Devil's Eye Reborn - Shadow Angel Awakens - Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Chapter 61: Origin of the Ark
I knew Cerberus wasn’t lying. If it weren’t for his friendship with Rahab, Zicheng and I would have perished along with those hundreds of innocent lives at the orphanage.

I sighed and said, “Let’s not talk about this. Tell me about the ‘Ark.'”

“Do you know the origin of the ‘Ark’?” Cerberus asked with a smile, his killing intent disappearing instantly.

I nodded, “After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The ‘Ark’ was made to hold the two stone tablets.”

“That’s the common belief,” Cerberus said, his expression meaningful. “But it’s not the whole truth.”

“I know. God hasn’t appeared since casting down the angels at the beginning of creation. So the Ten Commandments supposedly given by God are fake, right?”

“Yes, that’s true. The Ten Commandments were ordinary stone tablets made by Moses, with the commandments inscribed to guide the Israelites,” Cerberus said. “But the ‘Ark’ was indeed created by God.”

“What?” I exclaimed in surprise.

“During the First Angel War, Satan’s army was ultimately defeated. God captured Satan, broke his wings, and cast him down to the mortal realm,” Cerberus said seriously. “At the same time, Adam and Eve, having eaten the forbidden fruit, lost their immortality. But they retained the ability to reproduce, ensuring humanity’s survival even after their deaths.”

“To collect human souls after death, God sealed ‘Hell’ and ‘Heaven’ in the ‘Ark’ and another artifact, burying them somewhere in the mortal realm to absorb the energy of deceased souls. These artifacts were hidden so well that no one, not even the demons, sought them out. But years later, a demon accidentally discovered the artifact containing ‘Heaven.’ Initially, the demon knew it was extraordinary but couldn’t figure out how to open it. After trying countless methods, he eventually forgot about it. Until one day, when he was six hundred years old, an old enemy came looking for him.”

“When they met, they fought immediately. By accident, they opened the artifact. Perhaps the method was incorrect, or maybe it was meant to be, but when ‘Heaven’ was unsealed, it caused an enormous tsunami, engulfing many nearby areas. In the end, the demon managed to repel his enemy and realized the artifact contained ‘Heaven’ or ‘Hell.’ But by then, the surrounding area was destroyed by the tsunami, and ‘Heaven’ and the artifact were lost in the flood.”

Cerberus paused, then smiled at me. “Kid, by now you should have guessed the names of that demon and the artifact, right?”

I looked at Cerberus and smiled. “If I’m not mistaken, it must be Noah and his Ark from the Bible, right?” There weren’t many figures in mythology associated with a great flood, and I vaguely remembered the Bible mentioning Noah building the Ark at six hundred years old.

Cerberus grinned, “Haha, that’s right, it’s ‘Noah’s Ark!'”

“Hmm, initially, both artifacts were ignored by the demons,” I said, stroking my chin. “But the immense energy released when the ‘Ark’ was opened, causing the great flood, drew the attention of the demon world again. The ‘Ark’ containing ‘Hell’ also resurfaced, right?”

“Correct, that was Satan’s thought at the time. After the defeat in the First Angel War, Satan’s army was cast down to the mortal realm. But before leaving Heaven,” Cerberus’s expression turned wistful, “God told us rebellious angels, ‘I will not interfere in the mortal realm, but when the end of days comes, I and my messengers will return to reclaim everything.'”

“God was referring to the apocalypse, right?”

“Yes. To have the power to resist during the apocalypse, Satan wanted to obtain ‘Hell.’ Since the unsealing of ‘Heaven’ caused such a devastating tsunami, Satan hypothesized,” Cerberus took a deep breath and continued, “that effectively controlling the soul containers ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ could unleash power greater than the Twelve Divine Artifacts.” He paused.

I couldn’t help but ask, “So, did Satan eventually find it?”

“Of course he did. Otherwise, how could your ‘Eye of Illusions’ create those terrifying illusions?” Cerberus looked at me with a smile. “But it wasn’t Satan who first found the ‘Ark,’ it was Moses.”

“Is the Moses who parted the Red Sea also a demon?” I asked, smiling.

“Moses wasn’t a demon, but he was naturally tainted with demonic energy. By chance, Moses discovered the ‘Ark.’ Later, he used it as a bargaining chip with Rahab, who was guarding Egypt, to release the Israelites,” Cerberus recalled.

“Monk, have you met Moses?” I asked.

Cerberus shook his head, “I never met him, but I’ve heard a lot about him from Rahab.”

“Yeah, that damn cat was once assigned by Satan to guard Egypt,” I said, suddenly realizing.

Rahab had mentioned that Satan had convened a demon summit on Mount Tai to curb the excessive hunting of human souls by demons, tricking them into signing a blood pact to refrain from hunting for a hundred years. He then assigned the Seven Lords to guard various regions to prevent the extinction of humanity. I thought Egypt, as a major power with a large population, was guarded by Rahab, whose strength was second only to Satan and Samael.

But Cerberus shook his head, “That’s not entirely correct. That was later. Before that, Rahab was worshipped as a supreme deity in Egypt.”

“Hmm? I didn’t know that.”

“Heh, that’s beside the point. In short, at that time, Rahab made a deal with Moses, allowing him to transport the ‘Ark’ to Canaan, now Palestine. Although Moses died en route, the Israelites followed his last wishes and eventually reached Canaan, delivering the ‘Ark’ to Satan,” Cerberus said, looking at me. “After receiving the ‘Ark,’ Satan announced it to the world and convened the demon summit on Mount Tai. After assigning tasks to us Seven Lords, he took the ‘Ark’ and went into seclusion to ponder some unsolvable mysteries.”

“I wonder what kind of mysteries even the King of Hell couldn’t solve,” I thought. Perhaps when I become the true Satan, I will face the same puzzles.

After pondering for a moment, I suddenly remembered something and asked Cerberus, “Monk, was Noah still alive then?”

“No, he had been dead for hundreds of years,” Cerberus shook his head.

“Did Satan eventually find a way to open the ‘Ark’? I can’t recall any major disasters besides the Great Flood,” I asked.

“Logically, Satan should have opened the ‘Ark’ and witnessed the true form of ‘Hell’,” Cerberus said, frowning at my question. “But when Satan emerged during the Second Angel War, besides using the ‘Eye of Illusions’ to create the illusion of entering Hell, no one ever saw the physical ‘Hell’. Whenever asked if he had opened the ‘Ark’, Satan would just smile and change the subject.”

I continued, “Hmm, later Samael betrayed him, and Satan was killed in Jerusalem, leaving the ‘Ark’ in his residence.”

“That’s right.”

“But why did you say no one could move the ‘Ark’?” I asked.

Cerberus didn’t answer directly but instead asked with a sly smile, “Heh heh, kid, do you know that the ‘Ark’ is adorned with two cherubim facing each other?”

“I know,” I nodded. The ‘Ark’ is described in detail in the Bible, and cherubim is Hebrew for ‘wise angels’.

“Well, how should I put this? Those two cherubim were not originally part of the ‘Ark’. Satan added them after obtaining the ‘Ark’,” Cerberus said mysteriously. “Such decorations are not uncommon, but these cherubim, though lifeless, are not dead objects.”

I frowned, “I don’t quite understand what you mean.” Cerberus’s words were ambiguous and confusing.

“Those cherubim are only palm-sized, gold-plated on the surface, but made of pure silver inside,” Cerberus explained, seeing my confusion. “When Satan was killed, Samael immediately sent people to retrieve the ‘Ark’ from Satan’s house to prevent it from falling into the hands of Satan’s supporters. But when his men touched the ‘Ark’, the cherubim suddenly shed their gold layer, gleamed silver, and seemed to come to life, flapping their wings and summoning lightning to strike the intruder dead. After the man was electrocuted and charred, the cherubim returned to their original state, quietly kneeling on the ‘Ark’.”

“Summoning lightning to kill? Those cherubim are quite formidable,” I exclaimed, my mouth agape.

“Yes, no matter how many men Samael sent, the cherubim would awaken and use lightning to kill anyone who touched the ‘Ark’. Eventually, perhaps irritated by the disturbances, the cherubim’s wings grew large enough to wrap around the entire ‘Ark’,” Cerberus continued. “Samael tried every method but couldn’t move the ‘Ark’ an inch, so he had his men guard Satan’s residence. But the ‘Ark’ killed anyone who approached, friend or foe, so Samael didn’t focus much on it.”

“Hmm, these cherubim are indeed powerful. But,” I said, stroking my chin, “this suggests that something very important is inside the ‘Ark’, most likely ‘Hell’!”

“That’s exactly what the Demon Slayer Association believes. About a thousand years later, when our influence had grown and infiltrated human governments, we incited the Roman Catholic Church to launch a war to reclaim Jerusalem under the pretext of recovering the Holy Land,” Cerberus said, looking at me. “This was known as the Crusades.”

Hearing that the Crusades aimed to recover the ‘Ark’, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Ah!” The Crusades spanned two hundred years and eight campaigns, causing countless deaths and injuries under the guise of a holy war, a notorious atrocity of the Church.