The jellyfish stood towering above us, beams of light traveled from their bodies towards their appendixes they could move them freely and wave them, for us to get closer.
They were massive in shape, the room we were in was big, an underground cave, suddenly water started pouring from where they were sitting, it drowned them. The water fell from their pillars and reached our feet, it was incredibly cold, so I jumped onto Dragan's shoulder.
"Dragan," suddenly a voice spoke, it echoed through the cave, even though they were communicating with us through our minds.
"We see a light within you," they spoke. "The Sun God now resides in your partner, and because of your bond, within you as well," three voices were speaking. All speaking in unison.
"The Sun God will allow to cast a variety of magic," they suddenly went in full swing. "Healing magic in particular. Both of you must seek to become Bishops, Tarragon Village cannot train you, but The Parish of Light located in Veldoran can help you harness the power of the sun," they spoke slowly, because of the echo.
"This slime will amplify much of your power, Dragan," they spoke. I'm right here you know.
"Treat him kindly, and he shall return the favor," they said. Well that last part was true.
Dragan wasn't saying anything, he was waiting patiently for the next piece of information. I guess the floating jellyfish were also a big surprise for him.
"What about the aurora over Tarragon," he suddenly spoke.
"Is your concern that it might disappear?" they said.
"Yes! I'm worried for the villagers," they held their tongues for a moment, almost like they were ruminating.
"We love this quality! You think of others before yourself, this is exactly why you both must seek the power of the Bishop," they said with a little bit too much hype.
"The bishop holds the power to be both a fighter and a healer, but only one of you can hold healing magic, you must make that decision at a later date," they said.
"How so?" I suddenly asked. I spoke up my voice so I could be heard.
"Your connection won't allow two casters of healing, the link, would break," they said warning us of the impending doom.
"Light and Dark, cannot exist without one another, our universe, demands it," they said.
"Chaos cannot exist without Order, dark only comes from light, one is not without the other."
"So it's inevitable, it's just how our universe was designed?" I said asking without giving much thought to what I was saying.
"We know this fact, sadness us, but it is fact," they spoke.
"And we must come to terms with it, or falter."
"This is the truth of the First Sphere, and the Sleeping Primordial within it!" they said. That bit of lore suddenly perked my interest. I was about to begging my questioning.
However -
Something weird happened, the space glitched, and bright colors like static ran through my field of view, like a digital film projection had grown.
Then it all stopped.
Then everything became like a white box.
A black line separated the space, and from the other side, a familiar face emerged.
The Future Man stood fast!
I looked around me, Dragan, Kamika, and the Elders were almost frozen in time, right in the position they were just seconds ago, but now unable to move.
I quickly started panicking.
"Calm down!" said the future man.
"Sheesh! did I break your wall just now?" he spoke in a condescending tone.
What wall? The third wall? I wasn't sure. Better place a lampshade on that.
This time he was wearing a metallic gown that reflected light in saturated greens purples, and reds. Red solar flares in his eyes, and baggy pants with lots of belts, his left leg was stitched with a half-tone pattern from the knee down.
"You!" I shouted. "What are you doing here?" I said.
"Aw, you having fun?" he spoke like I was below him, even with my newfound powers, I was still powerless against a creature of the 4D.
"Where did you come from anyway? And what happened to everyone?"
"They're just molecular frozen in time, their cells are moving 1^10 slower than the speed of light."
He was right, they were moving, very, very, very slowly, but they were moving.
"By the time we're done, I'll be a mere blink in their time," he said.
"Where did you come from anyway?" I said crossing my arms.
The portal he had come through was still open. He motioned in that direction.
"Through there," he pointed at the portal. "It's The First Sphere, wanna take a look," he said.
"Am I even allowed to look?" I said.
"Depends on who you ask," he mentioned. "To the council of 10, and the light of creation, probably not. One of their many violations. If you ask me - I don't really care." he said like it was nothing.
"Fine!" I said jumping down and heading towards the portal. What I saw through it, was something I simply couldn't understand. It was like an infinite space, that moved and conjectured in on itself, reminded me of a fractal video I once saw online in my world. But this was different, it was like fractals on top of fractals, and the structure had some semblance of being brutalist in nature.
I peered for too long. And it started to make me dizzy, so much so that I vomited.
Could slime even vomit?
I guess so.
"That's a normal reaction for a 3D normie," he said, a little too proud of himself.
"Then why even show me?" I said through coughs and bumbles.
"I don't know, why did I even do that?" he said with a nonchalant voice.
"You moron!" I shouted, but my stomach got the better of me, I don't think he heard me.
He squatted down to my level.
"The singularity created the first and the first became the infinite. The First Sphere is one of many, no one knows how many there are, and no one has ever explored beyond the third infinity, it's a little scary jumping beyond the laws of the quantum - right? Like jumping in the ocean at night. You can't really comprehend the scale - there's simply no horizon to orient you."
All of this sounded interesting, but I couldn't process the scales he was talking about.
"The human brain is unable to comprehend, and those that try only find madness in their wake."
"I wasn't trying," I said now finally able to catch my breath.
There was a pause between us as we looked at each other.
"So why are you here anyway," I said.
"I'm here to deliver a message," he said.
"You see, the First Sphere is home to all souls, whether good or bad they all end up in the cosmic washing machine that is the FS," he said. Already abbreviating.
"Only those already with a physical body in the 4D can enter, My main job is to watch over this place, I'm only one of a few, we are called, Sentry's of the Void." he continued.
"You wanna know the most interesting part of it all?" he said.
"What's that?" I said melting into the floor.
"A Demon Lord soul has escaped," the future man, or should I call him Sentry.
"Okay…"
"And he took his prince with him,"
"And?"
Suddenly he started giggling like a madman.
"You wanna know where he ended up?"
"Fine, indulge me, what backwater planet did this Demon Lord end up in?"
There was a pause, he held back his laughter.
"CRONUS!" he suddenly shouted and started laughing like a madman. The smile faded from my face, and my eyes dilated as the revelation showered over me. I couldn't say a word. But the sentry picked me up and placed me back on Dragan's shoulder where I originally was.
"They'll think you teleported if you show anywhere else but here," he said. I was still in shock. I couldn't say another word.
"Look's like your little love life is about to get a lot more complicated, *little one*," he said that last part with malice, I could tell. He laughed like a madman and entered back into the First Sphere, the black light closed in a second, and time returned to normal. I was shocked, I couldn't move. But the earlier conversation continued like nothing.
"Our sleep is coming soon," said the jellyfish. "Both of you must go towards Veldoran, and traverse the wasteland, before we leave, Download this program," they said extending their hands.
>Program Detected
>Unable to run program
>Converting
>Complete
>Program is Executable
>Downloading
>Complete
>Mandate Order
>Executing
>Complete
Magic circles flashed across my vision and Dragan. I was still at a loss for words to comment, but I certainly didn't like others just downloading programs into my brain and consequently to Dragan. I wanted privacy.
"Sybil, stop the program," I said inside my head. Dragan heard it too and looked at me with curiosity.
"Unable to comply, Mandate Order in effect," said the voice of the worlds.
What!
"The elders have higher admin privilege than us, what are you thinking?" said Dragan in a whisper.
"Sorry, I was trying something, it didn't work,"
"That's just how this world works, get used to not having privacy," Dragan spoke. Ouch, a little harsh wouldn't you think? Or maybe I was just sentimental from seeing the Future Man Sentry.
The image of the First Sphere burned now in my memory. Whenever I recalled, a certain dread fell over me, like a shiver running down my spine.
>Privacy feature unlocked!
Suddenly Sybil said to me.
>Execute Partition?
It asked me.
Text boxes appeared in front of me.
Dragan didn't seem to be aware of what was happening.
Was he not hearing what Sybil was saying?
>Answer:
> The Second Party is unable to hear when directly speaking to user
Sybil answered my question, without me having to speak it.
The text boxes read
YES - NO
"Yes…" I said.
"Huh?" Dragan noticed…
And then I felt something weird inside my brain. The data gauge that I had seemingly forgotten about, suddenly separated into two. 5 terabytes for each.
>Partition complete,
>Storing memory in 2nd partition
And suddenly just like that, the memory of the First Sphere was locked away, in a different part of my brain, that Dragan had no access to.
Just like that, I had regained some of my privacy.
"Yes, about what?" Dragan asked.
"Uh…Yes, you're right! The elders are above us!" I laughed awkwardly. Dragan looked at me weirdly.
But went with it anyway.
So much had happened, in very little time.