Empires – Arc 1| Chapter 1| Beginning of the End

In the farthest side of this world lies a city that has the best of everything this world can offer, named Titan City. From hovering automobiles to soaring skyscrapers, from modern-day clothing to clean air to breathe, to a luxurious lifestyle to live. People here are more civilized or modern, in a sense, than in other parts of the world. Well-mannered, polite behavior is a given; since they do not have to fight for their survival, they can simply focus on their self-improvement. In Titan City, money, reputation, and blood relations scream louder than raw power and survival instincts.

Inside one of the cafes of Titan City—arguably one of the more modest ones—sits a man. He is muscular, jacked to be specific, given his traps, shoulders, barrel chest, and a perfect V-taper. He stands approximately 5’10” in a duster coat. His entire clothing reflects who he is: indigo jeans, tactical black boots, and a white tee. He has taken the window seat, sitting in a figure-four position, staring at the street outside. He leans back, his hands in a slightly diagonal position; his left hand rests on his lap over his left thigh, and his right hand rests on the headrest of the stool, hence the slightly cornered posture.

Another man—this one more ripped than jacked compared to the duster coat guy—enters with a smile directed toward the waitress. This one looks more polite, more civilized. At a glance, no one can actually tell if he is a foreigner or from around here, unlike the man in the duster coat who looks like he belongs nowhere, and particularly not here. As he enters, the cafe does not go quiet, the atmospheric pressure does not drop, and no one feels cold or the heaviness of gravity. In fact, it feels like when he entered, the atmosphere in the cafe got nullified, as the duster guy was making it more somber.

The gentleman looks around and sees the duster coat. With a smile, he walks toward him with no hurry. He helps a child whose napkin just fell; with a smile, he bends to one knee to pick it up from the floor for the child, and leaves it on the table. The child and its parents and siblings return the smile with a bigger one—a hint of the etiquette that wraps and binds Titan City together.

He finally reaches the table of the man who was making the atmosphere somber, bows, and serenely asks, “May I sit?” to the duster coat guy.

The duster coat guy looks away from the street toward this polite gentleman who is roughly 5’6″. He stares at him for a moment with an unreadable expression, which almost feels like the seated man is not actually judging or measuring him up, but basking in him.

To which the gentleman says with a chuckle, “Is my suit that much out of place?…” Raising an eyebrow, he adds, “…or do you like it that much?”

The duster coat guy does not answer, but simply extends his left hand, suggesting he take a seat without a word. As the gentleman takes the opposite seat, the coat guy sees he is wearing a perfectly tailored three-piece suit with a brooch, and there is a distinct, all-knowing smile on his face.

After a moment of silence, as the duster coat guy looks out the window again, the suit says, “Thank you for meeting me… Taglia! I am sure you and I can reach an arrangement which will serve not only you… and me, but the whole world.”

Taglia turns with bored, dead fish eyes and says, “Well… first let’s see if it serves me or not, shall we?!… Mr. Chaos!”

The gentleman laughs, saying, “Ahh, self-interest first and foremost. Okay, I can work with that!”

As Chaos sits upright and Taglia leans back, the focus shifts from them in the cafe to a high-rise building.

A young man in a regular two-piece suit is writing and reviewing some files. He is not sitting in the chair that seems like it belongs to the boss, but the way he is leaning onto the table, surveying the papers, leaves no doubt he is the boss. A young woman in jeans, a grey top, and a princess coat—buttons open as both sides fly on the sides—walks in. She is the complete opposite of the man reviewing the paperwork. While he looks peace-loving, thoughtful, and humanitarian, the woman looks bored, cold, and detached. A classic “don’t give a fuck” energy!

She asks, “You done, Friling?… We still have to go and visit him in the hospital!”

Friling raises his head. Seeing the woman, he smiles a positive smile—the kind we give to our adorable little sisters—and says, “Yes… Lesca!”

As they walk down the hallway, the rooms look entirely luxurious, with top-of-the-line monitors, ceiling lights, and plush carpets on the floor. As they pass, others in their way stand aside; some bow slightly. As they reach the car outside, Friling holds out the door for Lesca.

She enters without a nod or a smile—pure entitlement—and says, “I still don’t understand why I have to go. He is your friend; he got beaten up for his own reasons.” Lesca sits down, raises her fingers, and curls them as she counts each point, saying, “Not to mention I had a salon appointment today, and the fact that he could have easily taken him down but did not… he decided to play hero.” She puts her hands down on her lap and says, “What’s with this city and heroes?” She asks no one in particular as she looks out the window.

Friling enters and closes the door as the driver starts the car. He says, “Because he protected you too, remember.” Then he looks out and adds, “I am not sure, but when someone strong emerges from the weak… they start to think it’s their responsibility to protect the weak.” Friling puts a hand on Lesca‘s right shoulder, saying, “Kind of like you, sister!”

Lesca does not reply, nor does she turn.

The focus again returns to the cafe. As the cars outside keep going, people pass by on the footpath. New customers enter the cafe, old ones leave, while some stay. Taglia and Chaos get served with a Coke for both of them. As Chaos keeps explaining with massive hand gestures, Taglia simply leans back onto his stool with his hands at his sides, his figure-four leg position intact.

What is he explaining to Taglia? No one knows. No one in the cafe can hear his voice, or maybe they simply don’t care. After all, who has time to worry about others when they have so much on their own plate?

As Chaos‘s gestures come to an end, he leans in to drink his Coke with his elbows on the table. After a moment of silence, in which Taglia again looks through the window, Chaos asks, “So what do you think… would you like to join me? Help me… help us?” He looks around the room briefly.

Taglia does not answer or even turn from the window. Chaos simply puts down his glass, and that sunny, all-knowing smile dims a little. The atmospheric hit is apparent.

The moment Chaos entered, both Taglia and Chaos‘s presences were canceling each other out, but that sudden drop of his smile feels like they are no longer opposing forces. Both are heavy, but for their own individual reasons. It is almost as if Taglia is a glass of whiskey and Chaos is a glass of water, but in this moment—not hearing a reply from Taglia, or maybe due to Taglia‘s simple detachment—Chaos‘s water suddenly turns into whiskey too!

Chaos states, “If you say no… I will rain fire down here!” He then gives a happy smile as he puts his hands down on the table, palms facing up.

Outside, the sunny day suddenly turns grayish. The local lifestyle, which has had no reason to pause since the time Titan City was created, halts. It is very rare for these folks to see a lack of sunlight, let alone a gray sky. As people, not realizing what caused the sudden change of weather, look up, they see the gray sky turn into black in mere moments. Three to four medium-sized black meteors—almost like the rocks found in mountain riverbeds, which are easily 8 to 10 feet tall—surrounded by golden flames, are coming down. It isn’t like they are coming from space; it is like they just conjured mid-air.

People, true to their senses in a situation that even their predecessors have hardly encountered, get paralyzed. Some fall onto the footpath; some just stand frozen on the street.

Inside the cafe, the reaction is equally cold and heavy. Some forget to gulp their saliva, while others let their coffee overflow the mug. But Chaos‘s smile brightens little by little as Taglia stares at him. It seems like this one moment causes Titan City to choose between fight or flight, and they all choose… well, they forget to choose, and their brains stop processing data.

Taglia finally breaks his figure-four sitting formation, leans in, and puts his right hand on the table. A simple gesture again nullifies the heaviness of the room, causing people to at least gulp; the one holding the coffee container lets go of it. He raises his index finger and calmly says, “First rule of dealing with me… DO NOT FUCK AROUND!”

He raises his left hand lazily toward the window as the meteors slowly get closer, and swats each of his fingers like he is shaking water off his hand. Each of his five fingers, from that mere swat, generates a ripple in the air, creating five wind cutters pointing at the window. Outside, the meteors are getting closer, and the five wind cutters simply shatter the concrete wall and the glass window. Dhisshhh!

It’s like one moment the whole wall is there—the glass, the bricks, the structure—and the next moment they are gone. That simple collapse causes some people to get caught in the crossfire as the walls and glass are thrown at them. Some get crushed in the debris; the cafe people get thrown backward, away from the two sitting individuals who are causing all of this.

The cutters take a diagonal position, almost 45 to 60 degrees, ripping open the top side of the opposite building which is in the cutters’ way. The building’s roof and higher floors get slashed into pieces. That debris causes the people on the opposite side of the cafe to get crushed or hurt. The mere thought that the wind cutters do not slow down as they cut through two solid structures—simply because they are between Taglia‘s fingers and the incoming meteors—causes Chaos to finally look at where Taglia‘s fingers are pointed.

The precise strike cuts through those meteors. Three cuts reach first—as his index, middle, and ring fingers were slightly forward when he swatted—cutting them into big halves. The last two fingers, thumb and pinky, slice them down into smaller pieces, resulting in a rain of fire over that area. As the debris clears, it looks like the damage is almost the same as Chaos promised, only executed by Taglia.

And all for what?

To prove who has a bigger ego?!

As people run away from the cafe on the street, some try to make sense of what is happening in the dust and debris, while others help the living get out from the wreckage. Chaos finally turns his head toward Taglia from where the window was a few moments ago and stares at him.

He finally gets up, bows, and says, “You have made your point, Taglia… but time always forces us to re-evaluate our choices… I hope the re-evaluation comes faster… for you.”

Chaos buttons up his jacket and leaves calmly, like taking a stroll in the park, while Taglia just sits there, staring at the seat where Chaos was sitting.

The effect is so strong that Friling and Lesca‘s car gets hit by a massive shockwave, causing it to lose power and stop. As they get out of the car to check what is happening, Friling gets a call.

The voice says, “Meet me at the 1st Block cafe… something happened.”

Friling replies, staring at Lesca for a moment—who is staring in the direction of the debris, her eyes fully open—”Wait, you rest. You are already beaten up, let us handle it.”

The voice again comes from the phone, full of pure conviction: “The people of Titan City have trusted me… You have put your trust in me… I am coming.”

Friling says, “Got it.”

The line gets cut off as Lesca takes a step toward the area, saying, “First meteors appear from nowhere, and now this…”