Chapter 46: Reflection

Buzz-!

"...Aleph! Wake up! What's going on..?! Why did you suddenly faint! Hey!"

"Ugh…"

Aleph used his arm as a support on the ground. He opened his eyes and saw the familiar GUI. 

"Huff…"

"Hey, what happened to you? Are you alright?"

"...Wait…"

His voice was quite hoarse. His throat felt dry. When he fully woke up, he saw his surroundings.

It was the same farm where the fourth Herrscher's corpse fell. He looked at his hands and saw a viridescent green crystal grasped by him.

Instinctively, he threw it away.

The purple light mixed with green traces flew along the trajectory. His elemental sight was active until now. He could see the hundreds of honkai beasts that surrounded him.

Sou-!

"Hey… You suddenly collapsed! Are you really fine?"

"...Yes."

Aleph's heart skipped a beat. It was an unfamiliar yet familiar voice.

He focused on standing up first.

'So that's how it is…'

For eight months, he lost most of his memories. He only acted according to his 'intuition', or rather, subconscious. He trusted Mei, Kevin, Einstein, Mobius, and Vill-V due to his 'future vision'. He said those encouraging words to Hua because he knew her future.

Aleph grabbed his neck and rubbed it, only to realize he was still wearing the iron suit.

'My amnesiac self is too similar to me in the university. I am grateful that I never became that naive.'

At this moment, he fully recalled everything. Be it his trauma or emotional baggage, he completely recalled everything.

'Ugh… I need to take a moment to reorganize myself.'

Aleph felt like he woke up from a long coma. His body doesn't feel weak, yet his mind feels extremely exhausted.

'Great Sage, are you there?'

{Answer: Great Sage will be on-standby for your command.}

'Alright… Thank you.'

It didn't give a response. Aleph didn't dwell on it further and snapped back to reality.

Unlike his expectations, Aleph was able to smoothly run his iron suit.

"Be careful. Three fighter jets are headed your way."

Zoom-!

A sense of 'pricking' came behind Aleph's neck.

[Name: Johnson]

[Location: First Institute…]

[Name: Greg]

[Location: First Institute…]

A long line of names appeared in his sight. It was the result of [Information Retribution] taking effect.

"I was locked in."

Aleph tried to 'activate' the [Tattered Robe] and [Sphere Boundary]. Much to his surprise, it felt like there was something preventing him from doing so. That sensation was akin to a needle piercing through his cloak.

'Rule-based items… Nothing less from Fate.'

His full recovery allowed him to see through the nature of some things. The [Tattered Robe] looked similar to an attire worn by an Assassin within a game. She had the ability to 'conceal' her presence to a bare minimum.

"Mn…"

"It's bad. You're locked on."

"Yes, I know."

Without explaining, Aleph used the thrusters and flew to the barn at an extremely fast speed.

Bam-!

The entrance was broken. The sound of cows and chickens greeted his ears. The 'pricking' feeling on his neck disappeared.

"What do you plan to do?"

A tinge of excitement was heard in Vill-V's voice. It was hard to imagine how Aleph would shake off Fire MOTH's surveillance.

"There's also that Herrscher Core. You'll just leave it there?"

"That's fine. It will come back to us anyways. There's no need to waste time hiding it."

For him, it was easier to gain access to the Herrscher Cores legally. There's no need to hide and study it himself. Moreover, he was still wary of it.

That white space...

'If I'm not mistaken...'

He didn't dare touch it again.

Aleph walked to the other barn door and left.

Under Vill-V's surprised looks, he simply flew out to the sky. In Aleph's perspective, he was out in the open. However, in the satellite's view, it was as if he wasn't there.

She knew about his 'stealth system' that made his suit transparent, but the most advanced satellites not catching any of his traces was another matter altogether.

A few minutes later, Aleph made sure that there wasn't anything tracking him.

"Sigh…"

"How anticlimactic."

"It is. Though, it's much better than fighting her head-on."

The pair's conversation signified the end to a long night.

*****

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Mei's chin remained rested on her hands. She was staring blankly at the large screen within the first institute. It was the monitor for the satellite readings.

Just now, they witnessed an incomprehensible thing.

"It's negative! The target is not inside!"

"Rewind the feed. We missed something."

"Where did it come from? Did the third institute create an exoskeleton suit like that?"

"It's not impossible…"

The chaotic yet somewhat organized noise formed a unique atmosphere.

'Aleph… You killed a Herrscher…'

As one of Aleph's trusted people, Mei knew who was in the "exoskeleton suit". Everyone saw how he seemingly came out of nowhere, severed the fourth Herrscher's body into two parts, and disappeared.

'Nevermind. I'll call him later.'

It wasn't just Mei who was affected by the huge shock.

"Just like her… right." 

Mobius had an idea.

"He must have some samples. But…"

Their relationship, in retrospective, was that of a give-and-take. They studied Aleph's 'physical mutation' together. It didn't take long before nearly everything was uncovered.

Even so, Aleph carried on their scheduled meetings. It was as if he forgot why he was helping her in the first place.

Mobius was used to having debts. She would never take them on without being confident in her ability to repay them.

However…

"How should I do it?"

*****

Swoosh-!

The black iron suit landed smoothly into the ground. Its front parts were disassembled, paving the way for Aleph to come out of it.

"It was a risk assessment. I didn't expect you to truly confront the herrscher alone."

The first one who greeted him was none other than Einstein. Her arms crossed as she gave a calm look at him.

"Things happened. It can't be helped, doctor."

"You…"

Einstein was startled by his new way of addressing her. There was only one time when he called her as such.

"Your amnesia was cured?"

"Yeah. It happened all too sudden. I'm sorry to have made you worry for months."

"...It's not a big deal."

For a moment, she was at a loss on how to address him.

"You can keep calling me Aleph, doctor. It doesn't matter if things change or not. It's just that… I need some time to reorganize myself."

"If that's what you want."

The two talked for a while before Einstein left him alone.

Aleph sat on the sofa as he rubbed his eyes.

"My head's too messy. It's like I've gained a bunch of worries…"

Unlike his amnesiac self, the past Aleph was burdened with too many things. Be it his memories of the war, his initial excitement to this world, the gradual disappointment of not being able to do much…

Everything mixed like a bunch of fruits inside a blender.

"This [Achievement Hunter]... rather, my system…" He looked at the panel blankly. "I could've interfered more in the past with it…"

He thought of the event when his parents died. It came too abruptly. He was preparing for the honkai, yet never had he thought that his parents' life would fall due to them. 

Aleph was completely helpless at that time. The technology inside his head couldn't be realized due to the honkai's tendency to grow stronger with the civilization. It left him with no choice but to anticipate some future events and wait. He could've grasped the initiative, yet he didn't—

For fear of the world's end.

He was self-aware. There were many brilliant people in the Previous Era yet they all failed to save the world. The best they could do was to pass on the torch to the next generation.

Even if his world's iron suits… even if the dark energy reactor was realized, they still fell short to the peak of this era's technology.

Slap-!

"There's no need for bad thoughts. I came back from the dead. I have this system…"

It didn't take long for his worries to be wiped away.