Deep in the Underworld, the gods all turned their gazes toward the world outside.
The God of Death looked grim. He had only just recovered from dealing with the aftermath of the last divine war, and those souls had only recently been settled, yet now another wave was coming. Dark energy churned along the edges of his black robes, and his eyes beneath the shadow of his hood were weary.
He could sense divine blood dripping from the sky, could sense those beings still gestating or newly born facing death before they had even had a chance to truly live.
Souls would be arriving in batches again. He sighed silently and turned toward the entrance to the Underworld, preparing to receive a new wave of the dead.
Hypnos, the God of Sleep, still slumbered in the shadows at the edge of the Underworld, his wings folded at his sides, his breathing even and steady, utterly unaware of everything outside.
Deep in the ocean, Pontus opened his eyes from slumber. Gaia's wail passed through the layers of water and reached his senses, carrying a familiar pain. He remained silent for a long time, but in the end, he did not rise.
His wounds from last time had yet to heal. Every exertion tugged at those fractures that had not fully closed.
He had always thought Gaia was biased, that she favored Uranus over him, that she had helped the sky ascend to the throne of the God King while leaving the ocean beneath him.
He had once resented it, once coveted that position, once plotted in the depths of the undercurrents to overthrow the sky. But in that last battle, even with Ourea fighting alongside him, he had been beaten until his consciousness nearly shattered. Even now, Ourea remained scattered across the earth as unconscious mountains.
He was afraid. He no longer dared.
Pontus's five children, gods who each governed a different aspect of the ocean, all had their eyes open in their respective seas. They sensed their father's retreat, but none of them asked the others about it, much less volunteered a suggestion.
They withdrew a little deeper into their own territories. Not one dared look outside.
Out in the vast ocean, within a hidden undersea cave, Metis led her brothers and sisters underground to hide. She gazed worriedly at the churning layers of water overhead and the unreachable sky.
Their father and mother were imprisoned high in the heavens, and now that tyrannical aura in the sky was rising without end. She did not know how they were doing. She did not even dare imagine the sight.
Metis's fingertips scratched fine marks into the stone wall. Her Divinity of Wisdom surged, yet it could produce no strategy capable of changing their circumstances.
At the foot of Mount Proeon, Nairmis set down his pen. He closed his eyes and spread his perception in every direction.
His Emotion Divinity was working at an astonishing speed. Of the vast emotions pouring in from across the earth, he could only select the portions he could absorb, filtering out those that would backlash against him and converting pure divine power into his divinity, strand by strand.
The radiance of his Emotion Divinity steadily grew, becoming denser than before. But he did not linger over that growth. He opened his eyes again and looked toward the sky.
Within the Sky Divine Domain, Uranus strode through the air toward the Titans. Yet the killing intent radiating from him suffocated them more than any words could. They desperately kowtowed and begged for mercy.
Just as Uranus raised his hand, ready to bring that supreme divine power down upon them, a warning from the laws descended. A pulse from the foundations of the world pierced the Sky Divine Domain. The Twelve Titans bore vital origins of the world. If they were killed, those origins would scatter, and the world would be thrown into turmoil.
Uranus could punish them, could imprison them, but he could not utterly destroy them. Otherwise, he would suffer the world's wrath and be stripped of his position as God King.
Uranus's hand hung in midair. He was furious, his face livid. As he looked at the Titans kneeling on the ground, an uncontrollable loathing welled up within him. They should never have been allowed to be born. He was considering whether to cast all these eyesores into the Abyss when he heard Gaia's angry voice.
At that moment, her aura was undergoing some profound change. The earth manifested upon her, the contours of mountains rising along her body, the patterns of rivers spreading along her arms.
She was merging with the earth, letting mountains and rivers manifest upon her body, trying to stand again through the power of the earth itself.
An ancient, weighty aura emanated from her. It was the most ancient origin of the primordial Earth Goddess, older than the sky, steadier than the Abyss.
She lifted her head toward the sky. There was no fear in her eyes, only burning fury.
Uranus looked at her, divine power gathering in his hand once more. He would never spare anyone who dared resist him, not even his wife and mother.
Just then, an image suddenly surfaced in his mind. He saw himself stuffing the Titans back inside, one after another.
The image flashed past, but a faint smile rose to his lips. He found it immensely amusing.
He lowered his hand and addressed the world below, his voice reaching across it. "Gaia, mother of the Titans, goddess of the earth, don't you want your children? I'll return them to you."
Gaia froze. So did the Titans. Everyone wondered, Was Uranus going to let them go?
The next instant, Uranus became the sky. The entire sky pressed downward, supreme divine power precisely pinning down the twelve Titans. Two enormous white hands appeared in the sky, one pinning the earth's shoulder, the other covering her abdomen.
Gaia's pupils contracted. "Uranus, what are you try-"
Before she could finish, the enormous hand tore an opening straight into the earth.
Gaia let out a wail even more agonized and heartrending than before.
That sound passed through every barrier between heaven and earth, piercing clouds, rock strata, and the surface of the sea, sinking all the way into the depths of the Underworld. The earth shook violently amid her screams.
Nairmis stood at the foot of the mountain, the scene in the sky reflected in his pale blue eyes. He saw it. That enormous hand seized Oceanus and pushed him into the gaping fissure in the earth.
Under the workings of the Law of Procreation, Oceanus's body began to shrink and transform, reverting to its most primal form. His bones and flesh sank into the Earth Mother's body, leaving only his soul and consciousness sealed within that mass of power that had reverted to its origin, unable to speak, unable to resist.
Gaia's hands clawed deep fissures into the ground. The whole earth rose and fell with her breathing.
The punishment of the laws fell upon Uranus, but he merely shuddered slightly. The punishment was not severe. He had not killed the Titans. He had merely returned them.
At the foot of Mount Proeon, Nairmis quietly watched the sky, his expression pained. Even though he knew this scene, knew his own prophecy, witnessing it with his own eyes and hearing the Earth Mother's cries of pain still made compassion rise unbidden within him.
At the same time, the Divinity of Prophecy within him surged violently, light spilling from it. It was time to make the proclamation.