, two young gods carrying golden and lead arrows.
• Ryan chose to let others make the choice between the twins and planned for them to learn about the world first.
• Demeter, living in Eleusis as Mo Yi'er, enjoyed the king’s hospitality and offered to care for Queen Metaneira’s son, Demophon.
• Kreios entrusted Demophon to Demeter, who decided to make him her adopted son and grant him immortality.
• Demeter placed Demophon in the hearth and invoked Hestia, using the hearth goddess’s protective power and her own Sacred Food to strengthen him against the flames.

Demeter’s interrupted ritual ended with Demophon’s death, and she demanded that Kreios send his second son to her in return for a blessing. In the Underworld, Hades sensed the arrival of a newly dead being whose nature seemed neither divine nor wholly mortal.

• Metaneira entered Demeter’s room, saw Demophon in the sacrificial fire, and rushed to rescue him after Demeter’s startled hand weakened her protection.
• Demeter blamed Metaneira for interrupting the ritual, revealed her divine identity, and used Demophon’s surging vitality to kill him.
• Kreios accepted Demeter’s decision and her offer to bless his second son, then carried the grieving Metaneira away to bury Demophon.
• In the Underworld, Hades sensed an unusual newly dead person while Persephone showed no surprise at the arrival.

Persephone accepted Hades's offer to become the Underworld Queen, transforming herself and bringing new vitality to the Underworld. As Hades went aboveground to investigate a strange aura, Persephone took over Minta's duties and named the new plants; meanwhile, an ancient being in Tartarus began to awaken.

• Hades explained that Persephone could share his authority only by binding herself to the Underworld, and Persephone ate six of the twelve fruits he created.
• Persephone became the Underworld Queen, and the Underworld gained new vitality as its laws drew power from the living world.
• Hades rejected Persephone's teasing suggestion that she bear him a prince and left to investigate the strange dead man's aura.
• Persephone turned Minta into Mint Grass, took over her duties, and named the new fruit pomegranate.
• In Tartarus, changes in the Underworld stirred the sleeping origin of Abyssal life, and she began to awaken.

Moya awakened in Tartarus, recovered her memories as Mnemosyne, and directed her rage at Ryan and the ordered world beyond the Abyss. In the Nine Hells, Asmodeus and the World Serpent watched as she summoned the Demon Gods and prepared to bring the world to ruin.

• Moya awoke in Tartarus and instinctively recognized the six dormant Demon Gods surrounding her.
• Moya examined the six Demon Gods and asked what she looked like as the first of them began to awaken.
• The newly awakened Demon God recoiled from Moya, and its blood reflected her appearance, restoring her memories as Mnemosyne, the Titan Goddess and Mother of Demons.
• Moya blamed Ryan for stealing her Divine Office, felt the Abyss's will stop her from leaving, and turned her attention toward the world beyond Tartarus.
• Moya called the Demon Gods to her and resolved to destroy the ordered world, while Asmodeus and the World Serpent watched from the Nine Hells.

Ryan and Asmodeus prepared for the Nine Hells’ war against the Abyss, with Ryan promising victory while hinting at a personal sacrifice. As the Demon Gods approached, Crios and Mephisto waited in Noisy Hollow Tunnel for the battle to begin, while Hypnos remained absent.

• Asmodeus asked Ryan how the Spirit Realm had avoided being detected and attacked, and Ryan explained that his innate space-time power protected it.
• Ryan reassured Asmodeus that the Abyss’s Demon Gods shared its weak rationality, then said victory depended on how they defined winning.
• Ryan returned his consciousness to his true form and began moving, prompting Asmodeus to suspect that Ryan’s proposed sacrifice would cost someone else instead.
• In Noisy Hollow Tunnel, Crios prepared to face the Demon Gods alone while Mephisto said Hypnos had likely arrived and would contribute in his own way.
• Crios charged into the air as Mephisto waited with a temporarily bestowed Divine Artifact, and a tremendous boom signaled that the gates of Hell had opened.

Moya entered Hell and attacked its central power, drawing the serpent-like Tartarus into battle outside the interface while the Devil Gods ravaged the world. At the entrance to the First Layer, Hypnos subdued the final two Devil Gods and watched the Abyss begin to claim the Nine Hells bit by bit.

• Moya broke through the boundary into Hell, sensed the distribution of power, and summoned the Devil Gods to destroy the world.
• Moya charged into the Noisy Hollow Tunnel, but a serpent-like being struck her back outside Hell, where she challenged it to fight.
• Hypnos recovered from the mental shock of seeing Moya and watched the first four Devil Gods pass into the tunnel.
• Hypnos used his flute to put the toxic mist Devil God to sleep and then incapacitated the shadowy final Devil God.
• Hypnos watched the Devil Gods attack the Noisy Hollow Tunnel as the Abyss sought to mark the world and establish an anchor for Tartarus.

Kreios struggled to hold off four demon gods in the First Layer of Hell, while Demeter established her worship in Eleusis through Triptolemus. The kingdom prospered under the goddess, but Metaneira still nursed a powerless curse against Demeter for her son’s death.

• Kreios fought the four demon gods, changing targets as their powers and weaknesses forced him to retreat.
• One demon god charged Kreios and self-detonated, devastating the tunnels and leaving Kreios’s divine body nearly destroyed.
• Kreios fled from the weakened demon and continued dodging the others while calling for Mephisto and trying to keep them from tainting his realm.
• Demeter taught Triptolemus agriculture, granted him Holy Power, and appointed him her representative among mortals.
• Eleusis became Demeter’s exclusive kingdom of worship, and Triptolemus’s leadership helped restore its harvests and prosperity.
• Metaneira continued to dream of Demeter’s judgment and mourn Demophon, holding a curse against the goddess despite lacking the power to make it matter.

Metaneira summoned Voros and Eros and chose a golden arrow to take revenge on Demeter, but she died before learning that the twins never intended to honor their promise. Voros and Eros decided to use the arrow on Poseidon, who remained unaware of the danger as he enjoyed himself in his South Sea palace.

• Metaneira secretly summoned Voros and Eros, who offered her a choice between a golden arrow and a Lead Arrow as a means of revenge against Demeter.
• Metaneira asked whether Demophon could be revived, but Voros and Eros said his soul had not returned to the spirit realm and refused her other requests.
• Metaneira chose the golden arrow and named Demeter's future partner and child as her targets, then pierced her own chest to soak the arrow with her blood.
• After Metaneira died, Voros and Eros admitted they had only planned to use her revenge as leverage against Demeter, but decided to shoot Poseidon with the arrow anyway.
• Poseidon drank and watched the festivities in his South Sea palace, unaware of the omen approaching him.

Voros and Eros used a golden arrow to make Poseidon fall passionately in love with Demeter, sending him north to find her. Meanwhile, Athena began her final attempt to uncover memories from before her birth, and Ryan entered those memories with her to witness what happened.

• Voros shot a golden arrow that struck Poseidon inside his palace and filled him with love for Demeter.
• Poseidon killed the remaining beings in the palace grounds, then flew north to find Demeter as Voros and Eros followed him.
• Athena used Ryan’s Divine Artifact to examine the last of her memories from before her birth and search for the truth about Metis.
• Ryan left his body and entered Athena’s memories, expecting to witness events connected to Zeus and the ritual.

Ryan entered a false world formed from a memory and discovered that it depicted Troy at the beginning of the Trojan War. He decided to investigate the Netherworld and Olympus before destroying the world, while Athena awoke on Olympus as Zeus commanded the gods not to interfere in the war.

• Ryan arrived at Troy, where soldiers tried to capture him, and he froze them with his power.
• Ryan learned from the captain's memories that the city was Troy and that Zeus had forbidden the gods from aiding either side in the war.
• Ryan identified the world as a false version of fate and planned to visit the Netherworld before confronting Zeus on Olympus.
• Athena woke in Olympus's divine court and saw Zeus threaten the gods with punishment if they defied his command.

Athena navigated Zeus’s rebuke on Olympus while Hermes reported that an unknown god had defied Zeus in Troy. The stranger, Ryan, watched the gods from the Underworld before telling Hades he had come to destroy the entire world.

• Athena soothed Zeus by expressing grief for mortal deaths, and Zeus ended the meeting with assurances of goodwill.
• Hermes reported that an unfamiliar god had attacked Troy’s guards and challenged Zeus, prompting Zeus to wait for the stranger and hear his challenge.
• Athena recognized Ryan in Hermes’s image and realized he had nodded to her.
• Ryan inspected the Underworld and observed the events on Olympus, while Athena left to investigate the world’s history.
• Hades confronted Ryan in the Truthful Garden, and Ryan clarified that he intended to destroy the entire world.