Only God
Chapter 194 - 168 We Cannot Look Directly at God

Chapter 194: Chapter 168 We Cannot Look Directly at God

Not a single word could describe what Hiris was feeling at the moment.

Hiris was completely stunned in place.

With trembling hands, Hiris even forgot for a moment to hammer his son’s armor, which glowed a deep red, radiating intense heat.

"God,

walking... above the waters?"

For a moment, Hiris felt like he had understood the phrase. But after much thought, it suddenly seemed incomprehensible.

"Does this mean, in His eyes, we are all beneath the waters?!"

Reflected in Noen’s pupils was Hess’s face.

Facing Noen’s Lord, Hess seemed like a mortal abruptly exposed to incomprehensible knowledge.

Awe, confusion, trying to understand, still confused, then thirsting for knowledge.

"Since you said He walks on water, does this mean He transcends our rationale?"

Hiris continued to ask.

Listening to Hiris’s litany of questions, Noen answered patiently, as a Prophet would:

"He defies both our rationale and our morals.

God is the one who was, who is, and who will always be.

In our eyes, God is absurd."

The words echoed in Hiris’s ears, murmuring incessantly.

"Absurd..."

What does absurd mean?

It means that our father cannot be explained by rationale alone,

and all we can do

is to understand and embrace through sentiment, to believe.

Absurd...

The God of mountains and craftsmanship chewed on the word.

Suddenly, Hiris’s pupils contracted sharply.

It just so happened...

Our father... had been so divinely beyond our every imagination.

So majestic that we could try as hard as we might and still not bridge any distance.

Hiris looked down at his quivering hands.

Lifting the copper hammer, Hiris struggled to persist with the forging in his hands.

"Noen... the Lord, your God, how far, exactly, is He from the other Gods?"

"There is no distance,"

Noen replied slowly,

"...an infinite distance!"

The "no distance" from Noen’s mouth was founded in sentiment, in the Prophet’s eyes, as long as one wished to draw closer to Him, to love Him, then there would be no distance.

The so-called "infinite distance" was based on rationale, upon all things such as mighty power, wisdom, and so on.

"You... have you ever seen the Lord?"

At this point, Hiris asked in astonishment.

The armor in the hands of the God of mountains and craftsmanship fell with a heavy thud.

"It depends on how you define having seen,

I... haven’t really seen Him, I cannot see His face.

When God appeared before me, all I could see was His radiance surrounding Him."

"Perhaps because of this,

there are only statues of the Gods in this world,

yet none of the Lord."

Noen was blunt and straightforward in his revelation to the craftsman.

In the presence of this craftsman whom he had met by chance, the Prophet saw no need for secrets.

"Even the visages of the Gods can be sculpted for mortals to see...

Your Lord... truly has no Divine Statue? Can no one behold His face?"

Hiris asked incredulously.

He had been in the Country of Divines, casting Divine Statues for the Gods of the realm.

And Noen’s words had undeniably brought a profound shock to his very core.

It was like...

a craftsman encountering a metal that no matter how smelted, remained unscathed, smooth beyond compare.

Even if he exhausted his life, using all past experiences, he couldn’t make even the slightest mark on it.

Noen caught Hess’s gaze,

taking it as the shock of a mortal facing the incomprehensible.

"God, my Lord, we cannot gaze directly at.

Human eyes cannot outright behold the strong light of God, let alone the face of God Himself.

Human ears cannot listen to the fleeting thunder that crashes by, let alone to hear the voice of God.

Human hands cannot touch the burning Fierce Flames, let alone the Holy Spirit of God."

Noen’s voice was calm, without a single change in tone from beginning to end.

It was as if he spoke of something so mundane it couldn’t be more so.

Yet to Hiris, the Prophet’s words were like thunder.

"I’d been searching for Him with great effort...

Now I know,

we cannot directly look at Him!

Even if our sight could traverse the endless sea of stars, beholding each Star, we could not witness His face."

Noen nodded slightly.

In such a short time, Hess had already grasped his meaning, proving himself to be no mere craftsman.

Who was he?

On the surface, a craftsman,

or actually, the High Priest of some Divine among the Gods?

Like an old Priest, who retired here for some reason perhaps.

Hiris slowly came to his senses, noticing the metal in his hand solidifying upon contact with the air; he hastily lifted his hammer to strike.

The God of mountains and craftsmanship had just forgotten to hammer the armor for his son.

After hammering once, Hiris returned the glowing metal to the furnace to heat once more.

By the time Hiris fetched it for hammering, a fair period had already passed.

Noen was still standing there; the Prophet faintly sensed that Hiris still had endless questions.

Those doubts crowded in his heart, not dissipating with the metal’s hammering; rather, with each hammer’s strike, they grew more intense.

Hiris’s body was covered in sweat, indistinguishable as hot perspiration or cold.

"Noen..."

"What is it?"

Noen inquired.

After a long pause, Hiris took a deep breath.

Then, the God of craftsmanship posed a question that made Him shiver.

"Since... your God transcends our rationale, then how does your God view us?"

Those trembling words reached Noen’s ears.

"Love."

He said as if it were a matter of course.

"Love?"

Hiris repeated.

He looked incredulously at Noen.

Noen met Hiris’s gaze, and for a moment, the Prophet’s mind flashed with many explanations.

Yet, those explanations could not depict the love of God.

After a long pause,

the Prophet had only one thing to say,

"I only know..."

"God loves us and is willing to make sacrifices for us."

Clang!

The most outstanding craftsman in the world, the creator of the Gods’ Divine Statues—Hiris.

The God of mountains and craftsmanship whose very nature was to forge...

His copper hammer crashed to the ground!

The sound echoed for a long time beside the glowing furnace.