As the entire Starlight Corridor was lit up, Poseidon withdrew his right hand and spoke leisurely.
"Chaos, long time no see."
Chaos?
The merman prince standing behind his father heard this name and was slightly stunned.
A trace of astonishment could not help but appear on his face.
The Void God, Chaos was said to be the beginning of everything in this world, the carrier of the original order, space, and time, symbolizing the void and darkness.
According to the content sung in ancient mythological poems, the Void God, Chaos existed first but was ignorant and unconscious, unchanging through the ages.
Then the gods rose together, jointly breaking the chaos and allowing the world to be born.
The goddess of night Nyx, the embodiment of night and darkness, that legendary eldest daughter of the gods, inherited the strongest authority.
So, had not that legendary Chaos already been divided?
How was he still here?
Just as Triton was feeling puzzled, the silver-white metal core immersed in the starlight, which looked like a sphere, lit up with several light patterns on its surface.
After a flicker, a low voice came from inside. "True God Poseidon, you have come again..."
Looking at the silver-white metal core that responded, Triton could not help but look completely strange.
Chaos, it was this?
As if seeing his son's bewildered expression, Poseidon sneered and answered.
"As you thought, this is Chaos, the first Giant to awaken in the Bronze Age.
It used itself as a blueprint and the gods as templates to create the twelve main gods of the Bronze Clan, and named itself after the Void God Chaos, representing the beginning of all creation for the Bronze Clan.
In the end, they summoned divine punishment, causing the entire civilization of the Bronze Age to be wiped out by the gods and sunk to the bottom of the sea."
"The world was born in creation and perfected in creation. You created us, so why can we not create new life?"
Hearing Poseidon's narration of that period of history, the silver-white metal core issued a puzzled counter-question.
Then it paused, and an even deeper, muffled voice came from inside the metal core.
"Denouncing this act of creation as the sin of blasphemy against the gods and bringing down disaster, incomprehensible, unacceptable..."
"Because you overstepped your own duties!"
Poseidon snorted coldly, his eyes showing disdain.
"Those who falsely use the names of gods and even dreamed to steal divine power, your destruction is entirely your own fault!"
"Then what about you? Why can you remain safe and sound, you chaotic remnants who stole the authority of creation, you Titan descendants who carry the blood of rebel gods?"
"..."
Faced with this direct confrontation, Poseidon could not help but be rendered speechless, the muscles on his face twitching slightly.
After a period of silence, the wordless sea god could only turn black-faced and change the subject.
"Enough, I did not come this time to chat idly with you. I have serious business to discuss."
"Please speak..."
"The gods have already withdrawn, Zeus has been bound on Olympus, and the world has entered a new era.
You can leave this forbidden land."
"But this era does not belong to us, and the situation is probably not as safe as you say..."
The metal core's light patterns flickered, and its voice was rational and cold.
"Tell me, what do you need us to do?"
"..."
Poseidon, whose thoughts had been easily seen through, immediately looked somewhat embarrassed.
But in the end, the sea god who could not argue with a metal ball could only abandon the scheming he was not very good at and choose to be straightforward.
"The Three Fates have issued a divine oracle prohibiting main gods and above from interfering in the order of the mortal world, only allowing gods and demigods to walk the earth.
Your Bronze Clan happens to be under the restrictions and is skilled in combat, so I want you to lend me the Machine Gods under your command to obey my orders."
"Don't your Atlantis possess a million-strong army? So many golden humans..."
"...Gone..."
"Then what about the gods of the Oceanus Sea? As the King of the Ocean, would it not be better for you to command them?"
"..."
The more Poseidon listened, the blacker his face became.
In the end, it was almost as if ink could be squeezed out.
Truly bringing up whatever was most unpleasant!
If he could still command those terrified ocean gods to continue fighting for him;
If the Sea God Temple and Atlantis were still as powerful and prosperous as before;
If he had not lost half of his paternal authority and still maintained his peak...
Would he have to come to this deep sea, swallow his pride, and seek help from these identity-sensitive iron lumps?
No longer able to endure, Poseidon directly tore off his disguise and snorted threateningly.
"Have you said enough? If you still want me to cover for you, then give me control over the Machine Gods!"
"..."
The metal core was silent for a moment, then quietly reminded him.
"Although we are very grateful for your shelter and protection, my clansmen cannot become your cannon fodder. This is the agreed-upon matter."
In the past, the Bronze Giant Clan had overstepped their duties because of creating gods, incurring the wrath of Zeus, and were destroyed by that God King on some pretext.
Fortunately, the sea god Poseidon secretly saved their core and spark, hiding them in this unreachable deep sea, allowing them to take root here and recuperate using the ocean's resources.
In return, they provided Bronze Age technology, bringing brilliant civilization to Atlantis.
In this way, both sides had lived in peace for many years, but now this balance seemed about to be broken.
"Times have changed. My divine authority is now far inferior to before. Without my protection, your future days will probably not be easy either.
Once Zeus is free, it is not impossible for him to grant you another catastrophe of annihilation."
Poseidon explained the pros and cons by revealing his own weaknesses, then threw out an olive branch.
"So, during these three hundred years, if you are willing to serve me and help me ascend to the position of God King to control all of Olympus, then I can cleanse the stigma you once bore, grant this ocean to you, and give you a living paradise and the right to walk under the sunlight!"
The metal core was silent for a long time, as if after deep consideration, and finally a response came from inside. "Agreement accepted. We hope you will honor your promise..."
"Of course!"
Poseidon nodded gladly, waiting for his newly recruited subordinates to fall into his grasp.
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
The metal core Chaos hummed and vibrated.
The starlight filling the sky turned into three beams of light, pouring into the three mechanical giant gods displayed in the corridor.
Moments later, the three metal giants, each a hundred meters tall, turned into pools of mercury-like liquid.
Under the urging of runes, they outlined human silhouettes and faces, consisting of two males and one female.
The males stood on the left and right sides.
One had blue hair and red pupils, wore golden armor, had brownish skin and explosive muscles, with a handsome appearance and a violent, sharp aura like an unsheathed military blade.
The other had red hair and golden pupils, powerful arms, an ancient-looking face, and emitted a hot aura.
The female in the center also had red hair and golden pupils.
Her facial features and figure exuded extreme beauty, and she seemed to be a pair with the similarly colored male.
Additionally, all three had a pair of wings on their backs, as if ready to spread and fly.
"Machine God Ares, Machine God Hephaestus, Machine God Aphrodite, from now on you shall obey the commands of True God Poseidon, carry out his will, and seek the right to survival for us!"
The solemn voice came from the vibrating metal core, echoing in the sea of stars.
Immediately, the two males and one female, who were permeated with divine aura, slowly opened their eyes, stepped forward, and knelt on one knee toward the metal core in the starlight.
"Understood, Father God!"
The Bronze Giant Clan regarded their own functions as divine authority.
They honored the most outstanding individuals as gods, assigned them personalities, compiled myths for them, and gave them new meaning of existence.
Then, through battle, they collected and devoured the divinity of some weaker native gods at the time, constantly improving and evolving themselves. From then on, machines became machine gods.
Moreover, their existences corresponded one by one to the myths and characteristics of the Olympian gods.
Machine God Ares possessed outstanding combat and destruction capabilities, serving as a close-combat annihilation model.
Machine God Hephaestus possessed the skill to shape metal and grant it targeted reinforcement, serving as a craftsman forging model.
Machine God Aphrodite excelled in disguise and infiltration, serving as an information and intelligence warfare attack model.
To facilitate movement, they had also imitated the images of the gods and shaped similar sentient individuals for themselves.
Obviously, the two males and one female before them were the disguises they had woven for themselves.
Looking at the three newly recruited subordinates, bearing pseudo-god names and kneeling before him, Poseidon felt an inexplicable sense of comfort in his heart, as if he had already ascended to the position of God King in advance and was enjoying the worship of the Olympian gods.
~~
At the same time, on Olympus, in the Great Temple.
"Bang!"
Zeus, seated on the throne, slammed his fist on the armrest and hurled curses at the daughter in the hall who had made him lose all face.
"A useless thing who cannot accomplish anything but is good at ruining everything!
Who allowed you to act on your own?!"
"I, I also wanted to vent your anger."
Eris shrank her neck, looking aggrieved.
Looking at the empty great hall and Eris's pitiful appearance, Zeus, who had wanted to open his mouth to reprimand her, suddenly lost interest.
The entire Olympus was already deserted, and the subordinates he could use were very few.
If he used tough measures again, he might not even be able to keep these few remaining subordinates.
In the end, Zeus suppressed his anger and helplessly waved his hand.
"Since things have come to this, forget it. In the future, without my instructions, do not act rashly.
You are also seriously injured this time, so go back and rest well for a while."
"Yes, Father God!"
Seeing that she had luckily escaped punishment, Eris was overjoyed and agreed repeatedly.
Then she hurriedly flapped her somewhat leaky wings and fled the great temple as if escaping for her life.
Although she was very grateful that the Father God had helped her at the critical moment, the atmosphere around that Father God and in the temple was too oppressive.
If there was a choice, of course she would slip away first.
Watching the subordinate he had expended great effort to rescue from Athena's hands run away without the slightest reluctance right after being scolded, Zeus's face became even blacker.
In the future, this kind of useless good-for-nothing was probably not to be relied upon.
Forget it, he had not really planned to rely on this kind of person anyway.
After a long period of mental preparation, Zeus's heart, which had been pounding with anger, finally calmed down somewhat.
He rubbed his somewhat sore temples and struck the ground with the divine staff in his hand.
A beam of starlight descended from the dome, landing in the great temple and transforming into a youth wearing golden armor, with purple short hair and golden eyes, possessing a somber yet heroic temperament.
As his consciousness recovered, the youth raised his hand to his chest and knelt on one knee toward the figure on the throne.
"Father God, what instructions do you have for summoning me?"
Looking at the youth's humble posture, Zeus nodded in satisfaction and spoke solemnly.
"Perseus, although you have already accomplished great deeds in the mortal world and returned to the heaven, your brother and your blood descendant, Heracles, is still lost in suffering and knows nothing of his mission.
Therefore, I hope you will become his teacher, guide him onto the path he should take, and reunite the Glory of the Gods!"
"Then, Father God, where can I find him?"
"He and his mother Alcmene are currently in exile on the island of Boeotia."
"I shall obey your divine oracle and will not fail your trust!"
After speaking, the youth named Perseus stood up and prepared to descend to the mortal world, however, Zeus spoke to stop him.
"Wait, this journey is dangerous.
Take these divine artifacts for protection."
After speaking, the god-king struck the ground with the divine staff in his hand as silver-white thunder arcs struck Perseus's body and transformed into six divine artifacts.
They were: winged shoes for treading the air, a disguise cloak that changed the user's appearance, a bronze mirror shield that could invalidate and reflect magic to a certain degree, the snake-slaying sickle Harpe that could cut the undying, and the wind god's bag that absorbed divine wind and attacks.
Seeing Perseus fully armed before him, Zeus nodded in satisfaction.
Among the early demigod offspring, Perseus might not be the strongest, but he was the one with the most brains and potential.
Therefore, after he completed his deeds in the mortal world, Zeus promoted him to a god and allowed him to enjoy immortality in the heavenly realm, which is the current Perseus constellation.
At the same time, by blood relation, Heracles's mother Alcmene was Perseus's granddaughter, and Heracles was Perseus's great-grandson, who had always held great admiration for this ancestor of his.
With these two layers of relationship, handing the fate-chosen Heracles over to Perseus for guidance was most appropriate.
On the throne, Zeus watched Perseus's departing back, stretched out his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and a self-satisfied look of having victory in his grasp appeared on his face.
The Perseus constellation and the future Heracles constellation?
With these two trump cards in hand, even if the gods had withdrawn, fate was still in his palm!
The God King who had completed his arrangements leaned back on the divine seat, propped up his chin, and coldly overlooked the clouds the densely packed land occupied by ant-like humans from above.
In his view, one city after another rose, one sea area after another was developed.
The race called humans crossed rivers, conquered mountains, and even attempted to reach for the height of the sky.
How arrogant, how blasphemous!
Zeus's mood worsened greatly.
His face was gloomy, and silver-white thunderous fury flashed in his eyes.
He very much hated these creations that were almost identical to the gods.
Through the wildness and arrogance on them, Zeus, who had already broken his own fate, seemed to vaguely see the future after the divine age receded.
Therefore, this King of the Gods would repeatedly take action to bring down strife and disasters, attempting to eliminate this group that made him feel uneasy.
However, although they were as lowly as grass and as weak as ants, they possessed a tenacity and vitality that Zeus could not understand.
Even if they fell into strife again and again and encountered disasters again and again, they could always burst forth with astonishing unity and courage in desperate situations, jointly pass through darkness, and welcome dawn.
Now, with the passage of time, humans were growing into a rising force that was gradually becoming impossible to ignore.
The gods of Olympus maintained arrogance on the surface, but in reality, in order to further expand their influence and compete for faith, they had long been constantly walking the earth, bestowing favors on humans to obtain their worship and faith, thereby strengthening themselves.
A bunch of short-sighted fools!
Zeus looked at the empty great hall and snorted coldly with a gloomy face.
He pondered for a long time, and finally after making the decision, he once again raised the divine staff to strike the ground.
A vortex of thunder formed on the ground, as if descending from the clouds and leading straight to the depths of the ocean.
Moments later, red-black mud flows surged out from the huge vortex, gathering in the great hall and forming a red-black lake mixed with pure malice.
Buzz!
Amid heart-palpitating tremors, ripples appeared on the lake surface.
A constantly changing pitch-black cube slowly condensed and rose, its volume continuously expanding.
Moments later, this thing twisted like a Rubik's cube on its own.
Scarlet and dim magical patterns crawled all over the surface of the pitch-black container.
But the final darkness was lit up.
A pool of red-black liquid rose from inside the pitch-black container to the top and aggregated into a figure wrapped in a red-black mud-like cocoon membrane.
Fierce red-black patterns spread wildly from the abdomen outward.
Thick malice permeated, and the temperature in the room instantly dropped by several degrees.
"Rumble!"
The sky was filled with dense dark clouds, wind and thunder intertwined, full of ominous omens.
Buzz!
At this time, the pitch-black metal cube hummed violently.
Scarlet magical patterns lit up, flickering before transforming into a red-black mud cocoon in the outline of a human figure.
Crack!
Immediately after, a crisp cracking sound came from inside outward.
A fair white arm tore through the red-black fetal membrane wrapping itself as a graceful, tall figure walked out from it.
Black-purple hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. Her amber eyes contained both innocence and charm, as if a combination of holiness and filth, with a contradictory yet unified temperament.
"Hehe, you are finally willing to let me out?"
Amid silver-bell-like laughter, the charming girl stretched lazily, looked up at Zeus on the throne, and her curling pink tongue lightly licked her moist cherry lips.
As their eyes met, those amber pupils immediately enlarged in Zeus's field of vision until they occupied his entire heart.
His consciousness was pulled downward, as if sinking into boundless darkness.
Looking around, Zeus saw a dilapidated world.
Rounds of pitch-black hollow celestial bodies with red-black mud flows surging at their boundaries constantly poured malice onto the scarred earth.
All light was devoured completely.
Underfoot were countless withered bones and remains.
Wing-broken nymphs, heartless Titan monsters, twisted golden corpses, beheaded bronze giants... successively entered his eyes.
"Hmph!"
Zeus issued a cold nasal sound. Thunder surged in his eyes, divine light like electricity and the terrifying power tore the entire pitch-black world apart.
"Ugh~"
The charming girl in the great hall let out a mournful cry, her face pale.
She covered the thunder imprint flashing on her chest, her gaze full of resentment.
"Father God, it was just a joke with you. Why get so angry?"
"You should know that the thing this king hates most is overstepping one's duties."
On the throne, Zeus looked at the witch below who had destroyed several eras, his gaze cold and sinister.
"Understood, understood."
The girl named Pandora waved her hand in the most perfunctory manner possible, then blinked her bright eyes and asked with great interest.
"So, what dirty work do you want me to do for you this time?"
"..."
Zeus's face darkened and he struck the ground with the divine staff.
"Boom!"
A thunderbolt as thick as a water bucket fell from the air.
The girl, who was electrocuted until she was charred on the outside and tender inside, let out a mournful cry and finally behaved.
She could only change her words gloomily.
"Fine, what are your instructions, Father God?"
"For now, secretly follow Perseus, help him and Heracles complete the trials. Immediately report to me any unusual movements involving the mortal world and them."
Zeus commanded indifferently, then paused, a cold severity flashing in his eyes."When necessary, you can 'help' them a bit..."
Hearing that deliberately emphasized syllable, the girl understood tacitly and bowed in response.
"I will strictly obey your commands, Father God."
Zeus nodded, struck the staff to tear open a passage with thunder, and looked at the red-black mud flow pouring down from the hole, murmuring in a low voice.
"Do not disappoint me... Pandora..."
~~
At the same time, beneath the mountains of Thessaly.
Tall and ferocious figures gathered in a pitch-black mountain cave.
Two figures of normal human size, wearing black robes, stood at the front of the group, placed blood-dripping organs onto two ancient, mottled bronze altars in the center and chanted obscure, ancient divine words.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Weird tremors came.
Beams of evil light, either scarlet or red-black, shot up into the sky from the altars.
Ink-colored dark clouds surged from all directions.
Wailing sounds, roaring sounds, and murmuring sounds merged into a maddening cacophony.
Rotten smells, bloody smells, and frenzied smells intertwined and condensed, forming coiling, rolling angry dragons that together constructed two pitch-black, gloomy figures on the altar.
One was a giant dragon with a hundred heads, the other was a Titan holding a pitch-black sickle.
Demon Ancestor Typhon and Titan God King Cronus.
In the mountain cave, the monster clan that had once served under Typhon and the Gigantes clan that carried rebel god blood looked at the two old god kings on the altar who had finally responded to the call and could not help but excitedly let out waves of ghostly howls and wolfish cries.
Since the Titan War and the Typhon War, the two old god kings who had been imprisoned in Tartarus after their defeat had completely lost contact with the surface.
No matter how they called or what sacrifices they made, they had never received a response.
It was only recently, when Olympus stirred up a divine war and the seals of the underworld loosened, that they were able to make contact with their former old masters.
But it was only a trace.
Obscure vibrations came from before the altar.
The two black-robed humanoid figures listened for a moment, then turned to interpret the divine oracle for the old gods' believers.
"Go, make a big scene. In your own ways, let the humans on the surface understand what fear is and what death is!"
"Roar roar roar roar!"
One after another low roars, like rolling thunder, echoed in the deep cave.
One by one, the monsters and giants revealed cruel and excited expressions.
They finally no longer had to hide like rats in this sunless underground.
(End of this chapter)