Looking at Keto, in the previous exchange, Mephisto had learned of the Divine Authority she wielded—a counterfeit, false 'beauty.'
At present, this power might not be useful. But once humanity can reproduce, it would indeed become a very useful tool.
The first wave of souls, with the Forethinker's foolish actions, Mephisto was quite confident now. Currently, for the perfect fulfillment of his covenant with the Lord of the Nine Hells, he had to think ahead about how to continuously obtain souls.
He couldn't be this blatant in the future, otherwise, whether it be the deities on Mount Olympus or the existences in the Spirit Realm, they likely wouldn't let him off.
"As for what I need you to do... actually, right now, I rather need the assistance of Lady Megaera."
Looking at the goddess of envy beside him, Mephisto slowly promised:
"Stir the hearts of humans with envy, my lady. Provoke their jealousy towards immortality, towards power, but do not make it too obvious."
"By the Styx River as my witness, if you are willing to obey my commands for the next thousand years, then when it all ends, your desires will be fulfilled."
Mephisto looked at Keto, he already knew what she truly cared about.
"Under normal circumstances, the true form of a deity cannot change, but under the reshaping of the world's force, nothing is impossible."
"When the time comes, although what you'll possess is only 'false beauty,' it does not matter in the slightest, you can 'become' the true beauty—"
Today, the Bronze Human Tribe was truly bustling with life, as more than one deity had passed through here in a short span of time, but none of this could capture Laine's true attention.
He simply glanced over and then continued to sit at the table, waiting for dinner with Liana.
Gods naturally can abstain from eating, but it doesn't mean they are unable to eat. On the contrary, most of the gods of Chaos wouldn't forgo this activity, Laine was no exception.
Now, they were at the edge of the human tribe, in a Bronze human's house, watching a not-so-large figure busy in front of the fire.
Although the figure was small, the movements were proficient, evidently, this wasn't the first time undertaking such tasks.
"Ande, are you sure you don't need our help?"
Looking at the 'youth's' busy form of about eleven to twelve years of age, Laine asked with a smile.
"No need, big brother, I can manage!"
The boy shook his head in refusal, not pausing in his actions.
His name was Ande, also a member of the Bronze Humanity, but he was from the second batch of humans created by Prometheus using the remaining materials.
Although only less than ten years separated them, because the Forethinker wanted to hint to the Divine King to create females, this generation of Bronze Humanity were all children. The ones like Ande, who appeared to be about ten years old, were considered the older ones.
However, unlike the children of later generations, as the creations of the gods, even if they were far from comparing to the Golden Humanity, they all possessed physiques far surpassing mortals of later times.
Like Ande, despite his young age, his strength was no less than that of a grown man in later eras, so having his own dwelling equated to living independently, just like the other members of the Bronze Humanity.
Previously, on a whim, Laine decided to bring Liana to experience the life of a primitive society and incidentally give away a gift that had been prepared long ago. Thus, he used witchcraft to blur the memory of those around them towards him and Liana, making them seem like just another 'perfectly normal Bronze human male and female'—even though there were no women among humans at that time.
Then, he randomly picked a lucky spectator, deciding to stay in their home for a few days.
Regrettably, the initially chosen lucky spectator did not grasp the life-changing opportunity. He was unaware of how miraculous the gift Laine had intended to give was for mere mortals, instead treating this pair of 'down-and-out' kindred with disdain. Liana was quite angry about this, but Laine didn't intend to quibble with the other party and just brushed it off with a smile.
Over the years, his mindset had long since changed from that of the past. Just as he could watch the Bronze Humanity meeting its destined destruction, he could naturally ignore the unconscious offense of mortals, because from beginning to end, Laine had never taken them to heart.
The Bronze Humanity, to some extent, gave him a sense of familiarity, but it was just a little.
However, after Laine was rejected, next to that person who was hard to say whether lucky or unlucky, Ande showed compassion towards these two 'big brother and sister whose house had collapsed,' and invited them home.
And that led to the current scene, with Ande busily preparing dinner, while the two 'adults' sat at the table, not even contemplating lending a hand.
Suddenly, Laine and Liana looked towards the ground. Both sensed that at this moment, the master of the Underworld had arrived outside the Nether Moon, unleashing Divine Power, asserting his presence.
Though the strength of deities was limited in the Underworld to some extent due to the Dark Overlord's intervention during the transition of eras, this was far from the case on land and sea. At this moment, above the symbol of his Godhood, the power shown by Hades was very formidable.
Especially as one of the two most core components of the Underworld, he naturally enjoyed the favor of this subterranean world's laws which vaguely formed a realm of its own.
"It's Hades; he must be here for those wraiths."