Chapter 65 The Burnt Lamb
When this name came into Yara's view...
In that very instant.
He felt everything around him become eerily quiet...
The birds that had always sung melodiously over that fertile land fell silent at that moment; the rustling of the wind through the leaves ceased abruptly; and the faint sounds of neighbors exchanging greetings and laughter vanished like a dream...
All sound has fallen silent...
Yara could only hear her own breathing and her heartbeat, which was gradually becoming more rapid.
This is very wrong!
Yara immediately became alert...
His precognitive abilities were operating at full speed at that moment; he sensed a powerful unease...
It was as if an unknown gaze was watching him from the shadows...
I got goosebumps all over my body.
Yara drew her bronze sword from her waist and looked toward where Shiaga was...
However, strangely enough... she disappeared.
In the dim light of the fire, the planks and charcoal lay scattered on the ground, just as before.
The location has not changed.
But Shiaga simply vanished, disappeared into thin air, as if she had evaporated from the face of the earth...
Yara was filled with doubt and apprehension. He picked up his sword and stepped out of the room.
Stepping outside, everything around me had changed.
He seems to have left Canaan and somehow gone somewhere else.
This is a field...
The setting sun shone on the field, its afterglow tinging the grass with an orange glow.
He looked back.
Yara's horrifying discovery...
The house he came out of was also gone.
Where is this?
All around, there was an endless grassland.
Top of head
It was a blood-red setting sun.
Yara was left all alone.
Just as Yara had clearly determined his location...
Abrupt.
A melodious, strange, and monotonous flute melody.
It came from afar.
Accompanying this was a faint, heart-beat-like drumbeat.
When this sound reached Yara's ears, he felt a sense of disorientation, as if his mind had been captured by something, clouding his senses and even obscuring his ability to foresee danger...
Yara realized something was wrong with herself.
He gritted his teeth.
He quickly plunged the bronze sword into his body.
The bronze sword pierced Yara's abdomen, tearing his intestines apart. Blood mixed with the juices of his internal organs slowly flowed from the wound, soaking Yara's clothes and dripping onto the grass...
A sharp, long-lost pain suddenly swept over Yara's entire body.
He was trembling all over from the pain, his face pale...
And the next moment
That shattered soul... shone with a mystical pattern of "ᚾ".
[Resurrection from Misery]——
That power surged from his soul, filling Yara's entire body...
And the mind that had been affected by the strange flute music gradually came to its senses.
Feeling the power coursing through her body, Yara felt more confident.
He clenched his fists, glared at the empty grassland around him, and roared into the air:
"Get out here!"
"That thing hiding its head and tail!"
The sound echoed in the setting sun, but there was no response...
Suddenly, Yara sensed something amiss behind him. He immediately turned around, a punch about to be thrown—
However, he stopped abruptly.
A shepherd, whose face was obscured, drove a flock of lambs and slowly appeared on the horizon...
It appears to pose no threat whatsoever.
The shepherd was holding a flute, and the eerie sound he was playing was coming from him...
immediately.
Yara moved like an arrow released from a bow...
The airflow caused the grass blades beneath their feet to bend low.
He stopped in front of the shepherd, his bloodied fist pressed against his face.
His eyes, like those of a lion, glared at the man and demanded:
What are you?!
It seems to be due to the backlighting.
Yara couldn't see the shepherd's face hidden under his hood...
He seems to be a person with dark skin.
The shepherd, with a half-smile, soothed the frightened lambs. He put down his flute and said:
Please forgive my intrusion...
"I meant no harm..."
"Just a small offering..."
Yara was taken aback, his fist involuntarily lowering slightly, puzzled:
"Sacrifice?"
The shepherd blew his whistle toward the lambs.
The lambs seemed to understand human nature, and they all came to the shepherd, bleating softly.
He looked at Yara and said solemnly:
"Choose a lamb..."
"A sacrifice to your god..."
"He will be pleased."
The shepherd's voice was seductive...
Yara's heart immediately leaped into her throat...
To please the Lord?
What kind of honor is that?
The rationality that Yara had developed through suffering seemed to gradually disappear as the pain subsided.
His eyes were glazed over, and the last vestiges of his reason led him to ask:
How do you know my God?
The shepherd answered:
"I know all the gods."
Yara was about to ask another question when she heard this.
The shepherd then spoke in a deep, yet highly seductive voice:
"Choose your lamb..."
"Don't hesitate..."
Yara's rationality vanished, and she stopped asking questions.
He listened to the shepherd's advice.
From all the lambs beneath the shepherd...
They chose the strongest one that looked the best.
He nodded, his expression dazed.
"This is the lamb I've chosen..."
The shepherd seemed to smile, but said nothing.
He pointed forward.
A mountain appeared in the distance.
He hung a pile of firewood on Yara's body...
He whispered in Yara's ear:
"Go up the mountain and offer sacrifices to your gods..."
Yara was already in a daze.
Before my eyes appeared the scene of the Lord rejoicing at His offering of the lamb.
A surge of longing and anticipation welled up within me...
"This is...what the Lord desired..."
Yara murmured.
He carried firewood on his back and held the lamb reverently in his hands.
So they headed towards the mountaintop...
The lamb in her arms kept bleating.
Like the crying of an infant.
The sunset was like blood.
Covering the road ahead...
In that hazy vision.
With each step Yara took, a nameless sorrow welled up within her, as if her flesh were being ripped out, as if her blood were about to flow...
After an unknown amount of time, we reached the summit.
And then, the shepherd's enticing whispers reached his ears once more—
"God wants you to sacrifice a lamb..."
Just like...
"Sacrifice your eldest son..."
He will be joyful.
These words were spoken.
Yara looked down.
They discovered that the lamb had indeed taken the form of Isaac.
He was heartbroken...
But the shepherd's seductive words, which gradually approached that absurd choice.
It came again—
"God wants you... to sacrifice your firstborn son..."
Firewood was piled up to form a makeshift altar.
Tears streamed down Yara's face as he trembled and kissed little Isaac's cheek.
However, it's been difficult to make a move...
The shepherd finally uttered that perplexing, almost seductive choice that nearly drove Yara to despair—
"If you believe in your God, then you must sacrifice your son..."
"If you love your Son, you will forsake your God..."
"How will you choose?"
The ancient, drawn-out sound of the flute and the irritating drumbeats echoed endlessly, as the setting sun splashed its scarlet blood, staining the sky crimson, and its afterglow watering every inch of the mountainside like blood...
The setting sun bathed everything in its light.
Yara, whose mind was captivated, burst into tears.
How can I not believe in my God...?
"But...how can I not love my child..."
Yara held the knife.
I looked at Isaac on the altar...
Under the shepherd's gradual guidance and enticement...
Yara's spirit was gradually reaching the brink of collapse...
The pleasure of toying with mortals made the shepherd's lips curl into a mocking smile...
However, just as Nayara's spirit was about to collapse...
As the shepherd was about to carry out his final plan—
A beam of light streaked across the sky.
Holy light.
Shatter this illusion to pieces.
Yara, and even the shepherds, were captivated by the white light...
Nothing could be seen clearly.
Only when the light dimmed...did I see—
A radiant, holy, white humanoid figure with eight wings and a golden ring on its head.
Standing before Yara...
He came in accordance with God's will, and all the words He spoke were the Lord's own words...
thus.
Though He is a messenger, He is the presence of God.
He looked at Yara, who was kneeling on the ground, weeping.
Mouth holding the law of heaven—
God will not let you lose...
[God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.]
...