"At last, the gods could no longer stand it and began joining forces to defy him."
"Faced with the gods' resistance, Lord Haimo's response was quite simple."
"He began a one-sided slaughter, prompting all the gods of Heaven to unite in a campaign against him."
"Wait!"
"Wait!"
"So... the gods finally joined forces and killed Lord Haimo, then felt guilty afterward because their victory was unfair, and that's why they don't dare provoke him now?"
Hearing these secrets of Heaven, Lido could not help interrupting, his voice trembling slightly, as though he dared not listen any further.
"No."
Fels shook their skeletal head decisively, shattering Lido's naive guess.
"Lord Ouranos said that was utterly impossible."
"In fact, it was precisely the opposite. During that campaign that engulfed all of Heaven, the gods realized a chilling, despair-inducing truth."
Fels's tone grew somewhat distant.
"As the gods gathered in ever greater numbers to oppose Lord Haimo..."
"By the end of the fighting, they discovered to their despair that Lord Haimo's Arcanum had instead grown ever stronger amid that vast conflict."
"He even... gradually gained authority over directly brainwashing the souls of gods."
Brainwashing? At that word, even Sasamori Aya's smile faded a little.
"Their numerical advantage did not bring the gods victory. Instead, it became fertile ground for a qualitative transformation in the great god Haimo's Arcanum."
"This plunged some of the gods in the punitive force into utter despair."
"They would rather kill themselves on the spot and obediently spend ten thousand years lying in the Revival Period than fall into Lord Haimo's hands and become puppets without minds of their own."
"But in the end, many gods still fell victim and became Lord Haimo's utterly obedient followers."
"Thus began Lord Haimo's absolute rule over Heaven, which lasted ten thousand years."