The Breakers of Divine Boundaries

The Crack That Shouldn't Exist

"Quit your whining, you weak little piece of trash. You don't need prayers right now. What you need is a rage that can literally set the sky on fire."

That voice didn't come through Hanan’s ears. It hit him straight in the middle of his head, vibrating through every bit of his wrecked soul. Hanan felt his body hanging right between life and death. All around him, the Jakarta skyline that was just rushing past a second ago was now totally frozen. The raindrops that were slamming into his face were stuck mid-air, hanging like shiny jewels that refused to drop.

Hanan looked up. Ten floors above, he could still see Rendy and Sarah standing there frozen on the edge of the balcony. Their faces, twisted with those smug, winning smirks, looked totally stupid trapped in a moment where time had just quit.

"Who are you?" Hanan whispered in his mind. His voice sounded broken, even inside his own head. "Why did everything stop? Why didn't I smash into the ground?"

A low laugh answered him. It sounded old as hell, like it came from a time way before humans even learned to talk. "Time hasn't stopped. It’s just that your mind is moving way faster than the reality you left behind. You’re at the edge, Hanan. You're in the place where human logic usually just gives up and dies."

Hanan tried to move his hand, but it felt like his body was made of glass that could shatter any second. "I don't care who you are or where I am. I want them to feel what I'm feeling. I want to live just to watch them rot."

"Good. Spite is way better fuel than love or hope. But look at yourself," the voice said, sounding all mocking and sharp. "You’re just a messed-up piece of meat that can't even stand up. How are you gonna get your revenge? With tears? By begging for justice that never even exists for weaklings like you?"

An explosion of anger popped off in Hanan’s chest. "Then give me the damn power! If you can hold me in the air like this, you can make me walk again, right? Give me whatever I need to crush them!"

"You have no clue what you’re asking for, Hanan. Humans were built with a barrier. A seal you people call physical and mental limits. The world put that Limiter there so you wouldn't destroy yourselves or the world you live in. Every human has it. It's the Limiter that keeps your brain from frying when you think too hard and keeps your body mortal."

The voice went quiet for a sec, and then a massive tremor shook the void.

"But you... you've got a crack that shouldn't be there. That pain and betrayal from before created a tiny rift in your Limiter. If I press on it just a bit, the barrier is gonna shatter. You’ll see stuff humans aren't supposed to see. You’ll do things only creators can do."

Hanan didn't hesitate for a single heartbeat. He wasn't scared of anything anymore. Death had already kissed his forehead, so what else was there to worry about? "Do it now. I don't want to be human anymore if it means being weak. Break every single one of those barriers!"

"Fine. But remember, Hanan. Once that crack spreads, there’s no turning back. You’re gonna start losing the thing you call humanity every time you push past your limits. You still want it?"

"Just do it, you bastard! I’ve got nothing left to protect anyway!" Hanan screamed with the last of his energy.

Suddenly, a speck of light showed up in the darkness around Hanan. It spread like glowing tree roots, crawling toward Hanan’s chest. The moment the light touched his skin, Hanan felt a pain he couldn't even imagine. It felt like every atom in his body was being ripped in different directions.

KRAK.

The sound was deafening, like thick glass getting hit by a sledgehammer. Hanan saw a complex geometric symbol pop up before his eyes, wrapping around his whole body. It looked like a web of golden chains locking his soul, but now, those chains were snapping.

A massive crack appeared right in the middle, exactly where his heart was.

"Argh! Stop! It hurts!" Hanan screamed, but his voice was instantly swallowed by the explosion of energy bursting out of his own body.

"Don't close your eyes, Hanan! Look at the real world!" the voice ordered with an authority that shook him to his bones.

Hanan was forced to throw his eyes wide open. That was when his whole view of the world flipped. He didn't see raindrops as water anymore, but as clusters of molecules tied together by threads of blue energy. He didn't see his apartment as a concrete building, but as a grid of atomic structures vibrating at a specific frequency.

He could see lines of fate stretching out from every living thing below him. The lines were silver, twisting and turning in a complex pattern. And up there, coming from Sarah and Rendy’s bodies, he saw those lines looking dull and stained with black.

The crack in Hanan’s Limiter kept spreading. He could feel the nerves in his legs, which had been dead for years, suddenly get flooded with a searing, white-hot energy. The damaged nerve cells were forced to reconnect at an impossible speed. His brittle bones hardened, and his shriveled muscles started to bulk up, filling with a new, lethal strength that felt weird but perfect.

"I... I can see everything," Hanan muttered. He felt his brain working millions of times faster. He could process every bit of information around him in less than a fraction of a second. "I can see how the air moves, I can see the heartbeats of every person in that building... this is insane."

"That’s only the beginning of your barrier’s destruction," the voice sounded satisfied. "You're now accessing the basic gears of the world. To you, the laws of nature aren't absolute rules anymore. They’re just suggestions you can ignore if your will is strong enough."

Suddenly, time started moving again. But for Hanan, the movement felt incredibly slow. His body, which was in a free fall, now felt as light as a feather. He could control his position in the air with just a slight shift of his thoughts. The asphalt road that looked so scary before now just looked like a soft surface he could mess with.

Hanan looked at his hands. His skin was glowing with a thin, golden aura. The crack in his soul wasn't completely shattered yet, but the hole it made was enough to let a power that didn't belong to humans leak through.

"What do I do now?" Hanan asked, his voice now sounding heavy and full of a newly born authority.

"Go down to the earth like a king returning from exile. Show them that even death isn't brave enough to take your life."

Hanan flipped his body in the air. With one simple thought, he changed the air pressure beneath him, creating an invisible cushion of wind. His once paralyzed feet landed on the asphalt perfectly. There was no loud thud, no broken bones. He landed with a grace that no athlete could ever hope to have.

The moment his feet touched the ground, a small but powerful shockwave radiated from under his soles, making the windows of the parked cars nearby vibrate so hard they cracked. Hanan stood tall. He felt his legs, then tried to take a step.

One step. Two steps.

He could walk. He could stand.

Hanan laughed. The laugh started low but slowly turned into something terrifying, echoing through the empty street under the pouring rain which was now falling normally again. He felt like he’d just been reborn from the deepest pit of hell.

"Hanan? That's impossible!"

Hanan looked up. On the tenth-floor balcony, Rendy was leaning forward, his face pale as a ghost. He gripped the railing with shaking hands, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at the guy who should’ve been a corpse on the asphalt standing perfectly straight and staring back.

Sarah showed up beside Rendy, her pretty face now a mask of pure terror. "Ren, it's him! He's alive! But how? He fell from the tenth floor!"

Hanan didn't answer. He just gave a thin smile, the kind that would make anyone's skin crawl.

He balled up his fist, feeling the power surging through his veins. The crack in his soul still stung like crazy, throbbing like a nasty open wound dripping fire, but that pain just made him feel more alive than ever.

He could feel every single drop of fear oozing out of Rendy and Sarah up there. To Hanan, their terror smelled like some sweet-ass perfume.

"Why do you guys look so freaked out?" Hanan's voice was clear as day, even though he was talking from ten floors down. His new power let his voice carry through the air without losing any of its punch.

"What... what kind of freak are you?" Rendy screamed, his voice cracking. He tried to pull Sarah back inside, but his legs felt like they were glued to the balcony floor. "Don't you come near us! I'm calling the cops if you try anything!"

Hanan started heading for the apartment lobby door. Every step felt crazy light, like the earth itself was giving him a boost. He didn't need a wheelchair anymore. He didn't need anyone's pity.

"You said I was just trash that needed to be tossed out, right, Ren?" Hanan stopped for a sec in front of the lobby's glass door, checking out his own reflection. His face looked the same, but his eyes had this inhuman glow now. "I just want to drop off that trash right where it belongs. And that place is up there, with both of you."

Hanan pushed the glass door. Usually, you'd need a key card or the guard's help to get in, but with just a tiny touch from Hanan's finger, the electronic lock inside just blew up and the door swung wide open like it was welcoming its boss.

Inside the lobby, the security guard who'd helped him out earlier stood there totally frozen, watching Hanan walk in without his wheelchair. "Sir? How are you walking? Where's your chair?"

Hanan turned a bit, giving a polite nod that felt stone cold. "Better call the fire department, man. It's gonna be a bit of a mess upstairs in a minute."

Without waiting for an answer, Hanan walked over to the elevator. He hit the button for the tenth floor. Inside the cramped elevator, he watched the digital numbers tick up. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to talk to that mysterious voice again.

"Why does it feel like something's missing?" Hanan asked quietly. "I'm stoked I can walk again. I'm hyped to get my revenge. But why does it feel so empty inside?"

"That's the price for the crack, Hanan," the voice answered calmly, sounding almost like it was giving advice. "Your humanity was the anchor keeping you tied to your emotions. When the Limiter snapped, your anchor was cut loose. You're gonna get stronger, but you're also gonna drift further away from what people call feelings."

The elevator doors opened with a sharp ding.

Hanan stepped out into the tenth-floor hallway. He could hear Rendy's ragged breathing and Sarah's sobbing coming from behind the locked door of his apartment. To him, that thick wooden door looked like a thin sheet of paper now.

He stood right in front of the door and took a long breath. He could smell the booze from inside, the scent of Sarah's perfume he used to love, and the smell of Rendy's terrified sweat. Everything was mapped out perfectly in his head.

"Ren, open the door or I'm opening it my way," Hanan said softly, but the vibration of his voice made the wooden door groan like it was being crushed by some massive force.

"Get lost, you freak! I've got a knife! Don't you dare come in!" Rendy screamed from inside, sounding totally hysterical.

Hanan shook his head. He placed his palm on the door's surface. He didn't need to kick it down. He just needed to find the weak spots in the wood's atomic setup and use a tiny bit of juice.

Within seconds, the door just crumbled into fine sawdust. It didn't break. The molecular bonds were just forced to let go all at once. Hanan stepped through the cloud of floating wood dust, staring at the two backstabbers who were now huddling in the corner of the room in pure, total terror.

"So, what kind of game should we play now?" Hanan asked, sealing the gap where the door used to be with a simple wave of his hand.

Sarah stared at him with puffy eyes, her body shaking like crazy. "Hanan, I'm so sorry... it was a mistake... Rendy made me do it!"

Hanan smiled coldly, stepping closer with slow, deliberate moves. "A mistake that lasted two years, Sarah? That's not a mistake. That's a choice. And now, I've got a choice to make about what happens to you both."

"You won't get away with this, Hanan!" Rendy yelled, waving a kitchen knife with a shaking hand. "Everyone's gonna know you killed us!"

Hanan stopped right in front of the tip of Rendy's knife. He looked into his former friend's eyes with a gaze that was empty but felt way too deep, like he was looking straight into the gears of Rendy's brain.

"The law?" Hanan asked, his voice barely a whisper, like a breath from the grim reaper himself. "Rendy, you still don't get it, do you? In this room, there is no law except whatever I say goes."