Chapter 715 - 255 God Says Forty Days

Chapter 715: Chapter 255 God Says Forty Days

Far from the core of Egypt lay an old pastureland.

Under the eternal darkness, a long serpent formed by torches wriggled slowly across the earth.

Occasionally, a torch would suddenly extinguish, causing a small commotion, but soon everything would calm down again.

On a clearing several hundred meters away from the ‘serpent,’ a small storm raged around. Meanwhile, in another place over a kilometer away, hail rained from the sky.

The entire world seemed like a game with a malfunctioning program, where the simulated climate codes were riddled with loopholes.

In such a situation, unless it was torn down and started anew, one feared no one could restore it to its original state. However difficult the circumstances, on the broken earth of the mortal realm, all spirits were still striving to survive.

Black cats hunted in the night, while jackals hid in the darkness to launch sneak attacks.

Without light, the group couldn’t move forward, couldn’t stay together; with light, it attracted moths to the flame, continuously rushing towards hope.

Death and chaos were inevitable. In just a few months, the highly adaptable humans had become accustomed to this situation.

They found ways to survive, much like those who survived through the wilderness in ancient times.

“…”

“Prophet, according to your guidance, we are almost there.”

“For the road ahead… what should we do?”

At the near-head position of the group, a torchlight moved from the front to the back.

Before long, Aaron saw one of the leaders he had appointed.

The migrating group was still too long; even after casualties, the remaining people were still numerous. Under such circumstances, he couldn’t oversee everything alone, so these leaders came into being out of necessity.

Fortunately, Aaron’s authority in the group remained. Even though Messe was dead and there was no deterrence of strength, they were still willing to follow Aaron’s leadership.

The more desperate people were, the more they craved hope; the more powerless, the more they pinned their hopes on the deity.

The Sun had died, and Egypt’s millennia-old faith had been shattered. In such desperation, they had no other choice.

Aaron had personally witnessed many people initially choosing out of helplessness and finally becoming devout believers. God’s salvation was their only light in the darkness, even knowing that it might just be an environmental inevitability, yet they still refused to let go.

Hmm… if he pondered carefully, Aaron himself wasn’t much different.

“Let’s wait and see. I will personally take Messe and ascend the mountain. You all wait at the foot of the mountain, lest you offend the Almighty God.”

“Don’t worry, Messe once received divine revelation here, accepting instructions in the flame. Though he was killed by the treacherous Pharaoh, God still favored him.”

From the journey’s beginning, when the Sun had not yet extinguished, the Egyptian pursuers gave the Hebrews yet another hardship.

Until the descent of this eternal darkness, the pursuit finally ended.

“The Sun is extinguished; that was the principal god of the Egyptians, the Ra god who overlooked the heavens in their eyes.”

Taking a deep breath, Aaron noticed many people around him looking at him.

Facing their eyes full of expectation, as in every previous time, Aaron said loudly, “This is divine retribution!”

“God cast punishment upon the foreign nations, giving their gods and people suffering. He is the protector of the Hebrews; he will make the violators suffer the retribution they deserve!”

“Forward!”

“In God’s watchful gaze, the devout shall be redeemed.”

Regardless of belief or disbelief, at this moment, the crowd around Aaron was indeed inspired.

Or rather, they genuinely hoped from deep within that all this was true.

…

Endless darkness, endless silence.

Bia had reached it before Aaron; when his life ended at Pharaoh’s sword, Messe arrived at this seemingly isolated space.

He didn’t know where this was, whether it was the world after death or a gap between life and death.

But in the darkness, Messe could vaguely perceive some information from the outside world.

He watched his body being lifted onto a wooden frame yet neither decayed nor corrupted; he saw Aaron leading the Hebrews all the way south, heading towards Midian.

He saw the Egyptian pursuers and also the extinguished Sun. But he could only watch quietly, being a witness to everything that happened.

In this state, Messe clearly felt the strength he once commanded. It was a power beyond the mortal world, able to easily solve all the problems Aaron encountered. But for some reason, there seemed to be a shackle separating him from the strength he was once intimately connected with, preventing him from reaching it.

“Is this what I have given up?”

Even though no one explained it to him, an unprovoked epiphany arose within Messe.

“You will give up the future, give up eternal life, give up everything you possess, and endure the catastrophe brought by their god with your kin. Those who do not believe in me will all die, and the devout will also suffer calamity.”

This was originally his glory and right. If he had followed God’s will, merely acting as God’s envoy, and not the prophet of the Hebrews, then all of this would have belonged to him.

But he voluntarily relinquished these, returning them to God; now that he was dead, it was natural for these to be taken back.

Hence, from the moment he lost his life, his first covenant with God was fulfilled.

God extinguished Egypt’s nine pillars and ensured the Hebrews remained in the world.

He fulfilled his promise—”Those on earth will be punished by the earth; those in heaven will be punished by heaven. Whatever they inflicted on you shall be repaid unto them and their gods.”—and now, it was naturally Messe’s turn to fulfill his promise.

However, despite realizing all this, Messe became even more anxious and apprehensive. Because besides these, he also remembered God’s final words.

“This world does not belong to you, so you must go to the place that belongs to you. You must leave here, to the ends of the sea.”

Previously, he always thought this was a simple matter.

As long as they escaped the Egyptian gods, escaped Pharaoh’s pursuit, with the power God had given him, this journey could easily be completed.

So even though God didn’t promise, “You shall return to your origin, to the place I promised you,” Messe still believed it wasn’t an issue.

Until now, he was killed.

Who killed him wasn’t a human, but the Sun; the Sun fell as a result, yet he couldn’t be resurrected.

Until this moment, he felt that everything seemed arranged from the beginning, his choice, his sacrifice, everything about him and everything in God’s predetermined future.

In the unseen, Messe saw Aaron carrying his corpse up the mountain.

It was the same mountain he had climbed when he was shepherding in Midian. They hoped to find an opportunity to change their predicament there, but only Messe knew his covenant with God had been completed.

Aaron wouldn’t get what he sought; this was a foregone conclusion. Because Messe had never told them, God’s gaze had never lingered on the Hebrews.

“…”

“So… do you regret it”

Swish—

Suddenly awakened, at that moment, Messe felt he had ‘opened’ his eyes.

The surrounding darkness vanished in an instant as if he returned to the day he saw God.