The Anomaly's Path

[Arthur’s POV]

My eyes snapped open and I gasped, air rushing into my lungs like I’d been drowning, like someone had held me under and only now let me surface. My hand went to my chest automatically, feeling my heart hammering away too fast, too loud in the quiet darkness of my room.

The same dream again.

I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to breathe. In through my nose, hold it, out through my mouth. The rhythm I’d taught myself years ago when the nightmares first started, when I’d wake up screaming and find myself alone in a strange room with no family to comfort me.

It didn’t work.

It never really worked. But going through the motions helped me pretend I had some control over any of this.

My mother’s smile as she fell kept playing behind my eyelids. That final expression, frozen in time, meant to comfort me even as her life drained away. My father’s back as he turned to face the monster, that piece of broken wood raised against something he couldn’t possibly defeat.

Lilia’s hand in mine, warm one second and then cold the next—so cold I could still feel it sometimes when I woke up, that phantom sensation of her fingers going limp in my grip.

Nine years. It had been nine years since that night, and their faces were still the first thing I saw whenever I closed my eyes.

I sat up slowly and swung my legs over the side of the bed, pressing my palms against my eyes until I saw stars dancing behind my eyelids. The pressure helped, gave me something else to focus on besides the images burned into my memory.

”Nine years,” I whispered to the empty room, my voice rough from sleep. ”When does it stop hurting?”

The room didn’t answer me.

I pushed myself up and walked to the small table by the window, reaching for the water pitcher with practiced ease.

The darkness didn’t bother me anymore—I’d learned to navigate this room years ago, knew exactly how many steps from bed to table, knew where the chair was without looking, knew the exact weight of the cup in my hand.

I poured water and drank, letting the cold liquid ground me, bring me back to reality. The phantom warmth of Lilia’s fingers faded a little, replaced by the very real sensation of the cup against my palm.

I told myself it was just another day. Just another training session. Just another spar. If I said it enough times, maybe I’d start believing it.

It was a lie I’d told myself a thousand times over the years. Some days I even believed it.

I set the cup down and was about to head back to my bed when the voice came.

[...You’re awake.]

I froze mid-step.

It came from everywhere and nowhere at once, soft and feminine, resonating directly inside my skull.

I’d long since stopped flinching when it spoke, stopped looking around to see if anyone else could hear it. But some things you never got used to, no matter how many times they happened.

”You don’t usually speak this early,” I muttered, keeping my voice low.

[No. But today is different.] She paused for a moment, and when she spoke again her voice was softer, gentler. [You were dreaming again.]

I didn’t respond.

[It must be hard for you, reliving that night over and over. I’m sorry, Arthur.]

I walked to the window instead of answering, pressing my palm against the cold glass and looking out at the dark estate spread out below me.

The Nightshade grounds were quiet and peaceful, most of its inhabitants still asleep. In a few hours the training yard would be full of soldiers running their drills, their voices carrying across the open space as they pushed themselves harder and harder. But right now it was just me and the voice and the memories I couldn’t escape.

...Nine years ago today.

[I know.]

I still don’t remember what happened after I grabbed that piece of wood. After Lilia fell. After she stopped moving.

[You know what I’ve told you.]

I did.

She’d told me years ago when I was old enough to understand, when I’d finally asked directly instead of dancing around the question like I had for years.

She said she helped me survive, said I would have died otherwise, said she did what was necessary. But knowing something and actually remembering it were two completely different things.

I remembered grabbing the wood, the jagged edge cutting into my palm—that sharp pain grounding me in the middle of all that chaos. I remembered the monster lunging toward me, its mouth open wide, ready to finish what it had started.

And then nothing.

When I woke up, the monster was dead. Torn apart, ripped to pieces, its body scattered across the floor in ways I still couldn’t explain even now. Lilia was beside me, her hand still warm in mine, but she wasn’t breathing anymore. She wasn’t anything anymore.

I was covered in blood. Her blood, its blood, maybe even my own blood—I didn’t know then and I still couldn’t tell the difference now. It had all mixed together into a single dark stain that soaked through my clothes and painted my skin red.

Days later, after the Duke took me to his estate and gave me a room and clothes and food I couldn’t bring myself to eat.

A voice spoke in my mind for the very first time, soft and clear despite everything I’d just been through.

You are chosen by the Goddess.

I thought I’d lost my mind back then. Thought the trauma had finally broken something inside me that could never be fixed. I’d spent hours staring at walls, waiting for the hallucinations to stop, waiting for my brain to heal itself and start working normally again.

But the voice kept speaking day after day, kept teaching me things I didn’t understand, kept guiding me through a world I no longer recognized.

She taught me how to sense mana, how to strengthen my core, how to use the abilities she’d granted me. She answered my questions when she could and stayed silent when she couldn’t.

You are my Apostle, she told me eventually. The one I selected before you were even born.

I didn’t understand what that meant back then. Honestly, I still didn’t fully understand it now. But I’d learned to live with it, learned to accept that this was my life, that this voice would always be here, that I’d never really be alone even when I desperately wanted to be.

One day, years ago, I finally worked up the courage to ask her directly about what happened that night.

After I blacked out. Was that you?

[I helped you survive.]

...So you took over my body.

[I did what was necessary.]

I remembered letting out a long breath after that, not sure how to feel about the answer. But I’d thanked her anyway, because whatever she’d done, she’d kept me alive.

Now I had my answer, straight from the source.

Thank you, I thought, and meant it. For keeping me alive.

[You’re welcome, Arthur.]

I stood at the window for a while longer, watching the sky slowly lighten from black to gray to the faintest hint of blue creeping over the horizon. But the estate was still quiet around me—no movement in the rooms, no soldiers heading for drills, no servants beginning their routines.

I had hours yet before anyone else would wake.

Then, almost automatically, I spoke the words I’d spoken hundreds of times before.

”Status screen.”

The air in front of me shimmered and shifted, gold and white panels folding into existence one after another, snapping together like glass plates locking into place. The familiar screen appeared before my eyes, its information displayed in neat glowing lines.

_

---『 STATUS SCREEN 』---

NAME → Arthur Vale

RACE → Human

AGE → 17

BLOODLINE → Not Awakened

CURRENT RANK → Elite (Mid)

CORE → SSS-Rank

PATH → Pending

『 TITLES 』

∟ The Chosen One

∟ The Survivor

∟ Goddess’s Apostle

∟ The Monster of Oakhaven

『 AFFINITIES 』

∟ Light

∟ Sword

『 ATTRIBUTES 』

∟ STR (Strength) → D+

∟ AGI (Agility) → D+

∟ VIT (Vitality) → D

∟ END (Endurance) → D+

∟ INT (Intelligence) → A

∟ WIL (Willpower) → S

『 SUB-ATTRIBUTES 』

∟ LUCK → B

∟ CHARM → S-

『 ENERGY RESERVE 』

∟ Mana Capacity → D+

『 MANA BREATHING 』

▸ Solaris Breathing Art (Rare)

『 WEAPON ARTS & MASTERY 』

▸ [None Registered]

『 REGISTERED SKILLS 』

▸ Divine Sense (Goddess-Granted)

『 ACTIVE QUESTS 』

▸ [!!!!!]

_

I stared at the quest log for a moment, then reached out and tapped it. The panel expanded, revealing a single entry.

『 MAIN QUEST 』

▸ Path Awakening

∟ Description → Enter the Path Awakening Trial and awaken your Path.

∟ Time Remaining → Approaching

∟ Reward → ??? (Goddess’s Blessing)

∟ Penalty → Unknown

I stared at the screen for a long moment, at the numbers and ranks and titles that would make any other fighter my age weep with envy. SSS-rank core, the highest possible potential.

Elite rank already, and I wasn’t even done growing. Stats that would keep climbing higher as I got stronger and trained harder.

The Monster of Oakhaven.

I’d never liked that title, never liked being called a monster even if it was technically accurate. It made people look at me differently, made them whisper behind my back when they thought I couldn’t hear.

But I understood why it was there, understood what I’d done in that room even if I couldn’t remember doing it. A normal eight-year-old couldn’t have survived what I survived. A normal eight-year-old couldn’t have done what I did.

Maybe I really was a monster.

[You’ve come far, Arthur.]

”Not far enough.”

[The trial is coming soon. Days now, not weeks. When you enter... I’ll be there waiting for you.]

I closed the status screen and watched it dissolve into nothing, the golden light fading until only my reflection remained in the dark window.

The same face I’d seen every morning. The same eyes that had watched my family die and somehow kept on living anyway. The same hands that had held Lilia’s as she slipped away.

I turned away from the window, grabbed my training clothes from the chair where I’d left them the night before, and headed for the door.

The yard was waiting, and I needed to clear my head before anyone else arrived. A few hours alone with just my sword and the silence—that was the only way to calm myself down after nights like this.