...
The skull cracked open, and rosy light filled the sky.
With the crisp sound, a hazy halo spread outward. Explore new worlds at mvl
Auroras rippled at the end of the Northern Sea, thousands of splendid bands of light danced on the horizon, and the sounds of nature echoed between the forests and streams, orchestrating different melodies. For a moment, all things were singing, celebrating in their own way the divine birth of another deity of Chaos, the final deity of the Second Epoch.
It was a vision of divine birth, a wonder that should not have appeared in this epoch. With the transition of two generations, the current world no longer eagerly awaited the emergence of deities, but there were always exceptions.
She should have been born in the years when the old king was dead and the new king was not yet established, stuck between two epochs, but due to a prophecy, due to the actions of Zeus, she was only born today after much delay.
However, Law itself does not care about these things; it simply bestowed a belated gift to the new god and allowed the Humans of the Third Epoch to witness this rare spectacle.
The primordial ocean stirred slightly, becoming increasingly tumultuous. This was due to both the birth of a deity and the removal of obstructions, allowing the Divine King's rites to finally continue.
At this moment, the new deity and the symbol of the fragmented "Kingship" arrived in this world almost simultaneously, as if reminding the master of the ceremony, Metis had exhausted herself for his Kingship, and even she herself had fallen into an unpredictable predicament.
No, there was another; but he never had the chance to truly arrive in this world.
"...Athena, Pallas. The first and possibly the last child of the third generation of Divine Kings, because he is thoroughly 'dead,' and destiny halted before it even began. No matter how many descendants Zeus might have, none would come 'after' him?"
"Hah, how interesting. 'Dead' destiny intertwines with 'living' destiny... It seems that perhaps I have underestimated him?"
Narrowing his eyes, Erebus fully grasped what this peculiar situation represented as he listened to the true name being called between heaven and earth. Gods are immortal, so their destinies are indestructible. After all, as long as they live, even in eternal slumber, there is always a day for their return. With such a scenario yet experiencing circumstances like now, only one possibility remained.
The brother who was supposed to be born after Athena, one of his parents, had disappeared from this world, even more thoroughly than eternal sleep. For eternal sleep still bore the possibility of awakening, but since destiny was 'dead,' it signified that at the least on the level of the world, she had ceased to exist.
"I remember, that woman seemed to be called... Metis?"
Dredging up the name from the depths of memory, if not for the relation to the third-generation Divine King, if not for the interest the Lord of Darkness took in Zeus during the turnover of the epoch, he probably would not remember this Oceanide. But given the current circumstances, since Zeus was still alive and well, then the problem could only lie with Metis.
At this moment, though Erebus recalled the goddess's existence, he was still unsure about her exact state. If she had truly perished, then the foundational rules of the world about 'gods' immortality' should have been broken as well. Yet the Laws had not responded; innate deities remained undying, and only Metis's very existence seemed to be acknowledged by the world as having vanished.
The corner of his mouth curved up. At this moment, not only was Erebus curious, but he was also somewhat pleased. Previously, he felt it somewhat challenging to act alone, but now, it seemed an excellent 'enforcer' had arrived, hadn't he?
After all, a 'Divine King' surely aims to rule the world. Of course, all this assumes that Zeus is truly powerful enough.