As their mother, Themis naturally knew her daughter's mischievous streak.
She did not even lift her eyelids. In a calm, even tone she said softly, "The God-King's authority is limitless."
"And this is also a good thing. A brand-new, vigorous world joining the main world will make the world itself more robust."
"The laws of two worlds will, in the end, differ. Their collision and fusion will be of great benefit to the universe's subsequent evolution."
The lovely mom—strike that, the strict mother Themis—paused here, then continued, "Also, I've noted what you just said. I will relay it word for word to your Father."
"I hope, when the time comes, you can bravely repeat to His face exactly what you said just now."
"Nooo~!" Poor Atropos let out an outrageously theatrical scream. The crone's guise on her body vanished at once, and she turned back into that charming, adorable girl.
She ran to her beloved Mother, plunged into those warm arms, and pleaded with all her might, "My most most most sacred, most most most loving Mother!"
"Please, forgive me! I won't dare again! Please don't tell Father—He will give me a thorough lesson!"
Gentle Themis finally showed a faint smile.
She stroked her beloved daughter's smooth, lustrous hair. Atropos thought she had escaped this calamity.
But then she heard her Mother, in the mildest voice, speak the most heartless words: "But, my dear Atropos, I happen to think you really should be well taught—by your Father."
"Ah~!" Atropos loosed another piercing wail, setting her two sisters beside her to stifled giggles, and the three graceful Horae to hide their smiles behind their hands.
Even the goddess of Justice, whose lips were usually solemn, let the faintest hint of a smile curve the corner of her mouth.
Justice is always lonely.
Now justice has found happy company.
Justice ought not be lonely.
As for Zeus in the Underworld, his mind in sync with his beloved goddess of Order, he naturally knew Themis had made ready to comb and receive the newly joined existence.
He at once raised the vast world of Aitheron to the highest vault of the Underworld with supreme divine power and poured his power into it in great measure.
As the God-King's inexhaustible supreme divinity surged madly in, that little world began to swell at a speed beyond Hecate's furthest imagining!
She felt her own power too grow swiftly with the world's expansion, a sense of fullness rushing to fill her entire being!
"So strong! So strong! So marvelous! I'm about to burst!"
At the same time, she clearly felt the vague barrier that had always lain between herself and the main world swiftly disappear.
In its place came a tangible sense of being one, blood-tied—as though an independent brook had at last merged into the boundless ocean that had borne it.
Upon Mount Olympus, the goddess Themis guided the power of Order to absorb and parse all the laws of Aitheron and to fuse them perfectly into the world's law-web.
From then on, Aitheron would no longer be an island adrift outside the world.
Rather, it would exist within the world, mutually generating and coexisting while retaining its autonomous independence—a brand-new divine domain.
Zeus had no intention of completely devouring this little world.
To devour it would be of little use to the main world. Better to let it grow freely, serving as a test field of limitless potential.
Whatever it evolved, the main world could draw in and learn from at any time. That was the optimal choice.
By the time Zeus ceased infusing his power, the world of Aitheron had grown several times over.
Now, even without Zeus's power to hold it aloft, its laws already woven into the world, it could float quietly over the Underworld, shedding down upon that endless dark realm a gentle, faint, and tender light.
From this moment, the Underworld was no longer pure darkness and shadow. The Underworld had a brilliance of its own.
Zeus looked to Hecate, who gazed up at him with eyes full of adoration. Smiling slightly, he solemnly proclaimed: "Hecate, my child. From this day forth, you are the 'Moon of the Underworld.'"
"You shall bring an unchanging, lucid radiance to this dark realm of the Underworld; you shall guide the endless souls of the dead toward their final destination; and you shall lead those lost souls back onto the path into the Underworld."
"From now on, you must well assist your Mother, guiding and directing all souls of the universe into this realm of eternal repose. This is the sacred honor and duty I bestow upon you!"
Standing beside Zeus, the goddess of Night had splendor flicker in her deep, beautiful eyes. In this moment it seemed her entire world held only Zeus.
No matter how many times she witnessed it, whenever she saw Zeus so effortlessly resolve what lay beyond even her imagining, her heart held only the purest awe.
Even a trace—one she herself had not noticed—of girlish worship.
Especially as all that Zeus had done was for her and because of her, her heart brimmed with endless delight and unquenchable sweetness.
That supremely happy, warming tingle born from the depths of divinity—she could never have enough of it.
As for the other lead of this surprise, Hecate—even her innate grace could no longer be kept.
Her entire being could no longer restrain her overwhelming emotion. She hurled herself into Zeus's broad, warm embrace.
She hugged tight the great Father who had granted her everything—so tightly she accidentally squeezed her likewise delighted Mother aside.
She tipped up her fair face, eyes full of boundless adoration fixed upon Zeus, and cried in a soft, excited voice, "Great Father! Thank you for your supreme grace! Hecate swears here to keep forever the sacred duty you have bestowed and never to disappoint you in the least!"
Zeus chuckled gently, ruffled Hecate's hair, and said softly, "You must thank your Mother even more. Your great Mother has always dearly cherished each of her children. Obey your Mother's instruction—do you understand?"
Hecate nodded vigorously again and again, then turned in delight to hug Nyx, nuzzling affectionately against that charming, lovely cheek. "Mother! Thank you and Father for granting me existence, granting me honor, granting me all that I have! From this day forward, your and Father's will is your daughter's eternal will!"
Nyx held the fruit of herself and the God-King lightly and looked on with indulgence. As Great Mother, her love and pampering for her child lacked not a whit compared to the Mother of All.
Speaking of the Mother of All—at the very moment when Aitheron was yanked by Zeus into the Underworld and began to merge into the main world's laws—
That Mother, sprawled alone upon her throne in her temple, languid and sighing in self-reproach, suddenly felt the faintest abnormality.
She sat bolt upright and looked left and right upon her flawless divine body—until, with a frown, she tugged at the gauze at her waist.
On that white, gleaming, mirror-smooth, just-a-handful slender waist—on the lower right, just under her petite, artful navel—there appeared a dot like a pinprick, extremely shallow and white!
This sudden, tiny anomaly stood out strikingly upon the supreme divine body of the Mother of All, which allowed no imperfection whatsoever.
The Mother of All knit her fine brows slightly.
She let her gaze fall toward the Underworld. But that realm which had ever been clear to her at a glance was now shrouded in an exceedingly thick night of Nyx's making. However she urged her power, she could see nothing.
Only when Themis, far away on Olympus, finished combing Aitheron's laws and fully integrating them into the main world's Heavenly Order did that tiny anomaly vanish.
The Mother of All lightly stroked her sanctified belly, flat as a mirror-lake, and muttered in her heart: Zeus and Nyx, those two—who knows what mischief they're up to again behind my back!
And she secretly blamed her "bestie."
"Shameless," she thought. With her ancient, noble status, to be tangled up with that brat Zeus!
And to fawn over Zeus so overtly, heedless of my face!
She was throwing away the dignity of us primordial great gods!
Among primordial deities still breathing, only the two of us remain!
Far away in the Underworld, the goddess Nyx naturally did not know how Gaia was slandering her in her heart.
Of course, even if she knew Gaia's thoughts, she would not care in the slightest.
Hah!
Bullied by you Ouranian material gods for so long—at last I meet a God-King worthy of love. Of course I must at any cost seize Him and hold Him fast!
Only Zeus truly accepts Night; only Zeus sincerely and equally treats Night; only Zeus, without partiality, grants Night and her line the honors due them!
Zeus is the best!
Zeus is worth Night's giving everything to love!
Now that her goal of winning honors for her daughter was fully achieved, the goddess Nyx, after soothing her overjoyed child for a while, said softly to her, "All right, my child. Go now and grow acquainted with the authority and duty your Father has just granted you, and take the chance to learn well about this brand-new universe."
"Your Mother and your great Father still have… well… important matters to discuss in private."
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