Chapter 273: Dark And Night, God Of Death, God Of Sleep
In this scene and atmosphere, let alone Zeus who was already promiscuous by nature, even if it were another goddess with exceptional self-control, she probably could not resist the ultimate temptation of sinking the soul, emanating from Night itself.
That was a subtle fragrance that could engulf the god entirely, a cool and gentle night color like tides and curtains, a charm and gorgeousness gently pushed by the starlight across the sky, retreating into the depths of the sky.
Thus, the God King unceremoniously pulled the Queen of Dark Night tightly into his embrace once more.
Foreheads touching, breaths mingling, breathing rising and falling between each other’s lips and teeth, divine auras blending and merging.
He murmured in a hoarse yet magnetic voice: “My Nyx, my beloved, you are always so cruel.”
“Every time, you first use the coldest words to deeply hurt my heart.”
“Then, when I am heartbroken and about to leave, you wrap me up again with your unparalleled tenderness like water.”
“My love, my love… tell me, how can you soothe this heart that you have repeatedly hurt?”
The Goddess of Night slightly tiptoed, her cold white neckline tensing slightly in the night color, her lips already gently meeting.
A faint, musky orchid-like fragrance slowly exhaled from between her dark lip line, like moonlight falling on the water surface, with the wind rippling it open.
That soft voice like moonlight reflected in streams arose gently by his lips: “My Father, my Lord… whatever you say, so it shall be~”
“Night will always let you do as you please. As long as… as long as you can forgive Night’s earlier mistake, as long as… you can be happy because of it.”
“Night… is willing to be completely swallowed by you.”
Those trembling words seemed to roll out from her slightly shaking chest, fragrance wafting, words lingering.
“My Father… how long has it been since you properly cherished Night? Night… only wants Father God to be happy…”
Faced with such a Night, the God King, already beyond remedy, truly could no longer endure.
Moreover, even if there truly were a “remedy,” Zeus would not want it.
He reckoned the timing was about right.
It was also time to give some sweetener.
After all, with “CPU” matters, one cannot keep demanding and suppressing without giving any return.
The God King gently bit her delicate dark crimson lips, saying in a muffled voice: “My love… this time, I come with endless longing and love. To… gestate our lovely son together.”
“You say… likewise two, alright?”
In the Goddess of Night’s almond-shaped phoenix eyes, brilliant fluorescence visibly welled up.
An indescribable immense surprise, like golden clouds covering the night curtain, melted to the bones.
Making this Goddess of Night, whose mind today had been like a roller coaster up and down, even her entire soft divine body begin to tremble lightly uncontrollably.
Her jade arms wrapped around, already tightly locking her beloved God King’s nape.
Turning that originally tentative perception into the most beautiful, sweetest, and most intimate closeness in an instant.
She said no more; all her fervent intention was silently told to her sole beloved through this most passionate and direct action.
Thus, the night curtain began to surge violently in the netherworld with unprecedented depth and breadth.
Golden clouds, like lava poured into the dark ocean, roamed and leaped.
Thunder rampaged in the deep folds of the endless Night.
From the deepest part of that Night came bursts of indescribable, cosmically primordial enchanting phantom sounds, a kind of “like sound yet not sound” phantom tide pushing outward layer by layer.
The master of the netherworld, the incarnation of Darkness, the underground Zeus—Hades.
His form in the Underworld Palace suddenly flickered between real and illusory, instantly vanishing without trace.
“Dark Energy,” one of the universe’s four fundamental origins, the law symbolizing “Darkness” itself, at this moment returned to his supreme origin.
In this underworld, in this endless Darkness, under this pure Night’s shroud.
That supreme God King Zeus—the eternal master, immortal and indestructible supreme lord, omniscient and omnipotent God above Gods!
The incarnation of the highest heaven, also the manifestation of the deepest Darkness.
He, with the supreme laws of “Sky” and “Darkness,” embraced that pure “Night” into his bosom.
“Dark” and “Night,” in this moment, merged into one.
“Absolute material existence” and its opposite side, under the God King’s will, achieved unprecedented ultimate perfection.
The omniscient and omnipotent lord placed “Dark, Night” on the opposite side of “Sky.”
He used the Great Thunder capable of traversing endless space-time, piercing existence and void, to connect these two poles positively and negatively, opening their yin yang.
Then, in this supreme union of “yin” and “yang,” “light” and “dark,” “positive” and “negative,” two indispensable, interdependent fundamental laws of the universe burst forth from their fusion!
The first, named “Death.”
He is the eternal companion of “value” and “meaning” of all “existence.”
He delineates for all life an ultimate boundary named “form.”
And it is precisely this “form” that gives life itself true “meaning.”
If life were infinite, all choices would lose urgency, and all value would dissipate accordingly.
He makes life’s “form” the cruelest yet most precious gift.
Precisely because death is inevitable, love, family, ideals, every sunrise and sunset, even every breath, becomes so precious.
Like fireworks in the night sky, their brevity makes them dazzlingly brilliant.
Life, precisely because of the existence of “Death” as its “end,” gains that heavy, urgent preciousness of “must cherish every moment.”
He is the most cruel “ultimate judge.”
No matter what magnificent waves an individual experiences in life, he imprints “settled as dust” on all their choices, actions, and relations at the final moment.
No matter how one pursues wealth, emotion, or ideals in life, ultimately, he transforms it into “completed existence,” irreversible.
He is also the most cold-hearted yet most merciful “equal treater” and “liberation bestower.”
No matter what enviable or painful things an individual has in life, he forcibly and permanently interrupts them.
No matter how much wealth one amasses, power one wields, beauties one indulges, great undertakings one achieves, kin and friends one has…
Or, what pain and torment one endures.
He brings all individuals to the most thorough, equal end and liberation.
All matters and things must die.
He is also the most sacred “truth welcomer.”
He brings the most serious, irreplaceable “boundary” to all spirits.
His existence itself silently urges the living to contemplate the eternal proposition: “How to live truly?”
He forever favors all truth-pursuers, forever uplifts souls with great courage, great wisdom, all great virtues!
He tells the world: Only the courage to face death is the ultimate adherence to “truth and virtue”!
The wise choices made before death are the most serious choices in life!
Only by facing death can one escape “daily sinking,” to live one’s true “self”!
He extends his cold yet firm embrace to hug truth’s pursuers.
At the final moment, leading them onto the path beyond the mundane, lifting them high into the eternal “world of truth”!
It is the existence of “Death” that makes every moment of life worth burning.
He tells all living beings: The most precious is life itself.
Life, only once.
He poses that most important question, like an eternal bell toll, to every sentient being:
How should one’s life be spent?
When he looks back, no regret for wasted years, no shame for mediocrity.
He can smile serenely, stepping onto that irreversible path.
And how to achieve this is the eternal question every living being, every individual, must ponder lifelong.
He also tells all living beings: Only death is the unchangeable end, but as long as alive, everything can still be done.
He is the sacred ender, truth welcomer, irreversible one, serious judge, cruel equalizer, ultimate liberation bestower, incarnation of “Death”—God of Death, Thanatos!
The second, named “Sleep.”
He is the existence with the most “mischievous fun,” provoking thought.
He blurs the boundary between “reality” and “illusion,” juxtaposes “wakeful reason” with “illusory senses,” softening the edge between wakeful reason and dream senses.
He makes individuals temporarily relinquish control over the external world, accepting a state of “unconscious drift.”
Forcing the world to ponder: What is “existence”? What is the “state of survival”?
This itself is a temporary release of “self-will.”
He lets living beings indirectly experience “non-existence” without facing “Death’s” ultimate cruelty.
Thereby reminding individuals: Existence is not wholly controlled by wakeful reason.
He tells living beings to rationally reflect: “How to confirm reality?”
Senses can reflect the real world.
But is “reality” truly reliable?
I think, not necessarily I exist.
“What is consciousness?” “What is self?” “What is the meaning of existence?”…
He mischievously forces all beings to ponder: Is the world in wakefulness also merely a more complex illusion?
If so, how to determine and affirm “self” and “truth”?
He tells living beings: Be humble, think, cautious, firm.
He is also the kindest “escaper from sinking.”
He lets life temporarily escape endless pain and fatigue of reality, briefly detach from the rational rule-filled real world.
He lets people temporarily escape “reality’s sinking,” pausing the cruel reality.
He lets people briefly shed all external bindings, reserving power for returning to “true existence.”
Sleep is never a blank of existence.
Rather, a repair for the “alienated” self in daily life, for the soul constantly sinking under survival pressure.
It helps people refocus and gather strength on the essence of life: “how to live,” “strive to live.”
He is likewise the mildest “tranquility bestower” and “life restorer.”
Maintaining wakefulness inevitably consumes “life energy.”
And sleep is the most effective, simplest, cheapest repair and replenishment of life energy.
It is the most natural respite for wakeful rational activity, the natural rhythm following biological balance law.
Without sleep, one cannot sustain wakeful rational activity, let alone pursue better life.
Wakefulness fatigues, both mentally and physically.
While sleep dispels fatigue, nurtures mind and body.
Even gods need rest.
He is also the most tolerant “peace of mind bestower.”
Though unable to grant eternal liberation like his brother.
He can help life, under the premise of “continuing to live,” temporarily escape “life’s suffering.”
He alleviates all living beings’ eternal pain from “survival will.”
He drives away all suffering encountered in wakefulness, torment of desires, and heart’s anxiety.
He grants brief precious tranquility in repose.
Meanwhile, in sleep, one temporarily escapes reality’s distortion and coercion of self, allowing living beings in dreams to approach closer to the “true self.”
Letting the heart regather the ego in a night of gentle repose.
Sleep is never “waste” of living time, but existence’s indispensable twin brother of survival itself.
He divides life into clear cycles, telling living beings: Life is never eternal linear motion.
In life, besides wakefulness and labor, there is haze and rest.
Life is the eternal cycle constituted by “sleep” and “wakefulness.”
This cyclicality is life’s natural rhythm, also the universe’s survival order.
No matter how powerful or wealthy the individual, “Sleep” descends equally on every existence with its irresistible rhythm and order.
Even including gods.
So, when feeling pain or discomfort, mentally or physically, rest assured and sleep.
That is the haven the most benevolent God King bestows on all beings, the most merciful gift to briefly escape all sinking and painful torment.
Likewise, the supply station to sustain life, replenish reason, regroup and advance; the necessary buildup and repair for life to continue.
Every good sleep, upon waking, is a renewed self; full of power, able to bravely face forward.
Thus, loving sleep is never contemptible, nor sinful.
Because it is the mildest haven in cruel reality; the warmest hot spring to wash away all fatigue.
Sleep, brother of Death, he is the mildest “death,” escaping all mental strain, painful torment, without truly losing everything.
This deity is the existence cognizer, reason reflector, void consciousness, truth opposer, tranquility rester, peace of mind bestower, master of “Sleep”—God of Sleep, Hypnos!
The two great deities stand side by side, one bestowing true tranquility, one granting good rest.
God of Death is truly the kindest god, bringing “true tranquility” to the end.
God of Sleep is likewise the mildest god, bringing “rare rest” to daily life.
Thus, the laws of “Death” and “Rest” are perfected.
God of Death Thanatos, and his sister representing “violent death”—Keres Goddess, will together define the boundaries of “Death.”
In the world of the living, they will punctuate living beings with a clear, determinable period.
How one dies? When one dies? What is true “death”?
All this becomes crystal clear, no longer chaotic disorder.
All living beings destined to decay will no longer endure bodily painful decay due to time’s merciless passage.
Until thoroughly turning to dust, only then liberated.
All torment of illness and injury will not need endless endurance due to inability to die.
All violently dead living beings will no longer be forever trapped in “zombie” state due to inability to fully decay.
Death, clearly defined, thus souls gain ultimate liberation.
And in the underworld, he likewise punctuates souls with a determinable period—the truly final “end.”
When a soul reaches its end, completely dissipating, he will gently embrace that initial, pure spirituality into his bosom.
He will protect this spirituality, not letting it fall into eternal annihilation in the underworld.
Awaiting that new, latest, brand-new beginning.
And this requires another crucially important Great Goddess to complete the final puzzle piece together, but that is a later story.
The mildest God of Sleep, his birth also means the law of “Rest” is thoroughly perfected.
Living beings will no longer suffer continuous dual wear of body and spirit due to unclear rules of “Rest.”
Before this, because laws of “Sleep” and “Rest” were imperfect, all living beings’ bodies and spirits actually operated in “chronic failure” mode, in continuous depletion and torment.
Bodies become weak, sore, dizzy, headachey; bodily aging accelerates, organ functions decline prematurely.
Spirits constantly fatigued, leading to overall decline in learning and cognition, uncontrolled emotions, chaotic consciousness.
Only near collapse does life instinct forcibly shut down, plunging the individual into uncontrollable, indeterminate dormancy.
Time perhaps long, recovery unstable.
For non-social living beings, once asleep, may never wake again.
This near-collapse instinctive rest state has no resistance to harm.
That is, if Death law were not previously imperfect, just this inability to rest normally would suffice to prevent all living beings from living well.
But even so, it truly made all beings suffer enough.
Now, God of Sleep is born.
He brings to all mortal, fragile mortals the tranquility rest nurturing body and mind, delivering “rest—nurture—reset.”
Every good sleep, upon waking, is the best state.
Every earnest rest, upon waking, allows facing the new future with full spirit.
His importance and greatness need no further words.
