GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Instead, the pope smiled. "I see that you like the Papal staff, Supreme one. It is a gift from the Celestial of light and justice to his chosen representative on earth. If you want one I am sure the Celestial can do something about it. The Celestial is…"

Legion-5 waved his hand for her to go. He even said it out so that his intentions would be clear if she didn't understand his gesture. "You can go now."

"But this staff is important. I can leave it if it will please you but what do I tell the Celestial Supreme? As it is, it might be misconstrued that you stole it. Stealing is bad. We should..."

It was then that Legion-5 turned to her. He didn't look at her because he didn't have eyes and he didn't raise his head to look at her. All he did was to make his focused divine sense fall on her. She almost knelt down before him. It would have been blasphemy to kneel before anyone but her god so she did all she could to remain standing. All the divine artifacts she wore were activated to withstand the physical and mental pressure that settled on her.

She was so preoccupied with standing that she almost didn't hear what Legion-5 said to her. Fortunately, his voice through his divine sense was as loud as thunder in her mind. She would have heard what he said even if she was sleeping.

"I said you could go. Do I look like one of your believers that you can preach to? Do I look like I need a sermon?"

His voice was calm but there was a sharp edge to it that cut at her mind. Even so, she was not cowered. She wasn't supposed to get angry but she became so angry that she was speechless. After all, he was the one who stole from her but he is the one getting angry. His behavior was too unreasonable.

But he wasn't done. He warned her, "You better leave now before I help you out."

She is just a transcendent. He can kill her with one slap. She couldn't even resist his simple use of world power when he snatched the staff or the pressure of his divine sense when he focused his attention on her. How can she resist an attack from him?

But she didn't leave. She didn't show her anger but she said with determination, "I am sorry but I cannot leave. To take the supreme divine artifact of the church of Light and Justice like this is a disrespect to the church, to the Celestial, and to the legacy of the Pope. I would rather die than see this happen in my time as the pope."

That's the thing about zealots. They are suicidal. Believers are usually foolish. They give offerings of their meager wealth to the church. The church grows richer while they wallow in poverty. But zealots take this foolishness to the next level. They can give their all including their single lives for their gods.

This lady refused to comprehend laws and achieve perfection because she wanted to live for her god and die as a pope. Now she is willing to risk death by disrespecting a Supreme beast. But Legion-5 wasn't offended.

Legion-5 grunted. "That's all you had to say from the start. You didn't have to waste time talking about the evil of stealing."

And so he attacked her. He punched forward and a grey phantom fist formed in front of him. The phantom fist struck her straight on. This phantom fist is more than three times her size and it collided with her like a mountain colliding with an ant.

She glowed brightly with the power of her god so she didn't die. She was just thrown backward by the fist. The Authority of her god saved her. Her entourage wasn't so lucky though. The priests and archbishops that came with her died on the spot. The mere shockwave from the collision killed them.

A mighty voice came from within her and from the sky. It roared in anger, "Justice will never let this go."

Legion-5 didn't even bother to reply. He turned his back on her and entered his base. The light shining on the pope slowly dispersed. The pope then turned into ashes that were blown away by the wind. She died there.

The Authority of the Celestial of Light and Justice saved her at the last moment but it was too late to stop her from being injured. She was too close to Legion-5 so she was already hit before her Celestial responded. The descent of the Celestial further exasperated her condition.

So in a way, it was the Celestial that killed her. All he did was punch her which didn't kill her. She would have surely died but the burden of the Authority of the Celestial accomplished that before his casual punch could.

But that's not what the Celestial told everyone. The Celestial of Light and Justice said to all who would listen or who were too weak not to dare listen to him, "I have been disgraced. I have been blasphemed. My Authority and power have been mocked. This cannot be allowed to happen without due punishment. All I wanted was to give the little Shadow of Despair a gift through my pope but he insulted me and called every god weak. He also called every believer foolish. He must be punished for the sake of everyone be they god or man."

The shameless Celestial slandered him and routed his entire church to come and attack the Shadow of Despair. Surely Legion-5 thinks the gods are weak and their believers are foolish but he didn't say those things. He felt like saying them after being falsely accused but he didn't bother trying to clear his name or aggravating his offense.

The Celestial used his silence to slander the Shadow of Despair more and he enjoyed a lot of success. A lot of believers got angry when they heard the accusations. They were angry enough to die for their gods.