GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

"What do you mean that's the way it has always been? Did you experience it yourself? Were you there when it happened? Stop spouting legends as facts."

"Then what do you want us to do? Should we give up on revenge because it seems impossible? Then the Executioner will get away with his crimes. The Emperor is our only hope."

Someone said with visible agitation, "Shut up your mouth. You said it seems impossible. That's an understatement. It is impossible. You want us to look for revenge through children's stories and fairy tales."

"Look at us." The agitated Alpha said with a yell. "We are not children anymore. We are adults and adults have to face reality. The reality of the situation is that we are weak and cannot do anything against the Executioner. It is a much better use of our time to rebuild than to chase after fairy tales."

It is a reasonable and rational argument not to base a decision on myths and legends. There are a lot of uncertainties concerning the plan to look for an Emperor. It is true that while they can't bring the Executioner to justice on their own, an Emperor should be able to. After all, according to the legends, the two are a pair and are usually of equal strength. But there are a lot of problems with that proposed solution.

An Emperor might not exist. If it does exist, there's no guarantee that they will find it. And so what if they find an Emperor? So what if they have equal strength with an Executor? So what that Emperors and Executioners are like fire and ice. So what if the Emperor and Executioner don't see face to face? What is the guarantee that this Emperor will help them?

Even being optimistic, this entire solution is based on fairy tales. They are not reliable and things might not work out even if they were. The whole thing might turn out to be a wild goose chase. Most importantly, revenge on the Executioner will not bring back what they have lost. Sauron and the rest are dead forever. 

But this logical argument didn't hold complete sway over the Alphas. It certainly didn't hold sway over Lamplad who was courting Tesrat and hoping to make her his mate. She was the first to bow to the Executioner and she was rewarded for her loyalty with being the first to die. He can't let it go at all. 

Unfortunately, Lamplad is not in charge of the pack. No one is. All the mana entities in the surroundings have been hunted by Xigger. So there is no pack leader yet. The Alphas have to vote and agree about something before a decision is made. 

This decision about what to do needs a major consensus for it to be decided upon by the coalition of Alphas. So the Alphas voted. They cast their vote by dropping sticks into two different piles that represent the two options. Then the sticks were counted.

The result was known even before it was counted. One pile is bigger than the other so the option that will win is clearly visible. Still, someone counted the sticks in the presence of everyone and announced the result.

"It has been decided upon through public vote that the Coalition of Alphas will stay here and rebuild our pack."

The decision was not contested. The majority has spoken so it will be so, for now. There was no argument and no fight broke out. But it caused a silent rift to appear among the Warrogs. It is a rift that might eventually tear the pack apart.

On one side are those who want revenge. Lamplad is understandably among them. He has two options. The first and the best one is to become a mana entity very quickly and take over the pack. He would be able to use his authority as the new pack leader to do as he wishes. He will be able to order the pack to seek the Emperor so that revenge will be visited on Ragnarok. The second option is to leave the pack on his own to find the Emperor. 

"I will try and become the pack leader first." He told himself. "I can always fall back on the second option if I fail to become an Alpha of Alphas and take over the pack."

The other side of the rift also knows about this glaring point. Their vote only counts until someone with enough authority arises from amidst them to render it invalid. So every Alpha tried their best in the coming days to break through. 

But breaking through to become a mana entity is not easy. The switch of the cells from using internally produced vitality for metabolism to using externally supplied mana is not so easy to achieve. It is extra difficult when they are not even aware that mana exists. 

The body is a stable system. Each part works together in harmony. They also resist external changes. The body does this to maintain the consistency of internal conditions. Not every condition is safe for the body. So the body fights against the changes of external influence. The body heats itself up in a cold environment or loses heat in a hot environment. 

Switching to using mana will lead to radical changes all around the body so the resistance of the body to mana is very high. Still, Lamplad tried. It is a race that he doesn't want to lose. He needs to become a pack leader if he wants to have revenge for the love of his life. Unfortunately for him, wishes are not horses. Someone else became a mana entity before him.

He knew he had failed when he heard the howl. It is a deep resonating howl that struck him and pulled at him. The new pack leader is calling the paragons to him. He can resist now by running away. The pack leader won't be able to chase all of them so soon.