Nous Took One Look, and the Mainframe Overloaded
A piercing whine rasped across everyone's eardrums like a rusty saw.
Su Chen stopped what he was doing.
He let go of the two fluffy ears he had thoroughly mussed up.
Pom-Pom slumped on the sofa cushion like an empty sack, too drained even to gasp for breath.
Su Chen turned his head.
His azure eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, settled on the Data Bank's door.
The light leaking through the gap was not its usual cold, dim blue.
It was a blinding, scorching dark gold.
The color drained from Welt's face in half a second.
He barely managed to set down his glass. It struck the bar with a clack.
Water splashed across the wooden counter.
Welt snatched up the black cane leaning against the bar.
His dress shoes dug into the carpet, and he charged toward the Data Bank as if his tail were on fire.
Dan Heng was faster.
His Vidyo-Dhara instincts made him acutely sensitive to danger.
He lunged forward and slammed his shoulder into the heavy metal door.
The mechanism creaked under the strain as the doors slid apart.
Violent golden light poured out, turning the corridor into a furnace.
A wave of heat struck them.
The temperature inside the Data Bank was absurdly high.
The air stank of ozone and scorched insulation.
Two full rows of black metal server racks shook violently.
The cooling fans mounted on them howled like dying beasts.
They spun far beyond their design limits.
The blades sliced through the air, producing sharp sonic cracks.
Dan Heng looked through the thick smoke at the main screen in the center.
The star charts and train data were gone.
In their place writhed countless intricate, ancient golden patterns that looked almost alive.
The lines wove together and knotted wildly across the screen.
"Traces of the Path of Erudition?"
Welt rushed in right behind him.
One glance at the screen tore a hoarse cry from his throat.
This was no ordinary system failure.
This was an Aeon.
Nous, the Aeon of Erudition.
That supreme being sat deep within the sea of stars, using vast computational power to decipher the entire universe.
By some unknown means, Nous's gaze had been projected straight onto the Astral Express's Data Bank.
The target was the white-haired little girl outside, sitting on the sofa and eating candy.
Nous was trying to analyze something.
The spatial anomaly even Herta could not understand.
The Hollow Technique: Purple that had erased the antimatter fleet.
The coolant pipes beneath the server racks began to swell violently.
The blue coolant boiled.
Its bubbling carried through the thick alloy pipes, raising goose bumps.
High-pressure steam burst from a joint and scorched the surface off the wall.
"Computing core overloaded by three thousand percent!"
Dan Heng shouted.
The fans' roar shredded his words as soon as they left his mouth.
He pushed through the heat, reaching for the red manual power cutoff on the side of a rack.
Veins bulged across the back of his hand, as if magma flowed through them.
"Don't touch it!"
Welt slammed his cane against the floor.
A ring of violet simulated gravity rippled outward, dragging Dan Heng back two steps.
"That isn't electricity! It's the Aeon's chain of logic!"
Welt's voice cracked, thick with despair.
"Cutting the power won't help. Severing it by force will blow the entire car apart when that logic collapses!"
The golden patterns spun faster and faster.
They spilled beyond the screen, twisting in midair like holograms.
But the Data Bank could no longer keep up.
Nous's calculations had struck a wall they could not cross.
Zeno's Paradox.
Space divided without end; the distance stretched toward infinity.
To analyze that power, Nous would have to calculate where infinity ended.
An Aeon's computational power might be boundless.
But the Astral Express's Data Bank hardware had limits.
The physical medium carrying the Aeon's gaze was breaking down.
Crack!
The first sharp report came from the left side of the room.
A hard-drive array burned straight through.
Orange flames leaped half a meter high.
A shard of red-hot metal struck Dan Heng's cheek, leaving a charred, bloody streak.
Dan Heng did not even flinch. He stared at the fire.
Sparks sprayed through the room like a storm out of control.
The bolts securing the racks began to loosen.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Snapped bolts shot into the ceiling, punching dents into it.
The heavy racks tilted outward, on the verge of coming apart.
Welt clenched his teeth and stepped forward.
His suit jacket whipped in the heat.
Gripping his black cane with both hands, he drove it downward.
He pushed the Star of Eden to its limit.
A violet gravity field pressed down like an invisible hand, pinning the two rows of racks that were about to explode.
The tilted frames shrieked as metal scraped against metal, then were forced back into place.
Welt's legs trembled.
His knees bent inch by inch, his dress shoes carving two faint skid marks across the metal floor.
Sweat evaporated into white vapor the moment it formed on his forehead.
He gritted his teeth so hard his gums bled, and blood ran down the corners of his mouth.
Red streaks covered his chin.
His bones creaked under the strain.
He was not fighting an Aeon.
He was using human strength to hold together the physical structure of a heap of scrap the Aeon's calculations were about to burn out.
Himeko stood outside the Data Bank.
She did not rush in.
She gripped the doorframe so tightly that her nails dug into the metal seams. Two of them broke.
The sharp pain in her fingers was nothing beside the chill in her heart.
She watched the twisted golden patterns.
She watched Welt cough up blood as he struggled to keep the racks from falling apart.
The fear circling in her mind finally took shape.
An Aeon.
An unfathomable truth of the universe.
And now this Aeon of ultimate wisdom had merely "looked" at the white-haired girl from afar.
Unable to analyze her defenses, Nous had burned out the train's mainframe.
All because of a Seventh Seat.
All because of a passive Cursed Technique.
It had trapped the Aeon of Erudition's chain of logic in an endless loop.
Every breath Himeko drew seemed to taste of blood.
She turned stiffly toward the lounge.
Su Chen was still sitting on the leather sofa.
He pushed his sunglasses back up from the tip of his nose.
A freshly unwrapped mint bulged against his cheek.
His small hand brushed dust from his clothes.
The Data Bank's raging golden light reflected in his azure eyes.
He pursed his lips. His voice was quiet, but Himeko heard every word.
"Peeking at people without asking..."
The little girl complained in a bright, childish voice.
"That's so rude."
He had no intention of intervening.
The Shock Points ticking up on his system panel had already left him numb.
This spectacle was building his image for free. He might as well let it.
Limitless had triggered passively anyway. If an Aeon wanted to calculate it, they could calculate all they liked.
Inside the Data Bank, the temperature had reached the ignition point.
Several paper files caught fire and became balls of flame.
Welt's back bowed, and his cane nearly snapped under the pressure.
"Mr. Welt!"
Dan Heng growled and stepped forward, bracing his shoulder against Welt's back to help him bear the gravity field's backlash.
Both men's clothes were soaked with sweat.
The golden patterns on the screen finally swelled to their limit.
The lines of logic began snapping one by one.
Broken patterns became blinding motes of light that ricocheted around the room.
Bang!
The largest screen exploded from its center.
Shards of black display glass sprayed outward.
They struck the walls with a crackle like rain.
The alarm cut off amid a sharp stench of burning circuitry.
Every trace of golden light vanished.
The screen went completely black, leaving only a charred hole.
The fans inside the racks stopped spinning.
Only leaking coolant remained, hissing as it hit red-hot metal.
Thick black smoke rolled toward the ceiling vents.
Welt's legs gave out. He dropped to one knee, drawing ragged breaths that tasted of blood.
Dan Heng stood before the smoking racks.
Scalding steam reddened his eyes.
He whipped his head around and looked through the open Data Bank doorway.
His gaze locked on the white-haired little girl outside.
His right hand tightened instinctively around Cloud-Piercer.