(POV – Protagonist)

The relentless sounds of flesh being torn apart echoed nonstop, filling the air with a suffocating atmosphere. Before me unfolded a deeply disturbing scene: the woman, leader of the cult responsible for summoning that anomaly into this world, began murmuring strange words. Before I could process what was happening, she drew a knife and, without hesitation, started slashing and tearing at her own face.

Nearly all the flesh around her mouth and cheeks had vanished, completely ripped away. The already nightmarish scene became even more unsettling as she smiled while doing it.

It was a smile that overflowed with madness, intensifying the horror of the moment. Honestly, I felt like I could throw up at any second, but without a stomach to do so, all I had left was the overwhelming discomfort of that sensation.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Laura. The contents of her stomach were now spread out on the floor beside me. Victor and the other man, although visibly uncomfortable as they stared at the woman, managed to keep their composure and avoided vomiting like Laura. To be honest, I had been expecting this reaction from her.

The grotesque display went on for a while, and Laura's face was now completely pale. My eyes slowly wandered to the ground, where a pool of blood mixed with pieces of the woman's face formed a macabre scene.

As unsettling as it was, she had ripped a considerable amount of her own face off. In the next moment, the woman moved her hands, and I, intrigued, observed her actions closely, blinking in confusion. Suddenly, she clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.

To my surprise, the woman's wounds began to heal... or rather, it wasn’t exactly healing. Flesh seemed to be growing from scratch, making the scene even more grotesque. Behind me, I heard a sound I immediately recognized but chose to ignore.

There was no need to turn my head to know what it was: Laura had thrown up again. Honestly, I didn’t blame her. While it wasn’t as horrible as seeing her tear her own skin off, watching flesh appear out of nowhere was still unsettling on an indescribable level.

I won’t lie, I was genuinely surprised by this. I mean, since when do humans have anomalous powers? As far as I knew, this was impossible. If humans had access to such abilities, the world would already be plunged into chaos. So, my first thought was that this woman was an exception, a completely out-of-the-ordinary case.

Of course, I had no solid basis to support my theory. As far as I knew, it could just be an anomaly that, for some reason, resembled a human. However, even I couldn’t fully believe my own words.

"Ahhh! My lady! Please accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of these fools who fail to recognize your greatness! I hope my gesture has helped to appease any possible anger on your part!"

As I lost myself in thought, the woman began murmuring again... nonsense? At this point, I don’t even know if that term applies anymore. The fact that she had an anomalous power made it hard to dismiss her as just a crazy fanatic.

No, thinking about it, that didn’t eliminate the possibility of her insanity. Either way, her ability only reinforced one clear point: she was much more dangerous than she seemed.

This fact sparked my curiosity, because considering her regenerative abilities, how exactly would my ability to identify weak points work on her? From what I heard, the forest dogs where I first appeared also had regenerative abilities, but their weak points seemed to be exposed as if visible in the daylight.

The next moment, I couldn’t hide my surprise, and my eyes widened slightly, confused. This was because, compared to the dogs I killed in the forest where I first appeared, this woman also had weak points spread all over her body. However, instead of glowing in rainbow colors, they emitted a bright purple light. Of course, I didn’t know what that meant, or if it meant anything, actually.

Just to clear my doubts, I shifted my gaze to the others. As always, their bodies were a mix of various colors, like the rainbow itself. In short, they were normal. And this fact, paradoxically, left me even more confused.

As I observed her, she suddenly stood up, turned without saying a word, and started walking away. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say. Besides, I saw no reason to kill her. However, it seemed Victor thought differently, as he quickly pointed his weapon at her.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Victor said, his gun pointed directly at her head.

Before Victor could react, Laura extended her hand in front of him, making him look at her sideways. The next moment, she explained: “Let her go”

Victor raised an eyebrow, giving him a perplexed look: “Are you sure? She’s probably our only clue about that thing in the sky” he asked, discreetly gesturing toward the black hole that had taken the moon’s place in the heavens.

Laura nodded, prompting Victor to finally lower his weapon. She then turned her gaze to the woman and stated: "I really wanted to interrogate her, but honestly, we don't have enough information about her. Picking a fight with someone who literally just regenerated from a severe facial deformity would be reckless. It's better to leave things as they are... In the end, what matters is that we're all alive and breathing"

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Laura was right, but personally, I wonder if it was a good idea to just let the woman go. After all, she was the only one who could answer our questions... though, to be honest, I didn’t even have a way to ask those questions.

As I mentioned before, everything I write ends up turning into symbols. Laura and Emily tried various alternatives, like using a keyboard so I could type, but strangely, that didn’t work either.

I’m sure that at first, I typed "hello" However, when I looked at the computer screen, what appeared were strange symbols, like question marks and periods, among others. I even tried to make Laura and Emily look at the keyboard, but that didn’t work either.

The only explanation I could think of is that the key I thought I was pressing wasn’t the same one Emily and Laura were seeing. In the end, I gave up trying to understand it because I realized it would give me a massive headache.

***

(POV – Laura Cavendish)

There were so many things going on that Laura felt like her head was going to explode. All she wanted to understand was how a simple routine visit had turned into an omen of an apocalypse, caused by a completely unknown anomaly she had never seen before. To make matters worse, the fact that she had narrowly escaped being buried still lingered in her mind, making her even more dazed.

Gathering her strength to rise, Laura lifted her gaze to the small anomaly before her, which was staring into the void with its characteristic innocent expression. For a moment, an involuntary smile softened Laura’s previously tense face. It was curious how much that creature made her feel at ease. Despite not being able to communicate, Laura felt an inexplicable sense of security when she was near it.

Involuntarily, Laura approached the anomaly, which appeared lost in thought as it stared into the void. Without hesitation, she stretched out her arms and wrapped the small creature in a tight hug. The soft touch of the anomaly’s body, with a texture oddly similar to pudding, brought Laura an even greater sense of inner peace.

"Thank you so much for saving us. I always knew you were a good anomaly" Laura said, gently rubbing her face against the anomaly’s and holding it with enthusiasm.

Victor and Arthur, who were watching the scene from behind, noticed the anomaly struggling vigorously, trying to escape Laura’s embrace. Although both thought it was reckless to approach an anomaly so casually, they didn't feel it was their place to reprimand her. After all, they were both grateful to the creature, which had clearly helped them during a critical moment.

"Anyway, what was that thing we just witnessed? What kind of anomaly was that?" Victor commented, fixing his gaze on the spot where the anomaly had been moments before. "I’ve seen things that would drive normal people insane, but I never imagined an anomaly with such a simple appearance could be so terrifying at its core"

The scene also caught Laura’s attention, but not enough to make her let go of the small anomaly. In summary, Laura seemed to be recharging her strength, using the anomaly as a sort of energy source. However, something about the creature caught her attention, and it just wouldn’t leave her mind.

With a growing doubt, Laura looked up at Arthur and, in a hesitant tone, asked a question. Meanwhile, the anomaly continued to struggle, trying to break free from the hold, but Laura seemed completely oblivious to its resistance.

"I'm not sure if what I’m about to say is right, but I had the impression that the anomaly... seemed strangely focused on the [Angel of Death]. Plus, it was smiling, as if it was enjoying itself" Laura expressed, looking at Arthur for some explanation or confirmation.

Arthur noticed Laura’s intrigued look and tried to imagine the reason behind it. However, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to guess just by reflecting on the matter. His knowledge of anomalies, which he had dubbed [Conceptual Virtues], was extremely limited.

At most, he was aware of their existence, but beyond that, his discoveries were almost non-existent, as if he were facing a blank sheet of paper.

"Sorry, but I don’t know why it acted that way either. Despite all my years of research, I’ve discovered so little about the [Conceptual Virtues] that it’s almost embarrassing to consider myself an expert on them" Arthur said, letting out a brief sigh.

Laura accepted Arthur’s words without hesitation, after all, it was exactly the answer she had been expecting. If anomalies were something simple, an organization dedicated to studying them would never have been created.

What really surprised her was that Arthur had discovered these anomalies on his own, considering that even she, who worked for a global organization, had no knowledge of them. Normally, Laura and other scientists focused on studying known anomalies rather than searching for new ones.

Of course, this didn’t change the fact that, right now, the moon had been replaced by a purple black hole in the sky. The more information Laura had, the better the plan she could formulate. However, she didn’t feel entirely confident, as it was an anomaly of the Nihilum class. Typically, anomalies of this class were uncontrollable.

An important detail to remember is that all the major mass extinctions on Earth were caused by anomalies. Laura honestly didn’t want to believe that another one was about to happen, especially since she had yet to fulfill her own dreams.

Determined, Laura finally let go of the small anomaly, which let out a sigh of relief. She then turned her gaze to Arthur and, with a serious expression, asked: "Even if it’s not much, you still have some information about this anomaly, right?"

Arthur quickly understood what Laura wanted to know. It wasn’t as if he was trying to hide his discoveries; after all, there was no prize involved, or anything like that. With that thought, Victor responded: "Although it’s not much, I do have some information. As I mentioned earlier, these anomalies are called [Conceptual Virtues]. So far, I’ve discovered that there are about seven of them"

Arthur paused, observing the reactions on the faces of Laura, Victor, and, surprisingly, the anomaly that had saved him earlier, which seemed to be paying attention to his explanation now.

"Wait, are you saying there are six more of those anomalies we saw earlier?" Victor asked, frowning.

Arthur simply nodded to Victor’s question and continued his explanation: "The [Conceptual Virtues] are, essentially, concepts. I don’t know if they emerged because humans feared these concepts at some point, or if these concepts exist because anomalies exist. Life, Death, Time, Chaos, Order, Hope, and Fear — these are the concepts I believe to be real, based on my research"

Victor and Laura fell silent after hearing Arthur’s words, not knowing what to say. Although both were still trying to process the information he had just shared, it seemed like there was more to come.

"Besides the ones I mentioned, I believe there is one more, the one that created all these concepts: Existence"