Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

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"Sss—"

In the boundless darkness, a massive celestial body slowly moved.

Like snowflakes under the blazing sun, the darkness retreated rapidly under the light. Yet, like magma deep in the sea, it seemed trivial for the vast and endless ocean itself, no matter how much seawater turned into steam.

Seated atop the celestial body, the eagle-headed visage of Ra was no longer visible; as the power inside became calm, he once again took on a human-like form.

In the world of Hemenu, deities in beast form often tended toward power, while human form leaned more towards rationality; such was the law established since the dawn of creation.

As his power stabilized, his wounds became evident. At this moment, Ra's eyes were downcast, staring at the sword scar that nearly split him in two. The authority of Death crisscrossed on it, even spreading towards the rest of his divine body.

It looked terrifying, but, in fact, it was not that serious; Ra was not without means to deal with it.

After all, this was the power of an Outsider deity, and once he returned to the domain of the Hemenu World, this inharmonious divine power lost much of its might. Even without considering this, the Death divinity posed less of a threat to Ra than imagined.

The reason was simple: pure Death had not completely stepped into the realm of greatness. Even though this authority was well-suited for combat, it could not change the gap in status. If there were a better choice, Laine would not always use it for battle.

However, even though Ra had many ways to drive away the traces of Death divine power and then slowly heal his injuries, he made no reaction. He merely examined in silence his eroded divine body, even though continuing like this, it wouldn't take long before he would experience true 'Death'.

"It is indeed surprising to me, turns out our world is not the only one... Not only that, He is not even the most powerful."

Letting go of his right hand, Ra temporarily shifted his gaze away from the wound and instead looked at the pair of wings he had torn off, imbued with the Outsider deity's Source Power.

Ra did not know that in the long years to come, humans had put forth the 'geocentric' and 'heliocentric' models, believing that their position was the center of the universe—yet in truth, they were no more than a minute existence in the vast cosmos. But despite the gap between gods and humans and the passage of time, at this moment, Ra indeed felt the same sensation.

Dominating one's own territory for too long could inevitably give rise to such arrogant illusions. In later visual works, Outsiders were often portrayed as the eventual targets of defeat, but Ra would not possess such unfounded confidence. If someone could traverse the vast distances unseen and arrive at your doorstep, that was already the clearest proof of the disparity in strength.

His own world was at a disadvantage... Luckily, it wasn't completely defeated yet.

"It's just a pity that among this batch of Outsider deities, there wasn't their God of Sun—if their world has a Sun, that is. If I could obtain the Source Power of another world's great Sun, perhaps I could complete the rebirth in a more perfect manner."

"This now... '[Light],' is just an extension of my [Sun] authority. Once I have deciphered the Outsider Laws it contains, I'll let it serve as a lighting tool on the Solar Barge."

"If things really don't work out in the future... it might even become my backup plan."

Looking at the pair of wings in his hand, Ra made his decision.

Just as the Hemenu World did not have a Fire God, there was also no God of Light; these fragmented divine authorities were attributed to the Sun, together constituting the Sun deity's power surpassing all gods throughout history.

That was why Ra ultimately targeted an Outsider God of Light because there indeed was an overlap in authority—of course, among those Outsider deities there was more than one with an authority similar to that of the Sun. His final choice was this one mainly because the latter possessed the essence of a majestic eagle.

God of Light Apollo, he probably never knew that one reason why Ra targeted him was due to his transformation into a black eagle during the disaster caused by Typhon. Otherwise, for Ra, whom to target would have remained an unknown.

"Pop—"

With a sound akin to a bubble bursting, the Sun finally broke through the infinite darkness.

The four-tiered structure of the Hemenu World, presented before Ra, was the 'Infinite Space' and the 'Primordial Waters.' The 'water' where reality and illusion intertwined spread across the void, and the world was born from it.

The creation deity of Hemenu legend, the former God of Sun Atum, was born from the Primordial Waters—of course, Ra was certain that the so-called creator deity was but a boast of Atum's. Explore more at empire

Just as he is now proclaimed by the Mortal Realm to be the almighty creator, Ra was keenly aware of his strength or lack thereof.

"... Thoth, my intellect, you have finally arrived."

The Sun traveled across the water, slowly dropping towards its original position. And at a certain moment, Ra suddenly turned around, looking towards a streak of light zooming towards him from afar.

Just like Ra showing his beast head when exerting full force previously, the newcomer had a human body, but a crested ibis head.

His curved beak resembled a new moon, yet he had a mane of black hair cascading down. In his palm, he held a clay tablet and writing stylus.

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