After all, with their level of power, in earlier days they were already lucky if stronger divine beings didn't decide to "sample" them.
In the eyes of the Olympian gods, they weren't even worth a downward glance, let alone in the eyes of His Majesty the God-King.
Even their mistress, Absu Naya, when attending the Great Assembly of All Gods, knelt so far back and dared not raise her head that, by the time it ended, she still had not clearly seen His Majesty's face.
Yet for present-day humankind, these "little things" were an extinction-level threat.
Only beings that possess "spirit" count as true "life."
However much or little, there must be some.
And within "life" there is a sharp, essential division.
It is a fundamental difference of level, a gap in being that is almost impossible to cross.
That is—"divine life" and "mortal life."
It looks like a two-part classification, but the gap between them is greater than that between a human and a paramecium.
If one were to subdivide levels of life, splitting them into hundreds or thousands of grades would be easy.
And each grade would be an earth-shaking qualitative change.
Before humanity appeared, "true wisdom" belonged exclusively to divine life—and even among divine life, many lacked higher intelligence.
Mortal life had absolutely no true high-level wisdom.
They were governed mostly by primal instincts, with only the faintest spirit and life-force, muddled and dim.
This was why humankind seemed so special in the gods' eyes.
They were but lowly mortals, with shallow souls and extremely fragile lives—
yet they possessed true wisdom.
Even so, many Olympian gods, high above, still would not lower their gaze.
But for all those various divine beings living upon the earth, it was hard not to notice this newly risen, intelligent mortal race.
Only, the spectacle at humanity's birth had been too great, and afterward they were repeatedly shielded by many great gods.
These "little big shots" hadn't dared cast their eyes that way at all.
Whether out of goodwill, malice, or simple curiosity, they had to bury those thoughts deep in their hearts.
Now things were different.
Hey, humans don't have a great god covering them anymore!
They've returned to their proper place in the food chain!
These amusing little creatures were very worth "getting close to" now!
Humans might have wisdom, but their bodies were far too weak; their strength was far too small.
Wisdom is precious, yes.
But wisdom alone is absolutely not enough.
In the face of an overwhelming difference in power, any kind of wisdom is feeble.
God and mortal are absolutely different, with an absolute difference in essence.
That difference isn't only in level of life; it extends to the "rights" each enjoys.
Under His Majesty the God-King's Holy Just Order, divine beings may eat mortal beings.
For mortal life exists for the sake of the gods.
And as existences derived from divine nature and power, divine beings are naturally placed above mortals.
The God-King's Holy Just Order—the Twelve Sacred Laws—does not allow gods to randomly wage war upon each other, nor to arbitrarily destroy the world.
But for lesser divine lives, especially those whose intelligence is low, the regulation is more relaxed.
After all, they cannot be forbidden to eat and drink.
They have no right to Olympus's nectar and ambrosia; eating some mortal life is only natural.
So long as they do not ravage and destroy wantonly, do not slaughter indiscriminately, do not commit extinctions,
if they only eat their fill and eat well, then that does not count as violating His Majesty's Holy Just Order.
In the past, such rules posed no problem whatsoever.
But now, they contain a fairly large loophole.
One that only arose after humankind appeared.
That is: at present the Order does not distinguish "high-intelligence life" from "low-intelligence life."
The Order distinguishes only between "divine life" and "mortal life."
Which means that, in principle, for a divine being to "eat" a human…
is not illegal.
For however wise humans may be, in essence they are still mortal beings.
Before humankind's birth, for those countless lesser divine beings upon the broad earth, tasting the flesh of a "truly intelligent life" was next to impossible.
Pure wishful thinking.
First, they were constrained by His Majesty the God-King's Holy Just Order: gods were forbidden to freely slaughter and war among themselves—this applied to all divine life.
Second, nearly everyone was kin to someone; everyone had backing. Without some kind of pedigree, how would one even become a divine life? No one could go too far.
Third, many low divine beings spawned from spilled divine power did not possess true "higher intelligence." And those among divine life who did have high intelligence were not to be trifled with.
Humankind's arrival filled that "ecological niche" perfectly.
Know that true wisdom is like light—it draws the gaze.
If humans could attract the attention of the great Olympian gods, they naturally could attract that of the "little gods" and divine monsters living in the mortal world.
The dazzling radiance of "wisdom," though ordinary mortals cannot see it themselves, is crystal-clear and blinding in divine eyes—and even… "fragrant."
Especially for divine beings poor in wisdom, that bright, precious "wisdom" holds endless allure.
It is an instinctive, palpable urge to gulp it down in one bite and make it one's own!
Like a desert, parched for ages, suddenly smelling the breath of rainfall.
A very harsh reality:
Divine life does not necessarily possess higher intelligence.
And divine life is not necessarily a god.
In the present cosmic order, the highest, core ruling group is, of course, the Olympian gods led by Zeus.
These are mainly the Sky and Night pantheons and their direct lines within three generations.
In the Olympians' eyes, only those who possess all three—"law-authority," "deep divine nature," and "high intelligence"—are truly "gods," truly of their "kind."
These are the lofty "true gods of law,"
the cosmos's real rulers.
Below them are the nymphs who serve the gods, the powerful elemental spirits, and divine offspring younger than the third generation.
Their divinity is deep; they too possess high intelligence and great power, and they can assume perfect divine forms.
In the eyes of all other beings in the cosmos, they are undoubtedly "gods on high."
The Olympians do not mind being called gods together with them.
After all, apart from lacking core laws, true immortality, and being far behind in power, divinity, and authority, they are no different from true gods.
And they are either related by blood, or painstakingly crafted by the gods, or else direct derivatives of the gods' own bloodlines or law-authorities.
They have the right to live in Heaven and on Olympus, and are essentially the "retainer gods" (servant gods) of the true gods of law.
Naturally, that word "servant" is something everyone keeps to private jokes.
Say it to the face of some god or nymph…
and it could cost you your life.
Though still far beneath the Olympians, by the standards of all other beings, they are indeed mighty.
Below them are some lesser natural spirits, lesser elemental spirits, or beings with thin divine blood and shallow divinity who are nonetheless knotted closely to the gods by origin, and who are infused with divinity.
So long as such a being possesses high intelligence and can take a divine form, in mortal eyes they too are "gods."
For in an ant's perception, there is no real difference between facing a three-year-old child and facing an adult piloting a giant mech.
Either way, both can crush it with a single finger.
But in the eyes of true "gods," such beings count only as divine lives, not true gods.
Below that come those purely and unquestionably divine beings.
Such existences are hardly ever called "gods."
Not even by mortals—except those too ignorant and foolish, or those driven by fear and gain to worship them.
Most of them are scornfully called "monsters."
Many divine lives are born simply from some god's careless act:
leaked divine power, lingering law-influence, divine erosion of a place, and so on.
Their forms are usually strange, one more bizarre than another.
Without some special godly blessing, their intelligence is often quite low.
At least, nothing comparable to that of truly intelligent beings.
Many are so dull-witted they act purely on primal instinct.
Typically, this is because their divinity is too weak compared to their massive bodies, leading to low intelligence.
A congenital defect.
Others are simply unlucky.
They have been too deeply saturated by some great god's law or divinity; their tiny spirits cannot bear such vast "Way" and get blasted into idiocy.
Their spiritual intelligence is washed to tatters, leaving only a shell driven by divine instinct.
Simply put, any divine life that is dull of mind or cannot assume a divine form is a divine monster.
No matter their pedigree, they are still monsters.
Such creatures are barely fit to live on earth or in the starry void—that is, in the mortal realm. They are unworthy of Heaven, let alone Paradise.
There is, even in the divine realm, an unwritten rule:
Those lacking in intelligence are forbidden to assume a divine form.
Otherwise it counts as "presumption" and "profanation"!
If a true god sees them, they will almost certainly be purified on the spot.
Of course, in most cases, those lacking the wits simply cannot take divine form to begin with.
Even if they are not stupid, if they cannot fully assume divine form—if they cannot transform most of their body—that still leaves them as divine monsters.
There are many reasons for this.
Perhaps their flesh is too strong, or they are too deeply affected by some law-divinity, while their own strength and understanding of the law are insufficient to support full creation and transformation of a divine form.
There are also some of noble origin, with very powerful divinity and strength,
but whose lives sprang from laws too close to "chaos," "disorder," or "destruction."
Thus their spirits are easily dominated by the law's own instincts; they act on impulse far too easily.
Such beings count as "gods" as well—
only, they are not recognized by the Olympians.
They do indeed possess true intelligence, but they rarely bother to use it, and have no interest in taking divine form.
They prefer their original selves that embody the "truth of their existence," acting in ways true to the chaotic law-nature that birthed them.
Simply put, these gods "have the credentials" but don't do the work of gods.
The gods find them a headache.
Still, so long as they do not break His Majesty the God-King's Holy Just Order, the Olympians do not concern themselves; such beings have their own legitimacy and necessity.
They are certainly not popular, and mostly keep to themselves—
even in the little gods' and nymphs' social circles.
Any being without higher intelligence, unable to control its own spirit, unable to assume divine form, no matter how great its power or noble its blood, will still not be regarded as "one of us."
It will still be called a "monster," and no one will play with it.
Thus, the "class system" within divine life is mainly judged by: first, whether there is "divinity"; second, whether there is "high intelligence"; and third, whether it can assume "divine form." If it can, then it is an acknowledged, true "divine-intelligent being" within a pantheon.
Whether one habitually assumes that form or only partially does so is one thing.
Whether one is capable of it at all is another.
Among such beings, some are inclined to justice and order, though more lean toward brutality and chaos.
Below "divine life" lies "mortal life."
That is an absolute, essential difference.
No matter how mortals classify themselves, to gods and divine beings those distinctions do not matter at all.
Mortals are mortals.
Call it what you like; it is still mortal.
And mortals exist for the sake of the gods.
______
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