Chapter 125 — Eternity Inside the Divine Tower
Time: Year 2298
“You little bastard, come back with any takings today?” I stared at the man before me — hair in a mess, bloodshot eyes, a rank stench clinging to him.
I rubbed my already-frozen fingers and pulled from my pocket a blue cred-grain worth only a few dozen credit points. My hand trembled as I held it out to him.
He gave me a sideways look, then grabbed the blue shard with brutal roughness.
Smack — his greasy palm slapped my face. My left ear rang; a sharp pain shot through my cheek.
“You, good-for-nothing. Living off free meals in this house every day. Tomorrow, remember to go to a crowded place and make yourself look worse,” the man crouched down and flashed his yellow teeth at me.
“If you still come up short tomorrow, I’ll sell you, or I’ll break your legs — then you can fetch more money.”
He walked into the room. I curled up in the corner, shivering. I tried not to cry out loud — if I did, it would only bring me more torment.
My name is Vera Costa. I grew up in the slums and, for as long as I can remember, I’ve survived by begging just to live in that shabby house.
This tawny planet is called Hades Rim, out on the fringe of the star systems. My mother never told me who my father was. Even if I wanted to ask now, I couldn’t — Death took her from this world.
The man before me is my stepfather. After my mother’s Death, I stayed there. I wanted to run away once, but when I saw the bodies of other kids like me on the roadside, I froze.
Every day I have to walk on my own feet to different places, begging for others’ mercy. Sometimes I’m robbed by older kids, bigger than me. Before I go out, I watch the streets carefully and calculate escape routes. Few would believe such things still happen on this planet, but my life proves survival isn’t accidental — it’s something you must fight for with all you have.
Years later.
“Hey, brat — don’t run. Leave my cred-grain. Stop.” A bigger, older man chased from behind. I threw myself forward and ran; this was the result of many attempts before. I used to pick on young people, but they reacted fast. When I was caught, all I could do was beg and put on an act of sorrow.
Maybe I was too scrawny, they didn’t rough me up much — they just took the shards I had. When I got home, that man would leave red welts from a leather whip across my back.
Afterward, I started targeting older people — they were slower, or their legs were bad — giving me more time to escape. Sometimes I’d target women, because they yielded more credit points and bought a safer night.
In 2305, I was sixteen. Long-term malnutrition made my body thin, but I’d inherited my mother’s looks — a pair of blue eyes. That still attracted some men’s attention. When they looked at me, I was skilled at swapping things from their pockets: credit cards or small electronics that could be fenced. At least then I could skip going back to that house for a while.
Maybe I could leave that place for good. But I had no extra money; where would I go? Sleep with a man for a bed?
It was raining today; the streets were empty. I walked several blocks and found no suitable mark.
A black hydrogen car stopped not far away. Its hood bore an unusual emblem: a pair of golden wings. The driver opened the rear door, and a somewhat tall middle-aged man — about fifty-something — stepped out.
The man and the driver walked to the curb. Passing a beggar child, the man stopped and took a blue shard from the driver, setting it into the child’s hand. A charm hung on his chest, flashing gold in the light.
I quickened my pace. As he and the driver prepared to cross, I bumped him from the side.
“Sorry, sir — I didn’t mean to.” I stammered, my hand brushing near his chest.
“Move along — stay away from us.” The driver stepped forward and blocked me.
“I didn’t mean it, I’m leaving now,” I said as I backed away slowly.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
The man didn’t say much; he only smiled at me and then slapped the driver’s shoulder. They crossed the street and entered a restaurant across the road. The sign read: The Gemini.
A cold sweat broke out down my back. That place was a common gathering for gangsters. I wasn’t someone who could mess with people who frequented there. In my hand, I still clutched the thing I’d taken from him — a black crystal that felt cold and heavy, its interior seeming to flow with a golden liquid in the light.
I hurried away, hoping the man wouldn’t come after me — if he did, I might never return to the one house I wanted to escape.
The next day, I moved to another area. Staying near yesterday’s spot would be too dangerous. I couldn’t risk it. Ahead, a young couple was buying something; the man produced a white shard — a flesh-ticket, valuable, probably at least a hundred thousand points. He waved it over a payment terminal and slid it into his pocket. The deducted credits would be transferred to the recipient’s account in a few hours.
I tailed the couple. They turned into a side street; as I followed into the turn, a strange unease crawled up my spine. The couple’s pace didn’t change; they didn’t glance back. It was too quiet for this hour.
My mind screamed “run,” but hunger and fear of my stepfather’s whip drowned everything out. I decided to follow a few more steps.
In those few steps, I knew I’d crossed Death’s forbidden zone. The couple turned and looked at me. Footsteps sounded behind me. I knew my fate was sealed; I just didn’t expect it to come so quickly.
My eyes were blindfolded. I don’t know where they took me. I was loaded onto a vehicle and driven a distance, then I heard the buzz of an aircraft. Then they poured something slightly sweet and sour into me. I fell into blackness.
When I woke, I felt I was in a room. A man’s voice came from the side: “Vera Costa, born 2289. Mother died when you were four; you lived with stepfather Darren Kowalski. Since age six, you’ve survived by begging and theft.”
I turned and saw that middle-aged man — the same one — with the golden wings hung at his chest.
“Are you going to kill me, sir?” I hung my head. I knew I was going to die, sooner or later; I just didn’t know it would be today. This world had never given me good memories — only those that pierced my heart. My life was short; maybe my existence itself was a mistake.
“You want to die?” The man stood and walked to the window, looking out at the strange yellow flora around the house. “Everyone who meets me begs me to help them live. Only you, for the first time, say — want to die?”
“Sir, I know you’re in the mob. I offended you. I know I’ll die. But please promise me one thing,” I whispered.
“Say it.” The man turned and looked at me.
“Bury me with my mother. She’s my only family. I want to be with her.” Tears fell and wouldn’t stop.
The man watched me long and said nothing. Then he moved to the door, and with his back to me, he said the name his people called him: “Marcus Drake. Or — Godfather.” Then he opened the door and left.
From that day, my nightmare life in that broken house ended. At first, I thought I would live a normal life, go to school, maybe to the university I always dreamed of — I wanted to be a star on the 3D screens. But I was wrong. I’d climbed from one abyss into another hell.
The Godfather provided teachers — not to teach books, but to teach how to kill efficiently. From that day, I learned the arts of murder, hand-to-hand combat, assembling firearms, and marksmanship. I became his shadow and most capable bodyguard.
I drifted farther from who I once was.
Until one day, on the Godfather’s private terminal, I saw those eyes — deep purple, like the abyss I once tried to flee. It felt like they penetrated through all my disguises and toughness.
In a file, I found everything about a girl: Annie von Reiss. Her brother is an officer, Karl von Reiss. The girl’s genetics were defective — near-collapse, near Death — but the Godfather had her injected with Atlantean ichor. Not only was she cured, but her genes also changed in some way. The powers she displays are beyond human. All other experiments failed. Only she survived.
The Godfather saved her, gave her a second life — would she, too, spend her life repaying that debt like me? Or would she pay far more?
I’d read her files in Drake’s encrypted terminals more than once. On screen, the cold line always flickered like a ghost: Subject 001: Annie von Reiss. Born: 2285.
That number stuck in my head. She is four years older than I am.
By instinct, I pulled up surveillance footage of her past years. The timestamps flicked: 2308, 2310, 2312… backgrounds changed, nurses changed, even the ward setup changed. Only that face remained exactly the same.
Time is like a rushing river that passes everything — except that reef. This unnatural anomaly made my stomach churn.
I swiped and opened her genetic profile. Under the DNA helix section, a red note flashed: “Quad-Crystal Stability.”
This isn’t human DNA. At that moment, I realized what I faced might not be a patient at all, but an entirely new lifeform. Her DNA ceased to be a blueprint and became a divine tower — locking immense energy, fixing her appearance forever at age twenty-three.
Is this real? Or is Drake fabricating data? I have to see for myself.
…
When I first walked into that ward, the air smelled of ozone and static. Seeing that sleeping girl in person, all my doubts and guard froze. She was too beautiful — like a fragile lie. My heart, honed hard by slum and slaughter, split just a little.
I don’t know why, but this “monster” I’d never met filled me with an inexplicable tenderness. Compelled, I moved to her bedside and leaned close to study that face frozen by time.
At that moment, she slowly opened her eyes. Deep purple irises — like a nebula in the depths of space.
She looked at me with a gaze that had no focal point, but seemed to pierce my disguise and see straight through to my soul:
“Sister, your body is glowing orange-yellow.”
That single “sister,” clear and childlike, carried a divine innocence. But I felt my blood freeze. For the first time in my life, I felt an abyssal fear of the unknown.
(End of Chapter 125)
? JunkyardJack369 2026, All Rights Reserved