Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

The center of the underworld, the Garden of Truth.

Unlike the edge where Gaia is now, even the underworld, which has always been desolate, is inevitably different in the core.

The tall Pluto Palace is built here, and there are many strange buildings built around it. Their existence is like a decoration, making the gray interface look more lively.

But that was a few days ago. Now, this land that has suffered an unexpected disaster does not look so intact.

"Hua La La -"

"- Bang!"

Accompanied by a loud noise, Hades' mouth twitched slightly. He looked at the wall that collapsed just by his support, and his pale face was inevitably a little black.

This is not a special case, similar situations are everywhere. Faced with this sudden disaster, Hades didn't know what to say.

This is not the first time. Before, because of the goddess of the moon, the newly built palace had been destroyed once, and now it has been destroyed again not long after.

Except for the main hall where he lived, which was still intact, the huge Garden of Truth was in a mess. Even though Hades never cared much about these superficial works, he was a little annoyed.

But he could only do so. After all, it was Zeus and Gaia who caused all this, and judging from the situation of the previous battle, neither of them could be provoked by him now.

Helplessly, Hades had to admit that he was unlucky. He glanced around again, then waved his hand, and as an invisible wave came out, some information was also transmitted by him.

Soon, a "warrior" in armor came from afar, knelt on one knee, and expressed his loyalty to his lord.

Although he was a warrior, the negative energy around him and the faintly burning soul flame indicated his identity as a dead soul. This was also one of Hades' achievements in recent years, an existence that was revived from the corpse of a bronze man.

And the most important thing was that the one in front of him was a little special. He was one of the few who had a relatively strong life energy before his death, so that he lived a little longer in the flood. For such a "high-quality element", Hades naturally couldn't hold back when he saw the underworld was still in a state of recovery. He took action in advance when the other party was on the verge of death and turned him into a dead life manually.

And the other party did not disappoint Hades. In just a hundred years, he became a rare and powerful existence among the dead. And most importantly, he was loyal to Hades.

So Hades naturally took him as a close minister, and even expected him to learn something more and become his right-hand man.

"Evans, what are the casualties?"

"And in the turmoil just now... Forget it, don't worry about this."

Shaking his head, without saying anything extra, Hades's question went straight to the core.

Although it was not long, although these intelligent high-level dead were not enough, let alone any devout faith, Hades gradually realized the sweetness of the power of faith.

And as a true god who holds half of the power of the underworld, he keenly noticed that with the increase of life, the power of the underworld itself seemed to have risen.

It's just that the dead are somewhat different from the living, and there is no true god with similar authority in the underworld to sort out these changes, so at present, this change is not drastic.

But in any case, it is good to be able to move forward steadily. As a god who has reached the peak of the priesthood not long after appearing in the world, this slowly increasing feeling still makes Hades feel intoxicated. Then, the survival of the high-level dead is also in his heart.

But this kind of thing can't be rushed, and Hades can only wait for time to give the result-the premise is not to create trouble for him every three days.

"Your Majesty, except that most of the recently built buildings have collapsed, there are no obvious signs of casualties, but..."

After a silence, the warrior called Evans continued:

"The power contained in the previous voice can directly affect the stability of the soul fire. For the high-level dead who have awakened wisdom, they can just endure it. But for those whose consciousness is not yet awake, it is a little difficult to resist."

"..."

Hades read the implication of Evans' words and felt heartbroken for his unprovoked disaster again.

Among the bronze human corpses collected from the earth before, only less than 100,000 have relatively stable thinking and even recalled some of their memories before death. The rest have not yet completed this step.

Now, they are directly disintegrated by the earth mother's shout, forcing Hades' plan to be postponed again. At this moment, Hades, who has never hated Gaia, can't help but feel a little annoyed with his grandmother.

If Zeus provokes you, you can go to him, why bother to harm my underworld?

"... I know, you go and arrange the reconstruction first."

"The dead on earth are endless, but it's just a waste of hundreds of years."

Hades waved his hand as if nothing had happened. In front of him, the undead warriors also withdrew after saluting.

Soon, the quiet field of truth became noisy, and a large number of undead lives began to be busy, cleaning up the broken buildings and then laying the foundation for the new ones.

After watching for a while, seeing no other changes, Hades quickly returned to his still intact temple. Sitting on his throne, he couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency in his heart.

Before, Hades had always acted calmly, because referring to the previous two eras, the first one or two thousand years before the king of gods took office were often calm. According to his plan, this period of time was enough to increase the power of the underworld by a considerable distance, and also allowed him to reach the peak of powerful divine power.

But plans cannot keep up with changes. The power that Zeus suddenly showed made Hades feel very daunted and somewhat envious.

Before today, Hades was not afraid of his brother in the underworld. With the blessing of half of the underworld, there was almost nothing that could really threaten him. But as Zeus fought with the Earth Mother, this unparalleled power simply changed Hades's mind.

He had to do something, and it happened that as the guardian of the oath, Zeus still owed him a condition.

"... Mingta, did you find the person I asked you to find?"

Hades asked the maid beside him with a flickering look in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, not yet..."

Shaking his head, Mingta responded respectfully.

"No?"

Hades frowned and said nothing. He just thought for a moment and then made a decision.

"Then you should put this matter aside for now. I will find another way."

"What?"

With a cry of surprise, the water fairy raised her head slightly. Seeing the look from her master, Mingta gritted her teeth and continued:

"Your Majesty, why bother with this? The gods on earth will not like the underworld. I..."

"——Enough!"

Wow——

With a cold shout, the invisible airflow swept through the temple. Almost in an instant, Hades understood why the other party had not completed his instructions.

It turned out that it was not that he could not do it, but that he did not want to do it. He knew that this nymph had always had some kind of delusion-such as getting involved in the position of the Queen of the Underworld, but Hades did not expect that she would dare to neglect the task he had assigned for this.

Before, Hades did not care too much about her thoughts, because there were many nymphs with similar delusions in Olympus. But perhaps because of the emptiness of the underworld and her own importance, Mingta not only had an idea, but also tried to put it into action.

Originally, Hades thought that time would make her see the reality clearly, but the reality was just the opposite. Not only did she not give up, she even dared to disobey his orders!

"Recognize your identity, Mingta, you can't do what I want, and you can't bear this power. In the next hundred years, borrow your identity as a nymph to find the daughter hidden by my sister... This is the last chance."

Speaking lightly, Hades waved his sleeves and violently swept the maid out of the palace. If there was no one to use, he really wanted to wipe out this smart guy directly.

"Go find it, if you can't find it... then you don't have to come back. Just like you said, life on earth, stay on earth."

"——Your Majesty!"

Bang——

The door of the temple was closed, separating the inside and the outside, and also isolating Mingta's voice. Sitting on his throne, Hades rubbed his eyebrows.

The entire underworld is either full of local gods with bad personalities and priesthood, or silent dead souls. The only water fairy who can do things always has this or that idea. At this moment, he is more and more eager to have a queen of the underworld.

He doesn't care about power or enjoyment, those can be shared, he just wants the underworld to grow. But for some reason, even this small request is always blocked by others.

······

Swish——

On the earth, lightning roams in the air, sweeping across the vast land. It is the incarnation of the king of gods.

Following a deliberately leaked breath, Zeus' figure flashed in the sky. The war had just ended, and there was no landform around Mount Olympus. It was not until a long time later that he could gradually see bulges and depressions, or swamps and forests on the ground.

But the voice that called him before should still be farther away - of course, Zeus was not in a hurry to go there. His avatar just flew forward at a normal speed, and taking this opportunity, the God King pondered the whole thing in his mind.

There are still many doubts about the past few days, and unlike Gaia, Zeus is very clear about some of the problems. For example, since he really didn't steal the golden apple, then someone else must have done it.

Referring to the two fleeting breaths not long ago, the collision of darkness and unpredictability, who the real thief is is almost ready to be revealed.

The Lord of Darkness or the Lord of the Spirit World, they are all suspected, or they are both doing it together. What puzzled Zeus was that it seemed that these two primitive gods had some malice towards him-also unlike Gaia, Zeus could not feel the intention of Erebus's move.

He was spying on the essence of his ritual, and also trying to isolate the blessings given to Zeus by those gods as the pillars of the kingship. Although judging from the final result, the effect of his ritual was very good and the other party's behavior was completely a failure, in any case, the attitude expressed behind it still made the God King fearful and vigilant.

Of course, although he was vigilant, Zeus was not too afraid of the other party. After all, since this boundary had been crossed, even if there was a gap in strength between the two sides, there would probably not be a situation of instant kill. Just like when many Titans fought against the greatly reduced Heavenly Father at the end of the First Epoch, even if they were beaten almost without any ability to fight back at the beginning, if they insisted on holding on, it would not be a battle that could be ended in a short time.

Unfortunately, there was no room for a long battle in the current world. In this case, the God King was naturally fearless.

Of course, there was another reason why he was fearless - anyway, he was just an incarnation, and no matter what the result was, it would not have any serious consequences.

Lightning flashed, mountains and rivers were left behind, and after a while of thinking, a towering mountain gradually appeared in front of Zeus.

And to the God King's surprise, he was very familiar with the place in front of him, and he had even been here more than once in the past.

Delphi Plain, Parnassus Mountains. But unlike the past, now the area within a thousand miles of this mountain range seems dead silent.

"Heh, you are telling me directly that the golden apple tree was taken away by you... Well, let me see what you are going to do."

Zeus thought to himself, and landed on the mountain range, but when he looked around, there was no one here. The original god who released the breath to lead him here didn't know where he was, as if he was just playing a joke on him.

"Since you have led me here, why bother playing such a trick."

Zeus said calmly in the face of this situation.

"I just want to see what is special about your authority as the king of gods... But now it seems more like an authority that is both 'omnipotent' and 'completely incapable'."

"And speaking of which, I thought you didn't dare to come to see me."

Zeus was startled when the voice came. He turned around suddenly, and under a tree that had lost its vitality, Erebus was standing there.

The other party should have never left, but just concealed his presence. If Gaia was here, she would probably be able to sense the other party's existence through the induction of the earth, but the God King could not do this.

Just as the Lord of Darkness said, the authority of [Royal Power] is closely related to the authority of the God King granted by heaven. He can almost influence any rules, but he is far inferior to the gods who are really good at this. It feels like a worldly rule that has been infinitely weakened.

But the rules of the world are "all strong", so Zeus is "all weak". In a real battle, an absolute advantage is far more useful than "no shortcomings".

"Maybe it's like this now, but it won't be like this forever. As for whether I dare to come... the ancient god who controls darkness, as the God King who rules the world, there is nothing in this world that I dare not face."

Although it was the first time they met, strength was the best "business card". Looking at the primitive gods in front of him, the God King did not argue about the strength of his authority. He just said loudly:

"But Your Highness Erebus, should you give me an explanation for what happened before?"

"Explanation, what explanation do you want?"

Zeus's meaning was very clear. He was talking about the Lord of Darkness's previous actions against the gods. And opposite him, Erebus also stopped smiling.

"Of course, it is the respect you should have for the person you are seeking cooperation with."

With a slight smile, feeling the implicit pressure that suddenly began to come from all around, the God King believed in his judgment more and more.

"You should not come to me for no reason. Maybe you need me to do something - at least you need the God King of the world to do something."

"In this case, I seek an explanation, shouldn't I?"

The atmosphere solidified for a while, and a certain vast breath became more and more condensed. Zeus looked at the Lord of Darkness calmly. Although he did not want to become an enemy of this primitive god now, he also knew that he must not fall into an absolute disadvantage before the conversation began.

Blindly giving in will not bring good results, especially under the premise that he has some equal ability to talk. He came when he was called, which has already shown his attitude. Now, it is the other party's turn to show some minimum goodwill.

"..."

"... Moanda."

After a short silence, I don't know what he was thinking, but just when the pressure from all around was about to collapse the incarnation of the God King, Erebus stopped.

He glanced at Zeus and called his men. With a flash of green light, Moanda appeared beside the Lord of Darkness.

"Who is this...?"

Without saying anything arrogant, Zeus expressed his doubts at the right time. The God King felt some inexplicable closeness to the strange god in front of him. He seemed to have some connection with this goddess he had never met, which made him feel a sense of goodwill and almost let down his guard.

Of course, this is just a feeling. In fact, the God King has never let down his vigilance.

"Since you want an explanation... then let her do my explanation. Your ritual should also require the participation of a being like her, right?"

With a smile on his face, Erebus continued:

"As for who she is... hey, isn't Gaia here for her? Letting Moanda join your court and become the so-called 'main god' under you makes everything just right."

"Golden Apple Tree?!"

It was a bit unbelievable, but Zeus finally understood the source of this strange feeling.

There is indeed a connection between him and this god named Moanda. The other party is indeed a natural candidate for the main god, because from the perspective of mysticism, Moanda is even the "half mother" of the king of gods.

The king of gods once used the golden apple to replace "death", dyed the sacred stone red with his heart blood, and made it exist for many years in the name of "Zeus", so in a sense, the sacred stone is the half of the king of gods. Although the power in it has been taken away by Apollo, the concept it possesses has not diminished at all.

In this case, as the consciousness of the golden apple tree, the relationship between Moanda and Zeus is naturally self-evident.

However, the accident was only a moment, and soon, the king of gods regained his composure. He looked at the Lord of Darkness in front of him, this is not just a simple "explanation".

Although I don't know how the golden apple tree suddenly became a god, it is not an ordinary thing to let the other party become one of the twelve key "pillars" in this way.

"If I let her become the main god of the God Court, how can I guarantee that she will not betray me?"

Zeus naturally expressed his doubts after asking the essence of the matter directly. Compared with his own blood relatives, Moanda is obviously an untrustworthy "outsider".

"You can't guarantee it, and I don't intend to guarantee it. In fact, this is the reason why her existence is meaningful."

With a chuckle, Erebus expressed his meaning without any concealment.

Moanda's existence is not a simple "explanation", but a bridge for communication between the two sides. When the relationship between him and Zeus is still good, nothing will happen naturally. But if the relationship changes, the elf may be recalled at any time.

Of course, this is not a fatal threat to the God King. The departure of the other party will only cause his power to decline for a period of time. As long as there are new gods to fill the position, it can still be restored.

"...So, what do you need me to do?"

Thinking for a moment, it seems that he has tacitly accepted this result. Before there are enough "own people" to fill the vacancy, it is not a bad idea to fill it with others. However, Zeus seemed a little confused about what the Lord of Darkness wanted him to do.

Such a gift was given as soon as they met... In fact, the explanation Zeus wanted before was 'actually' just a half-hearted apology.

"Don't worry, you will know what I want you to do later. If you want to refuse at that time, it will still be in time, and I will give you corresponding rewards at that time - such as golden apples. Moanda joins your court, but it does not mean that the fruits she bears belong to you."

Said with a smile, seeing that the matter had been settled, looking at the God King in front of him, Erebus suddenly looked a little strange.

"So now, has the simple agreement been reached?"

"... I have no reason to refuse."

Nodding, Zeus would naturally not refuse the benefits of free gifts, and he was even happy to see it happen.

At least a primitive god whose attitude was unclear before suddenly became half of his friend. Perhaps when he was enemies with other primitive gods in the future, he could make him a helper at some cost.

"Very good, since the agreement has been reached... then as your predecessor, I will give you another piece of advice."

"Advice?"

There was some confusion, but the God King was still very interested in this.

As a god born at the beginning of creation, perhaps the other party wanted to tell him some ancient secret history to show his status, but it didn't matter.

The God King was happy to see this happen.

"Please go ahead, I am all ears for your warning."

"Very good, young God King, since you are willing to accept it, it's great."

Raising his hand slightly, he seemed to see what the God King was thinking, but at this moment, Erebus just smiled happily:

"In fact, this is not a special thing... It's just that Zeus, you have to remember-in the world of Chaos, some things are actually isolated cases."

"For example, not every primitive god... is as incompetent as Gaia."