Anomaly

Chapter 415 – Worship of the true gods [61]

After finally managing to come face-to-face with the priest, I spent the rest of the time lost in thought. My mind was focused on a single issue now: how exactly I was supposed to fix this entire situation. Not that it was particularly difficult to solve, considering my current state.

In fact, that was precisely the problem. Ironically, it was the almost absurd feeling that I could do practically anything that kept me from making a concrete decision. When every possibility seems viable, choosing just one somehow becomes far more complicated.

My gaze wandered across the surroundings as I sorted through my thoughts, mentally analyzing what I could actually do. Anything too flashy was, at least for now, out of the question. A move like that would probably draw the attention of the humans I had left on top of the building, even if only partially.

I seriously doubted they could clearly see whatever was happening down here. The distance, the structure of the place, and all the surrounding interference were working in my favor. Still, that didn’t mean they were completely clueless.

Even without seeing the details, all it would take was noticing sudden environmental changes or sensing something abnormal for them to start piecing together a fairly clear idea that something unusual was going on. And right now, the last thing I needed was human curiosity mixed with collective panic.

Ever since anomalies became relatively common knowledge among humans, even if, technically, most people never come into direct contact with them, which means they barely interfere with everyday life, news has started spreading at an absurd speed.

The unknown has always held an almost unhealthy fascination over humanity, and when that unknown involves danger, chaos, and the possibility of death, the interest only seems to multiply.

As a matter of fact, a perfect example of just how insane humans can be was literally circling above the city skies at that exact moment, right over the dome. More specifically, a helicopter.

At first, I assumed the aircraft belonged to some kind of reconnaissance team sent by the military or a containment force, which would’ve made perfect sense considering everything happening right now.

But after watching for only a few seconds, I realized how wrong that assumption was. The helicopter didn’t belong to the military. It actually belonged to some TV news station.

That became painfully obvious the moment I noticed a woman holding a microphone, her hair being violently whipped around by the rotor winds as she spoke with an absurd amount of enthusiasm. Next to her, a man was carrying a massive shoulder camera, the lens pointed directly at my location as if getting footage of this was worth any possible risk.

Honestly, it was impressive. The world was sinking deeper and deeper into chaos fueled by anomalies, monsters, and impossible phenomena... and yet there were still people whose first instinct was to get close enough for a better shot.

Eryanis, maintaining her usual aristocratic demeanor and looking mildly curious, was the first to break the oddly comedic silence: “You humans really do have some fascinating ideas when it comes to putting yourselves in danger” Her tone was calm and refined, laced with a subtle kind of amused disbelief.

Then she turned toward the four humans present, studying each one as though trying to solve a particularly intriguing puzzle. Her posture remained flawless, elegant as ever, though there was genuine curiosity hidden behind her controlled expression.

“Based on everything I learned during the time I spent with all of you, only qualified humans from the organization would be reckless, or perhaps insane, enough to interfere with things they do not understand, while most others would flee at the first sign of danger” Eryanis paused briefly, as if genuinely reconsidering the logic behind her own words.

She tilted her head slightly, a few strands of hair shifting with the motion as an analytical glint crossed her eyes: “Or perhaps...” she murmured, narrowing her eyes in faint amusement: “...I am mistaken?”

Victor, Rupert, Emily, and Laura exchanged silent glances, as though searching one another for an answer none of them actually had. There was hesitation written all over their faces, lips parting and closing again, words dying before they could ever be spoken.

In the end, Rupert was the one who broke the silence, letting out a restrained sigh before answering Eryanis’s earlier question: “I’m not sure whether I should feel offended hearing that from an anomaly... or just sad that I can’t really argue with your point”

An amused smile appeared on Althea’s face, clearly entertained by Rupert’s dry humor. Victor, on the other hand, remained as expressionless as a statue. Not even the slightest twitch crossed his face. He simply sighed and tilted his neck back slightly, settling into his usual detached posture.

My little sisters, by contrast, seemed to be handling the entire situation far more casually. Nekra, especially, showed absolutely no discomfort at the possibility of being observed, though her attention was clearly divided by childlike curiosity toward the helicopter above us. Her eyes followed the machine’s movement with genuine interest, as though trying to understand its nature.

The same could be said for Tenebrya, who kept her eyes fixed on the aircraft with fascination she could barely hide. Unfortunately, the least pleasant detail of this entire situation was the fact that humans were recording my actions. Cameras pointed in our direction definitely made everything more complicated.

Displaying too much power would probably have the opposite effect of what I wanted. Instead of bringing them closer, it would only push them even farther away. After all, the less humans were able to understand me and my little sisters, the more terrifying we would seem in their eyes.

That alone wouldn’t actually be a significant problem, at least not for me or my sisters. None of us had ever truly cared about human opinions regarding us. Their judgments, fears, and theories had always been nothing more than background noise. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for Emily and Laura.

Without meaning to spread even more panic in a situation already bordering on absolute chaos, the fact remained that Emily and Laura had taken me, and my little sisters, out of the facility without prior warning, formal authorization, or even the bare minimum safety protocol.

In other words: two agents independently removed a group of potentially dangerous anomalies from a classified facility... and shortly afterward, an event with clear apocalyptic proportions began right in the middle of the city, with me conveniently standing at the epicenter.

Yeah, from an outside perspective, that looked unbelievably bad. And ultimately, that was the real issue. Emily and Laura’s superiors were definitely not happy with the situation.

At that exact moment, I could practically imagine all of them seated comfortably in their offices, surrounded by monitors, incomplete reports, and long-cold coffee cups, impatiently waiting for any update regarding the progress of the possible apocalypse triggered by the massive pillar of light.

Well, putting all the philosophical nonsense aside for now, the first step was obviously getting rid of the dome. The longer it kept tearing apart the city, the harder it would become to convince the suit-wearing idiots on the organization’s council that, without Emily and Laura, the situation could have escalated into something far worse.

And convincing bureaucrats in tailored suits with oversized egos was never easy. With that in mind, I slowly raised my head toward the sky, staring at the enormous expanding dome hovering above us. Then, without any dramatic gesture or elaborate preparation, I simply thought.

I wanted the dome gone. That was all. The very next instant, as if it had never existed in the first place, the dome vanished. No explosion. No heroic thunderous impact. No grand spectacle. It simply stopped being there, erased from reality like chalk wiped clean from a board.

The silence that followed somehow felt louder than any noise that had come before. The event caught Emily, Laura, Rupert, and Victor completely off guard. Their bodies stiffened instinctively, and all four turned to look at me almost simultaneously, as though trying to confirm whether that had actually just happened.

Shock, disbelief, and a growing hint of discomfort were written all over their faces. I could practically read their thoughts like an open book. Predictable questions. But for now, I couldn’t have cared less about the group’s collective existential crisis.

I completely ignored their stares and the silent confusion around me, focusing all my attention entirely on the priest. Killing him would undoubtedly have been the fastest solution. One problem solved all at once. Clean. Efficient. The concepts would remain completely intact... right?

Maybe I was just a little too irritated and wanted to see him pay in a far less heroic way after he had quite literally launched me into the wall of a church like I was some disposable action figure. Call it pettiness, wounded pride, or whatever else you want.

That had been absurdly rude. Still, as tempting as the idea was, I simply couldn’t do it. Not while a helicopter was circling overhead, its blades cutting through the air like a constant reminder that I was being watched. Could I just fling it somewhere else with a single thought?

Of course. It would be laughably easy. The real problem came afterward. If I did that, and a few hours later everyone discovered the priest dead or mysteriously missing, it wouldn’t take five minutes before fingers started pointing directly at me. Vindictive. Unstable. Untrustworthy. A threat. Dangerous.

Always the same words, just wrapped in different packaging. In the end, it wouldn’t matter how many times I solved their problems or prevented an even greater disaster. All it would take was one impulsive move to solidify the exact image everyone seemed so eager to project onto me.

And honestly, I already had enough problems without adding a personal witch hunt to the list. So I decided to handle the situation in a far subtler way, and, interestingly enough, a far less destructive one too. I simply raised my hand, not with the posture of someone commanding or controlling anything, but more like someone patiently waiting for something invisible to hold it back.

And then, without warning or any grand spectacle, it happened. The light emanating from the priest simply disappeared, as though it had never existed. No explosion. No tremor. No dramatic resistance. Just absolute erasure, almost embarrassingly simple.

I felt the free concepts dispersing through the air like loose particles carried by the wind, light and nearly imperceptible, while a strange sense of gratitude echoed in my mind.

They thanked me in silence before returning to their rightful owners, like pieces of a puzzle finally falling back into place. The entire area sank into a heavy silence. No one said a word.

The air itself felt denser, weighed down by a collective sense of that’s it? And honestly, I couldn’t blame them. The entire situation had been resolved in the most anticlimactic way possible, as though someone had ripped the climax out of a story and decided to skip straight to the ending credits.

Still... something bothered me. A small sense of unease settled in the back of my mind, impossible to ignore. Everything had felt too simple. Too clean. As if I had only solved the surface of the problem while something much larger was still moving behind the curtain, hidden from my sight.

With that unsettling thought lingering in my head, I looked up at the sky now completely swallowed by dense gray clouds. A light breeze passed through, carrying the unmistakable scent of rain about to fall.

A subtle and absurdly misplaced thought crossed my mind: (Looks like it’s gonna rain later... also, I want ice cream)