Chapter 2: Divine Persona Fusion
Countless fragmented sounds echoed in his ears, like the whistling of wind through the woods, or countless people chanting in low voices.
Lin Yun carefully distinguished the sounds, which gradually coalesced from chaotic noise into clear sentences.
They were the prayers of Orphism, the very sentences he had repeatedly copied, translated, and annotated from documents and rubbings of stone tablets.
Now, carrying a certain ancient rhythm, they drilled deep into his consciousness.
"Chronos, the beginning of eternity, the foundation of all things. Your breath is the passage of time, and your gaze is the shifting of antiquity and modernity..."
"Time is the string that weaves the net of existence; Chaos is the ink that writes the scroll of fate. All living beings reside within your network..."
"The Universe is like an egg, enveloping the past, present, and future. Awaiting your command, it will break its shell and be reborn, returning to the Origin..."
These prayers were like a key inserted into the lock of Lin Yun's consciousness, turning with a soft 'click.'
He felt his body becoming transparent. His skin, muscles, and bones gradually dissolved in the white light, leaving only a wisp of pure consciousness floating in the boundless void.
Is this death?
The thought flashed through Lin Yun's mind.
On Earth, he had imagined the scene of his own death countless times.
Perhaps lying on a hospital bed, listening to the monotonous beeping of instruments.
Perhaps being struck by an out-of-control car on a rainy night street.
Or perhaps, like those scholars who dedicated their lives to learning, dying suddenly at their desk, their fingertips still resting on an unfinished manuscript.
But he had never imagined that death would be so peaceful.
There was no pain, no fear, not even sadness —only a stillness bordering on eternity, as if he had belonged to this void since birth.
He began to "recollect."
It was not a linear narrative in chronological order, but the simultaneous emergence of all memory fragments.
When he was three, his mother held him on the balcony to watch the stars, telling him that Orion's Belt was the tombstone of three heroes.
When he was seven, he secretly took an illustrated edition of *Stories from greek mythology* from the library, clutching the pages tightly even when caught by the administrator.
When he was fifteen, he first read the story of Orpheus attempting to bring Eurydice back from the Netherworld, and he cried all night over the moment he looked back.
When he was twenty-two, during his graduate school re-examination, he was harshly criticized by the judges as "absurdly fanciful" for insisting on the viewpoint that "Orphism and the Olympus System share the same Origin."
And three days ago, on a beach on Crete, Professor Elena told him:
"Archaeology is not about proving conjectures; it is about discovering possibilities."
These memories flickered in his consciousness like countless stars, both clear and vague.
At one moment, Lin Yun suddenly realized that within this void, time had lost its meaning.
Past, present, and future were no longer a continuous line, but countless points existing simultaneously.
He could freely "touch" any one of them, feeling the temperature, scent, and emotions contained within.
This feeling was both wonderful and eerie.
He tried to "touch" the memory of his graduate school re-examination, immediately feeling the judges' skeptical gazes, and hearing his own nervous, off-key defense.
He "touched" the memory of stealing the book at age seven; his fingertips felt the rough texture of the pages, and his nostrils were filled with the unique smell of old books from the library.
"Is this... the essence of time?"
This thought arose in Lin Yun's consciousness.
He recalled a description from a fragment of Orphism scripture.
"In the eyes of Chronos, yesterday and tomorrow are indistinguishable, both clearly visible like the lines on one's palm."
Just then, ripples appeared in the void ahead.
Countless specks of light emerged from the depths of the darkness, gathering and merging like fireflies, eventually forming a vague silhouette of light.
The silhouette had no concrete form; it was like flowing liquid yet solidified gas, its edges flickering with fragmented light, as if composed of countless stellar shards.
Lin Yun could "sense" the silhouette's "gaze."
That was not visual communication in the human sense, but a more fundamental form of cognition.
The entity knew of his existence, understood his confusion, and even knew his essence better than he did himself.
"Chronos, you have finally awakened."
A calm, waveless voice sounded directly within Lin Yun's consciousness.
The voice was both the deep resonance of a male and the cool clarity of a female.
The voice carried a gender-neutral quality that transcended sex, as if it originated from the source of time, having passed through the birth and destruction of countless Universes... Lin Yun's consciousness fluctuated violently.
This address, this voice, reminded him of the prayers he had heard in the white light.
But he could not accept this reality —he was Lin Yun!
A history graduate student from Earth, whose biggest daily worry was whether his thesis would pass the anonymous review.
His favorite food was his mother's scrambled eggs with tomatoes, he was afraid of bugs, scared of heights, and had mild obsessive-compulsive disorder... How could such an ordinary human be a primordial god from mythology?
"You've got the wrong person."
He "responded" with his thoughts, and was surprised to find that his ideas were clearly received by the entity at the exact same moment.
"My name is Lin Yun, and I'm a... Mortal. I was just at an archaeological site on Crete, touched a bronze tablet, and then I arrived here. This must be some kind of illusion, or..."
"Or, you have finally remembered your identity."
The silhouette interrupted him, its voice still calm but carrying an undeniable majesty.
"That bronze plaque is the carrier of your Divine Persona's imprint, a token forged by ancient priests using your Origin power, meant to guide you back when you 'forgot.'"
"When your blood touched it, the dormant Divine Authority was activated, liberating your consciousness from its Mortal shell."
"Divine Persona? Divine Authority?"
Lin Yun's consciousness fell into confusion.
"These are all concepts from mythology, fabricated by humans!"
"Just like Hesiod said the first god was chaos, while Orphism said it was Chronos."
"These are just cosmological models constructed by different cultures. How could they be real?"
His words were like stones thrown into a lake, stirring up layers of ripples in the void.
The silhouette was silent for a moment, seemingly trying to understand the "human perspective" in his words.
Then, it gently "raised its hand."
That was merely a fluctuation of the silhouette, yet it caused a "line" to appear in the void ahead, spanning across endless space.
It was a long river composed of countless fragments.
Every fragment was glowing, clearly displaying different scenes within.
In some fragments, the gods of Mount Olympus were feasting. Zeusheld thunder in his hand, Hera wore a crown, and Athena's shield was inlaid with the head of Medusa.
In some fragments, priests in the dark night danced around a fire, chanting hymns to Nyx, the Mother of Night, their eyes glittering with fanatical light.
In some fragments, Heracles was strangling the Nemean Lion with his bare hands. Sweat slid down the channels of his muscles, kicking up dust.
In some fragments, Orpheus held a lyre, playing by the riverbank in the Netherworld, moving even the Furies to tears.
In yet other fragments, philosophers at Plato's Academy were debating. Socrates' figure flickered in and out of the shadows, his voice carrying an inquiry into the "Goodness of God