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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4-33
The moment Solus hissed its threat, the Gate reacted as though an earthquake rippled through its very bones, sending thunderous shockwaves outward that cracked every platform, wall, and floating structure with terrifying speed. The once-stable sphere of symbols surrounding the heirs fractured into spinning shards, each shard glowing violently before bursting into raw energy that rained down like fragments of collapsing constellations.Andrew stumbled backward, clutching his chest as the Sapphire flickered so weakly it barely illuminated the veins running across his skin. Noir lunged forward, shielding Andrew instinctively with one arm even though his own flames sputtered erratically, torn between Phoenix fire and the corrupt shadow twisting deeply through him after the previous trial.Sahara screamed as the visions in her head surged like tidal waves, her hands clawing at her temples. “The Gate is collapsing! The structure—this entire realm—it’s destabilizing too fast!”Yuki grabbed h
4-32
The Gate did not shift gently this time. It detonated.Light—not white, not gold, but a blinding fusion of every spectrum that ever existed—erupted outward, consuming the chamber like a supernova blooming in slow motion. The ground vanished beneath their feet. The ceiling dissolved into sky. The sky dissolved into nothing. Reality peeled itself open like a curtain pulled by invisible hands that belonged to something ancient enough to shape worlds without touching them.Andrew fell first, his body too weak to resist the gravitational collapse forming in the center of the void. Noir reached for him instantly, movements instinctive and frantic—but invisible force gripped both of them and pulled them apart.Yuki screamed Andrew’s name.Sahara called Noir’s name.Jiro cursed under his breath.Rayan yelled something incoherent.Mika reached for anyone she could touch.Then everything stopped.The void around them froze into a sphere of glowing symbols—runic shapes rotating slowly like celes
4-31
The Gate convulsed again, swallowing the remnants of Noir’s explosion inside layers of expanding shadow that rippled across the chamber like waves stirred by an unseen, colossal heartbeat. The air thickened, then dropped into a cold stillness that made the hairs on Yuki’s arms stand upright. Every surface—stone, wall, floor, even the falling debris—froze mid-motion, suspended unnaturally as if the Gate itself inhaled and held its breath.Yuki stepped back instinctively, gripping her staff as every particle of air vibrated with a familiar and terrifying energy she had worked her entire life to keep dormant. Shadows spread across the ground beneath her feet like ink spilled with malicious intent, crawling upward toward her legs with an intimacy that made her skin crawl.Sahara gasped softly. “Yuki… the Abyss is calling you.”Rayan muttered, “Great. Because things weren’t horrifying enough already.”Jiro stepped protectively between Yuki and the spreading darkness. “Stay behind me.”Yuki
4-30
The chamber following the Gate of Sacrifice shifted into a suffocating twilight, thick with floating dust motes that glowed faintly like dying embers suspended in still air, creating an atmosphere both serene and unnervingly oppressive. The sky—if it could be called a sky—throbbed with roiling crimson clouds that churned slowly overhead like congealed blood reacting to unseen cosmic pressure that saturated the entire Gate dimension.Noir carried Andrew closely, one arm wrapped under his knees and the other bracing his back, while Andrew’s head rested limply against Noir’s shoulder, his breathing shallow and painfully erratic. The Sapphire embedded in Andrew’s chest flickered sporadically, each pulse dimmer than the last as though its light were retreating deeper into his body to escape the damage it had sustained.Yuki rushed forward the moment she saw Noir emerge from the collapsing corridor, her hands already glowing with frantic white healing energy. “Put him down, Noir,” she plead
4-29
The chamber shifted with a grinding rumble that vibrated up through Andrew’s ankles, shaking loose dust from an unseen ceiling and casting the entire team into a wavering haze of deep violet light. The air thickened immediately—denser, heavier, saturating their lungs with a coldness that carried the sharp metallic taste of something ancient and cruel waking from a long slumber. Rayan stepped back reflexively, then hissed as the ground beneath him pulsed like a heartbeat.Jiro raised his blades. “Everyone stay alert. The trial is coming.”But Andrew already felt it.A whisper that wasn’t sound but instinct scraping across the inside of his skull, dragging the remnants of the Sapphire within him closer to the surface. The Gate was not asking for strength. It was demanding it—like a mouth widening hungrily, searching for the weakest soul to devour.Then the floor split.A perfect circle carved itself around Rayan with a burst of violet fire, isolating him in a ring of sigils that glowed
4-28
Andrew drifted in a darkness so absolute it felt thick and liquid, clinging to his thoughts like ink seeping into the cracks of an already fractured mind. There was no sound, no ground, no sensation except the distant echo of a fading heartbeat—his own, dissolving slowly into the void surrounding him. He tried to inhale, but the darkness pressed against his lungs like invisible weights, suffocating and relentless in its silent insistence.He could not tell if minutes, hours, or an eternity passed before a thin spark of cold blue light flickered within the abyss, pulsing once with a weakened rhythm that barely registered as life. The light grew slightly, then dimmed again, as if struggling to decide whether to continue existing or finally collapse into nothingness.Another heartbeat.Barely.Andrew tried to speak, but his voice failed, collapsing into silence that swallowed even the attempt. He reached toward the flickering light, but his arm refused to move, the darkness clinging arou
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