(POV – Arthur Hensley)
Arthur watched the anomaly in silence — a small body that anyone might mistake for a child. Its skin, white and so pale it seed to drain the light around it, turned almost translucent from certain angles, revealing nothing behind the surface but absolute emptiness.
There were no organs, no inner shadows — nothing that suggested life as he understood it. The anomaly’s eyes glowed with an intense gold, like candles eternally lit, a fire that never flickered no matter where one looked from.
Sotis, Arthur had the distinct feeling that this light pierced through everything — the environnt, the mist, even his thoughts. The thing standing before him wasn’t human.
Not even sothing biologically conceivable. And yet, it was there, only a few steps away, breathing a silence that felt older than the air itself.
Even after all his years dealing with anomalies, this was the first ti Arthur had encountered sothing so... fascinating. The anomaly seed to possess an unusual understanding of the human world — their customs, their beliefs, the way society was structured, and even how they thought.
That knowledge, as improbable as it was intriguing, had always struck him as one of its strangest traits. Moreover — and perhaps this was what impressed him most — despite its habitual indifference, the anomaly could still show faint traces of concern for other humans.
Small gestures, nearly imperceptible, revealing sothing resembling empathy... though, from what Arthur had observed so far, such a sentint was limited and surfaced only under very specific circumstances.
Arthur kept his eyes fixed on the anomaly as it slowly sank into the ground, as if the floor had turned into so kind of quicksand.
In the final monts, just before it vanished completely, he glanced at the luminous ssages floating above it — symbols so intensely bright that, the first ti he saw them, he thought they might blind him.
[Impossible to Quantify]
[Cannot Be Killed]
[Its eyes can “see” each of your weaknesses, manifested as small glowing points]
[Imdiate evacuation is strongly recomnded]
It wasn’t the first ti Arthur had seen those words. In fact, the text changed every ti he looked at the anomaly through the monocle.
Even so, those were the only lines that lasted more than a few monts above the anomaly — hours, in this particular case. Usually, the inscriptions vibrated and rearranged themselves each second, as if not even the system itself knew how to classify it.
Thinking along those lines, Arthur shifted his gaze toward the window. Outside, a tentacle covered in suction cups slowly curled around the vehicle, squeezing the tal with muffled creaks.
He adjusted the monocle with a light tap, narrowing his eyes as he observed the ssage hovering before him, suspended in glowing air.
[???]
At first glance, it might seem like the second case was worse. But that impression was mistaken. The difference between the two was clear: in the first, the description genuinely sounded dangerous — albeit vague — while the second rely indicated that the anomaly was unknown to the monocle.
Arthur had encountered the second type countless tis, and most of the ti, those anomalies were taken down with relative ease. The first case, however, was entirely unprecedented.
It was the first ti Arthur had seen that kind of warning — and not just that: every Conceptual Virtue he had seen displayed different ssages, yet strangely similar in tone, as if they shared a common origin.
Lost in thought, Arthur felt a light touch on his shoulder. Turning around, he found Victor watching him with a serene expression — strangely calm for the situation they were in. With an ironic half-smile, Victor asked: “Is there anything here that can actually help us not die?”
Arthur stayed silent for a few seconds, his gaze unfocused. Finally, he shook his head. He felt Victor’s hands resting on his shoulder tremble for a brief mont — an involuntary reflex of fear. Turning slowly toward the window, Arthur added in a low voice: “Nothing useful. She’s a complete mystery... but that doesn’t an she can’t be taken down. Just... not by regular people like us. That doesn’t make her invincible — just sothing beyond what humans are capable of fighting”
Of course, Arthur hadn’t revealed everything he knew — especially the fact that anomalies of this kind rarely appeared without reason. Most of the ti, they didn’t even bother to notice whatever lived beneath them.
Any form of life was insignificant, comparable to re ants in their presence. But this ti, sothing broke the pattern. The anomaly was watching, reacting... as if, sohow, what crawled below truly mattered.
Arthur had the distinct feeling that this anomaly wasn’t there by chance. By ntally piecing together the incidents that had been happening so far, he could — at least to so degree — deduce where this thing ca from and why it remained there, suspended in the sky above the ocean.
Victor, of course, had no idea about the tangle of thoughts running through Arthur’s mind.
Knowing only Arthur’s superficial thoughts, a faint, almost involuntary spark of hope lit up in Victor’s eyes. He grasped the implied aning in Arthur’s words, and his gaze also drifted toward the outside world.
For a mont, an image appeared vividly in his mind: that of a small entity with features shifting between those of a child and a young adult, as if trapped between two stages of life. The mory — or perhaps intuition — made his heart beat a little faster, carrying with it a fragile sense of hope.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
Outside the vehicle — more precisely, on the rain-soaked tal roof — I watched the colossal anomaly that, from ti to ti, tore through the clouds amid the relentless thunder.
Strange lightning ripped across the sky, lighting up the churning sea below, while gusts of wind whipped my long hair back and forth like wild strands. It was hard to stay focused amid all the chaos—but I had to.
Cold rain drumd against my body without pause, but it didn’t bother . Cold, heat... I barely even rember what those things are supposed to feel like anymore.
Those ideas feel distant now—almost abstract—even though not that much ti has passed. Just a few months, maybe a year, since I beca an anomaly.
Funny... I feel like I should be panicking right now, but aside from a faint sense of unease, I don’t feel anything at all. The human capacity to adapt is unbelievable... in so many ways. Ironic, really, considering I’m technically not even human anymore.
But putting my wandering thoughts aside, the situation was far from good. Several tentacles were wrapped around the vehicle, squeezing the tal shell with unsettling cracks.
Before I could even think about facing the anomaly above, I had to deal with the imdiate problem—and that ant getting rid of the grotesque tangle keeping us trapped.
As the thought crossed my mind, the vehicle’s tal surface around began to darken beneath a smoky stain, like a thick fog creeping along the steel.
Within seconds, dozens—maybe hundreds—of shadowy tentacles erged from that stain, writhing like starving serpents.
They lunged toward the suction-covered tentacles, coiling around them with force in a silent struggle that made the air hum around . I glanced upward for just a mont, toward the creature still floating high above, watching everything unfold.
I didn’t need to speak a single word or issue any ntal command. My Alter ego—who understood as deeply as I understood myself—reacted the exact mont I thought. The thick, smoky black tendrils tightened around the anomaly’s suction-lined appendages with increasing strength.
I could see those twisted limbs tremble under the crushing pressure. Then ca the sound: a wet snap followed by a harsh, guttural crack, like flesh being violently torn apart.
In a single motion, all the tentacles holding the vehicle in place were severed. Dark, misshapen fragnts flew in every direction, leaving an acrid, almost tallic sll hanging in the air.
Right after that, a deep bellow echoed—a dense, guttural sound, like a whale song carried from far away, but far more vibrant, so powerful that I felt my entire body shake with the reverberation.
(If the goal was to get its attention, I guess I pulled it off) I thought, turning my eyes to the sky as a light breeze brushed across my face.
The guttural growl continued, dragging on, echoing for long minutes. At the sa ti, a tallic sound—like locks being forced open—cut through the noise of the rain.
Instinctively, I turned toward the back of the vehicle and saw the door opening slowly, groaning as it gave way inch by inch. The rear was completely exposed now.
Realizing that, I lifted my gaze back to the sky. The rain kept pouring, heavy and relentless, soaking my clothes and turning the top of the vehicle into a slippery sheet of tal.
Going back was simply impossible. If what Rupert had said was true—and honestly, I couldn’t imagine him lying about sothing like that—then one way or another, we had no choice but to move forward. To keep going. To head toward Tenebrya.
The problem? I had absolutely no idea how we were supposed to do that. I thought I’d feel so sort of sign once we got closer... and in a way, I do. But it’s strange—the sensation cos from every direction at once. In the end, I’m not sure which path to take.
Another guttural growl echoed, pulling out of my thoughts and forcing a quick grimace out of at the infernal noise that thing kept making.
As soon as I looked up, all the blood seed to drain from my body. Outwardly, I kept the sa indifferent expression as always—still, impassive. But inside, a cold panic spread like a blade, leaving pale in spirit.
The clouded sky grew even darker above us, heavy and silent. Then, from within the dense, shadowed clouds, dozens—maybe hundreds, maybe thousands—of storm-like tentacles began to erge, one after another. Each one tore through the sky like a sharpened spear ready to crash down on us.
If that thing hit us, we wouldn’t stand the slightest chance of surviving. To be honest, I had zero confidence I could stop all of them if that anomaly really decided to hurl them at . I an... wasn’t that basically impossible?
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