Everyone Has a... Crown?

Lian was a young man that lived his life like any other ordinary person. Played while young, studied hard in school, got a diploma in chemistry, and became a teacher in a medium college in the city he lived, thanks to his degree. If there was anything that made him stand out, it was the fact that Lian was quite good at his job as he liked what he did, but that's about it.

Then again, there was one thing that differentiated him from others, although he had never told anyone. Ever since Lian was born, he had the ability to see... crowns... to be more specific, he could see crowns on the heads of every single person in the world, regardless of their gender and age.

He himself wasn't an exception to that. It's just that he couldn't touch it even if he tried. The same went for other people's crowns. There was even a time he thought he had some problem in his head. It's just that as time passed, he learned to accept them and not pay attention anymore.

Just like his own, most of the crowns he saw were gray in color. There were extremely rare exceptions, though. He had seen some crown that seemed to be bronze in color. And once, only once, he coincidently saw a person with a silver crown.

Even now, Lian can't tell what those crowns meant. There was a time he thought that the crowns might be connected to a person's success. However, Lian quickly discarded the idea since none of the bronze crowns nor the silver one seemed to be anyone rich, famous, or important. They were all just common people... or at least he believed them to be.

*Kabrum...*

"Seems like it's going to rain soon," Lian commented as he looked through the window. At the moment, it was lunchtime in the college he worked at. Lian was in the teachers' room, having his already prepared lunch with a few other teachers doing the same.

"Let me take a look." Another teacher got up from his chair and positioned herself close to the window Lian was using. "Sigh... you really can't rely on the weather forecast. It said today would be clear skies, but look at that. And here I even left my laundry drying out in my yard." Her name was Carol, and she had been in the same college as Lian for the past three years, teaching physics.

Suddenly, a man pointed at Carol and said, "I told you to buy a washing machine with a drying option, didn't I? It's very convenient." His name was Duran, one of the math teachers.

Lian then shook his head in response. "They're expensive, and they also use more energy. I prefer the simple washing machine as well. They do the job," he replied as he moved away from the window to continue his lunch.

However, it was then that Carol saw something. "Hey, Lian. Wait a moment. There's something weird there, don't you think?"

Lian stopped on his way back to his desk and turned back to look at the window. At first, he didn't see anything different. There were black clouds, which would at most mean a thunderstorm was coming. However, he soon noticed a certain point in the distance. There, the clouds weren't black but purple. Or, to be more exact, they were turning purple. "Well... that's something you don't see every day."

Duran, who got curious, came to look as well. "Well, that's new. Why's that happening, Lian?"

"Why are you asking me?" Lian asked back.

Carol and Duran looked at Lian in response. "Aren't you the chemistry teacher?"

"How is that... sigh. Never mind. You better thank the fact that this question was a question during my licensure exam." Lian then pondered a bit before explaining, "Anyways, the colors result from a combination of Rayleigh and Mie scattering. As light passes through the atmosphere, most of the shorter blue wavelengths are scattered, leaving the majority of longer waves to continue on. Therefore, the predominant color of sunlight changes due to these longer wavelengths."

Although Duran was the one who asked, he had a clueless expression on his face. "I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND SHIT!"

"THEN DON'T FUCKING ASK! GO TO HELL!!!" Of course, Lian felt like giving Duran a beating after hearing that.

"Hahaha!" Carol couldn't help but laugh in response. Those two were friends, but they often bickered. "Lian always knows those weird factoids."

Lian shrugged his shoulders in response but didn't answer.

*Rumble!*

Suddenly, the room they were in started to tremble.

"Shit! Another earthquake!" Duran immediately exclaimed.

"This country and its fault lines..." Lian could not help but murmur.

"Shut up and get under the tables!" Carol, on the other hand, was a lot more worried.

"It's fine, it's fine. The earthquakes in our city usually aren't that big anyway. We're still quite far from the fault lines," Lian added after his previous comment.

However, as soon as Lian finished saying those words, the earthquake's intensity increased.

*Rumble!*

Eventually, it reached a point where one couldn't stay standing anymore. With that, Lian understood that this was the real deal and ducked under the table together with Duran and Carol.

Seeing that, Duran and Carol told him simultaneously, "And you were saying?"

"Ahem..." Lian looked away as he used his hands and legs to stabilize himself on the ground. "A man can be wrong once in a while, can't he?"

*Crack, crack, crack...*

Unfortunately for them, that was only the start. The trembling continued to increase, and soon, the college walls began to crack. If things continued at their current pace, the college would definitely crumble down.

Naturally, Lian's group noticed that. "We can't stay here! We're on the first floor. If the college comes down, all the floors above us will crush our bodies!"

Duran and Lian looked at each other and nodded. Soon after, each of them grabbed one of Carol's arms as they ran from under the table. It was extremely hard to stabilize, but they didn't care about possible injuries. They had to get out of there as soon as possible.

"The window! We don't have time to go through the doors!"

"Alright!"

With that, Duran and Lian jumped against the window with Carol. Fortunately, the glass had already broken down due to the incessant trembling.

Right after, the three tried to head towards an open space to move away from the buildings. The same could be seen everywhere as many students and other teachers also ran out of their respective buildings. No one wanted to be close when the college buildings came down.

"Look!" It was then that Carol pointed at the sky.

"Holy shit!" Lian and Duran exclaimed at the same time.

Right above them, an enormous vortex of purple clouds gathered, seemingly trying to suck everything into it. The buildings of the college that were supposed to start crumbling down instead began to break apart. However, the broken parts shot in the vortex's direction instead of falling.

Of course, that wasn't all. The students on those floors were also dragged with the broken parts of the college buildings.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Unfortunately, there was no one who could answer Lian's question.

A few seconds later, Lian, Duran, and Carol felt their bodies become light as if they had lost all their weight. Yes, they were also being sucked in the vortex's direction.

"Ahhhhh!"

The three held onto each other, not knowing what was happening. All they could do was hold tight to each other and not let go.

Once they got high up in the skies, a scene opened in front of them. That wasn't the only vortex! Far in the distance, many other vortexes of purple clouds could be seen in various directions.

Little did they know, but this phenomenon was happening all around the world!

It was in the midst of all that confusion that Lian noticed something that no one else could. 'The color of the crowns on everyone's heads... they're changing!'