"Huff!"
Aleph was forced to take a deep breath. The sensation of drowning in water was still fresh to him just now. He looked around his surroundings and saw the familiar bedroom.
"...I'm back."
His sight was caught by the lines of text in the corner.
[Achievement Unlocked: Proficient Planeswalker]
[Achievement Unlocked: Escaping Death]
[Proficient Planeswalker: Travel to another space-time twice.]
[Escaping Death: Experience near-death five times.]
Upon reading them further, he saw their rewards.
[Power Transformation: Transform the space-time artifact {Worlds' Light} into a mark. It can be placed anywhere on the body. During this state, all of its changes could be detected.]
[Blink: A power belonging to the Sequence Five Traveler of the Door Pathway. It is an instantaneous short-distance teleportation. Its maximum distance is ten meters. Its cooldown is five minutes per use.]
"..."
Aleph became silent at the rewards. He took out the [Power Transformation] first. At once, the mirror on the box flashed before it turned into a mark akin to a silver sword. He tried moving it on his forehead, right arm, and even his chest.
Surprisingly, it was able to turn invisible at his thoughts. Aleph decided to place it on the back of his left hand.
Next was the [Blink]. It physically manifested into a blue crystal door. The moment he crushed it, something was born inside him. Several 'thoughts' rushed at his mind which explained its function.
'A single thought…'
An average speed of thought was between 300 to 500 milliseconds. Aleph's thought acceleration multiplied that several-fold. [Blink] turned into a terrifying weapon in his hands.
"The cooldown…"
Unfortunately, there was a cooldown to such a strong weapon. Nevertheless, it was added to his arsenal of deadly trump cards.
"I'll go back for now. There's still the training cards to be dealt with…"
Soon, a silver light streaked through the sky.
*****
"...So that's it."
"Yeah. I was trying to diffuse their conflict. I also had something to tell Mobius."
"You're not calling her with a title. I see."
"Hm?"
"It's nothing."
After a while, Aleph ended the daily call with Mei. For some reason, the more he interacted with other women, the worse his foreboding became.
'I'm not in danger… but I feel the danger.'
There was only one other girl who made him feel like that. The said girl was now treated as the worst spirit with thousands of kills in her hands.
"If that's how it is…"
Aleph was filled with urges to become even stronger.
"Grade One… I can handle most honkai beasts, save for the emperor-class. I haven't faced one yet. As for others, those robots in Kurumi's world weren't that hard to deal with…"
Once again, he realized how broken his ratio technique was. As long as he manages to stay close to his enemies, they won't be able to defend from his strikes. That became evident when he mowed through the steel robots with ease.
His attack power, at the very least, was extremely strong. His only problem remained to be his body's endurance.
"Fifty five senzu beans…"
Aleph recalled the magical beans from his [Achievement Hunter]. After some experiments, he found out they healed even severe injuries. Those findings cost three such beans.
With [Great Sage], it was able to deduce its composition being similar to a Full Potion capable of speeding cell growth to a terrifying degree. Only, the Senzu Beans were even stronger and lacked any form of disadvantage. It was a bean that restores the body's state into its peak form!
"I need to find some way to work on my shortcomings…"
His attention was finally taken by the silver cards. The one he was holding had a silhouette of a man with a flaming beast behind him.
With the recent experience from the other world, Aleph became slightly more confident in the [Achievement Hunter]'s credibility.
He even prepared himself to open the [Random Box] he disregarded for months within the next few months or so.
"Usage is to pinch it tightly, then think of wanting to enter…"
It was unknown how long Aleph stayed still. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the scenery of a ruined city. The leftover aura from it (i.e., residual cursed energy) was enough to surprise him.
Just as he was wondering where "Kashimo Hajime" was, a strong sense of danger pricked the back of his neck. It was numbing enough to match—or even surpass—the feeling he had from the fourth Herrscher.
"Tsk, really? I have to entertain someone even after my death?"
A man with disheveled hair approached him out of nowhere. He was holding a Nyoi Staff as he walked leisurely towards Aleph.
Without any warning, his figure disappeared. The danger signs Aleph felt were strengthened to the extreme. He didn't even think much before he used [Blink] to move ten meters backwards.
Sou-!
Bam-!
Kashimo's figure reappeared at the exact same spot where Aleph was once standing The impact generated by his swing was enough to shatter the ground.
"Oh?"
Once again, his figure disappeared. This time, Aleph came prepared. His instinctual activation of [Blink] proved that everything still worked inside this ruined city.
The moment his thoughts were accelerated, the perception of time became slower to him.
From not being able to see Kashimo's figure, he finally saw a portion of his afterimage. All of his parallel minds began working full-time. Several predictions where Kashimo would strike slowly unveiled in his mind.
By the time Kashimo was about to strike another blow, Aleph took out [Durandal] from the [Seven Swords] mark. The silver light turned into a sword in his hands. A ratio line was swiftly created at the staff Kashimo held.
Then—
Bam-!
Crack-!
At first contact, Aleph's body flew straight to the other side. The strength contained within Kashimo's body completely overwhelmed that of a normal Grade One. Several fractures appeared in his body—mainly his right arm.
"...Huh."
Kashimo looked at his severed Nyoi Staff in surprise. It was exactly cut between the seventh ratio line. A name immediately appeared from his memories. One of the person he knew talked about it.
"Ah. Nanami's cursed technique could cut through many things. It's a pity we lost him."
The sole holder of the ratio technique in the Jujutsu Society—Kento Nanami.
"Interesting."
Kashimo continued pushing Aleph further. He immediately appeared in front of Aleph, to which the latter immediately thrust his blade. This time, the impact contained within it far exceeded his previous attack.
Bam-!
Kashimo was forced to block it. He was pushed back by several steps. Surprise filled his eyes as he wondered how Aleph was able to do it.
Finally, he relented.
"I'll give it to you. What do you want to learn?"
Aleph also put down his fighting stance. He stared dazedly at Kashimo who overpowered him in many aspects.
Nevertheless, he hadn't forgotten the name of that item.
Training Card.
Meaning to say, it was an item used for training. As to how it works?
Kashimo's existence already explained everything Aleph needed to know.
What the reward provided was a mentor.
Thus—
"Everything."
—he was dead-set on learning everything he could offer.
*****
A/N: Welp, here he is. Gege's "second ultimate" victim". I have way too much things to talk over (i.e., rant) if I had the chance to meet Gege in real life; this is one. I was annoyed to see a broken technique (Mythical Beast Amber) go out in seconds.
Kashimo literally pulled a peashooter and went out in half a chapter!
Though it was quite reasonable (in Megukuna's case since that guy was broken/fraud), I couldn't understand why Kashimo didn't utilize his technique differently. Like, he knew about hydrolysis during their fight with Hakari. Why not utilize some physical science (ionization, x-ray, electromagnetic forces, just anything else) during the fight? Either way, that fight did feel very rushed.
In the end, that might be Gege being too burnt out. I don't blame the man, but if I do meet him...
The rant's over. Happy Reading~!