The first ray of dawn pierced the sky, and the ethereal mountain peaks already exhaled molten gold.
The scent of sulfur wafted over serrated leaf edges, weaving a gray veil amidst silver-green nebulae.
Hephaestus, who usually had a sallow complexion, was now flushed with a fiery red blush, and his ugly face shone with a glimmer of hope. "Lord Mobius, what is the healing plan?"
Mobius said directly, "Hmm, please allow me to thoroughly examine your body. After all, some things require a cooperative examination to determine the treatment method."
Hephaestus nodded, signaling Mobius to proceed with the examination, then spread his hands and closed his eyes.
Mobius raised his slender right hand, and a faint fluctuation of divine power emerged from the halo at his fingertips, which resembled glass-grade imperial green jadeite.
The surrounding heaven and earth elemental forces were arranged in a regular pattern around the two of them.
The next second, threads of life energy condensed and wrapped around Hephaestus's back.
"I will first examine the condition of your back." A soothing power appeared in Mobius's voice, relaxing Hephaestus's tense heart.
"Within your body, the power of water left by Tethys has merged with your divine duties to form a symbiotic flesh and bone," Mobius poked at the first lumbar vertebra. "Look here, Lord Hephaestus, at the nineteenth segment of the bone."
Hephaestus's back suddenly became transparent, revealing red and blue bones, with the powers of fire and water confronting and influencing each other.
Healing power, full of life, began from the 21st bone segment, penetrating the red and blue forces, extending to the Adam's apple, and flowing out from the jaw as a special divine power alternating between water and fire.
Hephaestus extracted this mixed divine power and furrowed his brow. "Lord Mobius, the moment this wisp of divine power leaves my divine body, my rank decreases, as if a part of the law is missing."
"What's going on?"
Mobius withdrew his hand from Hephaestus's back and condensed a spherical orb of divine power, which was red and blue. The red occupied ninety percent, while the blue occupied ten percent.
"Lord Hephaestus, please look at this orb." Mobius continued to explain, "The divine power in your body is like this orb, and the red is the power derived from your Source, while the blue is the product of the divine power Tethys injected into your body combining with your Source."
"So?" Hephaestus's face became difficult to accept. "This power of water has combined with my Source?"
"If I want to be completely healed, I have to abandon this part of my Source?" Hephaestus clenched his fists tightly, as if he wanted to punch someone.
However, this was normal; after all, although the Source was not as important as divine duties, it was still a crucial component of a God.
Divine duties were the fundamental source of a God's power, and the divine body and divine personality were symbols of a God's identity, both indispensable. The Source, however, represented a God's upper limit; the Source could be weak, but it absolutely could not be incomplete.
An incomplete Source would fix a God's divine power level and affect his development and utilization of divine duties.
For example, if Mobius's Source were incomplete, his healing power would have an upper limit, and his identity as a Source God would be lost. Unless the lost Source was replenished, he would no longer receive the world's blessing.
Source God are divided into two categories: one where the law completely belongs to a God, and another where it is the concretization of a certain thing. The latter are generally powerful existences among Source God, such as the sky, the earth, and hell.
As for Source God of the law type, because their Source is limited, an incomplete Source will affect their future promotion.
Symbolic Source God, on the other hand, do not have the trouble of an incomplete Source. Of course, this does not mean their Source will never be incomplete, but rather that their Source can be restored from its concretization.
Evidently, Hephaestus did not possess the strength to become a complete concretization of fire. Although he called himself the God of Fire, his divine duties leaned more towards the realms of explosion and power.
More specifically, he was the God of Earth Fire, the master of the fire at the Earth's core, not the king of all flames.
Therefore, once Hephaestus's Source was missing, he would lose his identity as a Source God. Unless Hephaestus could acquire another Source divine duty, he would only be a God similar to Helios, the Sun God.
The Source of the sun was in his father Hyperion's hands, yet he wielded the power of the sun. When the divine duty of the sun was in Hyperion's hands, he was able to participate in the war to besiege Uranus, the first generation of God-Kings, who possessed powerful divine power, at the level of a peak intermediate divine power, and even inflict some wounds on the God of the Sky.
In Helios's hands, it could only be used as a large fireball, devoid of any solar majesty or power.
"Then what should I do?" Hephaestus hesitated, placing the wisp of divine power he had extracted from his first lumbar vertebra back.
"You," Mobius pointed at Hephaestus's action, a smile on his lips, "don't you already have the answer?"
"When you are indecisive about a decision, choose the first one. When you have a second choice, your first choice becomes invalid," Mobius said with a smile.
"Are you saying I should stay as I am?" Hephaestus's throat was dry, and he hoarsely uttered these words. "Is there really no other way for my appearance?"
"That depends on how you choose, Lord. Do you want to break ties with Tethys, or pretend you know nothing?" Mobius casually tossed a feather-like, linear-leaved plant he had picked at the foot of the volcano.
Mobius looked at Hephaestus and was immensely grateful that he had not been taken away by Tethys, for if he had, Hephaestus before him would be an example.
"What... is this?" Hephaestus subconsciously took the plant Mobius had thrown to him. "How peculiar."
"I don't know either," Mobius's divine duty of flowers did not contain information about this plant, only that it was born because of Hephaestus's divine power. "However, this plant was born from your divine power."
"They see you as their master, and they worship you wholeheartedly." The flower crown on Mobius's head flashed red, and Hephaestus immediately felt unreserved admiration and respect from the plant before him.
It was as if they would die for Hephaestus.
"Am I loved too?" A turbid tear flowed from Hephaestus's eye.