Looking at the peaceful sleeping look of the girl in his arms, Aleph recalled the Anna that he knew.

  ‘She’s also the fifth herrscher. If this is not fate, then…’

  His mind flew to the irl whom he asked to be monitored.

  ‘The sixth ah… It should… no. It will be different this time.’

  For now, he made tact with the suspected sixth herrscher as an online fan. The girl worked as an idol, and as such, he easily became a supporter with his current financial power.

  While he was thinking, a loud rumble occurred not far away from them.

  A huge figure came crashing down.

  BAM-!

  RUMBLE-!

  Its destructive tendency caused numerous buildings around them to colpse. It was far more destructive pared to the mess created by the fifth herrscher. The enemy iion did not utilize any form of authority, only its sheer strength.

  “Figures.”

  Aleph, who had already expected it, gave Anna to Vill-V’s remotely-trolled suit.

  “I’ll deal with it.”

  “Alright, then.”

  With Vill-V’s disappearao the baes, Aleph met the eyes of the predator. It was a silibsp;beast more than thirty meters tall. Its body resembled that of a tempr-css honkai beast, but without any form of legs. It soon floated and got out of the ground.

  The familiar honkai beast matched with the one he knew from the game—Frost Emperor.

  Without any warning, numerous ice crystals appeared all around Aleph. The ground he was stepping on turned into ice before transf further into long spikes.

  Shatter-!

  Shatter-!

  A streaks of bck light circled around Aleph, breaking all the ice shards thrown at him.

  Klink-!

  Klink-!

  …

  The streak of light revealed itself. It was her than the [Knight Killer] he received months ago.

  Underh his glove, one of the golden liurned red. The dagger floated into his grasp.

  Instantly, Aleph felt an increase to his physical power out of nowhere.

  ‘Float for three seds. It’s a game ger, indeed.’

  It was the upgrade received by the [Seven Swords]. The tattoo on the back of his right hand allowed him to manipute these ons to float briefly in air as well as retrieve them remotely.

  Hum-!

  The world in Aleph’s eyes turned blue. Outwardly, it turned into a cold gaze directed straight to the Emperor-css honkai beast.

  ‘There’s still two minutes for Blink. Nevermind, I’ll do it.’

  The situation ged all of a sudden. The aura in Aleph’s body rose as dark-bck scales started emerging from his body. The already damaged skinsuit was further torn. A small bck horn emerged from his forehead as his eyes turned into that of a reptile’s.

  Coupled with cursed energy enha, Aleph went into his stro state.

  Bam-!

  He vaulted more than fifty meters in one go, closing the distaween him and the emperor-css beast immediately.

  Numerous ratio lines appeared all over its body—one in its torso, two ea its arms and legs…

  Fuzz-!

  Shatter-!

  Cold threateo affebsp;Aleph’s body entirely but to no avail. His territory as a half-baked spirit prevented any direterfereowards his body. Just like the fifth herrscher, it could only use the surroundings to ily affect him.

  However, it didn’t impede his bat capabilities against the herrscher, what more of an emperor-css honkai beast?

  Hum-!

  The dagger in his hands ged into a huge greatsword. It was the greatsword—Nitro Crystal—in his possession.

  Tilting it diagonally, the bde was swung down upon the honkai beast’s shoulder.

  Fuzz-!

  Numerous ice shields emerged in an attempt to block it but to no avail.

  Shatter-!

  Shatter-!

  Shatter-!

  Psshk-!

  The crystal clear bde went through its right arm. It was severed in an instant. His feet nded on the ground.

  Rumble-!

  He utilized the momentum to jump once again.

  Swoosh-!

  Using the leftover force, Aleph spun his entire body around. He carried the greatsword as he made a horizontal strike right at its upper torso.

  Psshk-!

  Its “head” was ly severed.

  Bam-!

  Aleph’s feet nded into the ground. Without pausing, he vaulted once more. He did the same thing to its other arms a. Ten seds ter, only a honkai beast with severed body pieces was left.

  “Hm. So this is it…”

  Fizzle-!

  The imaginary sound came from his head—his brain, to be exact.

  Elemental Sight, under his deliberate adjustment, ran at a whole another level. It was akin to the time ihe Sanctum. Only, he was able to ha without any internal injuries.

  Although it was taxing, the effects were there to see. For ohe cursed energy inside his body was accurately being supplied and recycled. Aleph entered a state where his ‘wasted energy’ got reduced to five pert at best.

  {Result: Geion of cursed energy is ongoing…}

  It didn’t take long befreat Sage piled a detailed report.

  Soon, Aleph left that state. His body reverted to normal as his Meta-Morph transformation got celed.

  Ding-!

  [Achievement Unlocked…]

  Aleph dismissed the notification once again.

  “It should be over…”

  The long night came to an end.

  *****

  “...Doobius. This…”

  “You are seeing things correctly.”

  “Is that so…”

  From the moment the major eruption occurred, Vill-V messed with all the satellite feeds. It rendered every form of remote surveilo the four areas iive.

  However, it was retive to most official els. Vill-V was mindful enough to show it to Mobius.

  Currently, there was only her, Klein, and arusted assistant, Bnca.

  The former two did not show aion to the feed of Aleph utterly demolishing the fifth herrscher as well as the Emperor-css honkai beast.

  Only the “newer”, Bnca, reacted differently.

  She was already half-retired at this point. She was the one who reended Klein to Mobius as her rept when family matters got a hold of her, though there are still times where she would work on the fifth institute.

  As Mobius’ ‘former’ assistant, she soon ected the dots on her own.

  “Was this a product of that study? The Meta-Morph Surgery inside Project Soldier.”

  “A part of it was that. The rest should be attributed to that guy.”

  “...Doctor Aleph.”

  There are two resounding names within Fire MOTH. One of them was Mei, who was unanimously named as the director of all five institutes. Her talents and insights were terrifying enough for her to be pced in that position.

  The other one h. He was infamous for taking down a Hind Chopper on his own. In others’ opinion, his research capabilities were also terrifying. Withi months—his time of indu—the third institute released more than five new models for their mebsp;series, eight new exoskeleton suit designs, and so on. These were enough to upgrade the teological limits for the mechs and exoskeleton suits that doesn't use honkai energy.

  He was also involved in several colborated projects with the sed institute.

  Their main highlight as of the moment was the Divine Key Project. It roject cooperated by the sed and the third—by the etric Vill-V and Aleph, respectively.

  However, it seems like the most shog thing was yet to be revealed.

  “Don’t think much of it. I am giving you a heads up. Ohis achievement is reported, we will choose from the voluo do this surgery on.” Mobius expined. “I will tell you first… that this is a safe project.”

  ‘Safe..?’

  For it to be rated as such, one has to think about Mobius’ other experiments. Just her track record of killing everyone in the early stages of the Project Soldier was enough to deter the many. That also painted Mobius’ reputation as a scary doctor who would experiment on you without sent.

  Simply put, if Mobius said it was safe, it was far above the usual standards, even Mobius'.

  “I will keep this in mind.”

  Upon hearing Bnca’s reply, Mobius returo her daze—to the blurry figure iher side of the s.