The Record of Unusual Creatures

The light dawned on everyone when Hao Ren mentioned the seemingly inconspicuous detail.

From the first time Vivian encountered her Malevolence, she had seen the Malevolence in three different ways. First, when everyone could see the Malevolence clearly, Vivian only saw a blurry figure. Second, everyone, including Vivian, could see the Malevolence clearly. And third, everyone could not see the Malevolence clearly except Vivian.

Were there any patterns or secrets behind these three scenarios?

“In any case, they are certainly not natural phenomena,” Lorissa said. She was a “newcomer”, but no stranger to this field of knowledge. “From your description, the Malevolence seems to be an avatar with a real physical body, driven by negative spiritual energy. The noumenon—Vivian—does not control the Malevolence, but there is still a certain connection between them. So this connection will inevitably affect how Vivian observes the Malevolence. Except for Vivian, everyone here is a non-related third-party observer of the Malevolence. So our observations of the Malevolence should be the ‘standard results’, and Vivian’s observation of the Malevolence is a result of that influence from the connection, therefore not accurate. It is not just because of her or the observed target. The relationship between them is changing.”

Lorissa spoke of her conjecture as if she was presenting an analytical scientific thesis, but it sent a chill up everyone’s spine with how possible her inference could come out as accurate. Hao Ren’s brows knitted together involuntarily. “The relationship between Vivian and the Malevolence is changing? What kind of change will it be?”

“Do you notice that Vivian’s observation of the Malevolence is evolving?” Nangong Sanba suddenly chimed in.

“Evolving?” Hao Ren glanced at him.

“From the blurry face in the beginning, then seeing as clearly as we did, to being able to observe its full phantom-like body; is this not an evolution?”

“Ahh! Battie’s vision is getting better and better!” Lily said as if the light had dawned on her.

“Err, that is not what I mean,” Nangong Sanba said.

“The connection between the Malevolence and me has strengthened,” Vivian said, seemingly mindless of the interruption. She already had something in mind. “Whether I like it or not, there is no way to cut off the connection between the negative avatars and me; we come from the same source. So what is happening right now is expected.”

“Are you dying, Battie?” Lily suddenly became nervous.

“A filthy mouth can’t utter decent language!” Vivian glared at the husky maiden.

“Are you scolding me or just saying a declarative sentence?” Lily asked, tapping her mouth while trying to make of what Vivian meant.

Vivian ignored Lily, got to her feet and stretched out. “Forget it, it is late now. Shall we talk again tomorrow?”

Lily looked at Vivian, confused. “Battie, is your biological clock is out of sync? You usually only sleep in the latter part of the night.”

“I did not say that I wanted to sleep!” Vivian said with her arms akimbo. “I just need some quiet time after all these things. Is that okay? ”

Sensing a potential conflict, Hao Ren scrambled to diffuse the situation. “Let’s calm down, guys. Vivian has a point, it is late now. After the combat in Ertos, let us get a good rest. I am going to see Raven 12345 tomorrow to consult her about the divinity. No matter how eccentric the neurotic goddess is, she is still more pro than us.”

Everyone agreed and went back to their rooms respectively.

It was close to midnight. There were few houses in the neighborhood still had their lights on. Hao Ren’s house was now so quiet that it had blended in with the surroundings.

While others were sleeping like a log, Vivian sat at her bedside falling into deep thought.

She did not feel the urge to sleep. What she really needed was to sort out her memories and the mess in her mind, and seriously think about the Malevolence and herself.

It was very dark in the basement because Vivian did not turn on the light. The only lights came from the blinking lights on the equipment in the corner of the room and the skylight above the walls. These glimmers were not enough to illuminate the room. Instead, they cast some vague shadows around her. While Vivian was meditating, shadows were rippling around her as if there were living creatures lingering inside.

Vivian meditated for a long while. Messy and broken memories came and went, she had no idea if those vague images that flashed across her mind were real. The dim moonlight outside the skylight had almost completely disappeared as if it was peering from behind the sea of thick clouds at the quiet land below.

After a long while, Vivian looked up. As she moved, the shadows at the bedside swayed, and then a vague figure stood out from the dark.

This shadow appeared transparent and illusory at first, fuzzy and distorted with a misty black gauze shrouded it. But the blurry figure quickly materialized, and it looked exactly the same as Vivian—from head to toe, except for the blood-red hair. Her eyes were murky and lack of sanity.

Both Vivian and the figure quietly faced each other. If not for one was sitting while the other was standing, it would have looked like a reflection in the mirror.

But Vivian seemed to not see the phantom Malevolence before her. She just quietly stayed in the dark, her eyes looked past the phantom and landed somewhere in the corner of the room.

After a moment of strange silence, Vivian stretched out and yawned. “Forget it, maybe I should get some sleep now. Tomorrow I have to go to see the goddess with Hao Ren. I have been feeling sleepy for the past few days.”

She did not see the figure in front of her.

Vivian lay down. Phantom of the Malevolence did not say a word but turned around silently. A shadow as black as ink floated past behind her with footages—the conflicts in the Mythological Era, the collapse of the temples, the cold and desolate world of 10,000 years ago where right after the end of the Ice Age, and a god-made being stood on the earth.

This god-made being looked very much like Vivian, but with a strange sense of disharmony. The coldness and indifference seemed to hide malice. But this malice beneath her beautiful face seemed to be ready to come out at once.

Phantom of the Malevolence had gone, and the shadows she brought had also dissipated in the air. But in the dark basement, Vivian began to speak as if she was sleeptalking. “Now I see.”

The night in Southern Suburbs remained just as quiet as ever. The strange little phenomenon in the basement seemed to have no impact on the tranquility of the world. But in the realm imperceptible to humans, an unprecedented change was gradually taking over the planet.

Everything seemed to be silent in the vast universe. But the eyes of the world manager had everything under her monitoring. The eyes included the wide-area radar signals from the sovereign hubs, as well as the gaze of Raven 12345 that transcended space and time. As her ‘gaze’ scanned the universe continuously, nothing could escape the scrutiny of the goddess, and rightly so.”

But at a particular point in time, on the third planet of the Solar System, burst a small ripple. This ripple was inconspicuous compared with the gaze of the goddess, but it possessed divine authority. In the time of short as a Planck unit, this ripple had obscured the perception of the world’s manager and temporarily stolen the space-time authority near the little planet.

In the streets and alleys, mountains and rivers, and plains on Earth, things that did not belong to this era—even this world—suddenly appeared and replaced the real world.

The ancient Roman army that drove the chariots appeared in the center of the town. Unicorns and golden armored warriors with horned helmets emerged on the highway. Giants of thunder walked down from the clouds. Valkyries on horses swept across the aurora of the Arctic Circle like meteors. The civilized world, which the humans had spent thousands of years on building, instantly shattered. Phantoms from ancient times in the modern world was a strange sight.

The strange thing was that when these things from different eras and worlds appeared, they seemed to not affect life in the real world. Everywhere, humans lived their life just like any other day as if they did not notice the projections of the Mythological Era in their world. The Viking pirates swaggered in the downtown area. Members of the Roman Assemblies thronged the office buildings while modern humans were working among these phantoms, like puppets who lost their souls.

What happened on the small planet was just a drop in the ocean for the entire universe. But the goddess had her eyes on this tiny “blind spot”, and it attracted more and more of her attention.

After a while, Raven 12345’s voice rang throughout the universe.

“What the heck?”