Anomaly

Chapter 387 – Worship of the true gods [33]

It’s not like I ever ignored humanity’s inevitable fate. The truth is, I’ve always known: they’re fragile. Their lives, so brief, amount to little more than the blink of an eye to someone like me. In a single distracted moment, every human I’ve ever known could vanish, and that idea has never felt foreign to me. On the contrary, it was a reality I had long since come to terms with.

Even so, my mind had only prepared for a natural end, gradual, gentle in its inevitability. Despite the dangers surrounding Emily and Laura’s work, I allowed myself to believe that as long as I was there, nothing truly irreversible would happen to them.

It was a stubborn kind of confidence, held together more by will than by logic. Maybe that’s why, somewhere deep inside, I refused to even consider the possibility of losing them any other way. Not like this. Not abruptly, violently... not by something that strayed from the natural course of things.

But as this scene unfolded before my eyes, I just... didn’t know how to react. The blood, still warm, slowly flowed from the exact spot where Emily and Laura had stood just seconds ago, snaking across the ground until it reached my feet.

It felt warm. Heavy. As if it carried the last trace of their presence. I stood there, frozen, staring at the red liquid spreading in silence... and for a moment that seemed to stretch beyond time, my mind simply refused to function.

Should I be angry? The question surfaced, but found no answer. Still, it wouldn’t be accurate to say I felt nothing. No... it was something else. Something far stranger. It was as if, deep inside, something was boiling, a growing, violent pressure on the verge of breaking through every limit, while on the outside, my body remained completely still, empty, indifferent. No trembling. No reaction.

If I had to describe it, I’d say it was like a raging storm in the middle of the ocean, with colossal waves crashing into one another... yet from a distance, the surface remained smooth and glasslike. A deceptive invitation to calm, hiding a deep, dark, unpredictable abyss beneath. And in that moment, that was exactly what I was: calm on the outside... and completely on the verge of collapse within.

This reality, the one where Emily and Laura are dead, was unfamiliar to me... no, that wasn’t right. I simply didn’t recognize it. More than that, I refused to recognize it. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Emily and Laura dead? Impossible. It’s not fate, nor any unseen force that dared to lead them to death, that determines how things unfold. No. It never was.

I am the one who decides how events play out, how each piece moves, how every story continues. And yet, my thoughts fractured, chaotic, disjointed, colliding like echoes out of sync.

Then I felt it: a sudden tightening in my stomach. A deep, dense burning... brutal. Strangely, there was no pain, no real discomfort, just the undeniable presence of that sensation, embedded in the core of my being, as if something inside had awakened... or begun to fall apart.

The sensation grew stronger, not just more intense, but hotter, as if something within me was trying to react, to awaken, to resist. Even so, my mind, caught in a chaotic storm of thoughts, couldn’t hold onto that awareness for long.

Then everything around me wavered. It was like looking at reality through a liquid surface, distorted, unstable, as if the world were nothing more than a mirage on the verge of dissolving. Shapes faltered, outlines lost their definition, and for a brief instant, nothing seemed truly solid. Then, in the next moment, I felt a push.

Subtle... almost delicate, yet undeniable. A pull that ran through my body like an invisible shiver, something that shouldn’t have been there, and yet was. And then... time returned. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. My eyes caught everything in unnatural slow motion, as if every fraction of a second had been stretched to its limit. And then I saw them. Emily and Laura. Alive.

Just a few steps ahead of me, close to my sisters, as if nothing had happened. As if the impossible had been undone. Their faces carried the same disbelief that gripped me, confused, lost expressions, like people who had just woken from a dream without knowing where they were.

My sisters, on the other hand... showed no surprise. No shock. No relief. Just... understanding. It was a strangely difficult feeling to name, as if they already knew. As if this had been expected. Among them, Tenebrya was the most transparent.

Even so, I didn’t have time to gather a single thought. The relief that flooded me at the sight of Emily and Laura alive and well had barely settled in my chest when, suddenly, I was violently thrown. It was brutal, aggressive, an invisible, crushing force that struck me without warning, like a direct blow from some colossal creature.

My reaction came too late, slow, detached, as if my body were still trapped in that fraction of a second of relief. I felt my back slam into something solid, stone, maybe, but the impact barely lasted. The surface gave way with a sharp crack, too fragile to withstand the force, and in the next instant, I was hurled again, out of control, in a random direction.

My vision spun chaotically, the world distorting into streaks of light and shadow, but even so, I managed to maintain a minimal sense of direction thanks to my true eyes. Through them, I saw the wall behind me simply disintegrate, exploding into a dense cloud of dust and debris, splinters of wood and chunks of stone thrown violently in every direction.

I tore through that smoke like a projectile, the air ripping against my body before I was hurled out toward the alley behind the church. The smell of dust and splintered wood filled my senses for a brief moment, then came another impact.

My back slammed into a tree. For an instant, there was resistance, a brief, almost insignificant protest from the wood, but it wasn’t enough. The trunk cracked loudly, splitting from the inside out before being completely ripped from the ground. I was dragged along with it, branches snapping, leaves scattering through the air as we were both thrown forward like nothing more than dead weight against that absurd force.

My body hit the asphalt with a dry, violent impact before bouncing like an out-of-control projectile, continuing to be flung down the street. Inside, my world kept spinning relentlessly, like a silent whirlpool that refused to let me orient myself.

And yet, my vision remained steady, not from within, but from the outside, through my true eyes, which captured everything around me with perfect clarity. The contrast was unsettling: internal chaos, absolute lucidity on the outside.

My body drifted through the air without any resistance from the wind. There was no expected impact, no natural drag, just a smooth, unnatural motion. I couldn’t tell whether that was an advantage of having a gelatinous body... or just another peculiar kind of bad luck.

Despite the absurd situation, I felt no pain. There were no bones to break, no muscles to tear. It was as if my body simply ignored the basic concept of fragility. Still, small parts of me deformed here and there, rippling slightly with the motion, a dense, resilient mass, yet still pliable... something between firm rubber and thick pudding.

Then, for a brief moment, I noticed something behind me. My true eyes caught it approaching: a vehicle, completely still, parked along the street. And I... kept moving forward. The collision wasn’t just likely. It was inevitable.

I felt the impact ripple across my surface the instant I slammed into the parked car, metal groaning loudly, and without any pause, I was shoved along with it, as if we had become a single uncontrollable mass.

We slid straight toward a women’s clothing store, lit by bright white lights and pristine display windows, where a few people were still shopping, completely unaware of the chaos rushing toward them.

The glass shattered on impact, exploding into thousands of shimmering fragments that sliced through the air like a storm of blades. I burst through the window almost alongside the car, feeling the shards trying to pierce and tear through my surface as we were swallowed by the interior of the store.

Clothing racks toppled over. Mannequins were thrown to the ground like hollow bodies. The scent of new fabric mixed with dust and metal. My body only found real resistance when I slammed into the back wall, the impact rippling across my form like the surface of a still lake disturbed.

I barely had time to process the screams around me, sharp human voices, gripped by panic, before I heard the roar ahead. The car that had followed me was tearing through the store out of control, heading straight toward me... and worse, toward the people scattered around me, frozen between shock and terror.

I didn’t have time to think before reacting. I mean... unless I did something right then, the women around me, including a few small children who barely reached my knee, were going to be crushed by the runaway car.

Still crouched, muscles tense, I planted my hands against the floor. The surface was rough and warm beneath my fingers... and that’s when they came. Arms. Dark. Twisted. Shadowy, like shadows taking shape.

They surged up from the ground as if the world itself obeyed my will, moving with unnatural speed and wrapping around the car in an instant. The impact was stopped with a sharp jolt, metal screeching, tires squealing, and, to the complete shock of the people around us, the vehicle lost its momentum and tipped onto its side with a dull crack.

For a second, time seemed to freeze. Silence. Then the sounds came, held breaths being released, footsteps retreating, someone dropping their phone onto the floor. Only then did I manage to stand, slowly, feeling the weight of the situation finally catch up to me. My mind, which had been focused purely on acting, was now starting to process what had just happened.

Actually... even though it wasn’t exactly the most important thing right now... The store was surrounded. People everywhere. Wide eyes. And, of course, phones raised, pointed straight at me. Small blinking lights, recordings in progress, eager fingers capturing every detail. I let out a short, humorless sigh. Well. Looks like the cover Emily and Laura were so worried about... just went completely out the window.