About a certain return

Part 16

- We'll need to go down a lot, said the Leader, unmoved by the loss of his comrade. We'll cross the two purifying lakes. The Alive Water Lake and the Alive Fire Lake. We need to be strong to cross the Great Barrier. Then they will realize we're out. Our survival depends on our skills. It can be done.

- Who can they be?

- Gramon will send the devils' legions. They can feel us no matter where we are. The Arcounts are the most dangerous. You cannot recognize them without the clear vision sense.

- I can see very well right now.

- That is something else, said the Leader and I saw the young lad resurrecting.

- I think I could smash this block, but not here. Sidewise.

And he strikes it with his head as if he had horns, like a ram. He only hit once and the rock cracked. There were enough places now to continue our trip...

- Do you feel the methane gas, asked one of my companions, a chap with dark skin, apart of his golden aura? Do you feel it?

- Not at all, I said.

- We are next to a bed of fossil animal fuel, rock oil. The use of rock oil was the landmark of an era in the human civilization.

- Really? I don't know if it was of any use to anybody.

- To humans that live in the Astral Light.

- Are there human beings like me above ground?

- There are human beings, but not like you, said the Leader.

We were in a hurry; the walls were rushing, something was rapidly moving, and all of a sudden we got into a large hall. When I got down I felt the boundless space, looking around me. Though the steam covered in parts the cavern. That steams hided the lake. Its waves came towards us slowly, rhythmic, in a peaceful sound.

- This is the Alive Water Lake. We'll all get inside it. Don't be afraid. The fear is that they expect from you.

What did he mean by "they"? I should take off my clothes and dump them somewhere... The lake's banks were sandy... a golden sand, fine...

"Get in with your clothes on" the lake invited me, I heard it rippling, "get in"!

- My mind is twisted, I said at loud voice.

I saw the Princes of Light diving into the lake and I followed them. It wasn't wet water... I felt caught, surrounded, and submerged without being able to resist. And suddenly all, all that I was, started to rebel. I was turned to pieces, it was me ten folds, one hundred folds, or there were my own one hundred faces, I could see myself multiplied in the lake's water, and all started to show in different ways. The lake was full of "my selves" there was an endless of "Me".

I had no consistency and couldn't concentrate my mind. I couldn't think fluently any more. Every "I" had its own interests... Me as a child, me as a teenager, me the melancholic, the depressed one, the cheerful one, the layer, there were all my emotional moods, in the middle of my yesterday life's feelings... Me? Who am I? Which of them? Suddenly I felt cold, very cold, but no, it was the touch of these countless "my selves", or something else? I mumbled incantations: Oh, our Mother and mother of all that exists, forgive my sins, keep me away from temptation, and bring me peace...

- Who are you? What do you want?

The murmur become more intense and they started to grumble: I'm the great thief that stills, that broke, cheats greatly, that have the knack to misappropriate founds, a craftsman, I could tell you the story of all my mishaps. I make the small upstarts go bankrupt, I bring to light their tricks, and I, I am the petty thief, that nicks my colleagues' items, I'm the one that cheats on my wife, I am the Lewd, I am the High-Aimed, the one that climbs all the social ladders, I am the Haughty that doesn't allow, the Shy, the Disgusting one, in tenths of facets, the Envious...