Since the war beyond Mount Olympus ceased, the world finally returned to its former tranquility.
As The Sun and The Moon alternated in the sky, the Mortal Realm underwent the rise and fall of dynasties. Aside from the occasional visits from deities, the earth quieted down significantly. Perhaps on another level, countless changes were still brewing, but at least for mortal beings, once that night filled with strange phenomena passed, nothing similar ever happened again.
In time, just as it had always done, humanity's footprint continued to spread across the land with the passage of time. Meanwhile, churches worshiping the gods began to fill the spaces between.
It began with Hestia and Themis, composed of those with firm beliefs, willing to swear oaths to pioneer the wilderness for humanity, and to protect the Sacred Fire, as well as brave warriors willing to heed the teachings of the Goddess of Justice, to eradicate evil and injustice from the Mortal Realm.
Guided by the two goddesses, they were determined to spread the divine will to more people, so they compiled scriptures, delineated authority, and roamed between city-states, preaching the deities' doctrines.
Their actions were undoubtedly successful. In an era where information exchange was inconvenient and humans lived scattered across the land, such organized and large-scale dissemination of faith was like a dimensionality reduction assault, quickly becoming mainstream in many places.
Even within the faith domains previously delineated by the gods, many city-states' rulers, after witnessing the miracles of the deities, promoted certain faiths in the name of the King, but still could not resist the power of this organized church. Clearly, compared to the grand but vague descriptions of the divine, the actions of the Divine Practitioners were much more appealing.
They turned the deeds of the gods into stories and transformed divine Thought into beautified doctrines, and as it happened, both in thought and action, the two goddesses aligned closely with humanity's understanding of good.
Therefore, even though no city revered both goddesses as official objects of worship due to the previous division among the gods, it did not affect their widespread influence among humans, which was broader than any other deity of Olympus.
At first, the gods did not take much notice of this, and few paid attention to such mortal exchanges. They still followed past experiences, merely revealing their existence to mortals through displays of miracles.
Gradually, however, as the names of the two goddesses became more widely known among humans, the gods who finally took notice, realized that their arbitrary methods were rather outdated, despite saving time and effort.
The primitive worship of nature and power could not compete with convincing Thought and the tangible presence of Divine Practitioners. Within just a few decades, various churches were established.
The deities selected their spokespersons in the Mortal Realm according to their own preferences, or simply chose the kings of their faithful city-states, then commanded them to learn from the churches of the two goddesses and to spread their own names.
Thereafter, the newly established power structure among humanity underwent another transformation. Just like with Bronze Humanity, Divine Practitioners who served the gods became an indispensable part of it. Although unlike in the previous human age, where priests held absolute power, their status remained exceptionally distinctive.
But before this, a seemingly small event had occurred, greatly accelerating the process of change. After all, in this still wild era, power was the most valued aspect by humans.
Fortunately, because of this event, the faithful who worshiped the deities also possessed the potential to wield power.
About ten years after the war of the gods ended, at a banquet celebrating Apollo's return, the Goddess of Wisdom announced a special discovery to the other deities. She claimed to have invented another kind of special energy, based on Divine Power, through observing the Magic Net and analyzing Elements.
It was not powerful and seemed weak compared to Divine Power because it was a derivation and weakening of Divine Power. However, this did not diminish its value, for it was an energy that the gods could use on Earth, and not only the gods.
By transmitting this power to mortals and 'fixing' structures akin to witchcraft onto the Magic Net, any human, regardless of whether their 'talent' was mediocre or Transcendent, could wield this extraordinary power through the existence of the gods and the Magic Net.
Compared to the paths that required self-cultivation and sufficient talent, this system, which only depended on whether the gods favored someone, had no talent restrictions and a natural upper limit, was undoubtedly more satisfactory to the gods—they still remembered the mortal who had wielded a sword against the Son of the Sea Emperor.
If there were more people like that, the gods might indeed struggle to be as at ease in the Mortal Realm as they currently were. Yet they could not forbid this power because humans spread across the land could no longer be easily protected due to their dispersal, unlike the previous generation.
If they could not themselves possess the power to combat the wild beasts of the wilderness, then mere deterrence by the Sacred Fire would not suffice to increase their numbers.
Therefore, the power named 'Divine Arts' by the goddess became particularly important. And so, without hesitation, the gods sought Athena's instruction about the secrets of this Sacred Power, and they lavishly praised the goddess's Wisdom. Then, using their inherent divine authority as a medium, they developed various special Divine Arts.