The thorn vines appeared through the holes in the tunnel like water spilling through faults in a container. They then came together and combined to form an enormous plant dragon.
The dragon is made with green thorny vines all layered and meshed together to form the shape of the dragon. The dragon might be made of plants but it is still large. Its entire body filled the tunnel like a wall of power. It stood with equal height as the 100-meter-tall avatar of the Celestial Supreme in a tunnel still larger than them both.
The Celestial Supreme became shocked.
"You're a plant?" He asked incredulously.
Of all the races that he could have suspected of achieving transcendence without his knowledge, plants did not and cannot come to his mind. It just seems absurd on the face of it. Zargoth plane is not a plane conducive to plants. Plants were the first to die out when giants of order started to rise. That led to the death of other races and then the giants of order killed the resilient ones.
And yet, here is a plant transcendent. It has somehow survived as an ordinary plant without water. It grew and somehow became capable of using mana in a plane without mana. Then it subsisted on this unavailable mana for many years to finally become a transcendent. It cannot be overemphasized how absurd and ridiculous it is.
"My my, I am flattered. The Celestial Supreme is so shocked by my power that he is speechless." The plant dragon spoke in a rumbling voice that is stressing the tunnels and threatened to make them collapse. The dragon held its head high with pride beyond what should be shown in front of the Celestial Supreme of the plane.
"It was good that I came here. Now I know that you're working for the goddess of agriculture. She must be the one behind all of this."
The Celestial Supreme tried to wrap his mind around how a plant happened to become a transcendent and the only solution that came to his mind is the goddess of agriculture. A plant cannot become a transcendent in the Zargoth plane without assistance and that is a fact. The goddess of agriculture is the only god that he knows that works with plants. She is the one betraying him and working with the hidden god to undermine his order.
"Why can't I have become a transcendent on my own? Why must a god be the one to allow me to exist?" The dragon asked.
It seemed offended by the notion that its strength is not attributed to its effort.
"Is a god not supporting you? You can't expect me to believe otherwise."
The dragon turned silent for a while before it answered. "You're right. A god is supporting me but it isn't the god of agriculture."
"I see what you're doing. You are trying to misdirect me by telling me something that is true while saying another thing that is false. As if I'll believe anything you say."
The dragon chuckled. "Nothing gets past you oh great and powerful dictator of the Zargoth plane."
He snapped at it. "Don't call me that."
The dragon rolled its eyes and asked, "Then what is your name?"
"I am the one, true God. The only true God in all of the plane. I am not the king of gods but the only true God. I am a Celestial and since I am the only one, I am the Celestial Supreme. You must call me the Celestial Supreme and only that." He ranted at the dragon as if scolding it.
It listened attentively as he spoke, nodding its head occasionally. Then it asked after he was done. "I am sure you were not named the "Celestial Supreme" from birth. So what were you named? Come to think of it, nothing is known about your life as a mortal. You can't make me believe you were born as a god."
The Celestial Supreme's outburst didn't affect the plant dragon at all. It has a mission to do and it will do it regardless of his anger. It's not like the Celestial Supreme can do anything to it.
The Celestial Supreme calmed down and regained his composure. He snorted before replying "You can believe whatever you want. It doesn't change that my name is the Celestial Supreme."
"Okay, so it is Celestial Supreme. I am SWIFTESCAPE the mighty. You can call me The Mighty if you like. I find that name resonates more with me. I, The Mighty, have a message from my even mightier god."
The dragon held its head high and spoke with pride. Then it stopped after its introduction to let the consequence of its sentence sink in.
Except its audience isn't impressed. The Celestial Supreme said impatiently, "Get on with it already."
"Why can't you allow the creation of other gods?"
"I'll tell you why. It is also why I came here. There are three commandments and 10 rules of the church of order and justice. The first commandment is to obey all rules. The second is that the best number for anything is 1 and 0. The third command is that if acquiring the best number is impossible or will disrupt order, then the current situation must be kept constant."
"There can only be 1 true God. There can only be 1 race as gods. The number of gods must be kept constant at 101. Since I am the only true god and I am in control of the divine realm, I am the Celestial Supreme, and as such, my will must be done."
The dragon spoke. "Order must be maintained. But it is your order. Why not make things easier for us by allowing another god? All of this can end if you are willing to allow another god from another race. Just one."
"Never." The Celestial Supreme yelled. "I'll never allow it."
He will never allow it. He can't even picture it without becoming angry. He would have to die first before he allows such a thing to happen.