"The universe we live in is one of the uncountable others that are out there, and to think of them as small blobs floating in a cosmic void would be an amazingly gross underestimation. Although, no one has the true ability to actually understand the extent of things, but some of us, special ones like you, have the ability to know and perceive a bit more than the rest of us. As they say, knowledge is power, and only by truly gaining knowledge about life can we gain the strength to protect it, and gain awareness about the countless threats that are always surrounding us." Drishti sighed as she lowered her head, contemplating how to put the numerous things she wanted to convey into sentences that could make some sense.
"Everything that you can see or feel around you is just one aspect that you are able to perceive, which usually is not a reflection of the 'actuality'. What you need to slowly understand is how things are different from what they appear to be, and accept the fact that the world is much, much more complex and bizarre than what you thought it to be, with variables that while staying in the shadows, manipulate, and even cause certain events… something which would affect you even more due to your ability of actually understanding them. The nature of existence is something you need to identify yourself, so that you can stay vigilant against it. Because we may know embarrassingly little about the cosmos and life itself, but one thing that we have come to understand after the countless years have gone by, is that 'life' is really not as benign as one may assume it to be."
"What do you mean by that?" Athena couldn't help but feel confused
"There exist Gods, if one may call them that, or at least supremely powerful, divine beings, in our world, and even higher beings which ensure the universe works as it should. These existences have a better understanding, due to their abilities to perceive even more of the universe, and a large part of what we know has been transmitted by such beings in one way or another. They, like us, have their own personalities… some even ascended from minor existences like humans, and have independent views on various matters. When I say life is not as benign as one might assume it to be, it is something that is one of the many things very vaguely explained by these 'Gods', and something we ourselves have even lesser understanding about. But, the thing that we know for sure is that there is something strange about the presence of life as we know it itself, especially when one considers the way in which various life forms are interacting with the universe, in ways that even the life forms themselves aren't able to perceive."
Drishti paused a bit, with her expression growing more resolute. "You need to, from this point onwards, start the process of accepting your deviations, and begin your journey towards gaining the knowledge and strength to protect yourself and those around you, while trying to find the answers to the questions that may help you to join the dots that can clear up the vagueness that is hiding the 'truth' behind it. I will teach you what all I can, while you will, at the same time, train your mind, body and soul for the life ahead of you."
"You are special, my child, which is your strength… and at the same time, makes you vulnerable. Remember…"
…
"… only knowledge can set you free." Athena murmured in a voice filled with a bit of tiredness and loneliness, standing alone in the alley, lost in memories from a time that seemed ages ago, a time after which, her life transformed in ways she could never have imagined even in her wildest dreams… or nightmares, to be precise.
…
At a point in the interstitium between a certain few clusters of space-time existed a huge floating 'cloud', seemingly creating its own space-time and even origin essence. It would seemed to be warped for lower lifeforms, if any actually managed to arrive here by fortune or misfortune. In actuality, it was a five dimensional planar fragment that seemed to be developing at a nearly indiscernible rate thanks to a certain inexhaustible energy that could be sensed to be churning and growing constantly.
This was clearly the source, or could be even termed as an abode, of a certain existence that was powerful enough to be independent of space-time. The eerily calm sense perceived from the plane seemed to hide a disaster ready to crush all beings into the very fundamental energies that built up the cosmos. The cloud seemed to be connected to 4 space-time clusters around it, which seemed to be deriving as well as providing some basic kind of energy from and to it.
Out of nowhere in the beige emptiness, a figure emerged in front of the millions of miles wide origin cloud. Morpheus sighed as he dispersed his dark energy hood to reveal a handsome face that had a slight bronze hue, his black eyeballs and silver pupil slits the only odd features that would jerk an infatuated being back to reality… Okay, that wouldn't be correct, really. After all, no mortals or demi mortals were capable of shaking off his mere sight, and even the higher beings would find a hard time to face off against him once he got serious.
"Why do I have to do such stupid tasks each time…?" He murmured while moving forward as if walking in the emptiness, at a speed that was way faster than light in this interstitial space which did not offer any support for lower plane energies like light to travel there.
In a matter of a dozen steps, Morpheus was already close to the cloud when it suddenly started transforming, starting to look like a heavenly plane, depicting a series of towers and all sorts of cosmic structures, as if it were a museum of sorts. Clearly, Morpheus wasn't in a mood to appreciate the joke, if there was any, as he swept a glance at the structures a thousand miles around him, which dissipated into the 'cosmic membrane' seeming to form above the plane that was formed.
"How do I have the good fortune of hosting our very own Master Morpheus, The Devourer, the Divine Nightmare, the…" A calm and friendly, youthful, male voice that somehow seemed to contain an archaic touch arose from the central tower in the view presented in the ever transforming cloud, before he was interrupted abruptly by the target of all those adjectives and titles.
"If I were you, I would have come up with better titles with all the time I would have."
"Of course you would, dear Morpheus. Having ascended in a flash, that was obviously your talents that turned you from your minor God status in a minor realm to your current…" A young humanoid male appeared while not intending to stop spouting whatever he was Inferno-bent on spouting. The humanoid being was sixty meters in height, slim-built and wearing an azure cloak that seemed of a weirdly mortal fashion sense. He had closed his eyes and joining is long hands together before his chest, as if he was trying to copy some buddhist gesture but failing miserably at it.
"Who blew up the ribbon?" Morpheus realized that his patience threshold seemed to be dropping ever since six Samvatsara[1] ago when the biggest clusterf*ck of his existence blew up in the face of every single individual related to the Dark Devil Immortal.
"… power that transcends all ignorant… WHAT?" The closed eyes opened with a startle, completely beige eyeballs that didn't have any pupils, seemingly reflecting the interstitial surroundings. "Someone attacked the ribbon? Were they going for the divine crystals? I have been in touch with all 4 realms all this while. Dear Morpheus, please don't joke with the old me. As they say nowadays, I'mma be dyin."
"OK I want to puke. Shut the f*ck up, you fake-a*s cosmic glob!" Even before the sudden outburst could finish, Morpheus had released an invisible wave of force that suddenly froze the whole million miles wide cloud and its transformations. The dark structures suddenly started losing their color as they began to turn pure white, with a slight golden shine. "You better not f*ck around here, Chaos. Believe me when I say it, don't make His Highness take action… Death will be a relief that you will not be able to experience even in a thousand Kalpas[2]."
"Ahahaha… Please don't get angry, Master Morpheus… Please stop with the assault. I am afraid I won't even last for His Eternity to bother with…Please…"
"I want to know everything you know about this incident, and you have only one chance." Morpheus' handsome face was twisted into a fierce expression as he dispersed the invisible, mysterious force that seemed to be unstoppably converting even slight amounts of the origin essence into the beige interstitium.
[1] Samvatsara - Equal to a human year, except that it is used at a level where traditional units fail to maintain their applicability
[2] Kalpa - 4.32 billion human years