"All are the Father's sons. Great in His love he gives birth to the gods and gives breath to the baby bird inside the egg, preserves the son of a worm, feeds the mouse in its hole and the midge in the air. The son of a worm is God's son, too. Stones, plants, animals, men, gods—all are his sons; He has no only Son. He who has said 'I am the Son' has killed the Father. Ua-en-ua, one and only is He and there is none other beside. He who says 'there are two gods' kills God. This is whom I have risen against—the deicide. He will save the world, you think? No, He will destroy it. He will sacrifice himself for the world? No, He will sacrifice the world to himself. Men will love Him and hate the world. Honey will be as wormwood to them, light as darkness, life as death. And they will perish. Then they will come to us and say 'Save us!' And we will save them again."
"Again? Has it all happened before?"
"Yes. It has been and it will be. Do you know the meaning of Nem-ankh, eternal recurrence? Eternity spins round and round and repeats its cycles. All that has been in time shall be in eternity. He has been, too. His first name was Osiris. He came to us but we killed Him and destroyed His work. He wanted to make His kingdom in the land of the living but we drove Him to the Kingdom of the dead, Amenti, the eternal West: we gave Him that world and kept this one for ourselves. He will come again and we will kill Him once more and destroy His work. We have conquered the world and not He."
"There is no Son and perhaps there is no Father either?" Dio asked, looking at him defiantly. "Tell me the truth, don't lie: is there a God or no?"
"God is—there is no God; say what you like—it all comes to nothing; all men's words about God are vain."
"There now! I have caught the thief!" Dio cried, laughing into his face. "I knew all along you did not believe in God."
"Silly girl!" he said, as gently and kindly as before, "I am dead: the dead see God. I adjure you by the living God, consider before you go to Him whether there isn't truth in my words!"
"And if there is, what then?"
"Leave Him and stay with us!"
"No, even then I shall remain with Him!"