Chapter 94: Freedom of the Creator
In Greek mythology, Artemis's divine status was by no means inferior to that of the Sun God, nor was the sun considered the absolute pinnacle of authority. Within the Firmament of the Divine Court, the power output of all celestial bodies was fundamentally equal. The sun and the moon perfectly symbolized the dualistic harmony of Yin and Yang—their strength and status were perfectly balanced, serving opposing yet fiercely interdependent roles. Consequently, the sudden appearance of the Moon Goddess offered immensely high strategic value for the ongoing development of the Divine Court.
"Does all of this relate back to what you mentioned earlier about officially joining the Divine Court?" Artemis looked thoughtful.
"It does." Hephaestus spoke truthfully, relaying everything related to the integration and weaving of divine Authorities to Artemis.
"Then I'll join," Artemis declared with absolute decisiveness.
Leaving all other factors aside, the mere prospect that a God could actually progress and evolve completely shattered the stagnant equilibrium the pantheon had maintained for hundreds of millions of years. Choosing not to participate meant falling hopelessly behind, and falling behind in power inevitably led to vulnerability. Not only would she miss out on an unprecedented, highly entertaining endeavor, but she might very well suffer severe beatings in the future for her own obsolescence. Artemis was simply straight-laced and perhaps a bit inflexible; she certainly wasn't stupid.
"Aside from that, there are a few foundational rules governing the Divine Court that must be strictly obeyed." Hephaestus stated, immediately granting Artemis partial administrative access and pulling up the mandatory code of conduct for her review.
The stipulations were incredibly straightforward. The absolute core tenets revolved around maintaining internal harmony among residents and the strict prohibition of leaking any classified intel regarding the Divine Court to the outside world.
Artemis found absolutely zero issues with the prerequisites for entry. While she strictly maintained her own vows of purity and held a deep personal distaste for romance, she harbored no active opposition to others pursuing it. Even if she were forced to witness something like a harem dynamic, she would merely frown in disgust and distance herself. She wouldn't intentionally seek out conflict or hurl unwarranted insults. This inherent tolerance made her vastly different from those hypocrites who flaunted titles of "moral purity" solely as an excuse to violently vent their own deeply ingrained malice onto others.
Naturally, any dependents belonging to the Artemis Familia would be held to the exact same behavioral standards. If one of her children genuinely yearned for romance, she freely allowed them to leave the Familia to pursue it. Her strict, uncompromising severity was a burden she solely applied to herself, never forcefully inflicting it upon others. Because Lucian actively permitted the virgin goddess to join the Divine Court while fully retaining her fierce independence, Artemis found no logical reason to refuse the offer.
"It is highly reasonable." Artemis noted. "We deities can certainly aid in accelerating the perfection of this world by joining, but our participation is in no way a strict necessity." "For mortals, however, gaining entry into the Divine Court is nothing short of a divine miracle. As the Creator, deciding exactly what kind of individuals are granted access is entirely his inherent freedom."
The private lives of the Greek pantheon were legendarily depraved. While she found their conduct deeply distasteful, she never felt compelled to intervene as long as their hedonistic chaos didn't spill over onto her own doorstep. After hundreds of millions of years, Artemis understood the true, deplorable nature of the Gods with crystal clarity. That collective group possessed absolutely zero concept of true "responsibility."
Lucian, on the other hand, was deeply responsible. His lifestyle couldn't even accurately be labeled as "chaotic." True chaos in one's private life inherently implied engaging in fundamentally unhealthy, inappropriate, or deeply toxic interpersonal behaviors and relationships. For deities, such issues stemmed from a lack of base morality or severe clashes with their governing Authorities. For humanity, the complications compounded into severe mental and physical health crises. Yet, under the absolute rules established within the Divine Court, the resulting environment was neither unhealthy nor inappropriate.
Concepts like unhealthy or inappropriate were entirely relative, dictated largely by the societal norms and specific environmental pressures of a given culture. Given that the Divine Court acted as a nexus extending out into the countless realms of the multiverse, operating under its own fully independent set of moral frameworks and systemic rules was perfectly logical. As for Artemis herself, her stance remained resolute: as long as no one deliberately bothered her, she couldn't care less whether their actions aligned with her rigid personal beliefs. She simply wouldn't say a word about it.
After familiarizing herself with a myriad of the Divine Court's other administrative functions, Artemis formally summoned Lucian's Divine Avatar, the World Will. The very second she officially joined the Divine Court, her immediate priority was actively constructing her own personal map domain.
The hunt, the wilderness, the beasts, the mountains, the caverns, the forests... and finally—the moon. Artemis architected a massively spherical world. Utilizing the Moon Palace as its absolute anchoring core, she molded the entire map topography into a literal, physical moon, directly materializing the landscape through the sheer weight of her Authority. Vast forests woven from trees of gleaming silver, towering mountain ranges glowing in pale cerulean hues, and packs of legendary, mythological beasts galloping freely across the lunar surface...
Granted the ultimate privilege of true Creation, Artemis quickly discovered that even fantastical environments, alien flora, and mythical fauna—concepts that existed purely in the realm of imagination even up in Heaven—could now be physically manifested purely through her willpower. Although her direct creation could not spontaneously spark true life, Artemis harbored absolutely zero doubts that this dimension would eventually naturally birth the precise lunar ecosystem she envisioned in her mind.
"You finished it that quickly?" Hephaestus asked, visibly stunned by the speed.
"The Map Editor interface is incredibly intuitive to use," Artemis replied evenly. "Since I am now officially a member of the Divine Court, I bear the unshakeable obligation to assist in its expansion. Thus, my Authority serves as my most valuable contribution."
"Classic Artemis. I shouldn't be surprised." Hephaestus sighed in nostalgic amusement. Stiffly serious and fiercely competent. The moment Artemis committed herself to a goal, absolutely nothing could distract her from executing it flawlessly.
By now, having seamlessly integrated the powers of Hephaestus, Bheara, and Prometheus prior to this, the sheer processing power and operational performance of Lucian's Divine Avatar had already experienced exponential enhancements. The literal manifestation of fundamental rules no longer required an entire day to compile. A mere half-hour was more than sufficient. Furthermore, the more powerful the deities that joined the network, the higher the existential nature of the Divine Avatar climbed, forcefully widening the already massive power gap between itself and any individual God.
Lucian's divine aspect currently operated on a dimensional tier far above that of standard deities. If one were forced to quantify the discrepancy in raw strength, the current Lucian could effortlessly annihilate ten Gods simultaneously without breaking a sweat. Even though a coordinated divine counterattack could still theoretically inflict damage upon him, the gap was visibly absolute. The higher one ascended the power scale, the more violently even the slightest incremental improvement magnified the resulting disparity in combat strength.
Not to mention, Lucian's Divine Avatar possessed the god-defying ability to aggressively deconstruct, flawlessly restructure, and seamlessly fuse multiple separate Authorities into completely new concepts... This was a realm of power utterly inaccessible to any solo deity. The compounding synergy of fused Authorities resulted in a lethal complexity and destructive scale that dwarfed isolated powers. A single unified fusion of two Authorities could easily eradicate two Gods working in tandem. The sheer multiplier in force was measured in magnitudes of dozens or hundreds.
If one were to calculate power levels using the Little Garden's systemic hierarchy, the Gods of the Danmachi universe equated to solid 4-Digit entities, while Lucian's Divine Avatar was rapidly approaching the terrifying realm of a 4-Digit Exception. By that same metric, the One-Eyed Black Dragon currently sat at the 5-Digit tier, an adventurer at Level 10 represented a 6-Digit existence, and anyone ranging from Level 1 to Level 9 fell squarely within the 7-Digit bracket. Naturally, this was merely a generalized structural outline. When factoring in the explosive potential of cross-pollinated power systems, punching radically above one's defined weight class was hardly surprising.
As far as Lucian was currently concerned, his localized individual combat strength was largely irrelevant. Rapid, sustainable infrastructural development was the absolute highest priority.
The moment Artemis was fully integrated into the Divine Court, the heavily placeholder moon suspended in the Firmament finally obtained its foundational conceptual source material, allowing it to undergo rapid, flawless refinement.
"If I dedicate the bulk of my Calculation Power, it should roughly take only half a month to completely finalize the construction and intricate refinement of the moon." Lucian actively mapped out the logistical timeline in his head.
The Authority of the Moon and the Authority of the Lunar Star... there were incredibly distinct, nuanced differences between the two. Those very differences represented one of the absolute core mechanical pillars of the Divine Court. Otherwise, Lucian could have just casually uprooted Artemis's newly generated Moon Palace and copy-pasted it directly into the Firmament skybox.
However, the hyper-accelerated perfection of the moon inherently triggered an atmospheric imbalance with its corresponding solar counterpart. As a temporary fix, he had no choice but to forcefully dial back the lunar radiance slightly. Fortunately, the Firmament was intentionally designed as a massive energy filter. The raw intensity of both sunlight and moonlight that successfully pierced the atmospheric filter to shine upon the Divine Court grounds below was strictly regulated and finite.
The cascading light itself was literal starlight—a fully harvestable magical resource categorized as Sun Essence, Moon Essence, and Star Essence. Furthermore, the core energy operating these systems wasn't divine power. The lunar map domain Artemis constructed was undeniably fueled by divine energy, but the celestial bodies orbiting within the Firmament ran exclusively on the most foundational, primordial force available—Magicules.
In fact, the sheer purity of this specific strain of Magicules differed slightly from the ambient Greater Source mana saturating the Danmachi universe, acting as an even more highly refined, essentialized variant. It was a deliberate departure from blind replication, meticulously engineered to forge a unique, independent atmospheric signature entirely exclusive to the Divine Court.
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