Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Zeus didn’t pay much attention to Epimetheus, he only had the God of West Wind look after him as a precaution. What truly concerned Zeus was the King of the Underworld’s ‘gift’.

Hades volunteered to bear the name of the destroyer of the Bronze Humanity, as long as someone defied his warning and opened the jar he gave, the gods under his command would use plague and calamity to resolve Zeus’s troubles.

As for the price, he demanded that from now on, the corpses of all who did not devoutly believe in the gods would belong to him, and the Divine King agreed to this request.

However, for some reason, his ambitious but incompetent elder brother also got involved, Poseidon declared that he too wanted to take part in the destruction of humanity.

Zeus felt that he probably thought such an act would make humans fear his power. But had he not considered that gods were not just him alone? Hades resided in the Underworld, possessed authority which was also not favored by humans, giving up a positive image could be understood, but Poseidon?

Yet thinking about it, it seemed hard to say his choice was wrong, after all, his own elder brother probably wasn’t very capable of playing the role of a majestic and just benevolent deity.

“The gift bestowed by His Majesty the King of the Underworld is well-preserved by Epimetheus and Pandora, they did nothing unnecessary, merely occasionally taking it out to look at it,” Zephyrus reported, standing before Zeus.

“…I understand, I’ll handle this matter.”

After pondering for a moment, since simple curiosity and the desire to explore could be suppressed by reason, then Zeus decided to add the sin of envy as well.

He believed that he and the three daughters of Eurynome could very well accomplish this.

Besides, that jar… the Divine King was actually quite interested in the gift from the Goddess of the Nether Moon as well.

“What about Hecate, what has she gone off to do?”

In the end, the Divine King turned his attention to that unstable factor.

He still couldn’t discern Hecate’s attitude towards him, nor had he understood how she managed to weave the Magic Net. But she possessed a powerful Divine Artifact, with a force unlike that of any deity, that much was clear to Zeus.

“That Goddess of the Magic Net, she and the Moon Goddess Selene went to the ruins of Mount Othrys. They seemed to be doing something there, and after they left, I went there to have a look,” Zephyrus said after hesitating.

“Since I couldn’t use Divine Power, I was unable to break through the barrier left by that goddess. It seemed to be connecting the mountain and the land to the Magic Net, so I couldn’t tell what they did.”

“After that, they headed off to the celestial spaces.”

“No matter, it’s normal for you not to be able to deal with what she left behind. In the present world, there are few deities who can trouble her.”

Zeus was reasonably satisfied, as long as Hecate didn’t wander around on the land at this juncture.

It would be trouble if she suddenly took an interest in the Bronze Humanity.

“You’ve done well. I will grant you the right to spread faith among the humans on your own when the next generation is born, this is an early reward for you.”

“In the meantime, you are still responsible for monitoring the human tribes in the vicinity.”

“As you command, Your Majesty.”

Zephyrus wore a happy expression, knowing what Zeus’s promise meant.

Now, the faith of humans towards the Olympian pantheon was in a situation akin to a ‘big pot meal,’ where any powerful deity who knew the secret of faith built temples of varying standards and sizes among the human tribes, based on their divine power.

But in the next era Zeus had envisioned, this would not be the case.

The gods were far from harmonious, and if Zeus forced them to coexist peacefully, the contradictions would only target him, the Divine King. It was better to let them fight amongst themselves. Moreover, some gods, though powerful, lacked in wisdom, like Poseidon. Zeus felt that if left to his own devices, he wouldn’t be able to gather any followers.

So, he let the gods ‘reap what they sowed.’

Furthermore, with the faith and deceit of the Bronze Humanity, the gods gradually realized that the devotion generated by humans who primarily worship one deity while merely respecting others was far greater than that of those who worshipped many gods simultaneously, which further intensified their desire to split apart.

Ironically, this discovery was also the ‘path to death’ for Prometheus, because the gods noticed the phenomenon due to some humans only worshipping the creator, with their faith in other gods being superficial.

However, all of this was originally unrelated to the God of West Wind. In the Divine King’s plans, only those deities of significant importance in the Divine Court had the privilege to spread their faith alone in the next age of humanity, and Zephyrus’s status was rather awkward.

Although he became the Leader of the Wind Gods with the enhancement of the Divine King’s power, taking over many responsibilities originally belonging to the God of Meteorology, and barely stepped into Intermediate Divine Power, theoretically a member of the ‘higher gods,’ this power could be revoked by the Divine King at any time.

Now, having received Zeus’s promise, he finally was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

After receiving his orders, the God of West Wind left the palace, transforming into a current of air and disappearing without a trace. Behind him, Zeus also nodded silently.

The authority of the Wind Gods was indeed handy for gathering information, as even if divine power was restrained on the land, it could not prevent a deity from transforming into the essence of their godhood. It seemed that neither Hecate nor Epimetheus must have noticed his surveillance.

In this respect, the Goddess of Rainbow Iris, who often conveyed his orders as well, was not just a notch below. So, in recent years, the Divine King had sent her to serve the Heavenly Empress rather than always staying by his side.

“Hopefully, nothing unexpected occurs… I also don’t know where that intuition of mine came from.”

Just before, around the time Prometheus was confined to the East Sea, Zeus felt somewhat restless, which is why he accelerated his plans.

He was so eager to create Pandora and send her to Epimetheus that he seemed a bit hasty.

However, soon after, as the master of Olympus, the Divine King once again had a mysterious hunch. He felt as if something was approaching Mount Olympus, and there was a tight connection between it and him.

As a result, Zeus spent a lot of time meticulously exploring, but in the end, he found nothing.

“Perhaps I should try a different approach, maybe intuition can lead me to the target better than divine power.”

With a slight change in his expression, Zeus decided that once the matter of the Bronze Humanity was concluded, he would let his instincts guide him to see what had triggered his reaction.

······

As the Nine Realms integrated and Prometheus was imprisoned, the Chaos World once again became calm.

Or rather, having continuous events like in recent years was unprecedented in the past two eras.

Years sped by, and everything appeared so tranquil, with only a few able to sense the undercurrent beneath this calm.

Until this day, when several divine visitors from Mount Olympus came to the valley where Epimetheus and Pandora resided.