This story begins in a prologue that tells the Main Character's background, but if you want to get straight to the main story, you can continue here... Don't worry, you'll only miss a little context that doesn't interfere with the story at all.
Enjoy…
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"Adrian, tomorrow you don't need to come to work anymore." My boss said suddenly, an old man with a potbelly sitting in his chair with many documents piled on his desk, his bespectacled eyes looking seriously at the document in his hand.
"Huh? Am I hearing this right? You mean... I...?" I tried to confirm with my heart already pounding fast.
"You're fired." My boss said firmly.
What the hell is this? I just finished my work and then suddenly got called only to be fired?!!
"W-why, sir? Haven't I been working well?" My voice rose a bit from shock. My mind raced looking for mistakes I might have made: The meeting was finished yesterday, all my deadlines were met, project 'x' was going smoothly, so what? Uh, did I miss an email? W-what–
"Lately your performance has been getting worse, not like before. I can't keep employing someone with performance like this, especially since our country is experiencing inflation." My boss didn't look at me at all when he said it.
"But sir, I've worked well so far without a single absence. This–" My words were cut off before I could finish all I wanted to say.
"I'm only talking about the data here." His eyes looked at me now, with eyes that seemed to see everything. "And this can't be lied about because it's taken directly from your performance..."
He then explained at length his reasons, which to me felt odd and not objective about my performance. I swore I had worked well all this time because I didn't want to waste this job I worked so hard to get, so I wouldn't have to go back to my father again.
While my boss kept grumbling with complaints about my performance that were clearly not objective and cliché – "Not proactive enough" or "Lack of communication with fellow employees" and back to "Declining performance." My eyes accidentally caught someone straightening his suit and tie behind a one-way glass that was only visible from the inside, in his hand he held a file and a letter, occasionally he also tried to peek inside, then our eyes met after he tried to peek closer.
'Oh, so that's it... Well, no wonder the reason for my firing is so strange.' I clicked my tongue while smiling bitterly.
Nepotism.
"Well, well, well, you're so noisy." I cut off my boss's grumbling, slightly holding back the growl in my voice to stay calm. "Sigh You're so long-winded. Get straight to the point, just say there's a family member or relative who wants to get into this job and wants my position and then it's all easily settled, right, not this complicated? For your information, I've worked well here, often even taking on extra work and finishing it all, I won't accept you badmouthing my performance."
My boss looked shocked by my loudness, then after that his face turned red and wrinkled "How dare you talk to your boss like that. So this is your true nature?"
He was about to stand up.
But I stood up first, taking my ID clip from my pants and my tie.
"I'm out." Putting the plastic clip on the desk, I continued. "But not because you fired me, I'm leaving here by my own choice."
Before he could speak I immediately turned around and left him processing his surprise.
I took my things from my desk and walked out leaving this building.
'Well, anyway I've wanted to quit this job for a long time, the salary isn't worth the effort.' Even though I said that in my heart, the tightness in my chest couldn't be hidden.
Phew... even an employee who works well gets kicked out just because of a relative. But what really annoyed me was the reason: "Your performance is bad" you bastard, you're the bad boss who always lowers my salary.
'So is this my life? Only able to react to the bad luck that always befalls me?' I muttered in my heart, very tired.
I suddenly remembered when a motivational speaker said that 'All suffering has its wisdom.'
But to me that is empty, I haven't gained any wisdom at all from everything I've been through so far.
No matter how much I adapt to a rotten system, I will still be left behind.
It's not a matter of being capable or not, but how lucky you are starting in life.
Damn, what now? I rejected my father's offer for college, and arrogantly said I could live independently and now it's like this?!
He will surely laugh at me, then belittle me again, and repeat his words: "You can't live without me."
"Pfft..." I almost laughed imagining if I went back to him, he would definitely mock me after 3 years of not returning home.
I found a narrow alley between buildings and immediately went in because I couldn't hold back the laughter that wanted to burst out inside me. "Hahaha" I kicked a trash can, then laughed again "Damn, no matter how much I hate him, it can't be denied I will always need him. You must be happy if you see me like this, right? Hahaha."
'Damn, I'll go crazy if I keep going like this.'
I immediately shook my head before I sank deeper into contemplation of how shattered my life is right now.
I left the narrow alley after being satisfied and acted as if nothing had happened before when passing through the crowd of people.
I then raised my gaze to look at the gloomy clouds adorned by lines of very beautiful colors that kept getting bigger since I first saw them three years ago.
Yes, I've seen them for these three years, but I'm still confused why no one has reported on this phenomenon that's like the Aurora Borealis. And also, I showed it to my co-workers, but they said they didn't see anything I pointed at and instead said I was weird and when I photographed it, it didn't get captured by the camera.
"Are my eyes broken?" I rubbed my eyes, but it didn't disappear, it stayed there adorning the sky full of gloomy clouds.
…
Arriving at my small apartment, I immediately sat myself in a chair and then slumped my body tiredly onto the desk.
I don't know what to do anymore, look for a job? That's very hard these days because of overpopulation, luckily I have savings that might last for 3 months if I'm frugal...
And if in those 3 months I still don't find a job, I don't know what else to do.
At that point, if I still want to live, I'll have to go back to my father to ask for money...
Now I can already imagine his belittling face, making me smile bitterly.
My fists clenched tightly.
Imagining his face only made me more annoyed, finally I straightened my body and then opened my laptop and went to the document containing the Novel I've been writing since elementary school as my escape...
Seeing my novel already had hundreds of chapters made me realize how lonely I was to have written this much.
I named this novel "Endless Calamity"
So, as the name suggests "Endless Calamity", the world of my Novel is a world always plagued by calamities and is now on the brink of destruction.
In the last chapter I wrote, my main character, Lucas, sees the actual reality that the fate of all humans on earth is shackled by a control device used by angels.
Actually, I wanted to continue this Novel, but... I'm feeling lazy now, I just want to read my own writing.
I scrolled through my document and then headed to my favorite arc, "Zero". Yes Zero, I gave it that name not without reason, it's named according to what happened in that arc and the tragic story of an idealist and visionary, and a father who deeply loved his child.
In this arc, there is a massive invasion by hybrid creatures between human-demon-angel led by Cassian, who finally executes the plan he had prepared for seventeen years as a result of:
Manipulating demons by creating a cult that worships them to gain their power, and after the demons were in a weak position, he devoured them all, including his own cult members.
Manipulating angels by using the energy he got from his wife (a human-angel hybrid) who had passed away, and his time magic, then stealing the Sword of Seraphim from the leader of the Angels, Astralis, without making him aware at all.
And willingly letting himself be considered a tyrant for one purpose.
The salvation of humanity itself.
Cassian, as a user of time magic, accidentally saw the end of the world when he touched angelic fragments scattered all over the world called "Shard of Seraphim".
He saw a massive war among gods in the cosmos, but that's not what stunned him; what stunned him was the fate of humanity at that time.
Humanity vanished along with the earth itself.
That vision of the future made him feel responsible, and that vision also made him experience existential emptiness because he realized how small he was as a human in this world.
Not even that far, the problem about humanity's fate being shackled by angels isn't resolved yet...
Finally, with a heavy heart to solve the first problem, Cassian conducted an experiment on his second child, Lucas, who was still in his wife's womb.
He wanted his child to be the only human freed from fate.
Then Lucas was born, he was truly free from fate because Cassian couldn't see his future.
But this wasn't free...
The consequence was that Lucas had no mana.
He only realized it after doing it, that being free from fate meant having no mana, which should be owned by all living creatures in that world.
How could he survive in this world that was about to be destroyed without mana?
Cassian also felt guilty about that, because he had made his child suffer existentially and socially.
But it had already happened.
Could not be undone.
Then at that time, Cassian's residence in the forest was raided by the angels because they realized something was defying their control.
Cassian managed to escape carrying both his children, but lost his wife who sacrificed herself on purpose, and that event strengthened his motivation to fight them, the controllers of fate.
Cassian then created a narrative that he was the one who killed the children's mother, which made his first child, who was only seven years old at the time, Julian, hold a grudge against him and consider his father evil.
Cassian's reason for doing this was because he wanted that child to be motivated to kill him so he would train and become strong enough to protect his younger brother, Lucas, who was still a baby in his arms.
Then he left both his children for their safety, because if Lucas was near him, he would definitely be detected by angels, so he entrusted him to Julian, in whom he had already planted hatred.
After that, Cassian formed a demon-worshipping cult for his own safety, because he could borrow Lucifer's power to conceal his presence, and then if Lucifer was careless, he would devour him.
This cult had many members, and as he predicted, his child Julian became a member himself and became the strongest after him. He had predicted this would happen because when Cassian left, he threatened Julian that he would take his younger brother Lucas to be sacrificed one day.
That way, Julian would surely put his younger brother in an orphanage, because if he was with him, his brother could be taken. He would watch over him from afar, and he also realized he needed power for that, so when he turned fifteen, he joined the cult, to gain its power while keeping an eye on his father, who was the leader there.
But that made Lucas think he had no family at all, when in fact he was protected by two people who loved him from the shadows.
Even though they were in the same organization, they never met; whenever Cassian wasn't present at a meeting, Julian would be, and vice versa. Julian thought his father didn't know he was a member of his cult.
"Well, a really complicated family." I scrolled back, but I only read the important points because I already knew everything that would happen.
After seven years passed, Cassian had reached the point where all his plans to transform humans into more superior beings but without emotions had been gathered, and he just needed to execute them...
He hesitated.
He wondered to himself about his plan until he cried alone on his throne: 'Can someone still be called alive if they have no emotions? But, what's the use of emotions if one day humanity will vanish existentially?' And also, if he continued his plan, he would have to kill Lucas because he would surely oppose it.
And then, because he couldn't get an answer from anywhere, he finally hung the answer on his son... A failed experiment, but one that truly exceeded his expectations thanks to anti-magic and the Sword of Seraphim he had given.
Lucas was now his opponent as well as his hope.
Cassian then carried out his invasion, turning everyone he passed into creatures he named "Apathiel", powerful beings without emotions.
Then finally he met his own son face to face for the first time in seventeen years.
Seeing him grown up made him want to hug him. But he couldn't, Cassian had to fight his son without telling him he was his father, and that way he could get the answer he wanted...
Yes, an answer; at this point Cassian's plan was carried out while seeking an answer from his own son. Are humans worthy of living with their emotions?
If Lucas won against him and killed him, then Cassian would believe in his son that one day he could, even though he couldn't see that son's future.
But if Cassian won, it meant humans were not worthy of living with their emotions; his plan would proceed.
In this fight, Cassian truly wouldn't hesitate if he had to kill that child; to him at this moment, it was better for his son to die at his hand than to feel the existential emptiness like he did when realizing how small he was in the upcoming war.
But unexpectedly, Lucas actually won against him even though he had used everything he had...
His body was split in two.
But he didn't regret it; he was actually happy his suffering was finally over, and finally he entrusted the fate of humanity into his hands.
He died killed by his own son as an idealistic tyrant, not as his father...
But Cassian didn't need that recognition; to him this was enough.
He was proud.
He cried at the end of his life and the last thing he saw with his eyes was his own son...
–Sigh!
Without realizing it, my tears were already welling up in the corners of my eyes.
Yes, I'm weird.
An adult who can cry over a fictional character of his own creation...
I also realized that when I show genuine emotion: Crying, happy, angry, it only happens when I read or write my own Novel...
Then with an automatic movement, I immediately scrolled down to the blank page that hadn't been written yet.
I wanted to continue this story until it's finished; Lucas's journey is still long.
Well, my life is already shattered with a bad ending that's clearly visible. Therefore, at least Lucas should get a happy ending equal to the suffering he's experienced. Right now, the biggest regret in my life is if I can't finish this Novel, I won't be able to forgive myself.
My fingers started typing on the keyboard.
And then I felt an incredible headache piercing my head.
I looked at the clock and only now realized I had been writing for three hours straight.
"Ouch! Why is this happening suddenly?" I tried to finish one last sentence.
'Celestial Being'
After finishing, I closed my laptop with difficulty, because my body felt like it was moving in slow motion.
Unable to bear this pain any longer, I immediately slumped onto the desk because it was too painful to move to the bed.
'Maybe this will heal when I sleep.' I closed my eyes slowly.
Silence.
And then in that silence, suddenly my body felt like it was falling downward.
–Drip! –Drip!
Suddenly the sound of dripping water that felt like a lullaby started filling my ears...
'This is really so comfortable' Weird, after hearing the sound of that dripping water, all the pain in my head and body vanished instantly, replaced by a comfort that felt like I was floating in the air.
I began to sink into sleepiness before finally a piercing sound was heard.
"Oy Adrian. Wake up quickly."
'Damn, who is that?' That man's voice felt very close to me, but I was too tired to wake up from this comfort. 'I just fell asleep! Maybe if I ignore him, he'll leave'
"Hey, wake up quickly! We're in danger!" That man's voice got louder, I also felt my body being shaken hard to wake up. He kept doing it repeatedly, making me annoyed!
'Alright, that's it. My patience is gone!' I clenched my fist, then opened my eyes and immediately stared at the person waking me up:
"Quiet! I just wanted to sleep–!" My voice choked because I was shocked. Shocked by the stranger waking me up and by the environment that had suddenly changed drastically.
"Hah! Who are you!!"