Aurora Over a Dead World

"...I see you’re relatively fine. Even though the perforation is a bit deep, it didn’t hit any vital areas or break anything," Astrid says to me as I sit shirtless, bandaging the disinfected and cleaned wounds. I glance over at Astrid, who looks completely unharmed.

"Yeah... the wound wasn’t that bad. The vest protected me well. If it weren’t for the vest, the bone whip would have pierced my stomach. I was as careful as I could be, but it was still just me alone against someone who can attack from any direction." If I’d had just one extra person for support, I wouldn’t have walked away injured.

I’m good at dodging and evading, so in most of the fights I’ve had, I haven’t been hit much. So much so that I barely have any scars on my body because it’s really rare for me to get wounded — though I always had Zenith protecting me too.

"It’s pretty rare to see you get hurt, but Nightmare is a dangerous monster. Although this time she was fairly restrained on the destruction side... is she testing new things? Last time she leveled several city blocks mimicking the power of a Kaira with sediment manipulation abilities."

"I have no idea. Who knows what goes on inside that thing’s head..." Though I do have a lot of questions about what she said at the end. Nightmare isn’t the type to manipulate others — she’s far too childish for that.

So was she being honest? If so, what did she mean by everything she said? This kind of reaction from her stirs more curiosity in me than I’d like to admit.

"You handled it pretty well, Nadir. Good thing I showed up to save you, right? A little longer and things could have gotten extremely dangerous. She was clearly pissed when I arrived and wasn’t going to hold back anymore." As she says this, bragging about her help, I think about what she actually did.

Nightmare really did go into a fury when she got blasted. She expanded her body violently and became far too dangerous for me to stop her. Even though she has the limitation of needing flesh to use her powers, I don’t know how much flesh she had stored, but it was clearly a lot.

"You’re terrifyingly strong, but why did you come? Shouldn’t you be busy?" I question her as I finish securing the bandage clasp, feeling better. I stand up, putting on my shirt and stretching lightly to feel if the wound will hinder me much.

"Yes, normally I wouldn’t have come, but there were no other people available. And I wanted the chance to finally get rid of this damn plague that’s been living on this island like a parasite for years. But she had already expanded the flesh’s range too much, which kept me from destroying her in a single strike."

"The fact that she’ll survive if she isn’t completely obliterated is frustrating, because no one she’s fought besides Zenith had the capacity to destroy her completely — and from Zenith, she fled faster than in all the other fights they’ve had against her," she says with a sigh.

But her tone bothers me, because she speaks as if it’s Zenith’s fault. She knows Zenith has one of the most unstable powers of her generation and can’t use them freely, or she could end up killed by her own powers.

"She truly is a frustrating plague. Honestly, I’d love for her to be dead already. Don’t you agree, Nadir?... Nadir... why are you looking at me like that?" She seems confused as I give her a hard stare.

Now that she mentioned Zenith, I remember what she did. Astrid didn’t hold up our deal.

When we made the agreement and removed Zenith from the commander position, the terms were clear. I wanted Zenith’s safety. I wanted Zenith to have a normal, secure life — but without restricting her too much.

That means if Zenith put herself in danger on her own, it wouldn’t be Astrid’s fault. But Astrid left Zenith handling the problem students that Astrid herself was supposed to look after, and Zenith ended up in danger and could be in danger again in the future.

"You’re a lying bitch. You promised Zenith would be safe. In years of battle, Zenith never lost her prosthetics. She becomes a teacher and suddenly has to replace almost everything. I think that makes it pretty damn clear how safe she is," I say to her critically.

"The fact that Zenith risks herself to help the students is not Zenith’s fault. It’s not a choice she’s making — she’s forced by the responsibility of looking after the students’ lives! So this is your fault!" I blame her for this, because Zenith has always been someone deeply responsible about everything. Ever since our childhood, when she takes something on, she sees it through to the end.

So she wouldn’t help her students just because it’s an order, but because it became a responsibility to her, and she can’t just turn her back and ignore it. It’s a somewhat endearing trait of hers, but one that causes her problems.

"..." She just stares at me as I point my finger at her aggressively. Her lack of response makes it clear she knows it’s all her fault.

"You’re gonna stay quiet? Or did you lose your tongue? You’re not thinking about breaking our deal, are you? I’m not putting in double the effort at work so you can let Zenith run around taking risks."

"Watch how you speak to me. I am your superior. The incident where Zenith lost her prosthetics is her own fault. I warned in the students’ files — Zenith shouldn’t have talked about the deaths Eirwen caused. Because of her, Eirwen started freezing an entire block. She caused the incident. It’s only fair she resolved it." She blames Zenith for teaching those girls how to live when Astrid was too much of a coward to do it herself.

"You’re nothing to me when you lied about Zenith’s safety. Don’t pull that ’I’m your superior’ card on me. You think a label is going to shut me up? Do your damn job right."

"Is that a threat?" she questions, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe it is. Take it however you want."

"If it is, then you’ve lost your mind threatening me, Nadir. Have you forgotten who I am and what I can do? Or did Nightmare hit you so hard in the head you got amnesia?" I take a step toward her without backing down.

"I can make your life and Zenith’s life a living hell on this island. You’d better watch your tone with me."

"You think I’m scared of an old hag with one foot in the grave? Your time is already up, Astrid. And you can be as strong as you want and have as much authority as you want — if I wanted to kill you, it wouldn’t be hard." I give her my gentlest smile, and she steps back.

"You’re insane. You’re threatening me right in front of the cameras?" She looks up at the ceiling where a camera is recording everything — a security measure to prevent anyone from freely harming the wounded in the infirmary.

"You know me, Astrid. You know me well, and you know the only thing that matters to me is Zenith. If I find out she’s taking risk after risk and got hurt because of it, I will kill you. I don’t care what you think."

"I don’t care about the consequences, and I don’t care who you are. I’ll make a point of killing you slowly so you know exactly why you’re being killed. Either hold up your end of the deal, or I’ll put you in a grave sooner than you should be." I turn to leave the room, ignoring her.

"...Your arrogance is on another level. That’s the same as declaring war on everyone. If you killed me, rest assured you’d be hunted by every Kaira on this island."

"...If I killed you, it would mean I’m ready to bring this entire island down on the same day. Dead people can’t hunt other people, now can they? You think they’d have time to hunt me if the island fell all the way down?"

"!!!"

"You goddamn lunatic!!!"

"Think whatever you want about me, as long as you know I’m serious. And hold up your end of the deal." I slam the door, furious. Despite her incredible display of power against Nightmare, I know that was nothing more than an attempt to relive the glory of the old days.

She’s already far too old to use her powers freely. Every excessive use is something that brings her closer to death. It’s amazing she’s made it to 72 years old, but that also means every passing day she could simply not wake up the next morning. And the more she uses her powers, the worse it gets. So even though I’m much weaker, I know that if I had to, I could kill her without issue.

’I wonder if Zenith will really be okay taking care of such unstable people... did I make a mistake letting her become a teacher... I should have fought a little harder for her to just be a civilian... but...’ Despite everything, Zenith seemed interested in her students. Maybe it’s good for her. I really don’t know.

"Damn... it’s so complicated looking after her from a distance..." I decide to set this aside for now. I’ll find someone to help me plan a suitable weapon and wait for a Kaira with a useful healing power to become available to help me with the wound in my abdomen and back.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!