GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Aeternus turned to leave after speaking to them. His destination is the newly created altar within the stronghold. He entered the huge fortress and walked by the waiting demons of his army. The fortress is teeming with them. There are about a hundred thousand in the fortress and many more surrounding it. Some of them will be left behind in the plane but most of them will be unleashed on another plane.

He began activating the return function of the abyss altar. It responded quickly because he has created a connection between the two planes. If not, he would have had to spend a day to open it. A large swirling portal opened quickly and sin energy gushed out of it into the plane. It made the demons feel like they are in the abyss.

All the demons in the fortress started cheering when the portal appeared. The portal became self-sufficient. It won't close until he closes it or the altar is destroyed. The constant portal means easy retreat back to the abyss and constant reinforcements for their conflicts in the plane. Legion created the abyss altar for those reasons and more. Sin energy isn't the only thing coming out of the abyss portal. The Mana that the Zargoth plane needs dearly is also gushing into the plane.

In a self-sufficient plane with access to the ancient battlefield, the abyss altar will only increase the concentration of sin energy in the plane. Stronger demons don't need it. The unified energy of noble demons makes them capable of regenerating their stores of energy from mana too. But a starving plane like Zargoth will feel the impact of this new source of mana. The death of a lot of giants will allow the plane to recover. It will make things easy for what the Tree father plans to do with the plane.

He said to his subordinates, "I'll give you 1 hour to prepare. None of you must be around by the end of that hour."

He made some more arrangements before he left for the last business he has on the Zargoth plane. He flew in the direction of the kingdom of life to meet up with the Avatar of Legion-9, the one everyone is calling the tree father. Helios will be there waiting for him there too. Helios has an experiment he wants to try about Authority before Aeternus leaves.

He cloaked himself in the momentum of the world so none of the giants saw him as he flew over the imaginary border of the church of life. This line separates the area of demon activity from the rest of the plane. It just so happens that the rest of the plane is the tree father's territory. Demons don't cross this line on his order creating the illusion that they are scared of the tree father. It is true in its own way. It is Aeternus that they are afraid of so it works the same.

He crossed the line and entered the territory of the church of life. He flew above the recently erected settlements and further past them to the city they built around the divine forest. Giants of order keep arriving at the kingdom of life and they are readily accepted.

The kingdom is peaceful. It is the only place in the plane with plants. This entire place used to be a desert at the edge of the plane. Now it is a safe haven at the edge of the plane. Giants are moving around in buildings constructed in a forest. Their cities used to be creations of rock and stone. They used to have pyramids of stone built for their gods. Now there are only trees and wood.

There is no war or strife here in the city of life. The perils of the external world don't affect them here. There's food and protection. The giants are happy and happy giants are good sources of faith.

Any sort of emotion directed towards a god can be used as faith. It can be love, worship, hate, or fear. It can be anything but happiness, gratefulness, and worship are the best. The reason gods don't try everything to make their believers happy is so that little things will still be able to induce the feeling of gratefulness in the believers.

If a god makes their believers happy all the time, they have to keep doing more and more to keep them happy. The believers will get used to the good thing that a god does and take them for granted. Only something scarce is precious and treated with the uttermost care.

It is not sustainable for a god hoping to maximize their efficiency and profits to solve all their believer's problems. The trick to being a god that believers need is to never remove the needs of your believers. They will worship you as long as they need you.

Of course, you can always create more needs when your believers run out of them. That's what evil gods are for. Calamity, famines, drought, and diseases create needs. Then there's a good old fashion war. It is what a lot of gods use. They make themselves available to mortals during their time of need and acquire believers. It is what the tree father did but Legion is not stopping there. They have eliminated the other gods and removed every competition.

Now, the religion of life is the only alternative. It won't remain like that forever. Some more gods will rise up soon. These trying times are ripe for the creation of new gods. There's enough need and desperation to go around. The god of life won't attack them outright as the former Celestial Supreme did. Instead, he will use demons to destroy budding churches.

Some demons will remain in Zargoth plane even after Aeternus leaves the plane. They will be a constant threat to giants which will keep them in need of protection and the demons will be used to suppress new gods. His legions will follow him when he leaves the plane but he will leave behind officers that will induct new demons from the abyss into the enterprise of harassing the Giants of order.