Crete.
At this time, this island did not yet have this name; it was merely an unnamed, tranquil place in the vast universe.
An infant lay peacefully in a cradle meticulously woven from gold.
However, the circumstances of this tiny life were extraordinary.
The golden cradle was cleverly suspended between the branches of a sturdy ash tree, its swaying shadows like gentle arms, completely concealing the small figure.
He was neither in the vast Sky, nor on the solid Earth, nor in the deep abyss of the underworld, nor floating in the endless Ocean.
Only through such a marvelous method of concealment could this child cleverly evade the sharp and profound gaze of the supreme God-King Cronus, who governs all things in the universe, under the invisible dark protection of Mother Goddess Gaia and Night Lady Nyx.
Beneath the cradle, a golden female goat lay quietly.
Her golden fur shimmered with a soft glow, appearing extremely beautiful and docile; at this moment, she had her eyes slightly closed, feigning sleep, like a golden sculpture.
Around them, several Curetes stood guard, loyal and vigilant, holding gleaming battle-axes or sharp spears and heavy bronze shields.
They were born from the tears of Rhea, the great God-Queen of "Flow," "Vitality," "Operation," and "Movement."
When this greatest Goddess secretly gave birth to this child in Dikteon Cave, the crystal tears that rolled down due to reluctance and sorrow fell upon the Earth, giving birth to these powerful demigods.
The Curetes were born as powerful demigods.
However, even with demigod bodies, in the coming great upheaval of the era, their greatest role would only be to quickly hide the child deep within the Ide Cave on the island when he cried.
Afterward, they would vigorously strike their shields with their weapons at the cave entrance, perform wild war dances, and loudly shout earth-shattering war songs, doing their utmost to cover the loud cries of their young master, which were enough to echo throughout the area.
For the impending war of the gods, the role these demigods could play was limited to just this.
Two Nymphs born from the blood of the great Father Uranus, ash tree Nymphs, now guarded the child's sides, never leaving him.
They were true gods.
One was the gentle and charming Adrasteia; her face was like a blooming flower bud, and her eyes, when they moved, revealed her tenderness.
The other was the beautiful and elegant Ide; her figure was light and graceful, and all her movements were filled with endless patience and maternal love.
And the attendant god personally created by Mother Goddess Gaia, another true deity—Melisseus, the God of Bees.
He tirelessly toiled, collecting and refining spiritual "honey" that only deities could enjoy; this nectar, full of the essence of the Earth, was faithfully and respectfully offered to this young deity by him.
Although this world was already sufficiently complete, it was still in a period of continuous expansion and perfection.
At this time, the world was far from reaching its ultimate vastness and had not yet evolved to such extreme breadth.
In the near future, it would take nine days and nine nights for a bronze anvil (a large bronze tool used by blacksmiths to support metal during forging) to fall from the Sky to the Earth.
And it would also take nine days and nine nights to penetrate the underworld from the Earth and then fall into the deepest layer of Tartarus.
From the highest point of the world to the lowest, that was a distant distance of nearly 11.85 trillion kilometers.
Of course, at this point in time, the scale of the world was far from being so vast, and its development was not yet complete.
At this time, the distance between the upper and lower realms was roughly a little over 300 million kilometers (Earth's diameter is about 12,700 kilometers).
At this moment, this young deity, with a pair of golden eyes, gazed directly at the distant Sky.
In the depths of his pupils, strange and inexplicable light shimmered faintly, containing a mysterious rhythm.
The Sky, that supreme existence, was still tirelessly ascending, continuously increasing its distance from the Earth.
The Sky seemed to hold some profound "opinion" of the Earth, and thus he resolutely wished to distance himself from the Earth, and he put this desire into real and continuous action, causing the space between the upper and lower parts of the world to continuously expand.
At the same time, the spatial dimensions of the world, front, back, left, and right, were also growing synchronously, and the universe's Context was rapidly extending in all directions in silence.
The great Ocean Current that encircled the entire world was Oceanus, the eldest son of the great Father Uranus and Gaia, the Mother of Matter.
He was the eldest of the Titans and the elder brother of the current second-generation God-King Cronus, the father of all rivers and fresh water in the universe.
This vast Ocean Current, connected at both ends and self-contained, was like an endless giant serpent, encircling and covering the entire edge of the world, enveloping the Earth.
In his slow, unchanging operation, he continuously opened up chaos, transforming the chaotic nothingness, which was in a state of being and non-being, into real matter, bit by bit.
And Mount Othrys, that soared into the Sky, towering into the clouds, as majestic as the Sky itself, also rose synchronously as the Sky continuously ascended, now serving as the eternal pillar between heaven and earth.
At this moment, what this golden-eyed child was gazing at was precisely this divine mountain, which, though incredibly distant, could still be seen by all intelligent life in the world and was looked up to by all intelligent life.
The majestic posture of this divine mountain was beyond description; the spectacular sight of its mountain range was beyond the imagination of all mortals.
This was the dwelling place of the supreme Gods.
It was the dwelling place of the supreme Titans.
It was the center of cosmic order.
Today, the God-King residing on this divine mountain has completely suppressed Gaia, the Mother of Matter, the Mother Goddess of the Earth, the Creator of All Things—the supreme Mother Goddess Gaia.
All living beings, all intelligent life, and even all real matter existing in the world, and even the invisible gods like darkness, night, and ether elements.
All of them must bow down at the feet of this second-generation God-King who overthrew the Sky, not daring to show the slightest disobedience.
He is the son of the supreme Father Uranus, the son of Gaia, the Mother of Sacred Things, the King of the Titans, the second-generation ruler of the universe, the ruler of the Golden Age, the precursor of the father of the gods, the supreme powerful one, the great courageous one, the cunning patricide, the great God of Creation, the God of Growth, the God of Abundance, the God of harvest—Cronus!
(Cronus is not Chronos; Cronus in Ancient Greek: Κρόνος; Romanized: Krónos; Latin: Cronus; English: Kronos; Chronos in Ancient Greek: Χρόνος; English name: Chronos / Khronos).
The child's golden eyes gazed intently at the divine mountain for a moment. Then, a loud cry broke the silence of the forest.
He was hungry.
However, even this earth-shattering cry was only a dry wail without tears; his crying was merely a reminder.
Ide, the ash tree Nymph who was waiting nearby, immediately picked up the golden cradle and hurried to the Ide Cave, with Adrasteia following closely behind.
The golden goat Amalthea, who was feigning sleep, instantly leaped up, her agile body like a golden lightning bolt, leaping and running towards the cave.
Her speed was swifter than a gale; the hurricane she stirred up behind her plowed deep furrows in the Earth.
The several Curetes, these demigods, immediately began a wild war dance, swinging their arms, their massive shields struck with earth-shattering force.
They continuously shouted inspiring war songs, doing their utmost to suppress the startling sound of their young master's crying.
The shouts of these demigods echoed for hundreds of miles around; the entire island of Crete shook with the rhythm of their dance steps.
However, the slight movements of these tiny demigods were only the most superficial concealment.
The true protectors concealing this child were the supreme Mother Goddess Gaia and the primordial Goddess Nyx.
Only under their Earth's protection and the concealment of the laws of endless darkness could the child's sounds, which were enough to alarm the God-King, be hidden.
After Ide ran into the cave, she gently lifted the child from the golden basket.
The golden goat Amalthea obediently knelt before the child, offering her magical horn to the child's mouth.
Sweet milk flowed continuously from this miraculous horn, and the milk emitted a strange, sweet fragrance in the air.
Melisseus, the God of Bees, then brought his carefully extracted honey; guided by his divine power, the golden honey specially for deities flowed onto the horn, perfectly blending with the milk, and was drunk by the young deity.
After a satisfying meal, the child contentedly closed his golden eyes again and fell into a deep sleep.
This child was the embodiment of the laws conceived by the second-generation God-King Cronus and God-Queen Rhea.
When conceiving this child, the God-King had integrated his own laws of creation, agriculture, growth, harvest, abundance, harvest, courage, fertility, reproduction, as well as fire, sea, earthquakes, gloom, shadows, and more.
And God-Queen Rhea possessed the supreme cosmic fundamental order laws of flow, vitality, operation, and movement.
From birth, this child possessed immense power beyond ordinary imagination.
His cries could echo throughout heaven and earth, and every unintentional struggle was enough to directly hammer to death the guarding Curetes demigods.
Only the ash tree Nymphs born from the blood of the supreme Father Uranus, the incarnation of the Sky, the first Father, the first God-Lord, and the embodiment of the most basic rules of the universe, could barely serve as his nannies, enduring his terrifying divine power that radiated unconsciously.
And merely to satisfy his physical development, a true deity—Melisseus, the God of Bees—was needed to extract the essence containing the vitality of the Earth to feed him.
But this was still not enough; a divine maiden, the golden goat Amalthea, personally created by the Mother Goddess Gaia and of a status equivalent to a deity, was also needed.
Only with the sweet milk of this goat divine maiden could the child's astonishing growth needs barely be met.
It was unknown how much time had passed since Goddess Rhea gave birth to this child.
In this era, the world was still incomplete, and time held almost no meaning for the gods.
However, since matter evolved from nothingness and the universe began to operate, the invisible and formless time had been silently demonstrating its power, like an invisible giant hand, pushing the gears of fate.
The destined outcome of fate was drawing closer and closer to that incredibly powerful second-generation God-King.
Because...
Zeus's will shall be realized.
Zeus's will is unstoppable.
Everything is Zeus's will!
(Zeus reference image)
