The Current Era existed atop the Previous Era's efforts. They inherited numerous advantages, to the point the significant people in the former achieved things the Previous Era could not.
For Aleph, Elysia's sacrifice was the most significant one. It isn't wrong to say there wouldn't be the Current Era he knew if it hadn't happened.
Thus, he was willing to reveal a lot of his cards if it meant converting the Herrscher into their ally.
Unfortunately, he only had one thing that could "convince" her…
Psshk-!
Shatter-!
…his fists.
The Herrscher of Ice—Anna's Alter Ego—enacted her plan. The entire building they were on turned into a sculpture. She easily made it collapse, building more distance away from Aleph.
Shatter-!
Her body fell down among the fragments of ice. The same went for Aleph, but he received several ice pillars that grew out of nowhere. It pushed him back away from her.
'It worked!'
At this point, she understood she needed to maintain a large distance and snipe from afar. That was the most viable way she could win. Once he comes close to her, it would be game over.
The ever-increasing honkai energy out of her core gave her enough confidence.
She was the chosen one, the Herald of its Will!
'Such a world… shouldn't exist!'
A soldier.
A civilian.
A politician.
Everything was a matter of social strata. The soldiers were sent to dangerous areas, while the civilians suffered from the politicians' bad decisions. The latter caused numerous disasters for the former two.
Still, they were part of a system. They kept the world running, that despite their mistakes and selfishness, good outcomes still came from them.
Anna herself witnessed how she changed strike teams more than a dozen times. The person she knew for a few years could wound up as a corpse the next mission.
If that was how it was…
If the world tolerates such a twisted order…
'From this city… and beyond. I will—'
BOOM-!
A loud sonic boom resounded several dozen meters away from her. The five ice pillars she created to push Aleph out—striking in all directions at once—were broken by a trace of pure black energy. Cracks appeared all over their bodies before they shattered.
For the third time, she met that gaze.
A gaze enough to let her know of the terrors inside him.
'Why are herrschers harder to talk to here?!'
Aleph's body was in a horizontal position. He shifted his body's weight, making it so that he was freefalling vertically, with his feet facing the ground.
'Blink is gone. I need to close the distance.'
Numerous means came into his mind.
He didn't remain idle after three months. Kashimo's guidance gave him ideas regarding the techniques in his world.
There was an extremely advanced technique known as "Black Flash". It could only be done when a spatial distortion of sorts was done through the fine control of cursed energy. It results in an amplified impact upon hit.
Using the [Cursed Sword] and [Blindfold] duo, his cursed energy control was at an extremely high level. In the end, Aleph was able to master this advanced knowledge.
Not only that, he could also use it at will, catching Kashimo off guard.
{Result: The most viable path has been deducted.}
A blue path appeared in Aleph's sight. It was roughly sixty percent similar to what he thought of doing.
'The more we fight, the more she learns about her power. I need to break this stalemate.'
He mentally scanned his list of rewards throughout the time he gained [Achievement Hunter]. He didn't have time to do this until now due to how sudden his findings with the herrscher was.
'Hm..? I still have that. Kyrie Eleison.'
In an instant, Great Sage made a diagnostic check.
{Result: The selected technique has a great effect when it comes to soul-based entities. It has an extremely limited effect on normal bodies.}
'...It's good enough. If it works even by a little bit, that's good.'
Aleph was dead set on convincing her.
*****
Sundown Alley.
Inside City of Justice's prosperous facade lay a section known as a slum. However, due to the city's prosperity, it was far from the ordinary slum. Sundown Alley is the place where 90% of the city's criminal dealings go. It wasn't wrong to say it was a hotspot for criminals and the likes.
That included people living in poverty… as well as those who couldn't feed themselves.
If it weren't for the fact it was already tangled with the interests of numerous influential people, it wouldn't have existed in the first place.
Nevertheless, the city made sure to place a distance between it and the city itself. That was the reason behind the abandonment of several residential areas.
Add to that them being far away from the Fire MOTH branch…
It was only now that the eruption of honkai energy was felt.
Bam-!
Bam-!
The sounds of loud banging echoed within a warehouse. It is filled with smuggled goods—mostly canned goods—that were supposed to be shipped out now. The shortage of food supplies and the mass panic buying gave rise to these business opportunities.
Who could've expected there was a thief lying amongst all these goods?
"Hum..?"
The girl deftly wiped the saliva on her mouth. She was jolted awake by the loud banging of metal. She looked at her surroundings, only to find out it was coming from outside.
"Phew… I thought I was caught!" She gave a pat on her chest. Her eyes narrowed on the warehouse door. "Really, what are their problems?! They gave me a heart attack!"
Rumble-!
BAM-!
The ground shook. It was so evident that the girl atop countless metal containers nearly lost her footing.
The banging sound outside stopped after that.
"What's going on..?"
She skillfully hopped from one container to another before she arrived on the highest point of the warehouse. She nimbly climbed on the ventilation system before sticking a portion of her head outside the vent.
The sight she saw startled her.
The hustle and bustle of the city was far away from them. Their distance was more than fifteen kilometers away from each other. Still, the silhouettes of buildings could be clearly seen from here.
"What is that..?"
It was a tall glacier, far taller than a twenty storey-tall building. The girl couldn't estimate its size, but it was very tall. The next thing that caught her attention was the huge cloud of dust.
Only then did she realize one thing:
"I feel like it's missing a few buildings…"
Just then, the sound of a rocket came close to her ears. The girl's pupils narrowed as she met gazes with "it"—a humanoid robot straight out of a science fiction movie.
{"Oh, here I thought it was familiar."}
A girl's voice came out of the flying "robot".
A few moments later, the girl pinpointed whose voice it was.
"It's you! That magician!"