Power Thief's Revenge [BL]-Chapter 195: God and The Devil

Chapter 195: God and The Devil
Meanwhile, as the people in the van had to settle their group dynamics....
Raphael passed by a classroom having a lecture in Ethics. In the projected screen were these words:
[Only finite beings can choose. Therefore, only finite beings can be free. What reason does immortal and infinite beings have to be free? What reason does an immortal have to make choices?]
[Choice is made in order to reach an end, to preserve yourself as long as possible before your inevitable death. That is the meaning of existence. From the Latin word ’exsistere’, meaning ’to stand out’, to ’rise above it all, despite circumstances’. Therefore, immortal beings do not exist, they simply are.]
He stopped in his tracks when he read those words.
"Immortal beings do not exist, they simply are..." He repeated to himself.
Then what of God?
He remembered the words of the Revenant to him. The words he repeated over and over, until Raphael believed it to be true.
"Inside a man is God and the Devil. The God in him is the one who strives for perfection, for everything to be right, just and eternal. The Devil in him is the one who revels in disorder, who acts according to his instincts and brings things to an end. God creates, the Devil destroys."
Raphael then thought. "What about those who neither create nor destroy? The ones that just are?"
"There is no such thing." The Reverend said.
But there was.
The beings of Pleroma. Raphael’s kin. They were not born, and they didn’t die. They never change. They were immortals...
Therefore, they do not exist.
But he who creates... He exists. He is God. He is Lord.
When Raphael talked about God to the Reverend, he was actually talking about HIM. The Reverend must have assumed that Raphael was talking about some metaphysical idea of God, this ’God within you’ that he always teaches.
But no.
To Raphael, there was only one true God.
He who can create himself, and can create life in anything. He who can bend the rules of reality, and change himself through love and intimacy.
That is his Lord.
And his Lord gave his love to him. He was currently filled with his essence.
The Stripes believe he was the Devil though. That was what Raphael recalled when Dr. Khemia mentioned about.
After presenting the cylinder tank containing what remains of Eirwyn Curacio, the Reverend said this:
"The one who did this is the Devil. Take heed. He will cause the destruction of us all. He will ruin our chances of attaining heaven."
Attaining heaven.
If ’heaven’ was actually Pleroma, and Pleroma was a place of pure order, where everything remains perfectly the same...
Then ’hell’ was the Void.
Or at least, that was how they viewed it. But for Raphael...
Pleroma was hell the moment he stepped foot in it. It does not create, does not live, does not breathe or exist.
And so the opposite of that would be his heaven.
Raphael kept walking. Soon, he passed by the painting of ’The Fallen Angel’ by Alexandre Cabanel. A weeping Lucifer with luscious fiery hair covered the lower half of his face as he sat on a rock, fallen from the skies where one can see the angels embrace each other and rejoice in his defeat.
But if one would look closer, the look in his eyes was not that of defeat or sadness. Instead, it was a look of fury, of determination. Of a promise.
A promise of revenge.
’Was the Devil really the one who seeks destruction, while God is the one who seeks a stagnant world of peace?’
Raphael spoke to the painting like a student asking a teacher life’s toughest questions.
And what are humans then? Humans who slaughter each other in order to achieve their ideals? Humans who destroy nature, in order to create a world that was perfect in their eyes?
Aren’t they all devils, thinking of themselves as gods?
"Hell is empty. All the devils are here." Raphael finally said, receiving his answer.
He came to the same conclusion he made that day he learned of Hermes’ existence. The moment he heard those words from the Reverend’s lips.
If Hermes was the Devil, and Hermes was God, then the Devil was God all along. They were one in the same. Only that....
God was trapped in the body of the Devil, the body of a human.
And it is his duty to free God from that cage.
***
The halls of the archive were silent. Not the peaceful kind of silence, but that strange, heavy stillness that came when time itself refused to move.
Raphael’s steps echoed faintly across the marble, breaking that stillness for only a moment before it sank back in again. Between the rows of shelves and reading tables, figures stood frozen mid-motion, each locked inside their own sliver of eternity.
And there, near the entrance, was Shani.
He was half-turned toward the door, a folder still in his hand, his expression calm even in suspension.
There was always something about him that seemed untouched by panic or surprise, like he existed in a world slightly out of sync with everyone else’s rhythm. Raphael approached and reached out, laying a hand gently on his arm.
The moment their skin met, time rippled back into motion. The hum of the lights returned. The faint rustle of air resumed its flow.
Shani blinked once, twice, then looked at Raphael with composed curiosity.
"What happened?" he asked quietly, voice steady. "Where did everyone go?"
Raphael hesitated. He didn’t know where to begin. His throat felt dry, his mind still carrying the echo of the words he had read in the lecture hall.
He forced himself to answer. "There was an... incident in Dr. Khemia’s botanical garden."
He paused, searching for words that could possibly contain what had occurred. "Something went wrong with our meeting. It’s best I give you the full story."
And so he did.
Shani listened without interrupting, his expression thoughtful, as if turning over each piece of information carefully in his mind.
Raphael continued, explaining what he could: about Khemia’s work with solinium, about the Thirteen Stripes, about Pleroma. He spoke of immortals and false heavens, of the beings who could neither create nor die. And finally, inevitably, about Hermes.
"His nature," Raphael said quietly, "is unlike any of ours. He was born from the Void. He can create life where it should not exist. Even inside those who are not meant to bear it."
Shani’s eyes shifted slightly, the faintest flicker of something behind them....
Curiosity, perhaps? Or recognition.
"I see," he said, almost to himself. "So it has reached that point."
Raphael frowned. "That point?"
But Shani didn’t answer right away. He crossed his arms, leaning against the nearby table as if settling into a debate he had long expected.
"Tell me something, Raphael. Who is Hermes to you?"
The question struck him off guard. "What do you mean?"
"I’ve seen the broadcasts," Shani said simply. "The interviews, the photographs. The media loves you both. They call you lovers. The perfect pair."
He gave a faint smile, neither mocking nor amused. "But I don’t believe that’s the full truth. At least, it wasn’t... until recently."
Raphael looked down, unsure how to respond.
"I can tell when something in you has changed." He tapped a finger against his temple. "A lawyer’s habit, I suppose. We’re trained to see what others won’t say."
Raphael said nothing. His fingers trembled faintly at his side.
"So I’ll ask again," Shani said. "Who is Hermes to you?"
For a long moment, the only sound was the low hum of the lights.
Finally, he whispered, "My Lord."
Shani didn’t seem surprised. He nodded slowly, as if confirming something he had already known. "I thought so. You have that look. The kind that belongs to the devout."
Raphael’s voice wavered. "You... don’t think I’m deluded?"
"Deluded?" Shani tilted his head slightly. "Faith and delusion are twins born of the same mother. But no, I don’t think so. Not with what lies inside him."
Something in Shani’s tone made Raphael’s stomach twist. There was a weight there... a quiet certainty that came from knowledge, not belief.
He suddenly remembered how Dr. Khemia had looked away, turning toward the wall when speaking of Saturn and the black sun.
The wall.
And beyond that wall was Shani.
Raphael’s breath hitched. "You... were there," he murmured. "When Khemia said Saturn would herald the black sun. He turned to you."
Shani’s calm expression didn’t waver.
"Interesting." he said softly.
"Then that means..." Raphael’s voice trailed off.
His thoughts raced, filling in the gaps.
Saturn is...
But before he could finish, Shani’s voice cut through his spiraling thoughts.
"You see Hermes as a god." he said. "Something higher than you. Than all of us, because of his power to create and transform. But to me..."
He paused, eyes distant. "He is the truest symbol of humanity itself. He embodies what mankind is. The hunger to create, the desire to defy, the need to reach beyond what they are... even if it means falling into the abyss."
Raphael stared at him. "Humanity...?"
Shani began to walk toward the exit. "You call him Lord because he shows you what it means to exist. To love, to suffer. You think of him as divine because you have never known what it means to be human."
He glanced over his shoulder, a faint smile crossing his lips. "That’s the irony of worship. Sometimes, you only worship what you wish to understand."
Raphael didn’t follow immediately. He stood there, the echo of those words burning quietly in his chest.
And so.... Raphael wondered if what he loved in Hermes was not his divinity, but his humanity.