I Became a Prophet in Greece: Section 5

For a time, heaven and earth seemed to merge into one, leaving the world shrouded in chaos.

The Gods Tremble with Fear

The unusually fierce quarrel between the God King and the Queen of the Gods nearly alarmed every deity in the world. The Twelve Titans trembled once more, gripped by fear from the depths of their hearts.

The crater smashed out by the Cyclopes, along with the wails forcibly stuffed into the abyss, filled them with even greater terror.

For over a thousand years, they had diligently fulfilled their divine duties without daring to slack off in the slightest, yet they could still feel Uranus's dissatisfaction with them.

The God King was so capricious. When he was pleased, he tortured them; when he was angry, the torture only doubled. If gods could die, they would have died countless times over.

Yet even though gods could not die, they lived every day in unease and worry. Their fear of Uranus had long become instinct.

Now, seeing the fate of the three Cyclopes, they could not help but worry about their own future.

Though they did not like those three monstrous younger brothers either, the Cyclopes' fate once again showed them the cruelty and brutality of their father, the God King Uranus.

And no one knew whether this would become their fate as well.

They could only become even more cautious, not daring to show the slightest negligence, afraid that they would be the next to be thrown into the abyss.

While the gods were consumed by fear and unrest, the Ocean surrounding the world welcomed its first visitor in many years.

Theron had originally been sleeping to gather divine power, but the fierce quarrel woke him. After witnessing the imprisonment of the three Cyclopes with his own eyes, he came to the Ocean to visit its master, Oceanus.

Oceanus was one of the Twelve Titans. From the moment he was born, he had divided Pontus's authority as the primordial sea god, splitting the sea in two.

The distant seas still belonged to Pontus, but the Ocean encircling the world was ruled by Oceanus.

Besides him, there was also Tethys, the primordial water goddess who symbolized springs and rain. She too was one of the Twelve Titans, as well as Oceanus's wife. The two lived together within the Ocean.

Moreover, as the world grew ever larger, the Ocean surrounding it grew with it. Thus, Oceanus was now more or less the strongest among the Twelve Titans. He had already reached the level of powerful divine power several hundred years ago.

In later generations, Oceanus and Tethys would give birth to three thousand Oceanids and three thousand river gods, becoming the source of all water deities.

But now, because Uranus monopolized the right of fatherhood and did not permit the Titan gods to unite and bear children, the vast Ocean contained only the two of them.

At that moment, they were terrified by what had happened to the Cyclopes. As the strongest of the Twelve Titans, Oceanus was also the one Uranus targeted most often.

He feared that the God King would appear before him the next moment and lock him deep within the abyss as well. The thought left him deeply unsettled.

When he sensed Theron's arrival, his first reaction was actually terror. He even wanted to flee, not daring to meet Theron.

He still remembered the prophecy from a thousand years ago, and he believed that his father, the King of the Gods, remembered it as well.

If Uranus learned that Theron had come looking for him, would that not mean he was the one in the prophecy destined to overthrow the God King?

Then Uranus would absolutely, absolutely not spare him!

But in the end, he did not flee, thanks to Tethys's persuasion.

Tethys believed that Theron had already come. Whether Oceanus met him or not could not change that fact. So long as the God King Uranus found out, he would not let the matter rest.

Since that was the case, they might as well see why Theron had come and what he intended to say.

The two personally received Theron.

More than a thousand years had passed. The once-weak god of prophecy, who had not even been able to stabilize his own divine authority, had grown much stronger. Though he was still inferior to Oceanus and Tethys, he had reached the level of weak divine power.

His appearance, however, was little different from a thousand years ago. He was still handsome and youthful, and even appeared gentle and courteous.

"Honored Lord Theron, may I ask what brings you here?"

Oceanus spoke first. He was too panicked, gripped by the guilty fear that Uranus might descend at any moment, and he could no longer remain calm.

Theron smiled and reassured him. "Do not worry. The God King is busy cultivating his relationship with the Queen of the Gods. He will not notice during this brief moment."

Only then did Oceanus relax slightly, though not by much. He was like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring.

Over the years, Uranus had tortured him far too many times, and he had endured far too much suffering.

Seeing this, Theron sighed. "Honored Lord of the Ocean, Lord Oceanus, do you not think your current state is far too humble?"

Oceanus gave a bitter laugh. He did not even have the heart to be angry, his face filled with bitterness. "But what can I do? He... he is too powerful."

He did not even dare to speak Uranus's name directly, showing how deeply rooted his fear was.

"Then have you never considered resisting?" Theron asked.

Oceanus's heart lurched. The thing he feared most had come after all. He hurriedly waved his hands and said in terror, "I would never dare harbor even the slightest disloyal thought. He will discover it!"

Theron shook his head. To defeat the God King, strength was actually secondary. What mattered most was the courage to raise a blade against him.

And Oceanus, the strongest of the Titan gods, clearly lacked that courage.

However...

"You do not need to do anything, my lord," Theron said. "You only need to answer me: do you wish to continue living like this?"

Only then did Oceanus let out a breath. After a long while, he nodded hesitantly.

Of course he did not want to. No god would.

"Then, when the necessary moment comes, you need only eliminate all future trouble," Theron said. "Only you can do this."

Oceanus looked puzzled. "Honored God of Prophecy, what do you mean?"

"You may take it as a prophecy, a prophecy about you," Theron said. "Where everything began is where everything shall end. Remember, only you can eliminate all future trouble."

Oceanus still did not understand, but that did not matter. Theron had already delivered the prophecy, and the gears of fate began turning once more. He felt the divine power within him grow stronger.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Oceanus, "If you wish to become stronger, perhaps you can begin with having children."

Gods could merge with gods to produce stronger laws—that was, newly born deities. And the more laws there were, the faster the world would develop and the more complete its rules would become.

Only when the world developed faster and there were more gods would the fates Theron could see not remain as sparse as they were now, with only a handful of people and even he, the God of Fate, possessing little divine power.

They still had to encourage childbirth. Otherwise, who would build the world? Whose fate would he, the God of Fate, govern?

Hearing this, Oceanus sighed. "The great God King alone possesses the right of fatherhood. We have no right to bear children."

Theron looked at him and smiled mysteriously. "It is all right. You will have that right soon enough."

Oceanus froze again, but before he could ask anything, the weak god of prophecy had already departed, as silently as he had arrived.

Yet Oceanus's heart was now churning like a stormy sea.

He did not even dare to think about what Theron's final words meant.

The Hecatoncheires

Theron returned to his residence.

He knew that the time he had been waiting for was not far away.

As the Titan gods lived their days in fear and unrest, Gaia suppressed her anger and endured her dissatisfaction, while Uranus continued his arrogant and conceited ways, time hurried onward.

One hundred years after the Cyclopes were imprisoned, Gaia gave birth to three more monsters.

And this time, they were the even more terrifying Hecatoncheires. They had fifty heads and one hundred arms, savage faces, no fear of danger or divine might, and boundless strength.

They were even stronger than the Cyclopes. From birth, they possessed powerful divine power. Not even the Twelve Titans, who had already grown for more than a thousand years, were their match. This sent the God King into a furious rage, while an intense sense of crisis wrapped around him.

If the Cyclopes had represented the rift between the God King and the Queen of the Gods, symbolizing imperfection and dissatisfaction, then the Hecatoncheires represented the division and hatred between heaven and earth.

By then, the relationship between Uranus and Gaia had fallen to its lowest point. Gaia had never blamed her children because of their appearance or strength, but Uranus's disgust was painfully obvious.

This time, Uranus was unwilling to grant even a trace of patience. The instant the Hecatoncheires were born, he used the God King's power of creation and, without hesitation, threw the three monsters into the endless abyss.

This time, he could not even be bothered to invent a charge against them.

This brutal act once again plunged the Twelve Titans, drawn over by the huge commotion, into panic. They did not even dare to take another glance. They prostrated themselves and begged the God King to calm his anger, terrified of being caught in the fallout.

Uranus did not think he had done anything wrong. He was the exalted God King, the ruler of the world acknowledged by the entire world. Any being that displeased him was guilty by its very existence.

He even blamed Gaia, angrily rebuking her for giving birth to even more hideous and terrifying Hecatoncheires after producing monsters like the Cyclopes.

Gaia, who had just given birth, was already extremely weak. She could not stop the crazed Uranus and could only watch helplessly as her children were thrown into the abyss, then forced back into her body through it.

The Hecatoncheires' agonized wails echoed through her mind alongside the sobs of the Cyclopes already there, making her head feel as though it were splitting apart. She could not find a moment of peace.

And forcing children who had already been born back inside her was the violent interruption of the law of childbirth. It dealt another devastating blow to her already weakened body.

Her former beloved showed not the slightest remorse and instead continued to berate and curse her. This double torment of body and mind finally drove Gaia's resentment and hatred to their peak.

The love and sweetness of the past vanished completely. At that moment, only one thought remained in the mind of the kind Mother Earth.

She wanted to end these painful days.

But how could she end them? Gaia had no answer for the moment.

Though she was a primordial god, she had never excelled at combat. Coupled with the exhaustion of recent years and the damage caused by the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires being born only to be forced back inside her, her divine power had fallen again and again.

Now, she was no match for Uranus at all. On her own, she had no possibility of overthrowing him.

For a time, Gaia did not know whom she could turn to for help.

Meanwhile, Uranus noticed none of the abnormalities in his Queen of the Gods. The birth of the Hecatoncheires gave him an intense sense of crisis, and he once again recalled that haunting prophecy.

First there had been the Cyclopes, and now the Hecatoncheires had appeared, each generation stronger than the last. What would come next? Would the next children be born with power beyond even powerful divine power?

These children could not yet threaten his position as God King, but what about the ones to come?

The thought made it nearly impossible for him to sit still.

After much deliberation, Uranus decided to ask the three mysterious goddesses of fate once more. More than a thousand years had passed since his last visit. Perhaps they had caught sight of some traces of fate by now, and perhaps he could learn something from them.

With that thought, he turned to Gaia and invited her as though nothing had happened. "My Queen of the Gods, I am going to visit the Three Fates. I wonder whether they have discovered anything over these thousand years. Would you like to come with me?"

Gaia looked at the man who had committed all these evil deeds and caused her immense suffering, yet was now inviting her so casually. Her heart turned completely cold.

She did not refuse. Expressionless, she nodded.

It was not that Uranus did not know of Gaia's dissatisfaction over the past thousand years, but he did not care.

In his view, Gaia had given birth to these hideous monsters that showed no respect for the God King. The fact that he had not punished her was already an act of generosity. Gaia ought to be grateful to him.

Nor did he worry in the slightest that Gaia would retaliate against him, because it was common knowledge that the kind Mother Earth was not skilled in battle.

Besides, what concerned him more now was the fate of the future.

Thus, the two arrived before the Temple of Fate once again.

The Three Fates were still within the temple, arranging the threads that symbolized destiny. They showed no surprise at Uranus and Gaia's arrival, as though they had expected it all along.

"Honored goddesses of fate, a thousand years ago, you said that once you had grown somewhat stronger and could glimpse the outline of fate, we would be permitted to visit again. May I ask whether that time has now come?"

Uranus spoke first. Even as the God King, he still maintained respect for these mysterious goddesses of fate.