Obtaining the Global Time Fracture and the Battlesuit made of Soulium was a small detour Aleph made. He continued his original plans.
In such a manner, three months had passed.
*****
Mount Enzou.
The night sky painted the surroundings with darkness. A large amount of dust clouds emerged from the collapsed Mount Enzou. A loud sizzling sound came from below the rubbles.
Murky black fluid began flowing out of the collapsed mountain. Fire began spreading from it, turning the surrounding trees into charcoal in mere seconds.
"Tsk, tsk. It managed to survive Star Rage's hundred-ton drop. As expected… it can't die in one hit."
The black mud, an evil existence known as Angra Mainyu, 'lives' inside the Greater Grail. The latter acts as its container, allowing it to remain in this world for years.
Once it was broken and no suitable host was found, it would die out on its own.
What Aleph attempted to do was to experiment on ways it dies.
Throughout these three months, Aleph sought numerous ways to 'defeat' it in one go.
First was his authorities as Albion.
The authority of life allowed him to restore things. It was a healing ability of sorts, though it can only be used on himself.
Due to Albion's position as a True Dragon, its physical recovery was god-like. No matter what kind of injuries it sustains, its endurance alone allows it to survive. That was how it survived the recession of Mysteries for a period of time before it died.
The authority of death, on the other hand, was the external power demonstrated by Melusine. The lasers she used during her dragon form were imbued with the power to 'destroy'. The only way to counter them was to either use a high-rank Noble Phantasm or to dodge them.
One such attack from Aleph destroyed Angra Mainyu along with the grail.
'I can see why some people appreciate a few abilities more.' He mused. 'Though I like my current situation now.'
Aleph's growth pushed him to obtain numerous abilities. From his three cursed techniques, No Second Strike, Sphere Boundary, Nullification Field, Blink, and Albion's recovery and destructive lasers…
It was enough to take up his time during these three months.
Sizzle-!
Looking at the slowly disappearing black mud, a thought emerged from his mind.
"It's time to test it again."
Aleph canceled his nullification field. He boldly stepped into the black mud.
The moment his feet contacted it, a small sense of threat emerged. It kept pricking the back of his neck uncomfortably. A burning sensation began creeping up from his feet.
At the same time, he vaguely saw hideous faces appear in his sight.
Tick.
These hideous faces also had a matching hideous voice. They kept spitting out curses far too evil for humanity to hear.
Tick.
…
Things continued that way until the fifteenth tick resounded.
Tick.
It was akin to a factory reset. All of the devious faces and voices in Aleph's ears disappeared.
Cursed energy began flowing all over his body in a systematic manner. It was completely different from the usual cursed energy flow during physical enhancement. It has a special characteristic that…
Click-!
…countered the phenomena produced by Angra Mainyu.
"Adaptation… It's a pity that it gets cleared with each reboot."
Adaptation was completely unlike his other cursed techniques. In a sense, it was capable of nullifying every phenomena taking effect on Aleph. That included all sorts of cursed techniques as well as powers outside it.
Perhaps due to the adjustment of Achievement Hunter, its abilities were separated into two—temporary and permanent.
The former was able to store a 'phenomena' in his frontal lobe until he deactivated Adaptation. Once he does so, the adapted phenomena would be cleared out, thus requiring him to adapt to it again.
Unlike the former, the latter was as its name says—permanent. Every phenomena adapted this way would be retained even if he deactivates the technique.
Aleph looked at the black mud touching his feet. He was no longer affected by the wailings and hallucinations. The adaptation was successful.
'This is situational. It depends on whether I can let my guard down or not.'
Contrary to Star Rage, Adaptation brought him corresponding disadvantages. He had to let his Nullification Field down as the cursed technique requires direct contact with the phenomena.
Meaning to say, if there's an attack that kills Aleph in one strike, Adaptation becomes useless. It wasn't wrong to say that Adaptation's upper limit depends on Aleph's strength without the Nullification Field.
"Sigh…"
He heaved a dissatisfied sigh as he was promptly kicked out of the training space.
What greeted him was Kurumi's face closing up on him.
Aleph did not avoid her. A soft touch was presented on his lips. It was a brief moment of contact as she soon separated from him.
"You timed it well…" He commented.
"Fufu. This is my domain, isn't it?"
They were inside Aleph's bedroom. The softness of the bed and the girl atop him immediately erased every bit of tension in his body. It was a level of comfort nothing could compare to.
Aleph managed to keep his thoughts pure until Kurumi stood up. He followed suit, his eyes glued her set of pajamas. It was looser than her actual size, creating a 'sleepy' look of sorts.
This momentary peace was broken by the sound of a loud alarm.
Beep-!
Beep-!
Beep-!
…
"Nine horns… It's DEFCON Two…"
There are a few events that would prompt an immediate DEFCON Two. The level of defense readiness condition usually starts out to the lowest threat it symbolizes.
In such a case…
"Major Eruption..!"
Kurumi immediately sent him a concerned look.
"I might need your help in this one…"
"Mn."
She did not bother to dress up normally. Kurumi's clothes changed in one go with the help of her Reiyoku.
In this world where Reiyoku does not exist, the only way to be self-sufficient was to use her ability to convert people's life spans into reiyoku. It wasn't a problem due to the existence of 'evil people' all around the globe, more so when they are facing a huge global crisis.
'She didn't want to eat up my time…'
Aleph swiftly left the room after Kurumi. He was still in his sleeping attire. After passing by numerous personnel—some without formal uniforms on—he arrived at the heart of the third institute.
A familiar woman with messy hair, which could be called a chicken coop, presided over the division of work.
"Director."
Einstein looked back at Aleph. The former's eyebags remained the same during the last three months.
"You're just in time. I already received several calls from the headquarters." She said. "Be careful this time. That Herrscher…"
Seeing Einstein's extremely serious look, Aleph's hopeful side died down. A part of him wished that the damages dealt by this Herrscher would be less.
Unfortunately…
"Three minutes ago… half of a city was gone."
…it was not.
*****
A/N: Apologies for the late uploads. I have four chapter debts as of the moment. I'll try to catch up to it later.