Chereads / Nonkilling Man / Chapter 5 - IV. Bring Back the Old

Chapter 5 - IV. Bring Back the Old

After all that, suddenly the two people wente to a place, silent and empty, with only the sound of drumes beating simultanously. They saw something that always encompassed that place, peraventure those in that world called it a god; none knoweth.

They were then greeted by one of the entities there, it greeted. "Are thou people from without?" Then he stated his name. "I am Mung, Lord of all Deaths between Pegana and the Rim."

Siegfried coude only be astonished, as was Retch. They were both confounded as to why they were in a place they were fully unknown with. Surprisingly, Mung did not say anything but only used hande signes, Mung then said. "In Pegana, MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI is asleep, no man sholde distourbe him."

Mung then directed Retch and Siegfried to a cloude above the Worlds, where Mung again said. "This is the Centre of al things in the world, thou seest those countless glittering sterres? That is the creation of the small gods."

Mung then pointed his index finger at a strange, faint nebulae, black in colour and not very visible due to the low light. Mung said. "That is the creation of the home gods. There are a thousand home gods, little gods who sitten in front of the hearth and guard the fire."

Then one of the gods emerged from one of the sterres, Mung pointed at it. "That is Kib, the creator of life."

Understanding here predicament, Siegfried and Retch, though trapped in a state of mute observation, were fortunate to meet Mung, a god who bestowed upon them the ability to communicate in the mute sign langage of the aloof and solitary gods. Here natural hand gestures evolved into a fully formed langage, giving them a voice in this realm.

Meanwhile, Kib, a figure who travelled to a separate world, his presence ignited the spark of creation that manifested as a dynamic world teeming with life. With the stirring declaration "This is life!", Kib vanished, leaving behind a legacy of countless worlds, as whispered by some, or perhaps unfathomably many, as believed by the Ancestors.

Mung then took Siegfried and Retch to Trogool, a record called neither gods nor beasts. Here, they witnessed a terrifying apparition - the Bird of Doom. This ominous avian creature was a harbinger of the apocalypse, destined to appear as the terrible Hound of Time reign reached its end and was ultimately killed by Mung with his weapon.

With a grim statement, Mung revealed the prophecy. "MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI created them to signal the coming of the apocalypse. After that, all existence will collapse and fade away, leaving only MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI who will preside over everything and create new gods."

An eerie silence folwed Siegfried's statement. The air crackled with invisible energy as Dorozhand, the One Who Sees the End, loomed ever larger. His voice, a gravelly rasp, echoed across the desolate landscape: "Ye guys want to go to Pegana? And ye Mung, what art thou doing here?"

Mung then answered calmly. "Dorozhand, I found them confused in the silence of Pegana, they can't even speak our words, yet they understand how we speak, I don't know how that happened."

Dorozhand's eyes then glanced over, scepticism etched on his large face: "The gods have discussed, they are people from without, unknown to us, if we bring them to the Beyond, they will be consumed by the void in the Beyond."

Then they went to Pegana quickly, going straight to the discussion of the gods in the middle of time, the gods then pointed to Retch, Siegfried, and Mung, one god said. "Ye people from without, don't ye have a message?"

Mung then explained again. "They did not bring a message, they were stranded on the side of the corner of Pegana, I found them in a state that was deaf to language, they were ordinary humans who were not from here."

Then Nyarlathotep came out of Siegfried's body, Nyarlathotep then said to them. "I brought them here to study with you, the gods of Pegana, I think you know how to train them."

The gods were then stunned for a moment, Roon, the God of Going then asked a question. "Will the gods be told to train mentally or what?"

Nyarlathotep then replied. "At least like that, you have to train them until they can really stabilize their mentality."

Then Nyarlathotep re-entered Siegfried's body without a trace, Mung them immediately took Siegfried and Retch to the Pegana temple, the closest place to Skarl and MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, but they could only see Skarl without MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.

At that point, Mung immediately beganeth training the two men. On the first day, their trial wast a testeth of physical prowess - lifting a huge bould'r yond hath seemed impossibly heavy. Retch, fuell'd by panic, struggled 'gainst the stubborn rocketh, his visage cont'rt'd with exhaustion. Siegfried, however, tooketh a different approach. That gent did close his eyes for a moment, a glimpse of serenity crossing his visage. Recognising the futility of violence, that gent did seek inner peace, a halcyon yond wouldst alloweth that gent to harness the inertia of the bould'r and subtly shift its weight. After hours of strenuous effort, siegfried, with deep breaths and did control strength, did manage to lift the bould'r by half, leaving retch did shock at his mental strength.

The second day, those gents w're transp'rt'd to the green earth madeth by the gods. Their new task: pushing the same bould'r those gents did face the day before, this timeth over a distance of several kilometres. The sc'rching travelling lamp did turn the did sweat on their backs into salt. Retch fuell'd by a desp'rate needeth to proveth himself, did throw himself 'gainst the bould'r, his muscles screaming in protest. However, Siegfried did remain on his path of inner halcyon. That gent paced, visualising the path ahead, his movements did measure and efficient. Witnessing Siegfried's utterly emotionless focus, Retch tooketh noticeth of Siegfried and beganeth to mimic his technique. But soft but certes, those gents did manage to moveth the bould'r f'rward.

On the third day, a new dare awaited those folk. A colossal statue, imbued with life by Mung's dark charm, hath walked towards those folk, its once expressionless stone visage transformed into a grotesque grineth. Feareth coiled in Retch's stomach as the statue, imbued with a newfound consciousness, pick'd those folk out. Mung gazed from afar, then did throw eight blunt swords at their feet. The weapons' inability to did wind 'r cleave objects madeth of iron 'r flesh wast a form of training. Anon yond Retch wast using his mind, that gent kneweth yond violence wouldst not beest enow. That gent did close his eyes, ent'ring a deep state of meditation. At which hour that gent hath opened those folk again, a flasheth of pow'r hath appeared in the swords, as well as Siegfried. The swords in his handeth hadst hath changed completely, seeming to has to absorbed something unusual. Aye, that was an extremely hot black flame, yet strangely those gents w're not overheated in the slightest. Coequal at which hour did test, the swords were able to did split coequal diamonds.

After all, the colossal statue lay motionless, at least they had passed their gruelling mental test. When they had passed, chills ran down Siegfried's spine at the horrifying words: "This is only the beginning. Prepare to return in a few years, when the tests will be much more severe."

Back on Earth, a sense of normalcy returned - for a while. They could control their emotions with ease, their training routines became smoother, and even their language skills were miraculously restored. However, when Siegfried returned home, he wanted to check something as there were several incoming calls.

He rushed to his company's headquarters, with an uneasy feeling in his heart. The sight that greeted him stole his attention. The buildings that were the production site had become smouldering ruins. Eyewitness reports spoke of a colossal shadow, something that resulted in quite extreme destruction in the suburbs.

Calmly again, Siegfried pieced together the pieces of their story, describing the terrifying form of the entity they faced. There was no mistaking it - Rothos.

Nyarlathotep's voice, a terrible echo in his mind, confirmed his worst fears. "Yes, Siegfried. There's no mistaking it, it's what's not in our perspective. This... this may be beyond my limited abilities."

Siegfried's blood ran cold. "Limited?" he snorted. "You said you could help me to fight your opponent, but..."

"I am but a creation," Nyarlathotep corrected, a hint of anxiety lacing his voice. "A flawed creation of the real Nyarlathotep. I have a fraction of his power, enough to affect you, but against a being like Rothos... that sort of thing might not sound like enough to overcome with just this."

Siegfried then thought for a moment, his brain was starting to get stuck, but Siegfried then realised that the possibility of this Rothos was a seven-dimensional being that had no physical form at all, except by equalising the dimensions.

Siegfried then tried to figure out how to reach that dimension, but the hardest way was open, at least Siegfried had to become the size of an atom to make the journey, because they needed some components in quantum space.

Retch who followed then tried to create his own formula, the unique fact is, the seventh dimension is in the right subconscious of humans, so Siegfried must be able to exert his power while sleeping, like a lucid dream, but this is much more dangerous.

Siegfried and Retch then went home and tried to use their dreams to find cracks to penetrate the layers that might be infinite. However, instead of finding anything, they were trapped in the dream until their bodies didn't wake up after days.

Almost desperate, but Siegfried then tried to wake up by sleeping in the dream, he woke up for a moment in the world, but then he fell asleep again due to fatigue, in this experiment, Siegfried immediately tried to calm his mind, but still no luck. Instead, he saw the image of his mother being killed continuously which made Siegfried almost crazy.

Siegfried then screamed and he cried again, because his weakness was his mother, but after that, he realised again that crying no longer had any meaning, let alone getting angry, he then thrust a sword that was in his dream into the bloody building structure. But it went right through.

"Siegfried, this is the singularity," said a voice, its source certainly from above. "You won't be able to get out of here, because you are forever a being still bound to matter."

On the other hand, Retch had woken up even though he was still sleepy, Retch tried to wake Siegfried up slowly, Siegfried's body tried to wake up, but something was blocking Siegfried, after several hours like that, Siegfried woke up pale.

"What's wrong, Siegfried?" asked Retch frantically. "Did you experience something bad?"

"Not at all," Siegfried replied calmly. "I'm just stuck, in a very passable test."

"What do you mean?"

"The Singularity."

Inadvertently, this meant that Siegfried had reached the seventh dimension because he had managed to put himself in a position that was completely unfavourable. Which then, a few minutes after that to be precise, Siegfried experienced some horrifying mutations, unmistakably, he now no longer really existed in his material form, but rather his projected form.

"Retch, I am now, right, in a fractal place, I don't know where this is, but my prediction is in a black hole." Siegfried said from the projection.

"Siegfried, are you now in a strange construct that lets you see any age?"

"You're right, I saw several, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, Asian trade, and so on, this is one time I travelled through all of them, but I'm in a construction that is completely similar to the house we live in, but has no end at all."

It seemed like Retch's guess was right, Siegfried really had been lifted up just like that, but there was one problem, Siegfried then completely disappeared, as well as Siegfried who lost the signal. That way, the two could no longer interact due to the difference in location between the two.

"Siegfried, you are now in the seventh room, exactly one level with Rothos, be careful, from the structure of the building, this seems to be an illusion." said Nyarlathotep from inside Siegfried's head.

Siegfried then tried to find a loophole in this illusion, but did not find it at all, instead when he checked the window, he fell and continued to spin in an endless circle so that he was like that and always.

"The balance between light and darkness is as it should be. But they are chaotic. No matter where they go, they're a mess, balance is a foolishness that won't happen."

To be continued...