Day 109 Post-Impact
The war room was tense when Sarnav arrived.
Jade had commandeered half the table with holographic displays, data streams scrolling faster than any normal person could read. Zara stood at the tactical map, face grim. Elena lurked in the corner, her shadows restless despite last night's temporary stabilization. And Minji...
Minji sat hunched in her chair, arms wrapped around herself, looking smaller than Sarnav had ever seen her.
"Report," he said, moving to stand beside her.
Jade didn't look up from her screens. "The probe hit all five decoy points simultaneously. Not sequentially. Simultaneously. Do you understand what that means?"
"It's not testing them one by one," Zara said. "It already knew where they all were."
"It saw through everything, oppa." Minji's voice was barely above a whisper. "My illusions, my fake energy signatures, the whole setup. It just... laughed at them. Like I was a noob running the tutorial while it was playing on nightmare mode."
Sarnav put a hand on her shoulder. "Your decoys still bought us time. They forced it to reveal its capabilities."
"Did they?" She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Or did it just let us think that?"
He didn't have an answer for her.
[NETWORK ALERT: ENTITY PROXIMITY - UPDATED][PREVIOUS ESTIMATE: 5-7 DAYS][REVISED ESTIMATE: 48-72 HOURS]
The room went silent as everyone's internal displays updated with the same information.
"Sei yan," Jade breathed. "It's accelerating."
"Or it was always this close," Elena said from her corner, "and we only now have accurate data."
"Either way." Zara's jaw tightened. "We have three days at most. Probably less."
The door opened, and Tanaka Yuki slipped in, clutching a tablet to her chest like a shield. She froze when she saw how many people were present, her cheeks flushing.
"I - I'm sorry. Jade-san messaged me about the probe data, and I thought - I can come back later if - "
"Get in here," Jade said without looking up. "I need your brain."
Yuki hurried to an empty seat, nearly tripping over a cable on the way. A thin layer of frost crept across the table surface where she set down her tablet, and she quickly wiped it away with her sleeve.
"S-sorry. I'm sorry. It does that when I'm nervous."
Sarnav noticed it wasn't the first time. Since her arrival, Yuki's ice aura had a tendency to leak at inopportune moments. Frosted doorknobs. Crystallized coffee cups. A thin rime on any surface she touched for too long.
Jade had theorized it was a control issue, that her power was too strong for her current cultivation level. But watching Yuki adjust her glasses for the third time in thirty seconds, Sarnav wondered if it was something else entirely.
"Walk us through what you found," Jade said, finally looking up. "The shadow pathway analysis."
Yuki's nervousness receded slightly, replaced by the focused intensity Sarnav had come to recognize. This was her element. Data. Theory. Problems with solutions.
"Right. So." She pulled up a diagram on the main display, her movements becoming more confident. "The entity moves through shadows, yes? But it's not teleportation. The shadows are more like... highways. It travels along existing darkness, uses it as infrastructure."
"We knew that," Elena said flatly.
"Yes, but look at this." Yuki highlighted a section of data. "When it probed the decoys, it left traces. Energy signatures. And those signatures have a temperature component."
She glanced at Sarnav, then quickly away, adjusting her glasses again.
"Shadows are cold," she continued. "Not metaphorically. The entity's presence drops ambient temperature by two to three degrees in a fifty-meter radius. More when it's actively using shadow pathways."
"So we track it by temperature drops," Zara said. "Useful, but - "
"That's not the point." Yuki's voice gained strength, the way it always did when she was onto something. "Ice and shadow are opposites. Thermodynamically opposed. If shadow pathways require a certain temperature threshold to function, then theoretically..."
She trailed off, looking uncertain again.
"You could freeze them shut," Sarnav finished.
Yuki's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Y-yes. Exactly. I mean, theoretically. I haven't tested it, and my control isn't - I would need to practice, and the power requirements would be - "
"You're saying your ability could slow it down," Elena interrupted, stepping forward from her corner. For the first time, there was something other than cold assessment in her expression. Interest. Maybe even hope. "Block its movement through the shadow network."
"Potentially. Maybe. I don't want to overstate - "
"That's more than anyone else has offered." Elena's gaze shifted to Sarnav. "She could be the counter we need."
Yuki looked like she wanted to disappear into her chair. "I'm not - I'm just a researcher. I analyze things. I don't fight."
"No one's asking you to fight," Sarnav said, keeping his voice gentle. "But your insight might save lives. That matters."
Their eyes met, and Yuki's cheeks flushed pink. She looked away quickly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I should... run more simulations. Verify the theory before we commit resources to - "
"Do it," Jade said. "I'll pull the processing power you need. Sarnav, stay with her. Make sure she has everything she requires."
There was something in Jade's tone that made Sarnav look at her sharply, but her expression was perfectly innocent. Too innocent.
"The rest of you, war council in one hour," Zara said. "We need contingencies for a forty-eight-hour timeline."
The room emptied quickly. Elena paused at the door, exchanging a look with Sarnav that communicated more than words. Be careful. But also... this might be important.
Then it was just him and Yuki, alone with the hum of servers and the soft blue glow of data screens.
Yuki worked like she was trying to outrun something.
Her fingers flew across multiple interfaces, pulling up equations, running simulations, muttering to herself in rapid Japanese. Sarnav had seen Jade in similar states of hyperfocus, but where Jade's intensity was sharp and aggressive, Yuki's was almost frantic. Like she was afraid that if she slowed down, she'd have to acknowledge something she wasn't ready to face.
He watched her work, noting the small details. The way she pushed her glasses up every few minutes, a nervous tic that had nothing to do with them actually slipping. The frost that kept forming on her stylus, forcing her to switch hands periodically. The soft Japanese exclamations when a simulation returned promising results - "Yatta!" - followed immediately by embarrassed glances to see if he'd noticed.
He noticed everything.
"The thermal differential is the key," she said, not looking at him. "If I can generate a sustained cold field at negative forty degrees Celsius, the shadow pathways should crystallize. Become impassable. But maintaining that temperature across a meaningful area would require..."
She trailed off, staring at a number on her screen.
"Would require what?" Sarnav asked.
"More power than I have." She slumped slightly. "By approximately three hundred percent. I'd need to break through at least two cultivation stages to generate that kind of sustained output."
"Or you'd need help."
She turned to look at him, confusion evident. "Help?"
"The network." He moved closer, pulling up a chair beside her. Not too close - he'd noticed how she tensed when people entered her personal space - but near enough to see her screens. "When wives bond, their abilities can resonate. Amplify each other. Sana's Holy Light reached the seal from fifty kilometers away because the network boosted her output."
Yuki's face went through several expressions in rapid succession. Curiosity. Calculation. And then, as the implications registered, a flush that spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
"That would require me to - I mean, I would need to - " She adjusted her glasses so vigorously she almost knocked them off. "The bonding process, I've read about it, from a theoretical perspective, purely academic interest, the cultivation mechanics are fascinating, but I've never actually - that is to say, I haven't - "
"Yuki."
She stopped, frozen mid-ramble.
"Breathe," Sarnav said gently.
She did, taking a shaky breath that fogged in the air. The temperature around her had dropped noticeably, frost creeping across her tablet screen, spreading in delicate crystalline patterns that were almost beautiful.
"Sorry. I'm sorry. I do this. I get - when I'm nervous, I talk too much, and then I get more nervous because I'm talking too much, and then - " She caught herself, pressing her lips together. "I'm doing it again."
"It's okay."
"It's not. I'm supposed to be professional. Jade-san brought me here because I'm useful, because my research might help, and instead I'm acting like a - like a - " She couldn't seem to find the word.
"Like a person?"
She looked at him, startled. Her eyes were dark brown behind her glasses, and this close, he could see the intelligence in them. The way her mind was constantly processing, analyzing, even when she was flustered.
"You're twenty-one years old," Sarnav continued, "in the middle of an apocalypse, being asked to help stop an entity that could kill everyone you know. I think you're allowed to be nervous."
"You're not nervous."
"I'm terrified," he said honestly. "I'm just better at hiding it."
Something shifted in her expression. The frantic energy eased slightly, replaced by something more thoughtful. More present.
"That's... surprisingly comforting." She paused. "I mean, not that you're terrified. That's terrible. I just meant - knowing that even someone as capable as you feels fear, it makes me feel less... inadequate." She winced. "That came out wrong."
"I understood what you meant."
She offered a small, tentative smile. It transformed her face, made her look less like a nervous researcher and more like... well. More like the brilliant young woman she actually was.
"You're twenty-one years old," Sarnav continued, "in the middle of an apocalypse, being asked to help stop an entity that could kill everyone you know. I think you're allowed to be nervous."
"You're not nervous."
"I'm terrified," he said honestly. "I'm just better at hiding it."
Something shifted in her expression. The frantic energy eased slightly, replaced by something more thoughtful.
"The compatibility system," she said quietly. "Jade-san told me my reading. Eighty-nine percent." She paused. "That's very high."
"It is."
"It means we would work well together. Theoretically. Our abilities would resonate strongly. The network boost could potentially push my output past the threshold needed for the freezing effect."
She was speaking clinically now, the way she did when analyzing data. But her hands were trembling slightly, and the frost on her tablet had spread to cover the entire surface.
"It also means," she continued, voice dropping even lower, "that the system has calculated a high probability of... emotional compatibility. Not just power synergy, but..." She couldn't finish.
"Yuki."
"I know it's presumptuous." The words came out in a rush. "I know you have ten wives already, all of them beautiful and powerful and experienced, and I'm just a researcher who can't even control her own aura, and I've never - I haven't even - " She stopped, taking another shaky breath. "I should focus on the simulations. That's what's important. The entity. Stopping it. Not... not whatever this is."
She turned back to her screens with determined focus, but Sarnav could see the tension in her shoulders. The way her ice aura kept flickering, betraying emotions she was trying to suppress.
He thought about Imam Malik's words. The entity that knew him personally. The crisis bearing down on them. And this brilliant, awkward girl who might hold the key to slowing it down.
"For what it's worth," he said, standing, "I don't think you're presumptuous. I think you're brave. And your research might save everyone in this compound."
She didn't turn around, but he saw her shoulders relax slightly.
"I'll have preliminary results in four hours," she said, her voice steadier. "If the theory holds, we can discuss... implementation options."
He recognized a dismissal when he heard one. She needed space. Time to process.
"I'll check in later."
He was almost to the door when her voice stopped him.
"Sarnav-san?"
He turned.
She was still facing her screens, but he could see the pink tinge on the back of her neck.
"Thank you. For... for not making it weird."
Despite everything, he smiled. "Get me those simulation results, Yuki."
"H-hai."
The cold hit him the moment he stepped outside.
Not the gentle chill of air conditioning, or even the crisp bite of a cool evening. This was something else entirely. A wrongness in the air, a temperature that seemed to seep into bone and settle there like an uninvited guest.
Sarnav's breath fogged, and he watched it dissipate into the darkness beyond the compound lights. Malaysia didn't get cold. Even at night, even in the highlands, the tropical climate kept temperatures mild. But right now, standing outside the research wing, he could see frost forming on the grass.
[ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT: TEMPERATURE ANOMALY][AMBIENT TEMPERATURE: 12°C (DOWN FROM 28°C)][CAUSE: UNKNOWN]
Except it wasn't unknown. Not really.
He looked toward the perimeter, toward the darkness beyond their lights. Something was out there. Watching. Waiting. And it was close enough that its mere presence was affecting the environment.
His comms crackled. Elena's voice, tight with controlled tension.
"The shadows are moving. I can feel it pressing against the perimeter. It's not attacking, just... watching. Testing. Like a predator circling prey."
"Yuki felt it too," he said. "The temperature drop. She noticed before the sensors did."
A pause. "Interesting. Her ice responds to its presence?"
"Looks like it. Some kind of resonance."
"Then we definitely need her." Another pause, longer this time. When Elena spoke again, her voice was softer. More vulnerable than she usually allowed herself to sound. "It's closer than we thought, Sarnav. Much closer. I give it two days. Maybe less."
Two days. Forty-eight hours to figure out how to stop something that had laughed at their best defenses. Something that knew him personally, for reasons no one could explain.
He looked back toward the research wing, where a small figure was still hunched over glowing screens, working frantically to find answers. Yuki. Brilliant, awkward, terrified Yuki, who might hold the key to their survival in her trembling, frost-covered hands.
Somewhere in the darkness, he could almost feel the entity's attention. That sense of being watched by something vast and patient and hungry.
I know you're there, he thought. I don't know why you want me. But you're not getting my people.
The cold pressed in around him, and for just a moment, he could have sworn he heard distant laughter.
Two days to see if a shy researcher's theory could save them all.
No pressure.
[DAY 109]
[SARNAV: S-RANK (HARMONY SOVEREIGN - FIRST STAGE)][PROGRESS TO SECOND STAGE: 16%]
[WIFE CULTIVATION STATUS][1. NISHA - C | 2. ISHANI - C | 3. ANANYA - D+][4. MINJI - D+ | 5. JADE - C | 6. SANA - C+][7. JIYEON - C | 8. SERENA - C+ | 9. ZARA - C+][10. ELENA - S]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE: 1,335 SURVIVORS | 3 SECTORS]
[SEAL INTEGRITY: 92.7% (STABLE - THREATENED)]
[ENTITY STATUS: PROXIMITY ALERT - 48-72 HOURS][TEMPERATURE ANOMALY: ACTIVE - ENTITY SURVEILLANCE CONFIRMED][POTENTIAL COUNTERMEASURE: YUKI'S ICE THEORY - TESTING]
[WIVES BONDED: 10/32]