Chapter 31: Earth Mother Gaia's Fear, Chaos and Nothingness 1
"Have you truly deceived me?"
Gaia, the Earth Mother, asked earnestly.
At this moment, she gazed into Tartarus's eyes, as if trying to see through them into his heart, to grasp his truest thoughts.
At the same time, Gaia's divine consciousness enveloped Tartarus's body, intending to sense the fluctuations of Tartarus' divine power through her divine consciousness and thereby deduce his truest thoughts.
Tartarus said calmly and seriously, "No deception."
"You're lying!" At this moment, the sky god, Uranus, spoke first, "Since you are the God of Chaos, then the Chaos Source is beneficial to you. Your goal is not to help others, but to benefit yourself."
Tartarus still ignored Uranus and continued, "From the moment I was born, I have said that the Chaos Source cannot harm me, it will only cause my memory to become distorted."
"Also, I have told several gods that I will not be harmed by the Chaos Source. The chaotic words I say when my memory is distorted are beyond my control."
"Gaia, from the beginning, I knew you needed to suppress the Chaos Source, but I am not afraid of it, so I absorbed the Chaos Source within you. We are helping each other."
He looked at the Dark God and the Sky God and said, "You are also afraid of the Chaos Origin, aren't you?"
Dark God Erebus said, "I am. The Chaos Origin will only hinder my growth. The result now is that you, Tartarus, have helped me."
Ocean God Pontos said, "Perhaps we misunderstood each other because of certain words. Mother Goddess, Uncle Tartarus, don't be anxious or impulsive. Let's calm down and talk slowly."
Sky God Uranus said coldly, "Pontos, this is a long-standing grudge. You don't understand. Don't speak too much."
Ocean God Pontos felt anger well up, but sensing the powerful aura of Sky God Uranus, whose strength far surpassed his, he remained silent.
In his heart, he harbored even greater resentment towards Uranus: "Uranus, you've bullied me a second time. I'll remember this, and I'll make you pay for it in the future."
Uranus, the Sky God, said, "Tartarus, the expansion of a deity's true form increases its power."
"Since you are the God of Chaos, the more Chaos Origin you acquire, the larger your true form will be, and you will be strengthening yourself."
"So, your true purpose is to obtain Chaos Origin, not to help us. You deceived the Mother Goddess and the gods, leading us to do what you wanted. This is an act of deception."
Tartarus said calmly, "I never said my true form would be damaged by Chaos Origin. It's just that you judged the power of the Abyss based on the fact that you would be greatly damaged by it."
"What's more," he looked at Gaia, the Earth Mother. "If I had said that absorbing Chaos Origin would make me stronger, Sister Gaia, would you have injected Chaos Origin into the Abyss?"
Gaia, the Earth Mother, fell silent.
Her sudden silence left the gods bewildered.
"To strengthen each other, I will continue to inject Chaos Essence into the Abyss," said Nyx, the Goddess of Night.
"Me too," said Erebus, the God of Darkness.
Pontos, the God of the Sea, tried to speak, but met the fierce glare of Uranus, the God of Sky, and held back.
"You!"
Uranus was about to speak when Gaia, the Mother Goddess of Earth, spoke up.
"If it were now, knowing that Chaos Essence would strengthen the Abyss, I would give you all the Chaos Essence within the earth. But not when you were born."
Uranus, the God of Sky, smiled.
This moment was the happiest he had been since his birth.
This was what he had wanted.
The rupture between the Earth and the Abyss!
The God of Darkness, the Goddess of Night, and the God of the Sea were all confused and thoughtful.
"Tartarus, lead me into the Abyss. I want to speak with you alone." At this moment, Gaia, the Earth Goddess, spoke again.
"Mother Goddess, you cannot enter. The Abyss is a liar and will harm you," said Uranus, the Sky God.
"Then enter together. The two of you are the most powerful gods in Chaos right now. It will be safer to enter together." Tartarus looked at Uranus with anticipation.
At the same time, a deep pit appeared beside him, leading directly to the deepest part of the Abyss.
"You can talk to the sky," said Uranus, the Sky Goddess.
Now, his strength was comparable to that of the Abyss, but he would not come here alone.
This was the Abyss, the home turf of the God of Hell.
As for entering the Abyss? He absolutely refused without even thinking about it.
"You stay here. I can do it on my own." Gaia, the Earth Goddess, jumped into the pit first.
Tartarus's body sank into the abyss.
Deep in the abyss...
A milky-white divine power formed a divine armor-like coat, covering the entire body of Gaia, the Earth Goddess.
Tartarus's devouring divine body, however, was devoid of any divine defense. He said, "Since you've chosen to enter, you don't trust me, just as you don't trust your two children."
Gaia's usual gentleness had long since vanished, her expression etched with determination and seriousness.
"I can't trust you. Tartarus, you weren't the first born into this world, so you don't feel the fear of being alone in chaos."
"I'm grateful to Chaos for giving birth to me, but I'm also afraid of Chaos of Chaos. Chaos! It's a terrifying existence countless times more powerful than the source of chaos."
"Chaos taught us that the gods are immortal. That's why we can't kill each other, and there's no being in this world that can kill us. But what about the world of Chaos itself?"
"Will the world of Chaos kill the gods?" Tartarus asked, frowning.
This was the first time I'd heard this world's deity, the Earth God at the center of Chaos' world, speak of the life and death of other gods.
"I don't know." Gaia's eyes suddenly flashed with fear, as if she had recalled something terrifying.
She continued, "From the moment I was born, I heard the words Chaos etched into my memory. Grow for the sake of the world's completeness. Those who are weak before this completeness will return to nothingness."
"Nothingness is death, right? I don't know if I will die, but I was so weak back then. I was that weak one!"
"After my birth, every moment, I've been haunted by the fear of being swallowed by the boundless chaos and returning to nothingness."
"This fear has been so long, longer than the time since your birth. So long that I've even wanted to return to nothingness. Perhaps death would free me from fear."
"But then I realized that if I grew, if I wasn't weak, I wouldn't return to nothingness, and I wouldn't fear death. So I worked hard to grow, to become stronger, until you, the abyss, were born."
She looked at Tartarus, "You know what? I'm truly afraid of you. I even thought about killing you."
"Why?"