Aleph didn’t catch a break evehe operation was ongoing. He left a portion of his mind to watch over Elysia while the rest began formuting termeasures.

  ‘Four Herrschers… given they could coordinate well, it’s a hassle. I should be able to defeat all four of them alone if I catch them off guard. If they know about me…’

  Situations such as that popped up in his mind.

  ‘Then, in the worst case, Yamato should have been exposed along with Durandal. The Nitro Sword doesn’t matter much. So… this leaves me with my two shots of ‘Stel’.’

  Aleph wasn’t unaware of means to manipute information. He himself has the ‘Information Imprint’ ability that allowed him to create a proje of himself out of nowhere.

  It could be programmed to respond to certain keywords. At best, it could theoretically be used along with the “sealing” fun from Aleph’s ‘Red Strings of Fate’ to instruct the girls regarding his power.

  Apparently, it creates a ‘’copy’ of one of his abilities whehey kiss. Even teiques such as Juezhao could be passed on.

  It wasn’t that hard to test it, either.

  Aleph’s lips were enough to withstand such ‘tests’.

  Hum.

  Aleph momentarily halted. He opened one of his eyes and saw a short twin-tailed girl on a bck-red gothic dress.

  Kurumi walked towards him before sitting on his p. The degree of ‘naturalness’ was enough to suggest they had been doing it for a while.

  As if finding their match, Aleph’s arms circled her waist.

  Feeling the slightly heavy weight on her shoulders, Kurumi’s rapidly beati calmed down.

  ‘Ever sihat day…’

  It was they who led Aleph around. He was, after all, grasping their set boundaries to avoid making them unfortable.

  When the sudden interruptions happehrice, he decided to rex instead, hehe cuddling.

  Since Kurumi did not give him any signals to do ambiguous things, he thought it was fio tinue like this.

  The two did not talk for a while. Only the calming sileed between them.

  “How was it?”

  Aleph asked as he partially lifted his face that reviously buried on her neck.

  “Most of the es I sent ended up well. There were times I lost tact. The senses of high-level MANTISes are sensitive to my gaze.”

  Kurumi worked hard during this time period. Aside from s the ‘baggage’ on her pocket dimension, she was also responsible for spying upon several key figures, he cilors.

  Though, she could not carry out full reaissance due to the high-level MANTISes on their side. It was quite ironic to know that the first batANTISes weren’t sent out to fight the honkai, but to bee exclusive bodyguards instead.

  Her es could not use any of her time-altering power, hehe best they could do is to spy from the shadows.

  The information she gained was inplete, but they were enough to track the cileneral movements.

  Aside from them, there were also several people whom Aleph asked her to keep an eye on—this time, for rescue purposes. Major Himeko, the Seele of this era, and Major Anna were some of the included people.

  That way, Aleph could rush to them as fast as he could.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me which reward I want~?”

  Kurumi’s cheek touched his. The sudden close tact startled Aleph.

  “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  From the moment she saw the opportunity, Kurumi did not let it go. She turned her head over and touched his lips with hers. It did not st long as she separated quickly.

  The simirity that Kurumi and Mei had was their ‘rich upbringing’. It caused them to be reserved. It was due to Aleph’s reas that their reservations slowly broke down.

  heless, it still existed.

  Only Mobius had the raw desire of ‘eating’ him alive.

  As such, they were much more ‘reserved’ when doing specific things.

  Embarrassment slowly crawled onto Aleph’s head. He gave the bck co behind them a look.

  “Are you worried she could see us?”

  “...It’s quite bad.” Aleph nodded.

  “Then, just the kisses?”

  “Um.”

  With a promise, the two began their deeds.

  *****

  “How troublesome.”

  A bck-haired girl overlooked the Fire MOTH headquarters from a high-rise building. She wasn't in the Mu ti but on an archipego hidden from the map.

  This pce housed Fire MOTH's 'real headquarters'. Not only were their trump cards against the honkai stored here, more than half of the Fire MOTH cilors spearheaded this pce. It was sidered to be one of the safest locations iire world.

  The signal jamming, visual interference, and all sorts of anti-honkai ons were present.

  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to detect the said girl.

  Nobody knew of her presence here, save for the tact person she chose. The cilor, Stuart, was one of the few ‘public figureheads’ that appeared in the public press ferences.

  The process of trag him down wasn’t that hard. The ‘acquaintances’ she had through her aunt mao track down one of his assistants.

  Ohio another until she reached him out.

  At first, she wao kill him. Although, she ged her mind as soon as she heard the ‘fas’ within MOTH. Several cross-references and dead bodies ter, she had a general grasp of the situation:

  Aleph was terrifyingly strong, to the point the is of several cilors were put at risk.

  Ling did not use any obvious attacks, either. Without the worries of her Herrscher Core beied, she made them die out of natural causes such as heart attacks and strokes.

  As for how she hid the energy inside her Herrscher Core…

  “Why are you hostile to him..? Was it because he fought for humanity..?” She muttered rhetorically.

  Unfortunately, it was destio stay that way—a rhetoric.

  The meeting ihe white spabsp;was indescribable. She met ay who took upon a human form. Even then, she wasn’t able to fully uand its i.

  There were only three things.

  ‘Sir Aleph.’

  ‘A broken pilr.’

  And most importantly…

  ‘A et.’

  After ‘it’ maed these images, Ling received the ability to ceal her Herrscher Core. She also gained full trol of the ability embedded inside her body—the ability to travel in the Sea of Quanta.

  Simply put, she could now use the Sea of Quanta as a ‘bridge’ to suddenly appear in the physical world.

  These two things were her fideo go against a strong foe like Aleph.

  “If I could kill everyone here and then…”

  Her right hand reached out towards the building. The buddiation on her mind grew stronger. One snap was all it takes to send humanity crumbling down.

  She ched her hand into a fist.

  Nothing happened.

  “Defeating Sir Aleph… and proving that they are unworthy of his prote. That’s what I should do.”

  Unknowingly, the girl’s obsession towards the ‘sole’ det person she knew deepened.