The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 152

“Hey. Where were you during the first two sessions?” Inquired Kiran curiously, as I entered the training hall.

“Sorry about that, something came up,” I apologized sheepishly, though didn’t give away any details…I mean, it’s not like I can tell them the truth.

Instructor Satou then arrived, stifling a yawn as he headed for the front of the room, before clearing his throat to get our attention.

“Listen up, because as always, I won’t repeat myself. Alright, today’s session will be a simple, yet challenging one…specifically, all three teams will be in this training hall, as you can see, there’s three teleportation platforms in here. Each team will be tasked with fighting upto five Q-Ranked Mutants at a time, but there’ll be no safety barrier, and here’s your objective; kill the Mutants while keeping them from interfering with the other teams…if one of the teams does mess us and let a Mutant slip by, I’ll intervene and prevent the Mutant from attacking another team, so just focus on the ones you’re assigned to,” Explained Instructor Satou, before setting up the platforms.

And I was starting to get a bad feeling, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Come on, think…is there something I should be worried about? All the previous events of today, the blackout, the Crocsnek attack and the bombing, I encountered hints for those events the first time I went through today.

For the blackout, it was the lights flickering, for the Crocsnek, it was the ground rumbling, and for the bombing, it was the commotion by the front entrance, when the guards caught Grey before he could trigger the bomb.

Did anything else out of the ordinary happen the first time around-…and that’s when it hit me, as I recalled what had happened during this session. Yeah…I remember, the first time I went through today, one of the teleportation platforms malfunctioned and-…shit!

“Shut down the plat-!” I began in alarm, but I was too late-…no, this time, it was even worse…

The first time around, it had been eight Mutants, including one K-Rank…but this time, as Instructor Satou activated the platform, several Mutants burst into the room, easily way more than just eight…there were definitely more than twenty, and at least five K-Ranks that I could see.

What the hell is-…tch, no time to think, they’re attacking! I slashed off the head of a Mutant that sprang at me, gritting my teeth in frustration…they’re quickly overwhelming us, and we’ve all been split up, working together is effectively impossible now. Damn it, I don’t have time to think!

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>!”

The moment I stopped time, I was able to clearly see with just a single, quick glance around, that if I’d taken even a few seconds longer, most of the others would have been killed. To my left, a Footish, which is a large, centipede-like Mutant, was wrapped around Zoya, about to sink its fangs into her.

It’s a Q-Ranked Mutant that grows upto four meters long, with sharp feet and fangs that secrete a toxin that causes hallucinations and nausea. It was named Footish by combined ‘foot’ and ‘fetish’. I slowly unwrapped it from around Zoya, before tearing it into pieces to kill it.

I need to hurry, I’ve only got a few minutes, I need to drag everyone out of this room by then. I sliced off the head of a Catto that was springing up behind Seila, it’s fangs inches away from sinking into her neck from behind, while she was focused on several Mutants that were attacking her from in front.

I then dragged Seila and linked her arm to Zoya’s, before lengthening the human chain as fast as I could, with the rest of my classmates…I reluctantly added Bytra and Makoto to the chain as well, conflicted about it the whole time. Asshole was already near the exit…he must have started running as soon as the chaos began.

Alright, just a couple more and-…I then froze, as I spotted a pair of Greasponsibilities, a type of Q-Ranked Mutant. Specifically, it was a large, three meter tall, spider-type Mutant, with powerful, paralyzing fangs, sticky webs and was capable of reaching high speeds.

The name Greasponsibility was derived by combining ‘great’ and ‘responsibility’, for obvious reasons. But none of that was going through my mind right now, because I was too focused on what was between the two spider Mutants.

A body that was being held by one of them, covered in webs and missing its head, while the Mutant that was holding it had its mouth soaked in blood, with a small, red puddle right below on the floor. And that’s when I saw it…half of the head was on the floor, the Mutant must have been unable to take it in one bite.

And it took me no more than a second to recognize the half face…it was Andre. I gritted my teeth and turned away, swallowing the bitter pill that there was nothing I could do to save him, it was far, far too late. There should still be two more of my classmates remaining, not to mention Instructor Jin Satou-…

I spotted the last two of my classmates, Suri and Katie, and the instructor was right in front of them…and as I got a good look at him, my heart sank, before sinking even further as I saw the full picture.

Suri and Katie was both on the ground, with the latter’s right leg badly broken and a deep gash on her left side. And Instructor Satou was in front of them with his back facing them…he was between them and a K-Ranked Mutant, known as an Armadildo, a six meter tall armadillo Mutant, with extremely long, razor sharp claws.

And one of those claws was pierced right through the left side of the instructor’s chest…and the tip of the claw was pierced several inches into the middle of Suri’s chest. I took a step forward, my mind blank and it felt like I wasn’t breathing, but I was too stunned to process that.

I silently dragged Katie away, linking her up to the human chain with the rest of my classmates. I then dragged them all out of the training hall, before doing the same with the bodies of Andre, Instructor Satou and Suri. I then re-entered the training hall, my mind still blank, while my body burned in a cold fury.

It was like I was moving on autopilot, not a single thought was going through my head right now…but when I say blank, I don’t mean empty. No, when I say blank, I mean that, just like a blank canvas, there’s only a single color I see in my mind right now, stretching out endlessly…all I could see, was a blank, crimson red.

A pure rage, so intense that I was eerily calm and more focused than I’d ever been before, without so much as a single thought floating through my mind…and that’s why I have no idea why I did what I did next, and more importantly, I have no idea how I did it.

All I know, is that I suddenly started channeling my remaining XFE into the spot between my shoulder blades, with perfect control and composure. It was strange…at a little over forty percent, I shouldn’t even have enough XFE left to attempt this, let alone pull it off, which I was yet to accomplish.

And yet, somehow, I just knew…that this time, I wasn’t going to fail. I felt my power surge, but didn’t stiffen or flinch like before, I remained relaxed and composed, as my rage continued to grow, the endless red in my mind expanding beyond the boundaries of endlessness…and then came the chant.

“<XFE Insufficient…Adjusting…Successful…Mode Restricted…Partial Unleash Anomaly:…>,” I recited calmly, before completing the chant, “<…God of Space and Time>.”

A black mist appeared all around me, and other changes might have also occurred, but I didn’t bother to notice. I calmly raised my hand and snapped my fingers, and in that instant, time inside this room came to a stop, while the rest of the world was still frozen.

What happened next was an unclear blur, but by the time I came to my senses, I was standing in front of a massive pile of Mutant corpses, down to a mere six percent of my XFE, my body aching like crazy as I felt completely worn out. I was standing in a massive puddle of blood, that nearly covered the entire floor of the training hall.

Mutant blood was splattered all over my clothes, my hands were slick with their blood and every single one of the Mutants had been completely torn apart, none of them were in one piece anymore. Did I do this? Somehow, I know for sure that I did…it’s like I remember doing it, but at the same time, I don’t remember it at all.

It looks like time in this room is frozen again, I can tell by the physics when I move…I turned around and headed for the door, exiting the room and shutting the door behind me. Damn it…I shouldn’t have let my guard down. I was careless, and as a result, three people are dead…Andre, Instructor Satou and…Suri.

I didn’t want to resume the flow of time, I couldn’t bring myself to do so…but there was no point in delaying it, it won’t bring her back to life. The dead stay dead, and thanks to my powers, I know that better than anyone…and the most frustrating part is that there’s nothing I can do about it. Keeping time frozen like this, it’s only delaying the inevitable. I clenched my fists as I reluctantly chanted…

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two:…Play>.”

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