The Last Cycle

"Who the hell is Mr. Zero?", said Shapish.

Of course, he knew from the description of Mr. War that Mr. Zero was some kind of codename to avoid the backlash of interacting with a higher level of consciousness. 

"You must have realized by now that the numbers have a certain significance. They are very important as they govern your "journey" to fulfill the given 'purpose' .",  said War.

"Have you met "him" before?", asked Shapish. War nodded affirmatively as Shapish asked curiously," How many times have you met him? Do we get to see him before every reincarnation ?"

The Priest said, " You better wish you didn't see 'him' twice".

  "Why?", asked Shapish.

"The only time we meet 'him' is when he 'creates' us or 'deletes' us!", said War.

Shapish was surprised upon hearing what he heard but was even more surprised at himself as his consciousness considered it only natural for a high-level entity to be able to do that. This was alarming. He also considered the notion that his consciousness had already been 'corrupted' by 'Mr. Zero'.

Habits that weren't his were naturally setting in. He didn't hide it from the duo as he said, "Why don't I feel any surprise at it...Why is my consciousness not rejecting it? Is it some form of mental corruption?"

Questions kept popping into his mind as he felt truly terrified of this mysterious "Mr. Zero".

"We all share similarities to him. It's only natural", said The Priest.

" Since you have already met 'him' and he was the one who told you about 'them', he must have put some countermeasures to prevent tracking. We are relatively safe now", said War.

"As if he wouldn't abandon us if we got caught by 'them'. Only the Goddess is benevolent and fierce enough to face 'the world' for a single devotee", said The Priest.

Shapish wanted to be a part of the conversation, so he dryly added, "After all you said, 'he' needs us to fulfill 'his' purpose."

War smiled and said,"  At least you are not completely hopeless".

"So, let's start with the lesson", said The Priest.

"The whole universe is a collective consciousness of all the "divine", "cursed" and "special". Now, this consciousness is like a tree with branches spread all across the "ocean of milk" -cosmos. The subtree with "divine" refers to "Meru" while the "curse" is spread all over the cosmos. The universe is full of dark matter whose collective consciousness creates "chaos". There are nine habitable worlds in this universe. The collective consciousness for all of these is called "The World".

Wars continued as he said, " "Shapish" was "our" original name. Mr. Zero was the one who started everything. He set to the Sea of Milk alone in search of "Meru". I don't know if he got any clue but roaming the cosmos he got some ideas. Mr. Zero discovered some truth about "The World" and the connection with "Meru". He tried to apply the idea of collective consciousness to "himself" and mastered the concept of "reincarnation" 

"Since he was already at a higher consciousness level, to effectively search for more clues he divided his consciousness into nine incarnations which return to "him" after fulfilling their "purpose" or completing their "journey". "Journey" refers to thirteen successive "incarnations". If you haven't fulfilled your "purpose" even after completing the "journey" or are "corrupted", you get "deleted"."

"So, why are you still alive?",  asked The Priest.

"How would I know, senior?... Should I shout his name out loud for you, so that you can directly communicate with him...Of course, at your level... it mustn't be a problem..."

The Priest didn't reply as he continued to ignore. Shapish quickly caught the cue and changed the topic, "You won't believe me, Senior...when I say this...his voice was so fucking deep", said Shapish.

"In my hometown, there used to be a saying-  the lower the voice, the deeper the ocean", he added.

"Is this some sort of metaphor?", said War

The Priest snorted and said, "Ugh! He simply means that a sultry, deep voice can make ladies swoon and drop their panties in an instant."

Wars quickly retorted, "Of course, the pervert pastor that touched kids gets it"

The priest replied, "Of course, the forty-year-old virgin wouldn't get it". His voice seemed pretty contemptuous.

Shapish inferred that both these people were quite petty. Almost comically petty- This is what reincarnation does to a man. He thought about it as he sighed.

Shapish didn't dare participate in the contest. Why would he burn bridges with anyone for something so unserious? After all, you can never know how petty some people can be. There were a lot of his seniors in the previous world who would tell their junior to be frank and open with them, but would later make their lives living hell because they felt the juniors hadn't been respectful. The key to a long and healthy life must be to assume that all people are petty in the world! One must assume that all the people in the world are waiting to be offended and walk on a tightrope reigning their thoughts deep within themselves!

Shapish interjected as he said,  "So, may this humble soul know who are the respectable seniors..., and why are they here?"

The Priest snorted, "At least he knows some manners...tsk"

Wars said, " We are the guides for this round as we have served our "purpose". "

"Guides?"

Shapish was surprised by this development. Isn't that a cheat? Or is it?

"A cheat from "myself" to myself", he lampooned inwardly.

"We all are born together and die together in a cycle. "He" creates these cycles and sends those who have served their "purpose" to help out the losers. Even in my long career as a guide, I haven't learned of a failure like you...You are definitely unprecedented."

"The most important part is that you having the fourteenth reincarnation breaks the cycle", said Wars

The Priest had a look of sudden realization on his face as he said, 

"This means, this is probably 'the last cycle' "