Of Thousand Lives

Chapter 6: Night Children

  After another day, I lay my back on my soft bed in the room I call home. Sometimes, I do wonder whether this church has any security mechanism or not. I mean.. Only Natalia and I live here, so what if a thief broke in?.. I doubt that this church has anything to steal in the first place, but still, after the confrontation with the thugs, I can feel eyes watching me.. I look outside the window, to make sure that I'm alone. For a moment, I can see a silhouette of a woman looking inside from the corner of the window, but after blinking, there's nothing there. Strange, either someone's there, or I am just hallucinating. Just to make sure.. I get up from my bed and slowly go to the window. From just a quick look, everything seems fine, but I open the window and look outside to make sure.

[...]

..Nothing here, except for the blowing wind and a couple of leaves passing by. I look up at the pale moon. It looks ruined, separated into two big pieces with tiny debris orbiting around them. Though, it acts the same as a regular moon like the one from my old world, I suppose. I sigh, closing the window. Turning around, I stretch my arms out and let out a small sigh. I can't sleep, probably because I can't stop thinking about the things Raven told me today. Too many theories popping up in my mind for no reason whatsoever. Suddenly, something tugs on my pants, like a small little hand, that gathers my attention. "Hello, mister.", the little girl who pulled my leg, with tiny red horns on her head, quietly mutters and waves at me. At least it isn't some eldritch horror that wants to haunt my dreams.. "Hey, nice to meet you, kid. But, how did you get in here? Where are your parents??", I scoff softly and pats her head, before inquiring. Then, I can hear faint footsteps coming up from the roof. After that a woman pops up from the top of the window, her hair hanging upside down as she appears. Her skin is quite pale, almost like a vampire's. "Oh, I'm very sorry. She got too excited and came through the portal first.", she swings inside the room, landing very elegantly, not making a sound at all. The woman hugs the little girl and carries the girl in her embrace. She seems to be very athletic and buff, somehow judging by her muscles. "Hello, ma'am.", I nod swiftly, greeting her, and she nods back at me. "My name is Vanessa. This is my little girl, Shaermy.. And there's..", Vanessa points at herself with her thumb, then pats the girl's head softly when she introduces names, but she trails off, like someone isn't there yet. Suddenly, someone knocks on the door. The woman reaches over and opens the door for me. Then, a tall man walks in, he has slightly dark red skin and long horns that stretch across his head, curling up a bit near their ends. Other than that, despite his bulky and tall look, he seems really friendly. "Hey, I'm Volke. I'm an old friend of Raven's. You probably should know him by now, considering the fact that you live here. Nice to meet you. My wife and daughter should have introduced themselves to you by now.", the tall demon speaks and waves at me with a little smile. I can smell something, close to gunpowder, entering my room. "Hello, sir.", I wave back at him. They seem like a friendly little family. Very soft spoken.. I wish things were this way for me. The little kid seems happy. Good for her.

"Well, we are here to pay you a visit. I haven't seen an otherworldly traveler for quite a while. At least, the recent ones are nicer than the first. Usually, when an Anomaly emerges, something important happens.", Volke adds. Does my existence here mean something important, then..? "Can you please tell me about what the last Anomalies did?", my curiosity takes the best of me. The little kid goes around the room to see what's in it. The pale woman's eyes follow her child closely, though it seems like she's listening too. "Well.. Sure. Usually, every 500 years, a Dimensional Rift, the portal which you came out of will be opened at any random place, but will give out an intense glow that can be seen from far far away. I know this, because I was there for the last 2 Anomalies.. Sorry, I got a little offtrack, but for the other ones.. The first Anomaly to ever come to this world was an angel. From the tales of the ancient ones, his face was masked and he refused to remove it when asked. He shaped the mountains, he carved the moon, he laid down paths for the inhabitants to march towards prosperity. Then, he disappeared, leaving behind little fragments of Her to defend the world from the Void. The second Anomaly. Again, according to the books, it was a shapeshifter. Sadly, there isn't much about him, but something happened, for sure. About the 3rd and the 4th Anomaly, books about them were created during the reign of the Meluvens, and unfortunately were all burned by the Meluven government. Then, there's you. The 5th Anomaly.", Volke tells the stories of the Anomalies, then gestures towards me when he mentions the 5th one, which is me. The 1st Anomaly seems nice, perhaps he was really some sort of god in the eyes of the people then. For now, I feel like a regular person, apart from what happened a few weeks ago. From then, I really haven't broken through with my magic. Maybe it was beginner's luck.