Mitigated Threat

As Theef checked the aspects of the coin, he felt a familiar resonance between it and his tendrils.

"Oh ho ho! You didn't hold back did you!"

Theef immediately scarfed the coin through one of the tendrils.

"If the end has come, so be it. If not, then I guess I could settle my debt with you squared."

"No debts between buds. You just got yourself a five-finger discount on anything your greed can manage."

The kneeling ruler smiled, "That sounds despicable."

His message wasn't positive in the slightest.

"Just let me do the shopping from now on. Steal from those who don't deserve what they have."

Despite the oncoming disaster that was Void, the two were still having a moment while huddled together like two cowering chickens.

At this time, the monster child was scrambling its way over happily with a smile that would make even the toughest of men scared.

"Are you not going to engage," the pauper still smiled.

"Just give me a moment. I'm coming up with a plan."

"Why do you still plan in the face of death," the pauper asked from his golden flooring.

"Because I ain't dead yet."

"But you will be soon," he questioned Theef's logic.

"Not if my plan works," Theef stood up, legs still shaking like crazy.

"And your plan is?"

Theef simply bellowed, "WAKE UP! NULL! SAVE US!!!"

The pauper was dumbfounded, but he still smiled in amusement.

"That's not a plan at all. Haha!" 

The pauper broke his kneeling stance in a fit of laughter.

"Well, I don't see you helping!" Theef snapped back.

"I'm just taking a page out of your book. You had a scarier look than this cute little thing when you had that craze in your eyes."

'That little monster is cute?!'

Theef was perplexed but relaxed a bit due to the release of tension.

What the pauper had said reminded him of his days on Null's home planet.

...

It was just after the conclusion of the fight between Null and the Creator.

"Stop making that face," Theef spat at the sight of Null's current expression.

"The look you had when we first met was stronger. Whatever you were feeling at the time made you stronger and showed your purpose in life. You've got to remember those emotions to overcome anything that comes your way when achieving said purpose."

...

"Ain't that a bitch?"

Theef couldn't stand hypocrisy; he felt if you didn't stand by your words, you should simply shut it.

"You got some nerve trying to take after me y'know. I have a tendency to put myself in the worst situations."

"Something tells me you don't truly feel that way. Go ahead and get to it anyway," said the pauper.

"Yeah, yeah. Time to get serious," Theef was full chimera as a golden light enveloped him.

Instead of the usual golden-trimmed makeover, the light in Theef's eyes intensified to the point his face was hidden.

When the light had finally dissipated, it was revealed that Theef now wore half of a golden mask.

It's every detail could not be gleamed from how shiny it was, but from what could be seen the mask must have been crafted by a master.

At the sight of such majesty, the pauper was stunned.

Never before had he seen such splendorous sight compacted into such a refined piece of art.

The construct of the mask fit perfectly to his face so much so that it moved with Theef's face.

The pauper could not tell where the mask ended nor began; it was like there was a thin layer of golden skin growing off of Theef's face.

"That's it! Show me more of my greed's splendor!"

Theef grinned in response, "I'm just getting started."

"Hey Null, I know you're in there fighting for us right now but be at ease."

He was no longer frightened by the child and all of its atrociousness; what the pauper gave him changed his views.

What he didn't know was that there was a little something extra involved that came into play.

He couldn't hear it, but Null was speaking to him, or maybe it was someone else, but that didn't matter.

"I heed your call dear friend. So, for that which seeks to silence your voice I do hereby declare that you heed his message all the same."

Theef stretched his finger to the too close for comfort void hands reaching towards him, attempting to steal his gifted greed.

Try as they might, it seemed as if the golden mask was truly being affected in some way as it moved across Theef's body in a peculiar manner.

All the way from his face down to his neck, around his shoulder, across the arm, over the wrist did it seem to get pulled.

What was once a golden mask was now a golden claw.

And just as it was about to touch the pervasive void in front of it, the claw shone intensely and vibrated with a strong sense of weight.

The golden claw grew heavier and heavier as it remained upheld by relying on nothing but itself to carry it.

Theef would have already been separated from the claw had it not been for that fact because of the terrifying reality that lie behind the power.

Each vibration was equivalent to the respective added weight behind what was to unfold from the release of the force.

When the vibration finally ceased, both Theef and the pauper could feel it.

The weight behind the Ruler's greed.

The only one unaware of the next inevitable courses of action was the giddy baby looking for a quick bite.

But it was too late for the walking baby to learn to run.

"Stop."

Ting-a-ling!

Like the sound of a golden chime, the weight of the claw echoed beyond its form and was transmitted through sound waves that only Void could hear.

And like that, he could no longer move despite his defiant wriggling that made him look like a sort of parasite.

'Just a bit more and I can feel full. This puny force can't hold me.'

Void spoke the truth; the weight of Theef's greed could not hold a candle to his own, but the Ruler's greed operated on a different scale.

Because Theef was risking his life for the pauper, he could in turn utilize the pauper's greed as well.

This caused a sort of error in the matrix of things.

If Theef could utilize the pauper's greed and the pauper's greed was actually Ruler's greed, then what Theef could actually utilize was also Null's own greed.

To explain, let me take you back to the present timeline of the ongoing event.

Who am I you ask?

You already know the answer dummy.

Like I said, move it to the next chapter already!