Chapter 5: Fourteenth

Some twenty minutes later after breakfast and a quarter of notebook's, Neah and Mana were already sprawled on the couch in the living room while Allen was playing cards with Cross on the floor across from the couch the twins were on with the notebook laid open on Neah's lap.

"We're done reading the first part…I think…" said Mana, who had his head rested on the back of the couch with his twin brother, Neah, whose left arm covered his face tiredly.

"Are you two sure this is a journal of Lord Walker?" asked Neah. "'Cause I doubt it is with those 'thy', 'thou', 'begot', 'hath', 'art thou', and etc. those word are only found in bible, you know." He complained.

"I think it's more of a bible than a journal." Murmured Mana.

With a sigh, Allen dropped his cards, showing full house much to Cross' displeasure, and rose from the floor. He then turned to them and asked, "What did you understand, so far?"

"Cain committed murder because of jealousy he had towards his brother, Abel." Chorused the twins.

Allen nodded. "That's right. Though it's an obvious case. What else?"

While the twins rocked their brains for an answer, Cross in the other hand fixed the cards and tucked it back in his back pocket before joining Allen.

"Well…" Mana, who was in a proper sitting position, paused. "Even though Adam and Eve were said as sinners, they remained faithful to the LORD and did as the LORD told them to do; 'be fruitful and multiply'."

Once again, Allen nodded. "That was God's first commission and Adam and Eve obeyed it."

Rising from his seat, Neah stretched his sore limbs whilst asking, "Why God did placed that 'tree' in the Garden of Paradise, anyway? If it wasn't for it then they wouldn't be banish and cursed."

"That's a good questions." Said Cross. "First of all, God did not curse them but the serpent that tempted Eve to eat the fruit. Then God banished them as a consequence with His first commission, and that is to be fruitful and multiply."

"Oh. So…this is a bible." Neah concluded, making Allen sigh once again.

"Neah..." called the brunette as he and Cross made their way on an arm chair adjacent to Mana and Neah; Allen sat beside Mana while Cross sat beside Neah. "That's my father's journal. The first quarter you read is only a summarized copy of its original written by our ancestor, Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve after the murder of Abel. Seth wrote everything he knew on a stone and passed it on his first child, who then passed it on his one of his offspring, and so on and so forth. So, in an essence, that journal you are holding on is also a bible of some sort. The first quarter is about Adam and Eve's life, the second quarter is about the Noah's ark, the third quarter is about the Messiah and the fall of Four Great Earthly Kingdoms, and the fourth quarter will be about our generations.

The twins perked up at the mention of 'Four Great Earthly Kingdoms', so they asked Allen to tell them more about it. But, the silver eyed boy did not want to unless they finish reading and understand at least parts of each quarter, or much better half of it. However, Neah, who was the stubborn of the two, insisted to tell them the story. He even went after Cross, who kicked him off his person. He also encouraged his twin brother, Mana, to help him squeezed the information out of their friends since it was much easier to understand than read the whole journal, or bible as they call it.

It was almost lunch by the time, and Cross wanted them out already since the letter he wrote for the twins' mother said they will be home later by lunch, but Neah still pestered him and Allen, and Mana can also be as stubborn as his twin if he wanted to.

So, without much of a choice, they all went back to the living room and made their selves comfortable with apple juice.

Sitting back on his seat and taking a sip from his glass of juice, Allen said, "Alright. Well, the Four Great Earthly Kingdoms, in Dan-"

"Wait." Neah interrupted as he raised his right palm, facing Allen.

Irritated at Neah's persistence and now being interrupted by the same person, Allen's right eye twitched in annoyance and Cross being as he was, left the twins in the latter's care. "The hell… now what?"

"Can you tell us the story of Adam and Eve?" asked the younger of the twins with an innocent smile.

"I'm not gonna ask you if you have read the bible, but seriously? Even kindergarten knows their story at least how they were banished from the Land of Paradise or Eden as most people call it."

"Well… we knew who are they and how they were banish, but not about their sons, Cayin and Abel." Reasoned Mana.

"But, it's already written on that journal!" whined Allen.

"True. And we read it and forgot." Said Neah as a matter of fact.

"I didn't forget what I read. I just don't understand some with those 'thy', and all of those old scriptures that your father still copied and not translated it into the latest." Countered Mana.

"Okay…" Allen sighed in defeat. "This will be the first and last you'll hear of it from me, so listen carefully." He said, earning a serious nod from the two. With a starting cough, Allen began the tale. "We knew who Adam and Eve are; it was written in the Old Testament. We also knew the story of their banishment, but mostly did not know of what they are really made of except the old belief that they came from dust in which God breathed life into and was portrayed from God's image, which is also true, however, we missed the fact that Adam and Eve did not literally came from dust, but from two important substances that God graced us. Those substances are the positive and negative energy, or as we know it today as innocence or God's crystal and dark matter. The negative energy or dark matter, which has the appearance of dust, was the substance God used to create a form and the positive energy or innocence, which was God's life, was used to bring life into his sculpture. Everything God created has life into it, even sand, water, fire, and air we thought are just non-living thing. God used both energies to make the land we are living on, plants we cultivated for medicine and food, and animals to balance the cycle of life…"

"…later on he created a man, which in Hebrew translated as 'adam', from dust or 'adamah' in Hebrew to take care of everything God had created. The animals God had also created was for the man to name, however, none of them was suitable for the man as companion, so He caused the man to sleep and created a woman from a part of his body. The man then called God's new creation as 'woman' or 'ishshah' in Hebrew since the Hebrew 'ish' means 'for this one was taken from a man. The man and woman were once at the state of primeval innocence in which they were not ashamed and naked until they gained wisdom through disobedience; eating the fruit of the tree God had forbid them from eating…"

"…Before their banishment, Adam called his 'wife' Eve, which means 'mother of all living'. Now, let's skip their story of expulsion, shall we?"

The twins only gave their nods.

"Very well, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. In Hebrew it is 'Qayin' and 'Hevel' though it did not provide vowels. Anyway, it is thought that Cain was derived from the word 'qyn' of mid-first millennium BC South Arabian, meaning 'metalsmith', and Abel from the word that means 'herdsman', with the modern Arabic cognate 'ibil' referring only to camels. Since Cain worked with agriculture and Abel with livestock, the theory of their names would be the descriptive of their roles…"

"…As the time progressed, Cain offered some of the land's produce to the LORD, and so as Abel of the firstborn of his flock and their flat portions. Since the LORD only accepted Abel's offering and not Cain, Cain became furious and jealous of his brother whom he killed. It was said in Genesis 4:1-8 that Cain offered properly, but divided improperly, thus he sinned. Later on in Genesis 4:10-12, God asked Cain of the whereabouts of Abel, and the latter replied that he did not know. God then said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand; when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond you shall be in the earth."

"Tillest?" Neah tilted his head to the side, confused. "What's that?"

"I dunno." Allen shrugged. "You can look in on a dictionary. Anyway, Cain was the first human born and first murderer, and Abel was the first man murdered and first martyr. After the death of Adam and Eve's second child, Seth was born. And, Cain's sister, Awan, was his spouse and they had a son, Enoch… that was all I know of their story, so far."

"Okay… Allen, uncle told us the story of Noah's ark and the Messiah. Can you tell us about these Kingdoms?" asked Mana.

"Huh? These Kingdoms were connected to the Messiah, so you should know of it now. By the way, how much you know about the Noah's Ark?"

Neah pondered for a while before he said, "Well, Noah's Ark is also known as three days of darkness. Only few selected people know of the story behind what was written in the bible. It was actually a war between thirteen Noahs and Exorcists. In the end, the first Noah apostle or Noah as himself died, killed by an exorcist."

"That exorcist was also a Noah."

All heads turned to where Cross was leaning on a wall. The red headed boy pushed himself off the wall and sat on his seat adjacent to Neah and across from Allen. He said, "After reading countless of books, I came into this information, which most of us would have overlook. According to the Old Testament, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Years after the death of their second child, Seth was born, and later on they had a total of 33 sons and 23 daughters. The first thirteen children, excluding Abel inherited Adam's genes, also known as Noah genes, and though the rest inherited the same genes, it lay dormant for the rest of their lives because of their mother's genes that was mostly compromised of God's life or innocence. The first thirteen Noahs, like their parents, lived over 900 year, the others lived over 800 years, and some lived a minimum of 777. These thirteen Noahs believed they were the real God's descendants and was later on succumbed into their selfish desires and became greedy of power over the land. Unbeknownst to all of them, there was this one man who discovered the power of innocence and summoned its energy, creating this cube, and gave power to selected humans to counter the Noahs. This man has yet to be named, but it was believed that he was the incarnation of Abel. The war then ensued, causing the greet flood and three days of darkness. All of the Noahs were defeated and killed, however, they were not killed by the first exorcist, who created the cube and had the power to kill the Noah from within, but they were killed by fatal wounds. Which brought to the rebirth of Millenium Earl and the rest of thirteen Noahs…"

"…The first exorcists, who was thought to have Abel's soul, was, in fact, a new Noah that had recently awoken and relived Abel's life in his dreams." Ended Cross.

"To put it simply…" Allen paused. "Abel also inherited the Noah genes, but was killed before it could manifest his whole heart. And, when he awoken hundreds of years later in a new body, he became the Fourteenth Noah. Am I right, Marian?" he turned to Cross, asking if his conclusion was right.

Nodding, Cross said, "That was the information I told you I learned before while we were on our way here. Though, it's only a theory I came up, but you have the same idea as mine, so… I think it's plausible."

"And, you think one of us will be the Fourteenth?" asked Mana.

"Yup. Since I heard from a certain man that all thirteen Noahs are born in this time and the fact that your uncle, Lord Cyrus Campbell whom we suspected as the Earl, told you some about 'these' things, I have a hunch that one of you will be the Fourteenth."