Only God
Chapter 43 - 40 Is This Really God’s Plan? (Please follow)

Chapter 43: Chapter 40 Is This Really God’s Plan? (Please follow)

Al’s eyes were withered, and his mind was hazy at that moment.

He didn’t know whether this was a dream or reality, as his eyelids, nearly devoid of any moisture, drooped without the strength to open, barely perceiving the light from outside through the tiny slits.

His lips were dry and wrinkled, and the visions in his sleep were chaotic and blurred. Al couldn’t remember anything, feeling only an overwhelming thirst.

"Yarlessto, my child, I’m thirsty,"

he said subconsciously.

At the moment the words escaped his lips, he heard something clang as it hit the ground, and the sound of crying reached his ears.

The crying was heartbreaking. Al had never heard such a sound, like winter ice being broken into pieces and dropped into a river.

Al couldn’t distinguish whether the crying was from his dream or reality; his consciousness was too blurred, leaving him unable to find a trace of clarity.

He felt something embracing him, like a small cloud obscuring the sky, and he suddenly realized that it was a fragile and struggling soul pressed against a father’s chest, no conflict, no disharmony...

The wind stirring the sea was so calm, everything in the haze was so beautiful, as if arranged by God. Grateful to the child, grateful to the deity.

Al savored this unique tranquility.

Yet, his throat was still parched.

Yarlessto held onto his father tremblingly, feeling his father’s body slowly sinking as his vitality stiffened gradually.

The man from Logos Kingdom became panic-stricken as he realized his father was losing his life amidst the tranquility!

Yarlessto slightly loosened his grasp on his father. Al’s lips had nearly lost their color, and only unconscious mumbles remained in his throat, leaving no doubt that his father was dying.

The Logos man let go of his dying father in a fluster, his face full of helplessness as the sparse lifeforce was leaving an old man.

Tears shimmered in Yarlessto’s eyes.

He couldn’t watch his father die!

A child couldn’t lose his father.

Yarlessto looked at Al with trembling eyes. His father’s chest rose and fell much slower, heartbeat also slower, as if he might die from dehydration at any moment.

Then, driven by a strong will, he turned his head and his gaze fell on the Bone Knife.

After that, Yarlessto lowered his head to look at his wrist.

Whatever happened next was all in God’s arrangement.

Suddenly, that phrase repeated in his mind.

He found it unbelievable...

Was this truly God’s arrangement?

Yarlessto picked up the Bone Knife, the sharp blade resting against his wrist, and then, blood flowed from a child’s hand.

Soon,

The blood reached Al’s dry lips.

Amidst the blurry consciousness, Al slowly felt no longer thirsty.

It was like a miracle.

He had heard his child’s cry first and then, as he neared death, water flowed to his lips.

Al felt this unprecedented miracle.

The father’s eyes were still withered; he hadn’t the strength yet to open them, to see the child with the bleeding wrist.

Al subconsciously drank this heavenly nectar, feeling his life, which he thought he’d lost, slowly returning.

When he finally had the strength to open his eyes,

His nose caught the smell of blood.

Al suddenly opened his eyes and saw Yarlessto struggling to support his trembling body.

He was stunned.

Yarlessto saw his father awaken. He looked at his father and, straining, mustered a faint smile on his face.

That smile seemed to drain all his strength, and Yarlessto could no longer hold himself up. His body fell backward.

Al rushed over in a panic and caught his son just as he fell.

Yarlessto had passed out, but he did not die; he was still young and retained the last of his vitality.

Al pressed his own animal skin against Yarlessto’s bleeding wound, and two lines of scalding tears streamed rapidly down his cheeks, like a galaxy.

Through this arduous trek,

father and son had conquered the desire to survive, and the instinct of beasts, the strength they had been desperately seeking had already taken root in their hearts.

And the story that followed, would walk this father and son with God.

...

...

In the midst of Logos Kingdom.

Sapo King caressed the Dragon Bone.

Over these past ten-plus days, his hair had turned from grey back to the jet black of his youth.

Age had left this ruler, and with it, death as well.

Within the palace, the elders and sages of the Logos Kingdom gathered together. Their gazes alternated between the Dragon Bone and the rejuvenated Sapo King.

People looked up to the ruler upon the King’s Throne who had reclaimed the vigor of his youth. His gaze was so haughty and brooked no offense.

At the center of the palace stood a Law Garden Priest, the only one standing there.

The people gathered around him, for they had come together in the palace today because, not long ago, this Priest had openly offended the Sapo King.

Thus, the Sapo King had summoned the elders and sages of the kingdom to determine the punishment for this Law Garden Priest, according to the customs of the tribe.

For this Priest, had attempted to smash the rejuvenating Dragon Bone.

Sapo King gazed at the Law Garden Priest.

The Priest tried to lift his head, to meet Sapo King’s gaze directly, but in the moment of their eyes meeting and under the intimidation of the ruler, the Priest shrank back in fear.

Somehow, he felt that Sapo King was looking at him, yet not at him, but through him at someone else.

In the palace, a heavy silence spread among everyone’s hearts. Before the Sapo King spoke, the only sounds were the complex intermingling of breaths from all directions.

"Do you have anything to say?"

Sapo King fixed his gaze on the Priest and spoke.

The Priest’s face turned pale with fear, and after some hesitation, he finally said,

"King, that rejuvenating Dragon Bone consumes the life of our tribespeople."

He looked up at the towering figure on the throne, his voice trembling as he urged,

"For every hundred years of youth granted by the Dragon Bone, several lives of the Logos people must be taken. We have so many elders and sages who do not wish to die... Is it meant for all the Logos to bleed?"

Sapo King sneered and replied,

"I will tell you, this Dragon Bone is a gift from God. If not for God’s hidden protection, how could we have ever found this Dragon Bone?!"

The Priest lifted his head; he was a servant of God, a Priest who contemplated the laws of the world. He had followed the Prophet of the Law Garden and carried out his heavenly duties for years, never having heard of such covert protection from God.

Facing the direct stare of Sapo King, with the venomous fangs of death so close, the Priest trembled all over, drenched in cold sweat, but still he stood firm, puffing out his chest and advising, with the loudest voice he could muster,

"King,

When God does not even allow the sacrifice of beasts, how could the Lord allow the Logos to bleed to death?"

Sapo King suddenly stood from his throne, eyeing the Priest like a majestic lion,

"How dare you question your King?!"