Said the traveler, "Courage may be destroyed, but it cannot be taken from us. If anyone has true Courage, they will resist unto death rather than surrender it."
Said the old man, "This too is partially true. Take away Hope, Wisdom, and Intelligence, and Courage will only laugh and plunge back into disaster. The one that walks will be destroyed, true, but Courage will not fail. The way to take Courage is not by taking the others, but by defiling them, by Corruption."
"Corrupt a person's Hope. They will not sink to their knees and die, but will be so sure in their victory that they will see no reason to continue. Courage will quickly atrophy in disuse. Then, it will fail and be yours."
"Corrupt a person's Wisdom. They will put their faith in the wrong road and walk in your way with much strength. Then, their Courage will be yours."
"Corrupt a person's Intelligence. They will soon 'know' that there is no Hope, 'know' that all Wisdom is empty, and they will 'know' that Courage should be surrendered to you."
"Thus, one can have Courage, Hope, Wisdom, and Intelligence, but still come to ruin."
Said the traveler, "Corruption? I have never heard of this; no, not in a single one of the holy books!"
Said the old man, "That is because holy books are not written by those who are familiar with the power of Corruption."
Said the traveler, "If such a thing exists, then all of these holy books are useless. If they do not warn us against evil, how will we guard against it?"
So saying, he ran into the forest and threw his book onto the ground of a clearing. Through the break in the trees, he could see the gates of his home city.
AN: So I've been reading the Koran lately. The phrase 'gaurd against evil' comes up about 10,000,000 times in it. And now it's here, in a philosophical thingie about NiGHTS. Thismodern age sure is amazing.