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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4-38
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
4-37
The chamber dimmed slowly after Noir’s outburst, as though the walls themselves feared provoking him any further. Golden embers receded into cracks along the ceiling, while the shadowed floor pulsed with residual heat from Noir’s flames. Andrew lay unconscious against Noir’s chest, his breaths shallow but steady, though each inhale seemed painfully reluctant, as if his mortal lungs resisted the divine pressure suffocating the air.Miriam—helm removed, braid disheveled, eyes glowing faintly with the peculiar shimmer of her arcane lineage—ran to Andrew’s side immediately. She wasn’t supposed to be here yet. She wasn’t part of this Gate. But Sahara had opened a path, pulling Miriam in from another section of the ritual labyrinth when the instability threatened to kill Andrew outright.Jiro helped steady her. “You made it in one piece. Good. Because we need you.”Miriam knelt beside Noir, trying not to tense as his flames flared instinctively to protect Andrew. “Noir,” she whispered softl
4-36
For a moment, after the constructs crumbled into dust, the chamber stilled.The dual energies—gold and shadow—receded into the walls like retreating tides, leaving the air eerily quiet. Too quiet. A silence so absolute it felt sharpened, like the edge of a blade pressed lightly against the back of every heir’s neck.Andrew leaned against Noir, breath trembling, body still weakened from the prior trials. Noir held him cautiously, not out of fragility but fear—the fear that one wrong grip, one wrong heartbeat, one wrong resonance might harm Andrew through their new bond.“Are you okay?” Noir murmured, his voice low and rough.Andrew nodded slowly. “Yeah… just tired. But I can move.”Noir didn’t let go.Jiro wiped sweat from his brow. “We need to keep moving before Solus tries anything again.”Yuki’s head snapped toward him. “Don’t say that name so casually. The Gate reacts to him.”Rayan pointed nervously at the air. “Uh… speaking of reactions… does anyone else hear that rattling noise?
4-35
The next realm opened like a lung inhaling light, drawing the team into a vast chamber suspended between two conflicting realities—one half drenched in searing gold fire, the other drowned in suffocating shadow. The line dividing the halves ran straight through the floor like a scar across creation, pulsing rhythmically with dissonant energies that collided like two hearts beating out of sync.Andrew stepped in first, Noir at his side, the others forming a protective circle around them as they walked cautiously across the unstable surface. Each footstep sent ripples of distorted gravity across the two-toned ground, bending the air like heated glass. The dual energies vibrated heavily, forcing even the strongest among them to grit their teeth against the unnatural pressure.Yuki held Sahara’s hand as the child trembled, her blind eyes glowing in frantic pulses. “The Gate is trying to merge energies,” Sahara whispered shakily. “It’s aligning something… something important… something dan
4-34
Andrew’s body descended slowly, carried by gentle waves of blue-white luminescence that shimmered like liquid starlight before dissolving into the chamber’s dim light. His feet touched the ground first, but his knees buckled immediately—Noir lunged forward instinctively, catching him before he could fall again. Andrew’s chest rose and fell with steady breaths, but the rhythm felt unfamiliar, as though the Sapphire inside him beat to a tempo he had never heard before.The others gathered around him cautiously, unsure whether to celebrate or brace for another collapse. The air hummed faintly, thick with residual power from the ritual, still vibrating through their bones like the echo of a cosmic chord slowly fading into silence.Andrew blinked slowly, his newly formed irises glowing with an unnatural shade of pale sapphire threaded faintly with white. The change was subtle yet undeniable—his gaze felt deeper, emptier, older, and far more fragile than before.Yuki reached forward hesitan
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
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