Myth: The Spiritual Dominator

The god of wind left the temple, but far away in Acropolis, Gaia and Pandora's conversation continued.

Perses, god of material destruction, son of Crius and Eurybia, and father of Hecate.

Strictly speaking, if the priesthood of [Material Destruction] existed in other worlds, it should be subordinate to [Death]. But just like Thanatos, the god of death whose birth possibility was directly strangled, was just a soul-catcher in the original mythology, because of the imbalance between Chaos' life and death, Perses' actual priesthood was closer to 'destruction' and 'collapse' rather than 'death' and 'the end'.

However, this is consistent with his identity as the former weather god and son of Crius. The essence of Perses' authority is the part of weather that tends to disaster and destruction, the collapse of the natural material structure. He shares the field of "natural disasters" with Poseidon, the earthshaker and storm lord who was born later.

In terms of family lineage, he is one of the twelve main gods of Olympus today, the uncle of Zeus' most trusted god of the wind Zephyrus, the son-in-law of Coeus, the god of the lightless celestial body, and the grandson of the ancient sea god Pontus.

In terms of power, he himself is an existence that has access to powerful divine powers simply by virtue of his innate divine duties. He is even stronger than the former sun god Helios who only controls the movement of the sun.

From the outset, Perses had everything he wanted. He was also one of the second generation Titans with the best innate conditions—until the day Hecate was born.

On that day, Perses, whose priesthood was similar to that of Poseidon and inclined toward natural disasters and destruction, spoke out at the banquet of the second generation of gods. He expressed his dissatisfaction with his wife, the goddess Asteria, and mocked Kronos for "sinning the heavens," which led to the birth of a god without a priesthood.

His anger was not without reason. After all, his marriage to Asteria was essentially an exchange, and it was a medium for the God King to win over the God of the Lightless Celestial Body to fight against the ancient sun god. But regardless of whether there was a reason or not, Perses still paid the price for such arrogant remarks.

Coeus, the god of the lightless celestial bodies, immediately gave up this son-in-law whom he disliked in the first place. Crius also began to hate this son. Needless to say, Kronos, who originally felt guilty, was very restrained in not turning against him at that time.

After destroying his own connections, Perses realized that he didn't care much, because although his power had not yet reached its peak, he was already a true god of medium power. He was like Poseidon, unwilling to be inferior to others, and as long as he had power, there was no place in the world that he couldn't go.

So Perses immediately went to the underworld under the desolate and lonely land, where the moon shines. The laws there are also in line with his duties. If he can subdue the gods of the underworld, then when he is promoted to a powerful god, according to the situation in the early and middle period of the Second Age, he can be regarded as a local lord.

But ideals are always beautiful, but reality is cruel.

Although he is not a peaceful god, he has been missing since the Second Age. Not only has Hecate never heard of him, but even when she asked Leto, she only got a vague answer. There is certainly a reason for this. (See 3-88)

Because not long after arriving in the underworld, Perses met Gaia. In other words, before Hades was born, the underworld was originally part of Gaia's power.

"So... he has been imprisoned by you for an epoch since then?"

Pandora asked quietly, looking at the starlit orb in front of her.

She never expected that such a powerful god would end up like this.

"That's not the case. At first, I just wanted him to help me go into the abyss to find the whereabouts of those children... Unfortunately, in the end, he proved with facts that the existence imprisoned by the God King can only be released by the God King - at least this was the case in the abyss of the first two eras."

"Later, he seemed very dissatisfied with my letting him enter Tartarus, so I kept him for a while longer, intending to let him reflect on his mistakes before letting him go. But after Zeus was born and Kronos' power grew day by day, I focused all my energy on the ground and forgot about him."

Gaia spoke lightly, and did not show any embarrassment when talking about "forgetting".

She didn't mean to do that. In terms of treating her children, Gaia had always been quite nice to them. So it wasn't until Perses had a falling out with his father that Mother Earth asked him to be a laborer in exploring the abyss. And when Zeus became a substitute, she put him aside.

According to the original plan, Gaia was going to let Perses go after Zeus rescued the giants. However, plans could not keep up with changes. From the day Zeus released the giants, the ten-year Titan War and the catastrophe of the change of eras, Gaia fell asleep for hundreds of years, and just after waking up, she attacked Olympus, was defeated in person, and then gave birth to Typhon... For Gaia, she almost never had a moment of leisure.

After Typhon was defeated, she finally realized that Zeus could no longer be overthrown by sheer violence. Looking back, thinking of Perses, who she had forgotten for so long, and listening to his curses and hatred in captivity, Gaia, who had somewhat turned evil, decided to go all out.

At the moment when Typhon completely fell, the Earth Mother had not appeared because she was busy with this matter. She used the power left in the Outer Gods when the Nine Realms were destroyed to shatter the existence of Perses and create a situation similar to that of the ancient sun god.

"...Then I...should...?"

Does she want to integrate this authority? But she is very clear how difficult it is to integrate such a thing.

Although she didn't know that facing the source power directly was something that only a truly complete great divine power consciousness could do, Pandora still understood that it was not something she could do safely.

She subconsciously took a half step back, but the cold touch behind her told her that this was the venue of the debate conference.

She had no place to retreat, and she couldn't run away from Gaia... Pandora looked at Epimetheus, and of course she didn't receive any response. She looked at the pottery jar she was holding, and just like every time before, it was just like an ordinary jar, without any reaction.

"Well, yes, it's just as you thought, but just take it step by step - you'll succeed."

Nodding in acknowledgement of Pandora's guess, Gaia ignored her pleading look.

She had seen this offspring of Iapetus when she had created the Silver Generation. He had no courage to do anything, just as he had no courage to save his two imprisoned brothers.

As for the magic jar...

"Relax, this is said to be a gift from fate. I chose you because of it."

"If there is any power in this world that the primordial gods fear, then true destiny is one of them. I don't know if it is really useful, but this kind of thing that would never be accomplished under normal circumstances can only be hoped for by fate."

"But this is a gift for mankind." Holding the clay pot that brought her a brief moment of glory but more pain, Pandora tried to persuade Gaia: "It will not work for your request!"

"No it will, Ryan owes me this!"

The voice suddenly became high-pitched and the face was distorted for a moment, but the next moment, just like changing his face, Gaia returned to normal.

"It will." The woman in her forties said with a soft voice and a smile, "People say this is 'hope', isn't it?"

"Perhaps it will only take effect and pull you out of the abyss of despair when its master is facing a catastrophe?"

Her whole body was cold, but Pandora knew she couldn't refuse.

She didn't know what she had done wrong and why everyone in the world was deceiving her and taking advantage of her.

The gods created her, and she woke up in the palace of the gods on Mount Olympus. She thought she was the darling of the gods, but later she found out that the reason for her birth was to be a tool and one of the excuses for destroying the Bronze Age.

Epimetheus married her, the Graces came to flatter her, and she lived happily on earth for a while, but later she learned again that the Later Enlightened One had never loved her, he only used this human woman created by God as a pawn to achieve his own goals.

Later, the fourth generation of humans who received life from her children spurned her and cursed her, so she had to put all her hopes on the pottery jar in her hand. However, "hope" is like a ball of light in the darkness, you can only see it, but you can never touch it.

Until today, "hope" not only did not bring her any help, but instead led her into another abyss.

Looking back on her past life, Pandora suddenly discovered that she seemed to have never been loved.

Perhaps when she was born, Hestia had it? After all, she was the only one who gave Pandora protection, rather than those talents that seemed useful but were actually the source of trouble.

No, it was probably just pity.

"You call this 'hope'?"

Pandora raised the clay jar in her hand and smiled brightly.

“I think it’s a curse.”

"No one will curse you, and you don't deserve the curse of the Lord of the Spirit World."

Gaia spoke lightly, not caring what Pandora was thinking.

"Now, take your first step. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the shattered fragments of divinity seem to have strict size restrictions. Except for the most core authority, its size is divided into nine types."

"5, 3, 1. Every time an odd number occurs, a qualitative change occurs. Since you are the first generation of humans created by God, just skip the first five and go directly to the sixth level. With me here, no one can affect you."

"... Then come on."

Nodding, knowing there was no second choice, Pandora stretched out her hand and touched the crystal clear sphere directly.

She was no longer afraid.

'If this is a curse, then I am a curse.'

"How can there be a disaster that would cause one to be afraid of destruction?"

When her palm touched the authority from Perses, a certain intuition arose in Pandora's heart.

Perhaps the wish she made was not distorted, and she would indeed become a true god who truly held power and could not be taken away, and her future power would not really come from the legacy of Perses.

She seemed to see another path that fate had pointed out to her.

It's just that it's still vague now, because true fate is fair. What it takes away, it will give you, and what it wants to give you, it will first take away the price.

And everything she had gone through in the past...perhaps was just a tiny insignificant remnant of this price.

······

"Ok?"

With a slight movement in his heart, Ryan, sitting in the audience, suddenly felt his spirit being touched for a moment.

It seemed like something good was happening, but it also brought some negative effects. However, when he tried to explore this sensation, he got no results.

"what happened?"

He was trying to do three things at once: on the one hand, he was giving orders and debating with the scholars on the stage, and on the other hand, he was alert to Gaia's existence. Iapetus still had time to pay attention to the guy next to him.

His origins are still a mystery, and the God of Speech will not believe him so easily.

"Nothing, maybe... I got a revelation from fate? I am a prophet after all."

Shaking his head, Ryan evaded the question casually.

"…This debate is almost over, so let's just say goodbye now."

After staring at Ryan for a while, Iapetus said calmly.

"Please go ahead, but I personally suggest that you stay a little longer."

Ryan said with a smile, pointing to the sky, and Iapetus, who looked up, was confused at first, and then seemed to have discovered something.

"Zeferos? So it's him. His ability to spy on others is still so average... but he has really good luck."

Shaking his head, Iapetus recalled the time when he had gone to Delphi under the other's nose, while Ryan smiled without saying anything.

Over the years, as he gained a deeper understanding of fate, he actually began to understand Zeferos' situation a little bit.

Fate is always fair. Whatever it gives you, it will take away; whatever it takes away, it will give you.

After all, Ryan is not the master of fate. He is the god of spirituality, not the god of fate. Even he cannot violate this iron rule.

So, from another perspective, the curse that Zephyrus suffered might actually be a special kind of luck.