The entrance to the temple was built from large stones. Looking closer, Giannis could see that a single gemstone was embedded cleanly into the center of each. Rubies, sapphires, and chalcedonies shimmered underneath the purple light of the sky. Also on these stones were inscriptions in a language unknown to him, and, given the utterly alien nature of the glyphs, perhaps unknown to any human on Earth.
Giannis thought back to his arrival on this world, his arrival to this dimension. He had come spiralling through a portal which had bridged chasms between both time and space, but who was to say that this was not a parallel Earth which had lived out a destiny different from that of its brother world? He could breathe the air and he was not encumbered by the gravity. In all the most important ways, this place seemed very Earthlike. Could it be…?
Had they journeyed these lengths in order to visit a human?
Now he looked closer at the cloaked figure which had guided him all this way, the figure that was receding further into the temple. Moving quickly to catch up, he wondered: was his companion human like Giannis himself? He remembered trying to grab the figure, and passing through the gaseous dark shape like it didn’t even exist.
Here, the concept of existence was perverted and blasphemed, but Giannis was the intruder in this dimension, and he had to abide by its rules.
They proceeded down a hallway lit by torches spitting a green plasma from their tops. The hooded entity did indeed cast a shadow, but all Giannis could do with this information was to insert it into the nearly-empty framework of fragments that he had gleaned from his surroundings. He now felt very strongly that he would soon be transferred/transmitted/transposed back to his own dimension, once he had gained that final, ultimate knowledge which was his sole reason for being here.
Descending and ascending multiple sets of stairs, taking turns down branching corridors, Giannis was soon hopelessly disoriented. His guide the navigated labyrinthine passages with silent confidence, and in a matter of (minutes? seconds? millennia?), the nature of the temple began to change, subtly at first, then, more prominently. The green torches were replaced with a dull red emanance. The carvings on the wall, doubtlessly containing a multitude of secrets in their cryptic alphabet, grew more numerous. The gemstones present at the entrance gate reappeared, also in greater quantity as well as greater size.
In time they came upon a door fashioned out of a stone, black as blackest night. Carved on it was a caricatured yet humanlike face, with a large nose, large eyes, and a kind of halo surrounding it. Suddenly, Giannis connected the sight in front of him with the vision he had received while journeying to the mountain. This was the place he had been destined to visit.
It was now plainly clear to him: they had traveled to the dwelling place of a god!