24 Unexpected advancement
Colonial Era: February 26, 1672, Planet Gaia Calendar.
Hugo awoke to the steady pitter-patter of rain falling on the roof of his attic bedroom. The sound was like a soothing melody and a natural lullaby that calmed his mind.
Hugo closed his eyes to wallow in the serenity brought about by this blessed moment of solitude. He felt like he was drifting in calm seas, like a young mermaid, aimlessly undulating with the waves, at ease with the fluidity of time.
Hugo soon returned to the moment, the song of the rain attaining fusion with his heartbeat. He was in harmony with the world… And he was happy.
[The mornings in Giza are as beautiful and serene as ever.] He thought as he adjusted to a lotus-position on his small bed.
"I wish to become a powerful mystic," Hugo mumbled, voicing one of his innermost desires. This had become his daily routine for the past few years.
By wielding mystic powers, he would possess the ability to protect himself and his loved ones…
And he wouldn't have to be worried about 'the flies' that pestered him from time to time, disrupting his peaceful life.
And only by becoming more powerful would he have the chance to pursue the mysteries of the Universe.
[If I fail in this, all my hopes and ambitions will turn out to be pipe dreams…]
"I don't want to experience the futility that almost drowned my consciousness the last few times I was faced with danger." He mumbled.
"I shouldn't stop myself from feeling fear, but I have to try my utmost to break fear's hold on me."
[What Manroes? What evil spirits? You will see me soon at the time of your death… No, that doesn't sound right] Hugo shook his head in revocation.
"You will not see me, but I will see you at the time of your death. Hahaha... That is right. You won't see me, but I will see you."
[That will be the fate of any 'fly' that gets in the way of my grand ambitions.]
Hugo had contemplated his situation on many occasions.
If he had grown up with his mother, would he have had to face the Matriarch's restrictions especially in his pursuit of knowledge?
That was a big 'NO'.
At least he would have lowered his pride and pretend to cry. His mother would have surely cut him some slack.
Hugo was sure he would have been able to attain any book he required.
But alas, this technique of crying never worked on the Matriarch. Her psychological state exceeded scientific bounds.
[I just need some enlightenment. I can feel that I am at the threshold of advancing my soul.]
"If I fail a thousand times, I will just experiment a million times more. The universe never closes all roads. I will succeed one day." Hugo muttered resolutely.
He settled his mind and started one of his daily sessions of practicing with the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise.
This time, he decided to attempt to incorporate some of the information and techniques that he remembered being involved in meditation back on Earth.
Although he had been a scientist in his previous life, Hugo had researched the majority of the techniques, occult or scientific, that promised improvement of the human mind.
[Is there a chance that the 'soul training' mentioned by the Immemorial Owl is the same process we referred to as training the mind and spirit back on Earth?]
Hugo resolved to test his theory in this session of mystic-soul-training.
Practicing the Psykhe -Mental-Exercise in the lotus position was one of the tests he would carry out during his training today.
Hugo didn't understand the theory behind the different forms of the 'lotus position', but he would try anyway.
"Hahaha…"
[Trial and error lead to perfection.]
Maintaining his pose in the lotus position with his palms facing upwards on his knees; Hugo cleared all distracting thoughts from his mind, calmed his heart, and entered deeper meditation.
He soon opened the door to his spiritual world and arrived in the formless space now tinged with a reddish hue.
The huge dark-brown book, shimmering with rainbow light, was still hovering in his spiritual world.
Hugo had long become accustomed to seeing this 'decoration' in his spiritual world, thus he wasted no time observing it.
Right away, he started sensing the familiar world-mana of Gaia. He quickly transitioned to practicing the Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence and holding the series of Psykhe-Visualization-Exercises in his mind simultaneously.
He had been practicing the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise for six years now. It was nothing but sheer reflex at his current level of experience.
Despite his training bottleneck, he was already deeply familiar with the requirements and conditions needed to advance his soul.
In his spirit world, Hugo visualized different variations of generating 3D figures from lower dimensional figures, while concurrently practicing the Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence.
Triangles formed into pyramids, squares into cubes... This went on for various three-dimensional figures.
Concurrently, his physical body followed the breathing patterns of the 'Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence'…
Hugo inhaled once and maintained the breath for five seconds without exhaling…
He inhaled once again twice and maintained the breath for five seconds before exhaling one time…
Then he inhaled thrice and… exhaled twice…
… Inhaled five times and… exhaled thrice…
… And then he inhaled eight times… and exhaled five-times…
Hugo then attempted to complete the next step of the breathing sequence while simultaneously practicing the Psykhe-Visualization-Exercises and sensing the world energy.
He successfully inhaled to the twelfth breath… then at the thirteenth breath…
"Ding… Dong… Ding…"
At that instant, alternating patterns of bell chimes reverberated deep within his entire being.
The sounds created a beautiful harmony that progressed into an enthralling crescendo that tipped Hugo into a deeper trance…
"You have succeeded at last…" An ancient sigh from the Immemorial Owl washed through his mind.
The enormous golden pyramid and the Immemorial Owl mysteriously reappeared in his spiritual world… Hugo once again felt the ancient standoffish aura of the entities.
The pyramid peculiarly looked even more majestic than it had initially. It looked like it had just awakened from a long slumber after experiencing countless millennia of whetting.
Hugo wondered once more, how the small pyramid-shaped golden pendant had turned into such a monolithic polyhedron. Only the lower part of the huge pyramid could be perceived directly by Hugo in the mysterious reddish world.
The two entities together with the 'decoration' that was the book, started drawing in energies from the Astral-World… Not Gaia's mana, but the Astral-plane's cosmic-energy…
A whirlpool soon formed above the three entities in his spiritual world.
Specks that seemed to siphon-off all the light, visible-particles, or matter… and even waves from the surroundings coalesced in the whirlpool.
The specks had no perceptible color, but they appeared dark to Hugo since they had drawn-off all the light from their immediate-surroundings. No light was reflected from their incorporeal surfaces. Thus, he could only perceive their trajectories as moving blanks in the space.
[What type of energy particles are these? They appear to be in a very 'excited-state', yet maintain their stability. …This is not scientific!] Hugo reeled as his common sense was overturned once again.
After absorbing energy, any system would most likely jump from the ground state to a higher energy level of existence.
These higher energy levels are constantly in an excited state. The particles in the system should follow the same rules.
But here in his spiritual world, Hugo was seeing just the opposite...
It was analogous to heating some ice, then you realize that despite its absorbing a lot of heat energy, it persists in its state without melting.
This was very counterintuitive.
Hugo sighed and gazed absent-mindedly at the three whirlpools... But then…
"Ding… Dong… Ding…" the chimes of a bell sounded again.
"Young 'fella', I advise you to calm your body and mind and start training with the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise. You are about to experience feedback of very concentrated world-mana from the 'Transcosmic-pyramid' "
In the blink of an eye…
The golden pyramid started glistening more brightly with rainbow lights as it drew in more and more energy from the astral plane.
The shining lights transitioned into a dazzling array of mysterious symbols… And then…
"WHOOSH…"… "BAAM..."
The gigantic pyramid trembled a little, as the three whirlpools dissipated. It was akin to a python digesting a particularly large meal.
Within an instant…
"BAAM"
The behemoth of a pyramid mysteriously summoned a stupendous concentrated world-mana current within his spiritual world.
The current came roiling with momentum, like rapids in the most-turbulent river in the cosmos…
Hugo was unprepared and was soon overwhelmed by the overflowing momentum of the energy… He was like a sailor on a small boat trapped in a storm, trying his best to anchor at a harbor that was not there.
This was not the world-mana of Gaia that he was familiar with. The quantity and quality were leagues higher than what he had experienced before.
Very soon, the formless reddish space started to quake and tremble seeming like a building experiencing an earthquake.
Hugo started to feel a soul and heart-wrenching pain within the depth of his entire being. This pain was cognate in 'form' and 'origin' to what he experienced within the endless darkness before arriving in this world.
His entire sense of self was in a state of chaos, threatening to shatter the ensuing moment.
"Ding… Dong… Ding…" the chimes of a bell resounded for the third time as Hugo's mind was stabilized momentarily.
"Young Fella! Calm your body and mind and run through the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise. Otherwise, this day next year will be the anniversary of your true death."
"Just calm down and relax… calm down… and relax.." The voice of the ancient owl was soothing.
"That was close," Hugo mumbled as he hastily started practicing the mental exercise.
Instantaneously, Hugo felt ecstasy and euphoria second to none.
The Psykhe-Mental-Exercise was like a masochist-technique which gave you both pain and pleasure when fortifying your soul. As long as you survived the pain, you would be in for heavenly pleasure that was far better than any 'marijuana in your pipe' or 'supermodel in your arms'.
Hugo felt waves and waves of this heavenly pleasure as he finally advanced his soul.
He had finally broken through the bottleneck that had stagnated his soul training for the last two years.
"Sigh! Young Fella, at least you are better than daft. You took so many years to advance!" The Immemorial Owl lamented Hugo's lack of talent.
"Anyway, what is done is done. Back in the day, you could also be counted as an average talent. I will still fulfill my promise…"
Hugo's body and mind trembled.
"An average talent, you say?" Hugo bellowed without even first surveying his spiritual world…
