Anomaly

Chapter 414 – Worship of the true gods [60]

After going through what I could only describe as a true revelation, a strange sensation took over me. Powerful? Maybe that was the closest word, but even that felt insufficient, far too limited to describe what was actually happening.

Normally, feeling powerful is something simple: strength overflowing through your body, unshakable confidence, the certainty that you can overcome any obstacle.

It’s the feeling of someone strong, someone who believes they can conquer everything around them. But what I was feeling now was different. It wasn’t just strength, even though my muscles carried a faint tension, as if they were ready to crush stone with ease.

It wasn’t only speed either, despite the absurd impression that, if I wanted to, my legs could launch me around the world before I even had time to fully process the thought. Not even perception could explain it, though every sound, every vibration in the environment, and every subtle shift in the air felt painfully sharp to my senses.

All of that was there, yes, but none of it was the core of what I was experiencing. Calling it power felt... inadequate. Reductive. Because I didn’t exactly feel like I possessed absurd levels of strength, speed, or perception.

It was something deeper, and in a way, far more potent. As if those abilities weren’t fixed traits within me, but possibilities within reach, tools waiting for nothing more than a thought, an intention, a desire.

I didn’t feel fast. I felt like I could be fast. I didn’t feel strong. I felt like I could be strong. It was a subtle distinction, almost imperceptible to anyone else, but brutally clear to me. A small difference in wording, yet a colossal difference in meaning.

With all the pain finally gone, I had my first real moment to focus on what was around me. Not that there was anything new to see. The dome was still moving forward ahead of me, showing absolutely no signs of stopping. Actually... for some reason, I was in the air. Literally.

Only now did I fully realize it, which in itself already felt ridiculous. There was no ground beneath my feet, no support, no structure holding me up. And yet I remained suspended as if this were the most natural thing in the world.

Seriously, when exactly had this started making sense? For a brief moment, I tried to understand how I was flying, but the sensation didn’t quite match what I had imagined. It wasn’t like I was forcing my body against some invisible resistance or flapping wings somehow attached to my tailbone.

It was something much simpler... and at the same time, much stranger. It was as if all I had to do was want to be in the air. And then I was. No effort. No explanation. Just a silent command somewhere between thought and reality, obeyed instantly. Honestly, that explained almost nothing.

I was still trying to process everything happening around me, but there was something even more obvious than floating with no apparent logic behind it: I felt... different. Not physically. Or maybe not only physically. Finally, I turned my attention to myself.

I already had some idea that something had happened to my body, but until now, I had no clue what I actually looked like. And seeing myself now, I couldn’t hide my surprise. It was impossible to look at myself and act as though any of this was normal.

In a way, it looked like light was flowing through my body, as if something alive and incandescent pulsed beneath my skin. The difference was that, this time, it wasn’t just some vague sensation or abstract impression. It was completely visible. My arms emitted a soft, constant glow.

The same was true for my face, my feet, and even my chest, partially hidden beneath the loose shirt, where the light escaped through the folds of the fabric like thin golden rays. It was as if the sun itself had been trapped inside me, compressed beneath my skin, constantly trying to force its way out.

An overwhelming presence, ready to break its chains at any moment... and yet, for some reason, still contained. Looking at myself like that was unsettling. Almost surreal. And yet, staring at my own hands somehow felt even worse.

I slowly raised one of them in front of my eyes, watching the glow travel through each finger, reflecting off tiny golden particles dancing across my skin. Moving them felt wrong. Not painful, not restricted... just wrong. As if this body still obeyed me, but no longer fully belonged to me.

Every movement carried a subtle unfamiliarity, like wearing custom-tailored clothes made for someone else and somehow still managing to walk around in them normally. Deep down, the sensation was difficult to explain. It was as if I were still me... and yet another presence coexisted alongside me, sharing the same body, the same thoughts, and the same breath.

Two versions of “me” trapped within a single existence. I had doubts. More than I cared to admit. They piled up in my mind like a constant, relentless weight, but deep down, I already knew I was unlikely to find answers to any of them right now. My sisters weren’t far away.

They remained only a few feet from me. Victor, Laura, Rupert, and Emily were there too, scattered around me, all watching in absolute silence. In my sisters’ eyes, there was a mix of emotions. Nostalgia was the most obvious one, unmistakably clear, as though they were looking at someone familiar.

There were other things there too, anticipation, euphoria, maybe even a trace of hope, but none of them seemed strong enough to overshadow the nostalgia reflected in their eyes.

Humans, on the other hand, reacted differently. It wasn’t exactly fear they felt. It was apprehension. A quiet tension hung over them. The real unease didn’t come from my presence itself, but from the uncertainty, they didn’t know if it was really still me in control. And somehow, I knew that.

I had no idea how I could understand so clearly what was going through their minds, or at the very least sense the emotions hidden beneath their rigid expressions. I just... knew. It was strange. Natural.

As if an entirely new layer of awareness had been forced onto my consciousness, allowing me to notice things that would’ve slipped past me before. It wasn’t like reading thoughts, not exactly, but it was dangerously close.

I just knew everything now. Simple as that. Or maybe not quite as simple as I would’ve liked. Still, simple enough for me to finally start understanding how all of this actually worked.

And then... I realized I wanted to be near the priest. For a brief moment, it felt like something invisible was trying to confirm my choice, as though a silent presence was whispering that this was the right place to be. I knew my sisters wouldn’t refuse to come with me, and as expected, they didn’t.

In the very next instant, as fast as a blink, everything around us changed. There was no sensation of movement, no noticeable transition, but by the time I registered what had happened, we were already standing at the original point of the incident. The priest was directly in front of me.

His body floated in a deeply unnatural way, suspended a few inches above the ground as though the laws of the world no longer applied to him. Every pore in his skin emitted a soft white light, almost heavenly, pulsing in delicate waves.

His mouth hung wide open, radiating an intense, blinding glow, while his eyes were completely glazed over, consumed by that same white energy that looked as though it was devouring him from the inside out.

“Wow...” Rupert was the first to react when he noticed something had changed around us. His eyes scanned the area for a second before settling on me, filled with obvious discomfort.

A moment later, his gaze shifted to the priest, lingering there only briefly before finally dropping to his own hands. He slowly turned them over, opening and closing his fingers as if testing whether they were still really there: “That was... weird...” he muttered, frowning: “Like walking... without actually going anywhere”

Laura was the next to join the conversation. The moment she appeared, her eyes darted across the surroundings in visible confusion, as though she was still trying to figure out exactly where she was. Her gaze wandered for a few moments before finally landing on me. The second it did, her expression changed.

The genuine concern that had been dominating her face dissolved into almost immediate relief, as though an enormous weight had just been lifted from her shoulders. Even so, that relief was quickly followed by even greater confusion, obvious in the way her brows furrowed: “[Angel of Death]... i-is that really you?”

Laura looked me up and down, carefully studying every detail of my new appearance. Her eyes reflected genuine surprise, as though she was trying to reconcile what I looked like now with the image she still had of me from only a few minutes ago. The transformation really wasn’t helping.

My body now radiated an intense, constant glow, as if a miniature sun had been sealed beneath my skin and its energy was leaking out through every possible crack. Shades of gold and white drifted softly around me, forming a warm, oppressive aura that slightly distorted the air around my body.

“You look...” Laura started taking a few steps toward me, probably driven by curiosity, but she barely managed to get close before being abruptly pushed back: “Ow!” She immediately stepped away, holding a hand out in front of herself while making a small pained expression: “Wow... you’re really hot”

Laura backed up a few more steps, clearly uncomfortable, rubbing the tips of her fingers like she had just touched a metal surface left out in the sun for way too long. I blinked a few times at her words, trying to process the comment.

Oddly enough, I couldn’t feel any heat at all, or at least not the way she clearly seemed to. In fact, it had been a very long time since the last time I experienced any real fluctuation in temperature.

Cold, heat, physical discomfort... all of that felt like it belonged to some distant reality. Although, come to think of it... in my current state, it was hard to imagine I’d be able to feel much of anything anyway. I mean, earlier I had very clearly felt like I was on fire, and not metaphorically. Literally.

Every fiber of my body had felt like it was being consumed by flames, as though my nerves were slowly melting one by one. Thankfully, I managed to get through that. Not exactly an experience I’d be eager to repeat. I let out a quiet sigh, pushing the memory aside.

Meanwhile, the expressions on Victor, Rupert, Emily, and Laura carried an almost comical restraint. None of them looked particularly comfortable getting too close to me. There was a clear hesitation in their eyes, as though they were dealing with a walking furnace that might explode at any second.

And judging by the way the air around me shimmered slightly, maybe I really was giving off literal heat. Even so, that was far from my biggest concern right now. There were far more urgent matters to deal with. My gaze slowly shifted back to the priest.

I remained silent for a few moments, watching him while organizing my thoughts: (What exactly am I supposed to do with you now?)