However, Bolos didn't have the chance to comprehend the strange flame of the Goddess of the Hearth, Hestia, because it was quickly scattered under Zeus's thunder.
Also scattered was the transparent shield created by Hera.
Zeus was, after all, the King of the Gods, and possessed the world's strongest Divine Artifact—"Thunderbolt." His power was far beyond what Queen of the Gods Hera or the Goddess of the Hearth Hestia could match.
Bolos was already prepared to revive once again on the sea where the Tree of Life stood.
He didn't mind—he had already reaped the benefits of being granted a Divine Office.
Athena frowned. Artemis and Apollo were full of worry. Hera's eyes were filled with panic as she looked at Bolos, who was smiling as if he had been scared silly.
Just then, another Divine Being made a move.
Or rather, she had already moved without the others noticing.
The earliest scale of this world suddenly appeared. Bolos felt that the space around him had suddenly shifted.
He had moved away from the place where the thunderbolt had struck and now stood in the spot where the Goddess of Justice, Themis, had been.
Meanwhile, Themis appeared in Bolos's place and took the full brunt of Zeus's thunderous strike.
"Good, good, so all of you intend to oppose me!"
Zeus sneered, seeing that after Hera and Hestia, even Themis had acted to protect the rebellious god he was trying to kill.
Hera was his wife—he had granted her the title of Queen of the Gods. Hestia was his eldest sister—he had allowed her to become the guardian of the hearth. Themis was his most respected elder—he had entrusted her with the Authority of the King of the Gods.
These were the three goddesses he trusted the most—even more than his mother, Rhea.
And now, all three of them had turned against him, to protect this Divine Being foretold in prophecy to usurp his throne.
The fury in Zeus's voice could be felt by every Divine Being present. Even the air around them shimmered faintly with electricity.
But Hestia ignored Zeus's anger and shouted angrily, "To swallow your child out of fear of a prophecy, refusing to let them live—do you intend to become another Cronus?"
As the eldest daughter of the previous King of the Gods, Hestia had been swallowed into endless darkness by Cronus the moment she was born.
She had grown up in unspeakable loneliness. When Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Hera were swallowed one by one, she had taken care of them as they grew.
That's why her younger siblings had always respected her—more so than they did Zeus.
At this moment, Hestia was deeply disappointed. Zeus's actions filled her with loathing.
Zeus roared in response, "And what do you expect me to do? Sit and watch as he grows stronger and seizes my throne, just like Cronus overthrew Uranus, and I overthrew Cronus—wait for him to overthrow me?"
Hestia fell silent. Though Bolos had survived thanks to Themis's help, how to deal with him was still a serious issue.
Hera didn't know what to say either. Her intervention had been purely instinctive, the act of a mother from the depths of her heart.
At first, upon learning that Bolos was the child of Zeus and Metis, she had felt no jealousy—Metis was already dead, after all.
On the contrary, her heart had been filled with relief. It proved Bolos was not that foreign god.
For years, her greatest fear was that Bolos wasn't truly her child, but that the foreign god Zeus had once slain had used some Divine Magic to revive him as her son.
If that were true, then what would her years of breastfeeding have meant?
Thanks to Themis's testimony, she now knew that Bolos wasn't what she feared.
But now that Bolos had been saved, another concern arose.
Zeus was her husband. Only if Zeus remained the King of the Gods could she remain Queen of the Gods.
If Zeus were overthrown, at best she would end up like her mother, Rhea—with no authority, and no god would fear her anymore.
Hera did not want that outcome.
She loved power. She needed power.
Even if she liked Bolos as a child, she could not allow him to overthrow Zeus.
"So, you've all figured it out too—this child must not remain."
Seeing both Hestia and Hera fall silent and their expressions change, Zeus let go of some of his anger and spoke with grave solemnity. "Do you think I want to kill my own child?"
"But if I don't deal with him now, there will be another Titanomachy in the future, and countless gods will die."
His words, wrapped in a facade of concern for the world, made Bolos sneer with disdain.
He was perfectly honest with himself—usurping Zeus's throne and stealing his Queen of the Gods wasn't for the sake of the world or the gods. It was purely because he was greedy for power and lustful.
Although the argument was all about him, Bolos stood there like an outsider watching a play, waiting for it to end.
"Zeus, have you ever considered that a prophecy is merely a possibility? Perhaps it is the gods' fear of the prophecy, and the misguided decisions they make to avoid it, that actually bring it to pass."
Themis continued, "Cronus once feared the prophecy of Uranus—that he would be overthrown by his children. So he swallowed each of them, one by one, trapping them in a lawless world of endless darkness."
"His actions broke Rhea's heart and left me, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Theia, Coeus, Phoebe, and others chilled or discontent."
"That's why, when Rhea saved you, we were all willing to help you overthrow Cronus's rule. Do you think we didn't know that under the rule of the twelve Titans, with Cronus as the King of the Gods, we held higher status and received more benefits?"
Themis's words thundered through the hall, silencing all the gods—Zeus included.
Only the mother of the King of the Gods, the Goddess of Time, Rhea, let out a sigh. "She's right."
"I was once Queen of the Gods—but I was also a mother. For the sake of my child, I could betray my husband and abandon my throne."
"Zeus, I don't want you to walk the same path Cronus did."
Zeus immediately refuted, "How could I walk the same path as Cronus? Except for this one child of prophecy, I will raise all my other children well."
This wasn't just empty talk—Zeus truly was nurturing his children.
In the Olympus Divine Realm, there was no overwhelming strength like that of the twelve Titans. Zeus needed his children to help him stabilize the Realm.
At that moment, Themis revealed a complicated expression and said, "But I must tell you—the child in the prophecy who will overthrow your throne is not the only one. In the future, there will be others."
"Will you kill each and every one of them when they are born?"
"What?!"
This time, Zeus was truly stunned.
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