As they waded through the blood, I saw the filth and the wounds on their bodies being washed away.
At the banks of the river, they dropped their old and worn clothes and leapt in, swimming strongly for the other side, only stopping for a moment in the middle to splash water at each other with pure elation, before racing to climb out of the other bank. The man clothed in light was already waiting for them with towels and new clothes. White clothes. Just like his.
Once clothed, Shigure and Homeward both threw themselves at his feet in worship. The man, the Creator, put a hand on each of their heads and blessed them. Then they all turned around to look at me.
Shigure and Homeward opened their mouths to speak but a gesture from the Creator man silenced them.
There was a long moment of silence and I knew the Creator man was waiting for me to speak.
"That's your blood," I pointed.
"It is," he inclined his head.
"You died," I said.
"I did."
"You're alive," I said, again, stating the obvious but not knowing how else to express what I wanted to say.
"Yes."
"That would have required a great price and a lot of power," I said. "I don't understand."
"My blood and death was the price. The willing death of a sinless, innocent man in cutting the blood covenant involves a greater and deeper power and law than you know," he replied patiently. "It is, in fact, the fulfillment of the Law. You can learn more about it more in the future."
"Please don't be angry at all my questions," I took a deep breath, wondering if he might get upset by all my questions, "but this covenant was really… for me?"
"For you," the man smiled and my heart began to beat a little faster.
"If it was for me," I waved a hand, "for us, then why didn't we know about it earlier?"
"This is a blood covenant cut in ancient times according to your reckoning," the man said. "For you people, it is a very old covenant. It has been there since I cut it for you, available to all people of all time if you are willing to accept it and enter in. The enemy, being aware of how much power you will gain as a result of choosing to enter into my covenant has been doing all he can to hide its existence from all of humanity. The enemy would rather you remain in filth and pain, dying in ignorance because he knows it will make me cry. The enemy enjoys causing me pain, but I am not willing to allow him to continue to eradicate my name and words from this earth."
"The words of power! The language of the judges!" I exclaimed, bouncing with excitement.
"Yes," the man nodded. "Well done. But what has been passed down through the ages to you is only a part of the whole. Much has been lost over the years."
"Then you'll teach us?" I asked and saw how Shigure and Homeward's eyes gleamed when they stared at the Creator man, waiting for his answer.
"Yes," was the calm reply with a light nod.
"Yes!" both men jumped, fist pumped and hugged each other.
Homeward even turned around to hug the Creator man without thinking. Belatedly, he realised what he had done and backed away to apologise, but was surprised instead by a return hug.
"I am more than happy to teach all my children," the Creator man said.
And then Shigure threw himself into the Creator man's arms as well, making the Creator man laugh. After a moment, their attention returned to me again.
"Doesn't a blood covenant require the blood and death of an innocent, unbiased person?" I asked. "You are not a man, as in a human, are you? A being of a higher plane like you should not be able to cut a viable covenant with lesser plane beings like us. It wouldn't make sense."
"I clothed myself in flesh and was born into the world of men as a human for the purpose of cutting the blood covenant for all of you. The first humans I created were deceived by the enemy into handing over the dominion and authority of the world to him, making them and their descendants his subjects and slaves for the rest of time. I could not leave you all crushed under his oppression and I could not bear to see how he abused the people I had made. He wanted to hurt me through you. So I came to rectify that. I came to give you all a choice. I am The Judge of the world. I am the most unbiased being you can find in the entire universe."
He had sacrificed a lot then. To shed his person as a higher powered being and squeeze himself into the skin and limitations of a weak human that was born into subjection under his enemy's rule was just one example of what he'd sacrificed. Seriously, wasn't that just asking to be abused? He already said that his enemy delighted in hurting him and those around him to make him cry. How much had he suffered just to get to the goal of cutting the covenant and giving up his life? There was likely a lot more to it. More than I knew or understood.
According to the laws surrounding a blood covenant, anyone who entered into the covenant essentially exchanged all that they were and all that they had with the other party. That was why a blood covenant was usually performed between two equal parties. Otherwise, the poorer party who had nothing only had to give up their rights as belonging to themselves in order to become part of the richer man's family. The rich man would become part of the poor man's household. In short, the two families were now one in an unbreakable alliance. The richer party would have to supply everything the poorer party needed until they stood on equal standing. It was completely unfair on the rich person's part.
On the Creator's part, he had to give up his all to cut a covenant with us humans. Whereas through the covenant, we were given the option to leave the life under the enemy's thumb, being bought by the blood, and through the covenant ended up joining him as his equal family members. It was unfair to the Creator. It was crazy. It was incomprehensible.
Surely only an insane or completely stupid person would cut such an unequal, irreversible ultimate blood covenant. This was a covenant that would remain in the books of the Courts of Heaven for all of eternity, for goodness' sake! And the terms were for any human being to enter in if they chose to? All they would have to give up was their old identity and person. They would become part of the Creator's family, and remember, he was a king. That meant they were entering a covenant that made them equal royalty and on equal standing with his own blood family. They would just need to follow the same rules as those in the royal family and they would be considered like any other prince or princess of the royal family. In fact, it would pull the crown prince or crown princess down to be on the same level and…
All the implications blew my mind.
Was he nuts? Just how big a house would he have to build to fit so many adopted children into his family? How much money would it cost to raise so many sons and daughters who were previously the equivalent to street beggars in comparison to the royal family? What was wrong with his brain? What on earth was he thinking when he devised this plan?
"Forgive me," I ventured, "but just one more question. The covenant is unequal," I said, wanting to understand. I could feel tears prickling in my eyes. I looked at all the blood in front of me and my heart ached for this Creator man and all he had sacrificed. That was a lot of blood. A lot of blood. Important things had to be repeated three times. It was a heck lot of blood. "Why did you do it?"
"Because," the man took a breath and I saw the sparkle of water reflected in his eyes, "I love you."