Chapter 5: World of Essentarii

  rad's eyes widened. er of his mouth twitched a little. A familiar word caught his attention immediately.

  Brahman.

  Finally something that could be helpful to me. So my luck is not pletely terrible at least.

  Basic guide to Brahman. rad read the name in his mind.

  Wait, published by UG ? Isn't that the Unified Goverhat sists of 15 most powerful nations?

  While eaation maintais snty, most followed UG's standardized systems. Take currency, for instance. Here, they used Sili, minted in silver s and printed on paper. Silver Sili came in denominations of 1, 2, and 4, while paper Sili existed in 10, 50, 100, and 1000 values. However, Sili's circution was limited to a couple of tries within the Freya ti.

  Globally, people use Atana-Kata. The UG issued copper Atana s and Kata paper he tter bearing the portrait of UG's founder from the sixth epoch year 7046 L.C. (Linear dar). Atana denominations were 1, 2, and 5, while Kata came in 5, 10, 20, 100, 500, and 1000 values.

  The exge rate was fixed: 1 Atana equaled 2 Sili, and 20 Sili verted to 10 Atana or 1 Kata.

  There is no currency which is higher than its value. rad was searg for informatiarding UG from the depth of his memories.

  “So UG does know about the supernatural, i mean it may be hidden from on people but of course the entity which is essentially the most powerful in this world should know about this. The problem is why don't on people know about this and why UG has published such a book? What is the thing they want to achieve?”

  rad again fell into deep thoughts. The epoch before the modern era is a mystery as this was the epoch before us but in uies there aren't many schors studying this period of time. Usually it's the fifth epoch that has been discussed more and more over the course of our semesters.

  "Anira, what do you make of this space?" rad turo his panion, who stood beside him studying the book with preternatural calm.

  “My Lord, this space is not ordinary. The person who created this space is not any weaker thahey may possibly be at Tier 7 of the Spad Time Domain - capable of minor space-time manipution. But it be from another domain as well. This is just based on my specution.”

  Again, why do you always expin things in a way that is impossible for me to uand? What are those strings of words you put together?

  rad frowned, feeling a little frustrated, the er of his mouth twitched twice. He focused on the book again.

  As powerful as Anira - that was no small cim. But why would such a formidable being pce a book here in the Valor family's possession?

  "Could it be that Oddity?" he ventured.

  “No my lord, Oddities are corrupted beings, they don't have such sophistication in trolling their Brahman in such a way. They make unnatural phenomena occur but they are usually driven by instinct.”

  Anira answered with crystalline crity.

  “Anira you deal with that Oddity, right ?”

  “Yes my lord but..” Anira hesitated.

  “Whatever it is, speak freely” rad said with a deep voice trying to sound like he is some great master.

  "My Lord, engaging with anything Brahmaed carries extreme risk, regardless of its apparent strength. The possibilities are boundless and uable. Brahman remains an enigma - mortals attempt to cssify and systematize it through symmetrical patterns and hypotheses, but our uanding remains nebulous. heories emerge daily."

  rad was listening very carefully. As an engineer he knew what Anira meant. It's like mathematid physics. Even though humanity had explored and made many theories expining stuff. We still fell short on a grand scale where the creations operate. Things like sciousness, life, end of universe are things that may very well be never known to us.

  rad nodded slightly, “what’s ygestion?”

  Anira thought for a moment befiving her answer. “Master, this book holds great value for you. You are already an Essentia tier 0 (Brahman ior). Tomorrow after midnight we explore the Oddity to deal with it”

  “It's not safe, Anira. You know, I am not worried about myself. But I 't put my sisters in danger”

  "My Lord, whoever created this distorted space is proteg this house. They likely use it as a treasure vault and won't allow disturbances until they discover a missing item. I deteo automatic arm system. We're currently safe."

  "Still..." rad began, but found no ter-argument. His knowledge gaps left him uo properly debate.

  "My Lord, on your and, I erect a mist barrier to repel any Oddity - a new ability I gained from you," Anira offered, her soothing voiplementing her deep crimson eyes as they awaited his order. Her singur purpose was his prote; his sisters meant nothing to her. Deep in her heart a feeling unknown to her started to take form. She was unaware of this feeling.

  “You do that ?” rad asked.

  “Yes my lord. However, as I exist in your shadow, distance affects the barrier's strength. Its thiess corretes to our proximity, with us at its ter."

  A circle with limited range, essentially.

  Satisfied with this solution and having no csses tomorrow, rad po spend the day studying the book and strategizing about the Oddity.

  "Anira, let's patrol outside. Just to verify everything's secure."

  "Yes, my Lord."

  They went outside and circled around the house twice for any supernatural occurrenbsp;

  After that Anira pulled her hands together towards her chest in a prayer motion, after a few seds white mist was surrounding her ever elegant presence. Her hands were the in of the mist but it was slowly cirg around her. Her dark ink-like hair was aduting with the mist. rad was in awe as if he was seeing some goddesses det in the mortal world.

  Sce may have dispced religion, and I'm an atheist myself. But if goddesses existed, she'd embody diviy.

  Anira’s corset dress rippled in the supernatural breeze as dense white mist enveloped her dark gloved hands. In an instant, the mist expanded outward, f a circur barrier around the house.

  This really does feel like something out of a fantasy novel. I don't know when I will be able to do things like this.

  Sigh.

  The door of the house opened suddenly. Anira and rad looked in the dire standing outside of the house.

  "What are you doing out here at this hour?" demanded a female voice, youthful despite its owner's twenty-two years.

  Cra Valor stood in the doorway, her teenager-like frame slightly taller than Leona's. Long bck hair with mahogany and chestnut highlights matched her brother's - a resembnce she despised. To her, their family's suffering stemmed from its sole male member, feeding her broader pt for men.

  "Ha ha... just cheg for thieves," rad stammered.

  “Even if there was a thief, what would you have done? Abandoned us and ran?” Cra said with slight annoyanbsp;

  "No, I would never—”

  “You know you are the worst. Why don't you just abandon us so we live happily” Cra raised her voice slightly. Then she paused seeing her brother's face as if she was regretting her words. She was about to turn to enter her house. Suddenly she felt the world around her getting isoted as if something was blog anything and everything ience. An unknowook hold of her heart.

  Anira’s crimson deep eyes were staring at Cra’s back. Darkrembled, air itself seeming to flee. rad felt unpreted chills - this was Anira at full power, not the death's-door version he'd first met. rad immediately turoward Anira. But her focus remained on Cra Valor. Her crimson eyes were filled with blood lust.

  I am getting a bad feeling.

  Cra began trembling. Despite the night's natural chill, this cold felt different - deathly. As if some a deity of death peered directly into her soul.

  rad grasped Anira's hand. Her ageless crimson eyes met his deep blue ones. Ierence, only one being had ever touched her - twiow.

  Cra's eyes regained focus as the atmosphere normalized. She gnced back at her brother's worried expression, words failing her before she retreated to her room. There was still lingering fear in her eyes. She wasn't sure what she felt but all her instincts were screaming at her to retreat. Hmm

  “What were you doing?” rad asked calmly he didn't want to anger Anira. Frankly he was also a little scared of her.

  “Apologies Great Master” Anira bowed her head.

  You don't have to. But still what you did was nht.

  Looking at Anira, rad noticed her attention was on something else. Her cheeks were a little red.

  Following her gaze, rad looked down to see his hands were still holding Anira’s soft slender gloved hands.

  rad immediately released his grip feeling flustered.

  What the hell. Why am I panig?

  "Ahem. Remember one rule: never harm my sisters, regardless of circumstance."

  Still fixated on her hand, Anira eventually looked up. "Yes, my Lord." After a pause, she added, "My Lord, five my forthing words, but I will eliminate anyone showing you malice - even your sisters.”

  rad's eyes twitched a little. Little sweat dripped down from his forehead.

  Gulped

  Yeah she is dangerous. She take any life without aation. I am not sure why she siders me as her ‘Lord’. She may very well have some hidden agenda. Maybe she is waiting for some power to ma inside me so she snatch it for herself. There are so many possibilities. I 't be sure.

  rad nodded slightly. Anira dissolved into the shadows of rad. Darkness around her seemed to be ed by the entity that lived inside a seemingly normal wimpy person.

  Before entering his house. rad gnced behind for a moment as if he noticed something but then turned around to walk towards his room.

  In the suffog darkness, a figure stood silently, shrouded in stillness. The moonlight, though pierg through the clouds, refused to touch her. The chill in the air dared not brush against her skin. Her wedding dress hung unnaturally, unmoving, as though even the wind feared to disturb her presence. She didn’t smile—or perhaps she couldn’t, for where her face should have been, there was nothing but a swirling void, an abyss that seemed to devour the faint light around it, blending into the shadows with a malevolent grace.

  After returning to his room, rad settled into a Victorian-modern chair beh the mplight. Through sealed windows, the night's chill couldn't pee. Before him stood a wooden table bearing an open notebook and expensive modern ballpoint - a study habit carried from his previous life. The thick book y open, its pages mostly text with some images of unknown in.

  Here I am in a fantasy world but I still have to study. Last time I remember studying like this before my interview. Well what you do? Life is life.

  Opening the book’s first page rad read:

  Author - Maxwell dyle.

  This is a book whicludes the test theory and resear Supernatural fields of the world.

  Chapter 1 : World of Essentarii