According to the original rules of the Holy War, the first place winner would gain 10 million years of time.
The second place would receive 5 million years.
The third place would get 1 million years.
Now, with the authority of the God-King passing from the Lord of the Underworld to the Sea Emperor, what will happen next?
No one knows for sure.
After all, everyone understands that a new God-King means new rules.
To put it bluntly, many gods were quite satisfied with the Underworld's rule. Under Hades' reign, they could do whatever they wanted with little to no interference. As long as the balance and stability of the world weren't disrupted, he didn't care. It was completely different from the more stringent management styles of other God-Kings, especially Kronos' highly controlled rule.
Hades' approach was pure indulgence.
Of course, the gods knew this was because, in Hades' eyes, such matters were of little importance. To him, they simply didn't matter.
As long as he fulfilled the minimum responsibilities of a God-King, that was enough. As for everything else?
He couldn't care less.
Because of this, the gods were delighted with Hades' reign. A God-King who didn't care about anything as long as the bottom line wasn't crossed—who wouldn't like that? Everyone did!
But now, what kind of rule would the Sea Emperor impose?
That was a mystery to all.
Hades, however, didn't care in the least what the gods thought. How was their opinion relevant to him?
For the Underworld, there was no time to worry about such trivialities. The Underworld had entered the game with the Earth Goddess, and as they fully joined this struggle, preparations were underway on all fronts.
Things were chaotic, to say the least. Not quite a total mess, but close. There was no time to worry about the duties required of a God-King in the Mythological World.
In fact...
For the Underworld, this was a relief. Finally, they could focus their full attention on their own affairs.
This was no joke. Maintaining the Mythological World took a massive amount of energy from the Underworld.
Contrary to what some might think, the role of God-King was no simple task. If it were that easy, anyone with half a brain could become a God-King. But that was far from reality.
Clearly, that was impossible. Every God-King had significant responsibilities, and Hades was no exception.
For millions of years, the Underworld had worked to maintain the operations of the Mythological World, keeping its balance in check. This required dispatching considerable resources and power.
But now?
Finally, those resources could be pulled back. Although, it's not quite fair to say they would stop contributing entirely. After all, you can't just consume resources from the surface world without offering anything in return. That would be unrealistic.
The Underworld had benefited greatly—so much so that it could be said they had grown fat from it. Now that they were full, it was time to focus on their own plans.
If their strategy succeeded, the benefits would be enormous, and the changes it would bring to the Underworld might be nothing short of revolutionary.
But those are matters for the future.
For now, the Underworld was busy preparing.
And meanwhile...
In the Astral Realm!
The sheer scale of the Astral Realm is beyond comprehension. No god, not even the Earth Goddess, could fully grasp its vastness.
The Astral Realm is incredibly unique in the Mythological World.
Each star in the Astral Realm holds within it the potential for an entire world, a universe, or even a multiverse.
Given this, the size of the Astral Realm is absurdly immense. Its scale is beyond imagining.
But there's more.
One of the most unique features of the Astral Realm is that it continuously expands over time. This expansion isn't fast, but it's constant.
This is an incredibly terrifying phenomenon.
Aether originally estimated that it would take him a few million years to find traces of the Fire of the Sun. But he never expected that after spending countless years—over tens of millions of years—he would only manage to find the faintest trace of it.
This was something Aether had not anticipated, and neither had the other gods of the Underworld. The length of time was simply too overwhelming.
Fortunately, time is one thing gods are not short of. Otherwise, wasting so much time would have been hard to justify.
Even with Aether being the God of Space, the God of Stars, and a God-King, if it had been any ordinary god—no, even an ordinary God-King—it might have taken an unimaginable amount of time to find even the faintest trace of the Fire of the Sun.
For others, the task would have been nearly impossible, requiring a miracle just to have a chance.
Aether, however, remained silent as a smile crept onto his face. After millions of years, he had finally found the long-lost Fire of the Sun, hidden away by Poseidon.
It could be said that only Aether could have found it. Anyone else, even an Ancient God from another mythological world, would have been doomed from the start.
There was absolutely no chance, no possibility of success.
This was the inevitable outcome, beyond any doubt.
Though Aether had found the trace, he did not act impulsively. Instead, he carefully prepared. Some things must not be forgotten.
Aether had to be fully prepared. He only had one chance. If he failed, it would be a complete and irreversible failure!
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