The Rhea, whose heart no longer held any love for her husband, hesitated for the first time. Gazing at Kronos, who stood like a wooden puppet or a clay figurine, Rhea’s last shred of reason screamed at her, *this is not worth it!*
Every burst of light and heat from the fiercely burning flame was a consumption of self, and love that received no feedback would, like a fire without fuel, cool down to leave only ashes.
All the gods believed the King of Gods’ strangeness was due to the curse of the primal love god, never imagining that this body held only a phantom from the past.
Tyche looked at the panicked Aphrodite and let out a long sigh, "Menotius of Courage, please abandon the thought of becoming Aphrodite's husband."
"Love can indeed make one brave, but it cannot make one feel wronged or compromised. Your divine office is indeed suited for Aphrodite, but love should not be obtained through force. The King and Queen of Gods have already paid the price for their mistakes; if you are unwilling to give up this mistaken marriage, the courage brought by love will likely only lead to tragedy."
At this moment, who among the gods dared to underestimate this vase-like goddess of love? Menotius, the god of courage, also gave up this marriage under the admonishment of his elder brother, Prometheus the Foreseer.
Aphrodite also saw fear in the eyes of the gods for the first time, and was immediately struck down by the weakness brought by the burst of divine power, staggering back a few steps and leaning against a stone pillar.
"Goddess of Love and Beauty who brings joy, your divine offices of beauty and joy have led you astray from the true meaning of love."
Tyche looked at the goddess of love, who suddenly made the gods avoid her like the plague, and felt a moment of pity for her calculations. Eros, the primal love god, would probably no longer consider her his most important vessel.
This part of the power, transformed into a curse, was completely lost. Aphrodite could no longer bear the task of nurturing the primal love god. Although Eros would still extract her remaining value to nurture a clone, from the moment the goddess of love cast the curse using the power of the primal Eros, she was free. kuAiδugg
"Aphrodite, immersed in pleasure, you treated love as sensual delight and enjoyment, and were actually manipulated by your own divine office!" Tyche said expressionlessly, slowly closing her eyes. "You were meant to be the protector of the family, safeguarding newborn children."
"How ridiculous, the goddess in charge of the divine office of love does not understand what love is! Only when you truly love someone will the opportunity for powerful divine strength emerge."
Leaving such a maxim for Aphrodite, Tyche turned to Oceanus, the god of the ocean, "My father, the eldest among the Titans, please make a choice for the Queen of Gods as soon as possible."
Saying this, she reached out and encased the suffering Queen of Gods in ice with her cold power. Before Rhea fell into slumber, her gaze remained fixed on Kronos.
Oceanus remained silent, his consciousness in his avatar returning to his true form. Together with Tethys, the goddess of the sea, they headed towards the sacred mountain.
Tethys brought the spring water that could restore a goddess’s chastity with a single glance. Tyche moved the ice-bound Queen of Gods to the bedchamber, and the six goddesses together placed Rhea into the spring water.
The slumbering Queen of Gods awoke in the water. The fire of jealousy, suppressed by the power of ice and snow, was quelled by Kronos’s absence.
Rhea regained her composure, scooped up a handful of spring water, and poured it over her head, resolutely calling forth the river Styx.
"I swear by the river Styx to remain chaste forever!"
The pure power belonging to a virgin goddess extinguished the fire of jealousy completely. The emotions long suppressed in Rhea’s chest were finally released, and the newborn goddess let out a long sigh.
Her sisters, waiting by the bank, draped Rhea in a white dress. Rhea leaped lightly, as if returning to her carefree maiden days.
Never feeling so light, the radiant goddess smiled. Rhea approached Kronos, gently caressed the King of Gods’ cheek, and whispered something into her lover’s ear.
After a long time receiving no response, Rhea wiped the tears from her eyes and returned to her origin in her lover’s embrace.
The departure of the goddess of time brought a series of chain reactions. Kronos's soul from the past also returned to its temporal node with Rhea’s departure.
The King and Queen of Gods, to the astonishment of all the gods, dissolved into golden sands of time and vanished between heaven and earth.
This was the second time since the creation of the world that a deity controlling an origin had fallen. Asteria could hardly believe her eyes, her jaw dropping at this series of events.
The anomaly of a deity’s fall attracted the attention of all living beings in the world. The Titans guarding the periphery of the world saw this scene through the eyes of their avatars and came to the temple to bid farewell to their younger brother and sister.
"Is this your choice?" Tyche reached out and caught a shimmering grain of golden time sand, the heaviness in her heart almost suffocating her.
"You still love him." Rhea's love might have been twisted, might have been terrifying, but it was undeniably real, a fact no one could deny.
The sands of time completely dissipated, and the five children swallowed by Kronos slowly emerged from the dissipating golden light.
Hestia, the goddess of hearth and home; Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and harvest; Hera, the goddess of marriage; Hades, the god of wealth, and Poseidon, the god of tsunamis, opened their eyes and returned to this beautiful world.
When the five deities learned that their father and mother had both fallen, Hera immediately took her sisters and brothers to stand behind Tyche, requesting her help.
The gods’ gazes were fiery as they looked at the two vacant seats of the main gods. Some ambitious deities even boldly set their covetous sights on the position of King of Gods.
Rhea’s fall was not Tyche’s intention, but it ultimately served as a fuse. Tyche, filled with guilt, stood up and shielded the five deities behind her.
To the gods, the two male deities were threats to obtaining the position of main god, or even King of Gods; the three goddesses were also excellent stepping stones to power and status. The stirring deities looked greedily at the five deities, and only when Tyche indicated her intention to protect Rhea’s children did the gods retract their gazes.
As Tyche declared her stance, the god of the ocean and the goddess of justice also stood up to express their protection of their sister’s children, and the Titan main gods also responded.
The troublesome issue now was how to settle them. Tyche first showed her goodwill by transferring the divine office of wealth from her hand and the divine office of tsunamis from the god of disaster to Hades and Poseidon.
The divine office of wealth in Tyche’s hand gathered the divinity of wealth from the Golden Basin and the power of the Jewel Realm of the Goddess of Light. Although the divine office of tsunamis in Canna's possession was merely a piece of the puzzle needed to condense the divine office of disaster, it was strengthened by the power of disaster in turn, becoming even more potent. After receiving the complete divine offices of wealth and tsunamis, the two male deities easily ascended to the rank of minor deities.