THE KEYS TO DESTRUCTION
By
J. Niessen
* * * * *
Published By:
The Keys to Destruction
Copyright 2012, 2013 by J. Niessen
Cover Page by J’s Art Emporium, Copyright 2013
Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the material remains in its complete original form.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
*****
Table of Contents:
Part 1: The Keys to Destruction
Part 2: Two Doorways
Part 3: Three Keys to the Kingdom
Part4: Forewarned by a Pre-Ruined World
Part5: Clothing Mother of Time
The Keys to Destruction
Father leaves several keys for me to receive once I’m eighteen. Before their release the set is taken away from the organization appointed to guard them. Maser is hired to retrieve and further watch over them until I come of age.
I’m self raised. My father Solomon traveled to our present day from a land of old, believing I’d be safe here from the destroyers of his era called Djinns. My challenge is to visit the days following his death and avenge his kingdom’s destruction by first unlocking multiple doorways of time. 5 eras reside in the way of our journey. They dwell as independent dimensions, yet devise a route leading to The Dragon Realm. It’s there at this final era that I am to use the beacon key to reclaim father’s lost soul.
Maser and I seek 13 locked doors marked with a small engraving of a 1. Only the holder of the keys can spot each door’s general location, seeing from afar a vertical beam of blue light.
Opening the 1st entrance, I stand before a rift in space. Stars fly past as trails of light then halt as glowing specks. A bright radiance rises at the base of the open doorway.
“This is the moment, Prophecy!” Maser exclaims. “We must step through now!”
Doubt and intrigue dilute my focus, from Maser’s prior explanation:
“Once the sun has fully risen, we will find that the glowing ball of light has transitioned into a moon, with the emergence of an alternate realm. It is a world where the Djinns conquered mankind…when you, Prophecy, needed to prevent them from taking over.”
The strong push from Maser forces me in. For a split second I notice the bright rising glow begin to dim, providing view to an outline of the moon. Stumbling out beyond the limits of that doorway we return to this familiar world of ours, and continue the search.
Accessing these locations throughout this world is trying, while Maser documents our travels. With each door I open the rising star’s brilliance decreases. The 12th door closes behind us with only a few seconds of light remaining.
Hesitating at the last unopened passage, I anticipate a fully risen moon. Now we must travel through the Realm of Dead Humans, where the Djinns rule.
An empty crux blackens out the lunar image. The world of old has turned inside out.
The gatekeeper speaks of an Onyx, which we resolve to seek out. An Onyx is a Djinn that’s chosen to do right by humans. Dyson wears a hooded cloak made from a shadow element, and carries a powerful weapon named Countless. As long as Dyson wields Countless, our Onyx is indestructible. We free him from a solidified state beneath the earth, hidden within a web of tunnels. His eyes expose sincerity, as a trustworthy companion for travel to the next timeline.
Our next destination brings us to the Industrial Wasteland. There we track down a scrapped transport vehicle built like a giant warrior, to shuttle us to the center of Stelron (Earth). Here the machines convert organic material to develop a metalized planet. With repairs made, Maser helms our fighter vessel into battle against war craft called Rangeparts. Crippled robots and mangled attack ships float weightlessly behind us, as we jet to the planet’s core.
Our exit, the Archway of Titans, is guarded by the mech-ruler Théoden. He reigns over Commendaro, a sector of Stelron, and honors the code to serve Mechanics. Mechanics are defined as an intellectual being that imparts objectives for the machines.
Rangeparts fight to keep Mechanics from settling on Stelron. Théoden awards us continued use of our salvaged transport-ship, called NOVAK, which the Commendaro’s service to full restoration, with upgraded performances for our impending departure.
The land is a massive compost pile when we arrive at the next era. The rotted ground sinks below NOVAK’s heavy robotic feet. My crew and I walk out onto the observation deck for a better view of the decaying landscape, where the atmosphere nearly sends me backwards, smelling of sour death.
NOVAK’s navigation system locates a destination. Off in the distance is an iron monument of enormous size. On approach we make out the rusted architect of a standing kelp-bed. Clearing away the sludge at the base, a patina-covered placard reads:
Is It The End Of Everything
So That Everything Can Start Over
“Seek what further information you can find,” I command our mechanical scout. The upper disk-shaped portion of NOVAK separates. We wait in the hovering cabin, as the lower robotic half takes flight and sets out. NOVAK returns with fateful news of this world.
The worship of living creatures becomes a part of the widespread culture. The populace looks to serve the creatures, rather than acknowledging that the lesser beings are here to service mankind. Men lower their rank in this world by giving animals rights above humans. In man’s attempt to engineer substitute means of nourishment, a discovery is made: that plant life has intelligence and holds an ability to communicate. Modified vegetation, adaptable to changing environments, is mass cultivated. Enhanced for superior germination and growth, this improved strain of plant-life abounds beyond control. The worship of lower forms of intelligence distorts sound logic amongst the world’s rulers. Deeming humans as the inferior species, the leaders do nothing to hinder the highly developed botanical threat. Aggressive flora overruns contrasting genus. Without beings to produce sustaining levels of carbon dioxide, the plants too perish.
Traveling to the next timeline, we learn that a war involving bioengineered weapons fated this world. The use of children is first implemented. An advanced virus is administered to the infants through vaccines. While developing in the young, the disease passes to the parents, who then propagate it to other adults. This leads to a high percentage of the population dying.
Next, an illness designed for pets is secretly premixed into animal food supplies. The “Feral Flu” spreads among domesticated breeds. Within the infected their instinctive fear of humans recedes. Gruesome attacks by the creatures fatally sicken the human species.
Finally, a plague introduced into the water supply wipes out plants, insects, and other existing organisms. But not all life perishes. We locate a survived human colony, supply aid by helping to restore balance, and draw closer to our goal. That must have been when I too got sick.
We arrive at my father’s land of old, to find that, strangely, all is peaceful.
Entering his kingdom we’re taken in with open arms.
After a majestic celebration we retreat by night to a grove west of Father’s castle.
I run through a cavern slippery with muck, mindful to keep hold of the cradled object I’ve seized. In a cold sweat, believing a threat persists, I awake from the frightful hallucination. My eyes squint from an overwhelming heat and brilliant glow. The great trees of this orchard are engulfed in flames. Dazz
ling embers lift from the branches, drifting into the night sky.
NOVAK is dismantled. Maser’s head rests on a pike. And Dyson has become a glossy-black statue. My body is transparent.
Have I died, and my spirit’s now cursed to remain here as well? I feel weak, as though still asleep. Heavy thumps beat through the air from overhead, the threat drawing closer. The most horrible, drawn-out scream blares down at me.
A sharp recollection occurs. We never settled in the grove. Father was never even visited. We explored his ruined kingdom before heading here to pass through the last elemental doorway. This place is a go-between to The Dragon Realm. Vital instructions pertaining to this area refine. Here, if you lose focus, your thoughts will be taken over.
NOVAK’s parts rejoin. Dyson’s eyes glow yellow. And Maser’s decapitated body crawls up out of the ground from below the pike, connecting with his lost head.
I try to remember the trees as before, but they continue to burn. A vile solution sprays around me, turning the ground beneath into a shimmering pane of glass.
Opening my cupped hands I recall our horrible venture into the lair of the dragon guardian. We entered hoping to find my father’s lost spirit. What we found was a large, egg-shaped stone which began to glow when the beacon key was drawn close. Now the guardian,