Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

Note: In mythology, creatures such as the three-headed dog, the nine-headed snake, and the chimera can all be called demons. So just like the previous [Evil-killing Sword] and [Fairy Fire], this is actually a common word in Western fantasy novels.

The following is the text:

…

In the underworld dominated by the eternal dark color, the sound of the rolling river of fire comes one after another. The waves formed by the lava sometimes roll up the white bones on the shore, making a hissing sound.

In the increasingly vast underworld, the lavender moonlight remains unchanged. Under its illumination, a dim light crosses the gray plain.

Along the way, the dim light flickered unsteadily. Although it was very fast, it gave people a shaky feeling. However, no matter how it shook, it was still flying in the sky, flying straight towards a destination.

Through this flickering divine light, the brown hem was clearly visible. There is no doubt that this is Gaia who left Mount Olympus not long ago.

Unlike the gods who have been walking in the world, Gaia has experienced a lot of things. 'A few days ago', she had just experienced the hardships of the change of eras, and when she woke up, she was hit by such a blow. The impact on Gaia can be imagined, so she did not return to the place where she once lived in seclusion, but came to the underworld.

Delphi has nothing left, and the few things left are just mocking the incompetence of the Earth Mother. However, she did not return to her body after a series of failures, because the reason why Gaia chose to leave instead of fighting to the death with the God King after suffering so many blows is because in her heart, she still has some hope.

Even if all the heavens and the earth have abandoned her and the original cornerstone of the existence of the world, Chaos is not only in the world. Even if all the lives that have grown up on her heavy body are against her, on the other side of the world, in the world dominated by chaos, there are other sacred beings. If the intelligent life regards her as nothing, then Gaia will come to the unintelligent; if the existence of order rejects her, then she will choose to embrace chaos.

In the past, among the four original gods born from Chaos, only the Abyss did not have descendants directly born from the power of the body. This may be a scene that the side of the world order is happy to see, but now, the Earth Mother is ready to change it herself.

Let the Son of Chaos come to the world... As the incarnation of the other side of the world, it will be like the "king" of the abyss, just like Zeus in the world. And just as chaos is hostile to order, the descendants of Tartarus will inevitably be hostile to the God King, and what Gaia needs to do is to let it come to this world.

As for how to do it, it is not difficult. There are two sun gods, but Helios has never been better than his father Hyperion. The Queen of Gods who controls [fertility] also has two generations, but Hera is still better than her in this regard.

"Cough cough..."

"Cough cough cough..."

"Hu——"

There is hope in the heart, but the fatigue in the body still exists, making Gaia stagger a little.

Violent coughs continued to come from the divine light, and even her mind was a little fuzzy. A deep sleepiness swept over Gaia's heart. She knew very well that all these phenomena were signs that her status was about to collapse.

The shackles of the world were as heavy as the sky, firmly covering Gaia's body, making her almost breathless. And the increasingly weak power made her remaining status shaky, as if it would completely disintegrate at any time.

Of course, although it seemed like this, Gaia was still sure that this kind of thing would not actually happen. On the one hand, it was because she still had a little bit of spare strength and had not reached the point of being really exhausted. On the other hand, it was because she was the original god after all, and her body was the support of the material plane.

Even though Gaia's connection with her body was far less close than that of other original gods due to the influence of the degree of personification, it still existed. This closer connection than the first generation Titan and the symbol of the priesthood made it impossible for her to really fall completely, but it was precisely because of this that she felt such a strong "sleepy feeling".

Because for her, the so-called "fall from greatness" actually has another more appropriate expression, that is, "half eternal sleep".

As the mother of the earth, Gaia cannot be truly weakened to the realm of powerful divine power, but this is not a guarantee that she can do whatever she wants, but she will forcibly stop at the moment of the fall of the position, and then this pressure will be completely transferred to the personification until it is forced to collapse and turn into nothingness.

Once that day comes, Gaia's will will be directly beaten back to the body to sleep forever to maintain her own power. But this time, she will no longer be able to choose when to wake up.

Maybe it will be ten thousand years, maybe tens of thousands of years, or she may never wake up from sleep, all depending on her recovery and the changes in the laws during this period.

And such a long time... no one knows what will happen.

"Huh... I still have a chance."

"Zeus... As the mother of the earth, my power is never limited to myself!"

Gritting her teeth and forcing herself to cheer up, Gaia continued to fly in the vast underworld.

Gray scenes flashed around her one by one, with occasional bright spots, but she no longer had the energy to pay attention to the surrounding environment. At this moment, Gaia just followed the intuition and continued to move forward, heading towards her brother who was born after her but never had any thoughts.

As they approached, the breath of the law that made the gods of the world feel instinctively disgusted gradually became stronger, until at a certain moment, Gaia's semi-conscious mind shook slightly, and she temporarily woke up a little.

Raising her head, the yellow light fell to the ground, Gaia looked around, looking at this familiar yet unfamiliar place.

She had been here more than once, but she had never entered. Not only because of the danger inside, but also because as one of the main bodies of the world, the Earth Mother also did not like the chaotic breath of the abyss.

But now, she has no way to go. So standing on this black land infected by the power of the abyss, Gaia looked at the invisible portal formed by the overlap of Tartarus and the underworld.

This intersection of the laws connecting the world inside and outside releases a twisted and weird power, constantly washing the surrounding space like a tide, even in the underworld, it seems very out of place.

The underworld is orderly after all, but the abyss is not.

"Oh, I didn't expect it... In the end, you're the only one who hasn't given up on me..."

Gaia sighed and shook her head, as if she had cheered up. Feeling the vastness of the abyss, Mother Earth opened her arms and began to release her divine power and origin.

Instantly, strands of bright yellow filaments flowed out of Gaia's body, and they floated forward, intertwining with the chaotic airflow that overflowed from the other side of the world. It was like one was embracing the other, just like at the beginning of creation, the abyss was born in the underground, and the two were closely connected.

At the same time, following the power of the two entangled at this time, Gaia decisively conveyed her will.

Even if there is no reason, the abyss is closer to "life" than the world. So He can give birth to offspring, as long as there is a mother body that can carry His power and the infusion of His original power.

"...Come, come...Tartarus, merge with me...I will accept your power and breed new holiness, and it will also become your bridge to touch the world..."

Using strong negative emotions as a guide and great hatred as an excuse, Gaia tried to arouse Tartarus's desire to drive her divine power to breed all things.

Her power was no longer enough to avenge the gods, but the abyss could definitely do it. Although Gaia still rejected and hated contact with the power of chaos until now, and although she knew that the offspring born in this way would never be as glorious and perfect as the gods, she no longer cared about these.

At this moment, the hatred in Gaia's heart had already overwhelmed them, and she only wanted to make those who had failed her pay the price. So now, she only needed to--

"--Hmm?"

The expression changed, as if she had encountered something incomprehensible. On the black land, Gaia stared at everything in front of her.

In front of her, the place where Tartarus and the underworld overlapped still existed, and indescribable power surrounded it, and Gaia's origin was still entangled with the breath of the abyss. But at this moment, Mother Earth clearly felt that the power she had extended seemed to fall into the air, and no matter what kind of breath she released, the other party did not respond.

No, not only did she not respond. There was even a faint feeling of rejection. It was as if the abyss thought Gaia was a threat, so it did not accept her approach at all.

"Why? This feeling... How is this possible, this is impossible!"

"You are obviously only instinctive, how could you reject me?!"

Gaia lost her composure again, feeling the sense of alienation from the abyss, and she couldn't help feeling ridiculous. Just after sleeping, the world seemed to have changed. Now even the abyss, which has remained the same for thousands of years, is no longer the same as it used to be.

Reproduction of life is an instinctive desire of the world, and Tartarus should not be an exception. In the past, it was fine that the abyss did not have the ability to actively reproduce life, but now that I took the initiative to give Him a chance, why would He refuse?

Unless, He has achieved his goal in another way. With the first one, Gaia's existence has lost its meaning.

"No, no... Maybe it's just not working outside... I should go in and take a look!"

The hope that had been ignited seemed to be shattered. Looking at this twisted space, Gaia gritted her teeth. The abyss was a place that even she dared not go deep into. It could even weaken the connection between the original god and her own body, but now that things had come to this, she could only go in and take a look.

So she took a step forward, and the world changed accordingly, and Gaia's figure became blurred. A certain transfer of time and space was happening, but just when the transfer was about to be completed, an accident happened again.

Bang——

Accompanied by a muffled sound, the originally virtual body condensed into substance, as if it hit something, and Gaia reappeared in the original place, and even stepped back several steps immediately.

"Cough cough cough..."

The violent coughing sound came again, but Gaia just looked at the void in front of him in disbelief.

"You refuse my entry? Why, why is this?"

Questions rang out one after another, but the abyss obviously would not respond. Facing the closed domain, the hope that had just risen in Gaia's heart was shattered again.

······

The lilac moonlight shines on the underworld, bringing some life to this gray land.

No one knows that at the entrance of the abyss, something that seems ordinary but runs counter to the original fate happened.

Tartarus rejected Gaia and even directly shut her out. This was actually something that even Ryan had not expected. Because in his opinion, the birth of Typhon was destined, which involved the fate of the collision between the two worlds. So just like the replacement of the God King, the King of All Monsters must come to the world, which is also the ending that cannot be changed at this time.

However, whether it can be understood or not, there are deeper reasons behind it, and the fact is indeed so. When the core of Tartarus gave birth to his own life, He no longer yearned for new life; when another interface was opened up in his body, He instinctively began to reject any powerful existence that tried to enter His body.

And Gaia, no matter how weak she is, can't change her original god's nature.

"Ah--!"

A sharp cry shook the entire underworld and echoed on the endless gray soil. Countless low-level undead were wiped out in an instant, and in the Field of Truth, the Pluto Palace, which had just returned to peace, shook again, causing Hades, who was in it, to change his face again and again.

He had not had a good time these two days. The earth was shaking, and the underground was also affected. He had to try his best to stabilize the core of the underworld, and then look forward to the end of the war on the ground.

But he didn't expect that it was over, and Gaia came to the underworld again. This made Hades a little worried. After all, who can figure out the thoughts of the Earth Mother? What if she suffered a loss at the hands of Zeus and wanted to retaliate against Hades?

These are all uncertain things, but in any case, Hades can only wait for the result. No matter how weak Gaia's power is, it is not something he can reach.

At the same time, the sharp voice of the Earth Mother also attracted the attention of other gods. Erebus and Ryan, who had already gone to the surface again, looked here, and then retracted their gazes. The former thought it was just another impotent rage of Gaia, and the latter thought it was just a prelude to the birth of Typhon.

So after half a day, when the underworld finally returned to silence, when Gaia calmed down, she was still standing alone at the entrance of the abyss, and no one paid attention to her behavior.

Lying on her back on the ground, the Earth Mother's last hope was also extinguished. The gods of the world abandoned her, the primitive gods ignored her, and even the abyss, which was only instinctive, resisted her entry in almost impossible circumstances. At this moment, Gaia didn't know what the meaning of her existence was.

Extreme loneliness and despair, and the desire for destruction that came from it. She wanted to destroy everything in the world and let everything feel his pain, but she sadly discovered that only in this matter could she attract the attention of the world.

As long as she really dared to do this, the laws of the world would naturally only respond to her with the same fierce response. She was not the complete greatness that merged with the main body, which meant that her existence itself was not that important.

She even gradually realized that perhaps the best Earth Mother for the world was her who was on the verge of collapse and sleeping in the main body.

'... Come...'

"Why, why don't you die? Why do you want to exist in this world, why is everything against me..."

At first, she was still gritting her teeth, and then her voice gradually became low. Gaia hoped that something could tell her the answer, but no one responded to her.

‘…………’

At this moment, she even had nowhere to go. Her offspring, the sky, the sea and the mountains, all withdrew from this world, and all this seemed to imply something.

‘……Come……’

Lying on the ground tiredly, sleepiness came over her. When the spirit that had been forced to hold up before calmed down, what greeted Gaia was the deeper oppression of the world.

She released her power in the underworld again, even if it was not much, but for the mother earth who was already in a bad state, this was tantamount to adding insult to injury. Thoughts began to become confused. At this moment, Gaia even felt that she had hallucinations, something was waving to her, calling her to go.

‘……Come……’

‘……Come……’

“…………Come!”

“Who!”

Suddenly awake, Gaia ‘opened’ her eyes, but she suddenly found that she was no longer in the underworld.

A light shadow hung in the sky, and the dark red earth seemed to be soaked in blood. In the middle of that world, chains extended from the void and tied to an indescribable scarlet giant shadow. The "arm" she just saw was actually a branch of Him.

Life... perfection... unity... all kinds of vague concepts were understood by Gaia. Looking at the giant tree from afar, she seemed to be looking at some absolute truth.

"Where is this... How could I not!"

"This is still the underworld... I haven't moved at all."

With a shock, the loose consciousness of the Earth Mother became clearer again. She looked around intently, and this time, Gaia quickly noticed something wrong.

Whether it was the dark red earth or the huge and holy giant tree, they were all fake, or more precisely, they were all reflections refracted from a distant space. The only real thing was that branch.

It was a translucent red branch, and its crystal leaves were like the most perfect work of art, or in other words, its existence itself was the synonym of ‘perfect life’.

It defines what is the ultimate of life. Looking at it, the content that I understood from the [Life Aquarius] in the past is so insignificant. In front of Gaia, this branch has been swaying slightly, and some kind of small, but unimaginable power emanates from it. It is this power that affected the perception of Mother Earth before.

Obviously from the perspective of 'quantity', it can't compare to the weakest true god, but with its supreme nature, it temporarily confused the judgment of the original gods. Even if Gaia's condition is very bad, this is enough. Shocking. But for Earth Mother at this moment, looking at the strange scene in front of her while alert, she felt inexplicably happy.

"what do you?"

"You came to me...why?"

Speaking softly, no matter what, this strange existence hidden behind the scenes was the only 'person' who gave Gaia a response at this moment. So out of some subtle psychology, she actually developed a slight liking for him.

‘………’

‘………’

'……look……'

‘………’

It seemed that he could not express his meaning clearly. As the branches swayed slightly, no further information was transmitted. Only a flash of light and shadow slowly appeared in front of Mother Earth.

It was a somewhat strange world. In a "vibrant" realm, a giant tree symbolizing life and eternity exists peacefully, and all souls live and work in peace and contentment, living together in harmony. But everything did not last long. One day, the peace was finally broken. Some kind of power from the outside penetrated this world. It suppressed the power of the giant tree and began to devour and plunder the entire interface. Shortly afterwards, another One of his minions came to this world and saw the beauty of this place and the specialness of the giant tree.

The black figure was so powerful and confident that he simply attacked the giant tree, and the giant tree was forced to fight back. During the fight, due to carelessness at the beginning, a branch inserted into the hand of the man in black, and then turned into power and stayed in it.

Light and shadow flickered, and scenes flashed by quickly. Another figure arrived, and he joined forces with the previous shadow to fight against the enemy, but the giant tree still did not fall behind. But the victory or defeat at the world level ultimately belongs to the world. The giant tree was not defeated by the outsiders, but was eventually sealed with the disintegration of the interface power. From then on, the image of Him disappeared, and only the broken branch remained in the flashing images.

The light and shadow flowed, and this power that was unexpectedly freed from the seal seemed to have experienced a lot. And as time went by, after being expelled several times to no avail, the power of this branch finally became attached to a mass of flesh and blood. In the end, the dark shadow, who had been traumatized by this, took them out together one day and handed them over to a figure that was familiar to Gaia.

That was her former attendant and one of the leaders of the nymphs beside Mother Earth. It's just that the figure is no longer as weak as before, but exudes a powerful aura. Behind her, a tall golden apple tree swayed.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The image ends and everything becomes clear. The boundless chill invaded the bone marrow, but this time, Gaia did not make any more noise.

After calming down, she has become more awake. Gaia knows that besides being a pointless way to vent her emotions, that kind of behavior can only make people laugh.

But with the end of light and shadow, the ancient Earth Mother Goddess clarified many things and solved many doubts.

Chaos lowered his power to suppress the fragments outside the boundary. Erebus and Ryan arrived one after another, and... the figure of his former maid, Moanda.

Perhaps Zeus was indeed not the mastermind - he was just an accomplice of the Dark Lord, and even Lion was involved, and it was his power that caused Moanda to somehow occupy the golden apple tree as a body. But according to the description of the light and shadow, the annoying spiritual master was probably not the final winner. He was tricked by Erebus and Zeus. So at the end of the 'film', the fruit trees and artifacts belonged to his brother who was hiding in the darkness, and Zeus gained the friendship of the golden apple and another primitive god, but Ryan, who was also involved in all this, gained nothing.

This also explains the reason why Ryan suddenly 'attacked' the gods a few days ago and Erebus 'protected' him. Gaia, who was carried away by anger before, had not thought about it carefully, but now, she felt that she finally saw the truth clearly.

Just like her, Ryan was dissatisfied with the actions of the God King and the Lord of Darkness. It's just that he was not as impulsive as he was. Instead, he chose a suitable moment to retaliate. Even after being blocked for the first time, he took advantage of the situation and chose to give up for the time being. Perhaps this is the most reasonable behavior for the primitive gods. Eternal gods should not care about temporary victory or defeat - but Gaia also knows that if she could have remained calm, she would not have ended up like today. .

The world is easy to change, but the nature is hard to change. Some things cannot be changed just by knowing them. But now that she had figured out everything, Earth Mother also deflected her gaze.

"The underground world...this should belong to me!"

She spoke in a low voice, and her voice was filled with overwhelming hatred. Now, Gaia just wanted to go there immediately, take down the elf who betrayed her master, and let her feel the eternal pain. However, just after taking half a step, Earth Mother seemed to think of something and couldn't help but stop again.

Erebus... Gaia, who had calmed down a little, finally recalled the gap between the two sides. She knew that, unlike Zeus, even if she didn't remember the suppression of the law, she had no chance of winning against the Lord of Darkness. No matter how much she spared, no matter how madly she fought, in the face of absolute power, she would never be able to defeat her brother.

So, she needed help.

"What about you? What is your purpose, and what do you want to do?"

Turning around, looking at the swaying branches in the void, Gaia suppressed her emotions.

An existence sealed by Chaos, an existence that could tie with two great divine powers even under the suppression of the world, a divine tree that dominated an interface, no matter what, He was definitely not a harmless thing.

Even her cunning brother had suffered a loss because of this. The Lord of Darkness, who had never been exposed to this level of power, didn't know at all that he did expel the power that was like a thorn in the bone bit by bit, but it was not actually eliminated, but hidden in secret.

This kind of almost [immortal] nature... Gaia couldn't think of anything that could correspond to it for a while. The only thing that could be equated was only one.

That was the immortal source of the gods. Although Gaia felt that the degree of [immortality] of the branch in front of her was far from that high, the two sides were vaguely similar.

If it was a power of this level... the Lord of Darkness and Zeus were no more than that.

'…………'

'...you...'

'…………'

'...birth...'

'…………'

The branch swayed again, and some hazy thoughts came out of it, but Gaia easily understood what He meant.

He needed her and her power, and the reason why He chose to appear in front of the Earth Mother was precisely because of Gaia's previous hatred of the heavens and the earth, and the authority she showed when facing Tartarus.

The divine power of [fertility]... This was the only thing He wanted Gaia to do. No need to provide power, only responsible for being the mother, as the most authentic primitive god in the world of Chaos, Gaia gave birth to the mother tree and her offspring, and then gave this life the identity to walk in the world.

And the birth of this new life has only two missions - to leave more "traces" for the mother tree in Chaos, and to obey the orders of the Earth Mother and help her accomplish some things - such as her desired revenge on the God King and the world.

"... So, you want me to betray the laws of the world and attract the invasion of you, an outsider?"

After a short silence, looking at the branches in front of him, Gaia seemed to be talking to Him, and also seemed to be talking to himself.

"Of course, but what you gave me is not enough."

Lightly clenching his fist, Gaia felt the other party's power again. It is very powerful and corrosive, but in any case, it is impossible for it to corrode a primitive god when the laws of the world are still intact.

Although the order of the world makes Gaia feel more and more disgusted, He still will not let the consciousness of the Earth Mother be infected by other things. So she finally made up her mind, thinking of her powerlessness in the face of Zeus, and the pressure of the law that still weighed on her.

"Mother... Tree... Right, I'll call you that."

"I can agree to your request, but I should have what it has."

"You give it... You must also leave me a share of the power."

······

Silently, in the corners of the underworld, the remnants of the foreign lands reached an agreement with Chaos's mother earth, and a seed of new life began to grow in the depths of the earth.

It carries the fate of Typhon, but it is more than that. In this increasingly unpredictable world, it will leave more traces on the world and change the direction of fate.

[The Lord of Billions of Demons], some people in later generations called it this; others believe that it is a symbol of depravity, the source of many [evil things] in ancient times, and the beginning of many disasters in the material world. But in any case, as the son of the [Mother Tree of Flesh and Blood], there is one thing that is recognized by later mystics.

The end of the ancient Third Archaic Era is closely related to it, and in that lost history, it must have been an indispensable existence.