Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 42: One Problem After Another

"Haa... a working woman can’t catch a single day of peace," I mutter, staring out my bedroom window. After I got back to the classroom, I managed to lie smoothly to the students and carry on with the lesson about monsters.

Once class ended, I also lied to Delilah when she asked why the training area had been cordoned off, then headed home. Naturally, I expected to get some rest after I got back.

But life really loves to fuck me over. From this window, I can see an entire block completely frozen solid.

"Looks like Eirwen couldn’t handle her issues... what a shitshow... of course it had to be. It was obvious that, being one of the six problem students I got saddled with, she’d end up doing something stupid... NEXUS... what the hell is going on in that block?"

"And I don’t have to go there, right?"

"[Currently, the temperature in and around the block has dropped to negative 40 degrees Celsius, while the area around Eirwen’s house is at negative 67 degrees Celsius.]"

"[Some people have been frozen, but most of the civilians managed to get out. At the moment, a few public security members and police officers have isolated the area, but Astrid has currently prohibited other Kairas from getting involved and left this to you, since the cold is spreading very slowly and isn’t a major threat yet.]"

"[This decision was made after she found out you handed over several documents to Eirwen, indirectly causing the current problem.]"

"...Seriously... I’m so damn unlucky... the cube thing was literally TODAY!! IT WAS TODAY!!! HOW DO TWO DISASTERS HAPPEN ON THE SAME DAY!!" I scream into the void, pissed off that I have to go out and deal with this now.

"What a fucked-up life I have. Couldn’t I have at least one day between one problem and the next..."

"[You should go soon. My data indicates the cold is spreading, albeit at a slow pace, and in two more days it will have reached another neighborhood while the center of the problem will be too cold to access.]"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m going! I’m going to deal with this crap already." I head to my room to change clothes. Honestly, I’d rather be involved in the cube problem than have to deal with Eirwen.

’My prosthetics are done for, aren’t they? What are the chances they won’t shatter from the extreme cold and all the ice that’s bound to be there?’ I already say goodbye to my prosthetics in advance, fully imagining they’ll break, as I jump out the window after putting on an outfit specially designed to handle the cold.

"[You’re going in without proper equipment? Just wearing those clothes?]" Nexus asks from my phone as I leap from building to building to get there faster.

"Yes, it’s what we’ve got today... can you tell me Eirwen’s situation?"

"[I don’t know anything. All the devices in her house have been frozen to the point of complete failure. The last piece of data obtained was that she seemed deeply hurt by everything.]"

"...I imagine the fact that her father’s murderer wasn’t the villain she needed is hurting her more than she can handle..."

"[Hadn’t you already deduced she would cause problems?]"

"...I did think there might be an issue or two, but I didn’t picture her freezing everything around her. It was a miscalculation."

"[Why did you give her that critical data? It was private, meant for commanders to see.]"

"Because she needed to know in order to move forward. I don’t know her well enough, but it’s obvious her whole attitude revolves around being like her messed-up father, and that’s a way of living that’s going to kill her."

"I gave her a chance to build a more solid and secure worldview for herself. If she wasn’t able to accept the truth, that’s not my fault..." Eirwen’s ice power makes a lot of sense.

Personal experiences and personality heavily influence which vector you’ll be able to control when you get your core or chip.

Eirwen has ice powers because her mind, personality, and attitude froze in time, frozen in that moment when her father died.

I can sympathize with that. If Nadir died, my life would also freeze in that moment for a very long time. For a child, that’s probably not the best scenario for development.

Having that reality seen from every angle seems to have shattered the walls she built to defend herself.

"[Wouldn’t it have been better to leave things as they were? Eirwen needed a villain. Why take her villain away? That commander was already dead. It’s not like Eirwen could hunt him down for revenge.]"

"No. If she wants to survive and be useful, she can’t focus on a nonexistent villain, much less hate someone for no reason who did what they had to do. If she kept that limited view, she’d never try to see my side and what I teach."

"[So this is all about you not having problems? Humans usually call that selfishness.]"

"That’s right. I did it for myself so she’d see my worldview, and yes, it’s selfish, but unlike what you imagine, I don’t want to force her to see the world the way I do."

"Honestly, I see the entire world, humans and monsters, as garbage. Everything to me is just a pile of trash, and I don’t need to create more bitter people like myself."

"What I want is for them to create their own worldviews, but based on what’s real, on what happens down below. Whether they’ll see the world as I do, that’s their choice."

"[That sounds... strangely sweet? Like, really understanding.]"

"It’s just a good opportunity. Whether they’ll make the most of it or not is up to them. I can’t force them to change the worldview they already formed in childhood and adolescence." I arrive at the block where Eirwen lives. It was a bit farther from mine than I expected.

"So cold..." My whole body trembles immediately. It’s not just ambient cold; it’s as if the cold is emerging from inside my body, chilling it from within. Looking at the street, I see that one of the houses is extremely frozen, far more than the others, and there are two ice statues.

"Eirwen killed people again... how many?" I ask Nexus.

"[16 people frozen, and 4 injured who left the area and are receiving medical care. The rest of the people managed to flee the area.]"

"So 16 people died because of my choice..."

"[You don’t seem to care. Normally, even commanders express more emotion when causing indirect deaths.]"

"I imagine they do. Is there any chance those people are still alive?"

"[Considering how freezing works and the old bodies frozen by Eirwen, I’d say there’s a 23% chance they’re alive and preserved, but if they are alive, they’ll die within just a few hours, so it’s only a matter of time.]"

"...Hmmm..." Considering what happened, being alive doesn’t guarantee their survival, since you can’t just thaw them out. Eirwen doesn’t know how to do that.

"..." I use my spatial perception to locate all the frozen bodies and then explode all their heads with my power.

"[!!!]"

"[Why did you do that?]" Nexus asks, sounding confused.

"If they were alive, then I killed them. They were deaths that would be on my account anyway. I’ll just tell Astrid I killed them and be done with it." If these people were alive, Eirwen will feel like she killed civilians again, and worse, she’ll have to see what she did.

If I kill them first, then their deaths are my fault, so Eirwen doesn’t have to think it was her who killed them.

In any case, there’s no technology that can reverse this. These people would die regardless, so it’s better that I, who am used to killing, end this so that Eirwen, who isn’t used to it, can calm her mind and not dwell on what she caused right now.

"[...Are you helping Eirwen? Why protect her? You don’t seem to care.]"

"...Ignore it. I’m a strange person." I jump from the building to the street and start walking toward the house that’s more frozen than the others, the center of the problem. With every step, I feel my body growing colder.

"You know, Nexus, I really am incredibly unlucky... if it were daytime, I could use electrical powers... that way I could protect myself a little more from the cold..." Although, at night I can manipulate Stellar Rays, but they’re a bit too dangerous to use in this situation.

"...How much metal is in the door?" I ask Nexus as I reach the front door of the house.

"[Composition of 30%.]"

"Perfect." To avoid touching any frozen metallic surface, I decide to use magnetism to rip out the hinges.

Using magnetism, I tear the hinges off the door and pull all the metal from it to yank it out of the frame, which happens pretty fast. I drop it to the ground and take in the situation inside the house.

’I can’t even recognize the furniture...’ The cold is so intense it makes my whole body shiver and my teeth chatter against each other. Inside the living room, the furniture is so frozen it looks like everything was originally made of ice. It’s very dark too.

"[The temperature is colder than stipulated. At this rate, getting closer is dangerous. Inside the house, my data shows a temperature of negative 70 degrees Celsius, and in the room where Eirwen is, it could reach as low as negative 90 degrees Celsius. I recommend—]" Nexus stops talking.

I pick up my phone, seeing it has frozen. Clicking my tongue, I crush it into a sphere, and then, controlling the metal, I send it ahead. The sphere follows the stairs, and I also climb them calmly, trying not to slip up and fall.

’My lungs hurt...’ Breathing has become unpleasant, so instead of breathing fully, I take short breaths and hold them for a while to avoid inhaling too much cold air at once.

"..." Soon I arrive at a frozen door. I see ice crystals instead of just frozen objects. The door’s structure has already been completely compromised, so I know Eirwen is here. Using the sphere, I slam it against the door, shattering what is now just ice.

"...Haaa..." I let out a cold sigh, watching the vapor form as I look into the room, but all I see is a layer of ice, like a cocoon sealing Eirwen inside.

’I need to break this and get in...’ My tail starts spinning violently, even though I hear cracking sounds from how cold it is. Soon, my tail strikes the ice, starting to pierce through it like a drill.