There are entities that do not oppose Asmodeus but that would, in fact, oppose Him, if He were credibly on the brink of taking over the world. Evil gods which like the world some other flavor of Evil; Good gods who would be making worse trades, operating farther from their own areas of strength, if they acted to directly oppose Asmodeus. Mortals have an instinct for this even when no gods guide them, and you see it at the scale of countries, in a place like Avistan: they will set aside their other enmities in the face of a greater threat, compromise on things they hate to compromise on, mobilize resources they'd preferred to have in reserve.

And so it is the case that a drastic strengthening of the position of Asmodeus, and of Cheliax, does not mean that Cheliax conquers all of Golarion, and does not mean that Hell conquers all, nor even does it mean that Iomedae despairs of this universe and destroys it to prevent that.  It means that, as a worst-case scenario against which Iomedae can compare Her better options, that She can call a convocation of the gods to re-counterbalance against Asmodeus, to check Him at their own expense. It means that Sarenrae, whose power goes farthest extended to mortals busy in the assistance of one another, donates power to soldiers instead. There'd be fewer miracles, and more funerals. More orphans would starve on the streets, more sick people would die in pain and alone. But the legions of Good could swell to meet Evil's new power. 

It means that Erastil, who operates these days almost entirely by rote, to save his power for his works, answering instinctively the prayers of farmers with blighted crops, agrees to instead allow Chelish ones to starve, agree to allow their prayers to go unanswered so their grain cannot feed Chelish armies. Humans care about many, many things, and Good in its many forms answers nearly all of them; but it could trade that away, at need. (Iomedae, Herself, would be trading away much more of that already, for the sake of defeating Evil, even at the unfavorable ratios that the other Good gods could get; but She is not all of human values, and is in fact a segment of them which intends to render itself unnecessary.)

And then there are agreements that could be made with non-Good powers that aren't Asmodeus: to do less to combat Abaddon, in exchange for payments from its powers which could be put to war with Hell. To win Pharasma's cooperation with yet another asymmetric concession like Malediction was an asymmetric concession. 

She hates that plan. She'll do it anyway, obviously, unless She has a better plan. 

So, the question: what beats that?

There are entities that do not oppose Asmodeus but that would, in fact, oppose Him, if He were credibly on the brink of taking over the world. Evil gods which like the world some other flavor of Evil; Good gods who would be making worse trades, operating farther from their own areas of strength, if they acted to directly oppose Asmodeus. Mortals have an instinct for this even when no gods guide them, and you see it at the scale of countries, in a place like Avistan: they will set aside their other enmities in the face of a greater threat, compromise on things they hate to compromise on, mobilize resources they'd preferred to have in reserve.

And so it is the case that a drastic strengthening of the position of Asmodeus, and of Cheliax, does not mean that Cheliax conquers all of Golarion, and does not mean that Hell conquers all, nor even does it mean that Iomedae despairs of this universe and destroys it to prevent that.  It means that, as a worst-case scenario against which Iomedae can compare Her better options, that She can call a convocation of the gods to re-counterbalance against Asmodeus, to check Him at their own expense. It means that Sarenrae, whose power goes farthest extended to mortals busy in the assistance of one another, donates power to soldiers instead. There'd be fewer miracles, and more funerals. More orphans would starve on the streets, more sick people would die in pain and alone. But the legions of Good could swell to meet Evil's new power. 

It means that Erastil, who operates these days almost entirely by rote, to save his power for his works, answering instinctively the prayers of farmers with blighted crops, agrees to instead allow Chelish ones to starve, agree to allow their prayers to go unanswered so their grain cannot feed Chelish armies. Humans care about many, many things, and Good in its many forms answers nearly all of them; but it could trade that away, at need. (Iomedae, Herself, would be trading away much more of that already, for the sake of defeating Evil, even at the unfavorable ratios that the other Good gods could get; but She is not all of human values, and is in fact a segment of them which intends to render itself unnecessary.)

And then there are agreements that could be made with non-Good powers that aren't Asmodeus: to do less to combat Abaddon, in exchange for payments from its powers which could be put to war with Hell. To win Pharasma's cooperation with yet another asymmetric concession like Malediction was an asymmetric concession. 

She hates that plan. She'll do it anyway, obviously, unless She has a better plan. 

So, the question: what beats that?

There are entities that do not oppose Asmodeus but that would, in fact, oppose Him, if He were credibly on the brink of taking over the world. Evil gods which like the world some other flavor of Evil; Good gods who would be making worse trades, operating farther from their own areas of strength, if they acted to directly oppose Asmodeus. Mortals have an instinct for this even when no gods guide them, and you see it at the scale of countries, in a place like Avistan: they will set aside their other enmities in the face of a greater threat, compromise on things they hate to compromise on, mobilize resources they'd preferred to have in reserve.

And so it is the case that a drastic strengthening of the position of Asmodeus, and of Cheliax, does not mean that Cheliax conquers all of Golarion, and does not mean that Hell conquers all, nor even does it mean that Iomedae despairs of this universe and joins that fragment of Nethys trying to destroy it.  It means that, as a worst-case scenario against which Iomedae can compare Her better options, that She can call a convocation of the gods to re-counterbalance against Asmodeus, to check Him at their own expense. It means that Sarenrae, whose power goes farthest extended to mortals busy in the assistance of one another, donates power to soldiers instead. There'd be fewer miracles, and more funerals. More orphans would starve on the streets, more sick people would die in pain and alone. But the legions of Good could swell to meet Evil's new power. 

It means that Erastil, who operates these days almost entirely by rote, to save his power for his works, answering instinctively the prayers of farmers with blighted crops, agrees to instead allow Chelish ones to starve, agree to allow their prayers to go unanswered so their grain cannot feed Chelish armies. Humans care about many, many things, and Good in its many forms answers nearly all of them; but it could trade that away, at need. (Iomedae, Herself, would be trading away much more of that already, for the sake of defeating Evil, even at the unfavorable ratios that the other Good gods could get; but She is not all of human values, and is in fact a segment of them which intends to render itself unnecessary.)

And then there are agreements that could be made with non-Good powers that aren't Asmodeus: to do less to combat Abaddon, in exchange for payments from its powers which could be put to war with Hell. To win Pharasma's cooperation with yet another asymmetric concession like Malediction was an asymmetric concession. 

She hates that plan. She'll do it anyway, obviously, unless She has a better plan. 

So, the question: what beats that?