Chapter 87 Ascension
The afterglow of the wedding continued to linger, attracting crowds from all directions, including uninvited guests from another world.
A pair of hands picked up a piece of honey-glazed candy and put it in their mouths.
The merchant of the candy shop looked at the several imposing men in black sitting in his shop, wanting to speak but holding back.
This was perhaps the only place in the city not filled with joy. The poor owner watched helplessly as these customers devoured all his candy.
One of them ate the most; it was a mystery how his ordinary stomach could hold so much candy.
Not only could he eat, but he didn't pay.
Ignoring the bill at his side, Beelzebub grinned at the owner who was secretly glancing at him.
"What are you looking at? I'll eat you!"
He didn't seem to be joking, but then another customer in the center of the table spoke up.
"Such a sweet taste should be shared," the handsome, dark-haired customer said, finishing the sugar. His pale fingers gently ground away the sugar residue, his movements slow and deliberate, even the act of removing the sugar was a pleasure to behold.
But what delighted the shopkeeper even more was that the customer produced a piece of gold.
The shopkeeper took the money, thanking the customer profusely, and left without even closing the shop, joining the celebration immediately.
"Your Majesty, this piece of gold is enough to buy this entire shop," Mammon voiced his displeasure at the extravagance. Lucifer, hand on his arm, seemed to ignore him.
He looked at the white-haired, linen-robed progenitor of humankind atop the city wall not far away, and easily sensed the difference in Adam.
Unlike the one he remembered, the current Adam possessed Abel's fortitude, Acryl's decisiveness, and even Avan's serenity. His eyes were gradually becoming clearer and more rational.
It was as if the elusive power of the Fruit of Wisdom, after centuries, had finally begun to settle, willing to bestow a share upon this dull-witted human. A hint of mockery flashed in the Demon King's eyes, yet he did not ignore the impact of Adam's transformation.
He sensed a palpable sense of crisis.
But it was alright.
"What harm is there in giving them some money to indulge in a good celebration?" Lucifer said meaningfully, his eyes filled with a profound understanding. He had already seen the deathly aura emanating from Adam.
"The grand feast will come to an end, the music will fade, and the guests will disperse."
He wouldn't live much longer; caught between great joy and sorrow, he was like a dying candle, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
Just as the Lord of Hell had predicted, Adam fell ill not long after the wedding.
He had never been so ill before. All his once-proud strength had vanished, and even breathing had become difficult.
The man who had once been strong enough to fight a black bear with his bare hands now lay in bed, only a faint breath escaping his nostrils.
Adam's children gathered around his sickbed, lighting candles in the dimly lit room. The light, though not harsh, made them feel as if they were in a dark cave.
Eve knelt beside her husband. She had always prayed, steadfastly without fail, day and night. Now, she listened silently to her children's prayers, as if she already knew her end was near, and prayer was meaningless.
Suddenly, Adam's increasingly cold hand grasped hers.
Eve jolted, sensing that Adam wanted to say something. She leaned down to listen.
The man, his voice weak, called her name.
"My love."
Sorrow filled the woman's eyes, as if tears were welling up. Through his cataract-covered eyes, Adam saw Eve's blurred image.
'My gentle and submissive wife,' he sighed, wondering what would happen to Eve after his death.
She had been with him since birth, for hundreds of years. They may have had disagreements, but they had never been apart. The glory of Eden faded from Adam's mind; in this moment, his memories were filled with the experiences of this human world.
Good or bad, pleasant or merely sorrowful.
Every single one of them felt more real than his time in Paradise.
"How I can't let you go!"
Eve's eyes widened slightly as she looked at the man holding her hand, trying to read his expression. But his expression remained calm. He simply held her hand and began his confession and evaluation of his life.
"Laziness is inherently evil."
"Work sustained me, sustained our home, sustained all of humanity."
"What have I to resent?" His voice grew softer until, finally, Eve could only decipher his words through the movement of his lips.
'But for this I despised life, despised the happiness I already had.'
Resentment made me proud, and pride bred shortsightedness… Adam struggled to open his eyes, trying to see Eve's face clearly.
'It's a pity we argued our whole lives, constantly reminiscing about that paradise…'
Whose fault was it really?
'Only at the end did I understand everything.'
Now I must return to dust before you. If, after death, I can kneel before him and beg for his forgiveness…
'That way, perhaps I can rest in peace.' He looked at Eve one last time, and passed away with a smile.
Suddenly, a great cry erupted in the house. The progenitor of mankind had died, and even the heavens seemed to grieve, the whole world trembled.
But in reality, for Adam, it was just a matter of closing his eyes and opening them again.
When he awoke again, he had become a spirit, his body incredibly light.
There was no joy, nor excessive sorrow, but death had taken everything from him, including all the people and things he cared about in the world.
He seemed to know this wasn't where he belonged, his spirit passing by his weeping descendants at his bedside.
'Is this death?'
It felt as if he'd experienced it countless times, astonishing yet not unfamiliar.
'I was so foolish,' he said, stepping out of the dark room, watching the chaotic fog gradually approach him.
'Why fear death? Everyone dies eventually, and someone as sinful as me is even less likely to escape.'
'Nothingness, loneliness, perhaps it will always be like this.'
'It's just returning to the beginning, I was like this long ago.'
'A person, a bed.'
'On the long road, I met my Eve, broke the forbidden fruit, learned suffering, took on responsibility, and had children...'
'There was joy, and there was sorrow.'
The pain of losing his son weighed heavily on him like a dark cloud, even after Seth and his siblings were born.
'Mankind is able to proliferate on earth; in their eyes, I am undoubtedly great. They dare not disobey me, nor will they disobey me. Undoubtedly, I am the king of men.'
'Yet even so, death is inevitable.'
'Coming into this world alone, and dying alone—' He found a place in the boundless mist and slowly sat down.
It was a river; he could hear the murmuring of flowing water, yet it didn't seem like a river, for no water flowed past him.
'It's merely returning from one person to another.'
He sat in this state of nothingness and solitude for an unknown amount of time. Time has no meaning for the dead; he simply sat there in contemplation.
Then, bored, he began to judge his own life with sharp words. Meow Meow said.
But finally, when he had reviewed his last act on earth, when self-mockery could no longer offer him solace,
Adam murmured to himself.
'God...' "Yes, I've been through so much, and I've possessed so much, yet in the end, I still die alone."
So why did he ask God for companionship to escape loneliness?
Did everything he did truly have meaning in God's eyes?
"You are right, you have already seen through the essence of all things," Adam said with a relieved smile.
"I've always been anxious about the meaning of my existence, whether I'm qualified to be the first humankind, why you created a sinner like me..."
"But in the end, I don't regret my choice."
Although he had sin, although he suffered and was weary, happiness did not elude him.
Through the love between Enoch and his wife, he knew that humans could attain happiness and fulfillment.
"It is because of suffering that we know the preciousness of happiness."
He had already experienced happiness, a fact that death could not erase.
"Perhaps I am a sinner." "But it's not wrong for a person to come into this world."
Knowing this is enough.
As if he had understood, he closed his eyes, listening to the murmuring water, feeling increasingly at peace. There was no resentment, no fear. Wandering in this gray, gloomy land, he quietly accepted this place as his eternal resting place.
Just as he was resigned to staying in this desolate, lonely, and hopeless place until the end of the world, Adam suddenly heard familiar footsteps.
He opened his eyes and looked behind him.
"How many years have passed?" he smiled. "Why are you here too?"
"I don't know how much time has passed in the world, because I've always followed in your footsteps," Eve said.
Adam was stunned, a clear sorrow appearing on his face.
"Why did you come, Eve? This doesn't look like a good place."
Eve sat down beside him, and Adam looked at her quietly. She removed her veil.
"Though you look as beautiful as when I first saw you," he exclaimed, "this is perhaps death's final gift to us."
In Eve's eyes, he saw himself regaining his youth.
But death had taken its toll; everything that had once mattered seemed insignificant.
"I was one of your ribs; my life came from you and has no meaning," Eve said, her voice calm.
"Since there is no birth, there is no death. What meaning is there for me alone here when you are no longer in this world?"
Adam looked deeply into her eyes. "I always thought I understood you, dear Eve."
"But I was wrong from the beginning. You are wiser than me, more insightful, and possess far more patience than I do."
Whether it was the matter of the firstborn son or the minutiae of life, Eve's insights were often uniquely profound. "If only I had listened to you more," he thought, shaking his head with a sigh and a smile, remembering his own stubbornness.
"But you are not my possession."
Finally, his smile faded, and he spoke earnestly to Eve.
"You are my wife, my love, my other half in this life."
"From the day God pointed you out to me, you have been an independent individual."
"So you don't need to follow me to death…" Before he could finish speaking, she leaned in and embraced him.
"Thank you, Adam," Eve said, her eyes reddening, tears streaming down her face, whispering in his ear.
"This is the only time I'll ever do this."
Adam was stunned by her sudden embrace. In his arms, Eve closed her eyes, her form radiating a faint white light.
He had once said that Eve was his extra rib, and in every day after that day of losing control, in every argument, he would use that phrase to provoke Eve's emotions.
But nothing is ever superfluous.
He turned to look at Eve, who was nestled against his neck, her gentle face still bearing the smile she seemed born with.
That beautiful smile he had always thought was used to please men.
Never before had it appeared so real to him.
"Willingly"
In the instant he joined with Eve, all his past memories flashed through his mind.
Adam remembered everything.
It turned out that God had arranged everything in the unseen realm; the rib that became Eve was formed from the soil beneath the World Tree.
Unlike his mortal body, her words about neither birth nor death were not a joke.
She didn't have to go through this.
Adam gazed at her, looking up at her like this for the first time in his life.
She could have lived on forever, without coming to this world of the dead, living clearly and eternally.
"Perhaps I love you."
How can a person… How could she not love herself?
So in the end, she chose to let go.
"You shouldn't linger in this chaotic and dark place; it doesn't belong to you."
"Go, to the ends of the earth, God awaits you."
A single tear fell from her eye. Her body, which had been disappearing in the light, gradually revealed its original form, becoming a rib.
The foundation of the world formed the body of the Messiah.
A look of bewilderment flashed in Adam's eyes. In that instant, the rib transformed back into flesh, spirit and flesh united. In a moment of enlightenment, he tore through the chaos and ascended to Heaven.
A host of angels stood at the gates of Heaven to greet him. He strode forward, heading straight for the supreme Lord of Light.
The silver-haired Son knelt, placing the hand of God upon his head.
"Now I understand your profound meaning."
Seven heavenly walls instantly rose from the earth. This was the power of the Messiah. He proved his faith to God, fulfilling the promise he had made.
"For your greatness and mercy."
God's His golden eyes reflected his devout figure. Having traversed the mortal realm, he had gained profound understanding and was no longer the same.
But he was still imperfect. God thought of Cain, who had fallen into Hell, and felt a pang of regret, yet his expression remained indifferent.
He helped the kneeling Son of God to his feet. In the next moment, time and space shifted, and he stood upright again, now in the palace of the seventh day.
Music and hymns rose, welcoming the new king, as if Heaven had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Then, God's voice resounded in every corner of Heaven, solemnly and majestically proclaiming the birth of the Messiah to the three realms.
"I hereby bestow upon Adam the title of Son, the title Messiah. From this day forward, all beings in Heaven shall kneel before him, submitting to his dominion. To betray him is to rebel against me—"
Countless angels stood beneath the throne, bowing to the Messiah above.
(You provided the author, Danmu'ai, with a description of the arduous process of creating a world in [Hebrew Mythology])