The lotus was completed, but it was not yet ready to bloom. It was composed of the 3000 Mazinger’s laws, and had achieved a realm that could accommodate all of these contradictory concepts.

  However, despite the fact it had an equal realm to the Chaos itself, it was not an eternal constant like the Mazingers or the Chaos. It may have absorbed an immense quantity of energy and knowledge from the Chaos gods, but it had not swallowed their origin or whatever their boundless powers came from. It may have tremendous reserves, but in a world where everything else was infinite, it would undoubtedly be found lacking.

  In modern terms, The Great Lotus of Chaos had an incredibly large battery, but it would never be enough to outlast entities that had solar panels and wind turbines, or any such energy sources that were inexhaustible.

  It might have been able to face the combined might of the Primordials, but that was only because it was made to adapt and contain their powers, and was therefore immune to their laws.

  Unfortunately, it was made to transform Chaos, and was therefore antithetical to it. Any contact would be disastrous, and it could not consume the power of Chaos, but would instead quickly dissolve into Chaos.

  They were composed of the same elements, but the lotus represented order, while Chaos predictively represented Chaos. Any connection between the two would result in an explosive battle to the death.

  Chaos was endless, and it was impossible to defeat it, but since The World Lotus had limited energy to resist, it would eventually lose and be destroyed by the Chaos.

  All of this created an awkward rock-paper-scissors power dynamic. The Mazingers could disturb or even temporarily destroy the Chaos. The Chaos could easily overwhelm the World Lotus and disintegrate it, but the Primordials were helpless to defend themselves in front of the Great Lotus of Chaos.

  Right now the Lotus was in an inactive state, containing all of its laws and mysteries inside it, which was how it could endure and stall the corruption of Chaos, but to create a world, it needed to wake up and fight for space and survival.

  Creation would already use up an insane amount of energy, and there would be none left to resist the Chaos and stop it from crushing the nascent world.

  Fortunately, The World Lotus was their creation, and the Primordials had every intention of protecting it from Chaos.

  Shaking themselves out of their reverie, the Primordials crowded around the World Lotus, ready for the next step in their plan.

  Pangu took the lead, while the Chaos was still weak, disturbed by their previous exuberance. He took his Great Axe in hand, and under the expectant gazes of his comrades, he shouted and struck a historical blow. He delivered the most terrifying attack in all of Chaos’s history, dividing Chaos in a single blow, creating a limitless chasm of nothingness in the endless Chaos.

  Unable to bear this unreasonable amount of force, his brand new axe splintered in his hand, breaking into 3 separate pieces, which fell into the newly created void.

  Having no time to spare any attention to his destroyed weapon, Pangu joined the other Primordials as they rushed to throw the Great Lotus of Chaos in the newly created void and rouse it to start building a new world.

  Slowly, under the influence of the Mazingers concentrated laws, the Lotus matured and bloomed.

  Powered by the Chaos gods' strength, the fruit grew bigger and brighter, expanding exponentially. Hidden inside of this blinding ball of light, a new order was being established, obeying to all 3 000 conflicting laws, forming a delicate equilibrium.

  The glowing sphere of light evolved into the Tao, and the Tao evolved into the world. The Tao contained the same laws as the Chaos, but it had Order. Yet it was not an authoritative order, or an oppressive one, but rather an exquisite balance of all laws to create something far beyond their individual limits.

  It created a world stable enough to form a consistent foundation on which all things could be built, while being turbulent enough to allow an immense variation of unique and marvelous sights. Most importantly, it was much more suitable for living beings to come into existence.

  There was no physical or material world yet, just an astonishing framework of rules to govern it. Only when the lotus had completely bloomed and when all of the laws had been perfectly assimilated would matter be created.

  It might still be empty, but it was already all that the Primordials had hoped for, a land that allowed imperfect creatures to be born, that pushed them to grow and improve themselves, exploring every facet of the universe, living eventful and meaningful lives.

  The Mazingers were incredibly excited to see this, but not for the original reason they had started this project. They had stopped caring about the excitement that was destined to fill this world, and were instead eagerly analysing and studying how it worked, eager to imitate this delicate balance in themselves.

  The future progress of multitudes of beings was still a distant future, but their own advancement within reach. They just needed to learn how to make different laws compatible, after which success would only be a matter of Time.

  They watched in wonder as the time and space merged into SpaceTime, and were amazed at how light and dark melded together to form shadows. They were enlightened when they saw fire, water, metal, earth and wood form a complex and mutually beneficial system of growth and decline, all inscribed into the duality of yin and yang.

  Instead of destroying each other, contradictory laws could be associated together and form mysterious natural cycles. Even those delicate cycles were themselves parts of greater and more complex cycles, with every single law of primordial importance. It was a new way of perfection, one that included every concept instead of purifying one notion to the extreme like the Mazingers had.

It was beautiful, as it was the Tao.