GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

What they had faced in battle and what he narrowly missed was not a man. It was inevitable death and destruction. It brought with it peaceful oblivion and reminded them that they were not truly immortal. If even he, the Godking felt fear, then what about the others.

Still, something had to be done about the origin god. It was out of his expectations that the first combatant they will face is someone of that level.

Usually, after the announcement to eliminate the path of Godhood is made by the racial council of a plane, the forces that will fight are at the transcendent level. Only when complications arise will stronger forces be sent to suppress the gods. But this time around, the racial council didn't announce anything but decided to catch them off guard with superior firepower.

"It seems the racial council wants to get rid of us quickly and at all cost." He lamented.

It was evident that they were not the only ones that came prepared. The gods prepared golems to help them fight in the main plane and the racial council prepared the apex of individual strength. That's one advantage of the racial council, high-level strength, and they are using it right from the start. The blessings of the gods don't have any attraction to those at the transcendent level and above, so they can't match the racial council in that aspect. But to send an Origin god right from the start showed how dedicated to their cause the racial council is and made him wonder about what they considered a trump card if an Origin god isn't one.

The racial council might be determined but so is he. He wasn't going to just lie down and be killed. He will fight back for his way.

"Nothing to panic over yet. We still have many cards to play. We are not out of options yet. The gods have yet to be outplayed." He repeated what he had said to the gods. He wasn't sure he believed it but he had to encourage himself somehow.

It was moments like this that he wished he had not suppressed the growth of other gods. A god can only grow to the level of a grand god with just faith and hard work. They will need to kill and absorb other grand gods with compatible domains to grow stronger and eventually become a celestial god.

The number of domains one will need to advance varies from god to god. He had killed the grand god of war and the grand god of weapons and assimilated their domains to evolve to the level of a celestial god. Some other gods will need just two while others will need even more. He was fortunate to be the first celestial god in the Virut pantheon and had used his power with the excuse of preventing chaos to suppress the growth of other grand gods. Now he isn't so sure that he is fortunate to be the first Celestial god.

It is true that wars between grand gods would have set the plane into turmoil because of divine wars. By suppressing the gods, he bought the gods time to prepare for war because the racial council would have cracked down on them if their war affected the main plane too much.

But the period of grace and preparation turned out to be inadequate after he chose to sacrifice his progress. He knew that he wouldn't be able to improve without the creation of another celestial god, but he was okay with it, until today. A new celestial god is an opportunity for him to grow stronger but it is also a threat to him. He had wanted to avoid the risk of losing the authority that came with being the supreme god of a Pantheon, now he wished there was another celestial god to bear the burden with him.

It is because he is the Godking that he cannot give up and accept defeat. The Godking of the pantheon can only be the strongest celestial god in a Pantheon, it comes with a lot of benefits and authority. It also comes with the responsibility of safeguarding the divine plane at all costs.

As he was ruminating on how to proceed with the war, he began to hear desperate pleas from his believers in the main plain. He focused on the source of the pleas and his field of view changed with the effort.

His vision descended to the location of the pleas and he was welcomed immediately with scenes of destruction. He had descended onto a statue of his within a church. The clergymen were praying and beseeching him.

He directed his attention toward their source of terror. A silent black hurricane was racing towards the city. The hurricane reached the skies and stood like a rotating pillar of destruction. It left nothing behind it, not even debris from the destruction. There was a large trench left behind by the hurricane. He noticed that the hurricane was getting faster and bigger the more it destroyed.

He knew what it was immediately. He could sense the aura of inevitable destruction from the hurricane, the same one he felt when the resistance forces were decimated like a child destroying a doll house.

The aura was broadcasted beyond the range of the hurricane and it caused the people in the streets to freeze even before it reached the city. These people had given up because they felt at an instinctual level that there was no use resisting. Their end was inevitable and there was no escaping it.

Only the people in the immediate vicinity of the temples could still move. This particular set of people chose to pray to their gods for help. That's why he was here.

The faces of the clergymen lit up when he descended. They were filled with joy and relief. They thought they would be safe from the imminent catastrophe. They would have been right if the opponent was someone or something else. He couldn't help them. In fact, he had to make sure his avatar wouldn't die here because he couldn't guarantee his own life if that were to happen.

The hurricane continued undeterred by his presence. It reached the city and there was no pause in its movement. It continued unabated and wiped out everything on its path to the temples. People died to it and properties crumbled just like the divine kingdom of the dead gods. It ran amok creating a path of desolation in its wake until it was finally stopped by something.

The protective barrier around his temple prevented the hurricane from going further, but it was straining to do so. Ode noticed the precarious situation and decided to empower the barrier himself. The barrier began to heal and strengthen, it seemed to have worked because the hurricane stopped making any progress.

The people on the temple grounds saw this and started to thank their god for saving their life. This sight made Ode shake his head. He knew the fight wasn't over. For some reason, the hurricane only had the power of a titan of law, ridiculously lower than what it had used in the earlier battle. And yet he had needed to raise the durability of the shield to the sovereign level to stop the hurricane. The power was lower but the potency of the destructive energy contained within was still high.

Ode knew it was a temporary fix but there was nothing he could safely do. There were other options but he was content with staying within the barrier. He doesn't want to risk coming in contact with the destructive energy.

"Tsk. Who dares to stand in the way of I, Guntu, the eye of destruction. Soon to be named the hero of the people." An angry voice came out from within the hurricane. The people behind the shield were shocked by the fact that the hurricane could talk.

"Of course, it can talk. It is a sentient entity." Ode thought to himself.

They simply thought it was a natural disaster or a calamity. In a way, they are right, but they are also wrong in so many ways.

They didn't even realize that they would have died right now had they been outside the barrier. That voice alone will damage anything that hears it. Most of the damage to the troops at the border was caused by the voice. It is the sound of the beckoning of destruction.

As it is right now, it has wiped out every living thing in the city and it didn't spare the non-living things either. Just like that, the capital city of the divine alliance disappeared from the world. Only the shielded temple remained and not for long if the force of destruction within the hurricane decides not to let up. And by the looks of things, the hurricane wouldn't be content until this last bastion is also removed.