Chapter 107: Conviction

The meeting ended with Aleph's plan to wipe out every single emperor-class honkai beast in the Eastern Region.

Since the third major eruption was still recent, its aftermath stacked with the fifth major eruption. Moreover, the two cities that did not spawn any Herrschers tend to have more 'honkai energy', thus creating even more emperor-class honkai beasts and the likes.

Aside from the Western Continent and the Mu Continent that spawned Herrschers, the remaining two places of the 2,000 HW eruption experienced a sharp increase of wandering honkai beasts and honkai corruption. The majority of the casualties came from them.

In the Eastern Region alone, there are as many as twenty newly-detected emperor-classes. The lower-ranked honkai beasts were also something to be considered.

"Ugh… Around one million honkai beasts…"

Aleph felt a headache upon knowing the full extent of what they had to face. Adding the other honkai beasts in the Mu continent and the Western continent, it reached a grand total of one and a half million.

"Ain."

"Mn?"

"Can you hand me your reiyoku?"

Kurumi's voice emerged from his mind and asked a sudden question. It didn't take long for Aleph to understand what she meant.

"You mean, my cursed energy?"

"Indeed, it is that one."

Aleph's thoughts wandered at his previous experiments. He already knew back then that this artifact of his needed some sort of energy to function properly. Only, his cursed energy didn't work. With Kurumi's return, he confirmed that only Albion had the ability to affect it.

Nevertheless…

'Hm..?!'

The moment he 'thought' of passing his cursed energy, it was as if he fell into a cliff. Most of his cursed energy was gone, only leaving around fifteen percent in his body.

Hum.

His elemental sight and reverse curse technique worked together to supply all his generated cursed energy to Kurumi. Not an ounce of it was wasted. Aleph's recovery and his fine control made it possible to do just that.

Much to his surprise, these recovered cursed energy began disappearing into the mark. Aleph could barely maintain this kind of consumption. He reached an 'equilibrium' state of retaining ten percent of his cursed energy while the rest went to his output of his two abilities as well as the mark's unusual activity.

'Kurumi?'

Hearing no response, he knew it was caused by this abnormal consumption. Without any company, his mind concentrated towards controlling his cursed energy output.

He was walking in a daze when he finally arrived at the temporary base's dormitory. It was made of a large tent with smaller tents for the soldiers' quarters.

"Sir Aleph..?"

A voice from behind woke him up.

"It's been a long while."

He turned around and saw Hua. She was wearing a black outfit fitting for Fire MOTH's tactical team. Her gray hair was tied into a clean ponytail. Her face looked more mature compared to before.

"I told you before that you can call me Aleph. It's nearly been a year since we met."

"I can't…"

Hua was about to refuse when she saw his stern look. 

She thought for a while before saying, "Senior Aleph."

"..."

'What was going on inside her head?'

Aleph wanted to read Hua's thoughts. True to his first impression with her, she could be very random—in other terms, a klutz. She was preparing to save someone without even considering alternative routes nor a clean escape route. She was asking for death.

"Anyways… I came here to talk." He said. "It's been three months since we last met.Can you tell me your stories?"

"My stories… It's not very interesting."

Hua's blue eyes dimmed slightly.

"...I have heard alot about Senior Aleph." She shifted the topic away. "The fifth Herrscher fell from your hands. There are reports that a significant portion of the city was filled with broken buildings and glaciers…"

Aleph felt how it was to see himself in the eyes of others. Hearing Hua talk more and more about his feats, he felt slightly embarrassed.

'Thank goodness she could distinguish the facts from those absurd rumors…'

What he didn't know was that there was someone who provided accurate 'information' to Hua every time she asked for it.

That was how 'dedicated' Hua was to know of Aleph's acts.

"I think it's enough talking about me." Aleph said. "Can you tell me what happened in your recent operation? I wanted to hear it from you… aside from texts."

Hua halted her planned words.

"It… did not go as planned. Half of my squadmates died."

'...This is not what she said last time.' Aleph immediately thought. 'She said that they were able to retreat despite everything going awry. She only said it to me now…'

He was able to think of several reasons why she only said it now.

"It was during the fifth eruption. We were tasked to respond to the eruption's epicenter. Its intensity was the same as the recorded major eruptions, but there were too many honkai beasts."

The eastern region's tragedy was the biggest 'losses' recorded in Fire MOTH's database. Millions of deaths filled the chart. Add to that the second major eruption it experienced after merely eleven months, it didn't give any time for them to recover.

Of course, the situation in the frontlines was far worse than it was shown on paper. Be it lack of supplies or shortage of personnel, it became evident that the eastern region was slowly being abandoned by the higher-ups.

It was a losing battle.

'...This is my fault… even if it was only partially.'

If Aleph didn't appear in this world, there wouldn't have been an occasion such as this.

His heart sank at the thought of the casualties the fifth major eruption caused. His fists clenched unconsciously.

'Was this decision flawed from the start..?'

Numerous doubts came to his mind.

'Should I have chosen to delay instead?'

'If I didn't touch that Herrscher Core…'

'Was boosting technological progress a huge mistake..?'

Unconsciously, his supply of cursed energy became visibly stronger. All the negative thoughts in his heart stirred his cursed energy reserves. His recovery became faster compared to before.

'...Huh?'

Aleph realized this phenomenon. His mind was cleared by all of his doubts.

'It matters. I shouldn't forget about this. But…'

The nature of cursed energy stemmed from negative emotions, and Aleph was experiencing an influx of them. Even the sorcerers in Kashimo's world used this method as a way to generate cursed energy from the smallest emotional fluctuations. What Aleph experienced was akin to doing it on a large scale.

[Achievement Unlocked: Worth of Oneself]

'...I shouldn't be shackled by it.'

To save the Previous Era.

To allow the Current Era to live a good life.

These objectives were hammered into his mind once again.

'Senior…'

Amidst all of this, Hua vaguely felt that something changed in Aleph. His expressions suggested something to Hua. 

It was a feeling familiar to her—

'Is this why you are very strong..?'

—an unbreakable conviction.