That is, once they realize they're at a disadvantage and can't win, and decide to flee, it's extremely difficult to keep them from getting away for good.
If all else fails, as long as a god can timely abandon their divine body and let their spiritual essence return to the law they represent, no one can truly annihilate them.
For the divine body is ultimately just a vessel for the law; as long as the law does not perish, a new divine body can always be created—it only takes time.
Among conflicts between gods, the most terrifying and final solution is to devour a law.
However, achieving that comes with very harsh conditions.
Even if the target still has a divine body—making them comparatively easier to devour—the one being devoured must have utterly lost the ability to resist and be at an absolute disadvantage.
Next, the spiritual essence of the one to be devoured must be firmly bound within the divine body, unable to escape from it.
Only then is there a "break-in point" for devouring the law.
After successfully seizing it, the devourer must use divine power to numb and bind the other's spiritual essence, and then, by a long, grinding effort, slowly digest every last secret of the other's law.
Only then can it truly be assimilated and completely merged into oneself.
This is also why Kronos chose to devour the offspring he himself had engendered.
It is simply too difficult to satisfy the harsh conditions for devouring a law—nigh impossible.
But devouring one's own newborn offspring is far simpler: they have just come into being, their strength is weak, their ability to resist is at its thinnest, and they share the same root and source.
From the instant of their birth they are under his control; they are laws he created and best understands, making it much easier to meet the conditions for devouring.
Even so, the spiritual essences of the gods devoured by Kronos were never completely worn away—they were only imprisoned and suppressed. This alone proves how difficult devouring a law truly is.
Without thoroughly devouring the law, one cannot eliminate—indeed cannot even harm—the law-god's spiritual essence hidden within it.
Thus, among law-gods, to determine victory or defeat is comparatively simple, but to truly decide life and death—to make the other disappear forever—is inexpressibly difficult, almost an impossible task.
Not every God-King is the sovereign of spirit, after all.
If a god without a divine body wishes to erode and devour another, then they can only attempt to engender a new law that is tightly linked to the other's law.
Then, slowly carry out a gradual substitution, little by little replacing the other's essence through this subtle approach, until the other's law is devoured.
Once the other's law-essence is completely swallowed, the spiritual essence that resides within it will naturally perish.
Unless that spirit can, before its final dissolution, find and flee to some other "place" and gain a new anchor.
But this tactic has a very important prerequisite: one's own spiritual essence and divine power must hold absolute and overwhelming superiority over the target.
If there is no absolute suppression—if they are equal—then who devours whom becomes uncertain. Even equality won't do; one careless step and the result is fusion, in which case you are no longer yourself, little different from complete annihilation.
This technique is difficult to a degree beyond imagination.
Setting aside everything else, merely being able to birth a law closely tied to the target is already nearly impossible, requiring an extraordinarily deep grasp of the universe's laws and mastery over them.
For minor, derivative laws, this approach might have a sliver of feasibility; for many of the universe's fundamental laws, it is basically impossible.
A lower law attempting to supplant a foundational one—its chances are pitifully small.
Moreover, the more fundamental the law, the stronger the law-god's spiritual essence and divine power as the universe's foundation; it is nearly impossible for a stronger spirit to exist than theirs. Unless the other consents to be devoured, eliminating them by this method is essentially impossible.
Therefore, in battles between law-gods, the greatest deterrent is often the destruction of the opponent's divine body.
This forces the other to exist only as a pure law-form, unable to enjoy the material world's beauty and unable to experience its myriad sensations.
For gods who pursue being and sensation, that is the cruelest punishment.
If, even as a law-form, the opponent refuses to yield and seeks to influence the world—hindering the gods' enjoyment of the universe—
Then it is easy to arouse the wrath of the pantheon; once the gods unite, there are ways to settle such a restless law-form for good.
At worst, they can destroy that law entirely and then nurture it anew!
But this is the most extreme measure and requires the concerted effort of the vast majority of gods.
It would also affect the world's development. As things stand, such a case has not yet occurred.
Thus, divine battles, when pushed to the end, still largely hinge on the divine bodies' duel.
Once the contest of bodies yields a result, it usually means one side's defeat and concession.
If one's divine body is utterly destroyed and the victor offers no forgiveness, leaving one only as a pure law-form—then those days of eternal awareness without the ability to sense the world are truly hard beyond bearing.
For the eternal gods, only endless loneliness and solitude are the most dreadful torments.
Their vast, surging godhood, which longs for being, will suffer the deepest, most terrible torture in infinite aloneness—until final madness or dissolution.
For every higher intelligent life that possesses a self, to have a self is happiness.
But the self alone—that is the greatest torment of all.
In truth, the best way to deal with an undying god—the cruelest as well—was indeed the Heavenly Father Uranus's most creative punishment.
Cast them into Tartarus!
This method both solves the problem by sealing the foe completely and inflicts the most dreadful torment—a fate worse than death—while having no effect on the world.
It is simply perfect; no wonder he was the first God-King!
Too ingenious!
But this, too, is an exceedingly difficult thing to accomplish.
For as soon as a law-god senses even a chance of being cast into Tartarus, they will immediately abandon the divine body and let their spiritual essence return to the law itself!
They would rather endure a temporary loneliness and void than consign themselves to that place of no return!
Therefore, victors usually will not drive the enemy to extinction.
On the one hand, because wholly eliminating or imprisoning a law-god is so difficult; on the other, because of this unpreventable trait.
Even if the opponent's body is destroyed, unless the victor monitors every corner of the universe at every moment, the opponent will sooner or later quietly recover.
If a truly irreconcilable vendetta is formed, then neither side will know peace.
As long as the other does not disrupt the world's normal operation, the gods will not unite for the sake of a single god to find a way to wipe them out completely.
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