GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The plant dragon bared its great sharp teeth at the Celestial Supreme and grinned. "I see. Then we cannot have peace."

The Celestial Supreme did not like that. His voice rose with his anger. "It is not your place to determine whether we will have peace or not. I am here to declare to you and your god to end your plots and schemes or there will be war."

"Then we must have war." It said to him.

"It is not your place to tell me what must be done."

The dragon assumed a fighting stance. It spread its wings and opened its jaws to reveal a green flame burning within it. It said defiantly, "I did it anyway. What are you going to do about it?"

If the Celestial Supreme wants a fight, then it will give the Celestial Supreme a fight. SWIFTESCAPE hasn't had a fight ever since it was created. A fight with the avatar of the Celestial Supreme will do nicely to loosen its bones and remove parts of its boredom after waiting in this location since its creation.

More worms had entered the area around them. They are attracted to the aura of the plant dragon and wanted to be close to it. They find the stray vitality leaking from the dragon to be refreshing. Even the larger ones that can sense the threat that the Celestial Supreme pose can't hold themselves back from coming closer.

The Celestial Supreme found their form to be disgusting. The way they waved gleefully around the plant dragon made his irritation rise like never before. He spread out his domain again on an impulse to destroy them. His domain was canceled as soon as it sprung up. A mana entity, even if it is the avatar of a god cannot maintain a domain in the presence of a transcendent. The situation increased his frustration which bleed into his anger.

The eyes of the dragon glowed green as a divine entity empowered it. Then it said, "You are not welcome here, Zernon. Leave or fight."

That damaged the Celestial Supreme more than a physical blow could have. He narrowed his eyes at the plant dragon. Then he canceled his avatar and disappeared.

The dragon settled down. It has done what its creator asked it to do. The tree father had asked it to extend a branch of truce to the Celestial Supreme. It would have been very good if he had accepted. It will give the tree father more room to cheat and screw the Celestial Supreme over. But the Celestial Supreme isn't willing to have peace or the facade of one. His loss then.

"Time to go then."

Since that is done, it has to resume its other duties. So it broke apart into vines that slithered like snakes. The vines passed through the network of holes and tunnels toward their target of protection. They sunk down into narrow spaces below until they emerged into a very large space that formed the heart of the tunnel network.

The dragon appeared within a giant tunnel more than 300 meters wide containing a sleeping and equally giant worm almost 2 kilometers in length and 100 meters in thickness. The giant worm has a weak mind despite its large body so it had to sleep when it was fed the crystal fruit.

The dragon turned into a harmless-looking tree and resumed its watch. If it hadn't been here earlier, the giant worm would have died because of the frozen space. It took the dragon some time to break free from the restriction because it doesn't have the advantage of giants of order. Transcendents of the giants of Order were the first to break the restriction due to the law fragments within their bodies. The other plant spirits took around the same time because they have similar power.

The job to protect their targets has been on for several years. In the case of the plant dragon, it has had this job for more than 120 years. The plant spirits had scattered all over the place and found various targets to nurture into demigods. Others have other missions apart from this. The thorny vine dragon had found this Bore worm before the ant colony was found. The tree father decided to make use of it later since it was not in the prime location that the tree father wanted.

The mission to find different viable creatures to become demigods wasn't easy. The major requirement is finding mana entities different from those of giants of Order. It is a very difficult requirement to meet considering that the plane is barren. There are very few races that have adapted to the absence of free mana in the air.

The ants adapted by becoming able to eat sand and digest the mana within it. Sand and the earth are one of the few things that haven't had their mana absorbed. That's because the mana within them is tightly bounded and the passive mana absorption of the giants can't get to it the way they robbed plants of their vitality.

Species that can take this tightly bonded mana can survive somewhat but they cannot thrive. They cannot become transcendent without help. Even the bore worm who can easily become mana entities in this situation are barely surviving.

Bore worms are a consequence of the thriving of giants of order. They are small parasites that love to live within the intestine of giants. It is very difficult for external things, living or not, to affect giants of order but these parasites have adapted to the task of living within their bodies. Their eggs can be inhaled or ingested. Then they hatch and live within the intestines of giants.

They will continue to do so until the giant dies. Then they are left without a host. Some of them die because of the loss of their host and some don't. The ones that can perform the switch from a parasitic lifestyle to self-reliance after the death of their host become what are known as bore worms.