Anomaly

Chapter 381 – Worship of the true gods [27]

(POV – Dominic Virel)

Dominic had experienced a wide range of emotions throughout his life, or at least, that’s how it had always seemed. In truth, most of them were nothing more than carefully rehearsed responses, subtle masks crafted to conceal what he truly felt.

In a society rigidly structured by pre-established norms, where any deviation was met with suspicion, Dominic learned from an early age to play the role expected of him.

Smiles appeared at just the right moment, responses came in the proper tone. Everything about him fit seamlessly into the machinery of society. Yet beneath that flawless surface, there was an abyss, a buildup of desires, impulses, and thoughts that never found room to exist.

History had always made clear the fate of those who dared to break the rules. There was no shortage of examples: individuals who, upon challenging norms, were isolated, silenced, or simply erased from memory. These cases lingered in Dominic’s subconscious like constant warnings, almost like shadows trailing him in every decision he made.

So, he chose to survive in the only way that seemed possible: by adapting. Dominic began to act strictly within the acceptable boundaries of what was called “Society,” while deep inside, he buried everything that could have made him truly unique.

And over time, that repression ceased to be just a choice, it became a habit, then a necessity... until it was no longer possible to tell where the mask ended and where Dominic himself truly began.

That said, Dominic’s worldview was irreversibly shaken when an event occurred that would later become globally known as “The Mist” The name, simple as it was, failed to capture the magnitude of the phenomenon.

It all began quietly. A dense, gray layer emerged on the outskirts of the city, and within hours, it began expanding exponentially, swallowing streets, buildings, and landmarks as if erasing them from reality itself.

Curiously, the Mist never crossed the region’s boundaries. No neighboring state was affected, let alone other countries. Still, it remained perfectly visible from a distance, an opaque wall on the horizon, completely still.

As far as Dominic knew, the military was quickly mobilized, forming a strict perimeter around the affected areas. Armored vehicles, helicopters, and heavily armed troops surrounded the phenomenon, maintaining a cautious distance.

Right behind the containment lines, a crowd of reporters gathered, cameras rolling, voices tense, all chasing a breaking story, though none of them were prepared for what was coming. That was when “those things” were seen for the first time.

Beings that defied any human logic or definition began to emerge from the Mist. Some were so small and seemingly harmless they could easily be mistaken for toys left behind on the ground, strange, caricature-like creatures moving in erratic patterns.

Others, however, were the complete opposite: colossal entities whose mere presence distorted the perception of space around them, as if they didn’t belong anywhere known. At first glance, even the most experienced soldiers felt the crushing weight of the unknown, a raw, primitive sense of helplessness, as though logic, training, and courage all lost their meaning in the face of such beings.

The world had discovered anomalies... and it fell into despair. This wasn’t ordinary panic, it was something deeper, instinctive, as if reality itself could no longer be trusted. Dominic didn’t blame them. What were humans in the face of anomalies? Just clusters of fragile flesh, limited and insignificant, orbiting an abyss of mediocrity that now seemed even more evident.

Cities changed. Once-busy streets fell silent, abandoned storefronts gathered dust, and screens everywhere displayed ever-rising numbers, not of the dead, but of those who gave up. People abandoned families, dreams... some simply stopped. As if continuing no longer made sense. Dominic wasn’t much different.

From his perspective, it was as if hell had opened its gates, not a mythical hell, but something worse. Something experimental. As though some malevolent entity was testing limits, creating horrors without logic, without pattern, without any comprehensible purpose. Things that shouldn’t exist... yet did.

And then, as abruptly as the chaos had begun, the problem was... contained. Reports started to surface. At first, dismissed as collective delusion. Then came consistent sightings... and still, always the same detail. A figure. Small. Humanoid. No taller than a ten-year-old child.

The figure was always at the center of everything, like an invisible axis around which the world revolved, confronting horrors humans didn’t even dare to understand, aberrations before which all one could do was pray they would disappear. It was a true god: not just in strength, but in the overwhelming presence it exuded, in the almost unreal beauty of its form, and in its apparent benevolence toward humanity.

Its appearance was never fixed. It changed, evolved, as if it existed beyond the limits of matter and time, gradually transforming into something so sublime that Dominic found himself with no reaction other than love. It was a deep, overwhelming love, the kind that emerges without explanation, a devotion before an intense light. That light burned, shined, filled everything until it began to falter.

Almost imperceptibly, the glow became corrupted. What was once radiant turned dull. Warmth became discomfort. The light, once pure, grew dense and dark, like mud slowly spreading. And at the height of that transformation, someone appeared. A man.

There was nothing extraordinary about him at first glance. Yet it was this human who forever changed the way Dominic saw the world. With simple words and truths, he opened doors that should never have been touched. Dominic learned about everything, about the nature of things, about the secrets hidden between the lines of reality... and, most importantly, about the gods.

The more he learned, the deeper he delved into that forbidden knowledge, the more that dark, muddy feeling inside him grew. It was subtle at first. But it soon became something alive.

Something that spread through his mind like a shadow, seeping into his thoughts, poisoning his emotions. Dominic tried to hide it, suppress it, deny it, at any cost. But it was already too late. Because this... was already a part of him.

***

(POV – Protagonist)

Personally, I had imagined all kinds of reactions from the priest, many of them, to be honest, quite unpleasant. That said, his complete lack of reaction to all of this, reduced to simply staring at the ground with a blank, disbelieving expression, definitely wasn’t one of the possibilities I had considered.

For a moment, I used Althea as a reference, trying to predict how he might act in a similar situation. Still, nothing quite fit. Maybe the shock had been so overwhelming that his brain simply shut down, unable to process what was happening, a plausible explanation, at the very least. Either way, it wasn’t something that sparked enough interest in me to analyze any further.

Still caught up in my own thoughts, my attention was abruptly pulled back when the priest, still kneeling at my feet, let out a laugh. The sound was light, almost innocent, carrying a misplaced sense of joy, like that of a child finally receiving the toy they had been waiting for: “Ha!”

My immediate reaction was to look at him again. I kept my gaze fixed on him for a few moments, carefully studying his expression, which was so cheerful it felt grotesquely out of place given the situation.

“Aha! Hahaha... hehehe!” He laughed again, this time with more intensity. His hands slowly rose to his face, his fingers trembling slightly as they touched it, while his eyes took on a strange, feverish, delirious look, as if he were on the verge of some incomprehensible ecstasy.

“Uh...? Why is he suddenly laughing?” Laura asked, stepping back in short, cautious steps. Her brows furrowed, and her expression couldn’t hide, even for a moment, the deep disgust she felt as she looked at the priest.

His laughter, low and uneven, echoed in a disturbing way, as if something were wrong beyond simple insanity: “Did he... lose his mind or something?” she added, her voice tinged with hesitation.

Emily, who had remained beside Laura the entire time, finally spoke. Her voice came out more cautious than usual: “Normally I’d agree with you, Laura, but...” She took a few steps forward, almost without realizing it.

Her body shifted into a slightly defensive posture, shoulders tense and her arm subtly extended toward Laura, like an instinctive protective gesture, even though she didn’t seem aware of it herself: “He doesn’t seem insane to me...” she continued, frowning slightly: “At least, not completely”

From my perspective, that priest looked plenty insane to me. Still, I had no intention of arguing with the experts. I took a deep breath and cast a brief glance around.

My sisters were already in their natural forms, displaying them without the slightest hint of hesitation. None of them cared to hide what they were, and for a moment, that seemed... liberating. I followed the same path.

My “transformation” if it could even be called that, was almost disappointingly simple compared to theirs. There were no bursts of power, no grand changes. My clothes began to burn away silently, consumed not by ordinary flames, but by a soft, faintly incandescent blue glow.

The fabric didn’t turn to ash; instead, it dissolved little by little, as if undone by the light itself, shimmering particles breaking off and vanishing into the air before they could even touch the ground. Within moments, all that remained was me, stripped of artifice, wrapped only in that faint blue radiance.

The first thing to emerge were my wings, vast and imposing, similar to Althea’s, which extended from my tailbone as if desperately seeking the freedom they were owed.

Then my body revealed itself completely, wrapped in a pale translucence that resembled mist lit by moonlight. The light passed gently through my form. My eyes came next: a deep, hypnotic gold, with geometric irises slowly rotating like celestial gears in perfect sync.

Soon after, my goat-like horns emerged, curving elegantly along my head, bringing with them a primal, imposing presence. At the center of my forehead, the mark appeared. Finally, my hair fell softly across my face, whitish, translucent strands, light as silk in the wind, contrasted by a few darker locks weaving through them.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips before I could stop it. It was involuntary, instinctive. Still, there was something I realized in all of this. Hiding... didn’t suit me. It never had. Deep down, I would much rather wander freely, in plain sight, exactly as I am.

Of course, I wasn’t naive. I was fully aware that my mere presence could trigger widespread panic, screams, chaos. Though, to be honest, I wasn’t so sure about that anymore. In a way, that priest... he influenced people more than I expected. At least in this particular city.

Finally, when I turned my gaze back to him, I realized he had already been watching me for some time. His eyes were fixed on me intensely. A genuine emotion burned within them, raw, something beyond simple curiosity or devotion. Under the priest’s gaze, I felt a subtle discomfort spread through my body.

The way he looked at me... it wasn’t normal. It was euphoric. Feverish. Sickening. And buried deep within that disturbing expression, there was something even more unsettling, a dense, unmistakable envy, as if he desperately wanted to take for himself what he saw in me.