It was a complete silence.
Kurumi went on the offensive with her 'teasing' looks. Aleph couldn't do much except to re-organize himself.
'This is…'
Admittedly, it was the reason why he treated Mei's gradual advancements passively. A part of him belonged to his good friend who was with him for three years. Only when he entrusted Kurumi with his power did he realize that these feelings might exist beyond normal friendship.
After all, a split-second decision like that showed a great amount of trust.
With a light sigh, his heartbeat slowed down. He was back to normal before he knew it.
[Achieve…]
[Achieve…]
Aleph placed 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. Director Mei. She's serving as our de-facto leader."
For a while, their conversation's topic turned to Mei. Though, it soon went farther than what Aleph expected.
"Hee~? A woman obsessed with human experimentation?"
"An eccentric girl with many personalities? She also shared your interest 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 or gestures—but he felt there was something about to go wrong.
"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. "Can you tell me more?"
The majority of this night was spent on the two catching up.
*****
Tap.
Tap.
Amidst the ruined expressways surrounded with rubbles and broken cars, the viridescent wind danced swiftly.
Boom-!
A second later, 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 blade.
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-class was missing. The same thing happened two more times.
It sent Vayu, the accompanying 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, another figure was blitzing at its back.
{Results: It has been in a state of rapid consumption within the last ten hours. Its honkai energy readings are forty percent 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-class honkai beasts in the Eastern Continent.
If it was a 'normal' major eruption, there should've only been a Herrscher coupled with three to four emperor-classes 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 concentration to rise.
That problem existed up until now. Once it was superimposed by another major honkai eruption, the problem spiraled out of control.
The usual three to four was multiplied several fold. Though, that wasn't the only cause.
Several emperor-class 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-class samples that were relatively intact. Aleph's crazy killing spree already earned him another fearsome reputation within the organization.
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…'
Unlike the other honkai beasts, Vayu was both large and fast. There lies a certain possibility that Aleph couldn't chop it off in one blow… using traditional weapons, that is.
A sheathed eastern blade 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 unsheathed Yamato. Its impact was gathered in one straight 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 was split 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 convenient place, 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-class honkai beast.
Such was the result of the luxurious lineup of Juezhao and Yamato. They were simply the perfect combination to Aleph's [Ratio Technique].
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 one that 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-class honkai beasts in the span of a month.]
[Achievement Unlocked: When the Sun Rises]
[When the Sun Rises: Save the eastern continent from their looming doom.]
There were quite a few achievements that appeared during this time. Nevertheless, these two achievements were the most fruitful ones.
[Reward: Spacetime Amber (One-time Use)]
[Reward: Perfect Energy Box]
[Reward: Stella (Weakened)]
[Stella (Weakened): The Noble Phantasm belongs to a great hero. Although weakened, it has more than half of its original power. It is flawed to never end conflicts caused by oneself.]
'I haven't even used the first Stella yet. But its flaw… is it pertaining to personal conflicts..?'
[Spacetime Amber (One-time Use): The projection of a world artifact created by universe's wonders. Upon usage, one can solidify the space and time around the target. It can 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 claimed yet—something he gained from Kurumi's kiss.
[Red Strings of Fate: Grant an individual with sufficient trust and intimacy a sealed power of your choice temporarily. The requirement for the transfer is a kiss. Once the 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.