“Right. You also told me about an iing girl.”

  “Ah, right.”

  Aleph went straight to the fifth institute after he settled the eastern ti’s problems. During the eight days he was gohere had been dozens of new MANTIS, including the ones Aleph inally reended.

  Numerous doctors watched the surgery. They argued that seeing Mobius’ process would be more beneficial to learning skills to produce MAably. It was pletely unrealistic to rely on Mobius even on lower-ranked MANTIS surgeries.

  With the samples Aleph brought from the battlefield, the cilors became even crazier when it came to letting their assistants and trusted people undergo the said surgery.

  heless, what mattered to Mobius were Aleph’s reendations. All of them, without fail, mao successfully embra emperor-css ICHOR.

  “The girl you told me who has psychic-reted abilities. When will she e here?”

  She asked with a hint of i.

  “Not now. Let’s wait until things calm down.”

  “If you say so.”

  With that topic out of the window, Mobius addressed the elephant in the room.

  “Since when did you like cats?”

  Her snake-like pupils narrowed towards the bck cat atop Aleph’s head.

  “Since a long time ago? We don’t need any reasons to love cute things, you know?”

  ‘There it is.’

  Mobius had the same feeling as when Vill-V made a huge fuss. This time, this inexplicable feeling is even stronger.

  “Oh.” She nodded perfunctorily. “ I touch it?”

  The moment she asked that question, the cat opened her eyes. A pair of heteroatic eyes—bd gold—met her gaze.

  Mobius felt a mix of smug and teasing look from it. It was as humane as it ever could.

  “Tevermind.”

  “Mn? Are you allergic to cats?”

  Aleph was somewhat bewildered by Mobius’ sudden ge.

  Numerous thoughts fshed in his mind, his gaze being a bit plicated.

  “Fet about it. You’re free right now, no? Then, help me.”

  He wasn’t even given a choice.

  ‘This is on me. I am really fooling around, huh…’

  The bck cat atop his head, Kurumi, could’ve stayed inside his shadows. He could’ve even chosen to ceal her existence.

  Still…

  “I want to see your world.”

  With those words, Aleph brought her along as a cat.

  What he didn’t expect, however, was that she would start a fight with Mobius.

  ‘Once she meets Mei…’

  Aleph had a foreboding feeling that things won’t go well after that.

  “Let’s go. I need more of your blood.” Mobius said with a ical tone.

  “Alright, alright.”

  Once again, he was dragged off to work.

  *****

  Western ti.

  Just like the eastern ti, it also suffered from devastating damages. The amount of colteral damages, human casualties, and perma damages were beyond imagination.

  Bam-!

  A bzing greatsword desded from the sky. It accurately hit the back of a whale-shaped emperor-css honkai beast.

  “I got you!”

  Fuzz-!

  Only a portion of its back resent in the sea surface.

  Bam-!

  The moment Kevin’s figure nded, his radius was turned into a boilihe greatsword that was stabbed deeply into its sili shell tio bze with bright red fmes.

  When he held it, its iy became even higher. The thin honkai reactor present on its back began to glow dimly.

  Woo-!

  The whale struggled. Kevin nearly lost his footing as the whale accelerated swimming.

  “This guy..!”

  Their fight ensued until half an hour ter, to which it died due to tinuous internal frying.

  “Huff… Herrschers are easier to deal with than this.”

  A path of ice was created in front of him. The whale’s body was transported by creating ice around it. Even so, this act was quite strenuous to the current Kevin.

  “How did he mao kill one in two minutes? He’s really on another level…”

  Kevihat Aleph’s record of three emperor-css honkai beasts in an hour included travel time as well as killing dozens of other tempr-css honkai beasts and the like. Iy, all Aleph took was a minute or two to kill an emperor-css.

  If it was a newly-born Herrscher, it ossible to MANTISes with Emperor-css ICHORs, provided that it would be a swift and strong strike. If not, they could be terattacked using its authority.

  It recisely due to this standard that Aleph became an insurmountable monster in the eyes of others. His unbelievable feats during the eight days in the eastern ti pushed him to the forefront.

  It wasn’t wrong to say that nearly all active Fire MOTH personnel knew his name now.

  Beep.

  Kevin pressed several buttons on his earpiece before he ected to a line.

  “Ahem. I want to ask for a retrieval team…”

  He smiled wryly as he recalled how he went on a surfing spree with this emperor-css honkai beast. It could manipute id create headache indug shouts to attack others, which forced the helicopters with him to retreat.

  Fortunately, he didn’t o wait for long.

  “Uood, Captain. Direei’s ship should be passing your location.”

  “Alright.”

  Two mier, a jet-bck transport ship decelerated to his position. A single rope was thrown at him, yet he mao use it as an assist as he created footholds out of ice.

  Hum.

  The rest was taken care of with the battlesuit’s ‘glide’ fun. It wasn’t a tinuous fight like Aleph’s, but it was enough to propel him to the hangar.

  Tap.

  Tap.

  “Don’t mind the body. There’s aransport ship behind us. It will take care of it.”

  Seeing Mei, Kevin heaved a sigh of relief. His mission was now over. He sat oransport ship’s seats without wearing abelts. He was surprised to see a familiar person appearing out of thin air on the seats across him. It was her than Sakura.

  'Since when did Miss Sakura bee a ninja..?!'

  Without minding them, Mei made another call. Her arms were crossed as she stared at the o.

  Puff-!

  Tck-!

  Ohe hangar closed, the call ected.

  “You called?”

  “I’m heading over there.”

  For a moment, Aleph’s voi the other side went pletely silent.

  The thing he feared the most minute ago came true.

  “Oh, before I fet about it… I fished out someone else in the o.”

  “Let me guess… Kevin?” Aleph replied normally. “If that’s him, do ask him if he prefers a mission in the desert ciers . I’ve heard that the view there is good.”

  “Huh? I feel like Ainsworth’s saying something bad…”

  Although Kevin could hear their versation with his enhanced hearing, he chose not to do so. heless, he knew from Mei’s expressions that it h whom she was talking to.

  “...when will you arrive?” Aleph asked oher side.

  “Hm. Maybe around fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Alright. Take care.”

  When Mei hung up on the call, her fiapped her crossed arms. Her eyes were narrowed down to her front.

  ‘Something’s wrong… again.’

  Seeing her like this, even Kevin shuddered on the er. The st time he saw Mei like this was when she sah’s rea to her lunch box. It was Mei’s ‘’Where did it g?’ phase.

  ‘Man… I’ll pray nothing happens. If something does…’ Kevin thought. ‘You’re on your own.’

  Kevin swore not to interfere on what would happen today.