𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐄 ✓

12: EXISTENCE AND NUMBNESS

The commotion that had fed the entire hegemony of Pirropi had made its way toward the victims. Each moirai was smouldering in vengeance; an act of revenge because the two men went against the law and survived because the one brother endeavoured to mend the other's broken heart because the two souls believed in each other.

"Kill him!"

Stones after stones, Hyon looked miserable. Three hits had turned his life out.

As the stones rained down upon them, the wrath of Pirropi descended like a vengeful hurricane. Three strikes, each one a dagger plunged into their unity, shattered their once unbreakable bond. Jeong's futile attempts to shield Hyon from the relentless barrage only fueled the fire of their oppressors, who showed no mercy in their pursuit of retribution.

In that moment, as the mausoleum of a nation's turmoil loomed large, Kwan realised that personal struggles paled in comparison to the collective madness that gripped Pirropi. It was a sobering epiphany, a glimpse into the depths of humanity's capacity for both resilience and savagery.

And as the last stone was cast, shattering the facade of justice and revealing the ugly truth beneath, Kwan knew that the echoes of that day would linger long after the commotion had subsided, a haunting reminder of the fragility of peace in a world driven by chaos and revenge.

With those iron straps around his wrist, he eyed the Almighty in a vulnerable stature.

"Silence."

"The path you walk is shared by all your despairing companions, who lived without dignity or recognition. You have allied with cowardly celestial beings, a group who did not rebel or show loyalty to their deity, yet still stand out.
Paradise has cast them out, and even the deepest abyss will not welcome them. Not even the worst among them is worthy of dwelling in such darkness."

And Kwan was left stunned.

The Almighty had spoken for him.
But why?

He squinted his eyes, attempting to see more of him. The tears and the sweat had immensely clouded his line of sight, but his eyes could see Hyon, chained just like him, weeping and bleeding.

"Almighty Faen, he is a fraud! We do not be-believe h-him..." The suddenly found stutter in the man's voice was of realization.

Faen's right eye had been bleeding the entire time, the entire period of raining stones, and those Pirropians didn't even bother?

"Almighty, yo-you are bl-bleeding-"

Hushes became murmurs, and another commotion befell their course.

A man, most wisely a healer of Durai, waddled up to him. Their Almighty was hurt. They had to do something.
With some cotton in his pinch, the healer leaned to dab the blood off his wound, but his "pity" was stopped.

"You Pirropians refer to me as the Almighty Faen, the God.
Is your God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then where did the evil come from?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Why?"

Aren't we all selfish? Neither are all theists or each person we meet is a pagan, but there's someone each of us believes in. But the tragedy of our reality is that we are selfish. We are all selfish.

We would trust them, believe them, but even for once, they haven't heard of what you desire, once they haven't listened to your pleas, or maybe once they haven't done what you asked them to- their belief in you is shattered.

Sad, isn't it?

"Here I am, trying to prevent anyone from saying those really foolish things about him, but none of you bother to pull a tug at your mouths. Tell me, have you ever felt a void? Any of you perhaps have been in a state where you can't feel a thing and each emotion hitting you makes you numb?
Do you know what it is to not feel? Do you know how deep the sorrow is when you pinch and pin when you try to hold on but everything slips away?"

The Almighty was enraged. In a world of emotions, Pirropi never felt the need to celebrate the little sentiments that had blessed them. Why would they do so? Taking for granted is human nature, and caring is utterly humane.

"Shu-nam, the holy Duraian! Tell me when your brother died saving your little child. What did you feel?"

The said man stared at their king, their Almighty, in awe. He remembers losing his brother, who was no less of a son to him, and who did everything to save his biological prodigy. He remembers sitting stunned, unable to retaliate with his thoughts and emotions. Though the Durai never cried, the hollow, flappy limbs of his heart fluttered in utter insanity when he lost and found his life at the very edge of reality.

"I did not feel empty!"

Shu-nam attempted to explain himself, to soothe his contradictory soul, with a few shaky breaths of the tall man rhymed poems of truth.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive demand for a plausible cosmos that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

And life was never a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

The God laughed at his innocence, as the poor man attempted to compensate for his own sorrows by telling a lie of despair.

"And I don't feel any pain..."

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Pagan: Atheist

Take care...