Chapter 31: Frozen Assets
The Glacier Guardian's roar didn't just vibrate the air; it felt like it was trying to shatter the atoms in Xavier's teeth. The creature was a jagged cathedral of ancient ice, easily five stories tall, and it was currently raising a fist the size of a delivery van to crush the "intruder" brick by brick.
"Xavier! Get inside!" Silas screamed from the doorway, his vines desperately trying to latch onto the frozen ground to stabilize himself.
"Not yet!" Xavier shouted back. He grabbed Investigator Kaelen by the scruff of his frost-covered neck and shoved a heavy, humming metallic cylinder into his arms. "Here. Heat-Sync Stabilizer. Sign the digital pad on my wrist and get your shield back up, or this is a very short-lived five-star review!"
Dazed and shivering, Kaelen pressed his thumb to Xavier's biometric reader.
[Delivery Confirmed]
[Payment: 50,000 Credits / Diplomatic Favor Pending]
"Now, get to the loading bay!" Xavier shoved the investigator toward the open warehouse doors just as the Guardian's fist descended.
BOOM.
The Defensive Veil shimmered into existence—a dome of translucent blue energy—taking the full force of the blow. The Warehouse groaned, its foundation shrieking against the ice.
"Structural integrity at 82%," Aurelius's voice boomed through the external speakers. "Driver, I recommend we stop being a stationary target."
Fortress Mode: Activated
Xavier sprinted back into the shop, the heavy doors slamming shut behind him and sealing with a vacuum hiss.
"Serena! Tactical assessment!"
Serena was already at the security console, her fingers dancing across a new holographic interface. "The entity is drawing mass from the permafrost. Traditional damage is useless; it heals faster than we can cut. We need to disrupt its thermal core."
"Aurelius, anchor us!" Xavier commanded, grabbing the steering handles. "Initiate Headquarters Link!"
[Headquarters Link: Activated]
[Engine Sync: Infinite Output (Duration: 120 Seconds)]
Xavier felt a surge of power that nearly stopped his heart. He wasn't just syncing with a car engine anymore; he was tapped into an S-Rank Core. His vision turned gold. Every brick, every pipe, and every shelf in the building felt like an extension of his own nervous system.
"Serena, open the vents!" Xavier roared. "Give 'em the dead-letter special!"
"With pleasure," Serena smirked. She engaged the Kinetic Pneumatic Launchers.
Above the main entrance, two massive brass tubes slid out of the masonry. Inside the warehouse, the "Return-to-Sender" bin—filled with volatile, unstable mana potions and failed alchemical experiments—began to empty into the pneumatic system.
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!
High-velocity canisters streaked through the blizzard. They didn't just hit the Guardian; they buried themselves deep into its chest and joints.
BOOM! BOOM!
Flame, acid, and lightning erupted inside the ice. The Guardian staggered, its left arm shattering into a thousand shards of sleet.
The Ice-Breaker Drift
"It's still standing!" Silas yelled, watching the monitors as the creature began to pull snow from the ground to reform its arm.
"Then we're taking its legs," Xavier said, his eyes glowing. "Aurelius, vent the turbine exhaust into the foundation skids. We're going to skate."
"Calculations suggest a 40% chance of a total flip," Aurelius warned.
"I like those odds. Do it!"
The warehouse's thermal floor ignited. Superheated steam hissed out from under the building, creating a layer of frictionless vapor between the Rig and the glacier. Xavier slammed the steering handles forward, dumping all his "Infinite RPM" into the momentum thrusters.
The two-story brick building didn't just move; it drifted.
The Rig slid across the ice with terrifying speed, a thirty-ton fortress turned into a high-speed projectile. Using the Momentum Buffer, Xavier steered the warehouse into a wide, sweeping arc, ramming the side of the building directly into the Guardian's knees.
The impact sounded like a mountain snapping in half.
The Guardian's lower half disintegrated under the force of the "Building-Scale Charge." As the titan fell, Xavier triggered the Exhaust vents one last time, a massive plume of blue flame melting the creature's core before it could touch the ground.
The Diplomatic Passport
Minutes later, the blizzard died down to a soft flurry. The warehouse stood in the center of a massive, steaming crater, its hydraulic legs leveling the floor as if nothing had happened.
Investigator Kaelen stepped out of the loading bay, his Heat-Sync Stabilizer now keeping him at a comfortable 22°C. He looked at the shattered remains of the Guardian, then at Xavier.
"You... you're the 'Irregular' the D-City Bureau warned us about," Kaelen said, his voice full of awe. He reached into his belt and pulled out a heavy, black-and-gold card embossed with the Northern Crest. "They called you a thief. I call you a miracle. This is a Black-Tier Diplomatic Passport. As far as the Northern Tundra is concerned, you are a sovereign logistics entity. No one touches your cargo here."
Xavier took the card, a smirk playing on his lips. "Just doing my job, Investigator."
He turned to head back inside, but stopped when he saw Aurelius's mechanical eye flashing a frantic, deep purple.
"Xavier," the Core whispered, the mental link vibrating with urgency. "I have picked up a distress signal from the crevice below the Guardian's origin point."
"The Bureau?" Xavier asked.
"No," Aurelius replied. "The encryption... it is a 64-bit mechanical bypass code. It matches the signature of the 'Original Engine' inside your chest. It is a signature I haven't seen in fifteen years."
Xavier's blood went colder than the glacier outside. "My father."