Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

The Wind God left the Temple, and far away in Acropolis, Gaia's conversation with Pandora continued.

Perseus, the God of Material Destruction, son of Crius and Eurybia, was also the father of Hecate.

Strictly speaking, the godhood of "Material Destruction" in other worlds should be subordinate to "Death", but as in the original myths where Thanatos, the God simply of harvesting souls, was directly strangled at birth, due to Chaos's imbalance of life and death, the actual godhood of Perseus leaned more towards "Destruction" and "Dissolution," rather than "Death" and "The End".

However, this also perfectly suited his identity as the former God of Meteorology and son of Crius. The essence of Perseus's authority lay in the part of meteorology that tended towards catastrophes and destruction, the collapse of natural material structures, and he shared the domain related to "natural disasters" with later-born Earth-Shaker God and Lord of the Storm, Poseidon.

In terms of lineage, he was one of the twelve principal gods of Olympus today, the uncle of Zeus's most trusted Wind God, Zephyrus, the son-in-law of the Lightless Celestial Body God, Coeus, and the grandson of the Ancient Sea God, Pontus.

In terms of power, he himself was a being who touched upon great divine strength solely by virtue of his innate divine position, even stronger than the former Ancient Sun God Helios who only presided over the motion of the sun.

In terms of starting conditions, Perseus seemingly had everything. Among the Titans deities, he was one of the few second-generation Titans with the best innate conditions—until the day Hecate was born.

On that day, like Poseidon, the godhood of Perseus, which also tended towards natural disasters and destruction, made big speeches at the banquet of the second-generation Divine King, expressing his dissatisfaction with his wife, the Goddess of Meteor, Asteria, while mocking Cronus for 'committing crimes against the heavens', resulting in the birth of a deity without godhood.

His anger was not unfounded, after all, his marriage to Asteria was essentially a trade, a medium for the former Divine King to win over the Lightless Celestial Body God to oppose the Ancient Sun God. But regardless of the reasons, Perseus still paid the price for such brazen speech.

The Lightless Celestial Body God Coeus immediately gave up on this son-in-law he already disliked, Crius also began to loathe this son, and Cronus, who was already feeling guilty, did not need to say anything, as he was very restrained for not turning hostile on the spot.

After sabotaging his own starting connections, Perseus, realizing this, did not care much, because although his power had not reached its peak at the time, he was already a True God with intermediate divine power. Like Poseidon, unwilling to be inferior to others, and with strength, where in the world could he not go?

Thus, Perseus immediately went down to the desolate and lonely land beneath the earth, into the Underworld lit by the Nether Moon. The laws there were also in line with his godhood, and if he could subdue the gods of the Underworld, then when he ascended to great divine strength, according to the situation of the early middle period of the Second Era, he would also be considered a ruler in his own right.

But ideals are always beautiful, and reality is cruel.

Despite not being a deity known for staying out of trouble, he had remained inconspicuous since the Second Era, not only did Hecate never hear any news about him, even when asking Leto, she only got a vague answer, which of course was not without reason. (See 3-88)

Because not long after coming to the Underworld, Perseus encountered Gaia. Or rather, the Underworld originally belonged to part of Gaia's power before Hades was born.

"So... he has been imprisoned by you for an era?"

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Pandora softly inquired, looking at the orb in front of her, shimmering with starlight.
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She had never imagined that such a powerful deity would end up in such a state.

"That's not quite it, at first, I just wanted him to help me search for the whereabouts of those children in the Abyss... Unfortunately, in the end, he proved with facts that an existence imprisoned by the Divine King could only be released by the Divine King—at least that was the case for the Abyss in the previous two epochs."

"After that, he seemed quite resentful of me for sending him into Tartarus, so I kept him there a little longer, planning to let him reflect on his mistakes before letting him go. By the time Zeus was born and Cronus's strength grew day by day, I shifted my attention to the surface, and I forgot all about him."

Speaking lightly, Gaia showed no embarrassment when mentioning 'forgetting'.

She really hadn't done so on purpose. In dealings with her own offspring, Gaia had always been quite fair, so it wasn't until Perseus had a fallout with his father that Mother Earth employed him as forced labor to explore the Abyss. When Zeus, a replacement, came along, she put Perseus aside even more.

According to the original plan, Gaia was prepared to let Perseus go after Zeus rescued the Titans. However, plans couldn't keep up with changes. From the day Zeus freed the Titans, a decade of the Titan War, the cataclysm of the changing epoch, Gaia's centuries of slumber, waking up to fight Olympus, and then being defeated in plain view before giving birth to Typhon... For Gaia, she hardly had a moment to spare.

Once Typhon was defeated, she finally realized that the current Zeus was no longer someone who could be overthrown with mere brute force. Looking back, remembering Perseus who had been forgotten for so long, listening to his curses and hatred from within his imprisonment, Gaia, somewhat tainted by darkness, decided not to do things by halves.

The moment Typhon fell completely, Mother Earth didn't appear because she was busy with this matter. She utilized the power lingering on the Outer God from the destruction of the Nine Realms, shattered Perseus's existence, and created a situation similar to the Ancient Sun God.

"...So I... should...?"

Should she merge with this authority? She was well aware of how difficult merging with such things could be.

Although she didn't know that facing Source Power was something only a truly complete Great Divine Power consciousness could do, Pandora still understood it wasn't something she could safely attempt.

She unconsciously took half a step back, but the cold touch behind her reminded her that this was the hall of the council debate.

There was nowhere for her to retreat behind her, and she couldn't possibly run away from Gaia... Pandora turned her gaze towards Epimetheus, and then, as expected, received no response. She then looked at the clay jar she was holding, and just as every time before, it was just an ordinary jar, eliciting no reaction.

"Mhm, yes, just as you thought, take it one step at a time—you'll succeed."

Nodding in acknowledgment of Pandora's guess, Gaia ignored her plea for help.

Back when she created the Silver Generation, she had seen this offspring of Iapetus. He didn't have the guts to do anything, just as he didn't have the courage to save his two brothers who were imprisoned.

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As for that magic jar...

"Relax, it's said to be a gift from fate, isn't it? It was because of it that I chose you."

"If anything in this world can make the Primordial Gods feel awe, true fate is one of them. I don't know if it's truly useful, but such a task that would normally be impossible, we can only hope in fate."

"But this is a gift to humans." Clutching the earthen jar that had brought her a brief glory but mostly pain, Pandora tried to convince Gaia: "It won't work for your request!"

"No, it will, this is what Laine owes me!"

Her voice suddenly became shrill, and her face contorted for a moment, but in the next instant, as if changing a mask, Gaia returned to normal.

"It will." Her voice was gentle as the woman in her forties spoke with a smile: "People say it's 'hope', don't they?"

"Perhaps it will only come into effect when its master faces a disaster, pulling you out of the abyss of despair?"

Feeling utterly cold, Pandora knew she couldn't refuse.

She didn't know what exactly she had done wrong, why everyone in the world was deceiving her, using her.

The gods created her, and she woke up on Mount Olympus, in the palace of the gods, thinking she was the darling of the deities; but later, she learned that she was born as a tool, to be one of the excuses for the destruction of the Bronze Age.

Epimetheus married her, the Graces came to flatter her, and she lived happily in the Mortal Realm for a while, but later she learned that the Afterthinker had never loved her; he had merely used this god-made woman as a pawn to achieve his own goals.

Latterly, the fourth generation of humans, born from her children, scorned her, cursed her, and she had no choice but to place all her hopes in the jar in her hand. However, 'hope' is like a light in the darkness; you can only see it but never touch it.

Until today, 'hope' has not only failed to help her but has also led her into another abyss.

Looking back on her life, Pandora suddenly realized that she seemed to have never been loved.

Perhaps there was love from Hestia at the moment of her birth? After all, she alone had bestowed upon Pandora a guardian role, rather than those seemingly useful but actually calamitous innate talents.

No, perhaps that was pity as well.

"You say this is 'hope'?"

Holding up the earthen jar, Pandora's smile was radiant.

"I think it's a curse."

"No one will curse you, and you aren't worthy of the curse from the Lord of the Spirit Realm."

Speaking indifferently, Gaia didn't care what Pandora was thinking.

"Now, take your first step— it might be a coincidence, but it seems there's a strict limitation on the size of the shattered Divine Fragments; besides the most core authority, their sizes are divided into nine ranks."

"5, 3, 1, an odd number leads to a qualitative change. Since you are a deep-seated original human, skip the first five ranks and directly make contact with the sixth. With me here, nobody will interfere with you."

"...Then, let's begin."

Nodding her head, knowing there were no second options, Pandora reached out her hand and directly touched that crystal-clear sphere.

She was no longer afraid.

'If this is a curse, then I am the disaster.'

'What kind of disaster would be afraid of destruction?'

As her palm touched the authority from Perseus, an intuition rose within Pandora.

Her wish might not have been twisted. She indeed would become a True God who truly held authority, with power that couldn't be snatched away, and her strength wouldn't really come from the legacy of Perseus.

She caught a glimpse of another path, the one destined for her.