I usually start these entries by describing something about Abnormalities. I'm sure I've done it a few times already.
However, this Regression was when I learned just how much trouble even the 'weak' Abnormalities could truly be.
That is to say, the 'normal' Abnormalities I had considered small fry in my single-minded focus on the Flood Dragon.
Alyssa, Jay, and I had been searching through the ruined city for an Abnormality to fight. Alyssa even turned off her 'Divine' temporarily to allow them to pile up around us.
That is to say...somehow, in a city that should've been full of weird abberations to reality, we weren't finding a single one. The only thing that was attacking us was the frigid, biting cold.
"This is fucking weird..." Alyssa muttered, her voice shaking a little as she wrapped her arms around herself.
Her breath was coming out frosty at this point, her multiple layers barely protecting her.
"That's understating it. This is really fucking weird..."
"I concur..." Jay hummed, looking around the empty area.
Everything was blanketed in a faint layer of white. Snow. Snow was endlessly falling from above, covering the entire city around us.
And in the pitch-whiteness around us, nothing existed except for the buildings that snow now covered from head to toe.
Alyssa groaned, her anger turning it into more of an aggressive growl.
"No...what's really fucking weird is, how the hell are you two okay?! It's freezing!!"
Alyssa pointed at both me and Jay. Even in the coldness, I was still wearing my suit, and Jay was still clothed in their habit.
Alyssa was covered in head to toe in a thick, fluffy-looking set of winter clothes, with a black and white parka on top of it all, and goggles covering her face. She looked more like a researcher out in the arctic than the habit-wearing Saintess that had become a common sight.
"Well...my suit is just a bit special." I answered, looking down at the untouched clothing.
I remembered Viola saying it had her 'inner energy'. Somehow, it followed me through regressing and despite my journey through the cave, I had gotten injured, not the suit.
"'A bit' is underselling it. What's that thing made out of, raw Materials or something???"
Hearing the Saintess's words, it actually made me consider that possibility. Because of her assimilation with the Lost Forest, and her incredibly long life, Viola had learned many things that most hadn't even thought of yet.
Would it have been a stretch to say that she also knew about the true usefulness of Materials as well?
I pulled at the suit, inspecting the extremely strong fabric.
'...If so, just what sort of meaning did she imbue into this thing?'
"And what about you, Jay?! You're not even wearing anything special. If anything, the fabric on your habit is even thinner than mine?"
Jay just chuckled, clasping their hands together in a devoted prayer gesture.
"I'm glad that you worry for me, Saintess, but there's no need. I've been subjected to much worse conditions before. Anything can be overcome with enough faith and dedication."
Alyssa's shoulders slumped, a long sigh escaping her lips.
"I should've known...ugh, whatever. Just don't go getting frostbite because of misplaced faith or whatever! I don't want to have to thaw any of you guys out."
Alyssa grumbled, turning away from us to keep looking around. She was certainly annoyed, but not angry. The worry in her voice was evident.
"Regardless of our clothing situation...I do agree with your earlier statement, Mr. Manager." Jay's watchful eyes scanned the blankets of snow. "I don't believe that we've seen a single thing that could be called an Abnormality."
I narrowed my gaze at that assertion. Like it or not, Jay was correct.
Not a single thing stood out.
Then, I thought of something terrifying. The wind whipped last my face, and I considered the horribly inconsistent weather, and the lack of people.
"...what if we are inside of the Abnormality already?"
It was a question that none of us could ignore.
"The North is supposed to be cold, but not this cold..."
Alyssa, the only one of us who hailed from the Northern portion of the city was confused at the cold.
That was the first warning sign we had to turn back.
-----
There was only so far we could keep walking before we had to stop. But before we did, I noticed something. We all noticed it at the same time, actually.
No, 'noticed' would be the wrong word. This was something that was impossible to miss.
Multiple frozen bodies, laid bare in the snow for any to see. Their faces, frozen into sorrowful, drained expressions. Their skin turned blue. Their clothing, sometimes thick and winter-prepared, sometimes not, was uselessly fused to their bodies by ice.
Women, men...other survivors of this apocalypse, that were strewn about on the street, frozen through to the point that multiple layers of ice could be seen covering them completely.
"...f...f...fuck."
Alyssa's single word, spoken through chattering teeth was enough to surmise how all of us felt about the situation.
It wasn't the sight of bodies that disturbed us. But the fact that so many bodies were here in the first place.
The North had officially become a grave.
"...have mercy on us." Jay spoke with a solemn voice. It was the first time I heard such fear from them.
We couldn't tell what was behind, in front of, or around us anymore. There was no place to run to, and no help to call for. We were now trapped inside of this frozen grave.
"...keep going."
I muttered. It was useless, I knew. But we had to keep moving. We just had to.
-----
Eventually, we huddled into a building together. A small apartment in a complex of now abandoned apartments.
We closed the door and locked it behind us. The windows, too. Everything that could allow any air to enter the room was closed and locked shut.
We found the smallest room and huddled together under a blanket, trying to preserve our warmth. There was no decency or worries here. We were all focused on trying to survive this hellish frost.
But there was no warmth to preserve. What little warmth our bodies had slowly, cruelly faded away into the neverending, bone-chilling cold.
Even with the windows closed, the cold winds seeped through the frame. It invaded underneath the door. The blanket felt like it wasn't even there.
...Alyssa was the first to start going.
"S-so cold... it's so...damn...cold."
Alyssa murmured, her body shivering, her eyes filled with a fear that I hadn't seen there ever since she suppressed the 'idea of God'
Abnormality.
"Why...can't I get warm?"
"Alyssa -!"
"Saintess!"
Me and Jay were far better off than her, for some reason. Right now, I couldn't tell. No, I just didn't care to think up theories right now.
We shook her, tried to bring her back to consciousness, but for whatever reason, she was mentally gone already.
She was unresponsive to our attempts at waking her out of it. Her eyes were unfocused, lost, gone in a haze that was undetectable by us.
And then, eventually...
Even the light in her eyes faded away.
When the Saintess died, Jay stopped resisting.
-----
"Saintess..." Jay was helplessly pressed against Alyssa's now-frozen, death-cold body, their eyes filled with anguished tears.
I stared ahead. My thoughts...I didn't want to think right now. I wanted to move. Needed to move. Even if Alyssa died, I still thought there was a way to stop this Abnormality.
But it was too late. The cold, which we had resisted just barely longer than Alyssa, now intruded even on our bodies.
I couldn't feel any strength in any of my limbs. And the near-arctic gale outside just got louder and louder, banging insistently against the window as if targeting us, specifically.
I could tell Jay was the same. Even though they moved, it was only weakly, by the barest amount.
They remained pressed against Alyssa's body until the very end. I didn't even hear the moment when the life slipped away from their body.
I only heard the last words,
"Without her...my life...has no meaning..."
At that point, everything was gone. Alyssa and Jay, who had both been alive and joking with me only moments ago were dead.
I was dying.
There was no Abnormality here to fight. No loophole to take advantage of. If anything, it felt like we were fighting cold itself.
An invincible, undefeatable cold. One that couldn't be kept away by any torch, or layers of clothing, or shelter, or blankets.
A primal cold, that stole the strength away from us, regardless of whether we wanted to live or not.
As I felt the cold overcoming me, I heard that voice again.
Imminent death of skill holder detected.
Conditions met.
Activating Unique Skill: Regression
And I closed my eyes, giving in to the weak numbness that spread throughout my body...
-----
I woke up in the convenience store. It was my second Regression life where I hadn't even met the Flood Dragon at the end.
"..."
It looked like there was another problem to take care of first.
The unknown Abnormality that froze over the North.