Achilles was elected as the new commander with unparalleled prestige. His goal was no longer to plunder the wealth of Troy, and finally, there was hope for the end of this protracted war.
Both sides, weary of the war, had the idea of sitting down to negotiate. Achilles sent the priestess and the children back to Troy to show that he was not as murderous as Agamemnon.
Athena intervened in a timely manner and spared no effort to promote a ceasefire between the two sides.
As the protector goddess of Athens, the strategic goddess had a wide range of followers among the coalition forces. The seaside battlefield was also within the domain of this chief goddess. The headwinds and waves that trapped the coalition forces could not be ignored, and the gods involved in the war had to take Athena's wishes into account.
The coalition forces were unable to break through the walls protected by Apollo and Poseidon, and Prince Hector of Troy was also unable to harm Achilles. It was not a good idea to continue the stalemate. Under the mediation of Athena, the warring parties reached an agreement to cease hostilities.
The ostensible fuse - Queen Helen of Sparta was abandoned by her husband and blamed by everyone. The cause of this war was the greed for wealth. Those who were unwilling to admit this shifted the blame to Helen, who had eloped. Her promised lover was unable to protect her well. The women of Troy regarded her as the incarnation of disaster and had been privately slandering her.
Helen could no longer bear these accusations. For love, she had abandoned her status as queen and came to Troy, but she couldn't even get the identity of a wife.
The pained Helen was unable to cope with these accusations any more. However, she could no longer return to Sparta. On the night when the ceasefire agreement was reached, Helen left the palace and came to the cliff, intending to jump into the sea to end her life. Finally, she was saved by Cassandra, the sister of Hector and Paris, a female prophet who could listen to oracles. Cassandra took in this poor woman and let her hide in the temple as a priestess.
The group returned to the Island of the Formless. Tethys gently kissed the foreheads of her sons.
Thinking that she was about to embark on a long - journey and might not see her sons again for a long time, Tethys felt a bit sad. However, with Styx as a mark, she could still return to her children.
"My sons, don't take out your anger on others because of Agamemnon's insult to me, and don't get involved in this war. He just reminded me that it was time for me to set off."
The handmaids surrounded the chief goddess and brought her shield and spear as she prepared to leave.
"My handmaids still need to perform their divine duties. They have served me loyally and taken care of you when I was busy. Take care of them and make sure they are not bullied during my absence."
The six subordinate goddesses didn't need Tethys to worry too much. They had already seen the dawn of an increase in their divine rank in their faith. As long as they were united, even the powerful gods couldn't do anything to them.
As for the tree nymphs, these nature nymphs had been accustomed to the life on the Island of the Formless and most of them were reluctant to return to the earth. Their incarnations left on the island were enough to protect them.
Saying this, Tethys took out some divine positions and gave them to these nymphs. Since she would take the Magic Web away when she left, she still needed to leave them some means of self - protection.
Divine positions such as catering, sunset, bathing, prayer, breeze, and snow were enough to make the tree nymphs get the respect they deserved. After becoming weak - power - level goddesses, they could live in seclusion in a corner even if they were out of the protection of the Island of the Formless.
After making all the arrangements, Tethys, accompanied by her sons, came to the edge of the world. The World Tree stretched out its branches to dispel the waves rising from the Chaos Sea. Nyx was waiting at the periphery of the world to bid farewell to this brave explorer.
"This is what Erebus and I got from the memory of Chaos. I hope it will help you."
Nyx's cold voice came from behind her veil. She sent out a part of the map of the Chaos Sea. Although some parts overlapped with what Tethys knew, this gift was still extremely precious.
Sincerely thanking Nyx, Tethys couldn't help but look back at the world behind her. The laws of the world sent a farewell to this primordial god, and the whole sky was filled with gloomy gray clouds and drizzle.
As Tethys took the first step out of the protection of the Crystal Wall System, the laws seemed to sense her determination. Instead of sending a farewell, they sent continuous blessings.
The power of the origin converged into a river, constantly washing Tethys' divine fire, cutting off the causal relationship between the departing beloved son and this world.
Since she chose to leave, both sides became independent individuals. The laws welcomed Tethys back, but before that, the accounts had to be settled.
Maintaining the sky, the earth, and the Crystal Wall System had brought Tethys a considerable amount of origin power, but she didn't choose to exchange it for the ownership of these divine positions.
Anyway, not planning to take them away, Tethys waved her hand and gave these divine positions to her sons. The sky belonged to Zeus, the ocean and land domains were obtained by Cronus, and as for the underworld, Tethys hesitated for a while and then transferred it to Nyx.
Looking at the origin of the Crystal Wall System in her hand, Tethys turned it into a butterfly and sent it to Astraea in the distance. The three gods present were already powerful enough and didn't need the power of the Crystal Wall System to protect themselves, but Astraea would need it. At least the laws would prevent the Starry - Night Goddess from perishing because of this.
With Tethys' current essence, these divine positions no longer played a decisive role. She could create them at any time with the power of the origin.
The supreme divinity from Chaos had infinitely elevated Tethys' wisdom. She smiled and turned her head. Under the protection of the World Tree, she turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the boundless darkness.
The journey in the Chaos Sea was boring and dull. Following the clear divine connection, Tethys arrived at the world where Lin Xiang was located.
The call of the deep space had not yet descended, and the world laws and the main gods were still in a stalemate.
At this time, Tethys looked at this world and indeed found several existences beyond the powerful - power level.
Perhaps sensing the sight from outside the world, several figures suddenly raised their heads and met Tethys' gaze.
A more ancient World Tree stretched out its branches, and the true body of the great god Odin came in front of Tethys. Different from the avatar Odin seen by Lin Xiang, the real Odin was also an outstanding figure among these inscrutable main gods.
Odin already knew the identity of the visitor, so this silence didn't last long.
"Early traveler, I hope you come with good intentions."
The World Tree behind Tethys also stretched out its branches and intertwined with the World Tree belonging to Odin. The completely different rules intertwined, bringing satisfactory gains to both sides.
"I'm just passing by. This is not my destination."
After learning about the situation from the avatar, Tethys immediately gave up the idea of entering this world.
The witch - doctor cultists had completely fallen into madness. Now was a time when the laws and main gods were extremely nervous. If she rashly entered, it would probably easily cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
She thought they wouldn't mind using the lone Tethys as a rehearsal before the battle. Tethys didn't want to end up like Chaos, becoming a battery. She was wary of Odin's intention of appearing here.
Under the glory of the World Tree, Odin's smile seemed to be full of deep meaning. He didn't take the initiative to make a move, nor did he threaten with his avatar. He just smiled without saying a word.
Tethys didn't speak either. She picked a leaf, recorded part of the Chaos Sea map she knew on it, and threw it to Odin, then decisively turned around and left.
Setting off on the journey again, Tethys already had a clear destination. Thanks to that brief experience of transcendence, Tethys noticed a world that she was very interested in.
Different from other independent worlds, this world had intersections with many worlds. Relying on the causal relationship with the goddess of magic, Mystera, which was vague in her mind, Tethys felt some familiar breaths from it.
This world was very unique. It had a fixed law of movement. Every once in a while, it would brush past other worlds, and during this process, it would take away some creatures that didn't originally belong to it. This phenomenon was unprecedented. Tethys guessed that the world that had an intersection with it should include the Faerûn world.
Compared with searching for the Faerûn world in the vast Chaos Sea, this seemed to be a shortcut.
Before the fruits of the World Tree were used up, Tethys finally arrived in this world.
What puzzled and excited Tethys was that this world allowed gods to enter but didn't allow them to descend in their true forms. This rule seemed to be obtained when it had an intersection with the Faerûn world, which brought trouble while further confirming Tethys' guess.
Out of caution, Tethys didn't enter this world. The World Tree hovered outside the protective layer and slowly approached with caution. However, the world laws didn't seem to resist outsiders and were indifferent to Tethys' probe.
A bit of the world origin combined with the flowers of the World Tree formed an avatar, carrying a wisp of Tethys' consciousness and falling into this world.
When she opened her eyes again, Tethys was already in a swamp.
The low - lying shrubs were divided into irregular blocks by the streams. Looking around, she only saw a wooden high tower standing not far away.
The world rules didn't allow gods to exert too much power. The avatar that Tethys used to test the waters was created within the limit.
Walking towards the high tower, the only place where there might be signs of human activity nearby, Tethys hadn't gone far when she heard a man's angry curse. A figure broke through the four - sided leaky wooden board and fell from above.
The man flexibly turned over to unload the force, inserted the silver sword in his hand into the sheath behind him, and turned to run. When he saw Tethys coming towards him, he was stunned for a moment and then shouted loudly, "Get out of here quickly!"
A dark mist spread from the wooden tower, and Tethys sensed a pair of eyes watching her.
A ghost - like figure poked its head out of the black mist. It had a lantern emitting a dim blue light in its hand. Its whole body was as thin as an abnormal person, and its whole face was covered with blood - stained red cloth, making it impossible to see its expression clearly.
The man who jumped down from the tower saw Tethys standing there stunned and cursed in a low voice, then turned and ran towards Tethys.
The man grabbed Tethys and ran wildly, crossing the swamp and low - lying shrubs and entering a sparse forest.
The man running madly didn't notice that the ghost in the tower shrank back immediately after staring at Tethys and didn't chase after him as he had expected.
Crossing the forest and arriving at a river, the man finally stopped. He cursed and washed the mud on his long boots by the water. His leather armor had become unrecognizable, with uneven brown - black tones that made people frown. Tethys suspected that this leather armor hadn't been cleaned for a long time.
His figure wasn't particularly burly, but he had the strength of a leopard. If it weren't for the two dangerous scars on his right half of the face and the strange smell emanating from his body, he would definitely be considered handsome.
The dirty man cursed a few times and kicked the water violently. Then he turned to look at the innocent - looking Tethys.
"You lost noble lady, how did you get into that damn swamp?"
Tethys was surprised to find that the man's eyes were a bright yellow. His tone was obviously sarcastic, and his impatience was obvious.
"As you said, I'm lost, right?"
Tethys wasn't angry at the man's sharp words. He had sounded the alarm as soon as he saw her and had also risked being caught up to save her.
Although she didn't know what the ghost in the tower was, it seemed that this world didn't resist supernatural powers. At least there were far more monsters and evil spirits here than in the world where Lin Xiang was.
Suddenly, Tethys looked thoughtfully at the calm water surface and said to the man, "Maybe you should draw your sword."
Bubbles emerged from the calm water surface. Several rows of fish fins split the water surface, splashing ripples. But Tethys didn't think these humanoid monsters with scales were fish.
The blue - green scales were covered with mucus and mud, and a nauseating sour smell made Tethys cover her nose and step back a few steps.
As these fish - scaled and fish - finned monsters leaped out, the man also sensed something. He reached out his hand to draw his silver sword from behind. With the force of turning around, he slashed out with one sword and split the monster that pounced on him in two.
The stinky blood drenched the man. Now Tethys understood where the strange smell on the man's body came from.
The ripples on the water surface were endless, and it seemed that more monsters were ready to launch an attack.
The man vibrated his wrist to shake off the blood on the sword, and the silver sword became clean again.
At this time, instead of retreating, the man advanced. He kicked the body of the monster that had been split in two from the shoulder into the water. This undoubtedly angered the monsters underwater. Six stinky monsters rushed ashore and attacked the man.
The man stuck his silver sword into the sand and reached out his hand to draw something in the air. Tethys keenly sensed a scorching fire element gathering in the man's hand. With his movement, it burst into flames and ignited the monsters that rushed over.
These aquatic monsters seemed to be particularly afraid of fire. It wasn't long before they howled and turned into a group of charred corpses.
The man cursed and chopped off the heads of the monsters with his sword. His movements were rough but skillful as he collected the brains of the monsters into a leather bag.
Seeing that Tethys was still calm, the man seemed a bit surprised, and a wary look appeared on his face.
"Listen, miss, no matter where you come from and what you want to pursue, I can't give you an answer!"
Looking at this awkward man, Tethys almost wanted to laugh at his hypocrisy. She picked up her skirt, which was obviously of high - quality craftsmanship, shook it, and asked in a puzzled tone, "Then why don't you just throw me here and leave?"