"Whatever happens on the earth, Mother Earth Gaia can know it if she wishes."
"But once we reach the sea, perhaps she cannot sense it anymore."
Hestia wasn't certain herself, which is why she used the word "perhaps" to explain to Bolos why she brought him away from the mainland and to this isolated island.
Bolos suddenly understood and thanked Hestia.
Her expression remained unsettled, and she sighed softly. "I still don't know whether saving you was the right choice or not."
When she saw the birth of Bolos's Divine Artifact, it already bore a majesty equal to, if not surpassing, those held by Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus.
Of course, Bolos's Divine Artifact was still just an ordinary artifact for now, far from possessing the mighty power of the Sundial, the Scythe of Time and Space, or the Lightning Divine Artifact.
"Maybe what Zeus has always feared… might actually come true," Hestia said, her emerald eyes fixed on Bolos. "Son of Metis, tell me the truth—do you intend to overthrow Zeus in the future?"
Bolos laughed. It was a carefree laugh, almost dismissive. "Probably. I find him unpleasant, and he clearly finds me an eyesore too. One day, either he'll kill me, or I'll kill him."
"You're not afraid I'll send you to Zeus right now?"
Hearing Bolos admit his intentions so directly, Hestia's gaze grew deeper as she looked at her nephew.
"You're welcome to try," Bolos replied indifferently. "Maybe you'll help your King of the Gods brother eliminate a threat to his future."
He showed no fear whatsoever.
Not even when his Creation Tablet first manifested did he panic, even when other Divine Beings might have come after him. At most, he'd have lost that clay slab he refined.
As for his Staff of Life, he had long stashed it in a special location he had discovered in his early days walking the mortal realm.
Even if he died, he could still be resurrected.
Hestia took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slightly. "What if I could guarantee that Zeus won't harm you?"
Bolos shook his head. "You can't. As Zeus's position as King of the Gods becomes more stable, his power will only grow. When that happens, he won't care about your opinions. He will erase every being he sees as a threat."
"So our family… in the end, still can't escape the fate of fathers and sons turning against each other?"
Hestia's voice trembled slightly, as if on the verge of tears.
As Zeus's eldest sister, she had endured countless years of loneliness due to Cronus's fear of fate. She had taken care of her siblings and raised them one by one.
Perhaps for that very reason, she valued family and kinship more than any of the six siblings.
Among all the Divine Authorities she could've claimed, she chose only the Goddess of the Hearth office, hoping to build a pantheon centered on family.
Yet Bolos now made her realize that she couldn't even protect her own family. The sadness in her heart deepened.
Bolos looked at the silver-haired, stunning virgin goddess before him, and the sight of her in tears stirred something inside him.
As a Divine Being who never hid his true nature, Bolos did not restrain his desire. He reached out and pulled Hestia into his arms.
Feeling the warmth of her body, he gently kissed away the crystalline tears from her cheeks, then moved toward her eyes.
If Hera's gaze was filled with regal pride, and Aphrodite's with unmatched charm,
Then Hestia's gaze reflected the steadfastness and conviction of one who had seen the world's sorrows.
That kind of gaze was unlike most Divine Beings—it resembled the eyes of mortal cultivators who clung to their ideals.
Bolos admitted it—his heart was stirred again.
Holding Hestia in his arms, he reached inside her robes. But before he got far, he was suddenly bound by a powerful force of divine law, leaving him frozen.
"How pathetic. The goddess is right in front of me, and I'm powerless."
Bolos ridiculed himself inwardly but could do nothing more.
Hestia's sadness faded as she looked at him with a complex expression, half laughing, half exasperated. "You truly are Zeus's son."
She broke free from his embrace. His sudden move had interrupted her grief and lightened her heart a little.
Moments later, Bolos felt the restraint lift. He was no longer bound.
Facing Hestia, he said frankly, "You are so beautiful. It's only natural that I was moved."
There was no shame in desire between men and women.
"That's why I despise Zeus and the way he behaves. He's no different from the beasts who sow seeds without care among mortals. How could such behavior be worthy of a Divine Being?"
Bolos had nothing to say to that. As long as he didn't act like Zeus—lusting after anything, human or beast, indiscriminately—he didn't mind being called a sowing beast.
He thought Hestia would leave soon, now that she had no intention of handing him over to Zeus.
To his surprise, this goddess—whom he should've addressed as "aunt"—chose to stay on this remote island with him.
Bolos built a spacious church, and she carved a hearth inside it, as though preparing to "live together" with him.
Bolos was puzzled. "Lady Hestia, don't you have things to attend to?"
As for himself, since the Silver Humans hadn't yet reached the end of their lifespans, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. He planned to stay and study the laws here.
But Hestia, as the Goddess of the Hearth, was one of the most important goddesses in Olympus. She was still needed to mediate between Zeus and his brothers—why would she stay here?
"Humanity today is immature, like children. They have no concept of family. For me, the Goddess of the Hearth who governs households, there isn't much to do."
"Instead of watching Zeus and Hades fight, I'd rather stay here and see what's so strange about that clay tablet of yours."
Inside the church, Bolos laid out the slab and began writing on it, letting Hestia study it.
She had contributed half the effort to refining the artifact. From her analysis, the clay itself and the Divine Power imbued within weren't what made it special—it was the divine script Bolos had inscribed.
She hadn't yet deciphered the mysterious characters from before, and now Bolos was writing something entirely new.
"In the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth."
"The earth was void and chaotic. Darkness was over the face of the deep, and my spirit moved over the waters."
Bolos only wrote those two lines before stopping, but Hestia's heart quivered.
A flame forged from the collective spiritual will of all beings suddenly rose within her.
It trembled and flickered—deeply stirred by those words.
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