‘It feels pretty stupid to act like that… childishly.’
Aleph hought that he would fall up to that point. He has a certain degree of fiden himself. Everyone who reached a high political status has that. Only, he let his doubts e him more. All of his p his initial tact with Mei, the papers he published as an initiative, or him stealthily pying around some pao gain influeo some extent—were disrupted by his parents’ suddeh.
It was at that point did Aleph bnk out. A terrible mixture of sadness, anger, and fusion clouded his mind; a stark trast to his current self.
‘Her words would be…’
“I ’t do anything. I ’t help you.” She said with a clear voice. “Only you help yourself.”
“...”
Kurumi’s words were rough to wake him up from his daze. It was akin to a bell that pierced through the murky skies.
“...You’re right. This is stupid.”
The past Aleph regained his footing. He knew what to do . He already experienced all sorts of tripping dowo the problems he faced. The best thing to do was to learn how to stand up after that.
Clearly, he found the ao all of his current doubts himself.
“Won’t you sider applying for psychology, Tokisaki-san?”
“...I will…”
The dream ended just like that.
*****
***
*
“Mn…”
Aleph could feel a certain soft sensation pressing on his face. He fusedly pressed it more with his face. St of roses entered his nose as he inhaled. He felt the touch of fabric as well as something more estic.
For a moment, Aleph wao lose himself to this feeling. It was only when a question came to his mind did his sciousness finally wake up.
‘Pillow..?’
Aleph then realized...
He didn’t sleep with any pillows. That thought made his entire body jolt. The moment, his closed eyes became wide open.
Everything soon became apparent. The face of a sleeping girl came to his view. It was aremely familiar face, though it was more mature pared to his st recolle. His eyes were greeted by the two mounds on her chest. His left arm was ed around her body. With a touch, he felt the exposed skin on her back.
All of this information was enough to overwhelm a normal person.
Fortunately, Aleph wasn’t one.
He was left with two choices: to keep ag as if nothing happened or wake her up.
Before he made that choice, he decided to analyze things first.
‘What happened…’
The world turned into a dark blue color. The phantoms he saw got reversed until he got to the in of it all.
Out of nowhere, the bck cat sleeping beside him turned into Kurumi. It happened simirly as to when she arrived in this world. A fsh of white light was all it took to plete her transformation.
As for the reason why it happened…
‘The mark.’
Aleph carefully lifted his left arm from her waist. There, he saw the sword-shaped tattoo glowing more brightly. His analysis using elemental sight and Great Sage gave him varyis.
{Result: The semi-ceptual state gained from Albion’s Remains influehe broken artifact. Certain portions of its power was temporarily taken by the artifact. It will regee in the seven days.}
Simply put, the artifa his possession uniterally took a portion of Albion’s remains inside his Sephira Crystal. It resulted in suffit energy that was enough to turn Kurumi back to normal.
‘I was ready to find other solutions, but for it to e this easily…’
Aleph’s gaze went to her sleeping face. He knows it’s better to wake her up to prevent any kinds of awkward iions. Yet, he was still sent in a daze.
Just wheood up and was ready to wake her up, the tter moved.
The first thing Aleph noticed was her familiar golden eye. A phantom of a clock was visible in it. Her fused look—cute as it was—made him dazed for the third time. The uwintails were messily id out on the bed.
“You finally wake up. It’s been a long time, miss sleepiy.”
“...Ain?”
Aleph squatted to her side. The tter touched his face, only for her seo feed back the sense of touch.
Meaning, everything was real.
“Hey. I know we only met once. Heck, I even warned you not to e to my world at all costs.” He said with a sigh. “Still, wele to my world… Kurumi.”
*****
It was aremely uneven fight.
In Kurumi’s world, spirits possessed the power over something—simir to the likes of an authority. There were only ten spirits at a time. No matter how low their numbers may be, their powers are enough to threaten the world’s safety.
Whenever a spirit leaves their own dimension aers the physical dimension (i.e., Earth), they would cause quakes in space, thus causing wide-scale casualties and damages.
The first recorded spacequake, one caused by the “First Spirit”, caused 150 million casualties all over the Eurasian ti. That same spirit was, unfortunately, the same being behind Aleph’s first “death”.
She was extremely strong to the point none could match her power. It was akin to a child fighting against a superpowered hero in a iatter how strong a Spirit may be, they are merely byproducts of the First Spirit’s power.
For some reason, she decided to split apart her power into ten parts. The Sephira Crystals received by spirits were the tainers of her power.
Although she was strong enough, pg a Sephira Crystal in a normal human body causes extremely adverse effects, turning them into nothing but an evil monstrosity who harms humans.
These monsters were what Kurumi used to fight in the name of justice. She was given the power of a Spirit by the First Spirit to fight these monsters. Upon Aleph’s death, she was ter able to find out about the truth.
Hence, her crusade against the first spirit began.
She was extremely strong, strong enough for Kurumi to not expey signs of survival when fought alone. Her saving grace was the power bestowed to her by the dying Aleph.
Somehow, it was able to let her isote her domain, the City of Dev Time, into another world altogether. It became her safe space whenever she was being ered by her enemies.
Not even the First Spirit could interveh it.
In the end, after numerous twists and turns…
“...Ain?”
She found herself by his side once again.
