And when, on the God-Net system's divine-thought channel, he received His Majesty the God-King's proclamation to the entire cosmos that the Goddess of Agricultural Bounty had been elevated to the Mother of the Earth, he became all the more certain of it.
Though the God-King did not formally announce that he had stripped the old guilty gods of their authorities, he clearly had no intention of hiding it.
Only then, what of his father—was he all right?
Having lost his law-essence...
His father wouldn't be gone just like that, would he?!
Prometheus pondered long and carefully, and in the end felt it should not come to that.
His Majesty the God-King is not such a cruel and heartless god.
He decided to wait and watch, quietly fixing all his attention on Olympus.
He was waiting for the Mother of All Things' reaction.
Since he could sense this, then the Mother of All Things, the primordial source of the gods, would certainly know as well.
He waited several days, and only when he saw the Mother of All Things return from Olympus to the earth did he finally set his heart fully at ease.
Since she had made no drastic move, it meant matters were still within control.
Otherwise, given that Mother's temperament, there would surely have been an uproar already.
But he had barely set his anxious heart down when he saw his own mother Clymene's figure descend after the Mother of All Things across the boundary.
Not long after, she, in an almost frantic state, tore headlong toward the ocean.
Wherever she passed, divine tears fell in her wake, becoming one clear yet sorrowful lake after another.
Seeing this, Prometheus was alarmed and heartsick. He had meant to chase after her at once, but...
Her speed was too great; he could not catch up.
He had no choice but to stop, silently pondering the cause.
With his extraordinary wisdom, he could not guess the whole truth, but he could infer most of it.
In the end, he chose to stay put, plain and simple.
After all, chasing now would be useless.
At his speed, by the time he reached the Oceanic Temple, things there would likely be over, perhaps with Mother already back on Olympus.
Prometheus sat upon the cold stone, sighing over and over, his heart full of bitterness.
As for his father, he must have remained stubborn, and so His Majesty had taken his authority.
His eldest brother Atlas was under such close watch he could not move; his foolish second brother Menoetius had already gone to Tartarus to keep their father company.
Now his mother was surely heartbroken as well, and would have to serve before His Majesty the God-King for a full ten thousand years.
Only he remained. Though he bore His Majesty's heavy charge, he...
Still had no clue where to begin.
What was he to do?
The future of the House of Iapetus was truly bleak.
The more Prometheus thought, the more worried he became. He truly did not know what to do.
Just then, Epimetheus, who knew not from where he had been larking about, came running back, shouting.
Without ceremony, Epimetheus smacked Prometheus on the back of the head, knocking the wise Titan, lost in thought, straight back to his senses.
"Prometheus, my brother, what useless things are you brooding over now?"
That blow left Prometheus seething.
He and his brother had always clashed in temperament, and he thoroughly disliked Epimetheus's "afterthought" nature.
The two brothers were always at odds, yet somehow could not do without each other.
"You fool! What are you doing? Can't you see I'm thinking about serious matters?"
His dearest brother only shrugged. "Prometheus, I'm just asking what you're thinking about."
"His Majesty the God-King told us to create life and bring the world prosperity. But you always think too much and do too little."
"Look at me—the life-making of late has been all on my shoulders."
Hearing that, Prometheus flared up further and barked, "Shut up! You incorrigible idiot—stop making a mess of things!"
"You never think at all; you never consider the consequences—you just do! Every time, I'm the one trailing after you, cleaning up the chaos you leave behind!"
Epimetheus looked baffled, even a little aggrieved. "Isn't it all working out?"
"Look, before, the grasses and plants on land were too luxuriant; there was hardly a place to set foot, and there wasn't much vitality."
"I made rabbits. Aren't rabbits cute? They can check that limitless growth of the grasses."
Prometheus's face darkened. In a cold tone he said, "And then? You gave the rabbits an extraordinary power to breed. Are you planning to have them eat every blade of grass on earth?"
Epimetheus blinked and replied with perfect conviction, "You can't blame me for that. Creating one by one is too slow. The world's so big—even if I work myself to death I won't make many. Efficiency first."
"And later I made lions, wolves, leopards, and dogs, didn't I? With them to eat the rabbits, that problem is solved."
Prometheus felt his divine blood pressure rising. Gritting his teeth, he forced out, "And after that?"
Epimetheus grinned all the wider and said merrily, "Prometheus, my brother, His Majesty said that whatever the world lacks, we should create."
"In the Three Realms and Three Domains, only the Netherworld holds the souls of the dead and needs no additional life from us."
"Look—sky, sea, and earth—I've done all according to His Majesty's command, haven't I?"
"Come to think of it, these were all inspirations His Majesty personally gave me."
"It was His Majesty who first created the eagle that soars the skies. She represents His Majesty's acumen and confidence, and we granted her swift motion and piercing eyes."
"Following His Majesty's creation, I made upon the earth the most majestic of beings—the 'lion.' This is my gift to His Majesty the God-King; it represents His Majesty's courage and awe-inspiring majesty!"
"And the mighty bull—he represents His Majesty's responsibility and faithfulness!"
"In the boundless sea I created the first great whale; its song will resound through the ocean, representing His Majesty's power and compassion!"
"See how good that is? Sky, earth, and sea all have beautiful, sacred life, and all bear symbols of His Majesty's holy dignity. His Majesty will surely be very pleased!"
The more he heard, the angrier Prometheus became, until he could no longer bear it. He stepped forward and decked his smug brother with a single punch.
He shouted, "You've given them the finest gifts! In this desolate world they'll have no natural enemies and can propagate without restraint—this throws everything out of balance!"
"You incorrigible fool! When you create them—when you grant them gifts—how can you not spare a thought for the world's balance! The whole world will be thrown off because of this!"
Epimetheus gave an embarrassed chuckle, got up from the ground, and mumbled, "Didn't His Majesty tell the two of us to create life together? You're here, aren't you? I can't do everything, can I? How could I steal your credit?"
"Look at you, getting worked up again."
"Later, didn't you limit their ability to breed and raise their environmental requirements? See? Problem solved again."
At that, Prometheus saw red and landed another heavy punch.
"Idiot! You've gone and made the topmost, finest creatures right off the bat—how am I supposed to keep creating?"
"The beings you made all represent His Majesty's noble divine aspects. What can I create that surpasses them to become this world's new sovereign?"
"And besides, you created life at the top of the food chain outright. What about the creatures below? There's no linkage between them; it's still unbalanced!"
"In the end it still falls to me, doesn't it? To make the humble little worms like earthworms and dung beetles (scarab beetles), so they can cleanse the soil and return death to fertile earth."
"And to make the trifling creatures like krill, rotifers, and coral polyps to maintain the ocean's whole ecology!"
"Some 'son of the One of the Eternal Cycle,' Iapetus's child you are! Do you not consider the world's ceaseless cycles and recurring flows at all?"
"Every time you wave your grand hand and make some flashy creature, I have to create dozens, even hundreds of inconspicuous beings to resolve the problems of cyclical development for you!"
By this point Prometheus was grinding his teeth.
Epimetheus always did whatever popped into his mind, and always the flashiest things most likely to win the God-King's favor.
While all the thankless, heavy-lifting "cleanup" that truly kept the world running fell to him.
And when Epimetheus casually did "one," he had to toil to "ten," even "a hundred," just to barely resolve things. How could he not be furious?
Epimetheus chuckled, scratching his mop of curly hair a bit sheepishly.
"Prometheus, my brother, thank you."
"But I've done a lot of fixes for you too," he added, regaining his confidence. "Frankly, the creatures you make are too ugly, and many are dangerously aggressive. His Majesty wants a world that is beautiful and resplendent."
"Look—I made luminous fireflies that dance through the grass, bringing to the silent night a breathing play of gentle light and dark; and the most beautiful birds-of-paradise and colorful parrots, which gather the sky's azure and the earth's splendor into one."
"And, and the chameleon that can change color with its surroundings—when that little thing hides in the woods, don't you find it fascinating?"
Prometheus snorted heavily through his nose and turned his head aside, too weary to say more.
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