"Reverse Cursed Technique…"
Aleph was immersed in learning the new concept Kashimo introduced to him. If learned, his fighting power would increase to a terrifying degree.
Up until now, he didn't have a close call by choosing what he fights. Aside from the Nagazora City incident, all of his battles were against honkai beasts or humans whose dangers could be handled if prepared well. Even his act of one-shotting the fourth Herrscher was the result of preparing an extremely deadly strike.
However, things couldn't be predicted in the future. On the off chance he had a dangerous fight, the Reverse Cursed Technique will be an ace in the hole.
"Collision of negative cursed energy…"
The more he thought of its concept, the more he found how simple it was.
Yet…
"How should I do that..?"
Aleph became stumped by something that blocked countless other sorcerers.
*****
A night had passed. Due to safety concerns, Aleph didn't choose to stay up. He still had an important job to take care of.
Although he only wore dark blue long sleeves inside this freezing cold room, his body didn't feel uncomfortable.
Klein, who was helping Mobius get dressed, finally entered the room.
Right before he asked her something, he saw Mobius on the other side. For a moment, he fell silent.
'...'
Different from her usual attire that consisted of a baggy coat and large long sleeves, Mobius wore nothing but a pair of underwear made of synthetic fabric. Even so, one could see their struggle to hold her prominent parts.
'...This is totally different from what I saw.'
In the future, Mobius' body turned into a child with each death she suffered. That resulted in her image becoming a brat who couldn't even reach the level of his neck.
It was the future. These deaths haven't happened yet.
Her body was still that of an adult's. Moreover, it was that curvaceous. It was to the point that Aleph's knowledge of his past life was completely overturned.
Although he didn't have any practical experience when it comes to the opposite gender, he still sighted the "golden ratios" all over her body.
"She's ready?"
He turned his back on the huge glass window as he looked towards Klein.
"Yes, Sir Aleph. "
"Then…"
Once his surge of emotions died down, he began synchronizing with Klein. These were the preparatory tasks to the surgery, such as system checks and other machine diagnostics.
He got into his professional side swiftly.
Of course, there was someone who noticed everything. She had nothing to do except enter the chamber and wear the mask. It was natural she could see Aleph's actions at that time.
'...He can act like that.'
Yesterday, the two tacitly avoided any topics related to Aleph being almost naked. It would've been fine if the two didn't know each other that much, but it would've been awkward had one of them pressed it on.
For a moment, a strange feeling came to her.
'...How ridiculous.'
Her thoughts became chaotic. Even when the anesthesia was injected, it couldn't put her to sleep immediately.
Aleph and Klein had no way of knowing her internal thoughts. They were proceeding with the surgery as it is.
'How high is her success rate?'
{Result: From the probability calculated, there is a 84.56% chance of success. Possible mutations may occur at a rate of…}
Great Sage was Aleph's main reliance when it came to pioneering things. In a sense, it could be considered as a second brain that could do all sorts of calculations and predictions on its own.
Aleph's own success rate was nearly 99%, which was how he got the confidence to conduct the surgery on Mobius.
At this moment, Great Sage guided him to become more thorough in the process. Each of his movements were extremely precise, akin to a machine's. Mobius' statistics were displayed to him more thoroughly in the form of 'texts' in his sight. It was similar to when his [Achievement Hunter] made a prompt.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The positions of the two were reversed. Aleph was the one focusing inside the surgery room while Mobius slept peacefully inside the glass cabin.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
…
More than ten minutes had passed. It was longer than Aleph's surgery. At the same time, it wasn't as stable as his. There are times they had to react and use the honkai gene suppressors to neutralize the honkai beast genome inside her body.
"Hm."
Just then, a familiar reaction occurred. The honkai energy concentration began to sharply increase.
"It's the final stage."
The MANTIS Surgery consisted of two parts: adaptation and combination. Adaptation was the stage where the body would undergo an induced mutation to better accommodate the ICHOR. It was akin to making the frame stronger.
The combination phase, on the other hand, involved integrating the ICHOR itself to the body. It was the body's acceptance to the honkai beast genes, which grants a human the ability to manipulate honkai energy with their own body as well as receive the associated powers with it.
It was the first step in evolution humans had to undergo in this world plagued with honkai.
Aleph easily breezed through these two stages due to his sheer strength, more so when his body adapted through one of the cursed techniques stored within his so-called [Embryonic Power System].
However, it was different for others.
Hum.
'For the next ten minutes, I won't use my cursed technique. I won't move.…'
Aleph initiated his binding vow. He placed harsh restrictions on himself.
What he got in return was the enhancement of his Sphere Boundary's radius.
Five meters.
Ten meters.
Fifteen meters.
By the time the two rooms were covered, numerous phenomena related to the honkai were slowly concealed. It was a forceful yet effective way of "hiding" a small-scale honkai eruption when needed.
Sweat started appearing on Aleph's forehead. The amount of control he had to exert was enough to take up more than half of his "brain space". That included Great Sage's mind-related skills.
Hum-!
Bam-!
Crack-!
Shatter-!
Although the phenomena slowly disappeared, Sphere Boundary couldn't affect its origin. The best it could do was to conceal the honkai's presence.
The glass chamber inside shattered. Even the reinforced glass in the control room had cracks all over it.
Amidst it all, a naked woman was surrounded by the broken shards of glass as well as the spilled medical solution. She was using her arms in an attempt to stand up. By doing saw, Aleph glimpsed her eyes.
Her gray irises turned elongated akin to a snake's.
This time, it was his heart's turn to skip.
'It's her.'
The Mobius in front of him overlapped with the one he knew from the game. One look and he could see a unique aura belonging to her.
It's just that…
'...No. The seventh Herrscher was the first trigger. Klein's death broke her down. Elysia's death doubled it down. She's different from that version of herself.' He thought. 'She's far more crazy, unhinged, and unrestricted compared to now.'
Once again, Aleph was reminded why he had to change this world's future.