"Why so cautious?"
His voice was surprisingly smooth. His smile was soft. And the way his eyes looked at me.
"I have to be."
That's right. From what happened a few minutes ago, all the mana in the valley converged before exploding. My guess was that it all turned into one being. If that's the case, then whatever I was looking at, is strong as hell.
"Ahh. I believe I know what you're thinking. Fret not, for it is different from what it seems."
What's he talking about?
"I can't understand."
"Let me explain in a simple manner. What you saw was not real, nor was it an illusion... More like, a stretch."
I think I'd call it more of a diffusion according to his explanation.
Basically, his original amount of mana was just made to fill all of the valley by making mana particles more spread out than they should be. But I wasn't buying it.
"I don't believe you."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"I don't see a reason for doing something like that. It doesn't make sense."
"Are you saying that you know me more than I know myself?"
"I'm saying that I know more than you let on." I think.
"... It's fairly surprising how greedy for power humans are. They all want to become gods."
I guessed that he was referring to me. So I prepared for a fight. But the way he stood made me think otherwise.
He walked to the side with his hands behind his back. Then he looked over to me with a disappointed face.
"Take a look." He said, seemingly referring to the valley. Then he noticed my hesitation. "It is not a trap. I assure you."
Was he expecting me to take his word for it? Any normal person wouldn't. Yet I still did.
Without lowering my guard, I stepped forward.
I could still feel some of his mana in the air, humming faintly, like wind rushing through pine tree leaves.
As I neared the edge, the valley shimmered with thousands upon thousands of small lights. Like stars in the sky, they were of different sizes and colors.
Shapes began to form in the haze. They didn't look natural, or like monsters.
They were people.
Hordes of them. Each one frozen in time. They looked like shadows. And in each, there was a small light flickering. Some were blue, others pink, green, yellow, and so on.
Some stood, hands outstretched. Others kneeled, as if in prayer or surrender. Some looked like they were in pain, others awe, others, peace.
"Look closer." He said.
It didn't take long for me to notice a new detail. The clothes they wore.
Ranging from literal animal skins, at least I though they were, to ancient robes, to English style, modern clothes, even dystopian era attire.
"What's happening here? What is all this?"
I wasn't sure if I was scared, or just, shocked.
"They all wanted the same thing. It surprises me how even those that didn't fully know how to talk wanted it. Children, the culturally uneducated. How did they come up with the idea?"
"What did they want?"
"To become gods. They all wanted, to become gods. To be the strongest... Power."
"How did they end up here."
"The barrier."
"Barrier?"
It turns out, I am in heaven, just not completely there.
This is where all of the dead who want to become gods go to.
Where- The Selection- takes place.
There are two sides of this part of heaven. The darkness, and the trials. These two are divided by the dark valley.
The correct side to go for those who want to become deities is the trials' side. How do you get there? By walking over the valley.
The barrier is the only thing between eternal happiness and eternal suffering. Happiness for gods, and suffering for those who aren't selected.
Only by walking over the barrier can you begin the trials. No kind of magic can help.
Those that are worthy can confidently pass. But those who aren't, they fall into the dark valley, where they can never leave.
They are the greedy, those who have commited sin and still have the guts to try becoming a god. For them, death is a mercy.
"That's why I exist." He said. "I steal the death of another, and give them eternal pain in return. That is one of my duties."
"One?"
"I am the division. I keep the darkness at bay. I keep an eye on those who broke the laws of heaven. Because I am one of them."
"What's a death? Tell me truthfully."
"The opposite of deity. Look there." He pointed at the darkness, where the dark clouds are. "Those who go there and come out alive, they become deaths."
"What is there?"
"..." It took him a while to answer. "You want to become a deity, don't you?"
He dodged the question.
"There's no barrier anymore. How do I get across?"
I still had a few more questions. For starters, the barrier was over him. That means that he was trapped. Why was he trapped?
Also, there's a part of him inside me. How is that? And why? I somehow killed it. How? And why would he let me?
"You must have a lot of questions. I assure you that I'll answer as many of them as I can. But now isn't the time."
"Why?"
Then the ground began to shake, vigorously.
Cracks appeared, heading towards the bottom of the valley. A giant hole appeared, and everything was sinking inside it rapidly.
"What's going on?!"
The walls of the valley began to collapse.
"What is happening?! Hey?!"
He was focused on the events currently happening. Actually, he was.
He was more focused on something else. He wasn't shocked or stunned though. Rather, he looked pissed.
It was the darkness. It was spreading, fast.
"We need to get out of here." He told me.
"Where do we go?"
Then he began to float into the sky.
"Follow me!"
Just as I was about to join him, he suddenly fell flat on the ground.
"What the..."
" I forgot you can't do that here."
"Mind telling me what's going on?"
"Your the one that set me free. I wanted to ignore that fact and remain there, but then you tried to absorb my mana. So I had to get out."
The ground beneath our feet was crumbling.
"Now there's no one to hold everything back. And they're taking advantage of this fact. They're coming after you!"
"Who's they?!"
Before he could answer, everything fell apart.
Like a whirlpool in the sea, the ground was having the same effect.
Everything got sucked into one hole.
The ground, soil, even the clouds in the sky fell, forming something like a tornado.
We also fell together with everything. We fell into a void. Nothing inside it was visible. Not a single speck of light.
The dark clouds had gotten bigger and bigger, so did the thunder and lightning.
From the light, a shadow could be visible. The shadow of a woman. She was in the clouds.
And judging by the fact that the clouds went into that same void, she also went in there.
Most likely willfully.