KYBALION
Patron Bylly, Americ-Ana, Wwwyye, and Astyam, with Antichrist in their arms, touched the Seractcube. Poppandacorn gave a few clumsy little hops, trying to reach the cube. Realizing he wouldn’t make it, because of his short stature, Americ-Ana lifted him into her arms. The moment everyone touched the Seractcube, the main garden of the SAMKHYA CELL completed a full 360-degree turn.
Now, they were all inside the Seractcube.
Americ-Ana noticed that everything in there seemed to exist in half-light, as if it were a day forever overcast. A great deal of white mist hovered close to the ground and drifted through the air. The sky, if it could even be called a sky, was gray and heavy, carrying the same impression of a storm day about to begin. Americ-Ana had the sensation of being inside a colossal cube, whose walls reflected everything in a cloudy, blurred way.
"As you can see, fluffy, we need to give shape and purpose to this Seractcube," Bylly said, moving her fingers through the air as if she were using the keyboard of an invisible computer. After the first gestures, a keyboard made of nothing but light materialized in front of her. She began typing a few commands.
Instantly, everyone felt the interior of the Seractcube vibrate, as though something were being born inside it. Then Bylly continued:
"As all of you know, fluffy, Parys Bloodpure is a VALUE 4 player, one of the best in THE-IMPERIUM, second only to Nome-Rocky. Ms. Bloodpure tends to use opera, classical music, to face her opponents. So I imagine she must spend a great deal of time studying that kind of music in order to build her opponents’ Seractcubes. That being said, we are not dealing with just any player. We are dealing with a girl who is part of the elite of the KING MatNat Games, THE-IMPERIUM’s darling."
"Patron Bylly, excuse me, could you explain, please, what it means to be a VALUE 4 player?" Americ-Ana wanted to know.
"Of course, fluffy. In the KING MatNat Games, specifically for LEVEL THREE players, there is a progression in multiples of 11, with benefits. Remember when I told you that if you believe you’re dying, you truly die, making it essential to trust your demon? Well then. What happens is this: if you accumulate 11 seals within an academic year, you can 'die' during a match twice without suffering any consequence. It’s simple, fluffy, but to make it easier, I’ll show you a table. Just a moment."
Bylly gave another command on the keyboard of light, and the information appeared projected in the air, before Americ-Ana:
Seal 11: 1 demon, 2 uses.
Seal 22: 2 demons, 2 uses each.
Seal 33: 4 demons, 4 uses each.
Seal 44: 6 demons, 6 uses each.
Seal 55: 8 demons, 8 uses each.
Seal 66: 12 demons, 12 uses each. Enables fusion into one supreme demon.
"That means, fluffy, that Parys Bloodpure has already accumulated, within a single academic year, 44 seals, becoming a VALUE 4. Remember: even if a LEVEL THREE player accumulates 66 seals, in the next academic year they must return all the seals, reset their record, and begin everything again from zero. Parys Bloodpure accumulated 44 seals in the past. That number remains recorded in her history, even though, at the start of every academic year, she has to start over from nothing."
"Who has the highest VALUE, Patron Bylly?" Americ-Ana asked.
"Nome-Rocky has already reached 55 seals accumulated, fluffy, which gives him the position of VALUE 5. Above that, only Headmistress Popess Rock, in the last century," Bylly explained.
"My Mommy will be the first KING MatNat player of our century to get all 72 seals and become the only one to be a VALUE 6 and reach LúCIFER!" Poppandacorn suddenly shouted, firing confetti and holographic fireworks.
"Poppa, stop that. This isn’t the time," Americ-Ana warned the panda.
"That was an excellent remark from your Poppandacorn, fluffy," Bylly commented to Americ-Ana. "He is right about the fact that you can become a VALUE 6. But as for reaching LúCIFER, fluffy, that is impossible. At present, in THE-IMPERIUM, we only have 71 Ars Goetia seals. To reach LúCIFER, you must have all 72 seals gathered, and what is missing is ASTAROTH’s."
"Which is with the Rabbi Worse Devil," Wwwyye said, adjusting the pink top hat on her head.
"Which is with the Rabbi Worse Devil, fluffy," Bylly repeated, agreeing with the girl.
Bylly entered new commands on the keyboard of light, and the ground began to vibrate again beneath everyone’s feet.
"Back to the construction of the Seractcube, I’ve been thinking the following, fluffy..." She typed another command, and new lines of luminous code ran across the keyboard of light. "Before we think about building something worthy of Parys Bloodpure’s experience, we first need to think about building something that will keep her inside a single Seractcube long enough. That way, you will have more time to solve the challenges Parys Bloodpure herself is preparing for you."
She paused briefly, as if calculating in her head.
"We need something that will make Parys Bloodpure take, at the very least, the same amount of time you will need to gather all the pieces of RONOVE’s seal and leave the Seractcube back to the racetrack, and then reach the finish line."
Bylly typed a few more commands on the keyboard of light.
"For that, I thought: we cannot use opera or classical music to fight Parys Bloodpure, because that’s her strong suit. It would be playing on the ground where she is most powerful. So I’ve been thinking of merging two things into one. And that, fluffy, I believe will keep Ms. Bloodpure busy thinking for quite a while."
She pressed a single key on the keyboard of light and, before them all, there appeared written in the air, in gleaming blue letters, the title:
7 LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE
Just below it, the words appeared, one by one:
- Mentalism
- Correspondence
- Vibration
- Polarity
- Rhythm
- Cause and Effect
- Gender
"The 7 Laws of the Universe, fluffy," Bylly commented, pointing to the list glowing in the air. "Everything that exists, everything that moves, everything that is born and dies, everything that changes form, obeys these principles. And we’re going to use these Laws against Parys Bloodpure, combined with music."
Then Bylly turned directly to Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, please bring the demon BAAL out of the KING MatNat sphere. To do that, you’re going to take your KING MatNat sphere and raise it overhead. Next, you will invoke, with all your strength and conviction, first the Shem HaMephorash angel equivalent to BAAL, capable of repelling his powers. The angel is Vehuiah. Only then do you invoke the demon BAAL."
She raised a finger, in warning.
"Never forget, fluffy: NEVER, under any circumstances, invoke the demon without first invoking the angel. The angel is there to contain the demon’s powers, in case he loses control. Whenever you raise the KING MatNat sphere to invoke, remember what happened with the Rabbi Worse Devil, who invoked ASTAROTH without Reiyel’s protection. And you know very well what a mess that became, fluffy."
Americ-Ana brought her hand to her neck and felt the cold touch of the KING MatNat sphere. She removed the necklace with care. She looked into the sphere. Inside, she could see the seals of BAAL and of VEHUIAH gleaming in the translucent interior.
Americ-Ana raised the sphere overhead. Everyone else took a few steps back. Then she spoke in a firm voice:
"I invoke the angel Vehuiah. I invoke the demon Baal."
The KING MatNat sphere began to float in the air, slipping free from Americ-Ana’s fingers. It hovered before her face and, little by little, grew larger, until it was the size of a human head. Around the sphere, a humanoid-shaped body assembled itself, with delicate features and entirely covered in tiny white feathers.
Americ-Ana saw her own reflection on the surface of the sphere. Suddenly, the reflection began to move independently. Americ-Ana’s image, reflected in the sphere, began to speak to her, using the very same voice as hers, but with an intonation that was not her own. It was the angel speaking, visible only in that reflection.
Americ-Ana heard the angel Vehuiah say:
"Generation of Adam, I Am that I Am. I am Vehuiah. The Guardian Angel who contains the powers of my fallen brother, BAAL. The inhabitant of darkness has gladly accepted your proposal of a pact, and I am here to mediate it. My question is: are you absolutely certain as you deny the Light, in order to make a pact with the Darkness?"
"Yes!" Americ-Ana answered, without hesitation.
"So be it," Vehuiah declared. "But thou, Yahweh, art the shield that protects me, my glory, and the One who lifts up my head. Tu autem Domine clipeus circa me gloria mea et exaltans caput meum. Amen."
Then, gradually, Vehuiah’s body began to transmute. The white feathers darkened and stiffened, becoming black scales. The silhouette took on firmer, more masculine contours, and the aura around him shifted from a clear radiance to a dense, heavy presence.
Bylly stepped closer to Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, ask BAAL to divide his own seal into seven parts. Ask him to give you only the first and the second part of the seal for now. Later, as we move forward, you will ask for the other parts."
Americ-Ana nodded and made the request.
BAAL raised his palm into the air. His seal materialized above his hand in a gleaming circle and then began to split into seven distinct fragments. Two of those pieces separated, floating slowly toward Americ-Ana. She extended her hand and let the fragments settle carefully into her palm, feeling the symbolic weight of that first portion.
"Great, fluffy. Let’s proceed," Bylly said, returning to the keyboard of light.
She entered a new command, and immediately a strong wind began to form inside the Seractcube.
Wwwyye’s pink top hat flew away, making her dash after it. Astyam pressed Antichrist tighter against his chest. Poppandacorn clung to Americ-Ana’s legs, trying not to be carried off.
The wind blew through the fog and lifted it from the ground, leaving everything even more blurred and harder to see. Americ-Ana held tight against her chest the two parts of BAAL’s seal that were with her and, with her other hand, partially shielded her eyes. Through her fingers, she saw Bylly’s long purple hair lashing violently. She felt Poppandacorn almost starting to float like a balloon tugging at her leg.
She looked at BAAL. The demon remained motionless, the sphere on his face reflecting all the chaos of the gale, as if he were merely watching, indifferent.
Then Bylly pressed another key on the keyboard of light, and the wind stopped at once.
The fog began to sink slowly. Americ-Ana lifted her face and looked up. She saw a beam of white light cutting through the gray sky of that Seractcube. Little by little, the beam began to unfold into colors, transforming into a rainbow that spanned the entire ceiling of that cubic space.
"Look, Mommy, how beautiful. Red little shoes," Poppandacorn said, pointing.
Americ-Ana followed the direction of his finger and saw, farther ahead, a pair of red, gleaming shoes resting on the ground as if they had just fallen from somewhere. They looked as though they were made of ruby.
"Mommy, a little dog. Let’s keep him," Poppandacorn suddenly exclaimed, and took off at a sprint.
"No! Wait, Poppa!" Americ-Ana tried to call out, but it was already too late. Poppandacorn was already running in circles, playing and chasing after a small, fluffy dog that bounced through the low-lying mist.
"Come here, boy," Wwwyye said, crouching to pick the little dog up in her arms. She lifted him, ready to hand him to Poppandacorn, but before she did, her eyes caught on the collar around the animal’s neck. "Wait. Toto?"
Bylly stepped forward.
"Exactly. This is Toto, fluffy."
Astyam came closer, still holding Antichrist.
"Don’t tell me those red shoes are Dorothy’s. Are they?" he asked.
"Exactly, fluffy," Bylly replied, letting out a light laugh.
Wwwyye handed the little dog to Poppandacorn, who immediately began petting him with enthusiasm, as if he were already part of the family.
"Pay attention, fluffy," Bylly resumed, pulling everyone’s focus back. "We’re going to make a Seractcube worthy of Parys Bloodpure. We’ll do this in parts. First, we will use, against Ms. Bloodpure, the songs from the album 'The Dark Side Of The Moon,' by the band Pink Floyd."
"That’s so cool!" Wwwyye exclaimed, excited.
"Nice!" Astyam commented, smiling.
"But what does that album have to do with The Wizard of Oz, Bylly?" Americ-Ana asked. She pressed the two parts of BAAL’s seal against her chest, feeling that her question was the beginning of something even bigger, something she did not yet fully understand.
Bylly smiled faintly.
"Everything, fluffy," she answered. "In THE-IMPERIUM this isn’t theory, it’s protocol. The album 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' and the film 'The Wizard of Oz' synchronize in a ritual way. Together, they form five great Portals of Synchrony. And in each of those portals, one or two of the 7 Laws of the Universe ignite at the same time."
Wwwyye raised her hand, still holding the pink top hat that had almost flown away.
"Are you saying that theory, that if you put on the film 'The Wizard of Oz' at the moment the lion roars, and start playing the album 'The Dark Side Of The Moon,' there’s a synchrony, and that it became an official subject in THE-IMPERIUM?" she asked. "Like… is it canon?"
"Exactly, fluffy," Bylly replied, laughing. "Rabbis, engineers, data mages, everyone has tested it already. Start the album at the right moment, align the timings… the images and the music dance together. Always the same way. That is ritual synchrony. That is Law."
Astyam spritzed the nasal spray into one nostril, sniffed, and adjusted Antichrist more securely in his arms.
"So this training is based on an epic film and an epic band," he murmured. "I like it."
Poppandacorn raised a finger.
"Poppa wants to file an official complaint," he said. "Why was Poppa never invited to watch this epic film with epic band, if this is so important to the Universe?"
"Because until yesterday you were just a little teddy with no local memory, Poppandacorn," Wwwyye teased, giving Poppandacorn a light flick on the forehead.
Poppandacorn put his paws on his hips.
"Even so, Poppa has vested rights," he shot back, and then hugged Toto with melodrama. "At least Poppa has Toto."
BAAL remained motionless, the sphere on his face reflecting the rainbow, the red shoes, and the little dog, as if it were all just another datum in an ocean of ancient information.
Bylly returned to typing on the keyboard of light.
"At LEVEL THREE, fluffy, what happens is this," she explained, looking at Americ-Ana. "You and Parys Bloodpure will build Seractcubes for each other. Inside Parys’s Seractcube, you, Wwwyye, Astyam, and Poppandacorn will have to find the parts of the seal of the demon RONOVE, her demon. Inside the Seractcube we’re building now, Parys Bloodpure will have to find the parts of the seal of your demon, BAAL."
Americ-Ana held the two parts of the seal even tighter against her chest.
"If Parys Bloodpure finds all the parts of BAAL’s seal and crosses the finish line first, she wins your seal, fluffy," Bylly continued. "You lose BAAL. And with him, you lose all the favors tied to that seal. But if you enter Parys’s Seractcube, find all the parts of RONOVE’s seal, and cross the finish line before her, you win. RONOVE becomes yours, and Parys loses the seal and all its privileges."
"So… it’s literally the seal at stake," Astyam summed up.
"Literally, fluffy," Bylly confirmed. "That’s why we need each Seractcube we build here to be as difficult as, or more difficult than, splitting everything into seven small, weak Seractcubes. We’re going to make five Seractcubes, but each one carrying the weight of one Law… or two."
She looked up at the rainbow above them.
"We begin with the Portal you’ve already seen ignite in here: the 'Great Gig in the Sky' Portal, with the tornado."
The wind had stopped, but the memory of the gale still seemed to vibrate in the air. Americ-Ana looked at the beam of light now spread into colors, at the red shoes, and at Toto in Poppandacorn’s arms. All of it felt like a coded warning.
"First, the Law of Vibration," Bylly said.
She typed a specific sequence on the keyboard of light. Before them, a glyph appeared, made of wavy lines, as if it had been drawn with sound. At its center, in luminous letters, a single word appeared:
VIBRATION
In that same instant, the floor of the Seractcube began to tremble in gentle waves, as if someone had thrown an invisible stone into the center of that cubic space. The mist rose in concentric rings, lifting and sinking in different rhythms.
"Everything vibrates, fluffy," Bylly explained, walking slowly around the glyph. "Nothing is truly still. Not matter, not mind, not emotions. The tornado is simply vibration taken to an extreme. The air spinning, the house spinning, the world spinning. And the music in 'The Great Gig in the Sky' is pure vibration in the form of a scream. Voice, breath, a body in despair, everything oscillating."
Poppandacorn squeezed Toto tightly, feeling the floor tremble beneath his little feet.
"Mommy, Poppa’s internal system is receiving too many vibrations," he warned. "If it increases any more, Poppa will vibrate Poppa’s soda pee right out."
Wwwyye laughed.
"If he pees soda on the Seractcube floor, does that count as an offering?" she asked.
"No, fluffy," Bylly replied, without losing focus. "But it would be an intriguing contribution to statistical analysis."
Astyam spritzed the nasal spray into his nose again.
"And how is Parys going to 'see' Vibration in there?" Americ-Ana wanted to know. "She won’t see the word written in the air."
"She won’t," Bylly agreed. "In the real game, she won’t see 'VIBRATION' written anywhere. She will see only a setting, situations, obstacles. But everything in there will obey the Law of Vibration. The riddles will depend on noticing what is truly moving, even when it seems still. Sounds that change the shape of the environment. Things that only reveal themselves when you alter the rhythm, or the intensity, or your very breathing."
She gestured toward the glyph.
"Americ-Ana fluffy, hand over the first part of BAAL’s seal."
Americ-Ana opened her hand, revealing one of the seal fragments. It gleamed like a piece of sigil torn from a larger circle.
"Place it on this insignia," Bylly instructed.
Americ-Ana touched the fragment to the VIBRATION glyph. The piece of seal dissolved into particles of golden light, which spread through the wavy lines and were absorbed by them. The glyph vibrated more strongly, until a point of light broke free and took shape before them all: a new Seractcube, smaller, the size of a soccer ball, floating at the level of Bylly’s face.
"Done," Bylly said. "The Law of Vibration is sealed into the first Seractcube Parys will have to face. One part of BAAL’s seal is already encoded in there."
She typed again on the keyboard, and the VIBRATION glyph remained in the air, but now with a deeper glow, as if it carried a secret.
"Now, the second Law of this same Portal," Bylly announced. "The Law of Polarity."
The lights inside the main Seractcube shifted. A line of light cut across the space, dividing the environment into two sides. On the left, the mist became almost still, heavy, slow. On the right, the mist continued to move, turning faintly, like a distant echo of the gale they had just faced. The rainbow on the ceiling split as well: on one side, cooler tones; on the other, warm colors, almost incendiary.
"The Law of Polarity says everything has two sides, fluffy," Bylly explained. "Day and night. Calm and chaos. Black-and-white Kansas and the colorful world of Oz. The tornado is the bridge between two poles. The quiet house and the flying house. Ordinary life and the risk of dying. The same force that destroys is the one that carries Dorothy into another world."
"So it’s like… either you’re the sweet little country girl or the witch who flies around cursing everyone on a broom," Wwwyye commented.
"Or you’re a normal student or a lunatic who agrees to play at LEVEL THREE," Astyam added.
"Or you’re Mommy before Poppa or Mommy after Poppa," Poppandacorn concluded, proudly.
Americ-Ana felt a chill run through her. In a way, she herself was a living example of that Law. The girl lost in the world, an immigrant, homeless… and now the player who made a pact with a demon and wagered seals in a game.
"In 'The Great Gig in the Sky,' polarity shows up as well," Bylly went on. "Life and death. Screams and silence. Fear and surrender. The music leaps between emotional extremes, just as the tornado carries Dorothy from one extreme of reality to another. When Parys is inside this Seractcube, she will be pushed, constantly, to choose one side, and then another, and another, until she realizes the poles are faces of the same thing."
She typed another command. A new glyph appeared in the air, made of straight lines crossing at precise angles. At its center, the word:
POLARITY
"Americ-Ana, fluffy, hand over the second part of BAAL’s seal."
Americ-Ana opened her hand again and showed the other fragment. It seemed to vibrate at two different frequencies, as if it carried two choices at the same time.
"Place it on this insignia," Bylly asked.
Americ-Ana touched the fragment to the POLARITY glyph. The piece of seal dissolved into light as well and was absorbed by the symbol. The glyph flared bright, and another thread of light broke free, connecting itself to the same small Seractcube that was already floating beside Bylly.
The soccer-ball-sized Seractcube spun once in the air. For a brief instant, Americ-Ana had the impression she could see, reflected on its surface, the shadow of a tornado and the trace of a rainbow.
"Now it’s complete, fluffy," Bylly declared. "Parys Bloodpure’s first Seractcube is defined. Inside it, the Law of Vibration and the Law of Polarity will be hidden in the music, in the setting, and in the riddles. And along with them, two parts of BAAL’s seal waiting to be taken… or defended."
Poppandacorn raised his little hand.
"Poppa records that Poppa’s internal system approves this combination," he announced. "But Poppa also records that Poppa is already afraid of Parys."
"Welcome to the club, Poppa," Americ-Ana murmured, still hugging the emptiness where she had held the fragments before, feeling that with each new explanation, the KING MatNat game became less theoretical… and far more practical and real.
The small Seractcube kept spinning in the air beside Bylly, carrying in silence the Law of Vibration and the Law of Polarity.
"So this is Parys’s first Seractcube," Americ-Ana thought out loud. "She’ll have to cross a tornado to get two parts of BAAL’s seal."
"That’s right, fluffy," Bylly confirmed, turning her attention back to the keyboard of light. "Now we’ll build the second."
She typed a new sequence. The lights inside the great main Seractcube shifted again. The floor settled, the rainbow overhead remained, but ahead of them something different appeared: a door.
It was a tall, simple door, with a sharply defined rectangular frame. To the left, everything around it looked even more washed out, almost black-and-white. To the right, through the crack of the door, intense colors leaked out, as if on the other side there were a world exaggeratedly alive, saturated.
A soft metallic sound began to echo through the Seractcube. First a dry click, then the clink of coins falling, then something like the opening and closing of a cash register. In the background, as if coming from very far away, a rhythm began to settle in, measured, insistent.
"Portal number two," Bylly announced. "Song: 'Money.' Door to a colorful Oz. The Law of Correspondence."
Wwwyye raised an eyebrow.
"So the second portal is literally money and a magic door," she commented. "Sounds like real life. Rich Patrons opening doors for whoever they want."
"And that is exactly why this portal matters for the KING MatNat Games," Bylly replied, amused. "The Law of Correspondence governs everything that exists between inside and outside, high and low, material and symbolic. As above, so below. As within, so without. What is in the mind is reflected in the world. What is in the world returns a mirror to the mind."
The sound of coins grew a little stronger, but without becoming unpleasant. The door ahead of them pulsed with light, as if it were waiting for someone to turn the knob.
"In the film, fluffy, the passage from Kansas to Oz marks a shift in tones," Bylly continued. "Black-and-white to color. Gray to saturation. But Dorothy remains Dorothy. What changed was the way the world around her mirrors what is within."
Astyam tightened his hold on Antichrist, who yawned, indifferent to the conversation.
"So it’s not just a visual trick," Astyam commented. "It’s a mirror of her state. A more exaggerated world to show what was already in there."
"Exactly, fluffy," Bylly nodded. "And 'Money' steps into the scene through another kind of door. The door of value. The song begins with the sound of a cash register. A counting rhythm. A price rhythm. But behind it, there is always the same question: what are you really trying to buy? Safety? Power? Attention? Love?"
"Poppa understood," Poppandacorn declared, hugging Toto more tightly. "If Poppa had a lot of money, Poppa would buy many Totos and many Mommies. I mean, only one Mommy, but many copies of Mommy to hug."
"That’s terrifying, Poppandacorn," Wwwyye commented, laughing. "But it fits you."
Americ-Ana watched the door closely. The black-and-white side felt far too familiar. The colorful side, on the other hand, had something exaggerated about it, like those dreams that are beautiful and threatening at the same time.
"So the Correspondence here is between worlds and between values," Americ-Ana ventured. "Kansas and Oz. Little and much. Black-and-white and color. What I have inside and what I try to buy outside."
"Yes," Bylly replied. "In Parys’s second Seractcube, everything she does on one side of the setting will have a reflection on the other. Every choice will alter the other side of the door. Every action that seems small will have an echo somewhere. The Law of Correspondence guarantees that. She will need to understand that what she tries to control outside is a direct reflection of what is happening inside. If she doesn’t see that, she’ll get lost."
She went back to typing on the keyboard of light. A new glyph was born in the air, now made of two mirrored halves. They looked like two overlapping circles, one above and one below, linked by a vertical line. At the center, the letters appeared:
CORRESPONDENCE
The glyph blinked once. As it glowed, the door ahead of them became even sharper. The region on the left looked even more washed out. On the right, the colors seemed to almost scream.
"That is the insignia of Correspondence, fluffy," Bylly explained. "What is above speaks with what is below. What is within speaks with what is without."
Poppandacorn tilted his head.
"Poppa has a technical question," he said. "Is Correspondence the same thing as mail? Because Poppa can send a letter to Parys saying she already lost."
"No, Poppa," Americ-Ana replied, despite the tension. "Not that kind of correspondence."
"But I liked the letter idea," Wwwyye commented. "An anonymous letter written like this: 'Dear Parys, life returns everything. Signed, the Law of Correspondence.'"
Astyam laughed under his breath and had a small sneezing fit, interrupted by another spritz of nasal spray.
Bylly stepped closer to Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, ask BAAL for the third part of the seal," she said.
Americ-Ana took a deep breath and looked at BAAL. The sphere on the demon’s face reflected the door, half washed out, half colored. She raised her hand.
"BAAL, I need the third part of your seal," she said, firmly.
The demon lifted his palm. Above it, the full shape of the seal appeared for an instant, like a circle of dark light, and then fragmented again. From within that circle, a third fragment broke away, shining with a light slightly different from the previous ones, as if it carried two shades at once.
The fragment floated to Americ-Ana. She extended her hand and received it carefully, feeling the same symbolic weight as the other parts.
"Place it on the insignia of Correspondence," Bylly instructed.
Americ-Ana stepped toward the CORRESPONDENCE glyph. The fragment seemed to vibrate as it drew near the symbol, as if it recognized the place where it belonged. She pressed the fragment to the insignia.
Immediately, the piece of seal dissolved into sparks of golden and silvery light, which were drawn into the lines of the glyph. The two mirrored circles flared, one upward, the other downward. Then a thread of light broke free from it and flew to an empty point beside the first small Seractcube.
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A new Seractcube appeared, the size of a soccer ball, floating beside the first. For an instant, its surface reflected the door and then, in the next beat, the face of Parys Bloodpure, as if the system already knew for whom that challenge was being built.
"Done, fluffy," Bylly said. "Parys Bloodpure’s second Seractcube is defined. Inside it, the Law of Correspondence will be hidden in her choices, in the doors she opens or closes, in the relationships between one side of the setting and the other. And along with that, the third part of BAAL’s seal will be waiting, ready to be claimed… or lost."
Poppandacorn lifted Toto high, as if he wanted to present him to the new Seractcube.
"Poppa records that Poppa thinks this is very unfair," he declared. "Because while Parys runs after a seal, Poppa only runs after a dog."
"Some of us have more important missions than others," Wwwyye said, giving Poppandacorn a light pat on the shoulder. "You’re doing yours very well."
Americ-Ana watched the two small Seractcubes aligned in the air. In one, Vibration and Polarity. In the other, Correspondence. The feeling was that she was seeing, for the first time, the invisible board that governed survival itself within the KING MatNat Games. And there was something, in the way the door glowed, that made her understand that from then on, everything would be a matter of what mirrors what. And of who crosses the door first.
The two small Seractcubes floated side by side around Bylly, like two newborn planets in orbit. One carried Vibration and Polarity. The other, Correspondence.
Bylly watched them for a moment, as if checking a job well done, and then went back to typing on the keyboard of light.
"Now, fluffy, we move on to the third Portal," she announced. "The Portal of the mind. Song: 'Brain Damage.' The Scarecrow. The Law of Mentalism."
The lights around them shifted again.
The floor of the Seractcube began to change. The mist drew back, making room for something like a patchy, ill-kept field of grass, cut into crooked rectangles. In the distance, a simple fence appeared, with a few wooden posts leaning. On one of them, pinned by the arms, there was a scarecrow.
It was a thin figure made of straw, dressed in old clothes and wearing a lopsided hat. Its face was only a sackcloth bag with no defined features. Even so, there was something strangely alive in the way its body moved in the nonexistent wind, as if it were trying to pay attention to them.
A soft sound rose, as if it were coming from very far away. It wasn’t the full song, but fragments: a slow rhythm, a few loose notes, a voice almost whispering about someone who didn’t seem quite right in the head. The word "brain" echoed without being said outright. The sensation was of being on the verge of hearing a secret that was not meant to be heard.
"This is the third Portal of Synchrony, fluffy," Bylly explained. "When 'Brain Damage' meets the Scarecrow who says he has no brain."
Wwwyye folded her arms, staring at the scarecrow.
"I relate," she said. "Officially brainless, unofficially full of opinions."
Astyam sniffed, spritzed the nasal spray into his nose, and adjusted Antichrist, who was now staring at the scarecrow with the typical curiosity of a little fox that doesn’t know whether something is an animal, a plant, or a problem.
"So this Portal is about madness?" Astyam asked.
"About mind, before anything else," Bylly corrected, calmly. "The Law of Mentalism, fluffy. The first of the 7 Laws of the Universe. It says everything is mind. That the entire Universe, ultimately, is a vast mental field. Thoughts, images, beliefs, fears, memories… all of that shapes the way you see reality. And, often, reality itself responds to what is happening in here."
She touched her own temple.
"In 'Brain Damage,' the music speaks of a mind that slips, that can’t endure, that is called mad," she went on. "And in the Scarecrow, we have someone who says he has no brain, yet thinks, speaks, desires, fears fire, dreams of being more. He is a living monument to contradiction: he says he has no mind, but he is pure mind in motion."
Poppandacorn hugged Toto tighter. Toto twitched his nose, sniffing at nothing.
"Poppa has a very serious question," he announced. "If the Scarecrow has no brain, how does he know he has no brain? Who is it that thinks that for him?"
Wwwyye laughed out loud.
"See? That’s exactly what she’s talking about," she said. "That’s the kind of question that drives philosophy professors insane."
Americ-Ana looked at the scarecrow closely. There was something sad in that figure hanging there, something that reminded her of people who had spent her whole life repeating to her what she could or could not think, what she was allowed or forbidden to believe. And when she finally dared to think differently, they said she was wrong, and that she had gone mad.
"So Mentalism is that?" Americ-Ana asked. "The idea that what is in my mind changes everything I see outside?"
"Exactly, fluffy," Bylly confirmed. "In the 'Brain Damage' plus Scarecrow Portal, what is at stake is the ability to perceive that the reality you face is, in part, a reflection of what is happening inside you. The voices you hear. The phrases that repeat. The images that haunt you. When Parys is inside the third Seractcube, nothing in there will be merely physical. Things will respond to what she thinks, fears, and believes."
She returned to typing on the keyboard of light.
Before them, a new glyph began to draw itself in the air. It was a circle, within which a figure formed that resembled a stylized brain, crossed by thin lines of light like synapses. At its center, the letters appeared, clear:
MENTALISM
The glyph pulsed once, and for an instant, the scarecrow seemed to react, tilting its head slightly to the side, as if it had heard its own name.
"That is the insignia of Mentalism, fluffy," Bylly explained. "Here, mind comes first. If Parys enters this Seractcube believing she is in absolute control, the setting will answer by showing the opposite. If she believes she is being driven mad, the trials will adjust to reinforce that impression. Until the moment she realizes the true battlefield is the mind itself. And that if she learns to steer the mind, she can steer everything else."
Astyam looked at the scarecrow once more.
"So the Scarecrow doesn’t need a new brain," he commented. "He needs to realize he already thinks, even without the head he believes he’s supposed to have."
"That’s an elegant way to put it, fluffy," Bylly agreed.
Poppandacorn raised his little hand.
"Poppa has another serious doubt," he said. "If the Universe is a giant mind, then is Poppa a cute thought?"
"Probably a thought that had way too much sugar," Wwwyye shot back. "But yes, cutie."
BAAL remained motionless, but in the sphere that served as his face, the scarecrow’s reflection seemed to duplicate itself endlessly, as if the image of that figure were only one more ancient symbol the demon had already seen in other worlds, in other minds.
Bylly turned to Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, now ask BAAL for the fourth part of the seal," she said.
Americ-Ana took a deep breath. She had already done it twice, but the feeling was no less solemn. She turned to BAAL.
"BAAL, I need the fourth part of your seal," she said.
The demon raised his hand again. The full circle of the seal appeared above his palm and fragmented once more. A new fragment broke away, unlike the others, with tiny sparks of light that seemed to blink, as if imitating thoughts that flare and fade.
The fragment floated to Americ-Ana. She extended her hand and received it. For a second, she had the strange sensation that this piece weighed less than the others, yet made more noise inside her. Like an insistent thought that refuses to go away.
"Place it on the insignia of Mentalism," Bylly instructed.
Americ-Ana brought the fragment close to the MENTALISM glyph. The piece of seal began to vibrate, as if it were recognizing familiar territory. The moment it touched the glyph, it dissolved into countless points of light that ran along the lines of the stylized brain, igniting every synapse drawn there.
The glyph flared with intensity, and a thread of light broke free, flying to the side of the other two small Seractcubes.
A third Seractcube was born there, the size of a soccer ball, floating beside the others. For an instant, its surface reflected the scarecrow’s face. The next instant, it reflected Parys Bloodpure’s face. And then, for a fraction of a second, it reflected Americ-Ana’s face, as if silently asking: on which mind, after all, will this battle depend?
"Now we have Parys Bloodpure’s third Seractcube defined," Bylly announced. "Inside it, the Law of Mentalism will be the central axis. Thoughts will alter paths. Fears will alter risks. Beliefs will open or close roads. And somewhere in there, the fourth part of BAAL’s seal will be hidden, waiting to see who thinks better: Parys… or the game itself."
Poppandacorn stepped closer to the three aligned Seractcubes, still hugging Toto.
"Poppa records that Poppa’s internal system is officially confused," he declared. "But Poppa also records that if the mind rules everything, then Mommy needs to think very hard that Mommy already won."
Americ-Ana smiled faintly, despite the knot in her stomach.
"I’m trying, Poppa," she replied. "Even if, sometimes, my mind still thinks I don’t have the brain for this."
"Then that is precisely why you are perfect for this Portal, fluffy," Bylly said gently. "Those who doubt their own head are often the ones who use it the most. And that, in KING MatNat, can be the difference between being a piece… or being a player."
The three small Seractcubes floated side by side now, like a constellation still under construction. Each of them emitted its own glow, a subtly different hue, as if each one breathed a different kind of Law.
Bylly watched the formation for a few seconds, then returned to typing on the keyboard of light.
"Fluffy, we move on to the fourth Portal," she announced. "The Portal of the heart. Song: 'Eclipse.' The Tin Man. The Law of Gender, or of Generation."
The setting of the great Seractcube began to shift once again.
The crooked grass and the scarecrow’s fence dissolved into mist until they vanished. In their place, something like a forest clearing emerged. Trees with dark trunks rose all around, forming a kind of natural circle. At the center, the ground looked harder, as if there were a path of packed earth mixed with pieces of rusted metal.
Little by little, from those pieces of metal, the figure appeared.
It was the Tin Man.
Not an exact replica of the film, but his essence: an entire body made of metal plates, joints, rivets, and articulations. The chest, however, was marked by a hollow circle, as if something were missing there. Beside him, hanging from an invisible hook, a small metallic heart gleamed, too polished to be mere ornament.
A low sound began to echo through the space.
Thump.
Silence.
Thump.
Silence.
It was a slow heartbeat, but constant. Beneath the sound, something recalled the end of an album, as if all the previous songs had been compressed into a single insistent pulse.
"This is the 'Eclipse' Portal plus the Tin Man’s heart," Bylly explained. "The end of the album. The heartbeat. And the character who swears he doesn’t have one."
Wwwyye put her hands on her hips, eyeing the Tin Man with a critical look.
"A man saying he has no heart," she commented. "Classic."
"That’s not the kind of commentary we’re studying, fluffy," Bylly replied, though there was a smile at the corner of her lips.
Astyam sniffed, spritzed the nasal spray into his nose, and adjusted Antichrist in his arms. The little fox immediately took interest in the shine of the metal heart hanging there, ears twitching as if it wanted to leap at it.
"What exactly is the Law here?" Astyam asked. "Just the heart? Or is there more?"
"The Law of Gender, or of Generation," Bylly replied, stepping a little closer to the Tin Man. "This Law says that everything that exists carries a generating principle within itself. Active and receptive, emitter and vessel, seed and womb, idea and form. We are not talking about human gender, fluffy, but a cosmic principle that makes things be born. Nothing is created unless these two aspects meet."
She lifted her eyes to the beam of light that still cut across the top of the Seractcube, the same one that had become a rainbow before.
"In 'Eclipse,' the album reaches its end by gathering everything," she continued. "The lyrics speak of everything that exists under the sun, while the moon still casts shadow. It is the meeting of opposites, the sum of all parts, the cycle that closes so another can begin. And the heartbeat at the end is life’s signature. It is the Universe saying: I keep generating."
Americ-Ana looked back at the Tin Man. The hollow in his chest seemed to ache more than if there had been a real wound there.
"And the Tin Man?" she asked. "What does he have to do with this?"
"He is the perfect symbol of someone who thinks he cannot generate anything," Bylly explained. "He believes he has no heart, so he thinks he cannot love, cannot feel, cannot create bonds. But along the way, he acts like someone who cares. He fears losing his friends, he protects, he vibrates. He is already generating affection, but he believes he cannot. The Law of Gender is in him all the time… he is the one who doesn’t realize it."
Poppandacorn hugged Toto tightly, as if he were protecting the little dog from turning into tin as well.
"Poppa declares Poppa doesn’t trust anyone who says they have no heart," he stated. "Because Poppa has seen a lot of people say that and then cry in secret."
"I don't think you know that many people. But, that’s the most sensible thing you’ve said today," Wwwyye commented.
The heartbeat echoed through the space again.
Thump.
In the sphere that served as BAAL’s face, the Tin Man was reflected, the empty chest, the hanging heart, the rainbow in the background. The image multiplied at different angles, as if the demon were analyzing the symbol from every facet at once.
"In Parys’s fourth Seractcube, the Law of Gender will appear in this way, fluffy," Bylly resumed. "Situations where something seems sterile, empty, incapable of generating. Yet at the same time, there is a hidden potential there. Emotions she does not admit. Decisions she tries to pretend she does not feel. The more she denies what she feels, the more the setting will lock itself. The more she recognizes what is truly being born within her, the more the doors open."
She went back to typing on the keyboard of light.
A new glyph began to form in the air.
Two semicircular figures moved toward each other, like two arches meeting at the center and forming a kind of luminous almond. Inside that shape, a small shining heart appeared, pulsing in synchrony with the low sound that filled the space. At the center, the letters appeared:
GENDER
The glyph pulsed, keeping time with the heartbeat echoing through the Seractcube.
"That is the insignia of Gender, or of Generation, fluffy," Bylly explained. "The capacity to conceive something and bring it into existence. Ideas, emotions, projects, bonds. When the inner and outer principles meet, something new is born. When they do not… everything remains hollow."
Americ-Ana felt a subtle tightness in her own chest. She thought of life in Malibu, of obedience to Mrs. Karen, Miss Lily, and Mister Bacon, of everything she had repressed for years. She also thought of everything that, even so, had been born in silence inside her.
"Fluffy, ask BAAL for the fifth part of the seal," Bylly requested.
Americ-Ana turned to the demon once more.
"BAAL, I need the fifth part of your seal," she said.
The demon raised his hand. The full circle of the seal appeared again and, as before, fragmented. A new piece broke away, moving toward Americ-Ana. This fragment, however, had something different about it: it pulsed. A small light expanded and contracted within it, like a tiny beating heart.
When the fragment touched Americ-Ana’s palm, she felt a gentle vibration, almost a sting, as if it were answering the rhythm of the heartbeats echoing in the air.
"Place it on the insignia of Gender, fluffy," Bylly instructed.
Americ-Ana stepped up to the GENDER glyph. As she drew nearer, the fragment in her hand pulsed in the same rhythm as the symbol.
She pressed the piece of seal to the insignia.
The fragment burst into a thousand points of reddish and golden light, which were drawn into the almond-shaped form at the center of the glyph. The heart in the middle flared, and the heartbeat echoed louder one last time.
Thump.
A thread of light broke free from the glyph and flew to the area where the other three small Seractcubes orbited.
A fourth Seractcube was born there, the size of a soccer ball, floating beside the others. For an instant, its surface reflected the Tin Man’s hollow chest. Then it reflected the small metal heart hanging beside him. After that, those two images fused into one, as if the heart had finally found the right place.
"Now we have Parys Bloodpure’s fourth Seractcube defined," Bylly said. "Inside it, the Law of Gender will test the ability to recognize what is being generated. She will need to admit what she feels, what she desires, what she fears losing. If she tries to push through everything like a tin body without a heart, the setting will choke. If she accepts that something is in gestation within her… the Seractcube opens."
Poppandacorn looked at the four aligned Seractcubes and then at his own chest.
"Poppa reports that Poppa’s heart is functioning perfectly," he declared. "Especially when Mommy is alive, Toto is here, and nobody has snatched BAAL’s seal away from us yet."
"That’s a great metric, Poppandacorn," Astyam commented.
Americ-Ana took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the Seractcubes in the air, even if for now they were nothing more than training models.
"So only one more is left," she said in a low voice, more to herself than to the others.
"Yes, fluffy," Bylly replied, having heard her anyway. "The fifth Seractcube. The one of Time, of Rhythm, of Causes and Effects. The one that will stitch all of this into a single race."
She set her hands over the keyboard of light, fingers suspended, as if she were about to type the next sequence.
"But for now…" she added, looking at the four small Seractcubes. "The heart is already in place."
Bylly’s fingers hovered over the keyboard of light, ready to descend.
"The fifth Seractcube," she repeated, as if naming it were part of the ritual. "The one of Time, of Rhythm, of Cause and Effect. The one that turns all of this into a race, for real."
She typed a new sequence.
The surroundings began to dissolve. The matter that had formed broke apart into particles of light, the Tin Man became only a distant reflection in BAAL’s sphere, and little by little the setting grew simpler. Raw. Familiar.
The ground turned into packed earth, dry, marked by old footprints and wheel tracks. Ahead, a long wooden fence appeared, cutting the horizon in a crooked line. The sky was still, with scattered clouds, without the drama of a storm, but carrying that unsettling feeling of a day that never truly begins.
A little farther on, planted into the soil, a signpost appeared, with three arrows pointing in different directions. On each of them, a word was written in firm letters:
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
A discreet sound began to echo through the Seractcube.
First, a tick-tock, like a wall clock forgotten in some room of the house. Then a light beat, measured, steady, marked. In the background, almost imperceptible, a musical atmosphere that seemed to tell you to breathe, to walk, to run, and at the same time to warn you that time was already past the halfway point.
"Portal five," Bylly announced. "The songs 'Breathe' and 'Time.' Kansas. Fence. Indecision. The sign for past, present, and future. The Laws of Rhythm and of Cause and Effect."
Wwwyye stared at the sign with its arrows, then said:
"Look at that," she said. "That’s literally my life. I have to choose whether I stay in the past, accept the present, or risk the future."
Astyam sniffed, spritzed the spray, and seemed to agree with a simple lift of his eyebrow. Antichrist was now sniffing the dry earth, as if searching for some scent that might help decide which way to go.
Poppandacorn tightened Toto in his arms and looked suspiciously at the sign.
"Poppa’s internal system doesn’t like it when people put choices on signs," he warned. "It always looks like a trap."
Bylly walked until she stood between the fence and the signpost.
"The Law of Rhythm, fluffy," she began. "It says everything moves in cycles. Up and down. Back and forth. Closer and farther. There is a tide for everything. Emotions, opportunities, crises, even the faith you have in yourselves. Nothing is an endless straight line. Everything oscillates."
The tick-tock seemed to grow a little clearer. In the background, the suggestion of a distant drum marked an invisible measure. The light inside the Seractcube wavered slightly, like a day sliding from dawn to noon without asking permission.
"'Breathe' and 'Time' speak of that," Bylly continued. "About living as if time were always tomorrow, until you realize many tomorrows are already behind you. About running, running, running without knowing exactly where. About waking up one day and discovering the cycles have passed, whether you were aware of them or not."
She turned her face toward Americ-Ana.
"In LEVEL THREE, Rhythm is everything," she said. "The car, the route, the Seractcube’s time, the timing of choices. If you accelerate too much without thinking, you lose control. If you hesitate too long, you arrive late. Whoever doesn’t understand Rhythm becomes a passenger in their own race."
Wwwyye folded her arms.
"So you’re saying it’s no use just running like a maniac," she commented. "You have to know when to press it, when to ease off, when to let the car carry itself."
"Exactly, fluffy," Bylly confirmed. "Rhythm is the art of not being dragged by the pendulum."
She began to type.
A new glyph formed in the air. It was a sinuous line, like a continuous wave, swaying from side to side. At the highs and lows, small points of light marked the crest and the trough, as if indicating the extremes of the tides. At the center of the shape, the word appeared:
RHYTHM
The glyph began to pulse, rising and falling, as if it were breathing.
"The Law of Rhythm guarantees that everything returns, fluffy," Bylly explained. "Crises return, opportunities return, fears return. If you don’t know that, you suffer at every swing. If you do know it, you ride the motion. In Parys’s fifth Seractcube, the setting will change in cycles. Situations will repeat with small variations. She will have to notice the pattern. If she insists on fighting the tide… she will drown."
Poppandacorn raised his little hand.
"Poppa prefers to surf," he said. "But only if Poppa has a float."
"You are the float, Poppandacorn," Astyam reminded him.
"Then Poppa is safe," Poppandacorn decreed.
Bylly smiled, then raised her hand toward Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, ask BAAL for the sixth part of the seal," she said.
Americ-Ana already knew the way. She turned to the demon, feeling, however, that with each request something was becoming more definitive.
"BAAL, I need the sixth part of your seal," she asked.
The full seal floated again above the demon’s hand, fragmenting once more. A new piece broke away, moving toward Americ-Ana. This fragment swayed very clearly, as if rising and falling in a rhythm of its own, keeping time with the tick-tock echoing in the Seractcube.
She received it in her palm.
"Place this fragment on the insignia of Rhythm," Bylly instructed.
Americ-Ana walked to the RHYTHM glyph. As she drew near, the fragment and the symbol began to pulse in perfect synchronization. The moment she pressed the piece of seal to the luminous waves, the fragment crumbled into particles of light, spreading along the sinuous line, lighting it point by point.
The glyph flared, and from within it, a thread of light shot toward an empty point in space, very near the other four small Seractcubes. Nothing was born yet, however. The thread remained there, like a circuit waiting for another cable to close it.
"Now, the second Law of this Portal," Bylly said. "Cause and Effect."
The clock’s tick-tock grew louder. In the space above the sign, small images began to sketch themselves in quick holograms: a stone thrown into a lake and ripples spreading, a door closing and another opening, a foot hesitating before taking a step and, as a consequence, a car arriving late at an invisible finish line.
"The Law of Cause and Effect is simple in form and relentless in outcome," Bylly continued. "Nothing happens by chance. There is no blind luck in THE-IMPERIUM. There are causes you can see and causes you ignore. But they are always there. Every thought, every word, every choice triggers an effect. Sooner or later, the bill comes due."
She pointed to the sign.
"Past, Present, Future," she enumerated. "The past is the field of causes already planted. The present is the moment to act or to omit. The future is where all of it comes back toward you. In the race, it’s crystalline: if you brake too much now, you lose seconds farther ahead. If you get distracted for an instant, you pay for it at the next curve."
Astyam nodded in agreement.
"So LEVEL THREE is literally a machine that collects what’s due," he concluded.
"A fair machine, though," Bylly added. "It returns what you yourself put into it."
She went back to typing.
Another glyph was born beside RHYTHM. This one was formed by a sequence of small circles linked by lines, like a chain. At one end, a larger circle, representing the cause. At the other, a circle that seemed to accumulate the energy of all the previous ones, representing the final effect. At the center, the words appeared:
CAUSE AND EFFECT
The glyph shone with a firm, impressive light.
"In Parys’s fifth Seractcube, every action she takes will produce an echo," Bylly explained. "Maybe not right away. Maybe a few steps later. Maybe in another part of the setting. But everything she does will return. If she tries to destroy something on impulse, she will find out she needed it later. If she spares something out of pity, she may find help in the final stretch. The game will watch and respond."
Poppandacorn wrinkled his nose.
"Poppa prefers the part where the Universe gives gifts for no reason," he commented.
"That’s called illusion, Poppandacorn," Wwwyye replied. "Or marketing."
Bylly laughed softly.
"Fluffy, ask BAAL for the seventh and final part of the seal," she said, turning to Americ-Ana again.
Americ-Ana felt a chill. It was the last one. That made everything more real. Even so, she lifted her chin.
"BAAL, I need the seventh part of your seal," she said.
The demon raised his hand. The full circle appeared for the last time, already greatly diminished by the absence of the parts he had delivered before. What remained split, and the final fragment broke away, coming to Americ-Ana.
This piece seemed denser, more solid. As if it carried, compressed within it, the sum of everything that had come before.
She received it with both hands, instinctively.
"Place it on the insignia of Cause and Effect," Bylly asked.
Americ-Ana stepped toward the CAUSE AND EFFECT glyph. As she drew nearer, the linked circles seemed to align, like gears about to turn for the first time.
She pressed the fragment to the initial part of the luminous chain.
The piece of seal dissolved into light, racing along the sequence of circles, igniting them one by one, until it reached the last. When the light reached the final circle, it burst in a gentle flare, and a second thread of light shot out, joining the first that had come from the RHYTHM glyph.
The two beams met in the air, braided together, and together gave birth to the fifth Seractcube.
It appeared before them all, the size of a soccer ball, floating beside the other four. On its surface, images flickered rapidly: the Kansas sky, a clock, footprints coming and going, the signpost with its three arrows, a car running in circles, a distant finish line.
"Now it’s complete, fluffy," Bylly declared. "Parys Bloodpure’s fifth Seractcube has been defined. Inside it, Rhythm and Cause and Effect will dance together. Time will not stop. Every choice will generate a consequence. And somewhere in that labyrinth, the last two parts of BAAL’s seal will be waiting."
The five Seractcubes aligned, floating in a semicircle around Bylly: the Tornado one, the Door one, the Scarecrow one, the Tin Man one, and the Time one.
Poppandacorn looked at all of them, counting softly on his own fingers.
"One, two, three, four, five…" he murmured. "Mommy… Poppa’s internal system has detected a very serious numerical conflict."
Americ-Ana, still staring at the little cubes, asked without taking her eyes off them:
"What conflict, Poppa?"
"There are seven Laws of the Universe, but Poppa’s system only counted five Seractcubes," he replied, with exaggerated gravity. "Something is wrong with the math of the Cosmos, Mommy."
Bylly laughed.
"There’s no error at all, fluffy," she replied. "Your system is working exactly as it should. There are seven Laws, yes. And there are five Seractcubes as well. Both things are true at the same time."
Poppandacorn’s eyes went wide.
"Poppa does not accept paradoxes," he warned. "Either it’s right, or it’s right… Poppa’s way."
"Then I’ll explain it the Poppandacorn way," Bylly said. She stepped a little closer to the five Seractcubes, raising her hand toward them. "Look closely, fluffy. Each one of these Seractcubes is a complete Portal. But some Portals carry two Laws at the same time, instead of just one. That’s why we can fit seven Laws inside only five cubes."
She pointed to the first Seractcube, where on its surface the shadow of a tornado could still be seen, and the trace of a rainbow cutting across the sky.
"The first Seractcube," she said. "Tornado and 'The Great Gig in the Sky.' Here we placed two Laws: Vibration and Polarity. The wind spinning, the music screaming, the oscillation between calm and chaos. Everything vibrates. Everything has two sides. Two Laws, a single Portal."
Then she pointed to the second Seractcube, which, in flashes, showed the door dividing black-and-white and color.
"The second Seractcube," she continued. "The Door to Oz, the song 'Money.' Here, only one Law: Correspondence. As above, so below. As within, so without. What you value within shows up in the kind of door that opens without."
Next, Bylly extended her hand to the third Seractcube, where the scarecrow still flickered on the cube’s surface, alternating with Parys’s face and, for a second, Americ-Ana’s.
"The third Seractcube," she said. "Scarecrow and 'Brain Damage.' The Law of Mentalism. Everything is mind. The battlefield is internal. What she believes will shape the setting."
Americ-Ana felt her own head grow a little heavier with that memory.
Bylly then pointed to the fourth Seractcube, which reflected the shine of the metal heart and the Tin Man’s hollow chest fusing together.
"The fourth Seractcube," she went on. "Tin Man and 'Eclipse.' The Law of Gender, or of Generation. The capacity to conceive and bring something to life. Emotions, decisions, bonds. The heart he thinks he doesn’t have, yet he acts all the time as if he does."
Finally, she pointed to the fifth Seractcube, where images ran quickly: the fence, the time signpost, footprints coming and going, the still Kansas sky.
"And the fifth Seractcube," she concluded. "Kansas, 'Breathe' and 'Time.' Here, two Laws at once: Rhythm and Cause and Effect. Time doesn’t stop. Everything moves in cycles. Every choice triggers a consequence. It’s the Portal that stitches all the others together, because it’s in it that decisions add up."
She looked back at Poppandacorn.
"Done, fluffy," she said. "Now you can update your internal system. We have five Seractcubes, but inside them are all seven Laws of the Universe. Two Laws in the Tornado. One Law in the Door. One Law in the Scarecrow. One Law in the Tin Man. Two Laws in Time. Five cubes. Seven principles. No wrong math."
Poppandacorn fell silent for a few seconds, staring at the Seractcubes as if he were truly processing invisible data. Then he lifted Toto high, solemn.
"Poppa’s internal system updated successfully," he announced. "The Cosmos is mathematically forgiven."
Wwwyye laughed.
"See? Not even the Universe escapes Poppandacorn’s audit," she commented.
Astyam gave a discreet smile, spritzing the nasal spray into his nose once again.
Americ-Ana stared at the five Seractcubes with a strange sensation in her chest. Now they were no longer loose concepts, pretty words, names of Laws. They were concrete things. Real Portals. Programmed challenges. Each cube represented a portion of the path Parys Bloodpure would have to face… and, indirectly, a mirror of what she herself would have to cross inside the Seractcube Parys had built.
"So that’s it…" Americ-Ana murmured. "These five cubes are the full map of her trial."
"They are the backbone of the game," Bylly confirmed. "Each Seractcube will test a kind of gaze. A kind of courage. A kind of intelligence. And in the end, BAAL’s seal will be scattered across all of them. If Parys manages to gather every fragment and cross the finish line before you… she wins BAAL. If she fails… the seal remains yours."
The five Seractcubes flared together for an instant, as if answering Bylly’s words. Then they returned to their normal glow, turning slowly.
"For now, fluffy, you’ve only seen the skeleton," Bylly added, resting her hands once more over the keyboard of light. "You’ve met the Laws, the Portals, the symbols. The next step will be another stage: to train as if you were in there. To enter those principles not as spectators… but as players."
Americ-Ana swallowed hard.
Poppandacorn, still hugging Toto, tilted his head.
"Poppa records that Poppa is afraid…" he said, in a thread of voice. "But Poppa also records that Poppa is very curious."
"That means you are alive, Poppandacorn, fluffy," Bylly replied, with a gentle smile. "And in KING MatNat, that is already a great beginning."
The Seractcube fell silent.
The five mini-Seractcubes kept floating around Bylly, turning slowly, as if each one held its own breath. The keyboard of light had gone dark for a few seconds, giving that moment a strange pause, almost sacred.
Bylly took a deep breath.
"For today, fluffy, we’ve seen enough," she said, her voice lower. "Before we leave, we need to close what we opened."
She turned to Americ-Ana.
"Fluffy, it’s time to put BAAL away," she explained. "You can’t remain in a state of invocation all the time. Call him back into the KING MatNat sphere."
Americ-Ana nodded, feeling a small shiver at the back of her neck. She turned to the demon, whose silhouette still stood firm, the sphere on his face reflecting the five small cubes.
"BAAL," she called. "I order you to return into the KING MatNat sphere."
The light that wrapped the scaly body began to retract. The sphere on his face shone more intensely and then detached, shrinking in the air. BAAL’s human form came apart into dark fragments of light, which were drawn back into the floating sphere.
The sphere, now alone, shrank until it fit once more in the palm of Americ-Ana’s hand. She took it, feeling the object’s familiar weight. By reflex, she lifted the sphere to eye level.
Inside, in miniature, BAAL’s seal gleamed. Beside it, with opposite light, limpid and clean, the seal of the angel who repelled him.
"Vehuiah…" Americ-Ana murmured, recalling the name. "Vehuiah and Baal."
The two seals seemed to hang inside the sphere, like two celestial bodies in orbit, opposed and inevitably bound.
She brought the sphere back to her neck, fastening the necklace with care, as if she were placing her own heart back where it belonged.
It was then that Poppandacorn let out a scream.
"Mommy!" he shouted. "Toto is bugged!"
Americ-Ana spun around.
Toto was still in Poppandacorn’s arms… but he was starting to glitch.
The edges of the little dog’s body seemed to turn transparent, as if someone were lowering the opacity on an image. First his paws went half-translucent, then his tail. The fur on his snout looked like it was made of smoke.
"No! No! No!" Poppandacorn screamed. "Poppa did not authorize this! Give Poppa’s Toto back!"
He hugged the little dog tightly, but his hands passed through him, as if he were holding a memory.
"Bylly!" Americ-Ana called, distressed. "What is happening to him?"
"Toto is only part of this Seractcube’s simulation, fluffy," Bylly explained, her tone calm, but clearly aware of the impact. "He is an element of the program-scenario. A symbol. The moment we leave, everything that belongs to the Seractcube’s matrix dissolves."
"No!" Poppandacorn insisted, tears already streaming down his big eyes. "Toto is real! Toto belongs to Poppa! Poppa adopted him, Poppa already named him, he’s family! Don’t let him go away, Mommy, please!"
Wwwyye tried to hold back her laughter, but the scene was so tragic and cute that she only lifted a hand to her mouth, caught between comfort and a cackle.
"Calm down, Poppa," Americ-Ana tried to say, stepping closer. "He was made to be a sign, a clue…"
"I don’t want a clue, I want Toto!" Poppandacorn sobbed, the little ears on his panda hood trembling along with him. "Poppa finally got a dog and the Universe took him away in less than a Seractcube!"
Antichrist lifted his head from Astyam’s arms and stared at Poppandacorn with the same look a fox would have while watching another animal’s drama. If he could speak, he would probably say the stage had too much space for only one pet.
Toto, now, was only a faint outline of light in Poppandacorn’s arms. In one last flash, he barked without sound, wagged what was left of his tail, and dissolved into the air, becoming luminous dust that mingled with the mist.
Poppandacorn dropped to his knees.
"Poppa hates the Laws of the Universe!" he shouted, sobbing loudly. "What Law is this that gives Toto and then takes him back?!"
Bylly sighed, with a half-sad smile.
"Maybe it’s a blend of Correspondence with Cause and Effect, fluffy," she said. "But I promise I’ll make it up to you in another way."
Poppandacorn sniffled, inconsolable.
"There is no making up for the loss of a Toto…" he declared dramatically. "Except another Toto."
"Then let’s proceed," Bylly said.
She placed her hands over the keyboard of light again.
"Ready, fluffy?" she asked, looking at all of them.
Americ-Ana held the KING MatNat sphere firmly against her chest. Wwwyye adjusted her pink top hat. Astyam hugged Antichrist, who yawned, not caring much about reality collapsing. Poppandacorn, still crying, hugged his own little paws, feeling Toto’s absence like a hole in his memory.
Bylly pressed the final command.
The entire Seractcube began to spin.
First slowly, then faster. The floor, the gray walls, the rainbow, the five little cubes, everything became a circular streak of light. Americ-Ana felt her stomach flip, as if she were on a roller-coaster drop. The world completed a full 360-degree turn.
In the blink of an eye, the setting reassembled.
They were back in the main garden of the SAMKHYA CELL.
The artificial sky of the Prince Equal One Zero Pyramid shimmered with its false, yet comforting, stars. The light breeze returned, bringing the familiar scent of the cultivated vegetation there. The bunker lights seemed less aggressive than before, perhaps because now Americ-Ana had a reference point for what it meant to be in a truly strange place.
The keyboard of light was no longer in front of Bylly. In its place, Bylly was holding a set of dark-covered books, each one with gold lettering on the cover.
KYBALION
Bylly took the first copy.
"Fluffy, this is the next step," she said, handing the book to Americ-Ana. "KYBALION. Here you will find the seven Laws of the Universe we just programmed into the Seractcubes, described. Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, Gender. I want you to read it. Reread it. Mark it up. Come back to it. Many times."
Americ-Ana received the book carefully, as if she were taking something slightly heavier than paper. She ran her finger over the gold letters, feeling the texture.
Bylly took another copy and handed it to Wwwyye.
"For you too, fluffy," she said. "You’ll need to know these Laws well. It will be useful both to help Americ-Ana and to survive your own pacts."
"An instruction manual for the Universe," Wwwyye commented, weighing the book in her hands. "I like it. Finally, a subject that doesn’t suck."
The third copy went to Astyam.
"For you, fluffy," Bylly said. "You have an observant eye. You’ll notice details the others might let slip."
Astyam held the book with seriousness, as if he were already imagining the notes he could make in the margins.
"I’ll read it," he replied, simply. "Many times."
At last, Bylly took the last copy from the stack.
She turned to Poppandacorn, who still had a tear-wet snout, eyes shining, the expression of someone who had lost the greatest love of his life fifteen minutes after finding it.
"And this one is for you too, Poppandacorn, fluffy," Bylly said, holding the KYBALION out toward him.
Poppandacorn blinked.
"For me?" he asked, his voice rough from crying.
"For you, fluffy," Bylly confirmed. "A whole book just for your internal system. Full of secret wisdom, cosmic principles, and things too important to stay only in human heads."
Poppandacorn stared at the book as if it were a mystical creature. Then, with exaggerated care, he took the KYBALION in both little paws. A slow, enchanted smile spread across his face.
"Mommy…" he said, pulling the book close to his chest. "Poppa got a book. A book that’s only Poppa’s. With gold letters. Poppa’s internal system officially declares this gift is almost as good as Toto."
"Almost?" Wwwyye teased.
"Maybe Toto comes back as knowledge, Poppandacorn," Astyam said, half serious, half joking.
Poppandacorn sniffed the book, like someone smelling a freshly baked cake.
"It smells like Universe," he decreed. "Poppa accepts. Poppa will study. Poppa will memorize all the Laws of the Universe and then Poppa will correct it if the Universe does something wrong again."
Bylly laughed, pleased.
"That is exactly what I expect from you, fluffy," she commented.
She took a few steps back, looking at the four… five, counting Antichrist, with an expression that blended affection and responsibility.
"From now on, the next days will be more intense," she warned. "Over the next days, you’ll have practical training. Americ-Ana, you’ll have driving lessons. We’re going to teach you every part of the track, every curve, every approach to Point ‘X’ in the Solomon Coliseum."
Americ-Ana felt her heart tighten and, at the same time, a spark of determination ignite.
Bylly continued:
"You will study classical music and opera. Especially what Parys Bloodpure likes to use most. You’ll have to recognize patterns, phrases, atmospheres. You’ll learn to listen, not just hear."
Wwwyye lifted the book.
"KYBALION in the morning, opera at night," she commented. "I’m starting to feel like I’m in a cosmic boarding school."
"And whenever it’s necessary, we’ll return inside the training Seractcube," Bylly concluded. "But next time, fluffy, it won’t be only to watch. It will be to simulate. We’re going to make you feel, from the inside, the logic of each Portal. Not as spectators who watch… but as players who are watched by the game."
The garden seemed quieter now, as if it had understood the weight of it all.
Americ-Ana pressed the KYBALION against her chest, the KING MatNat sphere touching the book’s cover. It was as if the two objects together formed an invisible line between what was sacred and what was condemned, between angels and demons, between theory and practice.
Poppandacorn, still hugging the book, looked at her.
"Mommy?" he called.
"Yes, Poppa?" Americ-Ana replied.
"If we study hard enough…" Poppandacorn asked, his big eyes serious. "…do you think you can beat Parys Bloodpure?"
Americ-Ana looked up at the artificial sky, the programmed stars, the cinematic moon she now knew was only another set inside a set. She thought of the tornado, the door, the scarecrow, the Tin Man, the time sign, the heartbeats, the shouted "yes" to an angel reciting verses.
The fear was still there. But over it, something was beginning to organize itself. A kind of inner axis. A rhythm.
"I don’t know yet, Poppa," she said honestly. "But I know I’m going to try until the very last second."
Poppandacorn tightened his hold on the book.
"Poppa records that Poppa will try too," he replied. "And the Universe can deal with that."
Americ-Ana smiled, tired, but in a way that felt like a first step.
Seeing that, Bylly nodded to herself, in silence.
The KING MatNat LEVEL THREE Games had not officially begun yet. But there, in the middle of the SAMKHYA CELL garden, with four KYBALION books freshly handed out and a KING MatNat sphere resting against the chest of a girl who didn’t know how to drive, it was possible to feel, with absolute clarity:
The game had, in fact, already begun.