Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

If Laine had the power to directly contend with the world, then what use would he have for this... Shaking his head, Laine decided to set the matter aside for now.

"We can talk about this later; there’s still a long time until the end of the era. Nobody knows for sure how many changes might happen in the meantime, just like with the remnants of the Nine Realms—an entirely unexpected event."

Having cast aside this conundrum, once two major issues had been resolved, Laine also found clarity in various other related matters.

The transfer of godhood, Zeus’s surge of power—everything was given a reasonable explanation. And about the sacrificial ritual, Laine gained an even deeper understanding.

"Sacrificing the present self to the future self, the divine self offering a sacrifice on behalf of the world..." This was his initial judgment of Odin’s ritual, which was later confirmed by the Titan of Wisdom, Mimir.

But that was Odin’s sacrifice, whereas Zeus’s had a couple of problems—firstly, Chaos World was not initially accepting of this ritual.

Despite the intertwining of the powers from the Nine Realms and Chaos, and different laws being effective simultaneously, causing It to reluctantly accept Zeus’s offering, the influence of Its power meant that the ritual only granted half the intended reward.

Odin’s Rune Scriptures were given by the world, and he could never have deciphered them on his own. Even after obtaining supreme wisdom, he couldn’t bear the secrets of the runes himself and was forced to inscribe them upon The Origin Text. However, Zeus’s ritual was different.

The ritual was something he could have deciphered on his own as part of his destiny; the world merely refined it further, endowing the Divine King with powers that were more unique and closer to the essence of the world itself. So, from a perspective of gains, Zeus essentially had an advance on the future and obtained some additional enhancements.

And the second problem...

"Although interpreting Metis as ’the wisdom of Zeus’ seems plausible, and in the collision of the two worlds, it may not strictly follow Chaos’s rule of ’a god cannot belong to another’... but after all, Chaos is the home field, Its power far surpassing that of the shattered realms. Since only half the reward was issued, did that rule really not take effect at all?"

While doubting, Laine had no evidence, as from the current condition of Zeus, it appeared he hadn’t had to give up anything extra.

Therefore, Laine tentatively put the matter aside and focused on the ritual.

This was a ceremony centered on the position of the Divine King, one that he could not directly replicate. Moreover, as a creation perfected by the world, it actually contained many deeper mysteries, which Laine found difficult to discern for the moment.

He needed some time to unravel these mysteries and see what he could glean from them, as well as to determine how this altered ritual differed from the original one.

Indeed, after devouring the Fantasy World, the original ritual also came into Laine’s possession. The differences between them were of utmost interest to him.

"Just as well, the Negative Energy interface has some time before it stabilizes, might as well keep myself busy."

"This journey, it seems, has come to an end."

Everything had been dealt with, and the matters were nearly concluded. With a thought, Laine’s form began to blur.

He was still in a state of ’divine wandering,’ his true body remaining in the fifth layer of the Spirit Realm, and now he was about to return. But before leaving, he took one last glance at the place where the Fantasy World had vanished.

In the end, at the node where the Fantasy World was absorbed by the Annals of Time, the consciousness that knew itself to be a false Divine King also understood the irreversibility of all things. Yet, he persisted to the very end, to the moment the world fell apart, because he had things he needed to do. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In that instant, he was infinitely weak, for he had nearly lost all existence; yet infinitely powerful, for he had nearly touched the very essence of the cosmic creation.

Zeus did not have the same essence, so he could not use this power directly, but by indirect influence, he still witnessed the presence of Laine and, in the end, issued a warning.

It was a message for his other self, along the mysterious connection between the two Zeuses. Under the final influence of the cosmic power, his warning did indeed get sent, but not entirely, as the indirect nature meant the content directly targeting Laine himself was ’blocked.’

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"’Beware, the Lord of the Spirit Realm, It is an Outsider,’ huh...?"

"Hmm, ’taken out of context,’ excerpted from ’don’t take things out of context.’"

With a chuckle, Laine’s form completely disappeared. As for how the Zeus of the outer world would interpret this warning... that was something he would never know.