Time moved quickly, and soon, some welcomed the last day of the Year 700 of the 50th General Calendar and New Year's Eve across many planets of Olympus.
Not all planets orbited their stars at the same speed or experienced the same flow of time, which was why this only applied to some.
The morning of New Year's Eve began much like any other day, with suns rising on various worlds, though they moved at a slightly slower pace than usual.
Aside from that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Streets in towns and cities across multiple worlds bustled with activity as people went about their various purposes, from workers rushing to reach their workplaces on time to children racing each other toward playgrounds.
Some households prepared feasts to celebrate the end of the year, while others visited temples to pray to the gods they believed in. Many others offered sacrifices to the higher existences they worshipped.
As for the gods and other higher existences, some merely observed the mortals' activities from afar, while others descended to join in the festivities.
Naturally, there were also those who did not share in the joyful spirit. Some lamented how the year had passed without bringing any positive change, while others wept over the sorrow and loss they had endured.
A great many of them wished for their troubles to end along with the passing year.
On this calm morning, the Olympian Sun god, Apollo, chose to set aside his worries, duties, and obligations.
He travelled to one of the planets within his territory, located a few light-years from central Olympus, a place inhabited solely by plants and animals.
This planet, which he had named Ataraxia, meaning 'absence of mental disturbance', lived up to its name perfectly.
There was truly nothing on Ataraxia that could disturb his rest.
Apollo descended upon one of its towering mountaintops, taking in the breathtaking view of the snow-white peaks, where waves of pristine powder rumbled down the slopes. The mountains reached high into the sky, their bases vast and sturdy, each shrouded in a veil of grey mist.
He followed the descent along a turquoise-blue stream that wound merrily into the forest below, its waters babbling and burbling as they leapt over limestone rocks. Pebbles swirled in the undercurrent, catching the light like scattered fragments of glitter.
"They say streams are the liquid soul of the forest, and this one was glowing."
He gazed at the strands of soft light filtering down from above, bathing the water's surface in gold. It shimmered with sparkles like a thousand diamonds infused with an inner fire. The hedgerows were heavy with ripe berries, and he plucked a few before lying down on the ground to taste them.
Their sweet fragrance and flavour filled him with energy, bringing a smile to his face as he closed his eyes, ready to enjoy a peaceful nap.
But before he could drift off, he sensed the presence of an intruder.
"Who is it? I am resting today, so leave if it is not urgent."
"Brother! This is absolutely not the time for rest!"
Though he tried to dismiss the intruder, they refused to go. What made it worse was that the intruder turned out to be none other than his twin sister, the goddess of the hunt, chastity, and childbirth, Artemis.
"And why, in all of Ataraxia, would this not be the perfect time for rest?"
"Have you forgotten how to use your Authorities? If you have, then I suggest looking at the sky. It'll be much faster than you remembering or any explanation I could give."
Artemis' response finally prompted him to open his eyes and glance at the sky above. At first, he could not understand how that could possibly explain her reason for disturbing his rest, but that confusion lasted only a single second.
It was impossible not to see the cause of her agitation, especially for him, a god who ruled over the Aspect of the Sun.
He was stunned, never imagining such a thing could occur without his awareness.
His shock and her agitation were only natural.
After all, it was high noon, yet the moon was clearly visible in the sky.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, on planet Aeturn, the mother of the prophesied 'Child of Destruction', Archdevil Cattleya, sat at a dinner table engaged in a heated game of Old Maid with several others.
"I win, again!" she declared, attempting to leap from her seat, only to be firmly pushed back down by her mother and brother seated beside her.
Watching her nine-month pregnant daughter behaving like an overexcited child with a brand-new toy, Grand Duchess Inglis Leviathan heaved a weary sigh.
She was a tall, slender beauty with fair, smooth skin and a refined duchess-shaped nose that perfectly suited her oval face. Her ever-present warm smile could melt the hearts of many, though those who knew her well understood it was merely a façade for the research-obsessed devil she truly was.
Her glossy black hair, long enough to reach her knees, was styled differently on most days, and today, it was kept neatly in braids. Her deep, dark eyes seemed as though they could peer straight into a person's soul.
Amusingly enough, they actually could.
Seated opposite Inglis was Creusery's mother, the Queen of the Devildom.
She was a woman with literally flaming red hair, a slightly dark skin tone, and her stoic features were accented by a pair of crimson eyes so beautiful they could set a heart ablaze.
Her height and build closely matched Inglis's, and if the two wore identical clothing and hairstyles, they could easily be mistaken for sisters.
This was the Phoenix, Aurora.
At the head of the table, Cattleya's father, Devil King Diablo, set down the cards in his hand, deciding it was time to address the obvious.
"Did you really call us all here just to play a card game?"
"Obviously not."
"Then why haven't you said the real reason you called us?"
"Obviously because you never asked."
Her flippant answer made Diablo's eyebrow twitch, but he swallowed his irritation and pressed again for the reason she had summoned them.
"So, today is the day of the 'Black Sun' and—"
"Hold up! Don't just drop that like you're ordering a drink at a bar!"
Creusery interrupted her, burying his face in his palm at her casual tone. Taking a deep breath, he demanded to know why she was so sure.
"As of this morning, the protection from the law of causality has completely vanished."
"Didn't your brother just tell you not to say serious things so casually?" Aurora asked.
"How else was I supposed to say it? I told you last month the protection had started weakening, and now it's gone, so I called you all here to tell you.
I even suggested we play old maid to lighten the mood because of how serious it was."
Cattleya pouted as she answered Aurora's question. At that, Inglis couldn't help but comment.
"Old Maid isn't exactly the kind of game that lightens someone's mood, you know."
Her tone then shifted to something far more serious as she asked another question.
"Is that truly the only reason you called us here?"
Cattleya's grin widened at her mother's question.
"As expected of you, Mother, you know me best.
The child's father is coming over today, so I thought I should give you a heads-up. It's also why I had you create that."
"That bas—! I mean… that man is coming here?!"
"Yes, Dad. And no, he's not a bastard."
Cattleya yawned lightly as she answered Diablo's question, then turned toward Inglis with her arms stretched out.
Inglis, seeing the gesture, sighed yet again before retrieving a palm-sized spherical device with a circular indentation in its centre.
"If you want him to be able to bypass the barriers we've set up with this, it's going to need his energy to function."
"I know. I took care of that months ago."
Hearing the exchange between the two women, Creusery and Diablo quickly realised that Cattleya had been preparing for this for quite some time.
They watched as she pulled a pitch-black crystal from her subspace, and their eyes widened in surprise, not merely because the crystal was filled with condensed divinity, but because the stoic expression on Aurora's face finally cracked as she exclaimed in shock.
"That—?!"
Her uncharacteristic reaction was all they needed to confirm one thing: Aurora definitely knew the identity of the one whose divinity was in that crystal.
"Hmm, so you know who this belongs to?"
|How could I not?!|
Aurora answered with her true voice, nearly shouting. If not for the barrier Inglis hastily erected, her cry might have been heard by the nobles in the castle, and by nearly everyone else on planet Aeturn.
Creusery moved to calm the agitated Phoenix, and after several seconds, she finally regained her composure. Turning to Cattleya, her voice still edged with disbelief, she asked,
"Really? An Olympian? And him of all people?!"
Her anger threatened to seep out of her again, but she forced it down. Cattleya, on the other hand, simply laughed at her words.
"Wow, he did tell me he had some history with you, but I guess it's all doom and gloom, huh?"
Diablo and Inglis ignored her jab, focusing instead on the far more pressing concern. Hell's relations with Olympus were far from friendly, and learning that the father of their daughter's child was an Olympian put them both on edge.
They feared he might attempt something drastic… such as killing the child immediately after birth. It had happened before with other gods, so the possibility could not be dismissed.
Cattleya, however, saw things differently. She revealed that the father had been the one to warn her in advance about the assassins sent by Olympus and some of their allies, long before word spread that she was under the protection of the law of causality.
"Even if he tried it, which I know he wouldn't, you all wouldn't just sit back and watch him, would you?"
Of course, they would not.
That aside, Cattleya seemed to place an unusually high level of trust in him, which prompted Inglis to suddenly voice a thought she wanted to confirm.
"Catty, do you possibly have—"
"Nope."
Cattleya cut her off before she could finish. While Inglis sat there, momentarily stunned, she went on,
"It's definitely not what you're thinking."
The two men in the room exchanged confused looks, unable to make sense of what she meant. It was no surprise, as they had not even heard Inglis complete her question.
Meanwhile, Diablo's mind was elsewhere, focused on a far graver concern.
Although rare, it was still possible for even the strongest devils to die during childbirth or to become severely weakened afterwards.
He knew this better than most, as his own mother had been left gravely weakened and passed away a few years later.
**KNOCK
A light knock sounded on the door, followed by Belphegor stepping inside. Normally, he would never enter without permission, so the fact that he did meant the matter was urgent enough to override etiquette.
"Your Majesty, there's an urgent report. All three stars of Dorcaster have been completely blotted out of the sky by the moons of each planet."
His words made Cattleya leap to her feet with a triumphant shout.
"Yeah! Told you it was today!"
But just as she landed back on the ground, a faint splashing sound echoed. It was quiet, yet everyone in the room possessed superhuman hearing, and they instantly pinpointed the source.
Inglis' expression turned dark as she asked, though she already suspected the answer.
"That wasn't you, was it?"
"So… I think my water just broke."
Cattleya chuckled awkwardly, scratching the top of her head, prompting Creusery to snap.
"Stop saying serious things so casually!"
◇ ◇ ◇
Back in Olympus, Apollo was making his way to Zeus' abode in haste. Using specially prepared artifacts, he had contacted the other gods in his group to ask about the eclipse, but all of them claimed to know nothing about it.
Some even went as far as reaching out to other groups, but they too reported that no such eclipses were occurring in any observable region of their universes.
The solar and lunar deities had already used their Authorities to investigate and confirmed this multiple times.
Apollo did the same, but the results he obtained made his face drain of colour.
Darkness enveloped all planetary surfaces across southern Olympus.
The stars that served as suns for the various star and solar systems were being obscured by the moons of their planets. For planets without moons, large asteroids had just so happened to drift into the exact paths where sunlight would pass to reach them.
Every other region of Olympus he could see was completely unaffected, except the south.
He immediately cut off communication as he reached Zeus' abode, leaping down from his flaming carriage into the courtyard below.
Zeus and Athena, who had been in the middle of a discussion, turned to him in surprise, but he ignored their reactions and relayed both the situation and his suspicion.
"Are you sure you are not jumping to conclusions?"
"Do you honestly think I would do that right now?
The area affected by the eclipses is expanding as we speak. No matter how I see it, this is clearly abnormal. That leaves only one possible explanation. Today is the day of 'Black Sun'."
His words seemed to trigger a reaction as the ambient energies around him thrummed violently, almost as if in agreement. The growing concentration of the essence of the law of causality erased any remaining doubt in Zeus' mind.
"I recall you all saying that the eclipses would first appear in regions connected to the parents of the prophesied child. If that is the case, it seems Olympus truly is involved in this matter."
As Zeus spoke, the anger in his voice made Apollo instinctively take a step back. He disliked it when his father was in such a mood.
The fact that Apollo had informed the other solar gods in his group only deepened Zeus' irritation, as he believed Apollo should not have allowed them to realise that the eclipses had already begun in Olympus.
Before Zeus could scold him, Athena posed a crucial question.
"What part of Olympus did you say was already darkened?"
Apollo visibly tensed, his complexion paling further as he turned to Zeus with an apprehensive look.
"Southern Olympus."
|WHAT?!!|
Zeus' reaction was exactly what Apollo had anticipated. Grabbing him by the collar, Zeus demanded again for confirmation.
|ARE YOU CERTAIN?!|
"Y-yes."
Apollo's answer only intensified Zeus' fury. His aura erupted with overwhelming force, slamming into both Athena and Apollo without restraint.
Releasing his son, Zeus strode toward the fountain in the centre of the courtyard. With a flick of his fingers, he tossed a golden drachma into the water.
|Authority of the Master.|
|goddess of the Rainbow, Iris. The Master of Olympus commands you: connect me to the god of death, Thanatos!|
Sunlight struck the fountain's surface, casting a faint, shimmering rainbow before the image of a bearded young man with ash-grey skin appeared.
|Thanatos, where is my brother?!|
Caught off guard by the sudden summons, the god of death was silent for a moment before answering.
[My lord is not here. As for his exact location, I don't know. All I was told is that if you asked, I should say he went west.]
Zeus' body trembled with fury at those words.
'Hell lies west of Olympus! He's not even trying to hide it anymore!'
"It's him, isn't it?"
Athena's voice pulled him from his thoughts. His continued silence only confirmed that he had reached the same conclusion she had.
It was also why Apollo had hesitated to reveal which part of Olympus was darkened. This was the one individual the gods could scarcely touch, even if he was the father of the child destined to wield the power to destroy them.
His power, rank, and standing were simply far too great.
He was also the one who had worn that unmistakable look of realisation on the day the prophecies were first spoken.
'I was right… he really did know something,' Athena thought.
He was none other than the ruler over most of Southern Olympus, the elder brother of both Zeus and Poseidon.
Cattleya Vaughn's dark-haired best friend, and the father of her unborn child, was in fact the King of Olympus' Underworld Supercluster.
Hades.