Vale stepped onto the sand, feeling it shift gently beneath his feet. It was soft, almost silky and pleasant to stand on, though he could tell how easy it would be to slip if he wasn't careful. The beach stretched wide and open before him, an expanse of pale gold meeting the deep blue of the sea. But his attention was immediately pulled toward the colossal figure resting a few hundred meters away.
The metallic giant known as Hachi dominated the shoreline.
Its frame was broad, heavily armored, and yet something about its construction suggested incredible agility. Vale guessed its height to be around a hundred and thirty meters, taller than any structure he had ever seen. Surrounding the massive body were six hovering metal plates, each enormous in its own right, seventy meters long at least, twenty wide, floating as though gravity was merely a polite suggestion.
Vale stared longer than he intended, and his expression must have given something away.
"Hey, kid. You alright?" Caesar asked, his tone a mix of curiosity and amusement.
Vale blinked, snapping back to reality. He turned to the brunette man and gave a small nod.
"Yeah," he answered, pausing before another question escaped him. "Um… what exactly are anomalies?"
Caesar grinned, clearly expecting that one.
"Anomalies," he began confidently, "are individuals with unique planes. Or, to put it in simple terms, people with abilities unlike anyone else."
The answer was straightforward, yet carried a weight that Vale took a moment to process. Unique abilities. Unique planes. He wasn't sure he understood all of it, but he understood enough to keep asking.
"So… what makes you an anomaly?" Vale asked.
Caesar's grin widened, but he shook his head.
"That's rule number one, kid. Never tell anyone your abilities if you're an anomaly."
"Why not?" Vale pressed.
Caesar exhaled tiredly, his earlier playfulness fading.
"Because there are people, dangerous people, who want to dissect us, study us. Sometimes for power, sometimes for knowledge, and sometimes just because they can. They get caught or killed most of the time, but they still exist. So yeah… better safe than sorry."
Vale absorbed the warning in silence. He didn't like the idea of people being hunted simply for what they could do. But the world he had entered was already proving far stranger, and far darker, than he had imagined.
After a few quiet steps, another question formed.
"How many anomalies are alive right now?"
Caesar's expression darkened slightly.
"With you and me included? Eight."
''Eight. Across an entire world.''
He added, almost casually, "We're extremely rare. About one in a billion."
They reached the edge of the beach. The waves lapped softly, but there was a tension in the air, an anticipation Vale didn't yet understand. Rose drew a deep breath before speaking.
"Alright. Is everyone ready to see Levianthe?"
Vale blinked and turned toward Caesar.
"I thought her name was Leviathan?"
Caesar kept his gaze fixed on the sea.
"Yeah, that's her public name. Big Sis's real name is Levianthe. She's a woman, though most people… can't exactly tell by looking."
Vale had no time to ask what that meant.
Because he felt it.
A tremor not a violent quake, but a deep, powerful shift beneath the sand. Rose cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted toward the waters:
"Wake up, Levie!"
Vale wasn't sure whether Rose's call triggered it or whether the timing was coincidence, but the ocean responded instantly.
Far out, hundreds of meters from shore, the water erupted. Birds fled the surface in a panicked swirl of beating wings. The sea didn't surge forward; instead it rose, towering upward like a vertical wall pulled by an unseen force. And as it climbed higher and higher, the water began to fall away… revealing black scales beneath.
Vale's breath caught in his throat.
He recognized that colossal wall of darkness. He had seen it when he was drowning, believed it to be a cliff, or some unmoving monolith. But it hadn't been stone.
It had been a creature.
And that creature had saved him.
The black-scaled titan ascended slowly, shedding the ocean like a cloak. Her head emerged last, massive, serpentine and crowned with ridges that shimmered like obsidian under sunlight. When her eyes opened, a deep red glow stared back at the world.
A true leviathan, beyond myth and beyond imagination.
She turned toward Rose's voice, and the sea itself parted as she glided forward. Yet the water didn't churn or crash. Not a single wave broke. It was as though the ocean chose not to resist her.
And then Vale saw something even more unimaginable.
She was shrinking.
With each movement closer to shore, her body compressed, condensed, like a mountain folding itself into a hill, then into something merely gigantic. By the time she reached them, she was still enormous, still monstrous in scale, but no longer the world-swallowing titan she had been moments ago.
Levianthe lowered her great head toward the beach. Her crimson gaze swept across the group, Evelyn, Rose and Caesar, before stopping suddenly on Vale.
Her pupils narrowed slightly with recognition.
Vale felt his heart beat faster. He stepped closer instinctively, the awe on his face unmistakable. Levianthe, after studying him a moment longer, slowly retracted her massive head.
"She approves of you, it seems," Evelyn said matter-of-factly.
Vale turned to her, half-confused, half-mesmerized, a faint smile forming.
"She… does?"
He looked back at the enormous serpent, wonder still shining in his eyes.
As Levianthe drew her colossal head back, her shifting mass stirred the sea. A wide sweep of her body sent a sheet of water arcing through the air, not enough to be dangerous, but certainly enough to draw every eye upward. Vale watched the spray rise, glittering in the sun, then fall in a curved path straight toward him.
As the water neared the sand, it flattened and spread like a shallow mirror.
And then he saw it.
His breath caught.
Not his reflection, but a man's.
The figure in the water had long black hair that trailed like ink, and half-lidded eyes that looked impossibly tired. He was slightly shorter than Vale, with a posture that suggested he could fall asleep standing at any moment. Vale's eyes widened as the water-mirror rippled violently.
A foot stepped out of the reflection.
Then another.
Then the rest of the man followed, emerging as though pushing through the surface of a lake. Vale stumbled back in shock as the stranger casually brushed a strand of wet black hair from his face.
The others, however, only smiled.
"Tharion!" Caesar called, striding forward with unrestrained enthusiasm. "My man, how've you been? How was Mirana? Did your Enigma treat you well this time?"
Tharion gave a long, slow yawn before answering, "Yeah, yeah… it was fine. I came back early because of this anomaly you guys told me about." His voice was lazy, almost bored, as though he had just rolled out of bed.
Caesar slung an arm around his shoulder immediately, grinning wide. The two women approached as well, their expressions softening.
Rose spoke first, brows knit with gentle disappointment.
"Why are you so tired again? Didn't I tell you to get enough sleep?"
Tharion sighed through another yawn.
"I know, I know. Sorry. I'm preparing for the Shattering. Hard to rest properly when that's on the horizon."
Evelyn nodded in agreement.
"He's right. He's probably one of the most hardworking people on the planet. Everything he does is for the sake of others. Go easy on him, Rose."
Even Levianthe, still looming above them in her scaled glory, seemed to form an expression that could almost be called fond.
Tharion finally turned to Vale.
The shift in his demeanor was immediate and striking. His tiredness didn't vanish, but something sharper pushed through it. Awareness. Caution. A seriousness that weighed heavily in his half-lidded eyes.
"Eve," he said quietly, "is he what I think he is?"
Evelyn's posture straightened.
Her tone matched his seriousness.
"Yes. I sensed it too. Vale seems… extraordinary, even among anomalies."
Vale felt heat rush to his face. He crossed his arms awkwardly under the sudden attention. Ember, who had been sleeping peacefully on his shoulder this whole time, woke with a startled chirp from the sudden noise.
The small wyvern blinked blearily, then tilted his head up.
And saw Levianthe.
Ember's pupils shrank in terror.
Before Vale could react, the tiny creature sprang into a defensive stance on his shoulder, hissing furiously at the towering serpent above. His wings flared, though they trembled violently.
Caesar burst into laughter.
"Well, someone's a little intimidated!"
Vale raised a hand, gently stroking Ember's head. "Yeah," he muttered, trying not to smile as the wyvern's hissing slowly subsided. "He'll calm down."
It took a few moments, but eventually Ember tucked himself beneath Vale's jaw again, still shaken but quiet.
Only then did Tharion speak again, turning his tired yet intent gaze fully toward Vale.
"Well, Vale, was that your name?" Vale nodded.
Tharion continued, "I'm here to give you some insight into your plane. If you'll allow me, of course."
Vale studied him for a slow moment.
This man's presence felt… unusual. Not threatening, but heavy in a way he couldn't understand. And those long black strands of hair, they reminded him of someone. Someone he couldn't quite recall, like a faded memory dancing just out of reach.
Still, curiosity pushed him forward.
"Gladly," he said.
Tharion managed a faint smile, tired, but genuine.
"Then," he said, lifting a hand toward Vale as the air stirred subtly around them,
"shall we get started?"