Read Divert the Circle's Path :: Winters Ago (1)

The first thing I felt was the cold. Starting from my feet, a chill crept up my legs and back.

The smell – musty and with a hint of cleanser.

This time the environment was quite different from the concrete plain on Friday. I was still standing in a room about the same size as the kitchenware store, the display, however, had changed entirely. Now I was surrounded by shelves full of tinned food. A frumpy red carpet lay behind the counter.

{Yu Anya! Welcome back~} the small and cheeky voice exclaimed, excitedly.

Ignoring the voice, I took a few steps towards the front door and looked out of the window. The street was still there, but at the same time, it looked almost completely different.

The stores were replaced by others, the modern glass building on the other side had disappeared completely, and a smaller building stood in its place.

However, the main thing that made the street so unrecognizable was the thick layer of snow covering the pavement. Earlier, the only thing lying on the asphalt were the few leaves that were early for fall. Now, big, long mountains of gray-brown water and white snow framed the dark street on both sides, almost hiding the old cars standing along the straight path. All the trees had also lost their leaves and left a sad and colorless world compared to the colorful foliage before.

“Di-rring!”

[Dragon Anima, “It might sound ridiculous, but this is the past, year 1979!”]

The people, exactly like in the last teleportation, still were at their places. The snow-free street and the white pavement were filled with shivering, confused and disoriented individuals, who still held the signs for their respective god sects.

“I totally believe you, Dragon Anima…”

1979… that was over 40 years ago. I saw the woman before me in the queue breaking together. Is this what Berlin looked like in 1979? She started sobbing uncontrollably. The other man in the room looked out the window. Then he laughed, the driest laugh I’ve ever heard.

The store had stocked up a lot of things. What should I pack to make sure to survive this time as well? Survival was the most important.

“How long will we stay here this time?”

{That’s a secret! Don’t take all the fun out of it!}

“Di-rring!”

[It's an endurance competition. If I remember correctly, it should be over in around a week.]

I nodded. Dragon Anima was obviously more reliable than the little voice.

If it’s an endurance test, I would need food and shelter first.

“Status window.”

“Di-rring!”

[Status Window]

[Name: Yu Anya

Species: Pure Human*

Age: 24 years

Level: 0

Skills: none

Stats: Health: 12, Strength: 9, Intelligence: 13, Presence: 1, Mana*: 1

EX points to allocate: 0

Followers: 1

Body condition: cold*

Emotional state: uneasy]

[*Make sure to warm up. Staying in a cold body condition for more than 1 hour will have a (semi-)permanent effect on your emotional state, health, and strength.]

Warm clothes were also important, I noted down in my mind.

A cotton bag, I found behind the counter, was easily filled up with easy-to-eat food. I was not sure if there would be a stove available later. I also tried to find a variety of different foods for a healthy diet. Every time the tins collided, they clanked unpleasantly.

“Hey, you. What are you doing?” The man on the window turned around and mustered me with narrow eyes. He had short, brown, wavy hair and big, dark eyes. He didn’t look much older than me.

“Collecting food?” I said, unsure what the question was implying. What else?

“I’m seeing that. But why?”

“…”

“Isn’t it to eat?” The older woman answered in my stead. She wore a pink pullover and had her gray hair pulled back into a loose bun.

“…” The man didn’t say anything to that.

I wondered if the gods really saw everything I did. That was creepy to imagine. What if I did something wrong? Did they have the power to hurt me or other humans? So far, they only spectated and gave a few useless powers to humans. If the gods intervened for real, wouldn’t the world become even more chaotic than right now?

Did something stop them from coming directly?

Outside it had started to snow. In the store, a silence permeated every corner and now nobody was brave enough to break it.

The clattering from the tin containers was the only sound. I was at my second bag. When I started filling my second bag, the other two people also started packing tins. Now we all had filled up 2 bags.

{Yu Anya~ You have to go outside soon~}

What? Confused, my head tilted up. I still was used to the voice coming from far above me. But of course, all I saw now was a white-painted ceiling mounted with neon tubes.

{there is little time left, Yu Anya~ or do you prefer to die?}

Uncertain, I looked around. Nothing dangerous was in sight. Would there be a deadly voice again If I stayed inside? Should I go or hide?

“What’s wrong?” The woman asked.

“I… Did you see anything suspicious?”

“Where? Here?”

“Yes.”

“No.” She shook her head.

“Clank!”

A tin hit the linoleum floor next to the young man. It rolled under the rack with a screeching sound.

“Di-rring!”

[Dragon Anima, “I just remembered, you only have 10 minutes in each building. You have to get out there very soon!”]

10 minutes? How many minutes were left? It was snowing outside, so I wanted to use every available minute to escape the cold. Therefore I searched for my phone in my back pocket but I couldn’t feel it. Did I lose it immediately after sending a message?

The problem at hand couldn’t be solved like that.

“Do you know how many minutes we are here already?” I asked the woman. She was a little more communicating than the man behind her.

She shook her head. “Sorry, my sense of time is very bad.”

Automatically, the man behind her straightened up. “It should be about 8 minutes.” He said while looking at his watch. He had turned the golden watch inside. A worn leather band secured it on his pale wrist.

“Thanks. What happens after 10 minutes?” I asked the messaging god. The two other humans looked at me, unsure, and then at each other. Then both shrugged at the same time.

The god answered immediately. [Dragon Anima, “after 10 minutes you die.”]

Okay, that was bad. I didn’t plan to lose my life again so soon. Immediately I shouldered the two bags of food and marched to the door. Before I opened the white-framed glass door, I turned back one more time.

“You don’t have to listen to me but in about a minute everyone in this room will die,” I said and without further ado, I stepped out into the cold.

Immediately the cold air caught my body in its fingers and pressured me. Like strings, the icy wind cut in my arms which were only covered by a thin layer of black fabric.

The many people that were parading the streets a few minutes ago all had fled to the nearby entrances for shelter. Now, I was all alone out in the cold.

Behind me, the snow made a crumpling sound. I grabbed the knife I had stored temporarily in the bag with the tins and turned around to see the young man with curly brown hair from inside the tin store.

He opened his mouth and closed it a few times before he found the strength or courage to speak.

“Did your employer god tell you about the bursting?”

Employer god? But more importantly, “Bursting?”

“The woman with us exploded into pieces the moment I stepped outside.” He gulped.

I shot a glance past his figure through the window. There, an unsightly gue of what must have been the woman’s muscles, bones, and organs swam in a puddle of blood. I spotted some red dots on the glass windows too.

Disgusted, I turned away.

I flinched at another crunch in the snow, then grabbed the knife hard. I saw a movement in the corner of my eye close to my face. Something grazed my cheek.

The man behind me wasn’t that lucky. The needle penetrated his neck and got stuck. The man’s eyes widened. Then a big chunk of his neck broke. It did not snap or was cut, the neck broke away! Like a solid piece of stone or… ice.

Like in slow motion the piece that broke away shattered further into smaller pieces. I felt myself take a step back to not touch any of them. I had an unnatural fear of them. Where it came from, I didn't know, but my feeling told me to get as far away as possible or it would have unimaginable consequences.

Slowly, the man rolled his eyes backward until the white appeared.

The poor man's neck had completely turned to glass or ice. It had even become transparent around the place where he was hit by the needle-like object.

His neck chipped away on the transparent edges and then his head broke away to the side. His body followed and fell down into the snow with the elegance of a sack of potatoes. All of this happened still like in slow motion.

I wanted to run. Where to? There could be danger everywhere! Alert, my head amplified every single noise around me.

Silence. There! A crunch in the snow!

I turned to the sound but only saw a figure with a dark coat rush into a house. Shortly after, the dull sound of an opening door from the same direction a little farther away reached my ears. That same door snapped shut a few moments later.

I was alone again. Aimless, I wandered along the street. Dragon Anima let me know I couldn’t enter any room in the next few days till this episode was over. That meant I was stuck outside.

The cars were also unusable for staying inside. The windows weren’t weatherproof. Almost all cars buried under the snow ice had accumulated on the dashboard and sometimes even the fabric on the seats.

{Cars are rooms too, you know?} the cheeky voice warned me when I tried to open the door of an old rower that was not completely buried.

In a few houses with big windows, I saw piles of fresh meat.

I breathed in the fresh air in my lungs. The snow was still falling. After only these 5 to 10 minutes, the metaphorical cutting ice strings had settled in my skin and made it numb.

I had started shivering soon after I left the store. I read once, that shivering was a reaction of the body to keep it warm. Right now I did not feel that effect at all.

My hands cramped around the handles of the bags. I could barely wiggle my fingers.

As I looked around the cars to still find a place to warm up, something lunged at me from behind a big pile of snow.

The bag in my hand saved my life.

“Dong!” The tins and knives inside clattered when I hit the head of that thing. It backed off a bit and shook its head to get rid of the confusion.

The monster, there was no other way to describe it, had razor-sharp teeth that bit through the tins with its strong jar. No bigger than an adult human, the rough white fur still covered in snow, it mustered me with red eyes like prey.

“Di-rring!”

[Dragon Anima, “That’s a snow fanger! This seems to be a baby. Its weakness is the back of its neck.”]

“Thanks, Anima.”

A baby? No matter if it was a baby or not, it was dangerous. It had big chunky paws that had unproportional many claws all around. Each claw was as long as my thumb and so sharp and polished it reflected the light of the sun and dancing snow like metal.

On all four the fanger lowered its front. Then it wiggled its raised bottom and jumped at me again.

With a swiftness I hadn’t imagined myself to have, I lunged to the side, dodging the attack by a landslide. I scuttled and slid a few steps before coming to a halt and barely avoided the next onset to the other side.

My body felt lighter than ever. My head was clear and the chilly air was forgotten. New heat rushed to my limbs, waking them up from their torpor.

There was a short gap between each attack. It wasn’t a stupid beast, but a hunter that was trying to catch its prey. Every time it hesitated, rethought, and repositioned itself before jumping at me again.

And I dodged like I knew what I was doing. It felt really free despite that my life depended on it.

Despite the cold, I developed sweat, that instantly cooled down my skin to icy temperatures again. I couldn’t continue for long before the water would cool down my muscles too.

In addition, I didn’t know if there were more snow fangers around.

One more time, the white baby fanger rushed to me. However this time, it miscalculated and slithered too far on the now hard-trodden snow ground.

In that short moment when it struggled to get back on its feet, I dragged out the small knife from the bag. In the next onslaught, I only evaded its mouth by an inch and then hit the back of its neck. With a crack, the spine in the neck bent downward. The fanger collapsed.

{How? I mean…I did not expect that at all! You were so swift!}

“Di-rring!”

[Dragon Anima, “Wow! You really defeated it! That was so cool!”]

I let out a sigh of relief. I let my arm loose and it fell down, still clenched around the handle of the knife. I also let the other clinking bag to the snowy ground.

Slowly the adrenaline subsided. My breathing, which had become quite heavy, got back to its normal rhythm.

But I couldn’t lose my vigilance yet. What if another fanger came? Essentially since this monster had characteristics of a cat, and at least lions hunt in groups. This was a cub. Escaping would be impossible from an adult animal, forget about fighting it.

I picked up the bag again.

Tensed up, I listened to every little sound in the muffled snow surrounding me. It was no wonder my whole body flinched when a new window popped up with a sound.

“Di-rring!”

[Level up!]

[You have gained your first level! Congratulations!]

[All stats increased by 1 EX.]

“Status window,” I said.

[Status Window]

[Name: Yu Anya

Species: Pure Human*

Age: 24 years

Level: 1*

Skills: none

Stats: Health: 13, Strength: 10, Intelligence: 14, Presence: 2, Mana*: 2