"So it’s said, humans are always contradictory."


    "When something doesn’t belong to you, you detest it intensely, and then the next step... is wanting to make it something you can control."


    Many things were like this, and Laine was no exception, hating something often only because it wasn’t under his control. Like now, ’unchanging’ and ’changing’, the criteria that determined the order of all things... It was almost self-evident what these three Divine Artifacts together aimed to counter.


    After repeatedly confirming that nothing untoward remained in the Divine Artifact following its absorption of the Fantasy World, Laine then sent it back to the Spirit Realm.


    Once Hemenu’s affair was concluded, another ’feast’ awaited it, so it was best to assimte the gains of this trip quickly. After all, unlike the other two Divine Artifacts, it was perfected step by step, enduring the entire second epoch.


    Rapid growth necessarily required more time to adapt, to avoid leaving behind any problematic aftermath. Especially as part of the three Divine Artifacts, if it had any issues, it would likely affect the other two as well.


    "Finally, wee to the source of all this."


    Suspended in the void, Laine atst turned his attention back to the matter at hand.


    He had originally ventured here on a spiritual journey to inspect memories concerning Zeus, but he hadn’t anticipated the journey would take such an unexpected turn. Although the oue was equally favorable, he couldn’t simply forget his original purpose.


    Athena was no longer here since, after all, whether it was Laine or her, they hadn’t truly entered this ce in their physical forms.


    As the Master of Spirituality, Laine could maintain this ’spiritual journey’ state, his consciousness separate from his Divine Body, but Athena couldn’t do the same. Thus, when the moment of the world’s destruction came, she had already returned to her body on a remote ind overseas. And those memories, once shielded by the power of the world, were naturally acquired by both of them.


    With no high powers to cloak and distort them, everything became clear. In nearly an instant, Laine had reviewed that segment of the past. Stay connected with empire


    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Asgard, Odin, the World Tree, Sacrifice, ritual... until Metis was offered as a Sacrifice to Chaos, in exchange for Zeus’sdder to kingship.


    Upon seeing this content, many of Laine’s doubts were immediately resolved. The most pressing was the recent changes in thews of the Abyss and Hell.


    One day hundreds of years ago, a new rule was written into the foundation of the world, rting to ’Sacrifice’. Although the World Master could actively choose to ept or decline, to respond or ignore, this change had indeed urred. (See 3-83)


    Previously, Laine had spected whether this was because the two were of the same origin, that both worlds had naturally evolved the ability to ept sacrifices, allowing beings from one world to offer existences from the other as Sacrifices... but upon closer thought, it didn’t quite add up.


    Now, however, it seemed that all this originated from the Sacrifice ritual personally involving Chaos, influencing the shifts in the underlying rules of many worlds. When the world itself performed the Sacrifice for the first time, that act became an ordainedw.


    It’s likely that independent realms like the Land of Eternal Night also developed simr capabilities, only Laine had been unaware of it earlier.


    As for why the Underworldcked it... it could only be said that its status as a standalone realm still had some shorings, otherwise even with just half the authority, Hades wouldn’t have missed touching upon that grand realm.


    After all, the Divine King is never the present world’s master, yet the King of the Underworld is indeed the embodiment of the Underworld itself. So the absence of simr changes in theherworld seemed understandable.


    With the first mystery unraveled, Laine’s second question was about the ’fated death’ on Athena’s person.


    It seemed normal, Zeus had swallowed Metis, so Pas’s birth was thus rendered impossible, and his fated ’death’ was only natural... but upon closer inspection, it was full of loopholes.


    Gods are immortal, hence any possibility would only be postponed, neverpletely cut off.


    So what if swallowed by Zeus, or even imprisoned in Tartarus? As long as Metis still lived, there was a chance of release, and thus a chance for Pas to be born. Yet his fate was already ’dead’, recognized by the world as an unalterable oue.


    This implied that even Chaos denied his existence, to the point that attempting to ’rebirth’ him through any means would only bring about the world’s own Destruction.


    Laine had not understood why a being once favored by the world would instead invite its malice... but now it was clear to him. Metis became the Sacrifice, and the moment the world epted it, Pas was deprived of any chance of birth.


    The world wouldn’t deny its own actions. If Athena’s destined brother was still born, it would be tantamount to negating the present world itself. Unless Chaos itself broke its own rules and ’released’ Metis — but this was undoubtedly impossible, and without surprise, Pas had no more opportunities to be born.


    "This indeed poses a problem... I had previously wanted to bring him back to ’life’ in another way, to then challenge the predetermined fate of the present world."


    Furrowing his brow, Laine found it a bit troublesome.


    Now this ’arrogant divine king’ prophesied to emerge had been definitively negated by the world, and if he wished to be born, he had to do so within the Laws of Chaos World, otherwise he couldn’t inherit this segment of dead fate, creating a catch-22 situation.