Elijah in the sky, with the gift of the wings that had come to him, guided only by light, understood that he didn't need to look at the light to reach it. So he decided to take one last look at what he was leaving behind, and realized he wasn't the only one. He wasn't alone in keeping the divine stone. He saw all the fragments of humanity that made up the wings, the feathers, and the flight of the other bearers of God. 21 witnesses and Elijah, each living and breathing their 22 precious stone:
Amber, Moonstone, Carnelian, Peridot, Golden Obsidian, Amethyst, Citrine, Aquamarine, Sunstone, Lava Stone, White Jade, Rock Crystal, Lapis Lazuli, Rhodonite, Hematite, Imperial Topaz, Goshenite, Moldavite, Labradorite, White Opal, Turquoise, and Charoite.
but none like the other. His witnesses had only been waiting for one thing: for Elijah to take flight, and to show them that if he had the ability, so did they, the ability to materialize what God had given them. The only lost gem was the black onyx, the stone of humanity's sin, the stone into which the Son of God was sent to bear all those sins. It was no longer there. But the one who kept it, proclaiming himself the messiah, and pointing to the stone in which men had judged themselves, was the one who, in his final lie, committed the last sin of mankind and was indeed crucified.
But Elijah understood the purpose of the Messiah. He understood why men loved to say that God had gone. He had sacrificed himself one last time. The Son of God, who proclaimed he was God, was indeed God. There was no second chosen one. He was not a man. It was truly himself who had returned through the ancient speeches, those that carried only illusion, speeches, and lies that carried nothing. To bear, one last time, all the sins of humanity. No god would have crucified one of his sons. It was he who was on that cross. In that stone. In the final lie. He had become the devil, so that humanity would enlighten him, so that he would perish. That's why he wanted each of his sons not to believe that final lie. Because the Onyx was a lie. The last lie of the devil. And only if you could see, only if you listened, and lived through God, through His stone, through the journey, could you recognize the truth within the lie.
The truth was revealed to Elijah, not through the words of God, but through his crucifixion, and the silence behind it. The earth wept, the clouds wept, and so did the storms. Elijah saw all those who had believed in the black onyx. They were prisoners of the hell they had created. He could choose: should he abandon them? Should he return into the flames to save them? They were a fragmented part of himself. How could he let perish what was also him, what was also God?
In trying to reach out his hand to those who desired it, Elijah could not save them. It was the hand of God, but it had become the hand of the devil. God Himself had given His divinity to His witnesses. And those who believed in the devil were only God Himself, shattered.
Elijah could not grasp that hand. Why save the devil himself, when he had created the hell he wanted? When Elijah and his witnesses were purely divine? Why save the devil?
And the devil did not want to hear them. He knew his mission. So Elijah no longer extended his hand. He smiled a second time, in gratitude for the hardest, but most important lessons. He knew that it was God Himself he was looking in the eye. And he joined the sun that was no more. The only light now was that of the witnesses and that of Elijah, who then lit up hell
to join the kingdom of heaven.