Chapter 4: The Abyss Recedes from the Earth; A New God Is Born!
In the current world of Chaos, the concept of time did not yet exist. However, having transmigrated from another life—and now existing as Tartarus, the God of the Infernal Abyss—his intellect and capabilities far surpassed those of his previous incarnation; thus, he retained a vague, personal sense of the passage of time.
Gaia, the Goddess of the Earth, ceaselessly expelled the primordial essence of Chaos, channeling it toward the boundary where the Earth met the Abyss.
Thereupon, Tartarus exerted his control over the Abyss, causing it to devour and assimilate this primordial essence of Chaos.
This process repeated itself time and again, spanning a period of roughly a thousand years.
Throughout this millennium, as the primordial essence of Chaos flowed into the Abyss, Tartarus never once reported suffering any harm; consequently, Gaia, the Goddess of the Earth, grew increasingly reassured.
After such a prolonged period, Tartarus remained fully lucid and capable of normal communication; furthermore, Gaia sensed no diminution in his divine power.
Having confirmed that the primordial essence of Chaos posed little threat to Tartarus, she chose to remain deep within the Earth for the majority of the time. Operating at the absolute zenith of her divine power, she devoted her full strength to channeling even greater quantities of the primordial essence of Chaos into the Abyss.
While this primordial essence of Chaos served as a source of augmentation for Tartarus within the Abyss, for Gaia, it was akin to a parasitic blight—a "borer" gnawing at the very fabric of the Earth, causing nothing but destruction and agony.
Consequently, she became even more intent on purging as much of this primordial essence of Chaos from the Earth as possible.
With Gaia acting in this manner, Tartarus naturally found himself all the more delighted.
As a divine being, he had no need for sleep; thus, Tartarus spent every waking moment sensing and analyzing the nature of the Abyss.
He sought to attain a truly profound and comprehensive understanding of the various strands of primordial Chaos that constituted the very fabric of the Abyss.
In the course of his observations, Tartarus discovered that the primordial essence of Chaos expelled from the Earth carried with it faint traces of a *different* kind of primordial essence—one that was utterly absent from the Abyss, yet unique to the Earth alone.
He knew neither the specific nature of this essence nor a name by which to call it; yet, as ever-increasing quantities of the primordial essence of Chaos were channeled from the Earth into the Abyss, Tartarus continued to acquire more of this distinct, Earth-exclusive essence—a power he had never before possessed. The Abyss was unable to digest and integrate these primordial essences—unique to the Earth—within a short timeframe; however, they posed no harm to the Abyss. On the contrary, they were all too easily eroded by the boundless primordial essence of Chaos.
It was only through Tartarus's direct intervention that these unique essences of the Earth were spared from being obliterated; he then proceeded to attempt to devour them, seeking to fully integrate them into the Abyss.
It was also thanks to these essences that Tartarus began to gain an understanding of the Earth's underlying structure.
Concurrently, he seized every opportunity—whenever the primordial essence of Chaos flowed into the Abyss—to extend his senses outward and perceive the Earth.
Furthermore, throughout this past millennium, Tartarus had been striving to breach the barrier of isolation and perceive the Chaos that lay beyond the membrane.
Although his efforts had yielded nothing thus far, he persisted in his attempts.
From the very beginning, Tartarus had no intention of engaging in lengthy conversations with Gaia.
The fact that Chaos had repeatedly bestowed fragments of divinity upon him suggested that its nature might be something far more complex than that of a mere World Will.
Speaking too freely could influence Gaia's destiny and trigger a drastic divergence in the world's trajectory—a scenario that would, first and foremost, strip him of his advantage as a "prophet."
Moreover, it ran the risk of Chaos detecting him—a "glitch" within the world's fabric—and subsequently purging him from existence.
Chaos *is* the world itself; unlike him or Gaia, it is not a deity in the conventional sense—nor is it human. It possesses neither divine nature nor human nature.
He had yet to fathom the true composition of Chaos's world, let alone decipher the rules governing its operation. Until he could gain a clearer grasp of these fundamentals, it was best to remain taciturn. Should he inadvertently transgress some cosmic boundary and face erasure, there was no guarantee that he would ever be granted another opportunity to traverse worlds.
As he continued to devour ever-increasing quantities of the primordial essence of Chaos,
The numerical values displayed within Tartarus's *Book of Creation* began to undergo changes.
The first page, however, remained unchanged. Page Two — God of Deceit: Divinity (Incomplete — 10%)
Page Three — God of Chaos: Divinity (Incomplete — 70%)
Page Four — God of Devouring: Divinity (Incomplete — 90%)
Concurrently, the more Chaos Essence he absorbed, the larger the Abyss grew in area compared to its original size; his own strength, too, was undergoing a very subtle, gradual increase.
In contrast—as the Earth expelled vast quantities of Chaos Essence—the Earth's rate of growth accelerated significantly, its expansion far outpacing that of the Abyss.
Initially, the Abyss and the Earth were comparable in size; yet, after the passage of a thousand years, Tartarus could no longer discern the Earth's precise dimensions.
He would typically sense the Earth by means of the interface where the Abyss pressed against it. Whenever Chaos Essence flowed into the Abyss, his divine consciousness would extend a little further, allowing him to perceive those portions of the Earth that lay beyond the confines of the Abyss.
However, as time went on, the Earth grew so vast that even with a momentary, full extension of his divine consciousness, he could no longer encompass the entirety of the Earth within his perception.
Suddenly—just after absorbing a fresh influx of Chaos Essence—Tartarus felt the Abyss begin to plummet!
Likewise, Gaia, the Goddess of Earth—who had just finished expelling a portion of the Chaos Essence—sensed it as well.
The Abyss—which had hitherto abutted the very bedrock of the Earth—was now tearing itself away!
Bathed in a shimmering, holy radiance, Gaia, the Goddess of Earth, materialized in the space between the Earth and the Abyss.
"What is happening?" Gaia asked, bewildered.
"It has begun!" Tartarus directed his senses upward.
He murmured to himself: "When the Abyss drifts away from the Earth—when Darkness and Night descend—the Abyss will no longer be able to truly perceive the beauty of the Earth. My sister... I hope you will remember the time we spent together."
"Tartarus! What is going on?" A sudden, inexplicable sense of panic seized the heart of Gaia, the Goddess of Earth. In the beginning, she was utterly alone; she existed and grew in this world in solitary isolation, all while enduring the ceaseless ravages of the primordial Chaos.
But with the birth of the Abyss, she was no longer solitary. Moreover, as vast quantities of the primordial Chaos were expelled from the Earth, she grew more rapidly and became stronger; the persistent agony she had suffered also subsided significantly.
She had grown accustomed to the diminishing pain; she had grown accustomed to their intimate union.
Yet now, the Abyss was—incredibly—drifting away from the Earth, leaving her feeling utterly disoriented.
"I do not know; my memories are somewhat muddled," Tartarus replied, his tone tinged with bewilderment.
At that very moment, the Abyss and the Earth separated completely.
At first, the Abyss began to descend slowly; then, its rate of descent began to accelerate.
Subsequently, a void of darkness emerged between the Abyss and the Earth.
Tartarus could not pierce the darkness with his sight to behold the Earth, nor could his divine senses penetrate it to perceive the Earth's presence; indeed, he could not even clearly perceive the darkness itself.
Meanwhile, Gaia, the Goddess of Earth, did not remain stationary; instead, she stepped onto the very soil of the Abyss, descending alongside it.
The Abyss plummeted ever faster, and the expanse of darkness grew ever wider.
"A new deity is about to be born," a message suddenly materialized within Tartarus's mind.
"A new deity is coming into existence," Gaia, the Goddess of Earth, likewise received the message transmitted by Chaos.
She gazed down at the Abyss beneath her feet and asked, "Tartarus, are you well? Did you hear Chaos's message?"
"I heard it. I am well—though having suddenly been severed from the Earth, I feel somewhat unsettled at the moment," Tartarus replied.
In this nascent world, the concept of measurement did not yet exist; thus, Tartarus could neither perceive nor know the true depth of the Earth.
However, the Abyss was vast—immensely vast—and possessed a substantial, solid mass; of its own depth, he held a rough, intuitive grasp. Having drifted away from the Earth, the distance the Abyss had plummeted already exceeded its own depth—and it continued to fall at breakneck speed.
The boundless darkness stretching between the Earth and the Abyss grew ever wider in scope.
"Just how far apart must we be? Now that the Abyss has drifted away from the Earth, absorbing the Essence of Chaos has become far more difficult; I must devise a new strategy," Tartarus mused to himself...