Tap.

  Tap.

  Tap.

  Each footstep disturbed the silenside the bunker. It added a strange ambiehat somehow plemes eeriness.

  Soon, they reached the spacious dog area. It was built underground. The moment the need arises, the se above would open up.

  Several aircrafts made of cutting-edge teology were parked.

  “Hm… We don’t hese here.”

  Tchk-!

  Aleph casually walked onto one of the pnes and lifted it from below using one hand. The pne was easily pced to the far right of the dock.

  He did the same to the rest. It was akin to moving styrofoam props—only, these were made of real metal.

  “You already have your ge of clothes, right?”

  “Um.”

  Hua lifted the athlete bag she brought.

  “Good. No matter how we do it, the clothes always get destroyed.”

  Hearing his words, she froze.

  A sense of embarrassment began to well up on her chest before the operation even began.

  Hua looked down and tried to recover from her embarrassed look. Unfortunately, her chaotic thoughts mixed up when she saw her toes.

  Recalling the three women surrounding Aleph, she noticed a certaiheirs were always big.

  Hua did not feel any sense ret, but rather, fusion.

  ‘What should I do..?’

  She did not care about her physique back then. Having lesser baggage was an advantage when it came to fighting.

  At least, that was what she believed until she saw Himeko fight just as good with bigger “baggage”.

  She wasn’t deluded enough either to force a ge.

  It was just that:

  fusion.

  “You don’t have to worry. I will turn around once you finish.”

  “...I uand.”

  Hua meekly nodded her head.

  Her unusual reas did not escape Aleph’s gaze.

  Thump.

  ‘...No way.’

  He was well-too familiar with this ambiguous atmosphere. This was how it was when he worked with Mobius.

  ‘This is on me.’ He thought. ‘She was the valkyrie I loved to i with the most..!’

  It may have stemmed from his personal preferences. Hua’s story and personality caught his eyes when he pyed the ‘game’ for the first time.

  She was just as precious as the tuna who went through numerous hardships to bee what she was by the end.

  Hua’s stagnancy, fusion, as well as the tragedy that befell her took Aleph’s attentioremely well.

  In a sense, she was a character who went with the flow, only to get screwed over by fate itself.

  Her story became even more signifit when the exact same thing happeo him in his previous life.

  “Ahem. Pce the bag oable over there. Then, we’ll start.”

  For noh pulled off the same thing he did before—to buy more time.

  *****

  “Hm… three days. I’ll firm this ter, but if this tinues, I use this as a preliminary clusion.”

  Aleph bnkly stared at the bck cube atop his palm. Nobody khat this small cube held miraculous effects.

  It wasn’t difficult to imagihat its holder could rule over the world. The cube’s fun tthen all lifeforms—be they carbon-based, sili-based, and whatnot—was enough to do so.

  There were other funs of it, to which Aleph found in the research he took out of the Sanctum.

  For ohe ‘evolutionary energy’ created could be used as fission bombs that deal no enviroal damage. All it did was to wipe out all lifeforms in its radius, turning them iher abominations or causiic colpse.

  Aleph thought of the [Evolutionary Energy] in his listed options and thought that he might be able to utilize it like that. Though, his bat power was sure to drop without the assistance of cursed energy to empower cursed teiques; or honkai energy to use in jun with No Sed Strike and Yamato.

  At the very least, eaergy he could use correted to a part of his bat power, and that the most useful one for now was cursed energy. It could utilize both cursed teiques and the No Sed Strike with Yamato.

  Crack-!

  Crumble-!

  The bck co slowly crumbled. It revealed its dark interior, followed by the petite young girl i.

  As promised, Aleph looked away from Hua. His seat was turned over a hundred ay degrees.

  Tap.

  Hua’s body floated for a while before nding on the ground. She looked at Aleph with a puzzled gaze. Her fusion from waking up affected her usual operations.

  It was only when she saw her entire body exposed did she react. Her swift footsteps headed towards the table where her clothes were pced.

  A few mier, she walked right in front of Aleph.

  “Your hair.”

  “Mn..?”

  Aleph brought out a mirror to Hua. The tter noticed that her hair had turned white-red. Her pupils went from blue tht red as well.

  “You were iive Honkai Rea state all this time. If you didn’t notice, then that should be the advantage brought by the cube.”

  “Active… Honkai Rea?”

  The term was quite fn to her. She was sure she heard it several times during the talks in Mobius’ boratory.

  “It’s the state where your ICHOR… basically the honkai beast ied into you, bees fully utilized. You transform into a beiremely simir to them.”

  Aleph expined.

  “I haven’t shown how others looked during that state. It’s my ht.”

  His golden pupils glowed a bright sheen as he raised his arm. Bck scales came out of it as his fingernails turned bd grew longer.

  Crumple-!

  Just a fist gesture of his created a sound of air exploding.

  “It’s like this. You might have sensed something new, but it’s best if you learn how to trol it first.”

  It didn’t take long before she got the hang of it. Hua’s body reverted to normal.

  ‘She was the first oo ehe Active Honkai Rea back then. Plus the cube’s cheating…’

  inally, Active Honkai Reas were treated as a dangerous st resort. MANTISes run the risk of losing trol of their mind and turning into a plete honkai beast the moment they use it.

  inally, there should have been a sliver of thread separating their trol and the risk of going berserk. They required Aponia’s Discipline to properly utilize it in battles—basically inputting a and to themselves to not fully lose trol.

  Now, with the help of the Evolution Cube, it was trolled in an easier and anti-climatic way.

  ‘Only experiences are left. That, and Project Chimera. Ohese are pleted…’

  …they would bee as strong as their endgame terparts, if not stronger.

  “...Senior.”

  “What is it?”

  Just then, Aleph faced Hua’s serious look.