《Deceiving darkness》Volume 1. Chapter 11.
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The world was plunging into darkness, Motso was moving along the lifeless tundra, following the bloodstained tracks. Lichens and mosses grew on the hard, icy ground. Sometimes there were also some angiosperms that opened their white flowers outwards. In places, the ground was completely empty and there were only dead bushes of dryas all the way to the horizon. About an hour later, Motso started seeing more and more drops of blood.
"This guy won't hold long. I wonder if he got to that forest.”
The blood trail was dark red in color. Less than a kilometer later, he saw the corpse of a warrior dressed in copper lamellar armor, that was pierced in various places. Motso stopped and noticed that there were no bloodstains, the skin was white, but the body was still warm, so he had died recently.
“Apparently he couldn't escape from his wounds and his companions abandoned him.”
It was getting dark. There was a moon in the sky, just above the forest, burning with the flames of church candles, on which, if you look closely, you can see the outlines of mountains and craters. It was surrounded by layers of clouds.
"If they're holed up somewhere, it's right there. Hell, I'm in plain sight. The moon is also lighting everything around me.”
Motso looked at the sphere, and it flew closer and touched his palm. Then he stretched out his hand, holding the sphere in front of him. The hum began to grow. The air trembled. And Motso went forward while crouching. There was no chance of seeing them first, but gravity would be able to throw the arrows away if they flew. He also didn't notice any fires burning in the forest.
"Did you guys actually think that there would be a chase?"
The closer Motso got to the forest, the more clearly, he could see pine and fir trees growing a few centimeters apart. When he stopped at arm's length, he realized that it was simply not possible to get through such a thicket, and decided to move East, not moving far from the trees.
Two hours later, Motso began to notice that the fight had completely exhausted him and he stopped, quietly taking some so needed rest. The silence was broken only by the hum of the sphere. There were no screams from the wounded, no traces of blood.
"It's no use looking for a trail. I must wait until morning.”
The next morning, as the sun rose, Motso opened his eyes and looked around. The forest still looked like a dead place to him, and in the thickest part of the forest, the sun's rays were blocked by the darkness. It was possible to imagine that entering this dark coniferous forest with a high density of canopy, you would find yourself in a non-existent space, something like a terrible dream; a dream in which a person feels no physical pain, but the pain of memory of past recollections. Where only the absolute darkness of untouched nature reigns, the darkness that not everyone is given to know and not everyone agrees to plunge into its embrace. For there it is stored the memory of the world as it really is, where there is no good God who would be able to fix everything. Motso suddenly remembered his mentor's ancient tales of a similar world that existed at the back of the universe, where people were blind but saw more than the sighted. The planet is separated from the star and wanders by itself in the darkness of space and time, miraculously keeping the heat inside itself and supporting life. Its coordinates are constantly changing, and it was almost impossible to get there. Trying not to think for a long time about what to do, Motso gathered his courage and went deep into the forest.
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Making his way through the thicket, both face and hands scratched by the sharp and hard needles of the firs. His feet constantly tumbled through the numerous bumps that were scattered everywhere. However, it was impossible not to admit that the air in this place was truly clean and fresh, filled with the aroma of a free life.
By the middle of the day, having met no one on the way, Motso came out of the forest and realized that he was on high ground. There was a large settlement below, four or five times the size of the one he had recently visited. People were running around chaotically, and there was a loud hubbub.
"Well, here we are," he said.
He touched the cold ground with his palms, it shook all over, and dozens of huge earthen boulders burst out of the ground around him, six times the height of a man. They rose high in the air, then Motso opened his eyes and let them fly towards the village.
***
Three days later, Motso teleported back to the settlement on the beach, near the sea, with a lot of leather insulated clothing and bull meat. Ötzi was already on his feet and being helped by local residents to look after the fallen warriors. When he saw his friend, he started toward him.
“Where did all this come from?”
“Is this how you meet your friends who saved your life?”
Ötzi did not answer and continued to glare at Motso.
“Listen, what have you done with them?”
“Well, I came and talked to their leader. He said that he was mistaken and would not kill anyone else. Gathered an army and headed south-east. Before leaving, bowing in apology, he gave me all this.”
But Ötzi did not smile and said nothing. Behind him was heard the cry of people running to meet their hero. Ötzi only managed to say the phrase: "something has changed in you", but it was immediately lost in the exclamations of women and men. Motso went up to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said:
“How do you?”
He turned his head towards the people.
“They are ready to join us.”
When it was time for the mass teleportation, Motso did not see the shaman. When he asked where he had gone, the locals replied that he had gone to wander the world.
“I see,” he answered in a sad voice and teleported everyone to the cave.
***
Two years later, the city had more than five hundred inhabitants, a year later, a thousand, and a year after, three thousand. The city was named "Kingdom of God". Rumors about this place spread at an incredible speed, and everyone wanted to settle here. Outside of the Kingdom, cults that worshiped the Kingdom of God and various fables were created, which told that only the chosen and pure in soul could get to such a place. Although Motso and Ötzi never even thought about it and accepted everyone. Mothers and grandmothers often told their children that if you behave well, the Gods will take you there; the old people just booted under their breath and said that all these stories are just some fairy tales. And some residents of the" Kingdom of God" mistakenly believed that they had already died and gone to heaven. Others went around the world and tried to convince their interlocutors that they had seen the very wrath of the Gods and almost died, saying that human life is not as important to them as everyone thinks, and if you somehow make them angry, then everything would be lost. The shaman, who went on a journey, began to call himself a wandering pilgrim, wandered around the world and, spending the night in different settlements, told everything about how it was and how these people changed it; for those who wanted to change something in their life, he told them how to find a city where the Gods live. Many went in search of it, but not many found it. Those who were lucky enough to get to this place, lived happily ever after, at least for the time being.
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The underground city grew, and thanks to the power of the sphere and men's hard work, small houses were built in the cave halls. Everything turned into a fairy tale. Meanwhile, the total area of the underground dwelling was not even a quarter full. In the farthest place that Motso could find, a small Palace was built, where the friends actually lived. Every seventh day Ötzi held a reception, and a cloud of people came, not only to talk about their problems, but also to bow and see their patrons again. After the reception, the young princes thought about how to solve the pressing problems. When the state administration started working like clockwork and there was more free time, Motso began to tell Ötzi about his world, about Mokosh, Rod, Alaval, Rety, and why he could not return.
"I remember at that fateful hour, I was supposed to terraform our planet by sacrificing my own sphere, but at that moment we were attacked. War broke out. I remember how a celestial body flew at me, covered with fiery flamed, as if it was heated in the very depths of the abyss. And the size was comparable to several halls of our cave. Pelleas protected me, and then teleported me here, ordering me not to return under any circumstances, saying that he would come for me when the time came. Then he apparently got to the sphere control building and disabled access to teleportation to this planet.”
Motso very much wanted to take Ötzi with him to Alaval, but the latter refused, saying that his place was here, with people like him. It is not really known when exactly this happened, but the local population came up with new names for Motso and Ötzi - Chernobog and Belobog because of the color of their clothes. Then the history of Motso on Alaval and Rety was copied into a book, called "the history of the beginning of time" and distributed to each resident. After most of the population of the "Kingdom of God" read and got acquainted with the book, a religious cult was created by itself, in which Rod, Mokosh, Perun, Pelleas, Veles and others were elevated to the cult of the Gods.
Those people who could not read, Ötzi taught literacy, mainly writing and mathematics. Subsequently, medicine was added, namely first aid (but this was not without Motso) and, of course, architecture. After a while, Ötzi became very fond of his children and devoted more and more of his time to them, because he believed that after his death, he would leave a worthy generation and was happy.
Motso along with a group of well-trained military men were engaged in hunting and digging for food. And everything went smoothly until he discovered that the sphere no longer healed wounds as well as before, and that even it had a limit. As death approached, Motso realized how much he hadn't done yet, and how much he wanted to do. And then the worst happened, and his mind began to change and he was gradually overcome by madness.
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