The Baddest

When Ru opened his eyes, he was surrounded by a golden glow. He found himself in a magnificent palace. Halls with ceilings almost as high as the sky, furniture decorated with pearls and rubies, rooms filled with mysterious artifacts in every corner... This place was beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.

"It's okay, I don't have to come back to reality. This dimension is awesome, man!"

Ru was quick to take action, driven by the excitement he felt. He started to look around, running through the corridors and popping into and out of rooms. He threw himself onto feather pillows, wrapped himself in sparkly veils, stretched out on silk sheets, and even jumped onto the bed he found.

There were pools and fountains, but they were all empty. As he looked around for anything that might be alive, he noticed a large courtyard filled with gold-covered plants.

"Even the palm trees are made of gold, unbelievable!" he muttered. Then he fixated on the "golden" aspect. He found trays of food and drinks in crystal bottles, and of course, they were all made of gold too.

"I'm not hungry, I'm not thirsty, and goodbye intestines! Because I'm a spirit! Whee," Ru exclaimed.

He kept exploring, liking the fancy golden palace and knowing he could enjoy it all.

Ru found musical instruments, one of which was a harp. He sat on a stool and began to play. The sound that emanated from the harp was so magnificent that it was as if he could see it with his eyes. The enchanting sound, moving in waves and scattering golden dust around, progressed, expanded, and soared.

Indeed, he could see the music.

"Of course, I can see it because I'm in heaven," he whispered.

Suddenly, he wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't dreaming but was truly in heaven. He had passed by dozens of windows, but he had overlooked the night behind the veils. Where exactly was the palace he was in?

"In the sky," he said, standing on the sill of a window.

Above was space, below was the earth.

He watched the clouds flow like a river beneath the palace. After a while, he waved to the flickering lights of North America.

"It's like satellite imagery, but without a screen in between. This is definitely..." Ru couldn't quite find the words to describe it at that moment, but this thing made him feel amazing.

After some time he discovered his country. He tried to locate the state where he lived. After using his cartographic skills to match the map in his memory with the picture below, he looked for his city. Even if he could not find it, he could say "more or less there.

Sitting on the window sill and swinging his legs idly, he imagined his home and his best friend. He dipped his eyes into the purple light flickering in the distance and said: "I'm sorry, Vaelan. I don't want to be resurrected. I'm tired of dealing with Mr. Thargata and his ilk."

The gentle breeze that caressed his hair carried a melodic whisper to his ear: "The good news is that Mr. Thargata is already dead."

Ru asked with a shudder: "Who the hell are you?"

"In Jenna's world, you caused the death of Mr. Thargata by having Jenna kill someone. A successful karmic exchange, my congratulations." said the same voice, singing like a bird, and added, "Of course, that blue shit has a hand in this murder."

"How do you know that and who are you?" Ru asked, getting up and jumping from the windowsill into the hallway, looking around anxiously.

"Are you curious? Then come find me," the enchanting voice said.

"No, I'm not curious, you're a joking angel. I'm OK with that," he said, tiptoeing across the carpet woven with golden threads.

Of course, he wanted to find them because Ru was, shall it be said, a little bored by the seemingly endless riches. He found a game for himself for the time being: Hide and Seek.

"Yoo-hoo, where are you, angel?"

One by one he was opening double wing doors or simple doors. He pulled back the veils and looked. Sometimes he peered into the rooms through the door beads. The impression he got as he walked was hammered an architectural nail into his brain. This golden palace was definitely of the Orient.

"Maybe so," he mused, saying all of a sudden, "You're not an angel, you're the djinn!"

"Am I," the velvet voice asked naively, caressing Ru's ear.

"Yes, you are. And you must have a lamp and a seal, wherever you are," said Ru, his attention shifting to the lamps decorated with precious stones.

"Shh, be quiet. You will summon him," the voice said, this time sounding as if it had suddenly vibrated on the violin strings.

"I think you're afraid of the djinn, interesting," said Ru, climbing the wide, wide stairs, lined up like a fan.

"Maybe it's not the djinn to be afraid of," said the voice, played like a flute.

"Well, you look like you're having fun," said Ru, still climbing the stairs, tired. He bent down and put his palms on his knees. He took a deep breath. "Excuse me, do you have a teleportation service for tired souls?"

"You must be thirsty." The sound of this sentence hit Ru's brain like a drum.

"Are you crazy, I'm dead. What is water for," Ru asked, frowning at him. While he was almost dying of thirst.

The question "How about finding a bucket and drawing water from the clouds?" turned into an airish piano tune.

"Sensible," said Ru and immediately sprang into action. At first, he found a golden pair of scissors and used them to cut the ornate strings from the doors. Acquiring the bucket wasn't difficult. He planned to extend the strings by tying them together when his ears were gently caressed by the playful tones of a familiar melody coming from the stairs.

"Pa-, pa-, pa-"

As the excitement of the strings increased, Ru identified the music.

"This is Papageno's duet. From The Magic Flute, Mozart."

With this identification, the music turned into small and colorful birds and began to float toward him.

The birds circled Ru and then lifted the bucket with their tiny claws. Together with the bucket, they flew out of the window and soared into the clouds.

A little later they came back. They placed the bucket of rainwater in front of Ru, and when the music stopped, they joined together to form a ladle.

Ru was very impressed by the magic musical. In the finale, he even admired the bird motif on the wooden water scoop, which fell into his palm like a feather.

"Wow," he said, but he wasn't satisfied with that. Ru respectfully applauded this person whose identity he did not know.

"You are magnificent, Sorcerer."

Then sat down on his knees and he lifted the wooden scoop. As he leaned over the bucket, the water rippled.

"What's happening?" asked Ru.

The eyes of Ru's reflection in the water glowed with the colors of autumn. On his head was a Middle Eastern-style headdress made of silk cloth and pearls.

Reflecting from the water, Ru said in that magical voice, "I'm not a magician, I'm a musician."

"Are you... me?" asked Ru, leaning into the water.

"A little," replied the reflection.

"What do you mean, a little? Either you're me or you're not," Ru said with a frown. He liked the figure in the water. Its face, his own face, gave him peace, even if it was partly surly. That's why he hesitated to dip the water scoop into the bucket.

"Drink the water and come back to life," the reflection said.

"No, no way," Ru said and pulled the scoop back.

The reflection insisted, "Your place is not here, your place is planet Earth for now."

"It's not up to you to tell me where I am," Ru said with a sneer.

"You must return to Earth to participate in the Phantasmogaria Show," the reflection said, continuing to play music with its voice.

"Why is that?"

"You have already traveled to parallel universes and intervened in some events, which accelerated the process."

"What process?"

"Ta-da! The Apocalypse."

"So am I being asked to participate in this show as punishment?"

"No, the end of the world is coming. That's when the dimensional gates will open. You'll go to a completely different system."

"No, I won't," Ru said and dropped the scoop into the water.

"Interesting, don't I want to gain my magical powers?" said the reflection, literally making its vocal cords dance.

This sentence contained the keywords for Ru: "Magic" and "Power". Yet he did not drink the water. He had to learn more than himself. Looking at the water in the scoop, he faced the reflection again.

"Tell me about this show," he said.

"I will explain," said the reflection, adding, "If you solve my riddle."

Ru mentally said "fuck you" but what came out of his mouth was "ok then".

"Who comes to life twice, who gets beautiful when ugly, who multiplies and dies, who rises from the earth to the sky."