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Chapter 91: Amber
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 11:00:01 +0000 UTCAleph slept for four hours before he woke up. Without having anything to do, he took out one of the silver cards he hid on the compartment beneath his bed’s flooring.
The scenery changed. He found himself in the midst of a ruined city.
As usual, Kashimo was sitting on a huge boulder on Shinjuku’s intersection.
“Oh? You became stronger again. You’re way faster than that kid.”
The first thing he did was to point out Aleph’s changes. Kashimo’s senses were keen enough to notice the stronger sense of danger Aleph gave off.
Unlike the latter, Kashimo’s sense of danger was developed through innumerable experiences.
“If you fought him… the King of Curses… you would’ve given him a deadly blow.”
“You mean, my special Black Flash?” Aleph asked.
Kashimo recounted the Shinjuku showdown to the best he could to Aleph—several times, at that.
He mentioned how the key of the plan wasn’t the all-powerful Satoru Gojo, but Yuji Itadori. Since the King of Curses, Sukuna, was inhabiting someone else’s body in a soul-like form, Aleph’s strikes became deadly enough.
Add to that his other soul attack, [Kyrie Eleison], it remains unknown whether the King of Curses will bring that much trouble compared to before.
“Less talking. Let’s get moving.” Kashimo declared. “Show me your new strength.”
Aleph did not respond to him. He knew the best way to do so was to take this fight seriously.
Buzz-!
A sheathed eastern blade with a golden handguard appeared in his grasp. A sense of power appeared in his right arm the moment he held it.
‘My means of attacking in a long range… it’s solved now.’
Aleph aligned the sheath on his waist. He could recall the sheath back to his [Seven Swords] as required, thus it wouldn't serve as a hindrance in battle.
With his hand still holding the blade’s grip, portions of black scales started popping out of his previously clean arm. It only stopped when the front half of his arms were filled with black scales. A bump appeared on his forehead, which turned out to be a sharp black horn. The sclera of his eyes turned black, while his irises turned akin to Mobius’ eyes.
The scales reached up until his neck. Clean purple lines decorated the rest of his untouched skin.
It was at this moment did Aleph show his inhuman side.
His thoughts began to get chaotic. His impulses were greatly stimulated. Though, these random thoughts disappeared as he got ahold of himself.
Since his ICHOR hasn't fully transformed into Albion's body, he experienced the side effects of being a MANTIS. It was still based on honkai energy before being converted into cursed energy upon use.
'It's worse. I'll need Aponia's help later for the other guys... especially Hua.' He thought before focusing back into the battle.
Numerous ratio lines appeared all over Kashimo’s body. His eyes danced around until he created a solid plan.
‘This is..!’
Kashimo reacted to his one second transformation quickly. He no longer hesitated as he went straight into his strongest form.
Buzz-!
Sizzle-!
His biological body was slowly broken down. Electrical energy started to surround him, turning Kashimo into a half-physical half-electrical being. It was a full-blown transformation akin to the time he fought Ryōmen Sukuna.
The moment Kashimo completed his own transformation, Aleph made a move.
Bam-!
Buzz-!
He turned into a black blur as he blitzed straight to Kashimo’s front. The latter only had the time to react to his unsheathed blade.
Hum-!
Shatter-!
The moment Aleph unsheathed it—a manner akin to Iaido—it gave off a familiar sensation.
‘Cleave and Dismantle!’
Kashimo shifted his ‘body’ a split second later. A huge invisible arc blitzed through him and cut his right hand in its entirety.
Shatter-!
Crumble-!
The slash did not stop there. It cut through the solid concrete on the ground, only halting when the attack pierced through several buildings not far away from them.
‘This kid..!’
His remaining left arm was used to send a pillar of supercharged electrical energy to Aleph’s front. This time, Kashimo did not make the same mistake as before. He won't go down until he does his best!
‘He’s making a move.’
Moments prior to Kashimo’s attack, Aleph noticed his impending attack. Not only was his Deathly Intuition ringing out loud, even Great Sage and his own Elemental Sight indicated what it was.
‘Ionizing beam…’
Bam-!
Psshk-!
The electrical energy was split in half by Aleph’s blade. Nevertheless, it grazed a portion of his shoulders.
Even though he was using his Territory to prevent any direct damages from the beam…
‘It went past it..!’
Aleph’s ‘Territory’ has one use: to prevent any direct alteration on his body. It disabled the fifth Herrscher’s abilities to directly turn his body into ice, or convert his cells to their inert state. She had to rely on changing the surrounding temperature instead to damage him. That, or physical attacks made through ice spikes and the likes.
Simply put, Aleph’s enemies could only indirectly affect his body. It was extremely similar to Domain Amplification—a move that nullified any opposing cursed techniques.
Kashimo’s attack struck him directly. Even though Aleph’s territory was active, it wasn’t able to let him leave unscathed from the beam’s direct effects.
Unlike Kashimo's weaker attacks from his pseudo-state, the ionizing beam was recognized by the territory as a direct attack. It went past the level of a 'physical attack' and entered the 'phenomena alteration' level. It was the flames itself instead of the usual residual heat.
His shoulders emitted smoke. Parts of the black scales were uprooted. His flesh was burnt black.
A sense of pain started to sweep in his mind. Still, Aleph did not lose his focus.
‘Yamato is different from how I knew it…’
Cursed energy flowed from his arm to the sword. His reversed cursed technique kept running in the background to heal his overloading brain. His elemental sight allowed him to finely control his cursed energy.
‘Attack, then heal.’
After months of sparring, both he and Kashimo held a common consensus. The moment he learns how to use the reversed cursed technique—or become strong enough to fight Kashimo in equal footing—he would forfeit using Senzu Beans. Once he does so, Aleph is considered to be defeated.
Several invisible arcs were sent out from Yamato’s edge.
At the same time, Kashimo’s right arm, which was previously sliced, had returned.
It wasn’t just Aleph who got to analyze his opponent.
‘Such composition..! It’s about the same as his!’
In his final fight, Kashimo scanned Sukuna’s body through X-rays. Its composition, beyond his external appearances, explained why Sukuna was one of the strongest. His body was built for battle.
Kashimo was seeing this for the second time—on Aleph, nonetheless.
Thinking how Aleph grew stronger until he was able to force Kashimo to use his strongest trump card, a smile grew on his lips.
‘Heh. This is a fun world!’
Just then, Aleph felt the surrounding gravity grow stronger. His charging speed momentarily slowed down.
Crack-!
Shatter-!
A second later, he broke free from its confines. His territory acquired in Kurumi’s world worked.
However…
‘Two vector currents… no, two opposite charges..!’
A silver metallic ball was present in Kashimo’s hands. The familiar phenomena finally reminded Aleph of one thing:
‘Railgun!’
Finally—
Zap-!
Sou-!
—a silver ball with an unimaginable force flew beyond the speed of sound.
