Aurora Over a Dead World

"..." I take my time as the monster prepares to attack. A small point of electricity forms in my line of sight, curving beneath my body, and then the monster uses it as a conductor to bend the lightning bolts toward me.

I dodge the bolt, noticing it’s lightning born from vector manipulation. It seems now that it’s in this supposed third phase, it’s actually using real vector attacks.

’My students probably only survived because this monster didn’t know how to use vector attacks.’ Fear monsters can often use natural versions of the vectors they manipulate.

Like in this case, where this monster was using natural lightning, probably absorbing electric charges from the environment since we’re so high up in the sky, and then discharging that energy.

Since it’s a normal lightning bolt, the damage is far lower against a Kaira, but now that it’s a vector-manipulated bolt, it’s much more powerful and destructive.

"..." As soon as my feet touch the ground, I lean my body forward testing the flexibility of the prosthetics, then leap toward the monster.

"!!!" The monster takes a punch from me and gets sent flying.

"I’m damn proud to say I have one of the strongest punches of all generations." Few can match the force of my punch. That’s because I weigh just over half a ton. Getting hit by something with that much weight moving as fast as I can move is absurd.

Of course, strength isn’t everything, and I can’t always throw punches that hard, but right now against such a stupid monster it’s easy. Its armor even cracked at the impact point.

"Grhhhh," it snarls at me, firing several electric orbs. It uses them as conductors to form a wall of lightning I can’t dodge.

"..." I try using an electric strike of my own. Depending on frequency, intensity, and position, two electric charges can "cancel out." Electric fields, electromagnetic waves, or currents in opposite directions can "cancel" under certain conditions.

But when I try, nothing comes out, and I notice it’s gotten dark. Not completely, but it’s no longer daytime.

’Damn... I can’t use electricity anymore...’ I always try to avoid using spatial vectors because they’re the most damaging to myself.

"..." I think of Tanya, and then I generate a golden beam with a white center and fire it at the electric wall launched toward me. The attack dissipates the electricity and passes straight through.

’That’s actually a decent use...’ Concentrated stellar rays. I almost never use this variant because it always felt strange to me. It’s not exactly energy, but it’s also not exactly a spatial distortion. It sits in some weird middle ground.

Stellar rays are more like a "simulated star." Meaning, mass curves space, but in a strange way because it seems "liquid." It doesn’t seem to have much mass, and yet it still curves space.

My powers and Nadir’s are heavily based on space and things that affect space. But while mine are focused on spatial distortion and some kind of energy, Nadir’s are focused on Mass-type spatial manipulation. But the concentrated stellar ray variant is also Mass-type. It’s a strange power for me, like it should belong to Nadir and not me.

"...!!" My focus breaks for a moment, and the monster manages to close in, propelling itself with electricity. It sweeps my legs, but I use my tail to brace against the ground and spin, kicking its head.

’The cube responds well to what I want, actually. It has a faster response time than my original prosthetics...’

I aim at its face and fire another of those beams. Unlike something full of heat, it’s more like the space around the beam gets slightly pushed and curved, causing a strange kind of distortion in everything it hits.

"You’re not running." I grab the bony carapace of this thing as it tries to dodge, generating two beams with both hands and firing directly into its head, opening two holes.

"..." To my surprise, the monster is crying beneath the bony armor. It’s not enough to break my concentration, and I keep firing, but it makes me realize this thing used to be human.

"Fuck... that damn hooded woman is sick." The monster releases an immense electric charge around us, trying to hit me, but with my fingers I distort the space around us to protect myself, forming a small veil.

"...!" I start punching with one hand while holding with the other. The monster even tries to thrash and grab me, but the physical difference is insurmountable.

Cracking sounds begin as the bone armor shatters, blood dripping and staining my hands and clothes. I keep going until I reach flesh, where I keep punching until I open a hole.

Inside the monster, I release the concentrated stellar rays in a more "liquid" form. This power will never stop making me uncomfortable with the way it behaves.

This liquid spreads through the hole, "crushing" the flesh to make its own space inside it.

The monster thrashes wildly, but it can’t fire lightning that close to itself, and I’m protected from external bolts by the veil.

"You’ve got fight in you, at least..." I start expanding the energy, obliterating its body from the inside out. The best way to deal with regeneration is destroying the inside first, then the outside.

Unless this thing can regenerate from just small pieces, this should be enough to kill it.

’I wonder what the hooded woman gained from this?’ The monster twists its arm, breaking my prosthetic, having a bit more strength than I had calculated.

But I was deliberately more careless in this fight to test, and as expected, the prosthetic quickly returns to place, because the Cube cannot be broken.

’At least you’re an advantage... though I have no idea how the cube knows what movement I want to make...’ With that confirmation, I release the concentrated stellar rays more aggressively inside the monster, destroying it completely from within until it stops thrashing.

"Looks like it’s over..." I watch the lightning outside stop falling. Despite it being "easy" to win, there’s a serious problem.

’This monster is dumber than normal monsters... that woman has to die...’ If this monster were smart, its classification would definitely rise.

If I consider raw power alone, this monster ties with me, which is abnormal for a monster that was just born. If it were intelligent, I’d have to really push this fight to the extreme using 100% of my powers.

"Vectors need at least the basics to work properly... and this thing seemed to be learning." I stand while moving my hand extremely fast to the side, flinging the excess blood onto the ground.

"If the hooded woman can create more monsters of this level and with intelligence..." Nightmare is the best example of how hellish an intelligent monster is.

If Nightmare were stupid, she’d already be dead. But she knows how to use her powers, she knows when to run because she won’t win, and she uses strategies to escape.

"Astrid... no... I need to report this to someone higher up. Astrid clearly isn’t enough." I need to report this to someone I know will actually handle it properly. Astrid is too arrogant and thinks too highly of herself when she doesn’t even have as much power as it seems, since she’s no longer part of the military.

Her political power comes more from her fame as a former top 1 and as the director of the academy that trains all Kairas.

"What a show." I’m caught off guard, feeling a knife pierce through my back. I stagger forward, turning quickly in that direction, and look back to see it’s a simple serrated kitchen knife—small and doesn’t seem to have hit anything vital.

"..." I look at the hooded woman, who somehow crept up behind me.

’Strong... she’s very strong...’ I grab the knife and remove it. For a wound like this and a possible fight, keeping the knife lodged just to avoid bleeding too much would be worse. I pull a special wound-sealing patch from my clothes and press it onto the spot.

"Prepared as always, from what I can see. Though your reaction was pretty lukewarm."

"You’re really arrogant, aren’t you? Coming back here after causing so many problems..."

"Arrogant? I’d say just confident. After all, no one’s coming to help you for the next three hours. I made sure of that. It’s quite interesting how a schedule works, isn’t it? Just pull a few strings and bam—no one can show up to help in an emergency."

"..." I wonder if I can win. Considering our little previous encounter, I’d say yes. But considering this stabbing just now, I’d say no. She’s much stronger than she let on before.

"Astrid is still on the island."

"She is, but I dealt with her first. She was more dangerous than you." She draws a real knife this time and spins it between her fingers.

"That was a warning stab. I could have aimed for your throat too, but I didn’t want to kill you. Besides, if it had been with killing intent, you probably would have dodged on pure military reflex."

"You know, in a few days the island will pass over some interesting ruins. I recommend you go down and explore them. Of course, as a teacher you’ll probably have to bring your students along."

"You think I’m going to fall for that trap?"

"I don’t know? Maybe. But that place will have the answers you’ve been searching so hard for. Are you going to waste it? Nadir is out on a mission on one of the transport ships and won’t be able to stop you."

"This island is slow. It takes several years to make one loop around this beautiful ruined blue globe. And worse, given the curves it makes, for this island to pass over this point again would take anywhere from 200 to 500 years. Sure, with luck it might only take 50 years. Do you think you’re lucky and have that kind of time?"

"..."

"It’s up to you to listen to me or ignore this. I just hope you don’t regret ignoring this chance that will never come again. By the way, the island will stop above the place I’m talking about."

"Ah, but the island never stops, you must be thinking. And that’s true. But I’m going to make it stop. Just for you. And for me, of course. I want something too, so I hope this little pause is as useful to you as it will be to me." She speaks in a manipulative tone while I look at the ground and see the corpse is gone. She probably stole it so we couldn’t study what she did to it.

"...Sick fucking woman..." She vanished too fast—faster than last time. I couldn’t even perceive it. One instant of looking at the ground and it was all over.

"...Haa..." I let out a sigh, realizing that even out of the military, it seems I’ll still have plenty of problems.

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