บท 75: Omniscience in Marvel 73

Title - Run Down of Biblical Events

…

"...So you're telling me you were wrongfully imprisoned here for running away from a woman?"

Two men dressed in ancient prisoner garments sat together in the dimly lit confines of an Egyptian prison cell. The cell, carved from rough-hewn stone, was small and sparsely furnished. A single barred window high above let in a sliver of sunlight, casting faint, wavering shadows on the damp, cold floor.

Joseph, with his long, unkempt hair and beard, wore a simple linen tunic, now frayed and stained from months of wear. His eyes, though weary, held a glimmer of unwavering faith and wisdom.

He sat on the ground, his back against the cold wall, knees drawn up as he thoughtfully gazed out the small window, lost in contemplation.

Beside him, the fellow prisoner—a burly man with sun-tanned skin and a rugged appearance—sat carelessly. His muscular frame hinted at a past life of hard labor, and his clothes were similarly worn and dirty.

He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, occasionally glancing at Joseph with a mixture of curiosity and frustration.

"How many times do I have to tell you that?" Joseph sighed as he continued looking up into the sky.

"I…don't just understand. Wait, was she too ugly and displeasing to look at?" The man asked while scratching his head. He had been in this prison for years but had never met an inmate who was imprisoned for NOT bedding a woman.

"She was a woman married to a man in a high position. I won't be telling you any more than that, lest I dishonor them." He closed his eyes and said a short prayer before saying, "Have a good night."

"You…sigh. I can never understand you Hebrews." The other inmate said and also closed his eyes to catch some rest before the sun rose.

…

"So..? What have I missed?" Leucadius who had just returned to his office in heaven asked as he got comfortable at his desk.

"Nothing of note. I took proper care of your office and the responsibilities that come with it." Aspect said, his voice carrying a hint of smugness with it.

"I see…Can I get a run down?" Leucadius asked nonetheless. Whether it was done by Aspect or him, it was still something done by God so he should be aware of it.

"Alright…Following Jacob's escapade at home, he ran all the way to his Uncle's side, Laban and spent 14 years working under him to marry his two children." Aspect began.

"So…his cousins?"

"Positive."

"Hmm. Continue…" Leucadius signaled with a tired sigh.

"In the time he spent there, I had noticed that despite not showing it, he was immensely troubled at the way he left his family behind, so I asked him to return back to his father's land."

"Hmm. As he should."

"Laban tried playing a series of tricks on him to get him to stay since he is immensely blessed but against me, his various tricks were nothing but a means to enrich Jacob."

"Ooh. Who's richer, Abraham during his glory days or Jacob?" Leucadius asked with a smile. Despite Aspect being him, he still felt that his blessing should be more efficient than Aspect's.

"..."

"...So?"

"They're both immensely rich." Was Aspect wise reply to the question.

"Tch, carry on."

"With his children, servants - men and women - flocks consisting of various forms of livestock he set out for Canaan. Rachel, his beloved however decided to take away some of her father's household gods-"

"Gods? Laban worships another God other than I?" Leucadius asked in mild surprise.

"Affirmative. Despite their knowledge of you, they are quite diversified in their various worship of gods."

"Hmm. I see…they're inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Carry on." Leucadius shrugged at that knowledge and immediately lost interest. They may be Abraham's distant relatives, but they weren't his descendants.

"Following their escape, Laban chased after them for three days. I feared he would result in doing something stupid so I sent him a warning in his dreams." Aspect said and glanced at Leucadius who didn't seem to care.

"Upon catching up with them, Laban asked Jacob why he would steal his Household gods to which Jacob fiercely denied and even made an oath for me to smite him if Laban found one such thing amongst his property."

"..." Leucadius gave Aspect a look with various meanings to which Aspect shrugged. "They can be quite extreme."

Leucadius merely sighed and Aspect took it as a signal to continue. "I had to reduce Laban's thinking faculty by a bit to prevent him from being too serious with the search."

"A lot of stuff happened but the most important one was that Jacob managed to stumble across an angel on a mission and happened to wrestle with him."

"An angel?" Leucadius asked in surprise. "How? What mission could he possibly be doing down on Earth?"

"I had sent him to look after Jacob's family on the off-chance that Laban decided to go against my order."

"Oh…and who won?"

"It ended in a draw. From what I observed, Jacob's body had managed to fully assimilate the abundant holy energy that has been siphoned off Heaven." Aspect said while placing a cube in front of Leucadius.

"Oh..?" The cube flashed as a projection of Jacob's body enhancement was displayed in front of him. "He's almost half as strong as Adam was." Leucadius sited to which Aspect nodded.

"However, due to his lack of fighting experience, they could only settle for a wrestling match to which shamefully, the Angel lost."

"Lemme guess, he broke Jacob's hip in retaliation?" Leucadius said calmly to which Aspect nodded, unsurprised by Leucadius' correct speculation.

"Jacob demanded the angel bless him-"

"That's impossible, right?"

"Of course, but since I was spectating, I couldn't let our prestige be sullied."

"Wise. Since we lost to a human, we should offer him something. So? What did you bless him with?"

"A name. A change of name to be precise."

"From Jacob to Israel?" Leucadius asked to which Aspect nodded again with an unsurprised expression and passed him a list of promises he had made along with the change of name.

"Now you've done it." Leucadius sighed after reading through it. "You know what this means right?"

"I'll take responsibility for it?" Aspect asked calmly to which Leucadius smiled brightly. "It's good that we are on the same page."

"..." Aspect merely rolled his eyes at Leucadius shameless words and behavior. It's not like he'd ever done anything in Heaven other than sign a few documents, give some random judgements here and there, and then punish some humans he felt were not to his taste.

"Anyways, while I was out on vaca- I mean, gathering information on the Eternals, I felt a massive amount of faith energy accompanied by a prayer of guidance and protection. Color me surprised when I found that he was Jacob's son." Leucadius said and turned to the screen at the back of his chair.

With a flick of his finger, the screen zoomed in on the handsome looking Joseph who was going about his daily routine of hard labor in jail.

"Joseph, Eleventh son of Israel. He found favor in his father's eyes while garnering a level of distaste from his elder siblings." Aspect reported to which Leucadius couldn't help but curl his lips in disgust.

"Were this a region under the Shinto pantheon, I dare say no human family would-" Leucadius began but stopped midway as he remembered that this wasn't a great comparison.

The Japanese families that had elder brothers that loved their younger ones were rare and unique in their own ways, so comparing them to Jacob's family would be a bit unfair.

"I actually manipulated fate to allow him to be sold to Egypt for certain reasons." Aspect suddenly said seeing Leucadius fall into his own thoughts.

"How so?" Leucadius asked with an increased interest.

"This way, the promise we made Abraham would come to fulfillment." Aspect said and pulled out a file titled PROMISES TO ABRAHAM. "Look at section two of Article one." Aspect continued.

It read; Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions."

"..."

Leucadius and Aspect just looked at themselves in silence, none knowing what was going on in the other's head at the moment.

"What…sigh…what is this?" Leucadius asked with a heavy sigh. "I don't remember making this promise…"

"That is true, I did make the promise." Aspect nodded.

"Just…I just have one question…Why?"

"Because, it's the best course of action to create a people strong enough to survive in even the direst of situations." Aspect said and pulled up another tab and passed it to Leucadius.

In this tab, Leucadius read through Aspect's convincing reasoning behind his actions. According to Aspect, letting the children of Jacob grow under their father's wealth will make them squander it all in the third generation at the very least.

Abraham was rich, he passed his riches to Isaac but even then, their lack of knowledge and information led to the downfall of such a rich family in the persons of Esau and Jacob.

Esau since he went against his parent's wishes and married a Hittite and Hivite woman. In order to not be totally alienated by his parents, he went and married Basemath, daughter of Ishmael, Isaac's half brother, hence, his cousin.

In doing this, there would be a massive diversification of his wealth and due to the Pagan ways of the Hittites and Hivites, Aspect saw no hope in him and came to a conclusion - People born into grace, wealth, prosperity and favor all end up losing their way in the long run -

He has calculated the best possible way to make Abraham the father of many nations and since Isaac was a personal gift from God, it was obvious whom the Nations would come from.

That didn't mean he wouldn't also make Ishmael a nation in its own right.

"I seem to understand…" Leucadius said after reading through Aspect's thoughts on the matter of his people. "Humans are…complicated creatures after all."

"Indeed they are."

"So…Joseph will serve as a foothold for his brother's to come, Eh?" Leucadius came to a conclusion but asked nonetheless to which Aspect nodded. "But this is…The Ennead's territory…" he said contemplatively.

"I understand that, but what better way to inspire faith in our people than crushing the belief of another Pantheon from within their area of influence?" Aspect asked, causing Leucadius to glance at him.

Was this still his trusty Partner? Why did it seem so…Scheming?

"Resourcefulness. Most people mistake being wise and resourceful for being mischievous and scheming. They're not the same." Aspect said as though understanding Leucadius' train of thought.

"I didn't say anything."

"But your eyes did."

"..." Leucadius was about to ask what similarities there were between someone being resourceful and scheming, but unlike most humans, he stuck with his better judgment and kept silent.

"Alright then…I'll be taking over Joseph's case from here…I think it's time we began laying the foundation for our future generation of worshipers."

"Oh..? You'll be the one working this time?" Aspect asked a bit disdainfully but Leucadius decided to be the bigger man and ignored while asking. "Do you know the law of foreshadowing?"

"Law of…Foreshadowing?" Aspect asked in confusion to which Leucadius chuckled and said. "It's the Law that states that every action taken in the past has a significant and symbolic meaning to future events."

"I'm pretty sure such a law doesn't exist."

"Exactly. I just made it."