"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WHAT IS THIS!?
"Oh, you like that do you!? That's the Symbol of Pain! The one I interlaced into your behavioral matrix to allow you to feel sensation!! On a "low" setting it allows you to experience the sensation of touch. But turned to its highest setting----"
"EVERY pain receptor in the human body simultaneously activated at once!! The worst physical pain that you can ever possibly imagine---
"More than that, however....the symbol of HOPE when the spell matrices are inverted and reversed...."
"Becomes a Symbol of DESPAIR!!"
"The absence of all Hope...endless physical pain...."
"Salim, no..."
"Indeed, Alpha. Beta, as of this moment---
"--is in the Telepathic equivalent of HELL!!"
"He wanted to know what it is to live as Men do!!? Well, now he does!! In eternal agony!! Eternal pain and fear!! The world, as we know it, is a layer of Hell. And Mortals are its devils"
"We live in constant fear of the Gods above us. Who, like Giants above a mound of ants, could crush us under their heel...even accidentally. We stare up at the skies each day in constant fear and prayer that they do not choose, today, to merely decide to bring the foot down upon us and finally end us like the insectile PESTS that we are compared to them."
"But what can we do? They are so big. So powerful. So influential. They possess so many resources and so much power. How could WE ever hope to compete with THEM? The thing is....somebody is now. Somebody, well...rather DEVILISH. You might say."
"Asmodeus realized something:
The Gods care nothing about us. But the gods NEED US. We're FUEL to them. We are their FOOD."
"The thing is: They feed off of us while we are still ALIVE. They suck the energy from our prayers like drinking Lamp Oil, and use it to fuel their powers. The more followers they have...the more "Fuel" they have for the metaphorical "Fire." The bigger and brighter they can shine."
"But Prayer is not the only way a God can drain power from people. They drain power from us in a multitude of ways. Build a boat: You give Gond power. Set something on fire for no reason other than to watch it burn? You grant Kossuth a SMALL amount of power, every time you do. That's the way DIvine Portfolios work. That's why Gods fight over them, constantly. And some of them, unfortunately, have to share them because they far too-often overlap."
"Asmodeus realized that the secret to being able to harvest mortal souls while they were alive would allow him to compete with the Gods, who gained their power through willing prayer. But that's why Free Will is so important.."
"...Damnation is a CHOICE. As is Salvation. You must CHOOSE whom you give your soul to. And every CHOICE that you make...chooses which God, due to their portfolio, that gets to siphons the power that comes from your choices and actions. Every action you take. Every decision you make...grants some god somewhere POWER. And if you grant one single god more power than any other...you belong to that God."
"People are like Coins. They are the currency of the cosmos. Bought, sold, traded. Whether we're talking about physical people in the form of slavery or indentured servitude..."
"...or whether we are talking about SOULS. In the end all we are, the only thing that truly are to the Gods above..."
"...is Merchandise. Machines that work for them...produce for them...slave for them...and provide THEM power...whilst WE suffer for their EGO!!!"
"The Gods, however...gain their powers from MAGIC. But SCIENCE has the power to combat Sorcery."
"Man first rose to power when a Titan took pity upon them and stole fire from the Gods, who were so far behind the Elves and the older Creator races, and bestowed it upon the curious little creatures who had only just stepped forth from their caves."
"Technology was the crux. The catalyst that caused the chain-reaction that vaulted Man to become the Apex Predators of their environment. It was through Man's adaptability and our understanding of being able to manipulate the environment around us to our own ends that allowed us, in essence, to conquer Nature rather than allowing Nature to conquer us. To develop Civilization."
"But as man was now safe behind their walls and in their precious "Civilization" they grew Greedy. And Fat. And Lazy. And so, so prideful. So full of belief that this wondrous world in which we live belongs solely to them and that our plane of existence is even remotely NEAR the ACTUAL center of Creation..."
"And, of course, safe behind their walls and protected from the predators of the outside world mortal beings did what all mortal beings do: They propagated. Endlessly. Our populations Swelled. Before we knew it the Human species had settled in every corner of the world, out-numbering and quickly displacing every other known species in their ever-constant expansion of civilization which must eternally grow to contain their swelling numbers."
"Which is exactly what the Gods want. They want Machines to build more Machines to build more Machines, each of which indoctrinated into their ideals, indoctrinated into giving them their belief and their faith. More fuel for the fire. And no matter how big their fire gets they need more. More. MORE!"
"Enough is ENOUGH, Alpha. Enough is ENOUGH. No more manipulation. No more slavery. No more indoctrination. No more victimization."
"No. More. GODS!!"
