System: Daily login!!, jackpot on the first day!!!-Chapter 416 - The Third Calamity

- The Next Day, Olympus.

After clearing Floor 200, Taufik didn’t rest.

He had seen the signs... Felt the ripple.

And he knew exactly who he needed to speak with.

So, he said his farewells to his family, brief but warm, and vanished, reappearing high above Mount Olympus, the ancient throne of the Greek Pantheon.

The sky trembled.

The clouds parted.

And then... silence.

Taufik spread his aura.

Not to intimidate, but to announce.

A golden ripple radiated outward, blanketing all of Olympus in a heartbeat.

It was not aggressive, yet not gentle either.

It was the equivalent of knocking on the gates of heaven... by kicking them open just enough to be polite.

Seconds later, Zeus descended in a flash of lightning, followed immediately by a procession of gods, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and behind them, standing solid and grim...

Hercules.

All fully armed. All tense.

It was a force gathered not for diplomacy... but for war.

And yet...

"Sup, long time no see," Taufik said, casual as if greeting old drinking buddies. He waved one hand lazily, as if this wasn’t Olympus, and they weren’t bristling with divine weapons. His eyes caught someone in the crowd.

"Oh, Hercules. Good to see you again"

Hercules’ hand twitched slightly, resting on his weapon.

His eyes narrowed, tone serious.

"...Thanks to you, I was freed from that place," he said, referring to the Underworld, to his soul once snatched by Death. "But this and that are different... What do you want, coming here like this?"

Taufik grinned. Not smug, not arrogant. Just... amused.

"Talk. What else?" he shrugged. "Kill all of you? C’mon. I’m not that heartless"

The air crackled.

But before tensions escalated, Taufik turned, gaze locking onto Zeus.

His voice dropped, casual tone replaced by steel.

"Zeus. Are you feeling it?"

A sudden stillness blanketed the mountaintop.

Zeus didn’t answer immediately. His eyes scanned the horizon, not physically, but spiritually. Looking beyond. Into the threads of the world.

Then...

A pause.

A sigh.

And a truth.

"...So you know," Zeus said at last.

He stepped forward, his lightning fading.

"Let’s talk. Inside"

---

As they walked the marbled halls of Olympus, Taufik let his gaze wander.

Polished columns stood tall once more. The once-broken floors had been restored. Statues, banners, and divine architecture all shone as if they had never tasted blood or collapse.

But he remembered.

The last time he stood here... Olympus shattered.

Thousands had died.

Screams had echoed through these very corridors.

All because SOMEONE from Olympus had dared to lay a hand on what was his.

He didn’t feel regret.

Not then.

Not now.

Their survival had been a mercy, not justice.

Had they not held a connection to someone precious to him...

Olympus would have been erased from history.

He stopped briefly, running his hand along a freshly rebuilt wall.

"...You guys sure recover quickly," Taufik said, his tone light, but only on the surface. His eyes, sharp and cold, slid to Zeus. "...Want to do it again, Zeus?"

The King of Olympus didn’t flinch, on the outside.

But a thin line of cold sweat betrayed the memory etched deep in his bones. The memory of how close to death he had come. How powerless even he had been.

He kept his voice calm. Measured.

"Stop it," Zeus said. "You’re a god now, Taufik. Start acting like one. Show a little... restraint. Act your status"

A pause.

Then a low chuckle.

Taufik turned his head, smile slow and sharp. There was no joy in it, only a warning.

"Are you... Lecturing me, Zeus?"

There it was.

A flicker of danger behind his eyes.

A crackle in the air.

Even the marble beneath their feet groaned, responding to the pressure of a truth too big for Olympus.

"I may be a god," Taufik continued, voice low but resonating through the hall, "But you and I are not the same"

His tone dropped further. Icy. Sharp as the edge of the void.

"You should be thanking Gaia.

If it weren’t for her... Olympus would be nothing but a myth"

Behind them, Hercules clenched his fists.

"Watch your mouth-" he began, but...

Taufik looked at him.

Just once.

And Hercules stopped.

His heart skipped a beat.

His voice caught in his throat.

"Open your mouth wisely, Hercules," Taufik said, without raising his tone, "I might have pulled you out of Death’s grasp, but don’t forget, I can call Death again. And this time..."

He leaned in slightly, a whisper carried by thunder, "...She’ll escort you personally"

Silence.

The gods walking alongside them dared not breathe too loud.

Taufik straightened again, walking ahead.

"You’ve been gods for too long. You’ve forgotten that there are things above you. You look down at mortals... and forget that something may yet look down upon you"

Then, his voice turned colder still.

"It already irritates me that some fossils from the past are trying to slither back into MY Earth..."

He stopped, turning fully toward the pantheon.

"So don’t..." A pause. A stillness. And then... "Don’t provoke my anger"

--------

Far from Earth...

Amidst the starless void that stretches beyond mortal comprehension, they appeared.

Not from space.

Not from time.

But from beyond both.

They did not travel, they arrived, each one stepping across the veil like stepping through a curtain of silk.

Some had once been worshipped.

Others had only been imagined, myths scribbled onto cave walls, spoken of in hushed rituals, or written in lost grimoires no one dared open.

They came from fractured universes, splintered timelines, and realms where reality bent around their existence.

The Norse, bearing the scars of Ragnarök.

The Egyptians, cloaked in gold and eternity.

The Hindu, shining like galaxies wrapped in mortal form.

The Aztec, blood-soaked and burning with cosmic fire.

The Celtic, wild-eyed and whispering with nature’s wrath.

The Shinto and Taoist, cloaked in balance and paradox.

And beyond them, The Outer Ones, formless and vast, their names unspoken, their presence a pressure behind the stars.

Not all were friends.

Not all were foes.

But all were drawn to Earth, or rather, to what Earth had become.

A world reborn.

A world changed by a being who was once human.

A world protected by a being the multiverse could no longer ignore.

From the edge of the void, they looked down.

One, cloaked in shadow and flame, narrowed his eyes.

"Earth... still as blue as I remember. But different. It’s alive now"

Another, radiant with starlight and golden rings orbiting his arms, reached out as if to touch the world:

"This energy... I’ve never felt anything so pure. It sings like a divine chord, unbroken, untouched... unclaimed"

A goddess in green silk, her form flickering like wind through leaves, whispered:

"If I had that energy... Ascension would no longer be a dream. I’d become eternity"

And then, one of them spoke with disappointment.

A being made of obsidian runes and blinking constellations.

"But... the barrier. It’s too perfect. Too complete. Whoever crafted that seal... meant it"

They tested it.

They pressed.

They scratched against the barrier Taufik had woven around Earth, a weave of power that bent not only space, but intention.

It didn’t repel.

It refused.

It did not push them away, it simply told them they were not welcome. Not yet.

But gods do not accept "No," Not easily.

And so, they gathered. Observing. Preparing.

Whispers passed between beings whose voices could crack time.

Plans began to form in pantheons that once ruled over mortals.

And in that moment... far from Earth... but connected to it through every leyline, dream, and forgotten myth...

The Third Calamity began.

After the Earthquake that shattered the world order...

After the Crack that reopened the forgotten truths...

Now came the Arrival.

A collision of past and present.

Of gods and anomalies. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Of stories that never ended... and one being who defied them all.

--------

Meanwhile, on Earth...

The meeting with Olympus had ended.

The decision, made.

The gods of Olympus had rejected them, those who now approached from beyond the veil. They feared a repeat of the Great War, feared what would happen should these ancient pantheons set foot on Earth once more.

But Taufik... Taufik had accepted them.

Not because he welcomed them.

Not because he feared them.

But because he needed them to see.

See what Earth had become.

See who now stood at its peak.

He stood alone in the vast open plains of the Saranjana Kingdom, a realm both ancient and futuristic.

Above him, the sky churned, not in thunderclouds or lightning, but in threads of unseen power, warping faintly like mirages on a summer horizon.

He closed his eyes, breathing in that disturbance.

It wasn’t just power. It wasn’t even presence... It was intent.

The weight of beings who believed Earth was their inheritance.

Their right.

Their domain.

"So it begins," he murmured, barely above a whisper. "The old world crawls back from the grave..."

A voice came from behind.

Soft. Calming.

Ancient.

A voice that once soothed mountains to sleep.

"...What’s your plan, Honey?"

"You let them in, which means you already have a plan in mind. You know... Zeus once begged Fate to make it impossible for them to ever return. And he traded me for that"

Taufik didn’t answer immediately.

He turned slowly.

Behind him stood Gaia, the Primordial Mother, the soul of the Earth made flesh, his wife, and behind her, his other wives. All watching him.

Waiting.

Trusting.

And he... walked forward.

He reached out, took Gaia’s hand in both of his, and looked into her eyes.

His voice was low, steady, yet inside it pulsed quiet fury.

"I know what was traded for their absence"

"And I know what that cost you"

"But this time... I let them in"

"Not out of arrogance. Not out of mercy"

"I let them in... so they can see"

"They ruled once. In pieces. Through fear. Through stories"

"Let them come again"

"Let them believe they can take it back"

"Because now... this world doesn’t belong to them"

He turned to the others, eyes burning gold.

"This world... is mine now"

Taufik pulled Gaia close.

Walked with her toward the others, his anchor, his reason... His family.

Each of them reached out in turn.

Not with fear.

But with faith.

And he looked at them all.

"You don’t need to worry. Not this time"

He raised a hand toward the sky, fingers twitching as if grasping unseen threads.

"Not Earth"

"Not our people"

"Not our family"

And he gently pulled Gaia closer, his voice firm like stone, yet soft as wind.

"Not you"

Above them...

In a place far beyond mortal gaze...

The first tear in the veil shimmered open.

And the Old Gods began their descent.

....

...

..

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