Giannis was unsure how much time had passed, or, indeed, whether any time had passed at all. They had reached the base of the mountain, and from this vantage point, it seemed utterly unscalable. Sheer vertical faces of smooth rock stretched hundreds of feet into the air, and the parts of it that weren’t flat were extremely jagged. At the very pinnacle, almost like a bastion, a white circle with a pure black interior rested in the sky.
“How do we get up?” Giannis asked the hooded, wordless being that had led him, not only here, but to this very dimension. He dreaded how tiring the climb would undoubtedly be, until he realized anew that all his physical needs and sensations had disappeared.
In a gesture that was becoming familiar to Giannis, his guide made a simple beckoning motion with his fingertips. He followed the cloaked entity around the base of the gray mountain. The air was perfectly still, and there was no sound but for the light rustling of the robe of his guide and Giannis’ light, spry footfalls.
In time they came to a sort of doorway, the entrance to a passage that quickly became lost to darkness. The being, breaking his informal vow of silence, muttered a quiet incantation, and suddenly, his hands were aglow with a vibrant blue light. Without further hesitation, he entered the crevice in the rock wall, and Giannis followed.
They walked for a long time, but, again, the passing of time was odd in this dimension, and Giannis did not grow impatient with the amount of “time” their journey was taking. He remembered back to the visions that had so abruptly entered his head, remembered their importance. Soon, the tunnel ended, and they emerged back into the purplish daylight(?). The path continued over the rocks that composed the mountain, although climbing and scrambling over tumbled boulders was easy when Giannis felt neither tiredness nor caution.
The clouds above them seemed to be more intense here. They churned like an endless malestrom, and occasional flashes of lightning could be glimpsed within. The mountain itself seemed to share in this unknown energy, emitting a hum or a whine that was on the very edge of Giannis’ hearing.
They climbed further, getting higher and higher above the ground. Looking over his shoulder, Giannis could see the entire landscape across which he had traveled, but it was as uninteresting as before, and his attention quickly returned to the task of climbing. Just as he was thinking about asking how much longer they had to go, a juvenile question when there were many deeper questions which still needed to be resolved, they scaled a particularly steep boulder and stepped onto a wide, flat plateau.
Giannis immediately recognized the scene from one of his visions. At the center, a temple-like building, engraved with symbols from an unknown language. Above him, stars had begun to shine, and he knew that he was looking at the constellation Taurus from a vantage point wholly removed from that of Earth’s.
There was not much time to ponder these mysteries, as the shadowy being quickly entered the temple, and Giannis followed.