Only God

A merciless wind blew over the ruined village.

The wooden houses caught fire, and the pitiful whinnying of wild horses drifted across the fields, as wooden pillars flickered with blinding flames.

There was no doubt; the village was destroyed.

It seemed a minor sin among Shangla'er's numerous crimes.

He had persecuted and tortured many, including nobles, priests, and monks; how could a trivial village escape his evil grasp?

But Laren stared in agony, running over and desperately trying to extinguish the relentless flames on the wild horse, shouting a name:

"Boro! Boro!"

Utus looked at Laren, puzzled,

"Boro? What is that?"

Hiris pointed at the wild horse and said:

"Laren's son."

Utus exclaimed in surprise:

"A horse?"

Hiris sighed and explained:

"Utus, you are unaware.

Boro was Laren's son, but they never got along because he felt his father married another woman, betraying his mother.

They argued many times, yet neither could persuade the other, leading to estrangement, as if they were strangers.

Later, Laren had another child, Shangla'er, with a different woman. On the day of his birth, he sent invitations to all his living children to welcome his brother, but Boro didn't come and returned a harshly worded letter.

This caused a rift between Laren and Boro, distancing them even more."

By this time, Laren had extinguished the great fire on the wild horse.

Hiris pointed at the burning wooden houses:

"This is Shangla'er's sin.

That vengeful demigod had received most of Laren's power. After learning about this, he turned Boro into a wild horse in his father's name.

But Boro neither cried nor pleaded; he was unyielding and refused to apologize, even choosing to live as a wild horse instead.

In the end, Shangla'er set his own house on fire, burning him alive.

And all of this was done in the name of his father, Laren."

Hiris's voice held a hint of sadness; as a craftsman, he had forged divine weapons for numerous divine beings. Many could not afford the cost of divine artifacts and paid with secrets they knew.

Hiris had learned of Boro's death from a divine being close to Laren.

Utus looked at the scene before him: Laren knelt on the ground, cradling the charred skull and continuously weeping, while the wild horse in his arms barely clung to life and would soon permanently depart from this world.

"What about Shangla'er? What happened to him..."

Before Utus could finish, Hiris spoke up:

"Are you asking about revenge? Or punishment?

No, neither.

One side was a long-alienated son, and the other a beloved younger child. The former is dead; the latter still lives.

So,

Laren remained silent on Boro's death.

Or perhaps,

he thought Boro had long deserved to die."

The last sentence was chilling.

Even Utus shuddered.

Not far away, as if having heard this, Laren dropped the wild horse from his embrace and roared angrily at Hiris:

"Why do you conjecture about me?!"

Ashes floated in mid-air, and the wooden house continued to burn. Hiris slowly responded,

"Shangla'er, he did it in your name."

That statement, like a chilling thunderbolt, knocked Laren to the ground, eliciting a beast-like howl. Powerlessly, he clawed at the dirt and stones on the ground and hurled them at Hiris while bellowing at him to shut up.

But Hiris continued,

"What are you avoiding? Isn't that what you did?

When Shangla'er came to you in panic, what did you say?

He told you, 'Father God, Boro insulted you, so I killed him.'

You remained silent, you said nothing. In front of him, you nodded your head and waved him away."

The faint panting of wild horses still echoed in his ears. Laren neither denied nor confirmed Hiris's words but shouted angrily,

"Who told you, who exactly told you?!

I will kill him, I will kill him!"

Laren was thoroughly stung, roaring with the flames blazing behind him.

By then, the wild horse's head had completely fallen to the ground; it was dead.

Laren realized something, his eyes widened, and he suddenly turned around screaming "Boro" as he pounced again, but no matter how much he shouted, the wild horse's corpse continued to stiffly harden.

With the death of this wild horse,

the scene before the three of them gradually began to crumble.

....................

All three of them once again returned to the blank, dimly lit room.

This time, Laren seemed unable to recover from the scene he had just witnessed; he collapsed to the ground, his knees pressing down on a large swathe of water grass.

Hiris and Utus silently watched him; neither of them said anything.

After a while, Laren seemed to finally catch his breath; he violently stood up and lunged at Hiris.

"Damn thing!"

Laren screamed his curses while grasping Hiris's neck.

Hiris struggled, punching Laren's back as they wrestled together, both falling onto the tranquil shallow lake with swathes of bitter grass rippling with the waves.

Once Divine beings of the Celestial Kingdom, endowed with infinite strength, they now fought like mere mortals, kicking and punching on the water grass.

"You deserve to die!"

Laren cursed, hammering a fist into Hiris's face.

Hiris frowned deeply, suddenly slapping Laren on the face hard enough to draw blood,

"Why do I deserve to die?

I didn't do anything; I merely spoke the truth!"

Laren's face turned red, his neck stiffening as he retorted,

"It's all conjecture, all conjecture!

What right do you have to lecture me? You phony shepherd, fake prophet!"

Hiris, using his body weight, pinned Laren down in the shallow lake, throwing several punches to Laren's chest and abdomen, shouting,

"Recognize yourself!"

Without their Divine Powers, naturally, it was Hiris—constantly honed—who was physically stronger.

Laren, swelling with a bruised face, roared defiantly, desperately pounding Hiris's head, and kept shouting,

"You coward! You are always a coward! What right do you have to make me recognize myself?!

You recite Scripture, pretend to be humble, but you're actually just weak, a little wretch who can only cry silently!"

Hiris's neck veins bulged as he seized Laren's hand, firmly pinning him down, and barked fiercely:

"I have recognized my own cowardice!"

With that roar, the room seemed to quiet down again.

Laren's injured face was submerged in the waterweeds, silently, as if he had been frightened into silence.

Moments later, Hiris let go of Laren and slowly rose from the lake water.

Laren, gasping for breath and beaten up, tried to stand up but lacked the strength and had to remain sitting.

"You repeatedly talk of revenge and hatred, but when Shangla'er killed your Boro, why didn't you seek vengeance for Boro?

As I said before, you thought he deserved to die, you accepted what Shangla'er said."

Hiris spoke.

"No!"

Laren initially wanted to scream this,

but as the words reached his lips, they unexpectedly changed,

"Yes!"

As the words fell, Laren frantically covered his mouth.

Panicking, he said:

"That's...that's not what I meant to say..."

Hiris turned his head, looking at him with pity,

"Indeed, that is not what you want to say,

But, is what you want to say necessarily the truth?"

Standing in this room,

unable to lie, unable to be fake,

it's as if,

a person stands before God, with nowhere to hide.

Hiris couldn't help thinking,

The three of them were brought here by God, showing their mortal forms, was it to kill Xilan or to face judgement?

The always tranquil shallow lake, like the silently watching God, the waterweeds swaying like angels above the Cloud Sea.

"Recognize yourself, Laren!

You are not seeking vengeance for Shangla'er at all!

You are doing this for yourself!

Because a mortal killed your son, mocked you, and offended your dignity."

Laren listened to all this in pain and with a ferocious expression, he roared like a wild beast:

"No! No! No!"

He intended to say this, but as the words reached his lips, they changed again:

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Stripped of their divine guises, above this shallow lake, there remained only a struggling soul.

Laren broke down, no longer wanting to speak, and began to sob uncontrollably as he lay down in the ever-peaceful lake.

Hiris knelt down facing Xilan and whispered:

"'I have established the Heavenly Kingdom,

All who receive my spirit will come here upon death.'

'I will set the Law in the Heavenly Kingdom, on my holy mountain.'"

As he recited these scriptures, with the waterweeds rippling, Hiris knelt, Laren continued sobbing, and Utus, who just now they had struggled against, suddenly knelt down.

"You have all been subdued, you have all seen yourselves."

Utus said tremulously,

"You all didn't want to recognize yourselves, but now?"

Hiris and Laren turned their heads, seeing Utus, who advocated power, trembling in hysteria.

"This is the law of the survival of the fittest!"

Utus cried out:

"All of you have been subdued by the Father, how could I possibly not be subdued by Him?

You were all hypocrites saying one thing but believing another! Now you have recognized yourselves!"

Utus fell into the lake as if he had lost sanity,

"Before, I wanted to destroy the Divine Path created by God, thinking that mortals, by this power, would break the law of survival of the fittest.

But, the Divine Path is His creation!

He far surpasses us, naturally controlling everything, He does whatever He wants!

Thus, whatever He does,

I must obey Him, I originally ought to obey Him,

Though we are divine, He is the origin of everything, the King of Kings!"

Utus initially wanted to destroy the Divine Path since, as divine beings, they should have mortals under their control, and the emergence of Divine Path would break this rule.

But what does it really mean to seal the Divine Path—destroy a miracle created by the supreme being?

Wouldn't that be just like the fearful mortals who despise witchcraft, acting out of self-interest against a stronger existence?

At this moment, Utus pointing at Xilan, who was still kneeling, shouted:

"If I destroyed it, it would be tantically akin to destroying myself, my own principles!"

This scene was like a fervent believer confessing, declaring.

Utus had given up on killing Xilan, lacking both the courage to kill him and the power to destroy the miracle.

Hiris nodded slightly, showing neither joy nor sorrow, as in this room, everyone would come to recognize themselves.

Laren staggered to his feet,

"Shameful betrayal! Shameful betrayal!"

He pointed at Utus, angrily saying:

"You've become a traitor, betraying the Gods!"

Utus looked up and said:

"I haven't betrayed myself!"

Laren laughed ferociously:

"So what? Compared to the Gods, what are you worth?"

Laughing, Laren seemed to exhaust his strength and slowly slid down towards the lake water.

Hiris then asked:

"Laren, what about you?

Do you still want to kill Xilan?"

Laren slid into the waterweeds like an empty shell, a groan-like voice came over the water,

"I...

I don't know..."

On this third day,

Among the three, both Hiris and Utus were unwilling to kill Xilan.

Only Laren remained,

painfully wavering between "yes" and "no."