CHAPTER 43: CH 43: THE COLD.

~Wooooooohhhhhh!~

The wind rushed past him as gravity dragged him down from all angles. His body, in an ungraceful heap as he plummeted.

His eyes finally fluttered open. "Hhhhhh—AHHhh!" he screamed as tried to regain control of his members. But his body continued its free fall.

’Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’ He cursed as the foggy ground inched closer and closer. Seeing no other way out of his predicament, he braced himself, arms over his face and body tucked into a ball.

Wind knifed past his ears, freezing, violent, howling like a thousand starving wolves just before his body broke through the glass.

~KRA-KCHH!~

His body cracked through the black ice and into the freezing cold water.

The moment his skin felt the water he drew an involuntary gasp, his heartbeat tripled and he gritted his teeth not to take in any more water.

His hands flapped at the side trying to push himself up to the hatch where he entered till he felt it.

Something. Something big. Had just whooshed past him, causing him to stop and turn around—

But he saw nothing. Either it was impossibly fast or it was invisible, but neither sounded like something he wanted to wait and find out.

Aegon turned back up to the entrance, hands and legs flapping in unison and as fast as humanly possible but he could still feel it.

It was close. Stalkingly close. He shook off the feeling as he kept moving towards the light. Closer and closer until—

"Hhhhhh—AHHhh!"

Aegon gasped for air just as he submerged, using his hands to hop back onto the black ice.

He sprawled out on the ice ignoring the cold that engulfed him from all sides. Intentionally refusing to look around and take in his surroundings.

He laughed inwardly. ’They just had to send me to the ice age.’

He finally pushed himself up. His now wet clothes now feeling like a ton as he straightened his back.

To his left. To his right. To all fucking sides. All he could see was ice, snow, fog. It was a whiteout.

"FUUUCK!" He screamed as his breath fogged right in front of him.

Feeling hopeless just before the ambivalent chime of the system rang in his head and flashed before his eyes.

• · ─ ·✶· ─ · •

[ Congratulations on a successful transport. ]

[ Initializing Vital Scan... ]

[ Core Temperature: 31.4°C — Hypothermia threshold breached.

Blood Pressure: 78/45 — Critically unstable.

Heart Rate: 162 BPM — Elevated due to shock.

Aether Reserves: 15% — Insufficient for sustained combat.

Environmental Aether Density: 0.4% — Severely depleted.

Passive regeneration impossible. ]

[ Estimated Time Until Full Systemic Freeze: 17 minutes 42 seconds.

(This estimate will decrease rapidly with further exposure.) ]

Aegon’s breath hitched. "Seventeen minutes?!" His voice cracked in the empty white world, immediately gritting his teeth to stop the shiver.

The system ignored him.

[ Survival Pack Detected ]

Location: 0.8 km northeast.

Shelter reading: Active.

Heat Source: Functional.

Tools Included: Basic fire-starters, clothing reinforcement wraps, emergency rations, micro-compass, climbing axes, flare beacon.

[ Recommendation: Immediate retrieval required.

Failure to reach pack will result in rapid organ shutdown. ]

Aegon swallowed hard, pulling his soaked shirt away from his skin as another gust stabbed into him.

[ Main Trial Directive Locked. ]

Objective will be revealed upon arrival at the Root of the Highest Summit.

Warning: No candidate has previously reached this milestone.

He blinked. "What do you mean previously—"

[ Additional Notice:

Unidentified Apex Entity detected within proximity of entry point.

Classification: Unknown.

Hostility Probability: 99.4%

Advice: Do not return to the water. ]

A cold shadow rippled beneath the cracked ice.

Aegon stepped back instantly.

[ Trial Commencing.

Survive. Ascend. Or... Die. ]

• · ─ ·✶· ─ · •

The message faded away just as abruptly as it appeared, leaving him standing in the freezing tundra.

Right as the message disappeared, a beacon in his retina took it’s place. A neon like pin positioned far away in the snow. Slightly above it flashed a number, "0.8 km."

It was the position of his survival pack.

He looked up. Past the fog, snow and haze the sun was shrouded in— he could at least make out it was day. He sighed internally.

’Alright, man. We just have to get through this without catching pneumonia.’ The last thought before he gritted his teeth and tensed his slowly numbing muscles.

He pushed forward, marching into the snow as his body slowly died with each step he took further.

Aegon steps into the storm like the world just hit mute. No sound— just the roar of wind chewing on his ears, like the sky’s trying to swallow him whole.

Snowstorms look soft from afar... cute, even. But inside one?

It’s like walking through hell.

After a few minutes, he would occasionally stop to touch his arms and legs. The needle-like feeling— once, subtle— had now heightened.

He avoided looking at the beacon at this point, as it wasn’t even a long walk, but the conditions were so terrible that every step caused pain.

He stopped. Stared at his now purple hands and just knew he wouldn’t make it.

Cupping his hands together and bringing them closer to his face, he drew on Aether and using Claire’s fire affinity ran the faintest spark all around his crippling body.

"Ahhhh." A much deserved sigh of relief escaped him as he continued his journey, his Aether had probably gone down but it was worth it for not freezing.

*

After a few more torturous minutes, he finally saw the beacon blinking rapidly signifying he was there.

The beacon led him to what looked, at first glance, like just another snow-choked mound—one more shapeless lump in an endless white graveyard.

Then he got closer.

The wind peeled back a strip of frost, revealing metal. Not polished. Not pretty. Just a dented, matte-gray slab half-buried in ice—like someone had punched a supply pod into the world and walked away.

Aegon squinted. "That’s it?"

He kicked at the snow, clearing the front.

It wasn’t a cabin. Or an igloo. Or any cozy fantasy he’d hoped for.

It was a compact, reinforced survival module— armored panels bolted into a narrow triangle shape, designed so the blizzard would slide over it instead of tear it apart. No windows. No glamor. Just necessity.

A fist-sized biometric plate glowed faintly on the hatch.

He slapped his palm onto it, praying it didn’t need warmth to register—because his fingers were pretty much decorative at this point.

The plate blinked once.

A hiss cracked through the storm as locking bolts released, grinding like they hadn’t been opened in years.

The hatch lifted with a slow hydraulic wheeze.

Heat spilled out.

Real heat. Soft, dry, blessed warmth that washed over him like a hug he didn’t have to earn.

Inside, the shelter was barely bigger than a walk-in closet—two meters long, maybe a meter and a half wide— but every inch had purpose.

To the right: a compact heating unit pulsing a low orange glow, powered by aether capacitors the size of his fist.

Simple. Efficient. Just enough to keep a human alive.

To the left: shelves built into the wall— straps of reinforced fabric holding gear in place so nothing tossed around.

Fire-starter kit. Compression wraps. Emergency rations sealed in frost-proof plastics.

A folded thermal drape hung from a hook, stitched with reflective inner lining designed to bounce heat back into the user’s core.

The floor was layered with insulated mats, rough but warm underfoot— like standing on a stubbornly surviving patch of earth.

A single dim overhead lamp flickered alive as he stepped in, motion-triggered, buzzing lightly like it was tired of existing.

And dead center?

A small, metal crate— the survival pack.

Aegon exhaled, his breath no longer fogging in front of him.

For the first time since smashing through the ice, he felt like he wasn’t dying.

Not safe... but not on a timer either.

The storm howled outside, furious he’d found refuge.

The shelter hummed quietly, defying it.

It wasn’t much. But it’d keep him alive.

[ Congratulations On Surviving the Death Trial. ]

[ Warning:

Due to your use of Aether, you’ve awoken several Hollowmen.

Classification: Corrupted-aether anomalies.

Hostility Probability: 75.8%

Advice: Do not draw on Aether. ]