On the other side Josephine, Primrose, and Veronica navigated the Marketplace with with a mostly carefree mindset, discussing a wide array of topics.
***
“As I am sure you know, my father, Poseidon, rules over all three Oceans of Olympus; Ouranos, Pontos, and Chaos. But what you may not know is that his capital was constructed on the back of one of the first sea creatures, a giant sea-turtle as large as Athens named, Althea.”
”Really?”
“Yep. She was actually one of the first members of my father’s Household and is currently one of its most powerful member’s, being infinitely close to entering the 10th Tier and creating her Internal World’s Primal Soul.”
“Exactly how hard is it to reach that level?”
“You mean the 10th Tier?”
“En.”
“Incomprehensibly hard.”
“Why so?”
“Well before I even attempt to explain something I haven’t experienced for myself, let me ask you this; Do you know what the ultimate goal of Cultivation is?”
“To Transcend.”
“Partially. Transcendence is a key factor of it, but what exactly are we trying to Transcend? And when we Transcend it, what comes next?”
Josephine’s question caused Primrose to fall into a long period of meticulous thought. It seemed like she was trying to grasp at a bunch of illusory strings outside the bounds of even Reality; and eventually she could only say, “... I don’t know.”
Josephine gave a warm-hearted smile and spoke gently, “That’s fine, I don’t know either, in fact most people currently in existence don’t know why Deva Cultivate, only that its instinctual. Only those who have either crossed a certain threshold of existence, or have the mental capacity to link everything together into the final form of existence understand those things. Let’s start at the beginning, What is a Primal Soul?”
“A Primal Soul is the will of the world, it determines what is up and down, dictating the flow of time and relativity of space, weaving the threads of reality, establishing the division between life and death, attaining control over creation and destruction, shaping the cosmos, defining the elements within the Primordial chaos, divining various forms of energy and matter from the Primal Source, and bringing into existence countless life forms.”
“Correct. In the beginning there was nothing but chaos, but after an incalculable amount of what we call ‘time’ had passed Primal Soul gradually took shape. That Primal Soul was The Father. From that Chaos Cultivated Primal Source Energy gathering it into his body, undergoing countless cycles of death and rebirth. Through that he sunk into a state of Enlightenment that stretched onwards infinitely allowing him to Divine the countless Fundamental Truths and Profound Laws and tying them together to form the World Tree that currently Supports The Three Realms. He then built or established the rest of the ‘world’ around that tree manifesting his vision of what the world should be in Chaos. He then continually refined his World-Supporting Tree and the vision it supported underwent countless evolutions, creating a wide array of life forms which interacted with the world around it. I tell you this because we know that the cultivation system of us Deva is based upon the journey The Father embarked upon after he took shape; as the first generation of us were born in a similar manner to him. But that is where my limited amount of knowledge comes into play. We know from the experience of our ancestors that the 10th Tier -Primal Soul signifies us achieving a new state of being and gaining the ability to create sentient life forms within our Internal World, but it could not be achieved through sheer will, it necessitates one entering as state of sudden epiphany.”
As she listened to Josephine talk, Primrose felt her sense of existence expand by countless times as she felt an unprecedented level of respect for The Father, born from chaos he created the world they currently existed in, without him they wouldn’t be.
After awhile she broke free of her reverie and asked, “You don’t have even the tiniest inkling how one gains access to that state?”
“If I had to guess... I would say that it involves a fundamental evolution in the relationship between the whole(which is you) and the world taking shape within you. It could also allude to the creation of sentient Life Forms within one’s Internal World.” Josephine gave two possibilities after a moment of silent thought.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because we know what the 11th Tier Origin, and the 12th Tier Transcendence entail, and from that we can extrapolate the 10th to some degree, but that doesn’t make it any easier to reach the 10th. And we can do the same based upon what you just told me; a Primal Soul is what brings life forms into existence as the world's Fundamental Truths and Profound Laws go through countless evolutions.”
“What do they entail?”
”Well the 11th, Origin, entails the qualitative evolution from an Internal World to a Sub-Realm, and brings with it the ability to comprehend the true essence of both, creation and destruction. The ability to truly create something from nothing, and the ability to truly erase something from existence. At this level you are, The Origin of a True World, and inside that world your will dictates everything. And the 12th circles back to the question of Transcendence. When one reaches this level, they Transcend Everything, Space, Time, Life and Death, Reality, and Fate. And no one except The Father has ever been able to achieve this level so we don’t know if anything exist beyond it.”
Primrose was once more shocked silent, as Josephine gazed at the map in her hands before once more returning it to her pocket.
By this time she had stopped at quite a few stand’s, purchasing a wide assortment of items.
***
“So you told me about a few of the Sub-Realms outside of this one that you have experienced first hand, what are some others.”
“Well I told you about the Georgian, Egyptian, Astral, and Arctic Sub-Realms. But I’ve also been to the Elemental and Dragonian Sub-Realms. There was also Gardunia, the Sub-Realm created by the first Giant. And of course The Ancient Battlefield - Eden, which may not count as a Sub-Realm considering it is the core of The Three Realms. And those are just the ones I have visited, their are tens of others that I have heard of that I have yet to visit, and an unknown number of them currently in existence which I know nothing about.”
“Earlier you alluded to Sub-Realms being created through the Cultivation of Internal Worlds, is this the only way they can come into existence?”
“No in fact only a Significant portion of Sub-Realms were created that way because less than one in one hundred billion Deva actually reach the 9th Tier, let alone the 10th or 11th (the latter being where that evolution from Internal World to Sub-Realm takes place).”
“Then how do they come into existence?”
“Well as you know First Generation beings which come into existence through the machinations of the ‘World’ itself are known as Celestial Fae, similarly to the way 'The Father' 'Emerged' from Chaos. And as such they are capable of creating ‘Worlds’, (that are in turn capable of producing sentient life), through the manipulation of what is around them. But of course since they don’t come from pure Chaos like the Father, which thereby equates to both their Authorities and the forms of energy at their disposal being of a lesser form, the ‘Worlds’ they create are defined as Sub-Realms. Which means they in every sense of the word are forever unable to completely, ‘Transcend’, The Three Realms.”
“Damn...” Primrose muttered as a sense of complexity overcame her expression before she asked, “What about their offspring?”
“The first generation, such as The Titans, Olympian Giants, and us children of Aphrodite are what is known as Fae. Similarly to our parents, we are ‘Gifted’ with Authorities, but we don’t have our parent’s inborn ability to manipulate reality and create worlds directly. We must first cultivate the world internally before bringing it into reality. But what further separates us from those Deva who are born after us further down the family line, is the fact that we possess the potential to overcome that ‘deficiency’, completely bypassing the necessity of the cultivation system.”
“So in theory, you, could someday create worlds besides the one which you are currently cultivating internally, doesn’t that mean that we have in one sense of the word, ‘surpassed’, our parents?” Primrose asked with a dumbfounded expression.
Josephine shook her head with a self-mocking expression, “Sadly that’s not the case this ability has to manifest itself either before or during the breakthrough to the 7th Tier - World Establishment. Ideally this would result in a shift in cultivation paths. When A Celestial Fae creates an actual world they and the world become joined together, as the world develops so does their power and vice versa. They don’t need to cultivate a World Tree; they only need to continually strengthen the powers of both their Bloodline and Authority. But, as you can see I have already reached the 8th Tier and yet I am still cultivating an Internal World, which means I didn’t unlock the potential passed down to me by Aphrodite.”
***
“This is something not many people talk about, but how exactly did Zeus dispose Kronos and become the current Immortal Emperor? And also, what exactly is an Immortal Emperor?”
“Well let’s tackle the second question first. An Immortal Emperor is defined, as a Deva born with the talent to synchronize with whatever Sub-Realm their Bloodline stems from and suppress the Inherent Abilities or ‘Gifts’ of any life form besides themselves when they are in said Sub-Realm. So to that extent Zeus was always an Immortal Emperor, similarly to his Father Kronos. Do you understand?”
Primrose nodded in order to indicate that she did in fact, understand.
“Good, now in order to explain how Zeus disposed his Father, Kronos, I have to first explain the events that transpired during the beginning ages of Olympus and how Kronos did the same to his father, Ouranos, is that fine.”
“It’s more than fine.”
“Okay, so, the story begins hundreds of millions if not billions of years ago a change took place within the seemingly boundless, chaotic void separating The Three Realms through the machinations of the world; two streams of Primordial power, one possessing the creative power of the earth and the other the nurturing power of water collided. And from that collision came the initial forms of Gaia, the Mother of Creation and Hydros, the Primordial Water God. They were born with both the instinctive knowledge and desire to create a world full of their progeny, so they came together and split open the chaotic void, laying the foundation for Olympus. They then decided to copulate in order to give birth to both beings to rule over various aspects of their immature world and create life forms capable of thriving within it. From their successive unions came; Ouranos, Khronos, Ananke, and Phanes, Olympus’ Primordial Gods of Sky, Time as a Whole, Fate, and Life...”
When Josephine paused briefly to make sure that Primrose was following her trail of thought she found that her sister had a deeply confused expression. And as a result she sunk into a brief silence so the latter could process the information.
What she didn’t realize was that it wasn’t necessarily the details within the story of Olympus’s creation that confounded Primrose, but rather the implications behind the story as a whole and its overarching direction. It was overwhelmingly similar to what transpired when the Anima of her and Basil formed an initial connection and the combined their powers to form an independent mental space, or ‘world’, which caused her to sink into a period of silent reflection; “Could it be that we were mistaken and that we have in fact taken the first step in creating a true world? But, how is it possible for use to form a world when we are in a purely Anima based state. But then again, she did say that The Father was born as A Primal Soul... Either way this is tricky, I’ll have to discuss this with Basil so the two of us can verify whether or not ‘Paradise’ is truly just a mental construct.”
When Josephine saw that Primrose had freed herself from her reverie she chose to continue on instead of prying, “After the initial foundation of Olympus was laid with its boundaries drawn Hydros left the world to Gaia to look after while he departed to explore the chaotic void. After he left Gaia copulated with Ouranos and their successive unions resulted in; the Titans such as Kronos and Rhea, the 6 Kyklopes and Hecatoncheires, and Nyx, Erebos, Aether, Hemera, and Khaos, the Primordial Gods of Night, Darkness, Light and the blue ether filling the void between heaven and earth, Day, and the transparent screen separating the earth from the void or the ‘horizon’. And of course those Primordial Gods and the various Titans had their own progeny, but we don’t really need to discuss that at the moment.”
“Could we discuss it later?”
“Of course but for our current purposes that wouldn’t be helpful. Anyway, Gaia always had a more passive personality, and as such after Hydros left to explore the chaotic void; Ouranos became the Olympus’ most authoritative being ruling above all else. But this was threatened when Gaia gave birth to the Kyklopes and Hecatoncheires as Ananke had prophesied that the Kyklopes would forge a lightning bolt capable of defying his Authority, while the Hecatoncheires would one day grow strong enough to usurp him. This caused him no small amount of angst, but he knew he couldn’t kill them or Gaia would most likely disembowel him in rage. As such he decided to imprison them with the earth. But what he didn’t anticipate was the reaction the Titans would have to their younger siblings been subjected to such imprisonment. One night after Ouranos had descended from the heavens and copulated with Gaia, Kronos and his brothers launched a desperate attack. After a long battle that almost ended with complete destruction on the side of the Titans, they managed to chop him into countless pieces which they then threw into the sea that was still tainted with the power of Hydros and suppressed his regenerative abilities to an extreme point.”
“After Kronos rose to power he too was subject to the same fear of being overthrown, but what truly terrified him was not only being disposed but being treated the same way he and his brothers treated their father. And as such; he chose to devour every single one of his children and slowly chip away at their Immortal bodies with the devouring force of time. But, Rhea eventually had enough of such antics and choose to protect her youngest child, Zeus. Eventually Zeus rose to power and confronted Kronos, using the sword Kronos once used to castrate his own father, in order to cut open Kronos’ stomach and free his siblings. He and his siblings then waged a full-fledged war on the Titans and ultimately seized power. Is that explanation sufficient?”
“Indeed it is.” Primrose nodded with a pondering expression.
”Good.” Josephine nodded as she handed a void gold coin to a vendor in exchange for a fist-sized piece of silvery white metal.
