The Judgment of Light

His expression was extremely grim. As the Sun God, he had always held a superior position, and since he took on the power of the sun, he had never knelt before Zeus. 'Phæthon, Zeus, what have you done to Phæthon!" Helios recalled the scene he had seen before losing consciousness, where Phæthon was struck down by Zeus's divine lightning. Leaving other matters aside, Helios was indeed one of the rare kind fathers among the Greek gods. His love for Phæthon was genuine, and the death of his son naturally caused him immense pain. 'Phæthon?" Zeus snorted coldly, and arcs of electricity flickered in his large, elegant hands. A semi-transparent golden soul appeared in the palm of his hand. It was a young boy; his eyes were tightly shut, and his beautiful brows were furrowed. Every corner of his soul was tainted with a dark aura that writhed continuously. With each movement, the boy's expression twisted in pain. 'Phæthon!" Upon seeing the state of his beloved son, Helios cried out in agony. He struggled to stand upright and looked at Zeus, his gaze heavy. 'Your Majesty, the King of the Gods, please return Phæthon's soul to me." 'Return him to you?" Zeus laughed heartily, seemingly mocking Helios's arrogance and ignorance. 'Let's not mention that he is the root cause of this calamity, a person guilty of heinous crimes. Look at him; his soul is cursed by the world. What can you do with him if I return him to you, Helios? Watch your divine son die again right before your eyes? And this time, completely vanish?" '…" Zeus's words left Helios in prolonged silence. After a long while, he raised his face, his eyes fixed on Zeus, and hoarsely asked, 'What do you want?" 'You know very well, Helios." Zeus squinted his deep blue eyes, which were more profound than the sky, and everything was left unsaid. 'This is impossible!" Helios's expression was extremely grim. To ask him to give up the power of the sun was nothing but a delusion! 'Heh." Helios's reaction was completely within Zeus's expectations. This king of the gods, endowed with the wisdom of Metis, naturally knew that the other party would not easily compromise. It seemed that he needed to up the ante. 'Apollo." 'Yes, great king of the gods." The handsome god, radiating a faint glow, held an ancient stone tablet. He infused the tablet with divine power, and an ancient, desolate, and unparalleled aura emanated from it. 'Helios borrowed the sun chariot, causing wildfires on earth, enraging Mother Earth, who has decided to demote him to a god of sin and imprison him in Tartarus, never to be released!" 'What? No! You can't do this!" The Moon Goddess Selene gasped in shock and immediately stepped forward to protest this decision. What was Tartarus? It was the prison of the Abyss God among the four primordial gods, the place where all gods of sin were confined. That place was silent and colorless, only filled with the dark, sunless void. Moreover, this prison would gradually strip the gods of their essence until they were completely drained of their divine power and died. Their parents, the Father of Light, Hyperion, and the Mother of Light, Theia, were imprisoned there as the defeated side in the war of the gods. No one understood the power of their father and mother better than them. If even they could not escape from that prison, what hope did Helios have if he were to enter? 'Brother!" At this moment, Selene could not care for her unconscious sister. She hurried out, wanting to plead for Helios, after all, that was the oracle of Mother Earth. Gaia was the first deity to appear in this world after the creator god Chaos. All the new generation of gods were birthed by her. She was not only the mother of the gods but also the spokesperson of the primordial gods in the divine mountain. Her will generally represented the will of several primordial gods. What Selene could think of, Helios could certainly think of as well. He realized that he had fallen into a deadlock; no matter what, the power of the sun was destined to change hands today. 'Zeus, as long as you agree to a few conditions, I will hand over the power of the sun. Otherwise…" A ruthless and resolute glint flashed in Helios's eyes. 'I will destroy my divine essence immediately. Even if Apollo is naturally attuned to the sun, it would take him hundreds of years to refine the sun god essence. Can humanity on earth endure for that long?" '…" Zeus's expression remained unchanged; no one could read his emotions. After a moment of silence, he spoke, 'Go on." 'First, purify Phæthon's soul by cleansing the corruption of my divine essence and elevate him to a constellation, granting him immortality." Helios had already noticed that the corruption on his divine essence had been expelled. Since this method worked for him, it would surely work for Phæthon as well. '…" Zeus looked at Hebe. After seeing her give a barely perceptible nod, he said, 'Agreed." 'Second, my crimes have nothing to do with my sisters; their powers should still be under their control." 'Agreed." First, get the power of the sun, and then deal with the subsequent matters gradually. 'Third, pardon my identity as a god of sin and exempt me from punishment in Tartarus." The thought of that dark, sunless hell filled Helios with fear. 'Your crimes are unforgivable, but I can agree that you won't be imprisoned in Tartarus. However, you must confine yourself to Rhodes Island for life and never leave!" Zeus's eyes flashed with lightning. 'Helios, you should know this is my bottom line." If Helios made any further demands, Zeus would strike him down with a bolt of lightning, even if it meant sacrificing the new humans on earth. He could always have Hebe and Prometheus create another batch. '…" Helios finally lowered his noble head. Everything that followed went smoothly. Helios stripped himself of his divine essence, Phæthon's soul was purified by Hebe, and Zeus elevated him to the sky, transforming him into the constellation Eridanus. As for Apollo, he was appointed by Zeus as the new Sun God. With the essence of the Sun God, he directly broke through to the mid-tier divine power among the main gods, potentially becoming the biggest winner of the day. The gods rejoiced and returned to their respective homes. Hebe also returned to her temple. She closed the door to her chamber, and a slight smile appeared on her exquisite face. A golden cup manifested in her hand, and the power of belief flowed like a river shimmering with flecks of gold. At the bottom of that river, however, lay a strange black and gold divine essence, suppressed beneath the purest faith of the people. Just as the flowing river of gold flecks represented the most genuine beliefs of the masses, it was their faith that firmly suppressed this strange black and gold divine essence, sealing its aura and preventing the gods from discovering its existence. It appeared to be quite similar to Helios's sun essence, but it was entirely pitch black, resembling a piece of jadeite. The boundary of the essence flickered with brilliant golden light, within which faint projections of the sun could be seen. Amidst the dazzling flow of faith, its eerie and tranquil charm was so striking that it could not be ignored. Hebe gently parted the flow of faith with her jade-like fingertips. The black and gold divine essence lost its suppression and instantly shot out from the golden cup. It seemed particularly averse to the flow of faith filled with sincere praise; it shook itself, and black shadows spread out from its body, devouring all surrounding sources of light. 'Hehe…" Hebe let out a light laugh. The newly formed divine essence appeared quite powerful, but it was still insufficient in front of the peak first-tier goddess Hebe. The goddess extended her delicate hand. What seemed like a slow motion left the black and gold divine essence with no way to escape, and she directly grasped it in her hand. The golden-green life divine power, imbued with purifying might, transformed into chains that bound it. Only then did Hebe have the time to carefully examine this divine essence. Indeed, the strange sense of weakness that Helios felt atop the temple was not an illusion; he had genuinely become weaker. Helios's sun essence had been entangled by corrupting power due to the incident with the heavenly fire. While Hebe was assisting in purifying the corrupting power, she had not actually eradicated it. She had poured the power of faith onto the sun essence, luring it to escape into the golden cup, all to strip away a portion of the sun's origin in the blind spot of the gods' gaze. This was why Helios, also a main god, could not resist Zeus's pressure. He foolishly thought it was a side effect of his unconsciousness. By the time he realized the truth, the sovereignty of the sun would no longer be in his hands. What could a god of sin, imprisoned for life, do? Hebe was not afraid of him. The portion of the sun's origin that had been stripped away by Hebe, under her influence, combined with that corrupting power to form a brand new divine essence, which could be considered the nemesis of the sun. Hebe closed her eyes, her fingertips glowing with divine light as she felt the divinity of this essence. 'This damned sun!" 'I curse you, I curse you to fall, you heartless fireball!" 'Please, don't let the temperature rise any further, I beg you…" 'This detestable sun, I am willing to be destroyed along with you." Countless cries, pleas, and curses coalesced within this divine essence—these were the last words of creatures that perished under the heavenly fire. The world was rich in elemental power, a realm filled with myths and miracles, and the souls of the beings living in this world possessed exceptionally strong telekinetic power.