GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

He giggled when he found out the identity of his enemy.

"It is a tree. Of course, it is a tree. How did I not see that coming? That ugly plant dragon should have clued me in. To think that I will fall because of a tree." He mused to himself sagely.

Then he laughed and laughed. His giggling turned into self-deprecating laughter pretty quickly. What kept him sane is the fact that either by chance or intention, this abode is located at the edge of the plane directly opposite the spot where the portal was created. It indicates that he didn't lose because of incompetence and that everything has been planned from the start so his loss to a tree is not so disgraceful.

The ant mound is to the west of the plane while the kingdom of life is to the east. It might seem like an irrelevant observation but becomes extremely important when the demons are chasing the mortals in the direction of the only place in the mortal realm with protection. That coincidence reeks of a scheme and he didn't need to think too much to know the purpose of the scheme. He can see the effect of this configuration as clearly as day even though his mind is fraying at the edges.

On one end of the plane are demons and on the other end is salvation. The demons kill and pillage, and the mortals then run into the arms of the waiting church of life. This effect has been made especially convenient by placing the church of life in the only direction of safety. This leads to gods losing believers every day as believers lose faith because of the demon invasion.

The third bad news is the state of his church. The church of order used to be the strongest church but it has become crippled. The forces of the church have been scattered to the ends of the plane in different directions where they were picked off one by one. The transcendents of the church of life attacked them proactively when he ordered his troops to retreat. They held back his troops while Helios finished off difficult ones. None of his troops returned to the church headquarters so the strongest church has officially become the weakest church.

Then there is the sun church. It is one of the oldest in the plane if not the oldest. It is also the second strongest church in the mortal realm and most importantly, it refused to join the war in eradicating the demons. That is understandable since Helios is the one that brought the scourge of demons on them.

Helios told the church of the sun not to fight the demos. It produced a peculiar development in the ranks of the church. Zernon had thought that Stelios had a hand in it too but he seems he is wrong about that. The chaos going on in the church of the sun indicates that all might not be well between Stelios and Helios.

The church of the sun has split into two. There is a side among the clergymen that believes in the old sun god and there is a new faction that believes that Helios is the new sun god. The old faction is led by the pope while the new faction is led by a Cardinal named Hak. They even had a civil war that ended quickly and without suspense.

The New faction has Helios while the old faction has Stelios. But Stelios has refused to show himself so it did not come as a surprise that the new faction won. Even the divine lords of the sun god, Helios' older siblings didn't interfere in the matter so Helios easily got control of the church. Then Helios directed the forces of the church to escort giants who are on a pilgrimage to the holy land of the church of life. So instead of joining the fight against demons, the church of the sun allied with the church of life.

The state of the world made the Celestial Supreme lament ruefully. "They played me and they played me well. It was gradual and I didn't see it coming. Now I am about to be checkmated."

It is one bad news after another. It reminds him of his battle plan where he uses one move after the other to push his enemy into certain death. The bad state of things didn't happen all at once. It started when he noticed fluctuations of divinity at the ant mound. It has become obvious that it wasn't coincidental that he noticed the divinity.

The god of life can hide from him and has hidden many things from him. The god of life could have hidden the divinity but the snake for a tree wanted him to notice and send demigods. No one can convince him otherwise. The location of the ant mound relative to the position of the kingdom of life is enough proof to him. That ant mound was chosen specifically to be his doom right from the beginning.

"Something needs to change for the better or I will have to use the doomsday weapon."

In summary, the mortal realm is heading toward total loss of control. If the gods can't flourish in the mortal realm then they will die out as they are starved of faith. They will become easy prey to the demons then. Right now the demons are still cautious of attacking them but that will change when the gods run out of believers.

He has a last card that he can play but it will damage the gods a lot to use. If they don't succeed in rooting out the demons by destroying their stronghold then he will have to use it. It is either that or no future at all for the gods.

He will try everything within his means to protect himself and save the future of the gods. He is not dead yet so he has not lost yet. It is his turn to show up the invaders and prove to them why he is a great Celestial Supreme. There are some things in Zargoth plane that only those that have lived its history know about. He will unearth one of them to end the scourge of demons.