Hades and Metis struggled against the intertwined threads of fate woven by Heimarmene, using the power of the Underworld's origin. The battle had turned into a brutal tug-of-war at the level of law.
On the other side of the battlefield, the situation was already precarious.
Adrasteia, the embodiment of the laws of nature—her attacks were not violent outbursts of energy, but a more desperate 'negation of rules'.
She simply stood quietly, her shimmering robe still without wind, and the legal provisions on it were like living chains.
The flame of the magical torch thrown by Hecate silently 'extinguished' as it approached her—not going out, but the concept of 'burning' was temporarily excluded at the level of law.
The condensed divine power of destruction from Perses crumbled and dissipated on its own before touching her, as if the very act of 'destruction' was deemed 'invalid'.
Any of their attacks, any use of divine power, appeared pale and powerless before Adrasteia, who embodied the rules underlying the world's operation.
She didn't even take the initiative to attack; she simply existed and activated a 'forbidden zone' with herself at the center of the circle!
Hecate's face was pale; her magical nature allowed her to appreciate even more the horror of this absolute suppression.
Perses clenched his fists, and for the first time, the authority to destroy made him feel overwhelmed and powerless before the rule that 'nothing can be destroyed'.
Catia (under the distracted control of Hades) tried to mobilize the divinities of [Dark Moon] and [Purity], but when the cold light touched Adrasteia's robe, it was like drops of water falling into hot sand, instantly evaporating without a trace.
"Rules... cannot be broken." Adrasteia's hollow voice sounded without the slightest emotion, simply stating a cold fact.
She slowly raised her hand and pointed at the void of the Underworld. In an instant, the concept of 'spatial stability' in that area was stripped away, and the spatial structure began to twist and collapse, like a melting wax figure, forming an all-consuming void trap spreading towards Hecate and the others!
At this critical moment—
"Boom!!"
A dull sound, like a pulse from the heart of the world, suddenly erupted from the depths of the Underworld!
Immediately after, a second sound, a third! Ancient giants beating war drums, shaking the foundations of the Underworld with every step!
For the first time, on the eternal face of Adrasteia, an extremely subtle, almost procedural error appeared.
Her hand, pointing at the void, also froze slightly.
Everyone felt the rapidly approaching, barbaric, and terrifying majestic aura!
It was the giants! The Hundred-Handed Giants and the Cyclopes!
However, what caused both embodiments of Nyx, especially Heimarmene, to slightly falter in the trajectory of their fate, was that at the forefront of the group of giants, towering like mountains, stood an existence they had completely not expected—
Cronus!
The former God-King, sealed by the 'Chains of Resolve' and sunk in chaos!
At this moment, he was still entangled in the dark gray chains, but in those once murky and empty eyes, the madness and chaos had disappeared, replaced by a kind of pain, humiliation, and... an almost nirvana-like, cold and piercing clarity!
His body was no longer shaky, and although his divine power was still at a low ebb, the authority and majesty belonging to the God-King were like a sharp sword wiped from the dust, once again revealing a wildly beating presence.
"This... is impossible!" For the first time, the spindle of fate in Heimarmene's hand spun chaotically, and several originally clear threads of fate suddenly blurred.
She 'looked' at Cronus, and in the eyes of her fate, Cronus's trajectory should have been completely submerged in chains and mad torture until consumed by reincarnation!
How could he possibly have come to his senses? And appear with the giants?
Briareos, the Hundred-Handed Giant who led the giants, was also incredibly shocked in his hundreds of eyes, his voice like thunder responding to the terror in the hearts of all beings:
"We... also find this unbelievable!"
His enormous head turned to Cronus beside him, his voice full of disbelief.
"When His Majesty Hades secretly asked us to try to 'persuade' Cronus while guarding Tartarus, we didn't believe it would succeed! We thought it was just a diversionary tactic, or perhaps His Majesty wanted something else..."
His gaze swept over the shocking scene before him and finally fell upon Cronus.
"But he... he actually did it."
Cronus ignored the shock of everyone.
His clear gaze first glided over to Hades, who was fiercely fighting Heimarmene—the son he had devoured and who had ultimately sealed him with his own hands.
In these eyes were grievance and humiliation, but more than that, a kind of majestic resolve transcending personal grievances after struggling from the infinite abyss of madness.
He remembered what Hades had asked the giants to bring him: "Cronus, if you still have the slightest dignity of a king, you should stand up! Go and rebel against your own fate!"
Then, his gaze turned to the chain-bound body of Nyx and her two separated embodiments.
His voice was hoarse and low, but carried a kind of vicissitude and mockery that pierced through the ages:
"Well... my 'good grandmother'."
He deliberately emphasized the title, full of cold sarcasm.
"You watch again and again in the endless cycle of reincarnation, even pushing my madness, my depravity, and destruction... You think you control the situation, that all gods are pawns on your chessboard of mercy, trying to escape the final board."
He slowly raised his chain-bound hand and pointed at Adrasteia and Heimarmene.
"But you forget, or rather, deliberately ignore... Whether it is 'law' or 'fate', the foundation of its existence lies in 'cognition' and 'choice'."
"When you twisted the 'constant' with your own hands and created this damned 'reincarnation' to avoid the end, you had already shaken the foundation of the absoluteness of 'law' and 'fate'!"
"You made them change from an iron law that never changed into something you could use... and something influenced by other variables!"
Cronus's voice sharply rose, with a cathartic roar:
"And I! Cronus! The master of time and space! Even in the midst of madness, my divinity recorded the twists and turns and tremors of every reincarnation! The fragments of 'truth' sent by Hades were like keys, unlocking my memory that was desperately blocked!"
"I remember! Nyx! I remember countless meaningless rises and falls! I remember fate—constantly resetting like a puppet!"
His eyes burned with blazing rage—the ultimate hatred towards manipulation.
"This 'cognition', deceived and toyed with for countless years, is the 'choice' I made at this moment!"
He sharply turned his head and looked at Adrasteia, his voice like a cold wind from the deepest Tartarus:
"Adrasteia! Look at me! An existence that should have completely perished under your 'law' now stands here, on the opposite side from you! This is the most powerful negation of your so-called 'rules cannot be broken'!"
He looked again at Heimarmene and mocked himself:
"And you, Heimarmene! Your shuttle weaving the threads of fate, did you ever 'foresee' that I, an existence you long ago recognized as an 'abandoned chess piece', would appear here at this moment?"
Cronus's words seemed to contain some strange power of law. His very existence, his 'cognition' and 'choice', compressed from the pain of countless reincarnations, struck heavily like a heavy hammer against Adrasteia's realm of absolute rules!
Crack—
A faint sound, but that shattering sound that made the souls of all the gods tremble, seemed to come from the bottom of the world.
The bright light of the robe around Adrasteia, which symbolizes absolute law, shook violently, and some of the circulating legal provisions on it seemed briefly ambiguous and disordered!
In her hollow eyes, Cronus's figure was reflected for the first time, and there was a very subtle fluctuation, like a 'logical error'!
The rule was momentarily 'paradoxically' stiffened due to the strong 'negation' of a variable!
At the same time, the spindle of fate in Heimarmene's hand, the threads connecting Hades to the ending of 'Moebius', also began to flicker due to Cronus's intervention, which completely exceeded the script of fate, flickering violently, like a bad signal!
"Now!"
Hades and Metis would not miss this unique opportunity!
The power of the Underworld gathered like a tsunami, and the authority of [Soul] vibrated with unprecedented force, coordinating with the 'influence on rules' brought by Cronus, and violently cut through those threads of fate that had become fragile!
The fog of fate around Heimarmene was forcibly torn open, and she let out a muffled grunt, full of pain and anger, and the spindle in her hand nearly slipped!
And Adrasteia, shaken by Cronus's words and presence, also faced the brutal attack that the giants had been accumulating for a long time!
Having lost the instant protection of absolute rules, the three hundred fists of the Hundred-Handed Giants collapsed like a meteor storm, and the thunder and fire of the Underworld summoned by the Cyclopes roared and surged in!
This time, their attack solidly struck Adrasteia's divine body!
Boom——!!
The figure of the law goddess staggered for the first time; she reeled back, her shimmering robe dimmed, and the legal provisions circulating around her also showed clear cracks and confusion!
Nyx looked at this reversal, looked at Cronus, who should have been part of her plan but was completely uncontrollable.
Looked at her two main embodiments, shaken by paradoxes due to 'cognition' and 'choice'.