GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Zernon might be safe for now but he will meet his death in due time. His days are numbered. Legion already has a plan to kill him cleanly without interference. The other gods and archangels. None of them will be able to interfere then.

Helios left the divine plane since he has finished what he came for. He returned to the mortal realm to act as protection for their interests and to conduct experiments. Protecting what they have is very important. Things are going well for them and it needs to be maintained that way. Overconfidence and underestimating the enemy can undo what they have achieved so Legion must be careful and watchful.

Several days later.

The Celestial Supreme gritted his teeth in pain and lamented. "Things are not going well."

He is sitting on his throne but he doesn't feel as comfortable as he should because two of his arms are still missing. The injury was caused by a Celestial Authority backed by a strength greater than his so it should take some time to regrow but it hasn't. The surface of the cut should have healed at least but it is still fresh and hurting as if he just got cut.

It is odd that his arms haven't healed since the wound in his chest caused by the spear has healed but the two stumps of his arms are still bleeding white blood. He is worried about what it means but it is just one of his numerous worries. He doesn't have the luxury to fixate on a single worry anymore. The mortal realm is in official shambles and his established order has crumbled. It is not a sudden thing. One thing led to the other to create the Chaos that is now running rampant.

The mortal realm has just suffered massive casualties because of the world war that was fought recently. The remaining troops of the gods are at the center of the plane leaving most of the plane open to attack. The demons in the plane are taking advantage of that vulnerability to destroy churches across the plane.

Even worse is that the demons are building a stronghold that will create a permanent channel between the demon plane to the mortal plane. If that is allowed to happen then the mortal realm is doomed. Demons will be able to move freely between the two planes.

A stronghold with a permanent channel means that the demons will always be able to get reinforcements as long as the channel is functional. The channel can be destroyed but it is best that it is not built at all. A stronghold cannot be allowed to happen or their losing fight against the demons will become a hopeless fight without any chance of recovery.

He ordered the gods to put aside their differences and work together to eliminate the threat of the demons. Some of them disagreed because of the destruction of their churches. They would like to defend their churches from the demons but the majority of the gods agreed with him because they recognize the threat of a demon stronghold. The destruction of their churches is bad but a continuous supply of enemies is worse.

So all of the church's troops at the center of the plane that was previously at each other's throats because of the insult perpetrated by Harkam have now joined together and are matching to face the demon army. The gods are even sending out their vessels from their various church headquarters. They hope to uproot the threat of the demons in one fell swoop. Anything less than total victory will give the demons a chance to return stronger.

The fact that he had to convince them with common sense before they decided to band together is not sitting well with him. The gods wouldn't have disagreed with him in the past but now they can because he has lost his prestige after losing to Helios. He is not the strongest god as they once thought. He can't order them around however he wishes especially now that his Influence in the mortal and divine realm is at its lowest. The loss is made worse by the fact that Helios is not even a real god.

That isn't where his problems end though. It is going to take time for the army to reach their target because either by coincidence or intention, the location of the ant mound where the portal opened is at the edge of the plane. It will give the demons enough time to get up to their nefarious activities.

The next bad news is the hidden god. The hidden god has become not so hidden. That insidious good-for-nothing god has become proactive after helping to foil his attempt at closing the channel. A church called the church of life has come out of nowhere with promises of a kingdom of peace and happiness. The church promises no war and complete harmony. It is something highly sort after by mortals in these trying times of war and strife. They are further encouraged to make the switch to the new religion since the other churches are being destroyed wantonly by demons and the believers of other gods are being massacred like cattle.

The threat of death is enough to incentivize former believers and non-believers to start a migration toward this kingdom of peace created by the hidden god. The hidden god has also been magnanimous enough to welcome everyone. He opened his kingdom of life up to the world. It was then that Zernon noticed the abode of the hidden god and discovered it to be a sort of divine tree.

Finding out that the hidden god is a tree made him chuckle. It was either that or insanity. He chose to chuckle because it had almost taken him to the edge of sanity to find out that something that shouldn't exist within the plane is the "root" of his problems. The tree may be large but it is a tree nonetheless and it has made him so miserable.