King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 115

Nyx, Goddess of the Night – (2)

“Oh my, isn’t it uncomfortable to keep your head bowed like that?”

At the gentle voice, I slowly raised my head to meet the goddess’s gaze.

Jet-black hair like mine, dark eyes, and black wings like the god Thanatos [the personification of death].

The goddess, clad in a flawlessly beautiful black dress, exuded a beauty akin to an artificial sculpture.

It was as if something non-living was asserting, ‘This is what the beauty of a living being is.’

Swish-

“That’s right, you may raise your head. Aren’t you, in a way, my descendant?”

“Understood, Lady Nyx.”

The Goddess of the Night gazed at me with intrigued eyes.

And beside me, the Hecatoncheires brothers [giants with a hundred hands and fifty heads] kept their heads bowed without even a whisper.

“Hmph… my children have spoken with one voice. They ask you, or rather us, to help them from Gaia’s threat.”

“……”

“Were you that afraid of Gaia? Hehe… how adorable. How pitiful.”

Was that attitude of slightly covering her mouth a sneer? Or was it from pure sentiment?

The sentiment of the Mother of Night, a Protogenoi [primordial deity] equal to even Uranus [the primal Greek god of the sky]…

“Yes. To be honest, I am afraid of Gaia.”

“Oh my?! You’re quite the joker…”

“Gaia created the Gigantes [giants born of Gaia and Uranus] as monsters because we imprisoned the Titan gods in Tartarus [the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked, and as the prison for the Titans], and she also brought forth the formidable being, Typhon [a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology]. We want to defeat the monsters and gain Gaia’s recognition, but we are simply considering the possibility that she might continue to oppose us to the end.”

The Goddess of the Night, Lady Nyx, is less merciful than Gaia when angered.

The primordial night is synonymous with extinction and death. Nyx’s other name is the Mother of Death. In the first place, her son Thanatos is the god of death…

I glanced at the black goddess’s eyes.

Her black eyes, which had been constantly expressionless, even as she playfully teased me.

“…Is that all?”

“……”

“If you are only relying on my children’s request and my personal favor, I cannot help you.”

Of course, she would say this. The conditions are far from sufficient to bring in a Protogenoi.

However, there is one thing… I can rely on.

“If you help us, I will ensure that more people invoke Nyx’s name than any other Protogenoi.”

“Hmph?”

“My temple is also a place that honors almost all the gods in the underworld. I will create a statue of Nyx in the seat of honor there, and those who know the grace of the Goddess of the Night will praise Nyx every day.”

Normally, the adoration of mortals could never move a Protogenoi.

However, the Mother Earth Gaia and the Goddess of the Night, Lady Nyx, unlike other primordial gods, are those who come into contact with humans a lot.

They would be more interested in mortals than Tartarus, who only exists here, or Erebus [the personification of darkness], who is darkness itself.

The black goddess pondered my words before opening her mouth.

“Ah, humans, you say. Mortals who are always noisy every night that should be quiet.”

“Yes…?!”

“How about this instead? If we wipe out all the noisy humans in the mortal realm… a quiet night will return as it once was, and I will be inclined to help you? Of course, those who worship you should be no exception.”

Is she serious?

* * *

I saw Lady Nyx, but I couldn’t discern any change in her expression.

I couldn’t feel any emotion or agitation. I couldn’t read the intentions of the primordial god, who is the personification of a natural phenomenon.

Why would she say such a thing? Is it a test for me?

But there’s no reason for her to test me using humans.

Does she really like quiet nights and want to wipe out all the noisy mortals?

“Why are you silent? It should be an easy task for you.”

“……”

“Those mere creatures, you can just create them again, can’t you? That race that you once caused a great flood to wipe out.”

It’s true that it’s an easy task. Any of the Twelve Olympians could step forward and be sufficient to exterminate the mortals.

Compared to Gaia’s threat, the extermination of humans is a cheap price to pay…

It’s also true that they can be created again…

Anyone can revive a human and tell them to throw stones over their shoulder to recreate humans [referencing the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha].

In the first place, humans were created to give birth to heroes because of the threat of the Gigantes, weren’t they?

No matter how much I seem to be the most merciful to humans among the gods,

I am also an immortal. My family and my brothers are more precious to me than humans.

But…

“Great God Pluto! I beseech your mercy!”

“May our son, who died on the battlefield, be happy in the underworld…”

“Thanks to Mint, sent to this world by the god of mercy…”

“Pluto, protect me…”

I didn’t want to betray the expectations of those who still believe in me, pray to me, and sing of mercy and fairness.

The priests who did not leave my temple even in the face of the threat of the mad King Oedipus [a tragic figure in Greek mythology who unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother], the believers who seek my mercy.

The judges who pray that I will lend my name and authority to judge fairly. The terminally ill patients who wish for rest after death…

It’s not to protect the title of the god of mercy that humans have given me.

It’s not to maintain the pretense of valuing humans more than the Olympian family and receive adoration.

“I’m sorry. I cannot exterminate humans again.”

“…?”

It’s just that I didn’t want to show a capricious side like the other gods when dealing with mortals.

Perhaps that’s why I can say the same thing in front of the Protogenoi.

Maybe that’s it…

* * *

The moment I thought I had failed to bring the Goddess of the Night to our side,

A burst of laughter, as if she had been holding it in, was heard.

“Pfft… Puhuhut…! It was just a joke. Why are you reacting so seriously?”

“What…”

The overwhelming presence I had felt until just now was gone, and the Protogenoi was smiling at me.

Her beautiful smile brightened the surroundings, but I couldn’t smile along.

Was it really a joke? The Olympian gods are capricious, but are the primordial gods, including Gaia, even more so?

What she just said to me might have been just a moment’s whim…

“My children all say that Hades, the King of the Underworld, is the fairest and most merciful of the Olympian gods… and a god worth helping.”

“That’s an overestimation.”

“I just wondered because I heard that you cherish mortals very much, so don’t take it to heart.”

Thump-

The black goddess plucked a feather from her black wings and handed it to me.

A feather containing quite a powerful divine power, befitting the body of a Protogenoi.

As I received it with both hands, Nyx, who was touching her hair, continued to speak.

“Take that feather and go to the god of the sky. That, no, she will recognize it at a glance.”

“Could it be…”

The god of the sky is Zeus. But if it’s ‘she,’ only one being comes to mind.

Uranus, who was castrated by his own child and treated as having lost his masculinity, becoming a goddess.

A Protogenoi like Nyx and my grandfather.

The now-exiled god of the sky. The one who held the reins of the world before Cronus [the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans].

“Yes. Uranus, who became a goddess. Explain all this to her… and if you bring me a token, I will help you.”

The reason she gave me her feather was to help me talk to the exiled god Uranus.

No one knows what he, who had his genitals cut off by Cronus, will think when he sees us.

This is a test. Whether our Olympian gods can really elicit Uranus’s favor.

I guess we can just talk to him well since he knows that we drove out Cronus, but…

“Understood. I will definitely persuade Uranus.”

“Hehe… I’ll be looking forward to it.”

One mountain after another.

Another Protogenoi, and to receive a token from the god of the sky, Uranus…

* * *

After Hades, Gaia’s grandson, now called the King of the Underworld, left…

Nyx closed her eyes in her abode, located in the deepest part of Tartarus, and fell into the darkness.

The hegemony of this world, the conflict with Gaia, the extinction of species… all of this was unrelated to her.

Just as the river flowing in front is pushed away by the water coming from behind,

The changing of generations is a natural flow of the world.

But she had no intention of interfering much with Gaia’s efforts to stop it.

Until recently… that is.

“Mother.”

“Eris [the Greek goddess of strife and discord]? You’ve come again today. Last time, Thanatos came and pleaded…”

“Just once, if you would listen to my son-in-law…”

“Are… are you here?”

“Keres [the spirits of violent death]? What brings you here, when you’re busy harvesting souls?”

“I have the same reason as Eris, who came yesterday. Please, just once…”

Nyx’s children periodically tried to persuade her.

She hadn’t thought much about Hades, but she became curious after seeing everyone highly praising him.

Among her children, there shouldn’t be a single deity younger than Hades.

Did he win everyone’s hearts? Gaia’s grandson, who is young to the point of being a child?

Curiosity arose, and she switched places with Hamera [the Greek goddess of daylight], the goddess of the day and her daughter, and came out into the sky.

Above the dark night sky, the primordial goddess looked down.

Selene [the goddess of the Moon], driving the moon chariot, wandered above the clouds… and further down, mortals could be seen.

The beings created by the Olympian gods, including Zeus.

Small beings praying and pleading with their hands together under the night sky.

Nyx only followed stories related to Hades, the master of the underworld…

“God Pluto. Today, I praise the grace of the mint leaves that you have bestowed…”

“Lord Pluto. You who preside over fairness and mercy…”

“Don’t cry. Even if I go to the underworld and am embraced by Pluto, don’t worry. He…”

She could find countless humans praying to him.

Sincere faith. The righteousness of the judgment handed down to the dead. The god of mercy and fairness.

No one criticized Hades.

No matter how much he rules the underworld, which is the object of fear… evaluations leaning towards the good.

Nyx’s hobby, which she has never told anyone, is observing beings under the night sky.

Pluto, or rather Hades, whom everyone praises… was a child who cherished mortals very much, as her children had said,

And he was someone she was worth testing at least once.

If he brings back Uranus’s token, she will gladly help Olympus.

Of course…

“Mom. Which god makes the night sky?”

“Hmm… it’s thanks to someone named Nyx.”

“Nyx? Is she stronger than Zeus?”

“Um… probably not. Zeus is the king of the gods, isn’t he?”

“I will create a statue of Nyx in the seat of honor there, and those who know the grace of the Goddess of the Night will praise Nyx every day.”

It was definitely not because there were humans who knew her to be below Gaia’s grandson.