The Goddess of Light and her husband exchanged glances, shaking their heads with wry smiles and offering no reply.
"Not everyone has the courage to defy Gaia," the Goddess of Justice, Themis, interjected from the side. "We were born from the earth, and naturally, we can return to it. The Earth Goddess, unburdened by any attachments, is someone no one dares to ignore. Did not even Mnemosyne hide Aphrodite under her threat?"
Themis also offered her scepter, her words vague yet seemingly laden with deeper meaning. "You will understand why we made these choices."
The three Titan gods turned and left without a backward glance, leaving Tyche utterly bewildered.
At this moment, the Goddess of Memory spoke softly, "Gaia loves no one, not even this world! If she had a choice, I believe she would destroy everything without hesitation!"
Tyche still did not understand. "What did the Earth Goddess say to you that made you act so unusually?"
"We once swore not to reveal these matters to anyone, but perhaps you will learn from Gaia. She is quite eager to meet you again."
Mnemosyne, after setting down her scepter, also departed. This only fueled Tyche's curiosity, but it was not the time to probe further. Tyche could only return to her seat among the main gods, her mind brimming with questions and wonder.
Among the four vacated seats of the Titan gods, one undoubtedly belonged to the Goddess of Love. This was a position she had earned through her willingness to take risks, and the other gods could find no fault with it. While they discussed how fortunate the Goddess of Love was with her choice, their eyes could not help but fixate on the three remaining empty seats.
Atlas, the God of Strength, felt as though he were sitting on pins and needles, especially when he saw the schadenfreude in the gazes directed at him. He became even more restless.
The victors would enjoy the bountiful fruits of their labor, while the losers would naturally have to pay the price for their choices.
Phoebe, the Goddess of Prophecy, and Coeus, the God of Darkness and Intellect, were overjoyed, but their happiness was tinged with worry. Could the gentle Leto be a worthy queen of the gods? With this thought, they looked with concern at their jubilant daughter. The Goddess of the Moon, her cheeks flushed, embraced her blood-splattered husband and offered her congratulations, completely oblivious to her parents' anxious eyes.
Seeing this, Tyche immediately set aside her doubts and went to comfort the Goddess of Prophecy.
"Zeus will remember your steadfast support. Regardless, Leto will receive the respect she deserves."
Phoebe and Coeus were also helpless. Zeus's promise was the foundation of their daughter's security, but if Leto herself was unworthy, the respect she received would be limited. How could the still-weak Leto hold onto her throne as queen of the gods? The other gods would likely not obey the commands of this lesser deity. All her honor came from her husband; beyond that, there was nothing that would make the gods look upon her with high regard.
After a moment of thought, the Goddess of Prophecy also took out her scepter. "Tyche, I wish to exchange my seat as a main god for the divine position of luck in your possession."
Tyche did not take Phoebe's scepter. The divine position of opportunity had already been her first step towards becoming an primordial deity. Benefiting from this, the divine positions of luck and misfortune had been fully nurtured.
"You once generously shared the domain of fate with me, and when I journeyed upstream on the river of fate, you also provided assistance without asking for anything in return. Now, allow me to repay your help."
Tyche took out the divine position of luck and handed it to the Goddess of Prophecy. The power of the divine positions of opportunity and choice was sufficient for her own research; the divine position of luck was merely the icing on the cake. Moreover, the recipient of the divine position of luck was her son's wife, meaning it would ultimately return to her own kin.
Phoebe smiled as she accepted the golden divine position of luck. Leto had also inherited the divine nature of fate, so gaining the recognition of the divine position of luck would not be difficult. She recalled that when journeying upstream on the river of fate, she had also exerted considerable effort in obtaining the branches from Rhea and Cronus, and had refused the divine position of Autumn that Tyche had offered as compensation. Therefore, she did not feel that she was receiving it undeservedly.
Tyche took the opportunity to inquire about the Earth Goddess's unusual behavior. "Your Highness Phoebe, you are the wisest among the first generation of Titan main gods. According to your speculation, why did the Goddess of Radiance and the Goddess of Justice obey Gaia's orders?"
The Goddess of Prophecy pondered for a moment and then led Tyche to her divine temple. The two immensely powerful goddesses of fate worked together to lift the mist, and Phoebe slowly began to speak.
"Every time a goddess representing feminine power conceives, she tears at her own essence. The successive births of the sky and the ocean have already placed an unbearable burden on the earth."
"Under the influence of laws and Eros, the sky and the earth gave birth to us, further tearing at the earth's authority! Gaia at that time was so weak that she could not refuse the advances of Uranus, the Sky God, and had to entrust the task of expelling Uranus to her youngest son, Cronus."
Tyche suddenly understood. She had always thought that Gaia could not refuse her husband because the status of the King of the Gods was equal to that of the primordial gods. It turned out that it was because Gaia was too weak to resist at that time. How could the proud primordial gods tolerate their humiliation being made a laughingstock by their descendants, so they erased that past from history.
"Pontus, the primordial sea god, once revealed some secrets of the primordial gods to me. He seemed to be extremely fearful of Gaia, who gave birth to him. His status should be equivalent to that of Uranus, the Sky God, so why was he so afraid of Gaia?"
Phoebe sighed softly. "I am not surprised by the primordial sea god's fear of Gaia. After the sky and the ocean, a third deity was meant to be born."
"Ureia of the mountains?" Tyche immediately reacted.
"Precisely. The convex surfaces of the earth formed mountains, and the concave surfaces formed straits. Therefore, the sea god and the mountain god were far more constrained by the earth than by the sky. The unwilling Earth Goddess, after giving birth to Pontus, refused Ureia's birth. This god of mountains returned to the embrace of the earth under Pontus's gaze."
This could explain why the primordial sea god was so afraid of the earth. "So Gaia threatened Themis and Theia, among others, by devouring them, to make them support the gods of growth."
"It should be so. The laws and the world need the essence represented by the gods, but they do not care whether they have independent will."
The Goddess of Prophecy trembled slightly as she thought of the unconscious Ureia. "Naturally, we do not wish to lose our consciousness and become puppets to be manipulated. The earth is the foundation of the world. While our annihilation would be an irreparable loss for a time, new gods would eventually emerge to take over our divine positions. Just as the crystal walls you brought make the laws unable to refuse, as long as Gaia does not actively disintegrate the earth and destroy the world, the laws can do nothing about whatever she does."
If Gaia was humiliated because new gods continually divided power and divine positions from her hands, then it was entirely understandable that Gaia disliked and even loathed them.