GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

His Colossus soon reached the ant mound, marching forward to see to the glory of order and for the will of the Celestial Supreme to be done.

"This is it. Now I'll get to see what all this is about." He had said in anticipation.

His eyes were glued to the screen so he saw it happened. Unlike other gods he is using the barricade he set up as his influence to watch the event instead of a priest. The barricade is also very sensitive to changes so he was able to get more from it than using priests. There was a flash and the loud roar of an explosion. They seemed like one thing but the Celestial Supreme knows that they are three separate explosions happening one after the other really quickly so it looked like one prolonged explosion.

Helios expanded. His expansion heated the air and caused it to expand. That was the first explosion. It was mild but he caught it. Then Helios collapsed and discharged a plasma-like fluid into the area vacated by air and his body. The substance he ejected expanded from its fluid form into gas and ignited everything it came in contact with, including the Colossus. That was the second explosion.

The range of the second explosion was small. The substance expanded far faster than sound. It spread at the speed that heat travels. It might as well be pure heat. It formed a ball of yellowish plasma around the Colossus. There was no damage beyond the ball. But the damage the plasma produced within the ball created a reaction that led to another explosion.

This time the explosion is a mixture of plasma and air. It had a much farther range that covered the camp and the ant mound. It is what everyone saw and believed to have happened but he is more concerned about that plasma. It is much too powerful for a transcendent to wield.

That kind of thing should only be seen with Stelios and not Stelios' son that is 200 years old. That plasma-like energy would have rendered his carefulness mute. Helios would have been able to kill the two Colossi he wanted to send. He would have needed to send his best to the ant mound but he didn't expect that a simple ant mound will cause so many problems for him.

He asked himself, "Just where did he get this power?"

Something is twice as powerful if you don't know why it is powerful or its source of power. There are a lot of confusing things surrounding this situation that he can't even begin to guess. He can't guess the Stigmata or the Celestial power within it because where did Helios get that? Could it be that he is actually a Celestial but is hiding it? That will explain why he has Celestial divine energy and divine will within his Stigmata. It will also explain why he has that power. But that is not possible. Which leads him back to nothing.

He was finally able to see what the aftermath of the explosions is when the screen cleared. Helios is standing in the air above a large lake of lava. The Colossus is gone, and so is the camp of soldiers. The ant mound is also gone. None of them survived that explosion. In their place is a crater filling up with lava and a cloud of steam rising above it.

The Celestial Supreme had only one thing on his mind as he looked at Helios.

"Origin Energy." He muttered in shock.

His attention was fixed on the ant mound when he noticed someone pass his barrier. Another transcendent plant lifeform walked out of the ant mound and pass the barricade he put up.

The plant spirit waved at him through his divine vision but he wasn't concerned about that. What he was more concerned about is the green fire within the eyes of the plant. It indicated the presence of a god within that body. This means that the transcendent is also a vessel for the hidden god.

"Just how many does this god have?" He wondered.

He is wondering because that's the only thing he can do. He has already seen two transcendent vessels in this ant mound alone. For a god to have that much, he must have fervent believers who became transcendents and are willing to give up their freedom to their god. This isn't something that can happen overnight, it needs years and years of development. And yet, he has never heard of any hidden church or religion. It meant that this hidden god is hiding even more from him.

He shook his head warily. "This was a disaster. The only thing that came out of it is that the hidden god was in contact with the ant colony. That may be why Helios was released. We gave him up while they released him. They succeeded in turning him against us. All in all, it was a disaster."

He considers sending the Colossus a waste. He hasn't learned much from the death and the things that he learned are bad news. He already suspected that a plant spirit could be in touch with the ant queen since the other mama entities to become demigods have transcendent bodyguards. The Colossus just confirmed his suspicions.

The presence of the plant vessel explains how the hidden god was able to smuggle so much divinity without him noticing. The transcendent vessel absorbed the divinity and transferred it to the god. The god then transferred it to other vessels. The unraveling of that little mystery didn't make the Celestial Supreme happy. Because if it is true, then the hidden god must have a lot of vessels. Only a vessel has the necessary connection to a god to make the transfer of divinity

"Forget about that for a minute. Let me confirm what I sensed."

He decided to have a little chat with Helios and confirm if what he sensed his true. He would very much like to know where Helios got Origin energy from. He will not take no for an answer. He can't get hold of someone important working with the hidden god so Helios will have to do.