GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Ragnarok feigned ignorance, "What do you mean about too much beauty?"

Drastoic tried to explain to him, "Your art aims to eliminate everything. If you continue with it, there will be no one left to appreciate your art and nothing left to appreciate when you are done. So the Supreme of Carnage wants you to stop and in exchange is willing to cease hostilities between us. What do you think about a truce?"

"What kind of truce?" Ragnarok asked with interest.

"The kind where you ask for anything you want in exchange for ceasing the destruction of the plane."

"Hmm." Ragnarok considered it. "Is the demon god willing to leave the plane if I ask?"

"You can ask for anything but that."

Ragnarok snorted. He is irritated that he can't make the demon god leave the plane but he didn't give up. He decided to find a way to give the plane a fighting chance against the demon god. 

So he asked, "Then for starters, I want to put an end to the ghouls. Life needs to recover even if I stop destroying the plane. I am certain the demon god wants that too."

Drastoic's face fell. "You want the end of the Vampires."

"Yes." 

Drastoic asked again, "Let me be clear. You are asking for the death of the two of us."

Ragnarok nodded again. "Yes, I am."

"Why?" Drastoic asked while struggling to remain calm.

It is one thing to watch other Vampires die. He could bear with that sacrifice because it was important to keep Ragnarok safe. But now Ragnarok is asking for his precious life.

Ragnarok replied. "If the demon god won't leave, then what will change about the situation? Why should I spare the plane if it is still going to fall? I am only asking for relief for now. The death of the Vampires will make the Ghouls disappear and bring the plane some peace for it to recover. Besides, it is not as if there will be anything left of the plane for the demon god if the Ghouls are allowed to run their course for much longer."

Drastoic received an instruction from the demon god. The instruction made him frown. He didn't like it at all. But he went ahead to offer Ragnarok what the demon god wished for.

"Fine. You will have your way." He said through gritted teeth.

They watched as the other vampires died. It didn't affect them so they can live with it. But now they have been asked to give up their lives. It is against their every instinct. They want to live. They even have the strength to protect themselves. But they don't have any choice. It will be done because the supreme of Carnage wishes for it.

It loathed the supreme of Carnage to get rid of all its spawns because a mortal demanded it. It will have to start all over again. It will be easier to do considering the bad state of the plane. And it is also a good thing for the demon god. The absence of the Ghouls will be a boon to it. It will let life recover on the plane which is what the demon god is after in the first place. 

It has already lost most of its spawns, two more will only hurt a little more. So the demon god decided to accept the request despite being forced to. It may be a humiliating request, but the demon god of Carnage is a demon god of deals. He likes making deals and Ragnarok has something that it wants. 

The demon god instructed Drastoic, "Ask him if that is all." 

"What else do you want?" Drastoic asked Ragnarok with barely concealed anger.

"I want to be granted that safe passage too."

Drastoic asked in bitterness and anger. "Is that after or before we die?" 

His anger couldn't be concealed any longer. 

Ragnarok replied with a smile, "I will leave but it has to be after you two die. I must watch you die myself. Then I will leave this plane to fate. I would have done enough damage and enough assistance in equal portions to it."

Secula spoke for the first time to Ragnarok. "Must you see all Vampires dead if you will leave the plane? The plane will still fall."

Ragnarok replied with a grin, "Call it being petty. Call it whatever you want. I don't have to explain myself to you, but I will. I want the demon god to actually regret not letting me leave earlier. You two are just collateral damage. It is nothing personal."

Drastoic shook his head in pity. "So this is how I will end. I thought I couldn't be harmed by anything. I thought I would live forever."

He is the very first Vampire in the lumen plane. He still remembers the night when he became an ancestral vampire in the Underdark. It was a night after he was abused by his mother and sisters.

He had the mental, emotional, and physical scars from years of abuse. But those scars disappeared when he became an ancestral vampire. He became immune to injury and to pain. He became as tough as the strongest, hardest, and toughest material beneath the level of world gods. 

Becoming an ancestral vampire granted him his heart's desire. He would never be injured again and he would never feel pain again. He thought he had overcome all his weaknesses and that he would live forever. 

But it turns out that the source of his power is the same thing that will kill him. It turns out that he still has a glaring weakness. He became immune to the world, but only because he was a pawn of the demon god. And pawns are to be sacrificed. He is not immune to that.

Drastoic lamented, "Now I will die. And it won't be a glorious death like I thought. I will die as collateral damage."

Secula joked, "You thought you would need to be dropped into a star for you to be killed."

Drastoic laughed at the joke. His laughter had a twinge of sadness.