CHAPTER10-FIRST NIGHT

Saga: Journey to the Sunrise

Arc 1: Retro Anomaly

Chapter 10

-->TERROR BEYOND COMPREHENSION

The night started to fall. Although, it was not easy to tell the difference between day and night due to the constant shade and the light orange aura everywhere. A big bell's klank!! was heard.

All the Natteflusks were retreating and hiding in their homes. Guffu stood at the usual spot where the Thin Anomaly regularly appeared.

Zarita and Myale had reached the place where Guffu was. Scyures was still phasing through the woods, and Lanmyth was running with Erika to find the spot.

The area was dark. Zarita stood near Guffu while Myale was scanning the area from the heights. Hein and Gunbo also hid in the houses.

Just then, Zarita's body hummed a bit. A chill went down her spine, and goosebumps devoured her. But the Anomaly was nowhere to be seen.

She was panting. She gasped and clenched her fist to her bosom. A message popped up in front of her eyes.

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (8/100)%]

[EMOTION: SUBLIME]

She ignored the message and ran her eyes around. A stinking light speck caught her attention—one she couldn't ignore.

Myale was looking in the opposite direction from Zarita, from high ground, trying to find the Anomaly under the bright moonlight.

Scyures stopped and rested his hand on a huge boulder. Lanmyth stopped as well, Erika standing behind him, blushing a bit as he held her back with his arm over her bosom.

Guffu was sitting with his walnut shell removed and resting behind him.

Zarita walked toward the purple light, crunching the grass, leaving a trail of limelight behind.

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (13/100)%]

[EMOTION: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN]

Annoyed, Zarita flicked the system window, and it disappeared. She walked toward the light. Slowly, her body was feeling cold—a cold that froze her skin through her clothes. It was irritatingly uncomfortable. Her horn was cold, and her face was turning a high violet hue.

"Anyone her—?" she asked in a whisper. Leaves rustled against each other. Myale already sensed Zarita's absence but didn't react.

Fuz!uz!uz!uz!

A crackling noise came from afar. Her mind was getting colder from the inside. Her bones trembled on their own.

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (47/100)%]

[EMOTION: UNEASY NOSTALGIA]

The air was cold and clean. Her senses were high. Since she possessed Ice-type power, it shouldn't affect her, yet still…

Her body felt lighter. Her head was heavy, but her eyelids felt nonexistent, like light.

Her spine felt light, but her thighs were dense with weight.

"I-it's an unusual way to arouse someone. If you wanna ask for a date, I'll try. But don't do this." She made a sarcastic smile.

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (68/100)%]

[EMOTION: AROUSAL]

She removed some leaves in front of her eyes and saw...

(THE ABILITY "DAWN AFTER THE DUSK" HAS NEARLY CHARGED UP)

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (76/100)%]

[EMOTIONS: IRRITATION, FEAR, SUBLIME, SICKNESS, ANIMALISTIC SURVIVAL TERROR, SADNESS]

Myale sensed something was wrong with Zarita's energy. She jumped down and started running toward her direction. Scyures stood over the boulder and saw Zarita standing awestruck in a single position. He decided to yell.

"Oii! Ram-head!!"

She didn't reply.

Lanmyth commanded Erika to stay with Guffu and decided to go after Myale.

(Runrunrunrunrunru—)

Zarita's body was pleading to herself.

[EMOTIONAL FUEL: (100/100)%]

[EMOTION: UNCATEGORIZED]

(ABILITY "DAWN AFTER THE DUSK" is ready to be used)

KARRUK! REK! KREK! RUGRIK! EEK! KRUK! KRIT!

The crackling noise was coming from something standing—or floating—before Zarita's face.

Her eyes couldn't move from it. Yet her brain couldn't capture the incomprehensible sight.

KARRAK!!!!!!!!!!!

A giant bolt of lightning, like a spear of thunder, phased through the place. The trees in the way evaporated—the ashes left behind showing faint purple electric charges.

Zarita's horn fell to the ground as first her dress burned to bits. Slowly, her neck, bosom, thighs, feet—cut from indefinite slashes of electricity—blew up.

As if she never existed.

(THE ABILITY "DAWN AFTER THE DUSK" WILL START ITS EFFECT AFTER 2 MINUTES)

The whole place was reverberating with thunderous crackles as if it had been electrocuted.

The waves were coming from a source—only Lanmyth could see them.

[These waves are curves formed in the space-time fabric. That's why our weight is being unequalized throughout our bodies. Like plane circular rings coming from a core, trying to form a sphere—layered within each other but moving at different speeds and with different energy.]

[Lina:- In other words, pure chaos!]

Lanmyth surrounded himself with nano-bots to create a false electric ring around him, acting as a frequency chamber to sustain his gravity.

Erika's armor felt too heavy for her body. She threw it off, and it dug deep into the ground just from the fall. The same happened with Guffu's walnut—it started sinking into the ground.

Myale's one leg and hand were floating upwards, but she maintained her position by binding her body with Qi strings attached to the ground.

Scyures was cluelessly floating in the air.

Just then, Myale and Lanmyth reached near the An0m4ly. Their bodies wobbled—something similar to spaghettification, but their bodies remained intact. The force wasn't too strong.

Then their eyes met the unobservable A n o m a l y.

Its body resembled that of a man in a business suit and a hat that should have been black—but instead, colors formed on it like cracks in space.

The air around its body had fractures, growing outward from it, and deafening noises echoed from them.

Then, they received a message:

[DANGER AHEAD

ADVICE:– RETRE-T-A-R]

The words expanded larger and larger, then the system effect wore off.

Lanmyth's body collapsed onto the ground, trembling, his waist rising unnaturally. Myale's strings snapped. Both of them had relied on the system for too long—they had never actually trained, even after their encounter with the 'Reaper.'

"No, no, plea—ugh! Plea—wi—" Lanmyth struggled to speak.

Myale's robe was slowly burning due to the radiation. Her body trembled violently.

As the An0m4ly teleported aimlessly, space distorted around it, churning like a stirring soup.

Lanmyth blacked out.

["Don't try to aim for what you can't!"]

["Just a white coat won't make you a scientist!"]

[Lan:- But why aren't you hiring me? I can do a lot better than her.

P1:- But she can give me something you can't. Now get lost, you piece of trash. Hahaha!¡]

[Beep]

[Lan:- Sir! I don't intend to take any fame. Just let me work! I'll label every project of mine as yours! Please! I beg you!

P2:- Grin Can you, fat ass, even do anything? Go enjoy some brothel, drink some beers, and jump off a bridge or something. Oh! How kind of me, guiding you through this hard life—you should thank me.

Lan:- I…]

His memories flooded in like a broken dam.

["I can't take this anymore! Ugh! Arrgh!"]

Lanmyth's body was flying toward the An0m4ly.

Myale's robe barely held together, her chest exposed from the top, as were her thighs and back.

She managed to maintain her ground thanks to her meditation practices.

Scyures was stuck high in the sky, unable to access his system.

Erika ran toward the homes, Guffu in her hands.

(THE ABILITY "DAWN AFTER THE DUSK" IS IN EFFECT)

A crimson-red lightning bolt struck from the sky—right at the point where Zarita's last body had been dissected by the Anomaly.

The roaring thunder made everyone's attention falter.

The Anomaly was violently teleporting throughout the forest, yet always returning to the same point in front of Myale within seconds.

Cracks spread. A purplish-dark aura consumed the entire forest.

Dying birds rained from the sky.

Golden-horned deer disintegrated into dust.

[You have acquired a new body.

The race is "Pea-Queen"

Details: A race of humanoid peacocks, where the user has the claws and appearance of a peacock, along with certain abilities.

Remark: Due to interference from an abnormal entity, the user will be granted some extra functions.]

A giant bud made of bones rose from the ground.

And from within it, a figure emerged.

Fine red-blue scales covered her neck. Lean legs.

Her breasts were concealed by peacock feather-like scales, and her hair was a cascade of multicolored strands that matched the theme.

Her stomach, back, and legs were revealed. A blue-green-yellow tattoo stretched over her eyes.

Her deep pink lips glistened with moisture, at their finest.

The pinnacle of beauty.

A sensual tattoo trailed down her back, winding through her lower waist—concealed partially by short, jeans-like cloth—until it reached the tip of her foot.

A bluish-green breath escaped her lips, a deep crimson eye trail marking her gaze.

She raised her hand. It shifted into a claw. Then a hand. Then a claw again.

Lanmyth's body cracked, revealing a purple aura.

Just then, a star-like beam shot into the sky, and Scyures—wrapped in colors—plummeted like a rainbow meteor, someone else falling with him.

BHWERAKSZ!!!

The entire area froze in ice.

The Anomaly vanished.

But they were sure of one thing.

It wasn't dead.