GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

If there is a silver lining in this very dark cloud, it is that they can finally see the face of their would-be conqueror. It is a terrifying face worthy of the bringer of calamity. It is the kind of face that the person who will destroy their plane should have, but they are not happy about it.

The demon has red, translucent skin. It matches the black helmet of bone that the demon donned. The helmet allowed space for his mouth, eyes, and golden horns to be exposed, but it covered everything else like another layer of skin.

Above the black helmet is a white crown. The white crown has a black orb and several white orbs revolving along it. They haven't seen that type of crown before, but they know that it means that this demon is a demon king and a very powerful one at that.

The demon king grinned at them. It exposed its red teeth and dashing smile at them. The smile is so dashing that a golden light is shining through the gaps in his teeth. It is the same golden light spilling forth from his eyes.

"Behold my greatness and feel despair," he said to them grandly.

"I am the Chaos King. I am the face of your doom. I am your death, and I am the reaper of your souls. You shall bear witness to the ministrations of Chaos."

His words, full of the contamination of chaos, entered the plane from his mouth. They were the words of blasphemy and corruption. These words drilled into every living thing and contaminated them.

This contamination was both physical and spiritual. It manifested as a black rot on everything and is spreading rapidly.

The world suddenly became dark as even the air and wind became contaminated. Every being beneath the level of transcendence died. Their forms blackened and turned to dust where they stood or hid. As for the transcendents, they became mad immediately as their minds fractured into pieces.

Only the gods could hear his words and bear his gaze without having their existence fractured. Even then, the contamination didn't let them off. First, they flinched. Even the Celestial Supreme flinched when an unknown force slammed into her mind.

Then the force tried to drill into her existence. She resisted it with divine energy, so the black rot was contained as tiny spots on her skin. She was right to think the words of the demon were like filthy oil.

Some gods were not so lucky. The black rot was expanding slowly but surely. Their red eyes were turning black. It is only a matter of time before they succumb to it. They might be lucky to die before that happens. In the meantime, they began fighting each other and destroying the plane around them.

The Celestial Supreme saw all of these happen, but she could mount the smallest intentions of resistance. If there was any doubt before, it is certain now that she will die.

Just the voice of this demon king is enough for her to fight for her life. She can very well imagine just how powerful it will be in person. Even if she is wrong about her estimation, she is certain that she will die and that the whole plane will die with her.

Accompanying her dread is the groan and cracking of space, as it was forced to accommodate something powerful in a rough manner. The demon king was pushing itself out of the portal, even though it wasn't large enough to contain it yet.

It roused her out of her stupor.

"Attack it," she roared. "We have to send it back before it can get into the plane."

Her shout managed to sober up the Celestials. She even managed to call all the gods to action. The Celestials and the hundreds of gods came together under her will.

She can take most of their power, but she can only take half of the total at most. But together, they have greater power. They all chose to attack now that the severity of the situation had dawned on them.

Hundreds of gods attacked the demon king. Thousands of attacks struck him per second. His face was bombarded with all manner of attacks. But it was all showy without substance.

He didn't even grunt in pain. He could take them all on when he was just a level 10 demon king. All their attacks would have tickled him at most. He is currently far beyond the level of a level 10 demon king, so their attacks might as well be air infused with divine power. It is a waste of divine energy.

The only reason he defended the last attack was because it could affect the portal. Now he has his head out to block the attacks.

Aeternus ignored them. He focused on opening the portal. He pushed his arms apart to let himself through.

He grumbled to himself, "I wouldn't be struggling like this if I had the support of the abyss."

Aeternus has been on the run for quite a while. They made the deal with WRATH for his protection in exchange for the coordinates of the plane CARNAGE was invading, but that will only protect him from GREED if Wrath can get to him fast enough. That's why he is still staying away from the abyss. He plans to remain a fugitive until the era of conquest, when the abyss moves as one. WRATH will be able to protect him then.

His situation as a fugitive makes it so that he doesn't have the assistance of the abyss in opening portals. If he did, he wouldn't be struggling like this. The portal is fragile, and the space of the plane is resisting its expansion. It has made things difficult for him.

This difficulty is because demons can't control space despite their immense power. They can't teleport or open portals without the assistance of the abyss. Any demon king would face the same problem he is facing. However, it is certain that they wouldn't be able to solve it as well as himself.

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A/N: Don't forget that I will upload an extra chapter for every person with a golden ticket contribution above 20. This is aside from the normal contribution goals and it has started. Please remind me when you have contributed 21 golden tickets.