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Chapter 183: When Gods Fall
🕑 Added 2025-01-24 15:11:35 +0000 UTCAmidst the ruined city and piles of rubbles, the battlefield became eerily silent for the second time.
It wasn’t a complicated reason. The appearance of such a bizarre strong man was enough to turn their conflict into a standstill.
Hum.
An imperceptible sound rang throughout their surroundings. The man himself did not have any changes.
‘It’s… he can be struck?’
A confusing idea arose in the girl’s mind. She, the Mei of this world, had a vague hunch that their attacks did not touch the man. Due to some changes, the ability that blocked their two attacks disappeared.
It wasn’t just her.
Bam-!
The giant magma giant made up of sticky fluid stomped its feet. The cracks it produced caused crimson flames to arise from the ground. The high temperature it emitted turned the ground into a magma zone.
For a while, the man’s position was covered with nothing but blood red fire.
Click-!
Click-!
Surprisingly… or not, Aleph withstood its casual attack. Burn marks appeared all over his pale white arms. His kimono was burnt by the flames, only for it to fix itself a moment later.
An eight-pointed wheel unknowingly appeared atop his head. The wheel spun twice before stopping.
Snap-!
Bam-!
Rumble-!
The snap of his fingers generated a strong impact. It swiftly cleared a path from the sea of flames. The ground trembled as the impact crept towards the Flamebringer.
Boom-!
Under Mei’s surprised looks, the impact pushed it back by a few steps.
“Tsk, tsk. It seems like the seventh is your turning point, too.”
His voice spread loudly throughout their radius.
“..?”
‘Too..?’
She was having more doubts regarding him… and so did Aleph.
‘Danger..?’
Aleph planned to switch to honkai energy to conduct his hypotheses. The modifications he made turned it into the only energy to be able to substitute ‘psions’.
It wasn’t evident at first, but the more he thought of it, the stronger the pricking sensation on his neck became.
‘It’s like a dead end…’ He thought. ‘I can only work on my cursed techniques for now.’
His lethality with Ratio, Yamato, and other techniques were tried and tested. His other two cursed techniques, on the other hand, weren’t fortunate to find a worthy foe.
A spherical metal ball appeared on his palm. Its surface was smooth and cold to touch. It was just that—a metal ball made up of synthesized materials that made it tough. Its weight did not exceed one kilogram.
Click.
A sense of connection popped up in his subconscious.
{Announcement: The bound item to the cursed technique [Star Rage] has been selected.]
Just then, its weight began to increase.
Ten kilograms.
One hundred kilograms.
One thousand kilograms.
When it reached a ton, Aleph stopped for a while. He did not feel the gravitational force acting upon such a large mass.
‘I’m really lucky…’
Star Rage originally had an accompanying shikigami. However, it was used for close-quarter combat. Aleph’s Star Rage allowed him to select an item to bind for the technique. Only when the said item was destroyed would he be able to select a new one.
To that, he decided on using these spherical metal balls. The most important thing was their weight limit.
Star Rage imbues imaginary mass to a certain object. Below a certain threshold, the imaginary mass would not affect the target—the mass exists but their effects do not.
Only when that threshold was passed would gravity start acting upon the target. It depends on the metallic ball or Aleph himself. For the latter, it was one hundred times its original weight.
Swoosh–!
The ball was thrown high up into the air. Its small size made it unremarkable for the giant.
But then…
Buzz-!
BAM-!
RUMBLE-!
The same object crashed down to its position. Its weight increased drastically, prompting gravity to act upon it. The force it created was more than enough to cause a strong earthquake on the ruined city.
The winds caused by the impact swept Mei’s face. They were sharp enough to cut several wounds on her pristine skin. She was able to hold her ground, however.
‘Where is he… He’s not affected by it.’
Her eyes scanned the surroundings and found Aleph who remained still. The kimono he wore fluttered, but his body did not move an inch.
Then…
There was no then.
Right in front of her sight, he disappeared… literally.
‘Who am I thinking..?’
For a moment, Mei’s mind turned into a blank state. It was as if Aleph’s existence was erased from her memories.
Fortunately, she was woken up by a huge rumble.
‘It’s that guy..! How did I forget..?!’
She saw his figure reappear atop the kneeling giant’s shoulder. His feet directly touched its black sticky fluids. His geta and tabi was stained with its pungent smell and nasty texture.
Click-!
Click-!
Click-!
The wheel atop his head began turning at a rapid pace. It did not even take twenty seconds before an entire cycle was completed.
Hum-!
“I see, I see…”
Aleph looked at his feet that were being corroded by black lines. His physique was strong enough to be able to ignore it. The best it could do was to corrupt the barest surface of his body.
Now, his Adaptation emitted a transparent flow throughout his entire body. Instantly, the corruption receded.
‘One phenomenon, one adaptation. It follows the rules just as much as Star Rage.’
With his experiment done, it was time to settle things.
His body disappeared before reappearing a few dozen meters away from the kneeling giant.
Its arm was shredded by the huge weight—which also contained his destruction factor—dropped at it.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It didn’t take long until his geta and tabi were restored to their prior clean state. The sheathed Yamato appeared in his grasp.
In Mei’s eyes, his existence became vague once again before returning to normal. She then saw him take out an eastern blade out of nowhere. Finally, he walked towards her direction, with the sword disappearing from her sight.
Just as she wondered about the sovereign’s fate, her body went still.
Rumble-!
Bam-!
Splash-!
The foe, which they found hard to defeat, fell to the ground in a liquefied state. Its body formed a huge lake of black matter all over the city. Space itself was broken like a shattered mirror. Streamlines black cracks and translucent fragments fell to the ground before dissipating.
From a glance, the entire city's sky was affected by it.
A burning red crystal floated on the center of the black lake. The crater produced by Aleph's heavy metal sphere created such a sight.
“Who… are you?”
“It’s better to talk about this over a cup of coffee, Me—Miss Mei.”
Just like that, Takamagahara’s seventh descent ended.
*****
A/N: There isn't really much stuff revealed on Izumo. Since their main motif revolved around Hi3rd concepts (sovereigns, Kamis, as well as the Edict Edges/Divine Key equivalents), I decided to expand on this idea. This arc is supposed to prepare Aleph for the eventual clash he’ll have with the Cocoon. You can expect that after this arc, it’ll be that fight.
