Frostveil waited for what felt like a long time. She couldn’t begin to imagine what had taken the others so long to get there. It was a while later that she finally heard footsteps belonging to no more than a single person.

She turned around and saw Ning running in her direction, seemingly dragging some training ropes and a sack with metals that clanked together while he hurried toward her.

"Oh, good," he said upon arriving. "He’s not out yet."

Frostveil blinked. "You thought he would’ve come out already?"

"You can’t tell with these Numbers," he said. "They can do practically anything. Anyway, I saw Godhood leaving with the others. You should leave now too."

Frostveil nodded. "What about him though?"

"I’ll take care of him. Don’t worry," Ning said.

"How?" she asked, looking behind him at the ropes he dragged. "What are you going to do with this?"

"Carry him out of here," Ning said.

"Carry?" Frostveil asked with a blank look on her face.

Ning nodded. "I wanted to use explosives to blow the shit out of him while he was encased in ice, but the president didn’t allow me," he said. "Something about the facility being worth billions or something. Instead, I’m only allowed to destroy a few floors of this building while I carry him out."

Frostveil was stunned to hear that Ning wanted to blow up the captured man, but upon thinking about it, there was no other choice at all. He was way too illusory, and suppression didn’t work on their powers. So, the only thing they could do was kill them however they could.

Since that wasn’t possible through normal means, explosions were one way to go.

"So you must think he can survive being frozen," Frostveil asked.

"I think he can survive long enough for his friends to come rescue him," Ning said. "Surely you don’t intend to stay around here constantly freezing him, right?"

Frostveil shook her head. "But you said the president didn’t approve of the explosions. What are you going to do?" she asked.

Ning dropped the sack he was holding. Various metal tidbits fell out of it, and Frostveil recognized them as climbing gear.

"What are you going to do with them?" she asked.

"Place them into the ice and carry it out of here," Ning said as he began drilling into the ice to place the hooks.

Frostveil blinked. "Carry it out? To where?"

Ning simply pointed to the sky. "Out of this world." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Frostveil looked up, confused for a moment as to what Ning was planning before it made sense to her. "You’re... you’re going to throw him into outer space?"

Ning nodded. "That’s the plan," he said. He remained silent for the next while, adding more hooks to the ice wall. He punched through the walls to reveal the ice inside, making more room to hook it all.

Frostveil could only watch in awe for a long while, trying to come to terms with what they were doing. This was no different from killing, but at the same time, this was so far beyond killing that it was absurd.

"Stop standing around. Either leave or help me tie these ropes," Ning said.

Frostveil nodded, quickly helping him tie the ropes. As she tied them, she also froze them, covering them in thick ice so they wouldn’t fall apart easily.

"That’s good," Ning said, and continued working. He easily ripped the roof above them and then the roofs above that as well, making a hole large enough to drag the ice block out of.

Then he transformed into his giant bat form and landed atop the block of ice.

"There he is," Ning said with a slight chuckle to his voice.

"Where?" Frostveil asked.

"There, in the corner. He’s a fuzzy little insect next to the table."

Frostveil couldn’t see it from her angle, so she could only trust Ning’s words.

Ning grabbed all the ropes with his legs and began flying. The massive block of ice that was easily over a few tons was carried by Ning with such ease that Frostveil could only watch him with slack jaws.

Ning flew slowly, making sure the ropes didn’t suddenly break away from the hooks. It would take him some time to fly high enough where he wouldn’t have to worry about it all.

"Don’t you want to save him, Tritus?" Ning asked to nothing in particular. "I’m sure you’re dying to free him. Why don’t you come and do it?"

Ning had no expectations for the constellation to get baited so easily, so he wasn’t surprised when nothing happened. Unlike the other times, the Will didn’t even dare to empower the Numbers since it most likely understood that Ning was stronger than it had imagined. Helping anyone at this point would be just wasting away its powers.

Ning sped up after he reached the clouds, dragging it faster once the air resistance was much lower up above. He continued speeding up, right up until there was nothing to stop him.

Then he pulled the ropes with all his might and sent the massive block of ice flying right toward the sun.

The ice would certainly melt very soon now that the sun was directly blasting its heat onto it, but Alex hoped it would stay solid long enough that the man inside couldn’t get out.

"Geez," he couldn’t help but say as he watched the block of ice fly away like a comet, starting to leave a tail behind it. After some time, no one would be able to see it but him.

He kept watching for a while, using his zoomed vision to still keep an eye on the fuzzy caterpillar-like insect inside the ice. Only when it was too far gone to return did he finally fly back down to the base.

He met up with Frostveil and Godhood, telling them that he had succeeded.

"Let’s go report it all to the president," Ning said with a stretch. "Then I want to go back and rest. It’s been a long day."