Everyone didn't have much time to spare. When morning came, everyone left the first institute, save for Aleph and Mei. The two were currently in a hangar. Sakura, Kevin, and Elysia were dispatched using the Mach 50 transport ships.
The clear blue sky looked as if nothing happened, but everyone knew things were a mess. The four simultaneous honkai eruptions with 2,500 HW on average caused a global crisis. It was for such a reason that Fire MOTH became short-staffed now.
"Are they really prototypes?"
While they were walking around, Mei asked him.
"...Partly. There are still many missing features, but the most utilized ones are there. I'll add the other features once I solve the issue of mass production."
The "Battlesuits" he brought over when he came here were used by Elysia and the crew. Even Kevin had his own design. As for the reason why Aleph still doesn't have one, he planned to make one for others first. He knew that they needed it more than him.
That was the result of having a "bit" of confidence to his survivability.
"Was this why you had the Truth Arsenal built first?" Mei rhetorically asked. "You already planned things long ago."
"What can we say about it? Either we get lost in the tempo or lead it ourselves."
Not once had Aleph underestimated the honkai. His years of existence in this world let him scrap, remove, and create new plans. He was merely adopting them now, and the Truth Arsenal was one of them.
As its name suggests, it was the Divine Key built through the First Herrscher Core. Unlike the Void Archives, the Truth Arsenal had two functions: to store all kinds of material information and create them with the help of honkai.
Simply put, it was a factory that could produce anything so long as there was enough information input and honkai energy. That, and a proper user.
Aleph thought of the almost-repaired dark energy reactor in the third institute.
'There are some rare materials missing… I'll pay Vill-V a visit before I return.'
Seeing Aleph in a daze, Mei recognized it as one of his frequent 'ailments'. This happened often even when they were in Chiba Academy.
'Something's dragging him down… and I don't even know what it is.'
Unknowingly, this challenge only further strengthened Mei's resolve…
*****
"I didn't expect that one."
"Hm? My genius is that frightening."
Hearing her calm response, Aleph immediately knew who the current persona was.
"Was it two or three months? Is it your incentive after doing all the work?" He asked.
"If they dared to cut off my time, we'll see who takes the workload."
The expert Vill-V complained once again. She was the one who took the most of her time, followed by the Magician. She was the one responsible for creating the Divine Keys along with Aleph.
"I'll make you another blast-proof testing grounds later."
"As if I'd need that!"
She retorted to Aleph's comments. The latter responded by deadpanning at her.
"Aside from wasting public funds, there are already a lot of complaints about the daily explosions in your lab. Just the repair of your previously destroyed lab cost millions."
Vill-V had the same penchant as Mobius when it came to the higher-ups. Their projects were treated as money-devouring beasts. If Mobius had issues when it comes to the zero percent survivability rate of her experiments, Vill-V's complaints mostly had to do with her creating 'useless-but-dangerous' stuff. If it weren't for Mei's stance, she wouldn't have had as much funding now. Aleph's stance also helped convince Mei.
Fortunately, Vill-V delivered tangible results.
Their steps were halted once they passed by the corridor. They entered a well-lit room dozens of meters wide. A large orange cube was present in the middle of the room.
"It has two functions. One is to manually input the data to the computer connected to it. That takes time, but production is consistent." She explained as she walked around it. "The other way is to directly input all the required data into the Divine Key."
She pressed one of the lodged buttons on the cube. A portion of it emerged, revealing a handprint of sorts.
"The only problem is that…"
"Honkai resistance and the complete data, right?"
Aleph pointed out the two problems. First was the honkai corruption the Divine Key emitted. Kira Shigure, one of the members of Cecilia Schariac's Team, can only hold the Black Abyss White Flower for a few minutes before honkai's corruption turns completely worse. Add to that the fact she was an A-rank Valkyrie, it became evident that Divine Keys are on a completely different level.
There was also the fact that Divine Keys were quite 'choosy' when it comes to their users. They had several requirements to be fulfilled to be used. For the previous Void Archives, it required a wise man. Although the Divine Key took a different form this time, this requirement was fulfilled by Vill-V, thus there weren't any problems operating on it.
Mei's attempt to transport it to the first institute was reconsidered, simply due to the fact that Vill-V was the most suitable user of it.
As for the issue regarding data completeness…
'Great Sage. When it asks for input, add everything I know related to the subject…'
Aleph didn't hesitate to place his palm on it. The moment he did so, the orange lines in the black cube shone dimly. The lights fluctuated, as if there was something new added to its operation.
'Heh. It stirs up the honkai energy in my body, I see.' He thought. 'It doesn't seem to affect the energy conversion. I'll have to do more study about that Embryonic Power System. As for the connection... there aren't any problems. am I considered a wise man?'
Even if he was thinking of something, streams of data were continuously input to the divine key. Great Sage and his other split minds worked to input every single detail into the divine key.
It was a strange feeling. Aleph felt like he had a certain connection to the cube—an intuitive feeling, so as to say. He could also feel that his thoughts regarding the information being input could be controlled by him.
Soon, the data transfer ended. A sense of fatigue swept over his mind, but it was soon resolved by the reverse cursed technique working on his brain.
[Achievement Unlocked: Pioneer, Once Again]
[Pioneer, Once Again: Become the civilization's leading figure in significant advancements.]
[Reward: Sanctuary Key]
'It only appeared now. Do I need to come in contact with it before it's considered completed?'
Numerous thoughts came to his mind.
Fizzle-!
Due to cursed energy's nature, it remains to be unseen, even to those people with access to honkai energy. The phenomena of reverse cursed technique remains to be unseen to others.
"What did you enter?" Vill-V asked.
"You'll see it soon. I have a feeling you'll be interested in it."
Aleph walked into the place where the item was delivered out. A part of the black-orange plate slid open like a hatch, revealing a clear glass box. A card—King of Hearts—lay inside it.
Fwoosh-!
The glass wall opened, allowing him to take the card. The moment he touched it, he scanned it both with his elemental sight and Great Sage.
'A one-to-one copy of the collectible I made back then.'
He thought of the King of Hearts he created in his previous life.
It only had one feature—
"This can explode."
"Eh?"
"Whenever you're feeling stressed, you can throw a couple of these cards. It's not as destructive as a normal bomb. It's more like a firework that explodes once it flies thirty meters."
Such a simple "tool" was used by him to relieve stress. In the hopes of relieving Vill-V's tendencies of creating explosions inside her lab, Aleph gave his past life's stress reliever to her.
Unfortunately…
"This is a perfect performance prop!"
…it might be used for other purposes instead.