Anomaly Chapter 390 – Worship of the true gods [36]

Amid the tight circle of people closing in around us, the priest and I beca the center of the tension. Low murmurs spread like a nervous echo, and yet my thoughts completely scattered, collapsing into a single fixed point in the face of this insane situation: How the hell was this crazy priest wearing Betina floating?

Dozens of questions swirled through my mind, each more urgent than the last. Was it levitation? So kind of ability? An anomaly... did he have sothing else he hadn’t shown yet? And yet, even before I could put any of them into words, my instincts were already screaming the answer, he wouldn’t say anything. No matter what I asked, this man didn’t seem like the type to explain... only the type to act.

Because more important than the mystery surrounding him was the reality around us: we were surrounded. People on all sides, eyes wide, steps hesitant, but no one dared get too close. They were all witnessing the sa bizarre scene, a Betina priest, completely unhinged, hovering a few inches above the ground, his robes lightly rippling as if touched by an invisible breeze.

His eyes, locked onto mine, carried sothing far from benevolent. And then there was . An anomaly... but, ironically, a harmless one. I wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless the fly was annoying. Just like this weird priest.

The people around us weren’t helping at all either. As far as I could tell, anyone with a shred of common sense would’ve run the mont they realized how dangerous this situation was. And yet, instead, most of them stayed, forming a circle around us, whispering among themselves.

So muttered ridiculous theories, others laughed nervously, but what bothered most was the number of phones pointed straight at us. Screens lit up everywhere, capturing every second. To them, apparently, a Betina priest floating like a lunatic and a living anomaly right in front of their eyes weren’t reasons to run for their lives... it was content. Honestly, I’m starting to worry about how people in this city think.

That said, there was an even bigger problem. If this priest decided to attack indiscriminately, which, to be honest, seed more and more likely given what little I’d already understood about his personality, chaos wouldn’t take long to spread. And inevitably, those sa people now watching with curiosity would get dragged into the ss.

The worst part wasn’t even the situation itself, but the inevitability of what would co after. My face, I was sure of it, would be plastered across headlines by the next morning, frozen in so distorted image taken at the worst possible mont.

In short, what was already a delicate situation for Emily and Laura would turn into a complete disaster if I just let all these people die. And the worst part... was that I knew it.

Completely unaware of the storm of thoughts racing through my mind, the priest continued his monologue, dramatic, exaggerated, and almost theatrical: “I can’t see your friend...”

His gaze slowly drifted across the faces around us, studying each one with an unsettling level of attention, as if searching for sothing, or soone, specific. His eyes passed over people without truly seeing them, dismissing them one by one. For a mont, an uneasy thought surfaced: maybe he was mistaking for Emily... or Laura. But honestly, I wasn’t sure which one.

“I’m not sure what trick you used to stay alive... but it’s pointless” As he spoke, he slowly raised his hands, his fingers spreading in a deliberate, controlled motion, as if feeling sothing invisible between them. There was a strange gleam in his eyes, feverish, sickly, like soone who had long since crossed the line between faith and madness.

“It’s impossible to escape the forces that govern our reality... I’ve been granted a re drop of that power” He gave a slight nod, almost reverent, before fixing his gaze directly on . And in that mont, it beca clear: there was no doubt, no curiosity, not even interest there. Only contempt. To him, I was nothing more than an insect.

“It’s impossible to escape . I will fulfill the divine will... and claim my rightful place at their side!” His hands rose higher, open, stretched toward the sky like a twisted prayer. His fingers trembled faintly, as if reacting to sothing that wasn’t there, or that only he could perceive. His eyes... were no longer focused on us. They seed to be seeing sothing beyond.

My mind kicked into overdrive, scanning possibilities, calculating escape routes and consequences, trying to find a way out of this situation without turning everything into chaos, without buildings collapsing, without desperate screams echoing through the streets, without people running for their lives.

My foot started tapping against the ground, subtle at first, then growing sharper, more impatient, the rhythm betraying the tension building inside . And then sothing changed. My shadow... stretched.

I blinked, confused, my foot stopping abruptly mid-tap. My gaze slowly dropped to the ground, where the flickering light seed to hesitate, and there it was. My shadow was no longer behaving the way it should.

Peeling away from the sole of my foot like sothing alive, it spread across the ground in a fluid, unnatural motion. Within seconds, it began to rise, like thick smoke being pulled upward by an invisible force, condensing into a dark, pulsing mass, slightly rounded, like a heart made of pure darkness.

A faint crackling sound echoed, barely audible, like embers being stirred. Then, eyes appeared. Two of them. Deep, reddish eyes, glowing like burning coals in the dark. They opened slowly, without urgency... and then locked onto the priest. There was nothing in that gaze, no emotion, only absolute coldness. It was so intense it felt like it could pierce through flesh and bone... and freeze the soul itself.

The air around us grew colder. The people surrounding us reacted almost at the sa ti. A collective shiver ran through them, like an invisible wave passing through their bodies. So stepped back without realizing it, others simply froze, unable to look away from that mass of darkness. Most of them wore the sa expression: fear... and hesitation.

The priest reacted too, subtly. His eyes narrowed slightly, his expression shifting between confusion and a sick kind of fascination. For a brief mont, I found myself genuinely curious, what exactly was he seeing to react like that? But the thought vanished as quickly as it ca.

After all, this sa man, with that distant gaze and a mind possibly teetering on the edge of madness, was trying to kill without hesitation. I took a deep breath, pushing the priest out of my mind for a mont, and turned my attention back to the shadow forming beside .

Its eyes, two glowing red points in the darkness, burned like live embers, its presence pressing against the very air. Its body, once just a formless mass of smoky shadow resembling unstable mist, began to slowly solidify. The undefined edges pulled inward. Lines began to form. Contours took shape.

Silently, the dark mist condensed, forming limbs, a torso, a head... until, little by little, a humanoid figure fully erged. It looked like . The features, the posture, even the aura, everything reflected my own existence... but twisted, like a reflection in a shattered mirror. In short... my Alter Ego.

And then ca the question I couldn’t ignore: What the hell was my Alter Ego doing here? The last few tis, it hadn’t shown even the slightest sign of existence. And now, out of nowhere, it just decides to show up? No warning, no context. That could only an one thing, right? Was the situation really that bad? A faint unease crept into my thoughts.

Sure, I could’ve forced it to appear before, or even made it intervene in certain situations. The connection between us allowed that... at least in theory. But there was sothing... off about that idea. Forcing myself to act? It sounded contradictory. Uncomfortable. Besides, I’d never really needed it.

Most of the ti, I handled things on my own, or rather, we did. After all, we’re one mind split into different perspectives. Which led to an unavoidable conclusion: If it showed up now... it wasn’t by chance. And being who it is, it probably already knew everything I was thinking.

“Interesting...” the priest’s low murmur snapped out of my thoughts. His eyes were fixed on my Alter Ego. He looked clearly intrigued... but there was sothing else too. Sothing deeper. A subtle, almost imperceptible greed hidden in the faint glint of his pupils.

“So kind of personal dinsion between dinsions?” he muttered, more to himself than to us. Then he slowly shook his head: “No... that doesn’t seem quite right either...” His hand rose to his beard, fingers brushing through it thoughtfully as his gaze drifted, as if dismantling and rebuilding theories inside his own mind.

“It was almost like...” he hesitated, his words slower now, more careful: “... like you erged from your friend. In that case... a split?” He closed his eyes, sinking into brief contemplation. When he opened them again, sothing had changed. The lucidity was still there, but now it was mixed with sothing unsettling. A spark of madness swirling deep within his gaze, intertwined with desire and ambition: “Well... it doesn’t matter”

His tone shifted, lighter now. Dangerously light: “When I’m done with both of you and ascend to join the divine... I’ll understand much more. I’ll have much more” For a brief mont, his voice faltered. Then ca sadness, faint and artificial, as if even he knew those words shouldn’t sound so empty: “So, my young ladies... my deepest apologies”

He tilted his head slightly, in a gesture that tried to mimic respect, but failed to hide the intent behind it: “I promise that, as a future god... I’ll rember your faces” His lips curled into a thin, cold smile: “The ones who helped reach ascension”

I had no idea what to say, not because I lacked words, but because I simply couldn’t understand what this priest was implying. Still, an unsettling thought kept hamring at the back of my mind: This man definitely wasn’t seeing Emily and Laura... or at least, not the real ones.

It was like sothing was out of sync, like his eyes could only grasp a surface layer of reality. A distorted version of it. Maybe sensing where my thoughts were going, my Alter Ego, standing beside , crossed his arms with a sharp motion. His reddish eyes narrowed, glowing with silent irritation, before he let out a low, impatient scoff. Seriously... What now? Why the hell was this guy annoyed this ti?