RISE

Joy steps onto the white luminescent platform. It floats, suspended in the void of space; only stars around her. Before her appears a being of Light--tall and god-like in stature, no face, and MusiQ flowing from its essence.

Joy's eyes widen in wonder, as the Light-Being stretches out what resembles an arm and a hand, holding what looks like a scroll. It then speaks with a resonance that Joy felt in her bones.

"Chosen One," it says, "you have made it to God-Mode."

Joy has spent thousands of light-years journeying through space, time, and hundreds of life-times to reach this destination: TheStage; the threshold to Dimension 9. She has been dreaming of entering Dimension 9 since her early childhood years. She has always had the ability to See~so she sought, in search of the Truth; in search of The Light.

“Take this scroll,” it said, sending chills all throughout her body. She reached out and grabbed it. The scroll heated up in her hand, its light pulsing, as if it had a heartbeat. 

“Now,” the Light-Being continued, “you are to make a choice.” Joy’s heart began to race, the scroll now matching her rhythm. 

“If you wish to cross over into Dimension 9, you must recite the words written on the scroll. When you do this, you will lose all memory of your existence before this moment. All your connections to your past lives, your feelings and your thoughts, will be forged into a single cell within your NouGodBody that will act as a battery; your source of Power.” 

Joy became overcome with fright. Her body seemingly paralyzed in panic. The Light-Being continued. 

“If you wish to retain your memories, your past life connections, your feelings, your thoughts~discard the scroll into the void and walk out of the door behind you.” 

Suddenly, an ordinary wooden door appeared. Joy turned to see it open. Beyond its hinges spiraled everything she had journeyed through to stand on that white, luminescent platform; TheStage, where she always dreamed of Becoming. A strong, windy force began to tug at her, inviting her back in. Joy felt a wave of panic tide over her heart. She turned back to face the Light-Being and uttered the words, 

“Forget…everything?” 

“It is the price you must pay to Remember,” the Light-Being responded. 

Joy looked down at the scroll in her hand, still pulsing to the rhythm of her fast-beating heart. 

She stood there. She stood still for what felt like hours. All of her Experienced Time rushed before her eyes, her mind raced; her life force trembled. She could feel her essence trying to escape from the top of her head and her breath abandoning her, making her lungs feel small. 

Her eyes welled up with tears and she fell to her knees, weeping. ‘This is what I've always wanted,’ she thought. ‘So, why am I so afraid?’ 

She was there, finally, at TheStage, ready to take her Nou form. This was her chance to know, to See, the Light she has always met in her dreams. But at what cost? All of her memories? Who was she if not connected to all her experiences from the past? How would she know herself if she could not remember? 

‘It is the price you must pay to Remember,’ broke through her spiraling thoughts like tidal waves as the images of all her past selves washed up against the shore of her rainy eyes. 

With fog in her eyes, she whispered to herself, “Remember.” She clutched the scroll tighter. Its pulsing light slowing down, still synced with the rhythm of her heart. 

She rose to her feet, while looking down at the scroll. She then raised her head to meet the gaze of the Light-Being, who now had two, electric blue eyes, staring deep into her soul. She stared back into those eyes, and recognized herself. Now, she was feeling a different sensation. The panic she was frozen in softened into a deep sense of Knowing.

She listened to the music coming from its essence. She thought, ‘Wait, I know this Sound. I’ve Seen this Light.’ 

Then the realization fell into her like an atomic bomb. 

—-

Still in shock, she spoke to the Light-Being, 

“I…Know Who You Are.” 

All her wonder and all her wander was not in vain. She knew this Light. She had always Seen this Light in her dreams. She had always heard its Song. And though she journeyed thousands of light-years to get here, escaped ravenous black holes, gotten trapped into mis-guiding portals, and met many deceiving entities on her way, she couldn’t help but wonder, 

“Does this mean I’ll never get to be Joy, again?” 

The Light-Being stood motionless. Silent. 

She looked back down at the scroll in her hand, its light pulsing rapidly again. She took her other, trembling hand and hovered it over the scroll in hesitation. The Light-Being spoke again.

“Once you recite the words on the scroll, your decision cannot be undone. You will forget, to Remember, forever.” 

Joy stood still again, her hand still hovering over the scroll, and the scroll’s light now flashing at an incomprehensible speed. 

“This is all I’ve ever wanted. I’m here now,” she says to herself. 

Joy takes another moment to pause. She inhales; embracing every version of herself that got her here. Then she exhales; letting it all go. 

She curls her hovering fingers towards the scroll, and opens it. As she unrolled it, it sang with the roaring voice of a thousand angels. Their cadence~fast, urgent, excited. When the scroll was fully stretched open, a gust of starlight blew back her sandy brown hair, and the same warmth she felt in her hand was now embracing her face. 

She squinted, focusing her eyes to See~then her heart burst into an electric wildfire. She exclaimed, widening her eyes,

“The MusiQ!” 

The Light-Being’s eyes seemed to smile, and then it said, 

“Sing.” 

Joy knew this Song. She knew this Song by heart. It was the same Song she would always hear in her dreams, where she would meet The Light.

Joy carried this Song inside her. It’s the Song she always dreamed of Becoming on TheStage. The very Stage she was standing on. 

—

Now, forgetting the existence of the door behind her, she took a deep breath in through her nose, and with her mouth widened with a smile, she exhaled, releasing the notes through the folds of her vocal cords, while looking up to the stars. 

Her eyes filled up with bright, yellow light that reached out into the void like sun rays, and she began to spin into levitation. The scroll, now released from her hand, made its way into her heart center, then she burst into BlueFlame, singing. 

“Now, the time has come to Rise,”

She became overcome with Maadness; the dark, creative energy of the entire universe. The stars of the void migrated into her body and she grew gigantic, singing.

“Leave your fears and doubts behind~.” 

Her hair then stretched itself long and black like the void. Her back sprouted great, onyx wings. 

“Sing your song to stand the fight,” she continued, while her skin pigmented deepOceanBlue, and her lips a color as dark as the night sky. 

“Have no fear, You Are The Light!” 

At that moment her eyes turned electric blue~just like the Light-Being’s. 

She was no longer singing. She became the Song. 

Her body was naked, sculpted. She brought her feet back to TheStage, closed her eyes and began to Dance. 

—

Her body moved in Sacred Geometry, like a hieroglyphic come to life. Slowly, she flowed into moving shapes that activated her True Form. 

Obsidian flowed from beneath her skin, painting the pathways of her circuitry. She spun, and the Maadness stormed, weaving armor on her chest made of black dragon skin, smoothed down to perfection. A matching skirt manifested as she spiraled her hips. She leaped and her toenails coated themselves in sapphire. 

Gold wrapped around the length of her neck, cuffed her wrists, and adorned her ankles. A python coiled up her left arm, its tongue flicking, immortalizing itself in gold.  

Her nails became like shark’s teeth; blackened and hardened like stone. 

She inverted her body to stand on her head, her hands at her sacral. Earrings emerged from the lobes of her ears: turquoise spirals. 

She folds herself to bring her feet back to TheStage, now reaching up into the void. A strike of lightning meets her hand; she summons her sword: obsidian blade alive with electric fire. 

The sword attracts her shield with magnetic power. She grasps it in her left arm; pure titanium engraved with ancient script. 

Dust from the Maadness gracefully fell off of her body as she closed her eyes. She stood, mountainous.

The stars that migrated into her NouGodBody rose to the surface of her skin. Her electric blue heart burst into Holy Flame, outlining every pathway obsidian painted on her skin.

She was complete. 

— 

The music stopped. 

The angels completed their song. 

She became still. 

—

She opened her eyes, fierce with Power, and looked out at the void. The Light-Being was gone. She heard its voice, deep inside her say, 

“Very well. What do you call yourself, now?” 

What used to be Joy, now responded, 

“ISSI. MUSIQAII. I AM. ISSI-MUSIQAII.” 

—

A great white door appeared before her. It opened, revealing a vast unknown. 

ISSI, with her shoulders squared and head aligned with Destiny, took her first thundering steps towards the door. She paused, right beneath its frame, took in a deep breath and said, 

“Thank you,” 

and walked in without looking back.