The giant black door made everyone scared. No one understood what was going on and countless questions passed through their heads. While most of the people were asking themselves what that giant door was, the young man looked around and asked himself, “How did so many tens of thousands of tons of ice turned into only a few meters of powdered snow?”

This strange calmness was very unusual but he lifted his muffler to hide his expressions.

When he looked back at the door, he felt a chill as he looked at it. The door wasn’t just a door, it was a 30 meter tall black double door which had many strange designs on it. The images were very strange and indescribable. On the outer side of the door were immense black supports for the door to which it was attached and along its body, countless demonic images were drawn.

After a while, military personnel on the site arrived and stormed the zone, “Everyone! Please step back and do not approach! Until we have made sure that there is no danger!” one of the high ranking military men said.

Many people ran backwards but the young man looked around before ‘hiding’ behind a wall to watch. He took a look at the gadget and saw the readings on him had fully stopped and stabilized no longer rising but the number was immense for both white and black sides. As for the black side when checking the surroundings, it had stabilized at a huge amount which would cause one despair if they knew what this indicator meant.

The faint energy around him made the young man strangely calm when compared to the many distressed people. There was currently no safe place here so he slowly moved as if hiding but aiming for a higher vantage point.

When he arrived at a higher spot, he could see further into the open space near the giant doors and found that about 60 meters around it, there was absolutely no ice whatsoever. What is more is that from far, it was possible to say that it was also perfectly dry and not a bit of wetness was along the area.

The space on the ground around the doors was a perfectly smooth black platform but it was impossible to see details without being up close.

The military raised their laser rifles and a few heavy weapon soldiers were in power armor, a special suit made to augment the power of the user to inhuman degrees even being able to lift one ton alone.

They wielded the most advanced plasma miniguns which are generally used in space warfare due to not releasing recoil which could throw off ships.

They spread out over the powdered ice cover that formed from the collapsed ice and slowly approached the mountain and the door. From afar, the door made one feel a huge pressure so it was unknown what the men were feeling as they drew near.

Ding!

On the high platform, the gadget of the young man released a ding noise and he took it out to see. He saw his count slowly dropping and narrowed his eyes. He turned and ran down at once, his choice actually caused the white and black counter to stop for a short moment and before it began again but at a much slower speed.

Because of the structures and machines, he looked around and began to run around while watching the gadget until he ended up and a space pretty much at the front of the large open space. It was the lowest speed at this point but also the most eye catching.

Some people noticed his movement including the remaining military who turned towards him, “Civilian, move back at once until we clear the area!” he shouted.

The young man just looked at the device and sighed, “I would worry about yourselves if I were you.” He said and put away the device and sat down but swallowed his saliva as he steeled his nerves to not move a step from this spot.

“I said move ba…”

“KILL IT!”

PEW! PEW! DING!

Before the words of the officer could finish coming out, intense sounds of battle suddenly came from the front.

Everyone turned and what they saw made them feel cold inside.

The demonic designs around the door suddenly began to release a black fog and from the wall, these images began to gain form and walking out. Demons straight out of some hellish movie burst out from the wall and the laser shots coming out bounced off them like a rubber bullet hitting a wall.

When the power armor suited soldiers shouted to duck and cover before shooting out a spray of plasma shots, everyone expected it to work but these beings did the impossible as they were hit twice leaving just a small burn mark before they opened their maws and directly ‘ate’ the plasma.

The bodies began to glow with red glowing lines while their eyes lit up. Those who ate the plasma strangely returned to the wall before they melted back in but when they thought they were gone, the same creature returned pitch black and even more fierce.

“Shoot to kill!” the men shouted and unleashed hell but these demons were made of some unknown indestructible material. Even if they didn’t eat the plasma shots, at most it would do was leave a small burn mark so there was no way for the soldiers to fight back.

From then it became a massacre, the men and women behind were all shouting as the demons surged out of the wall towards the nearest soldiers. Those without power armor and only using laser rifles were rammed. Even when they jumped to dodge, the demon was as fast as if it had read their mind and their meaty arms would come and slam them. Sounds of cracking would come as the soldiers would instantly die.

Those with power armor were much stronger and when the demons got near they would drop the miniguns and push their fists to fight them.

They would stop the charge by grabbing the massive horns and try to break the head but when the demons stood up, they were like 3 meter tall giants and would roar at the hanging suited humans before releasing an intense energy which would pierce the suit and occupant. Other times they would stand and grab the soldiers before crushing them.

One way or another they would destroy everything.

The workers and scholars all turned and ran to get away but these were powerful demons against common untrained humans.

Although humans had technology, their true strength was very small. Of course, if humanity's true top grade war technology had been installed here instead of common military grade then it was a totally different story. Above power armor is true robotic giants capable of fighting giant monsters.

Why would humanity need this? Because the terraforming of planets such as Mars had caused the evolution of transplanted animals from earth on the other planets forming titanic beasts.

Sadly, because earth had only common animals, there was no way they would leave behind such high level technology just to rust.

The demons surged out like a black wave after rushing pass the soldiers leaving a bloody trial. Everyone ran away except one small figure sitting down but when someone actually looked back at him, they were stunned when they saw all the demons either avoid him by a wide berth or jumping over him.

It was like they feared him while he was sweating cold as he saw this stamped rush at him. His body trembled but his eyes moved as vague memories appeared.

Two faces he never forgot appeared, the view before his eyes had actually changed to a memory of his childhood. Before him was the two people he loved the most, his mother and father.

“Here you go sweetie, this is from us.” his mother pulled out a present. It was his 4th birthday.

“Yay!” his child him exclaimed and took the present and ripped it open. What appeared was a strange gadget. “Huh? What is it?” He asked.

“It’s a special device. Here hold it like this and press this button like this.” his mother said and the device opened showing a black and white image with a few numbers and a very low value.

“Is this a toy?” he asked frowning.

The two smiled wryly, “It’s a very special present from us. This isn’t a toy son, you must always promise us, NEVER, let go of this device.” His father said.

“But why?” the boy asked.

“It’s a device which tells you how many things you did, naughty or nice. Every time you do a naughty thing this number over the black side will grow but if you do a good thing, this white side will grow.” His mother said.

“That is right son, from now on, you must promise us that if you ever do one naughty thing, you have to do at least three good things.” His father said.

“Why?” the boy asked.

“Because when you do a naughty thing, the black number grows more than if you do good things. Do you understand?” His mother asked.

“So being naughty makes you naughty easier?” he asked confused.

“That’s right son, so if you be naughty one time, you have to be a good boy at least three times after that to make up for being naughty.” His father said.

Click!

“Woah! Why is this black side growing!?” the boy shouted as he found a button behind it and turned to the black side.

“Oh, it’s called an area scan. You will understand in the future but you just need to know, when you turn it like that, you can tell if something bad will happen around you depending on how high the number is. If the number goes past four numbers you have to be careful, if it’s more than five you need to get away. Above that… you have to get away very fast.” His father explained.

Following the same idea, he turned to the white side and saw that it was identical to the other side and the explanation was the same.

“If the number is high then there is no problem, also when the numbers are growing you need to be aware which of the two sides are bigger. Depending how big each side is it will depend how bad or good something will be. If the black side is higher, something bad might happen, if the white side is higher than something good might happen.” the boy’s father said.

“Do you understand Asur, you must always carry this with you.” His mother said.

“Alright mama, I’ll always keep this with me.” He said.

They both smiled and kissed him before giving him another present which was a true toy that he happily played with.

His vision moved to another scene of a catastrophe where he was under the floorboards he heard his family arguing with someone. What followed was a struggle before gunshots came from above. Loud noises came from above as the house he lived in was overturned as someone looked for him but the place he was was extremely well hidden and not obvious. The floorboards were supported with metal pillars in grid format so that the hollow space was not obvious.

He heard the voices leaving but he was too afraid to leave. It was a good choice as the voices returned and remained several hours before finally leaving for good.

Only the next day that he came out and looked around. To his shock, there were many dead corpses, a good number were shot right in the middle of their forehead, strangely, some had stab wounds and even severed limbs.

It was as if someone used a butcher knife on them. This kind of scene for a child was traumatizing but looking through every dead person’s face, he noticed one thing. His parents weren’t dead. At the very least they were not among the dead here.

“Mama! Papa!” he cried out but didn’t get a reply. He trembled in fear and even didn’t have the courage to call the police. He didn’t know who to trust besides his parents.

When he shakenly walked out, a figure shrouded in light stood in front of him but the memory faded at this point.

When Asur returned to his senses and looked around, he saw the savage scene of the demons over countless dead bodies.

Streams of blood flowed magically into their bodies making a blood red light shine along the bodies while the corpses slowly dried up as every last bit of liquid and blood was suched out somehow.

No one in the complex down here besides him was spared and it was probably because of the gadget his parents gave him.

He looked at it and how the numbers were slowly dropping.

The rate it dropped was already very slow and it was because the demons were finished. As the last demon sucked up the blood, they all rushed back to the wall and returned to the empty section they came from, melding with the wall and from them a bloody glow was released and flowed into the doors.

Thick lines flowed from the outer section onto the double doors and soon reached a large circular centerpiece linking the two doors.

Thin glowing veins appeared after the bloody glow surrounded it and it soon reached the center and a bright circle formed before creating a small indent.

Crack! Bang!

The little energy barrier around Asur burst apart and all that was left was silence. He looked at the numbers left over the white and black side and was shocked. Before he had arrived here, the number was a startling 3.8 billion for the white side and 3.6 for the black side.

This was actually the original value that Asur had and now, in his hand, the gadget that had gone almost haywire growing with an immense amount but it had returned to his original value.

He carefully stood up and saw no changes, he checked the area scan of the black and white sides and found that their numbers were balanced at around 300 each.

Just from this, one could see just how amazing the number accumulated on him was.

He looked around but it was utterly silent so he took a step forward followed by another until he reached the ice powder covered ground and he walked towards the door.

He had the gadget in his hand at all times because he found that it was much more mysterious than he once believed. That said, besides the red light spreading more and more through the images on the door making them more distinct, he saw nothing different going on.

Even the numbers were frozen going neither up or down, which has never happened even when he was simply walking they would fluctuate while he was between choices. This was actually the first time he saw them frozen.

When his foot finally landed on the black platform in front of the massive door things began to change once more.

A strong glow spread out once more but again, he was unaffected and this time, the massive amount of powdered ice began to glow and flowed up towards that small little indent on the door. It was like a bottomless pit and and kept flowing rapidly until the ground was fully exposed. Many perfectly cleared ruins around the door were revealed and a moment after, a blue wave spread out into the exposed space and further cleared the frozen structures or partially frozen ones causing the ice to fall off and flew into the door.

All this gathered at that hole and formed a ball of faintly glowing light.

It shot down to the center of the black floor.

The light began to grow and soon it took the form of a humanoid being, in particular, it was that of a woman but her body and features were blurred and obscure.

“Greetings, Keeper of the Gate Key.” a beautiful but faint voice spoke into Asur’s head.

“Who are you?” Asur asked looking around and at his gadget but still nothing changed.

“You need not worry about your karma, before the Gate of Evolution, it is impossible for it to change.” the ghost said.

Asur frowned when he heard her and looked at the gadget, “Who are you?” he asked again.

“I am the Gatekeeper of the Gate of Evolution. For the last 10,000 years i have slept after the gate was closed. Only now that the gate is uncovered and the key has come, i awaken. Still, I am in a weakened state because the gate remains closed.” she said.

“What is this key you keep talking about?” He asked.

“That which you hold in your hand is the Gatekey of Evolution. It is the centerpiece of the gate which measures the karma of a living being.” she said. “Please come forth so that you may open the gate.” she said.

“I won’t be in danger like what happened to the others?” he asked.

“You need not worry, although it is tragic, it is a necessary evil to open the gate. Without enough blood and flesh of this world’s sentient residents, the door cannot open. It is the reason why the gate was closed, the previous sentient residents died out.” she explained.

He looked around slowly, seeing the bloody red glow not disappearing one bit before he took his first step.

Walking slowly he walked all the way to the ghostly figure who stretched out her hands.

Looking at the gadget he kept for most of his life, he felt reluctant to have others take it but to discover what happened to his parents, the biggest mystery of his life, he reluctantly handed over the device.

It strangely remained in her hands and faint smile was barely noticeable from the movement of the blurred face.

“I thank you for returning this. Do not worry because the key is only required for opening the gate while i will merge with it and regain the abilities it possesses.” she said and her body flashed a faint light.

She became an orb again and surrounded the device. It floated up and soon a bloody light flashed from the indent on the door covering the glow and the device. It’s faint glow rapidly forced itself into the device as it was pulled towards the gate.

When the last of the ghost woman’s light entered the device, it reached the indent. It fit perfectly into the gate and a bright light shined. The bloody red light was suddenly sucked in and a white and black light surged out from each side.

Crack! Clank! Clack!

The huge center lock began to turn slowly releasing deafening sounds which made Asur cover his ears.

The ground began to shake heavily like an earthquake was happening as massive gears and machinery began to move and in turn making Asur fall back while covering his ears.

PA! WOOSH!

At that moment, the lock did a full turn and all the mechanisms had unlocked. A thick blackish wind surged out from behind the door making Asur roll back several meters as he saw the sealed gate start to open.

The circular lock split in half and the Gatekey disconnected and flew out before glowing and flying to the center of the platform. All the black smog began to gather around it and the gatekey split from the ghost woman.

Her ghostly image appeared and she raised her hands and all that black smoke began to gather into her figure.

At first it began to take the form of black silk clothing. Then it formed long flowing back hair. The pale hazy body began to solidify as this strange smog was absorbed by her.

The ice around the gate began to shine brightly and flow around her. The more she absorbed the more she became solid. All around, a huge city was revealed from under the ice before she finally stopped.

What was left was a still hazy woman but her features were now more obvious as if one was looking through a badly focused camera lense.

Besides her, the Gatekey was floating there and amazingly, at that moment, the woman held it with both hands and slowly pulled. What happened next left Asur shocked as he saw a ghostly clone of the device form.

The original solid gatekey floated back and landed in his hand where he was sitting.

“Do not worry, all I did was make my own copy of the current key. This is so that the gate never closes as long as humankind exists.” she said.

He was still blinking and looked at the gate key and tested it and found it was working the same. That said, the next moment, it began to shine and blinded him. When he was finally able to open his eyes, he found that the gatekey was gone.

“Wha! Where did it go?!” he shouted.

A faint laugh came from the front as the ghostly gatekeeper appeared and held his right hand. She turned it so his palm faced up and upon it, an image no different from the key he held before was on it.

“The key will always choose a wielder before they rise. You, as a Keeper of a Gatekey, must protect this so the key itself forms its own methods to hide and aid you in this.” she said.

“Are they that important?” He asked.

“Earth possesses only two gates, this one is called the Land Gate and there is one called the Sea Gate. This is so that sea creatures have the same fairness as land beings. Once the Land gate has fully opened to the world, we will purify the air of the land and through this, gather energy to which I can then open the seagate remotely and awaken my sister.” she said.

“I get that but what does this have to do with me?” he asked pointing at the tattoo.

“You remember what i called this gate?” she asked.

“The Gate of Evolution right?” He said.

“Yes. Do you know what evolution means?” she asked. He shook his head, “It means that your time as a human is over, once you pass the trial to pass the gate, your entire being will be changed into a much greater race down to your smallest particle. This gate key can also be called your planet key to which humankind is linked and you are the keeper of humanity. Once you evolve, you will become the keeper of whichever race you become, turning into a figure of royalty, so to speak. Of course, you will only be in the 2nd realm, there are many many more and each realm is linked to the gate to which you will undergo a new round of evolution.” she explained.

“What is the point in all this?” he asked.

“Who knows, i only know that i was created for this purpose not to question it. That said, through this method, gods are born.” she said.

He was shocked to hear this before looking at the cold blackness beyond the gate.

“So what do we do?” He asked.

“Come.” the gatekeeper said and stood up and helped him up.

She pulled him to the center where he found a glowing magical circle had formed over the pitch black platform.

She made him stand at the center before lifting the ghostly image of the gatekey.

It floated up, “To those seeking evolution, let the trial begin!”

The gatekey suddenly shined. The light wasn’t as blinding as the first one but it released lines which went into Asur. It seemed to want to pull the very soul out of him and surprisingly, it pulled something out.

Looking like a glowing orb it was shining a simple and pure glow. It had four stump like appendages and no other feature.

“What… what is this?” he asked.

“This is your Life Seed. It is the core of your very being. Through this, you shall evolve!” she said and she made a gesture. Suddenly from his back, two strange glows came and began to bloat. One was white and the other black. It grew immensely and infantly but when it reached a certain size, it began to release innumerable numbers of strings which flowed towards the tiny seed.

He suddenly trembled and collapsed, “W-what is going on!?” He said.

“Your good and bad karma, that which you have constantly absorbed and accumulated since you were born, is now taking an energy form. It is using your body to form this energy string to which your life seed feeds and grows.” she replied.

“I-It is sucking my life force away?!” he asked.

“No, only your stamina and strength. Eventually it will need energy and will need nutrients but the gate supplements 80% of what you require. If it did not, those passing the trial would all die.” she said.

Even when she said that he wasn’t relieved one bit, his body grew weaker and weaker until he could barely move. The white and black strings flooded the seed covering it in a black and white cocoon.

Soon his muscles began to shrink and his bones grew brittle. When he felt his life nearing the end, an immeasurable amount of energy consumed finally ended.

“As expected of the keeper of the gatekey. Only a little over 20 years were used to gather so much karma. With such an evolution, you will definitely make an impressive king.” the gatekeeper said.

Asur saw his dried up body and couldn’t even speak.

“Do not worry, once your life seed finishes absorbing the karma and returns to your body, you will undergo your evolution and the evolved life seed will make your body stronger than it could ever become.” she said.

Even though she said that, it took nearly an hour for the shell of karma to break and what was revealed was a light grey soul being. The stumps had formed tiny limbs and it had a body. On it were black tattoos and two open eyes. It had a head of dark gray hair.

“Such a well formed Life seed, your future is very promising.” the gatekeeper said.

Asur didn’t reply in his weakened state.

Finally the gatekeeper lifted her hand, “The trial has been conducted, may this young one strive to evolve further.”

As soon as she said that, a light covered the life seed and it was pushed back into Asur’s body.

Although it should have been a good thing, it was like putting super heated steel on brittle ice.

A blood curdling scream came from Asur as red lights lit up from his heart. This was actually his blood which was incredibly powerful as it began to flow. His heart was scorched by the burning blood but also empowered. From the heart, the veins and arteries followed before he felt his bones itch. Soon his body had turned completely red as if he was being burned alive.

His bones began to crack and rebuild itself completely. Blood flowed out of his pores making him a bloody mess and his old skin shed. His slightly tan skin fell off and where the blood and skin was scraped off, a faint grey skin was visible before it bled out.

His cells also began to change. It was even more drastic because his blood had evolved into a special bloodline. Bloodline usually refers to the blood of some ancient and powerful being and when he evolved, it began to happen here.

It pulsed through his body and it burned half of Asur’s body and with the blood these burned cells were pushed out painfully. His good and strong cells began to rapidly multiply to fill in the space before the bad ones were burned. Cycle after cycle his body and blood grew more and more powerful. All the bad cells in his body was ejected until only powerful and strong cells were left in him from his bone marrow to the end of his hair.

Although this should have made him a bit bulkier, because it required an immense amount of nutrients, he was left in a pitiful thin form. The energy needed for this evolution came from the life seed as well as from the gate.

When it finally finished, Asur felt faint and his world was spinning. One should know that even his brain had undergone the same process. It is unknown what kind of pain he felt when his brain cells multiplied and rejected the bad and dead brain cells. Just the body pain was indescribable, so how could one describe the pain of having their brains tampered with?

Although he was in a dazed form, his brain was already working to learn about his new bodies current senses. The billions of connections which were all active and were very strong, were much more efficient compared to a human brain.

“Good job young keeper of the Gatekey. Your life here has ended but your future has only just begun. From a blank slate you shall begin through the gate.” the gate keeper said and waved her hand and a wave of energy fell on his body. The blood and rejected body matter was ripped off revealing a pale grey skin with gray hair. Black tattoos were along his arms and legs. “Good luck.”

With that, a light covered him and he flew into the gate.

When he vanished into the darkness, the unfrozen city became silent once more.

The gatekeeper slowly turned and her hazy eyes shined, “Now to place this world back into its natural order.” she said and waved her hand. A bright light shot out from the mountain which the gate was attached to and all the ice around it glowed and drew towards the gate and towards her. When the light pierced the ice, it shot into the air and reached the air space over Antarctica where once was the ozone layer which had long been destroyed, the energy suddenly reformed the layer and began to spread.

The influence began to spread through the wind while the glowing of the ice spread more and more while it was sucked up towards the gate and woman.

The polluted air began to come as well and flowed down to form the woman's body.

Every creature in the world suddenly felt the influence and in their mind, information began to magically flow. Thought it was initially ignored, after a short few days, natural disasters which were the result of the reorganization of the worlds nature going back to its most pure and natural state.

When the information was finally checked out, it was discovered that antarctica had fully thawed and all the people on the continent were dead because of the fall when the ice vanished from below all the bases.

When they were finally able to send people there, what they discovered was the unfrozen continent and at its center was a smiling and beautiful immortal like woman standing before a despair bringing black gate which extended into infinite darkness.