Anomaly

Chapter 376 – Worship of the true gods [22]

Amid the suffocating silence that had suddenly taken over the room, I was, at first glance, the only one who seemed to maintain an indifferent expression. Inside, however, the reality was very different, a growing frustration simmered beneath the surface, held back only through sheer effort. Emily and Laura, on the other hand, didn’t bother to hide it at all.

Their emotions were clearly written across their faces, like open books. Laura looked visibly lost, her gaze drifting lightly from side to side, shifting between me and Althea. Althea, in turn, wore a mischievous smile, the kind that practically said, “Ah! So I’ve been found out after all!” as if she were enjoying the situation.

Emily was different. Very different. Her expression carried a much rawer, more obvious frustration than mine. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, and the tension in her shoulders made it clear just how much the situation bothered her. That said, while the atmosphere remained heavy and charged, my mind was racing, desperately trying to figure out the best course of action from this point forward.

However, faced with the priest’s sudden reaction, my thoughts scattered in an instant, like mist torn apart by a sudden gust of wind: “Oh!” he grunted, the sound strange, almost animalistic, as if it vibrated through the air and drew every gaze toward him.

When I turned my attention to him, I was struck by the complexity of his expression. His eyes were wide, damp, reflecting a chaotic mix of disbelief, doubt, and something deeper, feverish devotion.

There was undeniable love in his gaze... but also something that unsettled me. Deep down, hidden beneath layers of reverence, there was envy. A raw, endless envy, disturbingly intertwined with that intense devotion, as if both emotions were competing within him, feeding off one another.

“Ohhhhh!” The sound escaped his throat again, longer this time, heavier. Before anyone could react, he rose abruptly, only to drop to his knees moments later, directly in front of Althea.

The impact echoed dully against the floor. His forehead struck the ground in absolute reverence, almost violently, while his entire body trembled uncontrollably, not like someone overwhelmed with emotion, but like someone on the verge of collapse, or seized by something beyond himself.

His fingers curled tightly against the floor, nails scraping faintly against the surface, his breathing uneven and broken. Althea, however, showed no surprise. Her gaze rested on him with distant calm, almost analytical.

There was a faint glimmer of curiosity in her eyes, not empathy, nor discomfort, just the cold interest of someone observing something unexpected, something potentially useful... as if she had just found a new distraction worthy of her time.

At that sight, I limited myself to a quiet, controlled breath: (This is going to get complicated because of this) I forced my mind to keep working, searching for some way to navigate the situation, but thinking clearly wasn’t easy.

The priest... he seemed completely convinced that Althea was one of his goddesses. There was no hesitation, no doubt, not even a trace of questioning in his expression. His forehead pressed against the cold floor, shoulders tense in absolute reverence, a scene bordering on pure fanaticism.

It was the full package of absurdity. Not that I hadn’t already considered him strange before, but now... now he had crossed every reasonable line. It was as if he had reached a whole new level of eccentricity, one I honestly had no idea how to deal with.

In the end, the conclusion was inevitable: there was no simple lie that could undo the current situation. Not after everything he had already seen. Not after kneeling like that, fully surrendered, fully convinced. To him, this wasn’t a possibility... it was absolute certainty.

Althea, on the other hand, seemed to savor every second of the flattery: “My goodness...” she placed a hand over her chest in a theatrical gesture, her fingers lightly brushing against the fabric of her clothes: “I feel a bit strange having one of my dear children treat me like this”

There was a brief pause, short enough to feel deliberate. Then a slow smile spread across her lips, not quite shy, but far from innocent: “But still... this feeling...” her eyes gleamed with a soft, indulgent warmth: “it’s not bad at all. In fact... it feels rather nice”

Whether or not that was the beginning of a corruption unfolding in real time, and whether something like “corruption” could even apply to Althea, I chose not to dwell too deeply on it. My little sisters, however, reacted far less subtly.

Some of them simply didn’t seem to care. Others watched the priest with suspicious looks, a few even wrinkling their noses slightly, as if faced with something... deeply strange. And then there was the minority.

Naturally, I’m talking about Eryanis. She stood with her arms crossed, chin slightly raised, an air of pure conviction stamped across her face, as if everything happening wasn’t just expected, but exactly how it should be. As if, for a rare moment, the world was operating according to her personal logic.

As for me... well, I don’t have much to say about it. I know I’m biased. Deep down, I’m fully aware that I would forgive them even for the worst atrocities. Not out of naivety, but because I know what lies beneath it all, their essence, intact, almost untouchable. The innocence that still resides within them.

That said, Tenebrya seemed visibly out of place in the face of how abruptly events had escalated. Her eyes, attentive yet still pure, followed every movement with a quiet confusion. And honestly, I can’t blame her for that. She’s only a few billion years old... still far too young to grasp the full extent of the madness unfolding right now. But maybe “confused” isn’t the most accurate word.

I can see it in the way her focus locked onto the priest, specifically the moment he dropped to his knees. It wasn’t subtle, much less natural, and Tenebrya felt it. I can almost touch her doubts, like a faint whisper at the edge of my mind: why? What made him bow like that? What did he see... or feel?

She wants to understand. She’s curious. And that worries me more than it should. Because deep down, I don’t want her to know. I don’t want her to understand. I’d rather she stayed like this. Innocent. If Tenebrya is white on the inside, radiant in her purity... then we, her sisters, are the opposite. We carry something broken, something corrupted from the root, something that rotted in silence until it reached the core.

Even so, my thoughts barely had time to take shape before they dissolved within seconds, cut short by the priest continuing his bizarre display. His voice came laced with a sick devotion, choked with a burning passion that bordered on fanaticism. If I had to compare it, he looked like an apostle kneeling before his own god, consumed by ecstasy.

His eyes gleamed in an unsettling way, damp, as though the mere sight before him was enough to bring him to tears: “Ohhhh! My beautiful lady! My divine lady!” he exclaimed, his voice trembling, reverent, each word dripping with exaggerated intensity: “Your presence is so grand it makes me unworthy... your beauty, so unique, so absolute... it borders on sin! I waited... I waited for so long...” He pressed a hand to his chest, as if trying to contain his own heart: “I spoke of you, I believed, I defended your coming even when they doubted me... all of it believing that one day... one day, you would come to me!” His words didn’t sound like devotion. They were obsession.

For some reason, the way he fawned over Althea, with that almost servile air, as if he’d gladly kneel and kiss the ground she walked on, sent a faint chill down my spine. On the other hand, Althea seemed completely delighted.

Her eyes sparkled, and she absorbed every compliment like rare jewels, showing not the slightest discomfort at the blatant adoration. Well... my little sister has always had something odd about her. I suspected as much before, but this... this was on an entirely new level. A kind of eccentricity she clearly had no problem putting on display.

“Umm...” Laura murmured, her voice low and hesitant, as though each word had to fight its way out amid a sequence of events that were, at best, unconvincing. Her fingers intertwined for a moment, a nearly unconscious gesture that betrayed her discomfort.

“I’m not really sure what’s going on here...” she continued, glancing away for a second before shifting her gaze between Althea and the priest, as if expecting one of them to offer a reasonable explanation.

“But I think we should first...” Her sentence faded before it could take shape. The priest’s next words came abruptly, snapping through the moment like a crack. The shock was immediate. Laura jumped back, eyes wide as she tried to process what was happening.

“How dare you...!” His voice came out low, tightly restrained, as if each word was being forced through clenched teeth. Even so, the anger was unmistakable.

“How dare you, mere humans, beings so flawed, so insignificant, place yourselves on equal ground?” His tone rose, heavy with contempt and disbelief. His eyes burned, fixed, almost feverish: “You are committing a sin. Kneel”

I’m not sure what happened next. All I know is that the chaos around us reacted. He didn’t just move, he twisted, like a living entity awakening from a deep slumber. The air grew heavier, and an invisible pressure began to build, making my skin prickle and my instincts scream in warning.

Nyara noticed it too. Her “Children” were different. Restless. More than that... unsettled in an unusual way. They moved with a frantic, pulsing energy, as if something unseen was stirring them. Then Laura and Emily simply collapsed to the ground.

Their bodies gave out abruptly, as if all their strength had been stripped away in a single instant, and in the next motion, their foreheads touched the cold floor in reverence to Althea. The dull sound of impact echoed softly through the space, making the scene even more surreal.

I was completely caught off guard. For a few seconds, all I could do was stare, frozen, trying to process what had just happened. My mind felt sluggish, unable to keep up with the speed of events. What exactly had that priest done? And more than that... why react so extremely just because Emily and Laura were standing beside Althea?

I felt a faint hint, almost like a subtle premonition, and my eyes flickered for a brief moment. Right after, an exasperated sigh slipped from my lips, the kind you don’t realize you’ve been holding until it finally escapes.

(For some reason, I feel like this situation is getting stranger... and more complicated by the second. Honestly, all of this is turning into a massive headache.) I thought, running a hand over my face in a futile attempt to shake off the growing discomfort.