Axian_draven_825
Youngster
- Pronouns
- He
Status : Ongoing(Posted first 5 chapters)
Ch 1. A Flaw in the System
The night stretched over New York like a calculated silence.Above the city’s restless glow, clouds drifted across a cold, silver moon, breaking its light into fractured patterns that slid over glass towers and steel structures. From the upper levels of one of those towers, Anex watched it all in stillness.
To most, it looked like chaos.
To him, it wasn’t.
Roads moved like veins.
Traffic followed cycles.
Lights flickered across buildings in patterns that almost made sense—if you looked long enough.
It wasn’t random.
Just… unread.
Anex hadn’t simply risen in this world—he had redefined what rising meant. By sixteen, he had completed what others spent decades chasing. By thirty, his name no longer needed introductions. It existed in systems, portfolios, and reports that didn’t require explanation.
Ultra High Net Worth Individual.
A label.
Something institutions used when they ran out of better definitions.
But it never fit.
He wasn’t wealth.
Or intelligence.
Those were tools.
What mattered was the result.
The outcome.
Everything else was just a path to get there.
The office reflected that same thinking. Minimal. Controlled. Designed for function, not comfort. Every object had a reason to exist. Nothing more.
But at the center of it
a single glass display broke this controlled environment.
Inside it rested a Pokémon card.
Old. Worn. The holographic layer had faded at the edges, worn out over the years .It didn’t belong here.
And yet… it did.
Anex stepped closer towards the display.
Not rushed.
Not hesitant.
Just deliberate.
His reflection faintly overlapped the glass as he raised a hand, stopping just short of touching it.
For a moment, something shifted.
The precision loosened.
Not much.
Just enough.
A memory surfaced.
Not numbers.
Not systems.
Something simpler.
A man standing beside him. No expectations. No pressure. Just presence.
His father.
The image was incomplete. Faded at the edges.
Still… it lingered.
Then—
the glass shattered.
No warning.
No visible cause.
Just a sharp crack that tore through the silence.
Then another.
The reinforced window fractured outward from a single point, shattering into a web of controlled destruction.
And then he felt the pain .
His body reacted before his mind caught up. Something had entered him. Clean. Certain.
Wrong.
His breath stopped.
Then came back uneven.
Heat spread through his chest.
He didn’t need to check to see what it was.
Blood.
It spread slowly across his shirt, dark against white.
For a moment, the world tilted.
Not metaphorically.
Something was off.
Alignment.
His body wasn’t responding the way it should.
And with that—
distance.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Just… separation.
Like watching something he no longer had control over.
The office door opened.
Not forced.
Not rushed.
Measured.
A figure stepped inside.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
Anex tried to speak.
Nothing came out but a strained breath.
His mind still worked. It always did.
Angle. Entry. Timing.
Reconstruction.
But—
it didn’t fit.
The variables didn’t align.
They should have.
The figure stopped a few steps in.
The voice was calm.
Almost conversational.
“You optimized everything, Anex. Systems. Markets.”
A slight pause.
“…people.”
A quiet exhale.
Not quite a laugh.
Ch2. Price of Efficiency
“You know what kills a genius, Anex?”The voice cut through the room, steady and unhurried.
“Efficiency.”
Silence followed.
Not empty.
Intentional.
“You build something too perfect…” the man continued, stepping forward, “…and eventually it stops needing you.”
A faint smile.
“Then it looks around…”
A pause.
“…and realizes you’re the only problem left.”
Across the ruined office, Anex sat against the fractured glass wall.
One hand pressed to his chest.
Blood slipped through his fingers.
The wound was deep.
He didn’t need confirmation.
He understood exactly what deep meant.
Which made it worse.
“Oh?”
The man leaned slightly.
“What’s that look?”
A short breath of amusement escaped him.
“There it is.”
“Even now.”
“Still thinking.”
“Still calculating.”
Anex didn’t respond.
His breathing stayed controlled.
Barely.
Pain dragged at every inhale.
The man moved through the office, hands in his pockets. Glass cracked under each step.
“You moved too fast.”
“Always did.”
A lazy gesture around the room.
“Companies.”
“Patents.”
“Inventions.”
A small shake of the head.
“God, the inventions.”
“Stocks. Land.”
“And then…”
He stopped near the shattered window.
“The island.”
A quiet chuckle.
“That’s where it stopped being impressive.”
“And started being a problem.”
He turned back.
“The kind of problem people don’t ignore.”
“They don’t warn you.”
“They don’t negotiate.”
“They wait.”
A breath.
“You were brilliant.”
A pause.
“But you trusted the wrong system.”
A light tap to his temple.
“Between what you knew…”
Another tap.
“…and what you felt.”
A small smile.
“That’s where this happened.”
Silence settled again.
Anex slowly lifted his head.
His eyes were clear.
Not empty.
Not fading.
Clear.
Understanding settled in.
Who.
How.
When.
The pieces of this whole puzzle made sense now.
It always had been infront of him.
He just hadn’t looked in the right place.
His gaze drifted toward the shattered wall.
The fracture pattern.
Precise.
Too precise.
Not random.
Never random.
It converged on a structural weakness.
One panel.
One flaw.
His flaw.
Documented.
A year ago.
Private file.
A faint sound left him.
Almost a laugh.
The man noticed.
“You see it.”
Not a question.
“The whole thing.”
A shrug.
“We used your work.”
“Your math.”
“Your design.”
For the first time—
Anex almost smiled.
He pushed himself up.
Slowly.
Carefully.
His legs didn’t agree.
Didn’t matter.
They held.
Barely.
He moved across the office, leaving a dark trail behind him.
He reached the couch. and
Sat.
Or collapsed.
Hard to tell.
The man didn’t stop him.
Why would he?
There was nowhere left to go.
Funny.
Anex had never liked him.
He was just someone he tolerated for his father.
Blood filled his mouth.
Thick.
Metallic.
Across the room, the man watched.
Not tense.
Not cautious.
Just… interested.
Like this was already over.
The room went quiet.
Then Anex spoke.
“Two years.”
Ch3.The Last Calculation
The smile disappeared.Instantly.
The man stilled.
Something shifted.
Subtle—but real.
His eyes flicked to the desk.
Then back.
“Two… years?”
Quieter now.
Because he understood.
Anex said nothing.
He coughed.
Blood traced his lips.
His gaze moved—not to the man—but to the desk.
A card rested there.
Simple.
Out of place.
Important.
The man noticed it.
And something tightened in the room.
Because he knew what he had just gained.
Everything.
The companies.
The wealth.
The systems.
The island.
All of it.
But those two words—
they didn’t fit that ending.
Not cleanly.
Not safely.
Because Anex didn’t build things that ended cleanly.
Even now—he had left something.
Something waiting.
Something timed.
The man took a step toward the desk.
Carefully.
Then looked back.
Anex wasn’t looking anymore.
His face had gone still.
And in that stillness—two things remained.
Regret.
And something close to satisfaction.
Quiet.
Final.
The room dimmed.
Then—something shifted.
The pain faded first.
Then the weight.
Then everything else.
A pull followed.
Not sharp.
Not sudden.
Steady.
Like a gentle embrace.
Anex moved.
Or was moved.
Through something without walls.
Not a tunnel.
Just direction.
Light surrounded him.
But it behaved… wrong.
Colors bent.
Merged.
Split again.
Shades he couldn’t name.
Spectrums that didn’t exist.
He had spent his life measuring reality.
Testing limits.
Mapping what was possible.
He had believed he understood it.
He hadn’t.
The pull intensified.
Faster.
Brighter.
And for the first time in years—
Anex didn’t analyze it.
He just felt it, wonder, excitement, joy.
He just… experienced it.
Then—
light.
Ch4.Paradise
When Anex opened his eyes, the world didn’t appear like a plain sight.It moved.
Color wasn’t static. It flowed—subtle, alive—like light was breathing through the air itself. Nothing clashed. Every shade existed in quiet balance, so beautiful it felt imaginary.
Red, green , blue, violet , purple , and myriad colors were dancing with each other. It was like a tapestry of wonders was woven into reality. It wasn’t the color that mesmerised him — it was the feeling behind them that did.
He stayed still.
Not because he couldn’t move.
Because something in him didn’t want to disturb it.
Then he looked up, trying to find more miracles in this paradise he found himself in.
then he saw it.
Water fell from the sky.
Not from cliffs. Not from mountains.
From the sky itself.
Endless streams of clear, unfamiliar liquid descended in silence before crashing into the ground far below.
His brows tightened.
Impossible. The sight infront of him wasn’t possible
And yet—it continued.
Beyond it, trees rose into the distance—massive, ancient things that made scale meaningless. They didn’t resemble anything he knew. they painted the world in their endless beautiful radiance. There wasn’t a single type of tree in that jungle. He saw plants that he could not imagine existed, their brilliance was astonishing, like the personification of nature itself. Their massive frames made the Earth feel small
Nothing he saw made sense but it was wonderful beyond measure for sure.
Anex exhaled slowly, trying and failing to keep his curiosity in check. The sights before him rekindled something he thought had gone cold, his spark.
“Stay calm.”
The words came automatically.
He stepped forward.
The grass bent under his weight—soft, real, responsive.
Too real.
He inhaled—and froze.
The air felt different.
Not heavy.
Not thin.
Full.
Something existed within it.
It was something that his soul resonated with, like he was made up of it.
His body reacted first.
Muscles tensed—not in fear, but recognition.
A faint current moved through him.
Warm.
Ancient.
Alive.
His fingers twitched.
“…What is this?”
This time, the question wasn’t confusion.
It was the beginning of analysis. His mind searched for comparisons.
Electricity? No.
Heat? No.
Energy… but not like anything he had measured before.
And yet—a quiet certainty formed.
This wasn’t created.
It had always been here with him.
Older than systems.
Older than worlds.
Anex didn’t reject the idea.
But he didn’t accept it either.
Not yet.
Just then he heard a voice, more primal than laws itself, his whole being wanted to submit— kneel, worship, revere it.
“Fascinating.”
Ch5.The Presence
“Attend.”The word didn’t reach his ears.
It existed. words were just a medium to his soul.
Anex turned instantly.
No hesitation.
No delay.
His stance shifted—cautious, balanced, controlled.
Ready for any danger he might face.
What he saw—didn’t settle into reality.
It resembled a man.
Only barely.
Like a reflection that didn’t belong to what it mirrored. it seemed like reality itself was not able to hold it's presence.
Anex focused.
Sharpened his gaze.
And failed.
The figure refused to stay consistent.
Its features were there—perfect—and gone the moment he tried to hold them.
Memory rejected it. like he wasn’t meant to understand the presence before him, like the universe was trying to protect his feeble mind from glancing at something he wasn’t meant to.
A quiet tension formed in his chest.
Not fear.
Something deeper.
He tried to meet its eyes.
There was no color.
Or too much of it.
Layers. Depth. Something beyond perception.
His vision strained.
Then—he noticed the world.
It had gone still.
Suppressed by the presence that was before him.
Everything—energy, wind, motion, sound—held back.
As if existence itself had lowered its presence.
Something in him understood—reacting wrong here would not be survivable.
His breathing slowed.
Measured.
Precise.
And then the realization came.
Not as thought.
As certainty.
This wasn’t its true form.
This was… reduced.
Filtered, Filtered for him.
So he could exist near it.
“You are… fascinating, fate truly creates miracle's.”
The voice carried no weight.
And yet it settled deeper than anything physical could.
Anex’s jaw tightened.
A question rose instantly in hid mind—sharp—urgent—He tried to speak.
And stopped.
Something pressed against him.
His soul, his will refused to question the being.
The act of questioning the presence—felt wrong.
Not forbidden.
Not dangerous.
Wrong.
Reality itself refused such a sin.
Anex said nothing.
Not by choice.
But because silence was the only thing that made sense.
“Let me clear your doubts, Fated one”
Author note:
Thanks for reading Astrallis!
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