The Ones Who Dream

What do you think one would do, when they were told that all of their wildest dreams could come true?

They want to become the richest person in the world? They could. They want to become the most influential person in the world? They could. They wanted to be the strongest person in the whole world, and even for the rest of the world's history? They could as well. Anyone can dream for anything, anyone can dream about anything, because they all will come true. Well… with a certain price to be paid for those dreams, it will come true, no matter how absurd. 

But what if someone dreamt of creating a God? What will happen to them then? Can that dream really come true?

* * *

Amelia hated the color white. 

It was the way the lights reflected off the shiny surfaces; the floors, ceiling and walls alike were all too blinding to her gray eyes. It was the way that it felt like it was endless, like long hallways that led to nowhere. It was the way that it felt like everything was starting to close in on her, wanting to squeeze out every miniscule breath she could barely get into her lungs. 

Unfortunately, Arknis was painted in sheer, pure white.

It was within the written and verbal contract that all employees within Arknis had to wear something white. It did not matter what it was, as long as there was something white and appropriate for work on any article, it was accepted. One amazing perk for her, being the boss of Arknis, was that she did not have to obey that particular rule.

Her eyes had gotten used to the brightness, it took her an entire week to get used to the fact that she was going to work around such lighting intensity for the rest of her very, very long life. On some days, especially on days where she was in a particularly sour mood, the lights would still make her head spin. She did wish that she could just convince the council to change the lights into anything but white, though red would be excluded for a very specific reason as well. But that was too selfish of her, even if she very could just abuse her authority to do so. 

The sound of footsteps were uneven throughout Arknis; Some were people running around in a rush, some were walking and stopping repeatedly and some were walking like they were taking a leisurely stroll. The last of them happened to be her, with how slow and steady her strides were compared to everyone else around her. Their faces were often a blur in the early morning of work, even the few minutes before the work day actually started. 

There was almost an unlimited amount of work to do after all.

"Good morning, miss." The usual greeting from the employees, the same phrase that she heard for no less than a few billion times at this point. She still gave them all a lazy wave, one of her hands tucked inside her jacket's pocket. She was dressed a bit too casually — a white T-shirt, black jacket, long black pants and black and dark blue striped sneakers — though nobody really cared, or dared, to speak up on her choice of work clothes. 

Most doors in Arknis stood out a bit too much at times. Her personal office door was made out of elm wood and it kept that natural color, the smooth iron vertical handles had people bumping into it from time to time. She wrapped her slender fingers around it, the heavy door moved with a simple pull, revealing the inside of her personal office. 

Two wooden bookshelves placed side to side, two long wooden desks placed adjacent to each other. There was a clock on the left side of the door, time just struck 10 a.m. the second she stepped foot into it. 

"Good morning, Miss Amelia." Her assistant, Diane, flashed a polite smile towards her.

"Good morning to you too, Diane." She greeted back, her voice dry and close to monotone. 

Diane's pale hands were already holding an A6 notebook and a blue pen, standing close to her own desk that faced the left end of the office. Amelia sighed slowly, walking towards her own desk while giving Diane a wave, motioning for her to start speaking as Amelia's eyes landed on the brand new pile of paperwork placed on her table. 

Diane started talking while taking a few steps to stand in front of her desk, "You have three different meetings today, but they don't necessarily require your presence." She paused for a second, taking a good glance at her notebook before staring back at Amelia. "The Medical and Research Department (M&R), Field Investigation Division (F.I.) as well as Surveillance and Investigation Department (S&I) want their requests to be signed as soon as possible."

Amelia reached her hand out to grab the blue file folder sitting on the very top of her paperwork pile, which was as tall as her arm completely outstretched, her attention was partially shifted towards the contents after seeing it being named 'Operation Eden'. 

 Diane's voice still registered in her head, though she started to regard it as white noise, flipping open the file while Diane continued speaking, "And the file you're looking at is something the S&I Department wishes to hear your decision as soon as possible."

 "Relay to Marcus that I will come over to him after 30 minutes." 

Diane gave her a nod, putting her notebook back into her pocket then walking back to her desk, having to deal with her own mountain of paperwork waiting for her to conquer. 

The file folder were a few reports all being placed together to form a narrative, a narrative that made Amelia's lips curl up into an amused smile. Diane snuck a glance at her boss after contacting Marcus, her eyebrow slightly raised at her boss's unusual reaction. It was very rare to see Amelia get so amused when reading through a file folder, as if whatever contents within it made her more interested than anything Diane had said earlier. 

"How fascinating." Amelia murmured.

* * *

The S&I Department was one of the busiest departments within Arknis, having such a massive workload that the entire section of their offices were the most frantic until work day was over. 'If S&I Department had nothing to do, it meant that the world was going to reset itself soon.' A common saying within Arknis, that the department served as a doomsday warning. Amelia would agree wholeheartedly, all of the members within the department would agree as well.

If S&I had nothing to do, then Arknis would meet its end. 

The metal doors slid open after the sensor scanned her body, recording her entrance within its systems. She could already hear the faint whispers and constant footsteps before she even entered the department, her eyes immediately darting around the area. There were multiple solid metal tables varying in sizes evenly spaced between each other, they had holographic screens floating right in the middle. The data currently shown was whatever the employees wanted to see right now; whether it would be the current conditions of a specific planet, all of the information about someone or the current death toll and birth rate of a specific planet. 

There was a large holographic screen within the middle of the section, having the largest table beneath it. There were some smaller screens etched into the metal, currently showing all of the current and available information about a man. The information included everything from his face to all of his magical aptitude and abilities, though there was some information that still could be updated, especially on what exactly he was capable of. A man with short gray hair stood in front of the largest metal table, his eyes fixed on all of the information shown on the smaller screens. 

His gray hair was lighter than the usual gray hue, a byproduct of his past. 

Amelia approached him after giving a few of the workers that noticed her a lazy wave, her hands went back inside of her jacket's pockets. He turned his head after hearing her footsteps, his light gray eyes did not hold much emotion in them, though they were still much more alive than hers. 

"You seemed amused, Amelia." Marcus simply stated then his eyes went back to studying the screens. 

She let out a dramatic sigh, giving him a shrug as she stood right beside him, her eyes reading the information being displayed. "You can't blame me. You don't see things like this that often, right?"

"If things like that happened more often, the world would have been more chaotic than it already is." He quipped back in a cold voice.

Her eyes looked through all of the information that was being shown across the smaller screens in front of them, landing on the screen that had the man's basic information. 

"How bold, nicknaming himself Icarus huh?" She murmured after seeing the nickname listed below the man's real name. 

Marcus sighed once more before crossing his arms, "Do you think it's a metaphor or a prophecy?" 

"Could be both." She replied with a slight tilt of her head. 

His finger glided across the screen, sending all of the information to his phone and laptop before resetting all of the smaller screens back to their default state. He exchanged a glance with her, his head nodding towards one of the private meeting rooms within the department. She started walking first, taking some steps ahead of him before he followed her along, walking right into the vacant private meeting area. The stainless steel metal door's lock clicked audibly after he pulled it close, his eyes landing back at her. 

The room only had a wooden table with a few chairs and a moveable whiteboard. All of the meeting rooms in Arknis was soundproof, though not that well soundproofed that nobody could hear anything when standing outside of the room. Then again it did not really matter if it was completely soundproof, if someone did need help, Alisha would have sent a message to everyone close to where they were. 

She plopped herself down on one of the chairs, her body leaning back on it while she placed her hands together. The faint amused smile remained on her lips, her head slightly cocked to the left as she stared right back at him. Silence lingered between them, but she did not pressure him to start speaking, instead she simply waited for him to start. She understood that he needed some time to collect and carefully organize all of the information he had up until now, his mind was likely in a slight overload from having to think so much in such little time. 

 He exhaled slowly, his shoulders slumping a little and walked towards her. He grabbed the chair right next to her, pulling it away before seating himself on it. 

"You have to understand something." He held the rest of his words in his mouth, his gaze felt much more stern and serious. He placed his right arm on the table, his entire body slanted along with it. "This is much bigger than just a few organizations or cults wanting to do something stupid." 

 "If this works," his fingers tapped on the table, his body leaning ahead, "then we have a much bigger fish in our hands." 

She chuckled dryly but a faint amusement was still clear in them, "I know, I know. Why wouldn't I know that? Do you think I'm that oblivious?" 

She rolled her eyes before adding, "I can't believe you think that I'm so stupid." 

"Very amusing, Amelia." His sarcastic tone gained a slight edge to his voice. 

His mouth parted to speak again, giving her a little quip, though she cut him off before he could let out more than just a soft breath, "A man-made God is a feat in itself. There is a reason why nobody managed to do it even with Arknis' at least a few quadrillion years of existence."

"I understand your concerns, Marcus." Amelia's hands rests on her thighs, a few strands of her black bangs stray close to her eyes. While she still had a ghost of a smile on her lips, her gaze no longer held any amusement in them. "But you don't understand how Gods and Goddesses work like I do." 

He narrowed his eyes as he asked, "So you're trying to say that my concerns are nonsensical."

"No no no…" She shook her head, taking in a deep breath before letting it out. "You're misunderstanding my words."

She crossed her arms as she continued on speaking, "Do you know why Gods and Goddesses exist?" 

 His eyes narrowed more, "Entities that are seen as representing the natures of the world and fear of all living beings, right?" 

"That's one way to look at it." 

 She moved herself closer to the table, her body partially leaning on it as she placed her left arm on the table. "A man-made God would be closer to what we define as Personification. After all, a Personification is the most pure form of all living beings' desire. Whether that will be something primal and innate like death, or an idea that occurred due to the development of intelligence and civilization like corruption." 

"But of course, most people won't know that so calling them Gods is the most logical answer to their limited knowledge." 

Her head tilted much more to the left now as she asked, "Do you understand what I am trying to say, Marcus?" 

Marcus let out a soft groan, "That what Icarus is doing is something that was going to happen eventually." 

She snapped her fingers before pointing at him, "Bingo~!" The way her voice drawled made him groan once more. 

"So you're still trying to say—"

She raised her hand up at him before she cut him off, "Yes, you're right. But that doesn't mean Icarus is any less of a threat."

"Even if he did successfully make a God, there are still a lot of uncertainties with the God itself. So it is still a necessity to get this operation settled as fast as possible." 

He could not deny her words, acknowledging the truth behind them. Even if he could feel his heartbeat starting to pick up from the frustration growing in his veins, the most he had shown on his face was just furrowed eyebrows and slightly narrowed eyes. She seemed to get some entertainment out of his reaction, judging by the way her lips curled up into a smirk as she leaned back on her chair, her fingers intertwined while resting on her lap. 

"So then, tell me all you know before I set off on the hunt."