Closing the mandala...

 

"...When life was born on Earth millions of years ago, there was no indication that the beauty of this planet could become nothing more than a barren battlefield of stupidity. Perhaps the future wasn't always doomed, but there was something sinister in this dream of a better world. With the birth of man, an era of struggle began, a struggle for survival and a struggle for power. The mighty wars of ancient empires brought civilization and development, but also a curse. There were people in the world so relished in murder and battle that peace became unbearable for them. There were times of peace, discovery, and the miracle of life, but relatively speaking, they were killed by the pursuit of ever greater power. Wars were no longer mere battles, but mass exterminations of human beings. No one considered the consequences a few years later. They looked only to today, where every dead body was a piece of gold in the state.

The world had survived two wars, and when the third death knell tolled, someone said, "Enough!" This wasn't simply the protest of a man with a different agenda, for there were thousands of them, all lost in the sound of gunfire. It was more than a scream; it was the beginning of the end. It was the birth of a brave new world...

Thousands of years after the birth of Christ, human evolution had reached such a degree that machines replaced all surroundings. There were no longer any animals, trees, or anything that could function without machines. People used artificial devices for everything, from nurturing their bodies to creating oxygen, which had long since vanished from the atmosphere. All of space was filled with the artificiality and cold of increasingly strange inventions. Despite the development of the entire Earth's surface, there was no room left for further generations, leading to the creation of colonies orbiting the planet. Twelve colonies, rotating alongside Earth, rebelled against their separation from the surface and initiated a revolt, which the authorities sought to suppress with an economic blockade. Hunger fueled even greater rage among those suspended in space. In those dark years, the most terrible war the universe had ever known erupted. It was no longer just killing or the lust for power. It was annihilation of ourselves, along with the very ground beneath our feet. Technology was so advanced that the destruction, the uprooting of a then-medium-sized state from the planet's surface, was a matter of pressing a single symbol suspended in holographic space. The suffering, screams, and sea of ​​spilled blood were such a resounding cry for help that, reaching the heart of the Earth, it became a voice that awakened the sleeping mother.

Gaia, hidden in the one place human hands could not reach, arose from a dream. What she saw on the surface surpassed her darkest nightmares. An earth enveloped in the cold of glass and metal, mechanical trees generating oxygen, humans born in semi-mechanized bodies. Pain, suffering, grief, and death all around. It was too great a shock. When she handed this planet over to humans, along with the other two gods, she would never have expected such callousness and downright desecration from them. The killing of everything she had painstakingly created had destroyed her forgiveness. She had always indulged humans in their minor transgressions, patiently teaching them, step by step, how to live with nature, but this was simply too much. Even love has its limits, and they had just been crossed.

At the sound of her voice, the spirits of animals and plants that the world had buried rose from the earth. Mother Earth did not have to heal the world alone; she had brothers who stood by her side. The God of goodness and harmony, who ruled life and death, and Satan, the eternal villain from the underworld. Although each had their own power and once ruled the world with a different force, in the face of their own mistakes, they joined forces. An army was formed, reaching with power and purpose beyond the limits of human perception. God and Satan, for the first time, united their angelic forces on the same side. They knew that this was not about the old feud between good and evil, but about total annihilation, in the face of which neither side would matter. And humans? Well, humans, in their limited spheres of understanding, placed individual honor above the common good. Even under common threat, humans were unable to unite their forces, and when their miraculous technology fell, everything fell. Power became but a pile of dead iron alongside weak, useless humans. Each deity, by its uniqueness, fought the battle with its own strength. Satan with deception, Gaia with the element, and God with the word—they were one. They were the rulers of the world, and even though they had lain dormant for so long, they had cleansed the earth of human evil. Moments ago, tree spirits had buried human bodies in the earth, angels of light marked their wings with rosaries of blood, darkness embraced the struggling bodies of the living with silver hands. This was no longer a battle. The final phase of human existence on Earth approached with every gust of black wind. Perhaps never before had humanity so desperately longed to remain alive. The creatures escaping the yoke of the apocalypse were so dramatic, they became even more repulsive. The end had come. Nothing remained, no significant trace, only a dull void still thundering with the echoes of dying souls. When the dust settled and the field of death shone before the gaze of the gods, tears welled up.

"We loved people so much, cared so much for their well-being... Why? Why did they do all this, why did they destroy their own world?! A wonderful world..." Gaia's voice still trembled under the pressure of new tears.

"People have always been doomed, they are stupid creatures, there's no point in shedding tears for them!! Don't cry, Gaia, they weren't worth it, it's completely...

" "Enough! Satan, enough. You never loved people, but that's no reason to..." God, as always, was calm and composed, though it was clear that sadness had reached him as well.

"Satan is right.

" "Gaia!

" "God, understand. We gave them too much freedom, too many options. They lost control of their desires, and that led to their destruction. It's hard for me to say this, but you were wrong to make humans the masters of our Earth. It was too much." Her voice was melodic, warm, and yet so very decisive.

"People are too confident in their abilities, too greedy. I know that the lives of our subordinates should be based on freedom, but they must be kept on a tight leash, because they'll just jump in without warning." Lucifer didn't mince his words, but there was always a bit of the wise angel in him, despite all these years.

"Yet, you both admit that despite all their flaws, they are needed in the world, just like all of Satan's creatures, though we don't always recognize their true value. People aren't ready to rule, but they're not so worthless as to serve.

" "You should be a God of compromise. I never thought I'd agree with your thought, but now..." he paused, as if the next words would be impossible for him to follow. "I say this. The joy of giving and creating life is more precious than minor failures.

" "So let's begin again... Let a world be born that has never existed before. Full of magic and wonder. A place where thought will have no limits, but let us remember to create with prudence, even in this madness." It will be a better world, one we will call 'fantasy'..."

The children gathered around the elven priestess didn't even notice when the story ended. They sat listening side by side, simultaneously wandering deep within their hearts. Among them were elven and vampire children – once angelic retinues, but also human, hobbit, dwarven, and mixed-blood children. They had all heard this story hundreds of times, but still came running on sunny afternoons to hear it again. The children were only roused from their reverie by a dragon flying low over the trees surrounding the place of worship.

"You might want to be careful, Zerwis, there are children here, and besides, this is holy ground, not a meadow by a lake." The creature hovered in midair, averted its eyes to everyone, wagged its large tail playfully, and flew away.

"Ah, these little dragons, they'll never learn respect for religion," Juraja sighed softly, causing the young creatures to giggle.

"And... if the gods are all-powerful, surely they could have foreseen what would happen when humans took over Earth, right? And if they could, why didn't they stop it?" a small human girl with curly, blond hair asked, perhaps teasingly.

"Of course they could, Falviu, but that was the divine plan. You see, we consider the gods perfect because their magnificence is beyond our understanding, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. They probably hoped that humanity would return to the right path after all. Well, they were disappointed, but it turned out to be part of the plan...

" "Closing the mandala!" exclaimed the red-haired boy, playing with the elven ears of his brother, whose shoulders he was sitting on.

"Exactly, closing the mandala. Do any of you children know what a mandala is? Covey, maybe you?"

"I don't know, priestess, my mother only said there was something like that, but she didn't tell me more...

" "As usual, redhead, you hear it's dinner, but you don't know which cottage." The priestess laughed, ruffling the boy's hair, and the whole group followed suit.

"A mandala is a magical circle made of colored sand by magicians, containing mysterious symbols symbolizing individual beings, elements, deeds, and worlds." Juraja continued, leading the children through the thicket in some unknown direction. "All these symbols create a unity that is the universe. The mandala encloses the universe within its circle, revealing infinity, much like an Ouroboros."

Here she pointed to a silver amulet hanging from her slender neck, depicting a snake twisted in a figure eight, its tail locked in its jaws. It was a very ancient symbol of the goddess Gaia, whom she fervently worshipped.

"So God, Satan, and Gaia wanted to tell us that despite all our mistakes, the world will still be reborn with us?"

"Exactly, Covey, you're right. And there's one wonderful place in 'fantasy' that reminds us of this continuity. This place is the center of our world, and it's where everything began, and it's where we're going."

A soft murmur of delight echoed amid the birdsong swaying in the trees overhead. The forest seemed to live to its own rhythm, utterly distinct from the constant hum of wooden huts, dugouts, stone caves, and tree terraces. Here, the entire "fantasy" throbbed with magic and dreams so loudly that one could barely hear one's own thoughts. The encounter here of the four elements in humanoid forms, giants towering high above the enormous trees, tiny faeries resembling elven fairies with colorful butterfly wings, creatures resembling moving and speaking trees commonly called treants, centaurs—half human and half horse—or true werewolves was perfectly normal, for here, dreams never ended. Suddenly, a tiny purple light gleamed among the trees. One more, and two more, and so on, more and more rays flickered among the greenery of the trees and bushes. The priestess stopped for a moment and, commanding her charges to be silent, pulled back the wall of leaves, revealing a wondrous sight. Amidst the thick green forest lay a perfectly circular clearing. The dark sapphire of the grass gradually, almost imperceptibly, faded to navy blue, then to rich purple, finally to light pink. A gust of wind gently stirred the blades of grass, creating the illusion of a rippling sea. In the center of the circle grew a tree, but it was more than just a giant forest plant. Its trunk and leaves were also bathed in shades of purple, and on its branches and roots sat strange creatures. Small spirits with white bodies, small arms and legs, and large heads that made amusing rattling sounds when moved.

"These are kodama, spirits of the tree of nirvana," Juraja spoke calmly and clearly, seeing the mixture of terror and joy on the little ones' faces.

"Spirits of what?!" escaped the lips of one hobbit girl.

"Spirits tending the tree of nirvana. This tree is the first miracle to occur in 'fantasy.' This ancient plant is the fulfillment of every soul inhabiting our world. After death, the souls of all of us find our way here, where we code, either placing them on its branches or sending them away to be reborn and strive for fulfillment with their lives until they remain in nirvana for eternity." Seeing the immense surprise on the children's faces, she slowly, as if in contemplation, completed the thought. "You are still too young to understand all this now, but remember this moment, so that in the future, in the greatest despair, you may again smell the wind of nirvana and strive towards fulfillment...

" ...And when the work of creation was complete, the gods stood, surrounded by their work and its vastness. Everything was there, and everything was one. The world was created, a wonderful new world full of miracles and fulfilled dreams.

"Brothers, the circle has closed, and the end has become the beginning of something new. Only one thing remains that this world needs."

And then Gaia bent over the earth, and the grass there was dyed with all shades of purple. She opened her hand, on which lay a small black seed, and making a hole in the earth, she covered it.

"A tree will grow here, a single tree, and its leaves will be the souls of those to whom our world has given fulfillment, and until the last leaf falls, the 'fantasy' will last..."