Only God
Chapter 359 - 316: Witness the Power of God!

Chapter 359: Chapter 316: Witness the Power of God!

Bodies lay haphazardly strewn across the ground, the aftermath of a great battle evident throughout Danschel City.

The Great Elder looked around and saw nothing but scenes of despair.

King Nesol had breached the walls of Danschel and sealed all the city’s gates; the aged Great Elder had anticipated that a brutally inhumane plundering was about to commence.

First, they would go from house to house demanding food and money, followed by forceful interrogation with swords, and finally, unspeakable slaughter, as the whole city was reduced to ashes.

The Great Elder had heard of such atrocities from the mouths of refugees, and now, those same horrors were about to befall them.

But the crux of the matter was that they could do nothing.

They couldn’t flee, nor could they continue to resist; tens of thousands of residents within the city faced nothing but encroaching blades, a slow march toward death.

The Great Elder walked dejectedly into the streets, pushing open the gates of a residence, as all eyes projected from the dim light within, converging upon him.

Here, many True Believers were hidden, some who had followed the Sects, others citizens of Danschel who had brought their valuables in flight to this place after the fall of the Royal City, all in search of a faint glimmer of stability.

Catherine watched the Great Elder, hands trembling slightly; she should have been hiding out in the Music Academy but had come here instead, unable to abandon these True Believers.

The Great Elder rasped,

"King Nesol said... as long as we hand over enough gold and food, we could..."

He repeated the exact amount, and the faces of all present paled.

It was no small sum, calculated per head.

Moreover, who knew that after surrendering the gold and food, King Nesol wouldn’t further increase his demands, stripping them of layer after layer until their lives were taken.

People looked at the standing Great Elder, their eyes brimming with confusion and fear; in this endless darkness, aside from praying for a Divine miracle, no one saw a way out.

The Great Elder stood rigid, equally blind to any so-called way out; in those dim, old eyes, he saw only blood-soaked ground and death.

Every Believer’s face was stamped with uniform grief and panic, their hands clutched tightly in prayer, such devout expressions. They must have internally recited hundreds of Scriptures, but the Great Elder knew that no matter what, it was of no use.

The city was completely under someone else’s control; almost every person became like fish on a chopping board.

And a Divine miracle... would not come.

The Great Elder silently collected a hessian sack and began to gather the ransom money from every Believer. Some gave abundantly and received a quiet thank you, while those who begrudged their money were sternly rebuked. The Great Elder did his utmost to ensure that each person present could survive.

Not long after, both sacks were filled. The Great Elder counted the number of people and, finding it short, asked the Vice Elder to open the cellar and make up the difference.

Catherine silently observed the old man, the Great Elder weighed down by disaster to the point of breathlessness, his figure stooped as if he might collapse at any moment.

......

Of course, King Nesol would not let Danschel off so easily.

At first, he only demanded a certain ransom from each person, but after it was collected, he asked for more.

This naturally incited resistance within the city, but those scattered flames were swiftly extinguished.

King Nesol used this as a pretext to bare his fangs even more.

He ordered the capture and public execution of those who had contributed the least, spreading dread throughout the entire Royal City. He then repeatedly promised that as long as the ransom paid was average, there would be no threat to their lives.

The once prosperous Royal City was exploited inside and out, over and over, with corpses of the starved littering the streets, skeletal remains everywhere.

The Great Elder personally saw those who couldn’t pay being dragged out, one household after another, to be executed in the streets. He witnessed countless people kneeling on the ground, begging the invading enemy troops not to take away the last bit of their food.

The gloomy sky poured down a torrential rain, as if the heavens themselves were weeping, mourning for the scarred souls below.

The Great Elder walked down the bloodied, foul-smelling streets, pausing when he saw a corpse.

It was a True Believer; the Great Elder remembered him, a young man once full of vitality.

But now, he lay there, his face ashen and blood around his mouth.

The Great Elder’s lips trembled; he should have gone to the young man to pray for his soul.

But instead, he was frozen in place, unmoving.

The True Believers, too, could not escape the harsh fates; their persistent, ceaseless prayers went unanswered, the sought-after miracles never descending from above.

It wasn’t just the True Believers; others who prayed to the gods also saw not a single sign of a Divine miracle.

The world on the verge of death faced collapse, the cracked earth echoing eternal screams and despair,

"Humanity... has been forsaken."

The Great Elder was utterly despondent, a profound disappointment in both the Divine and mankind. In the face of great disaster, no miracles were bestowed, and humans lacked the power to save one another, resorting to mutual slaughter instead.

The rain fell to the ground but couldn’t wash away the stains of blood, merely making the place filthier.

The Great Elder stepped over numerous twisted bodies, muttering to himself,

"Dust,

We are but dust of the earth..."

Heavy raindrops, like icy blades, pierced the nerves of the old man.

In the empty streets, the old man seemed like a ghost.

Suddenly, he knelt down in the rain, looking up at the dim sky.

"Oh Lord above,

I praise You, I sincerely glorify You,

It was You who let me see the helplessness of mortals, it was You who let me witness the lowliness of humankind!

I extol Your manifold greatness, along with every calamity You have sanctioned!"

The Great Elder’s voice was hoarse, his face turned towards the heavens, beneath which the entire city’s inhabitants suffered greatly.

He praised the great Lord in what seemed like madness, a sorrowful despair, and even more so, a loud, painful inquisition.

Amidst those praises, the Great Elder issued his fervent questions.

"I submit to You, I believe in You! Now all people have seen the great disaster of the day! All will kneel before the Supreme God!"

"I pray! I await Your listening ear. I repent! I await Your forgiveness. Will You reveal a miracle before us, with Your power, to rescue the whole overturned world?!"

"Lord, the children of God are harming each other, the children of God are but dust of the earth..."

Rain filled the wrinkles of the Great Elder, and no one could see that within his mad praise was a heart already covered in dust.

He once was so devout, reciting God’s Scriptures day after day.

Why did God always hide from us? Why, as the apocalypse approached, has the promised salvation not yet arrived?

The old man’s heart was filled with too many questions, which if destruction had not come, he might have taken with him to the grave, never to reveal a single trace.

But he could not do that, for the destruction had come.

The Great Elder slowly approached the dead True Believer, he raised his hand, smoothing the young man’s eyes.

It was hard to tell whether the face of the old man was streaked with tears or rainwater.

"Even the children of God... are but dust of the earth..."

The Great Elder murmured like a walking corpse.

In his despair, he had seen the ultimate fate; it wouldn’t be long before the sword came to his neck, placing a desperate full stop on an aged life.

He lowered his head, gazing at the dead before him, the hand on the other’s cheek feeling only the cold touch.

The Great Elder no longer praised, nor questioned.

He himself was merely insignificant dust of the earth...

In a trance...

There suddenly came a faint warmth to the fingertips of the Great Elder.

He opened his eyes, somewhat startled as he looked at the dead before him.

Was this an illusion...

This child was clearly dead, just before...

Before the Great Elder could contemplate, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the True Believer’s eyelashes slightly trembling.

"This, this is..."

The Great Elder sensed something, he violently turned his head, taking one last look at the forever nocturnal, gloomy skies.

When the Great Elder’s gaze fell upon the heavens...

His head buzzed, limbs trembled, goosebumps erupted from his wrinkled skin.

Above in the heavens, in the direction where mountains stood steadfast...

The gloom receded slowly, emitting a miraculous, golden glow.

The True Believer before him, long since dead, began to breathe, frail.

The dead, God had brought him back from death...

Resurrection.

Miracle...

The Great Elder saw with his own eyes the True Believer opening his eyes, looking around with a weak and puzzled gaze.

It wasn’t just one, or two, dozens, hundreds, thousands of cold bodies on the ground, seemed to have found life again from somewhere, slowly trembling, and in amazement and doubt, surveying the world before them.

It was as if...

Newborn babies curiously opened their eyes.

Miracle...

The soul of the Great Elder could only tremble.

"Miracle..."

Once, he had nearly spent his entire life without witnessing the descent of a miracle.

But now...

Billions of souls resurrected from death, together bearing witness to God’s almighty power!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.