The Fear of Death

In his twilight years, as his life slowly drew to an end, Akhenaten began to fear death. He dreaded the sensation of his body gradually weakening, feeling death constantly closing in on him. Recalling his glorious life, he was unwilling for it to end just like that.

He remembered the tall figure he had encountered in his childhood—the Archangel Pharos, who had held his hand and told him he was destined to become the King of Men. He remembered the divine messenger who had bestowed upon him the Golden Blood and the Divine Sword, the man who had imparted the knowledge of the gods to him. He hoped to see that man once more; even in death, he wished to ascend to the Divine Realm and become an immortal being just like him.

Akhenaten began to build temples to the Goddess of Light, Maria, on a massive scale. Like a devout believer, he knelt before the statue of the Goddess every day, offering his prayers.

In the final two years of his life, he gathered all the gold he could find and demanded that his most skilled craftsmen cast a statue of the Goddess of Light made of pure gold. Using the full strength of the nation, he constructed a temple even more luxurious than his own palace, declaring the Church of Light the state religion and proclaiming himself a follower of the Goddess of Light.

Behind every statue of the Goddess of Light stood a masked divine messenger holding a scepter. That was the Archangel Pharos, who served under the Goddess of Light—the very man who had given the Golden King his divine revelation and divine blood!

The temple was filled with priests in white robes and pure priestesses who served the gods. The Golden King, Akhenaten, prayed for years and exhausted every possible method, yet he never caught a glimpse of the gods, not until the night he died!

Inside the spacious palace, a roaring fire burned in the hearth, and the floor was covered with carpets made from the pelts of rare white bears. Akhenaten, wearing a gold crown inlaid with precious gems, sat on a lounge chair.

Akhenaten's hair was white, his face was covered in wrinkles, and a layer of cataracts clouded his eyes. He gently wiped the Divine Sword that the messenger had gifted him years ago. The lion who had once been full of vigor and had conquered the world now lacked the strength to even wield a sword in battle.

Akhenaten sighed, but in a daze, he saw a shadow walking toward him. Akhenaten immediately lifted his head; even as a lion in his twilight, he still possessed the majesty of a king.

"Akhenaten, why do you wish to see me?"

Akhenaten saw a figure in white robes and a mask standing before him. The white mask with the sun emblem and that familiar physique made Akhenaten shudder with excitement.

"Is it you? Have you truly come? Or am I hallucinating?" Akhenaten's voice was hoarse, yet filled with immense agitation!

Lu Zhiyu stood before Akhenaten, his eyes filled with melancholy. The boy from years ago had now aged into this state; the soft blade of time was the most terrifying thing of all. "Akhenaten, you have done very well. You are the first king of humanity, and you shall be recorded in the history books of mankind!"

Akhenaten shouted, "But this is not what I wanted!"

Lu Zhiyu asked in confusion, "That is not what you said back then. This path of fate was chosen by you yourself. You became the King of Men; you possessed power, status, fame, beauty, wealth, and more. What else are you unsatisfied with?"

Akhenaten looked at Lu Zhiyu and stood up shakily. His eyes burned as he stared at Lu Zhiyu's youthful physique and powerful hands. So many years had passed, yet time had not left a single mark upon Lu Zhiyu.

"But I will still die. Only when I grew old did I realize that all of this is merely a passing cloud. Only you, only the gods, are eternal! I want to be like you; I want eternal life!"

Lu Zhiyu laughed dumbly, speaking the exact same words he had said years ago: "You are all too greedy!"

Akhenaten walked toward Lu Zhiyu and said angrily, "No, I fulfilled the mission you gave me! You should reward me!"

Lu Zhiyu shook his head. "We did not give you any mission. The choice of fate was in your own hands; you chose your own destiny. I once told you that the gods gave you life, wisdom, powerful abilities, fertile fields, and the entire world. Do you still expect us to satisfy all your desires and demands?"

Lu Zhiyu looked into Akhenaten's eyes. "The gods are not your family's servants. We placed the choice of fate into your own hands. Since you are dissatisfied, you should find a way to change it yourself, to change your own destiny, rather than blaming everything on the gods."

Lu Zhiyu sighed. "You have never done anything for us; everything you did was for yourself. But greed has made you dissatisfied. What one cannot obtain is always the best!"

Akhenaten immediately shouted, looking around and gesturing wildly, his eyes filled with madness. "I can trade with things! Anything—wealth, power, beauty, everything! Anything at all, as long as you give me a youthful body!"

Lu Zhiyu said with a light chuckle, "Everything you have was gifted to you by us. You are trying to trade with me using the very things I gave you?"

Lu Zhiyu had no intention of continuing the conversation with Akhenaten. He turned, his body dissolving into ripples, and vanished from the spot. Seeing this, Akhenaten immediately chased after him. "No, you cannot leave! I fulfilled your mission, you cannot do this! This is what you owe me! You liars, liars!"

Akhenaten roared madly within the great hall, angrily destroying everything he could see. Finally, he collapsed onto the floor like a child. "Do not go, you must not..."

At that moment, the guards outside rushed in hurriedly, only to see Akhenaten lying on the ground, his eyes unfocused. He had died within his own palace, his arms tightly clutching the Divine Sword Lu Zhiyu had gifted him years ago. His eyes were fixed on a mural on the wall, depicting a scene of a man in the sunset gifting a bag of grain and a long sword to a young boy!

"The King! The King is dead!"

The guard screamed in panic and ran out. The news of the Golden King Akhenaten's death immediately spread throughout the Golden City. The succession of power continued, and Akhenaten's son took his place, continuing the Golden Dynasty.

Lu Zhiyu had suddenly been moved to visit the Akhenaten of the past. It had to be said, the changes over several decades were immense. The feeling of standing outside the world versus being inside it was completely different.

The immortality Akhenaten envied was merely due to the fact that the flow of time where Lu Zhiyu resided was different from his own; Lu Zhiyu did not possess the immortality Akhenaten imagined.

However, watching Akhenaten be so fragile in the face of time, Lu Zhiyu was also struck by a sense of shock and terror regarding life and death: "Can I truly live forever?"