Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

Above the starry sky, the morning star falls to the west.

When mortals describe the height of heaven and earth, they remember that it takes nine days and nine nights to reach the earth from the sky; nine days and nine nights to reach the underworld from the earth; and nine days and nine nights to reach the abyss from the underworld. Even with the speed of gods, this long distance is by no means trivial.

But when pierced by the spear, Hypnos began to sink thousands of times faster. Even the wind god and the rainbow goddess, who are famous for their extreme speed, are probably not as fast as him at this moment.

But he didn't care about this. The god of sleep looked up at the sky, and the peak of Sinaia was getting farther and farther away from him, and more and more blurred. At this moment, in the depths of Hypnos' soul, a sense of weakness suddenly emerged, and with it, a little light emerged from his body.

That was a 'dream'. Sleep and dreams are one and the same, but also separate. One comes from the placenta nurtured by the eternal night, and the other comes from the gift given by the spirit world. However, the gift of the world is limited to the world. Every time Hypnos falls, the power of [Dream] in him dissipates. They return to the embrace of the spirit world and become a part of Him.

But this is not what the God of Sleep really cares about. He looked at the figure who knocked him down with his own hands, the familiar "Father God". With the stripping of the priesthood, his connection with the spirit world became closer. At this moment, the world in his eyes seemed different.

The figure in the black robe gradually blurred in his eyes, but became more "clear". Indistinctly, Hypnos could not tell the difference between him and the sky of the spirit world. As he continued to fall and broke through the seven layers of time and space barriers, in a trance, the God of Sleep seemed to see the other side of the spirit world.

The sacred mountain that runs through the spirit world is His spine, and the Well of Samsara is His heart core. The moon is His eyes, and the mountains and rivers are His flesh and blood.

He is there, at the beginning of everything. He turned everything of himself into the world, and the world should be the same as Him.

"What is this?!"

Suddenly startled, Hypnos opened his eyes wide. He wanted to see more carefully, but the fantastic scene had long disappeared. He had left the spirit world, and the divine power of [Dream] had left him. The fleeting scene could no longer be seen by anyone because it had lost that deep connection.

In other words, that was a perspective that only the 'world' had, and even the eternal gods were not qualified to see it.

"Wait - stop!"

With a sharp shout, powerful divine power burst out of his body, and the god of sleep wanted to see more clearly. He tried his best to stop falling, and struggled to make more blood flow out of the pierced part of his chest, but everything was in vain.

The short gun rod pierced his chest and locked all his resistance. Under its carrying, Hypnos could not even stop his falling trajectory.

After a while, he finally realized his powerlessness and gave up resistance. He lay on his back in the void, sinking with the wooden pole. Beside him, there were still dots of light floating, and each dot of light was a life.

Before, every time he passed through a layer of interface, his dream authority was stripped away; at the same time, the lives that obeyed his orders in that layer of interface were also expelled and fell with him.

Now, they gathered around the god of sleep, as if they were guarding their king.

"Oh, king, the lowest of all realms, it seems that whether you are willing or not, you have to go there with me."

With a self-deprecating smile, Hypnos relaxed his body, and then fell endlessly. He saw the aurora in the starry sky, the flood on the ground, the undead in the field of truth, and then passed through the interface between the present world and the abyss and fell into Tartarus.

The concept of time was erased, and the front and back were reversed, and the left and right were shifted. Only the fate of "must be" remained unchanged. This residual power just wrapped him up and went to the final destination.

······

Olympus, in the eastern part of the continent.

"Boom--"

The huge waves were surging, splashing thousands of layers of floating snow. At some point, the seawater that was originally provoked by the son of the sea god and stopped outside Mount Olympus continued to spread westward. The huge waves up to a thousand meters seemed to carry the anger of the gods and collided with the barrier rising from the mountain.

Olympus, the pure land of the gods that is not limited by the laws of the world, is now shaking slightly in front of the power hidden in the huge waves. And as the pillar supporting the eastern sky, when it shakes, the sky seems to tremble with it.

"Zeus, come out to see me!"

A roar came, and then above the waves, a chariot rushed out of the sea. The powerful force rolled around, and although the owner of the voice did not walk out of it, his power did not diminish at all.

And under the shouting of the Titan gods, the broken door of the temple on the top of Mount Olympus slowly opened. Zeus walked out first, lightning surrounded his hands, and behind him, all the gods who had participated in the meeting were also in line.

The King of Gods looked very solemn. He knew who the visitors were, and he could probably guess why they came, but he didn't want to stir up a commotion now, after all, the God's Court was now more empty than ever before.

The higher the divine power, the more obvious the gap between levels. Facing the Ocean Lord, whose divine power level had reached level 20 and was at the peak of powerful divine power, only Zeus himself could fight him.

But as everyone knows, Thesis, the original water goddess, was also a powerful water god. Thousands of river gods and lake spirits worshipped her as their master. Now no one in Olympus could resist her existence.

Hades was far away in the underworld, Hestia had just left, Demeter was not good at fighting, and Poseidon made it clear that he would just sit on the sidelines. The Goddess of Law has not returned for many years, and the Sun God and other gods cannot decide the situation at all. Everything tells Zeus how difficult the enemy in front of him is.

Of course, the situation is not at its worst yet. After all, it is easy to decide between gods, but it is difficult to decide the winner. If his adoptive parents insisted on taking action, Zeus would have no choice but to avoid the spotlight for the time being. When Pluto and the Kitchen Goddess notice the movement here and gather the power of the gods, the balance of victory will eventually tilt towards him. But if it really develops to that point, I am afraid that the Divine Court, which cannot be established for more than a hundred years, will completely become a laughing stock.

At that time, it is difficult to say what choice a god like Aphrodite, who is semi-independent of the Divine Court, will make. And it is impossible to say whether an originally honest guy like the Sun God will have other thoughts.

At this moment, the God King once again realized how weak he was at this moment. Without a few brothers and sisters, he could not suppress those old masters, the children of the Father.

"Long time no see, my most respected Lord of the Ocean, what kind of wind brings you here?"

Although he knew it was impossible, Zeus still hoped to get a kind answer. However, the next moment, the sound coming from the carriage made him give up his delusion.

"You know very well, Zeus, that you murdered my daughter and the pearl of the sea in a shady way. Today is the day I come to seek justice."

Another voice came from the chariot, and the original water goddess slowly walked out, unscrupulously releasing divine pressure. She is the purest water and the mother of thousands of rivers. Even if she faces the gods alone, her momentum will not fall behind.

On the contrary, when faced with Tesis' questioning, although the God King's expression remained unchanged, the momentum of the other gods around him declined.

Many versions of the matter between Zeus and Metis have long been secretly circulated among the gods. Now that the real owner has come to visit, it seems to be a matter of course. At least in this matter, there are many gods who sympathize with the goddess.

There are some exceptions though. Behind the God King, Queen Hera glanced at Zeus fiercely, but finally stepped forward and stood beside him. After all, she is the biggest beneficiary. If Metis is still there, how will she get the position of Queen of Heaven?

"If this is the purpose of your coming, Your Highness Thesis, although I am also very sad about the disappearance of Metis, this is not the reason for you to blatantly threaten the Divine Court."

The three-color scepter floated beside him, and the [Thunder Arrow] was held in the palm of Zeus. Now that he was sure that the person who came was evil, Zeus became cold-faced.

The current situation is indeed not good, but Oceanus and his wife don't know what just happened, and they don't even know that Poseidon turns a blind eye to it and Hestia is not on the mountain. On the contrary, in order to prevent being seen as a problem, Zeus not only did not give in, but became even tougher.

"I can understand your feelings, but that's all. If you try to provoke a dispute on this basis, then I will stay with you until the end!"

boom--

Seemingly irritated by Zeus's words, the turbulent seawater slapped the mountain of Olins again, leaving a huge impact sound. The auras of many gods intertwined in the sky, and thunder and lightning gradually covered half of the sky, far away from the water waves. It seemed that a battle between gods was about to break out in the next moment.

However, at this moment, the sky suddenly shone, and this sudden celestial phenomenon interrupted the rising momentum of both parties.

The tense atmosphere was instantly interrupted, and the gods couldn't help but look up at the sky. It was still daytime, but in the starry sky, a star released an extremely dazzling brilliance.

The morning star twinkled and fell into the world. For a moment, the place became quiet. Until the star disappears from sight and does not reach the end of sight.

"The majesty of the Divine Court cannot be offended, but I also understand your mood. Your Highness Thesis, if you are willing, I am willing to plant the golden apple branch given by the Earth Mother on the sea. From now on, we will share this treasure. This will put an end to this unnecessary dispute.”

In silence, Hera spoke slowly. She knew that Olympus was strong on the outside and weak on the inside at this moment, and this battle was something the God King never wanted to see. And as the person who replaced Metis, she should also stand up.

Opposite her, Tesis, whose momentum had dropped slightly, finally became less intense.

"All the gods know the truth of the matter, but you are my adopted son after all. Zeus, if you agree to an additional condition, we can no longer care about this matter."

Secretly he breathed a sigh of relief, but Tesis' expression remained cold. In fact, even if Zeus is bluffing, she is actually no exception.

Oceanus' injury has not healed yet. He stayed in the chariot not to show off, but once he got out, Zeus might see the truth. So if it can be solved with words, it will be much better than war after all.

Zeus's fierce reaction just now almost made her not know what to do.

"Phew - that would be great. If you have anything you want, I will try my best to satisfy you."

Hera also breathed a sigh of relief, swaying her golden crown on her head, smiling and nodding.

"Then I'll tell you straight."

Looking at Zeus, Tesis knew that he was the one who made the decision.

"This great flood was probably caused by the divine order."

"This is Poseidon's personal behavior."

The words were flawless. Zeus obviously did not admit that he meant it, but Tesis did not care.

"It doesn't matter whether you mean it or not. When the flood recedes."

Looking at Zeus, the goddess said lightly:

"We want the faith of mankind in the next era."

boom--

The expressions of the gods suddenly changed, and the auras of both sides collided. The originally peaceful situation became intense, but Tesis smiled instead.

"The secrets you hide may not be as hidden as you think, and we are not the only Titans alive."

Looking at the sky, the goddess smiled and said:

"Share your faith with us, or make the ocean completely our own domain. Choose one. As long as you can do one, then the past will be in the past. We will forget about this 'accident'."

······

Hades, Temple of Hades.

Hypnos's fall did not end in the human world. Even in the center of the Garden of Truth, Hades still saw this strange scene.

It's just that Pluto doesn't care much about this, or in other words, he doesn't care much about many things in the world now.

The human world belongs to the gods, and Hades belongs to you. Although there are two goddess neighbors who are difficult to deal with, they never care about the affairs here, and it is no different from non-existence.

So he looked away from the falling star, and Hades asked the water fairy next to him:

"Mingta, are those undead willing to obey my orders?"

"Some finally agreed, but some were unwilling. If you ask me, Your Majesty, you should have dealt with those guys directly."

First he responded to his monarch's question, and then Mingta said with murderous intent.

Some ants actually dared to bargain in front of the Lord God of the Underworld, and they were simply seeking death.

"Forget it. If Mingta doesn't want to, just let them leave. Even the ones left behind may not be very loyal to me."

Shaking his head, Pluto knew that to truly be loyal to his subordinates, he still had to cultivate them himself.

"Let them take over the human corpses later. That's what Zeus promised me. With them, the prototype of the kingdom of the undead can be established. By then, everything will be on track."

"But speaking of which, I still need a queen."

Somewhat troubled, Hades decided to go to the ground to see if the underworld needed a mistress with a suitable priesthood to rejuvenate it. However, while he was thinking about it, he failed to notice the changing emotions in the eyes of the maid beside him.

In other words, he didn't care if he noticed it. After all, Pluto didn't feel much about things like love, so he naturally wouldn't pay attention to unnecessary things.

"Go, the flood of the world will recede in nine days and nights, and you will be busy by then."

With a gentle wave of his hand, Hades turned and walked back to the palace.

He still had many things to consider about the Kingdom of the Undead, the most basic of which was the form of rule.

Humans need to eat and enjoy, but the undead do not. How to build a reasonable promotion channel and formulate rules that are accepted by the undead are undoubtedly top priorities.

Only by making the order he established inseparable from the new kingdom and letting the undead spontaneously recognize this set of operating rules can he gain faith in an alternative way. Over the years, Hades has had some clues, but there is still a long way to go before it is completely perfected.

······

The morning star fell, leaving a long mark between the sky and the earth. The abyss cannot stop him, or in other words, Tartarus does not stop any life that wants to come in.

Walking through the chaos, Hypnos unexpectedly discovered that the scene in the abyss did not seem to be as empty as he thought.

Matter has begun to be born, and even the superficial concept of space has been formed. A multi-level structure similar to the spirit world slowly evolves in the core of this world. This is a scene that deviates from what Sleep God knew in the past.

Even until a certain moment, in the core of the abyss, he saw the true face of the indescribable Mother of Demons. She was about to wake up, maybe in the next second, maybe hundreds of years later, but to God it would all seem extremely short. But to the stars crossing here, these are not important.

Because compared to the fact that there were native living creatures in the abyss, Hypnos was shocked by the extreme ugliness first.

Fortunately, driven by the wooden pole, the God of Sleep did not stop falling. In just a flash, he passed through another time and space barrier. But this time, he seemed to have arrived in a place similar to the material world.

boom--

The stream of light streaked across the sky and hit the earth hard, creating a huge crater. Lying on his back in the center of the pit, Hypnos remained motionless as if dead.

Today's changes in just half a day were so drastic that the God of Sleep almost wanted to take a long slumber. He closed his eyes and rested for a while. After a long time, he regained his energy and opened his eyes again.

"Is this the 'bottom of all realms'? It's not as scary as I thought."

Sitting up, under Hypnos, the wooden pole that originally locked his divine power did not remain on his body. It seemed to have completed its mission and was inserted vertically into the pit. There was a green light in the cave.

The divine blood left when Hypnos was penetrated by it was slowly being absorbed. This wooden pole seemed to be filled with a different kind of vitality, greedily absorbing the surrounding power in this strange place. However, the God of Sleep only glanced at it and paid no more attention to it.

Now, figuring out what's going on here is key.

"Two suns? I didn't expect there to be suns in this place. I just don't know where this is. The world in the abyss is incredible."

Looking up at the sky, a few islands were floating in the sky and wandering around. The earth was primitive and desolate, with only two suns floating in the air, one on the left and one on the right. Hypnos flapped his wings and flew into the air.

Now, he felt unprecedentedly weak. Without the authority of [Dream], even his divine power had already shown signs of partial collapse. After all, in the past years, he had reached the upper limit allowed by the priesthood, and now part of this upper limit no longer belonged to him, so the original power was equivalent to losing the container.

At this moment, the source of his divine power was leaking out every minute and every second. They formed an illusory gray light belt, floating slowly around him.

"Since I can't keep it, I'll give it to you."

Sighing, since it was destined that he couldn't keep these powers, Hypnos didn't intend to waste them. He waved his hand, and the flowing divine power rushed to the spiritual beings who came to this strange world with him, and his breath also dropped directly.

Under the influence of the power of the god of sleep, those lives were changed. As spiritual beings, they originally had no physical bodies, but now, they began to take shape under the influence of divine power. It was just that perhaps it was the influence of the source of power that made their appearance somewhat similar to Hypnos.

"You have lost your own dream realm and been rejected by the spiritual world. You can no longer call yourself the lord of the spiritual world as before."

"Oh, that's it. It's time to understand this world."

The last scene of the fall from the sky was still in Hypnos' mind. He seemed to understand something subconsciously, but he didn't want to believe it. In order not to think about this matter for the time being, the god of sleep set a goal for himself.

One day, he will step into the spiritual world again with his own power, and then explore the reasons for everything.

The wings vibrated. To understand a world, one must first understand its edge. So Hypnos flew across the sky quickly under the illumination of two suns. After more than half a day, he finally came to the edge of the world.

Just looking at this so-called "edge", Hypnos felt that he had learned something new.

"What is this, a wall?"

The height of the tall black wall was unknown. From a distance, due to the special rules of this world, this "black wall" could not be seen at all. Only when you get close can you realize that the edge of the world is so strange.

Of course, ordinary life can't get close to here. When approaching here, Hypnos felt an increasingly strong pressure on his body, and the instinctive fear spread in his heart. But this pressure that was enough to deter any mortal could not stop him after all, so the god of sleep finally came to the front of the "black wall".

"It has patterns, but it seems natural."

"It's so hard. Even if my divine power is not good at destroying it, its solidity is not inferior to that of a divine weapon. What on earth is this?"

Stretching out his hand and rubbing it for a few times, the god of sleep was a little confused. He mustered up his strength and hit it, but it went straight to both sides.

This black high wall seemed not only indestructible, but also able to remove the force hitting it, making the method of "breaking the surface with a point" ineffective against it.

"Is this a natural creation? How is it possible?"

Unable to understand, Hypnos wandered around the 'city wall. I don't know how far he walked, but he seemed to see a connection. There, he suddenly discovered that the 'black wall' was actually piece by piece, and this was where two pieces overlapped.

At this moment, for some reason, an absurd idea surged into Hypnos's mind. Looking at all this, he always felt that this 'black wall' was not like a wall, but

"It's scales"

Turning around woodenly, Hypnos stared blankly at the sky.

The bottom of the world, the most terrifying prison. He just thought this place was nothing special, but now he finally realized where this place was.

There was no sun in the sky. Only the giant head of the world-encircling snake was watching the reptile that had "mistakenly entered" purgatory with eyes like the sun and the moon.