Chapter 43: Absurdity

Aleph wanted to stay true to his words—to observe the Herscherr up close. These past seven months, he didn't have a chance to observe the corpses of the three Herscherrs within MOTH. Their biological activities as well as the so-called "Herscherr Cores" were a breakthrough point for him.

"An hour… It's roughly similar to the theorized process." He muttered.

The Herscherr's transformation undergoes several stages. The first one was the 'appearance' of their Herscherr Cores. It was the reason why major eruptions happened.

These Herscherr Cores draw in numerous amounts of Honkai Energy out of nowhere, thus "creating" a Major Honkai Eruption. 

The second phase was the 'drawing phase'. The Herscherr will continue absorbing honkai energy. The main reason why the fourth Herscherr managed to fool the MOTHs was due to this.

She waited until the surrounding Honkai Energy reached their maximum—to the point it couldn't be detected as stably as before. The honkai energy's effect on technological means was only offsetted by imbuing the same honkai energy to detection instruments. It wasn't fool-proof.

Once the Herscherr completes the 'drawing' phase, it becomes the time they could use their powers at full power. Although they might now know the applications, they were already eligible to use its upper ceiling.

"What's the current Honkai Scale readings?"

"Hm… The average for the Far West is 300 HW. In the state you're into… it's roughly 1000 HW."

When Aleph heard Vill-V's answer, he remembered what happened in the Far East. The entire continent saw a sharp increase to the Honkai Watt readings. In short, the state where he was in experienced a disaster on-par with the third Herscherr's.

If it wasn't for his suit's built-in shield to honkai energy, he would've had problems already.

'If I fought her and won, the achievements would be bigger.'

He saw the sharp 'decrease' to the achievements he could unlock. It was still numerous during his first few times, but it became more difficult to unlock some. Aleph could only go out several times a month to lower his chances of being 'discovered'.

Until now, he was still under the radar of Fire MOTH. Only Einstein, Vill-V, Mei, and Mobius knew about his suit.

'I'll have to give director Einstein a huge surprise.'

The grip on Durandal only became stronger.

'Herrschers are strong… but their bodies are similar to ordinary humans... at least on the early phase. They weren't exposed to enough honkai energy for long. I can pull this off.'

He made his decision.

"Aleph! There's a big one coming over!"

The voice on the comm-link broke him from his thoughts. The [SOUND ONLY] panel turned into a captured satellite image.

It was a honkai beast as tall as seven stories. Its four legs made it similar to a horse. Everything on its path was destroyed as it charged in a straight line.

"Emperor-class beast... Was it her accompanying honkai beast?"

"It's most likely. The fuzzy readings made it difficult for honkai beasts below 1,000 HW to be detected." She said before complaining, "This smokescreen's annoying, you know?!"

Unlike Honkai Beasts, Herscherrs retained the strength of a normal human. This was also the vulnerable point leveraged by Fire MOTH. Their main weapon was their 'power' to manipulate physics.

"I'll do it."

"...Well."

Up until now, Aleph maintained a distance of more than twenty kilometers away from the Herscherr. He was still gathering data with his nuclear suit's independent detection systems.

The Emperor-class beast became his major concern. Its physical strength was far too strong compared to the Templar-class beasts he fought. It's easier to fight a Herrscherr via ambush than that honkai beast.

Zoom–!

The thrusters all over his suit made loud noises. Strangely enough, they were blocked by the [Sphere Boundary] and [Tattered Robe]. Under their concealment, conventional physics was broken. No soundwaves notified the fourth Herscherr of his existence.

Pssh-!

Aleph held [Durandal] in a piercing stance. The air in front of him was cut literally by the tip of the blade.

Hum-!

Cursed energy began 'circulating' on his palms down to Durandal. Aleph felt a strange sensation of the sword being an extra part of his body. The cursed energy kept circulating, as if gathering momentum.

Soon, he noticed his flight speed becoming even faster. He looked with surprise at the sword in his hands.

'Juezhao… So this is it.'

The technique he learned back then was the Juezhao (i.e., Masterstrike). Its elementary form utilized momentum to gather enough force to create a deadly strike. With internal energy, its strength goes up by several notches.

All the distracting thoughts in Aleph's mind disappeared. Only the figure of the unsuspecting fourth Herscherr remained inside his mind. A divided ratio line appeared on her figure.

A thin layer of green light surrounded her radius. His elemental sight told him of her invisible 'domain'. Unfortunately, its radius was far too small for her to sense Aleph. With his current acceleration, she would've been finished the moment he entered her radius.

Three kilometers.

Two kilometers.

One kilometer.

The maximum acceleration within twenty kilometers gathered a strong momentum—that, as well as the killing strike, showed their full power.

"Hum..?!"

The fourth Herrscher's eyes widened. Before she could react properly, the tip of the blade came on her chest; on the seventh division of the ratio line.

Then…

Psshk-!

Splatter-!

A huge shockwave originated from her position. Moments after the blade's tip entered her chest, her body was subjected to the horrifying impact it held. Her internal organs only held on shortly before her torso imploded.

[Achieve…]

[Achieve…]

[Achieve…]

[Achieve…]

[Achieve…]

Swoosh-!

It took a while before Aleph managed to stop in the air. He blankly stared at the bloodied Durandal in his hands as well as the falling 'corpse' of the Herscherr. Vill-V also joined him in this strange silence.

"What… WHAT WAS THAT?! ALEPH?! HEY..!"

"I… I don't know."

"What…"

Vill-V's confused tone could be heard from the comm-link.

"I don't know. Really."

"..."

"I didn't expect… it'd be this easy."

True to his words, Aleph felt extremely confused in his mind.

'What the hell?'

'It's just like that? The Herscherr was killed that easily?'

'How? Am I really that strong?'

Despite his confusion, he tried his best to keep a grip on himself. His confusion was too bad to the point it overpowered any other emotion of his.

Aleph flew to the ground. The place where the Herrscher's corpse fell was in a farm. It didn't take long before he discovered it.

Clink-!

He saw the expression she had moments before her death. Her eyes were wide open as well as her mouth. The majority of her torso was hollow. Dark red blood continued spilling from it. Her body was split into two halves with his attack.

"Hm..?"

With Aleph's sharp eyesight, he soon noticed 'something' that kept giving off a sense of danger. It was a green crystal shard that shone dimly. He looked at it and the Herrscher's corpse before he knew what it was.

""Herrscherr Core.""

Both he and Vill-V recognized the item on the ground.

Aleph, due to his confusion, instinctively picked up the Herrscherr Core on the ground for closer inspection. It had been already studied thoroughly. 

Everything happened within a second.

The moment he touched it—

Buzz-!

—his consciousness was transported in a pure white space.