Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

The sun chariot has come to the west, and the afterglow of the sunset has dyed the earth with a layer of golden paint. The place where the late awakeners live is not far from the human tribe, but there is a wide river between them.

This is a river born at the turn of the era. It was born because of the aftermath of the fight between two ancient gods. Therefore, this river has no river god, but is occupied by a strange beast with two heads and stained with the blood of the sea god.

Under the deterrence of the strange beast, although there is only a river between them, there is no trace of human activities here.

However, today, three goddesses with different appearances but gorgeous clothes came here. They are wearing dresses decorated with gems, with garlands on their heads and flowers in their hands, and they are full of beautiful and joyful atmosphere.

When they stand together, even the deserted riverside looks like a banquet with winding water and flowing wine, giving people a sense of joy from the heart.

"Aglaia, why do you think the father god wants us to come here to visit a mortal?"

With a slightly arrogant look, Talia complained to her youngest sister.

"She is not a mortal, Talia, she is Pandora blessed by the gods."

With a serene smile, Aglaia explained quietly.

"What's the difference? She was created by the gods, and humans were also created by the gods. Can being blessed by the gods make her a god?"

Somewhat unconvinced, as the oldest and most mature of the three, Talia actually knew that Pandora was not a simple mortal, but in any case, she could not be on par with the gods.

And such a person was blessed by the gods, which was a treatment she had never enjoyed.

"Forget it, Talia, anyway, she married a god. Maybe the father wants us to express his kindness, after all, the elder and younger brothers of the foolish god were punished by the court of gods one after another."

On the side, Euphrosyne stopped Talia's complaints.

The three Graces, daughters of the Ocean Goddess Eurynome, are in charge of elegance and magnificence, joy and festivals, and encouragement and feasting. From a certain perspective, this seems to correspond to the beauty of women at three different ages.

The youngest Aglaia is elegant and quiet. She often likes to enjoy the beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers alone. The second-ranked Euphrosyne likes a more lively atmosphere and often brings smiles to people around her. As for the oldest Thalia, ordinary fun can no longer satisfy her, so she is in charge of indulgence and banquets to bring more exciting enjoyment to everyone.

But perhaps it is precisely because of this that the oldest one seems to love comparison, while the youngest one is much more polite.

"Humph."

With a snort, Thalia accepted Euphrosyne's statement. Although she didn't think much of Epimetheus, he was at least the offspring of the Titans. The two brothers were famous among the gods for their wisdom and strength, and he himself had strong divine power.

Although this "strong" was only compared with the three of them, in this era, it was rare to find a true god with weaker divine power than them.

After a brief debate, the three goddesses walked towards the garden in the distance. This is the garden that Epimetheus built for Pandora, just around the house where they live.

"Hey, who are you——"

The Graces approached undisguisedly, startling the owner here. Wearing a wide robe, Pandora raised her head from a flowerbed and looked not far away.

As symbols of the Graces, the three goddesses all have different looks, but they all meet the evaluation of "beauty". In this regard, Pandora, who has been blessed by the true goddess of beauty, is not inferior. However, compared with the gorgeous clothes on the other party, her clothes are much simpler.

Athena has not yet been born, and this "bright-eyed girl" who has won every battle and is clever and handy naturally has no chance to put on feather clothes for Pandora. Therefore, as the first mortal woman in the world, a feeling of envy rose from Pandora's heart, but she was quickly suppressed.

She is a life blessed by the gods, just a piece of clothing, nothing to care about.

"I am Aglaia, they are my two sisters, and we are here to visit the brother of the Forerunner."

With a polite smile, Aglaia said.

"Then please come in, three of you, I have heard of your names. But unfortunately, Epimetheus left not long ago, and he said he would be out for a long time."

Pandora said as she stepped forward and opened the gate of the garden.

"Is that so? That's really unfortunate."

With a slight smile, Aglaia pulled her somewhat reluctant sister and walked into the garden.

On both sides of the fine stone paved road, colorful flowers bloomed out of season. This was a blessing from the goddess Demeter, who made the place where Pandora was located bloom with flowers, and it was like spring all year round.

Walking into the garden, Aglaia looked at the environment and layout here while casually finding a topic.

"On weekdays, are you and His Highness Epimetheus the only ones living here? That seems a bit lonely."

"Not only us, but also my daughter, Pyrrha, who was born not long ago. In addition, Deucalion often comes to our place."

Speaking of Deucalion, Pandora felt a little regretful.

"He did not inherit the power of his parents, and even has almost no divinity. As an ordinary demigod, he lives with us in the world."

Prometheus the Forerunner had a wife and children, although they were not as well-known as he was. He and Pronoa, the goddess of the ocean and vision, gave birth to Deucalion, but the son of the Forerunner failed to obtain any divine office, and his power was not much stronger than that of ordinary humans.

Demigod is sometimes used to describe a state, and sometimes to describe a race. In this era, the first mortal with self-generated divinity has not yet been born, so demigod naturally refers to the latter.

As long as they are the first generation descendants of gods, they can be called demigods, and Deucalion is such an existence.

As early as when Prometheus tried to deceive the gods, the goddess of vision advised him like Epimetheus. But unlike the latecomers, after the persuasion failed, Pronoa went directly to the secluded place of Iapetus to seek the protection of the Titan god.

She did not return to the ocean, because after knowing the secret of faith, Pronoa was no longer allowed to go to the sea. Deucalion chose to stay because he always believed in his father's wisdom.

"That's a pity, but I believe that he will achieve his own success with something other than strength, just like his father."

After comforting her, Aglaia chatted with Pandora for a while, and her two sisters also joined in.

Halfway through the garden, Thalia suddenly seemed to remember something and asked.

"Pandora, I heard that His Majesty Hades gave you a jar?"

"Is that so? Do you want to see it?"

With a smile on her lips, Pandora was inevitably a little proud of this treasure given by Hades.

Since going to the underworld, Hades has rarely dealt with the gods on earth, but he still remembered to send her a gift, which is also a happy thing.

"Of course, I have been interested in it for a long time."

Nodding, Talia continued:

"It is said that there is another main god of the underworld who put an extra precious treasure in it at that time?"

"Treasure, maybe, but I don't know what it is."

In her memory, Lyanna put a shiny phantom that was not clear in the pottery jar, so Pandora just shook her head.

"Then didn't you try to open it?"

Being curious, Talia couldn't help but suggest.

"His Majesty Hades has told you that this jar cannot be opened."

She refused. Although Pandora was also curious about what was hidden inside that allowed such an ordinary pottery jar to absorb disasters and misfortunes, she remembered the instructions of the God King, so she never made any wrong moves.

"I know, but Hades didn't say why it couldn't be opened."

She didn't care much. In Talia's impression, there was no thing that would bring disaster to the gods before Chaos's world.

As for mortals, she really didn't think about them.

"Maybe there are more precious treasures hidden inside. Besides, the God King didn't stop another main god of the underworld from putting the gift in, so there must be no danger inside."

Pandora was a little tempted, but she shook her head again to refuse, which made Talia a little unhappy. She looked at the beautiful woman in front of her and said lightly:

"Yes, after all, you are not a god, so you will inevitably have all kinds of worries, but this is actually unnecessary. I don't know what the father god's purpose is for letting the gods create you together."

"Maybe, but as a god, you don't seem to be able to make the gods look at you differently. Why don't you go to ask His Majesty the King of Hell what's inside, so as to satisfy my curiosity?"

Although facing the gods, Pandora was not afraid at all. With the blessing given to her by Hestia, this god with meager divine power could not do anything to her.

"You-"

Talia's face was not very good, and the scene was a little awkward for a while. Aglaia and Euphrosyne held her back, and the quarrel did not continue.

However, in this atmosphere, the three Graces did not stay for long. They just hurriedly toured the garden and then returned to Olympus.

Fortunately, although Epimetheus was not here, the King of Gods asked them to come in the name of visiting Pandora, so the three goddesses consciously completed Zeus's instructions.

Standing at the gate of the garden, Pandora looked at the three departing figures, feeling a little angry and sad. Talia's impoliteness certainly made her unhappy, but there was a reason for the other party to do so. After all, Chaos was a wise female life, either a god or a nymph.

And the value of the existence of nymphs is to serve as servants of the gods.

"What's wrong, what happened today?"

Startled by the voice behind her, Pandora immediately realized that the person coming was Epimetheus.

"Aren't you going to be out for a while?"

"The gods on Mount Olympus came to visit you before. If they had known you were back now, they would have stayed longer."

"That's really unfortunate."

Smiling, Epimetheus glanced at the light drifting away in the sky and continued to ask:

"What did they talk to you about?"

"Talia, the eldest sister of the three Graces, was curious about the gift from Hades. His Majesty Hades clearly said not to open it."

Feeling a little wronged, Pandora hoped to get comfort from Epimetheus, but the result disappointed her.

"I think it's okay to open it and take a look."

Epimetheus said casually with a bright smile.

"Hmph."

With a humph, Pandora no longer paid attention to her dull husband, but turned and walked towards the room. She didn't want to talk to Epimetheus any more.

Behind her, the Late Enlightened One was not angry either. He just smiled and followed Pandora.

······

The three Graces left, but everything did not end there. From that day on, for some reason, even though her two sisters had no interest, Talia often came to the place where the Late Enlightened One lived to meet her new "friend".

But for some reason, she almost never met Epimetheus. Every time, the other party was not there for various reasons, but this was exactly what Talia wanted. She didn't come for the Late Enlightened One.

She borrowed the golden crown from the Queen of Heaven, the [Golden Staff of Wheat] from the Goddess of Agriculture, asked the Mother Goddess to weave a wreath for her, and even borrowed Aphrodite's belt, the artifact that could make all the opposite sex fall in love with her. Except for the Goddess of Law who was not in Olympus recently, she visited almost all the gods with some status.

The result was a bit surprising to her. Whenever she came to ask, these powerful gods agreed to her requests one by one. But Thalia didn't think much about it. She thought it was all for the sake of the King of Gods.

Good things must be shared naturally, so every time she got these treasures, she would come to show them to her "good friend" Pandora.

This behavior undoubtedly made Pandora very angry. She told her husband about it, but as the rumors among the gods said, the dull Epimetheus did not realize Thalia's "sinister intentions" at all.

Instead, he was very surprised. Isn't it a happy thing for a good friend to show you the treasure?

In desperation, Pandora gave up the idea of ​​getting help from her husband. But as a non-god, Olympus was not open to her, and she had no ability to see other gods, which made her even angrier.

Time continued to pass, and in addition to the things between the gods, many changes also took place in the human tribe.

In the city of Aurora, high walls have been built, and people often only dare to leave the protection of the walls and enter the wilderness in groups of three or five, wearing rough protective gear woven from animal fur.

But there are some people who are different. One day, the high-level priests of Aurora suddenly discovered that there were some unstable factors in the city under their rule. They have a much better physique than their carefully selected guards, and can kill some beasts with claws and fangs alone.

They gathered around a man named "Cohen", listened to him talk about the beauty of the golden age, the virtues of golden humans, and followed him to learn how to hone their physique and combat skills.

This surprised the priests, but after asking the high priest Momon who lived next to the new holy fire, the other party's attitude seemed ambiguous, and it seemed that he had no intention of responding to this.

Some priests didn't know why, but more knew that they had long become "own people" with Momon. The mysterious figure surrounded by black fog warned them not to provoke that guy easily, so they all supported the decision of the high priest.

So a very strange phenomenon appeared. A small group that was obviously out of control appeared in Aurora City, but was inexplicably ignored by the city's managers.

In this case, both sides did not interfere with each other and were busy with their own affairs.

However, unlike the priests, although immersed in various affairs, Cohen did not feel happy.

Along the way, his persistence in past thoughts was broken again and again. Once, what God said was the truth, but now, he feels that everything is just the opposite.

It seems that few of what God said are true.

He noticed the special group entrenched in the upper echelons of bronze humans. Every once in a while, some humans would be stained with that strange blood breath. Cohen originally wanted to stop it, but later he gave up.

Because the ability brought by the special substances in the body can not only affect his emotions to a certain extent, making people full of hope or decadence, but also make him more aware of other people's emotions. But to his disappointment, those humans stained with special breath themselves are not people of noble character.

There is no coercion, just temptation. Cohen even witnessed the whole process of a person drinking black blood, which was entirely out of his own will.

"Evans, do you think the direction of human beings now is correct?"

Somewhat confused, in the leisure time of an afternoon, Cohen, who was immersed in thinking, subconsciously asked the first bronze human he met, who was also a good friend in recent years.

He didn't expect the other party to give an answer, but unexpectedly, Evans answered very seriously.

"I don't know, Cohen, but if you feel it's wrong, why don't you do something?"

"Do something?"

"Yes. I always feel that you don't seem to have any goals. Even though you are here to teach us the skills to fight wild beasts, I dare say that if I hadn't seen the power you showed that day, you probably wouldn't have had this idea."

In the past, Evans's personality was somewhat eccentric, but now, he looked serious, holding the bronze sword in his hand, and chopped it down fiercely.

With a clanging sound, the bronze sword sank deeply into the boulder. This was not something that ordinary bronze humans could do, but one of the results of Evans' self-cultivation in the past few years.

"To be honest, I don't really like the current priests. The Creator is gone, and everything seems to have changed dramatically. But for me, even if I can split this stone with a sword, it won't change anything, but you are different."

Turning and looking into Cohen's eyes, Evans said solemnly:

"Your power is enough to break the hills and cut off the rivers. If you want, you are dissatisfied with the behavior of the priests, then you can stop them. If you are dissatisfied with the current situation in Aurora, you can also replace those priests and let the human tribe move forward in your direction. In this case, why don't you do it?"

"."

After a long silence, Cohen let out a long breath in Evans's expectant eyes.

"Because I don't know what is right, Evans."

"But the golden age you once told me about"

"The golden humans have firm beliefs. They believe that God is omniscient and omnipotent, and that God is perfect. They understand God in this way and demand the same of themselves, so there is the golden age I mentioned."

Cohen looked at his friend beside him and asked seriously:

"What about you? Can you find someone to place your thoughts on and tell yourself, 'It's right to work hard in this direction'?"

".I can't."

The figure of the goddess of the hearth flashed in his mind, but Evans really couldn't convince himself, because the goddess no longer responded to humans.

"That's why I'm a little aimless. I don't know what's right. Just like now, even if I forcefully replace the priests, how can I guarantee that I can make humans better, not worse? At least now, everyone can live a normal life, even if it's a little worse than before."

"If you work hard in the wrong direction, you will only get a wrong result. The harder you work, the more wrong the result is. This is why I'm a little confused."

Shaking his head slightly, Cohen stopped talking about such boring things and changed the topic.

"Okay, let's not talk about this. I recently discovered that letting the energy in the body vibrate according to a specific rhythm can exert greater power. But if the rhythm is wrong, it will hurt yourself."

"I've tried it. Do you want to try it?"

". Of course, I also want to fight with the beasts outside the wilderness one day!"

Cohen's way of changing the subject was very stiff, but Evans roughly understood his idea. Perhaps he has become accustomed to faith. Even if he is free from the shackles now, it is difficult to regain confidence in his own decision for a while.

However, Evans and the bronze humans were not much better in this regard. They accepted the guidance of the priests because they had a close relationship with God and the Creator. Even if one of them abandoned them and the other left them, humans still chose to obey out of habit.

This was the case for decades, let alone thousands of years.

So the sound of practice rang again, and the previous conversation seemed to have been forgotten by the two.

But at night, when Cohen was lying alone in bed, he couldn't help but think of these contents again.

During this period, he was a little lacking in direction.

"Perhaps humans do need a 'god', but He is definitely not an existence with the same thoughts as ordinary people."

Silently thinking, Cohen questioned himself.

Faith has power in the mythological world, but even without this power, it can make people full of hope and gain sustenance. But the premise of everything is that the object of this faith and the person who guides people to believe in Him have no malice.

"He should be great and perfect, just like the world itself. He sends down thunder and rain, not to express joy or anger towards mortals, but simply because He wants to, without any other reason."

Whispering to himself, Cohen couldn't help but compare the gods of Olympus.

"Such gods may be the real 'gods'."

Perhaps the gods believed in by the golden humans do not exist at all. There is no existence in this world that is in line with human morality and has power that humans cannot understand.

Cohen was immersed in thinking. At a certain moment, he had a line of faith in the world itself, and then it quickly broke. However, faith will not dissipate once it is generated, and Chaos will not accept faith, so this power began to split.

Some came to the earth, but the mother earth was still asleep, and she did not notice this little thing. Some floated into the spirit world, but Cohen was originally a half-believer in the spirit world, so naturally it did not attract any attention.

But there are still some who unexpectedly came to places they should not have come to.

At the top of the sky, the top that no one can reach, when this belief was connected, a group of illusory concepts suddenly moved.

Although this powerful and pure belief only lasted for a short while, it seemed to break a certain balance, causing the fingers of a certain giant to move unconsciously.

No one noticed this scene, only the giant god who supported the sky suddenly almost fell to the ground under the heavy pressure at a certain moment, but soon disappeared, making Atlas feel that this was simply an illusion.

"This is."

".Me."

"."

"."

The barely perceptible sound echoed in the sky, and then fell into silence again. Cohen's thoughts were only brief, and soon, everything returned to normal. It was as if nothing had happened, and only the world itself witnessed it all.

With the integration of the Nine Realms, the origin of the world rose again, and the originally destined fate was rewritten again.

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