The Three (DC Comics) [Chapter XX]

[Miracle]

A thick sweat poured down the face of the High Priestess as she tossed and turned violently in her bed. Disturbing mental images flashed through her mind. Pictures of Amoura putting on a mask that latched onto her face and engulfed it. Pictures of the final Arashi being born and destroying the bastard realm of Utopia. And pictures of that very same being crystallizing the ocean and walking across the glass as if she was Jesus Christ walking on water. All of these things were enough to cause Miracle to scream loudly into the air as she sat straight up. Her heart beating faster than ever as she grasped it and felt terrified still at the mental images she saw.

Miracle's sped up heart rate began to go down, but it was still beating faster than normal in the aftershock of what she just saw. Amoura... They haven't seen her since that night in Utopia. The same night she saw the face of the First Aspect that left in her silence. Had she failed her mission to stop the End? The High Priestess didn't want to believe it but the vision was every bit as real as when she foresaw the arrival of Aper in Aircano. Only this time it was worse, so much worse. Miracle didn't know if she could stand losing her home for a third time.

Miracle left the rebuilt tavern that they were all staying in during the rebuilding of the rest of the city. Looking up to the beautiful night's sky seeing a shooting star move across the sky as the moon shined brightly where it was suspended in the sky. Would this be the last night's sky they'd ever see? No. Miracle couldn't allow herself to think like that. The High Priestess decided that it was finally time to ask the question that has been on her mind from the very beginning. The question she was afraid to ask her Lord. Miracle wandered over to the site of the old temple that was in the process of being rebuilt. Spotting Yahweh up ahead and coming to a stop, a hand on her arm as she looked at him and spoke.

"My Lord."

[DC Comics]

Jeho could feel it, from the heavens and all the way down to the worms of the earth. The End has arrived and this place was destined to be beautified by her touch on the way to the Spiral. And what being on Genesis soil could hope to stop her? The Lord began to go back to the days where he first made these three indestructible beings. The messenger, the will and of course the end. The whisper in his ear as he did such, telling him it was the right thing to do. What was that whisper? Was it his own subconscious at the time or something so much more? Even as a god he still thought like a man. Perhaps that was why all this has happened. Perhaps if he thought more like a god... No. Now was no time for regret. There was no turning back now.

"My Lord."

Jeho was pulled away from his thoughts at the sound of Miracle's voice. Turning around to face the High Priestess to see the sweat and the look of sheer terror upon her young face. Did she sense it too? Of course she did. Just as she did that fateful day in this very city when Aper was freed and traveled through the desert for the holy city and brought it to ruin. Only for it to be rebuilt on a new location and torn down again by the brother. Jeho feared there would be no rebuilding this time if The End has its way.

"Yes, my child? Is something troubling you?"

For now he would continue to play his role as he always has.

[Miracle]

"Yes, my child? Is something troubling you?"

Miracle's hand brushed down her arm and across her hand before she approached her Lord, opening up her arms and embracing him where he stood. Her head perfectly rested on his breast as tears mixed with fear and joy began to water up her violet eyes and blur her vision. The High Priestess never could have imagine in all her years of serving the Lord, that he would ever be before her in person. Something she could see. Something she could touch. Not like this. But here he was in the flesh, within her reach. Why couldn't she enjoy it as much as she thought she would? Why did it feel like their time together was so drastically short? Why?

"My Lord..."

Miracle turned her head, her face now buried in his chest as her body continued to be soothed by his warmth. At least capable of receiving some comfort despite what she knew was looming over them. And how could she not? If her god couldn't comfort her in time of crisis than who on Genesis could? Slowly, she lifted up her head from his chest and looked up at him. Those tears finally running down her face as she spoke.

"You know I am never one to question you... But I must know."

Miracle's breathing suddenly became intense, barely able to utter out the next sentence as it tried to get caught in her throat. A part of her not wanting to know. A part of her perfectly content with being left in the dark. But the part of her that wanted answers far outweighed either of those parts of her being. And she spat out the question before it could get any more held back in her throat.

"Why did you create the Arashi?"

[DC Comics]

Jeho welcomed her embrace, wrapping his arms around the child and comforting her where they stood under the moonlight night. Seeing the tears in her eyes and gently wiping them away with the back of his hand while looking down towards her. Hearing her words as she buried her face in his chest. He could guess the question that was coming and the hesitation to in her heart to ask. He had hoped she would never ask this question, but that would not come to past as she looked up towards him and her lips parted.

"Why did you create the Arashi?"

A silence came over the two once the question was finally asked. Jeho had pulled away from the High Priestess now, returning her to the cold of the darkness as he turned to look up to the night's sky. Pondering his approach on the answer that the world has been waiting for. It would not come in a manner one would expect to hear from the Lord. A sermon, a speech. A monologue. Instead it would come in a single word that would test the child's faith and loyalty in him far more than the Second Aspect ever could. A word that would come as a shock.

"Control."

[Miracle]

"Control."

Miracle's arms dropped from around her Lord as she slowly backed away from his warm embrace. A look of shock and sheer horror in her violet eyes at the one-word answer her ears had just received.

"W-what?"

That couldn't be right. It couldn't be right. If that was the case why weren't all of them like Aper? Why would the first one bring about so much terror and the last the end? What control could he possibly hope to gain with that? It didn't make sense. It couldn't be right.

"What did you say?"

[DC Comics]

"Control," he repeated.

It all came crashing down on Miracle like a cup of glass breaking upon making contact with the floor. How a single word could hold so much weight to the heart of the one that was listening to it was beyond the perception of the child, and many others who dwell on this planet and the various realms around it. But there it was. In black and white with no way for the mind to be able to rationalize it, as has been the case with his followers since the beginning of his reign. She knew now why the Arashi was created the question that remained now was... Could she accept it?

"It was necessary."

[Miracle]

Miracle shook her head. Refusing to believe what she was hearing. She had no way to make sense of it, to rationalize it. No matter how much she wanted to. And it didn't look like he was going to justify the reasons for his actions. The High Priestess soon became distraught wanting to know why. Understand why. He was already the one true god. Her creator. Why would he need such creations for control. What could they do that he already couldn't do with his power?

"I-I don't understand. Why? Why was this necessary? Please. Help me understand. I need to understand."

[DC Comics]

"Who are you to ask anything of me?"

Yahweh's voice roared like thunder, carrying with it the frightening and authoritative tone well renowned throughout the old testament of scripture. The voice of the god that made his commands clear and made no apologies for them. The will that was unyielding and didn't have to answer to any other authority except his own.

"Am I not THE LORD? Am I not the god of your father Abraham, Issac and Jacob? Am I not the god who led the Israelites out of Egypt and provided them the Promise Land? Who are you to question the will of the one true god of Genesis? Have I not given you many blessings? Have I not allowed this city to carry on where others would have perished and remain so? ANSWER THE LORD!"

[Miracle]

That tone. She knew it well. She had often used that tone on others. People who did not believe and spoke blasphemy of the Lord. People who stood in defiance and sinned against his name as often as they could. Now she was finally on the receiving end of it and it did not feel good. It wounded her that he felt a need to use such a tone. Terror filled her body as her fear towards the Lord was seen. Trembling in the wake of his authority but even then she would persist as Abraham has wrestled with God. As Abraham has pleaded for the lives of those in the sinning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. She would plea.

"I am graceful for everything you have done for me, all the blessings you have bestow. The mercy. The love. I am indebted to you forever and there is no one I love more. When I die I wish to spend an eternity with you and praise your name. If it's your will the Arashi are to exist then I will, through you, find a way to accept it. But please... Please.... Help me understand why. Just this once. I beg of you."

[DC Comics]

The Lord calmed his anger towards Miracle. His eyes fixed upon her as she begged and pleaded with him to give his reason for the creation of the Arashi. Why he would want them for control. Jeho knew the weight of the answer and the impact it would have on any who heard it, especially a believer. Had it been anyone else he never would have calmed his anger. Never would have considered revealing the truth. But Miracle was not like the others. She had stood by him where the faith of others have wavered and died. Perhaps she would have the honor of being the one true believer that stood by him even in truth of what he was. Perhaps Jeho would be able to fully give himself to the child and create a bond that not even Arashi could break. Nothing would make him happier.

"I only had ten thousand years to rule."

The words came as such a shock one would need to perform a double, or even a triple take to make sure they heard right. The God talked of in scripture had admitted to his reign being finite when everything else claimed it was in fact infinite. A contradiction that couldn't be undone.

"Even then my authority did not exceed Jherra. The Arashi were created to transcend what the creator had originally planned. To spread my influence throughout the realms - my wrath throughout the realms... They would ensure that I remained the one true god of the worlds. I had hoped Aper would be able to prevent the arrival of The End, that I would remain as a deity forever. But it did not come to past and as a result Eos has materialized in this world. There is no escape from the end."

And so there it was. The truth. Not the truth she was born into and raised to believe. The truth she knew as absolute her entire life and never questioned it. It was the real truth as it had been ten thousand years ago when the creator chose him as god of Jherra. It must have known that this would happen. Did that mean there was a reality that it didn't? Why did It not step in to stop him? Did It too intend for the realms to be destroyed like this? Was he a puppet all along? Even as a god he could not understand the creator. Like his followers could not comprehend him, he could not comprehend the creator. Now it didn't matter.

"There is no resisting The End. She will purify everything through the light of creation and she will bring about our destruction. All we can do is embrace it."

The air became dense. Everything was becoming more heavy, as if weighing down on them both. Even Jeho own breaths grew as for the first time in ten thousand years he was anxious. Anxious to see the respond from his most devoted follower of all. There was but one question to ask now that the truth has finally been revealed to the High Priestess.

"High Priestess Miracle, my most devoted servant. Will you stand with me till the end?"

[Miracle]

In addition to being dense the air grew colder all around them, winter's winds beginning to pick up as Miracle's bangs fell in front of her violet eyes that was no longer making eye contact with Yahweh. She stood there as if in isolation to the same god that not a couple of seconds ago she was ready to stand by even in the wake of the Arashi being a power created for control. Had the truth finally been enough to break her? Had the High Priestess Miracle finally lost her faith in God?

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

Her tone was now dark, cold and unforgiving. A tone that many before had heard while standing before her. The tone that was only revealed to those who sinned against God. Now it was Lord Yahweh's turn to be on the receiving end of something that so many others have been on in the past as she continued.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"

As the wind blew more violently, Jeho would see the eyes of the High Priestess narrowed over his form as her hand brushed across the hilt of her sword found at her waist. Gearing herself for battle as her hand wrapped around the hilt of the sheath sword and prepared to draw it.

"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit."

Miracle began to draw her blade, slowly, inch by inch. The silver blade's glow radiating off the light of the moon as her eyes remained fixed in return to Jeho's glance. Even now she didn't hesitate to draw her blade.

"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."

Miracle sheath her sword and held it up straight in her right hand. One eye hidden behind it in Jeho's field of vision as the other eye continued to stare at him. As if looking through to his very soul. Her other hand reaching around to grab the holy staff at her other side.

"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

The High Priestess' hand wrapped around the handle of the holy staff and pulled it up from its place at the opposite side of where the sheath was located.

"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Holding the staff sideways and in front of the blade it formed the shape of the cross. One of many symbols that represented her faith and the one of the strongest, before Emmanuel's light shined down as a second sun there was the cross. The instrument in which the Father used to offer up his own Son so there would be everlasting life for her and those who believed. She would honor that offering here tonight.

"I should have known. I wanted to believe so badly that God had finally appeared before me that I ignored it. There was something off about you from the start. Something that told me you weren't what you seemed and I ignored it out of ignorance. I can only pray that God in his mercy will forgive me..."

Miracle took up a battle stance and pressed the two weapons together as she prepared for the inevitable confrontation.

"You are not God!"

[DC Comics]

"You think me a false prophet?"

Jeho's own eyes narrowed in turn to what he was seeing from his most devoted follower. He had hoped that Miracle would be the one to transcend what was expected of the rest. That she would be the one to not only accept the truth but remain faithful in spite of it. Now he could see that was not meant to be. Her denial was necessary to ensure that her faith would remain in tact. But he could not let such claims go unpunished. He would prove to her that he was the same Lord she gave praises to from the very beginning. He would prove to her that those feelings she felt upon first meeting him was the truth that she refused to accept. If he could not have her faith in light of the truth then he didn't want it at all. Her faith would be broken by God himself and no other.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

Jeho rushed forward, drawing his blade mid-charge and swinging it towards her own loyal servant. It was time to remove all doubt.

[Miracle]

Miracle met his charge half way, that ever familiar and unyielding determination forming in her eyes as the space between them was quickly cut and their blades screamed through the air. Their sound rumbling throughout the holy city of Aircano like thunder and the sparks of the blade flying through the night's sky like lightning. She held the same determination towards the defeat of this foe as she did with Noob Saibot. For he had performed the worse sin of all. Posing as her God and Father THE LORD. To Miracle there was no greater sin and she would make him pay.

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

Their blades clashed a second time, the sparks flying down the surface of their blade that shinned in the silver rays of the moon. Pushing against his blade as both refused to budge. He was persistent. Perhaps even more so than Noob. But it didn't matter. The High Priestess Miracle spoke for the true LORD and she would not be defeated. Not by demons, false prophets and certainly not by the Arashi that now threatened them all. This man's blood would be the first to spill on this night for the honor of the LORD.

"Amen!"

[DC Comics]

"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

It was clear to Jeho that Miracle was slowly starting to lose herself. Her doubt was appalling and so unlike the Miracle of the past who had never doubted. Ever since Aper had opened her eyes to the fact of new revelation she has been more cautious but now? Now it had all been tossed aside. The High Priestess didn't worship him. She worshiped a god that did not exist. A god that couldn't be a man. A god that couldn't create something like the Arashi without a just cause. A god that would not ask his servant to die alongside him. In short Miracle had taken to a false idol and that was unacceptable.

"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."

The light that shinned on their blades grew in intensity until it was no longer recognizable as the light of the moon. But instead as the light of Yahweh himself. For his holy energies began to take form and leap out of his body onto his blade, blinding the High Priestess at the same time it forced her backwards through a surge of holy energy that no false prophet could ever possess. Jeho would end her delusions here.

"And be not faithless, but believing."

[Miracle]

Miracle was knocked back by the surge of holy energy off her enemy's blade and collapsed to one knee. She looked back up to Jeho, eyes still refusing to believe the truth that was right in front of her. She couldn't believe it. The repercussions of it being true was too great. If he truly was THE LORD then his wish was for The End to succeed. His wish was for existence to be ended all because he wasn't a god anymore. If that was true Miracle choice was an obvious one, and one she was not prepared to make. Step aside as she did with Aper and allow the final Arashi to achieve its goal, or defy her Lord's wishes and sin against him.

She couldn't do it. Not this time.

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

Miracle rose to her feet and charged at him again, fiercely swinging her blade as madness consumed her violet eyes and twisted her facial features as her voice boomed at him.

"Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God!"