The flame that Hestia controlled was more special than any fire wielded by other Divine Beings in the heavens and the earth.
Back during the Titanomachy, she had protected the then Golden Humans, transmitting her flame and the laws she governed through their hearths, allowing many to escape death.
From that time on, her fire gained a unique property—the blessing of the collective will of all beings.
Hestia knew this property was remarkable. It could break through most Divine Power and laws, but she had never understood it deeply.
After Zeus created the Silver Humans, she still wished to serve as the Goddess of the Hearth among mortals, enhancing the properties of her flame.
Unfortunately, the Silver Humans didn't seem to believe in Divine Beings very much, so her fire didn't grow stronger as she had hoped.
But now, just after reading the two lines Bolos carved into the slab, her flame began to change automatically, as if the content itself was guiding the fire toward further evolution.
Bolos stopped writing, but Hestia grew anxious. "What is this? Why did you stop?"
There was even a hint of fervor in her eyes as she looked at both the slab and at Bolos.
Bolos glanced at the flame in her hand and seemed to realize something. He spoke slowly, "You can call what I've written—and what I will write in the future—Genesis. But as for what comes next, I haven't thought of it yet."
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.
These two lines were far from simple. They represented Bolos's reflections on creation, born from his formation of a material world prototype using faith power.
While they might resemble lines borrowed from another classic, they were indeed insights he had genuinely comprehended.
As for claiming he hadn't thought of what came next—that was purely to mislead Hestia.
He had only reached the first step on the Path of Faith, and could only write these lines. Even if he copied the rest of Yahweh's Bible, it would not stir Hestia in the same way.
There's a huge difference between writing what one has truly understood and simply copying something blindly.
Did he want to write the next line, "Let there be light"?
Of course. If he could truly write it from insight, he would immediately gain entry to the Grand Light Art, one of the Ten Arts of Fate.
"You haven't thought of it yet?" Hestia furrowed her graceful brows and extinguished the flame. "Then keep thinking. Once you figure it out, let me know."
She had already decided—she wasn't going anywhere. She was going to wait until Bolos had finished writing everything on that slab.
"This isn't something I can write just because I want to. My Divine Power is limited. I need the support of other forces."
"What kind of power do you need?"
"Faith power." Bolos feared she wouldn't understand and added, "The same spiritual will of all beings that your flame contains."
"This is faith power?"
Hestia was even more puzzled. "Have previous Divine Beings never obtained this kind of power before?"
Bolos shook his head. "Faith is born from unwavering requests and persistent responses. If a Divine Being neither cares about mortals' pleas nor responds to them, how can they receive faith?"
Hestia suddenly understood. She had gained that power because, back then, the Golden Humans were on the brink of extinction. They finally reached out to the Divine Beings with a plea, and she, in saving them, responded.
Through ten years of Titanomachy and continuous persistence, she finally received that faith power.
"So, everything you've created in the mortal world—all those tools—was to obtain faith power?"
Bolos nodded. "Exactly. Though the returns have been limited."
"Then, could I transfer part of my faith power to you to help you keep writing on the slab?"
Hestia more or less understood now how to obtain faith power. It wasn't that hard.
What mattered more was finding a method to fuse Divine Power with faith power.
And that method seemed to lie in what Bolos was writing.
"Unless you believe in me, the way those mortals once believed in you, the faith power can't be transferred."
To advance to the second stage of the Path of Faith, and evolve this system from demigod to god, he still needed more pure faith power.
If a Divine Being who already possessed faith power came to believe in him, that would be a massive help.
Even more so when that Divine Being was a Supreme God nearing the creation of her own pantheon.
Bolos even suspected that if Hestia were to enter his Tree of Life's origin, she might immediately become a Sequence Two or even Sequence One in the Occult System.
Hestia fell silent. Back then, mortals viewed her as their only savior, which is why that kind of "faith" emerged.
But to ask her to believe in Bolos… that was difficult.
It wasn't that she was unwilling—it was that she simply couldn't.
Bolos was still her junior, not even a Supreme God. She couldn't find a reason to believe in him.
"There's no other way?" Hestia was troubled. A vast divine path had opened before her, but she could not step onto it.
"There is," Bolos said. "But you may not want to do it."
"Tell me."
From her point of view, as long as Bolos wasn't asking her to help him overthrow Zeus's throne, she could agree to almost anything.
Bolos took out a leaf of emerald green and handed it to her. "Take this leaf and walk among mortals. Spread my name among them. You must not use any of your own Divine Power to help those in distress. Instead, allow them to come to the church and worship me on their own."
"Faith power will be transmitted to me through the leaf, allowing me to continue carving into the slab."
This leaf was one of the ten from his Tree of Life.
After putting away his Staff of Life, he had removed the remaining leaves.
The one he now took out represented the 'Foundation' node of the Tree of Life.
"No Divine Power?" Hestia accepted the leaf but hesitated. "If I can't use Divine Power, I might not be able to help mortals."
"Using Divine Power is merely a Divine Being's method," Bolos replied. "Given the temperament of Silver Humans, that won't inspire belief. But if you help them using ordinary means, they will be more willing to believe."
Bolos continued, "While I was among mortals, I discovered that unlike the Golden Humans, Silver Humans still suffer from illness."
"For some common ailments, I've done research. With medicinal herbs boiled into water, we can ease their pain."
"You can use these remedies to aid the suffering."
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