Gazing at this god-mountain as imposing and towering as Mount Othrys of old, the fury in Kronos's heart was utterly kindled into a boundless sea of fire.
His divine eyes brimmed with blazing flames, longing to burn everything before him to ash!
If he had not lost the law of fire, then at this very moment he would surely have kindled a heaven-scorching, earth-annihilating conflagration, reducing this rebellious mountain—and all the gods upon it—to cinders together! Ever since devouring Hestia, his rage had more than once transmuted into real flames, truly burning all before his eyes.
Unless the cause of his anger was burned away completely, the God-King's wrath would never cease.
The authority of fire—explosive and fierce, yet containing infinite life and energy—is the purest power of destruction and rebirth in existence.
Having lost the authority of fire, this supremely formidable God-King also lost his sharpest, most destructive offensive means. This was, without doubt, a tremendous weakening.
Although His Majesty the God-King was furious to the utmost, having just been outmaneuvered by Zeus, the crafty one still decided to start with courtesy before force.
His awe-inspiring voice, enough to shake the heavens and the earth, rang out atop Mount Olympus like a great bell, reverberating through the whole range: "Rhea, my queen, why do you not come out to see me?"
In the next instant, the gods—long since prepared—rose into the sky under Zeus and Rhea's lead, standing at a distance across from Kronos.
The God-King's wrath soared to the heavens; even a blind man could have seen it clearly. That annihilating divine might spread to cover the sky and earth—how could Zeus and the others not have made ready to meet him in advance?
Zeus had originally told Metis to hide herself, but Metis said not a word and steadfastly followed behind him.
She had an unshakable resolve to fight at Zeus's side.
This also represented Oceanus's stance: the Ocean Current pantheon had gone all-in! No more pretense—they had torn the mask off completely!
The two camps stood facing each other. On one side the assembled gods stood tall and proud, momentum like a rainbow, brimming with youthful, surging power.
On the other side was a lone god. Though solitary, his dignity encompassed the ten thousand directions, his unattainable majesty not the least diminished after ruling the universe for countless ages.
Two mighty auras of divine power collided violently between heaven and earth, giving off a soundless roar. Heaven and earth changed color; a tangible, killing solemnity suffused the whole world.
Rhea, the gentle and loving Mother Goddess whose countenance always bore a warm smile,
Was now cold to the extreme, her face frost-laden, without the slightest smile—only bottomless resolve.
"Kronos, what more do you have to say?"
Her voice was cool and steadfast, like an ice awl stabbing straight into Kronos's heart.
The moment Rhea spoke, Kronos's fury flared even higher.
His queen was not even willing to call him "God-King."
This was, without question, a total denial of him!
Kronos, with great effort, forced down the rage that nearly burst his chest, striving to squeeze out a hint of a smile—but in the end he failed.
At best, he merely managed not to let overt malice show on that majestic face, though his cold severity was like abyssal ice, making gods quail at the sight.
"Rhea, my queen, you and I share all the universe's honors. Why have you betrayed me?" Kronos asked, knowing the answer full well.
In truth, he simply could not accept that he had been successfully deceived and wounded by his own queen.
At these words, Rhea rebuked him: "Enough! Kronos, under your brutal rule, what honor has there been for me—or for the gods? Honor has long since been trampled to powder by your greed and tyranny!"
"I have never betrayed you! It is you—you have betrayed the gods! You have harmed the gods!"
"You have violated the law of the world's evolution. Your heart is as greedy as the Heavenly Father's, and your deeds are even more cruel than his! You are simply the greatest scourge of the cosmos!"
The wily God-King pressed down his anger and still attempted deceit. He spoke with an air of sincerity: "Rhea, we are the closest of spouses and comrades. I share honor with you forever."
"Think about it—if I did not trust you absolutely, how could your plot against me have succeeded?"
In fact, Mother Rhea's disguise had not been very good; she had even moved out of the God-King's palace.
It was mainly that the God-King had long since become insufferably arrogant by then, so proud that he had lost all sense of vigilance.
The hypocritical God-King's words did not stop. "Perhaps I have done some things not quite right, but I promise: everything I have done was for our honor—for the honor of the sky gods."
He paused to collect himself; his tone grew more earnest, then continued warmly: "It is all past now. I am willing to forgive everything."
"Including—including our children. Whatever they have done, I can let bygones be bygones."
"Now it is not too late. You can still make the right choice and return beneath my wings."
Forcing out a somewhat stiff smile, he spoke as gently as he could: "Look at our children—how they have grown, what fine great gods they have become! They possess immortal power, worthy of Uranus's legacy and our noble bloodline."
"We are one family. There is no need to cause this farce of internecine slaughter and waste our strength. Let us join hands to build a better universe and create a brighter splendor together!"
"I, son of Uranus, the supreme God-King Kronos, hereby formally invite you to return to my embrace. Let us share the universe's supreme honor together!"
"You must understand—many great gods in this world would like to see us fight to the death and bleed the God-King's house. None of them will ever be closer to you than we are. Do not let their evil schemes succeed."
At this, Kronos deliberately glanced over at Metis; the meaning in his eyes could not have been clearer—a pointed reference to her father, Oceanus of the Ocean Current.
Such petty attempts to sow discord were but a casual move for the God-King.
No sooner had he finished speaking than he spread his arms wide, a touch of self-satisfied smile on his face, and said passionately: "Rhea, my beloved, my queen—my children—let us share the universe's honor!"
"Do not be deceived by conspirators with ill intent. Only if our God-King's family stands united can we truly possess the universe's supreme honor and remain forever undefeated!"
Rhea had never been a goddess of glib tongue. Hearing Kronos's smooth words, she of course did not believe his hypocrisy.
After so many years, how could she still not know what kind of creature Kronos was?
And yet, for a moment, facing Kronos's rhetoric, she did not know how to respond, and felt only a wave of helplessness.
In that instant of Rhea's silence, Zeus threw back his head and laughed, loud and long, his laughter full of scorn and mockery.
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