Epilogue

RENA

I couldn't take a world without Alicia. I had known her well before she became a man, and had waited for her for centuries. Now she was gone. History would remember the First Oracle as Emett, a male, forgetting how fabulous she looked in heels, a dress, and pantyhose. According to prophecy, even though Belial was supposed to have won, his time really was not to be very long. He would be stuffed in an urn for awhile, and the Earth was to be remade. So said the prophecy mention in the book Oracle of Tao. And the next Oracle, Ambrosia Brahman, would one day avenge her. But all of this was hollow. There was no hope now.

"No worries!" I heard a voice say. And turned, and there was Jesus. The Bible said that "whenever two or three are gathered together, I will be in the midst of them," and also that all believers are the body of Christ. That is to say that Jesus can be found within his followers. But if the followers are in despair or overcome by evil, as it was for a long time until we took action to remind humanity of their roots, the salvation of Jesus is limited. For a long time, it was like the kingdom of God had a dark veil cast over it. Nothing can destroy God's kingdom, but as long as people do not remember grace, it is difficult for people to see it.

Jesus had always been among people, as far back (and farther) as the man striking Jacob's hip. But when he raised from the dead, he was no longer flesh and blood but part of the nature of humans. This was good in that he could talk through literally anyone, offering salvation to those in dire need. But in times of great darkness, it was often difficult to hear him. As it was now. Jesus's body floated free of any constraints, and I was tempted to just ignore this transcendent spiritual being. But part of me wondered how he could still say "no worries" under such circumstance. Even to me, who routinely said that to Emett for a couple years before she was Alicia. "It's fine. I understand you are upset. But if you want, I can reunite you with her," Jesus explained, "all you need to do is leave your body."

This was too much. "On top of following your path losing me my dearest, you want me to die?!? Have you not had enough?" I screamed. Jesus shook his head, then faced me calmly, "I know of a way where both of you can be together. But for too long have I had no means to speak with these people directly. Give me your body, and I will release your soul to meet his."

"Alright," I said, "Jesus take the wheel."And then, I felt a soul enter and possess my body, and my own soul being forced out.

JESUS

I was Rena now. I had a fox girl's body that could shapeshift, an immortal physical body in addition to being part of all humanity. I could not have done this without her consent. I would use this body one day to help the Oracle of Tao. I would use it to save the lives of people and reshape the world. But I would also use it to live the life I had never gotten to experience, the life that was cut short by a crucifixion. I had come again. But I was here to save the world, not to condemn it. And I was here in order so that others might finally hear my message. I could no longer die, after all. Nor could anything harm me.

Years later, I would be told that I could not leave the city of Kushiyama. But that was just as I planned it. I wanted to meet this Ambrosia, and guide her on her quest. And I would revive faith as Rena had, these many years ago. I would be Jesus in the flesh. Not some faraway Jesus that is supposed to come at some imaginary end times, but once again one that could eat and drink, who could teach people what it meant if ever they should forget that God died for them on the cross. Before, they could not only see me as through a mirror dimly, but now anyone could meet me face to face. I have returned.

I carried Rena's baby to term, then I helped an orphanage find a good family for the child. It was a little girl. I would raise her myself, but she wasn't mine to raise, she was Alicia's and Rena's. So I gave her a name before giving her to a mom. The child was named Alicia, in memory of Rena's experiences. Alicia grew up like her mother, a powerful gumiho in her own right. But she never stopped missing her biological parents. Every once in awhile, I visited her, even though she didn't know that I had given birth to her. In the years to come, she became happily married and had a large family of gumiho children of her own. When darkness threatened to destroy the Earth, she and her family was moved to the New Earth with everyone else who chose to leave. As for the other Alicia...

ALICIA

I was not dead. My soul had simply left my body. The result of realizing what all Oracles realize meant that I was no longer part of the physical world. I was a spirit, free to experience the world. I saw the world from the time Belial seemed to win, up to the time where Michael and Estheriel sealed him in the urn. I say the miasma of his evil continuing to pollute the Earth, until finally the Earth was divided into the Void and the New Earth. I saw various religious figures coming to claim their followers. I saw even the atheists coming to be rescued, though their salvation was a smoke and mirrors job (basically, Jesus appeared to them as some trust scientist, who got them all to take a "spaceship" to a new world. They actually entered a portal to the New Earth, but they saw what they saw in secular terms). All of these were either taken to some sort of Afterlife or to the New Earth.

My parents didn't live to see the New Earth (they were not old, I just happened over the next thousand years), but they had a child of their own not long after I left reality. They had a happy life, so I can't complain.

I saw the world being made anew, and centuries to follow. I saw Marina, Arboria, Aellisa, and Autumntwig living out their immortal lives in happiness in the New Earth. Aellisa became the mother of the powerful wood elf Siofra Athanasius. Autumntwig set up shop from Rena's old spy program, teaching a generation of humans illusion magic. Arboria started planting trees to make the New Earth a pretty place to live. Wars came and destroyed some of that, but afterwards, she helped the humans rebuild, and they were inspired by her commitment to peace to such an extent that the kings of Phoenix, Kushiyama, and other countries worked with her to help set something they called the Council. And Marina went below the sea to carve a series of stone tablets in Atlantis recording the original Earth's history into a series of murals. While she was down there, she spent time with a young selkie girl who seemed a little creepy to me. I saw them meet up every year, in memory of the time Rena and I hung out with them. But as Rena wasn't Rena anymore but went by Jesus now, and I was kinda removed from existence, there was always a feeling of loss. Yet their lives seemed pretty good now that they no longer had to worry about Belial's influence.

I might have continued watching for all time, but then I saw her. It was Rena. Her soul had also become discorporate. "Hey there," Rena said. Said I, "Hey yourself! What are you doing here? I missed you so much!" We just stared at each other for awhile, and then our spirit bodies hugged. "It is not good for man to be alone," God had said. And so, we spent the time we had with each other, each day different. Once upon a dream, we all lived together in a Town of Winter.

AMBROSIA

My adopted family told me this story. Before the Earth we know of now, there was another created, with eons of history. The world had all kinds of plants and animals, and people worshiping a bunch of different religions. Despite what they thought, God didn’t care whether they worshiped one or another, just so long as they took care of the Earth, and each other. But they couldn’t even get that right! I mean, how hard is it, really? So, God intervened… God split the world into light and darkness, a world of Existence and a world of Void. Anyway, I don’t really care about history. The only thing I know is, a few thousand years ago, God made a prophecy. If evil ever came again, God would send an Oracle to bring the universe back to balance… and stuff. But that’ll never happen...

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