Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 216: Chapter 48: A Sword and Fragments_3

“As a Primordial God, he was only slightly behind Oceanus in discovering that place. He just can’t enter it for now, but if you delay too long, that might change.”

In a rush to arrive, the original water goddess didn’t bother to think about why Laine was so powerful. Reality was laid out before her; although the oppression she felt from him was a bit less than that from the Lord of Darkness, the damage he inflicted on the God of the Ocean was the opposite.

The Primordial God, on his way here, also casually drove out the ‘ants’ beside him, but after taking a hit from him, Oceanus quickly recovered. By contrast, this stretch of dead riverbed was a real threat.

To erase the authority of a deity, even if only temporarily, was terrifying enough. After all, any ‘temporary’ paired with sufficient power and endless time could become ‘permanent’.”

“Erebus?”

Pausing in his actions, a thought occurred to Laine. Hearing the name of the Lord of Darkness, he was both unexpectedly unsurprised.

If the Circumterrestrial River is the edge between land and ocean, then the domains of the two Primordial Gods are on the edge of the Underworld, and Tartarus is directly beneath the world’s concept. Being closer naturally leads to earlier discovery; there’s nothing surprising about that.

However, he had originally planned to invite Nyx to explore this place after some probing, but now it seemed he had to go on his own.

“So what is actually there?”

Speaking solemnly, Laine’s Black Sword in hand did not dissipate. The God of the Ocean seemed to want to interject, but ultimately kept silent.

He had been warned by the Lord of Darkness, which is why he had been so secretive. But he now realized, although the Primordial God who had flung him back into the ocean was terrifying, after experiencing a sword strike from Laine, he understood the latter might not be much less so.

And with one right in front of him and the other far away, the choice of what to do didn’t require much thought, especially having already taken a sword strike.

“Regarding that, we are not entirely clear ourselves, because, by the time I got there, the place was already sealed by the chains of the Laws of Chaos.”

Shaking his head slightly, Thaesis slowly said:

“I only know that there seems to be a vast expanse of broken fragments, some big, some small. They seem to have been knocked into this place somehow due to the turmoil in the East Sea a hundred years ago, but…”

“But what?”

Seeing this, Laine pressed the question.

“But their auras are very strange, just like their broken state, radiating from inside out a sense of decay, and some also give me an inexplicable feeling of threat. I don’t know what’s actually there, because we didn’t wait for the chains of Chaos’s Laws to decay enough to enter, before we were driven out by His Highness Erebus who arrived later.”

“That’s all I know.” Looking at Laine, Thaesis sincerely said, “So, can you retract this force now?”

The original water goddess referred to the force of death on the long river channel; hearing this, Laine raised his eyebrows but remained unmoved.

He and the God of the Ocean were never friendly, and now the latter was willing to answer his questions only under the coercion of his martial strength; he was even less inclined to overlook this.

“Consider this sword mark a lesson, Oceanus. Even Gaia has never claimed that no deities are allowed to pass over the land, and the Divine King does not reject my wandering the world, let alone you. Let it remain here, so that when I return, it will at least be from ‘my domain’.”

The Black Sword dissipated, and now that he knew the source of the disturbance, Laine hesitated no longer. Casting one last glance at the two Titan gods, he turned into a streak of silver light and left with a flick of his sleeve.

In his wake, looking at his departing figure, the two deities remained silently speechless. It was first Cronus breaking through the boundary for some unknown reason, and now the once not-so-powerful Laine suddenly showing terrible strength; in ‘just’ a hundred years, the familiar Chaos World seemed somewhat strange.

At that moment, the God of the Ocean spontaneously felt a yearning to reach even further.

If it were any other deity, the desire would merely remain so, but he was different; he had this opportunity.

As long as he could completely rule the sea and foster a closer alliance with Thaesis in terms of divine authority, then as the master of all water in the world, he just might be able to touch that step.

After all, the earth and water of Chaos, naturally superior to wind and fire, once divided, created three deities of extraordinary strength within their divine power, and even dozens of True Gods and countless territorial gods. If he could unite them, that force might not be weaker than Gaia, who had been repeatedly weakened.

“I remember you mentioned, Zeus has demarcated a forbidden zone in the Eastern Region?”

After a moment of silence, bearing the pain, the God of the Ocean inquired.

“Yes, no deity is allowed near there, including our offspring.”

Nodding, the goddess replied.

“No matter what’s there, once my wounds heal, I’ll go there myself to see. I need to know what he’s up to before I move against Poseidon, to be sure he won’t interfere.”

“It’s a good idea, I’ll go with you then.”

Grazing the black scar across her husband’s chest, the power within it caused Thaesis’ hands to sting slightly.

The gods were still quite unfamiliar with death, especially such a mighty death. Their thoughts still dwelled on the simple mortality of worldly beings, which made this power, seemingly capable of ending all things, truly alarming.

“Zeus, our foster son, indeed won’t intervene in the sea as the Divine King, that’s the promise he made to me as the guardian of oaths. However, he definitely won’t want to see the sea under one rule.”

“To prevent the deities of Olympus from ‘actively’ helping Poseidon, we should indeed see what he’s up to. If discovered, we’ll just say we’re searching for Metis.”

Speaking of their missing daughter, neither of the Titan deities seemed to harbor much worry or anger. In the original myths, the couple had never had a conflict with the Divine King over Metis, and now they weren’t planning to delve deeper.

The daughter, who was blinded by Zeus’s sweet words, was no longer seen as one of their own. Now, she merely served as an excuse, a means for her parents to fulfill their own purposes.

······

Leaving the Circumterrestrial River behind, Laine set foot in this place close to the outside of the world for the first time.

To say it is outside the world is not quite accurate; this place resembles the starless sky. Walking through it, aside from the increasingly distant and fading Circumterrestrial River behind him, Laine could hardly see anything else.

Strictly speaking, this place still belonged to the realm of Chaos World because it was ‘existent.’ The true outside of the world, whether you call it ‘Chaos’ or ‘Void,’ is ‘nonexistent.’

‘Ex nihilo,’ the act of something emerging from nothing is the real driving force behind the birth of a world, a miracle that defies the underlying logic of the worlds Laine had known in his previous and current lives.

And that true ‘nonexistence’ is something Laine now, or even the Spirit Realm, cannot directly touch. Only a complete world like Chaos could anchor itself in ‘nothingness’ and even draw strength from it.

The object of Laine’s quest seemed to be this ‘nonexistence’ that came from outside the world, like his soul that came to Chaos, a creation that did not originally belong here.

“Nothing is born out of thin air; was the collision between the Sun and the East Sea really the source of this upheaval?”

He pondered, perhaps not.

Laine felt that maybe the other things he had done were the underlying causes of it all.