Speaking of which, Garan actually had a few skills activated when he first went berserk.

Ice was technically a mutation of the water element. Water users could actually create ice and steam, but it would require massive amounts of energy and would generally not be worth the effort. Meanwhile, the ice users could create water with a flick of their fingers.

Who’d have thought there was another level of mutation?

They called it ’Absolute Zero.’

For a short period of time, he could stop molecular motion entirely. From the view of the person affected, it would feel like time had stopped. It could instantly nullify energy attacks.

He had only managed to use it once during the earlier battle, and it was also how he managed to stand against so many powerhouses for so long without completely losing himself.

Otherwise, he would’ve frozen more than just the mountain.

He hoped to practice this more, but was still determining where to start.

Anyway, the efforts for rebuilding continued, and she continuously repaired system buildings as soon as the resources were replenished enough to repair something.

Althea sent various instructions, and she let everyone else handle the details before heading back to the hospital.

Garan’s deputies also handled the aftermaths as well as the incarceration of the criminals. Mathilda pushed herself to work and handled the oath-taking process of the new slaves.

After a day, things were on track in Alterra. Everyone was injured, and nearly everything was damaged, but overall, they survived and would only get better.

As for Althea and Garan, they spent most of the day at their children’s bedsides. They were most sensitive to the changes in their energy, so they could switch the location of the pearl as necessary.

The fever was still there, and the temperature was still worrisome at 41 degrees Celsius, but it had already lowered by a few degrees compared to how it was originally. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Their tests have come back normal," Sheila reported, bringing a pile of paper in her hands.

"Physically speaking, in human standards, there’s nothing wrong with them that could cause them to still be unconscious and have such a high fever."

Althea placed her fingers on their small hands, and they would grab it by instinct despite being unconscious. She sniffled and kissed their soft faces, praying for them to get better.

She touched the pearl. She could sense that aether was working nonstop. It was like it was modifying aether, absorbing part of it, but its durability suffered bit by bit.

Hopefully, it would last long enough to wait until they could figure things out.

It did not.

About a few days after the war, the anti-aether pearl dulled in color until—

Crack!

"What..."

"Doctor! Call the doctor!"

"The Golds and the Grandmasters! Please call them!"

The ward immediately burst with activity, various personnel moving to and fro, trying to calm down the children’s states again.

The breakage of the pearl caused the children’s situation to exacerbate, with high fevers again, and their abilities also went haywire.

Meatball’s weight went all over the place.

One time, he was creating cracks on his bed, another he was floating to the ceiling. Pepper would flash all across the room, usually at heights.

This was all happening while they were unconscious, their bodies burning in high temperatures, and they were obviously in pain.

The adults could only do their best and catch them before it got dangerous, lowering their temperatures with a cold compress at the same time.

Seeing them like this made people feel heartbroken, and Althea, whenever a day passed by after studying everything and without results, could only cry in her husband’s arms.

Since they knew this was something Virion was wearing before, and it was supplied to the former Basset Town Lord by his own uncle, they had long messaged both territories about borrowing their copies.

However...neither territory had it anymore.

It seemed like Virion’s traitorous uncle had won it in an auction. However, those were still very rare things. The materials themselves were rare and had specialized toolmakers to actually handle them.

Obviously, to trap Virion in Basset Town back then, that traitor really invested a lot.

In the end, after days of study, and with the alchemists’ joint efforts, they managed to create something like specialized cooling strips that could handle the extreme temperature and last longer.

The normal Terran cooling strips were no longer enough, and the gel and the strip itself shriveled upon contact with the children’s skin.

The new ones involved special potions from the grandmasters. The concept involved the gel temporarily handling and dissipating aether and elements, and Zenno—a fire user alchemist—contributed most to this.

It was also designed so that even if the children wore it all over the whole day, their bodies would not be damaged. It would only target the areas that would neutralize the temperature.

The gel itself adjusted accordingly and worked best when Garan placed his own ice energy there. Aether ice was unsurprisingly most effective in handling aether-related heat.

The toolmakers and Eugene, on the other hand, made a tool that was attached to the life energies of the babies. It was a cushioned panel. It was not floating, but its legs had flexible legs that moved quickly and flexibly, even in difficult terrain, like over a coffee table.

Whenever they detected that the children were not on ground level, they would rush to catch them. They were soft enough that even if the babies fell from the ceiling height, they would not feel any pain.

This was something Eugene had been working on on the side for a while as well. He had been privy to the babies’ abilities since it was announced on the team, so he had some ideas brewing in his mind.

However, all these could do was manage the temperature increase. It couldn’t help them with the pain, nor could it stop their bursts of power, which could occasionally get dangerous.

It was too bad that before they could decipher the pearl, they had to use it, and it ended up getting destroyed.

Althea couldn’t help but blame herself. Had she been smarter and focused her whole time on that, would they have been able to gather the necessary arrays?

"It’s not your fault, Althea," Zenno said. "Not only is it not guaranteed for you—or anyone—to decipher such a high-level tool, but it would also take a lot of time. In the meantime, the many things that you did accomplish wouldn’t have existed."

"Never invalidate the efforts you have made so far. The people each one of your creations saved—tens of thousands of them, at least—would be sad."

Althea sniffled, nodding reluctantly.

She might have saved tens of thousands of people, but what about her children?

Her children...how could she help them?