Phi: The Apocalypse and The Doldrums

Chapter 1:

Terminus

The telephone rang at the end of time. It was my final interrogator.

“You have lots to answer for, Phi.” the caller said.

It is just a little beyond the beginning of the end of everything, Time is dead. Now it is just one moment stretched until all that remains is destroyed. The last impressions of everything, frozen, in that one last glimpse before the curtains fall on light and darkness alike. What remains in momentum in this sliver of a moment, as I witness it, are three parts. Only one part of it is life in human form and two are parts that came from the primordial Void. One of those parts is me, Phi, and the other is my nemesis, in the most loosely based analogy of a mortal enemy there ever was. It is also one of my oldest companions, this I mean in the most exact definition of a fellow traveller on an extensive journey. It is this part that currently waits for me with questions.

The apocalyptic battles were afoot. Beginning with Rudra’s thunders lashing through the sky. The rumbling was indeed an apt background score for the scenes unfolding in different pockets of space but in the final plasmic moment of Time. Rudra, the entity from the highest dimension who was overseeing the decimation of this cycle of the universe, had begun his dance of destruction.

The final hairs on the Tirawa Atius’s buffalo bull had begun shedding, sending a shower of stardust, meteors, down from the skies. The sources of light, the stars were dimming, not consumed by The Dark but by the infinite nothingness. This event has marked the birth of the first wave. A wave, not made of liquid, had begun sweeping across all realms and dimensions as a saviour entity called Anshedar. I could feel it washing over the cosmos drawing a map of faithfulness. Every bit of existence was facing inevitable judgement and here I am delaying my own inquisition.

All that was part of the story of this cycle, flows through the veins of this grand plot and design, abiding by the rules and laws. No matter how minuscule the event, even a flutter of wings, will now face the third and final wave, The Saoshyant-Judgement. One is tempted to argue that they were just unfortunately placed in the workings of the cosmos. However, it is after the judgment is passed, Maitreya - the one mind, the general consciousness of all organic life - will realise and understand the illusion and the illusory nature of all of existence.

We are not there yet, far from it, we are still waiting for Anshedar to finish his reconnaissance. Once it is the done, The Second wave- Aushedarmah, a judgement wave will wash over the final battles. The battles will be fought between opposing forces, all at once in all the different realms. The opposing forces will nothing but cancel each other out. The slaying of the dragon will mark the end of the realm of evil. Ragnarok, the battle in which the realm of godliness will be eviscerated. Finally, the defeat of Dajjal- the realm of the Antithesis, the mirror realm will shatter.

My inquisition party wants to know how to face the end of everything without having to leave, without having to lose anything and even scoop up an exit bonus, that would be me, all of me: the past, present and future.

I set the receiver down on the table. It had begun to gradually peel away, The edges had begun blurring back into non-existence. I had to take a final note of the masterpiece at the base of the phone. Forever a work in progress, it was still filling up the latest addition, binary code and a broken hourglass. I touched the broken hourglass with remorse and regret. Time was no more and I never got to say goodbye. Sands of time spilling over from the fracture in the hourglass, every grain a participant in the apocalypse and a vehicle towards the collapse back into the Void.

A humming had begun before the phone rang, a warning that the second conch shell would be sounded soon. Two out of the three conchs would be sounded for me. First to indicate that the time’s up on Time, Second to start wrapping things up and the Third would be the end of the last, the last moment that is stretching into limbo, that parting gift from Time, one moment spanning from the beginning of the end to the end, the eternal moment will end and we will truly be without and Time at all. For now, I reminisce in that very moment, just a little longer perhaps than usual, for I must begin setting my affairs in order.

"Abandon delay and reluctance, Phi and leave for your realm.”, I had to reprimand myself. Waving my phone room goodbye, “Until next time”, a chuckle sounded from within me.

Chapter 1:

Inquisition

The sight was devastating, as barren as nothing I had ever seen in my very, very long life. The Groundskeeper stood at the entrance. He looked right through me as I entered the unhinged gates. It was a long walk to everywhere in these lands. Purposely so, intended to allow contemplation on the journey from one destination to the other. Without the usual landmarks, it was difficult to know which way to go.

The groundskeeper had started walking; he was to be my guide today, through his own grounds, to reach the library. As I looked around hopelessly for water, the groundskeeper had turned away from his path, a detour. I really hoped it was for water. We reached the last deposit of water in the land. I sat down next to the well as he drew a pail of water. What I saw in front of me was a vast desert where once stood all that we had created together. Mountains, rivers, buildings, structures of The Illusion… were all dust. There was not a hint of our work, except for the Library.

The groundskeeper grunted, nodding his head in the direction of the Library. He held my hand to shove the bucket full of water into it and disappeared almost instantly upon touching me. I looked at my palms and feet; I could see the groundskeeper had returned into them, the place where he had once jumped out from.

I drank to my heart’s content. The memories housed within the last of the waters were the most potent. They had awakened and nourished the depths of my being and all that I played host to from the very beginning. All was fresh and fragrant, ready for reminiscing over. But I knew that what lay ahead was not going to be pleasant, as no confrontation ever is.

The Library was to be my final courtroom, the trial presided over by the Librarian and a sole human witness to it, Ellora.

“Phi. Have a seat to my right.” I did as the Librarian had instructed.

“Do you know why you are here today?” he asked.

“I believe I have some final set of questions to answer.” My voice was hoarse, alien to my own ears.

“Yes, and you shall do so without withholding anything.” He looked at me with a piercing stare that quickly turned softer. Perhaps he wanted to return as the groundskeeper had just done. The Librarian was not a very patient being.

“Ask me the right questions and you shall know all that I know. Or this Final Inquisition will have been in vain. I sit in front of the sole entity who has recorded and catalogued all that I know in this very Library. You, Librarian, know everything. There will be no space for lies and the truth cannot be obscured here.” I said looking at the librarian directly and now his face was clearly quizzical in disbelief.

“That’s all very well.” My inquisitor Cezze had spoken, interrupted more like it. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes. Yes. There’s not a moment left here to be wasted, or rather stretched.”, I said already exasperated.

“Why did you hide the memories of my death?” The first question had been asked and it was my time to answer. An urge to be deceptive rose inside me and I fought it. A throbbing headache emerged.

“I stood at your shores many a time, neither had you a weapon to reap me nor a vehicle upon which I could travel into your realms.” my questioner had spoken again.

“And why did you hide the weapon of your death?”, he asked with anger rising in his voice.

"I never hid it Cezze. It resides in the place where it was always meant to be.”, I said it in as matter-of-factly a manner as I could.

“Then why can’t I find it if you haven’t hidden it? No weapon of death kept in its place can be unknown or invisible to me. I sense foul play! You have moved it and you’re just being the liar that you are.” And the hissing and spitting had begun. My cue for elaborate reasoning had come. I was in no mood for a showdown. I cleared my throat in the hope of getting my voice back.

" Tell me Cezze, you never once parted from the only weapon that could kill you, did you? That scythe, the symbol of death, has uses apart from and beyond just striking you dead. That weapon shall be the one to reap man, beast, machine, God and even you, Cezze ... Death itself.

"Except me… Of course.” I knew I had gone and done it now. I half expected Cezze to lunge forward and chop my head off with his scythe. But he just clenched his teeth, quite hard; I could swear I heard a sharp crunch.

“What? What do you mean to say? I know my scythe cannot slay you. It’s not like I haven’t tried it before on many occasions. But are you suggesting that I will never hold the weapon that will reap you? Shall we put that claim to the test?”

Cezze sniggered and slowly said, “Everyone must cross over to my shores one day, the shores of Death.”

Like my voice I had lost control of my expressive features, as I know they were making the most smug expressions.

“You can try, Cezze, but in your realm I’m going to still be alive. Death for me is just sleeping, access to my subconscious and the unconscious repositories of Memory itself. I am Memory and Memories. It is in my nature to hide, as it is in yours to reap. Your weapon is always in your grasp, mine will always be hidden.", I tried to sound sure.

“So Phi, you think that makes you invincible? If it is as you say, then why did you have to guard your realm so intently from me? I think you are scared; you do not know the medium of your death as well as you would like, as well as you do everything else. Our Cosmic Know-it-all. The only memory unformed within you is your own Death, isn’t it? So tell me does the weapon of your destruction hide here in your own lands, from you, from me and all? You sense it too; your voice has changed, you feel the arid apocalyptic desert drying you up like a mere mortal, the last of your waters have run out. You drank them and saw nothing, didn’t you?”, Cezze had begun rambling his usual rant.

Nearing the end, nearing death… Death is the most annoying presence. Cezze was death’s name and we have always detested each other. He was now frail and old, burdened by his own loot. He had devoured everything except the last bits of the Universe. Once a fiery, feisty young woman, Death had transformed into a corpse of a man as a result of its greed.

I had to make him stop talking.

I cleared my throat “ To answer your question, I guarded my realm against you keeping the balance in place. Your presence, Cezze, in my realm tips the scales. Fine threads of the fabric of existence stretch to a breaking point and when they break, chaos reigns, causality rots away in its grip, trapped… It traps the weapon of my ultimate demise too.” There was a long pause.

Cezze was not interested in hearing the list of do’s and don’t of my realms. “Then how do I reap you? How are you going to be killed? Time tells me nothing!” Death was frustrated and its last bursts of rage spilt over. “Time, your dearest friend, protected you till its last. I reaped it from its quantum construct; it no longer shields you.”, Cezze was furious.

“You won’t reap me, Death. Though ‘Time' was my closest friend, you were my oldest companion. You know things Kala cannot know, things Kala cannot tell… Alas, Memories die last. I... die last.” He had to hear it, he had to know it.

“Now that everything is dead will you die too, Phi? Just fall off the tree, through the Misty Abyss and back into the Void?”. I sounded like Cezze was ready to give up on the thought of killing me.

“Only if you let me reap you, Cezze, then shall I know my own death. Let’s put this cycle to an end.” I said urging Cezze to do the right thing.

“Not so soon Phi, I have questions about the beginning too. I need to know everything.”, sounding vacant.

I looked out the window; the humming grew stronger; the sound of the second conch shell pierced through my almost empty realms. The final battles have begun.

Cezze had risen up from his seat, his slick hair and frail slender arms were coming alive. No longer pale and dreary his skin flushed with the fire of the ongoing apocalypse battles. Death's billowing cloak tails revealed his various avatars through all the ages, always yielding a scythe. He turned around to look at me, his various avatars floating away to hover over the battlefields, out to devour the spoils of war.