Anomaly

The trip to the city was fairly uneventful for the most part. Every now and then, the agents had to take a few detours, mainly because certain stretches of road were so buried under accumulated snow that the cars simply couldn't get through. It wasn't as though there was a wall or some other solid obstacle blocking the way.

The snow alone was enough to turn a few yards of road into a serious problem. Still, out of all the options available, the agents always seemed to choose the least troublesome one, avoiding terrain where the vehicles might get stuck or sustain some kind of damage.

Anyway, we'd been traveling through a particularly annoying stretch for a while now. A cold mist stretched in every direction, covering the road and its surroundings in a whitish haze that made visibility considerably worse. It wasn't exactly the same kind of fog my little sister Nyara had caused when she first appeared.

That one had felt completely different. There was something about it that I could recognize without even having to think about it. This one, on the other hand, just seemed to be... well, an especially annoying fog. Still, I couldn't exactly blame the agents for being relatively tense and anxious.

Every now and then, one of them would glance toward the window, watching the fog as though expecting something to emerge from it. Others remained focused on the road, their hands firmly gripping their equipment and their posture anything but relaxed. It was almost as if they were expecting something to go wrong at any moment.

I couldn't really blame them for feeling that way. To be honest, I even felt a little responsible for the situation, considering that the reason behind all this tension had technically been caused by a member of my family. Maybe, as the oldest, I should have done a better job guiding my little sisters.

The problem was that I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to do that. After all, I came from a family where practically everyone was a god by their own standards. Expecting me to somehow know how to properly play the role of an older brother in a situation like this seemed, at the very least, a little unfair. Still... My former self, the one who possessed all of my memories, should have done something.

Even if it hadn't been intentional, the fog Nyara had caused had left a lasting mark. And from what I'd overheard during some of my unauthorized walks around the facility, a lot of people had developed a sort of paranoia whenever a new fog appeared. Understandable, I suppose. I sighed and shook my head.

This definitely wasn't the time to start feeling guilty over something my sister... or, more accurately, my sisters had done in the past. I could deal with that later. For now, I pushed all those thoughts to the back of my mind and returned my attention to what actually mattered.

First, I had to locate the agents' vehicles. It wasn't difficult. They were a few yards ahead of me, heading toward the city. I expanded my perception with the help of my field of vision, and a few moments later, I was able to make out the city itself in the distance. We weren't that far away. From what I could estimate, we'd reach it in five or ten minutes at most.

I was still inside my Dark World, so none of the agents had the slightest idea that I was there, following them. I also hadn't contacted Emily or Laura yet. There wasn't much point in notifying them before we reached the city, and, in any case, I preferred to wait until I was a little closer. For now, everything seemed peaceful. Actually, I was technically following the agents while floating through the air.

Well... not exactly floating. I was swimming. Yes, swimming. Although, now that I thought about it, it was a little more complicated than simply swimming through the air. I wasn't actually in the sky. I was still inside my Dark World, except that, somehow, I was upside down. Honestly, I didn't even know I could do that.

Technically, this wasn't the first time I'd swum along the ceiling of something. The difference was that, on previous occasions, there had always been a surface above me that served as some kind of support. This time, there was absolutely nothing. I was simply... swimming through the air.

Or, more accurately, it was as though the sky had transformed into a gigantic invisible ocean, allowing me to move through it in much the same way I would move through water. Every movement of my arms and legs gently propelled me forward, although the sensation was strangely different from anything I'd ever experienced.

I had discovered this only recently, almost by accident. One time when I entered my Dark World, I simply wondered whether it would be possible to make the same kind of movement upward, even without having any surface to push against. So, out of curiosity, I tried. And it worked. To my surprise, it worked with almost absurd ease.

Since then, I still hadn't completely gotten used to the sensation. It was incredibly strange to move my arms and feel my body glide through empty space as though I were swimming through an invisible current. But it worked. And honestly, that was what mattered. It was an advantage, after all. So I simply shrugged and accepted this new fact about myself.

Apparently, I could swim through the sky, too. Anyway, it seemed I wasn't the only one who had spotted the city. Even though the agents had strayed somewhat from their original route to avoid the more problematic paths, their vehicles were finally starting to move in a slightly less... random manner than before.

At least now they seemed to be heading in the right direction without having to fight their way through every turn, snowbank, or patch of ice along the road. Well, getting to the city had been a little more troublesome than it should have been, especially considering that they'd moved away from the original route.

Still, I had managed to guide them to a certain extent, clearing some of the more difficult stretches and blocking off others that would have been particularly pointless to cross. There was snow everywhere, so it wasn't difficult to create obstacles that didn't look completely artificial.

All I had to do was move a larger amount of snow onto a particular stretch of road or simply leave certain areas more difficult to pass through. To anyone watching from the outside, it could easily be blamed on the weather conditions. Little by little, however, the first structures of the city began to appear in the distance.

That meant that, from here on out, it was every man for himself. I still found myself wondering whether they would be able to make it out okay once I left. After all, the situation was still far from normal, and I had no idea what they might encounter inside the city. But it wasn't like I could simply order them to turn back. They had a mission to complete, and I had my own things to take care of.

I prepared to leave, following my own path, one that, to be honest, I still had absolutely no idea where it would lead. I had barely swum a few yards, however, when the unmistakable sound of metal scraping against a smooth surface echoed through the area. Scrrrrr... I stopped immediately.

It took only a second for my eyes to turn toward the sound, revealing a rather... strange scene. The agents were fighting... snowmen? More specifically, snowmen made of snow. Their appearances varied slightly from one another, but they were still unmistakably the kind of snowmen children would build during the winter.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Round, clumsy bodies without any actual legs, with relatively long arms sticking out from their sides. And, for some reason, these snowmen were attacking the agents. The agents seemed to be handling them without too much trouble. Gunfire and quick movements kept the snowmen at bay, sending chunks of snow flying across the ground with every impact.

Still... I slightly furrowed my brow. They hadn't noticed. While the agents were busy dealing with the snowmen in front of them, two others were silently approaching from behind, sliding across the snow-covered ground.

A few more seconds, and they would be caught completely off guard: "Ah..." I tilted my head as I watched the scene unfold.

One of the men, the one who appeared to be the leader, probably because he was the one giving orders, turned around at the exact moment one of the snowman's arms rose into the air. The look of surprise on his face was almost immediate. Well... I couldn't exactly just let him die, right? Besides, I was already here. It wouldn't hurt to lend them a little help.

And that's exactly what I did. I leaped out of my Dark World, and the moment my feet touched the ground, I began firing concentrated beams from my thermonuclear ability. The beams cut across the battlefield in precise lines, striking the snowmen and vaporizing them almost instantly, leaving behind nothing but thin clouds of steam.

The ones farther away, however, were outside the most convenient range of my attacks. For those, I simply manifested my Alter Ego beside me. Without needing to exchange a single word, tendrils emerged from its form and shot across the battlefield, reaching the more distant snowmen before they could react. The tendrils then wrapped around their bodies and tore them in half with ease.

The fight didn't last long. In fact, the snowmen were completely overwhelmed within moments. When the last one finally fell, I was able to breathe easy. I admit, I was expecting some kind of thanks. Maybe a simple "thank you" would have been enough. Instead... Click. Click. Click. Weapons were pointed directly at me. I blinked several times, staring at the men in front of me.

The strangest part was that the man I'd just helped seemed, for some reason I genuinely couldn't understand, absolutely furious with me. Huh? I'd just saved his life. Why the hell was he looking at me like I'd just committed some kind of crime? I glanced between the men, searching for any clue as to why they had reacted that way, but they were all wearing helmets.

All except the leader, who had apparently lowered his visor at some point, hiding his face once again. So I had absolutely no idea what was going through their heads. That said, if there was one thing I knew at that moment, it was that I was starting to get genuinely pissed off.

After all, just seconds ago, I'd saved their leader's ass, and now every single one of these idiots had their weapons pointed at me like I was some kind of threat. Seriously? Was this really how they planned to thank me?