Edited by: KenChi死

The eye. I found it within myself. It is not opened by the body but by the soul. The world of magic is very complex and our understanding of it is mostly based on our own experiments.

Imagine, that there is a door. Behind this door there is already mentioned magic. It’s very essence. And all of us, as we study magic, are standing near this door trying “overhear” its whispers.

The eye… the eye allowed me to look through the keyhole to witness how beautiful it is. It indeed was beautiful. But… it’s bright. And it burns my eyes.

* “ZARI! DON’T”

Ah, the last words I heard before I was sucked in. The light was burning, I wanted to shut my eyes, but I couldn’t. They were forcefully open, like during brainwash session.

So what I saw? The worlds. All of them.

First I saw my room, as if I looked from above. In a short moment I raised higher, looking over the city. Higher, I saw a country. Them a continent and the a world.

And then further and further. The solar system, galaxy, then system of galaxies all packed in a perfect cube – the universe.

But I did not stop there. I saw Cubes of Universes packed one near the other. First a few of them, then dozens, hundreds, thousands and millions. I was rising even higher up to the moment when I saw all of them creating yet another Cube. Shifting and changing. Universes were never in the same place, they were moving like insane Rubik’s cube. Every placed changed…. But the center.

The Cubes of Universes were filled. They had starts and planers and dust and matter and life… The central was dark.

And I saw life. It’s very process. Small sparkle that after being born was weak and fragile. As it was living, gathering knowledge and experience they were getting shiner, bigger and warmer.

Up to the moment they died. All energy that souls gathered within their life was taken away from them, the once again a small and fragile soul was being born. So what happened with the energy? With all this fire and warmth and might? It was being sucked. By a dark, dead cube in the center.

All the words were acting like clockwork. Tic – you are born. Toc – you have died. Tic – you are harvested. Toc – Repeat.

And I saw the River. How adequate a name… it was floating through all the Universes. Once slow and gentle, bringing prosperity and fertility. Once rapid and violent, causing cataclysms and wars.

My eyes were burning.

I have seen the life of a soul. Again and again. As it was being deprived of its knowledge doomed to repeat their mistakes from past lives… Yet not exactly. With each passing reincarnation, mistakes were a bit smaller, bit less punishing. All races, were slowly, crawling forward… to what?

To the dark cube? What is there?

Magic.

All knowledge even gathered. All power that every living being even had. It is stored there.

Does magic came from that place?

No. It’s stored there.

So where does it come from?

From yourself…

What is the purpose of the Dark Cube

To store

Store what

… the magic… the knowledge… the experience…

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Why?

So he can return

Who?

…

Who?

The first purpose.

Who is the first purpose?

Everyone.

… What do you mean.

Everything is connected. Light and Dark. Chaos and Order. Life and Death. Love and hate.

I know… Everything is connected and everything comes from the simplest creation to the most complicated, just to became simple again. Ash to ash. Dust to dust. But…. That would mean.

Once, there was only ONE life. It got separated. Every blade of grass, every bug and every maggot. But also every human, elf and dwarf. Every dragon demon and ogre…

They used to be one?

Yes.

So… first purpose was…

A first of the many. The Father of gods. The one that came from oblivion. Who forced the abyss into order. Who created nature and its laws. The father of every living and non living being. The Allfather.

… so… we the only purpose why we live…

Wrong. All father was perfect. But what is perfect cannot be perfect. The only thing that is truly perfect is imperfect being that tries to reach perfectness. Once it reach its final form… its purpose perishes, and thus is no longer perfect.

That’s a paradox.

Life is a paradox. Knowledge is a paradox. The existence of god is a paradox. Everything is a paradox… so it means that nothing is truly a paradox.

It doesn’t have sense.

Not everything has to.

… Who are you?

…

Who are you?

I am you.

So… I am also you?

No. You are not me.

… now, it really doesn’t make any sense.

Magnate has to be a noble, but noble doesn’t have to be a magnate.

So you are something bigger than me, but what contains me… I am inferior?

Yes. No.

Again paradox?

Yes. I told you. Being imperfect is more perfect than being perfect. Being weaker than me makes you stronger. And as you are stronger you grow weaker.

Even if everything is connected, it is also separated. What separates perfect from perfect? Weakness from might?

Time. It is the only tool to measure. But it is not valid here. We are beyond time. We are beyond space. We are in the Abyss. In Oblivion. In the Void. We are there, where everything happened. When and where he was born.

Does it mean… that when the time will come… all living being will perish to became Allfather?

No. The process was broken. The Circle was made within the Circle. Sacrifice of life is no longer needed.

Then sacrifice of WHAT is needed.

You know the answer.

The Cube. The experience and knowledge that is harvested at the moment of death. The very reason for the Circle, for reincarnation… is to take away the knowledge and use it to revive him?

Yes. And no.

So again paradox?

No. Not this time. It is closer to “yes”… I guess.

Did I… did I just find the answer for the reason that philosophers were asking since the dawn of time? Why are we here? Where are we going?

Yes and no. This time closer to “No”. The very process of life and death is indeed to harvest experience… but there is at least one more purpose of life

Which is?

…Having fun…

T… thahaha… haha… ah… I see. Well. Is that it. Something more I have to know?

Yes. Something that you may be interested with… Take a closer look.

The world around me started blurring again, as I was falling lower and lower, going back the same way I came. The cubes became bigger and bigger, up to the moment I was back in my Universe, then I saw galaxies, my galaxy, my solar system and my planet.

Here… it should be enough… Look….

On the world I saw from above, on every continent a few point shined, like a quests markers in a game.

Remember those places. And find them

What is there?

A power. A truth. A death and life. Redemption. And Sin. The answer, and the questions. Hope. Doom…. There is a tool…. And as every tool, you are the one to decide its purpose. Will you use a hammer to nail something? To destroy something?

Answering every question with either another question or paradox is making me tired… and my eyes… hurt…

Well, it’s your limit. Go back. Take a rest. You deserve it…

I was been sent lower, to the continent, to the country, to the city and my room. Before I reentered my body, I saw quite a gathering around me. The room was quite covered in blood…

I became one with my body…

And I heard it. Someone was screaming. Oh my goddess… how he was screaming. As if he was skinned alive, with his wounds being covered in slat and acid.

Then I realized. It was me. I was screaming.

And I couldn’t see.

There were voices. They were talking to me. Reassuring me. Trying to help me… I knew those voices… Those belonged to my friends! I wanted to say hello, say that everything was all right. But I couldn’t. I was still screaming.

And then the pain hit me. I understood why my body was screaming. Now, even my soul joined the agony.

And I fainted.

I woke up, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours… or maybe a few days or months ago. I didn’t know. What I knew back there was that I was laying on some comfy bed, with z pillow behind my head.

And it was dark. I have opened my eyes, but it was still dark.

My body was still aching, remembering the agony from last time. I moved a little on the bed

* “Zari, are you ok?”

Alesia? Is that you? I opened my mouth to say something, but the sound that came from it was a weak squeak. My throat… so sore…

* “W…wa…ter…” I managed to name my most urgent desire.

I didn’t have to wait long before a vessel was put to my lips. I greedily began to drink, almost suffocating.

* “Easy there… Easy…” I hear her concerned voice “… do you remember what happen? Where you are, who you are… the last thing that you recall?”

* “…Yes… No… I don’t know… My name is Zariel, you are Alesia. Last time, I was in adventurer Guild… I wanted to study magic… Damn… why is it so dark here?”

* “Zari… please… don’t get nervous but…”

* “Wrong! Reverse psychology! Never say phrases like don’t get nervous, don’t get mad or honey, I can explain it… you are getting the reverse effect so…”

* “Your eyes are gone.”

… What?

* “We were doing our duties, and then we heard you screaming… I have never heard anyone screaming like that. The door to your room was locked, and those bastards are quite durable… we began smashing through it, but it took lots of time. You were screaming all that time. Then Daralon came, he said that he sensed weird magic and came to investigate it. He blew the door down with one spell. You were laying there, bleeding from eyes and ears. He said that you messed with something that should never be touched and you were in a trans. He tried to bring you back, used every magic, even curse words… but he said that something stronger was holding you in an iron grip and is not letting go… According to his theory, the magic that was used had strong psionic origin, and thus was influencing the mind of the user. The mind is mostly located in the head… in the brain, so the pressure within your skull was greatly increasing… He did whatever he could to save you… he said that your brain could get cooked… we thought he was joking… that it was some weird reference… All he could do was to transfer the pressure somewhere else… He wanted to transfer it to your ears, you would become deaf for a few days… but something went wrong, and instead of ears… it went to your eyes. They didn’t hold it. Zari, your eyes exploded. You have hollow eye sockets. That is why you think it is dark… you have been sleeping for whole day and it’s about noon… I am sorry.”

… Well… fuck me… I guess…