Chapter 1
“This will take you into the Dark Realms, Calana,” said Arden. “On a galactic scale, the Dark Realms have left the Realm of Innocence and are now in the Realm of Creativity.” He opened up his hand, and seven Golden Stars flew toward Calana, penetrating where the seven centres resided in her body.
At first, she was a little surprised, but then she became completely thoughtless, as a wave of new awareness washed through her senses. This was the first time she had received the temporary powers of the Incarnation.
“It's now time for the Guardians to go to the next step. It's time for them to take on the Shadow Masters,” said Arden.
Calana was twenty-seven, with a solid build and brown hair. Born in Varlia, Udicia, she was as patriotic as the rest of her compatriots. She wore a ninja-style uniform with a symbol of the Three Ways woven on her right breast pocket.
“Let's do this,” said Calana. She motioned to Arden. “Open it.”
“Just before you enter, it will rotate anti-clockwise for a few rotations,” said Arden. “This will let you in, undetected. But it will also make you sick.”
“I always come back sick,” said Calana.
Arden conjured up the special Mandala that was able to penetrate the anti-clockwise motion of the Dark Realms. A greyish Mandala started rotating slowly against the opposite spinning forces.
“Quick!” said Arden.
Calana jumped through the Mandala.
Her target was chosen on the basis of the vibrational knowledge received from the Galactic Council. A few select Guardians were chosen to conduct missions into the border regions of the Dark Realms, where several Shadow Masters had recently infiltrated. This was the region between the Transformed Realms and Dark Realms, and was potential ground for expansion of the Dark Realms.
The Galaxy was expected to transform much more quickly than Galaxies had done in the past. So it was important that these Shadow Masters were removed quickly. Also, as they were commencing the transformation of the Realm of Creativity, there was a risk at the Left Way of a significant breach. The planet that was directly in line with that was Pern.
After Daniel Withers was given the seven Golden Stars to defeat Gylith, the Council decided that it was time to empower many Guardians with these new strengths. This would also let the Incarnations put more of their attention on the Shadow Wraiths.
Calana had been trained to handle some overbearing negativity, but nothing had prepared her for her entrance into this world. The planet was called Vorne and it resided on the Right Way in the Realm of Creativity. When she materialised, she vomited violently over the grass.
After regaining her composure, she moved swiftly across the countryside. She knew where the Shadow Master was, because the Oracle was indicating his whereabouts by radiating heat. She was running through the outskirts of a large, regional city. The air was thick with smog, and the houses around looked like they should have been condemned.
She had seen it all before, in varying degrees, across the border regions. The more Shadows on a planet, the more misery, death and destruction.
A vehicle suddenly rounded a corner, its headlights almost blinding her. It braked hard, and several figures jumped out, the doors rising like a lady beetle’s wings.
“Way past curfew,” said one of the soldiers.
She instantly knew, through the Oracle, that these soldiers were under the influence of a Shadow Lord. She threw the Oracle, and the discus made its rounds, knocking the guns out of their hands. She engaged the unarmed soldiers with wild karate kicks and flying punches, before catching the returned discus.
After all was quiet, she looked inside the vehicle and noticed a bulky computer screen protruding from the dashboard. She ran a finger on the screen, but it didn't respond to her touch. She felt something underneath it, something jutting out. It turned out to be a keyboard.
She was familiar with this old technology, as it was not dissimilar to that on Udicia. However, lately she had been to so many different worlds that she was becoming accustomed to more evolved computing. She'd seen keyboards and mice, touch-screens, holo-graphic controls, voice-only computers, and even robots.
She tapped quickly on the keyboard, and a schematic of the region displayed on the green LCD screen. This would lead her to the location of their leader. She jumped in the passenger seat, punching a soldier through the window, and drove down the road.
Calana studied the fortified compound as she approached. The best option for getting in would be to talk to the security guard. The vehicle, although quite sturdy, would not be able to smash down the gate.
Luckily for her, as she approached the gate, it opened. The Oracle was a universal key. Not only that, it was also a universal translator. Everyone spoke Varlian – or so it seemed to her.
She drove quickly into the compound, parking at the back of a large shed, which looked like a hangar. The heat was definitely coming from within this shed. After looking around, she dashed out of the vehicle and went to a side door of the building. There was a combination keypad on it. She waved the Oracle across it, and the door clicked open. She loved having the best skeleton key in the Universe.
Inside, she crept her way along a rack of military equipment and weapon parts. She could hear a military-style voice talking to a group of soldiers in the distance. She went into the next aisle and peered across at the gathering. There was a large missile propped up on the floor in the centre of this gathering.
A technical person in a white coat was standing next to a screen built into the missile's side panel; but Calana wasn't looking at him. She glared at the man who was speaking. He wore a dark military uniform and a cap.
Something wasn't quite right; the information from the Oracle indicated that the Shadow Master was here. But this wasn't a Master; this man was only a Shadow Lord.
“...this is activated, the pathogen will become airborne and will quickly spread across the world,” the Shadow Lord was saying.
“Won't this kill everyone?” asked one of the soldiers.
“Yes, it will,” said the Lord with an evil grin. “It's the Plague.” He picked up a syringe and squirted a little into the air. “But for everyone who is inoculated...”
“The shipments have now been delivered to all our allies,” said the man in the white coat.
“Excellent,” said the Shadow Lord. “All we need to do now is get this baby in the air.”
“There's no honour in genocide,” roared Calana, casually walking out into the open. She was holding a Guardian sword.
Some of the soldiers started laughing, because they all held machine guns.
“Well, well, well,” said the Shadow Lord. “A Knight in shining armour.” More chuckles.
“Why don't you join us? You can watch as your family and friends die a slow and horrible death.”
“Like I said, everybody deserves a fighting chance. This is cold-blooded murder, and I think I'll fight!” snapped Calana.
One of the soldiers fired his machine gun as if it were going to be an easy kill, but was shocked when the bullets fell short of their target. They were all hitting an energy spiralling from her sword!
A massive surge of the energy started spiralling around Calana's sword in a clockwise direction. She pointed it at a group of soldiers, and a flash of light turned them into white statues. One or two fell over, and a chalky-white powder drifted everywhere.
She charged and was soon sparring with a group of angry soldiers. They'd dropped their machine guns and held large Bowie knives. She kicked, punched and threw some opponents over her shoulders, while she slashed others. They were instantly whitened by the vibrations from her sword.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Lord had climbed up to a second-level landing and was holding a large rocket launcher.
“Sorry to break up the party... but I have to break up the party.”
The rocket fired, and it quickly bore down on Calana. She fired a flash of energy from her sword, and the rocket was pushed back toward the Shadow Lord. It exploded close to him, and he was thrown into the air, landing on the floor below. Pieces of the landing and the roof of the shed crashed to the floor.
She looked down at the Lord who was returning to his own form. He had a black, ghost-like appearance and large red eyes.
“It's not...over...Guardian...” he croaked.
A large, dark vortex suddenly appeared over the top of the Shadow Lord and rotated in an anti-clockwise direction. Sickening negativity poured out as the portal expanded.
A new monster emerged from this dark void, looking more evil and more sinister than anything Calana had ever encountered before. The Master wore a black suit, a short cape and a pale sinister look, not dissimilar to a vampire’s.
“You didn’t waste any time getting here,” said Calana, a little surprised. Now she understood why she had picked up the Master's trail here.
“I was expecting you, Guardian,” sneered the Shadow Master. A black tentacle suddenly shot out of what was his right arm and twirled around her neck. “Guardians! They always ruin things!” he snapped.
“Well, watch me ruin it some more!” snapped Calana, half-choking. She pointed her sword, and a large flash of energy struck the Master. The Master flew through the air, crashing through the side of the shed and out into the compound.
Calana charged through the hole into the shed, running with god-like speed. Springing to his feet, the Master met her sword with his staff, dark spiralling energy firing from it. She deflected the dark energy with her sword, but it struck the side of the shed.
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion from all the munitions that were stored there. Calana held her ground as waves of blasts hit her. She cringed momentarily, but soon realised that she now had powers that were protecting her.
When it all died down, she had a terrible thought about the warhead. It mustn’t have exploded, because it would have been much larger than any of the explosions she’d just endured. But the pathogens could have escaped.
The Master picked up on her thoughts and was grinning.
“Well, that may save me some time...”
Becoming angry, Calana fired a volley of energy into the Shadow Master, driving him into the ground with her fury. She quickly ran back to where the shed once stood and looked around. She found the missile intact, lying amongst the rumble. It was built to withstand extreme shock and temperature, with only a near-atomic blast able to break through its casing. Besides, the Oracle was now telling her it had not been compromised. She looked around for the Master, who had disappeared. But he wouldn’t be far away.
Suddenly, a giant Phoenix came down from the sky! It had long, black feathers, a large pointy beak and red piercing eyes. Huge talons extended toward the missile and locked onto it. It began to ascend into the sky.
Calana ran up a big pile of rubble and jumped to grab the end of the missile. Swinging from it, she realised the Shadow Master still had to climb very high and arm the missile, if he was going to disperse the Plague quickly around the world. Otherwise, it would only affect a small area, and his enemies would have enough time to come up with the same vaccine as the Shadows.
A tentacle came out of the wing. It flipped open the display on the missile and started punching in an access code. She stood on top of the missile, swung around the Master’s giant leg and cut the tentacle with her sword. More tentacles came, but she sliced through those, too.
A huge beak and red eyes came into view from above. The Phoenix emitted an ear-piercing screech, and shook the missile violently. She slipped, unable to grab anything, and was falling back down to earth. As she fell, she thought, “If he can fly, so can I.” She stopped in mid-air.
“OK, this is weird.”
She thought of going forward, and suddenly she was flying forward, picking up speed as she became accustomed to this new power. She could see the Master in the distance; so she willed the distance to close. She flew like a rocket and stopped in front of the Master.
“Not so fast.”
The Phoenix reared, and a fiery bolt of energy flew from its mouth. The Oracle transformed into a shield and repelled the anti-clockwise, searing energy.
“I think this is high enough, anyway,” croaked the Phoenix, and let go of the missile.
Calana dived for it, remembering her sky-diving training. She quickly caught it, and started to slow it down.
The Phoenix was right onto her, snapping at her with its giant beak. Calana fired at the bird with bolts of energy, one shot hitting its wing.
Calana knew she needed to put the missile somewhere it wouldn’t endanger this world, but where? Underground, under the ocean, out in space? It was a race against time, as the countdown on the LCD panel became frighteningly close to the end.
She could possibly take it up into space, but the Shadow Master was snapping at her heels. She looked up at the Phoenix, silhouetted over the glorious sun.
Of course! She had the Golden Stars! She didn’t need the Keepers here. She lined the missile up with the Phoenix and threw it directly at the Master, with the Sun at the bird’s back.
A Mandala opened around the three of them. Just before it closed, the Phoenix made an ear-splitting screech, and they were all gone.
Millions of miles away from Vorne, a Mandala opened. The Shadow Master and the warhead were fried in the sun’s corona.
As she descended back to earth, she realised one thing about her experience: her humanity had clouded her will. She was thinking too much like an ordinary human being while she had the temporary powers. If she’d realised the powers she had, she could have destroyed the Shadow Master with a thought!
However, it was all part of her experience and something she could take away to enlighten other Guardians.