Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Chapter 29 Faith

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Translator: 549690339

The nascent humanity probably numbered over eight hundred thousand, a figure significantly larger than the one depicted in later myths.

However, considering the vastness of Chaos’s domain in this world, with the Mediterranean region potentially being just a colossal island here, these numbers didn’t seem excessive.

As the Divine King, Cronus and the gods residing on Mount of the Gods received the largest share. They took three hundred thousand humans back to Mount Othrys, including the very first king of humanity.

The Lord of the Outer Seas obtained one hundred and fifty thousand people, while Pontus and Ourea each received one hundred thousand. The two Sea Gods took humanity to the islands, transformed from celestial bodies that fell and continents shattered during the great battle between the Heavenly Father and the gods. And the God of the Mountains, alongside the Divine King, brought humans back to their birthplace.

Of the remaining two hundred thousand, Gaia kept one hundred thousand near her dwelling, and the rest were divided up by the True Gods. Some followed the God of Celestial Light to the Underworld, while others were taken by the God of Celestial Bodies to a place on the western frontier of the continent.

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This place was where heaven and earth were closest post-first era, and Coeus left his two daughters in charge of looking after these humans.

Before departing, each deity involved in humanity’s creation left behind their likeness at the Oracle of Delphi. Subtly influenced by the gods’ power, the Oracle also began to manifest its extraordinary nature.

The one hundred thousand humans following Mother Earth settled around the Temple, building houses in the image of the Oracle, praying to the gods for food as their sustenance. As a result, edible plants naturally grew around them – pluck one, and another would sprout, their vines never withering.

The newly born humans were deeply grateful. Other than eating and resting, they had nothing else to do, so they devoutly worshipped heaven, the Moon, and the gods.

Under the gods’ guidance, temples were thus constructed. The first generation of Golden Humanity was naturally strong and resilient, possessing incredible endurance and exceptional learning abilities. Those taken away by different deities often worshipped different gods as their primary deities, and built the temples in styles that reflected their patron gods’ preferences.

During this process, perhaps due to the union of soul and body, along with their devout worship, a mysterious power was born.

The gods may or may not have noticed, for they paid no attention to it. Perhaps because creation was executed with such deliberate intent, the Golden Humanity only had positive, beautiful emotions, and the emergence of those mysterious powers seemed feeble in comparison.

This fragile power might have had some effect on territorial gods, but every god involved in the creation was a True God, and they clearly wouldn’t care about such an insignificant existence.

Laine was not surprised by this, as the faith of humanity was not strong at the time, which was just the way of life in the Spirit Realm. Even without physical bodies, they offered even less faith to Laine.

“Perhaps only beings with wisdom and physical bodies, whose thoughts have not been altered, can generate an abundance of faith,” he mused.

“The Zeus of later times could even break the limits of godhood, equalizing the mantles of human and natural divinity. Though derived from faith, its influence would inevitably be limited by faith itself, yet it remained formidable.”

Feeling somewhat sentimental, Laine glanced at the Origin of ‘The Wine’ in the Spirit Realm.

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It was weak and feeble. Even if the gods couldn’t stop praising it, the so-called ‘God of Wine’ could only become the gatekeeper of meager divine power.

In contrast, the God of Wine in later times even secured a position among the twelve principal gods of Olympus. As long as there was an unending flow of faith, Dionysus would remain a deity of great divine power day after day.

Regarding this, Laine only had some speculations, but given the current scarcity of faith, he was not certain.

What he could be sure of was that as the Master of Spirituality and the first to come into contact with faith, even Chaos could only prevent the creation of faith, not forcibly claim the faith directed at others for himself.

This suggested that faith might indeed lean toward spirituality but was not simply an extension of spirituality alone.

Laine also vaguely discovered that acquiring faith might not solely rely on ‘devout worship’. Alternatively, the faith gleaned from pure prayers might actually account for a minor portion of the whole, with its variability being susceptible to the fleeting emotions of mortals.

After all, even as the creator of life in the Spirit Realm, those spiritual bodies that truly revered Laine in devout faith were actually in the minority. Even the spiritual beings born later, who had never seen Laine, tended to regard him more as a symbolic figure.

They revered him as ‘Great Ancient Spirit Will,’ and considered him to be the world itself, devoid of personal thoughts and ideas. In contrast, spiritual beings often worshipped the angels traversing different planes of the Spirit Realm.

“Even so, the faith that the Crystodes receive is still far less than mine,”

“Indeed, compared to worship, leaving a profound mark in the history of a race, having a unique significance to them as their godhood, and even becoming a part of the cultural heritage of a civilization, these acts bring about faith that is more meaningful than reverence.”

Just like the spiritual beings of this moment, although the faith born from their existence isn’t much, Laine could still feel that, compared to their unconscious worship of him, the concept of being their creator, the creator of the Spirit Realm, brought him significantly more faith than the former.

This creation of beings was also an attempt by Laine to verify his hypothesis. After all, one piece of evidence alone does not establish the truth; the experiences gained from the beings of the Spirit Realm might not be applicable to all situations.

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But now, Laine could confirm his thoughts.

As the creator of humans, Laine could feel that even without humans knowing exactly which god he was, there was still faith emanating from the ‘collective’ of humanity.

He even had a faint feeling that even if the humans of this era were completely wiped out from history, with not a single creature surviving, as long as the ‘traces’ they left in the world remained, this type of faith not born from reverence would be endless.

It might diminish, but it wouldn’t completely disappear; this was the intuition that the godhood of History gave to Laine. Perhaps this magical power, stemming from intelligent life, has a special nature that even time can’t erase, enduring through the ages, eternal and indestructible.

“Truly magical… Civilization, faith, life, they are indeed the most elusive things in this world.”

“But if that’s the case, the fate of Prometheus no longer seems strange.”

“The Forethinker? The Afterthinker?”

“It’s really nothing more than great folly resembling wisdom and great wisdom resembling folly.”

Recalling the birth of those two brothers and his actions akin to those of Metis, Laine saw even more clearly the secrets hidden behind the myths of a previous life.

The Fire Thief and his brother, as the first to come into contact with Bronze Humanity, might have vaguely discovered the secret of faith, but in the end, the two made different choices.

The three Divine Kings also realized this; perhaps Pandora’s Box and the world-ending Flood were also attempts by Zeus to probe the nature of faith.

He discovered this then weak force and decided to test it. The result was pleasing; he further completed the missing emotional part based on Bronze Humanity, and then understood that faith was more than just kneeling in worship.

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And this, quite possibly, was the very key that Zeus used to fight against fate, indefinitely delaying the birth of the next Divine King.

Even the subsequent adventures of Dionysus, and the Twelve Labors of Heracles, were nothing but his further exploration of the power of faith.

“Civilization, huh… It coincides with my original plans without prior consultation.”

Looking at the still empty third layer of the Spirit Realm, and the vacant third Oracle Stone Tablet, Laine finally turned his gaze to humanity.

Through the connection between the Master of Spirituality and souls, he gently plucked the strings in his hand.

And so, Chaos’s first dream was born.