Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

The intense core of the great sun fluctuated, and Helios’s complexion was unpredictable.

This was a space of light and heat, the same place where he had been imprisoned as a child and where his father, the Titan god Hyperion’s Divine Body, had collapsed and then restructured and healed.

The power of the sun was most concentrated here, anything that did not belong would be rejected. But at this moment, it did not bring Helios any feeling of closeness; instead, strands of red mist penetrated from outside to inside.

Indeed, from the outside to the inside, and not emanating from Helios himself—although he had obtained this branch of unknown origin but terrifying power from Gaia’s hands, Helios had not actually used it at first.

No one would lightly draw on such an obscure and corrosive force, moreover, what was even more critical was that Helios felt there was a limit to the amount he could bear.

He was not Typhon, who had been implanted with the Origin by the Mother Tree from the moment of birth, enabling him to bear the might to defeat the Divine King; nor was he Mother Earth, who, despite being severely depleted, still had a ’container’ for bearing power that was vast and boundless.

Even if he accepted the power of the Mother Tree, Helios might become one of the few most powerful beings beneath the greatest, yet he still would not possess authority to rival Zeus. Therefore, under these circumstances, whether to embrace this external force seemed not so crucial.

If he could not contend with, or at least make the Divine King hesitate to act rashly, then acquiring this power would be more detrimental than beneficial. If something were to strip away his right to wield the sun, at least the Divine King would be better than some unknown entity.

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The surrounding red mist grew thicker, to the point where Helios’s visage became somewhat unclear.

He still harbored ideas, since he could not bear to part with Gaia’s promise and did not want to let an unknown force contaminate his Divine Body, the second-generation God of Sun conceived of a very feasible alternative plan.

As the master of the sun, whether it be his father or he himself, the truly most potent state was always directly manipulating the sun itself. Thus, faced with a dilemma, Helios made a decision he would greatly regret.

He directly inserted the crystal-clear, dazzling branch—resembling a red crystal—into the surface of the sun, on the side that faced away from the earth and toward the starry sky.

Compared to him, the sun could bear infinitely more power, and to the Law of the world, the importance of the great sun undoubtedly surpassed his own by a great margin. If there was anything amiss with this possibly poisonous gift, the current Order would not turn a blind eye.

Helios’s idea was sound, and in fact, his success was proven. Although, as the Mother Tree’s branch took root and sprouted, a pale red halo gradually enveloped the celestial body’s surface, this core of the great sun remained unaffected.

The power of the sun grew stronger day by day, yet its essence remained pure... until today. The protection once composed of present-world forces suddenly trembled for unknown reasons, with ’holes’ of various sizes appearing. The power of the Mother Tree directly invaded this space through them, then formed the branch in front of Helios.

If there had always been only one God of Sun in the Chaos World, then Helios might still have possessed the strength to fight, after all, this was merely a fraction of the power released by the Outer God through the seal. But there were no ifs in reality, even to this day, he could not match his father’s attunement with the sun.

Sasa—

The branch swayed as if ’blown by the wind’, stretching its limbs in the sun’s core which flowed like liquid. With the rustling of the leaves, a vague notion also entered Helios’s heart.

"..."

His complexion wasn’t very good, although the expression was not very clear, Helios still easily understood what the Outer God wished to convey.

Intimidation and temptation, there was nothing surprising about this, but the key issue was that the ’knife’ of intimidation was handed over by himself.

The contamination of the sun by the power of the Outer God might not be a big deal to the Chaos World, although some characteristics of the Mother Tree that transcended greatness did capture some attention from the world, but since it was far from truly crossing that half-step, so as assimilation proceeded, the world’s own attention was actually waning.

Yet, it was a different story for the side of Order.

Previously, the actions of Helios did not cause too severe consequences, perhaps were not problematic. But now that the core of the sun was invaded, although this was actually caused by the disturbance of present-world forces, in the end, the blame still fell upon him who had let the wolf into the house.

Almost without thinking, once this disaster ended, Helios would undoubtedly be punished by the present world—perhaps Zeus would have an ’empathy with heaven’ moment, then gleefully strip him of his control over the sun, assuming that the contamination of the sun wasn’t too severe.

Otherwise, once the sun was completely under the control of the Outer God, then there would be no value to his existence as the God of Sun, and it wouldn’t be surprising for him to be tossed into the Abyss.

"But what benefit is there for me if I stand with you?"

His cheek twitched, and Helios asked as calmly as possible. In the next moment, amid the swaying of leaves, a passage from an ancient story unfolded before him.