车生活

The great Divine King, having vented his desires, began to wander aimlessly upon the earth once again. He found himself somewhat bored, as there were no more children for him to use as his toys.

In his helplessness, Uranus could only use his divine power to strike at everything he saw at random, finding a bit of petty amusement amidst the destruction.

After his departure, Gaia remained lying dazedly at the pinnacle of Mount of the Gods. She tried her best to conserve her energy, but it was futile. Visible to the naked eye, her immortal divine body began to age.

Knowing she had to do something, Gaia made a plea inside herself, in the place where the twelve children resided.

“You see, this is your father, the Divine King of Chaos. He has hurt me and imprisoned you as well. If things continue this way, when I fall into eternal slumber, you too will remain here forever, stuck in a state between life and death.”

Gaia’s calm tone was laden with hatred. With every passing second, she could feel her power ebbing away. Her spirit was focused on the twelve deities; they were her last hope.

“I need a warrior,” Gaia said, “I need one of you to muster the courage to rebel against your father.”

“This is also part of the prophecy, the Heavenly Father will have his divine authority challenged by his own offspring, and you are destined to succeed.”

A silence ensued, and in that stillness, Rhea’s voice hesitantly rose.

“Mother, we are willing to alleviate your worries, but ‘the eldest son, yet not the eldest,’ none of us meets this criterion.”

The other Titans thought the same. Thousands of years had passed, and they still had not understood the meaning of this phrase.

“No, you do meet it.”

Unlike the Titans, just before, right when the Divine King’s transgressions had ceased, Mother Earth suddenly realized the true intent of the prophecy. The eldest son, but not the eldest by age, it was now time for him to arise.

“Whoever agrees to my request, will be the first to leave my body. You have been conceived again by the command of the Divine King, so the position of the eldest son will be reassigned.”

When Mother Earth’s voice fell, the deities were somewhat startled. Only at this moment did they deeply feel the power of fate.

Two thousand five hundred years before, at the feast, everything had been prophesied—they would be conceived again, so the eldest son would not be the eldest one.

“But we have no weapon.”

Hyperion seemed to have an idea, but also hesitated.

As the sole Sun, who had not yet had his godhood divided, he was not inferior to his elder or younger brothers. If he could become the deity to defeat Uranus, perhaps he too had a chance to inherit the position of the Divine King.

“The sickle from the prophecy? It is ready,” Gaia said once more, “The Divine King ordered all weapons under the heavens to be felt by him, so I nurtured a sickle from flint. It has never before appeared in the world, and its very purpose was to harvest plants, so it is not a weapon.”

“It is naturally formed without smithing, so it has no forger. It is a natural product.”

The deities fell silent once again. They had not expected that the ‘relative’ assisting in the rebellion mentioned in the prophecy was Gaia herself. Not one among their siblings, nor the uncles incarnated as mountains and deep seas, but their mother who lay before them giving birth.

Indeed, nothing fits the description of ‘relative’ more than husband and wife.

“But we have sworn an oath.”

Before Hyperion could speak, Theia pinpointed the crux of the issue. Among the twelve Titans, she and Hyperion were particularly close. Hence, she did not wish to see her brother tempted by the Divine King’s position and make a wrong decision.

Faced with the reality Theia had spoken, even Mother Earth was at a loss for words.

At this time, the guardian of the oath had not yet appeared, the River Styx had not yet come into existence, and the world had not yet devolved the authority to uphold oaths. At this juncture, breaking an oath was a very dreadful thing.

If the prophecy indicated that the one who held the sickle was destined to become the next Divine King, then the twelve Titans would not hesitate—they would fight for the right to wield the sickle. But since the Divine King’s position was uncertain, nobody was willing to bear the consequences of breaking their oath.

After all, becoming the Divine King, the supreme Divine Authority could compensate for the damaged Godhood. But if the wielder of the blade was merely doing someone else’s bidding, the deities were not willing to take that risk.

Moreover, what was most crucial, and what Mother Earth had not yet mentioned, was that ‘shaking the kingly power’ did not necessarily equal ‘overturning the kingly power’.

Had it not been for the Foreseer mentioning the term ‘the first Divine King’ more than once, the gods might not even dare to believe that their great and powerful father could also face the possibility of failure.

Thousands of years of fear had already penetrated deep into their marrow.

“Let me do it.” In the midst of the prolonged silence, as Mother Earth was gradually losing hope, Cronus spoke up.

Unlike before, his voice was now steady and magnetic, without any of the cringing that had been present in front of the Divine King.

Until today, he had always been the most timid and inconspicuous of the twelve Titans.

Because of his unique authority, he was never treated as a toy by his father. Being the youngest child, Uranus wasn’t very wary of him either. Despite possessing the most powerful Divine Power among the Titans, he had always gone unnoticed by his siblings.

But at this moment, as he raised his voice, the gods finally recalled his premeditated oath.

As the first one to swear, he declared he was not a helper, but he did not say he was not the one to wield the blade.

Just as if he had planned it all along, Cronus intended to wield the blade for himself, never to become the blade in someone else’s hands.

“Yes, my youngest brother.” Hyperion sneered coldly as if seeing him for the first time, “I never thought you could be so far-sighted.”

“Indeed, Cronus. Perhaps, in terms of wisdom, you are not far behind the Foreseer.”

Oceanus also spoke up. He still remembered the disgrace he had felt when the first part of the Prophecy was spoken.

But Cronus was different. Facing the oppression of his father, he even dared to play these little linguistic games. If Uranus had not been inattentive, he would probably have spent his two thousand five hundredth birthday in Tartarus.

“Enough!” Mother Earth cut in coldly, her voice mixed with disappointment and a hint of surprise.

“Since you are all unwilling to wield the blade for me, do not mock your brave brother.”

“Cronus, my youngest child.” After scolding her other two sons, Gaia’s voice finally took on a hint of vitality, “So, are you willing to pick up the sickle, for me, for your brothers and sisters, and for yourself to end this disaster?”

“Yes, I am willing,” Cronus said.

“I am willing to wield the blade, but I need more specific guidance. The Prophecy definitely has more crucial parts; a mere blade cannot allow me to contend with the Father God.”

“… You are right, I will. I will find the Foreseer and ask him for the true essence of the Prophecy.”

“But he has said before that he is just an observer of fate,” Hyperion suddenly interjected.

“That’s just because he has other demands. I see that more clearly now.”

Seemingly regaining some wisdom through repeated devastation, Mother Earth calmly recalled every meeting with Laine, now that she faced her only chance for rebellion.

No one who could peer into fate could resist using that power for their own benefit. The god of Prophecy definitely knew more, but he had not revealed it all, just as he had demanded Chronology from the Divine King, he surely had his own purposes.

“He is in the Underworld right now, between me and Tartarus; he is waiting for me. He will make his demands, and I am prepared for that, but you must also be prepared.”

Mother Earth spoke calmly, then lay silently on the ground.

The time was not yet right; she needed to wait for the proper moment. When Uranus found a new toy, that would be the time for her to head to the Underworld.

For now, she chose to endure the pain.