GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

He didn't bother to search through this fortress or the rest because of all the commotion going on. Whatever is good in them will have been looted already. The ones fighting for the right to the abyss altar weren't encouraging him either with their cowardice. They don't want to die and without demons willing to fight him, he wouldn't be able to kill them. He is fast but not fast enough to catch up to them.

This leaves the really strong high rank demons who have something to lose if they run away. Those won't be able to run away from him.

Suddenly the divine sense that had been stalking him became active. It grabbed ambient sin energy in the air and pulled them together to form something. Aeternus ignored the change and continued to walk. He had places to be and things to do. He would have hummed a carefree tune if he had a throat and lungs for them.

Behind him, the sin energy was forcefully held together to form the grey outline of a three-dimensional figure. It was a petite demoness about 1 meter in height with small wings. By the time the image was fully formed, Aeternus had moved more than 200 meters away. The image watched him and shook its head. Then it took a step forward and appeared beside Aeternus.

"Why didn't you wait for me? I have something to tell you." She asked him.

"Hmm. Why should I have waited? If you had something to tell me, it means you would have come to me. Here you are now so I was right not to wait." Aeternus answered without turning.

He continued walking towards his destination.

The petite demoness warned him. "It concerns your safety. You're in danger."

"Is that so?" Aeternus asked, seemingly unbothered.

"I have information that will be very helpful to you." The figure said

Aeternus nodded. "Somehow, that doesn't shock me. Let me guess, I have to give you something in exchange."

"Yes, you will just owe me a tiny favor."

Aeternus pretended to think about it before saying, "I'll pass."

The figure remained calm. "This is really serious. You should reconsider. What I want won't be too much for you to do."

"Let me ask you this. Can I avoid the danger right now?"

The figure was silent for a while before answering. "No."

"But you will only tell me after I have made a deal with you. I will have owed you for information that wouldn't help me."

"It is a start. Something can be done when you have the information."

"You're right about that. It's a start. But you didn't tell me when I could have avoided the danger. No, you withheld the information and waited until I can't avoid it. Then you offer the information to me. I'm guessing I won't be able to face the danger on my own either. Then you will offer to help me. Of course, I have to pay more for your help."

The figure smiled. "Not bad."

"I wasn't born less than 6 months ago. Oh, wait, I was. I must be a genius or something." He said sarcastically as he began running back towards the border between the domain of the mid-rank and high-rank demons. He can find sanctuary in the domain of mid-rank demons.

Her plan was obvious. She has been stalking him for quite a while now. Suddenly she came to offer information about his safety. Either she is an altruistic demon that has a stalking hobby or the more plausible alternative, she is an opportunistic demon. She may even be the one that cooked up his danger.

"You can't run away or avoid this. You have to ask for my help." The figure said with pity as if she was concerned for him.

Aeternus said calmly. "I don't have to do that. I could just let myself die."

She shook her head. "You wouldn't do that. You want to live."

"True. I'm sure you want me to live too. If you didn't want me to live, you wouldn't have appeared to warn me. But your desperation made you slip up. If you want to convince someone into doing something they wouldn't normally do, you have to wait for when they are at their absolute lowest. Then they'll accept your offer, no matter the cost, because, at that point, your offer will be life-saving and precious."

As he is right now, he sees no reason to take her up on her offer. He isn't desperate enough to be fooled into taking her offer.

She agreed with him, "Maybe I screwed up. But it doesn't change the fact that you're screwed too and I am powerful. I can help you."

Aeternus nodded. "Yes, you're powerful. I saw the show with the sin energy. No one can manipulate the sin energy of a plane so well enough to create an avatar with it. Only one demon in the plane with those capabilities comes to mind. You didn't need to perform the show. You could have spoken to me with your divine sense, but you wanted to prove a point. To shock and awe. I'm not shocked or awed, but I know for a fact that you're powerful."

"I'm guessing that is not enough for you."

"No, it is not enough. I do not accept the fact that I am screwed. I might've been in a pinch, but I don't think I'm screwed. It's your fault for it too. You should have waited until the problem arrived and when I say, "Damn, I'm screwed," before you swoop in like a hero. For all I know, you might even be lying about me being in danger."

She smiled at him. "We'll see then. Remember I'll be waiting if you need me."

"What can you even do for me?"

"That's up to me." The figure answered before it began to break apart.

The divine sense of the demon lord of the plane let go of its control of sin energy. The figure broke apart but her divine sense didn't leave. It was hovering around, content with watching like some stalker.