Chapter 84: Our Base

"Ah!" Aayn stretches his body, cracking his bones as he lays on the ice, then he gets up and moves his neck around.

"That was new and nice," he stands on his feet, seeing the frozen ground beneath him.

He looks around, seeing a group of people being commanded by Zahtan.

"How was your nap?" asks Sheehan, appearing behind Aayn.

"It was great, where are we?" he asks, looking around.

He sees pink flames burning all around the ice barrier formed by Iza, the landscape is barren, blazing and rather uneven. It's filled with flowing lava and a solid material that glows bright pink and emits pink flames from time to time . . . pink flames are all over . . . burning bright even amongst the flowing lava.

Flames . . . wait flames! It really is as that Pilot foretold!

"As promised, welcome to the base of this existence. The destination of all those who fall," says Sheehan.

Aayn looks around in excitement, "How did we get here? Why are we not burning up?"

"As for the how; we used a Wormholes,"

"Wormholes?"

"I'll explain the concept easily for you later with piece of paper. The entire process actually took many millenniums to reach, though. I can count the number of people that can teleport using them on my fingers, and only one figured out how to teleport without them," glowers Sheehan.

He sighs, shaking his head, "Anyways, as for the why," he pauses, pointing at Iza, "We finally got the thing we needed to survive in this environment, even if it is for a limited time. But it should be enough,"

Aayn raises his eyebrows, "Why did we need the beast? Couldn't you just have coated us with this same film to slow down the burn up?"

"Ah, nice question. Come, walk with me," says Sheehan, leading him towards the edge of the ice barrier.

Vision walks right behind him and Aayn follows soon after.

"Hm, maybe I'll teach you a bit while at it. You remember what I told you about element zero, right?"

"That it is a liquid and colorless in nature. It's called zero because the number of protons it contains is zero, and it has no neutrons, nor electrons spinning around it that can be controlled with gems and is very fungible,"

Sheehan claps his hands, "Great! Now, this is the first thing I'll teach you about gems. After you bond with your gem, you can write programs into it to have it execute commands much faster and have a lower energy cost for it as the gem wouldn't have to go through the process of discovering the command all over again. However, programming cannot be stored in the gems, it is actually stored within you, the human," he pauses, rubbing his chin, "Well, in my case, I put the programming in Selena, and she is running the program that is turning element zero into another element that I discovered. It is fluid, also colorless and has the lowest coefficient of heat transfer rate I have ever found,"

He stops just before the edge of the ice barrier.

"I'll tell you what that is later. For now," he squats on his knees, admiring one of the rocks and gestures for Aayn and Vision to look, "Come, come. Look at this,"

"Fascinating. Even under this insane temperature, it still manages to remain solid . . ." remarks Sheehan, admiring the lightly flowing rocks in front of him as his eyes start to tear up.

"Although, this glow is a bit painful to the eyes if looked at for too long. Anyways, to answer your question– Selena?" he calls.

"Yes, master?"

. . .

Vision feels the fluid surrounding his body starting to move him, and he instinctively tries to resist it.

"What?! Sheehan! What is happening? Sheehan, help me!" the fluid slowly moves him out of the edge of the ice barrier . . . and as that happens, Vision begins to scream.

The fluid surrounding his body evaporates almost immediately, and the skin beneath begins to burn up badly.

Vision cries out loudly, his screams of anguish growing louder, eerier, and almost haunting as more of his body exits the barrier.

He calls on Sheehan, pleading and begging for help . . . but soon he is unable to speak.

Sheehan looks at Aayn, "You see, there are two problems. In the case of Iza, the lowest he could drop the temperature is absolute zero and while that is very cold, the value of temperature gradient will not be any more than that. Actually, even this fluid cannot withstand absolute zero for long and will turn solid. Luckily, Iza is conditioned to not go lower than a certain point, however the temperature gradient out there is insane, as there is practically no upper limit as to how high the temperature can go . . . well . . . until it goes beyond the concept at least,"

Vision's skin slowly begins to melt, they can see his flesh, and soon his bones as the noises he makes are no longer screams . . . they are like the noises of a dying baby bird or whimpers of a dying new-born kitten.

"And the second problem was that I couldn't find a material that has a high enough melting point . . . until now," he looks at the rock, intrigued . . . as Vision is reduced to nothing.

. . .

Aayn looks at Sheehan in awe.

Fascinating! I am inspired to see and learn more! I truly am far from perfect . . .

"Thank you for the lesson," he says, bowing humbly.

"Aw, you are gonna make me blush. Thanks," grins Sheehan.

"Iza has captured the fraction. There is no more time to waste, Sheehan. We should get going!" says Zahtan, Iza being carried by his lackeys behind him.

Next to him . . . frozen solid in the ice is the darkness Charlotte has sent to spy on Aayn.

"Alright, alright," nods Sheehan.

Zahtan takes out his compass and looks at it.

"Hey Zahtan?" calls Sheehan, still facing the hell in front of him.

"Yes?"

He turns his head to the side to face Zahtan and smiles gently, "You were right. It was fun to watch,"