Chapter Summaries

Zeus planned to hide Mjolnir and Thor's remaining origin before the Demon Prince arrived, while the Five-Colored Dragon Queen headed to the Asura Field to absorb a Balor Flame Demon's Heart Core. Back on Olympus, Apollo noticed sulfur on Aphrodite, who descended into a secret chamber and opened a hidden palace.

• Zeus decided to wait for the investigation to find him while preparing to hide Mjolnir and Thor's remaining origin in separate places.
• The Five-Colored Dragon Queen returned to the Myriad Abyss Plains and traveled toward the Asura Field to devour the Balor Flame Demon's Heart Core.
• Apollo encountered a delighted Aphrodite on Olympus and later noticed an unfamiliar sulfur scent clinging to her.
• Aphrodite entered her temple, opened a concealed staircase, and descended to a secret chamber where she revealed her resentment toward the gods.
• Aphrodite used her divine power to open a hidden palace behind a door bearing a bat-winged figure.

Aphrodite revisited the Underground Palace where she had secretly connected Olympus to Tartarus, recalling how the Typhon Rebellion and Zeus’s rejection drove her to seek strength beyond her beauty. She explained that her experiments had created a new demon bloodline capable of carrying the Abyss’s will, and the Abyss’s Great One questioned how that discovery would benefit her.

• Aphrodite dismissed two Nymphs she had transformed and approached the altar beside the Magma Lake.
• Aphrodite recalled fleeing Typhon, then being rejected by Zeus and deciding she needed a weapon beyond her beauty.
• Aphrodite described recruiting mortal heroes to uncover Abyss secrets and how one returned carrying the Great One’s mark.
• Aphrodite lit the altar inside a hidden fragment of spacetime beneath her palace and opened a passage to Tartarus.
• Aphrodite explained that love-corrupted beings could become a new demon bloodline, allowing her power to form a temporary vessel for the Great One’s will.

Aphrodite negotiated with Moya to create a vessel for her, promising a form suited to the strongest being’s idea of beauty and arranging a clone to visit the Abyss. Meanwhile, Zeus hid Mjolnir but was caught by the approaching Demon Prince while searching for a place to conceal Thor’s remaining power.

• Moya questioned Aphrodite about beauty, then asked her to create a vessel that would appear perfect to the strongest being in the world.
• Aphrodite agreed to make Moya’s vessel and considered sending a clone to the Abyss in exchange for Demon God power and authority over a plane.
• Aphrodite returned to her temple and flew toward the starry sky to retrieve the prepared sacrifices, thinking of the Shadow Moon Goddess and her desire for greater power.
• Zeus hid Mjolnir beneath a dormant volcano in the Thunder Pool, then searched for a place to conceal Thor’s remaining origin power.
• The Demon Prince approached while pursuing the demons who had escaped with Zeus, and Zeus prepared to meet him.

The Demon Prince discovered Zeus’s concealed avatar and brought him to the Abyssal Thunder Pool, where he demanded that Zeus repair its hollow thunder domain in exchange for an audience with Mother of Demons. He explained that he intended to profit from every side of the arrangement, leaving Zeus trapped with a choice to make.

• The Demon Prince struck at Zeus’s concealed avatar, recognized him as the Thunder God, and carried him through a space rift despite Zeus’s guarded resistance.
• The Demon Prince told Zeus that an Eight-Armed Snake Demon had revealed his whereabouts and was trying to arrange their meeting with Mother of Demons.
• Zeus and the Demon Prince arrived at Thunder Pool, where Zeus sensed that its immense thunder power lacked a true source.
• The Demon Prince demanded that Zeus complete Thunder Pool’s thunder domain before he would help Zeus meet Mother of Demons.
• The Demon Prince said he planned to profit from the Eight-Armed Snake Demon, Zeus, Mother of Demons, and the Abyss Will, calling his repeated victories mutually beneficial.

Zeus examined the failing Thunder Pool and negotiated with the Demon Prince, who wanted the God King to complete its bloodline. Zeus recognized that the request might threaten the succession of the God King and instead secured a deal for information about the devils, while preparing to investigate the Thunder Pool.

• Zeus discovered that the Thunder Pool was losing power because it lacked a true origin of thunder, which he could not safely provide from his own Divine Office.
• The Demon Prince abandoned its demand that Zeus repair the Thunder Pool and ordered him to complete its bloodline so it could coexist in the present world and the Abyss.
• Zeus realized the bloodline scheme might endanger the succession of the God King and suspected Cronus or the ruler of the spirit world was behind it.
• Zeus claimed he could extract some thunder origin at severe cost and asked the Demon Prince for detailed information about the devils and their two Kings, plus help if he acted against them.
• The Demon Prince accepted Zeus's terms, and Zeus turned to inspect the Thunder Pool while concealing his doubts about the demon's promises.

Zeus helped repair Thunder Pool, causing Abyss Will to descend and revealing that Tartarus sought God King Power. He uncovered how the Demon Prince and Thunder Pool had been created from his severed remains, then left the repair unfinished while he reconsidered how to handle the Abyss demons.

• Zeus’s contribution strengthened 862-11-Thunder Pool until Tartarus’s will appeared, while the Eight-Armed Snake Demon watched and wondered what Zeus had offered.
• Zeus withdrew from the Law Chains after sacrificing a large amount of Thunder God origin, and realized Tartarus sought something tied to his God King’s Throne.
• Zeus decided to slow the repair and resolve his dealings with the Mother of Demons and Hell before continuing.
• Zeus recalled that Moya had tried to create a descendant from his severed body, but the embryo died when his Divine Body recovered.
• Zeus concluded that Tartarus had used the dead fetus and fragments of God King bloodline to create the Demon Prince, with Thunder Pool serving as its placenta.

Zeus partially restored the Thunder Sea, then confronted the Demon Prince and secured a promise to meet Moya, the Mother of Demons. Meanwhile, Moya met Aphrodite through a Sacrifice Gate and began preparing to return to the mortal world.

• Zeus stopped restoring the Thunder Sea before it was complete, causing the Abyss Will to withdraw and leaving the Demon Prince's blessing only partly increased.
• The Demon Prince blamed Zeus for halting his transformation, but Zeus explained the limits of the Abyss's power and demanded the promised meeting with Moya.
• The Demon Prince agreed to let Zeus meet Moya after a few days and asked him to describe her true appearance if he saw it.
• Zeus used the Abyss power he had gained to send his avatar's experiences to his true body, withholding his memories of the conversation with Odin's Eye.
• Moya met Aphrodite through the Sacrifice Gate and again offered her a high position in the Abyss, but Aphrodite refused and chose the mortal world.
• Moya began her plan to return to the Spirit World and mortal world so they would remember her.

Moya took possession of a new body made by Aphrodite and went to meet Zeus’s avatar in the Abyss. Their first meeting left both captivated by the other’s appearance, while Zeus secretly tested whether Moya had influenced his perceptions.

• Aphrodite used sacrifices to send Moya’s sealed new body through the Sacrifice Gate into the Abyss.
• After receiving the Demon Prince’s message about Zeus, Moya awakened the shell and left her true body unconscious to avoid destroying it with her power.
• Zeus waited on a desolate Abyss plane and wondered what Mother of Demons might like while conserving his Abyss Force.
• Moya arrived in her new body and felt drawn to Zeus, though she did not realize Aphrodite’s power of love and beauty influenced her.
• Zeus sensed Moya, established a one-way link with his true body to check for deception, and greeted her with a formal introduction.

Zeus awaited a mental connection from his avatar to meet the Mother of Demons, Moanda, and was startled by the extraordinary sight that came through. In the Abyss, his avatar charmed Moanda with flowers and flattery, while the connection to Zeus’s main body remained intact.

• Zeus reviewed the completed twelve-pillar ritual and prepared to receive his avatar’s report about the Mother of Demons.
• Zeus synchronized with his avatar’s consciousness and opened a delayed message before the clearer connection arrived.
• Zeus saw Moanda’s eye through the connection, then the image abruptly sharpened and the connection made cracking sounds.
• Zeus’s avatar created a field of flowers for Moanda and praised her beauty, making her lament that he had discarded a rose.
• Moanda took Zeus’s avatar by the arm and insisted that he was the rightful King of the Gods and that Gaia could not stop him.
• Zeus’s avatar wondered why the main body’s connection had nearly broken, then continued speaking with Moanda when it remained intact.

Zeus’s encounter with Moya triggered a vast change in Tartarus, empowering Aphrodite, the Demon Prince, and the Eight-Armed Snake Demon while setting the Abyss on a doomed attempt to ascend through Chaos. The Great Serpent used Spriel’s Mirror to record the coming transformation, while in Olympus Apollo was struck by an unseen force as he entered Asgard.

• Zeus’s incarnation and Moya entered a flower-built palace, and the resulting fluctuation spread through the Abyss and into parts of the mortal world.
• Aphrodite received the Abyss Will’s favor, her Demon Clan expanded across Tartarus, and the Demon Prince felt his limit rise as his God King position began to condense.
• The Eight-Armed Snake Demon received Devil God source power and concluded that Zeus’s actions had given Tartarus the opportunity to attempt ascension.
• The Great Serpent reasoned that Tartarus’s attempt to elevate Chaos was destined to fail, then activated Spriel’s Mirror to record the event in Hell.
• Apollo entered his Divine Kingdom, Asgard, sensed danger, and withdrew, but an unseen attack wounded his Divine Body and made him spit divine blood.

Apollo and Hestia sensed that Zeus’s struggle in Asgard had shaken the gods’ Divine Kingdoms and that a greater upheaval was unfolding in the Source Sea. As Zeus endured the source power’s contamination, he witnessed Tartarus beginning to transcend, leaving him convinced that he urgently needed to grow stronger.

• Apollo was struck by a backlash from the deaths of countless believers, and Hestia took over driving the Sun Chariot while he recovered.
• Hestia and Apollo sensed a second tremor from the Source Sea and suspected Zeus’s recent disturbance was connected to a major event in the Khaos world.
• Asgard was battered by Zeus’s wild lightning, which shattered Divine Kingdoms and prevented the gods from receiving their believers’ prayers.
• Zeus fused his will with the origin of thunder and endured the source power by drawing strength from his incarnation’s resolve.
• Zeus witnessed a brilliant light at Tartarus as immense source power flowed toward it, and the God King’s Throne trembled in response.
• Zeus resolved to increase his power, whatever happened to the Abyss.

As Tartarus began a dangerous ascension, Asmodeus learned from Erebus that the attempt to embody chaos would fail. Erebus offered to buy one of Hell’s layers with immense Darkness Source Power, and Asmodeus accepted in principle, leaving the exact terms to be negotiated.

• Asmodeus watched Tartarus’s sudden transformation threaten the Nine Hells and questioned whether Hell could withstand it.
• Erebus explained that Tartarus’s attempt to sublimate chaos could not succeed because the world itself opposed it, easing Asmodeus’s fears.
• Asmodeus asked Erebus why he had come, and Erebus proposed buying one of Hell’s nine layers rather than recruiting him into a conflict.
• Erebus offered Darkness Source Power comparable to what Zeus gained from Typhon, arguing that Asmodeus and Hell could bear it because of their origins.
• Asmodeus accepted the deal in principle and said they still needed to negotiate the amount and the transfer process.

Zeus's avatar persuaded Moya that he would help her rule the Abyss, while the main body ordered him to remain there. Meanwhile, Heracles and Dionysus returned to Olympia to rescue a centaur sage, as Ares planned to confront the same sage to restore his reputation.

• Zeus's avatar reflected on his mission and the main body's strange message, then decided to maintain contact with the main body while spending time with Moya.
• Zeus told Moya he would help her defeat the devils and outsiders in Tartarus rather than use her as an ally for his own ambitions, and Moya swore to support him.
• Heracles and Dionysus arrived in Olympia aboard the Star Shuttle to rescue a centaur sage and then travel to the ruins of Mount Othrys.
• Dionysus said he would live on in Amon's place, and Heracles reaffirmed his determination to keep his promises.
• Ares drank in his temple and resolved to find the centaur who had taught Achilles martial arts, hoping to prove the God of War had not truly been defeated by a mortal.

Ares planned to restore his reputation by making Chiron identify a substitute as Achilles, but he abandoned the scheme when he sensed Heracles approaching Olympia. After Ares attacked him, Heracles defeated the God of War and challenged him to name anything he had done for humanity.

• Aphrodite warned Ares that he had to resolve the damage to their faith within half a year, and Ares decided to force Chiron to help fabricate Achilles’ return.
• Ares sensed a powerful hero coming toward Olympia and flew out to capture him as a replacement for Achilles.
• Ande warned Heracles that the approaching god was Ares, who attacked Heracles with a spear from his Bronze Chariot.
• Heracles caught the spear, hurled it back, and charged Ares and his divine steeds.
• Heracles seized the steeds, subdued Ares, and asked what the God of War had contributed to humanity beyond his innate powers.

Heracles defeated Ares in a contest of strength, then rescued Chiron from Olympia and left the city with him. Chiron told Heracles that the Sphinx was bound by a wager involving the Golden Scales, and that the artifact kept it from entering human kingdoms.

• Heracles and Ares fought over a Bronze Dagger, and Ares’s Battle Intent drove his strength to new heights.
• Heracles used his full strength to break the dagger and send Ares fleeing toward Mount Olympus.
• Heracles entered Olympia, found Chiron under house arrest in an underground palace, and persuaded him to leave.
• Chiron explained that Olympia’s devout citizens had not harmed him and shared his vision of a venomous arrow striking a horse’s body.
• Chiron told Heracles that the Sphinx had made a wager with the owner of the Golden Scales, whose power kept it from entering human kingdoms.

Chiron explained how the Sphinx came to hold Themis’s Golden Scales and warned Hercules about the deadly rules of their contest. After losing to Hercules, Ares returned to Olympus and complained to Zeus, demanding punishment for the hero and his unknown father.

• Chiron told Hercules that Themis had wagered the Golden Scales against the Sphinx, which agreed to serve her if someone solved its riddle.
• Chiron warned Hercules that he had to answer at least one of the Sphinx’s three questions correctly or die, and advised him to pray to Themis if he failed twice.
• Ares flew back to Olympus wounded and ashamed after Hercules defeated him.
• Ares entered Zeus’s Golden Palace and denounced Hercules to Zeus, blaming the hero and his unknown father for his injuries.

Zeus used his repaired Thunder Pool and a special Divine Artifact to strengthen his position while deciding to confront the Spirit World and Silver Moon City. He sent Ares after the cause of the centaur’s escape with a broken sword, intending to use the God of War’s mission to test his enemies and prepare for his own move.

• Zeus concluded that the foreign thunder source could not transform his thunder Divine Office, so he kept the special Divine Artifact instead.
• Zeus identified Silver Moon City, the starry sky, and the Spirit World as his final enemies in the mortal world and resolved to determine the Lord of the Spirit World’s movements.
• Zeus showed Ares the empty prison cell and blamed him for allowing the centaur to escape.
• Zeus gave Ares the broken Decapitation Chain Sword and ordered him to find the cause of the escape, threatening to cast him into the Abyss if he failed again.
• Zeus planned to use Ares’s mission to probe his opponents and force Silver Moon City to submit to the God King’s judgment.

Heracles and his companions reached Mount Othrys and learned how challengers could wager their possessions for a chance to survive the Sphinx. The Sphinx explained how Oedipus and later humans turned its riddles into a corrupt bargain, then asked Heracles whether he would challenge it or accept fame through a staged defeat.

• Heracles, Dionysus, and Prometheus reached the fallen Mount Othrys, where Prometheus said the Golden Age had possessed perfect justice.
• Heracles explained that the Equivalent Scales let challengers offer themselves to Lady Themis for divine power and a chance to survive the Sphinx; Dionysus declined to exchange anything.
• The group entered the valley and found the Sphinx asleep, then Heracles apologized for staring and asked about its rules for newcomers.
• The Sphinx recounted how Oedipus answered two riddles, asked about his parentage and Thebes’s suffering, and killed himself after hearing the truth.
• The Sphinx revealed that Oedipus’s friend arranged a bargain for later challengers to gain fame through a deliberate wrong answer, and asked Heracles whether he would answer all three questions or accept a staged defeat.

Hercules challenged the Sphinx and answered its first riddle by equating the stars with the dreams of all living things, defeating the rules’ attempt to count them. In the Dream Spirit World, Iserania noticed the disturbance and saw Hercules, the Sphinx, and their companions, including the Goddess of Justice.

• Hercules chose to challenge the Sphinx, which warned him that failing to answer any of three questions would mean death.
• The Sphinx asked Hercules how many stars were in the sky and how many stones lay upon the earth, explaining that its domain’s rules would judge his answer.
• Hercules reasoned that an answer the rules could not verify might defeat the riddle, then answered that the stars equaled the dreams of every living being.
• The rules failed to measure the dreams, and the Sphinx declared Hercules correct and learned his name.
• In the Dream Spirit World, Iserania awoke to a disturbance and saw the Sphinx, Hercules, their companions, and the Goddess of Justice.

Iserania tried to seize Dionysus but instead put him to sleep, while Themis noticed the disturbance and let it pass as a dream. In the valley, Heracles chose to face the Sphinx’s second question, a paradox about the Lord of Silver Moon City, and searched for a way to answer without provoking the powers beyond the riddle.

• Iserania longed to inspect Dionysus, then used dream mist to put him to sleep after recalling divine power left in the Dream Spirit World.
• Themis noticed the disturbance in the valley but decided it was only a dream and took no action.
• The Sphinx confirmed that Heracles had earned the right to leave alive after his first answer, then offered him the choice to go home or continue.
• Heracles chose to continue, and the Sphinx told him a story about an angel of Silver Moon City and a believer’s question about whether the Lord could create a stone He could not lift.
• The Sphinx asked Heracles whether the Lord was all-knowing and all-powerful, and Heracles considered how either answer might endanger him.
• Heracles reasoned that he needed to challenge the premise of the paradox rather than answer it directly.