2023-05-29 15:37:43"Ugh!"
Andrew jolted, his eyes snapped open. He looked around and the bloodstains on the walls reminded him of the altercation with Orlando. Strangely, Andrew didn't feel any pain in his body. In fact, he felt much fresher now.
His hand reached for his head, still leaving traces of blood. But the wound has healed. "Shit. How is this even possible? I thought I was badly hurt."
As if disbelieving the situation he found himself in, Andrew rose and approached the mirror in the corner of the room.
"I'm okay. But... Where's my necklace?"
Andrew felt his neck, and the necklace that had been with him for almost 20 years was gone. He had no idea that the heirloom necklace from his family was what gave him the power to be reborn.
"Oh no, I lost the necklace from my great-grandmother. Argh! Everything I had is gone!"
However, the bloodstains on the walls and his body that felt so different slowly brought Andrew to memories of decades ago, to be precise just before his grandpa died.
“Andrew, wear this necklace. Take care and don't lose it. It will help you, when the time comes, no one will be able to beat you.”
Andrew then widened, he again felt his neck and muttered. "Is it all because of the necklace that grandpa gave to me?"
The ringing of the cellphone was then heard and interrupted Andrew's reverie, he immediately went to take the cellphone and found a call from the deputy director of the company where he worked.
"Hello, sir."
"Andrew, can you come to the office now? There are some things we need to discuss."
"Yes, sir. I'll be there soon."
"Great, I'll be waiting for you at the office."
Andrew furrowed his brow and muttered, "Maybe I should tell them what I heard from Orlando earlier. I can't stay silent and let them trap me."
He threw his phone onto the bed, then walked toward the bathroom to clean himself up. The photo of him and Nadine displayed on the wall near the kitchen in his apartment seemed to emit a different vibe. Andrew used to always feel excited when he saw his lover's smile, but now, it only left him with disappointment.
"You're the worst woman in my life, Nadine," he murmured.
**
Thirty minutes passed, and Andrew arrived on the fifth floor of his office to meet the deputy director. His steps appeared confident and self-assured, disregarding the cynical and condescending gazes of the other employees.
"Good afternoon, sir," Andrew entered the deputy director's office, bowing his head.
However, his confidence was disrupted when he saw Orlando, who was none other than present in the room as well.
"Ah, Andrew. Hello, thief!" Orlando greeted sarcastically.
"Andrew, please have a seat."
Andrew tried to stay calm and focused on the deputy director, who invited him to sit next to Orlando. However, Andrew's mind began to suspect the purpose of this summons.
"Mr. Douglaz, you should just speak up to Andrew. It's not good to let a thief like him stay in this company for too long. Surely, you don't want him to successfully take all the employee data, right?"
Andrew turned to Orlando, his anger no longer containable, and he said, "What do you mean, Orlando?!"
"Andrew, you're fired."
Andrew's eyes widened as the words came out of the deputy director's mouth. His gaze shifted away from Orlando. He looked at the white-haired deputy director and asked, "I'm sorry, sir, but what happened? What did I do? If this is all because of the adult videos found in the presentation earlier, it's all a misunderstanding. I didn't do it, and it was a trap set up by Orlando. I heard everything he said to bring me down, sir!"
"I'm sorry, Andrew, but we found evidence that you stole Mr. Orlando's data and sabotaged his identity, causing harm to Orlando and his family. There is enough evidence to make you leave this company," the deputy director replied.
"I didn't do anything, sir! Clearly, this is all a trap orchestrated by Orlando to get rid of me! Can you explain what benefit I would have from sabotaging Orlando's identity and files that I didn't even know existed?"
"Enough, Andrew! You're just jealous and bitter because Nadine no longer wants to be with you. You deliberately hacked into my social media accounts, changed the existing identities, and sent numerous embarrassing portfolios to my colleagues! Don't deny it! Do you want to destroy our family? Well, my father really liked you and wanted to give you a better position than what you have now."
Andrew stood up and pointed at Orlando. "I never did any of that, and you know it!"
"Andrew, calm down! Fighting against what has been decided will only worsen the situation. Our decision is final and cannot be questioned. You have to be fired. If you still don't believe it, let me show you the evidence," the deputy director said. He handed Andrew several sheets of paper filled with photos.
There, a social media platform displayed a user with Andrew's name and photo offering a significant amount of money for Orlando's data. The next sheets showed conversations between Andrew and a man believed to be a hacker hired by Andrew to hack and sabotage all of Orlando's social media accounts.
Orlando wore a sly smile and said, "Looks like he wants more evidence. I'll bring it to you, Andrew."
The man in the blue shirt got up from his chair and left the room. Meanwhile, Andrew spoke to the deputy director again, clasping his hands and saying, "Sir, you have to believe me, this is all Orlando's trap. He's angry because his father wanted to give me a good salary and position. Besides, he also attacked me. The wound on my head can serve as evidence of his cruelty earlier. I--."
The door opened again, and Andrew stopped his sentence as he saw Nadine entering with three other men.
"Okay, Andrew. This is real evidence of all your crimes. I prepared this so that you can't deny it and admit your mistakes. Nadine knows about your plans, and everything is recorded in the conversations on Nadine's phone. Furthermore, these three people are a group of hackers who have breached my data. So, what other excuses do you have, Andrew?"
Andrew looked at Nadine, the woman he loved, as she raised her head and put on a scornful expression. Andrew clenched his fists and turned to the deputy director. The thick-mustached man shrugged his shoulders and said, "Andrew, you are fired. And you will pay the company for all damages. Total 500,000 dollars."
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4-43
The fused being walked through the ruined city like a silent storm given form, each step trailing faint ripples of light and shadow that bent the air in unnatural curves. The sky remained torn above him, the cracks glowing with a slow, pulsating radiance that resembled a heartbeat too large for any mortal world to contain. The atmosphere trembled softly, as if the world were whispering ancient instructions through the wind.Behind him, the team followed at a cautious distance, unsure whether they were witnessing salvation or calamity wrapped in familiar faces. Jiro kept one hand hovering over his weapon but did not draw it, knowing full well that anything he wielded would be meaningless against the fused king. Yuki held Sahara tightly as the seer trembled with each step the being took, sensing visions too powerful for a child’s body to endure. Rayan and Mika walked silently, trading glances that conveyed questions none of them were ready to voice.The being stopped at the edge of a cr
4-42
The world did not recover after the fracture of Solus. It simply went quiet, as if reality were inhaling sharply and waiting to see whether it would be permitted to exhale again. The sky above remained carved open with a violent wound of shadow and broken light, the cracks pulsing faintly like the scar of a god struggling to comprehend its own injury. Even the wind moved strangely, as though the atmosphere was afraid to disturb the aftermath of something it could not fully understand.Andrew knelt beside Noir beneath that broken sky, still holding him tightly as shadow heat bled slowly from Noir’s body. His breathing was thin and uneven, each inhale sounding like someone swallowing fire and ice at the same time. Andrew pressed his hand to Noir’s cheek, feeling the tremble beneath his fingers, feeling the instability echo through their bond like a faultline refusing to close.“You’re here,” Andrew whispered, voice shaking with relief and fear in equal measure. “You’re here with me. Sta
4-41
The first sign that the world had begun to choose was not an explosion, nor a vision, nor a divine proclamation carved into the sky. It was silence—an unnatural, spreading silence that rolled across the ruined city like a held breath, suffocating every sound until even the crackle of distant fires faded into nothingness.Andrew felt it immediately.His chest tightened, not with pain, but with pressure, as if the Sapphire inside him had suddenly become aware of something vast and unavoidable moving toward it. The faint blue-white glow beneath his skin pulsed once, then again, growing warmer with each beat, as though responding to a summons it could not refuse.Noir stiffened beside him.His shadowfire did not flare.It recoiled.“That feeling,” Noir muttered, voice low and strained. “It’s happening again.”Yuki’s head snapped up sharply, eyes wide as white energy rippled around her uncontrollably. “All the Relics just reacted at the same time. Every single one of them.”Sahara collapse
4-40
The ruined street stretched before them like a battlefield carved from molten glass, illuminated by the distant glow of burning buildings and shards of fractured streetlamps buzzing weakly with dying electricity. The city still trembled under the aftershock of Noir’s meteor storm, and every echo of collapsing metal rang like a warning bell that refused to be silenced. But the greatest tension did not come from the destruction around them. It came from the two figures standing in the very center of the street, facing each other with expressions caught somewhere between dread and inevitability.Andrew stood with both feet planted firmly despite his trembling knees, his breathing rapid yet determined as faint traces of Sapphire Reborn shimmered unwillingly beneath his skin. Noir stood nearly ten meters away, his posture hunched but dangerous, shadowfire slithering around his arms like restless serpents seeking anything to burn. They were close enough to see each other’s pain, yet far eno
4-39
Smoke still curled upward from the shattered skyline, rising in thin spirals that looked almost delicate against the ruined concrete. The city below was a bleeding mosaic of collapsed structures and smoldering rooftops, the aftermath of Noir’s near-eruption painted across every ruined silhouette. Even the air felt exhausted, hanging heavy and metallic as if unsure whether the world had just survived disaster or narrowly postponed it.Andrew stood on the fractured rooftop with his knees barely holding steady, every breath burning like frost slicing through his lungs. The remnants of Sapphire Reborn dimmed along his skin in faint blue-white patches, flickering unevenly like a dying constellation. Yuki kept one hand braced against his back to steady him, while Jiro hovered nearby with a strained expression, torn between protecting Andrew and scanning the shadows for lingering threats.Behind them, Noir lay unconscious on a slab of broken cement. Mika and Rayan had dragged him away from t
4-38
The world reassembled violently after the forbidden merging, hurling Andrew and Noir out of the Gate like two mismatched pieces attempting to fuse before the ritual was complete. They crashed into solid ground—real ground this time—hard enough to crack stone and send dust exploding upward. The smell of fire and iron hit Andrew instantly, along with the distant sound of panic echoing through streets he didn’t yet recognize.Mika landed nearby, coughing. “Where the hell did it throw us?”Rayan pushed himself upright. “Somewhere… awful. I can feel the rent price already.”Yuki helped Sahara steady herself as the trembling child whispered, “This realm is not a Gate. This is… a city.”The dust settled.And it was clear.They were on a cliff overlooking a sprawling metropolis below—its buildings sleek and modern, its roads glimmering with neon, its skyline painted with colors that should have signified safety.But the sky above the city was wrong.Very wrong.Black fire bled across the clou
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