CHAPTER FORTY NINE

Himalayas, China

Philip Dresden sometimes felt that he was just another helpless product of fate in the universe. Rarely these days did he not know what was coming next. This was one of those times. So he was considerably reluctant to carry on... "Well we're here now," Philip informed Dr. Randolph, "So you don't have to keep trying to convince me to come back."

"I can never really get used to that. Across the world in the blink of an eye."

He cluster-jumped Jason, Lazarus, and his son from New York to China, and together, the five of them journeyed up the mountain to the temple.

"Explain to me again why you brought the kid?"

"It's not safe back home with Vlad and Moses out on patrol, and we need Lazarus here."

"For what?"

"It's a very old temple."

Philip knew that wasn't enough, "Consider this the last field trip these kids, and us for that matter, will ever go on."

"That's grim." Jason commented as he walked by them.

"Not far now."

When they got to the end of the trail it gave way to a clearing at the summit. Just as Jason and Dr. Randolph had seen in the months they lived here in the mountains. Philip had always seen this picture in his head, even when Sensei told him about the temple during his training. This was always the place. The night he fell from the Empire State Building after hearing all the voices of the city, the same night his visions started, he knew his path would lead him here, to the hall of all answers, all the questions and mysteries of his past, present, and future.

"Tonight... we find out everything." Philip told them as he neared the doorway.

There was no door. This place was built for the chosen one.

Philip walked through the archway. Inside the temple was nothing but ruins. Its decaying stone was covered with overgrown moss and the ceiling was caved in all around them. Everyone looked around at the old tragedy; only two faces were different. Lazarus, a man who could see what others could not, smiled in awe-filled eyes at all that was around him. And Philip watched Lazarus perceive the temple through the realm of the dead, just as he had foreseen.

Philip grabbed Lazarus' shoulder and closed his eyes, "What do you see?"

Lazarus panned from left to right and told him, "I see the ceiling, with the entire world in it, not our world, but one of the stars..."

Philip tried to picture it.

"I see what lies beneath the ceiling, great white slabs."

That is when Philip began to see it. Pure white giant tablets walling the temple. But they were not the only things there. Lazarus stepped away and broke contact with Philip's arm. He opened his eyes and the visions remained. Philip could now see the Land of the Dead along with Lazarus, sharing in yet another ability. He was far from finished.

Lazarus touched the effervescent whiteness on the walls and informed them, "They're books!" Philip closed his eyes again and held out his other hand, facing the rest of his company. He breathed heavily.

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The clouds in the sky made way for the moon whose shine washed them all over and gave Philip the strength to show them the dead temple reborn.

Dr. Randolph, Jason, and Lazarus' son, Yannie, all involuntarily changed the perception filters in their eyes and joined Philip and Laz in putting the rest of the puzzle together. Yannie pulled books of pure light off the shelves next to his father while everyone else except Philip did the same. Philip kept his hands up while still facing towards them as they moved for the shelves, even though his eyes remained closed.

Yannie opened the book for what was the best moment of his entire life. It opened to a blank page, just like every other, but as he stared at it, a letter came into focus. It was an old letter, and not before long another blurred in and re-sized to fine black text next to the first. More followed and it spelled a word, word upon word wrapped next to the one before it until it told a story. In every book, on every page the picture was different, but the story remained the same. Whether it was the past, the present, or the future...the Great Flood was there.

And Philip could see all of it.

He kept his eyes closed and channeled the discovery through them, pouring the knowledge into his head at a rate never felt before. It was inhuman, but it felt so good. It gave Philip strength, power in itself for him to keep going.

He had found the Infinite Source, lost in a cosmic abyss.

Storm clouds covered the moon and the bonds were interrupted. Philip lost the connection and opened his eyes. "We must go."

"It's too late."

Thunder sounded in the distance and came roaring up. It was acting with a mind of its own, which could only mean one thing. The heavens opened and the rains came down along with a man. But it was not Fitzsimons, nor the Storm Harvester. He walked into the temple.

Its guardian had returned to challenge the intruders.

It only appeared to be a man, but once it got close enough looked like a contained ocean riptide in human form. Philip got everyone behind him and tried to greet the guardian. "My name is Philip Dresden, and I am the One."

"DarkFlood. I am the Created, I am Hydro, guardian of this domain, you have returned, and seen the light." Hydro chanted like a machine giving off an automated response, "Now all those worthy shall be tested."

"WHAT!"

"NO!"

"WAIT!"

The group scattered as the guardian, Hydro, began moving towards them again. The light flickered and the bookshelves returned. Hydro turned the temple back on. Yannie held his hand out and the book he was reading flew from the shelves towards him. Before it got to him he redirected it to hit Hydro. It exploded and turned some of him to water sprinkling on the floor. Yannie pulled another book and another without touching it and flung it at Hydro. Philip was taken by the words of the guardian, it sounded like a message that was left for him. He feared that it was left by someone he knew.

Yannie flew one more book into Hydro's ankle, incapacitating the ancient guard. Yannie stood before it as everyone else including his Father, cowered behind Philip along the wall. "Yannie, please!" Lazarus begged him to run.

"It's fine, look!" Yannie leaned over to touch the stationary guardian.

"Yannie don't!" Lazarus jumped for his boy.

"Wait!" Philip stopped trying to figure out who left him the message in order to intervene. That's when he realized who it was, and that it was too late.

Yannie poked Hydro and instantly turned into water, splashing on the ground in a puddle.

The boy was gone, dead in the water.

"NO!" Lazarus yelled at the top of his lungs. Philip grabbed him and stopped him from attacking Hydro, but he knew it was futile. This next part would throw him into an unglimpsed part of his future. Lazarus threw Philip off of him. Right before he reached Hydro, he looked at them all one last time and his eyes were pure blazon white, like the books on the shelves, as he pulled them all along with him into Hydro.

The water collided with the light and sent everyone left in the temple catapulting through time and space. Philip could feel the Infinite Abyss calling to him, something new. He wanted to push on in the time void but knew he must return to his world. He found a familiar fold in the fabric of time and brought them back to Moses' Apartment in New York.

Philip had never felt that level of power before, and it took him further away from humanity. He tasted existing as pure energy for the first time and now he wanted to live like that forever in eternity. But right now he followed his heart back home; except it was six months to the day after they journeyed to the temple in the East and the balance between human and superhuman had gone on without him, beginning its descent into anarchy once and for all.