After a few minutes of silence, in which Ruthorn seemed to be contemplating on how to continue, he said, “Let me tell you how it all began.”

“I’m all ears,” I said eagerly.

“You are aware of the fact that Tuengra was created before Gaia by the Creator?” Ruthorn looked at me like a teacher would look at his favorite student.

“Yes, I know about that.”

“Initially, when he created your planet Gaia, the Creator decided that there should only be one portal connecting the two worlds. As I already told you, this first portal looks like a natural door that wasn’t made by human hands, more like a huge rocky mountain with a shape similar to a pyramid. Its base is exactly 1,095 meters long, and its sides are angled at a gradient of 60 degrees. We call it ‘portal number one’. At present, it’s almost impossible to recognise the shape of the pyramid because the forest has grown all over it, but the portal still works. The pyramid on Tuengra is in a much better condition than the one on Gaia, but it’s also overgrown by vegetation.”

“This portal was used to transport seeds and various kinds of vegetables and other food, including all kinds of different animals from Tuengra to Gaia. But because this portal only opens every 3,600 years, the transportation of these items had to be divided over many periods. According to the records of your ancient scriptures, everything that happened in your world and when it happened is documented. The process was divided into seven periods, or seven different times, each time being 3,600 years apart. For instance, we brought the seeds, sowed them, and let them grow for 3,600 years. But in your ancient scriptures, it was recorded that this process only took seven days. However, this isn’t wrong, because one day of the universe equals 3,600 years on Gaia,” Ruthorn explained.

“Why is it exactly 3,600 years?” I asked.

“This is the time it takes for the orbits of the solar systems of our two planets to circulate once around and return to their starting point again,” Ruthorn explained patiently.

“I understand,” I replied, “but how does the pyramid allow us to travel?”

“The way the four angles of the pyramid are positioned generates a wave-particle that causes an induction process when these four angles are at specific corresponding coordinates. Together with a wormhole in the centre – what you call a black hole – this combination makes an arbitrary transfer between our worlds possible. It is like a shortcut through the middle of the galaxy, through space where nothing exists, not even time. This isn’t a linear journey from one place to another, because, in this particular case, time has to exist. This specific portal only appears around the curved inner border of the wormhole, and only at the core of the Milky Way galaxy. It doesn’t exist in any other galaxy in this universe,” Ruthorn went on with his explanation.

“So, when the two pyramids, each located on either of our planets, turn their points into the exact coordinates that point through the middle of the wormhole, then the portal opens. This constellation only happens once every 3,600 years.”

“And when this happens, the other side of the earth’s surface is also in a timeless state, as it falls in a same straight line. This is what we call the secondary portal,” Ruthorn said.

“In your perception, after seven days – equivalent to about 25,200 years in the universe and the time it took to transport agricultural seeds and crops and animals from Tuengra to Gaia – your planet gradually became livable for human beings.”

“The early transfer phase went smoothly, the only problem was that the beings from Tuengra, who had volunteered to observe and oversee the process, had to wait 3,600 years before they could return. This was too long, so we agreed to ask the Creator for permission to build another portal which would cut the interval from 3,600 years in half to 1,800 years. When we used the new second portal for the first time, everyone on Gaia was very happy as they could now return home without having to wait for another 3,600 years,” Ruthorn said and paused for a while as to gather his thoughts before he continued his narrative.

“The first pyramid that we built ourselves was made by placing huge granite stones over each other, like steps on a stairway. This pyramid didn’t look like the others that were built later, with their smooth surfaces. The building process was entirely done using telekinesis, from calculations of the structure to the processes of cutting, transporting, and assembling the stones.

We used the second portal for a long time, up to the era of the Great Flood, and even in many following eras until a terrible event occurred,” Ruthorn said, and then paused.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked after Ruthorn didn’t continue to speak.

“I’m considering whether you really need to know all of these stories,” he said quietly.

“Everything about our two worlds is fascinating and exciting. Please do go on,” I begged him.

“Alright, if that is your wish,” he replied. “What I’m about to tell you is about a person who triggered a huge change on my planet and on yours. And that change had a long-lasting impact, even to this day,” Ruthorn said, and I thought I could hear his voice shaking a bit.

“Is that so? That sounds interesting,” I said.

“I have to tell you the whole story because this is something important that will help you understand everything in a much deeper way,” Ruthorn sighed, and continued with his narrative.

“It’s the story of ‘Dercura’ or ‘Vlad’ who was born on Tuengra as a human like you, and not as a semi-energetic being like me. When we met him, he was a good-hearted and diligent person, and he offered to help us with everything we needed. At first, he offered to work here by taking care of the children and tending to the gardens. He was determined to become one of the volunteers, offering to take care of the universe. He asked to be trained on how to fly our spaceships, and he learned quickly because he was quite intelligent.  We taught him how to use his mental powers and he completed all the lessons successfully. He wasn’t the first volunteer we had trained. In an earlier time, there had been others and there were many after him because we saw that these skills can be learned.”

“Actually, the two volunteers who are doing their practice runs at the moment belong to the same category of beings as Vlad,” Ruthorn said.

“Everything was going well then. After Vlad had been trained for a while, he became very skillful and reliable. Then he requested to be assigned to work on Gaia. We agreed and sent him to replace a group of beings who had already been on duty on Gaia for a full term of 1,800 years. At that time, we sent out a group of nine beings. When they arrived at their destination, they were all allocated to different locations all around the world. Vlad chose to go to a place that is now under the Atlantic Ocean, but back then that land was called Lemuria,” Ruthorn again paused and took a deep breath.

“Because he was a physical being, he was able to harmoniously interact and integrate with the community of humans on Gaia. But soon the local inhabitants witnessed his ability to use his mental power, a skill that nobody else on the planet possessed. Therefore, he was worshipped as a god and honoured above all others. He became their ruler and king, and the city he ruled quickly became prosperous. Over the next 200 years, his city rose to be a great kingdom, and soon his kingdom expanded even more and became a mighty empire that ruled over almost the entire world. Since he had also acquired the genetic key to longevity, he continued to rule his kingdom for an unusually long time,” Ruthorn paused to take a sip of water and continued.

Vlad’s obsession with power and greed, and his endless quest to expand his empire and rule, brought his fearful subjects to their knees and coerced them to accept him as their sole ruler. The other eight beings, who had accompanied him to Gaia, saw Vlad’s ruthless thirst for power and pleaded him to stop his actions which had gone far beyond his given mission. But they did not succeed in turning him from his evil ways. We also communicated with Vlad directly from our planet, summoning him to cease his actions but our requests fell on deaf ears. Eventually, when it was time for him to return to Tuengra, he disobeyed and simply refused to return,” Ruthorn said ruefully.

“This caused a conflict between us and Vlad’s kingdom, and led to what you called the War of the Gods. The dispute between us became a legend and the story has been told many times over, building up more and more each time it was repeated. Every generation added some more details to the story but at the core, it’s always the same story about the falling-out among the gods. However, the cause of this conflict was never fully understood.”

“In the end, there was no winner or loser. We didn’t use any weapons because we never wanted to use them; we protected ourselves by using mental manifestations in response to Vlad’s attacks. The mental manifestations used by the other eight beings during the battle against Vlad’s army were perceived by the world as an army of beasts, giants, and other forms of monsters, but these images were illusions and self-conjured based on the attackers’ imagination. Ever since then, Vlad’s side labelled us as the devils. In some of the myths narrated by some civilisations on your planet, this era is described as the birth of Satan or the Devil.”

“In the end, we remotely destroyed Vlad’s spaceship, making it impossible for him to fly it, since he had fought against us. The last whereabouts of his spaceship was an island which had originally been a continent. When the big change occurred, the continent sank to the bottom of the ocean, but the island was the only one left remaining in the exact position where the continent had been to commemorate the battle between good and evil. We named the island ‘Anti-Christ-Tuengra’, which means ‘those who are against the God of Tuengra’, but as time passed, the pronunciation has deviated from the original to be Antikythera. Recently, your people have discovered one of the remaining mechanical parts of Vlad’s spaceship, which is now displayed in a museum on your planet. What your people had found was the tool he had used to calculate the opening and closing time of all the portals that we had built. This tool could also be used to calculate the astronomical calendar. You call it the Antikythera Mechanism,” Ruthorn paused before he continued.

“The environmental condition on Gaia, the air, the water, and the magnetic fields, didn’t allow Vlad to become immortal, especially not in the depressed mental state that he was in towards the end. After having lived for only 5,000 years, his body had rapidly deteriorated, and he tried everything to rejuvenate his body by inventing new technologies that modified the cells in his body so that they could be revived. So, the machine of rejuvenation was actually invented in the era of the extreme glory of the Empire of Vlad, shortly before it collapsed a few years later.”

“So was Vlad the creator of the civilisation of Atlantis?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ruthorn smiled.