Anomaly

Chapter 409 – Worship of the true gods [55]

Even with Rupert and Victor being pessimistic about it, I didn’t really have many options. Honestly, if there had been any remotely viable alternative, I probably would’ve tried it already before several parts of my body started getting casually erased while I was attempting to cross that stupid force field.

The main issue was that, during the brief moments I made contact with the barrier, I could actually feel the concepts behind it. It was something strange, almost impossible to describe with normal words. For a fraction of a second, my perception seemed to brush against something far greater, like I could almost understand the absurd logic holding everything together.

But before I could make sense of anything useful, the concepts would react. And apparently, their default response was deciding it would be absolutely hilarious to randomly delete parts of my body. First, my arm vanished. Then my leg. Then a considerable chunk of my torso.

And to top it all off, half my head. Honestly, after going through that multiple times, I wasn’t entirely sure my mind was still functioning the way it was supposed to. Not that it really mattered right now. My sanity had very clearly been beaten up, run over, and thrown off a cliff a long time ago.

I let out a tired sigh, or at least the closest equivalent an existence like mine could still manage. Seriously... this was starting to feel personal. Actually, that raised a genuinely important question: do anomalies even have something resembling sanity?

“Lady Anomaly... are you sure about this? It seems... dangerous” Lost in my own thoughts, it took me a few seconds to finally snap back to reality. I only became aware of the world around me again when I felt Laura lightly touch my shoulder. My eyes blinked a few times, clearing away the lingering haze still clouding my thoughts until my focus finally settled on her. Laura looked genuinely worried.

For better or worse, she had this weird habit of worrying about me way more than necessary, as if I were just some teenager sneaking out at night with questionable friends instead of someone about to make a potentially disastrous decision. I let out a short sigh. That said... what other choice did I actually have?

It wasn’t like I could just turn around and pretend none of this was happening. Even if we managed to save the people in the city, that alone wouldn’t solve the problem. The entire city would still be doomed, turned into a dead, completely uninhabitable zone as long as the sphere remained active.

The streets, the buildings, the entire infrastructure, everything would be reduced to something useless, one giant monument to failure. And on top of that, there was an even worse detail. We didn’t even know for certain whether the sphere’s expansion would stop at the city limits. If it spread beyond the city, then this would stop being a local disaster and become something much bigger.

“What other choice do I have?” I asked in a calm, unconcerned tone. And honestly, that wasn’t exactly a lie.

Saying I was anxiously biting my nails over the city would be a ridiculous exaggeration. I’m not that altruistic. In reality, as long as most humans can get out of the city safely, my concern would basically disappear on the spot. The city itself? Buildings can be rebuilt. Roads can be repaved. Concrete doesn’t exactly inspire deep emotional attachment in me.

Still... saving the city would probably make humans start looking at me, and my sisters, a little differently. And let’s be honest, that would be a welcome change. I took a quick look online earlier and, as expected, the criticism was pretty... heated, to put it mildly. Social media looked like a full-blown digital war zone.

More than half the comments were blaming me as the primary cause of this entire catastrophe, as if I’d woken up in the morning and decided to start an apocalypse purely for entertainment. The most irritating part was that it didn’t even make sense. Technically speaking, the priest was relatively visible inside the gigantic apocalyptic pillar.

News helicopters kept circling the structure nonstop, broadcasting live footage from every possible angle. The colossal beam of energy tore through the sky like an open wound, painting the clouds in shades of crimson while casting eerie reflections over the ruined buildings below.

And yet somehow, through some truly impressive feat of collective stupidity, the internet had decided this was mostly my fault. Humanity’s shared logic remains one of this world’s greatest mysteries.

Anyway, setting all that nonsense aside, Emily, who had remained silent until now, wearing a distant expression and clearly lost in her own thoughts, was the next to speak: “By revelation... are you referring to the vision I had during the recent case involving one of the sisters of the [Angel of Death]?” Emily asked, slightly raising her gaze toward Tenebrya.

Her voice carried a note of uncertainty, almost like she was trying to confirm something she already suspected but would rather hear directly from the people involved. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Althea, on the other hand, clearly understood the context.

Instead of answering, she simply showed a mischievous smile at the corner of her lips, as if Emily’s words had triggered some private amusement. Nothing unusual there. Althea rarely took anything seriously, regardless of how severe the situation was.

“Oh, please, darling...” Althea purred in a sweet, teasing tone, like she was speaking to a stubborn child about to hear an obvious lesson. One glance at Emily was enough to notice the reaction. One of her eyes twitched slightly at the nickname, a tiny spasm of irritation she clearly tried to hide.

Even so, she remained silent. Her arms crossed over her chest, her posture stiff and closed off, making it obvious that even though she didn’t like this, she intended to hear it through to the end. Althea seemed even more entertained by her restrained response.

“What you “saw” back then can barely be called a vision” Althea’s voice carried a lazy calmness, but there was something heavy hidden beneath every word: “It would be like gazing upon the surface of an endless ocean and believing you understand it, while having no concept whatsoever of what rests within its oldest, darkest depths”

As she spoke, Althea slowly spun in place midair, like someone searching for a more comfortable position in an invisible chair. Her body visibly relaxed, and her feathered wings flapped once, sending a faint disturbance through the air as she adjusted her posture.

“I felt your gaze trying to pierce through my surface...” she continued, a faint smile curling at her lips: “So I had to filter what you would see inside me, reducing everything to something absurdly superficial. Something your human mind could at least barely process”

She tilted her head slightly, and for a brief moment, her gaze took on an unsettling intensity, almost predatory: “Otherwise...” her voice softened even further, somehow making the implied threat even worse: “You would’ve simply burned up that very instant, consumed before you could even glimpse a single fragment of my true form”

The room fell into complete silence after Althea’s words. Naturally, that included me. They wanted me to do something similar to what Emily had done, except in my case, I’d be inside the body of something I could barely even perceive properly. That idea alone already sounded ridiculously problematic. No matter how I looked at the situation, everything about it felt... dangerously stupid.

My brows furrowed as I crossed my arms, trying to organize the chaos in my head: “So what exactly is supposed to happen to me if I do this?” I asked, staring at Althea with obvious suspicion: “Based on everything you just explained, the moment I reveal myself, wouldn’t I just get incinerated instantly? I don’t think my regeneration would be fast enough to keep up with something like that...”

I let out a heavy sigh, dragging a hand across my face before continuing: “Honestly, this sounds like the equivalent of telling me to jump out of a plane and only casually mentioning halfway down that the parachute might be defective”

For a brief moment, no one answered. Then, as expected, she responded with her trademark mischievous smile, lazily waving one hand as though my concerns were little more than baseless paranoia: “Don’t worry, dear sister, you’ll be fine...”

Althea cut herself off mid-sentence. Her smile lost some of its usual malice as she tilted her head slightly, as if she had genuinely stopped to reconsider my survival odds for the first time. Her expression turned more contemplative: “... Probably?”

The atmosphere plunged into absolute silence after Althea’s words, everyone’s eyes snapping toward her almost simultaneously. There was one thing written clearly across every face: pure disbelief, as if no one was capable of processing what they had just heard.

For several seconds, no one moved or said a word, until Eryanis finally broke the stalemate with her usual lack of tact: “What exactly did this brainless idiot just mean...” she shot back, crossing her arms while throwing a sharp look at Althea.

The jab earned an irritated scoff from Althea, who raised her chin in obvious disdain before Eryanis continued: “It means there’s no way to predict this with precision. My sister still has a “human mind” trapped within at least somewhat understandable and predictable patterns. Once she discovers how to reveal herself, she’ll probably suffer an overwhelming shock...” Althea paused briefly, narrowing her eyes as if weighing her own words: “...but considering her current structure, there’s a decent chance she’ll survive”

I couldn’t exactly say that sounded reassuring. In fact, it was anything but. The words lingered in the air like a poorly phrased sentence, offering just enough hope to somehow make everything even more uncomfortable. Still, what other choice did I have? Unfortunately, I might not have been exactly what everyone needed to solve this situation. But ironically enough, I was also all they had.

It was a reckless gamble, maybe even an insane one, but I had already made my decision. No matter the consequences, I was at least going to try. Besides, deep down, there was another reason I was willing to accept this potentially suicidal mission.

It felt like the time had finally come for me to learn a little more about my true potential, to finally understand what I was really capable of. How far my limits extended... Or whether, to begin with, they even existed at all.