Chapter 162: Chapter 17 Aggregation and Separation

Zeus understood what Laine meant.

Instinctively, as Hyperion’s unconscious will faced assimilation, it voluntarily fragmented into variously sized divine remnants, this was a life-born “survival” notion.

But similarly, when the essence that overflowed from the godhood split along with it, and gradually settled down, “survival” was no longer the priority, and it would try to seek “wholeness.”

If he were conscious, he would naturally know that once he became “whole” again, he would face the danger of being eroded by the Source Power, but under the drive of instinct, Hyperion would not care about these.

Therefore, under such circumstances, the divine fragments of the ancient God of Sun would spontaneously attract each other. When a sufficient number of divine fragments gathered, a part of Hyperion’s consciousness would briefly awaken.

As for what would happen then, only heaven knew, after all, a partial consciousness is not a complete consciousness, and it was possible for any emotion to take the lead at that time, and it was highly likely that reason would not prevail. However, judging by his past character, it certainly wasn’t going to be any state of peace and stability.

Of course, even if he woke up, even if it was just a partial consciousness, it was doomed not to last. After enough gathered, the leaked “Sun” origin would gradually become active again from its quiescence, just not as quickly as when it was “complete.” At that point, if he did not want his consciousness erased, the ancient God of Sun would still have to actively disintegrate himself.

Unless he could find a way to maintain his rationality and resist the assimilation by the Source Power.

“…Truly an eternal torture. I heard you were the first to define ‘death.’ Now, faced with the immortal gods who once offended you, you also give them eternal torment and suffering.”

After a brief silence, Zeus tucked away the item in his hand.

Regardless, this was indeed valuable. Those earlier, scattered divine fragments were not powerful, with the strongest barely reaching the realm of a True God, but these few were different.

The main body of the godhood that Laine took away roughly had the “quantity” of Intermediate Divine Power and the “quality” of Powerful Divine Power; these three more significant parts had just stepped into the realm of True Gods, and their essence was equally high.

From the fall of one whale, life emerges. Although Zeus had not heard this saying, he now had a similar epiphany. A Titan Principal God with great divine power had eventually fragmented into what lay before him. Even those earlier divine fragments that fell to the ground were likely to come into contact with life, to be absorbed and harnessed by them.

Compared to these few main bodies, those fragmented pieces might potentially resist assimilation by living beings relying on their will, barely able to harness them.

Henceforth, traces of Hyperion would be scattered throughout the world, and the Mortal World would tell countless legends about him, but he himself, I’m afraid, would never be able to return.

After all, destruction is far simpler than repair. To return the “transformed” godhood to its original form, probably only the world itself would be capable.

“Alright, I’ve seen what there is to see, and said what there is to say, and you should be reasonably satisfied with my gift, so I won’t keep you any longer,” Laine said, waving his hand to signal that the Divine King should depart.

He had left two simple paths to divinity for mortals, and this was the first one. The reason for conducting this step in front of Zeus was to prevent any beings among future humans walking this path from being directly erased by uninformed deities out of fear, needlessly wasting his time.

Now that the Divine King understood how this came to be, he would not cause any trouble because of it in the future.

“By the way, maybe if I have some time in the future, I’ll take a walk on the great earth, and you, Your Divine Majesty, shouldn’t have any objections, right?”

As if he had just remembered something, Laine said with a smile.

Just as he said, even if the existence of Bronze Humanity was brief, he was prepared to take a look.

“Of course, any deity has the right to walk freely in the world,” Zeus answered, understanding that the Ancient God before him wasn’t truly seeking his permission, and he agreed smoothly. It was hard to tell if he got the answer he wanted, but he had seen enough today. He planned to take a break before dealing with the remaining matters.

Passing through the invisible portal, the Divine King left the fourth layer of the Spirit Realm. However, as he watched his departing figure, the Goddess of the Nether Moon, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.

“Your Highness, why don’t you capture all the false gods from the outside world and make them end up like this Sun?”

“Hmm?” Somewhat surprised, Laine couldn’t help but ask, “Why would you think that?”

Liana had long looked down on the gods of the outside world, but what she hadn’t expected was that she was now entertaining even more radical thoughts.

“Wipe them all out,” she mused, a sentiment bordering on that of a fanatical follower.

“The false gods of the outside world are always so arrogant and ignorant, not only does a sinful existence like Hyperion dare to provoke you, but other pseudo-deities are also full of vile deeds.”

Lifting her head to respond to Laine’s inquiry, Liana’s expression was earnest.

“I think that there might be fewer problems without such false gods.”

“Hehe~ That would be quite challenging.”

With a wry smile, Laine didn’t know what to say. In some respects, his most loyal subordinate always had some bizarre ideas.

“We can’t do that yet, Liana. Not to mention the presence of the Primordial Gods in the outside world, even without them, a state like that of Hyperion isn’t easily realized.”

“The existence of the Eclipse and the creation of the Sun Chariot have given me a clearer understanding of the essence of the sun, but other divine offices are far behind.”

Shaking his head, Laine opened his right hand. The substantive part of godhood that had been absent before was still there but had taken on a different form at some unknown point.

It was attached to a stone sword, forming a state akin to a divine artifact, yet not entirely similar, one that could be separated at any time.

Unlike the divine artifacts, and perhaps due to the emotions just before the self-collapse of the ancient God of Sun or perhaps because of an intrinsic warping by a strand of Chaotic Source Force, anyone who used it would, upon putting it down, be cursed with the ‘Scorching of the Great Day.’

There might be other side effects, and while Laine could probably get results with a prophecy, he chose to leave a bit of mystery as his spiritual intuition didn’t issue any warning.

“Put it away for now; we don’t need it yet.”

“Only when a life is born in the mortal realm that accumulates enough divine fragments will they be qualified to carry this authority.”

Laine was somewhat reflective. At first, he was just pondering how to resolve the issue of immortal deities once and for all; although he didn’t find the answer, in a moment of inspiration, he created this special product.

Yet it seemed a curious coincidence. The immortal nature of the gods, the divine authority that’s hard to strip away, the will assimilated by Chaos after coming into contact with the Source Power – when these combined, it appeared to birth a special product.

A power system akin to one Laine had heard about before his arrival in the Chaos World.

“A Sequence system, huh… What separates must unite, and what unites must separate; such a familiar saying indeed.”

“I had almost forgotten, in a blink, tens of thousands of years have passed…”

With a quiet sigh, Liana, standing beside, took the stone sword, listening quietly. Laine often spoke of things she hardly understood, but perhaps that was a sign of her Lord’s foresight.

After a moment, his thoughts shifted. Through the barrier between the Spirit Realm and the outside world, Laine turned his gaze toward the Delphic Great Plains.

It wasn’t the lone Zeus who left nor the long-slumbering Mother Earth, but rather the Golden Apple Orchard, tended by the maids entrusted by Gaia.

There, the orchard was a riot of blooming flowers with every plant having been nourished by the Life Vase at one point.

Some were the progenitors of certain plants in the world, and most were embodiments of Nymphs. However, most of them were not allowed to stay in Mother Earth’s orchard and were driven out upon their birth.

Before her slumber, Gaia connected this place to the earth, making entry to the orchard as difficult as shaking the earth itself for anyone without her permission. Yet today, a maid granted access by the Mother Earth herself brought an outsider into this forbidden forest.

In that place, a snake flicked its tongue, looking towards the Nymph who had transformed into an oak tree.