CRON
Know why I recognize a zenithian? Because I was one. Oh, yes, I was… That was before Vaktiria ensnared me in the abyss.
I was more than a lawyer. I was THE lawyer. Perhaps better known as the Devil's Advocate. Yeah, I was one. Can you imagine?
True, I've always been a big guy, and that intimidated people. My presence was unmistakable in courtrooms, at congresses, on stages. Wherever I went, I had the best of everything, always beside the most powerful.
The Aether Network's leaders? They loved me. Sessota, UNITED, Kokusai, and Moana-Tūmanako? I was their pillar. The people? Well, they didn't. To the people, I was their worst nightmare.
My two fathers adopted me in Frankfurt and mapped out my life. Both were lawyers who represented NGOs and defended environmental rights. Noble causes, I admit. But when I entered that universe, I wanted only two things: money and power.
Yes, they tried to weave me with honorable purpose, to mold my essence. Perhaps there was a different path. Perhaps, in another life, I would have become like them. But no. I was that. I had always been that. That was my nature: I was greed.
You must have heard of Nanoverse, the French giant that dominated nanotechnology, living intelligence, and QN-Tec. From 2776 to 2795, it reigned supreme, but collapsed under the weight of sanctions from the World Criminal Court (WCC), the GNA, and ARGOS.
But know what no one says? Nanoverse didn't collapse because it broke laws, but because it was coweaving something that would change the world. If it managed to develop the prototype—and it did—it would monopolize the global nanotechnology market.
Some countries reported the company to ARGOS. A summit of the leaders of the ten principal cities accused it of violating local and international laws, as well as involvement with illegal groups, corruption, slave labor, misuse of natural resources, and human experimentation.
In the end, I discovered that almost all the evidence against Nanoverse had been fabricated.
ARGOS also banned QN-Tec development worldwide. The company collapsed, millions of jobs were wiped off the map, and the world plummeted with it.
But it was more than that.
They broke up Nanoverse's bankruptcy estate and sold it to other companies. Everyone wanted the know-how behind that nanotechnology. The company, however, destroyed everything related to it.
All the scientists involved in the project were… You know.
Even today, the three largest companies in the field—Sessota, UNITED, and Kokusai—have failed to replicate the foundation of that nanoengineering.
And where do I fit into all this?
Those three became giants because they bought pieces of Nanoverse. And me? I became a representative of Sessota, the market leader. Yes, I see it in your eyes. I know what you're thinking. Bastard. I have no scruples, fräulein. Everyone has the right to a defense. I defended those rights and made money doing it. A lot of money and control. A lot of control.
I was at my peak when we closed a multibillion-bireal deal with one company in London and another in New York. They would supply raw materials for nanoengineering capable of reproducing animal DNA. The agreement involved sending certain animals native to those regions for experiments.
Some NGOs tried to block the deal, claiming the species would be driven to extinction. My fathers were among those organizations' lawyers. It became a battle between them and me. And we won. I was good at it. I had the control needed to send the scales crashing in our favor. I finalized a deal that drove five animal species to extinction. But money and power spoke louder. They were the only things that mattered to me. My side always won.
And no, I don't regret it. There's no room for regret. There never was. Call me a scoundrel. Go ahead. People have before. The whole world has.
What came afterward… was merely the price I paid.
I lived in Zenith. Almost touched the firmament. Walked among the clouds, living under the illusion of control and money, as fragile as a broken thread.
The Wheel of Fate turned. The knot came undone and remade my destiny. And I fell. No. I crashed.
…
Everything I had built crumbled in seconds.
…
Nature took her revenge on me. In the most beautiful and brutal way. She took everything from me.
Or rather… Almost everything.