GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

He shook her hand and exchanged pleasantries with her. All he wanted was to get a divine flesh, but he knew that he couldn’t rush matters if he was to get it from the lamp bearers.

She said, “This is not the first time we will be meeting. We met a long time ago in your village. I was part of the lamp bearers who came to save you. You might not remember me.”

He remembered her, but he didn’t say that or deny it because she might be able to sense his lie. So he changed the subject by introducing himself.

“I am Levi. I have no last name or surname because I don’t know who I was.”

She also introduced herself. “I am Captain Sheckel.”

The two of them had their seats, and he stated his purpose, “I have finished preparing my existence. I want to move to the next step and become a godclad.”

She said, “First of all, congratulations on your achievement. I know that it couldn’t have been easy for you to finish so early. You must have paid a high price in terms of money and willingness to endure pain. I admire that.”

“But I have to warn you. It is fine for you to stop here. You are currently at the threshold of the supernatural and the divine. The power you currently have can help you stand out among humans. You will be able to live a fine life with what you currently have.”

“While you will gain more power if you become a godclad, it will come at another cost. It is like the struggles you went through to prepare your existence, but far greater than that. You gathered a lot of money and bought the materials you needed to prepare your existence, yet you still experienced great pain and life-threatening hallucinations during the process.”

“Being a godclad will be like that but much worse. You will still have to pay a high price when you assimilate the divine flesh. The greatest cost you can pay is that you fail and are assimilated by the divine flesh.”

“This is a risk that will follow you every day for the rest of your life. And unlike preparing your existence, you won’t be able to give on being a godclad. You will always be at risk of mutating and losing your life.”

“Then there is the matter of changing in terms of physique and behavior. Even if the divine flesh doesn’t assimilate you, by assimilating it, you become one with it. You will gain power, but the divine flesh will also change you.”

“There is also the danger of being targeted for your divine flesh. A godclad rarely has an ally. As a member of the lamp bearers, you will have allies in us, but outside in the world, you will be surrounded by enemies.”

She spoke for a long time trying to dissuade him from becoming a godclad. She warned him about all the risks that she could think of.

The dangers she mentioned weren’t things that he didn’t know or hadn’t heard of before he came here. So her speech was a waste on him.

When she was done, he said with determination, “I am willing to brave any danger to acquire the power I need to acquire revenge on whatever caused my whole village to disappear and acquire the power to protect other villages from experiencing the same thing or at least avenge them if it happens.”

He didn’t lie with this statement. He didn’t say that he wanted revenge. All he said was that he wanted power and was willing to do anything for it. That was the truth.

She didn’t look disappointed when she heard what he said. Instead, she smiled even though he had refused her kindness.

Then she said, “In that case, I will be glad to help you become a godclad.”

She opened a drawer from her desk and took out a large book. She put the book on her desk and opened it wide. On it were some pictures and descriptions.

She introduced the book to him. “This here is a dossier of the pathways that we are capable of helping you use to ascend. The book contains a brief description of each pathway, including their weaknesses and strengths. Take a look at them for a while and then make a decision.”

She pushed the book to him. He took it and began flipping through it.

As he did, she talked about some important matters for him to know, “The organization of lamp bearers was established by the god of justice and was initially manned by only godclads of the pathway of justice. But that made our capabilities monotonous and similar.”

“We lacked variability and adaptability since we were all the same. Our enemies also knew our abilities so they could plan for our strengths and weaknesses. Our situation made it easy for us to be ambushed, so the god of justice ordered the organization to change.”

“This change was to accept godclads from other pathways. But these godclads have to be raised by us. They also have to swear the same oath to the god of justice. This gave us the versatility that we urgently needed.”

“This change is why I gave you that book to choose. In the past, your pathway would be set, and there was nothing you could do about it. But that isn’t the same today.”

Legion nodded in understanding and expressed his gratitude. He said, “Thank you for the great opportunity.”

She shook her head and said, “You should thank the God of Justice. It was through the guidance of his light that you were able to have this opportunity.”

He looked up to the sky and said, “I thank the god of justice.”

He doesn’t think the change is impressive. In fact, he thinks it is stupid that the lamp bearers had to wait for the god of justice to point it out for them before they realized the errors of their ways and made the appropriate changes..