Chapter 589: Holding the Heavenly Pillar to Surpass the North Sea
"Lift this Bronze column?"
Looking at the Sky-Supporting Pillar, although he didn't know how heavy it was, Heracles could roughly guess.
If this bronze pillar were placed on the ground, even if all the mortals in the human world worked together, they probably wouldn't be able to move it an inch.
Mere weight held no meaning for it; lifting it meant being able to lift a portion of the Sky.
Even with his usual confidence, the Great Hero wasn't sure he could succeed.
"...I will take it up."
Speaking calmly, under the gazes of Prometheus and Dionysus, Heracles leaped down, jumping towards the pillar stone that connected the Sky and the sea.
******
Whoosh—
Free falling, the wind whistled in his ears.
Passing through one cloud sea after another, the boundless, deep sea drew closer and closer to the Great Hero.
Falling continuously from the Sky, the air felt like steel blades.
At a certain moment, the Great Hero's figure stopped in mid-air.
Not far from him, a demigod with a human body and a fish tail was bound by illusory chains, fixed before Heracles.
Taking a step forward, the Great Hero tried to get the sea god's son's attention.
However, time seemed to have eroded Triton's will; he was completely unresponsive to the outside world.
Shaking his head helplessly, Heracles continued to approach.
Vaguely, as he drew closer, he seemed to hear something.
Although not conscious at the moment, Triton's lips were constantly buzzing.
That was his obsession, something he couldn't forget even now.
"...There is..., ...kill..."
"Hmm?"
"Come..."
"...If you have the ability... then kill me..."
"Come—kill me!"
His voice suddenly rose sharply, and the divine son, with a human body and a fish tail, abruptly opened his eyes.
His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the human before him, as if he had mistaken him for another being.
"Mortal, is that you...? Hahahahahahaha..."
"A survivor of the Golden Age, you're still alive? You're still alive! You're still alive..."
"Ah hahahahahaha..."
"You've got the wrong person."
Frowning slightly, Heracles tried to correct him.
However, before him, Triton simply didn't believe it.
His eyes could no longer see clearly, and even though the demigod's body flowed with hot divine blood, he was still inevitably heading towards decay.
But this will, this dazzling, unblinking will, only that human had possessed it.
"...Heh heh heh..."
"Mortal, are you here to mock me? You think you can mock me!"
"I, the sea god's son, am not like your aging, decaying kin!"
"Mortals have their way of dying, and gods also have their own unique way of dying! This is something you will never be able to achieve!"
Shouting hoarsely, Triton raised his neck high, looking at the Golden Human in his mind.
"Come, come kill me—but if you kill me, you'll have to stay here in my place..."
"Uh hahahahaha... Stay here... But you don't have the ability at all!"
"Because even to be tortured, only a god is qualified for it—"
Crack—!
A crisp sound rang out beside Triton.
His high-pitched voice faltered, but Heracles didn't stop.
When he reached out and snapped a chain of rules binding the sea god's son, in the ethereal realm, the Great Hero felt an inexplicable restraint.
It seemed that, just as Triton said, if he truly stripped the other party's Life from this bronze pillar, no matter what form the stripping took, he would have to replace his existence.
This was inevitable, because for thousands of years, when the first wisp of the Sky-supporting symbol merged into the bronze pillar, its very existence affected the stability of the 'Sky'.
If you can't lift it like Atlas, you can only support it with your Life, like Triton.
It's just that the sea god's son can move the sea, but mortals cannot influence the laws.
So Triton was right; mortals didn't even have the qualification to be tortured here.
However, Heracles's movements did not stop because of this; he simply continued to reach out and break off another chain.
Crack...
Crack...
Crack-crack-crack...
...
One after another, sound after sound.
With vacant eyes, Triton could only see a blurred figure flickering before him.
The shackles on his body peeled off piece by piece, and the sea god's son felt an unprecedented sense of relaxation.
But at this moment, he didn't feel happy; instead, he felt a sense of humiliation.
"What are you doing?" he asked, "What are you doing?"
"Speak!"
"Speak!!"
"Answer me!!!"
He roared loudly, but no one responded.
Above the bronze pillar, all Triton received was the sound of breaking chains and the continuous dissipation of pressure.
Time passed bit by bit, the shackles became sparser and sparser... In contrast, with each passing moment, a pressure was transferred to Heracles's body.
However, for some unknown reason, as the weight of the Sky accompanied the transfer of that trace of the Sky-supporting symbol, the Great Hero not only did not feel heavy, but instead felt lighter.
It was as if when the Sky pressed down on him, something else left him.
The more things that were clamped onto him, the closer he got to something he couldn't reach before.
Gradually, around Heracles, his past deeds flashed one by one.
From fighting the giant lion in the mountains to defeating the Sphinx with Wisdom.
At a certain moment, the Great Hero had an epiphany—these concepts were both false and real.
If he were a god, like the God of War, when the Divinity of War enveloped him, and when the laws related to War in the world came under his control, then he would theoretically be qualified to change it, expand it, and perfect it in his own name.
Just as Themis legislated for the present world, if the God of War could promote some change related to War to appear in the world, his Divinity might gain the favor of the world, thereby achieving a leap in its upper limit; conversely, if he could not change the world, he could also, under the shroud of the world, do great things that fit the rules of War and were sufficient to affect the fate of the world, which could also broaden the concept of his Divinity and make it more powerful.
It's just that for thousands of years, very few have been able to achieve the former; the latter has been achieved by some gods occasionally, but compared to the original strength of their Divinity, this increase seems negligible.
Just like the great deeds Heracles has done along the way, if he were a fervent believer of the God of War, then this power feedback would be enough to increase Ares's War Divinity by an origin equivalent to Divinity Level 2 to Divinity Level 3, because his actions undoubtedly expanded the concepts related to 'combat', 'skill', 'virtue', and 'War Wisdom' within War.
And if these things were done directly by the God of War himself, then this feedback could directly add a Divinity origin of Divinity Level 5, close to Divinity Level 6, to him, directly raising the innate upper limit of his Divinity.
However, these increases seem substantial, but they are insignificant in the realm of powerful Divinities.
They cannot even raise the Divinity's level by one step, and what's more, due to the existence of faith, the divine power of the gods in the present world already exceeds the upper limit of their innate Divinity level, so they cannot even feel this enhancement.
Therefore, for the gods who need it, they cannot do such great things; even for a god like Ares, wanting to do similar things is as difficult as ascending to the Sky.
Only Helios, the Sun sealed in the starry Sky, took a shortcut—he skipped the process of broadening concepts and directly used suitable parts from the concept of the foreign Sun to broaden the concept of Chaos's Sun.
This is also a path, but the probability of it happening is even smaller, and it requires more coincidence and luck.
So, broadening Divinity does not necessarily have to rely on the world's enhancement; it can also be actively guided by the deity to gain the favor of the world's will, which is also one of the meanings of a deity's existence—of course, since it is the meaning of a deity's existence, it also proves that all of this is for the gods to hear.
Because only by possessing Divinity, only by being able to access the Primordial Sea, can such great achievements and great epics be accepted by the world's laws, and thus have a substantial effect.
And even if mortals accomplish similar things, it will not be attributed to them.
What believers achieve belongs to the gods; how much the gods can gain depends on the believers' faith; what faith gods achieve belongs to the godhead, and it is through this method that the godheads released by the civilization tablet gradually filled with concepts from their initial framework.
The empty Glow eventually gained abilities related to 'healing'; the concept, which originally had little origin and was merely created by the civilization tablet, was gradually broadened through the unconscious exploration of the faith gods, and gradually acquired real abilities within the world's internal circulation. (See 3-234)
Believers to the gods, and faith gods to the civilization tablet, are just as the gods are to the world.
Ultimately, gods are merely users of Divinity, not owners. It's just that, except for the birth of New Gods, He has almost never stripped gods of their Divinity, which is why He gave the gods the illusion that divine authority belonged to them.
However, nothing in the world is absolute; even the gods themselves are part of the world.
From beginning to end, perhaps only Primordial God and the Lords of the Planes could be exceptions to a certain extent; only by mastering the characteristics of the creation domain could one resist the rules of the world in specific domains... but these things were irrelevant to Heraclesat this moment.
Phantoms flashed around him, and his past achievements transformed into concepts.
Whether it was War, Victory, Wisdom, or something else, these concepts could increase the power of these Divinities.
But no matter which direction they operated in, they would not increase Heracles's own strength.
Because he is not a god, he does not have a Divinity of his own as a key to open the Primordial Sea, allowing the power of the world's internal circulation to act on these concepts, eventually finding a common point to integrate them with Divinity as the center, and then merging them into the Divinity itself to enhance its own origin.
He is currently just a human, even though the Great Hero at this moment already possesses the ability to bear Divinity. This is the limitation of mortals, and also the most insurmountable barrier in the Age of Gods.
"Hoo—"
Exhaling a long breath, Heracles broke the last shackle, and Triton finally broke free from the colossal bronze pillar that supported the heavens and earth.
Lying blankly among the clouds, he was momentarily bewildered.
Ignoring his thoughts, the Great Hero looked at the bronze pillar before him.
Countless chains surged towards him, trying to bind him to the bronze pillar, but their efforts were futile.
Unable to proceed for a moment, Heracles didn't know how to lift the enormous bronze pillar.
Taking a step forward, the Great Hero placed his hand on it, sensing the last trace of the heaven-and-earth-supporting imagery within the pillar that had not yet been transferred.
"How do I pick you up?"
His will asked.
The bronze pillar did not respond; it merely allowed that trace of imagery to merge with him.
And so, in a trance, Heracles felt himself transform into a towering mountain, eternally existing at the center of the earth.
He was the highest mountain in the world, and the place closest to the Sky.
When the last trace of imagery became complete in his consciousness, the bronze pillar remained impossibly tall.
But in the Great Hero's eyes, this was merely a piece of metal that had withstood the pounding of the sea and Sky for thousands of years without breaking, a mere shell that he could manipulate at will.
"Smaller, I can't hold you."
He said so, and the bronze pillar did so.
The sea trembled, and the clouds swayed.
The bronze pillar, rooted there for thousands of years, rose and then slowly shrank in Heracles's hand.
Beside the Great Hero, Triton's body trembled slightly.
He didn't know what was happening; in his world, that Golden Human from the past had returned before him.
He once again disregarded his dignity as a divine son, tearing him away from this place of suffering for thousands of years. Then, he grabbed this former place of torture, making it a toy in his palm.
"Impossible... Why... No... It can't be like this..."
Muttering to himself, Triton crawled up from the cloud sea.
He grabbed Heracles's ankle, as if grasping a lifeline.
"You're lying to me, aren't you?"
"You're lying to me, aren't you!"
"Father God is gone... It's fake, all fake... Kill me, kill me, kill me, go achieve your great deeds, let me return to the real world!!!"
Step.
"I don't know who you're talking about, but I am not him."
Speaking calmly, Heracles took a step forward, breaking free from Triton's hands.
"I will not kill you; your Life should not be decided by me."
"Whether it's that Golden Human, or the Bronze Humans, or the gods above the spirit world..."
"Go find them to meet your end, not me."
Raising the bronze staff in his hand, the Great Hero observed it intently.
On the staff's body, Alchemy inscriptions containing the profound meaning of material change flickered and shifted; at both ends of the bronze staff, two golden rings, respectively branded by Sky and Sea, shone brightly.
And as the bearer of the Sky-supporting symbol, the former Mount Othrys also possessed part of the imagery of Earth.
Sky, Earth, and Sea, at this moment, merged into one, held in Heracles's palm.
Slightly raising his head, the Great Hero looked eastward with focused gaze.
He intended to test the power of this weapon.
Towards the Earth... not ideal.
Turning slightly, Heracles raised the bronze staff and swung it towards the direction of the North Sea.