"So this is the new Fire God? He looks a far cry from Hephaestus."
The Earth Mother Goddess Gaia sized him up. She had little regard for a Fire God so blinded by greed.
In her eyes, even Hephaestus, the former Fire God, and Apollo, the Sun God, had only barely passed muster.
By comparison, though, Hephaestus and Apollo now seemed quite respectable.
She did not know whether Zeus's emergence had left everything too rushed, or whether there was some other reason. Apart from the ancient members of the Titan Race who had awakened, these new Deities were thoroughly mediocre.
The Earth Mother Goddess Gaia caught a whiff of something unusual. "Could there be a plot behind this?"
Gaia mulled it over, troubled by the question, but now was not the time to investigate.
The Four Gods Alliance had laid an ambush here for this new Fire God. Their goal was to kill him and divide up his essence.
And this Divine Kingdom, which had once belonged to Apollo, was the bait.
The plot had begun the moment the Fire God sensed this place through the pull of his Divine Office.
Back then, the choice had still been his. If he had ignored the temptation or recognized his own limits and reported it directly to Zeus, he could have escaped disaster. He might even have left the Four Gods Alliance worse off, losing the Solar Divine Kingdom instead of gaining their prize.
But human greed did not vanish just because someone became a Deity.
The Fire God had told no one. He had kept the secret, intending to claim the prize for himself alone.
From that moment on, his fate had been sealed.
Inside the Solar Divine Kingdom, all was dark and desolate. No trace of life remained, and bitter