This feeling had never occurred before.
Even when They first stepped into the Hall of Stars, the feeling had not been this intense.
Today, the figure of the Stars also seemed much taller than usual.
He still sat there quietly, with no other emotions flowing through His gaze, yet the feeling emanating from His entire being was enough to make Them tremble.
A suppression of status?
Like a superior existence looking down upon those beneath Him?
They could not clearly describe exactly what kind of feeling this was, but one thing was certain: the Stars was in a better state than before.
The starry sky seemed closer to this place.
The Mother Tree of Desire and the others each had their own thoughts. Even the Son of Chaos, who normally loved talking and showing off, was unusually quiet today.
Otherwise, given His usual personality, He would have already started joking with the newly arrived Primordial Hunger, or deliberately teasing and mocking Him.
Primordial Hunger, on the other hand, did not feel much of anything. In His view, the Stars should have always possessed such a bearing.
Hastur merely looked at Them calmly, with no desire to speak.
After a brief silence, Primordial Hunger consciously took the initiative to greet the Mother Tree of Desire and the High-Dimensional Overseer.
He was the newcomer, so He naturally had to display at least a little humility as a latecomer.
As for the Supernova Dominator and the Son of Chaos, He naturally skipped over Them. He did it deliberately.
He did not like either of Them. He had quite a few grudges with the Supernova Dominator, while as for the Son of Chaos, it was purely because His mouth was too foul and annoying, so Primordial Hunger could not be bothered to deal with Him.
Having been deliberately ignored, the Son of Chaos's anger immediately surged. He first sneaked a glance at Hastur. Seeing that Hastur showed no reaction and merely watched calmly, He became considerably less restrained.
He began joining forces with the Supernova Dominator to target Primordial Hunger, deliberately bringing up some of His embarrassing incidents and exposing His weaknesses.
"Heh, with your habit of eating absolutely everything, sooner or later it'll get you into trouble."
"Right, just like you, getting tricked by the Mysteries into a wishing lamp. I never knew you had a hobby of granting people's wishes. Son of Chaos, how about changing your name to Lord of Wishes? You could even become the Mysteries' subordinate god."
Primordial Hunger, who had remained silent for a long time, finally found an opportunity to mock the Son of Chaos. After this combination of blows, even the Son of Chaos was stunned for quite a while.
The Supernova Dominator very consciously withdrew from the battlefield and admired the Son of Chaos's constantly shifting expression.
After being mocked by Primordial Hunger, the Son of Chaos no longer cared that the Stars was watching and immediately launched into a furious verbal barrage against Primordial Hunger.
Primordial Hunger was rather clumsy with words. Other than repeatedly attacking the sore point between the Son of Chaos and the Lord of Mysteries, He did not know how to refute anything else. This was precisely why He disliked the talkative and obnoxious Son of Chaos.
In the end, every time the Son of Chaos said something, He would bring up the Lord of Mysteries once. As a result, it was the Son of Chaos who became thoroughly infuriated.
Hastur merely watched calmly. He suddenly felt that, in certain respects, these so-called Great Old Ones were not all that different from the people living on the ground.
They would likewise become angry, attack one another, start wars, exchange sarcastic remarks, and possess all sorts of complex emotions just like humans.
Actually, it should be said the other way around. It was the people on the ground who resembled Them. Before creatures known as humans had even existed, They had already roamed the starry sky for countless years.
Perhaps humans themselves were merely the product of some Great Old One casually enlightening something.
When the little farce finally ended, the Son of Chaos, believing Himself to have gained an absolute advantage, raised His head slightly and contemptuously glanced at Primordial Hunger with the bearing of a victor. Faced with His provocative and arrogant gaze, Primordial Hunger merely transformed into the shape of a planet, seemingly entering sleep mode.
The Son of Chaos snorted softly, as if saying: You think you can compete with me in a war of words?
After dealing with Primordial Hunger, the Son of Chaos turned His gaze toward the Supernova Dominator, who had fled the battlefield earlier, and mercilessly mocked, "It was only recently that I discovered your intelligence is barely on the same level as Primordial Hunger's. You actually let that Eternal Blazing Sun trick you."
Having long anticipated that the Son of Chaos would use this matter to attack Him, the Supernova Dominator calmly said, "The outcome between Him and me has yet to be decided. Inflated confidence will ultimately bring only destruction."
"Heh, don't make it sound so nice. You clearly fell into His trap and only afterward decided to go along with the situation."
"Was your imprisonment inside the wishing lamp also a matter of going along with the situation?"
Faced with the Son of Chaos's provocation, the Supernova Dominator naturally redirected the topic toward the Lord of Mysteries. This was the only stain on the Son of Chaos's history.
The Son of Chaos's face darkened. "The Eternal Blazing Sun isn't even worthy of carrying the Mysteries' shoes."
"Oh? Since when did you become so protective of the Mysteries?"
"I'm merely stating a fact."
"So am I."
"..." Faced with the slippery Supernova Dominator, the Son of Chaos felt there was nowhere He could sink His teeth into. In the end, He could only retract His claws and fangs while continuously cursing the Lord of Mysteries in His heart.
Is this really the Gathering of Stars?
Having listened from beginning to end, Hastur only felt that such a scene seemed somewhat out of place for the Gathering of Stars.
Shouldn't They be discussing grander matters?
Why did They resemble a group of children who had yet to grow up, bickering with each other for amusement?
Hastur gazed into the boundless starry sky and carefully observed it for a while. He seemed to understand why They behaved this way.
Destroying a planet, or witnessing some cosmic wonder, such things were merely ordinary occurrences to Them, as simple as eating and drinking. Discussing such matters was instead rather meaningless.
Even a simple quarrel with existences on the same level as Themselves was far more interesting to Them.
Especially when They saw another existence suffer a setback. That made Them even happier.
While Hastur silently pondered this, the High-Dimensional Overseer turned His gaze toward Him. "Stars, your condition seems to have improved considerably recently. This place is also closer to the starry sky."
"The starry sky lies wherever my fingertips touch."
Hastur slowly raised His hand and lightly tapped the space before Him. The starry sky rippled and swayed, as if a wave had swept across it.
"Does this mean the apocalypse is closer?" asked the Mother Tree of Desire.
"Can you see the Original Barrier?"
As He spoke, a transparent veil of light appeared, separating the starry sky from the real world.
Although many cracks of various sizes had already opened across the Original Barrier, with the protection of deities such as the Evernight Goddess, it still remained firm.
The Mother Tree of Desire, the Supernova Dominator, and the others looked through the Hall of Stars and admired the seemingly fragile Original Barrier. They also saw the Outer Deities and Great Old Ones coveting Earth from beyond it.
Their greedy faces nearly covered the entire surface of the Earth.
The Son of Chaos smiled smugly. "Tsk, tsk. What ugly faces. What a pity, you still can't get inside."
Aside from the Stars, only He was located within the Original Barrier. Seeing that group only able to stare longingly at the world He inhabited put Him in an exceptionally good mood.
No wonder They all disliked Him. So They were simply jealous. The Son of Chaos found a suitable explanation for why He was so irritating.
The Mother Tree of Desire, the Supernova Dominator, and Primordial Hunger looked at one another. Although this was perfectly normal, seeing their own ravenous appearances as They impatiently sought to break into the real world from within the Hall of Stars, especially in front of the Stars and the Son of Chaos, was truly embarrassing.
But that embarrassment lasted only an instant. A concept like shame held little meaning to Them. They simply did not want to give the Son of Chaos another reason to mock Them.
As for the Stars, He had always been watching everything.
The High-Dimensional Overseer was also in a very good mood. Previously, in order to avoid the Stars' gaze, He had gone into hiding. Thus, there was no ugly image of Him in the starry sky outside Earth at this moment.
After a brief silence, the Mother Tree of Desire, the Supernova Dominator, and Primordial Hunger had already lost all interest in conversation for the day, especially after seeing the Son of Chaos's ill-intentioned grin and the High-Dimensional Overseer's meaningful gaze.
Hastur calmly swept His gaze over Them and announced the end of this Gathering of Stars.
After sending Them away, Hastur remained seated alone, calmly gazing at everything before Him.
He thought that he could simply continue sitting here like this until the next Gathering of Stars began, until the apocalypse arrived, or until the very end when the universe and starry sky restarted.
He was like a reef beside the sea, watching the ocean churn and roar day after day, night after night. Even the waves that occasionally rose high into the air were nothing more than insignificant ripples.
The starry sky was also an ocean. In his eyes, there was not much difference between the two.
The Great Old Ones were merely waves that roared a little louder. And so he continued sitting there, allowing time to flow endlessly past.
Time held no meaning for him now.
An hour, a day, a month, a year, ten years... such lengths of time were far too brief compared to the entire universe and starry sky, passing in no more than an instant.
It was not until someone called out to him again that he slightly lowered his gaze and looked toward the place from which the call originated.
The ones calling him were Sharon and the little cat named Ariella.
The name she called was Hastur, not the Stars.
Hastur merely watched quietly. Only when something stirred within his heart did his gaze finally change slightly.
Within his vision, Sharon wore a faintly sorrowful expression as she stared absentmindedly at an empty house.
The little cat named Ariella lay limply across Sharon's shoulder, weakly letting out intermittent meows. The sorrow in its eyes seemed almost ready to spill out.
Hastur continued merely watching calmly, his gaze following Sharon and Ariella as they passed through one day after another.
The Sharon within his vision had withdrawn the sadness from her eyes. Her entire body was like a stone statue, her gaze passing through the window as if staring toward something far away.
By the windowsill, Ariella lay quietly. Occasionally, it would raise its eyes to glance at the outside world, but every time, it would lower its gaze again in disappointment. Its glossy black fur had also lost its former brightness and smoothness, becoming dry and coarse.
That did not look good, nor did it suit the cat.
It should be lying on its back, exposing its soft belly, its two little paws resting on a dried fish as it ate with a satisfied expression, occasionally letting out a few happy meows.