Tap.

  Tap.

  Swoosh-!

  Aleph’s figure turned into a blur as he sped through the corridors. He is currently ihird institute. What should’ve been a night of rest turned into a crisis.

  Before he could ehe director’s office, Einstein came out first. She was quite surprised by the slight shockwaves caused by his movements.

  “I have heard of the news just now. The headquarters is preparing to pce the borders into a state of war.”

  “That’s quite useless.” Aleph responded immediately. “That Herrscher chose to hide instead of attag. We lost track of her honkai energy readings. That could only meahing.”

  “You mean… she’s the same as the one you entered?”

  “Mn.”

  Aleph submitted a report to the headquarters regarding his fight with the fifth Herrscher. Although they chose to ceal her existence—burying it uhe guise of her death—he still mentioned how Herrschers have a form of human ego now.

  Back then, Herrschers oed for destru. The moment they appear, they would wreak havounicatioried to be established ter on, only to fail due to the Herrscher’s destructive tendencies.

  heless, it turned into their oint. They weren’t as ing as humans were. It was supposed to be that way.

  With the news of Herrschers gaining human-like thinking, Fire MOTH’s headquarters were immediately scared of the potential repercussions. It was as if a random nuclear bomb could e off at any time.

  “Without showiail, it’d be extremely difficult to find her.”

  “...I’ll ask the surveileam to cover more areas.”

  “Thanks.”

  Beep-!

  A ringing tone came from Aleph’s phone. He exged looks with Einstein, with the tter sighing before she said:

  “You have some things to do. Go.”

  “See you ter, director.”

  Aleph’s figure soon disappeared from her sight.

  “The current developments are heading for the worst. I o speed things up…”

  *****

  Icarus, the specialized suit Aleph built solely for flying. It could steadily fly at Mach seven, with its top speed going as fast as Mach ten.

  Zou-!

  The suit produced strong shockwaves as it accelerated through the skies.

  [“Oh. Y-you’re finally here.”]

  Vill-V's voice came from the other side of the unicator.

  “ you tell me about the updates?” Aleph asked.

  “Right… The headquarters po focus their b search with Iranum City as its in.”

  Several projes appeared in his suit’s GUI. Several areas were marked red on the map.

  “No abnormal readings were found. Only the ashes brought from the city were the abnormalities. There aren’t any honkai beasts left with matg power, either.”

  “Hm.”

  As he talked with Vill-V, he arrived at the city. The travel distance wasn’t that long, sidering both the institutes and Iranum City are in the same ti.

  Hum.

  The world turned into a hue of dark blue. Only the dark blue color existed at first, though it didn’t take long before there were other colors.

  Silver, red, green, purple…

  After a s of his Elemental Sight, he found some useful clues. His eyes begaing on their maximum output.

  Numerous ‘informatioered his brain as chaotic thoughts.

  ‘Girl.’

  ‘Herrscher.’

  ‘Deposition anic matter.’

  ‘Recreation anic…’

  ‘Ten thousahs. All in the same district.’

  Soon, an image popped up inside his mind. The ideas gave form to a kind of memory he was able to prehend more thhly.

  It was a bck-haired girl. Her body was filled with scars and fresh wounds. Her clothes were tattered.

  '...An experimental subject?'

  It was easy to put two and two, sidering Alleph was currently standing in an illegal boratory. The girl happeo be one of the children that was experimented on. Worse, the sources of these children mainly came from traffickers and such.

  '...'

  Aleph remained silent for a while. He sed the details inside his head.

  In the girl's arms was a clear bck marking. These looked like an angel’s wings, but there were bones on one side instead of feathers.

  ‘Sixth herrscher…’

  Aleph stopped delving deeper and celed his elemental sight.

  ‘How should I present this to others…’

  A familiar dilemma came upon him.

  His strength may seem extremely special in the eyes of others, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. He hadn’t used any eye-catg stuff—Stel, to name one.

  It wasn’t as if he “should” keep everything hidden from others. Be it his reination, foreknowledge, or things from his Achievement System, they weren’t ily harmful. It's just that…

  ‘I o find a time to set it straight.’

  After some time, he finally thought of a roundabout way to suggest the girl he saw from his elemental sight.

  Beep.

  “I think I found something…”

  *****

  The world does not merely sist of a physical world. There are other dimensions beyond the current uanding of humanity.

  One such example was the imaginary space. Some sider it as something far beyond a human’s perception; that it is a space that could only be accessed through extraordinary means.

  It happeo be one of the main strengths of a Herrscher. Their Herrscher Cores are ected to the imaginary space, granting them access to the honkai energy stored within it. It was also their source of power; also the reason why they bee strohe lohey exist.

  The bck-haired girl was focused on studying the power within her core when she was suddenly jolted out of it.

  A strange feeling swept her entire body—the sense of dread.

  She instinctively knew what it meant.

  ‘Danger?’

  The girl acted wisely by going out of her Herrscher State. The core inside her body became inactive; there weren’t any more exaggerated amounts of honkai energy in her body.

  Looking at her, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. She is the definition of normal.

  However, the corpses around her say otherwise. Uhe others who got turned into dust, the bodies around her died out of “natural causes”. Their guns remained slio their shoulders.

  At first ghese people weren’t good guys.

  ‘What was it trying to tell me..?’ She thought hard. ‘Go to the Moon and…’

  These messages ‘appeared’ the moment she became a herrscher. Uhers, the girl, Ling, did not develop a sed personality. She has pletely accepted the honkai’s mission on her own.

  After all she has been through…

  ‘...to be careful of one man.’

  Thinking of the “huge threat” paio her, Ling’s footsteps became more hurried.

  ‘I shouldn’t stay here for long.’

  She soon arrived in a bck tinted car. Her entire body was no lohat of a child’s, but a more mature version of her prior form. Her hair and eye color soon ged, followed by her face shape. She was no longer reizable from the firl she once was.

  ‘I will wait… for the right time.’

  Zoom-!

  This time, humanity has to face the products of their evils.