Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

“I would like to hear the details.”

Facing Nyx, who had lost the initial air of authority and instead looked somewhat annoyed, Laine said with great interest.

Those deities whose godhood he had preemptively taken away at most experienced a decline in strength, but all those gods had been born through union. He honestly didn’t know what kind of additional trouble the loss of godhood would bring to Nyx, who bore children through ‘celestial conception’.

Taking a deep breath, and looking at Laine through the veil naturally formed by her black dress, Nyx began to narrate slowly:

“You should know the difference between our true forms and our personified avatars, as Primordial Gods born with the world.”

Laine nodded slightly. Over the years, his understanding of the Primordial Gods had deepened. He was no longer limited to mere speculations based on myths from later generations.

“I know a bit. Your true forms are part of the world; if the world were seen as a person, they would be the different facets of that person.”

“But after personification, you separated yourselves from the world. Of course, from then on, you no longer possessed a complete divine status.”

As Laine had long known, the offspring engendered by the true forms of the Primordial Gods had no essential connection to their personified divine bodies.

Mother Earth bore children with Uranus and with Pontus, following the same logic— for her, these three gods were at most her titular offspring, ‘birthed by the earth,’ but not birthed by her, Gaia, herself.

So, Nyx and Erebus were actually purely siblings, nothing like the so-called spouses of later legends.

“Exactly. Our true forms are an aspect of the world, so when the world’s Laws are shaken, it’s possible to ‘celestial conceive’ and give birth to new gods.”

Talking thus, Nyx glared at Laine again.

“So, it’s your business to absorb Chaos’s power, but could you not just absorb half?!”

Laine had been a bit puzzled before, but with that remark, he instantly understood the cause and effect.

Unlike the almost non-existent domain of Death, Sleep does have a material aspect. Or, rather, most domains have both aspects, Spirituality and materiality, in opposition yet united. The intertwining of these aspects births most concepts in the world.

So just like with the domain of Life, where the Spirit Realm could only accommodate half, the same went for Sleep. In theory, the remaining power could still engender a weakened version of the God of Sleep, except that this time he wouldn’t be as powerful as recorded in the myths, nor would he have the power to put the Divine King to sleep.

But perhaps because of the different mode of conception, the God of Death, Thanatos, certainly missed out on the chance of being born, while the God of Sleep, Hypnos, also faced a little accident.

“So you mean to say that the embryo of the God of Sleep was conceived with the complete domain of Sleep, and it should originally also come with three thousand subordinate quasi-gods of Dreamscape. But now, because the Source Power was taken by me in advance, his birth has been ‘stuck’?”

Laine tried to maintain his usual expression. Although he knew that Nyx and her true self were not one and the same, the thought that she had a Divine Child stuck halfway in conception still made him want to laugh.

“You had better not let that laugh out, or I will make sure you can never laugh again!”

A faint voice came from behind the ever-changing black veil, enveloping Laine in an inexplicable chill.

But, having existed until now, Laine was no longer the same person as before his reincarnation; his expression remained unchanged, unfazed, and after a brief contemplation, he responded with seemingly serious gravitas:

“Regarding this matter, Princess Nyx, I extend my deepest sympathy for what you’ve endured.”

“But looking at the current situation, I have three methods that could resolve your trouble.”

Nyx continued to gaze at Laine with the eyes of death, as if pondering where to strike her knife.

Seeing this, Laine directly spoke of his method.

“The first method is the simplest, but it also requires the greatest expense.”

Laine tilted his head and glanced below at the Underworld, where Tartarus lay.

The Cyclops and Hekatonkheires were imprisoned there, still restricted by the decree left by Uranus. Unless the Divine King who reigns pardoned them, they would not be able to step out of the Abyss.

“Just like Mother Earth, you could exhaust your Origin to fill in this gap. The cost, however, is that I cannot guarantee what kind of offspring will be born. But there’s a high chance they’ll be monsters with godhood, with the Cyclops already being one of the more presentable ones.”

“Continue.” The Lady of the Night was clearly not satisfied with this answer.

Not to mention a monster, she didn’t even want a True God.

Chaos brought its own provisions, expecting her to ‘be surrogate’ was troublesome enough, hoping she’d exhaust her own power was utterly fanciful.

“The second method is somewhat painful.”

Laine didn’t expect Nyx to agree. In fact, the option he truly favored was only the last one.

“Do you remember the former Heavenly Father? If Uranus could send the twelve Titans back to Mother Earth’s womb, then using a similar method, surely the gestating embryo could also be extracted.”

“Since True Gods are immortal, let it be an eternally immature embryo outside the body.”

Laine’s suggestion was cold, but neither he nor Nyx minded that. For her, the burden that the world had forced upon her essence was something she didn’t even want to glance at. As for Laine, an existence that had not even birthed Wisdom was equally inconsequential to him.

“What about the third method?”

She was somewhat moved, but remembering Gaia’s anguished wails, Nyx still wished to hear the final option.

Moreover, such an act that clearly defied the laws of the current world would not only bring pain but would inevitably invite the current world’s retribution.

“The final option is to leave it to me,” Laine said calmly. “I will restore Sleep and power to it, but it will be corroded by the Spirit Realm, reborn through a new gestation, and born in an alternative way.”

“The Spirit Realm cannot erode mere matter, but divinities—they can hardly be measured by Spirituality or matter. I tend to believe that divinity itself possesses both aspects.”

The eyes behind the veil narrowed slightly, as Nyx seemed to have realized something.

“This is your true desired solution, isn’t it? Never at a loss, always finding a way to benefit—typical of you, Prince Laine.”

However, Laine’s solution was satisfactory to her, so she just scoffed, already deciding in her mind to accept it.

Laine wasn’t upset in the slightest; after all, as Nyx had said, he had never lost out because of it.

“So your decision is?”

“It is yours,” Nyx replied without hesitation. “The collection of Origin Power that Chaos forced upon me, I never want to see it again.”