Chapter 16: The final battle

As the months passed, the people of the kingdom settled into their routines. The economy increased as the cities grew. More and more couples started to conceive children. Mostly in rural farming communities at first, but the cities were catching up. The baby boom was on.

Between helping to develop the kingdom and helping Emily through her pregnancy, Danny decided it was too much to try to run his business back home. So, he decided to sell it. Since he wasn’t coming back and he no longer needed the money, he took the proceeds, plus the money in his bank account, and donated it to various charities. Now there was only one thing left to do.

After retrieving his, Emily’s, and Robert’s personal effects, he removed the door that led to the garden. After one last look around, Danny slipped into the veil of dreams. He then removed all of the dream doors he had placed.

All of a sudden, it was like something grabbed him. He couldn’t see anything there, but whatever, it had held him tight. He couldn’t even move. Then like in Emily’s dream, there was a blinding flash of darkness. Then nothing.

When he came to, he was in a chair. It was a soft leather office chair. Danny looked around. He was in an office. It looked like Walter’s office at his bank, except there was a giant window behind the desk. From what Danny could see out the window, he could tell it was a skyrise office. He could also tell that it wasn’t the top floor. There was a staircase to his left between two bookcases. The stairs led up.

“What do you think of my office?” a voice said from behind a leather high back chair, facing the window.

The voice sounded very familiar. Then the chair turned around. Walter? No! He looked older. He obviously took care of himself, even dyed his hair, but you could still believe that he was seventy years old.

“You must be Walker,” Danny said.

“Of course,” Walker said, “but you didn’t answer my question.”

“It has a nice view,” Danny said.

“Yes, it does,” Walker said, “but the most impressive thing about this view is that I own everything that you can see in it. The buildings, the streets, I own the whole city.”

That’s very interesting,” Danny said, “but I should be going. I have a kingdom to run after all.”

Danny tried to make a dream door, but he couldn’t. Then, he realized that he could no longer feel the medial energy. He couldn’t feel any energy that was familiar to him. What he now felt was a power greater than any he could imagine. When he merged with the council, it wasn’t even this powerful.

“You may have noticed by now that you are powerless,” Walker said. “It’s new dream technology.”

“But how,” Danny said, “machines in this world can’t be that powerful. The power source alone would cause this part of the universe to collapse into a supermassive black hole the size of a Galactic cluster!”

“I see that you inherited My superior intelligence,” Walker said. “What you say is true. However, this technology didn’t come from this world.”

“Where do they even have technology like that?” Danny asked, “and how did you manage to get your hands on it?”

I’m sure that you’ve heard the rumors about beings who possess unimaginable power and technology,” Walker said. “Well, I sent six of my most powerful enhanced spirits to investigate. Their orders were to learn what they could and report it to me. Apparently, they are very far away. After ten years, I gave up hope that they would return.”

“I assume that they did return,” Danny said.

“It took almost forty years,” Walker said, “but two of them did return, and they brought me this.”

He unlocked a drawer in his desk, opened it, and pulled out a blood-red stone. It was the size of a tennis ball with the texture and shape of a diamond.

“It contains some kind of nanotechnology,” Walker said. “Some of the components we can study and duplicate, on a much larger scale, of course, others we can’t even begin to understand. It’s some kind of life form. Possibly artificial, but alive nonetheless.”

“It sounds dangerous,” Danny said.

“Of course, it’s dangerous,” Walker said, “didn’t you just hear your rant about the power source?”

“Now I see where I got the sarcasm from,” Danny said. “So why bring me here?”

“I just had to tell someone about this cool technology,” he said. “You can go now.”

“Really?” Danny asked.

“No,” Walker said, “I need you out of the way. But I also wanted to meet you and invite you to join me.”

To rule the universe? No thanks,” Danny said,” I already rule a kingdom. It’s a lot more work than you think.”

“I’m past that now,” Walker said. “I own everything here, and it’s not fulfilling. But the power is nice.”

“So, you’re doing this for power?” Danny asked.

“Sort of,” Walker said. “With enough power, I think I can undo my biggest mistake. I mean, I might have to unravel time and destroy all known worlds. But soon, I will have the power to bring her back and make a world where she will love me.”

“Who will love you?” Danny asked.

“Your grandmother,” Walker said. “I did love her. But I was always busy. I thought we would have more time. And what I did to her. I was so angry. Then she was gone, and I couldn’t even tell her I was sorry. I’m sure she wouldn’t forgive me, but I needed her to know.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Danny said, “her medial spirit didn’t take another connection. It’s still her personality. I can take you there so you can tell her.”

“No,” Walker said, “I can’t face her after what I did to her, any more than I could live with myself for doing it. Join me, and I’ll give you a new kingdom.”

“No,” Danny said. “Promiseum is my kingdom,” Danny said, “and I will defend it, my people, and my family with every ounce of my life.”

There was a strange feeling in the back of his mind. Danny didn’t know what it was, but before he could even think about it, he noticed something more significant. The stone was alive, and it was trying to communicate with him. There were no words or outside thoughts. Danny just knew like it was common sense.

“In that case,” Walker said, “my minions will enjoy a little revenge. He’s all yours, guys.”

Walker pulled a remote out of his pocket and pushed a button. The office vanished, and Walker was gone. Danny now found himself in some kind of giant cavern. Danny realized that it was a dream chamber. Danny looked around. About fifty powerful spirits were approaching fast from all directions. Then there was a cracking sound. All of the spirits stopped for a few seconds, then they resumed their charge. Danny raised his hand. He was now holding his sword. The stone was “speaking” again.