Comprehension
Like a bolt from the blue, the alarm clock next to him rang, snatching the awakened Alex from the realm of dreams.
- What the fuck…
Tapping the alarm button and finally stopping the sound beating in his ears, Alex reluctantly threw off the blanket and threw his legs off the bed. While his mind was trying to recover and make some sense of what he saw in his dream, his body was already living its own life. Automatically reaching the bathroom, Alex turned off the hot water almost to the maximum and climbed into the shower, put his sleepy face under the water jet.
"So... what the fuck was that?!" - his mental groan did not bring any answer and sighing, Alex began to reason further. – "Okay, let's think... if this was my past world, everything could be written off as too vivid a dream, I would definitely believe it. But considering where I am... I was looking after God, right?"
Turning around on his axis as usual, he put his back under the water, still trying to collect his thoughts in a heap.
"Yahweh, the Being and others, let's say I could remember this from that pile of church books, but here is the existence of other gods. Odin, Shiva, Zeus... although why am I surprised here. If the Biblical god and everything attached to him quite exists, then why not the Hindu god of destruction Shiva? Or even a one-eyed Scandinavian Odin, together with his feathered... yeah, isn't it a little cramped for them there in the sky?"
Grinning at his own thoughts and especially at how easily he could believe in such a thing, Alex luxuriated a little more under the hot jets of water before finally leaving the bathroom. There was very little time left before morning prayer and breakfast, so he returned to his room and took one of his many notebooks out of the nightstand, quickly began to copy everything he could remember from his dreams there.
- There are still a few, perhaps the most important questions in this case, - having finished taking notes, he returned the notebook and pen to the bedside table, after which he stared thoughtfully at the nearest window, muttering softly to himself: – Why do I dream something like this? Why now? And is it somehow connected with the fact that Asia has awakened her sacred mechanism? ... So many questions and as always so few answers…
Taking a deep breath, Alex decided to leave these undoubtedly important, but unanswered questions for now and get back to business as usual. Today, as in general, and almost any day of the week, except Sunday, he had to go through a workout that had already become familiar, which means it was impossible to skip breakfast in any way. Getting out of bed, he hurried towards the dining room.
In the few weeks since his sister left for the Vatican, in general, little has changed. He usually called or texted her in the late afternoon, when after another workout to the point of collapse, at least a little strength finally returned to him. The girl was settled on the territory of one of the seven churches located in this city-state. Together with her, another "holy virgin" lived there, the so-called women who owned holy mechanisms of the healing type. For some reason, men with such abilities were extremely rare. This woman was supposed to become a mentor and teacher for Asia until she fully mastered her mechanism at least at a satisfactory level.
Alex practically did not worry about the safety of his sister. Yet, compared to his past world, here the church almost completely corresponded to its original image. Of course, "bad" people have met here, human nature has always remained the same. However, for example, being a pedophile priest in a world where there is a real, quite tangible angel and even God himself above you is extremely difficult and completely unsafe.
Entering the dining room, he greeted the people already there and sat down in his seat, began to wait patiently. After a few minutes, everyone was in place and the presbyter, who is also a priest, who is the highest spiritual person in this church, rose from his seat. The others followed him up.
- God, cleanse me a sinner.
His confident, years-honed voice echoed throughout the dining room. For each pause, it was necessary to make a bow, which all those gathered did.
- Create me, Lord, have mercy.
Alex made the second bow almost automatically, over the years of living here, he almost did not turn on his brain at such moments. Both in the past and in this life, he still believed that all such rituals and prayers were rather a tribute to order. Deeds and deeds spoke for a person much more than the number of bows during endless prayers.
- Without number of sinners, Lord, have mercy and forgive me, a sinner.
Finally, after making the third bow, he was able to finally straighten his back and freeze in place, waiting for prayer.
- The eyes of all trust in You, O Lord, and You give them food in good time, You open Your generous hand and fulfill every animal of good will. Through the prayers of the saints, our father…
Continuing to listen to the pleasant voice of the priest with half an ear, Alex involuntarily glanced at the numerous icons of saints hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. The number, or rather the variety of faces, reminded him again of the most important difference between this world and where he lived his first life.
Alex didn't know if it was just the presence of supernatural forces here or if the reason was something else, but the history of humanity in this world was much longer than the one he was used to. Apart from the primitive society of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, about whose duration little was known at all, the history of the human race only with the time of the appearance of the first states took more than 18 thousand years. And specifically now, according to the Gregorian calendar, it was the year 6045 of the new era.
When Alex first immersed himself in the study of the history of this world, he was literally amazed at how little information was available to him. The general history, which was taught in ordinary schools and other educational institutions, mostly told only about the times of the last few millennia, affecting only the most significant names and events of the past times. Church books were rumored to give much more information about distant times, but they were available only to those who had been trained and reached high rank. What was available to Alex mainly contained information about the reason for the lack of information in the usual sources.
The war of the three factions, which lasted more than one hundred, and maybe a thousand years.
The pacification of two Heavenly Dragons, which also raged both in various mythological worlds and in the human world
As well as a huge variety of other more local events and battles related to ordinary people, those who were called heroes, many other supernatural species, and of course dragons, who could be both quite reasonable representatives of their race and madmen who simply destroyed everything in their path.
As a result, having finished his historical research for the near future, Alex came to a simple conclusion. In the old days, the human world was not at all so carefully fenced off from the intervention of the supernatural, and that is why the church, various organizations of magicians, as well as all three factions subsequently got so much work. To protect the secret, you must first make it a secret. And although in the end everything seemed to have succeeded, the amount of effort spent on it should have been simply incredible.
Lost in his own thoughts, Alex almost missed the end of the prayer.
- ... now and ever and for ever and ever…Amen!
After saying the last word of prayer at the same time with the rest of the audience, Alex bowed his head for the last time in the morning and finally having the opportunity to sit down at the table, he began to eat.
"And yet it's interesting ..." - actively absorbing food from his plate, Alex involuntarily returned to the memory of his dreams. - "What was that? And the most important question is whether this will continue... do you need to buy tickets for the second part?"