Shaking his head just as he had done in the past, Coeus once again refused his wife's request. Phoebe, standing by his side, finally seemed to be losing her patience.
"So this is what you want, to stay here forever, praying that no ancient deity notices you and to live an eternal life as if you were dead?"
Her voice was sharp. Phoebe could not understand why her husband, with such favorable conditions and a power second only to the Great Divine Power, had no other ambitions and only wished to stay in the cold and silent cosmos.
Even Oceanus knew to try and unify the sea, yet an aeon had passed, and Coeus had done nothing.
"No matter what you say, Phoebe, I will stay here. The world as it is now offers us no chance..."
"If you don't want to stay, then leave on your own, I've never stopped you. That's that, I'm going back."
Calmly, Coeus looked at the expanse of stars one last time. He didn't say much else, only turning and walking away.
Phoebe's arm trembled from intense emotion as she pointed at her departing husband.
It was always the same, Coeus had never been swayed by her words, but when it came to leaving on her own, Phoebe felt somewhat hesitant.
The power of the Light was too dispersed, and with the Moon currently weakened, the Sun itself accounted for more than half of the concept of Light. This made Phoebe far from as powerful as the other Primordial Titans. Although she wasn't as weak as the God of Speech or the God of Script, she definitely did not have the power to conquer the Sun.
"You will regret this!"
In the end, the goddess, as always, merely left a harsh remark. She chose a celestial body at random to sit on, planning to return after some time to ensure the other understood her anger.
After all, the lightless celestial bodies in the stars were the eyes and ears of Coeus. Even if he wasn't present, she wasn't worried about encountering any unexpected situations. She had already spent far too many years in that quiet and boring place; it was good to be away for a while.
Unaware of the argument that took place after his departure, Laine, having casually repaired the edge of the cosmos, did not linger any longer.
Compared to the other Primordial Gods, the order of the modern world seemed to take extra care of him, an 'outsider', and this time was only the second time Laine had intervened in the world since the change of the aeon. Even though he had avoided Earth, the invisible pressure of the Law still felt significantly stronger than before.
Of course, a hundredfold of one is still just a hundred, insignificant for numbers in the tens of millions. But just because there is no impact now does not mean it will stay that way in the future.
The third time, the fourth time... in the foreseeable future, every time he revealed his power in the world, this oppression from the world itself would intensify. Until one day, merely stepping out of the Spirit Realm, the order of the world would make it difficult for Laine to move.
It was an exemption difficult to obtain, as much because of the changes in the Law following the aeonal shift as it was due to the lifting size of the Spirit Realm and Laine beginning to bear the burden of a great status. And the only way to end it would be to have a force equal to, or even stronger than that of the world itself.
But setting aside the difficulty of achieving that, even if it were reached, Laine would then have to face another issue. The world restrained the Great Divine Power, even doing so subtly before the Third Epoch, and the fundamental reason for this is easy to understand.
The world itself is only slightly higher than Greatness, and it naturally suppresses those ancient gods who walk the Earth yet have thoughts of their own.
Any being would be wary of anything that could potentially threaten itself, and the best way is to make sure that threat no longer exists. In contrast, the reason why the external realms do not have similar behaviors is due to Chaos being the dominant factor. This is why the stronger worlds often have order playing a dominant role – it might be rigid, but it indeed helps maintain stability.
It is the same with the kingdoms of mortals. The more rigid the laws, the more unreasonable they seem, but conversely, they allow a certain order to extend and be implemented better.
So, the coming question becomes clear. If the Spirit Realm grows to a certain limit, truly reaching a state of equivalence with the world, whether Chaos, being just 'half a tier' higher than the Spirit Realm of that time, might have some very direct reactions, is a difficult thing to predict.
Therefore, Laine had always tried to use roundabout methods to change the fate of the world. Before, he had even contemplated actively controlling his power at the peak of the Great Divine Power in the future, avoiding any further increase, and then accumulating extra force through methods like investing in Hell, in order to one day reunite and make the ultimate leap.
But looking at it now, this idea seems too optimistic; perhaps for a well-running 'program', the only real resolution to its core is through violence.
It can be violence from the outside, from within, or both. In any case, those peripheral methods are pointless endeavors.
"So if there's nothing else, I'm going back, do you have anything else to say?"
Between different trains of thought colliding, Laine stepped into the Underworld. But feeling the presence that still followed him, he couldn't help but speak up and ask.