Anomaly

Chapter 368 – Worship of the true gods [14]

Standing in front of the church, I let my gaze slowly wander over the structure. The stone walls, slightly worn, bore subtle marks from years of rain and sun. The front door stood open, and through it escaped a constant murmur of low voices mixed with the distant echo of footsteps on the wooden floor.

Through the entrance, it was possible to see part of the interior, illuminated by beams of light coming from the lamps hanging from the ceiling.

The place, in fact, seemed relatively crowded. Benches were occupied, people stood near the walls, some bowing their heads in silence while others spoke in respectful whispers. Even so, more people kept arriving, appearing from the surrounding streets as if they were coming from every direction in the city.

Everything indicated that this was a rather famous church, or at the very least, a highly respected one. That said, my interest wasn’t necessarily in the church itself, nor in the architecture, nor in the people gathered there in search of faith or comfort. The real reason I was there was the priest who led it.

Somehow, he knew about me and my sisters. Not only our existence, but also details about our roles, knowledge that no human should possess. In fact, to be completely honest, not even the members of the organization that study us daily had a full understanding of our true capabilities or the exact purpose we served.

I still haven’t researched the priest enough to discover where he got information about me and my sisters. Technically, that wouldn’t be a very difficult feat. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but both I and my sisters are among the most popular anomalies of the present day.

As far as I know, there are even a few online fan clubs dedicated to us, along with Wikipedia pages and countless forums discussing every small detail of our existence. In short, obtaining some kind of information about us isn’t exactly difficult.

The real issue is something else: somehow, this priest seems to have obtained more specific... more privileged information about me and my sisters, details that don’t usually circulate freely on the internet.

My left eye twitched slightly at the thought, an involuntary reflex of discomfort that I couldn’t stop. And I should make one thing very clear: until a few hours ago, I had never seen this strange priest before.

Lost in thought, it took me a few seconds to realize that the movement around us had increased. The murmurs of people arriving and passing through the church doors slowly piled up, mixing low conversations, hurried footsteps, and the occasional creak of wood. The sound gradually grew, becoming a constant buzz in the back of my ears.

That was when Laura’s voice echoed beside me: “So...” she let the sentence hang in the air for a moment. Her eyes calmly scanned the surroundings, watching the people who passed by us and disappeared into the church: “Are we going in like everyone else...” she continued, slightly raising an eyebrow: “or are we just going to stand here on the sidewalk like a bunch of weirdos?”

Laura’s words snapped me out of my daze. My naturally golden eyes blinked a few times as the indistinct buzz around me began to take shape, voices, footsteps, and the steady murmur of people passing back and forth.

I looked around. As Laura had pointed out, we were definitely attracting attention. And honestly, I couldn’t blame people for staring at us with that curious, sometimes even suspicious look. A group made up of children who appeared to be between ten and sixteen years old, accompanied by only two women, wasn’t exactly a common sight.

Some passersby slowed their pace as they walked past us. Others cast quick glances over their shoulders, whispering something to whoever was walking beside them. To be honest, at that moment we stood out in the middle of the crowd like sore thumbs, completely out of place.

Emily, who hadn’t let go of Tenebrya’s hand even once, spoke up as well. After casting a brief glance around and noticing that some curious onlookers were already starting to observe us more closely, she sighed quietly and said: “Laura’s right. We should head inside”

Her tone was calm, but there was a faint trace of urgency hidden in her words. Then she looked at me and my sisters one last time. Her eyes moved carefully across each of us, as if checking whether we were actually paying attention: “That said... you all” she began, narrowing her eyes slightly. She raised a finger like someone about to list very important rules.

“No flying. No stopping time. No altering the current order of things or controlling people” She paused briefly, as if remembering something particularly troublesome: “And absolutely no talking about death, life... or going around calling strangers “dear” or “darling” or anything like that”

Her expression grew a little more serious, though there was still a hint of exasperation: “We’re not here to make people call the police because we look like some bizarre and suspicious group wandering around” She tilted her head slightly: “So please... try to act like normal people. Just for a few hours”

Emily’s gaze after her words was firm and challenging. For a brief moment, I looked away to the side, toward where my sisters were standing in a sort of improvised line. As soon as my gaze landed on them, I realized they had noticed. Almost at the same time, they all turned in my direction, their movements synchronized enough to look rehearsed.

I remained silent while watching them. For a moment, their eyes blinked slowly, and a faint expression of confusion crossed their faces. The silence lasted only a second. Then, as if reaching a silent conclusion, they simply shrugged.

With a completely indifferent tone, they answered in unison: “No problem!”

Naturally, we ended up drawing attention. My sisters had spoken at the same time, and rather loudly, their voices overlapping in the air for a brief moment. A few people even looked in our direction, but quickly went back to whatever they were doing, almost immediately ignoring us.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Emily’s eye twitch slightly, a small spasm that betrayed the irritation she was trying to keep inside. A moment later, she let out a long, resigned sigh, like someone who had already expected this.

Finally, she turned around without saying a word and started walking toward the church entrance. As she walked, Emily muttered under her breath, almost to herself: “I just hope I’m not buried under a mountain of paperwork tomorrow”

With that said, we finally stepped inside the church. My first thought was surprise: it was much bigger than it looked from the outside. Of course, that doesn’t mean it seemed small from the outside. As I mentioned before, the building itself was quite extensive, with tall walls and an imposing structure.

Even so, for some reason I never truly felt the full scale of its grandeur when I looked at it from outside. Maybe it was the simple design of the facade, or the way the building blended quietly with the surrounding structures.

But inside, the feeling was completely different. The space opened up widely, with a high ceiling supported by thick stone columns that lined the length of the hall. Soft light filtered through the stained-glass windows, spreading across the interior and painting the floor and pews with subtle patches of red, blue, and gold.

The interior was fairly crowded. Dozens of people occupied almost all the wooden pews arranged in neat rows. Quiet murmurs and the occasional sound of footsteps echoed through the hall, creating a calm and reverent atmosphere. Still, curiously enough, it wasn’t hard to find an open seat. Although most of the benches were already taken, here and there small empty spaces remained.

In the end, we chose the pews at the back of the church, where there was less movement and the view of the altar was still clear. Emily sat at the end of the pew, right on the edge closest to the central aisle, the one that ran straight toward the altar, where the priest was conducting the ceremony.

Laura sat down right beside her, smoothing out her skirt before settling in. Tenebrya stayed between the two of them. I imagine that was a deliberate decision on Emily’s part. She probably worries that Tenebrya might do something... strange... in the middle of so many people. Honestly, I can’t really blame her for that.

As for me, I ended up sitting next to Laura. To my right were my sisters: Althea and Eryanis settled onto the same pew as me, taking the seats further down.

Meanwhile, Nekra, Chronas, and Nyara chose the seats right in front of us, in the pew immediately ahead, so their heads lined up almost perfectly with my line of sight whenever I looked forward.

In the end, we were all relatively close, spread across two pews like a small group trying to quietly blend into the crowd filling the church.

As the remaining seats were gradually taken, the low murmur of conversations began to fill the air. Sitting at the end of the pew, Emily turned toward me. Her eyes moved slowly, shifting between me and my sisters, as if making sure we were all paying attention.

She rested one elbow on the pew and spoke in a low but firm tone: “Remember, we’re not here to cause trouble” Her eyes narrowed slightly as she reinforced the warning: “We’re going to investigate first. If possible, we’ll arrange a meeting somewhere without so many curious eyes watching us...” She paused briefly before continuing: “... and figure out what exactly has been making the [Angel of Death] so stressed”

I thought about protesting. The words even formed at the tip of my tongue, ready to come out, but they died before becoming sound. Deep down, I knew Emily was right.

I only let out a quiet snort, almost inaudible, more to myself than to anyone else. I sank a little deeper into the seat, shifting my body in a futile attempt to find some comfortable position.

The rigid backrest pressed against my spine as I crossed my arms, staring ahead with an expression that mixed resignation and irritation. Now all that was left was to wait for the “show” to begin. Naturally, I wasn’t comfortable at all with what was about to happen.