Greed: All For What? - Chapter 1616: Mad And Desperate.
The Tyrants were quiet as they considered that suggestion. But the angry one became the voice of reason. It asked, “How did you know about the secret Taboo if you are not a spy?”
GREED asked in return, “How do I know about the one thing that is Taboo for the Tyrant race? Every demon god knows it. Or have you forgotten that they invaded your people and the land they dwell on? All the knowledge and secrets of your race have been laid bare to the world. Even though very few Tyrants know what the true Taboo entails, it is not difficult to ask around. I was smart enough to do that and come to you to suggest it.”
“And stop accusing me of being a spy already. You have nothing to hide, and you are losing here. It is not even close. You will definitely lose. What does the high heaven realm need a spy for when the outcome of this realm war is so clear to see? Besides, you have already determined to destroy my clone. It doesn’t matter if I am a spy or not. Just shut up and listen.”
The Supreme Tyrant actually sagged and wailed. It was crying and bawling its eyes out. It kept muttering, “Look at how low we have fallen. We don’t even deserve to be spied on.”
GREED sneered while the other Supreme Tyrants tried to console him.
It is a serious matter for a Tyrant to cry. They don’t usually cry at all. Not even death can make them cry. It is because they don’t feel pain. But this time, something seemed to have broken through the mental defenses of the Tyrant to make it cry. The other Tyrants didn’t make fun of it like they usually would. They were all sad, too.
GREED couldn’t take it anymore. It said, “Hello. I have places to be. Just kill me if we are done here.”
A Tyrant said, “The Taboo might not be a bad idea.”
Another Supreme Tyrant spoke. It said, “We must be mad to consider it.”
Someone interjected, “Or desperate.”
Another one added, “We are desperate and mad.”
GREED interrupted them, “Either way, you have no choice, and you must know it. You are failing to keep your realm intact. The reinforcements you are expecting are failing to break through the high heaven realm. More enemies are invading the realm by the day. You are losing, and you know it. Everyone knows it. This move will grant you victory, so you must do it.”
The Supreme Tyrant who was first angry and then sad, became angry again. It said, “That is enough from you. We don’t want to hear about our dire circumstances from you. We have not fallen so low as to want advice from a demon.”
GREED retorted, “And yet, here we are. It is not about what you want. It is about what you need. You need to hear me say it, and you need to perform the Taboo. Only when things have gone your way can you afford to get whatever you want.”
One of them asked GREED sternly, “Do you have anything more to say?”
The other Supreme Tyrants tightened their posture around the demon god, waiting for its
answer.
GREED replied confidently, as if it didn’t see their actions, “No. That is all I have to say.” The angry Supreme Tyrant said, “Good.”
And they attacked GREED together. GREED burned all its energy for one attack against a Supreme Tyrant. It managed to break through its defense and kill it with a single strike. It didn’t bother to try and use it as a node to infect the realm. It didn’t have any more energy to do that. For the first time, GREED was content with a single thing.
The death of this Supreme Tyrant was the first of its kind throughout the era of conquest. The other demon gods hadn’t been willing to sacrifice the energy required to kill them. They had been content with using energy to withstand their attacks rather than consuming a massive amount of it to kill a single Supreme Tyrant.
Who would have thought that the most miserly demon god would be the one to make the sacrifice to kill a Supreme Tyrant? It was out of place, and it certainly caught the Tyrants off guard. Most importantly, it reminded them that the option of the Taboo might not be their saving grace forever.
Maybe they thought they could always execute the Taboo any time they wanted. Maybe they were waiting to become more desperate before taking such drastic actions. But now, they have lost one of them.
The power they will gain from 99,999 Supreme Tyrants executing the Taboo will obviously be less than what they would have gained had they used 100,000. This power will continue to decrease as more of them die. Then the Taboo will become a desperate action that might not save them instead of being their saving grace and trump card.
So the death of the Supreme Tyrant put pressure on them to make a decision quickly. At the very least, they stopped being reckless with their lives. After all, they are not true immortals.
If not for their close affinity with the realm through their divine ability and the title that the realm granted them, they wouldn’t have the power of Supreme Origin gods. Now that their mortality has been exposed, they have to cherish their lives and their last cards more. GREED, on the other hand, had completed its mission. It had to sacrifice a clone, but it was already prepared for it. That’s why it didn’t care that Aeternus took half of the clone.
The half that Aeternus took could subdue a plane. So it was as large as CARNAGE’s clone that covered the whole Lumen plane. But GREED didn’t feel the pain. After all, it was going to lose everything after the meeting. If there is a detriment, it is that it didn’t manage to kill more than one Supreme Tyrant because of the energy it lost to Aeternus.
A/N: Bonus chapter for 1400 power stones voting goal.