Tiamat really did know. Just as Rovi had guessed, as one of Mesopotamia's primordial creator gods, she had encountered the Machine Gods of Atlantis long ago.
But it had not been Zeus, nor even Kronos.
It had been Uranus.
Uranus was the primordial sky god of Greek mythology, but like the two generations of gods that came after him, he too had been a Machine God—the first-generation machine body created by Chaos.
That was only natural. In this world, Greek mythology had never truly been mythology native to Greece. It was the mythology of the Atlantis civilization from across the Atlantic.
From Chaos to Uranus, Kronos, and Zeus, they were all the same.
And in Tiamat's memories, before she was betrayed, ambushed, and driven out by the Mesopotamian gods, she had once joined forces with the primordial gods of various regions to fight those Machine Gods who had only just descended and manifested, seeking to reshape Earth and recreate a civilization from beyond the stars.
"Aaaaaa—" At that, the Mesopotamian mother goddess grew a little sad again.
It was precisely because of that clash with the first generation of Machine Gods—a battle that ended with both sides badly damaged—that the gods of the Mesopotamian plains had first dared conceive of ambushing the primordial mother goddess, leading to the betrayal that followed.
But it was also for that very reason that those extraterrestrial Machine Gods had been halted on the far side of the Atlantic, unable to completely seize control of the whole planet.
"There's no need to be sad." Seeing how sorrowful Tiamat looked, Rovi could not help but comfort her. "I killed them all anyway. You could call it revenge on your behalf."
At that, Tiamat stopped looking so downcast. She rubbed at her slightly dry, star-like eyes and looked at Rovi.
"...Tha...nk you." In that quiet voice, the primordial goddess smiled. "Rovi."
Rovi froze.
"Thank you, Rovi." That had been the very first piece of human language Tiamat had learned.
"I should be the one thanking you for saving me." The words came out sounding a little insincere.
But Tiamat could not tell. She was simply happy.
Then she went on recounting those past experiences.
And everything she knew about the Atlantis civilization's structure.
"Their civilization... in essence... is a whole made up of countless individuals. From top to bottom, from the mothership to the various starships..."
"And at the very core of it... is the seed."
"The concept of the seed is 'inheritance.' The essence of 'inheritance'... is 'civilization.'"
In other words, if Rovi wanted to break free of this current state of being dead yet unable to perish, then he would have to create a civilization and distribute the seed's power throughout it.
He would have to create "Kin" of his own.
"So that's how it is..." Rovi murmured, deep in thought. Tiamat simply sat quietly beside him. She leaned forward slightly, her soft cleavage pressed together, her slender waist curving back, the rounded fullness below resting on the hardened surface of black mud. Her legs overlapped and pressed together in a ducklike seated posture.
Tiamat did not disturb him.
She stayed there obediently, and only when Rovi came back to himself did she smile.
"Thank you, Tiamat." This time, Rovi thanked her sincerely, because she truly had helped him enormously. "I know what I need to do now."
"No... need." Tiamat waved a hand.
Rovi merely smiled.
He really had figured it out.
If he wanted to spread civilization, then naturally he would need a people of his own—and preferably in a world with relatively few restraints.
The Norse world fit perfectly.
His Titans were there, still carrying out his old commands.
The Titans might be muddled and dim of mind, but that did not mean they could never develop selves and consciousness out of that haze.
Of course, there was another point that made it even more fitting.
The Jotunn living at the very bottom of the World Tree were, in a sense, also "dead."
Whether the Jotunn of the Norse world or the Titans of Greece, they were all shadows of the world's past.
And Rovi, at this moment, was "dead" as well.
So long as he made them his "Kin" and let them break through their limits, he too would be able to turn death back into life... after all, the spreader of a civilization could never be a dead man.
"To think that after always wishing for death in the past, I've now 'fallen' so far that I'm actually thinking about how to stay alive."
That was probably what the twists and turns of fate looked like.
Rovi told Tiamat his entire plan.
And received this reply:
"I can help you."
"Help you return to the world. Take you to the Norse world."
This, too, was Tiamat finally putting into action the wish she had long held ever since Rovi had been "taken away" by Zeus—the wish to call him back.
She had seen through the pattern connecting the Sea of Imaginary Numbers and the present world.
She knew how to travel through it, how to open the passage.
"That's perfect, because I was just about to say the same thing." Rovi smiled too. "Tiamat, do you want to leave this place and return to the present world?"
"Of course I do." Tiamat tilted her head.
"That's good." Rovi extended a hand. "Don't resist. It'll only take an instant."
Tiamat did not understand, but she trusted that Rovi would not deceive her.
So she nodded and quietly watched as his body swelled and expanded in an instant, his loose robes falling away, his smooth human shape turning into a cold, solid machine body, his dark eyes becoming two brilliant, blazing lights.
The Machine God Rovi manifested within the Sea of Imaginary Numbers.
It was a massive body no less immense than Tiamat's mother-goddess form.
And this time, it was his turn to lower himself and cradle Tiamat in his palm.
"Aaaaa?" Tiamat was startled and delighted.
It was the kind of happiness one might feel when watching a child finally grow up.
Rovi drew her into his chest, into the place where his heart should have been—into the seed that Chaos had bestowed upon him.
That seed was linked to Tartaros, whom Rovi had devoured.
Tiamat looked around at the surroundings of that primordial furnace. She blinked, stunned for a moment, and then her eyes softened with the ease of a fish returning to water.
The primordial mother goddess had returned to a primordial environment.
It suited her perfectly.
As long as she remained there, there was naturally no need to fear her very existence affecting the outside environment.
And Rovi could smoothly bring her back into the world as well.
He still could not set foot there in person, and she still could not constantly feel the outside world either. Only when Rovi manifested as a Machine God could she gaze upon the scenery of the world beyond.
But at last, she would no longer have to gaze in loneliness at the eternally unchanging imaginary sea.
And for Rovi, it meant gaining a primordial goddess as a living store of knowledge.
"LET'S GO!" Rovi's machine body rumbled as it spoke.
"Let's... go!" Like a Gundam pilot, Tiamat stared ahead at the outside world visible before her.
She showed Rovi where to leave from if he wanted to arrive directly in the Norse world.
She opened the road leading back to the present world for him.
Light bloomed across the imaginary sea.
A single stream of radiance burst forth in dazzling brilliance.
On the other side of that flowing light was a mingled landscape: the flourishing Midgard where humanity dwelled, the resplendent Asgard where the gods resided, and the dark, profound realm of death.
That was the Norse Nine Realms.
Nine worlds, layered from bottom to top.
And among them, a colossal tree pierced through the dimensions of time and space, linking the spatiotemporal realms of all nine worlds.
Rovi stepped forward.
And descended into the world of the Norse.
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T/N: WOAH?? ITS NOT ROME BUT NORSE ARC?