Chapter 4: The Abyss Distances from the Earth, a New God is Born! 1
The present-day Chaos world has no concept of time. However, Tartarus, having traveled through time and become the God of the Abyss, possessed intelligence and abilities far superior to his previous life, and he possessed a vague sense of time.
Gaia, the Earth God, continuously expelled the Chaos Source, causing it to flow through the border between Earth and the Abyss.
Then Tartarus controlled the Abyss to devour and digest the Chaos Source.
This cycle repeated itself for approximately a thousand years.
Over these millennia, as the Chaos Source entered the Abyss, Tartarus remained silent about any harm, and Gaia, the Earth God, grew increasingly reassured.
For so long, Tartarus remained conscious and communicating normally, and Gaia hadn't sensed any decline in his power.
She determined that the Chaos Source posed little threat to Tartarus, so she spent most of her time within the Earth, energizing her divine might to draw more Chaos Source into the Abyss.
The Chaos Source amplified Tartarus in the Abyss, but to Gaia, it was like a borer on the earth, devouring and destroying it, bringing only pain.
Therefore, she yearned to expel even more Chaos Source from the Earth.
Gaia's actions naturally delighted Tartarus.
Becoming a god, Tartarus needed no sleep, and he constantly sensed and analyzed the Abyss.
He desired a more thorough understanding of the various Chaos Sources that comprised the Abyss.
Tartarus discovered that the Chaos Source expelled from the Earth carried with it traces of an essence unique to the Earth, absent from the Abyss.
He knew not what this essence was, nor could he name it. However, as more Chaos Source was drawn from the Earth into the Abyss, Tartarus also gained more essences unique to the Earth, which he had never possessed.
The Abyss could not digest and assimilate these unique Earth essences in a short period of time, but they did not harm the Abyss either. On the contrary, they were easily obliterated by the countless Chaos Sources. 2
It was Tartarus's control that prevented him from wiping out the unique essences of the earth and attempting to devour them, completely merging them into the abyss.
It was also because of these essences that Tartarus began to understand the earth's structure.
At the same time, he took advantage of every time the Chaos Essence entered the abyss to sense the earth.
Furthermore, over the past millennia, Tartarus had been trying to break through the isolation and sense the chaos beyond the barrier.
Though unsuccessful, he continued to try.
From the beginning, Tartarus had no intention of conversing much with Gaia.
Chaos had continuously bestowed upon him fragments of his godhood, suggesting it might be more than a simple world will.
Too much talk would affect Gaia's fate, causing the world to undergo a complete transformation. His advantage as a "prophet" would be lost.
He might also be discovered by Chaos as a "world bug" and eliminated. 1
Chaos was the world itself. Unlike him and Gaia, he was not a deity like them, nor was he human. Neither divinity nor humanity. 5
He didn't know the composition of the Chaos world, let alone the rules governing it. Until he understood everything, it was best to keep quiet. If he touched upon something and was eliminated, there was no guarantee he'd be able to travel through time again.
As he devoured more and more Chaos Essence,
The values displayed in Tartarus's Book of Creation changed.
Page 1: No change.
Page 2: God of Deception - Godhead (Incomplete - 10%)
Page 3: God of Chaos - Godhead (Incomplete - 70%)
Page 4: God of Devouring - Godhead (Incomplete - 90%)
At the same time, the more Chaos Essence he absorbed, the larger the Abyss became, and his strength also grew slightly.
In contrast, as the earth expelled a large amount of Chaos Essence, it grew faster, its area expanding far faster than the Abyss.
Initially, the Abyss was roughly the same size as Earth, but after thousands of years, Tartarus could no longer perceive Earth's specific dimensions.
He sensed Earth through the Abyss's fusion with the Earth. Every time the Chaos Source entered the Abyss, his divine consciousness could extend further, perceiving the Earth beyond the Abyss.
But later, Earth's surface became so vast that his fleeting divine consciousness could no longer perceive the entirety of the Earth.
Suddenly, Tartarus, having just absorbed a significant amount of Chaos Source, felt the Abyss descend!
Similarly, Gaia, the Earth God, who had just expelled some of the Chaos Source, also sensed it.
The Abyss, once connected to Earth's bottom, was separating from it!
A holy light flashed, and Gaia, the Earth God, appeared between Earth and the Abyss.
"What's going on?" Gaia wondered.
"It's begun!" Tartarus sensed upward.
She murmured to herself, "When the Abyss drifts away from the Earth, darkness and night descend, and the Abyss will no longer truly experience the Earth's beauty. My sister, I hope you will remember our mutual companionship."
"Tartarus, what's going on?" Gaia, the Earth God, felt a sense of inexplicable panic.
When she was born alone, she existed and grew in this world in solitude, constantly being ravaged by the Source of Chaos.
But with the birth of the Abyss, she was no longer alone. Simultaneously, a vast amount of Source of Chaos was expelled from the Earth, and she grew faster and stronger, her constant pain diminished.
She had grown accustomed to the pain easing, to their closeness.
Now, the Abyss was actually moving away from the Earth, leaving her somewhat bewildered.
"I don't know. My memories are a little muddled," Tartarus said, his tone filled with confusion.
At this moment, the Abyss and the Earth were completely separated.
At first, the Abyss slowly fell downward, then its speed accelerated.
Then, darkness appeared between the abyss and the earth.
Tartarus could not see the earth through the darkness, nor could his divine consciousness perceive it through the darkness; even he could not clearly sense the darkness.
At this moment, Gaia, the god of the earth, did not remain where he was, but landed on the abyss, falling with it.
The abyss's descent accelerated, and the darkness expanded.
"A new god is about to be born," a message suddenly appeared in Tartarus's mind.
"A new god is coming," Gaia, the god of the earth, also received the message from Chaos.
She looked down at the abyss below and asked, "Tartarus, are you okay? Did you hear Chaos's warning?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm a little uncomfortable with being suddenly disconnected from the earth," Tartarus replied.
In this world, there is no concept of measurement. He could not sense or know the thickness of the earth.
But the abyss was vast and immensely thick; he had a rough idea of its depth.
After moving away from the earth, the abyss plummeted rapidly, already exceeding its thickness, and it continued to plummet.
The boundless darkness between the earth and the abyss grew ever wider.
"How far apart can it be? With the abyss further away from the earth, my attempt to absorb the source of chaos again will become more difficult. I need to devise a new strategy," Tartarus pondered.