Aleph's thoughts wandered between the white light and the six Sentinels he brought home.
He took out one of them.
It was a longsword twenty-five centimeters long. Waves of flames sporadically came out of its crimson red blade. Its guard was shaped like a black horn, with its handle bearing the same color.
The moment his elemental sight and Great Sage worked, Aleph confirmed one thing.
{Result: The scanned subject shows complete adaptability to several energy forms.}
Aleph switched from cursed energy to honkai energy and found that the sword fed on them both. Even when he used the dark energy he rarely used, it still worked.
The blade emitted waves of heat that instantly turned the metal walls slightly red.
"Oops."
He was expecting an alarm to ring out.
"Huh?"
Nothing happened.
It was then did Aleph put aside the matter of checking his achievements. He looked at the watch on his wrist.
"One month…"
The stay in Izumo took the same amount of time as in the real world. An entire month had passed while he was gone.
He immediately used elemental sight as well as Investigator to check what happened.
{Searching for past events…}
Great Sage utilized Investigator much like a search engine. Numerous plane-like screens showed up on his sight. They shuffled together until a chronological order was formed.
…
The second week.
"How is he?"
"He's alright. You don't have to worry."
Two voices rang within the empty basement floor.
Mei approached his sleeping body. She utilized her acquired ability to manipulate electricity to do a detailed diagnostic.
"He hasn't eaten anything for two weeks yet he's the same as usual. This must be the reason why he attracted Doctor Mobius from the beginning."
Kurumi's voice replied to her musing.
"That woman's very sharp. It's not surprising for her to set sights on Ain."
…
The third week.
"Oh? What brings you here… Doctor Einstein?"
"Yawn… I'm curious about his state."
Kurumi wasn't surprised. Aleph chose to stay at the third institute this time. Perhaps, it was to make up for the days he was missing from his own institute.
As early as a few months ago, he decided to open up the things he said to the group to Einstein. The "old" doctor was surprised but did not find it too unreasonable.
Einstein herself was paying attention to the fourth institute's Sea of Quanta and had been collaborating with them several times. The existence of other worlds and dimensions did not come off as a shock to her, much less the ability to see the future.
"He traveled to another world with his mind. It'll be interesting to study its mechanics deeper…" Einstein stopped talking as she realized something. "I can see why Mobius took interest in him."
Her wry smile opened up a lot of realizations… such as Aleph's personal life. Though, Einstein did not have much desire to dig deeper on it.
Add to that Kurumi, the girl who stayed with him for three weeks straight…
Only then did Einstein know that her assistant director was busy wooing girls' hearts while he was away.
"Pfft…" She seemingly thought of something and could not hold back her laughter. "His playboy accusations will be proven true."
After looking at his vitals, Einstein left. Her coop-like blue hair was as unkempt as ever when she walked away.
Kurumi's eyes took one last look at Einstein before putting a new blanket on Aleph's lap.
…
Fourth week.
Beep-!
Beep-!
Beep-!
The sound of blaring alarms woke Kurumi from her sleep. Bright red alarms blared throughout the entire basement level. Its sheer intensity wasn't new.
"Another eruption."
Kurumi called out several of her clones from her shadows. They swiftly headed to the higher levels.
Rumble-!
The ground on the third institute shook heavily. It caused the dusty boxes to fall over. Kurumi did not lose her footing, thus she easily secured Aleph in place.
It was then that her eyes narrowed down.
"Something happened above, I believe."
She made a choice and left a clone of hers with Aleph.
…
"Ah."
The things he saw were enough to explain everything.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Footsteps came from the elevator. Aleph saw them as he scrolled through the plane-like screens.
'The eighth eruption came, something attacked the third institute, and unknown high-level MANTISes came to this base.'
He did not feel surprised at the appearance of unregistered high-leveled MANTISes. Even though the others could not compare to Mobius' excellence, the study she 'opened' was more than enough for them to brute-force a way.
The crucial ingredient for the success of so many MANTISes from the fifth institute was Aleph's blood. Without it, the success rate of the surgery falls drastically, more so when they were only in the early stages.
The two MANTISes did not talk. They silently walked over to the abandoned basement level.
Due to Kurumi's clone, the lights were turned off. They did not notice Aleph who was seated at first glance. Now that he's awake, they had even less chances of discovering him with Sphere Boundary.
'Should I… no. Interrogation comes first."
A plan was already made inside his mind.
*****
The unsuspecting MANTISes had full trust in their enhanced eyesight. Despite not having lights, the light source from the elevator they came from dimly illuminated the room.
"It's too quiet. Shouldn't there be working instruments here?"
"We are sent to look for the catalysts, not instruments." The woman paused as she spoke. "But you have a point. It's too quiet. Let's go find the switch first."
It didn't take them long to find the switches.
Click-!
Click-!
Click-!
Buzz-!
A loud sound came from the light sources above. Their abandonment meant that they didn't have much maintenance. It took a total of ten seconds for the lights to fully turn on.
The duo were stunned to see dusty boxes inside this level. Apart from them, they did not see anything else.
"What now?" The man asked.
"This is the deepest basement level. That person outside should be able to hold their attention for long. Let's find it."
The woman was surprised to find him unresponsive.
"What did you—?"
The seated man finally came to her sights. They had scanned across that part of the room several times that his appearance came off as unexpected.
It was as if a ghost emerged out of thin air.
The moment she met his golden eyes…
"Kuk..!"
…an overwhelming illusory pressure pressed upon them.