Thanatos completed the act and withdrew his scythe, as if performing a daily task.
"Your 'pacification' makes death a little less hostile." Thanatos turned to Orphos, a faint flicker of appreciation in his eyes—he who saw the world's end.
He had seen too many gods and beings who feared and resisted death; it was rare to encounter someone like Orphos, who calmly accepted it and could even derive a meaning of 'feedback' from it.
"Death is a part of the world, just as sleep is the prelude to awakening." Orphos replied, his gaze gliding over Hypnos, who had dozed off again. "Without an end, there is no new life. My 'flourishing' is built upon countless such 'returns'."
The three gods stood in the clearing, surrounded by the silence of life and death. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled spots on Thanatos's black robe, yet it could not dispel the eternal stillness around him; the light also illuminated Orphos's verdant divine radiance and the quiet slumber of Hypnos, who seemed shrouded in twilight.
They represented very different worlds, yet at this moment, they formed a harmonious and complete picture: life (plants guided by Orphos), sleep (Hypnos), death (Thanatos).
"By the way," Hypnos seemed to muster a bit of energy and spoke lazily, his voice drowsy, "that one on Mount Olympus (meaning Cronus) seems to be sleeping restlessly... There are always troubled fragments in his dreams."
Orphos's heart stirred, but his face remained calm. He knew that Hypnos was sometimes summoned to attend to the God-King's dreams, and his words often revealed untold information.
"Oh?" Orphos's tone was casual, as if merely chatting. "Perhaps His Majesty the God-King is preoccupied with state affairs."
Thanatos was silent, as if uninterested, simply gently wiping the blade of his scythe with his fingertips.
Hypnos yawned slightly and rubbed his eyes. "Who knows... Maybe he ate too much and can't digest it." His words were vague, carrying the unique haziness of the sleep god, but they struck a faint note of alarm in Orphos's heart.
Ate too much and can't digest? Did that refer to Poseidon's struggle, or... had he noticed the anomaly of his 'Double'?
Orphos did not ask; he simply kept a watchful heart. He began to reveal the insignificant iron ore he had just been experimenting with, as if sharing an interesting discovery:
"Look, I've been trying to channel the power of earth and plants, to see if I can birth these... strange 'fruits'."
Thanatos glanced at it, showing no interest. Hypnos reluctantly opened his eyes, muttered, "It's dark, not soft at all, wouldn't make a good pillow..." then closed his eyes again.
Orphos smiled and put away the mineral grains. Thus continued his interactions with the twin gods.
No talk of alliances or stances; they merely met from time to time, exchanging a few words about their duties and the fragments of the world. But this seemingly casual connection might become an unexpected help at some critical moment in the future.
He understood that he must continue to manage the persona of 'Orphos'—not only for Gaia's protection, but also to build his own secret network of relationships.
And Thanatos and Hypnos, two descendants of the primordial gods, existing outside the center of power on Olympus yet holding a transcendent status, were undoubtedly a key part of this.
Thanatos's figure gradually dissolved into the deepening night as he went to perform his eternal duty. Hypnos also transformed into a vague mist and drifted towards beings in need of rest.
Orphos too turned and stepped into the deep forest. He did not go towards the stream where nymphs sang, or the blooming meadow, but towards a faint pull from the earth's depths that only he could see, towards a mountain pass inaccessible and rarely trodden even by spirits.
This was a patch of land without a single blade of grass, likely blighted land. Orphos stood on the dead earth, frowning slightly.
The 'blight' here was not ordinary. The air was filled with an aura that distorted the essence of life, and the soil had taken on an unnatural grayness and hardening, as if even the life force of the earth itself had been suppressed by some malevolent power. This was by no means naturally formed barrenness.
He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into his divine spark. First, the power of [Decay] touched it, and instinctively 'sensed' the abnormal, stubborn, and circulation-disrupting 'impurities' within this land.
But this time, the power of [Decay] was not as gentle as when decomposing plant debris; it revealed a more aggressive, more 'targeted' edge.
He slowly crouched down and placed his palm on the cold, hard ground again.
This time, instead of trying to birth or transform, he focused his divine power on 'decomposition' and 'eradication'.
The power of [Decay] was like the most precise surgical scalpel, penetrating along the ley lines, seeking out those twisted energy nodes.
This process proved more difficult than any previous experiment. Those distorted energies were like ulcers attached to the bone, stubbornly parasitic within the earth's veins, resisting decomposition and eradication.
Orphos felt his divine power being rapidly consumed, and fine beads of sweat seeped from his brow. But he did not give up. The power of [Secrecy] worked simultaneously to prevent the abnormal energy in this area from leaking out.
He directed the divine power of [Decay], no longer merely decomposing, but purposefully 'identifying' and 'isolating' those fragments.
Like a clear spring washing away filth, wherever his divine power passed, the grayness began to fade, and the hardened, compacted soil gradually returned to its original looseness.
The oppressed earth, like land long parched receiving rain, began to pulse faintly with life.
However, simply 'decomposing' and 'removing' was not enough. Those fragments, forcibly dismantled by the power of [Decay], still carried dangerous contamination and could not be dispersed or returned to the earth.
Just as Orphos was pondering how to dispose of these 'toxins', the [Subterranean Wealth] within him glowed faintly.
The thought came naturally: Bury them.
The 'underworld' was not only a place for burying treasures, but also the best place for all useless, dangerous, and even forbidden things!
Permanently and safely sealing the 'remnants' and 'toxins' generated during the cleansing process deep underground was itself an extension of the concept of the 'subterranean' and another form of 'wealth'—transforming danger into harmless 'sediment'.
He immediately took action, allocating part of his divine power to guide the purified fragments, compressing and condensing them, then sending them deep into a naturally formed and isolated rock cavity far within the earth's crust, as if burying the most dangerous treasure, and layered several seals with the divine power of [Subterranean Wealth] to ensure they would never leak out.
When it was all done, Orphos breathed a sigh of relief.
The earth beneath his feet had taken on a new appearance. Though there were still no plants, it was because the life force had only just been restored, not because it was suppressed by a curse. The soil was soft and fertile, emitting the freshness of the earth itself. The miasma that had filled the air was completely gone, replaced by a clarity like the first breath after rain.
And he could clearly feel a faint sense of gratitude and closeness from this land towards him. Not just this land, but the earth veins of the entire region seemed to have become smoother and more active because of this 'cleansing'.
At this moment, a new understanding dawned upon him.
What he had just done was not creation, nor destruction, but restoration—restoring a distorted and contaminated entity to its original, healthy, and pure state.
This process was not only the decomposition of [Decay] power, not only the burial of [Subterranean Wealth], but the ultimate form of expelling and correcting 'anomaly' and 'filth'.
Buzz...
A faint, yet very clear, vibration came from the awareness of the world's rules.
A new fragment of divinity, softly glowing white, condensed from the void and slowly merged with the core of Hades' divine spark, standing alongside powers like [Decay], [Subterranean Wealth], and [Plant], yet possessing a unique nature.
[Purification].
This newborn divine aspect symbolized the power to expel filth, cleanse anomalies, and restore origin.
It stemmed from the targeted decomposition of 'harmful impurities' within the power of [Decay], the permanent burial of 'dangerous goods' within the power of [Subterranean Wealth], and the expansion and sublimation of his responsibility for maintaining the vitality of the earth.