Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 153: 8: Drawing Lots (Moon Votes +7)

The following day.

Atop Mount Olympus, the tense atmosphere of the past ten years gave way to a cheerful ambiance that lingered in all directions.

Although the celestial phenomena were still terrifying, under the divine power of the gods, the surroundings of the Mount of the Gods had returned to their former state. Except for the weakened Sun that had temporarily lost its controller and no longer moved, everything seemed the same as usual.

Standing at the entrance of the great hall, Zeus looked at the goddess who had finally arrived and breathed a sigh of relief.

Though he was very confident that she would not refuse, nothing was certain until the dust had settled. After all, there had been little contact between them, and despite not having shown it outright, Zeus always felt that Themis had some opinion of him.

If she had not come, and he could not persuade another ancient Titan god to stand with Olympus, many things could have become very troublesome afterward.

“Welcome to your arrival, the just adjudicator, the respected Princess Themis, my dear aunt. Your presence adds a touch of luster to Mount Olympus.”

With a jubilant smile on his face, Zeus stepped forward. He opened his arms as if he intended to give the Goddess of Justice a warm embrace.

However, Themis slightly shifted to the side, avoiding the closeness of her nephew.

“All right, there’s no need for such courtesy, I did not come because of you, Zeus. I am simply fulfilling the duties bestowed upon me by my godhood, to deliver just judgment to all spirits.”

Her expression was cold. From their last encounter in the Spirit Realm, Zeus hadn’t left her with a good impression. Throughout the years, she had seen that he was also quite close to two goddesses.

One was Eurynome, whom she had met before, Metis’s sister, and the other was a goddess in black rarely seen, seeming to reside upon the stars.

However, compared to the former, the latter, owing to her father’s neutral stance in the Titanomachy, did maintain some distance from Zeus.

“Metis, isn’t she your wife? As the future king of the gods, you must not do anything to make her sad.”

Themis had simply been warning Zeus not to be too promiscuous, but as soon as her words fell, she saw the color of Zeus’s face suddenly stiffen.

“…She has been feeling unwell lately, my lady. Perhaps she was frightened by the power of the Father God before, as her divine power is not that strong, so she did not come to the feast today.”

“Please come this way, my lady. You and my foster mother are the only two ancient Titan gods here today.”

His tone somewhat stiff, Zeus managed a smile and turned to walk toward the palace.

Frowning slightly, Themis hadn’t expected such a severe reaction from Zeus; she had only intended to caution him against absurdity. But after all, it was someone else’s business, and whatever he wished to do had nothing much to do with her.

So Themis said no more and simply shook her head slightly, proceeding towards the palace as well.

With the Goddess of Justice entering the great hall, the deities atop Mount Olympus had mostly arrived.

Earlier, under the escort of a goddess, the God of the Ocean, still semi-conscious, returned to his Divine Palace atop the encircling river, where the environment was more conducive to Oceanus’s healing.

The furious tides of the East Sea brought him waves of pain with each moment, and only when he awakened could he mobilize his divine authority to quell them. Therefore, only the Primeval Water Goddess remained to witness the succession of the new Divine King.

The Sun God Helios, however, had been roused by the rapidly empowered Boiling Water Goddess, Perse, within just one day and was brought directly to Mount Olympus. He now sat in a corner, looking dejected.

He had initially not wanted to come. The Heavenly Father Hyperion was missing, and the heart of the Sun was left empty. Helios preferred to sleep within the Sun for a while, but as a ‘former loyalist’ in secret allegiance, he had to make an appearance.

Beside the Primeval Water Goddess, Eurynome, Pronoia, Tethys, and several other Oceanides with godly duties took their seats in succession, opposite the children of the Primordial Sea God on the other side of the Divine Palace.

But on that side, Pontus’s eldest son, Nereus, was chatting idly with Poseidon, showing no intention of paying attention to the opposite side. They conversed with great enjoyment, and it was unclear who approached whom first.

Compared to yesterday’s slightly anxious expression, today’s Nereus seemed to have returned to his former self. He appeared genial and polite, his conversation eliciting hearty laughter from Poseidon, who was no more than ten years removed from the world.

“This is really interesting, isn’t it, little Chiron? This kind of scene is not something you can see just anywhere.”

Sitting in a corner of the great hall, Hecate casually took a fruit from the table and popped it into her mouth as she spoke.

She wasn’t referring to the boring feast, but to the diverse array of deities here.

Chaos World was always vast and empty, and Golden Humanity didn’t have such complex thoughts. These sights were often seen only when slightly opposing gods gathered together.

Next to her, the centaur didn’t speak. In fact, he felt he shouldn’t be there. Everyone coming and going around him was a deity, and he was the only one who looked peculiar, being a demigod. His large stature made him particularly conspicuous.

The passing gods cast strange glances at him, some as if evaluating a rare object, others simply in disgust, which made him feel somewhat uneasy.

“Don’t mind them. They’re just stronger than you and look more normal. It’s no big deal.”

“If anyone dares not to accept this and comes to me with their nonsense, I’ll pin them to the ground and beat them. Anyway, with Golden Mane not intervening, there aren’t many who can stand against me.”

Hecate waved her hand nonchalantly. In her eyes, there really weren’t many experts in Olympus now.

Apart from the family of Zeus, there was only Thaesis, the original Goddess of Water, who was a bit more formidable. The rest were just ordinary deities making up the numbers, so much so that the Goddess of Magic with her intermediate divine power had actually become top-tier here.

And among those who paid attention to the centaurs, clearly none of the above-mentioned deities were present.

Chiron fell silent again. The hearing of the gods was not poor, and many could hear Hecate’s voice. However, after assessing the opponent’s strength, and although they did not understand what The Magic Web meant and whether it could fight, they still refrained from causing further trouble.

However, this was also why many gods of later generations had not appeared, and why some deities had not arrived. If it were thousands of years later, perhaps the irascible War God would have been unable to control his temper.

Time ticked away second by second until, at a certain moment, Zeus walked toward the center of the great hall.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the feast is about to begin, but before that, I have a few long-awaited announcements to make.”

His voice spread, and with the utterance of the host, the somewhat noisy hall gradually quieted down.

Standing in the center, Zeus looked around with a smile, eyeing each deity present.

“Firstly, after a decade of tough battles, Olympus has achieved the final victory. And the succession of the Divine King will put a perfect end to this.”

“The former Divine King passed on his authority to us, to his three offspring—this is unquestionable. And after discussions with my brothers yesterday, in the end, for the sake of our bond, we have entrusted the decision to fate.”

This was the narrative he had decided on after much deliberation. There was no need for comparisons, no need for a power struggle, as these would only make him appear on the same level as his two brothers. Only the choice of fate could reflect his victory amidst a joke.

As for whether others would believe it or not, even if no one believed it now, surely someone would in the future.

In this respect, it seems that many rulers—both mythological and from later generations—came to the same conclusion.

“Three lots, symbolizing the Sky, the Ocean, and the Underworld, we used to decide the division of status. Under the witness of fate, in the end, I received the best lot and thus, with their blessings, became the founder of the new Divine Court.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than, as expected, the hall erupted into an uproar, with the gods murmuring among themselves.

Determining kingship by drawing lots sounded like an absurd tale. Some believed it, some did not, but regardless, behind the laughable decision on kingship, it hinted that Zeus and his brothers did not become adversaries because of it, and they could still be regarded as one.

Three powerful deities, along with their gentle yet battle-ready sister, indeed barely qualified to prop up the new Divine Court.

“Silence!”

With a soft command to stop the discussions, Zeus’s expression turned serious. He looked around, making eye contact with each deity in turn.

“This is the final outcome.”

“So if no one has objections to this, then today, I, the King of the Thousand Thunders, son of Cronus, noble descendant of the Heavenly Father and Mother Earth, will become the third-generation Divine King here, ruling over all spirits and things in the world.”

No deity spoke up to object, and the only one who might have caused an upset, the God of the Ocean, was not present. In the silence, Zeus raised his right hand, which held a familiar scepter. Triggered by this Divine Artifact from the former Divine King, an invisible force became apparent.

It was related to all three deities, but when the other two entities relinquished their attraction to it, it floated straight towards Zeus.

Without light flickering or the world celebrating, the new Divine King was born silently. The era had completed its final change, and the rules of the present world shifted slightly. At the same time, an invisible disturbance also swept across the world.

A new shackle was born, but nobody was aware of it yet.

“What’s this?”

The gods were somewhat confused, as they felt nothing else, just as if the disturbance had never existed.

Zeus was different, though; through the newly acquired Divine Authority of the Divine King, he understood everything. This was not anything else but the present world’s delayed retribution for the destruction caused by the deities before.

From now on, when the gods neared the earth, their divine power would tend toward null. When they approached the deep sea, they would retain only a tenth of their strength. When they were close to the Sun and Moon or the Underworld, their power would also be greatly diminished.

In the present world, only atop Mount Olympus would their divine powers be as before.

Because this place was the only one in the war of era transition where, because of a deity’s ‘birth’ rather than ‘damage,’ it remained undisturbed.