PROLOGUE
He Who Reigns had created a vast panorama of stars, comets, and gas that made a universe long ago. It was a parabola of noiseless beauty that stretched far beyond what the human mind could ever know. Near each of the stars in varying numbers, He had placed small balls of gas and dust that rotated at different angles and times. These balls of dust He Who Reigns called planets.
The people called the planet He Who Reigns was watching Abel. Abel was awash in bright blue waters with one long green and brown mass cutting right in the middle of the mighty seas. The design was roughly rectangular, with small portions jutting like spikes as if a great cataclysm had formed this mass with a mighty heave. Pale grey clouds hung around this planet that were repelled from the one landmass. A shimmering dome covered the whole of the landmass that regulated the temperature to a warm seventy-five degrees, no more, and no less.
He Who Reigns stood by His golden throne, powerful hand on His celestial chin in thought. Though Abel looked quiet, He Who Reigns knew that the quiet was a lie. This lie was what He Who Reigns was contemplating as he watched. It’s time to begin again, He Who Reigns thought.
He Who Reigns nodded decisively. He sighed and turned towards a large, tanned- skinned man wearing golden armor from head to toe, leaning on a long silver spear. He walked over and touched the man on the shoulder lightly. “Amdiziel, my lad, I need you to go to Heaven’s Gate barracks and get Micazeal,” he ordered Amdiziel with a sharp nod of command.
Amdiziel nodded curtly and turned on a gold booted heel. His footsteps echoed across the endless hall as he walked away. Amdiziel’s steps quickly took him out of view of the throne.
The Heaven’s Gate Barracks was an odd anomaly in what seemed to be a place of tranquility. Literally placed around a set of two golden gates, it was tall and square shaped, made of a thick brick-like material. The Barracks was a building that was built for war in a place of tranquility. It reminded everyone in Heaven of the war. He Who Reigns spun around quickly as Amdiziel appeared with a massive man with broad shoulders that seemed to fill the air. The man had dark brown hair that hung down to his muscular shoulders covered by a heavy white robe that hung down to his massive brown booted feet. His wide brown eyes seemed filled with intelligence as they flicked left to right searchingly. He Who Reigns smirked widely; brown beard split by the joy of seeing the man. “Hello, Micazeal, my friend!” He squeezed Micazeal’s arms lightly but firmly.
Micazeal dipped his massive head, his cheeks barely moving in a thin smile. “My Lord,” he said, his deep voice rolling out like a river. “you sent for my presence again?”
He Who Reigns nodded. “Yes, my old friend. I have a mission that only you can do.”
River City was a bustling place today, as it was every day. It was Saturday by the calendar that everyone forgot who had made it. That was the way of things in a city run by technology. People’s needs were constantly met by the push of a button. Oh, there were a few people that still clung to self-sufficiency, but they were few and far between. Streets made of a material the locals called mixacrete, concrete mixed with dirt, water, stone, and a green chemical that everyone forgot the name of were busy hubs today. Flat looking cigar- shaped hovering cars and boxy looking high trailered hovering trucks zipped past mixacrete sidewalks. No humans drove these cars and trucks, automation running everything like there was one brain. Hustling and bustling people both dressed in suits and casual clothing were zipping around the sidewalks as they entered yellow checkerboard hover-taxis. The taxis also were computerized as they zipped their passengers all about the vast city. This parabola of zipping vehicles and bustling people never stopped. There was no night in River City, as the swirling dome high above the city reflected the light of the star called Above. No one knew why the star was called Above. As with everything else in River City, it was just seen as something no one cared about.
To the people of River City, it was a man-made paradise. Yet, under this paradise waited a hungry mold ready to infect the world above, its tendrils already beginning to spread.
