RWBY Through Worlds

42: When the Sky Turns Grey

He sounded nervous.

Pyrrha looked at him oddly, but she listened with growing astonishment as he read this:

"'"For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will... Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believe in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live...I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."'" [John 5]

Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment. "I remember hearing a voice... It was like waking up from sleep, not like you'd think... I wasn't there, and then I was... But it was in this book the whole time. They really were telling the truth when they said this is not them--it's all based on this person...this...God? Or God-child? I don't quite understand it, but He has incredible power."

"Yeah, sounds like it." Jaune shook his head. "I've never heard anything like this... I wouldn't even believe it if..."

"If I wasn't here," Pyrrha finished. "Yes...makes it hard to doubt it now, doesn't it? Go on, perhaps this will tell us something."

Jaune didn't find anything else he could relate to however, until he got as far as chapter 10... It only took him minutes, he was going so fast in his frenzy to understand.

"'"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep... Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again..."'" [John 10]

"Is He speaking of Himself dying?" Pyrrha asked. "This is news to me."

"It sure sounds like it," Jaune said. "But I don't get it. How could a god die?"

"We don't know that they can't, I suppose, just that we couldn't kill them," Pyrrha said. "But that phrasing 'I lay it down of myself' sounds as if He gave it up... All this about Him being the light of men...and life, I don't know what it means. But it's...new."

"Here listen to this." Jaune had kept looking. "This is weird...

"'"Is it not written in your law 'I said 'you are gods'? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken) do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'you are blaspheming' because I said, 'I am the Son of God?'"' [John 10:34-36]

"Do you know what blasphemy is?"

"It's an old word," Pyrrha said. "I've seen it in books... It means to claim to be gods when you are not gods. I suppose like Ozpin and Salem did once. I suppose these people must have said He was doing the same thing by claiming to be God's son."

"Wasn't he, then?" Jaune said.

"Not if it was true," Pyrrha said. "I suppose the son of God would be a god...but also, that reminds me...didn't Shine say something about them being called gods once?"

"Yes, I think so," Jaune said. "But not like what we thought of as gods."

"Look at what it says." Pyrrha ran her finger over it. "To whom the word of God came...as if that is what made them like gods... Shine and Wally have this book... They can do the things that this man could do... In some sense, perhaps they are like gods...but not like our gods... Like...they simply wield its power... Somehow it sounds right, about also odd. I can't grasp it."