Chapter 77: Change of Plans

Traveling between two different continents was often time consuming. The number of flights, appointments, and preparations made was enough for a well-off family to plan for it months prior to their travel date.

Fire MOTH, however, developed an advanced transportation plan. That includes transport planes that could steadily fly at Mach 50. These planes were far more valuable than regular fighter jets and requires a pilot with extremely high honkai resistance, thus it wouldn't be used unless there are high-risk missions that should be resolved quickly...

...such as now.

Beep-!

The line on Kevin's earpiece went out. His feet remained steady despite the ridiculous speed the transport plane had. His sole companion, the pilot, dismissed his shock and focused on his mission more.

"We're near the target location, captain."

"Copy that. Inform me when you slow down."

"Yes, sir."

Although confused, the pilot attributed it to the fact he was willing to parachute down the target location.

Three minutes later, Kevin stood in front of the opened hangar. The transport plane was used to transport groups of twenty soldiers, yet he was all alone now.

The plane had decelerated from its previous ridiculous speed. Nevertheless, it was still going fast enough. It shouldn't be possible for normal people to glide, yet…

Swoosh-!

Kevin stepped down into the air. His body fell at an increasing speed. The glider between his arms was enough to let him control his direction.

Sou-!

Sou-!

The transferred momentum from the plane's speed struck him in the form of air resistance. It pushed his body to the plane's direction.

If it was a normal person, they would've had trouble staying awake due to the gravitational force.

Kevin was not a normal person.

After some time, a parachute came out of his back, allowing him to safely land on a cracked highway.

His presence immediately elicited the number of undead and honkai beasts in his vicinity.

Tap.

Psshk-!

The temperature starts dropping from Kevin's surroundings. It didn't take long before it froze them into stiff corpses. It was as if heat itself was taken away from them.

It was the power of the emperor-class beast Kevin merged with, Devesha. It had the power to "manipulate" the weather of its surroundings. Once it was killed, it was found out to be a form of heat manipulation. 

It was able to manipulate the transfer of heat from one object to another. Although it couldn't match in power with Parvati, a future Emperor-class beast that could directly create ice, it was more subtle and flexible. It fitted the criteria of being able to fit with ICHORs such as Parvati's when the Project Chimera gets finalized.

As he walked around, he saw more undead and honkai beasts. 

'This is how it works!' He thought. 'No wonder they pushed for this plan…'

Kevin saw the world in a different lens. The honkai energy in the surroundings allowed him to see things despite having walls and other obstructions.

Just then…

Bam-!

Outside the city, a huge honkai energy source presented itself.

'That is…'

Beep-!

{You must've seen that.}

Mei's voice came from the other side.

{There's an incoming honkai beast. It altered its surroundings and turned them to ice.}

If Aleph was here, he would've recognized it was Parvati.

Truly, how ironic fate could be.

*****

'Sunset Alley…'

{Hey? What do you mean by letting me control this thing?}

"You've heard it right. If things come down to it, I might need to fight huge honkai beasts. This suit is better off as my escape route in the air."

With Aleph's growing strength, the nuclear suit he once relied on started falling behind. It became evident when he destroyed it when he tried punching through that thick metal slab. His hand was fine, but the suit wasn't.

Still, the current Icarus was fast enough to move at a top speed of Mach 12, a far cry from what it was three months ago. It was done without utilizing honkai energy. Great Sage's contributions was more than that.

{Hm. I suppose so. Alright.}

Aleph thought of the current Vill-V.

'Judging from her words… she's the professional one. Thank goodness.'

After a brief celebration, Aleph continued flying with the suit. Though it was slow compared to the specialized transport jets, its stealth system was far better than it.

The only reason why he chose not to give the others this was its complex controls.

Vill-V, Mobius, and Mei learned it in a matter of months. However, Kevin, Sakura, and Elysia who didn't have much scientific background found it quite difficult. Three months wasn't simply enough for them.

Aleph himself took more than two years to completely learn its theoretical applications, more so the practical applications one could do in a battlefield.

"We're here."

He hovered in the airspace of the 'City of Justice'. A tall statue holding a balance could be seen even at this height.

Aleph's sight turned blue. All kinds of information started bombarding his head. It was a relatively slow scan, though he was able to process all the filtered information within the entire city in minutes. For Elemental Sight, the distance does not matter, only the raw information left in the area.

Add to that Great Sage, it was slowly turning into a horrifying weapon.

"Hm..?"

His gaze locked at several areas at once. 

An orphanage.

A masked man.

Finally…

'Fire MOTH… Really?'

Aleph flew atop the Fire MOTH branch's airspace. Just as he was about to come close, he saw the translucent blue light spreading all over the base. Its radius was far bigger compared to the Herrscher of Wind.

Coupled with his foreknowledge about this herrscher's strength, it effectively went against his method of accelerating using the suit. It would've been rendered useless with the low temperature on the ground. Even if he remains undetected, his suit's thrusters would've failed.

'Where… She's there.'

The blue space filled with imaginary lines removed all sorts of obstruction. He was able to see the fifth herrscher's face from this distance—that, as well as the past images that transpired inside this branch.

Seeing these images' ice field increasing and decreasing, Aleph had an incredulous thought. That sight reminded Aleph of something.

'A herrscher with human nature? How?'

From what he knew, there are two points in the Previous Era that helped shape the Current Era.

The first one was the plan to infiltrate the Cocoon of Finality, the source of all Herrschers. It was successful, making it so that the herrschers of the Current Era appeared at the same order and nature as the Previous Era. 

Meanwhile, the second one was Elysia's sacrifice. She made it possible for herrschers to retain their humanity.

However, these only took effect during the Current Era.

'Was it this? The result of my interference?'

{Result: There is more than 95.91% chance of your existence being the cause.}

Even Great Sage agreed with his thinking.

After a moment of silence, Aleph said something shocking.

"...I won't kill the herrscher."

{...What?}

"I will be leaving the suit. Please help with the remote controls, Vill-V. Also, remove the satellite feeds from these four cities for half an hour."

{Hey, hey?! What are you—}

He pressed the virtual eject button by using the suit's eye-tracking feature.

Just like that, Aleph started freefalling more than fifteen storeys aboveground.