Pandora screamed as the three deities and Sorin ripped out Pandora’s core laws and separated them from Pandora’s Box. The tarnished gold box dimmed as it lost its integration with reality and retreated upon itself to prevent further contamination of its essence.

  The sky shone with four distinct patterns, one for each of the realm’s potential sovereigns. Greatest among them were two binary skyscapes, one black and white, and another prismatic, its colors twisting as they reverted back to their origins.

  Sorin and Madeline retreated as the old leaders of the titans and the Olympians clashed. Space shattered with each exchange, causing heavy wounds to what remained of the realm.

  Several hundred blows were exchanged before the two retreated to opposite corners. Chronos, who wielded a sickle and wore a thick suit of archaic armor was painting heavily. Hades, wearing a prime suit and wielding his trademark bident, was mostly fine but had severed a light cut on his right cheek.

  A short rest, and they were at it again. They were forces of nature, with Hades representing Order and Chronos representing Doom and Collapse. The energy of the exchange was such that minutes passed on Mount Olympus, a whole year passed on the subsidiary lands of Pandora beneath them.

  As they fought, the forces of the realm shifted. Centralized authority broke down. Institutions dissolved and reformed. Yet no matter how intense the conflicts order maintained its iron grip. No matter how chaotic things became, the essence of Pandora kept its shape.

  “Chronos is stronger than Hades, but is lacking in terms of synchronicity with Pandora,” Madeline remarked. “Which is funny, considering how it smashed him to bits.”

  “Yet the flaws in his authority are glaringly obvious,” said Sorin. “Imposed order can’t last in the face of corruption. In a sense, Hades’s Dominion Authority is Pandora’s Antithesis.”

  “I disagree,” said Madeline. “There is Death in Order, but Order in Death. They form a complete cycle.”

  “True,” said Sorin as Hades and Chronos stepped up the pace. An imperial palace appeared in the sky to face off against a terrifying non-Euclidian creature reminiscent of the Tail-Biter, Ouroboros. “But Rebirth and reorganization occurs in cycles with fixed losses. Eventually, the remainder will be ground down to Zero.”

  The battle was a subtle balance between favored and unfavored forces. Ironically, it was Hades, whose vision clashed the most with Pandora’s nature that received the most support from the realm. But Chronos had spent a lot of time away from Pandora growing his strength. In some ways, that strength exceeded Pandora. This was a large part of the reason for his disfavor.

  A few hundred exchanges passed by in a flash, and Hades retreated to Sorin and Madeline’s side. “Are the two of you just going to stand on the sidelines while this monster destroys our world?”

  “I honest don’t see the difference between your world of Order and Chronos’s rebirth,” said Madeline. “Why help you when we can simply wait for you to wear yourselves out?”

  Hades snorted. “You think you have a chance in beating Chronos? Let me telling you, he’s at least three times stronger than we originally estimated.”

  Madeline’s eyes narrowed. “You speak truly?”

  “I swear it on Pandora’s Box,” said Hades. “At least with me, there’s hope,” said Hades. “Chronos is the type of god that devours his own children.”

  Sorin considered this. He exchanged a look with Madeline before agreeing. “I can help you, but only on the condition that I be allowed to leave once this conflict is over.”

  Hades eyed Sorin suspiciously. “That’s all?”

  “That’s all,” said Sorin with a smile.

  “Fine,” said Hades. “I guarantee it. What about you, Madeline? Feeling gorgeous?”

  “Sixty percent of Chronos’s Laws,” answered Madeline.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Hades grimaced. “Why don’t you just rob me?”

  “I will,” said Madeline. “It’s sixty-five percent now.”

  Hades groaned. “Fine. But you should know that it won’t be enough to claim the realm.”

  “But it’ll be enough to bargain,” said Madeline. “I won’t take less than a seat at the table.”

  Hades could only reluctantly agree. Having reached an agreement, the three of them flew into the sky where the horror that was Chronos feasted on Pandora’s festering reality.

  Broken fragments of reality folded together on the urging of Chronos, forming a dense seed of laws that was rapidly growing in strength. These laws were far more condensed that Pandora’s laws. It was thanks to these higher-level laws that Hades could only give up on fighting the ancient deity one on one.

  “Before we begin, I suggest rethinking your course of action,” said Chronos as they flew over. “If you both retreat, I’m willing to spare each of you, along with a hundred people of your choosing from the collapse of this realm.”

  To Sorin’s surprise, Chronos took out two golden scrolls. “This is a risk-free proposal. I’m willing to sign a Nexus-enforced contract to guarantee everything I’ve promised.”

  Sorin quickly scanned his own scroll confirmed the contents of the contract. The laws making up the contract were of a much higher level than even Pandora’s Box. He completely failed when he attempted to corrupt the contract.

  “You know perfectly well that the nature of my authority prevents me from retreating,” said Madelin evenly.

  “In my opinion, giving up your Authority is a small price to pay for survival,” said Chronos with a shrug. “Truth be told, your offer is more of a formality. Sorin’s attachment to the realm are much deeper than yours.”

  Sorin couldn’t help but seriously the offer. I don’t have many meaningful attachments. A hundred people of my choosing would allow me to evacuate most of my friends.

  That said, Sorin couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Was he forgetting something? Was there something he’d overlooked? Regardless, it was clear from the offer that Chronos didn’t want to fight Sorin. In fact, it seemed like everyone here was hellbent on not getting on his bad side.

  Thinking upon it further, something dawned on Sorin: He’d never actually used his Nemesis Authority, not in the sense that the other three had been using their laws so far. What does Nemesis Authority actually do? Thus far, he’d used it to avoid karmic entanglement and reject the realm’s laws. Yet the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was likely capable of much more than that.

  Though Sorin wished to know more about how to use his abilities, the situation was working out to his advantage. It gave him the ability to choose a side.

  Sorin thought it over for a few more seconds before answering Chronos. “Can I save a few deities?”

  Chronos’s smile faded. “Unfortunately, the realm’s core laws must be reclaimed. Sparing one or two unrelated authorities is doable, but sparing additional deities is out of the question. The realm’s core functions must remain. Intact.”

  “Then I’ll have to decline,” said Sorin, making his decision.

  Chronos shrugged. “No matter. All I wanted was a few more seconds; seconds you foolishly gave me.”

  Madeline smiled. “And what seconds, exactly, did we give you?”

  Chronos looked about and smirked when he saw that his horrifying non-Euclidian projection was frozen in time. The laws being folded together were still at the same stage as when they’d arrived. “Interesting. I though my authority over time was absolute.”

  “People always find time to pray, negotiate, and reflect,” said Madeline with a smile.

  “Organization and rules, similarly result in a net time gain due to efficiencies,” added Hades. A law field expanded form Hades’s position as he spoke. Madeline stepped up beside him, buffing his law field until it matched Chronos’s own law field of Reincarnation.

  A white fox appeared atop the imperial palace. White chain tails reached out into infinity, touching all laws and countless dimensions. The laws of the realm give them so much power, Sorin thought as he mobilized his own strength. You’d think that with laws like mine, I’d get something.

  Sorin chose to delay his involvement, and Chronos seemed suspiciously fine with this arrangement. He ignored Sorin and focused on fighting Madeline and Hades. Wounds began to appear on their bodies as Time encroached on the core of their essence.

  Hades is bearing the brunt of the punishment while Madeline is healing his wounds with the power of Nourishment. She’s also bolstering his laws. At the same time, she’s covertly nourishing the realm’s laws while Hades asserts his dominance over the battlefield.

  Madeline’s goal was obvious. By nourishing the realm, she would gradually be building up sympathy with Pandora’s laws. If this sympathy crossed a certain threshold, she wouldn’t even need to control Pandora’s laws to claim Pandora’s Box.

  Similarly, Sorin had his own strategy. He’d sewn the seeds of his success, and he only needed time for them to take root. The only question was whether Madeline’s nurture or his poisons would win out in the exchange.

  “Sorin, you’d better step up and do something,” yelled Hades as Chronos’s sickle carved a chunk out of his chest. The wound healed immediately, but the laws making up Hades did not recover to their original condition.

  “As you wish,” said Sorin. He held out his hand and filled all five of his fingers with a different form of corruption. Death, Disease, Hope, and Hubris combined on his palm.

  A spear-sized needle appeared in Sorin’s hand, ready and willing to infect his opponents with all the nasty things he imagined his Nemesis Authority could deliver. At the same time, millions of tiny spots of corruption lit up in the lands of Pandora where they began their conquest of Pandora’s Prime Material Plane in earnest.