Only God
Chapter 36 - 33 I already know the answer

Chapter 36: Chapter 33 I already know the answer

Al and Yarlessto paddled forward, the singing becoming more distinct and no longer intermittent.

Yarlessto grew more and more excited, standing up from the canoe and pointing into the distance.

"Listen, how clear the singing is!"

Al, of course, heard it too, but his heart was heavy with doubt.

"Sit down, Yarlessto. We need to discuss something."

Al spoke up, as if they were back in the Pattern Garden.

Yarlessto, hearing these familiar words, quickly turned, reluctantly sat down.

"Look, there is something singing over the sea."

Al pointed forward and said,

"It can sing, which proves it has intelligence... but I’ve never heard of any other creature besides Logos being rational."

Yarlessto listened to his father’s analysis, not falling into thought as usual. His face suddenly flushed red, he retorted,

"What are you thinking, father? We’ve sailed all day and encountered nothing but sea. Finally... we hear a voice on our destined path.

Could this be a sea demon’s song? What are you afraid of? Afraid of challenging your outdated and closed-off world?"

Al was left momentarily speechless, his eldest son always had a way with words.

"Let’s continue forward; we need to find out what it is. Moreover, it’s on our destined path."

Yarlessto said with immense excitement.

Al had not been persuaded by Yarlessto, but of all his many arguments, there was only one that Al had to admit was undeniable.

The song was on their destined path.

Al still kept his guard up, while Yarlessto, unlike before, showed a young man’s passion for the unknown world.

Father and son, they rowed towards the source of the singing. The closer they got, the more furrowed Al’s brows became.

Yarlessto listened to the singing, his expression one of near fervor.

As the canoe glided over the undulating waves, Al and Yarlessto, under the enveloping darkness of the night, saw a dark silhouette.

"Land! Land! A small piece of land!"

Yarlessto, with the excellent vision of youth, saw an island upon the water.

The singing seemed almost within reach.

Their canoe approached the massive island; they looked into the distance, ready to land there.

Then, Yarlessto stood up. The island was very close, and he couldn’t wait to jump onto it and seek the source of the singing.

Do, mi!

As they neared a certain spot, the sound suddenly became immensely loud.

The sea, quiet until now, suddenly became bizarre!

Waves surged as if some creature were about to burst forth from the sea. Father and son’s eyes widened.

Under the glaring moonlight, they suddenly saw sharp reefs at the edge of the island, where many large fish lay dead, and then, from beneath the reefs, a number of slender fish emerged.

Yarlessto screamed, seeing a kind of fish he had never seen before. They were as big as humans, with vocal cords exposed, producing the alluring singing. He immediately drew the Bone Knife from his bosom.

Father and son didn’t know that these creatures were the forebears of what would be known as sea demons a thousand years later, causing the deaths of many sailors.

The intelligence of these sea demon ancestors was limited. They used their singing to lure schools of fish to cluster and smash themselves death against the reefs. Presently, they saw the two Logos people and their eyes flashed fiercely.

Pairs of pale yellow eyes spied from the darkness.

Cold sweat broke out on Al’s body. Following that, he saw the vocal cords of the sea demon ancestors begin to vibrate, producing an even more seductive sound.

"No, that’s not it!"

Yarlessto suddenly clutched his head and let out a painful howl, dropping the Bone Knife onto the canoe.

Al saw Yarlessto fall into some kind of Illusion, his face drained of color, but before he could react, he suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous, a sense of guilt surging in his mind.

His eyes began to produce Illusions, scenes he didn’t want to see unfolded before him.

Within the siren song, Al saw that after his death, Yarlessto and Dertulian had come to a rupture, though they had been brothers, now they were enemies, intent on killing each other.

Al panicked, a sense of despair and sorrow leaping from his heart.

The ancestral Sea Demon’s song, like a venomous snake, relentlessly pursued its prey.

The song led him into a terrifying realm of Illusions.

As the song of the ancestral Sea Demons grew louder, the Illusions in Al’s mind deepened.

He began to see a multitude of unbearable, sorrowful images, swiftly dominating his heart.

Gradually, an indefinable darkness began to envelop him, and a profound fear struck his entire body, his hands trembled, he wanted to shout, but his throat felt like it had been frozen.

Frozen...

Cold...

Al felt a sudden chill.

He felt his heartbeat slowing down, his heart almost conceded to this cold, he realized his consciousness was fading, but he was powerless to stop it.

Al felt the chill, seduced by the song.

He suddenly saw the most terrifying day of his life.

That day, he and a Sage were trapped in a cave.

Blizzards raged outside the cave, unceasing; if he just gave in, he would not be tormented by his conscience anymore.

Al looked down, he saw his body covered with wounds, his physical exhaustion overpowered him in an instant.

The storm raged before his eyes, as if it would drain his life and never stop.

Cold and darkness pressed against Al, forcing him to surrender, telling him over and over:

You will never find the answers.

Al stared into the blizzard.

"But I already know the answer,"

he whispered:

"It lies on the road to the summit’s light, where God resides."

Al tensed all his nerves, forcing the Illusionary self in the face of the snowstorm, to rise with all his strength and charge into the raging blizzard.

That was the day of his greatest fear.

It was also the day of his salvation.

He had climbed the high mountain after arduous trials and received God’s divine selection!

Just like centuries ago, when death miscalculated the Prophet’s will, at this moment, the songs of the ancestral Sea Demons made the same mistake.

Al saw through the Illusions before him, opened his eyes, and saw the ancestral Sea Demons slowly approaching, their sharp fangs ready to grind them to pieces.

The Prophet grabbed the oar, with the superior physical abilities of the Logos people, he lunged forward, stood at the tip of the canoe, swung it high, and smashed it down with force.

A Sea Demon was struck hard right on its huge vocal cords, letting out a painful howl, the song abruptly disrupted, causing the songs of the other Sea Demons to fall into disarray as well.

At that moment, Yarlessto finally broke free from the Illusions, falling to the ground, his face filled with fear.

"Row fast! Yarlessto! Row fast!"

Al’s loud cries pulled him back to reason from his fear.

Yarlessto quickly propped himself up with the oar, rowing backwards with all his strength.

Al stood on the tip of the canoe, waving his oar, deterring the group of Sea Demons from approaching.