Chapter 837

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

And where am I going?

Humanity had wrestled with those questions for as long as anyone could remember. Most people, however, weren’t terribly interested in where they came from. They were far more concerned with figuring out how they were going to die.

Nahash, on the other hand, had been blessed—or cursed—with enough time to contemplate the question at length.

He had lived a very, very long life.

So he might as well tell the story.

Nahash stood there, lost in memories as he began recounting the history of his rather unusual existence.

Raina didn’t dare move.

There were still plenty of enhanced centipede soldiers stationed outside the room, but she doubted even bringing all of them in would help against this man. He had produced an entire floor covered in venomous snakes as casually as someone might spill a bucket of water. Their venom had been potent enough to kill a person within a few steps.

The enhanced soldiers might survive a bite.

Raina certainly wouldn’t.

Besides, she couldn’t deny her curiosity.

What exactly was the creature that had crawled out of Coulson’s body?

"I hatched in the ancient plains of Mesopotamia."

Nahash’s voice took on the distant quality of someone remembering a life impossibly far away.

"Back then, I was no different from any other reptile. I crawled around, ate when I was hungry, drank when I was thirsty, and generally had no idea what was going on."

"Then, one day, everything changed."

"I was still a little snake when I became terribly thirsty. I crawled toward a spring looking for water, and as luck would have it, a human was bathing there."

Nahash smiled.

"I noticed he’d left something on the bank. So I ate it."

"It wasn’t until much later that I discovered the thing was rather valuable. Apparently, it was an elixir capable of granting immortality."

He raised a finger.

"And I remember that day particularly well, because it was also the first time I shed my skin."

He paused.

"Oh, and the human bathing in that spring was apparently someone important. You people like to call him the oldest hero king."

Raina’s eyes widened.

"The oldest hero king?"

She stared at him.

"You’re the serpent from the Epic of Gilgamesh? The snake that stole the herb of immortality?"

"That’s right."

Nahash nodded proudly.

"Although I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself the oldest snake in existence. Science tells us snakes have existed since the Jurassic period. I’m merely one of their descendants."

He smiled.

"We should trust science."

Science, my ass.

Raina stared at him.

Humanity had at least managed to develop scientific theories for resurrection and Inhuman genetics. They had evidence. They had experiments.

But this guy?

He sounded like a mythical creature who had swallowed a magical treasure, lived for thousands of years, and eventually learned how to take human form.

And he was lecturing her about science.

"Regardless," Nahash continued, "I’m probably the most famous snake in human history."

He looked rather pleased with himself.

"I even have something resembling a fan club."

"More than twenty years ago, a Japanese collector purchased the skin I shed during my first molt."

He chuckled.

"It had already fossilized by then, but he paid quite a lot for it."

Raina’s mind immediately began racing.

The Epic of Gilgamesh had always been regarded as mythology. A collection of ancient stories invented by people who had lived thousands of years ago.

So why would anyone spend a fortune purchasing a piece of a creature that supposedly never existed?

Unless...

Unless the buyer knew the legend wasn’t fiction.

Unless the story was true.

And if Nahash really had eaten an ancient elixir of immortality and survived from the dawn of civilization to the present day, then the secret humanity had been searching for all along—true immortality—might have been sitting right in front of her.

And that ancient shed skin?

It would be an extraordinary research specimen.

Raina’s eyes sharpened.

She had believed she was standing on the cutting edge of resurrection research.

Apparently, she wasn’t.

Someone else had been investigating immortality for decades.

And twenty years ago, they had already obtained an irreplaceable piece of evidence.

Never assume you’re the smartest person in the room.

Whoever had bought that fossilized skin—no, whoever that organization was—what had they accomplished in the years since?

And who were they?

Could they be...

A rumor had circulated through the scientific underworld for years.

A ghost of an organization.

A global network possessing biological technology far beyond anything publicly available. An organization rumored to have mastered the mass production of enhanced soldiers.

Almost nobody could claim to have dealt with them directly.

Yet their name seemed to appear everywhere.

Umbrella.

Raina’s breath caught.

Of course.

The buyer had been Japanese.

Umbrella was rumored to have roots in the remnants of Nazi Germany. Germany and Imperial Japan had been allies during World War II.

It wasn’t impossible that surviving German scientists had eventually been absorbed into an organization like Umbrella.

The Nazis had always been obsessed with supernatural artifacts and ancient myths.

And apparently, their luck had been absurd.

The Red Skull had once obtained information concerning the Tesseract through them.

Now they had supposedly discovered the fossilized remains of the oldest serpent through the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Unbelievable.

Raina felt a stab of envy.

Then the implications sank in, and envy gave way to dread.

Just how advanced was Umbrella’s biological research?

And what exactly had the ancient elixir of immortality been?

Could it have been something like the origin of the Inhumans—a genetic modification technology left behind by extraterrestrials?

If so...

Umbrella wouldn’t stop with ancient artifacts.

They would inevitably investigate the Inhumans.

No.

They might already be doing it.

Raina remembered the rumors circulating through their community.

People had been identified as Inhumans only to disappear soon afterward.

Some had vanished immediately after awakening their powers.

No bodies.

No evidence.

Nothing.

Umbrella.

The possibility made her stomach tighten.

"Don’t look so grim, little lady."

Nahash glanced at her expression and shrugged.

"I’ve only reached my first molt. I’ve got plenty more stories."

His smile widened.

"Especially my most famous one."

"Please, continue."

Raina nodded stiffly.

She had no idea what else this snake intended to reveal.

"After eating the elixir of immortality, I simply kept living."

Nahash resumed his story.

"I crawled across the earth for a very long time. Eventually, I reached a rather special place."

His eyes gleamed.

"And that was where humanity would remember me forever."

"I like to call it Old Man’s Happy Farm."

He considered that.

"Or Old Yahweh’s Country Retreat."

Raina blinked.

"It was a beautiful place. Lush vegetation, abundant water. Practically perfect."

"Apparently, the old man wanted to cultivate a batch of high-quality humans."

Nahash shook his head.

"Unfortunately, his work ethic was questionable. He’d work for two days and disappear for three. In the end, only three successful specimens were produced."

"One man and two women."

Raina’s eyes narrowed.

"One of the women eventually disobeyed the old man and got kicked out."

Nahash shrugged.

"She became my neighbor afterward. Though I imagine she moved out recently."

Raina was beginning to have a very bad feeling about where this was going.

"Anyway, there were at least some successful results, so the old man decided to test the remaining two."

"He planted a tree in the garden."

"And then he told them they absolutely weren’t allowed to eat its fruit."

Raina’s jaw dropped.

"You..."

She stared at him.

"Nahash."

"You tricked the woman into eating the fruit."

It took every ounce of restraint she possessed not to shout.

She might not have known every ancient myth in human history, but even she recognized this one.

Old Man’s Happy Farm?

Old Yahweh’s Country Retreat?

"You can call it whatever you want, but that’s obviously the Garden of Eden!"

"And the woman who got kicked out?"

"Lilith."

"The remaining two?"

"Adam and Eve."

Raina stared at him in disbelief.

"You’re Nahash."

She swallowed.

"The Serpent of Eden."

The serpent who had tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

The serpent associated with the first great deception in Judeo-Christian tradition.

No wonder Nahash had claimed that all deception originated with him.

"I suppose you’ve finally figured out who I am."

Nahash nodded with satisfaction.

"Giving a complete biography is exhausting."

Raina raised an eyebrow.

"If it’s that exhausting, why didn’t you just tell me who you were when you showed up?"

"That would ruin the presentation."

Nahash sounded genuinely offended.

"And it’s hardly my fault you didn’t study history properly."

"If I’d simply announced my name and you’d immediately recognized me, I’d have wasted all that effort."

"History?"

Raina rolled her eyes.

"What part of that is history?"

She gestured helplessly.

"Your version of the Garden of Eden supposedly happened after the events of Gilgamesh. The chronology doesn’t make any sense!"

"Humans weren’t created by some old man!"

Nahash’s expression turned serious.

"I can personally testify in favor of evolution."

He pointed at himself.

"We should trust science."

Raina stared at him.

The same creature had just casually inserted himself into two of humanity’s oldest myths.

And now he was telling her to trust science.

That had to qualify as its own kind of mythology.

"All right."

Raina took a breath.

"Since I don’t exactly get many opportunities to interview people from ancient mythology, can I ask you something?"

Nahash gestured for her to continue.

"The tree in Eden."

Her curiosity sharpened.

"The one that supposedly grew the fruit of knowledge. What was it really?"

Raina’s mind was already working.

Maybe it had been similar to the immortality elixir.

If so, where was the tree now?

Did any of its fruit survive?

Even if the remains had fossilized, she would find a way to acquire them.

"It was just an ordinary fruit tree."

Raina stared.

"What?"

"It was young, so the fruit wasn’t particularly good. A little sour."

She could only blink.

"That tree was merely a test."

Nahash shrugged.

"The old man wanted to see whether those two humans would obey him. He threw the tree together because he felt like it."

He smiled.

"The old man could be a little eccentric."

"And although the legend says it was an apple tree, don’t take that part too seriously. I happen to like apples, but scientific evidence shows apples weren’t cultivated in ancient Mesopotamia."

"Right."

Raina forced out a laugh.

"Of course."

She had just decided that she was going to trust science completely from now on and never listen to another mythological story in her life.

Then Nahash ruined that plan.

He walked over and lightly tapped the unconscious Coulson.

"I’ve told you enough that you know who I am now."

His expression became more serious.

"So, as someone with considerable experience as a snake, let me give you some advice."

"Stop investigating this man."

Raina frowned.

"You’re trying to protect Agent Coulson?"

She couldn’t understand why.

But then she remembered that she was talking to a figure from mythology.

If there was an explanation, perhaps mythology itself contained the answer.

Her thoughts jumped to an old story about the Buddha and the Peacock King.

The peacock had supposedly swallowed the Buddha whole, only for the Buddha to escape from inside it.

Someone had then argued that because the Buddha had emerged from the peacock’s body, the peacock should be regarded as his mother and therefore spared.

Raina looked at Nahash.

He had emerged from Coulson’s mouth.

Not exactly the same direction, but technically—

If he came out of Coulson, does that make Coulson his father?

Her expression changed several times.

"Don’t overthink it."

Nahash immediately noticed where her thoughts were heading and cut her off before she could reach the truly terrible conclusion.

"It’s simply because of an agreement."

He shrugged.

"I exploited a loophole, but I’d still rather not see him placed in unnecessary danger."

"And besides..."

His eyes slid toward Raina.

"You’re trying to uncover the secret of resurrection."

He smiled.

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that you won’t find it in him."

"Why?"

Raina narrowed her eyes.

"He’s the only confirmed case of resurrection we know of."

"You don’t know what he went through to come back."

Nahash’s smile became almost sinister.

"I don’t believe I’ve mentioned that part yet."

He paused.

"Because of me, the old man’s little human experiment failed. He became depressed afterward."

"Not long after that, someone convinced him to leave home."

Nahash’s expression darkened slightly.

"But before that happened, he threw me into Hell."

Raina froze.

"Hell?"

She hesitated.

"You mean that as a metaphor?"

"Hell."

Nahash didn’t even blink.

"The place where the souls of sinners go after death."

Raina stared at him.

Nahash continued as though he hadn’t just shattered her understanding of reality.

"Hell is real."

"Science hasn’t been able to prove it yet, but that doesn’t make it any less real."

"As for this agent..."

He pointed toward Coulson.

"When he died, his soul went to Hell."

"Mephisto personally sent someone to collect it."

He smiled faintly.

"That’s quite an honor."

"So the resurrection SHIELD performed didn’t actually bring him back."

"It restored the biological functions of his body."

"His body lived."

"But it was an empty shell."

Raina’s expression tightened.

"The technology they used is genuinely impressive. You could call it raising the dead and restoring the body from the brink of death."

"But once someone has actually died, restoring the body isn’t enough."

"If you can’t return the soul to it, you haven’t truly resurrected anyone."

Raina’s voice dropped.

"So SHIELD..."

She looked at Coulson.

"Did SHIELD make a deal with a demon in Hell?"

"More or less."

Nahash nodded.

"This agent had a very good friend."

"That man managed to bargain with Mephisto and recover Coulson’s soul."

"Only then could Coulson truly return to life."

Raina’s shoulders sagged.

"Then all our research was pointless?"

Her voice was bitter.

"Our greatest achievement can only restore someone who hasn’t completely died."

"We can’t actually bring back the dead."

"Correct."

Nahash didn’t soften the answer.

"You can’t succeed."

"Even if someone’s soul doesn’t go to Heaven or Hell and instead remains in the mortal world, wandering on its own, you still need a way to find it and bring it back."

"Without that, resurrection is impossible."

Raina fell silent.

Then Nahash smiled.

"Of course..."

"If you have my help, that might change."