Olympus, in the human realm.
What seemed like a long time had passed, but in reality, it happened almost simultaneously.
The starlight shone brightly, and the Nether Realm trembled.
Supreme royal authority spread out, both strengthening itself and serving as the Divine King's accomplishment in the current world.
Thus, the backlash for violating the covenant between gods and humans had barely begun when a power far surpassing the original abruptly descended.
This was merely the beginning, as the integration and organization of new domains by royal authority and order were not achieved overnight.
Although the gods appeared to obey, their disparate thoughts also slowed down the completion time.
However, Zeus knew that with enough time, he would eventually complete this step.
And before that, he might be able to do even more.
"The human realm… it's time for unification."
He waited for a few breaths, both to adapt to the increasingly powerful royal authority and to await the Lord of the Spirit Realm's response.
But to Zeus's mixed feelings of joy and disappointment, he never felt any will from the depths of the Spirit Realm.
Shaking his head slightly, Zeus didn't know if he was absent or in deep slumber.
Both were possible, but the Divine King didn't need to get to the bottom of it.
He simply took a step forward, enduring the rules imposed by the Codex of Creation, and walked to the ancient well that was seeping threads of eerie blood-red light.
"Divine Artifact of Creation… I saw you the first time I entered the Spirit Realm."
"But since you are a divine artifact that guides souls, why did you come to the human realm?!"
Boom—
A large hand pressed down, gripping both sides of the ancient well.
An unimaginably vast power attempted to drag it out of the cracks in space-time and suppress it in the now empty Asgard.
His gigantic dharma idol stood like a titan, and with a grin, Zeus sensed the corrupting energy within the Well of Reincarnation.
Under normal circumstances, even if souls flowing into the Spirit Realm along the River of Forgetfulness contained corrupting power, they would have no chance of coming into contact with the core of reincarnation.
It would settle in the River of Forgetfulness, be stripped away by the three three fates, and always return to its most fundamental state.
But when it left the central axis of the Spirit Realm, it meant giving an outsider a window of opportunity.
Splash—
The well water boiled, and the blood-red color began to encroach upon the black and white territory.
A hint of surprise flashed in Zeus's eyes; he hadn't expected the effect to be so good.
Was it because the essence of the evil entity's power was related to Lifeand death?
He wasn't very sure, but such a result was always good.
He watched as the blood-red color spread from a point to a patch, and then from a patch to a vortex.
The Divine King leaned down, peering into the depths of the ancient well.
Ancient legends said that the secret of the Spirit Realm was hidden at the bottom of the Well of Reincarnation.
Some said it was a divine artifact, a pair of golden lead arrows capable of twisting thoughts.
Some said it was a plant, a spiritual root of heaven and earth comparable to the golden apple tree.
Others said it was actually a prison.
Amidst the intertwining of Life and death, something terrifying that even the Lord of the Spirit Realm found daunting was imprisoned…
And as for the answer to this question, Zeus was also very curious, so now he came to verify it himself.
"Come… let me see."
"What exactly is in here!"
Rip—
An invisible force parted the water's surface, and the center of the blood-red vortex seemed to reach straight to the bottom.
The Divine King bowed his head, looking into the dark depths of the well.
There, a cross-world gaze was completed.
…
"…Did His Majesty win?"
On Mount Olympus, her lower body had already transformed into a fish tail.
Aphrodite swam in the lava river, ready to flee at any moment.
"Who knows? Whether he wins or loses, what do you have to worry about?"
He spoke indifferently, ignoring the Goddess of Beauty's appearance.
Ever since he sculpted that statue in Aphrodite's likeness, Hephaestusseemed to have lost interest in the real person.
At this moment, he merely held his heavy forging hammer, gazing at the Sky outside the mountain.
There, the Nether Moon hung high, the seasons revolved, the Divine King leaned into the Well of Reincarnation, with the Codex of Creationsuppressing from behind him.
Any one of them could crush him in terms of combat power, but fortunately, Hephaestus had no intention of participating.
"Why?"
Unlike the God of Craftsmanship's relaxed demeanor, Aphrodite was not in such a mood.
"Didn't you see the scene of Typhon's rebellion? If I had stayed on the divine mountain then—"
"—Are you crazy?"
Extremely speechless, Hephaestus shook his head.
"That's the Spirit Realm. Although the subordinate gods of the Lord of the Spirit Realm are a bit stubborn, they are not unable to communicate."
"I'm a blacksmith, you only dance. Are you perhaps thinking of helping the Divine King?"
Indeed, this is what it means to be a speaking, thinking Life.
They have perfect appearances but no matching hearts… Rather than that, it would be better to have no heart at all.
Various thoughts flashed through his mind. If it weren't for the fear of affecting his own temple and destroying his art and masterpieces, Hephaestus wouldn't care what was happening outside.
What if the divine kingdom was gone? His most admired assistants and followers were already by his side in another form.
"You—"
Aphrodite was momentarily speechless, unable to find a suitable reason to retort.
But upon careful consideration of Hephaestus's words, she found them not entirely unreasonable.
Indeed, she was now also a god with a fallback plan; even if something truly went wrong, she wouldn't be without an escape route… Her mood relaxed slightly, but looking at the situation in the Sky, the Goddess of Beauty frowned slightly.
"What is the Divine King looking at? Why has he been so still?"
She didn't understand why, but perhaps this was how Great Divine Power clashed.
The thought flashed through Aphrodite's mind, and that's what she thought.
However, this thought didn't last long; outside the divine mountain, the previously stalemated situation changed again.
At some unknown point, the water of the Well of Reincarnation had returned to its original dual colors.
A light golden net of law transformed into chains, binding the Divine King's body from behind, but Zeus showed no resistance whatsoever.
Threads of blood-red light climbed back onto his body from the well water, and the void tore around the Divine King.
Vaguely, the Asgard, which had originally been washed by the two-colored well water, was once again torn open, and the mouth of the Well of Reincarnation was slowly moving towards it.
And at the very end of everything, Liana re-gripped the Codex of Creation, repeating the sentence she had spoken earlier.
"The transgressor is guilty."
"The guilty… shall be punished."
Zeus's preparations were complete. He had returned from the abyss, obtaining a more powerful divine artifact.
Having made his preparations, he then boldly signaled Ares to initiate the probing attack.
At this point, the Divine King would not stop.
But to wait for an opportune moment, the Spirit Realm had to make him stop.
Invisibly, countless runes and chains extended from the Codex of Creation, enveloping the entire Asgard.
The Well of Reincarnation, meanwhile, pulled Zeus's body towards the rift in the interface.
The Divine King's body began to tremble; he seemed to be fighting against some force.
However, it was too late for everything. As the Well of Reincarnationdescended, he was completely slammed into the interface of Asgard.
In an instant, the two-colored circulation, the rotation of the four seasons, and the power of cycles enveloped the entire interface.
And the Codex of Creation descended from the Sky, firmly pressing down on top of Asgard.
Like shackles, they bound this foreign Divine King's former homeland, and even in the ethereal realm, it seemed as if Asgard itself was cooperating with this sealing, allowing rules and order to merge into its interface.
On the divine mountain, the gods only had time to hear a roar from the Divine King, followed by a deathly silence.
"What… what happened?"
A deity asked, but no one could answer him.
Only in a hidden shadow, the man in black looked at the various happenings on the divine mountain, his eyes flickering with an unusual divine light.
"A seal, a cycle… even temporarily turning Asgard against him, making it unable to distinguish its master. But what's the point of this?"
Shaking his head slightly, the man in black took a step forward.
Whatever the meaning, he wanted to see what had made Zeus so passive.
Moreover, he could tell that this seal wouldn't hold the Divine King for long, because Asgard had, after all, been in his hands for thousands of years.
Even if it suddenly 'betrayed' him now, this was destined to be a loophole that could only work once.
When Zeus discovered its existence, it was destined to be mended… But before he could act, he felt a familiar gaze.
"Nyx… tsk."
"Are you afraid I'll rescue Zeus? I wonder what benefits Liana promised you to make you willing to expend so much effort on him…"
Withdrawing his foot, Erebus had no intention of provoking the other party at this moment.
Looking at Chaos now, despite the Mother Tree's terrifying power, a single leaked branch created the Blood Sun; Tartarus's primordial power was vast, and true god-level demons were a dime a dozen.
But compared to them, Erebus was still more wary of Nyx.
Even though he knew that the other party probably couldn't control her own three-phase incarnation, that didn't diminish their terror.
After all, if 'Inevitable Destiny', 'Natural order', and 'Causal Fate' were combined, plus the three three fates, it looked like a complete entity, simultaneously involving matter, living beings, and even the very fate of all things interconnected.
Even if there were still flaws, it was terrifying enough.
"But power is fair; what you gain, you are destined to lose."
"It's not easy for me to take this step, but you carry such terrifying things. How will you ever break free?"
"Who can say whether you control them, or whether they manifest in this world using you as a vessel and medium."
He chuckled softly. Strictly speaking, among the Primordial God of chaos, Erebus was actually the weakest by birth.
He wasn't born as early as Gaia, wasn't born as the embodiment of chaos like Tartarus, and didn't have the world's first three-phase body like Nyx.
But thinking about it now, this might be a good thing.
He turned and left. Although the matter here was probably not over, Erebus now understood.
This massive seal covering Asgard was actually a clock with constantly dripping water, and the cracks in the seal were the markings on the water clock.
When it reached its end, it might signify the arrival of a deliberately delayed decisive battle.
"Soon, soon…"
His gaze pierced through the earth, through the sea, through the distant void.
Vaguely, a feeling similar to that of the Nine Realms' former remains had already surfaced in his heart.
It was the corpse of a world… perhaps currently just the outermost fragments.
But undoubtedly, at the furthest reaches of Chaos's power radiation, at the edge of the realm of existence and non-existence.
They had already revealed their presence and would gradually arrive from there.
…
Asgard.
In front of the Well of Reincarnation, Zeus slowly moved his body.
The previously restless power gradually subsided, or more accurately, he finally realized that he didn't need to resist.
Initially, when the power that once belonged to Typhon began to stir within the Divine King's body, Zeus's first reaction was that he had been ambushed.
The Lord of the Spirit Realm had a history of foreseeing the future long ago, and his understanding of fate was clearly not something Zeuscould match.
Therefore, considering the origin of the one-day fruit and the special nature of the power of fate.
Decisively, Zeus chose to use the power of royal authority to suppress the wild and restless evil entity's power.
Even if something unexpected happened to Asgard at the same time, the Divine King had no time to react.
It wasn't until he was pushed into the interface, feeling the layers of seals, that Zeus suddenly realized he seemed to have made some kind of misjudgment.
Typhon's power had not broken free from the 'one-day fruit's'Bondage; this was merely an instinctive reaction, a natural change when facing a threat or an enemy.
It was just that Zeus was always wary of anything that didn't belong to him, even the one-day fruit given by the Goddess of Fate.
So, in a critical moment, he didn't follow his instincts and let it be, but instead chose to self-resist, suppressing the restless power.
"I won't make this mistake a second time…"
He smoothed out the chaotic thoughts in his mind and communicated with Asgard through his will.
However, at this moment, this interface, which he had once controlled, was no longer as obedient as it used to be.
After all, ever since he acquired this world, Zeus had been using its power but had rarely added new origins to it.
When the old parts still dominated, it would naturally be influenced by the old…
His gaze shifted, and the Divine King looked again at the Well of Reincarnation, which was blocking Asgard's gateway.
The old influence… was it related to that foreign King?
He hadn't synchronized all memories with his avatar, because for certain key contents, the avatar was unwilling to transmit them through the sacrificial channel.
So, thinking of that fleeting glimpse of the pupil, Zeus wasn't sure of its origin.
This power, corruption, shadow, devotion, sacrifice… Was this truly the legacy of the foreign Divine King?
Perhaps, perhaps not.
But either way, Zeus had to deal with this trouble now.