The victory feast lasted a full month. During this month, the gods indulged themselves completely in endless fine wine and celestial delicacies, enjoying the nymphs' exquisite dances and clear, melodious voices.
All of Mount Olympus was immersed in an atmosphere of wild joy and comfort.
All deities maintained an unspoken understanding—no god discussed any future division of honors. Everyone waited for the establishment of order after the revelry.
Finally, this most important moment arrived.
Zeus once again ascended to the highest platform in the center of the temple, waving his hand to halt this prolonged feast.
With a faint smile on his lips, he spoke with spring-like cheerfulness: "My dear friends, great gods, let us pause this joyful banquet for now."
He paused slightly, surveying the gods with a light laugh: "Though I wouldn't want to stop these pleasant times with you all even for a moment."
Hearing this, the gods understood, and the hall instantly filled with relaxed, pleasant laughter.
Seeing this, Zeus gradually restrained his facial expression, leaving only a gentle smile at his lips as powerful words flowed from his mouth:
"We will have eternally endless years to enjoy joyful times."
"But the universe is now anxiously waiting for us, waiting for the new order to arrive."
"Let us set the universe in order, fulfill our great duties and mission, then continue this eternal feast!"
The gods responded in unison, their voices echoing through the hall.
For a moment, the gods in the hall displayed all manner of expressions—some confident, some anxious, faces showing joy or worry, anticipation or concern, excitement or guilt, each different.
Zeus led the gods into the main council chamber.
This hall where all great gods of the universe would deliberate and decide everything for the universe was located on Olympus's highest peak. To accommodate the gods' magnificent divine forms, this temple was incomparably grand and vast.
The hall was magnificent, its dome soaring high. At Olympus, equal in height to the firmament, the gods need only raise their hands to touch the stars.
Countless stellar radiance passed through the temple's transparent divine barriers, spilling into the hall and illuminating the gods' incomparably solemn faces.
Zeus raised his hand in invitation, indicating the gods should take their seats, while he took his rightful place on the highest central throne.
That God King's seat condensed from countless stars, radiating supreme majesty and utmost nobility.
No god voiced any objection to this.
Since he had not yet married his wife, that supreme central throne was occupied by him alone at this moment, with no other chairs beside him.
Even Mother Goddess Rhea sat below him, though in the first position on the right side (ancient Greeks considered the right side honorable).
To show supreme respect to all Primordial Titans, all invited Primordial Titans were arranged in order in the honored seats on Zeus's right side.
The other young, newly born gods sat in order on the left side.
Lady Night was special—Zeus arranged her in the first position on his left, while sea god Pontus was arranged in the last position on the right.
As for other deities, Zeus need not personally arrange seating. Everyone had mutual understanding, each finding appropriate seats. Everything went without saying, and order prevailed in the hall.
Zeus's profound gaze slowly swept over every deity in the hall. He could clearly perceive each god's hidden turbulence beneath their calm surface.
An unprecedented surge of ambition suddenly rose in his heart.
No matter what authority or pride gods had possessed in the past, they would now all honor him as supreme.
The entire universe was already within his grasp!
But this was still far from enough.
During this month of feasting, all gods had tactfully avoided the sensitive topic of authority division.
However, what all deities thought about was nothing but this paramount matter concerning their future status.
Zeus was no exception.
He was deeply contemplating the reasons for his predecessors' and the first God King's failures and downfalls.
Finally he determined that their art of ruling was still too poor.
One was arrogant, extremely self-centered, not even caring about approaching threats.
The other used crude methods, cruel and tyrannical, successfully arousing all deities' vigilance and resistance.
To be completely invincible, one must completely possess everything.
But the methods couldn't be as crude as the previous two—that would only repeat their mistakes.
Actually, compared to the previous two God Kings, he had his own unique tremendous advantage—his innate "dominion" authority.
As long as he sat firmly on the God King's throne and established and promulgated the God King's order, then all deities obeying the God King's order—their authorities could be used by the God King.
With his own authority, there was no need to devour the gods. Quite the opposite—the stronger the gods, the mightier the God King would be.
The prerequisite was that the gods needed to be loyal to him and follow his sacred order.
What remained was simply slowly absorbing all laws completely.
And the current world was still not strong enough—it must continue rapidly growing, evolving new laws until reaching perfection with endless laws.
When that time came, he could gather all existence into one body, reversing endlessness into uniqueness.
All this couldn't be separated from the gods' joint efforts.
Relying only on himself to evolve the world, wanting perfection and universal completeness—that would truly be indefinitely distant.
Though he was now invincible and could slaughter everything, if the gods were determined to perish together with him, then...
They couldn't succeed either.
But this returned to that most crucial problem—relying only on himself to evolve the world was too unrealistic and thankless.
For the world to become more powerful, it must be colorful and full of vitality.
Only through infinite changes and positive guidance could the world truly move toward an infinitely bright future.
This absolutely couldn't be achieved by one god alone.
Moreover, a world full of vigorous life, uplifting spirit, with gods actively progressing; versus a world completely lifeless with gods slacking off, resisting, and working passively—these were completely different.
Trying to achieve oneself through the latter was unthinkable.
He still needed to inspire the gods' subjective initiative, making them willingly contribute to the world's evolution with their strength and wisdom!
Furthermore, as eternal existences, what gods feared most was always loneliness.
He was no exception.
In endless eternal life, without the companionship of higher intelligent beings, if the universe was completely empty—what difference would that be from being imprisoned in Tartarus?
In eternal life, only when the universe's evolution speed exceeded the speed of becoming bored with everything existing could one avoid being caught by lonely boredom.
Wasn't all rule for ruling higher intelligent life?
What meaning would possessing the strongest power have without beings to rule?
Since this was so, to make horses run, one must feed them grass.
Give before taking—this was the simplest principle.
Win-win was possible; lose-lose was unnecessary.
He already had a comprehensive plan.
Zeus surveyed the gods in the hall, saying with a smile: "Since we're deciding the universe's order, how can Mother Goddess not be present?"
"Respected Great Ocean Current, majestic cosmic foundation, great master of radiance, bright glorious mother, sacred righteous order, source of civilization's memory, mother who nourishes the world, and my close friends, the mighty Hecatoncheires and Cyclops."
Zeus named them one by one, his voice carrying gentleness and respect: "Could you trouble yourselves to invite the great and loving Mother of All Things? Ask her to witness the establishment of the universe's new order."
The Primordial Titans naturally wouldn't refuse. Oceanus said with a smile: "Naturally so, wise and thorough Zeus—thanks to your comprehensive consideration. Otherwise, we would have nearly made the great error of neglecting Mother Goddess."
Mother Goddess Rhea's gentle face showed a faint smile as she said softly: "Zeus, I'll go along too."
Zeus pondered for a moment, nodded, and said warmly: "That's fine. Thank you for the trouble, Mother Goddess."
Everything happening on Mount Olympus naturally couldn't be hidden from the Mother of All Things. In fact, Zeus hadn't intended to hide it at all.
Despite the long festivities, sulking Gaia just hadn't come. Even though Zeus had begun establishing cosmic order, she stubbornly chose to be absent.
Now Gaia was in her earth temple, sulking alone.
This Mother of All Things, full of resentment, now had no regard for appearances at all.
She had dismissed all subordinate gods and nymphs, currently slumping listlessly on her divine seat, her face completely written with unhappiness.
Though the Mother of All Things was the eldest in both seniority and age, time had no meaning for deities anyway.
Mother of All Things Gaia manifested an appearance of merely a woman under thirty, mature yet retaining a maiden's charming appeal.
The mother goddess of all things—this universe's great mother goddess—naturally manifested the most suitable appearance for childbearing.
Her emerald hair reaching from head to body, like flowing jade waterfalls, was now scattered messily on the ground, reflecting her current lazy, powerless sprawling posture.
Her slender, beautiful body casually reclined on the divine seat. A pair of perfect bare jade feet, delicate and exquisite, now rested on the throne's armrest, unconsciously swaying back and forth.
Gods basically had no habit of wearing shoes, since they rarely had opportunities to truly "set foot on solid ground."
Moreover, deities' bodies were untouched by dust, absolutely pure and clean. Shoes had never had any practical necessity for gods.
Shoes' only function was appearance—decoration and embellishment to increase beauty.
At this moment, with the Mother of All Things alone in the hall, she was naturally too lazy to wear shoes.
Even her magnificent robes, due to her completely improper posture, had become disheveled, with glimpses of earth's spring scenery appearing and disappearing, revealing endlessly.
Her bare feet were truly perfect beyond compare, beautiful enough to make hearts tremble.
Though the Mother of All Things' divine form was already the condensation of ultimate goodness and beauty, the universe's most perfect creation, this pair of jade feet was especially beautiful and moving.
Delicate and pretty, slender and exquisite, whiter than snow, smooth and lustrous—undoubtedly one of the universe's most perfect artworks.
Do you understand what the most authentic Greek feet are!
The Mother of All Things herself was the symbol of ultimate gentle beauty!
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 50 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]