Babel's Ledger: Zero Point

Episode 23 — Urim and Thummim: Light Found Through Despair

Prelude to Hell: Cerberus Devours All

They couldn't even tell if the dangerously beautiful, strangely, sorrowfully radiant night had passed. The moment that brief interlude ended, where the two had forgotten reality in each other's warmth, all systems in the bunker began to play a veritable symphony of hell.

(With a sound like tearing warning sirens, in an urgent and desperate tone) "Lady Lilith! Lord Kai! Simultaneous, omnidirectional intrusion attempts from the external network! All firewalls are… already on the verge of collapse! 'Cerberus' has found all our digital footprints and is destroying the system itself from within! I… I can no longer… hold on…!"

Cassandra's voice vanished amidst a horrifying scream and terrible noise, and all holographic screens in the bunker instantly went dark. It was the moment Cassandra, who had been their eyes and ears, was brutally devoured by the 'Babel Empire's' gatekeeper of hell.

Simultaneously, Mika, the AI connected to Kai's 'Revelation Computation Unit,' was also fighting a desperate defensive battle, but the situation was hopeless.

"Master Kai! All overseas accounts connected to the 'Kingdom Builder Foundation' have been frozen by emergency order of the International Financial Supervisory Organization! The charges are unclear funding sources and suspicion of terror support! 'Babel' has completely severed our financial lifeline! This… this impossible speed and precision…! It's an attack that transcends all my computational abilities!"

Even Mika's voice began to break up intermittently, signaling that his system, too, was reaching its limit.

On the barely restored emergency external news channels, shocking reports poured in ceaselessly, as if the entire world had been engulfed in madness. On all channels of the 'Babel Media Group,' led by the 'World Tribune,' Kai and Lilith were being branded as terrorists who had disrupted international financial markets, cult leaders who had induced disasters in major cities, and nefarious individuals threatening humanity. Governments worldwide competitively issued Interpol Red Notices for them; alongside a global manhunt, all their past activities and personal information were distorted, fabricated, and indiscriminately disseminated to the public. Overnight, they had become public enemies of all mankind.

And then, finally, the most horrifying news of all blared tragically through the bunker's emergency channel. It was from 'Eden,' the safe house protecting Asha. Behind the urgent voice of the 'Echo-7' team leader, gunshots, explosions, and a child's sharp scream could be heard mixed together.

"Bo… Boss! Unidentified armed assailants! There are too many of them! Asha… at least Asha… Kuaaargh!"

The communication cut off with a burst of static. In that final moment, Lilith heard, or thought she heard over the receiver, a heart-wrenching auditory hallucination of Asha screaming "Mommy!" in despair.

Roars of Despair, and Shattered Hope

Lilith's hand instinctively flew to her trembling lips. Her shoulders shuddered delicately as she tried to swallow the sobs threatening to erupt. Large, heavy teardrops streamed powerlessly from her deathly pale eyes.

"Ah… no… Asha… our baby… I… I promised to protect her… I promised Grandma…"

Her voice was little more than a moan. Asha was the child she had brought from the ruins of Nairobi, after hearing her grandmother's last words. In that short time, Asha had already become another reason for her to live, the sole hope she had to protect in this hellish world.

"Aaaarrrrggghhh!"

Kai roared. It was like the howl of a beast that had lost everything, hardly human. His eyes blazed with a ferocious hatred that seemed to incinerate all it touched, and with an unbearable self-reproach. He clenched his fists so tightly they seemed about to break, and dark veins pulsed violently at his temples as if they would burst. They had dared to touch Asha. The child who was their irreplaceable last innocence, their final hope.

Everything was collapsing. The air in the bunker grew so heavy and cold it was almost unbreathable. Lilith sank to the floor, gasping as if utterly exhausted. She looked up at Kai with vacant eyes, her voice cracked as she barely managed to squeeze out the words.

"Do you see it, Kai…? Whatever we do… it all just… shatters like this… Lael, Grandma Asha… and now our Asha too…! (Her throat choked) I… I held that child's hand and promised… that everything would be alright, that we would protect her…! But what is all this…! Now… now it's just… even breathing feels too heavy… This hellish fight… what more can we possibly do…? How much more do we have to lose… Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Her final words scattered with her sobs. And again, who knew how much time passed. A heart tearing to shreds, a heart about to burst, was slowly mending… being stitched back together… To collapse now felt too irresponsible to Asha's small, innocent eyes, and to the sublime faith her grandmother had shown at the very end… Like Samson's hair beginning to grow back… little by little… Kai's fading thread of consciousness precariously began to rekindle.

The Last Card Drawn at the Edge of Despair: Urim and Thummim

Instead of answering, Kai took out a small leather pouch, one that looked like it had resided deep within his coat for a long time. His touch was surprisingly calm, but his eyes held the tragic resolve of a man staking everything. As he opened the pouch, two stones with a remarkably smooth and cool feel revealed themselves on his palm. One was a white, jade-like stone, holding a deep, pure light like a star in the night sky; the other was an obsidian-like black stone, as dark as an abyss, seeming to absorb all light. They might have looked like ordinary pebbles, but these stones, worn smooth by someone's touch over countless years, emanated an indescribably strange aura.

"I told you before, didn't I? That I had one more thing… This is something… that not your Cassandra, nor my Mika, not even that arrogant 'Cerberus,' can predict or analyze."

Lilith looked at him with puzzled eyes, tears still welling within them, not yet dry.

"What… what on earth is that, Kai…?"

Sometime later, when he opened his eyes again, they glinted with a prescience that seemed to pierce through everything. His voice was low and quiet, but the conviction it held was powerful enough to quell all the despair in the bunker.

"Did you know, Lilith? The high priests of ancient Israel wore a special garment called an 'Ephod,' embedded with twelve precious stones over the chest. And whenever kings or leaders needed to inquire of God's will, the priests would take the 'Urim and Thummim' from within the Ephod and enter the holiest sanctuary. No one today knows exactly what they were. Some scholars say they were special lots for divination, like these two stones, symbolizing light and darkness, or affirmation and negation. Others suggest they were sacred jewels that emitted light themselves. Perhaps… they read God's answer through the light or response from these stones."

Lilith listened, holding her breath. In this desperate, life-or-death moment, she thought she could faintly grasp why he was telling this ancient tale of relics, and what these strange stones in his hand might signify.

"Actually… I have a kind of guidance within me, of 'light' and 'darkness,' similar to what the Urim and Thummim provide."

"Light… within you?"

"Since I was very young, it would sometimes come to me like a very intense premonition or revelation."

He looked down at the white and black stones in his hand, alternating his gaze. A deep self-reproach and regret flickered across his face.

"I asked it about this fight, and about Asha's safety. Whether we should fight Cerberus head-on, or if we should immediately move Asha to a safer place. The answer… was a clear 'darkness' (No). It was a warning that neither fighting nor staying here was right. Truthfully, I should have realized it then. Ignoring that first warning and responding complacently… that's what endangered Asha. It's all my fault. Whenever I ignore that first voice in my heart, that intuition, such terrible consequences always follow…"

Lilith: (Gently taking Kai's trembling hand in hers) "Kai… stop… That's not your fault. It's all of our responsibility, or no, it's no one's responsibility. It's purely the sin of those demonic bastards."

Kai: (Nodding with difficulty) "Yes… And at the same time, it brought a place to my mind. The 'Brook Cherith.'"

"The Brook Cherith?" Lilith asked again, a faint light of hope glinting in her eyes.

"Indeed. The only place where the Old Testament prophet Elijah hid from the merciless pursuit of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel… It was a complete wilderness, beyond any human help. Only ravens visited him two or three times a day, bringing him bread and meat. And this, during a severe drought, with precious food that likely could only have been sourced from the royal palace. That's why Ahab's soldiers couldn't find Elijah, even after scouring all of Israel. When everyone in the world thought he was dead, he was there, awaiting his next calling."

Kai looked Lilith straight in the eyes. A new resolve now burned within them.

"This current battle, we cannot win it. If Cerberus intends to calculate and control everything, then we must become the 'nothingness' (Mu) that exists outside their calculations. A shadow their algorithms cannot read, a variable absent from their database. We must disappear, Lilith. As if we were dead."

He retrieved a small, barely functional terminal from a pile of holographic screen debris and entered complex coordinates. A 3D map of a remote island in the Arctic Ocean, its coastline covered in glaciers, appeared on the screen.

"Come, Lilith, let's go. Beneath this underground tunnel lies a secret waterway, abandoned since the Cold War, connecting directly to the sea. Using the small nuclear submarine we have, we can slip away from their surveillance net without a sound and reach our modern-day 'Brook Cherith' – a decommissioned submarine base in the Arctic Ocean. There, we too can live for a while with the help of 'ravens.'"

"Ravens…? In this situation, who would possibly…?" Her voice carried both hope and doubt.

Kai: (A faint but confident smile appearing on his weary face) "If Elijah's ravens were God's providence, then our ravens… will be our surviving technology, and an invisible network unknown even to 'Babel.' Very special delivery agents, completely hidden from human eyes. I'll explain the details on the way. Right now… we don't have a single second to waste. Let's go, Lilith. To a new wilderness."

The two looked into each other's eyes. Within their gazes, despair, sorrow, and a tiny ember of hope burned together. Perhaps this would be their final escape, or perhaps, a new beginning that could overturn everything.