GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Things moved quickly too. Troops from various corners of the plane converged at the center of the plane where the divine battlefield is. It is normal divine war protocol that the Celestial Supreme put in place so that the rest of the plane won't be damaged by war. But there's no way the plane will get out of this with a minor injury with a war this big. They might have chosen to fight in one spot but the number of soldiers coming into that spot will cause damage to the entire plane more than physical injury.

There's is more to war than the loss of life. Wars are expensive. They cause inflation in the price of goods and services. The reduction in the labor force will make labor more expensive and will reduce the productivity of the economy. The war will cause financial, emotional, and all sorts of economic losses.

All that doesn't concern Helios for now. The church of the sun isn't one of the churches going to war and even if they are, he is too weak to be crucial to the war and he also has a very important job here as the negotiator. Harkam's actions did cause a lot of changes here too. Many Colossus from the churches that Harkam screwed over came to the camp.

Fortunately, it was agreed that only the gods involved can send Colossi and they can't send more than one. Thanks to that, the camp isn't overflowing with powerhouses that can threaten Helios. Still, nothing changed about the ant. They didn't move to open the floor for negotiation no matter how the Colossi stomped around or made a ruckus.

Somehow the ants knew that they were only posturing. The ants didn't think the gods will actually do anything that might risk their demigods. The ants chose to believe that the remaining gods are not as unreasonable as Harkam. So they didn't move for negotiation.

The wait continued like this without any progress for 50 years. It was then that the divine war became really serious. Harkam's side is actually winning the war. It came as a surprise to both sides. The other side didn't take him seriously and messed up. He also got a lot more support than anticipated. His enemies decided to curb his streak of victories as soon as possible so the war became more frenzied.

All the gods' attention moved to the war since watching the captured demigods is boring. Nothing had changed for years and they are tired of waiting around for nothing to happen. Even the Colossi were recalled to the divine battlefield to shore up the forces of the gods. The stalemate extended for another 70 years.

The Celestial Supreme.

The god of order and justice sat in his divine kingdom unmoving for the past 120 years. He watched the chaos escalate without doing anything about it. It is against his nature to allow things to happen like that but he allowed it all because of a meeting he had with the god of fate 120 years ago.

He had called the god of fate immediately after questioning Helios about his experience in the ant mound. A screen appeared in front of the celestial supreme. It showed a giant floating and dozing on a multicolored river. The giant is covered with wavy tattoos that depict moving rivers.

The sleeping giant spoke. "What do you want? And make it quick. I have sleep to return to."

The Celestial Supreme was agitated back then due to the appearance of the new god but he reigned in his rising anger at such disrespect to his person.

"I have a problem and I need your help." He said calmly.

That's one of the reasons why he didn't flare up. He shouldn't get angry and lash out at someone he needs help from or that person won't help him.

The god of fate yawned. "I know. It's obvious. You only talk to me these days when you need help."

"Then why did you ask if you already know what I want?" The Celestial Supreme said through gritted teeth.

"That's obvious too, isn't it? I meant what do you need help with?"

"There's a new god that I don't know anything about. Do you know anything about it?"

"I know about it." The god of fate answered curtly.

The Celestial Supreme sighed and asked, "Do you mind telling me about what you know?"

"Actually, I do mind."

It was becoming very difficult for the Celestial Supreme to reign his anger in. Something new is threatening the order that he has established and yet, this god of fate is toying with him.

"What do you want for the answer?" He asked after managing to calm down.

"If you want what I know, then you must come and get it from me. It has been a while since I last had visitors." The god of fate told him.

The Celestial Supreme cut the connection quickly before he screamed. "You don't have visitors because everyone thinks you're an asshole."

He said other unsavory things and vented his frustration with more choice words before he finally calmed down. Then he left his divine kingdom to visit the god of fate. He appeared beside a floating sea with multicolored water within a bubble. The bubble opened and he entered. He found the floating giant soon after and appeared beside him.

"Your strings of fate seemed to have proliferated nicely." He said to the god of fate.

The multicolored river is made of many ropes with different colors meshed and flowing together like a river. They look like strings to a giant but they are very large ropes to other lesser physically privileged races.

"You're just saying that to ease the awkward atmosphere after all the bad things you just said about me." The god of fate spoke without rising from his position.

He had heard all what the Celestial Supreme said about him after their call. He doesn't care about it just like he doesn't care enough about the Celestial Supreme to stand up and greet him.