The Brink of Creation

Chapter 4 - The Land of Which No One Knows

The seed of light whispers within you. Ascend the Pyramid.

Remember no more, trespasser.

Sand-filled lungs, aching, burning, itching. A cold stone pillar. Cold? The skin feels rough to the touch. Can't breathe. Nostrils buried in it. It smells like the taste of unlife. Did we make it?

Water. The Scientist's eyes shot open, immediately filling with salty purplish crystalline granules. Yelling in anguish, he spat out several small plates of sand and crystal as he bent down into the water to rinse his stinging eyes. Hurting, coughing, thirst. Where are my friends?

The Scientist realized what he was doing and shot to his feet.

Nothing could have prepared The Scientist for this sight.

Light.

Unfamiliar ground underneath his feet, unveiling itself as lavender mountains and bottomless valleys further than sight could reach, cradled an endless sea of crystal-clear waves which spoke around gigantic monoliths of obsidian. He'd never seen so much water in one place before.

The Scientist had reached our world.

"Where are the Some?"

The Scientist heard no reply. He faced an endless expanse of an unknown world, alone, lost.

Bring it to the Pyramid.

Like the serene toll of a bell within his aching heart, the words came back to him. What had happened in the traverse to the World of Light?

"Are we going to die?"

The Scientist suddenly recalled his dear lady's last words, and he could not bear the weight of them. He buried his knees into the sand and wept. Salty tears merged with the glowing sea. He did not care if the waves swept around his coat. Without the Some, what did the coat even matter? Take it away, sea. Bury me within your torrents, crush me underneath your burning tides.

"But to despair would be to forsake their memories. There is still a chance they are alive. I must survive, for their sakes."

The Scientist was interrupted by an ashy quip from above. "Will you quit that damn racket? What's a soldier gotta do to earn some decent shuteye 'round here?"

Alarmed, the young heart of fire enflamed anew, just noticing the black reflection in the monolith beside him. An imprint of crystalline sand in the shape of his face was dried near the bottom of the monolith. "Friend or foe? Speak or be slain!"

The voice sputtered in half-laughter. "I've been watchin' you since you were swept up on that crusty beach. The Crystal Sea doesn't just spit out any random wayside. If I didn't think you might be of some use, I'd've skewered you the moment I seen you."

A head, or perhaps the smoky remnant of one, popped out from a crevasse some ways up the monolith. "And you don't even have a weapon. What're you gonna do, slap me, skinny boy?"

The Scientist scoffed as his feet began to hit the sand, marching away from the sea. "Alright, I get the point. I've got a mission I need to fulfill. I hope I never see you again."

The man coughed a laugh out from his crevasse. "Do you even know where you're goin'? You don't have anythin' to defend yourself, and you're just gonna march south? You're not from 'round here, are ya?"

The Scientist shook his head and ignored the heckling stranger. At least there was some sign of life in this desolate but beautiful expanse.

The expanse which was coated in Light.