Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

"Yes, by all accounts, the Divine King should not be meddling with powers that do not belong to the present world, given that his throne originates from it. But those are ordinary circumstances—under normal conditions, one can afford to be choosy, but when near death, one needs to grasp every lifeline,"

A thin, cold smile appeared on Atropos’s face, while her sisters Lachesis and Clotho became increasingly confused. Yet without waiting for her siblings to ask, Atropos simply raised her hand, observing her wrinkled skin.

The Fates are not deities of time; they were not meant to be born with appearances of varying ages. The reason behind Atropos’s aging was something all three sisters were well aware of.

"This is the backlash of destiny, Clotho. At the very moment of our birth, the backlash was embedded within us,"

"I was born first, so I bore the brunt of it—the most terrifying part; Lachesis was born second, so she too shared some, albeit inconsequentially; and you were the last, thus you were spared,"

"I am grateful to you, elder sister, but that’s only because we were not born before. As long as we strive to untangle the threads of destiny—"

"That will lead to nothing, I have already seen it!"

Clotho’s words were cut off by Atropos’s sharp voice, who hadn’t realized that her hand was trembling subconsciously. She looked at her sister and said word by word,

"The fate of this world was not meant to be this way—it’s been disturbed, agitated, and the source lies with one or several amongst those Primordial Gods that we still cannot see clearly." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Something has always been influencing it... If we cannot resolve the source that has caused all this, the fractures weighing on destiny will only accumulate and thicken. Until one day, with the collapse of a critical node, everything will be buried, and we will be at the forefront,"

"...So, the ’critical node’ you saw, is that the Divine King?"

"Yes."

Taking a deep breath, Atropos tried to calm herself down. As the first of the Fates to be born, she had borne the burden of the backlash from destiny for the past three epochs and had also glimpsed a corner of the future.

For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction; the deity disturbing destiny ultimately left traces within it. While Atropos could not yet see clearly who he was, she had already noted his next target.

The Divine King was shrouded in his shadow, in the river of fate... Zeus now stood on the precipice, even if he himself had not yet realized it. And to someone dying, even poison must be swallowed without hesitation.

No, perhaps Zeus had realized it to some extent—not much, but certainly not nothing. Atropos even suspected that for this deceit, Zeus had possibly sensed something but had chosen not to speak of it. After all, gaining a measure of Typhon’s power much faster than accumulating it slowly was a far more appealing option.

As for potential consequences... just as the Divine King had no concern for staking ’death,’ since the world does not let deities truly die; Zeus similarly had no concerns about this power being problematic, for unlike the force that put him to sleep and drove him out, this was a power transferred to him witnessed by destiny.

Unless destiny itself suddenly collapses, he would not suffer any adverse effects. This power will only obey his commands, reinforcing his status.

So would the world be destroyed, and destiny collapse? Zeus thought it highly unlikely, and even if it did, much like the world of the foreign Divine King Odin... then whether he bears these consequences or not wouldn’t matter. When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken, and come that day, without paying these prices, he would only choose another way to die.

"He is the Divine King, a great one belonging to the present world. He is the one being who cannot possibly oppose the world, unless his kingship is threatened. To struggle against the present world essentially means undermining his own power,"

"That’s why I have to help him, not because Zeus is special to me. It’s not for him; it’s for our own selves,"

"...But the power of Typhon, it will likely disturb destiny, won’t it?"

Lachesis seemed convinced, or perhaps because the cost was ultimately not hers to bear, she asked one last question, to which Atropos’s answer left her with nothing more to say.

"Anyway we look at it, an enemy in plain sight and constrained by the present world is far less threatening than a Primordial Deity whose identity we don’t know. To guard against someone, we at least need to know who they are."

"It’s a pity... For some reason, we can’t see what the original destiny of the Chaos World was meant to be. Otherwise, if we could just compare, the person behind all this would stand out."

"Could it have been taken or erased by something? Yet that shouldn’t have happened..."

The voice gradually became indiscernible, and Atropos ultimately did not dwell on the matter.

Nobody knows what happened before she was born; such changes in the realm of destiny were beyond anyone’s ability to explain. Atropos simply shook her head, then turned to her two sisters.

"Well, now you understand the seriousness of the situation. I know you don’t feel much urgency yet, but don’t be hasty."

"First go to Mount Nysa and wait for Typhon to come knocking. As for that mysterious person disrupting fate..."

"Next time," she said, "when he once again affects destiny, you can experience for yourselves the sensation of that twisted fate acting upon one’s consciousness. Lachesis, even you, who have borne some cost, have never felt this before."

...

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On the other side of the void, an invisible passage linked two worlds together.

In the cold and obscure space, stars gleamed faintly, but they seemed so dim in the presence of that blazing sun.

Clang—!

The black scepter clashed with another sword; buoyed by the void’s power in the surrounding world, Ra’s strength was not inferior to either of the two Outsiders. However, with the home-field advantage of the Hemenu World, and the opponents numbering two, there was no clear victor.

Thus the scepter and sword blade merely grazed each other, then quickly withdrew. But even so, Ra’s face still showed an unnatural shade of red.

Nyx had vanished from sight in the void at that moment, like an elf wandering in the night. Even Laine wasn’t sure what she was doing, but from Ra’s occasionally rigid movements, it was evident she was exerting significant pressure.

Upon his arrival, Ra had been dressed in a knee-length robe woven with four colors, adorned with splendid and precious jewelry. Though he steered the Sun in a humanoid form, his clothes were now slashed, his ornaments had fallen, and, with the rise of his power, his true essence was revealed.

The body of a man with the head of an eagle, his keen eyes surveyed in all directions. Golden hair cascaded down his back, and atop his head a golden crimson solar disc, which radiated a soft glow, continuously healing the wounds on Ra’s body.

He appeared to be in good shape, with no visible injuries, but Ra was well aware of the reason. If that foreign deity he was contending against wasn’t protecting the orb of light behind him, he would never manage to be so at ease facing two enemies at once.

This wouldn’t last forever; he vaguely noticed that those orbs of light seemed to have signs of retreating. They weren’t naturally present here, and now they were leaving.

"But I must gain something," Ra thought.

To him, ’eagle-eyed’ was not just an adjective, it was an accurate description. His eagle head subtly surveyed his surroundings, searching for a target he could strike at.

These two enemies were too terrifying; Ra found it difficult to defeat them, so he did not intend to reveal his hand to them. He needed a different target, one he would try to take with him.

As for how to do that... naturally, he would use the Divine Artifact symbolizing the God of Sun of the Hemenu World, the Vessel of Eons representing the ultimate speed in the world.