Nyx did not approach Nairmis. She stood at the boundary between night and day, drawing her gaze back from the summit of Mount Proeon and calmly turning it toward the distance.
The newborn god of emotions did concern her. The upheaval in the river of fate had been real, and the ripples of uncertainty still trembled faintly in the depths of her consciousness, but this was not the time to acknowledge him.
He was too weak. There was not the slightest trace of fate about him, and he did not even understand what his birth meant.
If the other gods learned that she had come for this little god, it would likely cause further complications with Uranus.
She turned her gaze toward the earth, toward Gaia's wounds that had yet to heal.
A trace of sorrow surfaced in those unfathomable eyes. The earth goddess, elder sister to the four primordial gods, had once been so exalted. Her spine supported the entire world, yet now it had been crushed into this fractured state beneath the god king.
That sorrow was so profound that even Nairmis, far away as he was, could taste a hint of bitterness in the air.
She wanted to see Gaia, to sit at the edge of those fissures and hold her elder sister's hand, even if only to keep her silent company for a while.
But the laws were urging her to leave. This was not the time of night, and she should not linger.
Just then, Hemera, goddess of day, approached with measured steps from the eastern horizon. Warm, bright light radiated from her, and faint glimmers blossomed at her feet with every step.
She came before Nyx and bowed slightly, her voice filled with solemn reverence. "Exalted goddess of night and fate, my mother, your arrival has brought peace to the entire world. May your steps always be light, and may the night always be gentle."
Nyx turned to look at her daughter. The sorrow in her eyes faded, replaced by a mother's warmth. "My Hemera, darling of daylight, your radiance illuminates every corner of the world as it always has. That is good."
Hemera smiled and waited for her to continue.
"The laws are urging me to leave." Nyx gently raised her hand, and the last wisp of night slipped between her fingers. "You, too, should fulfill your divine duties and let daylight shine across this scarred world."
Hemera wanted to say more, but Nyx's figure had already begun to grow faint. The night receded, and at last even her robes dissolved into the brightening sky.
Daylight spread across the sky once more. Sunlight fell upon the shattered canyons, the pale shores, and the dried riverbeds, illuminating a world ravaged everywhere.
Nairmis plopped down on a rock, panting heavily. The wind had blown his long golden hair into disarray, and his pale blue eyes stared at the sky for quite a while, making sure Uranus would not reach down through the clouds again.
Only then did he slowly recover his wits and give a self-deprecating laugh.
I endured hundreds of millions of years of chaos and finally managed to take form, only to nearly get crushed to death the moment I was born. What kind of heavenly starting hand was this?
Then he thought of the night goddess's gaze. Had this goddess who ruled over fate seen something? He kept feeling that her gaze had held a deeper meaning.
But before he could think it through, the emotions godhead within him suddenly shuddered, and his divine power began growing rapidly.
He froze for a moment and instinctively looked out. Intense sorrow and despair pervaded heaven and earth as the thunder of war faded.
When the sky, the earth, and the sea regained their outward calm, when daylight once again illuminated every inch of land, the surviving creatures finally saw what had become of their homes.
The remains of loved ones floated on the sea. The bones of companions lay on scorched earth. Mother beasts searched through the ruins for their young, and schools of fish huddled together on dried-up shoals, waiting to die.
Sorrow, despair, pain, fear, concern, and a deathly bewilderment.
As the god of emotions, he could see them and sense them. More than that, he discovered that he could directly see the scenes in which living creatures' emotions arose, without them detecting him.
Doesn't this ability go beyond the scope of emotions? Suddenly thinking of something, he looked within himself and discovered two other divinities.
What allowed him to see was the ancient divinity of witnessing, a divinity unique to him as an ancient being who had witnessed the birth of the world.
Beyond that, there was actually a divinity of fate. It was extremely faint, yet it did not quite seem like fate.
Still, he had no energy to investigate now. Those emotions reached out from all across the earth like countless fine threads, winding around him and pouring into his godhead to become part of his divine power.
His power was growing-not quickly, but it was growing. At the same time, however, he was also bearing those emotions.
He sensed the sources of the emotions and watched those scenes again, then withdrew before long and rubbed his temples. Perception consumed divine power. He was still too weak, and even his sight could only reach beings lesser than himself.
He did not dare touch the gods more powerful than him, or even the direct descendants of Titans and primordial gods, beings who innately bore the world's origin. Their emotions were as scorching as magma. At his current level of lesser divine power, doing so would be no different from setting himself ablaze.
According to the ranks in the memories inherited from the world, gods were divided, from lowest to highest, into lesser gods, low gods, third-rank gods, second-rank gods, first-rank gods, great gods, supreme gods, and primordial gods.
Gods born of natural origins were at least third-rank from birth, while he was currently a lesser god. He even seemed to be the only lesser god.
He was undoubtedly at the very bottom, the weakest sort. Nairmis looked at his slender, pale fingers and sighed.
All right, I'm currently the weakest, most insignificant god in the entire world, one anyone could crush.
But there was good news, too. As his consciousness reorganized while he took form, memories of his previous life, nearly worn away during those long years in chaos, had resurfaced.
This was a world of Greek mythology, and his mind held some vague yet crucial fragments about this world's future course.
Who would possess those powerful godheads, the timing of certain important events, the grudges and entanglements among the gods... If used properly, they might pave a path for him.
Just then, his godhead shuddered again, and sobs rose from the earth.
That immense sorrow surged up once more. Nairmis's chest tightened, forcing him to press a hand over his heart. He looked toward the earth, toward the creatures weeping amid the ruins.
He was the god of emotions. The sorrow of all living beings was his sorrow, and this was not something he could refuse.
That was how this type of godhead worked. He did not need to perform fixed divine duties as other gods did. He only needed to wait for emotions to become richer, for the concept itself to keep growing within the hearts of living beings and gain wider recognition, and his power would grow with it.
The thought of rich emotions brought humans to mind. They were the race with the richest emotions.
Nairmis shook his head and stood, temporarily casting aside the thoughts in his mind. His long golden hair swayed as he gazed out at the ravaged world.
Although he did not need to respond, at this moment he wanted to do something for these creatures and the earth, to soothe these negative emotions.