Chapter eighteen

Light and Dark

Ezekiel and the other captured Lyrans were dumped into Draco’s dark, dank prison cells — shackled, bound, and under constant guard. He released Ezra from her chains, forcefully separating her from Ezekiel and confined her to a separate part of his wicked mansion. The Draco-Reptilian empire did not have many natural resources, nor any source of light, so they had to create fire for everything they wished to see and do. The plants in the gardens of Draco’s fortress only bore dark flowers. There was smoke and mist everywhere. It was an empty, lifeless place, and every moment spent there suffocated Ezra.

“Why is he doing this?” she questioned his servants, overcome with rage and confusion. “He is the most vile creature I have ever laid eyes on!”

The servants were instructed not to speak to her. Draco had his subjects decorate his lair with all the riches of the universe and made grand plans to profess his love. Ezra was bathed in scented water, the rarest of perfumes were sprinkled over her, and she was dressed in a golden, jeweled robe, her hair tied in plaits and pinned with diamonds and crystals.

Draco was happy, convinced he had vanquished everything that had once stood between him and his true love. He believed he had finally won over his love, even if it was through force and manipulation, but he had not yet understood the true power of the light. Once all his grand plans had been set into motion, he had his servants drag Ezra before him.

“Welcome, Princess,” he spoke as his slimy, slit tongue fluttered visibly. “I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay.”

“I enjoy my confinement as much as you enjoy my contempt for you,” Ezra retorted.

“Come now, Princess, surely you have realized that any resistance is futile. You are mine now. I have won you by laying waste to that good-for-nothing empire you once ruled.”

“I am no prize to be won, Draco. I am the Lady of Light, and darkness can never win over light. Our great empire of peace shall never succumb to the likes of you or your people, I assure you. We will rise again.”

“Senseless dreams, hopeless ambitions — HAHAHA!” Draco’s horrifying laugh made every hair on Ezra’s feline body shiver with fear. “I like your spirit, Princess, and I will thoroughly enjoy breaking it. Have no fear. You will be fully mine in time.”

Saying this, he came close to her and tried to profess his undying love in his own dark and evil way, but as he did, Ezra closed her eyes and thought only of pure, divine love. This, in turn, signaled every captive Vega-Lyran in Draco’s dungeons to do the same, along with Ezekiel. All of these thoughts in concert evoked the light in Ezra’s heart that suddenly burst from her body like a star. So powerful was this utterly blinding radiance that it burned Draco’s slimy skin.

“Aahhhhhhhh!” screamed the Dragon, severely charred and blinded in pain by the dazzling light. He ran like mad from his throne room, unable to bear the heat generated by the force of Ezra’s light. Now that light emanated from her entire body. She was like a mighty star on the surface of the Draconian world. Her light reached every part of his fortress of hell. The Reptilian empire could not handle such a huge light force and began to crumble. There was chaos and pandemonium as every Reptilian ran to save itself from the destructive radiance of Ezra’s glory.

The massive Reptilian empire was in shambles in a fraction of a few earthly seconds. The Vega-Lyrans had to do nothing special to bring it down but to stand united in the force of their light with Ezra as their beacon. As Ezekiel single-handedly established a kingdom of light all those eons ago, his lover now razed an empire of evil with nothing more than the power of love and the light known as Christ. Reptilians began dying by the millions. Their bodies could not withstand the light and were burned and charred by its massive heat. Draco realized that he had invited his own destruction with his ego and pride. All he wanted now was to remain alive, to breathe, and not to be burned to death.

In utter shock, fear, and desperation, he managed to escape just in the nick of time. Draco ran like hell from his stronghold. He took a few loyal followers in his royal vessel, a gigantic Reptilian starship, and took refuge in a remote Reptilian hideout in a dark corner of the galaxy.

• • •

Once she came to her senses and realized she was free, Ezra didn’t realize the utter devastation that her light had wreaked upon Draco’s kingdom. She immediately ran to free Ezekiel from his chains as he took her in his arms.

“Ezra, my love! What did he do to you? If that greasy monster laid so much as a finger on you, I swear I will rip…”

“No, no, my love, he did not touch me. He could not. We both know the power of the light. It made me strong enough to thwart his advances and to lay waste to all he held dear.”

“I thought I would never see you again. I just want to hold and kiss you forever.”

“There will be time for that later, my love. First, we must leave this cursed place. It truly makes my skin crawl.”

“Yeah, it gives me the creeps, too. I have never come across a world as dark and barren as this one in all my travels. How do these slimy reptiles continue to exist?”

“I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of them, nor their leader. He’s very clever.”

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let us leave this den of darkness and return to our home. We have much work to do.”

Ezekiel, Ezra, and what remained of the V-Ls, returned to their beloved homeland. Unfortunately, all that waited for them was ruin, rubble and the charred bodies of their families and friends. They found themselves standing amid the husk of a leveled empire where their mighty capital had once stood.

They wept tears of pain and sorrow as they witnessed the extent of the devastation that Draco had unleashed upon their home. For the first time in the history of their existence, they felt true grief and despair — complete despair that gave birth to anger. Then, their eyes began to fill with rage as they felt an undeniable urge to kill Draco and erase his entire race from existence.

They soon recognized that this destruction was brought about by lower emotions — emotions of darkness and evil. Ezekiel himself spoke to his people and told them that they could not allow such dark emotions to cloud their minds. In the cosmos, there is no concept of linear time, so they had the power to go back in time at will. They were beings of light after all, and light has no bounds. They could easily choose to return to happier times when Lyra was intact and all their fellow Lyrans were alive. That way, the memory of this destruction could also be erased by beginning at an earlier period, creating a new timeline free from the pain and destruction of Draco’s attack. Lyra could be resurrected again, and all their friends and families could come alive simply by deleting the timeline they were standing in.

Yet they did not do so. Instead, they chose to keep this reality alive. For Ezekiel and Ezra knew that changing the flow of time was not something that would be without consequence. They taught their people to understand that. Their empire was gone, but their fallen friends and family could return. As eternal beings, the Lyran people never truly died. The light of their beings could and would reincarnate upon other worlds. Once their physical form perished, they would be born again. Reincarnation was common among their people. They could rebuild their great cities, and eventually, all who had died would return.

The Reptilian attack had taught the Lyrans a very important lesson: they needed to be aware of the darkness, which they were ignorant of earlier. They realized these dark beings had spread their influence over the cosmos, trying to take over and control it. They were moving, breeding, growing freely and needed to be challenged. In that moment, the forces of light learned of their cosmic and eternal opposites. The binary of good and evil was forged and would forever continue. It was right then and there the Lyran forces of light took the oath to guard the universe from the darkness.

“From this day forth, we Lyrans will free all galaxies and star systems from the lust and greed of the dark Reptilians and Grays. We pledge to eliminate all darkness and dispel all illusion and ignorance while spreading the power of the Christ light to the entire universe. We will bring those who have fallen into the darkness back to the light wherever and whenever we find them and eliminate those who have been consumed by evil.”

They had seen the cruelty of Draco and the Grays while they were captive, and now they sought to conquer it. They decided to let the fallen Lyran empire remain as an emblem of light, a symbol of their oath to keep reminding them of their mission. And thus, the original might and beauty of the first Vega-Lyran empire were lost. Its memory remained only in their hearts, but the empire would rise again as the fallen Lyrans reincarnated and their ruined cities were rebuilt.