The car Arthur and I were in sped down the road, weaving through the city's relatively heavy traffic. Under normal circumstances, a ticket would be the least of our problems, but considering the situation we were in, that was the last thing we'd worry about.
Anyway, the scenery around us remained almost unchanged, with streets crowded with cars, dull buildings, and the flickering glow of headlights reflecting off the wet pavement. No matter where we passed, everything felt like an endless repetition of the same scene.
Wrecked cars, storefronts shattered by out-of-control vehicles, and of course, people who weren't so lucky after passing out. We drove past a body practically smashed on the asphalt, a brutal impact with the concrete.
I have no idea what that person was doing before they lost consciousness, but judging by the scattered objects around them, it looked like they were a worker cleaning the facade of a building from a significant height.
The outcome? Well, let's just say my old self would've rushed to shout at them to at least try to break the fall with their arms—not that it would make much difference after plummeting from eight, maybe ten meters.
As my eyes wandered across the scene outside, my mind drifted into scattered thoughts. Beside me, Arthur was also watching the outside world, but unlike me, his reasons were probably very different.
His face showed a mix of fascination and disbelief, and his voice sounded almost thoughtful when he finally broke the silence: "This is the first time I've seen something like this"
Though his tone had a hint of curiosity, his expression gave him away—it was easy to see the hidden tension behind his words. There was a visible restlessness in his eyes, as if he were trying to mask his growing anxiety.
And honestly, who could blame him? If I were in his shoes, I'd probably feel the same way. After all, it wasn't every day you witnessed, in real-time, the inevitable collapse of the world right before your eyes.
I let my mind wander as I watched the scenery outside the window. The building we were headed to could already be seen in the distance, and even from here, its height was striking.
However, as we got closer, its imposing presence became even more apparent, standing tall like a silent giant against the overcast sky.
Moreover, with my keen eyes, I noticed something that might have gone unnoticed by most: the snowflakes gathering at its peak weren't ordinary.
They shimmered in various colors, twinkling like tiny stars amid the cold. The scene, though unusual, had a hypnotic beauty—it reminded me of a swarm of multicolored fireflies converging on a single point at the top of the structure.
A few minutes later, the car was forced to stop before we reached the building. The reason was obvious: the road ahead was blocked by an overwhelming number of abandoned vehicles, making it impossible to go any further. In the end, Arthur and I had no choice but to continue on foot.
As we walked toward the building, my eyes scanned the surroundings. Most of the people were still unconscious, their bodies scattered on the ground as if time had stopped for them. However, amid this silent, unsettling scene, something specific caught my attention in a few of them.
The cracks in their surface seemed much wider than usual, much different from those I'd seen in most others. Yet, even though this sparked a hint of curiosity in me, I decided to ignore it.
I figured it was just a natural variation of some process everyone was going through. Of course, I had no idea what exactly that process entailed, but in the end, it didn't seem like something worth worrying about.
"We've arrived" Arthur said next to me, his voice firm but tinged with a subtle tension.
His brief comment was enough to snap me out of my thoughts and bring my focus back to reality. I turned to him for a moment before shifting my gaze forward.
When I looked ahead again, the building we were supposed to go up finally became visible. Seriously, maybe it was my low vantage point, but it looked way bigger than I expected.
Its massive walls loomed before me almost threateningly. However, it wasn't the building's size that caught my attention immediately.
In front of it, parked strategically, were a few cars—very similar to the ones I used the last time I was in the city. On that occasion, the book-shaped anomaly had turned everything around us into a chaotic flood.
Arthur and I cautiously approached the building, the sound of the car engine muffled by the distant noise of the city. Behind the vehicles, some people were gathered, wearing uniforms that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but immediately associate with the standard uniforms of the organization's guards.
The sharp cut of the clothes, the dark tone, and the striking style left no room for doubt. Additionally, among them, one man stood out. His facial features were unmistakable.
(Victor?) I whispered in my mind, my voice soft and hesitant.
The moment his name crossed my mind, Victor turned his head back, a look of momentary confusion on his face, as if something had disturbed him. Our eyes locked, and he widened his eyes slightly, as if trying to comprehend something that still didn't make sense. I didn't know exactly what was going through his head as he stared at me, but I knew very well what was going through mine.
(What the hell is he doing here?!)
***
(POV - Victor Hale)
This was probably the first time Victor had seen things spiral out of control so abruptly, as if, suddenly, the world had been flipped upside down.
In a matter of moments, it was like a chaos switch had been flipped, and the city, once lively and bustling, turned into a silent and desolate graveyard.
The air was heavy with a sense of loss, and Victor, still trying to process how quickly everything had crumbled, didn't dare think about how many lives had been lost in a matter of minutes.
But the worst was yet to come. When Victor and his team arrived at the location where the anomalous fluctuations were most intense and unstable, they positioned themselves atop the tallest building in the city, where the air seemed to vibrate with an unusual energy.
It was a place that, at first glance, seemed safe, but no one could predict what would come next. With a simple order for his men to search every floor of the building for anything suspicious, Victor could never have imagined that this would lead to the opening of the gates of hell, bringing something far more dangerous than he could ever have foreseen.
"Haaa, why does this job always escalate so quickly into such strange situations?" Victor remarked, letting out a deep and tired sigh.
Cases like this weren't exactly rare, but Victor knew that situations involving an entire city were far from common. He had to admit that this was way beyond the usual.
While it was true that anomalies typically attacked humans at first sight, there was one peculiar characteristic that few understood: they avoided, whenever possible, massive contact with large groups of people.
In other words, anomalies tended to steer clear of big cities, almost as if they sensed some kind of threat or discomfort from the concentration of humans.
As Victor pondered his life up to that point, reflecting on the events that had led him into this situation, a soft voice echoed in his mind, almost like a distant whisper, but clear enough to break his thoughts: (Victor?)
Almost instinctively, Victor turned around, his eyes immediately locking onto a small figure, about the size of a 10-year-old child.
The being, with an unsettling presence, stared at him with golden, glowing eyes that reflected the same intensity of curiosity Victor seemed to display.
Their gazes met for a brief moment, before Victor, still confused, raised an eyebrow, his expression a mix of surprise and bewilderment.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Victor asked, his voice low and filled with disbelief, more to himself than to the being before him.
Lost for a moment in his own thoughts, Victor was brought back to reality by some soft and persistent noises in his ear.
He quickly raised his hand to his ear, where a small earpiece began emitting clearer and more direct sounds: "Victor? What happened? Any changes?" The voice from the other side sounded anxious, breaking the tense silence that had settled.
Victor took a moment to think about how to respond to Emily's question, his mind still trying to fully grasp the situation.
He knew what they had told him — the [Angel of Death] had disappeared — but honestly, he hadn't expected to find her here, in the middle of the city, in a scene that defied all understanding.
With that thought troubling his mind, he pressed his hand harder against his ear, perhaps trying to anchor himself in the feeling of control, or just to push away the growing confusion.
"It's just... the Angel of Death is here... along with that detective we saw last time in the village case" Victor remarked, his voice thick with disbelief. His gaze remained perplexed, fixed on the anomaly before him. The anomaly, in turn, kept its eyes locked on Victor.
"What? Are you serious?" Emily commented from the other side, her voice filled with surprise, almost challenging, with a clear dose of suspicion.
Emily, on the other side, couldn't help but think that maybe it was he who had removed the anomaly from the facility. But that theory seemed completely unfounded.
First, he had been escorted by guards who had detected no signs of the anomaly, and throughout, he hadn't made any suspicious movements.
Moreover, when he had first left the facility, the anomaly was still visibly in the cell, only disappearing moments after his departure. In the end, Emily found herself completely lost, with no idea what was really going on.
Turning her attention back to Victor, it was clear that, like Emily, he had no idea what was happening. His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the sound of glass shattering echoed through the space, making him immediately turn toward the source of the noise.
His eyes fixed on the building's entrance, where, to his horror, a figure appeared. The person's body was completely cracked, with deep fissures from which a vibrant, pulsating light emanated. They walked slowly, their steps heavy and dragging, as if being pulled by some supernatural force toward the exit.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
I watched with curiosity as one of the guards exited the building. What caught my attention was the fact that he had jumped from the third floor, as if it were completely normal.
However, upon looking closer, I couldn't spot any visible injury on his body, something that seemed impossible given the impact of the fall.
Instead, what stood out were the cracks in his skin, opening like fissures, from which a constant, golden light emanated, almost hypnotizing, illuminating the surroundings in an ethereal way.
For a brief moment, I wondered what was happening when I saw his body start to glow. The cracks in his skin, once subtle, began to emit soft, but noticeable, glows.
At first, they were just faint sparks, almost imperceptible, but as time went on, the intensity increased, and the glows expanded, becoming more powerful and imposing, as if something inside him was about to reveal itself in an overwhelming way.
Additionally, his eyes looked strangely dark and empty, as if they were submerged in an endless abyss. A disturbing feeling washed over me, and I honestly wasn't sure if the person was truly alive, even though everything around suggested otherwise.
His body continued to glow, an ever-increasing brightness, almost blinding, intensifying with every passing second. Amidst this surreal scene, an entirely random thought popped into my head, like an unexpected reflex in the face of this strangely cliché situation.
As the members raised their weapons and aimed them at each other, near the building entrance, I stayed distant, simply observing the scene, like a silent spectator of something that already seemed inevitable.
My golden eyes blinked from time to time, reflecting the unstable light of the surroundings, while one single thought took over my mind, one I couldn't shake, as I watched every movement with attention.
(Why do I have the feeling that this is going to blow up any second?) I thought, my eyes locked on the soldier in front of me. With every passing second, he seemed to shine brighter, as if something about to trigger an imminent reaction was about to happen.