GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The fountain of life changed its tactics from brute force. It stopped trying to crush Rinoz so the earth slabs shattered into dust because of an explosion. Rinoz didn't have the time to be happy before another round of attack began. The air around her turned into spears. 

It happened suddenly so it seemed to Rinoz that she had always been at the center of a spherical formation of sharp earthen spears. One might call it a prison but they would be wrong. It is an execution method because the spears are trying to impale her. 

Unlike the two slabs that she could hold back with her tails, these spears are too numerous for her 9 tails to restrict. She created a barrier around her with her solidified divine sense. It stopped the spears from impaling her but at the cost of Origin energy. 

The sounds of clashing and explosions could be heard as the two beings battled. The ghouls struggled ineffectively against the barrier of the fountain of life while Rinoz struggled against the spears trying to impale her, and the fountain of life struggled to keep the ghouls away. 

Their strange situation formed an equilibrium of struggling. The balance would be broken by the ghouls. Victory and defeat hinges on whoever is the first to stop struggling. It could be Rinoz or it could be the fountain of life since the ghouls are relentless in their effort. 

The ghouls won't stop struggling and they are also increasing in number by the moment. If the fountain of life fails to kill Rinoz before its barrier is broken then it will be defeated. Unfortunately, that is a difficult thing to achieve because its ability to kill Rinoz is reducing with the increase in the number of ghouls. 

The power of the spears is decreasing every moment. So as time passes, the burden on Rinoz is reduced. All she has to do to win this battle is to outlast the fountain of life. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that much. 

"Oh no," She exclaimed. 

The fountain of life sneered, "That's what you get when you bite the hand that fed you."

Rinoz had bitten the hand that fed her. She went against the fountain of life, so she stopped getting Origin energy from it. Her title doesn't come with a supply of Origin energy because the plane is barren of it. What she has been using is the amount she saved from when the fountain of life used to give her Origin energy. 

Now she has run out of Origin energy. She couldn't produce novas anymore and her barrier weakened drastically. A single spear poked through the barrier and it shattered. The rest of the spears were free to impale her body. Rinoz became a porcupine because of it. 

The pain was searing hot. It scorched her mind instantly. The physical injury to her body also caused her mind to fray. She blacked out immediately. 

This made her defenseless against what came next. The spears of earth changed into fire. They became lances of fire embedded into her existence. What happened next was expected. Her body began to burn. She burned while the light that she produced dimmed. 

The fountain of life said with disdain as it watched her die, "I told you that you had overestimated yourself."

The fountain of life asked Rinoz to show what she was capable of. Rinoz didn't disappoint. She tried her best and managed to threaten the life of the fountain of life. But she failed eventually. 

Her power was not be underestimated. But the reason why she failed has proved that the fountain of life was right to think little of her. She had the assistance of ghouls and still failed. The fountain of life had to ridicule her because of her failure. 

The fountain of life said in anticipation, "Go on and die. Give me the payment for my services."

It gripped the white Ghoul tightly in one of its claws while it watched the current child of the plane die. It didn't take long. Rinoz had been skewed and Fire was pouring into her weak soul body. Her body and soul was incinerated like kindling. She couldn't even cry out in pain as her consciousness fragmented. 

Her body was crushed and ravaged by the fire. She turned into dust that scattered into the winds. It is as the fountain of life said. It is a joke for someone weak to stand out and call themselves a hero. They will be remembered as weak and foolish. 

Rinoz died and her connection with the will of the plane was cut off in her death. They snapped back like overextended elastic strings. The will of the plane reeled back in pain. It felt the pain of the loss and so did every being still alive in the plane. 

The fountain of life saw the spiritual threads being detached with its true vision. It had been waiting for this exact moment when the will of the plane would be vulnerable. So it launched a spiritual attack with all its power against the will of the plane. 

It used the fragments of the law of life that it implanted on the wood elves and Warrogs as the foundation for the attack. The Will of the plane had been weakened by the attack of the demon god and the massacre of the ghouls so the fountain of life succeeded without much effort. 

The fountain of life was satisfied. Its anger receded a little because of its success. But it made sure to scold Rinoz one more time. "What a silly child. I invested in her and she sought to bite the hand that fed her. At least her existence was not a waste."

The white ghoul growled at it but the fountain of life didn't care. It scoffed and turned its attention away from the ghouls. 

The ghouls also stopped attacking it The fountain of life is not a being that they can attack anymore. The fountain of life has become the largest shareholder in the plane. It has acquired over 50% of the spiritual Will of the plane so it is not on the list of the priority of ghouls anymore. 

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A/N: If you lost your bet, you have to dance right now wherever you are. If you won it, then you have to dance too. One is for shame and the other is for triumph.