Afterlife – Andes, The Black Realm of the Faceless

The following story is fictional, as almost all stories will further be except for the first one, Afterlife: The Two Energies.

Continuation from Afterlife: “Darkness” Encroaching.

You are carried away by what seems to be the flow of time itself. You see you are surrounded by the same particles you have seen until now, but they remain steady as you are carried away by an unknown force, pulling you harder and faster with each moment you think eternity has to offer. The particles are becoming distorted as the speed is becoming more and more powerful. After what seemed to be mere minutes, you finally reach the end of the tunnel, and you arrive on the other side of it. You can’t see anything except pitch black at first when you exit, and a strange mist is blocking your field of view. You look at what seems to be the sky, a black sky, as the cosmos and space itself, and in it, you see what seems to be a never-ending eclipse.

“What is this place? Have we arrived where we should?” you ask your guide.

“Yes…We are home.”

“What is this home?” you ask again.

As you finish the question, a deep and unknown voice resonates in your mind.

“Welcome, young soul, into the Realm of the Faceless”.

Andes, Infinity Unreached

As you hear this voice in your mind, you understand that you have passed from your own realm into another place, something unknown. You have faced all the challenges and won your place to discover what can be called your new home. The eclipse from above you is made out of what can be called a “dark moon”, a spherical object that covers what can be described as a “sun” that has the edges of the light as grey. But that light does not reach anything in any part of what stretches beyond you. Everything is black, but you can distinguish the form of it. It is not complete darkness, as you might think, it is still light, the same light that you are made of and you have a connection with it. You take your first steps from beyond the fissure that led you to this place. Your guide is behind you and you start passing through the strange mist. As you travel, you see that it changes its shape and phases in and out. You believe it is an illusion as it takes your own shape, as a mirror, and slowly approaches you. In your mind, you can hear it start whispering to you with more than one voice:

“There is no turning back for you.” says the misty silhouette.

“I understand that my guide told me this is my new home,” you tell the mist.

“What if he fails? What will happen to us? He is not ready, I can tell it”

“Ready for what? What will I fail?” you ask the mist.

“You are alone here. Will you become lost in eternity like us or will you mend us with your light? The abyss will call you to stare into it. Will you take the challenge or will you remain a soul without a path, lost in darkness?” the mist asks you.

“I know there is no darkness, only light, even if it looks the way it does, aren’t you already in this light you are talking about?”

“You didn’t see the true darkness yet. Do you believe that if you are in the light, safe, darkness won’t follow you? You are naive. Whenever you feel the embrace of light, darkness will seep into you without knowing.” explains the mist.

“I don’t believe it, darkness is just an illusion,” you tell the mist.

“But it exists in your reality if you remember it. Darkness, just as light, exists everywhere. It was created to serve in the wheel of fate and test everyone when the time comes. It is the same everywhere for everyone. The same for you, for us, for the living, and for the unliving. Your destiny will take shape before both the lights and the darkness” says the mist.

“What do you know about my destiny?” you ask the misty shape back.

“Give us your hand, and you will see.” tells the misty figure before trying to grab a hold of your hand.

“No! Don’t listen to them.” your guide tells you while pulling you away from the misty shape. With a movement of his hand, a shockwave of black light disperses the mist.

“That was close, you almost ended yourself without even starting the journey.” the guide tells you.

“What is happening, they are another test of doubt that manifest?” you ask the guide.

“They are fractures and echoes of the ones that are lost. As you might understand, the lost are not only in the realm you came from, they are here also. If you touched the lost ones, they would pull you with them, becoming one of them.”

“You told me while we were in my realm that the ones that are lost reside there, if they passed and reached this realm, how did they become lost here? You told me that this was their choice, that they did not accept their new purpose,” you tell the guide.

“There are many reasons why one can become lost in this realm. Let’s say that while you were alive, you took someone’s life and ended their mortal destiny. They came here and waited for the moment you would arrive. When you did, it was their turn to decide the destiny that you would have and there would be two options: the first was to forgive and let you find your new purpose here without taking into account what you did to them in the mortal life”.

“What is the second option?” you ask the guide.

“The second option would be a form of punishment that can even last for decades, centuries, eons, and even all eternity, meaning that they choose for you to become lost just as you chose to end their mortal life. In a realm without emotions, they are destined to feel back the suffering they inflicted on others or their own suffering from their mortal life, and they live with the emotions that they or the victim had before their destiny ended. And this is just one example.”

“I don’t think that the Maker forbade killing from the start, right?”

“The Maker did not prohibit killing at the beginning in the course of evolution, it was part of it. Without it, evolution would not be possible. If the Maker was to prohibit it, he would have never created it from the beginning. Killing for survival, ending a mortal destiny to protect yourself or to not die was permitted. And our light had a part to play in it but your race doesn’t understand it yet, and they are not made to see us.”

“What part did the light play in this? How can you differentiate killing for survival and killing just for fun or out of evil when it comes to my race?” you ask the guide.

“It is an easy process, we can just watch it, or we can just understand what emotions were at play when this happened. Our light had a part to play by acting and controlling in subtle ways in important moments. We did it in some cases just to build experiences and emotions for a whole so that evolution can progress. But in most cases, we did not act, we just let everything run free. Over time, intelligence and consciousness as they evolved should have been the tools to stop this. To make the dominant race protectors and nourish their own home and other denizens of it. Not everybody is the same, and your race has not achieved this yet.”

“So there is no way to stop this for good? To make my race that of protectors and not destroyers for ourselves and for all the life that surrounds us?”

“In your world, slowly but steadily, generation after generation makes changes. This form of punishment, that of the lost ones, is made only for those who had the capacity to make a change, to protect and nourish, but they were poisoned by their own emotions, by the thirst of wanting and having more and more. They choose to cause harm under their own ideals and beliefs or to assert dominance. We know the truth in the mind of everyone even if they choose to hide it or deny it. In the face of the lights you are exposed.”

“To feel suffering for all eternity…but in the form of emotions even when you lost your senses. I had the impression both suffering and happiness would disappear in my new form. But I felt back my emotions when I got into connection with that river where the light resided. So emotions can be felt again if the light wants it. Is there any retribution for the lost ones? I am sure maybe they had a change when they understood what came after the passing.”

The guide pauses for some moments, looking up at the eclipse, and then turns around to you, his voice humming in your mind.

“Retribution you say…If you looked up in the sky, you could see the eclipse, beyond that eclipse lies retribution for anyone, but that path was blocked from time immemorial presumably by the Maker. Until the grey sun won’t light again this realm and the denizens of it, there will be no retribution for any of those here that are lost. There is what can be called a myth, that if someone finds a way to enter the realm of the Maker and enter in connection with him, maybe there is a chance or a way to revert this change. But nobody knows how to enter that realm. Anyone who wanted to try this either gave up or became lost in his way. The way was shut, and nobody could bypass the realm they were destined to live in. We don’t know why the Maker chose this, he divided us with a purpose that only he knows.”

“You made me curious, I wish to find out more about what awaits me here,” you tell the guide.

“You will either forge your own destiny, or your purpose is already set from the beginning in some cases, but the Maker always blessed anyone with the freedom of choice. From your choices, you have shown potential from the beginning of our journey. You may have the choice to change something, or you will reside here forever.”

“This forever sounds a bit boring, how far does this realm stretch and what will I do if I will discover it all?” you ask the guide.

“There is no one who can achieve this. Andes is an infinite realm, it has no beginning and no end. Even the universe has one, but here, there is no end. You will discover just a part of it, as everything here can be reshaped and is connected to you and me. You have a road ahead of you, and in time you will discover your own powers that will help you along the way.” the guide tells you.

“What kind of powers are you talking about?” you ask the guide.

“Almost anything that can cross your mind, from changing shape to using the same energy you are made of as a weapon. Even if peace is predominant, there are challenges, and fights happen, and even if flesh and emotions do not exist here, pain and suffering are related to us even so. The only weapon that can inflict the most damage is the White Light itself if you are made of Black Light, and the opposite is the same. Yet here there is no White Light, so any damage might be minor but it can exist. Let us continue our journey, we have lingered too long and someone is waiting for you.”

The Steward of Eternity

As you continue to walk past the mist, you see what seems to be in the distance a cascade of black light, it is almost like a barrier that stretches as far as the eye can see from left to right, from up to down, yet it only has only one opening. And the barrier seems to not be unguarded. As you come closer to it, you can see two entities that are immense, towering to the left and right of the opening in the barrier. The faceless giants appear to have two legs but two sets of arms. As you get close to the left towering giant, you see that the upper right arm is in fact a sharp extension, like a sword made of black light, and the energy courses through it. The left upper hand holds another extension of the giant, a large shield like a scutum big enough to cover a big part of himself. Almost at his waist, the lower set of hands are close to what appears to be a double-edged sword on the back of the giant, energy coursing within it also. The right giant appears to hold a quiver on his back with what seems to be sharp arrows that take form from his own being, with a bow on the other upper hand that has a size fit for firing multiple arrows at once if needed. On his waist near his lower arms, you see two curved daggers. All the weapons seen are made out of raw energy, and you understand they are a force to reckon with.

“This image is not very welcoming for me, I feel they are both watching me,” you tell your guide.

“What you are seeing here is one of the forms from Andes. We call them the Colossi, they are from your own reality, but they live on another edge of the universe. As you might have guessed, death is universal, and all life from the known cosmos comes here. These two here are an example that if any threat would come to the barrier, they would vanquish it in a very short time. But there are no more threats from untold times, so they just stay on their duty to guard.” the guide tells you.

Another voice, one that you have heard before at the beginning of your coming to Andes enters your mind.

“Welcome, young soul, we finally meet, I have sensed you’re coming from the beginning”.

From within the barrier, a faceless entity comes, you can see that he has a long robe and the same energy you are made from courses within it, but his feet are not touching the ground, you understand that this entity can levitate and has what can be described as a set of horns on his head, ones like that of a bharal and they are coursing with energy also.

“My name is Eos, young soul, I am one of the stewards of Andes, I have come to greet you and guide you inside the realm of the Faceless,” tells you the steward.

“Well, I guess this is where we must say goodbye for the moment, young soul. But do not worry, we will meet again.” your guide tells you.

“What are you going to do now?” you ask your guide.

“There are many souls that need guidance, I will head out and do what I have been doing with you.” your actual guide tells you.

“You did not tell me your name, Eos has one, what is yours?” you ask your guide.

“You can call me Sarco, this is my name. It is now time for us to go our separate ways for the moment, but don’t worry, you will see me again soon. May you find your purpose and the power to press forward.”

“Thank you, Sarco, until we meet again.”

As you enter the barrier, and take your first step inside it you feel a sudden charge of energy as the light you are made of starts to change its shape, becoming sharp on the surface like needles and moving on you.

“What is happening? What is this surge?” you ask your steward, Eos.

“You have just established your first meaningful connection with the realm of Andes, yet something strange is happening. I did not see such a violent surge and change of shape on the souls that crossed the barrier before you. Normally when a soul is meant for Andes, they do not experience what you did, the passing should be more welcoming. Yet you are made of Black Light and not White Light like Sarco informed me you called them. Maybe there is something more to you than we expected. We will eventually find out what it is but for the moment the realm is quiet, I do not feel anything amiss.”

As you walk with the steward, you start seeing what seems to be the “nature” of Andes. You understand that it has its own “fauna” and “flora” made of the same light as you are. The flora mostly consists of geometrical light shapes, some of them being linear without even a curve. The fauna consists of entities of light, some resembling the ones from your own realm, and some of them never seen before. Do you remember when Sarco told you that all life from the universe comes into Andes? The only thing that is missing from your image is the fight for survival that you were used to. Everything seems at peace, and both fauna and flora seem to communicate just by a simple touch. There seems to be no ending for anything here at first glance, something you were not used to seeing back in your reality. As you walk past them, curiosity stirs inside you once again.

“I see that you have also something that resembles my reality. It is something I did not quite expect,” you tell the guide.

“You did not expect to see nature in what you call death? That is quite strange if you ask me. Nature has many forms and it does not only exist in your world. You call nature only what encompasses the living world, your world, and that is alright because back in your reality your vision was limited. We call nature something that is spread towards all planes of reality, not only on your planet but in all the universe. And when you stretch your vision more you understand that it does not consist only with what you were seeing with your living eyes.”

“Why do they have this form? Sarco told me that light can change its shape so why do they resemble what they once were?” you ask Eos.

“Here in Andes changing shapes can be made under special conditions. This is why you cannot achieve this yet. The Maker wanted us to respect what we once were, to accept that this is part of our legacy that represents us even here in this reality.”

“I understand. But regarding nature, this is quite…overwhelming. So nature can bypass death?” you ask Eos.

“Death is nothing more than a barrier that your race created to explain the unknown and the point of no return from what you were accommodated with. Everyone experiences this no matter how much time passes. Everything in your world has an end, just like everything in the universe has, and when there is nothing left, the universe ends too. We are being called by you’re kind as being dead or unliving, but in fact, as you can see, we have life inside us. And that life is the light itself that we are made from.”

“You call this life? Then why do humans just like I was don’t see you? Why does this light doesn’t show itself to us? And more important why do we find out only after what humans call life ends?” you ask Eos.

“We did not show ourselves mostly because we wanted to protect your kind from this knowledge. We have shown ourselves to other beings from the universe because they were ready to comprehend this. It is not yet the time to discover this for your race as the point of evolution forbids this. I call this life because as I told you before, death is something that was created by your race to explain just a shift in reality. We did not die, we just returned to our primordial form.”

“Our primordial form…I understand in a way. When I was on my planet in this form, I did see these lights before passing into this realm. They were both there, but they did not merge or combine, they only coexisted together. I even tried to touch the White Light, but it just avoided me.” you explain to Eos.

“Indeed, we are both creations of the Maker, but we are different, we are not made to merge because we are not allowed. But we can coexist. We are inside every being from the universe. Inside every being, we assert dominance over one another and we can trigger emotions, actions, and even control in subtle ways. Yet there are things that we cannot control.”

“I cannot guess what both of the lights cannot possibly control if they want to. Can you tell me?” you ask Eos.

“The lights that exist in a being are mostly unequal. In the passing of time, or life, as you called it, the measure of both lights in a being means that one will assert dominance over another. It is not always a general rule as one never leaves the being in most cases for another to take its place completely. The measures of lights act in a relative way depending on the final result of what needs to be achieved.”

“What happens when one takes its place completely?” you ask Eos.

“For your race, it often resulted just as a meaningful or lesser lesson for others. If a human has a measure of Black Light that is complete without the White Light, it often means destruction for anything that encounters that human. If there is a measure of White Light without Black Light, it often means that the human will self-destruct. But even so, everything is with a purpose for the Maker, even if we are unsure sometimes what the results for this except just another piece of a complex puzzle in experiences and evolution.”

“I understand, is there any way for the humans for example to resist the control of the lights?” you ask Eos.

“Yes, the Maker offered everyone the freedom of choice and the means to resist our suggestion. Humans can resist our impulses and choose for themselves in the end if they want to follow our lead or not. For this, there is a fight that takes place within the human, between us and his own will. If he wins then he may rest for a short time, but we are persistent, and we always achieve in one way or another what is needed even if there is a change of plans as nothing except the Maker can be called perfect, not even the lights he created. There is only one thing that we cannot control.”

“So there is a weak point. I knew everything must have one. What is that weak point?” you ask Eos.

“Sometimes within the complexity of creation, a being is born that has an equal measure of lights within himself. This is when what seems simple becomes complicated.”

“You mean there is a sort of balance inside that human? It doesn’t sound that bad,” you tell Eos.

“If you think at it this way it does not sound bad indeed. But who do you think will assert dominance when the measure is equal inside that human? This is when chaos erupts inside. Those humans are destined to live in a complicated manner, not having a purpose, with a swirl of emotions inside them that confuses them. Both Black Light and White Light have different agendas, and when this conflict exists, there is no purpose to achieve. They are lonely, different from their kind, and easily susceptible to madness.”

“You told me that there is always a purpose to achieve. Why are they created in the first place if there is nothing to achieve?” you ask Eos.

“For the Maker, everything has a purpose, you might see it as an error, imperfect in its nature contrary to the balance you told me about. But if any of the humans have an equal measure of both lights inside them, if they find a way to control it, if they find the will to press on then something great can be achieved. Something that can turn the tide of an entire race if they are trusted and listened to by others. But this often does not happen, and they are exiled because of their ideals and the change they want to make. The decaying roots that run deep in that race are too hard to pull alone and it takes courage to do it and confront the rot that can spread towards them. Sometimes it ultimately means the end of their mortal destiny on their plane of existence.”

“I understand. Thank you for explaining all this, I did not know these things could happen, even if I was a human once. If I knew sooner about this, maybe I could have made a change myself,” you tell Eos.

The First One

As you finish your sentence you feel a deep humming in your mind as once again the surface of your form you are made from starts having a spiky irregular shape. You do not understand what is happening but you feel as being attracted to something. It’s almost overwhelming for you. You get into the attention of something you cannot comprehend. As you walk on by the surroundings with Eos, you see in the distance what seems to be an immense tower-like structure coursing with Black Light that flows spiraling from top to bottom into the very surface you are on. At the top of it, you see something shining. A deep voice enters your mind again:

“Come to me, young soul.” says the unknown voice as you feel you are being pulled to the tower.

“What is happening? It feels so overwhelming, I feel as if I am losing control of my own mind and being,” you tell Eos.

“It seems it is already the moment, I did not expect this to happen so soon.”

“What are you talking about?” you ask Eos.

“Listen to me, the soul of Andes is calling you, The Dark Star wants to speak with you, we need to reach him immediately. We need to move faster, let me help you.”

Eos touches you, and within mere moments you start to detach from the ground, levitating just like him.

“I will explain to you along the way, we must hurry. When we arrive there I will interrupt the levitation process.”

“But I don’t know how this works, I never experienced something like this,” you tell Eos.

“You can control this just as you walked normally, just think about the direction you want to go and your form will move.”

Using your own mind, within moments you start moving forward to the tower or light. Eos is in front of you, levitating forward faster and faster.

“What is this Dark Star? What does he want from me?” you ask Eos.

“Within the existence of everything, before the Maker created all of the known realms and cosmos, his first creations were that of two entities of immense power. They are the only ones who have ever seen the Maker before the creation of eternity itself, and one of them is the Dark Star, the very core and nucleus of our realm. The Maker entrusted him with the creation and safeguarding of this place. He is the source of everything you see, the source of Black Light, even the source of your form. We are bound to him in an eternal connection. Usually, he communicates with stewards like me and we heed his call. But this time, he called you himself directly and this is a bit unusual.”

“What does the Dark Star know about me?” you ask Eos.

“It is easy to explain but hard to comprehend for you at this moment. The Dark Star knows already everything about you both from what you call life and death. But there are things that even he doesn’t know, but he might answer some of your questions better than I can. He can see in life and death, but the Maker is the one who can see beyond it. In the infinite probabilities and possibilities, he is the only one that chooses from them what is needed both for past, present, future, and eternity.”

“You are right, it is hard for me to comprehend this complexity, I think we have arrived.”

You stop with Eos in front of what seems to be the colossal tower of light. You look up above and you can’t see the end of it. You turn confused to Eos:

“I don’t think that levitating will help us reach the Dark Star. I cannot even see clearly the end of this tower now that we are close to it.”

“We don’t need to levitate to reach it,” Eos tells you as he touches you, losing your levitation and standing on the ground again.

“Well…I suppose if we don’t reach it by levitation…then climbing it is not an option either right?” you tell Eos looking confused at him.

“You are one funny soul aren’t you?” Eos tells you while focusing on the tip of his finger Black Light into a compressed mass that looks somewhat small and round.

“What are you doing?” you ask Eos.

“Pay attention to me and you will see”.

Eos raises his arm above with the concentrated Black Light at the tip of his finger, and with one sweep from top to bottom he creates an opening, a fissure similar to the one you entered from your planet when you arrived here.

“This is our way to the Dark Star. We need to enter the fissure and we will be right at the top of the tower.”

“This is amazing, so many possibilities that you can achieve with this light,” you tell Eos looking at him and the fissure almost not believing what you just witnessed.

“Indeed, are you ready?”

“I am ready, let’s go,” you tell Eos looking at the black fissure.

You enter the fissure and in an instant, you cross to the top of the tower. The image you are seeing in front of you almost seems unreal. There is light all around you coursing and seeping out in each direction you are looking. You are on the far edge of what seems to be a chamber surrounded by what seems to be obelisks. Both the chamber and the obelisks are made of Black Light. There is no roof and when you look above, you see the same eclipse that you have seen when you first arrived in this realm, being closer. On the tip of the obelisks, you see a line of Black Light, the source of the line being in the middle of the room. Eos is with you, but he is silent, not ushering any word inside your mind anymore. You take a step forward unsure of what you should do and what you are witnessing. You start going to the middle of the chamber, Eos being behind you, and this is when you see there an entity you have never seen before. The lining of light from the obelisks points toward him. He does not have a shape as you have or as anything you have encountered on your journey here. The shape is irregular being black and seeping light from all directions, somewhat oval at first sight. You understand that you are in front of something you cannot fully comprehend, something that is past reality or any normality you are trying to adapt to. In the middle of the shape, you see a grey light in the form of what seems to be a filled perfect circle, for the first time this close, not moving or changing shapes like the Black Light surrounding it. As you stare without even knowing what to say, the deep unknown voice enters your mind again:

“Welcome, young soul, at the beginning of eternity.”

To be continued.