Chapter 489 – From despair, hope is born [70]

(POV - Arthur Hensley)

Truth be told, Arthur had always known that the anomaly everyone had affectionately nicknamed [Angel of Death] was far more than she appeared to be on the surface. Arthur possessed only a rudimentary understanding of the Virtues. Not necessarily of their powers or the full extent of their capabilities, but of what truly mattered: their roles. The universe did not function by chance.

Arthur had wondered countless times why everything seemed to work so perfectly. Why every single thing appeared to fit exactly where it was supposed to, like pieces of a much larger structure. It was a kind of perfection that sometimes seemed almost artificial.

Not in the sense of being fake, but in the sense of having been carefully planned. As if someone, at some point, had decided that the universe should function in a particular way. Take humans, for example. They had evolved naturally, and there was an overwhelming amount of evidence proving it.

There were records, fossils, genetic changes... an entire chain of events explaining how humanity had reached the point it was at. But what about their ancestors? And what came before them? The further Arthur went back in time, the harder it became to believe that all of this was simply an endless sequence of coincidences.

There were too many patterns. Too many functions. Fundamental concepts that seemed to have existed from the very beginning, each fulfilling its role with absolute precision. And that was precisely where the Virtues came in. They were not merely powerful individuals. They were pieces of something far greater.

They existed because their roles were necessary for certain mechanisms of the universe to continue functioning. Arthur did not know all the details. Far from it. But he knew enough to understand that things were far more than they appeared to be.

The very concept of Life had only been possible because, at some point, everything had aligned perfectly. Not by chance, but because someone, or something, had wanted it to be that way. The world operated according to rules. Fundamental, immutable rules that were, in theory, unbreakable.

Life, Death, Time, Chaos, Order, Hope, Fear... Concepts that were not merely words or abstract ideas, but authorities that supported existence itself. And, of course, behind all of this was the one responsible for creating that structure. The one who had established the rules that allowed reality itself to exist.

Arthur had read countless records over the years. Some were ancient enough to have survived only in fragments, while others had been carefully preserved for generations. Even so, after examining so many documents, he had never found a satisfactory answer regarding one particular anomaly.

An anomaly that, curiously enough, was praised by the Virtues themselves. The [Angel of Death]. Arthur had no idea who, or rather, what, she truly was. He did not know her limits. He did not understand the full extent of her powers. And above all, he did not know why she seemed to escape the same rules that restricted every other Virtue.

By default, a Virtue could not directly act against its own authority. Death could not grant Life. Life could not simply impose Death. Chaos could not establish Order. And Order could not embrace Chaos without contradicting its own nature. These limitations were not mere conventions. They were fundamental rules, as old as reality itself. Not even the Virtues could ignore them.

But the [Angel of Death] seemed to operate in a fundamentally different way. She was different. Arthur still could not say exactly what made her an exception, but there was something about her that simply did not fit. It was as though the same chains binding the other Virtues simply did not exist for her. As far as Arthur could tell, the [Angel of Death] did not possess those limitations.

She could act entirely on her own, interfering in situations whenever she deemed it necessary and to whatever extent she considered appropriate. The more Arthur observed her, the more time he spent analyzing every move the [Angel of Death] made, the more intrigued he became. The data shared between him and the organization, particularly Emily and Laura, usually led nowhere.

His research into ancient texts concerning the Virtues had yielded nothing but disconnected fragments, while the daily tests conducted directly on the anomaly herself had likewise failed to provide a satisfactory answer. Until now, there had been no concrete explanation for why the [Angel of Death] was so different from the others.

That was precisely why witnessing this scene firsthand had finally made Arthur realize just how insane she truly was. What had just happened was, essentially, a nuclear explosion compressed to an absurdly small scale. A concentrated, lethal discharge that was nevertheless under perfect control.

There was no wasted energy, no sign of instability, no loss of control. It was as though something capable of devastating an entire area had been reduced to a single point and made to obey her will.

Naturally, a nuclear bomb meant absolutely nothing when compared to the ability to command concepts such as life and death, time and chaos, order and hope. However, those were vague terms, concepts that humanity itself still did not fully understand.

A nuclear bomb, on the other hand, was something humans understood. After all, they were the ones who had created it. They knew better than anyone just how devastating, deadly, and terrifying a weapon like that could be.

They understood its destructive power, the consequences of a single detonation, and, most importantly, the fear that the mere thought of being near a nuclear explosion could inspire. That was why witnessing a being who could not only simulate something akin to a nuclear bomb, but also freely control the intensity of its destruction, should have been terrifying.

And yet, there was something almost ironic about the situation. The one responsible for the destruction seemed to have absolutely no idea how terrifying it was to witness it from up close. When the Anomaly finally returned, neither Arthur nor Victor or Rupert continued firing.

There was no reason to anymore. The weapons fell silent almost simultaneously, leaving behind only the distant echoes of the final shots and the unsettling sound of debris collapsing around them. The [Death Angel] had already taken care of the giant.

Several tentacles simply lost their strength and collapsed onto the ground, falling heavily as though something had severed their connection to the rest of the body. Others continued twitching for a few moments before becoming completely still. The gigantic mushroom was getting closer and closer to being purified, or whatever was actually happening to it.

Amidst the situation, Victor was the first to decide to break the silence. Even so, his eyes remained fixed on the [Death Angel], his caution obvious. It wasn't exactly fear, at least not in the conventional sense. It was more a mixture of apprehension and disbelief, especially after witnessing the Anomaly emerge directly from what had looked like a nuclear explosion.

Actually, now that he thought about it... she was the explosion. Victor hesitated for a moment before finally asking: "Are you... okay?"

The question was almost absurdly obvious. Any normal person would have considered it ridiculous to ask someone that after they'd just been swallowed by the center of a thermonuclear explosion. But when it came to an Anomaly, the usual rules seemed to lose all meaning.

Her answer, however, was so casual that Victor remained silent for several seconds: "No problem"

The [Death Angel] shrugged, as though turning herself into the epicenter of a thermonuclear explosion was nothing more than another minor inconvenience in her daily life: "Sure, dealing with that stupid colossus was a pain..." she continued with a small sigh: "But everything worked out in the end"

Her gaze then swept across the area, taking in their surroundings and the aftermath of the battle: "Looks like we're wrapping things up here, too"

The Anomaly's expression shifted slightly, taking on an almost childlike excitement at the thought of the mission finally ending: "I want to go home already. I feel like playing some video games" She paused briefly, as though she'd just remembered something extremely important: "Oh, and I'm also going to demand my ice cream for this mission"

Arthur, Victor, and Rupert simply had no idea how to react to that. For a few moments, the three of them remained silent, exchanging discreet glances. They had entered the situation tense and prepared for anything. Yet, faced with such an utterly unexpected reaction, Arthur began to wonder if, in the end, they weren't the strange ones in this situation.

Arthur almost felt like laughing. He slowly shook his head, feeling like a complete idiot for having overthought everything: "Yeah... of course you'd say something like that. That's just the kind of person you are"

The [Death Angel] turned her head toward him. Her characteristic impassive gaze met Arthur's, remaining fixed on him for several seconds. Even so, there was something different about her expression. A faint confusion, almost imperceptible, as though she genuinely didn't understand what Arthur meant by that.

Arthur held her gaze for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh. It didn't matter whether she understood or not. What really mattered was that, after everything that had happened, Arthur would no longer forget what kind of Anomaly, or perhaps, more accurately, what kind of entity, the [Death Angel] truly was.

Although she might appear strange and perhaps even frightening on the outside, on the inside, she wasn't all that different from an ordinary teenage girl. In fact, even her thoughts, most of the time, were completely at odds with what one would expect from an Anomaly. There was a certain innocence in some of her actions, an almost childish curiosity, and reactions that, under normal circumstances, would have been considered perfectly human.

Perhaps those very characteristics were what had led Arthur to believe that the [Death Angel] wasn't all that dangerous, at least not to humans. Arthur still had no idea what kind of authority the [Death Angel] wielded. Her powers were simply too diverse for him to identify their origin or draw any concrete conclusions.

There was something deeply anomalous about the way her abilities manifested, but despite that, Arthur was beginning to see her from a different perspective. From his point of view, the [Death Angel] seemed to act almost as a mediator between humanity and the Anomalies.

Someone who, despite belonging to a completely different world, was capable of understanding humans and, under certain circumstances, even coexisting with them. It was only an interpretation, a hypothesis built upon incomplete information. Arthur knew that. Even so, he chose to see the Anomaly that way. At least until she herself gave him a reason to think otherwise.