As Kiel closed his eyes, he felt like he slipped out of all his hardships, tiredness and discomfort that he had suffered for all these days, in order to fulfill his promise to that sweet girl.
All the miseries, torments, agonies and despair that he has suffered in his lifetime, had finally vanished and he had become free. Almost for an instance he felt genuine freedom, his final dream in a world full of darkness. Kiel thought he had finally attained it, which he always sought after- genuinity. He wanted to hold onto this feeling. He felt a genuine comfort as he held onto this feeling. He felt a smile on his face and tears gushing out from his eyes because of the comfort that washed over his very self, something that he always so desperately desired .
But as he wanted to hold onto the dream like feeling, the fleeting feeling slowly started to dissipate in the eternal darkness. Kiel panicked and focused more to hold onto the feeling and even wanted to wrap himself around it. But the more he focused, the faster the feeling started to disappear. And after a certain period of time which felt like forever, the feeling completely disappeared, leaving behind only a small reminisce memory behind. No matter how much he searched for it then, he could not find it anymore.
After losing the feeling completely, he slowly woke up from his stupor and became aware that he was in a different place, a place without any colour, without any distinction, without any boundary and even without any of the previous comfort that he had experienced. Feeling that he was in a different space where there was nothing, he tried looking everywhere and then at himself, and what he found in place of his body was a shining irregular floating shape without any proper form. He then remembered, he had just died. Thinking that this may be either hell or heaven, he felt that this place was way too dull.
He frowned again as he became more aware of himself,as he didn't even know what he was, where he was and who he was. He was also not able to form any coherent thoughts, only some basic feelings and desire. But he felt that he had strong longing for an intimate feeling and comfort.
Unknown to him, how much time passed, he remembered his name was Kiel Dimitriev, a genius who changed his world himself. Soon thousands of images and memories flashed through him as he remembered everything about himself. Pain, agony, torment, determination, rage, comfort and various other emotions flashed through his now non existent eyes.
But as he realised his past achievements and experiences, he felt that he was forgetting something, something very important to him. But he just couldn't remember it. As he was trying to remember it, he saw a small light at the corner of his vision. Seeing something new in this unknown space after such a long time, curiosity took the better of him. He floated a little towards the light, but suddenly he felt a great tug at him and was being pulled by something unknown towards the light source.
Being pulled by something unknown, danger signals invaded his brain, and so he began trying to resist the pull.But the more he tried, the greater the pull became and finally he could only allow himself to be pulled by the force towards the light and become engulfed by it, losing his consciousness in the process.
"Oh! a unique soul. Interesting… it's been too long when I last saw one. Seems like the trials will open again."
As he blanked out, he suddenly heard a voice pulling him out of his trance. As he woke up, he saw he was again in a different space. Now the eternal darkness contained many dots of lights, some dazzling and some dimmed, some blinking and some stationary.He remembered the term for these dots before him from his previous life- Stars. But he was more surprised to see a hollow figure floating in front of him. It seemed to be the figure of a man, sometimes ethereal and sometimes very solid. It had a humanoid figure, but it had its own distinctions from humans. It's head had a protruding small horn from the front, white hairs, a very peculiar whitish blue eyes, pale skin, from underneath which flesh and muscles could be viewed and most immportantly, the aura of someone who stands at the top.
"Welcome little soul. Welcome to the Samsara."
The figure spoke in an ethereal voice, which seemed to attract anyone who heard it.
Seeing the illusion like existence, he directly muttered without thinking
"A higher dimensional being.."
The figure seemed to be a little surprised.
"Well that's something new to hear in a long time. Usually when anyone sees me, they would call me a GOD."
Hearing this he totally calmed down and returned to his previous cool self.
"Tsk. Gods are concept made to fool the ignorant masses. A person with immense strength controlling the destiny of others. More like a puppeteer. Well I would rather believe them as higher level beings than gods. Like we controlling a 2d creature in a video game just in a higher level."
Hearing the rude words, the figure didn't seem to be offended. Instead he had an even bigger smile plastered on his face.
"Well I can see a little why your soul is unique."
"What's your name? Which dimension is your complete body in? How old are you? Are you omniscient? ...". Intrigued by the new figure, Kiel's scientific curiosity took the better of him even though he wanted to act cool.
"A name and age, are vague concepts. I don't have a name. But you can call me 'The Harvester' As for age, time does not exist here. As for the other questions, you may have the chance to know them later, if you become strong enough."
"Well alright. But I don't like your title. Yup, I'll call you Hide. Short for higher dimensions", thinking for a bit cheered Kiel.
Shrugging off Hide replied, "Do as you like."
"Now let's see what is your karma. And how will you be tested by your samsara", as he replied his eyes glowed in a bluish hue, which seemed to scan Kiel.
Seeing the blue hued eyes glancing at him, Kiel felt a chill in his whole non existent body. He felt like being totally naked before that single glance, as if all his secrets and even his full life had been laid bare before Hide.
After what it seemed to be a second passed, Hide started laughing hilariously in his ethereal voice. His eyes even carried a bit of respect for the tiny soul before him.
"Hahaha Hahaha"
Startled Kiel asked, "What happened??"
"Interesting.. Interesting… You are an interesting little soul. I have seen souls that destroyed their races, wage wars with the whole world, even others who made the world kneel before them. But all they did was on the people at a similar level to them. You on the other hand even dared to wage war with your own planet and even succeeded. Changing your own planet to suit your desires, instead changing yourself with the world. I can already see how your soul gained so much karma to become a unique soul. "
Hearing the praises of a god, Kiel grew even more proud of his achievements.
"Thanks Hide. But well I could call it a challenge rather waging war. After all It was my home planet. Well that aside, seeing that you can view my total life in a single glance, I assume that you are a much higher level being that I thought previously. "
"Well Obviously. You can't even understand my powers.", haughtily replied Hide.
"Tsk. Well that aside, well Do karma really exist?? Do what we do get recorded somewhere and someone like you sees them and punishes those who did bad deeds and reward the good ones?? And will I go somewhere to be birthed again in a new world like those novels that I read in my teens?? And what is the trials you were talking about?? And I heard Karma is a bitch. Is it true??", Kiel asked questions after questions without a pause, curiously like a little child, with a bit of hope in his eyes.
"Well easy my little friend, one question at a time"
Hide happily replied.
"You also seem to have a misconception of karma. Well it can be seen because you were a mortal after all. Let me clear it for you before we go to the next stage.
Karma is actually… the belief that you exclude when you do something. Even If you do something, but firmly believe firmly even in your subconscious that you are right, you receive positive karma. If you feel bad or guilty or become corrupt in your subconscious, you receive negative karma. It doesn't have any opinion of bad or good. Actually because mortals don't understand subconscious, they interpret karma in various forms and order.
Even if you kill all the people in your homeworld, but your conscious remains clear, you will never get an ounce negative karma. You may also get positive karma, thinking that you rid the world of its trash. But if you do nothing and sit all day, but have a guilty subconscious, you may receive negative karma.
Actually you can fool others but never your subconscious, because it represents your true self. So that's why different people interpret it differently."
Kiel was dumbstruck hearing the explanation. He never thought about it like that. Hearing this something inside him seemed to break, but he couldn't pinpoint it.
"And as for your other question, Do you think reincarnation is that easy?? If so you would see many in your world retain their memories of their past lives. Then it would be very common. Every mortal enter the cycle of samsara. But only the worthy ones retain their past memories. Those unworthy souls are purified to their base soul forms without any knowledge"
"But then how are the worthy differentiated from the worthless??"
"Through their accumulation of karma!"
Understanding, Kiel again asked, "What about transmigration??"
"That's where the samsara trials come for. Those deemed worthy get a chance to enter the trials. If you pass the trials, you can go to a higher world in the same plane of existence or maybe even higher and even get luxurious rewards. Those who fail, get a gift but loose this memory and reincarnate into the same world or some lower planes, even sometimes into their own past selves. And you, my little unique soul friend, are deemed worthy."
"So are you ready for the challenge to enter your Samsara trials??"
Hearing the world challenge, Kiel felt his whole body oozing up with excitement.
He replied with a cheeky confident grin, "Of course"