Chapter 81: Garden of Eden

Asherah... That was her name, she's the ex-wife of Yahweh, and the mother of both demons and angels.

Right now, that same Asherah is right in front of me.

"Are you okay Haruki Hotaru?" She asked me with a smile. It's like there's an immense pressure coming from her when she kept on talking to me.

It's almost exactly Leviathan's aura, but unlike Leviathan, the aura surrounding Leviathan has reminiscent of peace and tranquility that I couldn't even explain.

Just by her appearance, Asherah looks young and beautiful, unlike his ex-husband who's almost an old man in the next following years.

"I understand... You're confused, aren't you? Why me, the Goddess of Motherhood in Abrahamic Mythology doing here visiting the King of Hell."

"Yes... Especially since after I heard from Lugh about what happened between you and the other Gods..."

"You mean that incident thousands of years ago? It is indeed a bad memory, and I don't really want to remember it ever again if possible..."

"How can you say that casually? You know what happened during that war right? What you've done?" Asherah... Even if she looks like any normal God on the outside, but on the inside, she's far deadlier than an ordinary God.

After all, from what Lugh has said. Asherah was one of the reasons a rebellion happened on Heaven, and also she's the one who made the Great God War far deadlier.

"Lucifer's Rebellion, Azazel's Rebellion, the Second Gigantomachy, Ragnarok, the Trojan War, the Great Flood, and many more... All of those events happened on a single war, and it doesn't end there, since as of right now the Second Great God War is happening..."

What is this? A history lesson? I already got one with Lugh and Gusion's argument. "You don't have to tell me about it, I already know... But why? If you didn't revive Baal and create a new lifeform, this wouldn't have happened in the first place? Why didn't you just ask the other Gods' permission first?" Why am I even asking her? Before I even knew it, our first conversation started to become serious.

"It's not that easy Haruki Hotaru... I'm a selfless being you know? I guess that's what every parent is, all they care about is the future of their children. Even if they'll make the whole world against them..."

Really..? Sucks that I didn't feel something like that... "Then Asherah, what are you doing here anyway? Unlike Lucifer and Beelzebub, I don't know who you are and I don't have any connections with you at all." It seems odd already that she knows my name, also why is she even here in the first place?

"I'm connected to any angels and devils Haruki." Asherah happily said with a smile. "That, and also you're the son of the famous heroic devil Jarren Hotaru who defeated and killed many Archangels; especially the Seraphim."

Just as I expected, Lugh wasn't wrong about Asherah at all. She said that she's selfless and cares about the future of her children a moment ago... But what is she saying now? Why is she smiling happily from saying my father's achievement? Since his achievement that she was praising is killing her sons and daughters... Which is the exact opposite of what she said.

This girl, Yahweh's ex-wife, and the mother of the Archdukes and Archangels... Is completely... "Wicked."

"Hmm..? What did you say Haruki Hotaru?"

"I said it! You're wicked! You're sick! You're rotten to the core! How could you even say that with a straight face!?" Lies, she did it for the future of her children? That's a complete lie! Doesn't she know that most of them are all dead right now?!

I knew it, she's just like them. She's like my parents, people like them only care about the joy of someone's suffering.

Looking back at her, I saw her not reacting at all to what I said, she's just smiling there while looking at me.

Seeing that happy smile on her face, I was freaked out and confused about what's happening right now. "Why are you smiling..? Why the h*ck are you smiling?! Are your children's death a laughing matter for you!?" Even if the angels are my enemies, I still truly understand what they've felt with Asherah.

"I guess this is why Yahweh called me a witch..."

"Huh?" Her tone suddenly changed from being happy to that of a painful one.

"A long time ago, Ea discovered the existence of humanity, so the other Gods piqued interest on what humanity can do too."

There it is again, the name Ea. I don't know who that God is, but I know he's the mastermind of the separation between the Gods, which means that he's a God more powerful than an ordinary God.

"That's when Yahweh tested to make his first-ever devotee, you've heard of the two right? Adam and Eve?"

"Yes... In the Bible, it is implied that the first-ever humans were Adam and Eve." But what Asherah said is different, she said first devotees, not first humans. Then that means that Adam and Eve were not the first humans, but the first follower of Yahweh's religion.

"At that time, Yahweh kept on experimenting on Adam and Eve and even made the two create their own family to make his experiment more adequate, and that's when I grew jealous of humans."

"Jealous?" Is it because Yahweh has more time with humans than his family?

"Actually to tell you about this, this place that we're setting foot right now, is the same place he experimented with his first devotee."

Looking at our surroundings, I knew that this place is where we were trapped by Satanael, where I met and parted ways with Lucifer, reunite with my father, and also the same place I got to talk with the mysterious blonde girl, and now, this is the place I got to meet the Mother of the Abrahamic Mythology, Asherah.

"This place is the famous Garden of Eden. Come Haruki, let's walk while I'll tell you the story of the Great God War."

I stood up from the ground and followed her as we walked to this grassy place.

At first, it's like the same; nothing was happening at all as we walk. The giant grass was moving from the gust of the wind, and the sky was still a civil twilight sky.

There was no life here besides us two, and the giant patch of grasses that's surrounding us.

"What is this? There's nothing to explore here at all." There's nothing but grass here; not even animals exist here, and she calls this the Garden of Eden? Everyone's dream of finding the Garden of Eden would be ruined if they saw this place.

Asherah just let out a smile, and that's when I saw something taking shape on the land.

A mysterious shadow of a man and a woman with their children were having fun in the garden, and many plants and animals were formed by the shadows also... By the picture that the shadow showed us, it seems impossible at all.

The animals; both predators and preys were all playing peacefully with the entire family like there's nothing to be hunted for them at all.

Every animal was eating vegetables and fruits that the human family was foraging, and none of them were not complaining about their food at all. It's like a paradise for vegans to live in.

Just by seeing the peaceful life of the family at this place, all I could think of is one thing. "Are these people Yahweh's first devotee? Adam and Eve with their children?" Yes, if this place is the Garden of Eve in the history of the Bible, it could only mean one thing. The man is Adam; the first male and the woman was Eve; the first female.

"Correct, those shadows are Adam and Eve, with their three sons: Cain, Abel, Seth, and their three daughters: Awan, Azura, and Luluwa. Together they lived a happy and peaceful life with the guidance of Yahweh..."

"But..?" There's gotta be a reason why the Garden of Eden is like this now, if there's no more life here beside grass, then it got to mean something.

"One day... Ea found the existence of this alternate space, and so he and Yahweh made a contract for Eden to be the place to experiment humans with."

The shadow of Adam and Eve with their family being happy changed, and a shadow of a portal appeared in front of them.

Both Adam and Eve look suspicious for seeing a portal for the first time, and so Adam crafted a wooden spear to try and protect his family from whatever is coming out of the portal.

A strong gust of wind came out of the portal and the tension of waiting exceeded for Adam, and Eve who was with her children were hiding on a giant boulder.

"What is happening..?" Even I can feel the heavy tension that's happening to both Adam and Eve right now, it's like something unexpected is gonna come out of the portal.

And there it was, many extraordinary men came out of the portal. At first glance, they look like any normal human being, but the difference is their ears.

The men have long-pointed ears, and the color of their skin was only white and dark brown, to give context: They're not humans at all, but something far different.

Anyone who watches fantasy films and animes, and also people who read fantasy books know what these beings are. "Elves..?" In many films and books, The light skin elves are just normal elves, while the dark ones are called dark elves.

But what are they doing here? I thought the only lifeforms here at that time were humans? So why elves?

"But there's a catch. At that time, Ea kept many secret lifeforms hidden from the other Gods, and one of those lifeforms were the infamous elves."

At the shadow, the leader of the elves came forward and greeted Adam. "It's nice to meet you, Adam, my name is Frihmats Kelnerius. The firstborn of the elf race." He said politely.

Adam let his guard down and introduced himself. "My name is Adam, I'm Lord Yahweh's first devotee." At that time, the elves were teaching Adam and his family about the real world, and they've also introduced the power to manipulate skills to them.

"But there's a problem..." Asherah softly said. "At first the elves were friends with both Adam and Eve, and Frihmats with the other elves were also being friendly with Adam's children, but it was all a facade..." The shadow changed again, and the shadow showed the elf leader Frihmats talking to someone else, and that was Asherah herself. "I said that I was jealous of the humans right?"

"Yes..." She did mention that to me, she was jealous of them because Yahweh had more time experimenting with them, than having time to have fun with his family.

The shadow shows Frihmats asking Asherah. "Lord Asherah, are you finished with what I'm gonna be tasked for."

The shadow of Asherah nodded at Frihmats and gave him a mysterious seed. "Plant it. It'll grow in only 3 days, and also one of my daughters will come with you."

An angel appeared behind Asherah, and when I saw her I was shocked. "Lilith?" That angel was Lilith, the same Lilith I know right now.

"Actually at this time, Yahweh decided to show himself to the humans back on Earth, and you know what happened to that situation right?"

Yahweh was saddened that the humans treated him as a God like he is, but not someone who can stand equally with them. And at that time, Baal massacred the human devotee back on Earth and he was punished to death by the other Gods.

This means that Baal was already the first demon at that time, and some conflicts started because of the new lifeform that Asherah created.

"Because of the humans, my entire happiness was destroyed..." Before I knew it, Asherah was already starting to cry from that memory. "Because of the existence of humanity, I got separated from my children, and because of their existence, many of my precious children were killed by the war."

Lilith's shadow, who was behind Asherah's shadow started to turn into something different. Her feathers started to fall one by one, her halo disappeared, her claws became sharper, and two horns and a tail appeared from her body.

Just by seeing her transform, I got to see the Lilith that I know of. Right now, I got to see Lilith transform to her true self; she's now the first-ever female demon and the first-ever succubus.

Upon finishing her transformation into a demon, Lilith just simply smiled happily. "Let's go, elf." She said to Frihmats who followed her to where they were going.

Asherah's shadow looked above the sky and whispered to herself. "I'll get my revenge Ea..."

The shadow changed again, and it now shows Frihmats sitting on one of the branches of a tree. The tree seems to have a weird fruit that I'm not familiar with, and Frihmats was holding one of the fruits. "Lord Asherah's revenge... How exciting..."

Another shadow appeared and a weird snake took form from the shadow, I say weird because the snake seems to have 4 legs with it, it's actually like a lizard at this point... "Hide yourself now Frihmats, Eve will soon come here." The snake talked, but what's shocking to me is the voice of the snake, because it sounds like Lilith's.

"Then, excuse me, Lord Lilith." Frihmats politely said and teleported away with a portal.

A shadow took the form that of a female human, and it was Eve; she was running to the tree in a hurry. "Frihmats said that he'll meet me here in this tree that he planted... But where is he?"

Just by seeing this scene I already know what was to happen, due to it being a famous tale in the bible that was known to many people on Earth, and it's known as the beginning of the story of the Bible.

Lilith came down from the branches of the tree with the fruit constricted on her tail. "Excuse me are you, Eve, that Frihmats was talking about?"

"Yes, that's me..." Eve looked amazed when she saw Lilith. "A talking snake... This is amazing, I got to show Adam and the children about you."

"Thank you for the compliment Eve, actually I'm Frihmats familiar and best friend, he told me that he was doing something which is why he's late. So as an apology for making both you and Adam wait he'll give you two a gift."

"Really?! But... Adam is still not here, because it looks like one of the lions was stuck on a crevice, so he went there to save them."

"Don't worry, give him this if he comes here." Lilith handed Eve the forbidden fruit from the tree. "Eat this, this fruit is only found on Frihmats country, so he went back there to give you two these fruits because it's his favorite."

No that's a lie, it was created by Asherah to destroy the peace of both Adam and Eve.

"Really... It looks amazing, is it sweet? Sour? Bitter?" Eve excitedly asked Lilith.

"You'll find out if you try it."

"Then time to eat!" Eve held the fruit tightly and took a bite of the fruit that Lilith gave her. "What is this..?" Was the first she said after she ate the forbidden fruit.

Lilith turned back into her true form and gave Eve a happy smile, and she clapped to congratulate her. "Congratulation Eve, for being the first human to commit a very deadly sin."