Anomaly

At this point, I probably don’t even need to say that I had absolutely no idea what the old woman was talking about. None of it made the slightest bit of sense from my perspective. That said, judging solely by the way she was glaring at me and Charlotte, I managed to draw one very simple conclusion from the whole situation: This old woman was completely fucking insane.

For some reason I genuinely couldn’t understand, she seemed to believe that Charlotte and I had attacked her mother... Okay, maybe that last part was a bit of an exaggeration on my part. But the first conclusion was definitely a safe bet. Otherwise, how exactly was I supposed to interpret this situation?

The woman was practically accusing us of something I didn’t even know had happened, all while staring at us with a mixture of outrage and indignation that, honestly, only made everything even more confusing.

Maybe it would have been rude of me to simply tell her that I had no idea who she was, much less what she was talking about. So, for the time being, I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut.

Anyway, Charlotte, who could also move perfectly well within the frozen world created by my field, spoke up a moment later: “Wow... she really hates you” Charlotte’s voice carried a genuine mixture of surprise and curiosity. From the way she said it, she almost seemed fascinated by the sheer intensity of the hatred the old woman was directing at me.

The problem was that Charlotte’s voice immediately caught the old woman’s attention. Her eyes shifted away from me and locked onto Charlotte. For a moment, the atmosphere seemed to grow even heavier. The old woman stared at her as if she had just discovered the existence of a second sinner who, for some reason, also needed to be eliminated at all costs.

There was more than simple hostility in her eyes. There was a disturbing sort of obsession, as though Charlotte had willingly placed herself on a list of people the old woman desperately wanted to see dead. Charlotte held her gaze for a few seconds. Then she swallowed hard.

“Yikes...” she muttered, lowering her voice slightly: “I don’t know why, but I’m pretty sure she hates me like hell too” She still tried to keep her tone lighthearted, but even her expression betrayed the fact that she was getting more than a little uncomfortable.

Under that almost obsessive stare, Charlotte cautiously took a few steps backward, moving closer to me as if, all of a sudden, my presence had become the safest place around. The old woman, still completely restrained by my ability, ground her teeth in frustration.

Her muscles actually tensed as though she were trying to force her own body to obey, but it was useless. Not a single movement responded to her commands. Even so, that didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest.

If anything, she continued staring at Charlotte with an almost insane intensity until, eventually, a crooked smile spread across her face: “Ah... we really do hate you, Hope”

Those words didn’t sound like a simple declaration of hatred. There was something much deeper behind them. A sick, ancient obsession. Something almost irrational.

The old woman’s gaze seemed to pierce straight through Charlotte, as though she were trying to see something hidden beneath Charlotte’s ordinary appearance. Charlotte shuddered slightly.

Maybe it had only been a chill, but considering the old woman’s expression, I couldn’t exactly blame her: “You really think that this fragile, useless mortal shell...” The old woman paused, drawing a deep breath through her nose as though she were smelling something foul: “...could possibly hide that disgusting stench of yours?”

The old woman’s eyes narrowed. For a moment, her smile disappeared: “You can change your body. You can hide your presence. You can even pretend to be nothing more than another insignificant mortal...” She tilted her head to the side, never taking her eyes off Charlotte: “But I would recognize you anywhere”

Charlotte didn’t answer. Her body remained tense. The old woman smiled again. This time, however, there was something even more disturbing about it: “You have always been my greatest obstacle, Hope” She let out a low, raspy laugh that was barely more than a whisper: “But not anymore”

The old woman looked genuinely pleased with herself: “My fragments have already spread...” she continued, savoring every word: “My vessel is close to reaching its final form” Her eyes gleamed with feverish anticipation: “Soon, I will finally escape that agonizing darkness you forced upon me”

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She took a deep breath: “And then...” Her smile widened even further: “I will finally establish myself in this plane” The old woman paused briefly, as if imagining the moment herself: “You won’t...”

Those were the old woman’s final words, because I intensified my field around her, silencing her completely. I really didn’t want to listen to another speech about curses, death, or whatever other nonsense was running through the old woman’s head.

Charlotte, who had been listening intently to the old woman until then, turned toward me. Her expression was caught somewhere between caution and almost anxious curiosity, as though she were still trying to decide whether my decision had actually been a good idea: “Shouldn’t we... I don’t know, listen to the creepy old lady’s evil plans before completely shutting her up?” She paused for a moment, tilting her head: “Like... just to be safe?”

Charlotte had a point. Actually, it probably would have been smarter to find out exactly what was going on before simply shutting her down. The problem was that, honestly, I didn’t care all that much.

I was planning to wipe out whatever was hiding underneath the asphalt anyway. Whether it was a creature, a monster, or some kind of abomination straight out of a nightmare, it didn’t really matter. In the end, the result would be the same.

So I simply nodded: “There’s no reason to drag this out any longer. Let’s just finish whatever’s down there” I briefly glanced at the asphalt beneath our feet before adding, as if I were talking about something completely trivial: “I want to go home, eat some ice cream, and play video games”

Charlotte blinked once. Then twice. She clearly hadn’t expected that answer: “You seem pretty carefree...” she remarked, narrowing her eyes: “Considering our current situation”

My response was nothing more than a shrug, accompanied by an almost completely indifferent expression: “I guess I am?” I replied, tilting my head slightly: “It’s not like this kind of situation is exactly new to me... Although I suppose my perception of a crisis has gotten a little distorted ever since I became an anomaly”

Naturally, I could still tell that this was a crisis situation. It wasn’t as though I had completely lost the ability to recognize danger or tension. That said, the situation was nowhere near serious enough to make me panic.

In fact, even now, I could say with complete certainty that I was a little anxious. It was just a strangely mild, almost distant kind of anxiety, especially compared to the state Victor, Rupert, and Arthur had probably been in just a few moments earlier.

Maybe it was precisely because I had seen so many absurd things since becoming an anomaly that situations like this simply couldn’t affect me in the same way anymore. Charlotte merely let out a sigh at my response.

She didn’t seem particularly surprised. I had already told her about this side of me before, so she was probably starting to get used to the somewhat... peculiar way I reacted to potentially catastrophic situations.

“I still don’t know whether I should find that concerning or reassuring” she commented, running a hand over her face before looking at me again: “I mean, the fact that you seem so unconcerned is helping me feel a little less anxious about the possibility that we might be in the middle of a mind-control apocalypse”

She paused for a moment and narrowed her eyes: “But honestly? This isn’t reassuring me nearly as much as you probably think it is”

A faint smile tugged at the corner of my mouth: “Well, at least it’s working a little”

Charlotte shook her head, letting out another sigh before looking down. Then, as if she had finally decided to put my reaction aside, she turned her attention back to the more immediate problem: “Right... so, how exactly are we getting down there?”

Charlotte’s question finally brought my attention back to what actually mattered: my objective. Honestly, I didn’t want to take any longer than necessary. The longer we waited, the greater the chance that something would go wrong, and considering my recent track record in life, I had already learned that “something” almost always meant a catastrophe of absurd proportions.

Although, to be fair, things were probably going to get a little messy... Nah. The organization would take care of it. It wasn’t like those higher-ups were good for much besides showing up after I had finished dealing with problems they themselves couldn’t handle, cleaning up the mess, and, as a bonus, thanking me for saving their asses... And the world along with them.

Yeah. Come to think of it, that made sense. With that new and extremely convenient conviction firmly in mind, I clenched my fists with all the strength I could muster. Naturally, the gesture didn’t magically make muscles sprout from my body, nor did it cause my veins to bulge dramatically. I was still extremely skinny, with thin arms and skin so delicate that, depending on the angle, I could probably be mistaken for pudding.

Particularly fragile pudding. But Charlotte knew. She knew very well that my appearance had absolutely nothing to do with my actual strength. That was why, the moment she noticed my gaze settling on the ground and saw my fingers slowly curling into fists, her expression changed.

It was almost imperceptible. Almost. Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, as if a missing piece had finally clicked into place in her mind. She understood what I was about to do: “Hey! Wait...”

Charlotte’s words were cut off the instant I slammed my fist into the concrete street with everything I had. The impact drove my fist several inches into the asphalt, cracks spreading through the concrete around it like a spiderweb. For a brief moment, I felt the resistance of the street beneath my fingers before it simply gave way.

But the most surprising part wasn’t even the crater my punch created. It was the shockwave that followed. A brutal force erupted from the point of impact, making the ground tremble beneath my feet and sending an enormous cloud of dust billowing outward, quickly swallowing the surrounding area. Small chunks of concrete and debris were hurled in every direction as the sharp boom of the impact echoed through the street.

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