A feeling struck Astharoth's mind. This time, it was warm, familiar, something he knew, yet it was partially unknown to him. Like a blurry memory.

His eyes opened and his vision cleared, noticing himself in an endless white plain covered with mist.

"Papa. . ." came a fainting voice, from some distance away from him. ". . .Come here, papa."

He noticed, a small girl stood in the direction of the voice. Beside her stood a lady, with a face Astharoth could never, even if he wished, forget. He said nothing and kept looking, with a blank face, into their eyes. Except, the two figures in front kept looking down, refusing to meet glance with him.

"L-Layla. . ." Astharoth said after a while, but the girl didn't respond.

"When is papa. . . coming back, mamma?" The girl said, still looking down.

"Your papa is brave," the other figure said in a comforting voice. "He's working at a national defense unit. . . to-to keep mamma and Layla safe and happy. Don't worry, he'll be back in no time. Till then, the princess can play with mamma."

White mist gathered around him and the two figures, enclosing the three inside. With dry, apathetic eyes, Astharoth went silent, in that endless white plain, looking at them both.

"Layla," after a moment, he called again in a louder voice. "Layla, I'm here. Papa. . . is here."

No response.

"Mamma..."

The girl glanced up at the mother, holding her hand.

"Will you join us to the mountains, mamma," it was a happy, cheerful voice and a tear came down from Astharoth's eye. "The mountains and the step-gardens on the higher lands are beautiful."

Mother chuckled a bit and got to her knees to match the girl's eye level. "Oh dear, you mean the coffee terrace-gardens on the highlands?"

"Yeah, yes," the girl cheerfully said. "That's what papa calls those step-gardens."

The mother chuckled again, "Sure if that's what my princess want, mother will join too,"

"Once papa comes back, we shall go there and will also play under the big trees on the way, just like the last time."

Snapping back to the present, Astharoth realised what was happening, but he still refused to accept it. Somewhere, deep in his mind, he still expected them to have survived the devastating annihilation, the calamity that wiped his reality. Or perhaps, he expected it was all a dream or a simulation and he would, somehow, wake up to see his daughter again.

In the white plain of mist, his body subconsciously stood up. As Astharoth took a step forward, toward the two figures, expecting to reach his daughter, the mist around him glitched and the image faded in a blink of an eye.

At the end of the glitch, an image appeared again, just like the previous one. The girl stood there, some distance away, one step behind now as he had moved a step ahead. The mother still stood beside her, holding her hand.

Except, the cheerful, happy, chuckling face of the girl was no more. The little girl, no more, had that smile on her face nor that excitement to meet her father.

"Why?" The girl said, coldly, while her grip tightened around mother's palms. "Why has papa not returned yet, mamma?" And Astharoth could feel the physical weight of disappointment in the girl's voice.

"It's been so much time," the girl said, disappointed. "He promised he will return soon."

Then the sound of a blast appeared in the area. A sound identical to that of when the skies were torn open.

Mother would get down to her knees again. Her hand extended, caressed the little girl's head and her cheeks. "Trust me, sweetheart," Mother said. "Papa will return soon, just give him some time."

The girl removed her mother's palms off her cheek and shook her head in disagreement. Disappointed.

"It's been so long, mamma," the girl said in an angry tone. "Why has he not returned yet?" Does he not care about me anymore?. . . Does papa not love me, mother?"

"No, no," Mother tried to convince, "Papa really loves you, dear."

The girl shook her head again.

"He's not here yet," She said. "Why did he not return for us?"

Astharoth realised.

"Did he not even try?" The girl shouted, making Astharoth freeze as he realised. "Did papa leave us here to die?!"

"No!" Astharoth shouted, extending his arms toward the illusion of his daughter and within a blink, he found himself in a different plain. Different from the endless white mist he was in.

It felt different. Much. . . calm, divine.

He was on his knees, on something which looked and felt like a thin layer of water on another endless plain. Water, pure enough to resemble a clean glass sheet.

The clouds descended, from the high skies, on the horizon, reflecting themselves in the layer of water.

"Where. . . what is this place?" He'd ask himself.

Clouds in front of him reshaped, forming a massive figure of an old person, looking down at him. The moment their glances met, a feeling struck Astharoth's mind. A similar feeling to the time when the skies were torn open and the blinding light had appeared before the wave.

"What. . . who are you?" Astharoth said, in a voice lower enough to hear himself.

"I was summoned here by you." The figure answered.

The voice, Astharoth realised, was the same that he had heard in the cryptic vision of the falling world he had received, just before the darkness covered his eyes.

"That voice," Astharoth said. "The same voice. . . you called me back then."

Astharoth noticed some new expression on the massive figure's face. "I. . . was summoned here," it said. ". . .By you."

With a confused look, with many questions rising in his mind, Astharoth said, "M-me?. . . summoned you?" He calmed himself. "I remember hearing a voice before I blacked out. It was this voice. . . your voice."

The figure stood calm, thought: Preserver, the almighty, your majesty. Is this your doing. . . again? This individual with such pain, suffering and determination in his eyes. . . who is this?

The key to stability. A voice, pleasant as honey, appeared in the figure's head.

"Who are you?" Astharoth said.

"I'm but a being, just like you and every other individual." The figure said in a tone, pleasure to one's ears. "Except, I reside in the higher realm. With the almighty, his highness. I'm but a small part of his creation, more like a helper to him.

"You are from the higher dimension?" Astharoth, with curiosity, asked. "Back then, in my world, when the light appeared before the other world had. I felt the presence of someone, just like you. Were you there when my world died?"

"The thing your world went through was a collision. The initiation of the new beginning. . . A world parallel to yours had harnessed my strength from the higher dimensions, to create a world anew.

"It resulted in this collision, where two similar realities collided. Yours was the one who did not make it."

"The beginning. . ." Astharoth asked himself and a memory flashed in his eyes of him coming across the ancient records of Genesis. The new creation which, for a thousand years, was considered a myth.

A process used by the Almighty, initiated-when the world is at the peak of its development and is inevitably walking toward its doom-to end the present reality and begin the new one. A potentially better one.

"But my world was on the way to achieve the balance between both. . . And it still died. Why does my world have to suffer for that reality?"

"The worlds are connected on the grand scale of the multiverse and the life cycle of realities goes parallel." the entity said. "The genesis occurred at the time it was not intended to, which destabilized the balance, and initiated the collision.

With a cold, blank face, Astharoth, getting on his feet, stood in his place. "It was you. You were there at the time of the wave. When my world died. The powers from you annihilated my world. You were on their side."

"It's not on what side I'm on. I don't have the freedom to choose that, the unbiased fate has," The entity said. "It's about who calls, manifests me. Who have enough strength to calls my name for help."

"Even if it was for wrong deeds? To destroy one's world?" Astharoth protested. "Even if it meant killing thousands, if not millions of innocents. How can you call yourself Almighty?"

The figure said nothing.

Astharoth stood there, waiting for the massive human-shaped figure to reply. He waited, sticking his eyes toward the figure. Questions kept burdening his mind, but he stood silent . . . waiting for the figure to answer.

Losing his patience, Astharoth said, "You said, I had summoned you. Then does it merge with the words you stated earlier?"

The figure stood silent before saying, "It sure does."

Astharoth looked down for a moment and glanced back into the entity's eyes, "Then I call your name, the creator, I want my world back. I want my innocent world and my people back. My family, my daughter back."

The figure said nothing and Astharoth, again, kept waiting for the answer. The blinding light, soon, covered Astharth's eyes while the figure faded away from the plain.

"Don't leave," Astharoth shouted. "Answer me."

Astharoth's eyes closed with the increasing intensity of the light and the words appeared in his fantasy, "Seek the vessels."

~~

His eyes opened, from something which felt like a deep sleep or slumber. His skin touched the newborn tiny blades of the grassーand the dew on themー and, for a moment, he had a feeling that his world, might have revived.

Eyes opened with a start, just to notice the same strange but divine light fading away from the sky above him. From the feel of energies alone, he could sense, this was, after all, not the world he once lived in. Though, it was a world, strangely but closely similar to theirs. He got up, noticing Vesemir and Aligos with him. Their eyes met each other, said nothing, but, through eyes, many words were exchanged.

"I had a vision," Aligos said, after some time. "In a cloudy plain, I saw my mother. I couldn't see her face but I'm sure it was her. She was happy, for some reason, and patted my head."

"I remember you said your mother passed away when you were a child," Vesemir said.

"I still remember her voice. I could feel it was her."

"I, too, had a vision," Astharoth calmly said, while his eyes observed the dew on blades of tiny grass. "About my family, and then my memories blurred."

Astharoth and Aligos glanced toward Vesemir with the expressions he would easily read. Vesemir shook his head, "No, I had no vision."

"Lier," Aligos snapped. "You always hide things until the very end."

"The vision you had about is your family," Vesemir pointed out. "The basis of that vision to manifest was your emotional bond and attachment to your loved ones. The true bonds. In my case, I never had a family nor any existing memories with my parents or loved ones. It should not be surprising if I don't get visions like you both."

Aligos and Astharoth stood quiet, glanced at each other, and glanced back at Vesemir.

"He always finds a way out of questions."

Vesemir looked around, "Where are we?"

"It's. . . It's similar to DeSadia but it's not our world," Astharoth said, pausing. "Our world is no more. This world, considering the flow of energies here, is younger than ours with a much younger star."

After some time, looking around at the new world they had found themselves in, the three stood up and made their way toward the mountains, It, according to Astharoth, was the most appropriate first step.

Being from a totally different world, Astharoth had mentioned, trying to contact with the beings of this world without knowing much about them would have been a wrong move. Something they couldn't afford to make when their number is as less as three at the moment.

People's lives are driven by their blind assumptions about the world and the others around them. . . It's in their nature. They refuse to see, or understand the true world, they see what they want to see. Astharoth knew that.

They'd not just let it lose if they noticed entities roming around them whose physique is bigger in size than theirs. . . The topic would soon gain attention, potentially leading to the bigger problems.

The DeSadians kept themselves hidden in the mountains for a long. In a very brief encounter I once had with Astharoth when he willingly made me glance into his memories and from Astharoth's several encounters with William in the coming years, he never revealed how DeSadians survived in those many years, What did they eat? Was the food, water, and air in this reality, this world, similar to theirs? Otherwise, even for a mortal being, how were they able to sustain themselves and keep themselves alive for centuries? The possibility my mind came up with was, maybe, DeSadian have a larger lifespan.

In the coming time, when I had the privilege to confront him. I had, somehow, used the flow of energies in a way that linked the conscious mind and peek into his memories. But, his mind revealed nothing except the devastating incident of his falling world.

It was after a couple of centuries that things changed. When their bodies, being from the other reality, showed mutation, changes to adapt to the new world. This world, compared to DeSadia was much younger with a pure and more active flow of energies through laylines, a younger sun with healthier rays. And, the difference in the composition of the atmosphere.

These conditions nurished them and their bodies began showing internal growth beyond what they could have ever imagined. Their senses-including the fear sense, DeSadians had, being from the higher dimensional world-showed growth to a phenomenal level giving them sharper reflexes and instincts. Likewise, their physical strength and bodies showed growth making a clear distinction from humans.

The strength increased to a level that they would have mistaken for superhumans, even gods. . . Or otherwise, if things turned in a different way. The only flaw it had was their skin turning into a shade of white due to the changes in the surroundings, which created another distinction to easily separated them from the humans.

But with strength, there's always a responsibility and the consequences.

It took them some more decades to finally gain fine control over their senses in order to continue living normally in this world. It took some time and trials and errors to understand the use, limits and possibilities of these new strengths they possessed. This strength, which developed and enhanced their control on the flow of natural energies. Just like the way in their world, and use them in different ways, including physical manifestation.

More years passed of them being unnoticed by humans. . . and then came the time, when rumors spread around human settlements, of sightings of supernatural beings- humans would call them demons and devils. In the beginning, Astharoth chose to ignore these talks and potential rumours and preferred hiding his identity from humans. But when things went up to people's death, he couldn't help but interfere.

Using his senses to observe the settlements, on the very next encounter with such a strong being, Astharoth tracked the entity and stepped in, and without losing sweat, threw the opposite one on the ground.

The other one, with anger, glanced at him, noticed the similarities in their physical appearances and sensed the flow of internal energies similar to his.

"You. . . you're from DeSadia," He shouted, "One of us. Why are you protecting these filthy creatures?"

The moment the opposition mentioned his world, Astharoth hesitated for a moment, "Who are you?"

Confused expressions appeared on the other person's face, "Is it some kind of test?"

Astharoth, too, had many questions, encountering the entity who, except from Aligos and Vesemir, was from the same now-fallen world. From his world, after centuries of time had passed.

With his strong voice, Astharoth just said. "You ain't running anywhere. Stop this pathetic act and take me to the place you came from."

~~

The person with white skin, some 7.5 feet in height, walked ahead quietly. He didn't dare, nor was allowed to speak, unless it was for guiding them with the directions. Astharoth walked behind him, followed by Aligos and Vesemir.

After resisting for two days, the person, who once attempted to fight humans, was ready to take the three of them to the people he belonged to. The other group of people from their world, DeSadia.

Thoughts ran through Astharoth's mind. Another group from DeSadia, he'd say to himself, if assumed that the vision of the destruction of my nation and the vision of the encounter with the creator, that almighty being, triggered the survival and getting snapped into this reality. Did they, the other group, too, witness the destruction . . . and the vision with that almighty being, if he was even one.

The person was quiet the whole way, and used his hands to show the directions and guided the way.

'Do they, the other group from DeSadia,' thoughts again ran in his mind. 'Did they, or the wisest of them, capable of making the connection, also see the vision of that being? Did they learn about the creation and the cycle of Genesis?'

The person stopped in front of a big mountain and the three stopped too. The person touched and pressed his hands gently on the rocky, steep-sloped wall of the mountain and Astharoth could see the illusion of the wall on the big mountain.

Not surprising, Astharoth smiled. These people, just like us, might have managed to preserve certain. . . techniques and tech from the higher dimension in this three-dimensional world.

The person waved his hand, pointing toward the mountain, and walked through the illusion. Without a shadow of a doubt, having strong instincts and a developed ability to sense wrong waves, Astharoth followed sensing no danger.

"Are they not being too careless," Aligos said. "hiding themselves behind a simple wall of illusion which humans can accidentally notice and find about them?"

"It's not just an illusion," Vesemir said. "there are multiple layers to this illusion. Like a chaos dimension. If you got distracted for a moment, you'd reach some other place, maybe even a different plane of space. It would be easy for our minds to cross this but not for the weak minds of human beings."

The illusion faded to their eyes as they continued walking deeper into the illusion until finally disappearing when they reached the inner borders.

As they entered, Astharoth's eyes widened, noticing many people, hundreds if not in thousands, inside the place.

A light source, not the sun, had risen to the top lighting the place. In the past couple of centuries, when Astharoth, Aligos and Vesemir were trying to get used to the new environment. This group had developed a society, hidden from humans.

"I know what you might be thinking," the person finally spoke. "Well, not everyone from our group had noticed changes in their physique and overall internal composition. We had enough time and people to create an actual settlement."

"Pardon me for how Astharoth might have treated you," Aligos said, trying to make things friendly. "But, we never asked for your nice name."

"Eman," he replied in a word.

Some people in the group-sitting in circle on the tiny grass-ahead noticed the three new faces with their person. They stood up together and some walked a step ahead with furious faces.

"Can't you see their white skin?" Eman, the person, said, pointing to the other people to calm down and stay back. "They're from DeSadia. They're like friends. Just want to talk."

One of the people, the only one present among them with a calm face, walked ahead and stopped some distance away from the three new faces.

"I can sense the familiar life force you three emit," the person said. "You, too, are from the world we once belonged to. It's unfortunate how we had not come across each other for the past two centuries."

"I wish I could express the same level of happiness and satisfaction after seeing some other people from my fallen world," Astharoth said, coldly.

Confused, the person asked. "May I ask you to elaborate on it?"

"In the corner of my mind, I still am pleased. But, recently, there are many spreading words about humans being attacked by some strong, supernatural beings. And, not-so-surprisingly, the description of these beings matched the mutation we three went through when we got thrown into this reality, this world.

"I first refused to believe those words, considered them as rumors 'cause my people knew the value of life and were always with me."

The other person kept listening.

Astharoth continued, "I wished to refuse the possibility that they, the ones who attacked humans, might be like me. People from DeSadia, somehow got snapped into this world.

"But I also refused to ignore when these talks about attacks converted into incidents of human deaths and killing. And the thought I feared was indeed true. It was indeed the other group from my world who attacked humans like some pathetic berserk animals. I want to know, why?"

"Why?" The person in front asked, still maintaining his calm.

"Why attack humans? Why kill humans?" Astharoth said. "After the destruction, our world faced, after what our people faced and lost. . . Have you still not realised the value of life? Why kill humans?"

The person in front of him faintly smiled, "You see, friend, there are these amphibians in this world," he said. "Humans call them snakes. It's a long body creature and most of them, I noticed over the years, are originally harmless in nature."

Astharoth was amused to feel the calmness in the person's mind, his elegant behavior, higher standards, and his control over his life force.

"This amphibian creature is originally mostly harmless. But, if this creature senses any danger, because of its poor eyesight, it would not hesitate to use offense and squeeze the life out of the one who possesses danger."

"And how does it relate to the attacks?" Aligos asked from the back.

"Humans, these three-dimensional beings of this world, have excellent eyesight," the person continued. "Yet, these creatures are blinded by their wrong perceptions, vision, and their nature of always judging things without knowing the background truth.

"For them, anything which is alienated and humongous is something of danger. Their underdeveloped minds don't try to understand and they choose offense. . . They choose to fight"

Astharoth went silent and the person kept explaining.

"My people, our DeSadian people, never, under my watch, intentionally hurt, attacked and not even in a long shot killed humans. Any offense was just an act of self-defense. I can be sure that, when you caught my man, you were late and only saw him being the one to attack."

"There are other ways to avoid conflicts, violence," Astharoth said. "Like, backing off from the situation."

Noticing the amount of tension created in the situation, Aligos walked ahead and stood beside Astharoth, "Pardon me, kind sir, for my friend Astharoth's strict behavior. Things have not been the easiest for him in the last few decades."

"Astharoth," the person said, giving a friendly look, "That's a beautiful name." And glanced back at Aligos, "people call me. . . Lucifer. Can I ask your good name?"

Aligos returned him a smile, "Call me Aligos, and. . ." He pointed at Vesemir, "he's Vesemir."

The person, Lucifer, nodded and glanced back at Astharoth. "You see, Astharoth, for more than a century, my-our people of this group have been trying to make contact, trying to communicate with humans."

"Why?"

"Except the process of the creation, the Genesis," the person said, "there's no way DeSadia can live again. But, this creation comes with a cost, if you know. And just because people of this world treated our world in such a way, does not mean we should reciprocate the same treatment to them. That will make us fall to their level. And we are not like them."

He knows about the Genesis, Astharoth said to himself, amused at Lucifer's words.

"You see. . . Astharoth, we don't look for any conflict or war, nor do we wish to rule the beings of this world. But how long shall our people live like this; hidden? Our people also deserve a life where they don't have to keep hiding with fear of being hunted.

"They, too, wish to live freely without fear of getting caught or being attacked or killed. That was the reason, I wished to contact humans, and make them realize we are friends with them. We are harmless."

"By attacking them?" Astharoth snapped.

"As I mentioned, humans fear the strength our mutated bodies possess. Thus they, blindly assuming us as a potential danger, choose offense. And looking at their history, their nature, I can't trust them enough to send my unmutated, normal people. I'm sure you can understand. You must be observing these humans for a long time too."

Astharoth could notice the use of words and Lucifer's behaviour while the conversation proceeded. The way he used his calm life force, good choice of words, and body language to make himself feel more friendly, and convincing.

During the conversation, the illusion on the mountain wall wobbled, glitched a little and a person, presumably one of the DeSadians from Lucifer's group, entered the place.

The person, heavily breathing, calmed down and met glance with Lucifer. "Humans have arrived outside the illusion," he said. "Two of them."