Nineteen: Close

'Halufaya is close, we'll rest there for a bit." Elliot directed me to go west and came across a rockier path. When we reached said place, there was nothing. The place was just a very vast space with nothing—not even trees nor bumps on the snow-covered ground. 'Should we just sit here, because I see nothing." Elliot had the audacity to laugh. 'Yeah." The fucker. I dropped his ass on the ground. Unlike the other places we passed by, the snow here was compacted and it only reached our ankles. He was still laughing even when he was lying on the ice with his legs in awkward positions. 'Hear me out, at least we can see everything and will know when somebody is there." 'Whatever, hurry and do your thing so we can move on." And end this disaster once and for all. 'This is an isolated place too, so no electricity." Elliot rolled on his stomach. 'Please put the metals here." He pointed a few inches from his face. I did what he asked and piled the things we took from the previous place. I watched open-mouthed as the metals were reduced to a silver dust when Elliot touched them. His legs moved on their own and untangled themselves out of the awkward knot they formed when I dropped him earlier. After a few seconds, my friend stood up like he wasn't disabled a few moments ago. 'What in the ever-loving fuck just happened?" My mind couldn't comprehend what took place in front of me. 'Was that black magic? Sorcery exist?" 'That's what they called Alchemy, my friend. I just improvised it." Alchemy. Alchemy exists? 'You're an alchemist?" What a stupid question to ask. 'You could say that, but I can't make gold out of other metals that that particular element is not a part of. Also, the nanomytes in my body plays a big part. They help rearrange and transmute the elements to my desired thing." Well, what the hell? After getting over the fact that my friend might be a sorcerer, I took a seat in front of him which he followed suit. 'Are we going to stay here all day?" Elliot looked up at the gray sky and sighed. 'Maybe a couple of minutes to settle my newly formed legs." And we just sat there, him looking at the horizon while I pat the snow next to me. 'Do you think Nathan's... army of mutated beings are already situated in the future places we'll pass through?" I asked. It took a long beat before Elliot answered. 'Yes." He was so sure. Could it be that he detected them? 'Okay." A sudden thought came to me while looking at my friend. 'Elliot, will it be okay with you if I leave you and go to the mine by myself, hypothetically asking?" 'I know you're thinking about my safety but I would rather get beaten up fighting alongside you." I saw his hands form a fist on the ground, taking bits of snow in them. 'You leaving me and going on your own equals to you sort of cutting ties with me," I opened my mouth to tell him that was not what I meant but he beat me to it. 'I know I'm useless when it comes to fighting but I still want to be there with you. I don't want to be in a 'safe zone" and hide somewhere while you're out there fighting for the both of us. And I can help too, you know." I sighed. 'Also, who will tell you the way to the mine? Because you suck at directions. Who knows where you'll end up?" Okay, a good point. I nodded. 'My legs are okay. Let's get going." Elliot stood up and offered his hand to me. I took it and dusted my butt after he helped me up. 'Can you do what you did to my clothes?" The thing's blood was starting to reek, and it was not the usual metallic smell of blood but the scent of something dead for days. 'Sure." He held the sleeve of my shirt and within a second, a light smoke permeated around me for a short period of time. There was not a spec of dirt nor remnant of the thing's juices when I looked down at my clothes. 'Thanks." 'Don't mention it." He replied, dusting his hands. We slid down the rocky slope I climbed earlier and went back to our original route. And this time we decided to stop the stop-overs. For four days we travelled at a decent speed. Elliot's legs suddenly malfunctioned along the way so, we had to—once again—gather metals for him to transmute. I also began to feel the dropping of temperature, which according to my friend, went down to minus forty-two. Who could still survive that temp for a long while? We reached the country of Tanzania, East of Africa. We were on the road of Ilukutwa, when we came to a huge bonfire. It was blazing and it was probably the size of a house but there was no one around it. Of course, that made us suspicious and went off our course. Who still could make fire this cold if those were human? Elliot found us a different route and we went around the fire, but our attempt to escape was futile. Five hulking things were waiting for us and as we turn around to go back, another two appeared. They were closing in and we were shrinking as we tried to avoid them. Fuck this. 'You told me that they are no match to me, right?" I ask my friend who was just standing still. His six-feet two stature was dwarfed by our foes' heights. 'Yeah, wait don't tell me—" 'I will throw you and you land on your feet, okay?" I didn't wait for him to answer and grabbed his waist. I lifted Elliot and threw him away from the crowding giants. I was worried that they might catch him and swat him to the ground, but thankfully I catapulted him fast enough that they could only follow my friend with their sight as he flew away from me. Shadow suddenly clouded over me as I was making sure that Elliot landed safely. I didn't think that Nathan made their brains as productive as their physical forms because the meatheads threw their bodies on me in an attempt to probably crush me. The first body that slammed me down stunned me—even made me breathless. I tried to lift the giant but another weight pinned my arms to the ground. Are they football-pinning me? I saw this once in the conditioning with my then-brother Leib as he was a football player and it was not healthy to watch, even unhealthier to the one being flattened below. Like me. Goddamn, it felt like my ribs and my whole self were already crushed to oblivion as the fourth weight added. I took a deep breath—though it hurt like a motherfucker—and summoned my strength to lift the gigantic dudes on top of me. Little by little my arms and hands jacked up, even with the extra fifth weight, my strength wasn't deterred. My hands were fully stretched at this point, enough to swipe them to the left and make them roll away from me. I did just that and hastily slid aside and distanced myself from them. They were fast on their feet for their sizes and were on me just after a second. Shit, I didn't think they were this fast! I avoided a succession of unending blows as they took turns trying to punch me. One got me in the face and it hurt like a bitch. I jumped and backed up until I was at a safe distance, it was just then that I projected heat on my hand and made it hot. Hotter and hotter until I thought it was enough to even subdue one of them. Elliot told me that they were built the same as me but let us still see how they'd do with heat. I threw the ball of heat the size of my fist from my hands to the nearing bunch. I hurled it a bit low and it surprisingly passed through the abdomen of one of the giants, making a hole in the middle of its torso. It didn't stop them from coming at me though. 'Take the head!" I heard Elliot shout. The only sound they were making were their stomps and the swooshes of their limbs as they tried to hit me. Even the one with a hole in its stomach didn't even grunt. I made another heat-ball but as now big as the heads of my attackers and then threw it with both hands. One head disappeared and the body fell, the one behind it had the half of its head disintegrated but it left him still moving. I ran towards them then with my fingers glowing red and jumped on the closest being. I took hold of its neck and smelled the strong scent of burning flesh. Hands grabbed my legs and waist pulling me away from their ally. Hotter, hotter! I rushed my hands to increase their temperature as I could feel the lower half of my body getting separated from my lower one. If ever I get split in half, which one would grow though? Or would it still? Goddamnit! They really were a bit heat proof. Through gritted teeth, I lifted myself a bit and took hold of the creature's neck. A twist and a pull was all it fucking took to separate its body from its head. I screamed in frustration as I was dragged on the snow from my legs by the soundless beings. Five more. I pulled the limb that took hold on me until I heard the familiar snap of bones, tendons and muscles, and then I felt dizzy and was flying to god-knows where. I landed on my back catching my breath. 'I was swatted like a goddamned mosquito for fuck's sake." I heard their stomps nearing. Were they here to take me back or to kill me? Either of the two were not good for me though. I got up and started to build my wall. I could've done this earlier, why make myself get beaten up first? Maybe I got too complacent and did not take them seriously. Also, I wanted to live the normal life I got to know through the dreams they conditioned me with. Steam rose as my wall got hotter. I noticed that as ice turned to water, I sank lower, and lower—fuck, were we over a body of water all this time?—and lower, until I noticed circular rocks from below me. I walked, the steam was thicker and shooting aggressively upward by this point as I pushed my wall of heat towards my enemies. The first one to come in contact was reduced to nonexistence, so was the second one. I didn't know why the third and the fourth still continued running towards the wall when they already saw their companions get disintegrated. They were really made physically perfect with a mind of an imbecile. Come here kitty, kitty, kitty. I called the last one in my mind and I already knew that it would be doing the same thing his friends did when it didn't stop from running in my direction. And right I was, the wall didn't even give any of its remnants to pass through it. Done. It took me a while to stop the flow of energy from my hands and make the wall disappear though. 'You alright down there?" Elliot's voice seemed far away by how low the volume was. 'Yeah," I shouted back and turned behind me. Whoa. Several meters from where I was standing was a wide path of red-hot, glowing magma. The water from the melting ice that would flow close to it would sizzle and evaporate. We were indeed standing under a body of water basing on how deep I was in. I was maybe fifteen to twenty feet below with no boots on and standing in front of a tall face of ice. 'There were no lakes nor rivers in this area as far as my system knew, but viola!" Elliot was peering down from above me, probably on his stomach. 'Help me up?" Oh, I was also naked, guess my four-hundred-degree wardrobe disintegrated as well. The embarrassment that one should feel because of their nakedness was absent to me. Growing up, I didn't get the chance to feel that emotion as I was in that unclothed state more times that I could even count in the lab. 'I could only extend my arms this far." His arm couldn't even cover a fourth of the depth. 'There is a slope of ice from where you slid down a while ago and I think it's climbable." Uh, there was a path of magma on the way to there. 'How can I get there?" He gave me that ‘are you serious?' face. 'Just step on the magma. I'm sure you'll be just fine." I stared at the glowing liquid for a few seconds. If he said it then... Nope! 'Come on, Thirty-Five, it's just a magma." Just a magma? I could be cooked like an egg if I stepped on it for all I knew! I frowned upon realizing my attitude towards Elliot's words. I was second guessing..? This was new. And it feels unpleasant, it made me think that I was weak. Shaking my head to clear off that emotion, I immersed a foot in and then the other one. The viscous liquid came up slightly higher than my ankles and I have never felt this instantaneous relaxation in my entire laboratory-life. The feeling was melting my bones—in a good way—and made me want to just submerge myself and just stay there for all I care. It was like a very good, very languid foot massage after a very long time of just walking, standing, and running. Hah. Damn. 'Uh, hello? We don't have all day." My friend shouted from above. 'I know you like it, but get a hold of yourself, we have a core to unfreeze." I was just reveling the momentary exhilarating feeling, gosh. 'Yes, I'm going." Every step I took were the most blissful ones I did I think in my life and it ended when I stepped out of it. I rested the soles of my feet on an ice slab—which instantly melted—and I felt ordinary once again. I stayed there and let my feet cool down. My eyes looked back at the magma path that was slowly losing its glow for the last time and climbed up. I had to puncture the slick ice with my fingers at a fast speed to get leverage as well as my feet. Elliot met me at the edge and put his black, leather trench coat on my shoulders. He buttoned it all the way to the top and cinched the waist-belt. 'We don't have a cellulose source to transmute you new clothes so this'll have to do for the moment." The travelling resumed, and my guard was up the whole time in case we encounter those creatures again. 'Do you think we'd survive if those things come at us all at once?" I asked Elliot, the hem of the trench coat he gave me was on the ground, swishing with every step I took. 'I think, after all they disappeared like it was magic when you did your heat-shield there." 'So I'll have to just do that again when that happens." At the same time I was thinking of how I could put my friend away from them and the damage I would cost. He hmmed. 'Hey, why did that felt good out there?" I was talking about the magma I stepped in earlier. 'You're a thermophile, of course you'll be falling in love with anything that is touch-and-you-will-burnt-worse-reduced-to-carbon type of temperature." Huh. Thermophile, something that loves to dwell in heat. But what happens to it when it begin to get cold?