Chapter 160: A God
"I placed that sugar cube on the counter of my kitchen, and one of the ants found it; then it brought its group back and together they all began to drag this cube." All of a sudden, the leader said as if she was speaking to herself.
"... " Clara just listened silently.
"People say hard work pays and the fruit of patience is always sweet, and look at these little ants, they are working so hard and have been so patient, dragging this thing over such a long distance.
But don't people also say one has no control over their fate, so what's the point of working so hard if the results are still uncertain?" The leader asked without raising her head.
"Uh... To increase the chances of winning, if we don't do anything and just wait for the result and just keep on thinking about it over and over, cursing everyone for not giving us this and that, then the result is obvious, only failure awaits us at the end of the road." Clara spoke after thinking for a moment.
"Hmmm You are right, but who is to say that winning is always the best outcome and losing is always the worst?
Just like now, if these ants didn't work so hard and gave up on that sugar cube then they could have lived but now that they worked so hard and succeeded, the results are going to be tragic."
The leader added, looking at the family of the ants.
There was even an ant in the group which was injured while bringing the cube, but instead of abandoning that ant, the others helped it to come back to the house.
"..." Clara didn't know what to say. If working hard and succeeding had no benefit, then what was one supposed to do? Just watch and see how their life changes over the course of time? But wouldn't that mean just giving up?
After a slightly longer silence, Clara spoke: "But are we just supposed to give up? If the result is going to be bad in either case, won't we just be living in mist thinking about that fruitful end result, just for it to end bitterly?"
"..." Instead of giving her the answer, the leader spoke:
"Aren't we just like these ants, running behind claiming wealth, gaining fame, gaining abilities, increasing our strength, clearing one Chasm after another.
6th Phase, 7th Phase, 8th Phase, working so hard, making sacrifices, mourning over losses and finally achieving our result.
But what if the being controlling all this just decided to end it? What's the point of having so much strength? Even 8th Phase of Evolution is meaningless. Nothing would matter—money, kinship, fame, strength—just nothing."
After speaking, the leader raised one of her hands towards the sky, as the sunny weather immediately began to change.
*RUMBLE*
First, black clouds appeared there out of nowhere and covered everything as electricity thundered madly.
All the people in a range of a few kilometers around her house were frightened shitless, wondering if the things that happened two days ago were going to repeat and more Chasms were going to appear.
They hastily hid in their houses and began to make calls to any of the awakeners they knew, while the ones without connection could only pray that no more disaster befall over them.
*BOOOOM*
The leader stood up straight with her right hand raised slightly, then she suddenly pointed her forefinger towards the ant colony, as a thin lightning bolt fell from the sky and hit exactly the sugar cube, killing all the ants in an instant and almost destroying the entire ant colony.
"..." Clara just stayed silent, though she had several questions in her mind, her gaze filled with coldness. She didn't pity those ants, those who were just working hard to gather food.
After she had awakened, she had killed countless creatures and humans. Her heart had long since become cold to such emotions.
When she is working in the hospital saving lives, it isn't because she feels sympathy towards them or wants to earn some good karma; it was just because of a promise she made to her dead brother.
After a few seconds of the lightning falling into the ground, the sky began to clear up. Most of the ants had died and a lot of them were injured; their house was almost destroyed.
At that moment, the queen ant came out and began to attack everything in sight, as if mad over the death of her family. Even the female insects were silently affected by the fog in the air.
"She is the strongest among them yet she could do nothing. What we need isn't a king or queen, we need a God.
A God who can challenge even that powerful being, a ruthless and powerful God. Even if we lose, then we won't just go down easily."
The leader spoke as she turned around and began to walk towards her house.
"Then do you mean that Maledict is a God?" Clara questioned from behind without moving.
"Of course not." The leader replied, as she opened the door and walked inside.
Clara stared at the ants for a few seconds. The queen had already started to collect the remaining members, and they were probably going to shift their house, starting once again.
Though not everyone gets second chances, if one has a goal and the clearance, then they should do everything towards achieving that. What's there to worry about then?
Either you succeed or fail, in either case, you would have gained something, and sometimes failure is much better than succeeding. What truly matters is the effort one puts into it.
Clara looked at her mobile and saw that there were less than two minutes left, so she hastily followed behind the leader and walked into the house. Inside, it was designed like the traditional houses of Japan.
From inside, no one would be able to guess that this house isn't in Japan; every detail was perfect, even the view from inside looked as if they had entered Japan.
"So you received some kind of message from Maledict?" The leader spoke while standing in front of the sliding door and looking inside at the woman who seemed to be sleeping inside.
It was the mother of the leader. Then she closed the door and walked towards the meeting room, while sending a text for all Shards to come for a meeting.
"Yes, he sent me a message saying that he is going to give us a call." Clara spoke after they had entered the room, then she gave her mobile to the leader.
Clara was dressed in her operation attire and didn't have the time to change. Then she just placed the mask over her face and stood beside the chair of the leader.
"Hmmm, as I expected, it'll take some time for the others to come here." The leader said. She was wearing a red Japanese kimono. She also placed the mask on her face.
...
Lucian looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time to make the call. Although he had threatened the Pendulum at that time, his plan was to just join and obtain some information.
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Thanks for reading...