Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 452 - 122 Wandering Mind_2

Now, finding his sister was the most important thing.

Transformed into a beam of light, Poseidon flew towards the north. He had also heard of the harsh winter stirred up by Demeter, and now, it seemed she was in a human tribe.

...

Behind a cloud over the ocean,

"Alright, work’s done—next, we just wait at that goddess’s place."

Clapping his hands, Volos said contentedly.

His golden arrow would keep going forward until it hit its target. Although there were beings in this world that could stop it, at least Poseidon probably didn’t have that ability.

And now, the feeling that came to him was indeed so; without any surprises, his arrow had hit the target.

"Good—"

"Speaking of which, that goddess seems to be in a temple built for her in that human kingdom."

Nodding lightly, Eros said with a bit of longing,

"I wonder when we can find some believers to play with, and then have them build a temple for us too."

"Better not."

Rejecting the idea offhand, Volos gave an irrefutable reason.

"I think humans are quite foolish; it’s better to stay away from them. We are gods who control desire, not gods controlled by desire—but, from what I see, humans seem quite easily controlled by their own emotions, especially those among them who hold the highest status."

"...Okay, you’re right, let’s not have any believers then."

After a moment of thought, Eros felt persuaded and agreed that she indeed should stay away from them.

Their idle chat ended, and she prepared to leave with Volos. However, at this moment, a loud noise came from the ocean surface below.

A blue light split the sea, turning all nearby life to dust in an instant. Immediately after, Poseidon’s figure leaped out from the ocean and flew towards the north.

"Hmm... it worked—but, are arrows fueled by mortal hatred really that powerful?"

Volos was somewhat surprised and puzzled as he felt the surge of emotions in the Sea Emperor’s heart, that possessiveness for his sister Demeter, but it seemed a bit too intense.

"That’s probably because he has always had such thoughts... Ew—stay away from me too!."

Looking at Volos beside her, Eros made a face of disgust. Her eleven or twelve-year-old appearance combined with her current expression made for a somewhat adorably contradictory sight.

"Cut it out, Eros... As split gods of desire, the last thing that could happen is us developing feelings for each other."

Volos smirked, knowing the other was joking, so he didn’t take it seriously but just called out,

"Let’s go, follow him!"

With a call, Volos took the lead, and after a laugh, Eros also followed suit. The great drama was unfolding right before them, and they didn’t want to miss such a scene.

······

The Spirit Realm, the fifth layer.

In the chaotic space-time, as always quiet, only now there was an addition that looked like a mere point of light on the outside but seemed infinitely vast on the inside—a phantasmal kingdom.

Sitting cross-legged in the void, above Laine’s head and below his feet were the increasingly stable interfaces of positive and negative energy.

A certain connection between them was becoming more and more intimate, which gradually brought balance to the two energy planes, which had initially been unbalanced. However, at this moment, Laine’s mind was not on them, but on the movements of the outside world.

Of course, Laine wasn’t paying attention to that small human kingdom either. Although he did take note of everything that happened there because of the twins of Desire, he didn’t have any surplus thoughts about the whole event.

Whether it was Metanira or Demeter, their actions were not worth much attention. After all, the first half of the event’s development was extremely similar to later myths, and the unfolding of the latter half seemed quite normal.

Compared to the future deeds of a king named Tantalus, a son of Zeus, the affair between the goddess and the queen was truly trivial, and he had no intention of intervening. He would not even have remembered such a minor matter if it hadn’t involved the changing of the seasons.

As for what Laine was doing now... that was naturally waiting to observe an important memory.

Hundreds of years ago, after that divine battle had ended, Laine had handed over his Divine Artifact to Athena, allowing her to peer into past memories. During this period, the Goddess of Wisdom had used it more than once, trying to understand the whereabouts of her Mother Goddess, who had once resided in Zeus’ head alongside herself.

However, it might have been that that period indeed had some higher-order influence, or perhaps it was the subtle interference of fate, or both. Every time Athena tried to explore that brief but significant past from her dim pre-birth memories, she would always encounter some invisible disturbance, and then her focus would shift to other matters.

Most of what she found was emptiness, but there were a few instances with content—mostly when Zeus made use of Metis’ wisdom and authority.

Every time this happened, the Divine King had no choice but to relax the seal on the goddess. It might not have been enough to free Metis from his imprisonment, but it did allow a tiny bit of the outside world to seep through, unheard by Athena in her unconscious state.

These things would not have come back to her normally, but now, with the influence of the Divine Artifact, Athena "remembered" them one by one. Of course, although these were also gains, which let the goddess understand a side of her Father God not known to others, Athena ultimately remembered what she was truly searching for.

Some higher power was always interfering with her, which seemed difficult, but these were her own memories, real and existing. So when she found that "clever methods" couldn’t do the job, Athena resolutely chose the "foolish way."

If she couldn’t pinpoint that period, then she would just extract all the memories before her birth one by one. This simplest and most brute-force method, also the most time-consuming and strenuous one, was not affected by that underlying influence.

Thus, over the past several centuries, Athena spent most of her time dwelling on her past. Although much of it was cumbersome and futile, luckily, recently this exploration of memory finally reached its end.

When all the useless parts were isolated, what remained could no longer conceal its existence.

So on a small island in the East Sea, Athena in a long gown took out a scroll. For the last time, she activated the Divine Artifact, pressing it against her smooth forehead, and with this act, both [History] and [Memory] acted upon the goddess.

The secret was about to be unveiled, a tinge of emotion-induced flush flitting across Athena’s face. It was also at this moment that Laine’s gaze shifted away from the twins and towards the goddess on the island. He too was exceedingly expectant about the results of this inquiry.

"Come on, let me see... what exactly you did."

The voice echoed in the void, Laine’s gaze flickering slightly. The next moment, as if something had changed, his body remained seated in place, but his ’divine essence’ seemed to have left his body.

The last exploration was different from the previous ones, as Laine chose not to merely watch, using the power of the Divine Artifact to browse through memory fragments. He knew well that this memory might involve a clash at the world level, so it was influenced by extremely high powers.

If he waited for the Divine Artifact to present the records on its own... the crucial parts would probably all be blurred. And as for asking Athena afterwards, putting aside other issues, even if she was willing to tell Laine the whole story without omission, some ’mysteries’ can only be grasped and understood by seeing with one’s own eyes.

Like the Rune Symbols, what was recorded in the Primordial Codex was completely different from what was later spread. Over the years, Laine had not been short on consulting the codex from Odin’s treasury, and he learned many useful things each time.

The closer the ’information’ is to its source, the more ’true’ and ’complete’ it is... thus Laine had to see for himself.

If there’s anything in the Chaos World that might have even a slight resistance to the powers at the world level, it could only be Laine himself.

So when he conceived this thought, the Divine Body he left behind became an empty shell. Laine’s spirit departed his body silently and joined Athena above the East Sea, entering the deep recesses of her memory.

Intuition told Laine... this journey into memory would perhaps be quite interesting. And what he was about to see would probably be not just the experiences of Zeus’ ascension rituals.

...