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Chapter 160: Distortion
🕑 Added 2025-01-02 15:09:04 +0000 UTCIt was one of Mei’s and Aleph’s topics three months ago.
“How strong am I? Hehe…”
A hint of embarrassment appeared on his face. It was particularly prominent in Mei’s sight. After all, Aleph’s head was laying on her thighs.
Like a cat, Mei ruffled his hair every now and then.
“Feel free to deploy me on any battlefield. If there aren't any available reinforcements, I’ll still handle it.”
“...You are that strong?” She asked.
“Yes, very. That’s why… when things come down to it, don’t hesitate to do as you deem fit.”
…
Objectively, deploying your childhood friend-slash-lover on a dangerous battlefield alone seems chilling to most people. Hagen was chilled by it, and so were the personnel along with him.
It elicited both admiration and doubt. A leader who wouldn’t be influenced by any external factors is a great leader. So long as their objective was to make the best decisions for humanity, she would be admired.
‘Was it this..?’
Mei’s thoughts went to her father’s words. He asked her to study in high school to see things beyond the ‘rational scope’. For the last three years, she went through things that could make her do irrational things. It was only a matter of self-control—either rationality or irrationality prevails.
Fortunately…
Her man is extremely strong.
‘He’s supposed to come here today…’
The perfect balance between rationality and irrationality was struck.
*****
Zoom-!
Boom-!
A black figure streaked through the clouds.
Aleph, wearing the battlesuit given to him by Vill-V three months ago, could safely fly at Mach 50. The booming sound he made every time he passed through a city was akin to an intercontinental missile exploding.
The battlesuit itself did not have the conventional design of his prior iron suits. It was more apt to call them special clothing, something that could be found at a cosplay store. It was a black skinsuit with metallic vests, small gauntlets, and metallic boots. It took the ‘sharp’ design quite literally.
It contained far more abilities compared to the prototype Aleph previously wore. Safely guarding him from Mach 50 was just one of them.
A thin transparent film was formed all around him. The source of them all was none other than the similarly thin reactor at his back. It glowed dimly with purple lights every now and then.
‘One dead and one severely injured. How did the seventh Herrscher become this strong..?’
It serves to reason that the Seventh Herrscher should have been manageable with four high-level MANTISes controlling the situation.
However, things turned out far worse than Aleph thought.
‘The injured guy was with Hua when they held back the Herrscher. Only one other high-level MANTIS was left along with several lower-leveled ones to evacuate the people at the stadium…’
He thought for a while.
‘...This means she’s fighting the Herrscher alone..!’
Mach 50.
Theoretically, this speed was enough for Aleph to take a round trip on Earth in less than forty minutes. Earth has a circumference of 24,900 miles, which roughly translates to 80,000 kilometers.
The distance from Mu Continent to the place where they held the concert, one of the central cities of the Western Continent, was more or less 10,000 kilometers.
As such, from the time he learned of the current situation up until now, less than five minutes had passed.
‘I’m already a quarter through. I’m at my normal limit. Unless I unveil that form now…’
Aleph had second thoughts on revealing his Meta-Morph State. From the moment he got ‘targeted’ by the Cocoon, he knew better than to expose his entire strength.
Mei’s three months of research on the Sea of Quanta as well as Aleph’s ‘Information Imprint’ opened up a lot of new things. They are mostly related to quantum entanglement, a phenomenon continuously used by Fire MOTH during middle to late stages.
As such, they speculated that this ‘Cocoon of Finality’, disregarding its irregularities, held the power to see countless information.
‘I already revealed the Evolution Cube. This pricking sensation in my neck…’
Aleph’s Deathly Intuition never stopped working since a month ago. Such a reaction only meant that danger was creeping onto him.
‘These thoughts again. My mind is getting played a lot…’
In the end, his chaotic thoughts stopped. Several clear solutions came up as his mind was rid of these thoughts.
All of these thoughts took less than a second to occur in real-time.
‘I should trust in Hua. Two… no, one minute.’
He came up with a solution.
‘For the next minute, I won’t use all three of my cursed techniques. I won’t attack any entities other than myself. I won’t use my Meta-Morph state…’
Aleph imposed a series of heavy restrictions upon himself. In an instant, his speed shot up at a sharp rate. It only took several seconds of acceleration to reach Mach 100.
Such a speed was impossible for any humans—the current high-level MANTISes included.
However, that wasn’t the end.
Click.
A field of honkai energy emerged around him. These honkai energy began affecting the real world, increasing the lights’ damping coefficient instantaneously.
This phenomenon caused a Global Time Fracture.
It only had one effect: to cause an individual to move faster.
The relativity of time works in this case. The device in his possession gave him an extra ten seconds in the span of a second.
In that duration, Aleph’s speed remained the same in his frame of reference. However, to the outside world, the black figure reached unprecedented heights.
Zoom-!
*****
First, it was endless crimson. Then, everything began melting like rubber. The surroundings became exaggeratedly distorted. The extremely fast movements caused by numerous molecules produced extreme heat. Broken shards of glass turned into molten magma in mere moments.
The temperature required to do such a thing was beyond a thousand degrees celsius.
The thing they were facing was beyond that.
Boom-!
A large hole was opened up in the wall of flames. The force it generated crashed into several burning buildings at once.
In that momentary gap, two gazes faced each other.
‘Agatha. Senior Fire MOTH researcher. She works in the second institute…’
The brief information Hua found out before communication was cut off flashed on her mind.
‘This level of destruction and application… She's proficient in her authority.’
It was the worst case scenario. Fire MOTH never faced a Herrscher who originally had complex knowledge about their authorities.
The First Herrscher was a village boy, while the Second Herrscher was a high-school student. The Third Herrscher was a high-school dropout, and the Fourth Herrscher was a full-time caretaker.
The fifth did not have any scientific knowledge, either. Only now was there a Herrscher with complete scientific knowledge of the authority she wielded.
As such, her destructive power was off the charts.
Bam-!
Swoosh-!
Sou-!
An arc of flames descended upon Hua, to which she deftly avoided. Her figure reappeared amongst the sea of flames.
‘She did it.’
Hua’s gaze turned into her surroundings.
Boom-!
Rumble-!
She watched as a huge skyscraper was cut into half. That was what she planned all this time.
Bam-!
A large cloud of dust descended into the ground.
*****
A/N: Welp. I think I need to take this arc piece-by-piece. Aleph’s current strength first, then his take on the sixth herrscher’s possible plans. If someone thought of the ‘Gems’ and ‘Herrscher Cores’ not being able to exist at the same time, there’s an upcoming analysis/explanation for that.
