“Tim!!” I suddenly heard a voice calling my name and for a moment I wasn’t sure if this was happening in my dream or in reality.

“Tim! Wake up!” the voice called out again and forced me to open my eyes.

I sat up, trying to find out who had called my name. The voice had been so clear and it sounded so familiar as if I had heard it somewhere before, but as I looked around, I saw that there was no one else in the room. Suddenly a thought flashed through my mind: “It’s time”. I stood up, walked to one of the windows and leaned out to look around. I tried to find something that would indicate the time of day, but I couldn’t see anything that would give me a clue. I only knew that it was still night as everything was silent and peaceful outside. The moon was still shining, and the cityscape below was softly illuminated by the lights from the buildings.

“It must be time to go,” I said to myself while I fumbled for my clothes.

After getting dressed, I went to the door, opened it and headed towards the stairs. I went up to the top floor, passing through the landing space of the spaceships. Up here, it was almost as bright as daytime. Behind the landing space, I saw a path leading uphill away from the building. It looked like a stone stairway, similar to the path that had taken me up here earlier. There were no trees around here, I only saw small, waist-high bushes along the path. I was calm and didn’t feel afraid at all, even though I was all alone in the night as the moonlight allowed me to see everything very clearly.

I followed the path past the first hill, and the light from the landing dock disappeared behind the edge of the hill. In front of me, I noticed a cluster of round glowing objects hanging from the bushes. These had to be the Sedecon fruits that Piet had described in the afternoon. I really enjoyed walking through this field that is full of little glowing balls.

“This is so beautiful,” I whispered to myself.

The path gradually led me further up the hill when I noticed a white marble temple at the end of the trail. The temple was supported by large pillars like those of ancient Greek temples. It stood elegantly on the hilltop, about two to three hundred meters ahead of me. It was fully illuminated and seemed to be glowing from the inside. I felt excited in an unexplainable way when I thought of who I was about to meet and somehow tried to imagine how He would look like.

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed spontaneously.

The moment I had said that, I thought of Meen and all the others who had always asked me if I really meant what I said. Now I know why they had all asked that question. I never believed that God really existed, and I only call out His name as a habit, but now it dawned upon me that everyone here on Tuengra, especially the respected leaders of this world, accepted His existence. I felt more excited than I had even been before, and I didn’t know what to do or say. His existence was beyond anyone’s imagination. He was the Creator. He was the Ruler of the universe. I couldn’t suppress my rising excitement and I consciously took every step up that hill very slowly.

Finally, I knew that now I would have to face all of my fears and my hopes as I took the last step and arrived at the top of the hill. The space before me was not very large. It was set on a ridge that allowed me to see the panoramic landscape around me. The temple stood in the middle of the open space, less than fifty meters away. All around the hill, I could clearly see the vast landscape of alternating plains and hills illuminated by the brightly shining moon. The view was breathtaking.

“But those are pyramids!” I said loudly.

In front of me was a field filled with dozens of pyramids of all sizes, and I noticed their shadowy figures cast near and far. It was such a rare and beautiful picture, almost like in a science-fiction movie.

“This must be the doorway that Ruthorn mentioned,” I thought.

I turned to face the temple again and tried to calm down by taking a deep breath. I tried to imagine how the celestial being I was about to meet would look like. He might be sitting on a golden throne waiting for me, His body might be shining brilliantly, and His deep voice would resonate throughout the temple.

I walked slowly towards the temple until I stood at the foot of the stairs that led up to it. There were a dozen more steps before I reached the large stone pillars. Behind the pillars, I could clearly make out the temple with its white stone walls and a small door at the front. A bright light shining through the gap between the door and the ground was visible.

I walked up to the door and pushed it open. The light was so bright that I couldn’t look at it directly. I took another step, breathed deeply and stepped bravely inside. That light was so intense now that I had to squint my eyes and raise my hands to cover them.

Despite the strong light, the temperature inside the hall wasn’t that different from outside. After a moment, my eyes began to adjust to the new environment, but I still could only see white walls. I looked around but the room was completely empty, apart from another small door situated at the opposite side of the entrance. The door itself wasn’t really small, but the high ceiling and the tall walls made it appear tiny.