On the main battlefield, the two embodiments of Nyx had been defeated by the 'cognitive shock' brought by Cronus and the combined assault of the Underworld gods.
Heimarmene's threads of fate were forcibly severed by Hades using the authority of the Underworld and the power of [Soul]; the mist around her body dimmed, her breath disrupted.
Adrasteia's realm of absolute law was torn apart by Cronus's 'paradoxical existence' and the violence of the giants; her shimmering robe was shattered, her figure staggered.
Nyx's main body, bound by the 'Chains of Resolve', felt the pain and dissolution of power emanating from her embodiments, and for the first time, a clear anxiety appeared on her face.
She could not fail!
If she failed, Hades and Metis would likely recklessly attempt to break the cycle of reincarnation, leading to the true end!
She must gather all her strength!
Nyx concentrated her will, and her triple voice pierced the walls of the Underworld with a faint hint of imperceptible urgency, summoning to the place where light and darkness meet, the origin of time and space:
"Aether! Hemera! My children! Answer me!"
The call was like a stone sinking into the sea.
The expected brilliant radiance of the god of space and the bright light of the goddess of day, which dispels darkness, did not come.
The sky above the Underworld was still the eternal dark sky, reinforced by Hades's will.
Silence. An unsettling silence.
Nyx's heart clenched.
Her children had never been unable to respond to her call, especially when she was clearly engaged in a difficult battle!
At this moment, Hades's cold voice sounded:
"Aren't you curious, Nyx? Thanatos and Hypnos... where are they now?"
Hades's words were like lightning, cutting through the fog in Nyx's heart!
She immediately understood!
Thanatos and Hypnos!
They had not participated in the siege against her!
From the very beginning, Hades had sent them elsewhere!
Their task was not to fight her directly, but to... intercept! Intercept Aether and Hemera, who might come to her aid!
However, this realization brought not relief, but deeper confusion and a faint sense of foreboding.
Although Thanatos and Hypnos were powerful, it was almost impossible for them to hold back the great Aether and Hemera for long. Something unexpected must have happened!
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At the same time, at the boundary of light and darkness in the world of Chaos, the origin of time and space.
This should have been a realm where the bright divine light of Aether and the daylight of Hemera intertwined, but at this moment, it was shrouded in an unusual stagnant atmosphere.
Aether, the goddess of space—the brilliant starlight radiating around her body was no longer active, like a frozen galaxy.
She quietly hovered in the void, solemnly gazing ahead, stopping the restless Hemera beside her, who was trying to break through.
"Brother! Get out of the way!" Hemera's voice differed from the clarity and fervor inherent to daylight, and her divinity tried to dispel the obstacles ahead.
"I sensed the Mother Goddess's call! She needs us! There was a terrible fluctuation towards the Underworld! We must help her!"
However, standing before them were not the gods of death and sleep, as expected.
Instead, they were two ancient and majestic figures—Oceanus, the ocean god, and Tethys, his wife, the goddess of fresh water.
Oceanus's face, built from endless currents and ancient wisdom, bore a bottomless weariness and an almost compassionate calm.
The phantom shadow of the world-encircling ocean around him flowed slowly, radiating a majestic and tranquil aura, like an invisible embankment blocking the path to the Underworld.
Tethys tightly clasped his hand, silently supporting him, her eyes full of mixed emotions, but in her husband's resolve—firmness.
"Oceanus? Tethys?" Hemera's beautiful face was full of confusion and bewilderment.
"Why are you here? To stop us? Do you want to sit idly by and watch those... in the Underworld? The rebellion, the siege against our Mother Goddess?"
She couldn't understand. The ocean god system had always been transcendent; why were they now siding with the Underworld?
Aether was silent, his eyes deep as the starry sky, just quietly watching Oceanus.
Two ancient gods, two gods governing the foundational world, their gazes met in the void, as if in a silent exchange beyond language.
Oceanus spoke slowly, his voice no longer as dead as it had been before Catia, but carrying the weight of the vicissitudes of time:
"Hemera, your radiance can illuminate everything, but sometimes the deepest truths are often hidden in the shadows that light cannot touch."
He looked at Aether, a sympathetic understanding in his voice: "Aether, you must feel it too, right? The growing 'burden', the 'wear' that arises from... the foundation of the world."
The light around Aether flickered slightly, and he did not deny it.
As the god of space, upholding the sky and defining the void, he felt more clearly than any other god that the entire structure of the world was becoming 'old' and 'fragile'.
An invisible pressure constantly compressed his essence.
"We have all been ignorant for too long," Oceanus's voice was filled with infinite bitterness.
"Until the 'inquirer' from the Underworld, with her immature appearance, asked a question we dared not delve into..."
He referred to Catia's (Hades's) inquiry about the whereabouts of the Pontus gods.
"At that moment, I realized that avoidance and numbness solved nothing. Hades, that very Hades who broke free from the darkness, he might be... the only one who dares and has the opportunity to confront the root of the horror."
Oceanus's gaze sharpened as he looked at Hemera and Aether:
"Your mother goddess, Nyx, she sees the end. But she chose the path of imprisoning us all, along with the world itself, in an eternal cycle of wear and destruction, until it becomes empty!"
"She calls you not to save the world, but to preserve this cage she built with her own hands, this thing called 'survival' that is actually 'suspended death'!"
Hemera was struck as if by lightning, her bright radiance dimming: "No... It's impossible! The Mother Goddess, she..."
"What he says is true, sister." Aether finally spoke, his voice carrying the frankness of the starry sky and a note of weary confirmation.
"The sky I uphold, every tremor of 'reincarnation' is clearly perceptible. The 'rebirth' of the world has long stagnated; we are simply repeating the process of decline over and over. Mother Nyx... She gives us a false eternity, but deprives us of a true future."
Oceanus nodded, and behind him, a massive phantom of water surged: "So, we cannot go. Not only can we not go, perhaps we should... help Hades and break this circle. Even if the road ahead is an unknown end, it is better than this doomed and slow lingering death."
He looked at Aether with a silent invitation: "How do you choose, brother, who upholds the sky? Will you remain a pillar of this cage, or... bet on a possible true exit?"
Aether was silent, the starlight around him flickering violently, as if a battle between heaven and man raged in his heart.
On one side was the mother goddess who bore him; on the other, the truth and the possible liberation of the world.
After a long time, the restless starlight around him gradually calmed, and he took a step forward, standing side by side with Oceanus. Although he did not speak, his posture clearly showed it.
He chose to stand on the side of the ocean god, and chose to... wait and see, or rather, to yield to Hades's actions.
"Brother!" Hemera looked at Aether in disbelief.
Aether turned to her, a hint of apology in his eyes, but even more resolve: "Hemera, sometimes blind devotion is more terrifying than betrayal. We need... the truth."
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Back on the Underworld battlefield, Nyx, sensing everything happening at the boundary of light and darkness through some mysterious connection, understood completely.
Her call had not been answered, not because of interception by Thanatos and Hypnos—the twin gods were perhaps merely observing from the sidelines.
Those who had truly stopped Aether and Hemera were Oceanus and Tethys!
The bloody truth revealed by Hades had led to the choice of her eldest son, Aether, to deviate from her after weighing the options!
Isolated and helpless.
At this moment, Nyx truly felt what it was like to be betrayed by her own kin.
Her plans, her sacrifices, the sins she bore in the face of the cruel truth, all seemed so pale and... misunderstood.
The shackles seemed heavier; her dark divine body trembled slightly, and the eternal sorrow and weariness drowned her like a tide.
Hades looked at her, in his violet eyes no joy of victory, only cold resolve:
"It seems your 'insurance' has failed, Nyx."
"Now, it's time to end this long mistake that you initiated."