Zeus looked once more to Coeus and asked softly, "Honored Coeus, now, can you state your decision?"
Coeus let out a bitter, rueful sigh and said with a wry smile, "Illustrious Zeus, I thank you for your forbearance. I would like to follow your will. But what god could stake his own source as a bargaining chip?"
His face suddenly grew solemn, and in a voice full of supreme pride he said gravely, "I am a son of Uranus! My essential law is one of the oldest and greatest cosmic sources, conceived together by the Lord of Spirit, the supreme Heavenly Father, and the greatest Mother of All!"
"Even if it means utter destruction; even if it means enduring once more the eternal torment of endless void!"
"How could I possibly trade away this great and exalted essence as a base coin for survival?"
Zeus swept his eyes over the four primordial Titans—still steeped in the old glory—primordial gods still with their own schemes, and judged that their time in Tartarus had still been too short.
His gaze turned cool and distant. He shook his head lightly and said slowly, "You are wrong, yet refuse to admit it, still clutching hopes that are no longer realistic."
"You are too stubborn and do not trust me. It is a pity—you have not seized this chance."
Kronos's eyes narrowed. He did not understand what Zeus meant by this.
Coeus and Phoebe likewise could not understand why Zeus spoke so suddenly.
Just then, Zeus raised his right hand slightly, brilliant lightning coiling in his palm.
At a crack of thunder, the hearts of the four great gods sank at once.
They all thought Zeus, shamed into anger, meant to vent his rage upon them.
Kronos, far from fearing, rejoiced. Lightning's blows and searing were endlessly painful, but what torment could outdo Tartarus?
He laughed wildly and cried, "Ha ha ha! Zeus, oh Zeus! You shameless little thief! You can no longer keep up your show of magnanimity!"
"Your shameless, heartless, narrow nature—now fully exposed! Come then! Strike as you please! If I, Kronos, so much as beg you for mercy, I am no longer the former sovereign of the cosmos! Ha ha ha—"
Zeus paid him no heed, as if he had not heard him at all.
The thunder in his palm flashed lightly and tore open the foundational space of the Underworld, revealing the endless void beyond the world, rife with chaos and disorder!
In an instant this realm's once-invulnerable structure now showed a vast "breach."
And under Zeus's suppressing thunder, it could not repair itself!
Scenting a "glutton's feast," Tartarus thrilled, about to surge as a flood of endless void to rush in and devour everything here!
And then—
Then there was no "then."
Zeus simply reached out, and amid bursting sparks of lightning, "seized" a formless, immaterial "mass" of Tartarus's void essence!
With a heaven-shaking crash of thunder, Zeus, by brute force, tore that "mass" of void from Tartarus's very body!
Then with a backhanded slap he struck Tartarus remorselessly back out of the Underworld.
He gave a slight wave, recalling the thunder that held the "breach" in check. The torn boundary knit itself closed again.
This casual gesture—like reaching into a bag—left the four primordial gods dumbstruck.
Even the former sovereign Kronos felt his heart turn to ice.
His rebel son's might had far, far surpassed his imagined bounds!
Tartarus, a terror to all living things and even to all gods, was—in Zeus's hands—like a clay idol in the mortal world: squeezed flat or rolled round as he pleased!
He could do as he wished!
This Kronos—at his peak—had absolutely not been able to do.
Then, he could thrash Tartarus, yes, but to act with such unruffled ease and absolute freedom—no.
Nor had the miracle that overturned the old gods' understanding yet ended.
That "mass" of void in Zeus's palm began to change inconceivably, violently shifting toward the form of "real existence."
Soon that lump of chaos condensed into shape—becoming a splendid, majestic eagle—the first eagle to appear since the universe's birth.
Yet this life created directly from "void" was in essence still only inert matter—no spark of spirit within.
Kronos and the other three merely watched Zeus's movements. A nameless, immense, unfathomable fear, like an invisible cold tide, quietly enfolded their entire divinity.
A profoundly ominous premonition grew ever thicker—ever clearer—at the depths of their divinity.
At last—
When the eagle's body was fully formed, its formerly lifeless frame suddenly quickened.
Its sharp eyes whirled.
With a ringing cry that split the air, the eagle flung wide its wings and soared through the empty, silent Underworld.
In that moment, aside from the beating of wings and the cry, the whole space lay utterly still.
It was as if the spirit and life of the four great Titans had been drawn out and moved into that eagle.
Even the former God-King—who, after Tartarus, emerged as violent, arrogant, and fearless as ever—now had a face darker than a sea-washed reef worn by eons.
His face had gone dead white, drained of all color.
Fear showed plain upon him.
A long time passed before he shakily raised the arm that had once ruled the universe and pointed it at Zeus's cool, impassive face, terror in his eyes swelling to swallow him whole.
He stammered, "You—you… this—how, how can this be?! How is it possible?! How can it be?!!!"
"Fact," Zeus said mildly, "is as you see it."
"I gave you a chance, but you did not cherish it."
"If I truly wish to use force, then your every stance, before me, is meaningless."
A fear named "utter annihilation," the ultimate terror, now for the first time truly fell upon the divinity of these four primordial Titans.
In the presence of the sovereign of spirit, their spirits could not even produce the faintest thought of resistance.
As sons of Uranus, they knew better than any god how great, how mighty, how invincible—and how terrible—the authority of "spirit" is!
It is the supreme, absolute authority that can end all before it with a single thought!
Before the sovereign of spirit, no matter who one is, no matter how mighty one's power, how great one's authority, how ancient one's being, how vital a cosmic foundation—
None of it matters.
For the sovereign of spirit can easily erase one's spirit—erase all consciousness and selfhood.
And bestow it all anew at will.
Material existence determines whether one can possess consciousness; free consciousness determines whether one can possess the self.
But the sovereign of spirit is the true bestower of it all!
If a being has no spiritual self, that is the truest, most complete death and end!
And now, that supreme authority was in Zeus's hands!
Which meant he had become, in the truest sense, the supreme, sovereign, absolute Lord who can control all!
Nor did he hold only the authority of "spirit" alone!
None will forget the God-King's invincible Great Thunder!
Even the former God-King, who refused to bow even in Tartarus, now at last felt the starkest despair and terror.
His firm, imperious eyes trembled despite himself. In a voice that shook with fear, he forced out, "You—you… do you mean to annihilate our spirits?!"
At those words, Coeus and Phoebe's already drained faces grew darker still—nearly unable to stand.
Even the hardiest—lapan—now changed color, his face ashen, despair and dejection enveloping him.
Facing Kronos's fear, Zeus only shook his head lightly and said coolly, "No."
Kronos barked at once, "Then why all this?!"
Even this ragingly arrogant former God-King had only this hard tone left to mask the endless terror in his heart.
Zeus saw clearly that fear and frailty within him, and still said evenly, "I only mean to tell you that, if I wished you ill, then in my hands, you would be no different from any mortal being."
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