The Breakers of Divine Boundaries

Shadows Inside a Blank Mirror

The night wind was howling on top of the skyscraper, brushing against Hanan’s face. Right in front of him, a projection of his past self the busted and pathetic Hanan—was laughing with a creepy double voice echoing in his head.

"Your revenge is over, Hanan," the projection mocked, rolling his wheelchair closer. "You really think wrecking their lives is gonna patch that hole in your soul? Look at you. You’ve got the power to split the ocean, but you don’t even know where the hell you’re going."

Hanan just stared at his past self with a totally blank face. No anger at all. He just raised his hand, focused a tiny bit of energy from the cracked Limiter in his chest, and snapped his fingers.

The projection crumbled into stardust, blown away by the night wind without leaving a trace.

"I’ll find my own way," Hanan muttered.

With one light step, Hanan drifted off the edge of the building. He didn’t fall; he was literally walking on air, messing with the wind pressure under his feet like they were invisible stairs. He headed down slowly through the dark, landing smoothly on a quiet pedestrian bridge.

The roar of the river rushing below echoed under the bridge. Hanan started walking along the wet sidewalk, trying to find a spark of emotion from the world around him. But all he saw were the universe's algorithms. The neon city lights that used to look pretty were now just light waves with different frequencies.

He stopped when he saw a young woman standing outside the bridge railing, her hands gripping the cold metal tight. She was sobbing her heart out, staring blankly at the fast river down below.

Back then, Hanan probably would’ve run over, begged her not to jump, or felt some deep empathy. Now, Hanan just tilted his head, his brain automatically processing the incoming data.

Smudged makeup, irregular heartbeat, crazy high cortisol levels. Heartbreak. Probability of jumping: eighty-five percent.

"That river isn’t gonna kill you instantly," Hanan’s voice cut through the woman’s crying. It wasn't loud, but it had this resonance that forced the air around them to go dead silent.

The woman jumped and turned around with a puffy face. "Who are you?! Stay back or I’m jumping!"

"Your survival rate if you jump from this height is eighteen percent," Hanan walked forward casually, totally ignoring her threat. "Your ribs will probably snap when you hit the water. But the most painful part is the drowning. Dirty water will flood your lungs, burning them from the inside. You’ll be gasping for oxygen for about three minutes before your brain finally shuts down from hypoxia."

The woman stared at Hanan in total horror. Her sadness was suddenly replaced by pure terror. This guy wasn't looking at her with pity; he was looking at her like she was just a science experiment.

"You’re insane! Why would you say that to someone who wants to die?!" she screamed hysterically.

"I’m just giving you the facts," Hanan stopped right at the railing. He looked her straight in the eyes. A faint gold glow flashed in his eyes, making the temperature around them drop a few degrees. "You want to die because the pain in your chest feels unbearable, right? Betrayed? Dumped?"

The woman went quiet, her lips trembling.

"I’ve felt that pain before. It hurt so much I begged God to take my life," Hanan whispered. "But do you know what’s scarier than pain?"

The woman shook her head slowly, paralyzed by Hanan’s intense aura.

"The void," Hanan answered coldly. "It’s when you try to find that pain again just to prove you’re still human, and you find absolutely nothing. Now, get back on the bridge. The chance of you jumping has dropped to zero because you’re way too scared of me."

And Hanan was right. The woman was shaking like crazy, hurriedly climbing back to the safe side and collapsing on the ground, crying in fear without daring to look at Hanan again. Hanan didn’t even look back. He just kept walking. He’d saved a life, but he didn't feel a single bit of pride.

Hanan kept walking until he reached a dark and quiet city park. He sat down on a rotting wooden bench. He closed his eyes, letting the drizzle soak his shirt.

Every drop of rain didn’t feel like water anymore; it was more like a microscopic kinetic sensation read by his new nervous system.

Is this what God feels? Absolute boredom? he thought.

"Boredom is a luxury for those who don’t know how dangerous this world really is, kid."

Hanan snapped his eyes open. Someone was standing less than three meters away from him. No footsteps. No air fluctuations. Even Hanan’s super senses didn’t pick up a thing until the person spoke.

The figure was an old man in a worn-out dark robe. He had long white hair and was leaning on a wooden cane that looked like it was about to snap. But the old man’s eyes were sharp as a hawk’s, looking at Hanan with a judging stare that actually made Hanan feel... threatened.

It was a feeling he hadn’t felt since his Limiter shattered.

"Who are you?" Hanan didn't stand up, but every muscle in his body tensed, ready to blast deadly energy if he had to.

The old man let out a raspy laugh, a sound that reminded Hanan of rocks grinding together. "It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone crazy enough to force a crack in that Soul Barrier until it broke. But look at you. You’re drowning in the silence, aren’t you?"

Hanan narrowed his eyes. "You know about the Limiter."

"Know?" The old man stepped closer, and every tap of his wooden cane on the park pavement sent out a weird ripple of energy. "Son, I’ve spent my whole life watching people like you. Greedy humans who reject destiny and steal the Creator’s power."

Hanan stood up. "I didn't steal anything. I paid for it with everything I had."

"And what’s left?" The old man pointed right at Hanan’s chest with his cane. "You feel empty because your humanity was the price for that power. The more you use it, the more you’ll forget what it feels like to be human. There are others with cracks like yours in this world, Hanan. And most of them choose to become monsters, just to feel something."

Those words hit Hanan harder than any physical punch. There were others like him.

"If you don’t have a purpose," the old man continued, his voice slowly fading as his body started to blend into the night shadows, "your power will only turn you into a blank mirror. Reflecting the world, but having no life inside it. Find your will, Hanan. Before 'they' find you."

"Wait! Who are 'they'?!" Hanan stepped forward and tried to grab the old man.

His hand just caught thin air. The mysterious man vanished without a trace, not even leaving a single atomic fluctuation behind, as if he really was just an illusion.

Hanan stood alone in the middle of the park. The rain had stopped. On the eastern horizon, a glow of dawn started to break through the night sky.

Hanan’s chest rumbled. The Limiter crack in his soul reacted to this new threat. For the first time since he came back from the dead, a tiny, very primitive spark of emotion flared up in the depths of his frozen soul.

It wasn’t love. It wasn’t sadness.

It was hunger.

Hanan stared at his perfect hand.

If this world had other freaks who broke God's limits like he did, he wasn't about to let himself be some lame pawn dying of boredom.

"An empty mirror, huh?" Hanan let out a tiny smirk. His eyes were glowing with some dark ambition while the morning sun slowly lit up Jakarta. "In that case, let's see who's gonna get trashed first when we go head-to-head."