GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The man wasn't concerned about her bottled anger. He said confidently as if chastising her, "Don't sound like you are doing me a favor. You need me. You need to believe me. It is your only choice. You can't get stronger without the path of divinity. That is your only path forward. So you have to believe me or accept the fact that you will not grow stronger forever."

Tanya said, "You are not my only choice. I could submit to the god-king and swear fealty to him. I am sure it will accept me and will grant me strength." 

The man asked with a slight smirk, "But you are not going to do that are you?" 

Tanya's anger began to return. "Why not?" She asked with eyes blazing with rising anger. It seemed that fire would really spill forth from her eyes at any moment. 

The man answered confidently, "Because you are angry and you will remain angry until you get revenge. You will not get that revenge if you submit to the god-king. Any power that you gain from the god-king will not be enough to challenge and defeat the god-king. So I am your only choice for retribution."

Tanya's anger rose to a peak. But she didn't lash out. It is a silent and controlled anger. It burned slowly, silently, and intensely within her. Apparently, she didn't need divinity to fuel her anger. 

She said, "When can we begin?"

The man nodded. "Take this and use it to mark yourself. It will obscure you and keep you hidden from the gaze and senses of the god-king. You will be fine as long you don't get too close to him. Keep to the edges of his territory."

The man handed them a black flat circular device. The device has circles on its flat surface that twist and collapse towards its center. It makes the surface look like a whirlpool that is sucking everything into it. Tanya took one look at it and looked away immediately. The other three behind her were not so lucky. 

"Don't look at it." She yelled at them.

But it was too late. They remained fixated on the device even as they broke apart into dust and were sucked into the whirlpool on the device.

Tanya screamed, "Noooooo!"

"What happened to them? Bring them back." She demanded.

The man answered unapologetically, "I can't. They are dead."

"Why? Why didn't you warn us?"

"I wanted to see if you still have your survival instincts. And I also wanted them to die. I can only trust you with what I have said today. The other three had to be removed. We are close to our goal now. I cannot entertain any error. Do you understand me?"

It was both a display of power and a threat to her. If the man could kill them without moving, then he is not to be trifled with. So Tanya nodded despite her feelings of anger. It turns out that she doesn't need people holding her back to stop her from lashing out.

The man continued to offer the device to her. 

"Take it and use it with your divine sense." 

She took the black device without looking at it. 

The man smirked and said, "I don't need to warn you now that you shouldn't look at it or allow anyone else to use it. You have seen what it can do yourself. You can use it when you are in danger. Even the god-king will be affected for a short while. It will give you time to escape from him."

She nodded and placed the device carefully into the pouch strapped to her waist. She surely would have been suspicious if she had been told not to look at it without seeing what it could do herself. A live demonstration with test subjects has driven away her doubts about the device. 

All it had to take was for her close friends to die. They are a part of the few that stuck with her when her father died and the church of storms collapsed so it hurt to lose them just for a lesson. 

She stood there watching the man silently. She has a lot to say. Unfortunately, she shouldn't say them or risk making the death of her friends in vain. So the two of them stood staring at each other in silence while Tanya clenched and unclenched her fist. The silence was broken by the sounds of footsteps.

Tanya's head swiveled towards the direction of the incoming people. "Was I followed?" she asked herself.

Then she remembered the consequence of divulging information about this meeting to anyone. So she hurriedly said to the man, "I didn't tell anyone. Maybe those three did or they just followed us to make sure we will be safe."

The man said calmly, "Trust me, they are not one of yours."

"But they sound like a lot of people. And we are out of the kingdom. Where could such a force come from?..."

She realized the answer to that question soon after. Her face paled with that realization.

"Oh no." She exclaimed. "Did they find out already? How did they know? I thought the god-king couldn't see beyond the bothers of his kingdom. Has he become that powerful already?"

She began to panic because if what she feared was right, then the plane would fall firmly under the control of the god-king. The outskirts of the plane will no longer be hidden from the god-king so rebels like her won't be safe here anymore.

The god-king was able to claim a large portion of the plane to itself when the whole pantheon of gods was still present and strong. Now that the gods are no more, there is no one to resist him. No one except this man and the group he represents.

But she doesn't trust them at all. She might as well be on her own and she definitely cannot resist the god-king alone. So she would be doomed if the god-king could see outside of his kingdom.