GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The rune to create demorgorgs was not created in a day. It all started with Stelios's rune that he made on Helios's back. Helios studied it and came up with changes that the tree father applied when he finally got access to Helios within the ant queen's abode. 

It was then that Helios tried to break through and Stelios tried to take advantage of the situation only to be cornered and have half of his Celestial power ripped from him.

That was the first divine engine. It is a tool not made out of metal like most artifacts, but made out of flesh and blood given form by the presence of the fragments of order that giants possess. Its main function is to take advantage of another powerful being's existence to empower its wielder. It will siphon power and energy from its target for this purpose.

The divine engine could only do so for gods at first. But the gods are dead so that made them not an option to use. Soverick then perfected it by creating the tool that can take advantage of any existence including an Origin god's. What the tree father did next is to adapt that creation to the giants of order to take advantage of the available powerful beings around them. Those powerful beings are the demons.

Aeternus brought the demons to the Zargoth plane. He also created a portal that led to the abyss. Mana and sin energy flooded the plane through the portal. Demons did too. The tree father and Aeternus used the demons to make the areas outside the kingdom of life inhospitable and unaccommodating of life. They also decided to use demons to strengthen the giants of order. That's how the demorgorgs were created.

It is a good thing that the demorgorgs were formed. The portal is closed now so the supply of demons, sin energy, and mana ended with it. Aeternus also went into hiding which made controlling the demons difficult. 

The demons actually became the enemies of the Kingdom of Life because of his absence. It was the demorgorgs that could fight them. Giants are usually resistant to spells. The demorgorgs took that resistance to another level. Spells created by sin energy will be directly negated. It made demorgorgs the bane of demons. 

Demorgorgs could also finally use spells themselves using sin energy. It completed the characteristics needed for them to be called demon hunters and it sealed the fate of the demons. 

The demons were beaten. They were hunted, captured, and used to create more demorgorgs which led to their inevitable defeat. The war against the demons led to the dwindling of their numbers and their scarcity. Demon nobles haven't been seen in a long time because of the mass hunting. That's why the elimination of an entire squad of demons cannot be taken lightly. 

The leader of that squad had a demon noble sealed within her rune. It would have taken at least one demon noble and probably more to not only defeat her but also kill her and her entire squad. But the investigation revealed that there wasn't any sign of a demon noble at the crime scene. 

If the demon nobles have found a way to hide, then this might be an opportunity to discover how they did it and increase the ranks of four-star demorgorgs. In a way, the loss of the 21 demorgorgs might lead to a boon for the demorgorgs. 

These initiates are nowhere near that level of power. A low-rank demon is the equivalent of a mana entity meanwhile each of them are transcendents. The empowerment that low-rank demons give them won't make them powerful enough to fight lords of law. But they will be able to fight other transcendents that use Origin energy or demigods and they can grow larger than 1 kilometer thanks to sin energy. 

"Let's see what can be improved." The tree father mused to himself as he observed the process closely.

The Demons that didn't die were warped into living tools. The chains have dug into them earlier to drag them. Those chains then went in to sear themselves into the demon's existence. They penetrated past the body of the demon to its soul and then its mark of sin. 

A face frozen in pain then appeared on the back of the initiates. The chains have also become taut from binding the demon. The pain the demons are going through dwarves what Ghaster went through when Soverick used him to test his artifact. 

The divine Stigmata is more advanced than Soverick's initial creation after years of development. It made Mana in the atmosphere funnel into the frozen and terrified faces on their back. It entered the demons in the rune and was converted to sin energy so the demons wouldn't degenerate or weaken as Ghaster did. Even their wounds will heal so they can be in good health through their eternity of agonizing servitude. 

Sin energy is then siphoned out of the demons into the chains all over the demorgorgs body. This has made giants of order gain access to energy other than the origin energy. Sin energy is better for them since they can't cast spells with mana or origin energy but they can cast spells now with the sin energy. 

The law of order on their bodies doesn't break sin energy apart as it does to mana and Origin energy. Instead, it will give it form based on their thoughts. It had to be compelled to do so by divine energy the way Helios was able to use Origin energy too. 

The four-star demorgorg said to them, "Well done. Congratulations on acquiring your first demon."

The initiates smiled and only smiled. That's all they can manage to do right now. The initiation has ended and there is no more pain but the demons are recovering within them which is increasing the burden on their existence so talking is a chore they can't manage to do right now.