The night gradually enveloped the land.
Atop Mount of the Gods, the deities were about to witness the birth of a new king, while beneath the silence of the night, the shifting tides of the Origin Sea at the turn of the era concealed many secrets unknown to man.
Thousands of miles away, on a high mountain beside the Delphic Great Plains, two figures quietly watched the humans who had survived nearby.
Those were the Silver Humanity. They had endured many hardships, yet had miraculously survived. Struggling against the calamitous climate, they were probably unaware that before long, they would be erased by the new king.
The Earth had no need for them, and the gods loathed them. Perhaps it was as Mephisto, the once leader of the Silver Humanity, had said, “Let us all die, or let them all listen to us.” Now the one who spoke these words was working towards the latter, but the remaining Silver Humanity was about to live out the former.
Unlike the Golden Humanity, they hadn’t managed to leave any relics to proclaim their existence.
“A bunch of humans, is that why you brought me here? I really don’t see anything worth watching.”
The figure concealed beneath the black dress was somewhat hazy, her tall form unseen by anyone, riddled with mystery like the night itself. Standing by Laine’s side, Nyx’s attitude was as usual.
“There is nothing worth watching right now,”
Rubbing his temples, Laine felt somewhat exhausted. During the day, he had fought two Primordial Gods in succession and then opened up Samsara. Not long before, he had also secretly observed a special change, so although Laine’s divine body had recovered as usual, even better than before because of the birth of Samsara, he still felt somewhat listless.
Nevertheless, he had long invited Nyx out for a walk after a long time, preparing to thank her for her biased actions before, and incidentally to understand why she had done so.
“But it will be different in the future. You feel it too, don’t you? Because of the recent battle, shackles for all deities will soon descend upon this world.”
“Soon, the Earth will reject divine power, and other places will also be restricted to varying degrees. Even gods cannot resist the world itself and can only choose to comply.”
“And with the loss of divine intervention, at least direct intervention, in the future Third Age, mortals will be the masters of the Earth.”
Under his black robe, Laine couldn’t help but marvel at how useful Nyx’s previous gift had been.
As for the current laws of the world, hiding in history wasn’t very effective. After all, from the world’s perspective, the past and present weren’t much different.
But Secrecy was different. This black robe, woven from the fabric gifted by the Lady of the Night, concealed his presence very well; as long as he did not use divine power, he would not be discovered.
Luckily, the gods would soon be unable to use their divine power on Earth as well, so in this sense, everyone was not much different.
“Speaking of which, I’m actually a bit curious,”
With a smile, Laine turned to look at Nyx, whose face was indistinct and changing.
“What was your reason for deciding to stand with me before?”
When the Spirit Realm and the Realm of Lightless collided, Nyx was there by the sidelines, which Laine keenly noticed. If she were there to help the Lord of Darkness, she could have intervened directly, and probably ‘the Divine King’ would have had to hastily depart without much conversation with the ‘good children.’
Since she didn’t act, there was only one explanation. She intended to block Erebus’s assault for him, but seeing that he could handle it, she didn’t interfere.
“Because of the unknown, the Law affects personality. But if you understood everything, would that problem still exist?”
After a brief silence, Nyx thought to deny this statement, yet found some sense in it. She realized that she perhaps did not understand the Darkness as well as she thought she did.
It’s like a person not understanding the structure of their own brain, the flow of their blood. They know how to use it, better than anyone else, but not the internal principles.
“So what are you going to do, not become a deity, use that Samsara of yours?”
In the end, Nyx was still not optimistic about it.
“Not exactly, after all, this is just a conjecture, and in the current world, there is still no way to become divine without relying on any external forces, so naturally, I would not engage in a futile effort.”
“Moreover, the world is rather dangerous now, no matter how I think about it, I wouldn’t make such a decision.”
Shaking his head, Laine wasn’t ready to do such a thing. He gazed into the distance, pointed at Silver Humanity, and said slowly:
“But that doesn’t stop me from making some preparations.”
“I have prepared two paths for them, I will select some among them who are excellent but not excellent enough, and grant them the opportunity to become divine. Of course, that’s not what I want; I just want them to become a benchmark, to tell those truly potential beings that mortals can become divine.”
“Desire is the origin of all things, the driving force of civilization’s progress. Even I do not think my wisdom is omnipotent.” Laine spoke calmly, concluding, “I will create opportunities for them, then wait for them to inspire me.”
“They become sacred, and I advance further; that’s reasonable, isn’t it?”
“... it sounds like it.”
Indifferent, yet Nyx nodded anyway.
“Since you see hope in this, give it a try.”
Contrary to what Laine expected, Nyx found the process itself might be a little more interesting than whatever advancement it might lead to.
She was also curious to see what the ‘two paths’ Laine mentioned were; certainly, they wouldn’t be the current method of directly granting godhood.
After all, bearing godhood requires ‘qualifications’. For deities with immortal essence, their ‘qualification’, even if it cannot bear a powerful godhood, at least allows for becoming an ordinary True God. That’s the lowest threshold for an innate god, but it’s different for other beings.
The ‘excellent, but not excellent enough’ humans Laine spoke of might not have that ability.
“But the birth of the new humanity...is probably soon.”
“Your influence on fate is growing, perhaps the next generation of humans will come faster, and go faster too.”
Behind the veil of constant change, Nyx smiled a little, unknowingly.
As the Tri-phased Incarnation holding sway over Destiny, she had a somewhat vague understanding of the future. Humanity would be created and destroyed once more, an event that should have occurred a millennium later, but is now being accelerated.
She would just wait and see what interesting developments could happen among the future humans.