Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Smiling and nodding, Isis raised her immaculate wrist. On it, a string of emerald gemstones sparkled brilliantly.

She took off the bracelet, separated the gemstones, and then cradled them in her hand.

"This is my favorite piece of jewelry, but now I am offering it to the servant of God. Go and find a patch of land, plant them there. The unceasing Spring of Life will gush forth from it, healing wounds and ailments, sweeping away hunger and discord."

"But remember, Great Prophet of the Hebrews, this is a gift I respectfully offer to the believers of God. The Faithless may drink from it—that is your right, but those who speak arrogance must never be included."

"Life, is both a blessing and a curse."

"I will keep that in mind, my lady."

With solemn expression, Messe accepted the emerald gemstones: "Thank you for your help, from this day forward, the Hebrews will forever remember your grace, unto eternity."

"Hmm... I hope so, although I don't really care much about that."

Looking somewhat mysterious, as the once goddess of Life and Magic, Isis's interactions with humans were not few. Since she relinquished her divinity, such observations had become even more frequent.

She was certain that no gratitude was everlasting. If not even the undying gods managed that, then all the more so for perishable mortals.

"Tsk, compared to mortals, indeed, watching you is the most interesting... The chessboard in The Sky, Shu, who made the first move, truly an old acquaintance."

Signaling that Messe and Aaron could leave, the young girl looked up at The Sky, her face sweet and sincere with laughter.

"Io, that mortal of Otherworld who shared a split fate with me. When you delivered La's judgment upon her, you never showed mercy, Shu."

"You were the first to act, so you are the first to pay the price. Your move has been negated by me, so what will you use to resist His move?"

Despite looking far into the distance, it was regrettable that Isis still couldn't see beyond the Primordial Water, to the place on the celestial chessboard in The Sky that felt slightly dimmed.

It was as if the light had been obscured, beneath the shadow, just where the chessboard seemed to blanket The Sky.

······

Since Messe returned to the Egyptian-designated settlement area for the Hebrews with ten gemstones, the crowd, previously like a cauldron on the brink of boiling, quickly stabilized.

Where the gemstones fell to the ground, they became wells flowing with sweet and palatable well water.

The water shaped by Divine Power even made those who drank from it gradually grow stronger, turning the frail robust.

Of course, behind any good deed, there often occur some not-so-good episodes.

Because of the warning Isis left before her departure, Messe had Aaron tell everyone who came to drink—the Hebrews who believed in the Egyptian Gods could not drink the water from the wells until they converted. Those who had blamed God for the natural disasters and their pain would never be allowed to drink the well water; the water brought by the Egyptians was theirs to drink.

Because of this issue, Aaron once spoke out to advise: not because he thought Messe's approach was too harsh, but quite the opposite, he felt it was too lenient.

Those who attributed disasters and suffering to God should be killed, or at the very least, expelled, to serve as a warning to others, but Messe refused his suggestion.

"Aaron, their prior errors only stemmed from their ignorance, no parent would kill their children for making mistakes, rather than teaching them. Your thoughts are still too extreme."

"But... I understand."

Parting his lips slightly, Aaron was tempted to ask whether the relationship between God and the Hebrews was truly that of a parent and child.

But the words didn't leave his lips. Unlike Messe, who had received Divine Revelation, he naturally wasn't qualified to judge. Yet in his heart, he always felt that something was wrong.

So the matter was temporarily settled.

As the natural disasters from The Sky, from Shu, became increasingly severe in Hemenu's Mortal Realm, the water level of the Nile River also sunk lower and lower.

Pharaoh had no choice but to send more people to the river to fetch water, but what he found inconceivable was that Sin People, who lacked water sources, had not yet erupted in internal riots.

In the midst of the chaotic natural disasters, a large number of refugees from Upper and Lower Egypt began to draw near to Memphis, and the impact of this disaster was far from over.

Under the force of nature, the devotion to All Gods among mortals burst forth. A great number of devout believers started to approach Heliopolis, to see the High Priest who was said to have received a divine revelation.

In response to this, both Pharaoh and the priests in the Holy City remained silent, as if this event had never happened.

Pharaoh continued to handle state affairs, closely monitoring the Hebrews' movements; Priests, as before, worshipped La, praying for divine grace with the arriving believers.

The number of the dead began to rise, even within the Hebrews' settlement, there were plenty of deaths.

There were those who refused to abandon their faith in the Egyptian Gods and ultimately died of disease, and those who claimed to be devout followers, but in the end, had their life sucked away by the power in the well water, turning into mummies.

However, no matter what, at least under the first plague, the losses of the Hebrews were not as great as imagined, thanks to the help of Isis.

So on that day, scepter in hand, Messe stood once again in front of Pharaoh's Royal Palace and strode in.

He knew that the disaster was a punishment from the Egyptian Gods, but this was also the confidence that brought him here.

The calamity sent down by the Deity was indiscriminate; if Pharaoh was unwilling to let them go, then they too would have to suffer an equal disaster.

"I have come to visit you again, Your Majesty."

The scepter gently touched the ground, an invisible force repelled two approaching guards.

Messe looked at the Pharaoh inside the Royal Palace and loudly repeated his previous demand.

"Your Majesty, please release the stationed soldiers and allow my people to go and hold a feast to my God in the wilderness."

"Otherwise, I fear the disaster sent from above will not subside."

······

When Messe stepped into the Royal Palace again, as the two worlds' monarchs met once more in the Mortal Realm, a faint sound spread between heaven and earth.

In the skies, before the game board, sitting to the left of the Great Sun Orb, where La resided, the god of wind and atmosphere, Shu, knew that he had lost this round.

But he was not concerned because the stake of the gods was dominion, his "card," a part of him, but not all of his life.

At that moment, seated before the game board, Shu was just slightly regretful that he hadn't caused great harm to those sinners with his own move.

Nevertheless, it didn't matter, for he had another guess. Perhaps once he lost his dominion, he could return to the Mortal Realm... and then deal with those mortals by himself.

As for the bet he lost, Shu wasn't too concerned about it either because, after all, there were nine rounds in this game.

The Nine Pillar Gods had readily obeyed La's command to join the game, even placing their pieces as he directed, because they had sworn with him in the Sea of Origin that as long as they ultimately won, the gods who lost their strength could regain what they had lost, and the gained strength would be distributed evenly according to the original powers' magnitude.

So at this moment, Shu was not only unworried for himself but was considering how to quickly exterminate all those mortals with Sin Blood.

"But I have already made my move; this howling disaster is the proof. But what about Him, could it be those springs that suddenly emerged?"

Somewhat puzzled, Shu felt just a bit irritable.

For some reason, a sudden, inexplicable panic began to rise in his heart... as if the next moment, his own life was about to end.