Chapter XIV

Xiao...

Reins...

Rio...

Forgive me. I have failed.

I was wrong---about many things. The black mattered liquid that envelops Rio's once radiant body that hatched and harnesses life, crippled and later bursts into tiny particles which floated aloft at the surface of the calm ocean that now brews a storm of violent catastrophes.

Life offered a bargain that seemed clearer than a thin flake of ice.

" A single soul that no longer bore life, in exchange for an entire generation of it. "

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Life always finds a way. But what if there was one thing that didn't go the way that it should've gone? What if there has been one solution in the equation that was overlooked? A glitch in the matrix.

What "Life" needed was a sacrificial soul, in a tantrum, it liquified Rio's body and was left the for the ocean to deduce even the memory of him to nothing. Just as Life was ought to begin a new cycle, it now faces a crucial scene where everything that harnesses light---in a blink of an eye might all collide with one big singularity similar to a blackholes light forever shrinking, completely deducing until all light will center at one shrinking point---till finally, fade into the terrors of an everlasting cold night. The end of existence.

To prevent the total collapse of all realities Life found a way, Life always finds a way. Life called upon its celestials. The five black cross that levitated side by side with the sun descended into the ocean of ravenous rage for all was unwell.

They made their way all together like a program set to be in sync with each other at shore as they arise from the water and now tampers their feet upon the grains of sand.

by the farthest left was a tall man; his hair magnificently braided against each other stretching as long as his waist, his face set headstrong as the side of his scalp has permanent scriptures of fables during his time.

This man had his fair wage of battles as his face and berserker fists were all covered with scars. He wore a bearskin over his two shoulders; a leather armor covers his entire body and another silk clothing underneath to shield him from cold weather.

The bottom of his torso was covered with pants of leather and boots with a touch of fur, also for the cold temperatures. This man's physic was entirely built for one thing, war---his muscles weren't shown due to his apparels but were outlined on it. They addressed this man as "One"

Next to One was a small little girl with eyes not of innocence and with a mind that far surpasses her age. Her hair was black as night and straight as metal rods it was short leveling next to her neck while a small crystal blue bow hanged neatly upon it.

She wore a little maids dress as she portrays etiquette and disciple like does of soldiers and does of knights. They addressed this child as "Two"

Next to the child was a teenage male, taller than Two but smaller than One. His left iris glows in the radiant of reptilian green as the right iris with a phantom blue tint, a boy who's under the disorder known as heterochromia, his hair forms truffles by the end of each section.

He wore a winter white long scarf around his neck as grey polished cotton rested at his torso----underneath is a suspender for his pants and a white silk shirt, his pants also in grey polished cotton and lastly a well-shined pair of big black shoes. They addressed this boy as "Three"

Alongside Three was a woman in her mid-twenties, her face so sweet and seemingly soft similar to her long and perfect hair that shines in the hue of the sun. She always wore a smile matching everything that she portrays, perfection, although with perfection comes imperfection which makes her truly perfect; a balance between melody and distortion; she suffers from the suffocating clutch of blindness ever since she escaped from the womb of her beloved mother.

She neatly wore a duster dress leaving her hands and neck to head the only part of her exposed. They addressed this lovely woman as "Four"

And finally at the farthest right was a bald old man but what seems odd is that the decay of life took no tool of him yet, but I couldn't say the same for his skin was left disfigured by the decay of time including the menace that is his face.

He wore a dark cotton trench coat along with a scarf with the excess length tucked in his coat concealing everything but his face. They addressed this old man as "Five"

With the five celestials finally summoned to save what we all hold dear and true, a universal phenomenon that resides on extinguishing all the roots that wish to taint existence as a whole. A phenomenon we call Life.

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The darkness.

The Light.

Life.

Void.

Which side truly resides in the light? Which side bears no false? How could one decide without even knowing what the truth is?

What lies beyond Life, beyond reality, beyond this existence. What is this ancient anomaly that would pleasure Life for a swift collapse, so profane and distinct that just by mentioning its existence or by mere thought---makes it that inhumane they call this unholy verdict - The end - A mouth hole that bears no stomach - A shadow beneath those of bright stars and gravitating planets - A perpetual void that has no beginning nor end an ancient monstrosity which even topples the existence of those so-called primordial beings - a seed called darkness.

It is the vast black cold and timeless space where silence reverberates within eardrums and lungs as peace slowly tranquil every inch of our existence. It is where true peace lies, it's where the truth is finally unraveled.

What lies beyond is a creature of ancient origin where no spark of light nor particle of it had even arisen from the unfathomable ocean of erebus. An unknown phenomenon where a cacophony of silence is of its own existence; crawling, lurking, and devouring.

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Klaus Schneider,

What vast body of dead cold debris carries me towards my destiny. Traveling through space and time, stalking countless realities that remain oblivious to what they consider as incomprehensible - a fallen chronicle of old---now encompasses even the highest being that they know of, it is I who now exist above that those of which they think.

My quest still remains straight and true, the ancient erebus warned me before and I was oblivious from it for I meddle with things that are incomprehensible to my knowledge before, I now voyage from the depths of space and venture into unknown realities---the artifact grows warry for each dive I take, takes more energy out of it than of mine, limitations still exist even to those of cosmic birth such as I.

The sphere opened a mouth of new possibility, radiating as low as a fire in the cold usher of the night, the artifact had yet again fainted in glow and in warmth as the mouth had shut closed rendering me stranded into this hearth of a new reality, a foreign outcome that makes me truly---enigmatic.

The artifact shrank in size fitting nicely at my back pocket. My torso still bears remnants of a time that had already passed after three jumps over the longevity and grueling voyage that I had not noticed nor felt but took toll unto my physic.

My pants ripped bit by bit from both sides as it stiffens from the cold of deep space, what's soft as the touch of a carpet now; hard as diamonds and cold as the seventh hell of the artic depths.

My torso; rugged and bruised, not so much as I could feel them for I can no longer feel, but as much as what others can call as the dead man walks once more among the living. Though most parts of it inhabit chunks of frozen flesh and are what who holds most of it intact.

I am what they commonly refer to as the living dead but to me is something more sophisticated and complex, entering something that looks primitive from where I originated from, the thought of returning once more from where one originally came from seems to intrigue me by a septum at the least.

One final jump, I say to myself, before reaching the waking eyes over the fulfillment of my destiny; to seek the truth over the tyrannical hurricane that is the erebus who lies beyond those of what life calls---existence.

But for the meanwhile haystacks, cattle, lamb, and feathers that soils the hay who consumes the earthen ground for I was inside a sort of barn. I hid my malformed self in a grey old sheet that I managed to wrap around myself although not the neatest of things that I've done but this surely will do.

The grey old sheet was covered mostly of hay and with a touch of feathers that hang on a hook next to a farmers' hat which I also took later when I took my first step towards this anonymous reality.

The sun ran low as clouds cover a great portion of it, a few phases ahead was a flat terrain with treelines conquering land all over the far stretch of east and western side. In front was a house made of stone with a nozzle at the top where it breathes a smoke of black embers. Beside the house, was a road made of paved stones.

The road leads forward seemly endless and also leads back were was too who seems endless, incoming was a caravan whom a cloaked man rides in a sort of wooden chariot with a single horse which looked tired and possibly on the verge of death.

I made my way slithering as light and quiet as a shadow would behind the caravan for a ride, it traveled long as it took me places where freshwater inhabits the land in a length where no eyes could reach an end for it seems that there is simply none, it stumbled across hills of rocky terrain and plateaus that were smaller in height that of others, to vast fields of greenery, and to villages where cacophonies of crowd shimmer like a radio in a lost of frequency, I forgot what it sounded like---I forgot what people sounded like.

The caravan ran for three days and each night taking either a camp if there were no village nearby or an inn if otherwise, but for this third night it halted in a vast field of sand a couple of meters away from the open ocean.

Metal started to beat against each other as the sound and glow of fiery cast its own shadows at the sheets that served as roof inside the caravan, a husky voice called out.

" You're a traveler I see... "

The man muttered.

I took a glance; once then twice, but there was no one who the cloaked man was seating beside with for him to talk to at the hearth of his campfire.

" Come---come, three days without water nor food is a sentence for death, here warm yourself up by the fire. "

A kind gesture the man gave, but with kindness that you give cannot always be kindness in return, but for this fortunate time, it will.

I was subtle for he knew all this time that I was behind his caravan with those cargoes of his, but what fascinated me the most was that this was no regular man, this was an old blind man hidden in a cloak of molding green.

He raised his left hand carrying a wooden bowl of porridge which I thankfully received but then immediately placed softly at the comfort of the sand, an eternal soul like I need not of comfort sleep at night nor warm food to satisfy hunger, such things which serve one's own humanity no longer concerns me.

" Huh... not hungry? "

said the old man.

I now see that this man is no ordinary man, but of gifts perhaps? or it just might be a humane superstition part of me which believes to be.

" How can you see me? "

" Not a man of pleasantries I see, I am blind, yes, but, I have not lost the power of sensing one's presence. And I sense that you are not from this place, are you not? "

This old man can see far greater heights than those of ordinary man, I have not meet such a creature, to be broken yet excel greater than those of not.

" I'm a traveler " I started,

" I come from a faraway place, and now aim to reach the edge of the world. "

The old man scratched his chin after making a stop on sipping his porridge, then said,

" That is...quite a travel, if I say so myself. I too am a fellow traveler, but it seems that I've finally reached the end. "

He plucked out an amulet but not of jewelry but of a small wooden figure at the size of a thumb and gestures it for me. It was a wooden carving of a subtle woman who embraces herself, her face was distinct as did her hair.

" Let mother safeguard you on your travel. "

The mother? I asked myself, this look nothing like the mother virgin, and so I asked,

" Mother...the virgin?.. "

The old man grinned before speaking,

" No. The first mother, our mother from the beyond. The long-forgotten mother. My travel has come to an end, I---can---finally---rest... "

The old man slowly turned to grains alike the sand next to the ocean but not quite of the same color for his was of grey. The merry smile that he had faded as well, all of a sudden the crackling of the fire was all there is and the frolicking of the wave upon reaching the shore.

Daybreak came coloring the thick fog with the brilliance of yellow, the sphere once more grew in size as it glowed tenfold than of the sun, once more a tear in space filled the landscape where the view of the ocean was no more and instead was filled with the monumental possibilities of another numerous reality before reaching the final stop, the edge of all existence.

A single entity that is me, drifts yet again into the dark and shivering cool of deep space, and as I did this "Mother" kept my own complex labrinthian kaleidoscope of a mesh which they commonly refer to as "thoughts" profoundly occupied.