Chapter 31: Primal Artefacts

Chapter 31: Primal Artefacts



O Royal Juno [Hera] of majestic mien, celestial-formed, divine, Somnus' [Hypnos'] blessed queen,

Throned in the bosom of unreal lands, the race of mortals is thy constant care.

The cooling light thy power alone inspires, which nourish life, which every life desires.

Mother of stars and celestials, from thee alone producing all things, mortal life is known: All natures share thy temperament divine, and universal sway alone is thine.

With founding blasts of stars, the swelling light and rolling astral roar, when shook by thee. Come, blessed Goddess, famed almighty queen, with aspect kind, rejoicing and serene.

-A mortal praying to Hera in Rome, 3 B.C.

One day later.

The Dreaming, Unreal Plane, Cosmos.

Hypnos sat on his throne, his fingers thrumming on the armrest, deep in thought. He had just finished supervising the opening event. Dreaming was perfect and self-sufficient, able to grow and prosper without relying solely on his efforts, and in retrospect, this would result in an even greater power increase than the initial and conventional measures for the primal realm.

To be honest, he was proud of himself. Yes, he did draw a lot of inspiration from his previous life for his realm, particularly Sandman, but these were just basic ideas; after all, fiction is just fiction; it won't go on into mechanisms and operations of a metaphysical plane.

Hypnos conceived the rest himself, devoting the majority of his efforts over the last three years to perfecting and excelling his realm.

All of this was his Creation.

So, of course, he was quite proud of himself.

But the Lord of Dream didn't allow his narcissism to get to his head, rather immersing his mind to infer more ideas to get stronger more efficiently for the moment before returning to Olympus for the last preparations.

Despite his growing powers, he knew they were insufficient. There were still many beings in the universe who surpassed him completely, so he didn't dare to slack off and had already

begun to make new plans in some of his spare time, like now, in preparation for the inevitable.

There were a few plans swirling in his head, but nothing was suitable except one-this plan was inspired by the one and only Fates. To carry out their responsibilities in an efficient and articulate manner, the three sisters frequently separated themselves, joining different divine pantheons and adopting different names and identities based on the cultures of the divine pantheons.

To put it simply, Hypnos wishes to increase his power by carrying out his duties productively, which could also be considered training. There's also the fact that if he carried out this plan, his hold on the divine and mortal realms would become unbreakable.

Now, you may be wondering: What were actually his duties? You see, ever since he opened his domain, he had gained a considerable foothold over his concept of sleep, and his influence had also expanded numerous notions about sleep, so he was gradually becoming the driving force behind all of them. He was literally morphing into cosmic concepts, his very existence holding them together.

And that was his duty. It was a simple yet complex, effortless yet demanding job.... Hypnos thrummed his fingers rhythmically, deliberating on this plan for a few moments before pushing it to the back of his mind, leaving it to his future self to finalise it (though he would most likely go on with it), and focusing on the more pressing matter.

He raised his hand, and a golden orb, a white blade, and a pale feather materialised and floated above it. These were gifts from his siblings to aid in the Titanomachy task, and it was finally time for him to put them to use.

Hypnos rose from his throne and took one last look around his domain. Then he divided himself into multiple parts, sending them to effectively oversee the final preparations while he himself teleported to Hera.

Hypnos was in multiple places at once throughout the last day before the war, so he can't tell with absolute certainty which encounter came first or last, but let him give it a try just for you, so here it goes:

In-between melting pillars, Hypnos materialised, his figure illuminated by the golden light of the sun. A fiery hall was around him, encased by an auric dome, and a Titan stood in the centre of it all, holding a seething golden ball that emitted the seething and uncontrollable fire that was rending the hall.

"Helios." Hypnos called, striding into the sun fire.

"Lord Hypnos." Helios responded, finding the Primordial in between the embers of his fire. Then he immediately waved his hand, extinguishing the sun fire.

"How is your training coming along?" Hypnos inquired blithely.

"It would be no problem to defeat my father." Helios said confidently, puffing his chest. Hypnos nodded approvingly. "It seems you have finally overcome your struggle." Helios was silent for a moment, and then he spoke quietly. "He wasn't a good father." "Nevertheless, he was your father," Hypnos said as he took out the golden orb. "It takes a lot of guts to be able to do what you did." He hurled the orb at the Titan of the Sun. "For your efforts, Helios."

Helios caught the auric orb and immediately felt an extremely strong affinity with it, almost as if he were holding the cosmic sun of the solar system. "Is this...?" he asked with

uncertainty.

"This contains the blessing of my sister, the Primordial of Day." Hypnos pointed to the golden orb. "It will allow you to briefly connect directly with the celestial sun."

"But..." Helios carefully controlled his tone so as not to appear disrespectful. "Lord Hypnos, why are you giving me this?"

"In order to give you a chance." Hypnos said mystifyingly. "A fleeting window," he continued, seeing his confusion deepen. "You will understand when the time comes, Helios."

Despite his doubts, Helios bowed lightly. "Thank you," he murmured, clutching the golden

sun.

"It's-"

"I understand." Hypnos waved, analysing the complex spell himself, and then he commented. "To be honest, it's a daring but not improbable attempt. However, if you want to succeed, you must deal with the weak link in your group..."

At that, Hecate and Mnesmosyne subconsciously glanced at Themis, who clearly noticed their stares. "What? Me!" She was outraged, looking back and forth between Lady of Remembrance and Lady Magic, but when all she received were blank stares, her frustration grew. "Come on, you can't be serious," she laughed with a forceful edge to her voice. Mnesmosyne and Hecate remained silent, looking to their lord for assistance.

"It's the truth." Hypnos confirmed the truth bluntly. "You are the weakest here, Themis."

"What...?" Themis fell into a stupor. "How..?"

"There is much more to divinity than you understand." Hypnos spoke briefly. "Anyway, let's

not delve into that for now and focus on the problem at hand." He retrieved the light sword and threw it at Themis, who instinctively caught it.

"This..?" Themis mumbled, shaking off her stupor. Then she forced herself to focus on the

sword, under the scrutinising eyes of Hypnos. "Light..." she sensed the domain within the sword right away.

"You understand, right?" Hypnos asked inscrutably.

"Yes," Themis nodded stringently. "Light is justice; justice is Light. There are like two sides

of a coin, inseparable and inextricable."

Hypnos nodded, though part of him scoffed at the long-held belief that light was justice and

darkness was evil. "You can use the sword to increase your power. This will be enough to deal

with your problem," he concluded to them. "Now this marvellous spell can truly come to

life."

"Lord Hypnos." Themis took a deep breath, looking at him firmly. "What do you mean there

is much I don't know about divinity?"

"All knowledge comes at a price, Themis." Hypnos tilted his head inquisitively. "Are you

willing to pay for it?"

Themis fell silent, her divine mind racing with the possibilities and guesses behind his words.

"Think about it," Hypnos merely said to Themis, then nodded to Hecate and Mnesmosyne. "I'll leave you to it then." He vanished into starry sand particles.

In an opulent room on Mount Olympus, Hypnos approached his student, who was solemnly

studying the parchment on electromagnetism that he had given.

"Zeus," Hypnos called silently. "Teacher!" Zeus almost jumped out of his seat, "You should really stop sneaking up on

people like this."

Hypnos plainly chuckled and took a seat across from him on the table. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Zeus replied, his tone confident. "But I have some doubts on this?.." he extended the parchment to Hypnos, expressing his questions to Hypnos.

Hypnos patiently answered all of them. After Zeus mastered the cosmic lightning, he gave him information on the basics of electromagnetism. This was most likely his final lesson to Zeus, and with it, the God of Lightning would have a solid foundation to continue on his

cosmic path.

Zeus...

In light of everything, he honestly didn't know what to think of his student, but he could at least say Zeus had changed, albeit not significantly, but progress was progress nonetheless. Still, Hypnos could somewhat see his student ending up as the same Tyrant from Mythology and the Percy Jackson books, albeit without the abnormal amount of paranoia and indecision since his power was literally unrivalled; none of the Olympians could ever pose a threat to his

future rule. Except Hera.

Oh...

HERA.

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