Chapter 458
Advice that turned into threats, warnings that turned into verdicts, guidance that turned into punishment, all delivered in a flat tone yet filled with unquestionable authority.
Ilux listened with her head lowered, her knees still touching the floor, her breath uneven yet struggling to return to normal.
When the teacher finally finished speaking, when the final sentence about the consequences she would face if she dared to repeat her actions echoed through the now silent corridor, Ilux nodded.
A weak nod that required no strength, a resigned nod from someone who had lost all energy to resist, a nod that said she accepted everything not because she agreed, not because she admitted guilt, but because resistance would only bring more pain and change nothing.
Then, with great effort, Ilux rose from her knees, and without looking back, without glancing at the perpetrators who were beginning to stand one by one with satisfied smiles on their faces, without sparing a look at the supervising teacher who still stood in place with an unreadable expression, she continued her journey toward the cafeteria, just as she had planned from the beginning, as if nothing had just happened.
"Truly pathetic. Walking alone like a creature with no place anywhere, even though she just beat nine people. And yet she still looks like the victim. Ridiculous."
The cafeteria of Akademi Bintang during break time was a sea of people, waves of thousands of stories sailing across long tables.
In the quietest corner, the farthest from the crowd, closest to a large window that displayed the ever-moving Multiverse Path swirling in vibrant colors, Ilux sat alone.
A simple plate of food lay before her, white rice with modest side dishes and a bowl of soup still releasing thin steam, yet the spoon in her hand moved only occasionally, scooping a small amount of rice and lifting it to her mouth in a mechanical motion like a robot running out of battery.
There was no enthusiasm in the way she chewed, no enjoyment in the way she swallowed, only a biological ritual that had to be carried out because the body still needed fuel even when the soul inside it had gone dim.
From afar, from behind a large pillar separating the main cafeteria area from this quiet corner, Theo stood still, the invisible veil still faithfully cloaking his presence.
His eyes never left Ilux, observing every small movement, every blink, every breath that caused the girl's shoulders to rise and fall in an unstable rhythm.
Amid the bustling cafeteria filled with laughter and conversations of thousands of students, amid the clatter of plates and spoons, amid the mingling aroma of countless foods, two individuals existed in two entirely different worlds.
Ilux in the silent corner with suffocating loneliness, Theo behind the pillar with tireless observation, and between them stretched a distance that could not be measured by ordinary units of length.
Seconds passed in a silence only broken by the constant background noise of the cafeteria.
Theo kept watching, kept observing, kept absorbing every detail before him.
He saw how occasionally Ilux lifted her face and stared blankly toward the window, toward the Multiverse Path that continued to move in a beauty that could never be fully appreciated by those whose hearts were shattered.
He saw how Ilux's fingers, which had been holding the spoon, occasionally clenched, loosened, then clenched again, as if fighting something within herself that could not be seen by the naked eye.
He saw how Ilux's dry, cracked lips sometimes moved, whispering words that could not be heard, perhaps prayers, perhaps curses, perhaps merely the repetition of painful memories that haunted every second of her life.
And as Theo continued to watch, as he continued to absorb it all, as he allowed himself to sink into the ocean of suffering emanating from that silent corner, at that moment, something else awakened within him.
Not from the surface of consciousness he usually used to think and analyze, nor from the place where Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition resided.
"Synchronization is in progress. Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition are adjusting to your former identity. So for now, it's better if you don't interfere."
Amid the ongoing bustle of the cafeteria that remained indifferent to the small drama unfolding in the quiet corner, Theo drew a long, deep breath.
Not a breath born of physical exhaustion, but a deliberate one, taken to create a pause, to give space for his consciousness to think clearly amid the storm raging in his mind.
That voice, the continuous stream of insults hurled without pause, he was beginning to recognize its origin with increasing clarity as the seconds passed.
It was not an unfamiliar voice slipping in from the outside, nor the voice of his deepest darkness long buried within his soul, but a voice that had only recently become part of his existence.
The voice of Aldraya Kansh Que, the former number one Supreme Angel, now struggling within the most complex synchronization process ever to occur throughout the history of the Multiverse Path.
There was something strange in the way the voice was spoken, in its irregular intonation, in its word choices that were far too sharp for an angel once known for wisdom.
A strangeness Theo immediately recognized as a side effect of the incomplete synchronization process, where Aldraya's former identity as the Supreme Angel still clashed with her new identity as part of the Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition belonging to the Great Author.
Theo could clearly imagine what was happening in the depths of his consciousness, in the silent space where the four aspects of his creative extensions resided alongside a newcomer still unfamiliar with its surroundings.
At the center of the circle formed by Resolve sitting cross-legged with unwavering determination, by Will lying down with fingers occasionally moving as if writing scenarios within dreams, by Intent curled in a fetal position radiating planning even in sleep, by Ambition leaning against an invisible wall with a mysterious smile that never left its lips, Aldraya's white light pulsed with an unstable rhythm.
Sometimes fast like the heartbeat of a hummingbird, sometimes slow like cooling lava, sometimes glowing brightly as if trying to break free from the circle, sometimes dimming nearly to extinction as if running out of energy to exist.
Within that unstable pulse, within that restless light, lay the most fundamental struggle a consciousness could experience.
A struggle to merge, to become one, to be part of something greater without losing the essence that had been formed over billions of years as the number one Supreme Angel.
And within that struggle, amid the fever that still lingered despite the absence of a physical body, amid the forty-degree Celsius heat that continued to burn the remnants of her existence, Aldraya still had the energy to do the most unexpected thing.
To be continued…