Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Boom

The transparent arrows made of water flow and lightning collided, and those that penetrated were blocked by the power of ‘protection’.

Laine’s attack was blocked.

As a ‘Lord of the Spirit Realm’ who had created his Dream Domain in the Phantasmal Spirit Realm, he was akin to a territorial god skilled in combat outside his own ‘Dream Domain.’ If the four deities before him weren’t suppressed by the realm’s forces, he wouldn’t even qualify to oppose them.

But that didn’t matter, as a cold smile appeared on Aaron’s lips—this was the Spirit Realm.

As the Lord of the Spirit Realm, unless another of equal or greater rank nullified his authority, his power here was inexhaustible. By contrast, although the deities’ divine power was immense, how long it could be sustained under the pressure of the realm’s forces was uncertain.

Clang

Suddenly, a shadow emerged from behind Aaron. A figure wearing armor wielded a long dagger, stabbing towards the enemy and piercing through Aaron’s body.

Crash

The next moment, Aaron’s form exploded and then re-formed at a distance.

“What a troublesome Divine Artifact.”

Upon exploding and re-forming, the Lord of the Spirit Realm’s figure had become much more ethereal. With his power suppressed, the properties of the cloak of invisibility stood out. After all, it was not famous for its strength. While it had no other uses, it was nearly unparalleled in concealing one’s form.

“We have no intention of being your enemy, but if you persist, we’re not to be trifled with,”

Hades’ voice was as calm as ever. He could sense that the other did not possess the immortal essence of a deity. Under these circumstances, the opponent might not wish to engage them to the end.

“Ha, perhaps, but alas, this is the Spirit Realm, not your world.”

With a disdainful smile, Aaron showed no sign of backing down. Indeed, he was not immortal like the gods, but to kill him, one would have to destroy the Dream Domain he had created in the Phantasmal Spirit Realm as well.

Merely killing him on the outside was pointless—it would at most damage his Vital Essence, forcing him to retreat to his territory to await rebirth.

“Spirit Realm?”

Even though Zeus was annoyed by the opponent’s reaction, his sharp mind latched onto the key point in his words.

He had been pondering what this place was, and now he finally had an answer.

The Spirit Realm, speculated to have originated in the First Era, was a realm like the Land of Eternal Night and the Realm of Lightness, overseen by an Ancient God. Like the previous two, almost no gods were known to enter or leave, and its ruler seemed to deliberately avoid contact with the outside world.

That god made rare appearances; the last was at the beginning of the Second Era, when he participated in the creation of the original life forms and released a monster on Mount Othrys capable of devouring the sun.

To this day, the beast still appeared every few decades or centuries, causing the great sun to lose its light. Unfortunately, Zeus was too young to have witnessed it.

“We need to prepare to leave. The ruler of this place has dealt with the Father God before, and we have no clue what he would do if he discovered us,”

With thoughts as quick as lightning, Zeus spoke out.

“What, Father God?”

Compared to Zeus, Poseidon had only truly emerged into the world ten years ago; he was genuinely ignorant of this.

“Yes, we can talk about these things once we’re back, but now—”

Blocking another attack with lightning, Zeus began to contemplate how to leave. Suddenly, a strange presence emanated from the depths of the Spirit Realm.

The presence was twofold; one part somewhat resembled Mother Earth’s Golden Apple, but the other part was very foreign.

“Hmm?”

Their expressions changed, and the actions of those present momentarily faltered. Faintly, it seemed as if the forces of the realm were converging towards the core of the Spirit Realm, as if something significant was occurring.

“Let’s go!”

Almost instantly, the deities felt the oppressive force of the realm lessen and hurriedly seized the opportunity to leave.

Zeus led the way out of the Spirit Realm, with the other three deities following closely behind. In the face of sudden change, Aaron had no time to stop them, or rather, he was not a match for the four deities who had regained some of their power.

“Damn it!”

Some annoyance welled up within him; he hadn’t expected these gods to be anything like the proud beings he remembered. They fled without a moment’s hesitation.

Even if they didn’t flee, it was unlikely he could actually harm the immortal gods anyway.

“Who?”

His annoyance still fresh, Aaron turned to look behind him, where two figures had apparently been observing for a while.

“Hmm… you are, that Hecate?”

Although his memory was somewhat hazy, Aaron still recognized the figure before him. The infant who had once been cast down from Mount of the Gods, the sinner born of celestial fire.

One day, the figure suddenly disappeared without a trace, and Golden Humanity had searched for a time. When they found nothing, they engraved the story on stone tablets. But now, it seemed that the figure had also become a deity.

Although both were gods, Aaron did not dislike her. Tales of mortals ascending to godhood were long told in the Spirit Realm. It was said that even the angels who wandered between the seven realms were not innately sacred; they were granted divinity by the very essence of the Spirit Realm itself, which allowed them to wield Divine Authority.

“It is I, are you a human?”

Surprised, she hadn’t expected that he would recognize her. She thought hard for a moment; in Hecate’s memory, Aaron did bear some resemblance to a person from the human tribes at the foot of Mount Othrys, but weren’t Golden Humanity only known for their adoration of the deities?

“No, I am not a human. I am the lord of the Spirit Realm, chosen by the will of the great Ancient Spirit World. The frail and ignorant existence of humans has nothing to do with me.”

He flatly denied Hecate’s designation, feeling that emotional past, being ‘set up’, was a disgrace.

“A demigod? Has the current age indeed given birth to demigods? I had only encountered a demigod, an Evil Spirit who presided over dreams, in the presence of Lord Hypnos before. I didn’t expect such beings to exist in the outside world as well.”

Next to Hecate, the large centaur was difficult not to notice. Aaron simply observed for a moment before recognizing the other’s true nature.

“…Yes, he is my apprentice. But I don’t find Golden Humanity to be weak.”

With a slight frown of her perfectly shaped brows, just one sentence was enough to make Hecate take an instant dislike to this fellow. Therefore, she decided not to say more and turned instead to look in the direction of Mount Olympus.

The first layer of the Spirit Realm was a reflection of the outside world—if something existed outside, it naturally existed here as well. However, with Laine opening the channel for communication between the Spirit Realm and the real world, one could feel the presence of spiritual bodies from the first two layers of the Spirit Realm, even outside of it.

So, like before, standing in front of you without being detectable had become quite difficult, at least for beings without control over the core powers of the Spirit Realm.

“Let’s go, little Chiron, I will take you to meet that Golden Mane.”

Hecate rarely concealed her emotions; she disliked that individual turned from Golden Humanity, so she simply ignored him.

Giving a casual wave to Chiron, Hecate stepped into the real world in one stride, appearing just outside the true Mount Olympus.

“Alright, mentor.”

With an apologetic smile to Aaron, Chiron followed immediately after Hecate. Aaron simply gave a nonchalant expression in return, and thus the Spirit Realm layer near Olympus was once again deserted.

This place, like the East Sea, didn’t harbor any ordinary Spirit Realm lifeforms. Because Mount Olympus itself possessed power, so too did its projection in the Phantasmal Spirit Realm.

By instinct, weaker spirits were disinclined to approach this place.

“Hecate, huh…”

Watching the direction of their departure, Aaron pondered deeply.

“Having become a deity but with no sign of being suppressed by the realm, she must also be an emissary chosen in the mortal world by the will of the great Ancient Spirit World, just like Lord Hypnos.”

“But to think, the channel between the Spirit Realm and the real world has been opened… To prevent those deities from wreaking havoc here, it seems I need to seek some allies.”

Perhaps as a mix of ‘official business and personal vendetta,’ Aaron simply assumed that the deities would damage the Spirit Realm.

Outside, he was still no match for them. But within the Spirit Realm, particularly in the third layer, the situation might just be turned on its head.