Chapter 39
Bloody, charred, frozen to his core, Dylan entered the luminous, crystalline cavern. He basked in the red glow, saturated by its sub-atomic aura. The source of its power penetrating his being. The icy rock floor gave way to a smooth silver path that opened into a hallway. Multi-colored stalactites hung from the ceiling, an upside-down jungle of flawless prisms. The crimson chakra deep within Shasta pulsed through its walls, wisps of rainbow hovering, dancing, welcoming the new Scion.
The tingling in his center flourished into electric vibrations. With every step, he became more aware of his consciousness and less of his physical self, ready to accept his destiny. Engulfed in the glow, his arms became transparent, fading into the sublime. The key dissipated into his hands, its chakras flowing throughout the dimensions of his body. Innately aware of everything, his cells pulled further apart, separating into molecules, atoms and beyond. Dylan could no longer tell where his translucent form ended and the world around him began. All is one. And for the first time, he understood synchronicity.
A chasm opened before him, erupting with scarlet energies like a volcanic fountain, chromatic sunbursts twinkling above him. Dylan peered over the edge into a spiraling vortex of red, streaked with every color imaginable. Drawn forward, he stepped into the abyss. Faster than gravity, he fell into the infinite cyclone, the particles of his being whirled like a gyroscope. Instinctively, Dylan tried to maintain his hold on reality.
The red deepened into a shadowy blood-black, binding to his essence. His mind and spirit twisted free from the material world, consciousness spiraling through the darkness, faster than thought. Alone in the pitch, the tiniest of lights, a seed of hope. As his soul reached its sub-atomic limit, the seed exploded, its brilliance rolling through the blackness, a tidal wave of perpetual creation, leaving nebula, stars, planets, moons and cosmic dust in its wake. Dylan’s consciousness was reborn, witnessing the genesis of the universe. His spirit split into a million points of light throughout the ever-expanding cosmos, and for a moment, omniscient. He glimpsed the birth and deaths of a trillion worlds: life teeming, DNA evolving, connecting the existence of all living things to minute fractals of the grand design. These worlds birthed life, civilizations, cultures, communities and families, all linked by a collective consciousness, to their planet, their galaxy, their Om, and their creator.
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Countless points of light drew back to one, the wisdom of eternal existence. Dylan’s spirit streaked through the Milky Way, to the Earth and descended through a microscope-tunnel. He soared above the Terran horizons, learning her face as surely as he knew his own. He slipped through time, life, work, sacrifice, love, hate, evil, birth, death, creation, destruction. An imperfect world, a child’s collective mind, learning to think, to balance itself. And the Scion’s world to protect.
Dylan raced century by century, changing the landscape of the world until - darkness again. Aware of his body, he floated toward the single glow and reached to touch it. A scream, the wail of eternity. He passed into the light again and hovered over the city of crystal. There, the angelic voice and delicate hands like silk, holding him to her chest, her heartbeat in time with his. The woman from his dream, her breath sweet and warm, kissed him. A golden strand, braided and unbreakable, stretched between their hearts, binding them forever. Love.
Dylan blinked, images of Max and Nan flashed. He and Norm playing. Max’s funeral rushed by until- the jolt shot through his leg and up his spine. The wall. The scene moved in normal time as Dylan approached the tree, yet something was different. Still pulsing, the tree was pristine, white pearl, surging with light and the force of life. He reached to touch the tree. The trunk bent and twisted its branches around to take his hands, twining between his fingers and under his nails. Its blooms flourished, growing exponentially. His eyes flickered, surges shaking him to his soul, a whisper. “Arise, Scion. Arise, Scion.” The chant grew louder, shaking the walls of the mountain. “Arise, Scion! Arise, Scion!” The cacophony quaked around him. Chakras, like stars, ignited within his center, a rainbow from the base of his spine to the crown of his mind. “ARISE!”
Dylan blinked again, standing on the edge of the chasm. The red glow dissipated, leaving just enough light for him to escape the darkness of the crystal cavern. Back on the mountain, the storm had dispersed, crisp air mingling with the twinkling sky above. His skin glimmered like a blue star. The rhythmic buzz humming, seven chakras glowing within his core. He focused and dimmed their luminance, allowing his body to resemble his normal self.
“Greetings, Scion, Dylan Maximilian,” Skell said, the crystal entry closing.
“Hello, Skell.” Dylan’s eyes crackled with power, the eternal awareness. “I have risen.”