A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 24 - The Entity and Realignment

“The Entity?” Kate asks Dale. “Who is that? Did I miss something?”

“It was something that used to contact our people,” Dale says. “It gave our ancestors the instructions for making the barrier. It taught them about alternate realities and in which ones to place the components for the barriers. It gave them the technology needed to move from reality to reality, and much more. The Entity was credited with many of our first major scientific advances, including medicine, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. It instructed them how to modify and use DNA to plant the Travelers in various realities, so they could automatically be activated if the Void attempted to enter that reality.”

“You speak of this entity like he’s no longer here. Does it not communicate with your people anymore?” Alex asks.

“No,” replies Dale. “We have not heard from it for millions of your years. It was so long ago that, for many of our people, it is simply a myth. They do not believe in the Entity anymore. I am not one, but I know there are many who do not. They cannot account for our descendants’ sudden advances, but they have a hard time believing in something they only hear about in stories.”

“Any idea why this entity is contacting us now?” Kate asks.

“You heard it,” Dale says. “It says it is time to stop the Void. Sounds like it’s had this planned for quite a long time. I wonder what it has in mind and how it plans to stop it.”

“If you will allow me to bring you here,” the voice tells them, “I will show you.”

“Would you please stop doing that?” Kate yells to the room. “It’s more than a little unnerving hearing a voice and not knowing where it’s coming from or who’s speaking.”

“I apologize,” the voice answers. “It this better?”

In front of them, a little boy appears. He is about 4 feet tall with long, blond hair and brilliant, blue, clear eyes. He is wearing a plain, slivery-gray cloak that drapes to the floor. The material in the cloak seems to glisten as if each piece of thread is alive. It is easy to tell that the boy is not standing on the floor, but instead floating about a foot above it. All around the boy, there is a glow similar to the Travelers’ but much more intense. It also seems to shimmer as if alive.

“Are you the one who referred to himself as the Entity?” Dale asks.

“I am,” the child replies. He has voice of a young child.

“Hey, I remember you. You’re the one I saw in that first dream!” Alex says.

“It is true. I am the one you saw. But it was not a dream,” the Entity replies.

“Not a dream? Then I really was there? I really did travel through all that space?” Alex says.

“Yes. I brought you to my realm outside of your reality to provide the necessary alterations to your physical being. The Traveler in you was about to wake up, but I needed you to be more than a Traveler. So, I made the necessary alterations before you awoke.”

“More than a Traveler?” Alex asks.

“It is time I bring you four here, to my world. Only here can I complete the required alterations to each of you.”

“Alterations? What alterations?” Dale asks.

With no warning, Alex, Sara, the alternate Dale and Kate disappear from the Raven.

When Alex opens his eyes, he recognizes the scene. There are the long, tall, upside-down cone-looking buildings. There is the same red sky. He is in the same place he had been in during his first dream where he first saw the Entity. He looks around to see that he is once again floating over the not-so-solid orange surface. He sees the other three floating limp like rag dolls, hanging just above the ground, not moving. He moves over to Sara to see if she is OK. She seems to be breathing normally, as if asleep. He checks on the others and finds them in the same condition. The only problem is that he cannot wake them up.

“They are in status. Do you wish them awake?”

Alex looks up to see the same boy floating above him, the Entity.

“Yes,” Alex says.

The other three begin to stir and yawn as if just waking up from a nap. They look around and see they are floating above the ground with the little boy and Alex.

“OK, you’ve got us here. You have our attention. So where is this, why are we here, and what do you plan to do with us?” Alex asks. “And, for that matter, who are you?”

The boy looks at Alex and smiles. He has never ceased to be amazed at the curiosity of the lesser beings.

“I have no name. I am the only one of my kind, as far as I know. I have been since the beginning. You are in my realm, outside of your realities.”

“The beginning? The beginning of what?” Alex asks.

“The beginning of everything--your home world, the solar system that it resides in, your galaxy, the stars in your heavens, everything seen or known. That also includes the infinite, to you, number of realities, all as complex and full of life as the ones you came from.”

“Then are you what we call God?” Sara asks.

“No, that is reserved for the one that created me. I have never met it, never talked to it. But I know it must exist,” the boy says.

“Why? Why must it exist?” Dale asks.

“Because I exist. I came from something or somewhere. I was put here for a reason--to advance beyond this realm.”

“Advance beyond this realm? To where?” Sara asks.

“That I do not know,” the boy tells her. “You might as well have a seat; this might take a while to explain.”

In front of each person, the “ground” begins to stir and swirl. They notice the ground beneath them is not solid but made of very fine particles, like silt or a dense fog. They watch as the fog begins to rise and take shape, with each particle moving as if on its own, eventually forming what appear to be solid-looking, over-stuffed chairs. They look at each other; shrug their shoulders, and each sit in the chair in front of them.

The Entity begins his story.

“I do not know who created me. I do know that when I came to be, I had some of the knowledge of what needed to be done, what my ultimate goal is and how to accomplish it.”

“Goal?” Alex asks.

“I exist to eventually generate a reality with energies equal to my own realm and combine the two energies together, allowing me to advance beyond this reality. That means using the realities that already exist in this plane of existence.”

“And just how are you going to use our realities?” Dale asks.

“It is the energy that resides in each reality that I am interested in, not the realities themselves. When a life forms in a reality, that life, no matter how insignificant, has within in it an extremely small spark of energy. Your species can continue to evolve for millions of your years and you would still never be able to detect it. These life forms can take any shape: animal, vegetation, every form of life. When a life form reaches the end of its natural existence and expires, the energy within that life form is then filtered and transferred to another life form. This occurs when one life ends, and another begins. The cycle goes on and on, through countless generations, where life and death can proceed on their own.”

“And what happens to the energy if a life is not allowed to end on its own terms and ends prematurely?” Sara asks.

“Then that energy within it is lost; it ceases to be.”

“And how does that energy help you to advance to the next reality?” Kate asks.

“When the total energy within a reality has reached sufficient levels in quantity and purity, I combine that reality with another, slightly different reality that has also reached the same levels of energy. That is what Alex saw me doing on his first visit here. The result is a new reality, and the ability to further refine the energies. I keep combining realities, over and over, continuing the refining process. As I combine more and more realities, the number of existing realities lessens. Eventually, I will end up with two realities: my own realm and the final result of all the realities which I have been combining. In the end, I will combine the energies in the final reality and my own.”

“And what happens then? What happens when the energies combine?”

“That, I do not know. All I know is this is what I must do.”

“So, what does that have to do with us being here and the Void? Can you tell us what the Void is?” asks Dale.

“The Void, as you call it, is the result of one of my earlier reality combinations. One of the combined realities had an imbalance of energies in it and collapsed in on itself, taking several closer realities and their energies with it. I did not know that, in doing so, it would result in generating a new life form, something that can cancel realities. When it encounters any reality that has any energy in it, it cancels it out. The problem is that as it cancels out the reality, there are no negative effects on it during the cancelation process of the reality. It absorbs the realities energies and feeds it, converting the energy to match its own. It has continued to feed and grow, growing in both strength and size.

“I knew that I would have to stop it. It took me a long time, even for me, to figure out how. For thousands of reality combinations, I have been altering energies with the one goal--you four.”

“Us?” Sara asks.

“Yes. You for are here to stop that…” he says and points to a distant dark place off to the right.

There, surrounded by the jet-black of empty nothingness, is the Void. It looks much the same as Alex has come to know: a black mass resembling a very dark storm cloud. Surrounding it are millions of bright dots. Alex looks up to see the Entity’s realm also surrounded by the bright dots.

“What are all these, stars?” Alex asks, pointing to the sparking dots of light.

“No. Each of those is a reality. Long ago, the vastness was filled with them. Over time, I have reduced the number by combining them in a logical, sequential order. But after the Void came to be, its hunger for energy and size grew with it. It now feeds on realities quicker than I can combine them. Since it’s creation, the numbers have decreased by ten-fold.

“What you have seen in your previous encounters with the Void was only a miniscule part of it. Until now, you have never seen it completely. It has grown and increased in size so that it is now canceling out multiple realities at the same time. It is responsible for canceling out millions if not billions of realities. I had to also increase my combine of realities, before it was too late, before there was not energy left to allow me to proceed to the next realm. But in doing so, I discovered the type of energy that could prevent it from canceling out a reality.”

“The barrier!” Dale says. There is a look on his face as if he has finally the secrets of his past. Then Sara joins in.

“And the planet that Dale’s people discovered!”

“Yes. When I discovered the energy, I had to determine a method of distributing it among specific realities to keep the Void at bay until you four could be here at this point in time.”

“Can’t you just make it disappear?” asks Alex.

“I cannot. I tried once to interfere with it, but I found out very quickly that it is also hazardous to me, or to be more precise, my energy. I have learned to keep my distance from it. That is why the barriers were created. I had to keep it from growing and canceling out everything, including me, until you four showed up.”

“You four?” Dale asks. “Sounds like you had no way of knowing if or when we would be here.”

“That is an accurate statement. Except for the Void, I cannot create life, such as yourselves. That is reserved for a higher being. All I can do is to set in motion an established plan for continuously filtering and refining four specific types of energy, with the hope that these energies would eventually evolve and end up in life forms which have the intelligence to make use of that energy and abilities. I can control many things, but life itself I cannot.”

“Where did that energy come from?” asks Kate.

“When I first came to be, there were four others with me. They were not like me. They, along with me, had come from a previous realm. It is their energy that you four possess. Their energy has been passes from life to life, constantly moving from reality to reality, until you four came to be.”

“So, what does that have to do with us and this energy inside us?” Kate asks him.

“You four are the final result of the transferred, combined and refined energies of those original four beings. I had to wait until now, hoping that I could find you before the Void grew too strong and was able to find a way to break through the barrier.”

“Which it has done now” Dale says.

“Correct. You four have come to be at the precise time when needed.”

“Just what is it that we can do to stop the Void that you cannot?” Dale asks.

“The energy in each of you has generated for one single purpose: to allow me to continue to the next realm. Within each of you are the coded instructions on what to do. These instructions have been handed down to you, embedded in your very nature. But, you are still incomplete. You still lack one set of instructions that will allow you to access and use those instructions. Once you are complete, you will have what it takes to stop the Void forever. You have not yet had your final alterations, which I will make. When completed, the abilities you have started to access will increase exponentially.”

“Sounds like what I did for Sara and Kate” Alex says.

“Correct. The abilities you now have are unique in all the realities, all existence.

“Sara, you have the ability of ultimate control. The energy within you can expand beyond what even I can. You can use that energy to exert your control on energy, life, even time and space.

“Alex, you can see everything everywhere and analyze every combination of outcomes. You are their leader. It is up to you to organize and guide them.

“Kate, you can absorb and modify any level or type of energy. You are the power source for what they will need.

“Dale, you are their defense. You can stop anything thrown at you, including the Void. You will provide the protection needed to allow the others to stop the Void.

“Once your training and alterations have been completed, you four will be able to do what I cannot: you will be able to finally stop the Void and end it. I cannot complete my goal while the Void exists. Once it has been stopped and eliminated, I can begin the process of combining the remaining realities into the one last reality, hoping that there is enough of the reality’s energy remaining to allow me to pass to the next realm. When the energy within it reaches the required levels of energy in quantity and purity, it will begin to expand on its own. My realm and it will join together, and their energies will combine. Then the last reality, this realm, and I will be no more; we will combine and cease to be. We will move on to the next realm, continuing the refining process. That is what I was created to do.

“I only hope that there is sufficient energy left in the remaining realities to allow the process to complete itself.”

“Are you saying that everything we know will cease to be? It will all just vanish? What about everyone in all those realities?” Kate asks. “Are they just living energy filters?”

“Yes. That is what these realities and life forms were created to do. That is their purpose.”

“NO! I will not let you destroy everything we know. I will not let that happen!” shouts Kate. Her eyes begin blazing with energy. Being this close to the Entity, she has been able to absorb unimaginable amounts of the purest energy she has ever felt.

A blast of energy shoots from her towards the Entity and hits him full in the face but with no effect.

“Kate, your energy blasts are indeed powerful. That would have, as you say, ‘fried’ several thousand realities, with all their stars, life forms, suns, everything within. But you are not yet at the point of advancement to be able to harm me, much less the Void. I understand your concern. Life to you is precious. You feel the need to defend it at any cost. But you must understand something. I was put here for one purpose: to advance to the next realm. The realities you know were put here for that purpose. Each reality creates its own type of energy. The final result cannot be obtained without the correct combination of energies.”

“And what about my world, my home?” Kate asks him. Her eyes blaze with energy and anger.

“That reality has been combined with another. In fact, during the time you slept, many combinations were done to that reality.”

“Many combinations? How long have we been here?” Sara asks.

“Being outside all realities, time, as you know it, does not exist in this realm. There are no years, days or hours. In the time it takes for a single thought to form, a planet in some distant reality is born, goes through it life cycle and fades away into dust.”

“You mean that everything that we knew, the Earth, the people on it, the Ark, no longer exist?” Sara asks.

“That is true. They have long since been combined into another reality, and then another, and so on.”

“And what happens to us when your realm and the last reality combine together? Will we just cease to exist?” Sara asks.

“No,” the entity replies. “I do not think so. I suspect that you will continue to the next realm with me, just as your predecessors did, but not in your present form. I think you will also be altered. When I change, all knowledge may leave me. I suspect that you four will continue to exist, to provide me with the knowledge of what has transpired here after transformation occurs. You will be the same guardians and mentors, as I had when I first came to be.”

“What happened to them?” Alex asks.

“They knew when their purpose was completed and when I could continue on my own. They chose to find a reality and live out their natural lives in it. They knew their energies would ultimately be filtered, refined and passed on to future beings. Each of you is the result of their energies.”

“You mean that the energy with each of us has existed that long?” Sara asks.

“Yes, and it will continue to exist, as before, in other life forms, in the next realm. If I am correct, those energies will continue to the next realm, and the next, and so forth.”

Each sit there, trying to take in what they have just been told. Some are mourning the loss of their home worlds and the people on them. Some are wondering what will happen to them after the final combinations of realm and reality occur. Some wonder if they have what it takes to stop the Void and if they will survive.

Each must come to terms with what they had just been told, of defeating the Void, and what will come after.

“Are you ready for your final alterations?” the Entity asks them.

“Since I can see no other options, it appears we have no choice,” Alex says. “Either we go through with your ‘alterations’ and try to stop the Void from canceling out everything or we sit here and let the Void win. I vote we let the Entity continue with his plans and see what happens. Do we agree?”

The others look at each other. Reluctantly, they can find no flaw in Alex’s statement.

“OK, doc. Do what you need to do and let’s get this over with,” Dale says.

“Very well. Let us begin.”

The Entity disappears with Dale, leaving Alex, Sara, and Kate to wonder what is going to happen next. Several minutes pass and then Sara disappears without any warning. Several more minutes go by and then Kate vanishes. Alex is beginning to wonder what is happening when the scene around him suddenly changes and he finds himself in a completely different place. There is nothing anywhere--no ground, no buildings, no sky, no planets, nothing. He cannot see anyone either. Everything is pitch black. He raises his had to see if he can see it, but he finds none. He is now pure, living energy.

“Alex, are you ready?” speaks a voice from nowhere and everywhere.

“Ready?” responds Alex. By now he is wondering if he is even still alive.

Then a feeling of tremendous pain hits him, and it feels like he has just exploded--not just in his head, like the first time he met the Entity, but all over. It feels like his very is being torn apart and someone somewhere is trying to put him back together, only in a completely different configuration. Then the pain begins to subside and the surroundings around him begin to change. He is in what appears to be a room with gray walls, no ceiling and what looks like a shimmering floor. When he reaches out to see if he can touch the ‘floor,’ he finds his hands and arms are glowing brilliantly, much more than they did when he took the form of a Traveler. To him, they look like the energy in the barrier.

“My, oh my, don’t you just shine.”

Alex turns around to find Sara, Kate, and Dale floating there with the same type of brilliant shimmering light emanating from them, surrounding them completely. They all have the same luminous envelope, except each light surrounding them is a different color. Sara’s is light blue, Kate’s is yellow, and Dale’s is deep red. Alex raises his hand to see that his is bright white with flecks of every color in it.

“Your realignments are complete,” announces a voice. Then the Entity reappears to them, only this time he is not a small child but a brilliantly glowing orb of living energy.

“Now you see me in my true form,” says the Entity. “You each have undergone a transformation, a realignment, which goes beyond what you refer to as DNA. Your physical forms have been changed, to allow you to exist where no other beings can--inside the Void.”

“Did you say: inside the Void?” Kate asks. “I didn’t think that was possible. I thought that it cancelled out anything it comes in contact with, except for the stuff that coated the Raven?”

“That was true, in your previous forms. But in these forms, along with Dale’s enhanced abilities, you can attack the Void from within.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Dale asks.

“Kate and Dale will enter the Void. It will not know you are there. With Dale’s defensive shield…”

“Defense shield?” Dale asks.

“You now have the ability to make a shield around yourself and anything that you choose,” the Entity tells them. “That shield, which you create, is made of an energy that the Void cannot penetrate or detect, no matter what it does.”

“Is it like the barrier?” Kate asks.

“I hope not,” Dale says. “The barrier failed to stop the Void in my reality. Remember?”

“It is not like the barrier. It is something completely different,” says the Entity. “It is made of an energy that, until this moment, did not exist. My tests on the Void concluded that anything created in the realities is susceptible to it. That is why I had to bring you here, to add the energies from my previous realm to your own. You and you four alone are now part of an infinite existence. The energy inside each of you has always existed and will always exist. You can now use that energy, an energy that even I cannot use. Are you ready for your training? You each will need to learn what you are capable of and how to use it in your defense and attack.”

The Entity begins to float away. “Dale, you first,” it says.

“I’m not going to feel like I am about to explode again, am I?” Dale asks.

“No, you experienced that only during your realignment,” the Entity tells him. “Come with me.”

Dale’s previous form was used to floating in the emptiness of space. As one of the race which created the Travelers, they had long since learned how the Travelers work and had modified their own physical beings to exist in the depths of space. While there, they had the same glow to them as the Travelers did. It was only there that they and the Travelers were similar. They did not have the abilities the Travelers had. They could not travel from place to place instantly. They could not move or use suns or black holes as weapons as the Travelers did.

Dale is now able to move through space by thought alone. He follows the Entity’s energy trail until it stops.

“Dale,” it tells him, “Look inside of your mind. You will be looking for what appears to look like a glowing orb. Concentrate. Do you see it?”

Dale looks around and then at his hands, trying to imagine what they look like on the inside. He follows his arm up to his body and then closes his eyes, trying to picture his face and what lies beneath--his mind. To his surprise, it is easier than he thought it would be. Once inside his own mind, he searches for the orb. There, in his mind, he finds it floating in the dark. It is small, but as he concentrates on it to see what it is, it begins to grow quickly, expanding. Soon it reaches the boundaries of his mind, but it does not stop there. It continues to increase, leaving his mind and surrounding his body.

“How are you doing?” the Entity asks.

“No problems here. Feels kind of funny not breathing though. I no longer need to breathe? I used to have to carry an air pack when I was in space” Dale asks. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“If you are in this form, your physical being is made entirely of energy,” the Entity responds. “As such, you no longer require oxygen. No need for oxygen, no need for lungs. No, it is not permanent. You can take on any form your mind can conceive. If you wish, you can return to your previous form, but I would not recommend it here.”

“How do I survive? What do I eat for food?” Dale asks.

“As with breathing, you do not need to eat. Your body, if you wish to refer to it as such, survives solely on the energy found in space and time. You draw on it and use it to exist and survive. Unless you are put in a place where you cannot draw on those energies, you will never feel the need to consume food as you did before. Your ability to draw on the surrounding energies allows you an infinite lifespan.”

“Like you?” Dale asks.

“No, my life span is not infinite. I am a physical being. I was not designed to have an unlimited lifespan,” the Entity replies.

“But you’ve been around forever,” Dale says.

“No, not forever. It may seem that way to you, but it is not so. My life span will be ending soon. Once the Void has been eliminated, I will proceed with my assigned task and continue to the next realm, whatever that is. You and the others will continue after I change. You four will guide whatever I become to teach it, train it and guard it until it can exist on its own, just as it was in the beginning.”

“How will we know when that will be?” Dale asks.

“That I do not know. You may always be needed; you may not. I cannot foresee what will happen to any of us after the change occurs. I know that the original four were needed. I know you four will be needed then. Knowledge of this realm and your realities will pass from me and will be critical in my development. I do not know if the next realm will be hostile or not. I may need your help until I can defend myself, if that is possible.

“Now, I am going to try some tests on your increased defensive abilities,” the Entity tells him. “I am going to project several objects at you. You need to do nothing. Your system should operate on impulse. The more defenses you need, the more your system will generate. Are you ready for your first trials?”

“I suppose I do not have a choice in this, do I?” Dale asks.

“No. You were designed for this long before I existed. It is what you were created for. Let us begin.”

The Entity reaches out with his mind into the remaining realities and brings back thousands of suns, black holes, and exploding supernovas. He also brings back dark matter, which he cannot allow to touch him. Starting slowly, the Entity begins to send these towards Dale, one by one, except the dark matter Without even flinching, Dale’s system not only prevents any of the objects from reaching him, but his shield absorbs the energies contained within them, allowing him to further reinforce his shield as needed. The more the Entity throws at him, the stronger his shields become.

Then the Entity casts the dark matter at him. As it hits Dale’s shield, it seems to be a stalemate. The dark matter is trying to cancel out Dale’s shield as fast as he can renew it. Yet even the dark matter cannot withstand the energy Dale is forcing into his shield. It encompasses the dark matter and attacks it from all sides until it no longer exists.

“Now for one more test,” the Entity announces. From a point in space, he stretches out his mind and a black orb appears.

“What is that?” Dale asks.

“It is a small sample of the Void contained within a self-sustaining energy field like the barrier. When I release it from its enclosure, it will immediately try to attack me. I have tried this before and had to reestablish the enclosure before it could succeed in getting too close. When I release it, you will need to extend your shield to see if you can stop it. If I am correct, the energies in your shield will cancel it out.”

“If you are correct? Aren’t you sure?” Dale asks.

“No,” the Entity tells him.

“No?” Dale asks. “If the Void can breach the barrier, what keeps this piece of it from getting out?”

“Because it is part of the original Void, before it learned to what to do.”

“So why do this now? What can we learn from it? Dale asks.

“Until now, I had no method of executing this experiment.”

“Why not?” Dale asks.

“Because, I cannot create or generate your field. Only you can. Only you have access to the energy within you. That is what you were designed to do.”

“I’m beginning to get it now,” Dale says. “All this time, you have been doing three things: fighting off the Void, combining realities and waiting for us to show up. Wow, talk about patience.”

“Patience has nothing to do with it,” the Entity tells him. “I did not know if you would exist before the Void became too strong for me to contain. It is simply survival and a hope that it will end as it is supposed to. Are you ready?”

“OK, let it go,” Dale says.

The Entity concentrates on the energy barrier encompassing the piece of the Void. As the barrier fades, the Void seems to know that its enclosure is weakening, and it begins to attack it. Before long, the barrier has become too weak and fails, allowing the small black cloud to escape from its enclosure. It seems to hover for a moment and then begins to move directly toward the Entity.

“Dale, now!” the Entity commands.

Dale looks at the Entity and then at the piece of the Void, which is moving much faster than Dale had ever seen the Void move. He moves himself between the Void and the Entity. He thinks about his shield and forming a wall between himself and the black cloud. Suddenly, a shimmering plane appears just in front of him, directly in the path of the cloud. It hits the shield without even slowing down. As it makes contact, the black cloud tries to spread itself out, trying to encompass this new threat. But it is not long before the black cloud shows signs that the shield is hazardous to it. At first, there are what appear to be small sparks where the cloud is encountering the shield. The more it tries to attack the shield, the more the shield glows, the more sparks he sees. Dale’s system is renewing the shield faster than the cloud can cancel it out.

“Dale, increase your shield’s strength!” the Entity tells him.

Before Dale can imagine the shield increasing in thickness, its intensity increases. Though the shield is not becoming any larger, it is using many, many times the energy than before and a bright white wall of energy glows. As the energy level of the shield increases, it begins bend to encompass the Void sample. There is a marked change in the black cloud. It is beginning to become lighter in color. It shrinks to keep itself away from the threat. But Dale’s shield is using an energy that is hazardous to it. The more it tries to protect itself, the more the shield affects it. Soon the shield has completely encompassed the cloud. It is not long before it succumbs to the energy barrier and the black cloud vanishes.

“Looks like you were correct. It cannot withstand being in contact with my shield,” Dale says. “And, when you asked me to increase the shield, I did not have to do anything. It was almost like it was reading my mind.”

“Correct. The shield operates on a subconscious level, where your processes are automatic. But you will need to increase your shield thousands of times faster and stronger than what you just did. That piece of the Void has been there since I first started experimenting on it. Since then, the Void has grown immensely in size, speed and strength. It will be able to react much faster with more aggression and strength than what you just experienced. That piece of it does not have the strength or intensity of the current Void. But I am glad to hear that the shield reacted the way it did. Your subconscious can react instantly when you cannot. That will be vital in your defense of the Void’s attacks.”

“I understand,” Dale tells the Entity. “What’s next?”

“Your realignment and training are complete. Your system should now be able to operate on a level that will protect you. I needed to confirm this. I will now need to work with the others to make sure they know what to do when the time comes.”

The Entity sends Dale back to the others. As he appears with them, Kate disappears and reappears beside the Entity.

“I saw Dale’s shield. Will it be enough to protect you and the rest of us if it attacks?” Kate asks.

“That I do not know,” the Entity says. “I can only trust that the ones who designed him and the rest of you knew what they were doing. So far, it is looking good. I did not want to tell him, but his shield is much more powerful than I anticipated. Its speed and strength will be more than a match for the Void. Now for your training, which is minimal at best. Unlike the others, your abilities have always been natural to you. You do not have to think to gather the energy around you; it is automatic on your part. All you have to do is allow it to happen and not to be afraid of the energy you will be dealing with. Your fear can prevent you from containing the energies. But it can also stop your system from collecting it. You must always be positive and know without any doubt that you will succeed. YOU must know that you will not fail. Once you have conquered your fears, even I cannot stop you, much less the Void. You will always have Sara to guide you. You will never be alone in this. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Kate tells him. “I have to admit, there are times I am afraid I cannot contain the energy and it will explode, taking me and Sara with it.”

“That is something you should have no concerns or doubts about. Like Dale, the ones that designed you did it with this one purpose in mind: to stop the Void. They knew, long before I did, that the Void would become a threat. You four were designed to stop the Void before I existed. You must have faith that they have been successful in their efforts and that you can and will succeed. Your abilities, as with the others, are controlled by your subconscious, which operates on automatic instinct. What instinct does not handle, Sara can. No thinking on your part is necessary. Only fear of failure can prevent you from doing what you were designed to do.”

“I am beginning to see,” she says. “It did not dawn on me that I do not have to do anything. I’ve always thought it was the way I thought that allowed me to do what I can. But, considering your explanation, I do not have to worry about doing something wrong. It’ll all work if I just let it. Correct?”

“Correct. You know what you need to do. I will send you back to the others,” the Entity tells her.

As Kate appears with the others, Alex vanishes and reappears next to the Entity.

“I’m not sure what you said to Kate and Dale, but they seem like different people now. I can feel a higher level of confidence in each of them” Alex tells him.

“All they needed to know is that this is what they were designed to do. They, and you, were designed to succeed. If someone can plan for this very event this far in advance, I can assure you they knew what they were doing.”

“I’d have to agree. Now, what is that I need to do in this campaign?”

“Dale is your defense; his shields cannot be penetrated by the Void. They will protect you from its attack. Kate can absorb all the energy you will need to stop it, even from inside it.”

“From inside it? You mean we are going to be inside that thing?”

“Yes,” the Entity tells him. “That is the only place where it cannot defend itself from your attacks.”

“So, what is it I need to do in all this?” Alex asks.

“You will guide and lead them. You now can see everything everywhere and can analyze it all. You can see the entire Void, even while inside of it. You can see if your attack is working or not and tell the others change tactics if necessary.”

“How do I know if what we are doing is the right thing?” Alex asks.

“Like the others, your abilities are operated directly from your subconscious. They will operate without your knowledge or input. It is what you were programmed to do. You can see everything, but you must interpret what you see and let the others know if what they are doing is working or not. Do you want to try a test to see what you are now capable of doing?” the Entity asks him.

“I suspect I’ll need to. I’ll need to know what it is I’ll be seeing and how to interpret what I am seeing. How does it work?” Alex asks.

“Open your mind, expand it,” the Entity tells him. “Look for something--a rock, a tree, a planet, anything. Then, while thinking of it, add a second item to the picture in your mind, then a third, and a fourth, etc. Before long, you will be able to see many things, in many places throughout this realm, and the remaining realities. Now, concentrate on the one thing.”

He sees a large rock float by and he concentrates on it. Amazed, he finds that other objects begin to appear--his house, the yard, the street, and the surrounding area. It is as if he is looking through a telescope and widening the view. Before very long, he can see everything on the earth, hear what everyone is thinking, listen to every branch rustling in a breeze, and hear each wave as it lands on a beach or shore. He can hear every sound being made on the earth, including people’s thoughts. Alex expands his vision further to encompass the earth’s entire reality, hearing and feeling everything on every planet. He continues to expand his vision to include every reality that is left. What surprises him is that his vision includes earth, which by now has not existed for millions of years. He asks the Entity about this.

“You have the ability to see everything you concentrate on. That includes what is and what was.”

“Can I see what will happen in the future?” Alex asks.

“No, only past and present events. Now that you can expand your thoughts, you must be able to sort it all and concentrate on a single event. Look in your mind at everything you see, hear, or feel. Concentrate on a single event, person, or place and bring that to the front of your thinking. Can you put everything else in the background?”

“OK, I’ve picked out a single planet. I’ve never seen it before. It has colonies of little creatures, sort of like ants. But these things think; they’re organized and highly intelligent.”

“Locate a single creature and look into its mind. Tell me what you see,” the Entity tells him.

“It’s like I am looking out through its eyes. I see a tunnel of some kind. I must be underground. This is a determined creature. It has one purpose: to defend its home.”

“Excellent,” the Entity tells him. “Now for a more difficult test. I want you to look at the Void and concentrate on it but only for a moment. I do not want it to detect you. That might give it the chance to begin establishing a defense against your intrusions. Once you are inside it, tell me what you feel.”

“OK, here goes,” Alex says. He concentrates on the massive, black-looking cloud. A single reality with its galaxies looks like a grain of sand sitting next to the Void. Alex watches as the Void approaches another reality and cancels it out, leaving only itself in the space where the reality had been.

He turns his attention to the Void and tries to push his thoughts toward the inner regions of the black cloud. It is at best difficult to gain access to it. Against Alex’s thoughts, the outer extremities of the Void feel like pushing against a spongy, brick wall. It gives a little at first but then it feels like it becomes solid. He pushes his thoughts harder against the Void’s barrier. It takes a while before Alex achieves some success against the Void’s barrier. He pushes his mind harder and forces an opening into it. He proceeds into the opening and begins to look around. Inside, he finds nothing--no feelings, no anger--he can find no form of consciousness, nothing. Then he feels as if he is getting weaker. He turns around to see the opening he had created beginning to close. Not knowing what would happen if he were to get trapped inside of it with the opening closed, he quickly makes his way back to and through the opening before it closes.

“OK, I’m back,” Alex says.

“What did you find?” The Entity asks.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing. It’s completely empty of feelings or thoughts. I don’t think that it even has a consciousness,” Alex says. “What is it?”

“You can compare it to a large, single-celled organism. It reacts on instinct only. I still do not know why it seems to be driven to cancel out everything. Perhaps we’ll never know. For now, it is imperative that you be able to recreate the opening in the Void. It will be needed when you make your attack. I want you to try it again but create the opening in less time. Speed will be of the essence when you need it. It will also be necessary to hold the opening longer and keep it open. Now, force another opening in it, and create it as quickly as you can. Your goal is to create the opening in the Void’s barrier and hold it open.”

Alex nods and concentrates on the Void again. He feels himself speeding toward it and once again hitting the Void’s barrier. He pushes his thoughts harder against it. An opening immediately appears. This time he does not enter through the opening but stays outside the Void to keep the opening from closing. Each time he senses the opening closing, he pushes his mind harder to keep it open. Alex senses that the Void has reached a limit to its ability to close the opening and the pressure he was sensing ceases. Alex has succeeded.

“Alex, that is long enough. Let the opening close and come back,” the Entity tells him.

Alex pictures the Void getting smaller as he travels away from it quickly. He notices the opening he created has already vanished. It is only then that he detects that the Entity’s mind had accompanied him inside the Void.

“Excellent,” the Entity announces. “You now know what you will need to do and how to do it. Go back to the others.”

Kate, Sara, and Dale had been talking to each other while Alex was with the Entity. When Alex suddenly reappears with them, Sara vanishes and reappears with the Entity.

“I suppose it’s my turn now,” Sara says to the Entity. “What do I need to do?”

“You are now experienced with helping Kate to control and focus the energy within her. What you need to do now is to be able to expand your thinking and focus to send her energy to many places at the same time. The only way to defeat it is to attack it from the inside and in many places on its exterior at the same time.”

“I think I’ve already been able to do that. I was helping Kate power the barrier when Alex came under attack from the Void. I had to focus her energy toward the barrier generator and protect Alex when he came under attack from the Void.”

“Then you have the basic idea of what to do and how to do it.”

“Yes, but I still have no idea how I did it. Without understanding it, I am not sure that I can recreate it,” Sara tells the Entity.

“As I told the others, your abilities are based on your subconscious. It is what you are programmed to do. Let the programming take over and do not try to understand it. Hesitate and you will fail. The only thing that will prevent you from accomplishing what you need to do is yourself,” the Entity tells her.

“Myself? I don’t understand,” Sara says.

“Only you can stop yourself from succeeding,” the Entity tells her. “By that I mean your fears. You cannot allow yourself to be so afraid that you lose your concentration. If you let fear control your thoughts, your conscious self tries to take control and your subconscious or programming cannot control your actions. The subconscious is driven by instinct and presets. It can operate without any hesitation because it already knows what do to. That is why it must control your actions. All you now do is to listen to the others and allow your mind to take control. Your subconscious will take over.”

“But how do I know that it will do what is necessary? How do I know it will do the right thing?” she asks.

“The one who designed you and your abilities was infinitely more intelligent than you or I ever will be. When you were young, did you trust that your father knew what to do in an emergency?” the Entity asks her.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he was older, he was my father. He knew what to do.”

“And why is that any different from this? In terms of age, you are an infant compared to the one that created you. You must trust the one that knew what to do when you were designed. You were designed with those abilities and to use them. The one would have known this. You would have not been given such abilities if you had not been given the ability to use them.”

“I see. You don’t let a child drive the family car until he can handle it. Even so, you must allow the child to fail, and in failure, you learn.”

“Yes, you could say it that way,” the Entity tells her. “You above the others have been given an ability that they cannot understand. Your sister can absorb and refine an infinite amount of energy. So can you.”

“I can?”

“Yes,” the Entity tells her. “Otherwise, how would you be able to survive being with Kate, controlling all that energy without being destroyed?”

“I never thought of it that way. I knew I had to get in there with Kate when she was getting hit by all those beams. But I never gave it any thought as to why I survived. I thought it was because Alex said I could not be hurt while I was in that form.

Sara floats there, thinking for a moment. Now she knows why she could also withstand what Kate did.

“You mentioned I would need to be sending energy to many different places. How many?” she asks.

“One thousand.”

“One thousand? How do I know what these targets are?”

“These are your targets,” the Entity tells her. One thousand pairs of beings appear in front of them, each looking slightly familiar.

“Who are these?” she asks.

“They are you and your sister, but from different realities. I came across the first pair a long time before your reality was populated with life. I was impressed with what they could do and have been making use of them ever since in stopping the Void. The others I kept finding as I combined realities. Before each reality is combined with another, I would take them and store them here, letting them sleep until now.”

“If they can do what Kate and I can do, why put us in charge?” Sara asks.

“Because you and your sister are the key, the only ones who can handle the energy required to succeed. The others can absorb and focus energy but not at the levels you and Kate can. In fact, they are all identical to the amount of energy they can handle--exactly one tenth the amount of the energy you and your sister can handle. I will furnish Kate with as much energy as I can. She will in turn absorb that energy and the energies from this realm and refine it, which I cannot do. She will also absorb the energy within the Void, changing it and refine it, thereby using its own energy against it.

“Alex will create an opening in the Void’s natural barrier allowing you four to enter it. Once inside, Kate will begin to absorb the energy directly from the Void. She will use the Void’s energy against it. She will filter it, transform it, and combine it with the energy I will give her, and she will store it until the time is right. Dale will shield you while you are in it. Alex will know when the others are in place and ready to receive Kate’s converted energies. He will coordinate all energy beams, telling you which to increase, which you can decrease, where the attacking energies are doing the most damage, and if any of the others have fallen. You will be sending Kate’s energy to each of your counterparts. They in turn will each receive Kate’s energies, further refining them and sending more concentrated beams of energy at the Void from the outside.

“As far as I know, we are ready. We will all gather one more time. Let us pray that we will succeed. I suspect that, if we fail, the effects of it will carry over to other realms like this one. I do not know why, but that is the feeling I am getting.”

“Then we must succeed. We do not have a choice. Gather everyone together,” Sara tells him. There is a flash of fire in her eyes.

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