It was a plete silence.

  Kurumi went on the offeh her ‘teasing’ looks. Aleph couldn’t do much except to re-anize himself.

  ‘This is…’

  Admittedly, it was the reason why he treated Mei’s gradual advas passively. A part of him beloo his good friend ith him for three years. Only wherusted Kurumi with his power did he realize that these feelings might exist beyond normal friendship.

  After all, a split-sed decision like that showed a great amount of trust.

  With a light sigh, his heartbeat slowed down. He was back to normal before he k.

  [Achieve…]

  [Achieve…]

  Aleph pced the notices aside when Kurumi started speaking.

  “From the way you looked, was that her? The genius girl you talked about before?”

  Kurumi sat on his bedside as she asked.

  “Yeah. Direei. She’s serving as our de-facto leader.”

  For a while, their versation’s topic turo Mei. Though, it soo farther than what Aleph expected.

  “Hee~? A woman obsessed with human experimentation?”

  “An etric girl with many personalities? She also shared your i in robotics?”

  “A lively pink elf?”

  “A nun who serves as a prophet?”

  The more Aleph talked about his friends, the more he felt like he dug a pit for himself. He couldn’t see anything wrong with Kurumi—be it her eyes estures—but he felt there was something about to g.

  “Fufu, you are famous in this world, aren't you?” She said while putting up a smile. Her golden pupil was noticeable from any angle. “ you tell me more?”

  The majority of this night ent owo catg up.

  *****

  Tap.

  Tap.

  Amidst the ruined expressways surrounded with rubbles and broken cars, the viridest wind danced swiftly.

  Boom-!

  A sed ter, everything in its path was blown away. The sound of hooves hitting the ground was extremely noticeable, more so when each of its steps sent craters into the asphalt road.

  Soon, the noise died down. The horse-shaped honkai beast was surrounded with swirls of green wind. It has the exact same power as the fourth Herrscher who fell under humanity’s bde.

  A strong honkai beast was actually…

  Sou-!

  Swoosh-!

  …running at full speed.

  For quite some time, it ‘sensed’ something was wrong. When it visited one of the cities, it found out that an emperor-css was missing. The same thing happewo more times.

  It sent Vayu, the apanying honkai beast of the fourth Herrscher, into a state of panic.

  Its hooves swiftly traversed through the expressway’s airspace. Its act of using ‘wind’ as a form of foothold would be treated as wonders by others.

  Only, there was someone who doesn’t treat it as such.

  “It shouldn’t have noticed me.”

  Unbeknownst to Vayu, anure was blitzing at its back.

  {Results: It has been in a state of rapid ption withi ten hours. Its honkai energy readings are forty pert lower than usual.}

  ‘So… it’s currently tired..?’

  Aleph doesn’t know what to feel.

  One week.

  That was how long it took to eliminate nearly all of the emperor-css honkai beasts in the Eastern ti.

  If it was a ‘normal’ major eruption, there should’ve only been a Herrscher coupled with three to four emperor-csses at maximum. However, the Far East has experienced a third eruption eleven months ago. The aftermath of the previous eruption caused the entire eastern region’s honkai energy tration to rise.

  That problem existed up until now. O was superimposed by another major honkai eruption, the problem spiraled out of trol.

  The usual three to four was multiplied several fold. Though, that wasn’t the only cause.

  Several emperor-css honkai beasts who were supposed to be dormant in the air and seas suddenly rushed towards the eastern region.

  In the end, it resulted in the current dire situation.

  ‘Hehe. We’ll have more honkai beasts to select MANTISes from…’

  It wasn’t until now that Fire MOTH received a huge amount of emperor-css samples that were retively intact. Aleph’s crazy killing spree already earned him another fearsome reputation within the anization.

  Zoom-!

  The EM propulsers’ acceleration became faster as time went by. Aleph was able to catch up with Vayu’s running speed after a minute. Numerous ratio lines appeared in his sight.

  ‘It’s going to be a bit more difficult…’

  Uhe other honkai beasts, Vayu was be and fast. There lies a certain possibility that Aleph couldn’t chop it off in one blow… using traditional ons, that is.

  A sheathed eastern bde appeared in his grasp. His eyes locked onto the ratio line spreading horizontally over its side body.

  Using Blink, he instantly reappeared above its body.

  Hum-!

  Bam-!

  Shiing-!

  Crack-!

  Sounds of ‘cracks’ opening appeared as he uhed Yamato. Its impact was gathered iraight line.

  An invisible arc came from its edges. It made a loud noise as it travelled straight to Vayu’s body.

  Tchk-!

  The moment it was sheathed back, Vayu stopped running.

  Psshk-!

  Its body, which lit in a ratio of seven-to-three, crashed to the ground. An obvious line dug through the entire expressway.

  Thud-!

  Rumble-!

  If it weren’t for the fact that they were in a ve pce, Aleph wouldn’t have easily used Yamato. It was destructive enough to cut through buildings.

  A cloud of dust was kicked off, signifying the end of another emperor-css honkai beast.

  Such was the result of the luxurious lineup of Juezhao and Yamato. They were simply the perfebination to Aleph’s [Ratio Teique].

  As soon as Aleph saw its corpse, a subtle sensation ran through his entire body.

  ‘The test… It did require me to fight strong beings.’

  His attention was then taken by the prompts that appeared in front of him. That included the ohat appeared a few days back.

  [Achievement Unlocked: Worth of Oneself]

  [Worth of Oneself: Have a strong self-realization.]

  [Achievement Unlocked: Imperial Nemesis]

  [Imperial Nemesis: Kill twenty emperor-css honkai beasts in the span of a month.]

  [Achievement Unlocked: When the Sun Rises]

  [When the Sun Rises: Save the eastern ti from their looming doom.]

  There were quite a few achievements that appeared during this time. heless, these two achievements were the most fruitful ones.

  [Reward: Spacetime Amber (Oime Use)]

  [Reward: Perfeergy Box]

  [Reward: Stel (Weakened)]

  [Stel (Weakened): The Noble Phantasm belongs to a great hero. Although weakened, it has more than half of its inal power. It is fwed to never end flicts caused by oneself.]

  ‘I haven’t evehe first Stel yet. But its fw… is it pertaining to personal flicts..?’

  [Spacetime Amber (Oime Use): The proje of a world artifabsp;created by universe's wonders. Upon usage, one solidify the spad time around the target. It only be used once.]

  '...This is strong.'

  Aleph thought of its potential uses. He only stopped when he had to pay attention to the other reward.

  There was even a somewhat ridiculous reward that he hasn’t cimed yet—something he gained from Kurumi’s kiss.

  [Red Strings of Fate: Grant an individual with suffit trust and intimacy a sealed power of your choice temporarily. The requirement for the transfer is a kiss. Ohe sealed power is used, the process has to be done again.]

  ‘...It really gives off unserious things.’

  Aleph was deep in thought when he saw the sky starting to turn yellow.

  ‘It’s the eighth day. Time passed by so fast.’

  The eastern crusade ended in such a manner.