Interstellar: Exploring The Cosmos With My Anomaly System
Chapter 61: Twisted Fascination

Chapter 61: Twisted Fascination

"We’re here..." Vagnis muttered to himself, taking in the surrounding trees that towered above them, it was like nothing he’s ever experienced, the elders would always tell him to stay away from this forest, the forest of no light. It was silent besides the sound of rustling footsteps coming from the hunters behind him, their hands gripping their staff tighter with anxiety and tension.

The leaves shift above them, blocking out potential rays from the sun as the smell of damp moss flows through the almost distilled air around them...

Vagnis squinted his eyes, his gaze dropping down to something wrapped up in leaves, held down by a singular rock.

"This place gives me the creeps—" Favio muttered, his hands scratching at his black hair in a nervous tick, eyes darting around even though he could hardly see.

"Keep it down, or they’ll hear you..." Hamel hushed, his words barely a whisper as he walked up ahead, the other following right after.

"Here, everyone take one of these..." Vagnis instructed, kneeling down to grab at the wrap, seeing the flashlights and flash grenades Astra promised. The devices were as primitive as possible, however to him it was a glimpse into the future, his eyes resting on a piece of wood jutting out of all of them, painted in a bright red hue.

"What are these things..." Zelr commented as he took one, Hamel pressing the button out of sheer curiosity causing an almost blinding light to shoot through the forest, illuminating the area around all of them. Though it wasn’t far.

"A mini sun?" Favio questioned, pushing his head into Hamel’s light, looking at the bulb within, squinting as he tried to make it out.

"No, it’s glass and electricity," The craftsman sighed, standing up straight when all of them got their hands on a flash light. "Though I’m not sure what it really is, just in case you probably shouldn’t stare into it..."

Hamel immediately stepped back, his hands pasted to his sides.

"We should get to the entrance by the time the signal is given," Vagnis instructed, Zelr nodding at his words. "If we don’t then—"

"Don’t you worry about a thing~" A voice cut the craftsman’s words off, his head turning back to see hunters upon hunters surrounding them in trees, their gazes looked onto them even in the dark. He couldn’t make out their figure but the voice was all too familiar.

"You..." Vagnis grumbled, his hands bawling to fists as he stared up, the voice laughing softly at his realization.

"My, seems like you don’t need those things after all," Freya chuckled. "But as I was saying..."

The others started to land on the ground, their weapons at the ready as they started to close in on the group. Zelr pointed his blade at their pursuers, both Hamel and Favio pressed back to back, their faces flushed with worry and tension.

"Your little friends are already captured, so coming to our village is useless," She landed right in front of the craftsman, causing him to step back with his blade at the ready, pointing it at the girl.

"We’ll see about that..." He muttered, though his mind was filled with worry at the thought of it.

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"We’ve cornered them in the forest like you asked," Godric muttered to Veira, his arms crossed, the faint hiss of steam punctuating his words. She didn’t respond at first—just slipped worn leather gloves over her delicate hands, the buckles clinking softly. Her gaze was laced with razor-sharp focus, unmoved by the chaos just outside the canopy walls.

All around them, the lab pulsed with a quiet, uneasy rhythm. Brass tools and half-finished devices were strewn across the moss-stained floor, gears and copper coils tangled like overgrown vines. A low fire crackled beneath a dented boiler in the corner, sending thin trails of smoke through a jagged opening in the tented ceiling. The air was thick with the scent of burning oil, damp wood, and something metallic—almost like blood.

Crude pressure gauges twitched beside thick glass cylinders, some glowing faintly with phosphorescent liquid. Tubes of leather and metal snaked from one contraption to another, hissing or rattling in sudden bursts, as if the machines themselves were impatient.

Godric’s boots squelched slightly on the damp ground, but Veira moved with surgical precision, selecting a scalpel-like tool and a spool of wire from a rusted tray. Her expression was unreadable.

"Are you really going to open him up with those things," Godric pondered, a sense of unease in his voice as if he already regretted asking. Veira smiled at his question, the scientist turning around with her hand still on her work desk, her gaze almost smoldering with intrigue.

"Why of course..." She responded, little to no hesitation.

"I never took you as one for torture," He said a bit surprised.

"Torture? No this is a revelation,"

"Don’t you ever wonder what’s inside another living being?" She questioned, turning to the table, filled with dried stains of bodily fluids. "Have you ever wondered what makes us breathe, move, talk, live? The ever so perfect yet imperfect creation of life, how can a mortal like me replicate that?"

"We’re so complex, yet so simple, everything happening as fast as I can think, just to keep me standing right here..." Her head hung low, her bangs covering her face like curtains as she muttered more so to herself now than Godric. "That’s what I want... to recreate life, bring it all down to a science—"

"You’ve seen it too, haven’t you?" she asked softly, her words causing Godric to raise his brow in confusion to what she could be implying. Viera laughs at the silence. "When the humans landed, all those years ago."

"It was as if the sky had split open before us, the force of the gods pushing us away, making space for them to land. They have their blessings, their gift. You realized there was more to this world just like me! That’s why you sought out my humble civilization, right?! Even after you and Tanaka already won the war."

Godric gruffs softly as he remembers that day, the dark blue skies drifting across a battlefield stained with sin. Humming with an unknown energy as the humans descended. "Your thoughts of me are misplaced,"

"Really..." She muttered, pushing off her desk to stare at him proper, her smile stretching across her face, reaching her eyes. "Then why did you ask me to ’fix’ you?"

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