The Destinia Apocalypse (The Starguards - Of Humans, Heroes, and Demigods Book 4)

by Raymond Burke

  >Father! Mother!< Hellennius called out, just before Aeon could shout for his father.

  “Farewell, my sons,” Millennius' gruff Lore voice cut through the nothingness. “You have made me proud. Lead your peoples well. This is my journey now. It's long past I walk the path!” There was humour and sadness in his voice, which neither of his sons looked on for pity.

  A chorus of farewells, cries, and lamentations filled the void, from all the Peoples, before the Storm of Stars gently silenced them.

  “Goodbye.” The sad voices of Phasia and Millennius seemed to fade away into the ever-present void of blackness. And then they were gone.

  The Storm of Stars spoke again.

  =We withdraw to the upper echelons of the Exoverse, far beyond your reach. We will be watching. Do not disappoint us!=

  ≠Begin again!≠

  And then there was light.

  The Starguards blinked in the sheer brightness. Around them was a world with blue skies, fresh air, and rolling green hills as far as the eye could see.

  It took a while for anyone to speak.

  “We're corporeal again,” Sceptre noted, handling his visor for readings. Nothing had been recorded of the Storm of Stars. He sighed in bitter annoyance.

  Everyone else checked themselves. Sighs and laughter of relief reverberated in the air. They looked around the countryside, finding a small clearing to sit in.

  “This is Earth,” remarked a shell-shocked Force, eyes still watering in the bright light. “I just know it. It’s all new again.”

  If this was Earth it was fresh and new—a vivid green and blue under heavenly skies. The newly named Destina looked at each other in mild shock and surprise.

  “What just happened?” Urana asked, trying to gain her bearings.

  “I’m not sure,” Sceptre replied.

  “I think we just survived Revelations and come full circle to Genesis,” Force dead-panned, relieved he had a voice again.

  “How are we going to get home?” Azure wanted to know. Her being lusted to be in the skies beneath Magna Aura.

  “Where are those accursed Astrals when you need them,” Decion growled. He cast his dark gaze around as if displeased by the peacefulness.

  “Nice to know you haven’t changed,” Urana sighed. Decion smiled wryly in return.

  A bright light flashed before them. Zane, restored to her Astral self, appeared.

  “I’ll take you all home,” she said breezily. “Sorry, I was just looking at Earth from space! It's spectacular!”

  “I knew it! Knew it this was Earth!” Force punched the air in triumph, rather to closely to Decion who harrumphed Force into silence.

  “Zane, what happened? Where are the Storm of Stars?” Sceptre wanted to know.

  “Did we win?” Decion asked.

  Zane resisted the urge to shrug. “It looks like the Storm of Stars elected to let us live, so in a way that is a victory. They’ve sent everyone to where they wanted to be. But it was I who brought you here one last time, before taking you home.” Zane looked misty-eyed at them. “I’ll miss you guys. And this new Earth is a welcome home to all of you. We are kin, no matter our name or where we are. We are all Starguards.”

  Even Decion felt a twinge of contentment. He picked Zane up by her waist in his huge hands, holding her high above him.

  “Zane, you have restored my faith in the Starguards.” He put her down and looked at the others. “I have wronged you all, my family, and I will forever serve as the Starguard I ought to have been.”

  Sceptre looked at Urana and Azure, but it was Urana who said it for them, “Welcome back, Decion.” She gave him a surprise hug around his broad shoulders. They gathered in the moment.

  “And what about you, Zane, where will you go?” Azure asked her fellow Lore maiden.

  “I . . . I don’t know.” Zane kicked absentmindedly at a small rocky outcropping. “I feel I have a duty to do something, but I’m not sure. But first, I have to find out what happened to me and who I am now.”

  “And this Time Empress?” Sceptre asked.

  Zane thought about it. “I think she’s watching over us all, wherever, whenever.”

  “Cool, so like a Homo Destinas guardian angel,” Force quipped airily.

  “Shut up, Force,” Urana tittered, though with a playful glint in her eye.

  “Well, he’s kind of right,” Zane said.

  “So where are everyone else?” Sceptre asked.

  “Yes, the Antiqchronals, Valtare, and your father, Zane? Where are they? Where were the Astrals in all of this?” Urana responded with questions of her own.

  Zane shrugged. “I'm not sure about the Astrals, but I think they are fighting this war on another front. However, the rest are out there, somewhere,” Zane answered, looking out to the stars. “All safe and sound where they desired to be; living their own lives, content and animosity-free. They warp the temporal fields. I can feel them.” Though Zane was not sure about the Time Empress. Had she even been born yet?

  “So these Storm of Stars have been God all along; I mean humanity’s God,” Force asked. “I fought for my country, I fought for God, glory, and gun metal. So who’s Gods were they?”

  Zane could only shrug again. She didn’t have all the answers.

  “I suppose they’re everyone’s God, now,” Urana whispered, fearful of any perceived blasphemy. She shivered, feeling oddly content.

  Sceptre concurred, “Once we’re home, I have to honour Phasia’s wish and start the search for the other Celestian Knights’ kin. We might have half-kin out there.”

  “Agreed,” said Urana. “I can’t believe our parents might have survived, Aerl, and we’ll never get to meet them again! Why didn’t they tell us sooner?”

  Sceptre could only shake his head. “The Will of the Universe, Rain. I think we know better than to question it now.”

  Urana wasn’t happy, but Sceptre was right. She had to live with it. “So, ready to go home? I can’t wait to see if Altair’s back, too!”

  Azure sighed in agreement, ready to be flying under the blue skies of Halcyon.

  “Force, where do you want to go?” Zane asked, turning to the only pure human Destina on Earth.

  He thought about it. “Well, there’s no one here on this Earth. It’s all new again; ready for new life. And as much as I’ve had fun with you guys, I wouldn’t mind being around humans, maybe reunited with Lynn and the others, wherever she is.”

  “So be it,” Zane said, wishing she could see Lynn again. She threw her arms into the sky, her body shimmering into resplendent white energy.

  Zane took her charges into her large energy bubble and for the first time sprouted energy wings. They whipped the air around her into a portal, through which they all disappeared.

  Earth was left alone in its new destiny.

  Valtare, L’Coyle, and a half-dozen of their surviving men walked through a field of tall green grass. The day was warm, speckled sunlight playing around them, melodies from a cacophony of birds reminding them of the Earth of old.

  “Where are we?” L’Coyle asked, anxiously looking around at the massive trees in the distance and a line of far off mountains.

  “I do not know,” answered Valtare. But he had his senses on full alert. He peered up in the sky. “This isn’t Earth, however. Look!” He pointed to the two faint moons in the sky, half crescents shining against the sunlight from a star which was slightly whiter than Earth’s.

  They stared at the miraculous sight. Even after seeing the wonders of the universe and fighting Gods who had created it, they were still in awe of the power of nature to surprise them with such glorious sights.

  Stopping to contemplate the views, a distant look in his eyes, Valtare said, “I think I know where we are.”

  L’Coyle cocked his head at him expectantly. But Valtare's mind was closed to him.

  “Just before he died, Gordell showed me a place in his mind—this place.” He spread his arms out encompassing the scene. He laughed, a
bitter sound invading the serene pasture they walked through. “For so long I hated the Exmoors. It was well known they exterminated us half-Chryrians. Or so I had thought.” He breathed in deeply then out in a cathartic exhalation. “It seems the Exmoors didn’t kill all of our kind. They and the Astrals put them here; Chryrians, Devouts, and other undesirables alike, on a new world they had discovered, so they wouldn’t harm the normal humans. A myth was perpetrated against the Exmoors or maybe they started it themselves to scare us into submission. But this is a new world, a world full of people like us. I thought about being here. Maybe we were sent here by the Zater Jen.”

  “Redemption?” queried L'Coyle.

  “Perhaps,” Valtare concentrated on the distant vista.

  As he had spoken, the green-hilled horizon was crested by four people, dressed in Bronze Age garb, followed by a few small groups. Then a veritable crowd of people topped the hillside. Valtare could sense all of their Chryrian minds inquiring about them.

  L'Coyle smiled tightly. “No more Marquis. No more Dukes. This is our home.” He breathed the fresh air in deeply.

  Valtare thought about this, returning a cynical shake of his head, “Or the place from where we return to Earth,” he said. He thought of his wife, his desire to be with Elisabeth again.

  They were soon surrounded and welcomed to their new home by a peoples with a myriad of questions for the strangers. L’Coyle regarded Valtare and his words. There was still restlessness within him, too, a dark edge waiting to spill out like the Plague. But L'Coyle hoped this world would be a cure for both of them.

  The billions of Surge gleamed in the overwhelming sunshine of the triple star system, grazing upon the rays and cosmic particles. For aeons they had been nomadic voyagers searching for meaning and revenge. Now they were free.

  They had communed among themselves praising the Storm of Stars for their continued existence. They were about to embark upon a new adventure. The tri-star system held a large rocky world in its protective grip. They would settle and build. It would be the new home of the Surge Civilisation.

  The Lore were leaderless. They should have run amok through the universe devouring stars and energy. But the essences of Millennius, Spheron, and Azure had flowed through them. They were no longer impulsive, errant creatures. They could co-exist and devour energy not used by other beings. They had all the time in the universe and everywhere to go. Wrapping themselves together to form a Helstar the trillions of Lore disappeared into a portal to dimensions unknown.

  The Zater Jen constructed their own Temporal Court on the edge of Phase space, a glittering edifice of portal planes and vortexes. Cosmogod held a memorial for his mother, last of the Celestian Knights. There was also a grieving time for the Glorious Ego Byss, Captain of the Light Guard. He had mysteriously disappeared in the last battle against their strand. Ax Omen and Geona Zen were no more. Adam Finitum had survivors from the past and future. But almost a billion Zater Jen had perished in the Reckoning of the Gods, as it would be called in their Tomes of Time. Now it was time to settle and live a free life. Cosmogod looked over to Celesophia on her throne. They had lost so much. But having the young Time Empress among them had shown them what they had been missing: It was time for a new generation of Zater Jen to arise.

  The pocket dimension had a new visitor. After leaving the Starguards, Zane had thought about her father. He too had been ported by the Zater Jen to another destination without her knowing where.

  Bloody infuriating, she had thought, just having got her father back.

  But as if by some cosmic intuition, Zane had shifted into her Loremaiden energy porting almost randomly into the universal timestream following unknown temporal paths and reading unfamiliar energy signatures, yet somehow connected to her father. Exiting the portal she found herself face to face with the Chronopolis. More than anything she had just wanted to see home. But—

  “That's not. . . ” she whispered to herself, staring in disbelief at its virtual twin. “Bloody Nora!” She drifted closer still not believing her eyes.

  This dimensional shrine with its temples, pyramids, other structures, and defences was different. Twice as massive as the Chronopolis, it reminded Zane more of the Magna Auran City-States, with a blend of both Grecian and alien architecture mixing into an impressive fortress. Though the colonnades were missing, a great forceshield erupted from the bowels of the dimensional bubble encompassing the entire temporal realm. A bright small silver sphere spun impossibly fast around the whole fortress.

  Zane kept her distance. The defences would not be easy to penetrate, the temporal fields tasted hard and bitter. But she longed to have one last look; one last contact with her kin.

  Using her energised eyes her sight was greatly increased beyond the visual spectrum. Her vision sifted through the forceshields.

  Beyond the defenses were more private chambers, spacious plazas, common areas, and even space ship hangers. The latter surprised Zane, wondering why time travellers would need ships. But what grabbed her attention was the gathering in the throne room. The set up was almost the same with crystalator stations lining the wall and holo-imagers projecting visions from all directions.

  However, this space was almost entirely inhabited by strangers; people Zane didn't recognise, but whom she assumed could only be time travellers themselves. She thought so because they were all surrounding her father with Helexius, Lightstream, and Sola. She didn't see Spheron the younger, but she knew his fate through Spheron the elder's energy memory. The inhabitants of this Chronopolis all stood around with smiles on their faces making a fuss over a baby.

  There were no Lore tears for Zane, but her energy flared in joy. Her brother, Aristedes and Starshina, once her Multiforce teammate Winterborne had had a baby. Zane laughed aloud at her memory speaking to Aristedes on the Surge World. How he had teased her. And now she knew the truth.

  Zane was proud of her brother, what he had accomplished, and what he had brought into the cosmic sky. Zane took one last look and smiled at the memories yet to come. Hers was now a solo existence. Someone had led her to this place, but not allowed her to interact with her family. Somehow cruel, but there was a reason for that. Zane knew she had many missions to accomplish, not least to find out what had happened to her in her lost time.

  Without looking back, lest she lost her nerve to go, she opened a portal and disappeared into the temporalscape.

  Lord Aeon proudly held his grandchild as he blessed the baby’s head. He wished Zane was here to see this. He thought he had sensed her close by. But he knew the Zater Jen would take care of her and that she would find her way back to them.

  “Oops!” He felt the baby spew on him, gurgling its own pleasure.

  Everyone laughed as he handed the baby back to Starshina, his new daughter-in-law. He had only met her a few hours ago. He had only met the new Astrals hours ago.

  Dead one day, alive the next with more family. He held back his tears. His father and Phasia were also in his heart.

  The baby's mother and father gathered around, looking more mature and grown from the battle they had endured, but the war was far from over. With family and allies gathered around, Aeon was rightfully proud of Aristedes. He had shown he was a leader. And now he and Winterborne were the parents of a beautiful pale-skinned, blue-eyed baby girl. They named her Sky.

  In the deep void of temporal space, Zane flitted around tasting and feeling the various time fields warp and pop as they flexed around worlds and each other. She could smell new timelines forming and see the oceans of colour swirling around her. But there was a new element in the mix, a searing shaft of red following her.

  She turned around and there he was.

  “Why, it’s the Glorious Ego Byss, Captain of the Light Guard,” she said, slightly surprised at his presence. “Come to say goodbye?”

  He glided over to her. He seemed hesitant—shy almost. >No, I have come to join you< he finally psyed.

  Zane was stunned. She thought her duty was a so
lo mission. “Why?” she could only ask.

  >I find your temporal presence . . . harmonious< He looked at her in earnest through his golden eyes.

  Taken aback, Zane felt her cheeks flush. Was he flirting with her? He was handsome, in a crystalline sort of way. “Oh, right. Er . . . thank you. I thought everyone was sent to where they wanted to be? Won't you be missed?”

  >I desired to be here, Zane Astral< His golden eyes twinkled. >And the Zater Jen think I am no more<

  Zane sensed her energy rushing to places she had only felt when she was a young girl thinking of a certain dashing officer during the Axalan war.

  “Okay,” her voice wobbled, not realising until now how she did miss Paolo. “I guess I could do with the company.” Zane smiled back. “Let’s go see what’s out there!”

  Ego Byss beamed back in acquiescence.

  Zane transformed into white energy and took Ego Byss’ hand. A portal opened and they vanished through it.

  Force dropped out from the brightness of the portal and into the blackness of space. His manoeuvre suit provided an instant forcefield against the hard vacuum. There was nothing in front of him except empty deep space.

  “Oh shit! They've stranded me!” His heart jolted in panic. “No, no, no, no!” He breathed deeply, calming himself down. Why would they do that to me? he thought. Think!

  He rotated a hundred and eighty degrees and gasped at the sight.

  “Oh! Okay!”

  He found himself looking down at a world not unlike Earth. His improved visor could detect nascent cities on the ground with large terraforming projects still ongoing on much of the other side.

  With his new gravity powers lending decent thrust he orbited around for the best place to land and find out where he was. The glint of four spacecraft approaching him from starboard caught his attention. A smaller object darted from one of the craft. Force realising it was a person flying toward him. As the individual closed in on him he recognised the newcomer, even in his new forcefield protected manoeuvre suit.