The Anomaly's Path

If the divine beings consisted of ascendants who pushed past mortal limits... where did the Abyss fit into all of this? Was it another ascendant that went wrong? Was it a power from beyond the boundary?

The ultimate antagonist of The Hero Chronicles. The nightmare entity, whose awakening was destined to bring about the end of the world. A being so absurdly powerful that it took the combined sacrifice of multiple gods and heroes just to seal it away during the Great War.

If the gods weren’t flawless divine beings, then the Abyss King wasn’t some judgment sent to cleanse the world. I leaned forward, my hands gripping the edge of the table so tightly my knuckles turned white. I stared directly into the crimson eyes of the dead goddess sitting across from me.

”If you were once mortal...” I began, my voice trembling slightly despite my best efforts to keep it steady. ”If the gods are just flawless lies built on ascended power... then what is the Abyss King? What is that thing?”

The Moon Goddess went completely still.

The cheerful, lively illusion she had maintained since I arrived shattered in an instant. The warmth in her crimson eyes died, replaced by a dark, abyssal depth that seemed to swallow the golden light of the sconces.

A heavy, suffocating pressure settled over the room, making the air thick and hard to breathe. She looked at me for a long, agonizing moment, her pale face completely devoid of emotion.

”The Abyss King is not a god, Leo,” she said softly, her voice carrying a cold, haunting weight that chilled me to the spine. ”...Nor is it a calamity born from the void.”

She leaned in closer, her whisper cutting straight into my mind. ”It was our greatest failure. To be precise... it was the very first Anomaly.”

The words hung in the dead air of the chamber, flat and surreal.

For a second, my brain refused to connect the pieces. Then, a sharp, breathless sound ripped out of my throat, a harsh laugh that cracked into a rasp. I slammed my hand over my lower face, my knuckles white against my jaw, my shoulders shaking as the sheer absurdity of it choked me from the inside out.

”Haha... haha...” It was just a broken, breathless sound of sheer disbelief. I squeezed my eyes shut, my fingers digging into my skin so hard it hurt.

I dragged my hand down and opened my eyes, staring at her through the thin veil of silver mist, my mouth twisting into an ugly, bitter smile. ”The... the first Anomaly? Is this a fucking joke to you?!”

The Moon Goddess said nothing. She simply watched me, her crimson eyes completely unreadable, carrying a quiet, heavy patience that only made my stomach twist further.

My hand drifted to my temple, rubbing it as a throbbing headache began to pulse behind my eyes. ”So that’s why...”

The revelation didn’t hit like a lightning bolt; it crept in slowly, heavy and suffocating, like thick water filling my lungs. For a long moment, the sheer size of the lie kept my thoughts frozen, struggling to catch up with the dead goddess’s words.

Then, the pieces finally began to move together in my mind as the terrifying logic took shape.

Why build the System? Why put a hard cap on human potential? Why shackle souls with stats, ranks, and strict affinities?

I had guessed before that the gods were arrogant tyrants holding humanity back to keep their thrones safe. But the reality was far worse. They weren’t just greedy, they were terrified. During the ancient War of Faith era, humanity had true freedom.

There were no rigid System ranks, no forced boundaries. Mortals climbed as high as their talent and ambition could carry them.

But that freedom was exactly what allowed a monster to be born. The gods hadn’t built the System as a gift to help mortals grow, they built it as a leash. They capped the world’s mana and restricted soul growth because they were terrified of what mortals would become.

...or worse, what they would learn about them?

I thought back to the present era’s rank structure — Sovereign, Transcendent, and even above, ranks that mortals in ancient times had never even heard of. Back then, the peak of human potential was Grandmaster.

The gods had thinned the ambient mana to a suffocating crawl, starving the realm just to keep humanity weak.

But when starving the world alone failed to hold back mortal ambition, they built the System. They filled the air with mana again, but tied every soul to a strict, pre-set path. They traded wild, free potential for monitored, predictable growth, letting humans climb higher only inside a cage they fully controlled.

And then, my thoughts shifted to the entity lurking in the dark back of my mind, Nova.

The system in my head that tracked my stats and handed me quests. I had always assumed Nova was just the Watcher’s version of the System, a simple tracking device for his Apostle. But what if I had it completely backward?

Sitting here now, hearing her words, it all clicked into place. The rules of their System never truly applied to me anyway. I had three soul affinities, an impossible core growth rate, and an irregular rank structure that bypassed their limits because my soul came from outside their world.

But to survive inside their domain, I needed something to cover my tracks. That was Nova’s real purpose.

Nova wasn’t just a voice in my head or a stat screen, it was a shield built by the Oldest Watcher. It mimicked their System to give me panels and quests, but its main job was to keep me hidden, masking my presence from the gaze of the gods and the Abyss King.

I slowly let go of my head, my hands coming down to rest heavily on the table. The anger in my chest hadn’t vanished, but it was turning into something cold, heavy, and sharp. The realization was suffocating, opening a whole new pit of questions that made my blood run cold.

If my soul came from outside, then what was the real reason behind my coming to this world in all of this?

I wasn’t some hidden god in my past life. I wasn’t a legendary warrior, a hero, or some high-ranking entity. I was just a normal guy who played a game.

So why me?

Were the Watcher and these dead gods just playing with me from the start? Did they hand me The Hero Chronicles in my old world just so I would play it, learn its secrets, and then get dragged here to serve as their little variable?

The thought of my entire previous life being manipulated, my choices, my interests, my death, just to shape me into a tool for their mess made me want to tear the world apart.

”...You’re not going to tell me, are you?” I said, my voice dropping into a low, cold tone. ”You’re not going to explain how an ascendant even turns into something like the Abyss King, or why my soul was dragged into this.”

”I cannot tell you everything, Noel,” the Moon Goddess replied smoothly, her voice calm despite the tension in the room. ”Not because I wish to play games with you, but because my pact does not allow it. You are not yet ready to bear the full weight of that origin without your soul unraveling under the knowledge.”

She rested her hands on the table, her crimson eyes softening slightly as she observed my expression.

”Besides... you are clever, aren’t you? You have already guessed much of the truth on your own, haven’t you?”

”Knowing you all fucked up doesn’t make it any better,” I snapped, my jaw tightening as I clenched my fists under the table. ”You built a prison for the entire world because you were scared of your own mistake. You diluted the mana, shackled souls, and left generations of people to bleed in your names while you hid behind empty titles.”

I suddenly surged forward, knocking my chair back as I grabbed her by the collar of her dress, dragging her face inches from mine. My knuckles turned white, my breath coming in hot, furious gasps.

”And what about me?!” I screamed into her face, my voice cracking under the weight of pure, venom. ”How could you all be so damn selfish?! What about my life?! My past life, my parents, my world, everything I had before you dragged my soul into this nightmare?!”

My hands trembled violently against her clothes as tears of rage stung the corners of my eyes. ”I died! I was ripped away from everything I knew just to be thrown into your garbage dump of a world! Why me?! Why pick a broken soul and force me to carry the weight of your fucking sins?!”

The Moon Goddess didn’t pull away. She simply looked down at my trembling hands, her crimson eyes filling with a profound, quiet sorrow.

”I am sorry, Noel...” she murmured softly, her voice carrying no divine arrogance, only a heavy regret. ”I am aware of the sins we committed in the past. You have every right to hate us. If you wish to curse our names, do so, we deserve every bit of your hatred.”

”A sorry doesn’t bring my life back!” I hissed, shoving her back into her seat and taking a ragged step away, my chest heaving. ”Look at Arthur! Look at what you’re doing to him! You placed the burden of the entire world on a kid’s shoulders! He could have lived a normal life, but the Goddess of Light twisted his grief into a blade for her holy war! He’s breaking apart, and you bastards just watch!”

”Arthur chose to stand,” she said quietly. ”...And though the path is cruel, it was the generation of mortals themselves who chose to fight. We merely gave them the edge.”

Before I could throw another curse at her, the space around us began to shake hard. The light of the lamps flickered out one by one, and the grand table dissolved into pale, shimmering dust.

”Wait,” I growled, my eyes narrowing as the illusion fell apart around us. ”I’m not done with you. I still have a hundred questions.”

”Our time has run out, Leo,” the Moon Goddess said quietly, her body turning see-through as silver threads peeled away from her form. ”The illusion cannot hold any longer.”

”What about Seris?!” I demanded, watching her fade. ”She carries your mark! She’s living a lie, believing she serves a living goddess! What happens to her when she learns the goddess she prayed to is just a dead body?!”

”When the seal on her core begins to break...” her final whisper echoed directly inside my head, sounding distant yet perfectly clear. ”...you will hold the key to her fate. We will meet again, Noel. But for now... watch your step.”

”Answer me, damn it!” I reached out to grab her vanishing form, but my fingers caught only empty air.

The dining room shattered into pitch-black darkness.

The world snapped back with violent force. My vision blurred, the sudden flood of feeling hitting me like a physical strike. Cold sweat soaked my clothes as my stomach twisted hard, a wave of intense sickness tearing through my gut.

Gag.

I fell forward against the ground of the academy hallway, my knees hitting the floor hard as I doubled over and threw up onto the ground. My throat burned, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped animal as my body fought to find its place in real space again.

”Haa... haa...”

I dragged myself up, sliding my back against the wall until I sat slumped on the floor, breathing heavily through my nose. My fingers dug into the rough stone beside me, holding me to reality. My head throbbed with a dull, sick ache.

The gods. The Abyss King. The Oldest Watcher. The System as a cage.

Damn it... damn it all.

A bitter curse escaped my lips as I squeezed my eyes shut. Before today, I knew the Watcher and the high beings were playing a big game. I knew I was a piece on a board. But back then, I didn’t care as much. I treated it like a story, an outside problem to push through while relying on my knowledge of The Hero Chronicles.

But now? Now the truth felt like poison in my veins.

The realization that every choice, every step, every move I made had been planned from the start, that my past life was stolen just so I could serve as a blind variable, made me feel sick.

A puppet. A sacrificial shield built to soak up the backlash of divine failure. Every time I thought I had built a steady foundation for myself in this world, something tore the ground out from under my feet.

I sat there in the dead silence of the hallway, resting my head back against the wall, breathing in short, ragged gasps.

”Nova...” I called out into the quiet air, my voice low and raspy.

A soft chime echoed in my mind, and a blue and black translucent screen flickered into existence right before my eyes.

[Leo...]

I stared at the glowing blue text. The artificial, cheerful tone felt like a slap across the face. I didn’t yell immediately; I just stared blankly at the panel, my body trembling with a mixture of cold rage and complete exhaustion.

”You heard everything, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. ”The conversation between me and the goddess... you were there the whole time.”

[I’m not sure what you mean, Leo.]

”Shut up,” I whispered, my jaw clenching so tight my teeth ground together. ”Shut up. Don’t play dumb with me. You know. You fucking know everything.”

[Leo, please remain calm. Your emotional state isn’t goo—]

”I said stop pretending!” I snapped, my eyes glaring at the screen with rage. ”You’re the Watcher’s little spy! His eyes inside my head! So tell me... what the hell are you?! Just who the fuck are you?!”

[I am the System assigned to guide—]

”Get out,” I growled, panic crashing over me at the thought of something feeding inside my mind, watching every single thought. ”Get out of my head. GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!”

Driven by pure, wild instinct to tear the parasite out of my skull, I slammed my forehead forward straight into the stone floor.

Thud!

The impact echoed through the quiet archway. Sharp bursts of pain spread across my brow, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the suffocating feeling. I pulled back and slammed my head down again. And again.

Thud! Thud!

Skin tore over my forehead, warm blood spilling down between my eyes, tracing a red path down the bridge of my nose and dripping onto the cold ground below. The physical pain was sharp, but the rage in my chest burned hotter.

”Get out... fuck... just get out...” I gasped, resting my bleeding forehead against the cold floor, my chest heaving in ragged gasps.

The screen flickered wildly but didn’t appear. It sat motionless in the air for a brief second before dissolving completely into nothingness. I slowly dragged myself up, sliding my back up the wall until I slumped against it again.

Red drops fell from my chin, staining my collar as I stared blankly at the empty hallway.

Fuck. Fuck.

I couldn’t trust the dead gods. I couldn’t trust the Oldest Watcher. And Nova... the one thing that had been inside my head since day one, even that was just another layer of control built by an entity using me as a shield.

A sick, hollow feeling settled deep in my gut. I felt entirely helpless again, exposed to a world that was rigged before I even took my first breath here.

What was I even supposed to do now? Pretend none of this happened and walk back like everything was normal?

Bzzz

The quiet buzz of my Mana-Link Watch broke the silence. The dark metal band felt cold against my wrist as the crystal in the center pulsed with a soft, steady light. I lifted my arm with heavy, tired effort and glanced at the glowing screen.

Notifications were flashing before me. A short message from Mom asking how I was doing. Alice complaining about training schedules. Roan posting a stupid comment. Others adding to the usual chaotic chatter.

I stared at the screen.

Right...

I hadn’t lost everything.

This world was a lie built on a divine failure, and the beings above saw me as nothing more than a glorified shield.

But the people waiting for me down those stairs weren’t illusions. The bonds I built, the moments I shared, the life I made with my own hands, that wasn’t part of their script. I hadn’t accepted this world when I first arrived, but I had accepted them.

I couldn’t change the fact that I was dragged here. I couldn’t rewrite the past or erase the ancient sins resting on my shoulders. But I could choose what to protect.

And that didn’t mean bowing my head to the gods or becoming the Watcher’s obedient little weapon. If they thought giving me a title like ’Anomaly’ made me a tool for their game, they had another thing coming. I was done reacting to their puppet strings.

Anomaly, huh...

I raised my hand, wiping the red smear from my brow with the back of my sleeve. Pain throbbed behind my eyes, but the suffocating fog in my chest finally began to clear.

If my presence here broke their neat little rules, then fine. I would stop trying to figure out their grand scheme and focus, just for now, on what was right in front of me, on my own terms. I pushed off the wall, straightened my coat, and took a step down the silent corridor.

This was the path I had to take... the Anomaly’s path.

_

[End of Volume 3: The Anomaly’s Rise]