Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

Kelhoon always found a way. Rivkah knew this all too well. Give them ten minutes, and they’d be crawling down here as well.

33

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Namuh Farms, Callisto

Jaxx stopped, his eyelids closing. He was receiving a message. His body shivered, his mind racing with hieroglyphs transforming into words. The pyramid was speaking to him, giving him important information.

He opened his eyes and walked hastily into the pyramid. “Children. Things are going to be a little different in a few seconds. I need each and every one of you to hold hands with Rivkah and that nice fellow standing over there and make a circle.” He motioned toward Fox.

Fox raised his hand shrugging, then grunted something inaudible. “What do you need from me now, Jaxx?”

“Get in the circle.” Jaxx walked to the middle and sat down, his legs crossed like a yogi. The children surrounded him, most looking unsure, others stone faced, probably numb to everything in life following the Kelhoon’s treatment of them.

Rivkah made her way to the circle as well, then held onto the children’s hands. Fox did the same.

“We’re attempting to close the pyramid network now.”

The pyramid hummed. Static electricity filled the room, sending shocks against the walls and across the floor. An energetic vortex circled Jaxx, twisting and turning, expanding his heart, opening him up to the Universe. Showers of golden light shot from the middle of the pyramid, through Jaxx. He relaxed, his body lightened, and he felt himself rise.

A concussion burst in the structure, near the elevator, rocking the room.

Jaxx didn’t budge. “Keep your focus. Pay attention to nothing but the hum.”

Jaxx arched back, his heart opening even wider, and a bright light beamed through him and out into the cosmos, rocketing through solar system after solar system, connecting to every pyramid on every planet in the galaxy. He felt them all. He was them all. He was the beating heart of every pyramid ever built, from the smallest pile of rocks to the most majestic structures on far-flung planets.

The lines connecting the pyramids were red, muddied. In Jaxx’s mind’s eye, he saw a key.

The pyramid shook again as shell after shell detonated nearby and a Kelhoon entered the room. How it had found a way to the underground facility, Jaxx didn’t know. More Kelhoon boots slapped against the floor outside of the pyramid. He felt their anger, their heat. They readied their weapons.

He brought his focus back to the network, the red lines growing darker. He energetically moved the key, twisting it in the vast macrocosm of space. The network connecting pyramid to pyramid shut off like a faucet.

A wind picked up and Jaxx opened his eyes. He stood, looking over the children who still held the circle with Rivkah and Fox. Every pair of eyes was closed but Jaxx’s.

The Kelhoon hissed and screamed, a mass of energy materializing behind them, twirling in a circle. It opened up wide and the Kelhoon were lifted off their feet and sucked into the whirling matrix. The darkness enveloped them and swallowed them whole. In the far recesses of his mind, Jaxx sensed the Agadon clattering and clambering and caterwauling in that same, dark void. The swirling mass of evil shrunk in on itself, folding and refolding, until it was so dense it became a single point of light. It blinked—once, twice, three times—then blinked out.

The wind died down, became a breeze, then a wisp of nothing.

He had rid the galaxy of two evil races. His heart pounded so hard, he thought it might burst out of his chest. The Kelhoon were dust, the Agadon scrap metal, and the children of Earth had been liberated. All because of his beloved pyramids.

Jaxx stared at Rivkah. She had a tear streaking down her chin and dropping to her chest. He walked over, his mind clear, his job done. “I’m still here Rivkah. I’m still alive.” The prophecy said he would perish, but somehow, the prophecy was wrong.

She shook her head slowly, her face as beautiful as ever, her eyes remaining closed. “It can’t be. How?”

He leaned forward, bringing his lips to hers and kissing her gently. She opened her eyes, leaning in, her lips pressing tightly against his. She let go. “You have to go.”

He dipped his head. “I know.”

“What about the children?” asked Rivkah, her lips turning into a smile. “Are you taking them with you?”

“They know what their path is now. Just like you do. And you are all here to stay. The children are to reseed this moon with the remaining Atlanteans and grow it back to its golden age.”

A child stepped forward. “You are to help us, Rivkah.”

“What about your parents. You’ll miss them. You have to go back to Earth,” said Rivkah.

The children had a new glow about them, a new energy. They had been transformed by the light, by the hum, and by the pyramid. Jaxx didn’t know how, but it was true. He could see it. Hell, he could feel it.

Another child spoke up. “Our parents are not alive on Earth anymore. They died during the Agadon invasion. I felt it and the rest of the kids here felt it. And if our parents were alive, we could still visit them from time to time.”

“Why aren’t you sad?” questioned Rivkah. “And why am I sad?”

Zara stepped around the corner and into the room. “Children have an easier path to evolution, to rising with the tide, than adults. You will get there Rivkah, you will help them grow as they will help you grow.”

Fox leaned back against the pyramid wall with a smirk on his face.

Jaxx paid him no mind and grabbed Rivkah’s hands. “Listen, I will be back. But I have to do one more thing. Earth is calling to me.”

It was Mya, connecting through Earth, asking for Jaxx to return. It was an emergency. He had sensed she was the one to help Earth. Apparently, his feeling was incorrect, or something had changed and she needed him—Earth needed