Chapter 102: Dreams

'It feels pretty stupid to act like that… childishly.'

Aleph never thought that he would fall up to that point. He has a certain degree of confidence in himself. Everyone who reached a high political status has that. Only, he let his doubts consume him more. All of his plans—be it his initial contact with Mei, the papers he published as an initiative, or him stealthily playing around some companies to gain influence to some extent—were disrupted by his parents' sudden death.

It was at that point did Aleph blank out. A terrible mixture of sadness, anger, and confusion clouded his mind; a stark contrast to his current self.

'Her next words would be…'

"I can't do anything. I can't help you." She said with a clear voice. "Only you can help yourself."

"..."

Kurumi's words were rough to wake him up from his daze. It was akin to a bell that pierced through the murky skies.

"...You're right. This is stupid."

The past Aleph regained his footing. He knew what to do next. He already experienced all sorts of tripping down due to the problems he faced. The best thing to do was to learn how to stand up after that.

Clearly, he found the answer to all of his current doubts himself.

"Won't you consider applying for psychology, Tokisaki-san?"

"...I will…"

The dream ended just like that.

*****

***

*

"Mn…"

Aleph could feel a certain soft sensation pressing on his face. He confusedly pressed it more with his face. Scent of roses entered his nose as he inhaled. He felt the touch of fabric as well as something more elastic.

For a moment, Aleph wanted to lose himself to this feeling. It was only when a question came to his mind did his consciousness finally wake up.

'Pillow..?'

Aleph then realized...

He didn't sleep with any pillows. That thought made his entire body jolt. The next moment, his closed eyes became wide open.

Everything soon became apparent. The face of a sleeping girl came to his view. It was an extremely familiar face, though it was more mature compared to his last recollection. His eyes were greeted by the two mounds on her chest. His left arm was wrapped around her body. With a touch, he felt the exposed skin on her back.

All of this information was enough to overwhelm a normal person.

Fortunately, Aleph wasn't one.

He was left with two choices: to keep acting as if nothing happened or wake her up.

Before he made that choice, he decided to analyze things first.

'What happened…'

The world turned into a dark blue color. The phantoms he saw got reversed until he got to the origin of it all.

Out of nowhere, the black cat sleeping beside him turned into Kurumi. It happened similarly as to when she arrived in this world. A flash of white light was all it took to complete her transformation.

As for the reason why it happened…

'The mark.'

Aleph carefully lifted his left arm from her waist. There, he saw the sword-shaped tattoo glowing more brightly. His analysis using elemental sight and Great Sage gave him varying results.

{Result: The semi-conceptual state gained from Albion's Remains influenced the broken artifact. Certain portions of its power was temporarily taken by the artifact. It will regenerate in the next seven days.}

Simply put, the artifact in his possession unilaterally took a portion of Albion's remains inside his Sephira Crystal. It resulted in sufficient energy that was enough to turn Kurumi back to normal.

'I was ready to find other solutions, but for it to come this easily…'

Aleph's gaze went to her sleeping face. He knows it's better to wake her up to prevent any kinds of awkward interactions. Yet, he was still sent in a daze.

Just when he stood up and was ready to wake her up, the latter moved.

The first thing Aleph noticed was her familiar golden eye. A phantom of a clock was visible in it. Her confused look—cute as it was—made him dazed for the third time. The uneven twintails were messily laid out on the bed.

"You finally wake up. It's been a long time, miss sleeping beauty."

"...Ain?"

Aleph squatted to her side. The latter touched his face, only for her senses to feed back the sense of touch.

Meaning, everything was real.

"Hey. I know we only met once. Heck, I even warned you not to come to my world at all costs." He said with a sigh. "Still, welcome to my world… Kurumi."

*****

It was an extremely uneven fight.

In Kurumi's world, spirits possessed the power over something—similar to the likes of an authority. There were only ten spirits at a time. No matter how low their numbers may be, their powers are enough to threaten the world's safety.

Whenever a spirit leaves their own dimension and enters the physical dimension (i.e., Earth), they would cause quakes in space, thus causing wide-scale casualties and damages.

The first recorded spacequake, one caused by the "First Spirit", caused 150 million casualties all over the Eurasian Continent. That same spirit was, unfortunately, the same being behind Aleph's first "death".

She was extremely strong to the point none could match her power. It was akin to a child fighting against a superpowered hero in a comic. No matter how strong a Spirit may be, they are merely byproducts of the First Spirit's power.

For some reason, she decided to split apart her power into ten parts. The Sephira Crystals received by spirits were the containers of her power.

Although she was strong enough, placing a Sephira Crystal in a normal human body causes extremely adverse effects, turning them into nothing but an evil monstrosity who harms humans.

These monsters were what Kurumi used to fight in the name of justice. She was given the power of a Spirit by the First Spirit to fight these monsters. Upon Aleph's death, she was later able to find out about the truth.

Hence, her crusade against the first spirit began.

She was extremely strong, strong enough for Kurumi to not expect any signs of survival when fought alone. Her saving grace was the power bestowed to her by the dying Aleph.

Somehow, it was able to let her isolate her domain, the City of Devouring Time, into another world altogether. It became her safe space whenever she was being cornered by her enemies.

Not even the First Spirit could intervene with it.

In the end, after numerous twists and turns…

"...Ain?"

She found herself by his side once again.