The former God-King, on hearing this, could not help a bleak laugh: "If we refuse to comply with your demand, will you erase our spirit, and then bestow spirit anew?"
"Just like… like our Father once did, until a brand-new spiritual consciousness is born that follows your will completely?"
Zeus's expression remained calm: "I will not erase any being's spirit; I will only grant spirit to beings. I have never intended to act like the Heavenly Lord of old."
Kronos would not believe a single word of this.
He did not believe that a deity, having such absolute power, would refrain from using it!
This was the authority he had most dreamed of across endless ages!
So he simply smashed the pot, so to speak, and sneered: "Fine! Then let me tell you! Whatever you do, even if you annihilate my spirit, I will never submit to you! I will never hand over my authority!"
"I've said my piece. Come then! Annihilate my spirit! Heh! I want to see how many times you must bestow it before you get a consciousness that will obey you completely!"
Zeus shook his head lightly with a trace of disdain and sighed: "My Father, when will you finally understand that divine power is not only for destruction?"
"And as the lord of 'Creation,' how can you be utterly unable to grasp the true meaning of 'creation'?"
Just then, Coeus gave a wry smile to the side and said, "Honored Zeus, it was Phoebe and I who underestimated your breadth and mercy. We are willing to offer up our authorities. However you choose to deal with us, we will accept it willingly."
"We have only one last request: our children, Leto and Asteria—if possible, we entrust them to you."
Zeus did not respond to this, but once more raised his right hand toward Kronos.
Kronos's already hideous face flashed with boundless dread for an instant; then he clenched his teeth and glared fixedly at Zeus.
Yet in the next moment, his spiritual consciousness was completely halted, and he lost all capacity for thought.
Immediately after, Zeus, with effortless ease, completely separated his law-divinity from his divine body that could be called absolutely solid and imperishable!
Then, with unhurried poise, he neatly split this former God-King's spiritual consciousness—brilliant beyond compare, peerlessly powerful, vast second only to Zeus's own—from the very source-essence of his law.
One was one, two was two—could not be clearer.
In addition, he casually took away most of the former God-King's power as well.
The three primordial Titans to the side were filled with boundless fear and shock, yet could do nothing.
For they knew clearly that all beings in the universe, whatever their nature, were now no different before Zeus.
Without ceremony, Zeus accepted in full that former God-King's supreme authority of "Creation," along with most of his power.
As for the former God-King's authorities of "Growth" and "Harvest," he accepted them for the time being.
Then with a casual wave, the former God-King's spiritual consciousness rejoined his now "purified" divine body, and Zeus, incidentally, also removed the thunder-chains within his divinity and body.
As he was now, the former God-King remained extremely formidable.
However, he was now only a purely "material god," and his remaining power was insufficient to escape Tartarus; thunder-chains were no longer necessary.
He no longer possessed any law.
All his spirit and consciousness now were housed in that divine body—one of the five strongest in the universe.
If that divine body were completely destroyed, his divine consciousness would be exposed and could truly be annihilated; then he would truly die.
Zeus did not restore Kronos's thoughts for the time being; he could not be bothered to listen to the former God-King's angry, resentful clamor.
He slowly turned his gaze upon Coeus and his wife; these once peerlessly wise deities had only a bleak smile left, no trace of defiance in their eyes, resigned completely to their fate.
Yet Zeus did not alter the set procedure because of their cooperation.
Just as with Kronos, he first stilled their thoughts, then, with the invincible authority of "Severance," precisely cut and peeled their innate source-laws from the depths of their divinity.
The source that symbolizes intellect, inquiry, insight, and thought, and the authority that represents radiance, brilliance, purity, and brightness—the law-sources of these lucid Titans of intellect—Zeus calmly received in full.
Lastly, Zeus's gaze fell upon Iapetus.
Though twilight lay heavy upon this Weaver of Death's divinity, he still maintained an admirable composure.
Meeting Zeus's gaze, he spoke slowly: "Great son of Kronos, I have a question I would ask of you; I hope you can resolve my doubt."
Zeus was about to act but paused at these words. He nodded, a hint of respect in his tone: "Honored Iapetus, speak."
Iapetus gazed at him with a probing look and asked in puzzlement: "You possess absolute authority and power enough to completely resolve 'risks' like us—including my foolish son, who by his crimes perhaps did not even merit being cast into Tartarus.
"Though we have no strength to fight back before you, and you are indeed the universe's invincible king, I believe you are not a god of arrogant conceit."
"Since you can eliminate all risks once and for all, why do you still keep us?"
"I admit Tartarus is perhaps a punishment more dreadful than total annihilation of consciousness, but I likewise do not think, with your breadth of heart, that you would deliberately torment us in that way."
"So why go to such lengths to do as you have done?"
Zeus nodded lightly, approving Iapetus's rational words.
He said softly: "Honored Iapetus, you are not wrong. From the most rational standpoint, what I should do now is utterly annihilate your spirits."
"Thus all problems would be resolved at once, and even the smallest risk would cease to exist. For me, the new God-King, that would be, without doubt, the most advantageous choice and decision."
"But,"
Zeus's tone grew utterly candid and earnest as he laid out a supreme rule he had set for himself and must keep: "Even if I am absolutely invincible and absolutely supreme, a highest God-King with absolute power and authority, I too may regret; I too may have remorse."
"For me, whatever happens in this universe, I may be able to control it, and I may be able to change it. But there is one thing that even I can do nothing about."
"That is—spiritual selfhood is unique."
"I can easily erase a 'self,' and I can easily bestow a new 'spirit,' but that newly bestowed spirit has already become an entirely new 'self.'"
"Even if I can grant it all the memories it once had—even, if I wish, duplicate and bestow its former temperament as well—"
"Yet we all know: not is not."
"This alone is absolutely irretrievable."
Zeus and Iapetus locked eyes, his gaze deadly serious: "In too many things, there may be room to make amends; what we think now may change in the future; the errors once committed can be corrected later. But only total extinction can never be undone."
"Since I have other ways to resolve problems, I will never choose this most irreparable way, however simple and convenient it may seem."
"This decision-dam that stands for 'irretrievable'—I will not lightly open even the tiniest, invisible breach in it."
"For I do not know whether, once I grow accustomed to solving all problems by annihilating beings' spirits—the simplest method—I would still turn to those better yet slightly more complex ways."
"Those who sin should be punished, but there are many forms of punishment. In the river of endless time, no matter what error one has committed, there will come a day when that guilt can be washed away."
"When time is stretched long enough, what is a small mistake committed in a brief life? What are a transient tangle and notion worth?"
"But if, by a moment's decision, one simply and utterly consigns a 'self' to nothingness—"
"Then if, ages and ages hence, I regret it—how would I then make it right?"
"And am I certain never to err? No—I too will err. Though no being would question my decisions, I myself would know."
"I too have vigorous emotions and desires, and at times may let impulse rule me for a moment. In many things, even if I act wrongly, there remains room to make amends. But only total annihilation—even for me—leaves nothing to be done."
"How, then, could I so indulge myself? Therefore I have decided that from beginning to end I will not use this simplest and most dangerous method."
"Because I do not wish to regret, and even less do I wish to have remorse."
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