Chapter 93: Chapter 70: The Last of the Golden Humanity
Translator: 549690339
Leaving the Spirit Realm with the special well water and the borrowed Divine Whip, Iapetus returned to the abode of Mother Earth.
Although he had the life of the Golden Age as a template, the God of Speech only needed to make repairs on its basis, yet the task was still not an easy one.
Therefore, he decisively accepted Laine’s suggestion to detour to the Underworld and bring over his two children. He had the clever Prometheus assist him in adjusting the shells of life, and the dull-witted Epimetheus help him remember the characteristics and gifts that different lives should have.
As he had predicted, both deities performed very well. Over the centuries, horses, jackals, and various kinds of life that would be common in later ages gradually became recognizable, no longer strangely shaped like their distant relatives from the Golden Age.
The personalities designated for their ancestors by the gods were also inherited by the silver generation. Loyalty, cruelty, docility, cunning—different natures under the influence of divine power were revealed by the water from the Well of Origins, bestowed upon different creatures.
However, to keep it secret, Iapetus only created a pair of each kind of being, and then used divine power to protect them. He planned to use the Divine Artifact that once created people to transform them into tribes, only after everything was ready so as not to alert that watcher prematurely.
The God of Speech was preparing, and during those years, another major event happened again in Chaos. Three hundred and ninety years after the birth of Hestia and Demeter, the third daughter of the Divine King was born. Under the proclamation of the current laws, all deities came to know her name, Hera, the Goddess of Fertility.
On the day of her birth, the part of Mother Earth related to the original [Fertility] was once again severed.
[Fertility], this was the reward Chaos had given to them when they conceived the Titans together. The paternal authority allowed Uranus to ascend to the throne, and the power over fertility made Gaia the Queen of Gods, which although it couldn’t enhance the deity themselves like the former, could bring strength to their spouse and offspring.
It was the most suitable divine authority for the Queen of Gods, and thus Hera’s birth brought even more attention. However, just like her two sisters, aside from the day when the new god was celebrated, her figure was never seen again.
Years passed, one after another. When the Queen of Gods Rhea was pregnant once again, and the silver beings created by Iapetus were becoming more numerous, time finally came to a certain point.
Not by accident, nor affected by wars of the gods, the humans of the Golden Age truly reached the end allowed by fate.
Below Mount Othrys, in front of the Temple of Corolla.
“Which one is this?”
“Perhaps the gods do not care, they are indifferent to temples and faith.”
Somehow, Cohen remembered a dream he once had.
In the dream, the goddess refused his offer to build a temple and did not intend to let Cohen pray to her. Over the years, he gradually understood her viewpoint, after all, even the gods on the mountain were more interested in the act of ‘worship’ itself than anything else.
The gods didn’t gain anything from the worship of humans; they merely took some pleasure in it. So naturally, when there were other things to do, they would relax their attention to it.
“True, to eternal deities, humans are indeed insignificant, and even these stone slabs I carve will not last forever.”
After finishing the last stroke, Hewa examined his work for a while, and after confirming there were no errors, he set it aside and picked up a new stone slab.
“But in a few days, it will probably be just you left. When that time comes, I’ll trouble you to carve my life story onto a slab and bury me in the earth, so my past may be with the gods.”
“If I’m fortunate enough to be chosen for the heavens, to keep company with the God of Stars, I shall be watching over you, Cohen—”
“...I will.”
Answering softly, Cohen knew what he meant. As one of the first humans, he was the most unique.
Compared to others, Cohen could feel that he still had a long life ahead of him. He didn’t know when he would die, maybe in a thousand years, perhaps in ten thousand, but definitely not now.
“I will guard this place, whether the gods care about us or not, but the reverence humans have for deities will never change.”
“Under the watchful eyes of the stars, I will protect this place until the end of time.”
Looking at Hewa’s face, which had also begun to age without him realizing when, for some reason, a strange emotion surged through Cohen’s heart.
He didn’t know what this emotion was, but he had never seen it in other members of the Golden Humanity. He wasn’t sure if this was because he was the first human or because of that unforgettable dream, but Cohen instinctively didn’t want to face this emotion.
So he stood up, greeted Hewa, and then walked towards the temple.
In this moment, only the gods could give him a moment’s peace of mind.