Chapter 654

A few days later!

Queens, St. Paul's Community Church.

A black Audi A8 drove slowly into the street and then parked on the side of the road opposite the church.

Hawk, who had pulled the handbrake, looked at the church opposite through the passenger window and didn't choose to get out of the car.

Because today is Saturday.

Some believers in the nearby community would come to St. Paul's Church on this day and then pray together under the leadership of Father John.

Hawk didn't believe in God in his bones.

Especially when the skin color of God was different from what he imagined, he believed even less.

But...

He respected other people's faith. Even if he didn't respect Father John, he still respected the faith of the ordinary people in the community.

After all, ordinary people are innocent.

However, Hawk arrived right on time.

After waiting in the car for a while, the collective prayer in the church was about to end, and the residents of the community were leaving the church one after another.

Hawk also got out of the car at this time.

Some old residents living nearby saw Hawk and greeted him enthusiastically.

Hawk responded with a smile.

After all, he had been a member of the St. Paul's Church choir until he was twelve years old. The baptisms, weddings, and so on of the nearby residents all had his appearance.

The old residents weren't surprised by Hawk's arrival.

Because even after he was twelve, Hawk basically came here once a month, and sometimes he would even attend services with the residents.

If you ask, it's because Hawk knows how to be grateful.

If you ask again, it's because Hawk is campaigning for votes in advance.

After Hawk smiled and greeted the residents who were walking out of the church one by one, and stepped into the church, the idlers in the church had already gone far away.

Looking from afar.

Father John, with graying hair and wearing priest's robes, looked up at the Jesus statue in the church, holding a wooden cross in his hand, and sat quietly in the first row.

Hawk walked over, then sat down beside Father John very naturally, and then looked at the Jesus statue in the church with the same gaze.

After a while.

Father John held the wooden cross in his hand, looked at the Jesus statue with a dazed gaze, and his deep voice carried a hint of seeking confirmation.

"So... it is our past that created your past."

"Yes."

Hawk, sitting to the side and leaning against the chair, also looked at the Jesus statue in front of him with a smile.

"Father John, I'm quite curious about one thing, can you help me clear up my confusion?"

"... Of course."

"You saw the current me twenty years ago, so when you saw the grown-up me, did you never think about killing me?"

You have to know, Father John had come to this church after he and his sister Anya were four years old. Although he and his sister Anya had left the church at that time.

But...

The part-time job in the choir was found for him by Father John. Maybe you couldn't tell at five or six years old, but seven or eight? Eleven or twelve?

Hawk didn't believe that when Father John saw his eleven-year-old appearance, he wouldn't be able to tell that he was the culprit who plucked his bird feathers, making him unable to return to heaven, and even unable to communicate with heaven.

The reason he didn't kill Father John at the time and just threw him into the trash can was very simple.

That was his past.

Even if he killed him, it would only create another branch of time and wouldn't really change anything.

But Father John...

He was a person who truly lived in the past. For Father John, he had the opportunity and ability to kill Hawk.

Because at that time, Hawk also trusted Father John relatively more because of Father John's recommendation to join the choir.

Father John listened to Hawk's question, withdrew his gaze from the Jesus statue, and looked sideways at Hawk to the side.

His expression was still the love and peace in Hawk's memory.

"Does it have any meaning?"

"Before you grew up, I thought I could guide you to the Lord's seat."

"In fact, that was indeed the case."

"Your faith was very pious, more pious than anyone in the choir."

"Every exam, you were at the top of the list."

"You could also blurt out every holy teaching."

"My mission was to change your destiny, allowing you to grow up in the Lord's glory from a young age."

"I wanted you to convert, and you did indeed convert. I had no reason to kill you."

Father John's tone was loving and ethereal as he narrated, then he shook his head and smiled, changed the subject, and looked at the Jesus statue again.

"Do you know at what age you were when I discovered that I hadn't changed your destiny?"

"I don't know."

"When you were twelve."

"To be precise, it was the day of your and Anya's birthday, when Anya was sent to the hospital because of heart disease, and you were praying piously at the entrance of the emergency room."

"You said this at the time."

"Almighty Lord, Buddha of ten thousand Buddhas, Jade Emperor, Odin above, God King Zeus... please show your spirit and save my sister."

"And it was at that moment that I knew your destiny hadn't been changed because of us."

"You prompted the Lord to want to change the future through the past, but we only created your past."

"..."

As Father John narrated, Hawk's thoughts were also pulled back to his twelfth birthday.

His sister was critically ill.

At the entrance of the emergency room, he put his hands together and prayed to all the gods and Buddhas in the sky.

As everyone knows.

Believing in God was just to make money. After all, he knew from a very young age that once he and his sister were kicked out of the welfare system after eighteen, he had to save money from a young age, so as not to become homeless when the time came.

Here, once you become a homeless person, your lifespan enters a countdown.

In short.

Believing in God was to make Father John believe that he was truly pious, but when his sister was critically ill, his true faith went online.

That is, faith pragmatism.

As a result...

Hawk's thoughts turned, and he remembered the scene where Father John was also on the side when he was praying at the entrance of the emergency room, smiled, and looked sideways at Father John's gaze.

"Since you knew, why didn't you think of a way to kill me."

"You had the opportunity at that time too."

"You know, I trusted you the most at that time. A glass of juice with something added, and you could have killed me without anyone knowing."

But Father John didn't choose to kill him.

Father John listened to Hawk's words and nodded with a smile.

"Yes, at that time, I could indeed have killed you."

"But you didn't."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Perhaps..."

Father John met Hawk's gaze, the smile on his face still loving, and opened his hands that were holding the wooden cross.

Hawk's gaze moved down.

Coming into view.

As Father John's palms flattened, strands of dark aura appeared, and immediately after, a cross completely condensed from darkness appeared in his palm.

But...

This wasn't a cross.

But, an inverted cross.

Hawk raised an eyebrow.

Father John's voice was deep.

"My faith, in fact, is not as indestructible as I imagined."

"Once an angel loses its wings, it can never return to heaven."

"And, having lived in the human world for so many years, I am no longer the angel Apollon, but the human John."

"My divinity has gradually been replaced by humanity, and my thoughts are no different from those of humans."

"Everyone is afraid of death."

"But I am even more afraid."

"So..."

Father John rubbed the dark inverted cross in his left palm that was currently providing him with energy, and looked at Hawk: "Samael helped me."

Samael?

Upon hearing this, a flash of inspiration passed through Hawk.

"Lucifer?"

"Yes."

Father John nodded and looked at Hawk: "Because of Samael's departure, the Lord lost an archangel, and you are the second Samael the Lord hoped for."

Hawk frowned.