The Breakers of Divine Boundaries

A Brand New Food Chain

Hanan walked toward the elevator. Not a single employee even noticed him. Hanan used what was left of Bastian’s purple energy to mess with their vision. To those employees, Hanan was just thin air.

As the elevator doors shut, Hanan closed his eyes.

Something new was rumbling in his head. Memories. Bastian’s spiritual core that he’d crushed and absorbed actually carried bits of memory. Shards of images and sounds flashed through Hanan’s mind like a movie playing at some insane speed.

Hanan saw a POV from Bastian’s eyes, kneeling in a dark room. In front of him stood three glowing human silhouettes. They didn't have faces. They were just energy entities giving off some seriously heavy pressure.

One of those silhouettes spoke up, "Your job is just to round up the human resources in this sector. Don't ever step out of your territory."

That memory faded and got replaced by a flash of a weird symbol. An image of a third eye split into three parts.

Hanan opened his eyes when the elevator hit the ground floor.

"So he was just a lackey," Hanan muttered. "A CEO who thought he was a god turned out to be just a watchdog for even bigger gods."

An ancient voice inside Hanan’s chest let out a heavy laugh. "I told you so. This food chain is way higher than you can even imagine. You just ate a tiny fish in shallow water."

Hanan stepped out of that corporate tower. The Jakarta afternoon air was burning hot, but Hanan wasn't sweating one bit.

New energy pulsed through his veins. Now Hanan could hear millions of overlapping voices. It was the thoughts of every single person within a five-kilometer radius. Voices fearing bank bills, voices hating on coworkers, hidden lustful thoughts, even desperate prayers.

It was all flooding Hanan’s brain. The noise was so loud it could drive a normal person insane in seconds.

But Hanan just sighed. He focused his will and built an invisible wall inside his mind. Instantly, all those voices vanished. He filtered that ocean of info and left nothing but total silence.

"Mind manipulation powers are seriously annoying," Hanan said while looking at his palm. "Bastian used this to crush the weak. I’m gonna use it to hunt down the strong ones."

Hanan strolled down the sidewalk. He had no plan to go back to his old apartment. That place was a dead past. Right now, he needed a high spot to map out the whole energy grid in the city.

He stepped into a narrow alley between two old buildings. At the end of that quiet alley, Hanan bent his knees a bit and then just launched himself.

His body shot up, defying gravity. The air gave a soft pop under his feet as he vaulted himself fifty meters high in a single jump. He landed smoothly on the concrete roof without even making a sound.

Hanan walked to the edge of the roof. The wind whipped hard against his face. He closed his eyes and let loose all that purple energy he’d just grabbed.

Waves of a metaphysical radar spread out from Hanan, expanding to cover every corner of Jakarta. He ignored the golden threads of regular people. He was looking for distortions. He was hunting for other cracks that gave off different colors.

A minute passed. Suddenly, a spark of energy popped up on his radar.

It was way out north, right by the harbor docks. That energy was blood-red. Totally wild and hot. Much bigger and more brutal than what Bastian had.

Hanan’s eyes snapped open. The gold glow in his irises was now mixed with a savage purple flash.

"Target number two," Hanan whispered.

But before Hanan could even take a step, the air behind him made a weird whistling sound. The temperature plummeted. The puddles of rain on the roof froze into ice in a heartbeat.

Hanan didn't turn around. He already knew someone was standing ten meters behind him.

"That was fast," Hanan said, totally chill.

"You're messing with our property," a woman’s voice came from behind. Her voice was gorgeous but cold as the North Pole. "Bastian was definitely a weak idiot. But he was a useful pawn for raising funds for our operations."

Hanan slowly turned around.

There stood a woman in an elegant black dress. Her skin was pale as marble. Her long hair flowed in the wind. The woman didn't have pupils. Her entire eyes were a glowing silver.

"I was sent to clean up the mess," the woman continued as she stepped forward. "My name's Elara. And you, New Anomaly, have broken our law of balance."

Hanan checked her out from head to toe. He could see tiny ice crystals forming in the air every time Elara took a breath.

"Laws?" Hanan gave a faint smirk. "Ever since the barrier in my chest shattered, the only absolute thing I recognize is my own damn will."

Elara raised her right hand. The air around Hanan suddenly froze solid, trapping Hanan’s feet in blocks of absolute ice that were basically near absolute zero.

"Your will dies right here," Elara hissed sharply.

Hanan looked down at his ice-trapped feet. He didn't look panicked at all. The hunger in his chest was actually thrashing around in pure excitement. This new prey had just delivered herself on a silver platter.