It was a beautiful day outside, the sky clear except for a few straggling clouds here and there, birds could be seen flying about and a class of preschoolers could be seen going to school on a hover-bus. The year is 2054, and the mood is a joyous one, people of all races and cultures could be seen wearing all sorts of costumes, setting up stands along the streets, and getting a wide assortment of government-funded decorations set up everywhere in the city.
The cause for this celebration is the ending of the final war ten years ago, which was a war between the grand alliance and North Korea. While it is called a war it ended up mostly just a bunch of politicians threatening to nuke the other over a decade. It finally ended when a mysterious person assassinated their leader, jammed their communications, and disabled their nuclear weaponry, leaving them like a headless chicken, which the grand alliance happily took advantage of and annexed the country in a mere 16 days with only a few hundred deaths on the allied side.
Everyone had a vibrant mood and were ready for the festival, that is excluding one 17-year-old student by the name of - "DEKELLLL" yelled an enraged history teacher with the name of Mr. Smidt "WAKE UP BEFORE WE LEAVE YOU HERE" "5 more minutes" muttered a sleeping teenager with a lollipop in his mouth, who didn't even finish his sentence before dozing back to sleep.
"Okay class, since Mr. sleeping beauty over here finds that desk so comfortable, we will just leave him here while we go enjoy ourselves at the festival." said, Mr. Smidt as he ushered the other students out of the class, a few looking back in slight pity but when a student went to go over to wake him up, Mr. Smidt stopped him saying "If he wants to sleep so much then let him sleep, now let's go so we have enough time to get ready for the festival, I heard from the principal that there is going to be a meteor shower tonight ". The student took one last glance at Dekel before leaving, looking at him drooling over his desk before continuing with the rest of the class as they left the school.
The day passed as one would expect it to happen, abundant laughter, cheering, even some reenactments of the mysterious person who heroically killed North Korea's leader (at least the way they expected it happened), overall a time of cheerful celebration. As the night reached its climax, people noticed streaks of lights gradually filling the night sky. It was a mesmerizing sight as the dull night became filled to the brim with a pure, radiant white light, but people started to notice something strange. The lights were getting bigger.
It was originally written off by most as some illusion but soon enough they started to see something that couldn't be written off as a trick of the mind, one of the lights started getting bigger faster and faster. At this point, if one squinted you could see that they appeared to be enormous ruby-like keys with all sorts of captivating engravings on them.
At this point, you would expect that the first moment anyone gazed on the keys they would shout, scream and look for somewhere to hide, but no one did. Everyone who looked at the keys was entranced by some mystical power, the only thought left in their mind being the splendor and beauty of them. An uncountable number of titanic keys flying towards the earth with nearly all the inhabitants staring at them, nearly all except a teenager who just woke up to a lollipop stuck in his throat. Normally anyone over the age of 6 would be able to remove such an easy-to-grab object from their throat, except for one crucial detail. There was a window near his desk, letting him easily see a giant key less than a kilometer away from earth, stopping him from removing the blockage in his throat, his life slowly draining from his eyes, and as he was mere moments from dying he saw one of the keys hit the ground. The key slid through the ground like it wasn't even there until the massive head of the key fully dug inside the ground and turned with the ruby engravings pulsing as though they were alive, a brilliant light spread out and hit Dekel right before he died, but despite all this, he still choked to death on a piece of candy.
Dekel could see white all around him, and all he could see was an old man with a mask and a decrepit lottery wheel. The old man's mask was crafted out of an opaque, jade-like substance, a carving of a circle with streaks of light flying out slowly in every direction, as Dekel looked at the man in shock, the man finally spoke up, with a voice that seemed to sound happy, sad, old, young, loud and quiet, one and many all at the same time exclaimed: "Welcome to the space between the living and the dead, welcome to the ruined plane of Arkarius"!