Anomaly

In the park, my thoughts were racing, desperately searching for a way out of the situation. I needed to find Victor, Emily, and Laura — and fast. But how? Just wandering around aimlessly, hoping to bump into them by sheer luck? That would be useless.
Not only would it waste precious time, but the chances of actually finding them — and of the three still being alive by the time I did — shrank with every passing minute. It’s not like I had some kind of anomalous area-tracking ability or anything like that.
Maybe the only thing I had that could even vaguely resemble that was my telepathy... Even then, even if by some miracle it worked that way, I had no idea how far I’d have to reach to pick up their thoughts. And honestly, I doubted my mind could stretch that far — especially in a place as dense and silent as this.
Though my telepathy had become far steadier and broader compared to when it first manifested, it didn’t change the fact that trying to cover long distances still gave me headaches — which was ironic, considering that, as far as I knew, my body didn’t even have a brain. In the end, all I could do was sigh, surrendering to the irony of it all.
(Anyway) I thought, letting my gaze drift across the empty, silent park. Dry leaves danced with the wind, a faint creak of a gate echoed somewhere distant, and then everything returned to that same uncomfortable stillness: (I don’t have many options left... so this is going to have to work, one way or another)
The next moment, I closed my eyes and let the world around me fade away. I pushed my senses outward as far as they could go, taking in the entire park like a vast mental field, with my presence at the center — the quiet epicenter of everything.
Normally, I used my telepathy just for communication, since I couldn’t speak, but the truth was it went far beyond that. At its core, my ability was nothing more than sending and receiving thoughts. If I could reach their minds, then I could hear what they were thinking... and find them.
With that thought, I kept expanding my senses, sweeping every corner of the park for any sign of movement. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves in the trees, but aside from that, the silence was almost absolute. After about thirty seconds of hearing nothing, it happened — a small spark flickered inside my head.
It felt like a sharp, electric jolt — quick and unpleasant, a faint snap of pain running through my mind. I knew exactly what it meant: the farther I pushed my senses, the more that “little spark” would turn violent, as if my own mind were rebelling against the strain.
A minute into expanding my senses, a new wave of pain hit my head — sharper and more persistent than before. It was almost funny: even with a body practically immortal and immune to external pain, I could still hurt myself internally by overusing my own powers. Each pulse of that pain echoed inside my skull, as though my mind itself were turning against me.
Lost in my thoughts, my eyes snapped open when my telepathy finally caught something far off. They were definitely thoughts — vague, almost imperceptible fragments — but too distant for me to understand clearly.
A sharp pang throbbed in my head, making it impossible to fully focus. Still, that was the least of my worries. Even if they didn’t belong to the three of them, I had to check. I couldn’t just ignore it.
In the next instant, with a single thought, thick black smoke began to rise from my body, converging at my tailbone. The wings already there were suddenly engulfed by something soft and velvety, molding and expanding around them. A strange sensation ran through me — part ticklish, part uncomfortable — but I honestly didn’t care.
Now much larger, my wings beat once and hurled my body upward, leaving a powerful gust of wind that shook the vegetation below. In one smooth motion, I soared into the air at high speed, following the direction of those distorted thoughts.
It didn’t take long — about thirty seconds later, the place came into view. Just ahead, the anomaly of fragmented mosaics slid slowly toward Victor, Emily, and Laura, its presence warping the air around it like a cracked mirror ready to shatter.
As strange as the scene was, I didn’t care in that moment. For a brief second, I worried the anomaly might have already done something to the three while I was gone, but there was no time for that now. The instant I saw what lay before me, I didn’t hesitate — a blazing heat surged through me, rising like a molten wave.
Within seconds, I began to glow again, just like I had in space. I funneled all that heat into my hands and, the next instant, released it all at once, pouring the energy directly onto the point where the anomaly manifested.
I didn’t worry about Emily, Victor, or Alice — not only were they at a safe distance, but my Alter Ego had already moved ahead, wrapping them in a dense, protective darkness. The air around me trembled with the sudden release of power, and a wave of heat distorted the space in front of me as if the very air were about to catch fire.
In moments, a thunderous explosion tore through the spot where the mosaic anomaly stood. The impact sent up a dense cloud of dust, and the ground gave way, opening a small crater at the center of the detonation.
For a few seconds, I kept my eyes fixed on the swirling gray vortex, watching the suspended particles dance in the flickering light. Only then did I look away, turning my attention to the small black dome ahead — motionless, silent, and untouched by all that chaos.
I beat my wings lightly and began to descend. The night wind slid through my feathers as I neared the dome. I touched down softly, my feet barely making a sound on the cold surface.
I took a few steps toward the gleaming structure, and at that moment, the dark wings at my tailbone dissolved like smoke, fading into the air. In their place, my true wings emerged — broad, feathered in shimmering white down that reflected the light as if made of living moonlight.
As I approached the dome, it began to unravel slowly from the top down, as if consumed by some invisible force. A dark line sank to the ground, spreading a brief flash before drawing back into my body like a breath returning to its source.
Inside the dome, Victor, Emily, and Alice were taking in their surroundings, their eyes filled with confusion and anxiety. The moment they noticed me, their gazes snapped toward me—and all at once, their expressions splintered into different reactions.
Laura smiled as if she’d just seen her savior return from the dead. Emily let out a long, almost trembling sigh, as though the weight she’d been carrying in her chest had finally lifted.
Victor kept his cold, impassive stare, but there was a subtle trace of relief hidden in his expression—a barely perceptible glint in his eyes. Seeing the three of them alive and well stirred something deep inside me; no matter how hard I tried to keep my composure, the relief inside was immense, almost comforting.
I thought about stepping toward them, but at the exact moment that idea crossed my mind, a presence appeared at my side. I didn’t even need to turn to know who—or what—was there. It was the same dense, oppressive sensation I’d felt before being teleported, like the very air around me had grown heavier.
My first thought was instinctive, almost reflexive. My body began to emit a thick black smoke, dense like living shadows, and in the blink of an eye, a massive black spike erupted from the ground, rising beside me like a dark obelisk, right at the spot where I’d sensed that presence manifest.
But unlike what I’d imagined, I didn’t “feel” the strike hit. I blinked—just for an instant, a single second—and in that brief lapse of time, it was there. The being made of mosaics had suddenly appeared in front of me, as if it had sprouted from the air itself.
A moment before, the space was empty; the next, its presence filled everything, so natural and inevitable it felt like it had always been there. The mosaic being raised what I could only assume was its arm again.
At the same instant, a shiver ran down my entire body—the vivid memory of being suddenly hurled into space came rushing back, overwhelming and sharp. My thoughts scattered, and any attempt at reasoning was wiped from my mind; there was no room left for thought, only instinct.
My body reacted on its own, before I could even understand what was happening. Heat surged through me, burning intensely, as if every cell were being consumed by an invisible fire. The dome re-formed around Emily, Victor, and Laura, shielding them instinctively.
A bluish glow began to radiate from me, growing stronger until the light became almost blinding. Then, without even thinking, it just happened: an explosion of energy burst from my body.
There was no intent, no control—just raw, unavoidable force. In the blink of an eye, a field of energy expanded in all directions, sweeping everything around me with devastating power, as if the very air had been torn away.
In seconds, the park simply ceased to exist. The trees? Reduced to blackened skeletons, completely charred. The grass? Gone—just a carpet of scorched, cracked, lifeless earth.
Even the paved walkways had been ripped from the ground, as if they’d never been there. What remained was a scene of absolute desolation—a perfect image of what would be left after a nuclear blast: silence, ashes, and the bitter smell of destruction hanging in the air.
Meanwhile, I—the epicenter of all that chaos—was breathing hard, trying to steady my racing breath as I took in the surroundings. There was no sign of the mosaic being. Honestly, I didn’t know why, or how, but just thinking about that thing made me anxious, restless in an almost suffocating way.
I’d never seen it up close, and maybe that was exactly what made it worse. For the first time, the feeling that I could actually lose washed over me completely—and losing here, now, meant leaving Emily, Laura, and Victor at its mercy.
I scanned every corner of that space, searching for the mosaic being, but there was nothing—not a flicker, not even a trace of its presence. My senses also failed to pick up anything; it was as if it had simply ceased to exist. The dome behind me, where the three of them waited, remained firm and intact, resisting the destruction that had just happened.
For a moment, a flicker of relief dared to cross my mind, warm and brief like a spark: (Did I... do it? Even it couldn’t come out of that unscathed... right?)
If I could smile, my serious expression right now would probably show a deep sense of relief. Seriously... even held back, that had still been a mass-destruction strike. Not to brag, but I know what my power can do: fully charged, it’d be strong enough to wipe an entire planet to dust. I have no idea how far my regeneration goes, but I honestly doubt I could survive if it ever reached that point.
For a brief instant, I felt genuine relief. I lowered my head, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, letting the air out in a heavy sigh. But when I opened them again, something was staring at me—upside down.
The shock froze me in place. The figure in front of me had a face impossible to distinguish, made entirely of shifting fragments like a living mosaic, reflecting the light in broken, distorted tones.