Anomaly Chapter 177 – When logic escapes [18]

Putting Oliver aside for a mont, I turned my gaze to Arthur, who seed oblivious to everything around him. In a calm but direct tone, I asked ntally: (Are we leaving... are you coming?)

The mont my question echoed in Arthur’s mind, he nodded almost imdiately, as if he’d known the answer before I even finished asking. Honestly, I never really thought he would refuse. From his point of view, I probably seed like the safest and most reliable option among everyone there.

And, ironically, I was also the only non-human, except for Nyara, who stayed quietly right behind . The fact that Arthur, a human, trusted more than his own kind was, at the very least, a curious irony — almost contradictory, considering the nature of everyone in that uncertain environnt.

“Honestly, I can’t wait to get out of here. These frozen woods definitely aren’t my thing” Arthur muttered, shaking his shoulder to brush off the layer of snow starting to pile up. His tone mixed irritation with exhaustion, while his eyes scanned the ice-covered trees around him, as if searching for any sign of a way out of this cold place.

I blinked at Arthur for a mont before casting one last glance at the others present. My eyes briefly settled on Eve and Adam. Adam, though he seed a bit lancholic with his hunched posture, showed genuine happiness in his gaze as he watched Nyara — there was sothing peaceful in that quiet mont between the two.

Eve, on the other hand, kept that enigmatic smile on her face, almost unsettling, as she watched the scene attentively. Her hand gently resting on her cheek gave off a strangely maternal vibe, as if she were quietly proud, watching her own children — or sothing close to that.

Ignoring that, I shifted my gaze toward Oliver. Right behind him, the woman kept a relatively indifferent expression toward everything around, as if none of it deserved her attention. Yet, there was sothing strange in her look when she turned to .

For a mont, her eyes seed almost reverent, as if she were contemplating sothing sacred or untouchable. That way of staring sent a slight chill down my spine — an uneasy feeling I couldn’t shake off. The man next to her gave off a completely different vibe.

He was relaxed, almost carefree, eyes fixed on the white, icy horizon of the woods, like he was enjoying the scenery without any rush. Both arms were resting behind his head, in a sloppy posture that only heightened the contrast between the two. It was as if, for him, this was just another ordinary day.

Oliver himself, anwhile, still watched with that typical half-smile on his face. There was sothing about him that always made suspicious. Every ti our eyes t, I got the sa feeling: he seed like he was plotting sothing, always one step ahead, scheming plans nobody else could see. Maybe it was just paranoia on my part... but deep down, a part of insisted he was definitely pulling strings behind the scenes.

(Anyway, that’s none of my business) I thought, looking away and ignoring Oliver completely. It wasn’t like I needed to get involved in his problems. I had enough to deal with on my own.

Next, I turned my gaze back to Arthur, who was now watching Oliver with a curious expression, eyes half-closed and hand resting on his chin, as if silently analyzing every move.

His fingers moved slightly, a typical gesture of soone deep in thought: Let’s go, I called, breaking the mont and drawing his attention back to .

Suddenly, a completely black circle, devoid of any trace of light, began forming beneath my feet. Silent and threatening, it slowly expanded, as if devouring the ground, covering everything around it. Within seconds, it reached Arthur and Nyara, then stopped — as if it had reached the exact desired limit.

Without warning, we felt our bodies start sinking, like we were being pulled down by invisible quicksand. Gravity felt distorted, and no attempt to resist worked. We were swallowed completely.

Before my vision was swallowed by total darkness and the scenery around began to change, I caught one last glimpse: Oliver, with his calm and enigmatic smile, staring right at .

That was the last image I held onto before the full transition. The next mont, Arthur, Nyara, and I found ourselves in a space wrapped in absolute darkness.

My eyelids opened slowly as I cast a quick, careful look around. Oliver’s enigmatic smile still echoed in my mind, persistent, but I pushed it aside, like an unwanted distraction.

Then I noticed Arthur’s piercing gaze fixed on , filled with silent questions. I just stared back for a few seconds with my golden eyes, their glow seeming to defy the darkness surrounding us.

Actually, after “absorbing” Nyara’s powers, so properties that had already existed within awoke — or rather, didn’t really awaken, but simply surfaced. These weren’t newly acquired abilities, but latent forces that had until then remained hidden, dormant in my essence. They never disappeared, they just hadn’t manifested until I summoned and took control of them.

Then I slowly raised my hand, almost delicately. Arthur noticed and shifted his gaze to , raising an eyebrow in clear doubt and curiosity. Ignoring his silent question, I snapped my fingers firmly.

The environnt around us — or rather, the dense darkness enveloping us — began to distort in a surprising way. The space seed to compress, fragnting into an unstable mosaic of shadows and light, as if reality itself was breaking into tiny pieces. But just as quickly as the transformation happened, everything disappeared, and the monotonous, silent darkness returned, as if nothing had happened.

If I had to describe in a few words the transformation Nyara caused in , it would first require understanding exactly the nature and extent of her power. Nyara isn’t just a common force — she has the ability to rewrite reality, bending the laws of physics at her whim.

That power, impressive as it is, is only the surface of what she really is: a manifestation of chaos in its purest and most tangible form. Her powers know no limits, able to alter whatever exists or might exist.

What changed in , though, was sothing even deeper. Now, her essential trait — this ability to defy and modify natural laws — lives inside . It’s like I inherited a fragnt of chaos itself, a spark capable of transforming the reality around .

At that mont, all I did was subtly alter the physical properties of the shadowy space around . Technically, so might call it teleportation, but in practice, what I really did was compress the distance between my starting point and the desired destination as much as possible — like folding the very space between them.

When we finally arrived at the intended location, once again we were swallowed by darkness. However, this ti it was so dense and absolute that even the idea of shape or direction seed to have been erased. It was as if we were imrsed in a primordial void where light had never existed.

It was like a veil had been lifted from our faces. In the next instant, we found ourselves on top of a building, right on the edge. The sharp wind from the height ssed up my hair, and beside , Arthur looked around, his eyes slightly widening in a mix of surprise and confusion.

I ignored his reaction for the mont and turned my attention to the horizon. The city’s tall buildings were finally visible, contrasting with the previous scene, where everything seed shrouded in thick fog. It was still there, true, but now it was slowly dissipating, as if the world itself was gradually waking from a long dream.

As I watched the horizon covered by the thick fog, a huge silhouette began to erge, breaking through the white veil like a colossal shadow. It was so far away that it was almost impossible to make out its full shape, but one thing was undeniable: its size. Even miles away, it was impossible to ignore the sight of that monstrous leg, long and thin, grotesquely resembling the limb of a giant spider.

With each step it took, a dull thud echoed through the air, as if the very ground trembled in protest. For a brief mont, we caught a glimpse of its slow, threatening movent before the creature vanished completely, swallowed by the fog that was gradually starting to clear.

Honestly, that didn’t worry too much. As the fog began to dissipate, I knew that thing — like all other anomalies — would automatically be sucked back to where it ca from. It was a natural process, almost like the world itself was correcting a temporary mistake. However, there was one important exception: only the living anomalies would return to their origin. Those that, sohow, ended up killed here... well, those would remain.

With that thought in mind, I looked down — more precisely, at the street. Several of those monstrous creatures, spider-like but with skulls resembling humans’, were scattered across the asphalt.

Their bodies were torn apart, missing limbs and entire parts as if devoured by sothing bigger... and, most likely, that was exactly what happened. The scene was grotesque, with dark blood stains mixing with the debris, as if the ground itself had witnessed a silent massacre.

“If I didn’t know how this city was a few hours ago, I’d say it’s a good ti to grab a coffee and watch the sunset” Arthur remarked with a crooked smile and a subtle tone of sarcasm. His eyes wandered over the horizon painted in orange and gold, almost ironically contrasting with the remnants of chaos still lingering in the air.

Hearing his words, I turned my golden eyes toward him. A sarcastic smirk curved his lips as he watched the scene before us. His gaze carried that teasing sparkle, as if the destruction around us was just another entertaining spectacle for him.

Buildings reduced to rubble, cars flipped over and crushed like soda cans, asphalt marked by huge, deep footprints like open scars on the city. No matter where you looked... chaos ruled every inch of this devastated scene.

I stayed silent for a few monts, just observing the landscape ahead. Everything seed a little distant at that mont. On the other hand, Arthur approached gently, almost cautiously.

His eyes slowly scanned the streets below, analyzing every detail. For a brief second, a complicated, hard-to-read expression crossed his face, as if an unsettling thought had occurred to him.

Then, he let out a long sigh and, with a tone mixing curiosity and slight suspicion, asked: “So... what exactly are we here for? I don’t believe you ca all the way to this place just to admire the urban scenery”

I just kept staring at the horizon, letting Arthur’s words quietly echo in my mind. For a mont, I remained still, as if trying to absorb the weight of what I’d just heard.

Then, I softly blinked my golden eyes, letting their glow soften for a brief second while my attention shifted to sothing — or rather soone — just below.

My eyes settled on Nyara, and like an involuntary reflex, an old mory surfaced, delicate, almost like a whisper carried by the wind: the image of a little girl clutching the hem of my loose shirt, exactly where she was now.

I let out a low, almost inaudible sigh before murmuring to myself, with a determined yet nostalgic tone: (There’s soone I need to see... before I go back)

***

(POV - Emily Parker)

Emily couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief as she stared at the blinking charts on the screen. At so point, all communications had been restored. Moreover, the indicators clearly showed the situation was starting to stabilize. The initial contact with the [Angel of Death] had made her anxious, but to her surprise, it seed not to have compromised the mission.

After all, if anyone had enough power to control this, it was definitely the [Angel of Death]. Laura and Victor, the only ones besides Emily in the room, also exchanged relieved looks while watching the data on the monitors and other equipnt around them. The tense air was now dissipating, replaced by a slight hope that maybe the worst was already behind them.