Beyond the Great Juncture by Wayne Ellis - HTML preview

Chapter 9 - Beyond the Great Juncture

 

Withers slowly saw the world coming back into focus. He strained to see the person who was looking down at him expectantly. Then, he finally took in the details of the scene around him.

“Daniel,” said Arden, “good to see you’re back in the world of the living.”

“Arden?” asked Withers. He noticed the man was no older than his mother had described him to be, fifty years ago.

“Yes,” replied Arden.

“What happened?” asked Withers.

“Gylith almost killed you,” said Arden, but we got you out of there in time. “We've got Dana here, too.”

Withers looked at Kandor, sleeping in the bed beside him, feeling truly blessed that they had such a divine force watching over them.

“At this time, at this juncture you're all too important for us to lose.”

Withers stared at Arden, realising the truth. Arden wasn’t a Caldon agent. He wasn’t a Guardian Coordinator. It was all just a guise. Arden had been an incarnation all along!

Arden opened his hands, palms up. Seven golden stars shot out and penetrated Withers’ body where the seven centres resided.

Withers could suddenly see everything. He could see all the galaxies swirling around Arden's body, as if he was one great universe. He could also see what was going on in space, as well as the plans Gylith had on the ground.

Withers suddenly vomited, overwhelmed by the capacity of these new powers.

“For the first time in the history of the Guardians, you will be the first human to be given temporary power and knowledge of an incarnation,” said Arden. “You are now equipped to challenge the Shadow Master.”

Withers walked over to the bridge of the Caldon cruiser. He stared out at the huge armada of Shadow ships, poised for a potential breech in the realms.

“I’m ready,” said Withers, as the Shadow ships started firing on the Caldon cruisers.

He raised the Oracle and bowed at Arden in respect.

As Withers glanced briefly at the sleeping Kandor, a huge mandala appeared around him and he was gone.

***

Gylith’s army assembled at the foot of valley between the Thal mountain range, at the Great Juncture. This would be the staging point to his invasion of the realms. Completely unaware of what Gylith was about to do, his army prepared for potential weeks of journey to the border of Sylonia.

Gylith signalled for his army to come to a halt. He held up his staff and started rotating it in an anti-clockwise direction towards the Great Juncture. Immediately, a wide black vortex started forming, appearing to draw the army towards it.

Gylith waved his invasion force forward. They had not moved very far when the vortex slowly stopped spinning. Angry, he motioned the army to halt. The vortex changed colour this time. Blackness turned to whiteness, a huge mandala appeared and the rotation started in a clockwise direction.

Suddenly, a lone soldier on a chariot came through. Gylith recognised him as General Nas. He raised his staff as a signal to destroy him, but hesitated as the rest of Nas’s army started emerging through the white spinning vortex. Gylith and the General met in the middle of the opposing forces.

“My dear General, I think you’re greatly out-numbered. Maybe you'd like to consider a surrender,” offered Gylith, motioning to his massive army. Gylith had over five thousand soldiers, while Nas had only five hundred.

“You may have a larger army,” replied General Nas fearlessly, “but every Sylonian soldier is a professional – not some brainwashed zombie.”

The General was true to his word. Two hundred of his soldiers were trained marksmen and sported Stinger bows, sophisticated cross-bows that fired multiple energy bolts. A good marksman could kill up to six enemy at a time, with one volley of bolts.

Outraged at this remark, Gylith raised his staff.

“What are you going to do?” snapped Nas. Beat me with that stick?” Nas pulled a large energy pistol from his uniform. This weapon was a Sylonian proto-type, the first semi-automatic energy weapon made in Udicia. Nas was oblivious to the fact of how deadly his opponent was.

A dark, spinning energy shot out of Gylith's staff and hit the General, who was consumed. He cried out as his body was transformed into a Shadow.

***

Withers opened a mandala several metres from the ground as he descended from space. With his robe flailing out behind him, he flew through the air like Superman. He landed on the ground in the middle of Gylith's soldiers. The force of the landing caused a huge explosion that threw hundreds of Tyronian soldiers into the air.

When the dust cleared, Withers stood in a large crater, his sword held high. Three other Guardians suddenly appeared behind him via separate mandalas, their swords also held high ready for Gylith's wrath.

In a horse-shoe shape behind the Sylonian army, five huge mandalas appeared, one after the other: the Lemarians, Alvernians, Rylosians, Bersians and Varlians.

Withers eyed the armies of his six realms, knowing there were about two thousand soldiers. He wasn't concerned about the shortfall; the quality of the people was more important.

He could see Ulef, Sef, Viler, Remm, Cal and Meln preparing their battalions for battle.

***

Gylith glared at the scene. Not only had he planned to crush the Sylonian army in their realm; he also wanted to cause as much collateral damage there as possible. Then he and his army would storm through the remaining pathetic realms, re-establishing his hold on his dominions. His plan was to ally himself with Varlia, too. That would have doubled his force!

Instead, the Guardians had played their tricks, and he had lost the potential alliance with Varlia. Now, his army had to face not only Varlia, but all the rebels of Udicia. This, without the pleasure of killing the innocents!

He thought of all the rebels being here at the same time. Yes, they’re all here. Let’s finish them all off once and for all! He motioned for his Generals to commence the attack.

When the Tyronians led the charge, the Sylonian marksmen didn't waste any time from the vantage points of their sleek-styled chariots. A wide volley of energy bolts immediately rained down on the first wave of the army.

***

Once again, Agent Meln witnessed the transformation of a normal human being into a Shadow – General Nas. Nas had assumed his position even more arrogantly than his original human form, ready to turn on the very soldiers he helped to inspire. The Shadow Lord was now barking orders at some of Gylith's officers.

“Remm,” called Meln, over his chunky hand-held radio, “prepare to take out the big man with the red eyes and the General's hat.” Meln thought he looked a little comical, like someone out of a funny Gothic movie, but he knew very well how deadly this Shadow was. Gylith was very good at selecting ruthless Lords.

“Red eyes, hat. Oh, got ya!” replied Remm. “Was that Nas?”

“Yes,” said Meln, “you lure him out. I'll engage...”

“Will back you guys up,” crackled Cal over the radio.

“Thanks, Cal,” replied Remm, “I'm going in.”

***

Gylith was standing on a rise with three of his Elite Centurions. He lifted his staff and started turning it in an anti-clockwise direction. A crude dark portal formed in front of him and began turning like an angry storm. Six Shadow dogs shot out of the centre and made their way aggressively towards the Guardians.

The Guardians stood their ground as the Shadow-dogs pounced. Each Guardian's swing of his sword was a perfect horseshoe shape, which sliced through each Shadow dog.

Gylith was so enraged that his form started changing from his usual human appearance into a huge dragon, with large red piercing eyes.

Two huge wings formed, which split into three on each side. On the tip of each winglet, crude heads protruded with their own Shadow identities. 

His three Elite Centurions transformed into Shadow Angels, flew into the air and landed with a crash, roaring at their Guardian adversaries.

***

With Cal covering him from potential attacks, Remm attracted the General's attention by firing a volley of shots at and around his chariot. A few of his newly adopted officers made their way over to Remm's position on several chariots.

From even further afield, Cal, using a high-powered sniper rifle, took out two of Nas's officers before coming under fire himself.

Remm took another one out much the same way, as Meln flew in front of Nas on his chariot with an energy pistol.

“Agent Meln,” said Nas, firing his deadly proto-type pistol. Meln tilted his chariot wildly to avoid being hit, as Nas's pistol blew a large hole in the side of his chariot. This sent it spinning, as the shot destroyed one of the levitation devices. Meln fell to the ground, the chariot spinning along its edge and collecting a group of Tyronian soldiers.

***

Withers spotted a quick way up to where Gylith was transforming. He flew into the air and landed on the closest enemy chariot, knocking the soldiers to the ground. He quickly started jumping from one chariot to the next, swiping any soldier that got in his way. He disengaged any fire that was directed his way.

***

Nas loomed above Meln on his chariot, pointing his gun.

“I remember you,” snarled Nas, “the double-agent.”

“You got that right,” snapped Meln, “you traitor!”

Meln's job had been to send intelligence back to Sylonia about a potential alliance between the Tyronian and Varlian governments. He eventually got hooked up with the Varlian secret service to get close to the President. He didn't know about Shadow Lords then. He wished he had known; he would have popped off the President himself, instead of protecting him.

Nas raised his proto-type pistol and began squeezing the trigger. “Thanks for all that useful information. It's been forwarded to the Master.”

At that moment, Nas's hat flew off, and a large piece from the side of his face went missing. Instead of blood, black goo splattered around his chariot. Cal’s shot had reached its mark.

Meln watched in fascinated horror as the side of Nas's face reformed itself. Nas laughed an evil laugh.

The Rylosian Commander, Viler, came out of the battle and rammed Nas's chariot. Nas fell to the ground, his gun flying.

Meln grabbed Nas's gun and fired the fancy weapon as the General got back on his feet. A large hole appeared at the top of his chest, but immediately started closing over again.

Nas swiped at the gun in Meln's hand and it sailed away. “I'll crush you with my bare hands.” He grabbed Meln by the throat and lifted him up in the air.

Suddenly, Meln heard a loud swooshing sound. A Shadow Angel collided with Nas and both Shadows flew off into the distance.

A Guardian landed with a thud next to him. It was Yarmel, who protected the Realm of Collectivity.

Meln gave Yarmel bewildered look, too stunned to say anything.

***

When Withers finally made it to the rise, the Gylith-Dragon roared at him. All six of the dragon's winglets speared their way towards him, like angry snakes. Shadow heads roared at him from the ends of winglets, and each head started snapping at different parts of Withers’ body. One managed to rip at his pants, but couldn't get its teeth into him.

Withers raised his sword and started swinging it in a very precise and deadly fashion. The heads flew through the air and a few rolled down the hill. The winglets retracted headless, but immediately began re-spawning.

The heads at the ends of the winglets represented Gylith's rule over the six realms, as his three Shadow Angels represented his rule over the three ways.

Withers realised it would take more than chopping off those six heads to bring Gylith down.

They came at him again. This time the winglets transformed into tentacles and bound him up. His sword fell to the ground as each head roared at him at face level. He noticed that each one carried the faces of all the lords who were displaced by the Keepers in the right way.

He put his attention on the Oracle, which transformed itself into a cutting disk. It flew in front of his face, slicing off all the heads. The tentacles released him, and he ran between the Gylith-Dragon’s legs. The Gylith-Dragon tried to snap at him, but Withers managed get underneath the monster.

He directed the Oracle at the belly of the beast. There was a tremendous surge of energy, which threw the Gylith-Dragon into the air.

There was an explosion as the Shadow monster hit the earth. This killed many Tyronian soldiers who were overwhelming Ulef’s, Sef’s and Viler's companies. 

Withers super-jumped down, aiming his sword at Gylith's black heart. But, as he was about to make his deadly plunge, tentacles bound him and threw him into the air. He landed at the entrance of the valley – the Great Juncture.

***

The fight between the Guardians and Shadow Angels still raged. The Guardians were finding their adversaries particularly hard to destroy, but they had devised a clever work-around. Each time they had the advantage, they began throwing the Angels like mortars into any new waves of Tyronian advancements.

***

Withers crawled out of the crater he'd made with his landing, just as the Gylith-Dragon came bounding over the other side of the rise towards him. He felt shell-shocked from the fall and at this moment, wasn't interpreting all of the extra vibrational power that had been bestowed upon him.

He groped for the Oracle, but it wasn't anywhere on him or around him. He put his attention on it and waited for its return, but still nothing came.

The Gylith-Dragon approached like a wolf that had cornered its prey.

“Looking for this?” snarled the Gylith-Dragon,  holding up the Oracle with one of his winglets.

Withers noticed the head that was holding the Oracle was the Shadow Lord from the Realm of Innocence, and it was burning in pain trying to hold it. But Gylith was controlling him. He had little choice.

The Gylith-Dragon roared in the direction of the Great Juncture, and a large dark portal formed. It started spinning in an anti-clockwise direction, and Withers could immediately feel an overwhelming negativity coming from it. The Gylith-Dragon threw the Oracle into the vortex. It was gone!

Withers felt a stab of pain about the loss of the Oracle, but he didn't felt a loss of vibrational power.

Suddenly, the Gylith-Dragon roared and the six spear-shaped winglets shot at Withers, impaling his body with each one.

The Gylith-Dragon lifted Withers up in the air and howled in victory!

Withers’ head lolled to one side as the vortex began to slow down. Gylith glared at the vortex as it began rotating clockwise. Gylith was about to throw the dead Guardian down when he realised he no longer had any power over his wings.

Gylith thought he successfully impaled the Guardian with six spears, but in fact Withers had drawn them into his body. The spear points pierced the six centres, where they resided within the human body.

***

On the battlefield the allies were getting the upper hand. The Tyronian army had lost many of its numbers, thanks to the help of the Guardians, and was now being pushed back towards the valley. In fact, many had deserted, and Sef's company were rounding up prisoners.

The battle between the Guardians and the Shadow Angels ended the moment Withers sacrificed himself to the power of the Great Juncture. Each Guardian sword was making its mark on those foul black hearts.

***

Withers lowered himself to the ground, standing directly in front of the spinning vortex. The Great Juncture started sucking negativity from the realm.

Gylith had made the mistake of throwing the Oracle away, giving Withers the upper hand. Instead of channelling the power through the Oracle, Withers in fact had become the Oracle. He opened his eyes, returning from death. He looked down at his chest and noticed that each one of the spears was now receding.

The black snake-like spears were being turned from black to white and started making their way across to Gylith, who by now had reverted back to his human self. Using the tentacles like ropes, Withers swung Gylith around towards the vortex, holding him over the opening.

“I banish you from the six realms,” said Withers.

“No, you can't!” snarled the Gylith, desperately trying to detach himself.

The tentacles suddenly released their grip on Withers, and Gylith was sucked into the vortex. The intensity of the suction increased after this, and hundreds of Gylith's soldiers came flying over the hill, down into the valley and through the Great Juncture.

Very few of his army remained. They were those who had only been partially infected by the Shadow Master.

***

Feeling drained, Withers walked over the rise and noticed Sef keeping at bay what was left of the Tyronian regime. He and his contingent were poking energy weapons at them to keep them in line.

“Thanks, Sef,” said Withers wearily, “but that won’t be necessary.” He noticed Ulef’s and Viler’s contingents were doing much the same thing. “Drop your weapons. These people are free to go.”

Sef hesitated, but soon realised his error. “They've passed judgment.”

“Yes, they are our friends,” said Withers. He turned to the group. “Are there any officers here?”

A young Sergeant came forward and started walking beside Withers. Withers knew the man had been treated harshly by the Tyronian regime.

“What's your name?”

“Benn, sir.”

“Now walk beside me, Benn,” said Withers. “The Tyronian empire is in dire need of new leaders. Do you think you’re up to it?”

“Yes sir,” said Benn in a military style.

“ ‘Sir’ is fine, but there's no need to feel subservient,” said Withers. “I'm nothing like that tyrant you were working for previously.”

***

Later, Withers stood before the allies in the main chamber of the Tyronian Palace.

“I know this may feel a little weird, convening in what was once the chamber of a ruthless dictator, but at this time, at this juncture, it's very important that we put all those emotions about the empire behind us.”

Withers stared at his audience intently.

“It’s the only way for this transformation to work. The only way. If you continue to dwell in what Udicia once was, it will become that once again.

“I'm sorry I had to say that, but it's important. It will take several years for the transformation to properly establish itself. In this time it's possible for the Shadows to compromise the situation again.

“They were up there in space ready for you to lose this war, ready to increase their empire here and to re-claim worlds that were once theirs. They’re relentless!

“I'm happy to say that because of your ability to detect oppression and embrace collectivity, you were able to defeat them. For Udicia, it’s a new era, and new methods of fighting the Shadows must be adopted.”

Withers made a signal to the other eight Guardians. He and the Guardians arranged for all the forty-three Realm Keepers from the Centauri to form the three ways.

Withers moved along the right way and reunited with Zac, Lena, Tristan, Christophe, Jere, Yuri and Dana, the seven he had had main contact with.

“Thanks, crew. You've done a grand job holding up the realms,” announced Withers, “but I'm sorry to say your time as the Keepers of the Realms has ended.” He looked at Dana. “Feeling better?”

“Much better, thanks to Arden,” replied Dana.

He gazed at the Udician crowd that surrounded the old crew of the Centauri. “I would like to announce the new Keepers.”

After the ceremony, where the old Keepers passed the rings over to the new Keepers, a white-robed, hooded figure appeared at the main entrance. The figure gracefully walked through the assembly of Keepers and stood right at the top of the Great Juncture. The robed figure dropped his hood and raised his arms.

“I am the Great Juncture.”

All the Centauri crew immediately bowed to him, as did the Udician Gurus. Others hesitated, but when they saw Withers bowing to him, they immediately followed suit.

“The Great Juncture has now opened.” Arden turned around and a new realm materialised. The seventh realm appeared as a colourful lotus. On that lotus a beautifully dressed woman stood, adorned with a jewelled headpiece. “Behold the Goddess!”

Then, everyone bowed, including Arden. The hologram disappeared. For a while there was meditative silence.

Arden turned, admiring the new Udicia. He greeted all the Keepers, thanking the old ones and greeting the new. He paid his respect to the other eight Guardians before making his way to Withers.

Withers took one last look at Arden as he approached, taking in all the universe that made up every pore of his powerful being.

“I know. I can't hold this power,” started Withers.

Arden smiled. “We'll just drop it back a little.” He placed his arm on Wither's shoulder. “Now that you've passed the training, you’re the right man for the position of the Tenth Guardian.”

Withers accepted the position gracefully without any ego and bowed. “I accept, my Lord.”

Arden looked at Withers with admiration and put his hands in a praying position, “Hail to the Great Goddess!” He then replaced his hood and walked quickly through the hall and out the door.

Withers felt a pang of loss as if hadn't spent enough time with Arden. However, he knew this was an absurd, selfish human emotion and quickly dismissed it. He knew Arden was always there for him at every moment.

Suddenly a large mandala appeared, and Penni materialised. She appeared disoriented, looking around, confused, before seeing Withers.

“Whoa, Ice!”

Teenagers! They don't take long to figure things out, thought Withers. “Glad you could make it.”

“Uncle, I found your disk,” said Penni, holding up the Oracle.

Withers stared at the Oracle, flawless in design. Although it looked much like any other Oracle owned by a Guardian, he knew this one was previously his.

“It's been bestowed upon you now,” said Withers. “Your time has come.”

Penni looked like she was going burst with joy, but suddenly the importance of his words hit her, and she whispered, “Already?”

“When it comes to divine plans, things are always immediate,” said Withers. “Don't be concerned about fighting the Shadows at this point; there's a long path of learning before then. You'll still need to focus on your schooling first. The Oracle will be just like another subject along the way.”

“Should I meet up with the Keepers?” asked Penni.

“The Keepers won't see you as a leader yet,” replied Withers. “The best thing would be to never talk to them about it.”

“Never?”

“They'll figure it out themselves when the right time comes,” replied Withers. “Anyway, the Oracle will teach you everything you need to know, when you need to know it.”

Penni nodded reluctantly. “OK, Uncle. I can do it.”

“Of course you can, and that's why you've been chosen. I will be there for you when you need me.” Withers looked at the forty-three Keepers and back at Penni.

“Udicia now stands at the beginning of a new era. Peace has finally come to your lands, but for many other worlds out there, the Shadows still reign in terror. Your world has a responsibility to bring that same peace to other worlds.”

“Will they ever be defeated?”

“They've now been pushed back into the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Yes, it's possible that we can eventually defeat them. But, at the end of the day, it's up to us. Human beings must seek the greater good and eventually recognise the Goddess.”