—Chop...Chop
Stir...Stir
~Crunch... Crunch~
Each of the man's inexpensive cuts with his worn-out knife, sliced through the onions' fleshy exterior with lacking dexterity. Each of his clumsy cuts were worse than the one he had done prior.
Narrowing his eyes the man attempted to limit the passage of the onion liquid from irritating his eyes.
Obviously, this proved to be futile.
The bastardous liquids had laid their claim on his eyes which in response caused an exceptionally annoying experience.
This slight nuance proved ineffective towards the man's unwavering cutting.
With a continuous rhythmic motion of his wrist, the knife moved front and back, quivering seemingly annoyed by the youths' ill-experience as it sliced though the rime.
Eventually, this grueling task was completed. The youth, now in a stupor elevated his gaze towards his apartment's low ceiling.
The ceiling's monotone tapestry was tinted a dull yellow with the occasional water stain making its presence known.
Alexander had lived in this refurbished apartment for several years now.
That constant low hum of silence always allayed within the apartment, its vague tone annoyed him, it gave him that ever so dire need for closure... a personal closure.
Whenever he fell asleep.
Whenever he ate.
Even when he worked, Alexander would constantly hear that same pitch within his head, a constant reminder of his insignificance. That he was a loser, a meaningless person who would live a life of groveling, with a bright expression as he accepted meager pension from his superiors.
He hated it...He hated this, no, HE hated himself.
Countless times had Alex had protested to the world for its misgiving, why had fate delt him such shitty cards!
Each attempt was in vain, such meaningless pleas were less than idle remarks, ones meant for himself than anything.
Unfortunately, Alexander lacked the courage to face his demons, he was a coward.
He hadn't wanted to take the risks, not daring, or willing, to face the consequences of making a fool of himself in the process.
Self-accusation was an overrated notion.
~~~
~~~
~~~
His life had reached its harshest chapter, and honestly, he had contemplated if it should be his conclusion, the prologue was nice. His upbringings were nice, but that was it.
maybe... just maybe it should be his end.
Of course, he was too cowardly to enact such a dire some act, so the notion was quickly stifled.
His life was neither good nor poor.
Mundane and bland, it was monotonic, routine was the same, life was the same, he had no special person within his life.
Hell, his family despised him
Alexander felt apathetic towards everything.
He was in a twilight of sorts,
Reaching for the knife, Alexander with carless abandon, threw it into the sink.
Clank!
Giving the loud sound no heed, Alexander opened the cheap laminated wooden cabinets before reaching into their contents, cusping what he desired.
With a small plastic container in hand, he rested it on the countertop as he adjusted the cutting boards orientation into a tilt.
With a simple push of his hand, Alexander filled the half hazardously diced into the hollow space of the container, essentially filling its empty volume with shit.
Grasping the small rectangular topware, Alexander shifted his body to his fridge.
It was nearly his height 188cm, it was a pale white color with a curved accented around its the edges.
Tracing his fingers along the fridge's long plastic handle, Alexander grappled his fingers, aggressively opening the fridge.
Pop!
Faced with a breeze of cold frigid air, Alexander placed the small container onto one of the insides many plastic shelves.
"Phew,"
"Finally finished that…" He lazily uttered under his breath.
The onion was for his dinner the following day.
"How the hell did my life fall to such a point" Alexander mumbled as he walked into the living room.
~~~
~~~
~~~
During a time of simplicity, his mind was one plagued with the delusions of childish hope and aspiration.
Those times within his formative years, what would he do to get them back.
So many grievances, he now regrated.
Alexander was once revered as a talented hacker and programmer.
He toiled for days in front of that rectangular monitor, perched on his gaming chair.
His vision had deteriorated from that constant exposure of blue light, and his social? Basically absent.
Alexander's only form of social solace centered around online forums dedicated to computers and software.
Reddit was his domain, and not one he was proud of either.
His mother would constantly nag him for his consecutive absences from the family, neglect, and his routine outbursts given his short temperament.
Alexander always assured his mother of his presence, but these were always airy words. He never attended these nuancing events, nor his aunt's funeral.
He never even knew her name.
Alexander gave little of his attention to such meaningless events, he was always selfishly humoring himself.
With Hacking, or other baseless ambitions.
It was lucrative form of sadistic entertainment during his early years. Yet, when push comes to shove it was the catalyst for his life's current predicament.
A string of accidental misdoings, connecting with the wrong folks, and pointed fingers in his direction. He was a mere scape goat.
It was a tale, as old as human greed.
Plopping onto the old gray sofa, Alexander sighed.
reaching forward towards his end table, Alex after some struggle took hold of a book, or more specifically a novel.
Stealing a glance at the novel's cover, he scrutinized the detailed illustration embroidered across its tapestry.
The character wore a loose-fitting jacket adorned with bright yellow patterns, paired with a black turtleneck that highlighted his slim yet muscular build. He had black, loose-fitting trousers. The youth's hair was a distinctive ashen gray, complemented by piercing crimson eyes. In his hand, he held an awesome Ōdachi, which he rested on his shoulder.
As is typical for protagonists, Lux was exceptionally handsome.
"The Twilight Sword sovereign" Alexander mumbled aloud as he read the title.
It was the fourteenth volume within the series, it was one of Alexander's few modes of entertainment, after porn and games became boring.
The novel was nothing special, merely a guilty pleasure that he liked to indulge in time to time.
It was like junk food, its not good for us. Yet, we always find ourselves filling out snout with it.
That was this novel.
It was an utterly cliche piece of fiction, with a repetitive and honestly meaningless story based around convoluted plot, prolonged smut scenes and system bs.
The novel is an unfortunate Harem power wish fulfillment fantasy.
Characters were more two-dimensional than a piece of printer paper and equally as bland.
The main character's name is 'Lux'.
A fucking annoying name, a name that made you want to punch the MC's face due to the sheer stupidity of it.
He's the closest thing you can get to, for the lack of a better term... bland.
"I fucking hate this bastard" Alexander sneered with a grin as he bore his gaze into the printed copy in his hands.
It was meaningless to vent rage, but Alexander needed any semblance of an excuse as to not start the novel.
Simply It was the narrative's resolution.
"4,059 chapters of this brain-numbing story… " he mused with a stiff grin
"I feel like I should put off reading it for another several days,"
But against his own judgment, he continued to his desire.
Adjusting his body into a comfortable position, Alexander gingerly opened the book to view its contents.
Hours passed as he read the words sprawled across each page.
He laughed.
Hell, he even he cried
At the end, he gnashed his teeth ad he quelled any form of hope he had for the novel's resolution. He gaped beguiled, his expression hurt. He read those final pages, tying to make out the nonsense that was going on.
But, as with all good things in life, they seldom last, and honestly, he was quite 'Satisfied' with the resolution.
"They all died," Alexander absentmindedly voiced, giving a rhetorical question to himself.
"But how?" Alex mused as he reread the final fight sequence
***
Posturing his gait into a firm stance, Lux reached towards his chest cavity forcing his heart to beat at rapidly irregular intervals.
Gritting his teeth, Lux was enthralled as he felt his every vein burst forth with the powers of several magical forces.
Prana
Qi
Mana
Aura
Spiritual energy
These energies were sourced from his many lovers and comrades who guided their powers into his own.
Alas Lus Readied himself further
"Forte die tue" Bellied Lux
Finalizing the array of motion, a great beam of concentrated light and darkness simultaneously spiraled forward tethering to each of the hero party foes.
From this moment forward the battle seemed to shift tides.
The vast army of fallen angels monsters and deities seemed to be at a disadvantage.
Unfortunately, this hope was soon eclipsed by writhes of laughter coming from the enemy epicenter.
An unaccounted variable
"Impounded fools" Bellowed a loud cynical and glitched voice.
Rising from the center of the enemy forces rose a great figure spanning thousands of miles in high radiating an impossible flow of the primordial forces.
From Lux and his party's viewpoint, it seemed as if they were facing the physical incarnation of the cosmos.
Lux felt nothing but helplessness.
His system which had guided him for years barraged him with nothing but warnings.
[Host is advised to evacuate the battle region!!]
[Host is advised to evacuate the battle region!!]
[Host is advised to evacuate the battle region!!]
[Host is advised to evacuate the battle region!!]
…
His tool to power was now telling him to give up?
"I can't … No I WILL SLAY YOU VILE FIEND!" yelled Lux with a voice filled with newfound conviction
Why would he let his comrades down, especially after the countless tribulations they had endured together!
Was all of that meaningless…
No!
Of course, it wasn't!
Scoffing from a distance the entity swiped his index and middle finger in a lazy motion eradicating the planet.
This was the last thing anyone saw before being faced with the perpetual darkness of death.
____________________
Final serialized Chapter of the Twilight Sword Sovereign. I hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I did writing it.
***
"???"
"What a lazy ending," "but I've seen worse I guess"
Alexander said stifling a yawn
Placing the book back onto the coffee table Alexander fixed his slouched back, and just stared at the novel.
He didn't know what to feel,
Happy?
Sad?
Rage?
Annoyance?
Or just total nonchalance?
Like who cared, it was fiction anyways.
Alexander acknowledged the pit of emptiness growing within him but chose to feign oblivion.
"Huuuu…"
"What now…"
Alexander had to go to work in a few hours, and he had yet to get ready.
And frankly, he didn't care, Alexander just wanted to raleigh in the fact he finished reading the novel.
He had spent the past four years reading that bitch Lux's adventure, he picked up the novel when he was 18 at the time he had graduated from high school, a freshmen stud in college.
His friend is passing complained about the novel, this had piqued Alexander's curiosity, hence he started reading the novel.
Now he was 22
"Fucking passage of time, such a bitch" Alexander spoke bitterly staring at the coffee table with forlorn eyes.
He wasn't a kind or altruistic person,
Alexander was like everyone else.
selfish, but in a human way.
He just wanted to live happy. Rather than trying pass his every day with aimless ambition.
Alexander didn't want to receive a scolding from his superior, so whether or not to go, the inevitable visit to the office was going to happen.
There was no ultimatum, he had to pay his bills.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Click
Locking his apartment door, Alexander made his way to the complex's stair well.
"15 flights of fucking stairs in this fucking suit, at least I'm getting my cardio in!" Alexander spoke mirth, yet with a sublime wince he poorly hid.
The constant action of walking down the long flight of stairs was beginning to take its toll on his feet.
It didn't help that said feet were encased in a set unruly dress shoes.
several minutes passed like this.
Finally, faced with the exiting door allowing passage into the first floor, Alex smirked
exiting his apartment complex, he was immediately wafted with the unpleasant, yet accustomed scent of city smog.
"The fresh City air"
The surroundings were as expected within a city.
Narrow streets.
Bran numbing traffic.
Spires of moderately sized buildings dotted the city with the occasional skyscraper.
But worst of all was the pollution.
Fucking homeless people and lazy bums, who lacked the common curtesy to toss they're trash away.
Trash loitered along the pavement as leaves would in autumn. The ground was essentially blanketed with company labels from a variety of unhealthy brands.
At the very least they got free advertising.
The world felt gray.
War and other geo-political events had taken their toll against the average joes mental. This one majestic city was now amounted to nothing more than a shell of its former glory.
Work was as per usual,
People were the same.
But…
out of fear, or more specifically the fear of the known, most of the population just weren't the same.
As Alexander repeated though his life, he paid it no attention.
He had grown long accustomed to this repetitive cycle of life.
Why fret over spilled milk?
Work was soon, and a day of bland activity awaited him.
He hated it.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Walking along the hard trail of pavement, Alex bore witness of several petty crimes.
Daylight burglary.
An assault.
A few common graffiti artists.
The city clearly didn't care, so why should he?
Alexander just continued on his marry way, treading along the sidewalk.
That was... until it went black.
~~~
~~~
~~~
-SPLAT
Flesh-clad bone and brain matter splattered across the sidewalk's pavement.
—Thud
His eye edged themself from their respective cavities of his open skull plopping and strewn, like shoelace
His body began to spasm, his arms and legs flailed for a second or two, he was like a puppet whose martinet's cut's strings were cut.
Movement stifled.
Alexander had died today.
His death was unexpected.
"Holy... HOLY FUCK!" yelled a common construction worker in a fright
Due to his incompetence, and negligence, one of the many instruments used during his work, housed within the containing units, flung a ladder out of the truck's bed and toward Alexander's head.
His head was decapitated from the nose upward.
The life of that simple construction worker was ruined.