Only God

"This is the retribution for the sacrifice..."

Hiris whispered painfully to himself.

The Father of the Gods had once forbidden mortals to offer sacrifices, so the True Religion never practiced sacrifice, but the Gods had no such requirement.

On the contrary, not only did the Gods have no requirement for it, but when they saw mortals offering their most precious possessions, paying the price of blood for worship, and willingly giving up their blood-related family members for sacrifice, they would be pleased.

Even though the offerings of mortals were meaningless to the vast majority of the Divine.

Yet the act of sacrifice could bring immense satisfaction to the Divine.

Look, my people are willing to dedicate the most valuable things to me!

How could they not be moved by this?

The mortals on the ground watched as the last sacrifice was pushed into the fire, the flames burning fiercely, almost reaching the sky.

The mortals cheered, prayed, praised, and they extolled the Gods, worshiped the Divine Statues without a moment's pause, yet after the sacrifices, the Gods remained silent.

Among the jostling Divine Statues, utter silence reigned.

.........…

Hiris stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

The empty room, the shallow lake's surface, the swaying aquatic plants... the familiar yet eerie scene reappeared before his eyes.

The craftsman gasped for air, reached out his hand to touch his body and after finding himself unharmed, he exhaled in a daze.

"What... what just happened?"

Hiris murmured.

"We've… come back?"

Utus said in disbelief.

Everything that just happened felt so real.

Three Divine were offered as sacrifices to the silent Divine Statues.

At this moment, Laren was still gasping for air with a pale face. When he came to his senses, he cursed the folly of those mortals,

"What are they doing? They want to sacrifice the Divine, ignorant fools!"

Having narrowly escaped death, Laren seemed extremely agitated,

"They dare sacrifice us today, what would happen when the Path of the God spreads across the world?

This cannot happen, Xilan must die!"

Hiris frowned, looked at Laren, and slowly said,

"Perhaps the Father is telling us through this, this is the retribution for our actions.

We so lightly regard mortals, if one day we also become mortal, could we be sacrificed by our own believers?

Just like in the past... when the Logos people killed an Angel."

Hiris's words did not change Laren's mind; Laren just sneered,

"We won't become mortals, we will always be Divine."

Hiris looked at Laren for a while and then spoke slowly,

"Not become mortals?

In this room, we are no longer Divine."

Hiris's words turned Laren's face pale as a sheet; the craftsman was right, in this strange room, they had been stripped of their Divine Power, and the connection with their own Stars severed. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been powerless during the sacrifice.

"This is only temporary, we are just temporarily reduced to mortals."

Laren said wiping away his cold sweat.

The air around was extremely humid.

Hiris ceased speaking with him and turned to Utus, as if he had something in mind, and persuaded,

"Utus, you hold such a strong belief in the survival of the fittest.

Then, what if just now, the Father truly wanted you dead?

Would you have willingly accepted that cup of poison? After all, survival of the fittest, and our Father is the greatest in heaven."

Utus's face turned an ashen gray upon hearing this; he tried to use his Divine Power, but after several attempts, realized he was utterly unable to.

Slowly, he retracted his hand and said,

"If He wanted me dead, then what grounds would I have to resist?

Naturally, He has the power to decide my fate, and I would comply.

It's unfortunate, though, that He did not do so, and I am still alive. As long as I live, I intend to do as I please."

Utus's words were resolute, yet Hiris detected a sliver of hesitation in his tone.

That hesitation was fleeting.

Utus pointed at Xilan, who knelt on the ground, and said,

"You can't persuade me, this mortal must die."

Hearing this, Hiris painful lowered his head, whispering prayers to his father, the craftsman.

After a while, the craftsman knelt down, touched the fluttering water grass, and murmured Scripture,

"'In adversity, disaster, and distress, we turned away from God and exhorted others not to commit evil deeds, to avoid harming the righteous.

For He said, 'The wages of sin is death.'

In days of catastrophe, God saved us. Yet, in times of peace, we killed the Angel.'"

Utus and Laren both remained silent, as if immersed in their recent recollections.

They stood in the dimness, silently watching the scene, the not-so-wide shallow lake appeared vast as the cosmos, the emptiness of the room filled with eerie silence.

The water grass drifted in the shallow lake, just like stars adrift in space.

Quiet, profound, peaceful, mysterious.

The swaying of the water grass, the trajectory of the stars, the minor ripples seemed like whispers of the universe.

After an unknown amount of time, Hiris slowly stood up from his half-kneel and said to the other two,

"Carry on."

"Carry on with what?"

Utus asked subconsciously,

"We're here, doing nothing, and there's nothing we can do."

They suddenly realized how the time, which used to pass in the blink of an eye, had become so unbearable.

Thus, the three of them lapsed into silence once more, none knew what to say, eyes fixed only on the ceaselessly flickering water grass, green trajectories sweeping past their field of vision, the shallow lake at their feet at times like a murky mirror, at times like a pane of clear glass.

Silence reigned among them, and they all fell into a trance, simultaneously wondering how they had never seen such a tranquil lake surface before.

After a time, Laren finally spoke up, breaking the silence.

"I will kill Xilan, I must kill him, for my beloved son.

I believe, our Father will understand me."

Hiris replied,

"Your beloved son is in the Netherworld.

You can see him whenever you want, just as I visit my Shanon.

To mortals who have to part from their loved ones forever, our plight is nothing.

Besides, hasn't your Shangla'er once killed your other children?"

Hiris's words struck a nerve, and Laren said absentmindedly,

"No, it's not the same, I must have my revenge."

The recent experience of being thrown into fire had not changed Laren's mind; instead, it solidified his determination to kill Xilan.

Then, Laren snapped back to reality and accused Hiris,

"Craftsman, you are too cowardly.

You keep persuading us not to kill Xilan, yet Xilan himself has said the Father will not hold a grudge against us.

You know very well, since Xilan said this, the Father surely won't hold a grudge against us, let alone seek revenge.

Yet you emphasize the weight of sin, again and again.

Tell me, is it sin if there's no punishment and retribution?

The reason you say this is not because you fear sin, but because you are cowardly, you submit to the Father, and dare not defy Him!

All the Divine know this, are aware of it!"

Laren's scolding came suddenly, like a hurricane rising from a calm sea, catching Hiris completely off guard.

The craftsman's sturdy body began to tremble, his lips tightly sealed, the color draining from his face. He stared at Laren but couldn't utter a word.

"I'm right, aren't I!

You are too weak and think we should be just like you,

for this, you scare us with Scripture! Intimidating us not to commit acts of blasphemy!"

Laren's reproach sounded harsh in the room, he advanced aggressively while he spoke, and Hiris could say nothing, the water grass beneath the shallow lake continued to be trampled, splashing water droplets that stirred one ripple after another.

From above, the shallow lake still appeared utterly calm.

On the first day,

among the three,

two were determined to kill Xilan.