Angel on earth

Mikhail stands in front of the southern spire, holding a palette held to the spire by an invisible force.

He liked the slope of the spire, and since the day before yesterday, he has been standing on this wall to draw a landscape painting in the style of Claude Don Sicher.Sometimes, young priests in white robes will climb up to the highest spire as lightly as a spider, and sing a hymn with the radiant sun cross, as if dancing with an equally pure maiden.

The land at the foot of the holy mountain is full of greenery, and the rocky city in the shadows is like a black spot.

Mikhail's spring is more comfortable than in previous years, and the richest king in the world is not as free as he is.Just last month, in the name of "Mikhail", Jasmine also removed the great flood in the Noah Plain every few years; when Gregory told him, he was very surprised: "It turned out to be so easy. "

It was early morning at this time, and the sky was just getting bright, but the sunset was brilliant in the painting.An old two-story wooden house is hidden among flowers and plants in various seasons and regions, as if in a garden of all nations; the wooden house has a simple double-sloped roof, the tiles are covered with moss, and the eaves stretch out long; the old structure It can't support too much weight, and the oriel window with cloudy glass is set on the first floor, and a cross window is opened on the second floor.The hut occupies only a small part of the picture, submerged in the scale-like burning white clouds and the flowers and plants shading the sunlight.

Wearing a white dress and a red robe, Isabella quietly walked up the spiral staircase, stood by the wall, and stared at the scene in the painting for a long time.Mikhail seemed unaware that she was coming, and concentrated on deepening the light and shadow for the cabin.His hands were still bandaged, and the rage that shattered Rollins' head had destroyed the bones of his hands, and the Saints had struggled to wring his fingers from their fists; I can climb the roof, draw and play the piano again.

After watching for a while, Isabella said softly: "It's not easy."

Mikhail rolled his eyes and knew she was talking about Molly.

Isabella said: "Jasmine hasn't woken up yet. She is very capable, but her mind is not very good. She listens to me too much."

Mikhail looked at his painting, mixed some moonshine on the palette, and said, "You want me to treat her well."

"She likes you. Do you know why?"

Mikhail thought for a while, nodded, and said with some nostalgia: "Jasmine is forbidden to enter the territorial waters of Ayden. One year I went on a cruise in Aydin and brought her a pair of earrings. She liked it very much and attacked the Golden Fox." I still wear it when I'm wearing it."

"The pair of earrings belonged to her mother. Her mother was a mermaid who was dedicated to the monastery by Aiden." Isabella looked at the black horizon, her blond hair fluttering gently in the wind on the roof, "She listened to me to attack you with my words, I was very sad afterwards, but I didn’t know what to do. But she still listened to me more because I killed her father.”

Mikhail finally turned to look at her and asked seriously, "Why?"

Isabella said, "I want you to meet Micah."

After a moment of silence, Mikhail rinsed his pen, changed to another one, and looked down at the screen:

"I've seen it."

"The drawing board is on the backlit side," said Isabella.

"There is no difference in my eyes," Mikhail said.

Isabella stopped insisting that he come down.She raised her head and suddenly enjoyed this moment—she hadn’t looked up at anyone under the blue sky and sunshine for a long time. The fresh air and the bitter morning wind brought her back to her girlhood in an instant, and the thin shirt was amazing. Trembling, innocence and humbleness even made people happy at that time.

She curtseyed, her voice soft:

"Then, I won't say anything else. I'll explain to you the seven prophecies of Sihekiah in the 'God's Book', stating everything that you and we must suffer. This is the history you know: June 1211 in the divine calendar On Friday the 6th, Sihijia tore up the original Sun God Book, wrote seven prophecies in the church, and mentioned the long-handled ax that cut off the head of St. John to attack and kill the Pope. 'David's fall in the Sihija Canal during the battle opened the prelude to the Third Holy War."

Mikhail looked at Isabella: "Did you improvise, or did you premeditate?"

"It was premeditated." Isabella admitted frankly, "but the stupid things done by the Sihi family gave me a chance. Micah and Aaron have the best relationship with the Edwards family. I have a reason for the rebellion of the Sihi family. Get rid of the two of them; Maria is even more stupid. After a few years, she was coaxed by Jonathan to conceive a child and went to the Emerald City to wait for delivery; there was no better chance. When Maria was judged, Azaria was still there Siegfried was a missionary in the Commonwealth, and his sacrifice gave us an excuse to march eastward; "Sea King" Zechariah was also trapped at sea. David and I led the downfall of Edwards, and David was killed by Rollins. "

"Azalea...I remember that he was the 'pre-god priest' before Ethan." Mikhail narrowed his eyes, "Why did you introduce Zacharias but not Azalea's honorable name? ? If you say I know, then I know everything, you just don’t let me know Micah.”

"Azaria became a saint after the Third World War because of this incident." Isabella said casually, "Don't think that Sihekiah and the others are pure and innocent heroes. We conspired against the Federation conquest. Azariah's sacrifice was a lie, but the resurrection by faith is even more so."

Mikhail responded obediently, and turned back to toss his cloud:

"Then, please tell me the content of the prophecy."

Isabella looked over the wall:

"Sihekiah claimed to be inspired by God, but we are not sure of its authenticity. Because Pope Gregory at that time was God the Father who descended, but he was already crazy. We tried every means to kill him, but we could only kill him Trapped underground, it was also the Xixi family who finally accomplished the feat of killing the gods.

"He begins by writing: 'One of the seven angels who carried seven golden cups full of the seven last plagues came up to me and said: Come with me, and I will show you the good and the bad of the flock. [1]' Then there are seven prophecies. The first is what he emphasized many times during the Second Jihad: the world is filthy, shameful things are done among brothers and sisters, and even the fornication of fathers and daughters, mothers and eldest sons, God The sons and daughters of God rebelled against the teaching of their fathers, and perished for the pleasures of the world; on that day, the pure Mary will no longer be found in the world, and eunuchs and whores will run rampant in the world.”

"But you still insist on His coming." Mikhail clicked a few strokes, "This prophecy sounds more like it was used to deal with that pirate queen."

"Yes." Isabella smiled, "We did use it to sanction Maria. This prophecy first appeared at the end of the Great Restoration War. The mortals who walk out of the narrow gate are not half false."

Mikhail smiled inexplicably, and Isabella said:

"The second prophecy is 'For your sins the sun shall perish, and for three days the children of God shall not see the light'. We did not read that at the time, and now think 'Children of God' point to you. This and the third are defending you, for the third is: 'Whoever eats my blood and flesh outside of the Holy Communion, thunderstorms will fall from heaven and swallow up his whole family.'

"The third point clearly points to Rollins. Mikhail, Rollins died at your hands according to the will of the sun god. If that's the case, why should you worry?"

"I'm not worried, let alone regret it." Mikhail was not interested, but listened seriously, "But when Rollins lost his entire family, he didn't touch the Philosopher's Stone, did he?"

"Everything has already been decided."

Mikhail couldn't help turning around: "Isn't it because he lost his entire family that he came up with the idea of ​​the Philosopher's Stone? David is the culprit of everything!"

"No, it's me, and it's also Arnold Edwards." Isabella said proudly, "Your Aaron will fall into my hands in 1225 anyway!"

Mikhail broke the paintbrush in his hand, and the wreckage stained with crimson paint fell to the bottom of the abyss-like tower, and was swept away by a gust of wind and disappeared without a trace.

He took a deep breath, and his tone became visibly irritable: "Okay, go ahead! Let me hear why I... did all this!"

Isabella showed a triumphant and arrogant smile, and a pair of emerald earrings refracted the morning light on her fair and tender cheeks beautifully:

"The fourth to his dear adopted son Micah. 'This splendid continent is but the plaything of your power; it is like a lamp of gilded silver that swings at your feet'."[2] "

Mikhail tilted his head when he heard the words, and his shoulder-length blond hair cast a layer of girlish light on his side face: "This can also point to me. Micah is a person from 500 years ago."

Isabella said softly: "So Micah must be erased from history. Because the most powerful saint in the world today is not you, but him. He is a dog."

Mikhail covered a bird of paradise with a clump of reeds: "You are afraid of Micah."

Isabella nodded slowly: "Yes. Because he is an idiot."

"In your eyes, am I too?"

"Yes. You are true saints." Isabella said calmly, "The essence of saints is the obedience of God the Father. Youth and strength depend on ourselves, but once no one remembers them, saints will quickly weaken and die .You know the pillars of salt in Sodom and Gomorrah, so now I tell you that among the 99 pillars in the cathedral of the sun, among the "wild lion" Len and the "scourge" Suleiman are buried The pillars of salt in which they themselves were incarnated. To this day, perhaps only a few of our saints and folklore remember their names."

Mikhail looked at his painting, added the last touch to the clouds, put down the palette and brush, straightened up, and faced the distance:

"But you know this is impossible, at least the Norren people will never forget him. Originally, when the church could still control the countries, that's all. Now that Norren even dares to confer knights and honors on wizards, who do you show these things to? "

"But are they really remembering Micah?" Isabella walked to him gracefully and calmly, stepping on the air stairs, looking at the scale-like clouds on the screen and the pure blue sky behind them, "He is a You idiot, you only have trivial things on your mind all day long, and you will even go to the Emerald City to beat people under the witness of the Father God, and you will always jump on the back of Xixi's house when you are old. The 'Micah' in the eyes of the Noren "An omnipotent demon, the wrath of God the Father incarnate. They made him a statue, and set it up in bronze and steel in the park, as if he were equal to St. George. If Micah accepted such worship, he would become become such a man, and such a change would destroy the very foundations of his being human."

Mikhail turned his head and looked down at her, and she raised her amethyst eyes too.

Teenager said:

"The first night I went to Chalek, I met Aaron in the Ognessica forest. He went to rescue a runaway girl and told her the story of Micah in the forest, which triggered Rollin Later, Aaron and I came back by boat, and Micah saved the girl's sister again. They will become the same narrators as Aaron, so, Isabella, they remember Micah ?"

The author says:

Jacob: In Genesis, Jacob wrestled with God in the wilderness in order to get the promise of God's blessing, and finally won.

[1] Adapted from Revelation 21:9 One of the seven angels who had seven golden bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me...

[2] Adapted from Rawadin's "Song of the Waking Child"