"The price..." Nyx's voice trembled, "The price is everything you see!"
"When reincarnation begins, the world loses its 'future'. New concepts cannot be born, new gods are not born! Because 'the future' has been consumed by the cycle! Catia's very existence is a paradox!"
"Old memories are constantly accumulated and erased upon reset! The wise god is tormented by his wisdom, and she deservedly becomes paranoid and mad under this torture!"
Her gaze glided over Metis with a hint of pity.
"Metis, my child, you have met, allied with, and even united with Hades again and again in countless reincarnations, but you 'lose' him every time the reincarnation resets!"
"Old memories accumulate and are forcibly erased upon reset. Wisdom like Metis, in countless reincarnations of losing you, her mind was worn down, and love distorted into mad obsession..."
"Gaia!" Nyx's voice was pained.
"As the foundation of the world, at every beginning and end of a reincarnation, she bears the most brutal shocks! She has become the cornerstone of constant formatting and rewriting!"
"Her children—Uranus, his power of Eros, Pontus—their independent divinities were unconsciously absorbed and assimilated by Gaia as the core through countless cycles of wear! They became part of the earth and lost themselves! Gaia herself, on the other hand, 'knows nothing' about all this at the 'beginning' of each reincarnation, and can only vaguely sense her own confusion and fatigue!"
"Oceanus!" She continued to lament this damned truth.
"Because of his 'flowing' and 'encircling' characteristics, he is less directly impacted and retains most of the memories of reincarnation! But precisely because he remembers everything! He has fallen into the deepest despair! He has witnessed his children (referring to the river goddesses and ocean goddesses) being forgotten and disappearing in reincarnation again and again! He loves them and endures the eternal torment of constantly losing his children!"
"Tartarus!" A note of fear crept into Nyx's voice.
"He carries the resentment, madness, and destruction generated by each reincarnation! He has never been so powerful, and therefore so chaotic and hungry! He constantly destroys the earth, trying to consume everything—precisely the 'toxin' accumulated in reincarnation seeking release!"
Finally, her voice became low, filled with infinite sorrow.
"And I... I paid the price."
"Erebus, my beloved, the most primordial darkness... He took on the night for me, using his existence as a shield, and bore the most direct and violent counterattack of the 'distorted constant' for me. His will, his independent existence, was almost completely erased... He was forced to merge deeper with my divinity, almost one... His eternal silence is not sleep, but... severely wounded and dying, sinking."
"My poor children, if they had not been born... The Moirai, the Keres, Styx, Charon... Their names would not be recorded, their concepts would not be remembered. This is my sin..."
"As for Eros..." a flicker of complexity appeared in Nyx's eyes,
"The primordial god Eros, his essence was completely shattered by the brutal storm of reincarnation and the backlash of fate. His twisted and powerful fragments of power scattered and became the fate... the terrible driving force that promotes the next reincarnation and distorts the will of the gods. Cronus's madness, the 'gift' in your hands, Metis... all of this is connected to it."
"These Titans..." Nyx was weak,
"they become puppets of fate, playing their roles in the process of reincarnation. When their repertoire ends, they naturally dissipate and become the driving force of the reincarnation cycle. Cronus, being powerful, may be an exception—a puppet with consciousness, who falls into despair and madness upon learning a little of the truth."
After all this, she seemed to have exhausted all her strength, and the body of the dark goddess became slightly transparent. She looked at Hades, at Metis, at Catia, with the vicissitudes of life and infinite regret in her eyes.
"This is the truth. A world that has fallen into an eternal state close to death in order to avoid death. And I am the sinner who pressed the start button."
Silence reigned in the temple.
Only Nyx's tired sighs echoed after revealing all the cruel truths.
Hades's body took a step forward, and the 'Chains of Resolve' binding Nyx hummed quietly with his will. His violet eyes were sharp as ice, meeting Nyx's tired and remorseful face.
"One last question," Hades's voice was low, but with undeniable power, piercing the frozen silence in the temple. " 'Moebius'... Who is it?"
He recalled the name Cronus had entrusted in his frantic whispers, the name that had caused his divine transformation, as if symbolizing an endless cycle and a logical paradox.
Upon hearing this name, a bitter smile appeared on Nyx's face—a mixture of infinite bitterness and mockery.
This smile seemed to laugh at fate, at herself, and at this inescapable destiny.
" 'Moebius'... It is not some specific existence, my foolish and clever child." Nyx's voice carried a sense of emptiness that saw through everything.
"It is the reincarnation of this endless cycle itself! It is the 'ring' that has neither inside nor outside, no consistency, constantly devouring itself and continuing to regenerate!"
"It is a concept, a curse... a living 'error' born from my distortion of the constant!"
Her gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, falling upon Hades with an almost pitiful sense of fate.
"And you, Hades... At the moment you truly fulfill what I expect of you, when you use [Hades] as the foundation, [Soul] as the guide, and [Secrecy] to hide the truth, and finally fully integrate the entire world into the most complete system of 'reincarnation' that you have built with your own hands..."
Nyx's tone became heavy and slow, each word seeming to carry the weight of blood.
"...You, Hades, will completely merge with this 'ring'. You will become the axis of reincarnation, the embodiment of the rules, the new 'Moebius'."
"This is... the destination."
"It's not about opening a new world, but about transforming the old world into a stronger, eternal, and desperate... circulatory cage. You will replace me as the eternal guardian of this cage, burdened with... the world's repetition, the gods' wear, and the complete death of the future. All sins and prices."
"This is why I chose you for the ultimate goal, Hades. Not to save the world, but to have you... become... the world's eternal 'cycle' itself in order to 'survive'."
"That is what 'Moebius' truly is. It awaits its... new master."