The scene in the 'window' had shifted.
It was no longer the Styx, but an indescribable chaotic space deep within the earth.
It resembled the world's heart, filled with the primordial yet majestic power of earth and the origin of life, yet also riddled with cracks and decaying ash—this was the core of Gaia, now on the verge of collapse.
The figure of 'Zeus' stood in the center of this chaos.
His entire body radiated an indescribably terrifying power: the Olympians, the river and mountain gods, the day goddess 'Hemera', the cosmic god 'Aether', the deep-sea 'Pontus', the sky 'Uranus', and even the time god 'Kronos', forcibly dragged from his imprisonment and devoured... the power of all the gods he had slain and returned to their source was now forcibly merged within him, almost chaotically.
His breathing was ragged and turbulent. The golden lightning in his eyes intertwined frantically with various other divine fires. The threads of his reason seemed stretched to their absolute limit, leaving only the instinctive desire for 'oneness' and 'perfection'.
Around him, the deep realms that once belonged to the night goddess 'Nyx' and the darkness god 'Erebus' now lay empty, violently ravaged—they too had been 'found' and 'devoured'.
Even the mad will of 'Tartarus', representing the chaos and abyss at the world's bottom, had been forcibly absorbed by the 'source' characteristics of 'Zeus's' Wrath of Earth, becoming another ingredient in the churning 'divine stew' within his body.
Today, throughout the entire world, only one last divine existence remained—'Gaia', the Earth Mother Goddess, weak and sustained only by her final instinct, preventing the world from collapsing in an instant.
"One more... and it's almost done." 'Zeus's' voice was hoarse and trembling, filled with extreme hunger and paranoia.
"Next... it's you. Once I devour you, I will become the 'One'! I will be the 'Only One'! Everything within me will be reborn! A new world, shaped by me!"
He gripped the dark crimson Wrath of Earth with both hands, raised it high, and without hesitation, poured into it the combined energy of all the gods within him!
The blade emitted an overloaded hum. The dark crimson light soared, like a bolt of dark red lightning piercing the chaos!
"Die! Return to me!" 'Zeus' roared, plunging the Wrath of Earth towards the origin core of Gaia below!
This strike concentrated all his power and the will to 'return to the source' at that moment, enough to utterly vanquish the already极度虚弱的 Gaia!
But—
"CRACK!!"
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound of shattering!
The anticipated scene of Gaia's origin being pierced and dissolved never came.
Instead, at the very moment the tip of the blade was about to touch Gaia's origin, several clearly visible cracks erupted on the dark crimson blade of the supposedly invincible Wrath of Earth!
The mad eyes of 'Zeus' froze instantly, shifting into absolute shock and bewilderment.
The divine power he had channeled collapsed in an instant. The Wrath of Earth flew from his grasp, spinning into the chaotic void beside him. The cracks on the blade spread like a spiderweb, emitting a faint, brittle sound.
"This... Impossible!" 'Zeus' stumbled back two steps, staring at his weapon, now covered in fractures, then at Gaia before him, who remained essentially unharmed. His mind was in chaos.
He couldn't understand.
The Wrath of Earth was his primary reliance for slaying gods. Not even the primordial gods were exempt from its property of 'return to the source'. Why was it crumbling on its own in the face of the weakest, Gaia?
He didn't understand that the Wrath of Earth was forged from the fang of 'Gaia'.
The root of its power originated with Gaia. One could even say it was a 'part' of her.
If Gaia were to perish completely, then the Wrath of Earth, as her 'partial' manifestation... would also lose its power, even disintegrate and disperse directly!
And if he wanted to 'return' Gaia to the source and complete the final step to becoming the 'One', he would have to rely on the Wrath of Earth's power to absorb Gaia's origin.
This was a fatal paradox, a deadly trap laid against his path of 'plundering all to achieve oneness'!
Without the Wrath of Earth, he couldn't safely and effectively absorb Gaia's vast and primordial origin. Forcible absorption would only lead to conflict within his own divinity, or even cause an explosion.
Using the Wrath of Earth risked damaging the weapon, losing the ability to absorb, and potentially causing a catastrophic backlash from the weapon's collapse during the absorption process.
'Zeus' stood frozen, his face a kaleidoscope of emotions—shock, bewilderment, rage, despair... all shifting like a tent in a storm.
The boiling cauldron of 'divine stew' within him became even more unstable due to his master's violent mood swings. Various divine fires flashed beneath his skin, making him look like a statue on the verge of exploding at any moment.
And ahead, the dim origin of Gaia still hung silently, as if mocking his incompetence.
At that moment, the world began to groan from the strain.
Having lost the authority of the vast majority of gods, who had been devoured one by one by 'Zeus', the 'conceptual support' provided by primordial gods like the sky, the abyss, night, and darkness was gone. Now, even the last Earth Goddess was weakened to the point of extinction. The very foundation of this world had finally reached a critical point of collapse.
Behind the 'window', the hidden space where Hades and Metis watched also began to tremble slightly.
They could see the edges of the scene reflected in the 'window' beginning to show storms of law and the terrifying disintegration of matter back into primordial chaos.
The world was starting at the edges and crumbling inward.
'Zeus' also sensed the change in heaven and earth.
He looked up at the chaotic space around him, which was beginning to collapse, then down at his cracked weapon, and the 'meal' that was right there but could not be eaten.
Violence completely consumed the last vestiges of his reason.
"NO——!!!" He let out a bestial roar.
"It's mine! All of it is mine! Even without this broken blade, I will devour you!"
He no longer cared about the risks.
He opened his mouth. His entire divine form seemed to transform into a black hole, unleashing a terrifying suction force. He tried to draw the entirety of Gaia's origin into his body in the most primitive way, just as he had devoured 'Metis' at the beginning!
Gaia's origin was pulled by this suction, swaying slightly. A trace of earthy-yellow primordial energy began to peel away and drift towards 'Zeus'.
But this process was agonizingly slow. The sliver of primordial power that was inhaled, upon entering 'Zeus's' body, immediately engaged in violent conflict and repulsion with the other divine powers within him!
'Zeus's' face instantly contorted in pain. A mist, mixed with various colours of divine light, began to overflow from his seven orifices. His divine form expanded and contracted like a bellows being inflated and deflated. Turbulent energy of different colours rose and fell beneath his skin, as if he were about to explode at any moment.
He was suffering the backlash from forcibly absorbing primordial origin.
But he was already insane, reckless. He simply desperately increased the suction, determined to complete this final 'absorption' even if it meant mutual destruction!