Aleph’s rea time is on a whole another level. It was pletely absurd, to the point his mind processed his surroundings beyond the one millised level. Everything halted in his perception, making it as if time had stopped.

  ‘A supercharged projectile fired from a makeshift railgun.’

  {Result: The silver metal ball’s velocity has reached 1,120 meters per sed. Suggesting termeasures…}

  Soon, Aleph found a way to teract this projectile.

  ‘Kashimo hasn't practiced it in real bat. Its accuracy should be lower than normal..!’

  k-!

  The sheathed Yamato went out of its sheath. At the same time the ratio line appeared on the projectile, the arcs let out from the bde sliced space itself several times. These cuts reached the projectile, slig it into several pieces. The force from the railgun lit apart as a result.

  Everything occurred in one sed.

  Bam-!

  Crack-!

  Shatter-!

  Aleph was sent flying through a building. It wasn’t a direct hit, yet the shockwaves arical fields brought by the split projectiles still mao reach him.

  Smoke and rubble covered the area where he nded.

  Crumble-!

  Bam-!

  The five-storey building he bumped into colpsed to the ground. It further added to the chaos the two made in this desote city.

  “That sword… it’s just like that. Strikes that ’t be seen by the naked eyes…’

  Just like Aleph, Kashimo’s rea speed rose to an unpreted degree. Though not as exaggerated as him, Kashimo was able to barely react to Aleph's insaion speed. His cursed teique, [Mythical Beast Amber], allowed for the manipution of all electrical phenomena. It was something he kept to himself.

  Even then…

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Kashimo’s entire left arm was missing. Blood kept spttering into the ground.

  Aleph’s strikes weren’t only meant to ralize the railgun—it was also inteo injure him.

  For the first time, Kashimo lost trol of the initiative.

  ‘That guy—’

  Before he could even recover from that attack, his seold him of an impending threat.

  Swoosh-!

  A bck figure bolted out of the smoke. Aleph, whose body was bleeding all over the pce, had his eyes dead set on Kashimo. It looked terrifying at first, but Kashimo khey were only surface-level wounds at best.

  Aleph fo using reversed cursed teique, intending to close the distaween them as soon as possible.

  ‘That railgun attack won’t work as long as I close the distance. My stro strike…’

  Aleph began to feel the sensation of fighting a ‘strong’ enemy. Although he was sure he could overwhelm Kashimo with his sshes and kill him—since he had the ratio teique as well as reversed curse teique—Kashimo is aware of his shortings. He never alloh to close the distaween them.

  ‘His actual speed is slower than mine. As for his rea speed, I still overwhelm him.’

  Albion’s first gift, his vast cursed energy reserves, and several other skills (i.e., Great Sage and Elemental Sight) gave him the capital to be like this. His overall strength far surpassed his previous self. Even the Herrschers he faced couldn’t force him to release his true strength.

  It was at this moment did Aleph have a plete grasp of what he do now.

  ‘He’ll think I still have Blink under my s, but I have atack that could end him.’

  Aleph’s figure moved extremely fast. The interruptions caused by the gravity-like sensatioricity brought weren’t enough to stop him.

  Zoom-!

  Buzz-!

  It went up to the point Kashimo’s fifty meter radius was filled with electrical forces, enough to cause ionizing radiation to someone who steps into it.

  Fatal as it may be to normal humans and even sorcerers, there are strong people who could ig—Aleph happeo be one of them.

  Crack-!

  Crack-!

  This time, he repared. Aleph decreased the output of his reversed cursed teique, p it on his territory instead. He sheathed Yamato back as he ran around.

  While he was doing so, he noticed the slight decrease of Kashimo’s output.

  ‘He’s preparing something big. I won’t let him.’

  Sou.

  In an instant, he was teleported teers o Kashimo. The tter expected it and strengthened both the ionizing radiation. His mouth turned into a huge “o”-shape, with natural frequencies bei out by it.

  However—

  Click.

  For the third time, Yamato was uhed. An unpreted amount of force came out of the bde. The space around it cracked immediately. The ‘ssh’ sent out from it went through Kashimo extremely fast. The area it affected was far rger pared to before.

  The fusion of Yamato’s special characteristic as well as the perfected Juezhao showed their might.

  ‘This is…’

  For the sed time, Kashimo was killed by the hands of someone.

  *****

  “Huff…”

  The moment Aleph came out of the training space, he looked around his body. His injuries werely pleasing to the eyes. Kashimo’s ionizing attacks were the primary source of it. His scales and skin looked simir to charcoal. There seemed to be a force that threatened his body to depose. It's just that his current body was absurd enough to tank them all. It didn't even reach the sed-degree burns he had before.

  Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. His body also went back to normal.

  [Course pletion. The corresponding funs will be unlocked: Power Vessel, Straw Hat, Summons]

  A prompt appeared in Aleph’s sight. A series of expnations soon followed them.

  [Power Vessel: Utilize the cursed teique [Mythical Amber Beast] for thirty minutes. Cooldown: 1 Year]

  [Straw Hat: Obtain the experiences, ideas, and memories of the man known as “Hajime Kashimo” for thirty minutes. Cooldown: 1 Month]

  [Summons: Call the person ihe training space to fight in the physical realm for fifteen minutes. celed upon his death. Cooldown: 6 Months]

  Aleph began going through both the fight and the information given to him. His multiple minds worked simultaneously.

  One of the other things he noticed was his ICHOR's ges.

  {Result: The Inter-osomal Honkai Ges started exhibiting increased activity. It began to ehe realm of ceptual...}

  'Was this the trial? To fight?'

  True to his words, Albion's trials turned out to be Aleph's struggles. It was akin to a maihat gets aplished every time he faced something challenging.

  'I feel like I do something new...'

  He was busy thinking about these things when the sound of his phing on the desk beside his bed alerted him. He picked it up, only to be greeted by Mei’s extremely serious voice.

  “We have a situation.” She spoke. “There might be another herrscher besides Anna.”

  “...”

  For a moment, Aleph’s thoughts were redirected to what she said. Mei tinued her expnations.

  “We found several strange residues in Iranum. Upon further iion, they were biological remains with traces of honkai energy.”

  These words were enough to make Aleph jump from his seat.

  ‘The sixth herrscher.’

  Acc to his knowledge, the sixth herrscher, the Herrscher of Death, was the Seele equivalent of the Previous Era. She was currently an idol-ssh-streamer that he kept close tact with by being a supporter. He asked Vill-V a favor to duct a background che her.

  Up to now, she hadn't entered anything that threatened her to turn into a Herrscher. She also didn't have any problems in the past.

  Currently, she is living in the Far East. It was impossible that she was the possible Herrscher in Iranum, a city within Mu ti.

  ‘If it wasn’t her…’

  His heart trembled. He knew what it meant.

  ‘The future is deviating from what I knew.’