The Discovery of Manipo (Part 4)

The Reveal

The hairs covering my developed body stood upright as I gazed into David's eyes. I wanted to move, but I had been rendered immobile. However, I could only surmise that David must've had some eye power that enabled him to inflict paralysis on unsuspecting victims such as myself. It was probably the same method he used to incapacitate me in my dream, which relieved me a bit. It was comforting to know that it wasn't just his looks that hijacked my senses.

Still, my movements had been constricted by someone from the past on the main timeline, which had never happened before. I didn't think it would be possible, yet there I was, incapable of moving because of some guy named David, who shouldn't have known I was around.

Once again, in twenty-four hours, I found myself in a situation where my powers were utterly useless. Up to that point, I thought that I'd never know defeat. The power to manipulate time had always been the dominant power, no matter what opponent I found myself up against. And yet, the opponents that stood before me, the cherubim and Yahweh, were forces that yielded power beyond my comprehension. It was pointless to try and do anything. In the past, on the main timeline, I would never have conquered being a spectator.

So, I watched as David redirected his attention toward the object he wanted to acquire. Since I could still move my eyes, I diverted my attention to the three strangers moving in the opposite direction. I wondered where they were headed. Could it have had something to do with why David needed them in the first place? My brain couldn't stop producing questions. Nothing about the way the situation was unfolding made any sense to me. And just when I thought things couldn't get any more bizarre, the three men suddenly vanished.

I immediately checked to see if David had vanished too, but he hadn't. He had finally acquired the mysterious artifact, which turned out to be a book. Now visible, the book was placed on an altar, similar to something you'd see in a church. I couldn't make out the title, but what stood out was the scenery surrounding the altar itself. It was nestled amid a patch of greenery attached to the branches of a tree, which bore a striking resemblance to something I knew I'd seen before.

I expected David to head back in my direction, but he had instead hidden himself amongst the greenery. I wondered why he had gone into hiding, but not for long. The tree began embarking on its revelation until it dominated the scene before me. What was once a deep hole in a cave became a landscape with an innumerable amount of different flower species. The landscape covered every walking space, leading up to a gigantic tree with thick roots, endless branches, leaves, and fruit that glistened as though they had just endured a rain shower. And though no sunlight was present, the tree seemed to produce its own light that radiated various colors. It was like a Christmas tree but without lights for decorations.

A massive gate at the tree trunk made the tree easily identifiable. That gate was the entrance to The Garden, which could only mean that the woody, perennial plant towering over me was the Tree of Knowledge.