A huge dragon.

  Its body was bigger than any mountains humans had seen. Ihis white space filled with nothingness, its sheer presence immediately took Aleph’s attention.

  His mind, which was fuzzy, started recalling what happened.

  ‘I used Great Sage’s assistae with the fourth fragment. Then…’

  His memories were cut after that. He lost sciousness and woke up to this state.

  Hum-!

  A huge sensation of danger swept through Aleph’s entire being. He looked at the mountain-like bck dragon and saw its golden pupils staring at him. His mind bnked out at its pressure, only to recover a sed ter.

  {Deteg external pressure…}

  {Analysis plete. Its source was the cept known as Albion.}

  A deep voice, uo be distinguished as a man or woman, resouhroughout the entire space.

  “Whehing on the surface was gone… I resighyself to the fate of having no new joys. You must uand, human.”

  Aleph’s accelerated thoughts and split minds began w. Numerous memories fshed inside his mind.

  ‘Albion’s demise… it’s the Albion from the Lostbelt, not the Proper Human History..!’

  ‘Uand..? Does he know about my memories..?’

  ‘The pinnacle of all dragons within Fate...'

  All of his plicated thoughts were soon put into a halt.

  “...Albion.”

  “Havihy history… no, thy world’s future is araordinary feat. Yet, it is nothing but the inner ws of fate.”

  Somehow, the dragon that didn’t have any good impressions towards dragon-like humans (i.e., humans who became dragons) patiently pointed out things to him.

  “Thou are looking in the wrong dire. The most brilliant light, a soul with multitude of colors… and the iance of a dragon far strohan I.”

  One of its huge cws touched Aleph’s forehead.

  “To i thy body… show the worth of thee.”

  *****

  “Huff..!”

  Aleph’s eyes snapped wide open. He found his entire body being filled with cold sweat. He found himself sitting on his bedside in a daze.

  The lingering remains of the danger from Albion made his body te wasn’t until he went to the dispenser in the room and drank a gss of cold water did he calm down.

  “Great Sage. What ged with me?”

  A while ter, he received its response.

  {Result: The fourth fragment has been successfully merged with you. The ceptual power of Albion became extremely active. Currently, the ey of the crystal is filled with his power. It may cause unknown ges for the Bnk Sephira Crystal Fragment.}

  Through the results of Great Sage’s analysis and Aleph’s jectures when he observed himself with elemental sight, they discovered the crystal’s true nature.

  Its role was to act as a tainer of power. The crystal would vert the stored power into something that ‘fits’ with it. It also elevates the level of lifeform of the one who possesses it—mainly the soul.

  Simply put, the Sephira Crystal forcibly turns someoo a higher-being, all the while bestowing them an authority of sorts.

  ‘ceptual power… It isn’t bad per se, but Albion’s words…’

  Aleph recalled how Albion gave a trial to Castoria’s group at some point of the story.

  ‘Does giving out trials one of its hobbies?’

  He shook these useless thoughts and focused on the ges.

  {...increased activity of the ICHOR ied ihe body. Its nature began to turn away from the cept of ‘physical’, moving more towards a semi-ceptual form exhibited by Albion.}

  “...In other words, it turned my ICHOR into something else.”

  The Inter-osomal Honkai Ges—the honkai genome used in the MANTIS surgery—was the basis of Project Soldier. The human body ushed to accept the ICHOR as one of its own, thereby adapting and gaining the power to trol honkai energy as well as the powers tained within the ICHOR.

  Even in his prior state, honkai energy existed within Aleph’s body. Only when he mobilized them did they get automatically verted into cursed energy.

  These ICHOR started to move away from their 'physical form'. As to what effects it may bring? No one knows until more time passes.

  As of now, only the increased activity could be seen, increasing his progress into his AHR state further. That, and the increase of honkai energy inside his body.

  “Trials…” Aleph scratched his head. “I’ll see to it ter.”

  Aleph had a rest after a long day.

  *****

  Tap.

  Tap.

  The sound of footsteps echoed within the hall. Mei’s footsteps were never loud, yet it elicited everyone’s attentioheless, they went back to their work.

  Another set of hurried footsteps went to her.

  “Direei. We’ve found some strange reports.”

  “Hm?”

  The woman in long sleeves—her white coat taken out long ago—passed a haablet to Mei. The sound of keyboards being used and people passing on one and after another did not bother her.

  “It’s regarding the danger zone in the Mu ti.” She said. “The frontlied the ehirty kilometer radius of the city directly turned into undead. However, when we went through the overall sensus… there were missing bodies.”

  Numerous questions appeared in Mei’s mind but she allowed her to finish speaking.

  The researcher took a breath before she tinued:

  “The numbers of undeads reported withiy were lower than usual. On the trary, at least a few huhousand honkai beasts were found verging into the city.”

  There are four pces to whi eruption above 2,000 HW occurred. One was the city of Justice, Libertia. The other one was in the Far East, Topaz City. The third one happened within the Western ti, Goldenglow.

  All three cities above were the pces where Aleph, Elysia, and Kevin got dispatched, respectively.

  Only the fourth city, Iranum, didn’t receive such a treatment. Still, as it was within Mu ti, most of the immediate military persohat could be dispatched were brought over there.

  That resulted in a rather ‘banced’ situation.

  Upon hearing of this strange report, several jectures came into Mei’s mind.

  ‘Missing bodies… Were they stolen or destroyed? If so, by which? Honkai beasts? Elite undeads? Or…’

  An ominous thought popped up.

  “Give me the recorded honkai watts in Iranum. Also, any strange reports tied to it.”

  “Yes!”

  *****

  There are numerous roads that link cities within the Mu ti. Entry could be easily dohrough the main highway. Although the choice of ‘walls’ in each city was strange, nobody questio before.

  Now that the knowledge about honkai became widespread, it turned into a positive reputation for Fire MOTH due to their ‘fht’.

  Vroom.

  A truck soon stopped at the rear of the lihe old man looked on the seat beside him. A girl not beyond the age of twelve sat beside him. Her hair was dirty with dust, smog, and the likes. Though, it held a somewhat lustrous look below it.

  She held a stitched teddy bear in her arms. Her sleep was interrupted by the old man’s pat on her shoulder.

  “Little girl, we’re here.”

  “Mn…”

  Her pair of bck pupils widehe only thing missing from it was its luster. heless, the old man did not notice her abnormalities. Her body seemed like the usual healthy one kids who grew up well would have.

  “We’ll go to your aunt’s pce first. I will go ask her to write a report—”

  “There’s no need, mister. We’ll deal with it.”

  The girl was someohe old man picked up beside the road. Aside from her broken ID, she did not have anything else in her possession. The old man did not think twice to help her.

  Fortunately, she did mention an aunt of hers living in this city.

  “...If you say so.”

  Unbeknownst to him, nor the millions of residents living in this city, a blue crystal flickered silently within the girl.