678. Silicon Rot Removal

678. Silicon Rot Removal

Silicon Rot

The description of Gerina Aztra’s disease was eerily similar to the colors of the Black Dahlia’s flowers. Red and blue glowed faintly within the opaquely grey crystals, reflecting the woman’s physical trauma and mental turmoil as she shuddered in her sleep.

“One reflects sins, and the other reflects experiences…”

Nav. Do we know why colors relate to experiences? I’ve always been able to see the colors. But it didn’t matter to me as much until it became associated with Sins. And now experiences. It was intention back then.

Frost consulted the trusty voice in her head as she inspected Gerina’s right arm further. She had taken the woman to an abandoned fortress deep into the woods leading towards the Bellum Empire.

It was a rundown hold infested with all manners of giant eight-legged creatures. However, they scattered like roaches by the time Frost and Cer were able to place a foot through the rotting door. Arachnids of all kinds were territorial and prideful creatures at heart, but they knew better than to protest them.

Besides, they were only borrowing their fortress. They could have it back later. The spiders in question were not the violent type either but were giant jumping spiders that tended to hug people for warmth.

Nav spoke shortly after a momentary silence.

“It’s difficult to explain why colors can represent abstract things. The problem is that it’s not universal. Sins and experiences do go hand in hand, but blue means different things.”

Like how the blue flames I see means they have good intentions. Blue can also mean the Sin of Lust. The blue I’m seeing now in the crystal… what is that supposed to be? I can see a well of green inside of it as well. It’s like staring into a Looking Glass.

“Green would be Envy, no? It makes no sense that a dying person would feel envious. Not to the Memento Mori. She tried to escape them.”

Exactly. That might not belong to her at all. Envy… Is there an Affinity related to it?

Frost knew that this disease either belonged to a Corrupted or the Impuritas. It had changed her to a degree where Healers could not possibly bring her arm back without amputation. It was a rot that needed to be hacked off.

The term ‘rot’ lingered on the forefront of Frost’s mind. She knew something. It sat at the tip of her tongue, but she could not bring herself to say it. As a result, she unintentionally used Scrutiny on the woman, causing her body to freeze like a cadaver.

Shit…

“Ahem. Out of all the Affinities, Envy would be closely related to the Affinity of Attachment.”

Envy? With Attachment? How does that make sense?

“Infecta Rot are known to be a machine Impuritas linked to the Attachment Affinity. Artificial life at the bare minimum, which includes stuffed toys and inanimate objects. It could be that their hatred of the flesh stems from their envy of it.”

Nav spoke vehemently.

Because this was likely how Nav herself felt as well.

So that’s where the silicon part comes from. They’re nothing like us.

Nav fell silent. The flickering of pages could be heard from the other end. It felt nostalgic, like she was on the phone with Nav rather than cognitively linked.

“Do you believe that I am different?”

You’re one of us. I promise you, there’s no point in worrying about it. The Infecta Rot is an Impuritas. They’re impurities. You’re better than that. You come from the ‘Light’.”

Frost assured her.

“As do you. Speaking of light.”

Nav returned to the subject at hand suddenly. “Colors in the end are no more than different wavelengths. It all stems from light, like how the concept of Affinities are also related to the ‘Light’ and ourselves.”

Everything tied back to the ‘Light’ in one way or another. For some reason, her mind took her back to when Carpalis showed her a budding universe.

Everything was blue shifted.

* * *

Frost lopped the infected arm and all stray pieces of crystals. A brief taste test unfortunately didn’t promise her any new skills or insight into the Silicon Rot, so she proceeded with an awful metallic taste in her mouth.

She investigated the woman’s circulatory system and found that the interior part of her arterial walls had blackened. Further analysis and careful prying of her innards revealed other afflicted areas, such as her pulmonary and lymphatic systems.

“Crystals are in the spleen too. Put your tail away. [Cleanse] works differently when inside of a person’s cavity, so it’ll be hard to remove any fur.”

Cer nodded apologetically. An electric barrier surrounded the table Frost operated from, which attracted and caught stray dust particles. It was how Frost kept her makeshift theatre room sterile, though [Cleanse] would have worked just fine for small dust particles.

The issue with [Cleanse] was that it was not up to the user to determine what was an impurity. If something did not belong there then it would remove it. The difficulty varied depending on the size and complexity of the foreign material, as well as the surface.

The latter was the most important part. Frost could only [Cleanse] things she was in physical contact with, and she could not [Cleanse] everything within a person’s body. Blood was considered a foreign material when exposed to the air. Certain useful microbes would also be caught in the crossfire.

[Cleanse] brought the body back to its cleanest state.

But it did annoy her how radiation was easier to [Cleanse] than needles.

It would not have been an issue if she just needed to regenerate this woman’s arm. The fact that she had to extract and rebuild multiple complex systems was the real problem.

“Should I increase the static?”

“Just maintain the barrier.” Frost responded quickly, not wanting to break her concentration. “The miracle of Healing magic doesn’t make this any easier.”

“Didn’t you do that on Earth? How hard can it be?”

“Aright, you come do it.”

“I’m kidding.”

“Haaaah. I was a nurse, not a doctor. Let alone a surgeon. I was basically a foot soldier. We dealt with complex things, but we could never operate or prescribe anything. This is an experience for me.”

“… She must love hearing that it’s your first time doing this in her sleep. Why don’t you do the thing where you talk to the person like they’re awake?”

“I don’t think that applies to surgery. Not like this. What am I going to say? Hey, Gerina~ I’m just going to remove your circulatory system~! Oh wait, I can’t do that because your capillaries are affected too~”

She forced herself to speak in a bubbly, ditzy tone to annoy Cer. However, Cer’s tail wagged in response.

“So the better option is to –”

Frost’s voice deepened as she hacked her in half.

[Prolonged Stasis] would keep Gerina alive no matter what trauma she faced. This meant that Frost could regenerate her from the top down, effectively cleansing all impurities in the bottom half. Then once her lower body formed, she did it to the upper half.

“– Start with a clean slate!”

A Moon would not have survived a bisection.

Even a Moon would not have survived a complete transection of the lower half. In this case, it was a hemicorporectomy. But the power of a max-leveled [Prolonged Stasis] defied death. One had to wonder if the Memento Mori would reconsider their ways if they knew how powerful Healing magic was.

It took minutes to completely restore the woman’s body. Once done, Frost and Cer reclothed her.

Now they just had to wait for her to wake up. In the meantime, Frost received an exciting message.