I stayed there, right at the border where the fire stopped, watching people run back and forth, treating the wounded. Among them was Jack. This man, who everyone in Sunwalley feared and who ruthlessly killed two of my friends, was now helping others. It was like his personality completely changed. From what I remember about the story of Everstar and what the others were saying about him, he was a "noble." Those people were my creation. They were a social layer of only about one percent of the wealthiest residents of the city. Not only that, but they also had access to the Principle of Removal.

This "object" was the central supporting pillar of Everstar. It was once a glorious city, but full of crime. People were constantly robbing one another. In the sky, at the top of the skyscrapers, you had the higher class citizens, who were living in luxury, never even setting a foot down onto the streets. Underneath them, however, it was different. You had to fight to survive. While the top parts of the buildings looked like palaces and glorious castles of glass and gold, the bottom seemed more like slums.

However, this all changed when one scientist came across an alien artificial intelligence. He gave her access to all the security systems of Everstar and assigned her one single goal: to fight crime. He hoped that this way, he could create a much safer environment in all the parts of the metropolis, using her abilities and fast information processing. He succeeded, but with terrifying efficiency. People who committed smaller crimes were suddenly turning themselves in at the local police stations, full of guilt, fear, and sorrow. Those who murdered or did something much worse simply disappeared. Nobody ever figured out what happened to those people, but they were giving all the credit to the AI.

But since it wasn't publically known, this one wealthy percent of the people decided that it was best to keep it secret. Like this, the city of Everstar stayed peaceful. Everyone knew that bad people suffer. They didn't know how exactly, but that was maybe the thing that worked the best. Everyone is scared of the unknown. Especially if it kills. The city stayed perfectly intact and prospered, until a particular hacker from the story, my protagonist, tried to uncover this secret, and turned the lives of the nobles upside down.

Jack was one of those nobles. I'd never guess that. He certainly didn't look like them when I first saw him. Although it did explain his posh accent and arrogant manners. But when I saw him here, he looked like a completely different person. The other nobles rarely cared about anyone from the lower tiers. Because of that, it was surprising to see him help personally and not just send someone to do his work. For a while, it even seemed admirable.

Not too much time had passed, and the buses he hired finally arrived. People slowly wiggled their way in.

"No pushing! There's more than enough room for everyone!" Jack shouted across the crowd. When he saw that some people had trouble walking, he offered to support them all the way to their seats. Seeing this really made me think through my actions. Was I the bad guy? The one that stood against me was now helping the innocent, and I was the villain that hurt them.

When everyone finally left, Jack returned to his car. The officers and firefighters wished him a nice day and let him be on his way. Of course, I couldn't just stay there forever. This man was my only connection to this world. If there was anyone who'd see me, then it would most likely be him, and so I waited for his arrival inside the car.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Jack," I said in a somewhat villainous manner."

"Take us back home," he said to the driver, completely ignoring me.

"Come on! You have to see me! You're the one that threw me here, right? So what is this? My punishment? Just say something!" Not a single word I spoke seemed to reach his ears. This was driving me insane. If he couldn't see me, then nobody could, and that would mean eternity in solitude.

During the entire ride, I sat there in complete silence. My hands were shaking, and along with my feet, they felt cold. Cold? At that moment, I remembered that I couldn't feel anything from the outside world. In that case, this wave of chills must've been a sign of something else.

*Wow, you really fucked up, didn't you?

Of course. I let out a sigh. It was a sign of Him. Every time these thoughts would appear, there were physical reactions that followed. How come I never paid so much attention to them before? Perhaps the lack of physical contact with the outer world made the inner one have much more of an impact.

*What are you gonna do now, huh? Just stay here and cry? Are you hoping for some merciful miracle to pull you out of here?

I pushed my knees closer to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. My attempts to push back tears seemed to lose their effectiveness.

*What now? Forever alone? How are you going to survive? What if you'll go crazy? How will you fight the boredom? What if more people will die because of you? Do you think you're gonna be missed? Ha! Of course not! It was good riddance, that's for sure!

My heart was beating so fast as if it wanted to jump out of my chest at any moment. Breathing seemed to get harder and harder as if somebody was pushing against my lungs. It all felt like I was falling deeper and deeper into a dark pit with no way out. The thoughts appearing in my head were becoming more and more chaotic, jumping from one topic to another without giving me any room to rest and clear my head.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Shut up..." I silently squeaked out a short phrase, hoping that the voice in my head would finally stop. Just like in all the cases before, it was utterly useless. The waves of my own negativity were drowning me more and more. "Is this it? Will I finally snap? Just how much does it take for a man to go crazy?!" I kept asking myself.

"Daddy!" A voice of a young child came from somewhere outside. I was so busy thinking that I didn't notice the vehicle had stopped.

"How long was the ride?" I asked myself. It felt like ages but seemed relatively short when put into a more logical perspective.

The door to the car opened and a little girl jumped inside, immediately wrapping her arms around Jack in a big hug. She had long and straight blonde hair with a tiny pink ribbon on the side of her head. On her back, she wore a school backpack with a motif of some colorful cartoon.

"His daughter," I mumbled to myself. Jack's story from earlier popped up in my head. I knew what would happen to her. Seeing it up close was not something I'd desire.

"Hi, my little monkey!" Jack greeted her and pat her on the head. His honest smile made him look like a totally different man from the one I knew.

"So, how was school," he asked, and the little girl sat down beside him. She fastened her seatbelt and started talking. This kept on going until we reached their home. It seemed that her stories would be endless, yet her father looked like he was gulping up all the words with great interest. I, on the other hand, couldn't wait for it to end.

"I never want to have kids..." I mumbled to myself. However, it was mostly just a phrase. If I could go back to the life I had before, to the relationship I so carelessly ruined, I'd happily start a family. But would a person like me even be suitable as a father figure? No, most likely not.

Half an hour later, we finally arrived. The vehicle was floating high in the sky, with most of the city below us. Here, everything looked perfect and clean. It was the world of nobles.

We all carefully exited the car. Jack tossed a little metal oval of high value to the driver and thanked him for taking them directly to their apartment. The man waved at him as a sign of gratitude and left off to park the car in one of the designated spots. My mouth flew open as soon as I looked around Jack's house. Just his living room was almost the size of my office. There was a minibar with shelves full of alcohol. Judging by the appearance of the bottles, I'd say they were all quite expensive. There was a massive television hanging on the wall. In front of it was a glass table, surrounded by a large couch and two armchairs. This was still relatively normal. However, my sight landed on extraordinary pieces of technology sitting in the middle of the room. It almost looked like a dancing pad, with lots of little consoles and screens hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't help but wonder what they were for.

"Greetings, Master Jack, would you wish me to prepare your dinner?" A little metal floating ball appeared from what I assumed to be the kitchen. It was a cooking droid, that much I knew. They were very common among the more wealthy families.

"Well, yes, of course! Honey, why don't you go to your room, while I help Coddy with cooking?"

"But dad, I want to help too!"

"Heh, alright, you can mix the ingredients, okay?"

This was a little exchange I couldn't quite process. I knew that Jack was apparently a kindhearted person, but this was something unheard of. People would buy the cooking droids so that they wouldn't have to worry about preparing meals themselves. None of the nobles would even touch anything that wasn't entirely made by the machines. So then why would Jack offer his help? The way this household worked seemed strange to me. By the looks of it, they still valued manual work around the apartment, and the robots that were there only served as a helping hand, rather than servants. It was nice to see that not all of the high-class citizens were spoiled by the luxury they lived in.

During the time they were preparing the food, I wandered around. The doors to the bedroom and the child's room were shut, but after a little bit of practice, I managed to ghost my way through them. The bedroom was rather small. There was a big king-sized bed, along with many wardrobes full of clothing. The daughter's room was about the size of my office, which is still much bigger than anything I had when I was growing up. There were many toys scattered around the place, but it didn't look chaotic. It felt like each of the items has its place and meaning. As if they were ready for whatever game she wished to play with them.

Suddenly, a voice came from the living room. It carried a specific metal tone to it, which was typical for synthesizers. "Master Jack, there is a guest in the living room," the droid said. It was a different one this time. Guess it was no surprise that such a big household would be run by several machines.

"You let the guest in?" Jack asked, and by the sudden rise of his voice, I could tell that he was quite unhappy about it.

"No, Master Jack, I would never dare to let someone inside without your permission. Plus, it goes against my protocol. However, the guest seems to have let himself in without my knowledge. Thousand apologies master." A moment of silence followed.

"So... an intruder?" Jack asked after a while. I could barely hear his voice this time. Guess the idea of someone coming here with ill intentions made him quite nervous.

"No, master. He says he just wants to talk to you and I do not detect any weapons or dangerous objects."

Curiosity didn't allow me to wait any longer. After some time of trying, I was able to phase out of the child's room and take a look at this visitor personally. My eyes widened out of surprise the moment I saw him. The man was floating. His feet weren't even touching the ground. He had darker skin, which seemed more like a tan. His long hair was covering one of his eyes. He was wearing a short robe around his waist. Its edges were decorated with gold, and many strange symbols were printed onto the fabric. The top part of his body was covered by a sleeveless shirt of light blue color, but it was so thin you could practically see through it. What really caught my attention, however, were the bandages around his wrists and ankles. There were tiny glowing cracks on his skin coming from underneath them. Around each of his limbs was an oddly large bracelet, floating a few centimeters away from his skin, not even touching it when he moved. His entire apparel reminded me of some old Egyptian prince, or something similar. Judging by the clothing, or more specifically, the lack of it, I guessed that he came from a very warm destination. That helped me narrow down his possible place of origin.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Jack finally walked out of the kitchen and approached the man. In his hand, I saw a large carving knife. It was probably meant as a weapon of self-defense, just in case.

"Greetings. My name is Ifrit. And I came to you with a proposal."