Later still, in order to consolidate power, Kronos insisted with utmost firmness that all gods perform only their appointed duties, forbidding any god from overstepping in the slightest, and strictly limiting the scope of divine actions.
He did not possess the absolute power Uranus had to control the world, and he also feared the emergence of new laws and newborn gods stronger than himself.
The Sky-Father Uranus's final "curse" made him feel threatened at every moment.
He could not stop the world's evolution, could not stop new laws, could not stop the birth of new gods.
So he decided to stall!
As long as the world evolved as slowly as possible, and in the process he gathered every authority into himself—old and new alike—then that fated end could be kept from ever arriving.
Thus he resolutely upheld the existing order; to newborn gods he granted no authority.
He forbade the gods to create "offspring" at will, forbade rapid development of the world, forbade the evolution of laws.
Even if new laws arose beyond his control, he allowed those newborn deities to act only within their parents' domains, strictly limiting their growth.
This too was to safeguard his own rule.
He lacked the absolute authority of Uranus; his rule could not do without the support of the Titan great-gods.
By so rigidifying the current order, he also sought to win over the other supreme Titans and solidify his alliance.
The world was orderly—but too orderly, to the point of near-total ossification, like a pool of dead water.
So orderly that he had already violated the world's fundamental principle, the principle that stands above the basic laws.
Namely, that "being" arises from "nothing," and that "being" will one day return to "nothing," each transforming into the other, without cease.
When entropy increase reaches its extreme, it turns to negentropy; when negentropy begins, it moves toward entropy increase.
The law of entropy increase is the most supreme of all natural laws. The world follows entropy increase; life feeds on negentropy.
Neither entropy increase nor negentropy can be halted.
One can try to use negentropy to slow entropy increase, but one cannot prevent it, nor make it stop.
Even gods—even a god-king—cannot defy this supreme law.
He had taken the wrong path and did not realize it.
All the more so, the god-king had already violated his own law.
He, a god of creation, feared the creation of the future.
Fear made him lose the root of what had made him god-king: that noblest of qualities, the cosmos's first and most precious golden virtue—courage.
He betrayed himself, betrayed the courage he once possessed.
His fate, from this point, was already sealed.
But his madness did not cease.
On the contrary, the god-king grew even more greedy.
Or rather, it was precisely this escalating greed that would bring his ultimate end.
"If you would see him destroyed, first drive him mad." This plain proverb was proving true in him.
To defend the set of rigidified rules he had instituted, to show an absolute stance, and also to win public compliance (in truth to increase his own authority),
He led by example, high-sounding and undisguised, and actually swallowed back into himself the law of flame that he and the great Mother Goddess Rhea had evolved and engendered.
He, as god-king, was himself the embodiment of the laws of creation, growth, harvest, reaping, courage—born of Heaven and Earth.
The great goddess Rhea was the personified embodiment of the supreme laws of flow, operation, motion, vitality—born of Heaven and Earth.
The union of their laws naturally evolved and engendered one of the cosmos's highest and most fundamental laws.
The first derivative law was—flame.
This was the last and most important element the cosmos still lacked.
Of the four elements—earth, fire, water, air (aether)—only fire had not yet appeared; now this primordial element of civilization he swallowed without hesitation. (PS: The Greeks also had a four-element theory; the only difference here is wind versus air.)
He wanted the law, not the god. He pulled the engendered law back into himself; he chose to swallow the law to make himself stronger.
Even if the law engendered had innate spirit, consciousness, and body—born already a great god—he did not hesitate for an instant; his greed and cold-bloodedness surpassed all feeling.
His deed shocked all the gods.
But shock is not the same as deterrence. There was some deterrence, but not much.
A law once born does not vanish. The god-king Kronos chose to swallow an emerging law to empower himself; though what he "ate" was his own "child," this too made the gods wary.
Or rather, more wary still. If someone will not even spare his own "children," it would be strange indeed if others were not on their guard against such a one.
Thus other gods also hurried to engender new laws to increase their own strength, to guard against unforeseen moves by Kronos.
Hyperion, the light of the heavenly bodies and lord of radiance, together with the holy goddess Theia, mistress of sight and perception, after the birth of the law of flame, unhesitatingly engendered the sun and the moon.
From this point on, the radiance of the celestial bodies was not merely a conversion of aether; the heavenly bodies themselves possessed mighty energy.
Stars began to appear in the night sky.
The cosmos grew brighter; the light and warmth of the stars illuminated the vast universe; the other celestial bodies now had the basis for life to arise.
Not only did Hyperion and his consort begin to strengthen their own house; the other gods likewise paired off to enhance their strength.
Still, wary of Kronos's ruthlessness, they did not dare breed offspring on a grand scale—but neither were they so honest; all secretly gathered strength.
The Titans who had once lived together in harmony on Mount Othrys began, after Kronos swallowed a law, to have some depart and settle elsewhere far from this god-king who was now clearly unreliable.
Kronos learned from Uranus's example and did not set up a dictatorship (his strength did not allow it), but he clearly did not learn from Uranus's brutality.
Indeed, in brutality he surpassed his model. At the very least, the Sky-Father Uranus did not personally swallow his own children.
He lacked the strength to haul in all the gods at once, and lacked the strength to gather all power into his hands, so the crafty god-king chose to nibble away step by step.
The greedy god-king continued centralizing without pause. On the surface he upheld order, fixed the domains of the primordial Titans, and defended the gods' honor; in truth he began secretly eroding the gods' lawful domains.
He sought not only to prevent the future from arriving; he also sought to draw in all the cosmos's laws. He wanted to gather all authority into one body, becoming truly the absolute sovereign!
He would, through slow probing and gradual encroachment, strengthen his own power and erode the gods' domains—he would be one god who is the cosmos!
In the unimaginably long time that followed, he and the goddess Rhea first engendered agriculture and abundance, then procreation and birth—only for these, naturally, to be swallowed by him in turn.
Kronos was nibbling away at the Mother of All's authority.
Compared to others, the Mother Goddess Gaia had a gentler temper; she would not usually upend the table outright, so she became the god-king's first test case.
_____________________________________________________________
If you're enjoying this novel, please consider supporting by voting with Power Stones. ⭐
Every vote helps the story climb the rankings so more readers can discover it.And as a special thank you:👉 For every 50 Power Stones, I'll release one extra chapter!