The next day came quickly. A little more quickly than I expected.
I woke up before Alyssa...and I felt like shit. I had gone to sleep sitting against the wall, stuck in meditation.
I groaned as I got up, and looked down at Alyssa sleeping peacefully on the floor, her white hair fluttering around the fluffy material of her parka.
I thought of what had happened in the last life. How I was treating her in this one...
'Maybe this is where we part ways.'
First Liliana, then Viola, Jay, and now Alyssa.
Everyone who I got used to as a 'long-term companion' eventually had to be left behind in one way or another. I felt shitty for leaving Alyssa to her fate, but somehow, someway, Jay would find her and become her right-hand.
What I wanted to focus on right now was my own growth...and killing the thing that created this disturbance.
I left her the remnant of the large stash of cigarettes, and a note that read 'Leave the North. Head back to the edge.'
I tucked both things in next to her, and walked out of the door, leaving the Saintess behind for good. I didn't intend to run into her for a while.
The cold air immediately hit me. I still didn't think it was cold. Not that cold, anyways. I hit the ground running, driving myself down the ruined, destroyed roads.
I remembered that the further North we went, the colder it got. I didn't have any particular idea what I was looking for, specifically, but I knew that I should eventually find it if I kept moving ahead.
...probably.
Along the way, I found them. The bodies of the pastor and his congregation, that is. Despite the fact that it had barely been a night since we met, they were already frozen solid, like the bodies that had been stuck in the snowstorm in the last life.
I gave them a silent prayer in my head. Nothing could save a person who was already dead after all.
Still, just seeing their bodies, I felt a little bit colder...like a frosty, chilling wind was beginning to attack me for just finding the gruesome sight.
Frankly, this was an unnecessary side-job. I should be focusing right now on getting more and more progress towards fighting the Flood Dragon. If I was feeling the cold already, it wasn't good.
But...something bothered me about this entire situation.
I didn't realize it then, but this would be one of the most important "Side-Quests" that I had ever undertaken.
-----
Heading forward, I eventually came across a man, stumbling through the street. His eyes were unfocused, glazed over with some sort of emotion that I couldn't read. Fear? No. It was just pure manic anxiety.
"...c-cold...s-so...cold..."
He was covered from head to toe in incredibly warm clothing - to the point that I could barely identify his outline and his muffled, trembling voice.
The sheer oddity of his statement wasn't lost on me. He had a faint, steady ball of fire floating in front of him, one that seemingly followed him around. Apparently he was an ability user, and a fire one at that.
It wasn't anything impressive, but that much fire should be able to easily ward off cold of this level. Moreover, the fire wasn't struggling at all, easily overpowering the nearby cold in the air. Yet, for some reason, he continued shuddering and trembling like he was in the middle of a snowstorm without clothes.
"Why...why isn't it doing anything? I'm...I'm so cold..."
I could hear it. Could see it in the way his body violently shivered. He was definitely cold. Colder than I could imagine, probably.
Yeah, he had to be...real damn cold.
So...so, cold...
Cold...
'-!'
I shook my head, bringing myself to focus again.
"What the hell...?"
I couldn't help but speak aloud my surprise, even with how cheesy it sounded.
I had lost my own train of thought there. No, those thoughts weren't even my own. Again, my perfect memory came in handy with negating the effects of this nebulous something trying to mess with my brain.
There was a short moment where 'I' blanked out, overcome by something else.
It had to be the Abnormality affecting this region. The Northern Aberration.
I approached the man, shaking him. He paused briefly, slowly turning to look into my eyes. I immediately regretted that decision.
"It's...it's cold...isn't it?"
I could feel the warmth beginning to drain from my body. I could feel those th-
I wanted to try and get some sort of answer out of him, but-
Cold.Cold.Coldsocoldcoldlcl.ColdCOldCOLdcoldwhywhhycold.coldcold.
"It's no use. That one's already gone-nya. Don't get yourself dragged into his fate."
I heard a surprisingly...cutesy voice? I turned around only to see, and I shit you not - a girl wearing some sort of sparkly bright cosplay-dress, and a pair of cat ears. I only knew one set of crazies that would dress like this.
"A magical girl...?" I murmured, letting go of the man's shoulders. Maybe it was the jolting of her sudden voice, but I managed to snap out of the trance again. I still felt colder than before, but at least it no longer felt like ice was beginning to burrow into my body.
The girl's eyes widened in surprise.
"Nya? You managed to survive that one, huh? Hmm...stop staring like an idiot and get over here, then!" She called, her expressionless face a total mismatch with her incredibly over-the-top cute voice.
"Have to...keep the heat...keep my heat..."
The man stumbled off, wrapping his arms around his own body. I stepped away from him, and stared over at the one who had to be a Magical Girl.
The girl was standing by a nearby apartment building, at one of the higher levels, staring over the balcony. It was the...the same building that Alyssa, Jay and I had chosen as our place to die. It was a little ironic, this place being my saviour in the life after it had become my tomb.
Without any other choice, I began slinking from the nearly abandoned, icy streets into the shadows of the apartment complex. I had a long set of stairs to run up.