Seeing his daughter so heartbroken she could hardly go on, even the great Oceanus was, for a moment, utterly at a loss.
In the grand temple he paced back and forth at speed, heavy sighs rumbling in his throat; his mountain-shaking fists were clenched tight, blue-green god-blood veins bulging, knotted along his arms.
Tethys only held her poor child tightly, silent tears slipping down her gentle, loving cheeks like pearls from a broken string.
Oceanus strode anxiously to and fro. He truly could not fathom, given his daughter's exalted station, mighty power, and uncommon wisdom, who in this cosmos, now ruled in orderly fashion by the new God-King, could have wronged her so grievously as to drive her to this collapse!
As he thought and thought, a sudden chill swept his heart; an icy cold instantly flooded his divine body, as though the whole of him had been frozen within an abyssal glacier of the deep sea.
His blazing wrath, in that instant, turned to cold frost.
He stopped where he stood, and even his breathing halted.
N-no… it couldn't be… His Majesty, could it?!
Oceanus's heart was filled with an inexpressible dread.
And yet, the more he thought, the more plausible it seemed.
Given his daughter's noble rank and her power and wisdom, who but His Majesty the supreme God-King could make her suffer such grievances?
Moreover, His Majesty was not without motive.
That fool Menoetius had committed such a heinous, treasonous deed; if His Majesty the God-King had vented his anger upon her mother goddess, one could almost understand it…
Oceanus shook his head hard, trying to fling that terrible notion from his mind: No! Impossible! His Majesty is not that kind of god! His Majesty is absolutely not such a god!
And yet… maybe not.
After all, His Majesty the God-King—
Oceanus clapped his hands together with a heavy smack, already frantic.
He hurried to Clymene's side and asked urgently, "My child, stop crying for the moment. Whatever it is, tell your father first!"
He gritted his teeth. "Ah! Whatever it is, your father will never let you suffer any harm! Speak quickly!"
With her mother's soothing, Clymene at last barely managed to stop her tears.
Sobbing, she told her parents the whole sequence of events.
Only after the Oceanus-Tethys couple understood did they finally put their minds at ease.
Good, good—so that's all it was, they thought something worse had happened.
So long as she had not suffered true humiliation, it was fine.
Tethys finally stopped her own tears. Holding her beloved daughter even more tenderly, she gently comforted her: "My beloved treasure, it's all over now; none of that matters anymore. My child, none of this is your fault—you truly did your best."
"These past years have wronged you. From now on, as long as you can be happy, that's enough. Don't overthink it; let everything take its course."
"As for Iapetus… let the revered Mother tend to his affairs. You should stop thinking about him."
"Atlas has been very low-key recently; he hasn't made any moves, and Pleione has been earnestly advising him all along."
"As for that child Menoetius… sigh… let that, too, take its course."
"If he refuses to learn and remains as stubborn as his father, then even if His Majesty the God-King were to forgive him, he would still end up harming all the gods."
Tethys stroked her daughter's long hair, her gaze deep as the sea. "Child, you must know that the tides of the cosmos are always turning."
"Some stubborn reefs will at last be submerged by the tide of the times; while some resilient shells, after the silt is washed away, will present to the new sovereign the most radiant pearl within."
"My child, do not be the stubborn reef; be the beautiful pearl. His Majesty the God-King has established a new sacred and just order. A small setback now will pass; the future—the beautiful future—matters more."
"My beloved treasure, you are so radiant and beautiful; please don't let meaningless things veil your beauty any longer."
Oceanus, silent at the side, was deeply remorseful.
He should never have let his child marry that Iapetus!
He should have stood against Kronos to the very end!
Wanting to ease relations with Kronos back then, he ended up harming his beloved children!
Damn Kronos! It was all his fault!
He also felt a twinge of embarrassment that he had nearly misunderstood His Majesty the God-King just now.
His Majesty had repeatedly bestowed great grace, and yet he had doubted His Majesty's character.
That was truly a great sin—a great sin.
After Tethys comforted her daughter for quite some time, Clymene's heart, which had collapsed for a moment, slowly began to recover.
Her mood, too, was already much improved from before.
No matter how strong or resilient a being, there will be times they cannot bear it, even to the point of breaking down.
Perhaps it is just an unguarded instant, perhaps only some trivial matter.
But that is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
So long as there remains a place to vent, so long as a heart riddled with wounds and crushed by pressure still has somewhere to be set down and to rest,
then it will not step into the endless abyss.
A loving mother's embrace is the best and warmest harbor in this world.
To have such a husband and such children may be unfortunate for Clymene.
But to have parents like the Ocean God and his wife is exceedingly fortunate.
In her mother's warm arms, beneath her father's caring gaze, Clymene finally let go of all her defenses and released all the grievances and pain pent up in her heart.
After regaining her composure, she instead felt a long-lost ease.
One always feels better after a good vent.
A mother's warm embrace, and a father's steady home, can always heal any pain.
At home, Clymene felt only warmth.
She had returned to the primeval ocean of her birth, where the waters of origin can smooth all wounds and wash away all dust; her parents' love gently wrapped her tattered heart.
This was not just a harbor, but the source of her life and her final home.
Clymene wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. The clouds finally parted on her beautiful face, and a smile returned.
Full of guilt, she said, "My dear Mother," then turned to Oceanus: "My revered Father, I'm sorry to have worried you. Your daughter is fine now."
"It's all my fault. Please don't worry. From now on, I will live each of my days well."
"I still have three children. For them, and for myself, I will."
Oceanus nodded again and again, not bringing up these rotten matters, fearing to trigger another collapse in his daughter.
At last, Oceanus asked, rather tactfully, how it felt to serve at His Majesty the God-King's side.
Only after receiving his daughter's firm reply did he finally relax completely.
Tethys promptly and deftly shifted the topic, and began chatting with Clymene about cheerful, light family matters.
Once completely certain that her emotions had fully calmed, Oceanus had the children return to the hall and ordered them to swiftly prepare a joyful family feast.
Parents' love, the warmth of kin, the festive air, and that sweet divine wine and ambrosia that can dissolve all weariness…
These are the true treasures that can thoroughly clear away the lingering ache of a wounded heart.
At that very moment, upon Mount Olympus, Zeus formally proclaimed Demeter the Mother of the Earth.
Meanwhile, Prometheus and his "brother" Epimetheus had already been roaming the boundless earth for quite some time.
In this stretch of time, the "two brothers" shared only one feeling—bewilderment. Deep bewilderment. Not the ordinary kind.
The world today is vast beyond imagining, and that immensity brings an equally unimaginable emptiness, enough to leave even gods feeling suffocated.
The wind blows from one end of the horizon to the other; apart from its own howl, one can scarcely hear any echo of intelligent life.
What passes for "prosperity" now is only in contrast to the chaotic void of Uranus's age and the rough savagery of Kronos's era.
Compared to the glorious epoch that Zeus is destined to inaugurate—of all things in harmony and all beings flourishing—the present world is pitiably empty.
The gods' figures are spread across this vast universe, their number nearly negligible.
Especially as many deities still dwell upon radiant Mount Olympus.
And aside from the lofty gods, only divine beings possess higher intelligence.
There are only the myriad Nymphs, the various elemental spirits, the god-blooded offspring, and the divine creations personally fashioned by the gods.
These lesser-ranked nymphs and divinities are indeed more numerous than the high gods.
Yet scattered across the limitless cosmos, they are still like pearls lost in the great sea, scarcely to be found.
They cannot fill this excessively vast world; compared to the boundless universe, they are scarcely worth mentioning.
At this time, mortals are far from numerous as well; creatures like animals and plants with faint sapience are few in kind.
And they are basically still at the lower stages of evolution, able only to follow the most primal instincts.
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