Let Justice Be Done Ch. 70

AN: Look at the edit at the bottom

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"So humanity was...a failed creation." Raguel frowned as he said this. It felt...right given his human experience and everything he knew, yet he didn't like it. 

"Oh no, mankind was definitely a success." God corrected the Archangel. 

"Huh!? What?" Raguel was wide-eyed, yet couldn't help but feel his optimism reigniting. 

"Raguel, I am Perfection and I am the Creator. I am literally--and this is not a hyperbole--incapable of failing when creating something. It is not in my nature. So yeah, Humans were definitely a perfectly successful creation." God clarified. 

"Then why," Raguel waved his arms around in failing to put his thoughts into words, as his brain provided too many examples of how imperfect humans are. "Why did we turn out the way we did!?" Raguel ended up saying, throwing his hands in the air. 

"I was surprised too the first time," God chuckled. "Adam was apathetic, almost robotic in his actions, while Lilith was too temperamental and willful." He said with a look of fond remembrance. "I figured that because they are lesser beings that was simply their nature at the start, and would later grow up to be the same as I am in spirit, if not ability. I was proven right with Adam and Eve...but not with Lilith." He sighed, let out a little chuckle. 

"And what happened then?" Raguel asked. 

"Well for starters, I did not see the whole Eve eating the apple bit." God said nonchalantly.  

"Ha Whaaaa?" Raguel said bug-eyed. Had he been drinking something he would have spit-taked it. "What the whole 'omniscience' thing?"

"Yeah, here's the thing no one seems to realize. Knowing all factors and conditions related to a choice, doesn't mean you still know the choice they will make." 

"...Okay, say that again, but for a dumb person." 

God held back a laugh. "Let's say someone has a sweet tooth. They aren't in the mood to change this habit that had been going on for years. They just finishing some difficult task and naturally their mind is telling them to treat themselves. They pass by a street that had dessert shops of every single one of their favorite treats. They have eaten enough to not be hungry, but are now really craving for sweets. Will they buy at least one dessert? Almost all answers point to yes." He gave an example. "It can still happen that they can choose not to buy a dessert."

"And this relates to the apple how?" Raguel raised an eyebrow. 

"Because when I made the Garden of Eden, the idea was to help my creations cultivate wisdom, before giving them the Fruit of Knowledge so they could, well, to gain knowledge. The plan was to teach them wisdom and moral over time so they would internalize the lessons, till it is a part of them. All the factors leading to them eating the apple early, even someone tempting them by it, were removed. Yes, obviously I instructed Adam and Eve not to eat it, and they didn't have the mental wherewithal to choose to eat it, as at that point, they were still following everything I told them to the letter and spirit. 

"Yet Eve choosing to eat the apple for the sake of Adam and him doing the same for her, was not something I expected to happen, because all signs and divine prediction abilities pointed to 'no, that would not happen'." God said with a look of fond bafflement, remembering that situation. 

Raguel fell to the side laughing.        

"Yeah, it really was ridiculous," God looked to the side, as He held a smile of pride. "And it's honestly amazing, that mankind's first act of defiance was due to one person worried about the happiness of another. No wonder I didn't see that coming." 

Raguel sat back up, finding himself smiling as he thought about it. 

"So it was technically virtuous even though it was wrong, because it was against your orders." Raguel nodded to himself, see how that could have happened. God planned against sin, but not virtue working against itself. Given that he was the ultimate good. If that made sense. "What happened next?"

"Among many other things, Cain and Abel, and during that period the Trihexa began showing up. Looking back at how I deal with Adam and Eve, and how they grew after their punishment, I followed that same model. Cain was marked and hated by everyone he met, and then went on to be a city builder, a pioneer of civilization." God sighed. "So, there was a model for how mankind can grow spiritually." Raguel frowned feeling a bit worried. "Good deeds are rewarded, bad deeds are punished, and redemption is rewarded. Simply enough, right?"

"Oh no." Raguel's eyes widened a bit, as he leaned back. He began to see where this was going. 

"Indeed." God nodded. "For a very small bit of time that model worked, but it was very flawed for a very simple reason. I can not control everything. Not just because there are outside factors like other gods etc. But because if I were to do so, then where does free will even enter the equation. How can humans be good when I wouldn't allow them the choice to do so? I provided the conditions and chances for them to choose to be good, yet the result..." God looked to the side, sighing in annoyance, recalling that time. "I was slowly becoming frustrated with them. 

"Why do humans keep making the wrong choices when given freedom? Yes, most of the time they try to do good by those in their close circle, but anyone outside of it, and evil acts seemed to always be within the first options they consider. 

"And when they make a mistake, they don't always learn. In fact, they need the same lesson repeated over and over again, as well as the willingness and focusing to learn, in order for it to stick? How can they be so imperfect? Sometimes they would face an adversity and when they overcome it their soul would regain a little bit of that original shininess, thus rather than fix their problems, I started granting them the strength to deal with it themselves."

"Sacred Gears!" Raguel excitedly pointed out. 

"Correct, among other aid." God smiled and nodded. "Above all, in those olden days, I've been holding humanity to the same standard I hold myself up to. It's why the punishments were so harsh. To commit a murder, is to as if one had killed all of mankind." The Creator looked at His son with a loop-sided smile. "You know that saying 'when we treat man as he is we make him worse than he is. When we treat him as if he already was what he potentially could be. We make him what he should be'?" 

"...Yeah," Raguel found himself leaning forward, resting his head on his hand, while looking on in horrid fascination.   

"Welp, I've discovered it is possible for a man to become worse by treating him as you think he already was what he potentially could be." God said. "The more I enforced my will on humanity, the more frustrated I got by the results not panning out as expected. Worse, even if one generation learned the lesson, and started walking the virtuous path more faithfully, the one after would stray and repeat the mistakes of their elders. Eventually my punishments got harsher and more frequent and stringent. Eventually it led to situations were I was basically going 'full wrathful divine judgement' on even the minor offenses."

"...And then what happened?" Raguel found himself asking with morbid curiosity. 

He suddenly remembered that scene from a loony toons episode where Daffy Duck was telling his movie script and the producer, director, whatever kept asking him what happened next, till Daffy starting talking about natural disasters. 

"Well, I had Noah travel the world meeting every tribe there is to get to try and  get them to just worship me, so that they would then be virtuous through my teachings later on, you can guess the amount of success that had, and then I wiped the board after that." God let out a sigh and chuckled. 

Daffy Duck was right! No. Focus!   

"Wait," a thought occurred to Raguel. "There are other pantheons in this world. How did you flood the world with them around? Wouldn't they have tried to fight your..." Raguel waved his hand around trying to describe what the flood was. "Natural disaster attack or however it could be seen?"

"It was a short apocalypse and," God snorted, making Raguel smile yet blink in surprise at the expression. "They tried to push back against my power. They failed." That's all God said and that seemed enough of an explanation. 

"But..." Raguel continued. "What about all the humans left behind?"

God looked up and sighed. He looked melancholic.

"Some were of different faiths, that wasn't focused on being good just obedient--yes I realize the irony given how somethings ended up later on. A lot were corrupted by sin, and some were just stubbornly against me, thinking I was evil or unfair or weak, etc. due to the state of the world at the time and the difficulties of life. They blamed me and never looked toward themselves." He looked back toward Raguel with eyes that were heavy of life, wisdom, and all that experience that granted such wisdom. "I still held mankind to a high standard, but began to try and reexamine their growth. Maybe the problem was population. Thus after the Flood, I thought to be more careful and focused on them, and see how their develop would go. See how the things that worked when the population was small, changed as their numbers grew bigger. How the lessons needed for them to be virtuous might need to change as their size grew, and why that change would necessary.  

"At the same time, I was discovering that with each clash with the Beast, while I successfully repelled each time..." God brow clenched for a second in frustration, before he let out a breath. "I was permanently growing weaker."

"...What?" Raguel sat up in alarm. 

"It wasn't much. Just miniscule amount, yet it was still there, and I could see that eventually, after maybe millions of years, if nothing is done I would lose. Of course, that's only if nothing is done. If say, humanity were to spread across the stars, all of them worshipping me, that faith would empower me to fight the Beast and keep it away from mankind indefinitely." His eyes narrowed. "But I saw in such future, they wouldn't grow. They would reach a point where they would depend on me to the point of zealotry." He shook his head. "That's not what I wished for them."

"So the seal idea came in?" Asked Raguel, wanting to hug his Father. 

God smiled at Raguel and shook his head so they can continue their discussion. 

Raguel stood up and went and hugged him. 

God chuckled, returning the hug while rubbing His son's head. After that Raguel sat back down again facing his Father. God had His normal smile back again. 

"Back to what we were saying, yes, the idea of sealing it so that I and mankind together could face it and defeat it in the future came up." God sighed in amused frustration. "But then no, that's not what happens. If I don't go with the future were only the zealots are left, I would be left with mankind overcome by the idea of rebelling against me."

"What?" Raguel blinked in confusion and growing annoyance, as he could start to imagine it. 

"Simply put,  as the world becomes more secular even with the presence of the supernatural, which would be good as they would grow and be more independent, and self-determined, sadly humans will also come to blame me for the sufferings of life, and my not being Limitless would seem as more reason to detest me. Even a bigger reason why not only should they not follow me, but throw away spirituality all together, seeing it as a giant scam." God sighed. 

"What the fuck? No. You're not responsible for their suffering, you don't control the universe." Raguel said back. 

"Yes, but they will look suffering and my power and ask why I am not intervening at every problem, natural or man-made." God explained. 

"But you can't live their life for them. I mean, I can understand not interfered with man-made problem, fix your own shit and all that," Raguel argued. "But...what about the natural problems then?"  

"Then they would stagnate, for example, not managing find cures for diseases that you would consider trivial. Or create buildings that can withstand natural disasters, which would act as a prototype from when they venture out into space and colonize planets with harsher atmospheric and environmental conditions. Like a planet with more frequent earthquakes but ten thousand times the rare minerals you would find on Earth.

"Or if I don't help them, go to other sources such as the Devils or the Fallen so they would fix their problems for them, over a long enough period of time the Devils and Fallen would gather enough human followers that we get the Great War the Sequel." God let out a sigh and chuckle. 

"Oh for fuck's sake." Raguel facepalmed. He really hated that he could see that happening. "Can't you...I dunno, explain the Beast and why they need to self-improve without using you as a crutch?" 

"No, that ends up worse."

"Of fucking course, it does." Raguel muttered. "How?"

"Because it will be seen as me diverting responsibility somewhere else." He shook his head. "I will not do that. I'm fine being the target of their scorn as long as they eventually learn how to carry their burdens by themselves."

"And that doesn't happen, does it?" Raguel was worried that he might start to become cynical again. 

"For every step or so forward...throw a die to see how many steps back." 

Raguel let out a long tired groan, that had his Father chuckling.  

"Okay!" Raguel said up and took a deep breath to formulate his thoughts. "So either zealotry or constant in-fighting because we'll have a shit load of whiny brats, that can't accept life is difficult and we need to grow up and fix the problems together ourselves. Anything else?" He said, thinking things can't get worse.

"Well the Beast proved itself to be annoyingly smart by firing off pieces of itself through time, that landed on Earth before I faced it. That's how you had a Beast Shard be on Earth like the one in Pandora's Box." God said with an amused smile. 

"Fucking what?" Raguel screamed, wanting to tear his hair out. 

"So I had to use a massive spell that covered the world and took a chuck of my power so any part of the Beast that lands on Earth, past, present or future, if it's separated from the whole, would lose its purity and adapt to the world."

"Huh?" Raguel tilted his head. 

"You ever wonder about species that don't make sense from an evolutionary stance point. Creatures that would die if humans weren't around for them to feed on." God pointed His arm the side and a giant screen opened showing different monsters form from black tar-like spectre flying to different points in the world.

A human blood mage was overtaken by the spectre became the first Vampire. 

A kitsune attacked and possessed by the spectre created the first Kumiho.     

And so on it went. 

An Impure Beast Shard Spectre possessed a tree, and it became the first Jubokko. 

A spectre invaded a nordic warrior's corpse and became the first Draugr. 

And in in the land that would be Australia, the Yara-ma-yha-who came to be. 

A spectre possessed a wolf turning it into the first werewolf. 

A three-headed dragon grabbed one of the spectres, sealing it in a magic orb and taking it away. 

One of the tribes in the land that would come to be known in the future as Mexico, gathered together, trapping and sealed a Black Spectre. 

A Black Dragon made from the Impure Beast Shard, grabbed one of the Black Spectres and took it with him as it went into hiding.  

The very hideous and scary witch in the frozen lands of Russia, grabbed the Black Spectre, examined it as it thrashed helplessly in her grasp. She looked unimpressed, and got bored of it, so she put it in a box, then shrunk the box into an egg, which she put the egg in a pearl and threw it into a river, in an uncaring manner.

"Huh," Raguel noted. "So that's why the Beast Shard didn't want to be released from the box. Even if it became part of the world it was weakened, and all those monsters tend to have specific instant-kill weaknesses." Raguel said. "Although the few times it was sealed or grabbed..." He pointed out worryingly.   

"On your journey you'll come to find and vanquish them." God reassured him. 

"But what about the one that became vampires and the like?" He asked. 

"That already happened, and those creatures propagated. Humanity will have to, or have learned how to deal with them." God explained. 

"Is there anything else we can do about them?" Raguel. 

"Sure," God snorted. "We could always convert some werewolves." 

"And then form a band and call them the 'Powerwolves'." Raguel immediately said. 

The two laughed for a while, before the mood became solemn again.  

"So...what happened after Noah?" Raguel asked. 

"I decided to focus on a smaller group. One chosen people. If I could make them perfectly morally virtuous, not just for one generation, but people as a whole, I could then use the same method for all of mankind." He explain.

"You're talking about the Israelites?"

"Yes. I send Moses as the first major prophet with a codified version of my teachings." God nodded. 

"Didn't you punish them by making them wonder the desert for 40 years?" Raguel asked with wide eyes. "Actually before that, that whole...ten plagues thing." He said lamely. "I mean, children, infants felt your wrath."

"Yeah, I was still in a wrathful phase at that point, still holding humanity to my own standard, and I explained to you how you inherit your parent's actions and karma in part. Then again, there were times where they were really testing my patience like that shit with Moloch."

"Who?" 

"Asshole devil that got people to sacrifice children for him by burning the infants alive."

"Oh fuck them at that point." Raguel growled.   

"Yeah," God sighed and shook his head, frowning at remembering those times. "Back to the tenth plague, it's not like the Egyptians weren't knowledgeable on how to avoid that fate. Rumor had spread and reached all of Egypt at that point. The pharaoh also knew, but defiantly didn't cover his house's door in lamb blood." God paused. "Although he did have the assurance of the Egyptian Gods that his family would be protected, even though they couldn't stop me before." 

"You even killed the first born of all livestock." Raguel pointed out. 

"...The animals had it coming." 

"Pfffthahahahaha," Raguel leaned back and almost felt like he would fall before he righted himself. "I'm serious here! Hahahahaha, that was horrible." 

"Well," God smiled, before gaining a pensive look again. "I would say I was being through, but I was just simply falling on my side of being a perfect deity, that I executed my will in a totality that displays my authority over life."

"How..." Raguel looked to the side and sighed, before facing his Father again. "Being so wrathful doesn't sound like a perfect god."

"You're confusing benevolence and mercy with fairness." God replied. "In those days you weren't judged for just what you did, but what your tribe, your people did. You carried the weight of your people's actions on your back." 

"All of that sounds..." Raguel brought up his knees and hugged up. "It sounds so far removed from you. None of that seemed virtuous, in fact wasn't there too much destruction and harm caused." He looked down and sighed, falling into silence. After a long while, he spoke up again. "What does it mean to be 'Perfect'?" He asked. "Why were you born 'Perfect'?" He looked aside clenching his eyebrows in confusion at the thought. "If you were...born?" 

God chuckled. "We'll get to the definition of 'Perfect' in a bit." He said. "So after Moses, I saw that, no even focusing on teaching a specific group of people to be virtuous didn't change the result. Some would be good, some would be bad, the children would repeat the mistakes of their elders, rinse and repeat." Then God had a fond smile. "There was hope though."

Raguel looked up relief on his face. "What was it?"

"The parts were I didn't try to control people. Where they were only guided and chose to do good by themselves. To be more specific, the parts were I didn't focus on looking into the future or creating it, but just...believing in them." 

"Wait," Raguel's eyes widened. "All those times where you punished or rewarded humanity till that point, you...tried to look into the future, or mentally simulate the result?"

God nodded with a sad smile. 

"How...how many times?"

"Yes." 

Raguel stilled. "You're joking...right, Dad?"

God gave a small laugh. "A little. It wasn't infinite but it was substantial enough. It's why I stopped bothering with micromanaging things now."

"So..." Raguel was quiet for a moment when he thought about that, before wanting to bring the discussion back on track. Mostly not to pursue that thought and end up crying. "You became more merciful when you believed in us and left us alone?"

"...The thing is," God held his chin, rubbing it with His thumb. "How can I believe that mankind will be alright. That they will grow into their potential as I wished for them to do, if I don't see that future. I had to believe, but it was belief without evidence, without reward." He looked back at His son and smiled. "It was faith."

Raguel snorted at the irony, before covering his mouth, pretending to cough. 

"So you just needed to believe in us. How....what happened?" Raguel then blinked as something occurred to him. "Why do you need to know we'll be alright without being there to see the result?" The second he asked the question the answer was obvious. "Why do you need to die?"

"Tell me, son," God spoke. "If my death was a sacrifice. If it was used to fuel a spell or ritual, how powerful would it be? What do yo think it could manage to do?" 

"..." Raguel frozen unable to imagine the implication. 

"It would be the most optimal future. If done correctly, not only will the Beast be gone, but humanity will grow to be as gods by striving toward me as an ideal, rather than a physical being they can interact with, thus demonize and project their flaws on." God explained. 

"Okay no, fuck that." Raguel instinctively said, before flinching back at his own words. He quickly recomposed himself and continued. "At least the second part. I understand beating Trihexa for good, but you shouldn't have to die, just to...what? Protect mankind's fucking feelings!?"

"The reason why them striving spiritual being important is one we'll get to," God nodded. "Back to the topic--"

"Dad, I don't want you to die." For the first time in his life, Raguel interrupted the Almighty. "I don't want you gone. If there's," Raguel noticed he began to feel eyes aching and being wet. "If there's anyway to avoid that future, then that's what we should do!" Raguel covered his face with his arm. 

Then he felt his Father's hands wrap around him, as his Father hugged him. 

"There, there." God rubbed his back, letting Raguel cry his anguish out. "It will all be okay. Believe me, son."      

For a long while, the two sat there, with Raguel crying into his Father's shoulder, as the realization that God had already decided to die sank in. There was no deviating from that course of action. 

"They don't deserve it." Raguel spoke once he calmed down, and his Father didn't need to ask who he was speaking of. "If humans will be ungrateful when you are here and real. If they will just use your teachings to stroke their own ego, or reject and cry about it like children because life is hard, then they don't deserve your sacrifice." Raguel cried out, and his wings twitched black for a few moments. 

"Of course, they deserve it." God said with such gentleness and kindness that all of Raguel's anger and resentment melted away in that moment. 

"Huh," Raguel pull back still in his Father's arm, to see that smile that spoke of unconditional love staring at him. 

"You deserve that I give my all for you." God spoke. "Because what father wouldn't give their life to protect his children." 

Tears began to fall from Raguel's eyes again, yet a feeling of confusion filled him. As if God wasn't speaking just about the Apocalyptic Beast. 

"What...What do you mean?" He found himself asking. 

"There are many threats humanity will face. The Emperor Beast of Apocalypse is one. Another would be a threat even further into the future. In order to prepare and arm mankind, not just physically, but spiritually, I would gladly give my life for them. I've done it before after all." God said with a smile. 

"...What?" Raguel ask in confusion. 

"Do you know why I am the way I am now? Why I am no longer judging humanity as I used to? Why rather than focus on being the Perfect God, I have decided to just be a good father?" He asked. 

"...Why?" Raguel wanted to keep protesting his Father's decision to die, but found himself asking instead, as he wanted his Father to tell him, what He wanted to tell him. 

"Because I am aware of my wisdom now." 

"..." Raguel just blinked a few times not understanding. He repeated the non-sequitur in his head a few times and still didn't understand. "Okay, I...I don't get that." 

"Back then, even though I was Perfect and Complete but not both." God explained. 

"Weirdest humble brag I've ever heard but okay." Raguel nodded. 

God chuckled. "What I did not have was the perspective of a human. I was not Limitless, but I was so powerful that I did not know what it was like to live, with so many limits as a human. I did not understand the human view of mortality, on being finite, as I was Eternal. Thus I didn't empathize with the knowledge of death that all humans had. I couldn't.

"Above all, I didn't have the ability to believe without seeing the result." Then God smiled widely, and the world felt like a better place. "Until a human named Job came by." Said God. "One of my children, my humans, taught me that, by showing me that faith."

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AN: That seriously went on for longer than I intended. Fuck, I fear it's gonna take two more chapters for this god talk to end, then we can jump back to some action/comedy scenes. 

EDIT: I didn't feel satisfied with this chapter, so I came back to try and streamline it a bit and clarify some stuff. Hope it helps, as I feel trying to do this again would make me fall into a perfectionist trap of always revising.