Myth: The Spiritual Dominator

world.

Heliopolis, Golden Temple of the Sun.

"..."

"... the mighty Nile and the fertile black soil."

"Her rivers watered the black earth, and her milk nourished Egypt."

"Praise the black soil, praise the Nile."

"Long live the source of all waters!"

“You came into this land, you came in peace, and gave life to Egypt.”

"O hidden spirit, you have led the night into the day. We celebrate your guidance and praise your majesty."

"You planted the garden that Ra cultivated, giving life to all who walk;"

"Water the earth without ceasing, as you descend from heaven."

"Treasurer of food, giver of grain, you bring light to every home!"

"..."

Over Heliopolis, the dark clouds had dispersed and the devout were chanting hymns.

In recent days, more and more believers have gathered near the holy city, some with their families, some on pilgrimage alone.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered here, singing hymns praising the gods day and night.

Whether it is a ballad recording the deeds of gods or text recorded in a book of the dead, it carries hymns praising the Nile.

The devout singing reached the clouds, making the city seem even more sacred and extraordinary.

……

Da da--

In a corner of the holy city, as the organizer of everything, Qasim looked gentle and distant.

His fingers tapped the wall lightly, as if he was accompanying a hymn. Believers in the distance cast their respectful glances at him. This was the most perfect servant of God on earth, the priest who had always stayed in the land of the gods.

"...Aibu."

"Teacher, what do you want?"

"You have been busy for a long time to settle these believers who came from afar. Aibu, do you know why they are so pious?"

After a long time, the sun set.

Cassim seemed tired, his eyes slightly closed.

Beside him, Aibu stepped forward to support his father and teacher: "That's because God exists."

“Since it exists, it is natural to believe in it.”

This is what Abu thinks, and it is also the perception of most people.

As an objective thing, why don't people believe in it?

"Really? Think about it again."

With a gentle smile, Cassim continued to ask:

"If we have to believe in God just because He exists, then there are many gods in this world."

"Egypt has its own gods, and those sinners have their own gods. Tell me, why should we believe in the gods of Egypt instead of their gods?"

“…That’s because Ra will protect us and guide us forward. Foreign gods will only protect their people, so our faith will only be dedicated to Ra.”

After a moment's silence, Aibu gave his answer based on logic, but this answer was so straightforward.

People are willing to believe in gods because they can bring benefits, not because of their power and greatness.

"Haha, Aibu, in fact, many qualified priests know this. Even if they don't know it at the beginning, they will gradually know it in the process of spreading the faith."

"But this can only solve the reason why people believe in God, but it can't solve the current problem, you see-"

The melodious singing was still resounding, but Qasim, the nominal leader of the holy city at the moment, was talking about the source of faith.

"In the past, God had brought good weather and driven away disasters to the Egyptians more than once, but never before had there been such a massive pilgrimage."

"But now there are hundreds of thousands of people gathered here, and even people from Upper and Lower Egypt are still rushing here. Tell me, why is this?"

"..."

“…Because they encountered a disaster.”

Taking a deep breath, Aibu seemed to understand what his father wanted to teach him.

"I understand... As far as God is concerned, the good things he gives to his believers are only temporary at best."

"When people first encounter divine grace, they are ecstatic; when they receive divine grace for the second time, they thank the gods for their gift. But when they continue to receive divine grace, they just get used to it."

"So the gifts of the gods must never be quantified, nor can they become customary rules. If you do so, it will only make the gods lose their mystery and the believers lose their reverence."

"Let the present reality give them fear, and let God become the hope of avoiding fear, but this hope is ethereal and vague. Therefore, the rewards of criminal law are unknown, and its power is unfathomable."

"Of course, the premise of all this is that the gods really possess supreme power."

The more he talked, the more Aibu felt his faith in God was shaken.

This is a way to help the gods develop believers, but even after knowing this he himself cannot become a devout believer... Thinking of this, Aibu was impressed by his father's experience and wisdom, but also felt a little ridiculous.

"That's how things are in this world, Abu."

"The most capable officials of the dynasty do not believe in the law, but the people do; the most capable servants of the gods do not believe in God devoutly, but the believers are devout."

"Of course, there are exceptions, but they are too few. Aibu, the reason why I asked you to think about this is to let you see through the logic behind it. In this way, you can become the most trusted servant of any god."

His voice was calm, and Qasim never hesitated to express his old age and weakness.

He had told Aibu a long time ago that he would not live for more than a few years.

"Okay, now that we've finished talking about business, it's your turn."

"Tell me, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Today's teaching was completely timely, because Abu suddenly came to see him at this time.

Kasim was also a little surprised. What did he come to see him for?

"Teacher...Father."

Changing his words mid-sentence, Aibu gritted his teeth and said, "I'm seeing those hallucinations again."

"I saw the sky being torn apart. In the distant land, in a place that I could never see, the yellow sand was sucked out and flowed to the edge of the world."

"The stars are shaking, storms are disappearing and being born again. The water vapor that flows between heaven and earth is split into four parts...Darkness spreads across the world, and black smoke rises under the sun. The pillars in the sky are crumbling one after another, and the falling debris will kill two-thirds of the creatures on earth."

"Is this really an illusion, father? I feel it is so real, like a miracle happening in the past, present and future. I have always had an uneasy feeling in recent days, I——"

"This is an illusion, Abu."

Cassim interrupted, his expression calm.

"Only Ra is the all-seeing god. What you see is not the truth."

"..."

"Maybe you're not in a good mood because of your recent busy schedule. Well... you can take a rest for a while, think more about what I told you before, and help the believers around you who are in trouble."

“Thinking and practice are both indispensable.”

"...I understand, teacher."

Suppressing the uneasiness in his heart, Aibu bowed slightly and left with full of doubts.

Behind him, Qasim watched him leave silently.

After a long time, the high priest of Heliopolis returned to the Temple of the Sun.

He stood in the corner and did not join in the prayers of the crowd, but listened quietly to a hymn, then raised his hand to signal.

"High Priest, what do you want?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your worship of God, but I have to come here."

Cassim spoke with a smile, facing the statue and his back to the crowd.

"I want to announce an oracle."

wow——

There was an uproar in the place. Unexpectedly, the gods sent down another decree.

The temple seemed to have flashed with golden light this morning. The believers in the city thought that this was just a change caused by the gaze of the gods, but they did not expect that this was another oracle.

"As you think, I received the command of Ra in the morning; I interpreted it at noon; and I proclaimed it at evening."

With Abu's words flashing through his mind, Qasim turned around and looked at the people kneeling in the temple.

"God said - the foreign peoples with sinful blood are still wandering on the earth, and the foreign gods will bring a curse on the people of Egypt."

“Frogs will come out of the waters and cover the houses, fields, and roads; and lice will come out of the ground, biting people, livestock, and the king.”

"Beetles will come and destroy the pastures, and the plague will infect the livestock. Everyone who is infected with it will die, and those who are not infected with it will break out of boils."

"In the end, the foreign gods will turn the water into ice and fall from the sky to the earth. They will also turn the sand into locusts and flies that will eat up all our food."

"This is the evil god's sin - he will bring seven disasters to this earth and curse all the people raised by the Nile."

wow——

The crowd was in an uproar again. They looked at Cassim in disbelief and at the statue behind him.

Each of the seven disasters is enough to make them suffer, let alone all seven added together.

If this disaster really befell them, they didn’t know how many of them would survive.

"High Priest, the oracle from God Ra should tell us how to solve this problem, right?"

Someone asked tentatively, and looking at people's expectant eyes, Qasim smiled and nodded.

"The people on earth have let God down, and have not yet been able to eliminate the sinful alien races."

"So Ra called up the creatures from the underground and asked them to return to the human world to carry out his will."

Profaning the dead... This was a taboo in the Egyptian doctrine, but if it was done by the god himself, then Cassim didn't know what it should be considered.

But compared to these, he thought more about other things.

The Curse of the Foreign Gods...

It is not known whether this was a curse directed at the Egyptians or whether they were simply the innocent victims.

······

slam-la-

In the world of Hemenu, the eight gods are a certain manifestation of the world.

From the primordial water, all things came into being.

However, everything in the world has its positive and negative sides, and there is order and chaos. Compared to Chaos's stable and quiet Tartarus, Hermeneus's chaos is scattered among the laws of the world and gathered in the dark places of the world.

slam-la-

In the river flowing underground, in the space and time that both exists and does not exist, a huge monster lies there.

On its body, spots of gold and silver flames were still burning, colliding and extinguishing each other with wisps of black air.

The power of the flame was so strong that it often took several points of strength to destroy the black gas. However, as time went on, the black gas seemed to become stronger.

It was as if it had received some kind of blessing, and with every breath, its power became purer.

click -

Kaka-

The giant was obviously feeling uncomfortable as its body twisted and its torso collided with the invisible chains.

But its eyes were closed and its consciousness was still sinking.

The biggest threat to the two sun gods was finally completely suppressed by Ra. According to Ra's previous estimation, it would take at least hundreds of years for it to break free.

Apophis, the Chaos Serpent of Hermeneus, is said to be the source of chaos that was born with the sun.

If Atum, the first sun god, represents the beginning of all things and is the source of all birth, then Apophis is the end of everything and is the demon that destroys everything.

Its only purpose since its birth was to destroy all order in the world, so much so that in the most ancient times, the sun god Atum had to fight with it every day.

Mortals have passed down the story that when the sun sets, it means that the sun god is riding the celestial sphere to the other side of the world to engage in a life-and-death battle with the Chaos Serpent; when the sun rises, it means that the god has defeated the demon who wants to destroy everything and is back to rule the world.

However, unlike other gods of Hermeneus, Apophis has no reason, and as the embodiment of chaos, it is also immortal. So no matter how many times it is defeated, it will still be reborn in the new night.

Therefore, the Egyptian Ra was not as autocratic as the god-king Chaos, because for a long time their most critical job as the sun god was to suppress the monster that destroyed the world.

Of course, all this ended with the coming of Amon-Ra-Atum.

When Ra stole the power of the Eight Primordials, he truly possessed the power to suppress Apophis.

With just one strike, he inflicted unimaginable trauma on the Chaos Serpent.

For hundreds of years, it has been difficult for it to wake up and cause chaos. However, with the recent changes in the world of Hemenu, the Chaos Serpent seems to be changing as well.

clack clack...

The sound of the chain breaking became more and more frequent, especially when the climate and celestial phenomena in the human world were disrupted by the fall of the Pillar God, and it collapsed more and more quickly.

As the opposite of order, Apophis seemed to have taken the most perfect tonic when the world was in turmoil.

Even though the power of the world did not lean towards it like it did towards Ra, it was growing stronger day by day, and instinctively broke the shackles that bound it.

"Hush...huh..."

Apophis's eyelids trembled slightly as he roared and breathed unconsciously.

It seemed like it was about to wake up, but it seemed like something was missing.

This is the first time it has been put into a deep sleep since its birth. To wake it up again, we can either rely on time or stimulation.

As for what kind of excitement can reach the abyss of the world, where Apophis sleeps... I'm afraid no one can predict it before it actually happens.

It is also impossible to predict how the Chaos Serpent will react, driven by instinct, when faced with a natural disaster that could destroy the world.