Chapter 556: Anomaly

Darkness.

A place filled with nothing but black.

Like drifting inside a dead star, it was cold, it was eerie, and it was empty.

’Why?’

A question formed, hollow and unwelcomed, inside the abyss.

No voice carried it, yet it echoed.

Sparks came next—small ruptures of thought, the first fractures of imagination tearing into the void.

A paradox clawed its way into being: existence where there should have been none, a shape pressed against a formless canvas.

’It’s too quiet…’

The silence cracked. Hairline fractures spread across the black, and from those fissures bled colors that should never mix—crimson, violet, azure, gold, and an ink-black deeper than any shadow.

They twined together, bleeding and devouring one another until they painted something new.

The world bloomed.

Wind howled through the void. Light stabbed at the horizon.

The emptiness collapsed.

’Where…?’

Moments later, Riley’s eyes opened.

VOOOOSH!!!

Something screamed across the sky above him.

Engines ignited, flames bursting out and scattering crystalline ripples, each sonic boom warping the air into translucent orbs.

His eyes tracked the sleek machine as it cut through the clouds.

“…A V-Ship?”

The name left his lips before he could stop it.

Riley’s gaze lowered, and his breath caught.

A sprawling metropolis stretched before him, layered with impossible scale.

Skyscrapers reached higher than any mountain peak he’d once seen, their spines glowing with veins of neon.

Above them, ships of silver and obsidian swam lazily through the air—streamlined, beautiful, more advanced than anything Gaia had once produced.

Billboards flickered with crystalline displays, voices chanting advertisements across the city.

The hum of engines mixed with the chatter of thousands below.

Cars zipped through layered streets, their bodies floating without wheels, weaving traffic like streams of light.

It was chaos and order braided together—the exact sound of a city alive.

It was Gaia.

His home. His past.

But… wrong.

Smoke bled from the horizon, not from industry, but from wounds in the air itself—massive plumes of darkness threading over the skyline.

The sun above shone not with warmth, but with a blinding golden fever, its radiance clawing at the fog, staining everything in a divine burn.

And then, the towers.

Six of them. Monolithic, incomprehensible.

Each one dwarfing the tallest skyscrapers, each one carved from material Riley couldn’t place—structures that bent perspective when he stared too long, like the world itself resented acknowledging their size.

They rose around the city like executioners watching their prey.

And the people… no, not just people.

Down in the streets, walking as if they belonged there, were creatures.

Some human-shaped, but carrying wings or horns of dripping ether.

Others hulking, monstrous—scaled, feathered, clawed—beasts that should never have left dungeons.

Mana-born things wandered freely alongside businessmen and street vendors.

A centaur in a suit spoke into a crystal-phone. A three-eyed woman bargained at a stall.

A serpent coiled along a neon sign like a cat on a rooftop.

The world had blended.

Riley’s brows furrowed. His voice slipped out, low and unsteady.

“…Why?”

The single word cut sharper than any blade.

And the moment it left his lips—

Silence.

The city choked itself into stillness.

The endless hum of engines, the chatter of voices, the metallic roars of ships—all of it strangled out in a single breath.

Riley’s gaze swept across the skyline.

The towers still loomed, bending perspective like they always had.

The skyscrapers still glowed.

The fusion of steel, neon, and mana-woven architecture stood untouched.

But every moving thing—every person, every beast, every flicker of life—was gone.

Not fled. Not hidden.

Erased.

The stillness pressed down like suffocating water.

His body felt weightless, then impossibly heavy, as if time itself had cracked and gravity no longer obeyed its master.

Buildings warped in his sight, angles bending in ways they shouldn’t, like the world was being folded from the edges inward.

His chest tightened. Then it hit him.

Ah…

Memories bled back into his mind.

Slowly, he lifted his right hand. In the center of his palm, the stigma glowed faintly—a streak etched into his flesh, burning, alive. It pulsed once, and the air responded.

Three orbs tore themselves into existence, floating before him like stars orbiting a singular truth.

A crimson sphere laced with violet veins.

An azure one crowned with faint golden sparks.

And a black orb—darker than shadow, heavier than night itself.

He felt the divinity in them.

Felt the weight of authority. His authority.

That’s right…

He stretched his arms outward.

CRACKKKKK—!!!

Reality shattered like fragile glass.

Purple veins spidered across the air.

The city—the towers—the silence—splintered into nothing.

And then…

Recreation.

A ceiling.

White, plain, and familiar.

A bed.

A window.

Books scattered on a desk.

Sunlight spilling through half-drawn curtains.

The soft caress of wind slipping past, brushing his hair.

His dormitory.

The academy.

He stared.

His breath slowed.

His body remembered this place even if his mind screamed against it.

The three orbs slipped back into his palm, vanishing with a soft hiss of power.

He steadied himself, then rose from the bed.

Every detail, from the way the floorboards creaked under his weight to the chatter of students outside in the courtyard—it was perfect.

It matched his imagination.

A fragment of certainty returned. His memories, his last moments, pieced themselves together in jagged flashes.

He already had a guess at what had happened… but only just a guess.

And then—

A screen, unseen yet undeniable, burned across his vision.

[Name: Riley Hell]

[Divine Title: Heaven’s Anomaly]

[Race: ?????]

[Level: ?]

[Strength: ?]

[Agility: ?]

[Endurance: ?]

[Luck: ?]

He exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing.

Even with this much laid bare before him, the truth slithered just beyond his reach.

Whatever had happened—whatever he was now—remained a puzzle carved in contradictions.

And for the first time since awakening in darkness, Riley felt something coil tight in his chest.

He lifted his hand.

A sharp snap echoed, and the air split.

Another crack split reality, zig-zagging across the space until it shattered like fragile glass.

Stardust scattered, collapsing inward—reshaping, condensing—until it formed into a familiar silhouette.

A voice. Soft. Recognizable.

“…Riley?”

He froze.

Alice stood there, tilting her head, confusion etched on her face as naturally as breathing. Her expression, her tone, the way she moved—it was her.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” she asked, eyes scanning the space as if searching for context.

For a heartbeat, Riley said nothing. He only watched.

Then she smiled suddenly, stepping closer like she always did when she wanted to share some nonsense.

“Ah, get this Riley! Snow’s been greedy lately—what does she even mean by establishing a queen-wife rule? I don’t get it! I mean, does she think—”

The words tumbled out fast, playful, exactly how Alice would have said them.

The rhythm was the same.

The quirks in her voice were flawless. Every detail had been copied with agonizing precision.

And yet…

Riley’s eyes narrowed.

It looked like her.

It sounded like her.

It even moved like her.

But it wasn’t her.

His beloved Alice was brighter than this projection.

More vivid.

More alive.

This imitation was just a sketch beside the real painting.

A hollow echo of what he cherished.

He raised his hand again.

Another snap.

Alice vanished—erased like dust in the wind.

For a moment, silence.

Then he felt it.

Shine.

A faint pulse brushed against him.

A spark of light, so small it might have been mistaken for dust motes at first—but it carried warmth.

Familiar warmth.

The kind that coaxed rather than forced. The kind he remembered.

He did not resist.

He let it in.

The spark grew, spiraling, twisting into radiant swirls.

Light poured into the space, coalescing into a form.

Golden radiance washed over him, feathers of light scattering like falling stars.

And then—she appeared.

Her hair shimmered like molten gold, cascading down like sunlight captured in strands.

Her eyes—pure golden suns—met his with a calm that pierced through the fabric of the space.

A flowing white dress adorned with intricate golden accents wrapped her frame, her very presence exuding divinity.

She was ethereal. Unreachable. The concept of beauty made flesh.

But Riley knew. He knew immediately who stood before him.

“…Eris,”

The Goddess of Light smiled softly, warmth and gravity in one expression.

“Hello, Riley. I believe this is the first time we’ve spoken to each other in our truest forms.”

Her voice resonated like a choir hidden within a single tone.

“Yes… indeed…”

His mind drifted back to their last meeting.

Back then, it had only been his soul that brushed against her presence.

He hadn’t been able to see her—only fragments of light, glimpses he could barely withstand.

Even perceiving her for too long had threatened to shatter him into nothingness.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” Eris said, her voice lilting with faint amusement, “but it seems your plans truly have worked. Truly… the work of an anomaly.”

Riley’s brows furrowed. “My plans…?”

The goddess chuckled softly, each note dripping like honey, yet carrying a sharpness that unsettled him.

She stepped forward, golden light following her like an obedient veil.

With unhurried grace, she reached the edge of his bed and sat down.

Her hand brushed against the fabric, fingers trailing lightly over the sheets as if fascinated by something so mundane. A smile tugged at her lips.

“Fufu~ it was actually quite hard acting like a fool, you know,” she said, tilting her head playfully, strands of radiant hair slipping over her shoulder. “I suppose it takes that much effort if one wants to trick my dear sister. Even she couldn’t perceive everything that happened.”

Her golden eyes flickered with mischief as she twirled a strand of hair between her fingers.

“You should thank me, Riley. For distracting her during your mid-ascendance. Without me…” she leaned closer bending her body down, her voice dipping to almost a whisper, “you wouldn’t be sitting here at all.”

Riley’s gaze hardened, but his reply was restrained. “…I see.”

Eris’s smile sharpened, her amusement shifting into something more deliberate. Her eyes gleamed, burning with layered meanings.

“Even your soul,” she said softly, “is filtered quite well. Considering the requirements, I suppose that much sacrifice was necessary if you truly wished to bend fate.”

Riley blinked. “What do you mean?”

The goddess’s laughter was quiet, almost fond, but it carried an edge of cruelty.

“All the other you,” she said, lifting a hand and making a faint motion, as if sweeping away invisible fragments, “are now filtered. Their sacrifices… were not in vain. Seeing you stand here whole… confirms it.”

“Filtered?” Riley repeated, confusion seeping into his voice.

“Yes.” Eris’s eyes locked onto his, unwavering, unblinking. “Though… considering you left behind a copy, I suppose it’s less filtering and more of a… switching of places. One by one. Now that they’re gone.”

Her words hung heavy, golden light flickering around her like feathers caught in an invisible wind.

Riley’s lips parted, but no sound came. He looked at her, his confusion growing deeper, as if every answer she gave unraveled into a dozen more questions.

And Eris only smiled, as though she delighted in watching him struggle to comprehend.

Then, with a gentle motion, Eris tapped the bed twice with her slender fingers. Tap, tap. The sound was soft, yet it carried a strange weight, like a command written into the very air.

“Come,” she said, her voice calm but threaded with something unshakably firm. “I know you have a lot of questions… but for now, your soul needs to stabilize. Although you seem to have a faint grasp of your domain, reaching this level of ascendance makes you vulnerable… fragile.”

Riley stood still, hesitating, his gaze darting briefly to her golden eyes.

Her presence pressed against him like sunlight too close to his skin—warm, yet impossible to ignore.

Slowly, reluctantly, he stepped forward.

When he sat at her side, his eyes caught the mirror across the room.

And there—what looked back wasn’t him.

It was a formless silhouette, a man-shaped shadow, cloaked entirely in shifting darkness.

A hollow reflection, faceless and unmoored, as though he was only pretending to be human.

A quiet realization struck him, sinking heavy in his chest. I’ve changed.

Fshhh—!

Before he could think further, a soft pressure touched his head.

A light grasp—delicate yet inescapable.

In the next instant, Riley found himself leaning against her, his head gently resting on Eris’s lap.

His eyes narrowed. “…What are you doing?”

Her fingers brushed faintly through his hair—or rather, through the smoky dark that obscured it. Her voice was calm, soothing, almost melodic.

“Just helping you relax.”

“I don’t need to—”

His protest was silenced when Eris placed a single finger against his lips, a playful smile tugging at her face.

“Shhh.”

Then she stroked his head, once, twice—each movement impossibly soft, her warmth seeping into the formless shadow that was his body.

Wherever her touch passed, sparks of golden light shimmered into existence, weaving over him like threads of sunlight through a broken sky.

The darkness covering him began to splinter. Thin cracks of brilliance spread across his figure until, with a quiet shatter, the smoky haze dispersed completely.

And in its place… his true form.

The mirror now reflected the familiar golden hair, falling lightly across his brow, and those piercing blue eyes that gleamed like sharpened crystal.

For a moment, he could almost believe nothing had changed.

But his chest told him otherwise.

A drowsy warmth flowed through his veins, spreading from every point Eris’s fingers touched.

His eyelids grew heavy, the edges of his awareness blurring like fog rolling across a quiet lake.

“Don’t worry…” Eris whispered, her voice brushing his ears like a secret. “This will stay between the two of us. So… sleep for now, Han.”

Riley’s lips parted, but no sound came.

Before he could even begin to question the name she had called him—before he could demand answers—sleep took him, pulling him under in quiet surrender.

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