With a faint smile on his lips, Mobius said, "Alright! My dear Elisarion, you will stay by my side forever, until the god of healing no longer fears any pain."
"Yes, my noble Highness, I will stay by your side forever, serving you always," Elisarion said, smiling at Mobius.
As the first ray of golden light pierced through the clouds east of the Aegean Sea, the entire sea was covered in strange, milky-white foam.
Pontus, the child of Gaia, the Earth Mother, who was seated at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, showed a faint smile on his lips. "It's a success. I am Mother's most useful child."
This was a god born after Uranus's severed genitals fell into the deep sea, and the blood, imbued with the curse of the first God-King, had fermented in the ocean for countless years. Now, it was churning on the surface of the sea like boiling milk.
Twelve silver-winged seagulls suddenly swooped down from the cliffs of Paphos. The moment their sharp beaks touched the foam, they instantly turned to stone, plummeting into the sea in their diving posture—they were the last living creatures in the waters around Cyprus.
Below the surface, the crisp sound of mother-of-pearl shells colliding echoed. Tens of thousands of shells floated up from a 400-meter-deep inky trench. Their silvery-grey outer layers continuously peeled off as they ascended, transforming into translucent glazed material by the time they reached the surface.
Mobius felt the surrounding elemental energy of heaven and earth continuously gathering. A serious expression appeared on his face as he ran towards the converging energy.
Coincidentally, the Emerald Forest was only a few thousand meters from the Aegean Sea.
Soon, Mobius saw the shells automatically arrange themselves into a spiral staircase. In the very center, a mother-of-pearl shell, as large as a chariot, was slowly opening.
The sea breeze suddenly stilled. The waves solidified into crystal-like rose shapes, suspended three inches above the sea surface.
The iridescent inner wall of the shell illuminated the entire Aegean Sea, and pearlescent light seeped from the shell's crevices, carrying the sweet stickiness of honey and the bitter astringency of coptis.
Mobius approached the mother-of-pearl shell, which finally opened completely.
First to emerge were curled toes, nails tinged with coral pink, and ankles entwined with melting sea salt crystals.
When her knees broke the surface, the seawater for a hundred miles around suddenly became transparent, clearly revealing the sleeping gems and corals on the seabed, as well as the petrified seagulls regrowing their feathers.
Her waist was more graceful than the most supple seaweed, and her navel held not seawater, but liquid moonlight.
The entire birthing process lasted for precisely seven heartbeats. When her golden hair fully spread across the sea, the solidified wave roses suddenly all bloomed, each petal transforming into a real, dew-kissed wild rose.
Seventeen reborn dolphins leapt from the water, golden harps growing on their dorsal fins. The melody they played made Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld, forget to row.
Zeus's lightning scepter slipped from his palm, creating a charred indentation on the cloud-steps. The King of the Gods' jaw muscles twitched continuously as he tried to cover his blunder with a cough, but instead choked himself red-faced, using his large hand to cover his nether regions.
Hera, the Goddess of Marriage, tore apart the silk she was weaving. The silver threads, symbols of fidelity, broke between her fingers and fell to the mortal world like shooting stars—later, the shepherds of Troy said that the stars that fell that night bloomed into blood-red love flowers on the grassland.
As Aphrodite raised her arm to comb her long hair, all living beings on earth fell into ecstasy. The harmonious symphony played in rhythm with Aphrodite's smiles and frowns, harmoniously.
With every step she took, a pure white wild rose, like a sea swallow, bloomed beneath her feet. "Hello there! Your Highness, God of Healing."
The body of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, moved around Mobius. Her slender, jade-like fingers gently stroked Mobius's cheek, then moved down to his rolling Adam's apple, circling around his distinctly muscled pectorals.
Just as she was about to continue her playful teasing, Mobius grabbed Aphrodite's hand and said lightly, "That's enough, newly born Highness."
"Oh?" Aphrodite wasn't angry; instead, she moved even closer to Mobius's cheek, exhaling a pink breath. "Why? Don't you want to enjoy the power of pleasure, Your Highness?"
"You're not planning on being a virgin goddess, are you?" Aphrodite scoffed, "Or do you just not like me like this?"
The next second, Aphrodite transformed into a six-foot-tall man, with dark, rough skin, a face that looked as if it had been bitten by worms, and a voice like a broken bellows, saying with a grotesque laugh, "Or do you prefer this!"
Mobius watched as Aphrodite, who had just been a seductive goddess, transformed into a burly man before him. He couldn't help but swallow, his body trembling slightly. "What in the world is happening to you!"
"As the Goddess of Love and Beauty, I can transform into the most beautiful existence in the world. Seasons change, time flows, but beauty is eternal and unchanging." The rough beard fell away, and the exquisite face reappeared before Mobius.
"As long as it is the beauty of the world, it is within my domain," Aphrodite said with a beaming smile.
The moment she finished speaking, all the elemental energy of heaven and earth in the world converged towards Aphrodite. Her divine rank also escalated from the initial weak divinity to lesser divinity, and in the next second, it directly broke through to intermediate divinity.
Feeling the powerful aura emanating from Aphrodite, a hint of envy flashed across Mobius's face. How wonderful! She reached it in one go, becoming a god of intermediate divinity as soon as she appeared.
Meanwhile, he was still at the level of weak divinity, having only advanced one rank to intermediate weak divinity after obtaining the divine office of healing.
However, Mobius didn't feel any jealousy, because Aphrodite's situation was unprecedented since the world's creation.
The full assistance of the Earth Mother Gaia and the guardianship of Pontus at the bottom of the sea were unrepeatable events!
Aphrodite opened her eyes, feeling the immense power within her, and the smile on her lips deepened to the extreme. "My name is Aphrodite. You are very interesting, God of Healing. What is your name?"
"Hello, dear Princess Aphrodite, I am Mobius, Mobius, God of Healing and Purification," Mobius said, neither humble nor arrogant.
Aphrodite raised an eyebrow. Purification plus healing—these two divine offices seemed to be auxiliary powers. It appeared he was a god of the same type as her.
"That's truly wonderful, Your Highness Mobius. The power of purification and healing can bring you a unique strength! I hope you cherish this power well."