Chapter 20 - The Cosmic Bureau

"Warp reality?? You don't mean actually altering reality as they wish?" Ethan asked with a look of incredulity. This was just too shocking for him to even gloss over the fact that these parasites can even possess people after killing them.

Lena shook her head as she explained, "Not as they wish. They only have a very limited ability to bend reality, but that itself is way more dangerous than we can imagine. And you wanted to know why you had that 'nightmare' right?"

"Yea…" Ethan keenly nodded.

"Well, the reason an Infernal Parasite enters the bodies of living beings, preferably intelligent beings like us, is because they want to possess us and then cause death and chaos in the world gradually. They are creatures that use any of our greatest fears that align towards destruction and death, just like how you must have feared your friends dying when you were in that situation, though your fear of them dying did not manifest in reality. Instead, it probably played out in a world these parasites must have created."

"So they can create entire alternate worlds with different versions of me? Does that mean there are doppelgangers of me out there in these worlds these parasites create?" Elden asked in pure disbelief. He found it quite surreal that the 'nightmare' he saw was actually a memory of one of these doppelgangers. He didn't know how to react just thinking about it.

"Yes, and if those parasites successfully corrupt those worlds, then those worlds are destined to get destroyed and end up in Hell. So those doppelgangers are not exactly you since they are just corrupted versions of you created by these parasites. And if any one of those worlds gets pulled into Hell, then huge disasters can happen in our world since these shadow worlds are linked to ours. Anyway, I don't know why I am even talking about these things since you don't need to know about them," Lena said as her brows pulled together.

Ethan felt confused as he asked, "Mom, why do you say that? I got powers now because of these parasites. So how could I not be involved in whatever is going on, especially when other versions of me exist out there? I also don't really know what I should do with these powers."

Lena said as she wrinkled her brows, "You don't understand, Ethan. Getting involved in these things will only put your life in danger. We will leave it to those who are already taking care of these things. Come, let's get out of here. I only showed and explained all this to put you at ease if you had any worries about how you got your powers. I didn't do it so that you could get involved in all this. As for your powers, just don't use them, especially in public. The last thing we want is certain people coming to you by sniffing you out."

"And who are these people? The ones you worked for?" Ethan asked with a fixed gaze.

Lena hesitated for a moment before saying, "It will be better for you to at least know the name so you can watch out for them. The Cosmic Bureau. They are the ones who handle these things."

"Are they an organization made by the government or maybe the governments of the world's strongest nations?" Ethan guessed since that was how it usually was in books.

"Well, you could say they are like the government that watches over our universe. Anyway, if anybody approaches you and tells you they are from the Cosmic Bureau, ignore them and refuse no matter what they ask of you. If you get involved with them, then you will never get to live a normal life," Lena said with a stiff gaze.

"But mom—"

"No buts," Lena sternly said, making Ethan feel a bit surprised since he had never seen his mother being so serious and adamant about something.

"Still, what about my 'nightmares'? What should I do about them? They just feel too real to shrug them off as a bad dream," Ethan said, feeling uneasy about them. Even though he knew these nightmares didn't belong to him, he just couldn't stop feeling affected by them.

Lena rubbed her forehead as she sighed, "You will have to get used to it. Don't worry. They won't be frequent as long as you don't get into dangerous situations. That is why I am telling you to continue your life as usual, and you will be fine."

Ethan felt disappointed that his mother was telling him to not use his powers publicly. If that was the case, then how would his life be any different now? Won't he still be the loser who gets picked by bullies and remains powerless to do anything about it?

"Now…don't think too much about these things and get ready to pick up your aunt. It's been a long morning," Lena said with a sigh as she slowly dragged Ethan out of the secret room.

His mother soon went back to her room, and Ethan was standing in the small garden right outside his house, still trying to wrap his mind around the shocking and baffling things his mother told him. He didn't know what to feel after knowing that different versions of him existed in some other universe or universes and wondered what they would be like even if they were not actually real.

His gaze then landed on Sui's house and suddenly felt an urge to simply visit it and see the two. After having that 'nightmare', he was still having a heavy and sore feeling in his heart, especially after seeing the two dying like that, even though he knew it was not real for him.

But what made him worry was how his life would have changed if those events had really happened for him. Even though he knew that the doppelganger version of him he saw in his nightmare was not really him but a corrupted version created by the parasites, he wondered if he was really capable of killing someone like that.

And before he knew it, he was already walking towards Nolan's house while thinking about these things.