Olympia was a sprawling metropolis that contained countless living creatures. The addition of seven new sectors had further increased this uncountable number by an order of magnitude, all the while providing a spark that ignited the tensions that had simmered for four centuries.

  Conflict and opposition were mainstays. Peace was but the remnant of a dream.

  Having surpassed his mortality, Sorin was able to see the karmic web in multiple dimensions as these antagonistic relations resolved themselves, creating further waves of discord that propagated like ripples in a pond on a rainy day.

  Locating the four remaining heralds took no time at all. There was no need to hunt them down individually—he merely pulled at their karmic threads and waited for them to arrive by happenstance.

  Just as they were helpless to resist his pull, none of them were able to provide any resistance. They were an arrangement of fate that Sorin plucked like ripe fruit off an unclaimed tree.

  A short while later, Sorin located a core of corruption in an abandoned Temple of Hope. The shimmering stone was made of solidified wish-fire, and attached to it was a note:

  “With this core, all debts have been cleared,” read the note. A few more karmic threads fell of Sorin, bringing about a feeling of unprecedented clarity.

  This feeling only intensified as Sorin’s Nemesis Authority absorbed the Core of Hope and transformed on a fundamental level. His surroundings shivered as the laws of Pandora descended a third time.

  This time, they came bearing wrath and ruin. Like last time, Sorin rejected the blessing.

  The sky rumbled as Pandora issued an ultimatum. The spark inside Sorin’s body flickered, and the golden hue surrounding his many karmic connections dimmed.

  As Sorin refused to yield a fourth and final time, his divine spark faded away completely. A sudden feeling not unlike vertigo washed over Sorin as little by little, Pandora began rejecting him.

  “If I need to leave, I’d better settle all debts and clear all scores,” muttered Sorin as he took a step through the void. The scene that welcomed Sorin in Kepler Manor came as no surprise to him despite its gruesome nature.

  A scent of blood and gore filled Sorin’s nostrils as he looked over the thousands of decapitated corpses stacked up in neat piles. At the center of the arrangement lay the decapitated bodies of Reeves Mockingjay Kepler and Fineas Mockingjay Kepler. Expressions of shock were frozen on their lifeless faces.

  By Sorin’s count, over 90% of the Mockingjay Branch and three quarters of the Lucian branch had accompanied the once-unreachable duo in death. A small number of Mockingjay sympathizers from the other branches had also been executed.

  Grand Elder Kepler was the only other living person in the courtyard. His God Fire had flickered out, and his body was on the verge of collapse. Blood seeped form his mouth as his body struggled to support the massive energy of a demigod without an anchor of God Fire.

  Sorin sighed as he took in the gruesome sight. “This was unnecessary, Grand Elder. I know everything. You are not blameless, but you were also used. Our entire family danced to the tune of the Underworld without knowing it.

  The Grand Elder let out a hoarse laugh, causing a large amount of blood to dribble down his torn robes. “The Hyde Clan might have pushed me to get rid of your parents and arrange for a change in leadership, but in the end, it was me who agreed to it. It was me who gave my blessing to Reeves and allowed him to murder the rightful Clan Leader.”

  Sorin inspected the Elder’s failing body. The demigod couldn’t hide anything from Sorin’s preternatural senses. “I could save you. If you swear yourself to a binding contract, I will allow you to live. Not for your sake, but for the sake of the children of the Kepler Clan.”

  “No.” The Grand Elder vehemently refused. “You are a physician, Sorin Abberjay Kepler. A poison-wielding physician, no less. You should know better than anyone why I cannot remain, and why three quarters of the elder council must accompany me in death.”

  Sorin shook his head as he walked up to the elder and helped him sit down. He marvelled at the Grand Elder’s poise and composure in the face of certain death. “A body can often recover on its own. The most important thing is to remove all man of rot, disease, and poison.”

  “That’s right,” said the Grand Elder with a grin. “By breaking through the shackles of mortality, you have reinvigorated our bloodline. You have given us unprecedented hope, but it is meaningless if the rot remains.

  “I am an old dog with old tricks. Young and more far-sighted members of our clan are better suited to blaze a trail in this new era. Chief Elder Adrian is likely the best suited as Clan Leader. Elder Nolan, and Chief Elder Marik are also good choices.” He coughed out another mouthful of blood. “Alas, the future is bright, but I’ll never get to see it.”

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  “Grand Elder…” said Sorin.

  “Leave me.” The Grand Elder pushed Sorin away, and in doing so, shattered the bones in his arm. “The deed is done. The last perpetrators of our clan’s dark history have been executed. My death will take the last of these secrets to our grave.”

  “I won’t stay,” said Sorin, standing up. “I will not be there when the clan errs. I will not be there to protect them when they offend someone they shouldn’t.”

  “Good,” said the Grand Elder, erupting in a coughing fit. “You’d make a terrible Clan Leader.”

  “Agreed,” said Sorin.

  “I just wish… this wasn’t so painful…” muttered the Grand Elder as he slumped forward. “Dying is easy. It’s getting there that’s difficult. I…”

  “Go in peace,” whispered Sorin as Nemesis infiltrated the Grand Elder’s body. Sometimes, all a physician could do for a patient was give them a merciful end.”

  After the poison ate away the Grand Elder’s body, it proceeded to tidy up the corpses in the courtyard. Nemesis licked every blade of grass clean of Kepler Clan blood and every broken weapon until finally, only shallow imprints in the grass remained as evidence of the slaughter.

  That, and the trembling elders hiding out in the Viper Pit. Chief Elder Adrain was there, as was Chief Elder Marik and Chief Elder Ignis. Sorin considered slaying the man for enabling the clan’s misdeeds but decided Gabriella could avenge herself if she felt strongly about it. Too much blood of the Kepler Clan had been spilled this day.

  “Our karma is settled. We won’t be seeing each other again,” said Sorin before turning around and walking at the Kepler Manor. The hallways were eerily silent. The portraits of his ancestors grinned eerily as the ultimate sinner of the Kepler Clan walked out the front door.

  An hour later, Sorin stepped through the void and arrived before his parents’ grave in Delphi. Fresh flowers had been laid just a few days ago. The grave was clean, as were the tablets of his ancestors.

  Sorin knelt before their grave and kowtowed nine times. He would have stayed for nine days and nine nights if he’d been able to, but he could only settle for nine precious hours.

  Hours that weakened him.

  “Mother. Father. I’ve avenged you,” Sorin whispered softly. “I also left the clan a way out, just like you’d want me to.” A single tear fell from his eyes as he reflected on everything they’d been. “You knew your deaths were coming, didn’t you? You knew, yet you still ventured out into the infinite dungeon to avoid implicating other clan members.”

  Sorin couldn’t understand their sacrifice, but he would respect their wishes. He’d helped his clan as much as he could and had not slain a single beyond those the Grand Elder had executed.

  Sighing, Sorin turned around to greet the demigod that had arrived during his nine-hour vigil. “Grandfather,” he said in greeting to Grand Elder Hargrave.

  “Grandson,” said Grand Elder Hargrave with a stern nod. “By the looks of it, this is goodbye?” The rejection the realm had continued to grow to the point that it would be obvious to the weakest of demigods.”

  “Grand Elder Kepler has cleansed the Kepler Clan of the rot plaguing it,” said Sorin. “I have forgiven them but I cannot as you to do the same.”

  To his surprise, Grand Elder Hargrave shrugged. “What do I care about the few leftover innocents? Have you forgotten? My Grandson oversees Tartarus now. I have it on good authority that a special hell has been reserved for select members of your family.”

  Sorin shivered as he remembered Charles’s cruel disposition. “Suddenly, I pity the dead more than the living.”

  “As you should,” said Grand Elder Hargrave. “As we all should. Out of curiosity, how much time do you have left?”

  “Half a day,” answered Sorin honestly. “Just enough time to tie up a few more loose ends. Take care, Grandfather.”

  Sorin took another a step, and it whisked him across the Pandoran Continent. He arrived in Mattapan and slew a few of the more powerful creatures besieging humanity but left before they could beg him to do more.

  He performed similar feats in the seven landmasses that had rejoined the main Pandoran Continent. Humanity was a hardy race and had somehow survived even in Death’s territory. All they needed was a little push before they could carve out a proper space to call their own.

  Took Sorin the better part of his remaining twelve hours, and in the end, when the pressure reached its peak, Sorin returned to Mount Olympus. The laws restraining had become unbearable. He could no longer remain in the world of mortals.

  Sorin no longer hesitated. Since he was no longer permitted among mortals, he would go to the only place in Pandora that would accept him: the ancient realm of the gods, Mount Olympus.

  The mountain reached out to Sorin with a welcoming tangle of natural laws, but Sorin rejected them. “You don’t want me to stay here. Fine. You want me to come to Mount Olympus? Also fine. But I’ll do so on my own terms, thank you very much.”

  A thin cloud of poisonous energy spread out from Sorin and began to melt away at the source of his bindings: the karma tying him to nearly every living creature on Pandora.

  He first melted away the karma between him and five of the new regions. This karma was potent but shallow, as it relied on his slaying of their respective heralds.

  “My karma is my own,” spoke Sorin as the web connecting him to these territories disintegrated. Billions of dull karmic threads faded away.

  “Your grudges are of no interest to me,” Sorin continued, melting away his connection to the territories of Death and Disease. Another layer of restrictive laws sloughed off him like an old snake’s skin. “Life and Death have no hold over me, and neither do their laws. My life is my own. My death is my own.”

  Finally, Sorin turned to the dim threads connecting him to all of humanity. Once, they’d been a great boon to him, but now that he’d rejected Pandora’s blessing, they were weights dragging him to the depths of the ocean.

  Despite this, it remained that humanity owed him.

  He had broken their chains.

  He had unleashed their potential.

  Thanks to him, their future was limitless.

  “I declare our debt cleared,” spoke Sorin as he sliced through these billions of remnant threads. They joined the severed threads of karma connecting him to the Kepler Clan.

  As these threads melted away, so too did the realm’s restrictions. The hated him. It wanted him gone. At the same time, it was now unable to influence him.

  Sorin had no regalia, no altar. It would be impossible for him to become a deity. At the same time, there was nothing preventing him from becoming a deity.

  The heavens could only watch on helplessly as Sorin flew into the sky and passed the desperate demigods trying to breach the unfathomable gap between Olympia and Mount Olympus.