Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Perched at the very north of the continent, standing atop Mount Nysa allowed one to overlook the entire north.

Since the end of the turmoil caused by Typhon, the Three Fates, collectively known as the Moirai by all gods, had relocated here.

The young maiden Clotho span the Thread of Fate from her spindle, each strand representing the entirety of a life.

The middle-aged woman Lachesis, with a staff marked with scales, measured the length of lives, determining the brevity or longevity of said threads.

The old crone Atropos, with her weathered skin and hoary hair, sheared the threads Clotho spun with her scissors of destiny, leading the existence of lives to their ultimate demise.

Such were the responsibilities of the Three Fates, as well as the powers and privileges bestowed upon them by the world.

With these powers, they could deftly weave the threads of fate, returning all things to their natural order.

After all, although the gods are exalted, they are fated to be influenced once they come into contact with mortal things.

Even if the Fates could not directly meddle with the destinies of deities, they never shied away from resorting to such roundabout means.

However, after so many years of existence, the mortal realm had gone through countless cycles of spring and autumn, and yet, the cracks in fate seemed only to be widening.

An intangible pressure weighed down on Mount Nysa, making this place increasingly 'heavy,' but the Fates found themselves without means to resolve it.

After all, the Moirai had always faced three severe problems.

Without solutions, fate could not return to its rightful track.

The first issue was that the inherent order of the present world had already been severely disrupted before the birth of the Fates.

This was an old debt, stretching back to the dawn of creation, including the fall of the Primordial Deities and the premature succession of the Divine King, an unsolvable problem for them.

Fortunately, these old wounds were not fatal, at least not for the time being.

The second problem stemmed from the cyclical reincarnation of the Spirit Realm.

The Three Fates tried to arrange the destinies of All Spirits, but the innate gifts of wisdom at the birth of beings varied greatly and lay beyond the goddesses' control.

Thus, what should have been an easy task became a thousand times harder, leaving the Moirai with no leisure at all.

As for the third problem... it was even more serious, for it was a divine problem, with the potential to occur at any moment.

The destinies of the deities were not within the scope of the Three Fates' weaving; of course, this did not interfere with their observation.

As long as they kept to themselves what they witnessed, this observing came at almost no cost.

Thus, Clotho could see the ebb and flow of the gods' fates, and Lachesis could see their moments of glory and failure.

As for Atropos, she could try to intervene during the most difficult times.

The 'Fruit of One Day,' in some sense, resulted from such manipulations.

Yet, these methods were merely auxiliary; in the face of more direct impacts, they were powerless.

Pollution, for instance, occurring from time to time, was such an instance.

"Click—"

"One thousand seven hundred and eighty-two Threads of Fate."

"One day!"

With an expressionless face, she closed her scissors, and with a burst of 'crackling' sounds, inaudible to ordinary beings, threads of fate snapped in front of Atropos.

This was her duty, and what she was supposed to do.

Yet as Atropos closed her scissors, the strange, pungent odor emanating from her became slightly more pronounced.

The yellow-stained teeth, the ragged clothes, the withered hair—if a mortal from a later age living on the subcontinent were to see her, they might mistake her for a herald of 'the decay,' the five signs of heavenly decay.

And while the world of Chaos had no exact concept of 'the decay,' when the body of a deity displayed such signs, it still signified some kind of disaster.

However, as if accustomed to it, Atropos casually wiped the light red sweat from her brow and turned a blind eye to all these signs.

As the one who sheared the Threads of Fate, if she did not want fate itself to bear an even heavier burden, then she had no choice but to take it upon herself.

"After all, I am undying, Lachesis."

"You are as well; the fate of this world is with us."

Speaking faintly, Atropos tried to stand, but in the next moment, she staggered.

Luckily, she was quickly steadied as someone supported her gaunt arm, and a pleasant fragrance wafted from her side, coming from Lachesis, who was tenderly holding her older sister's arm.

Health and decay, soft skin contrasting against wrinkles and lines.

The two seemed to embody a stark contrast, as if from two different worlds, but neither cared for this difference, as if they didn't perceive the discrepancies between them at all.

"Sister, in recent years, such pollution has been on the rise."

"If this continues, it will eventually lead to great chaos."

With her brow furrowed in worry, others might be unaware, but Lachesis knew exactly what Atropos was severing just now.

Those were indeed the Threads of Fate, but they were ones that were not meant to be cut at this time.

Being the one who measured the length of fates, Lachesis could affirm that each had more than a year's 'length' left.

And most crucially, even though their 'threads' had been cut, they were in fact not yet dead.

They were still alive, just already abandoned by the fate of the present world.

"I know, but I must do this."

"And I am the Fate God, cough cough, He cannot harm me, just as He cannot harm you."

With a light cough, Atropos's pale red sweat never ceased to flow, yet it seemed to return to her body with each movement.

But no matter how much it flowed, it could never contaminate fate.

He did not have the power, eroding some deity's Thread of Fate was already the ultimate extent.

And for the deity who is destiny itself, His power was still far from sufficient.

"This is a protracted war, but we have already secured an invincible position. And do you remember what I told you, Lachesis, the Divine King will resolve it."

"We don't need to do anything; he will do it for us. Look, he already wants to unify the Mortal Realm, and this is just the beginning."

"Every era's Divine King has their own way to fight against fate… some chose violence, others chose delay. As for him, he chose to draw closer to Him."

"At least so far, he has been quite successful, hasn't he?"

"..."

In silence, Lachesis had to admit that although the upcoming great battle might further harm fate, if Zeus got his wish after the war ended, his next move would indeed begin to cleanse the Mortal Realm.

Those natural beings and Evil Gods disrupting the order of fate, those Evil Creatures affected by the Mother Tree's power, those lives from beyond this world… without the need for the Fates to intervene, he would do it on his own.

And on that day, the pressure of fate would naturally decrease, and the three of them could also be relieved from much of their burdens.

"Alright," with a slight lift of her hand, Atropos seemed not inclined to continue discussing this matter: "What did you come here to do today?"

"Beings corrupted by that tree could be born at any moment, I can only resolve it, but I need you to discover them."

"You wouldn't have come just to see me, so tell me, what has happened?" Continue reading on My Virtual Library Empire

"It's Clotho, she said that a deity's fate has shown a different alteration, only this time…"

Hesitating for a moment, Lachesis slowly said: "This time, it's actually changing for the better."

"While observing the Thread of Fate, she discovered that the fate of an ancient God of Stars has taken a turn anew. It was already at a turning point like many other Gods of Stars, but now it is actually returning."

"It's like diverting a river back to its proper course, returning to its original direction, yet everything seems problem-free."

"The initial erroneous fate is being corrected, and the parts influenced by it are likewise."

"I don't know if it's an illusion, but sister, I want to go see for myself. If there is a problem, we can prevent it early on. But if this truly is a good thing, then we should know how it happened."

"After all… it's not unusual for fate to recover, but the question is, if someone has led this mend, how do they know what fate is the 'proper course'?"

Yes, this was the reason why Lachesis had come.

You mend a machine on the premise of knowing what it looks like when intact.

Then comes the question, aside from the Fates, who has seen such clear fate, and why would they abruptly adorn the fate of a God of Stars?

"Is that so... you're right, but where is that place?"

With a slight nod, Atropos too understood the subtlety of the matter.

If such a change were to occur in a mortal's fate, they might not be able to find out in time, but a god is different.

Even if it's just a God of Stars, that too is a deity.

"In Athens, in the domain of 'Hermes.'"

Speaking softly, Lachesis said: "Actually, I've been wanting to go there for a while now."

"After all, others do not know, nor can we tell them, but we are very clear ourselves."

"Hermes... how did he become a 'person'?"

······

Hermes was unaware, because he had overlooked the Fates when introducing the gods.

This led to a misjudgment by an entity that had never heard of a deity exercising 'fate,' resulting in some unexpected outcomes.

After all, in the world of Hemenu, there had never been mention of a Fate God; they only thought of it as the Power intrinsic to the world itself, not manipulated by any god.

In any case, this minor oversight was about to bring an unwelcome visitor.

And the strings of fate were so secretive that, unless the Fates wished it, very few beings could discover their tracks.

For a time, Athens seemed to truly become the center of the world, drawing the attention of beings from heaven and earth.

Whether they planned to engage in the strife within Olympus or not, gods turned their gaze here, one after another.

They were all waiting for an outcome, to see if there was any possibility for this strife to cease.

After all, to an outsider, the determination of both parties was unknown.

This was just the death of a mortal; it might not evolve into an incessant conflict among the Undying Gods.

But that's what they thought. At the same time, within the City of Eryxis, the temple at the city's center.

The Goddess of Agriculture, who had personally been involved in all of this, did not share this view, as the war had begun on her own territory.