Chapter 224: New Place

Crack-!

A crisp sound rang throughout the store room. More lines appeared on the amber crystal. As it became more fractured, fragments of the crystal fell to the ground.

Just as it was about to be fully broken, the entire place fell silent.

“Fu…”

A pure white hand touched the fracturing crystal. The damage to it was reversed in an instant. 

Zoom-!

The sound of air being torn resounded. It was akin to a recording tape being rewound.

A blue-haired boy stood in front of the five-meter tall crystal. His reflection appeared on its surface. The lack of clothing could be seen at a glance.

His youth could not be hidden. He did not look like a child, but a teenager. 

“I never thought I’d see it again…”

A childish voice came from his mouth.

Aleph recognized his middle-schooler self. It was the time period he awakened the ‘Worlds’ Light’, the mirror he used to communicate across worlds. It was the time he met Kurumi.

He did not reminisce about the past for long.

{Reminder. A total of ten years, eight months, twenty-eight days, and three hours had passed.}

{Reminder. A phenomena similar to time dilation has been detected.}

“One year for them… and ten years for mine.” He muttered. “I take back my words. This is a bad place to land…”

Originally, he wanted to break the Space-time Amber and use his true self to gain foundation in this place. No matter what, Aleph was a bonafide complex information being on par with Aeons.

However, breaking the Space-time Amber meant he would risk exposure. Before he fell asleep, he used Terminus’ traces on him to negate all sorts of ‘gazes’. It was followed by Nihility which made it convenient for Aleph to hide his existence as a part of ‘Nihility’.

After a lot of twists and turns, he landed into this place with his presence obscure.

Metatron was then left operating in case of emergencies. That was as far as his preparations went. 

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Aleph looked outside. The occasional rumblings on his feet was enough to tell everything. He closed his eyes as he began to focus on whatever

Rumble-!

It was a sudden brake. The crates behind him fell to the ground. All sorts of items flew disorientedly. Only Aleph and the amber crystal remained still.

“Dense numbers of Pathstriders… Hunt and Abundance are duking it out.”

He clicked his tongue at the thought of it. The game he knew—Honkai Star Rail—detailed things beyond Part One of Honkai Impact 3rd.

For once, it was a wider world compared to the Solar System. It was a complete Universe spanning countless light years. The scale of their conflicts goes as far as entire star systems. The same goes for the influences of Aeons.

The solar system was but a part of the known universe explored by countless sentient beings.

“...It’s the Third Abundance War.”

Aleph spoke as he simultaneously opened his eyes. His current state was that of a “smaller piece” of his original form—an avatar of sorts. He could not utilize his entire strength, though he could use a quarter of his thought speed and an authority of his.

It was more than enough to intercept the information within his surroundings.

He was currently boarding the Xianzhou Fanghu, one of the Flagships of the Xianzhou Alliance. Its size exceeded that of Earth’s. It was simply an unimaginable thing to have a planet-sized ship operating at all times—for thousands of years, to boot.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

A smaller-sized kimono appeared on his body while he walked. The amber crystal with the height of two adults shrank to the size of half a fingernail. Aleph proceeded to take out a reward from [Achievement System], dubbed [Ring of Haste].

His fingers forcefully pulled out the blue gem embedded on the silver ring before replacing it with the amber crystal. 

Click-!

The silver ring began to glow dimly. White lines appeared on its body before fading.

‘The accumulated rewards make me feel like that blue cat robot…’

The entire process took two seconds. By the time he pushed the store room’s door open, he was already wearing his attire on Izumo.

Zoom-!

Zoom-!

Sou-!

The loud sonic boom greeted his ears. Rays of light flew across the sky, leaving trails of light whenever they went.

“They have their own atmosphere… It’s different here.”

Aleph saw the shadows of the advanced civilizations he saw on the Sanctum. The Class A pass showed planetary-level retrofitting technology. The research papers he got showed hints of a more advanced technological tree capable of spanning star systems.

The novelty of being in a planet-sized ship did not wear off immediately. 

‘I should explore this place later.’

Amidst the feeling of freshness, a dilemma fell into him.

“Should I intervene..?”

The distant flashing of elongated lights flashed more often. A quick look was enough to see millions of lifeforms engaging in space warfare. The followers of Abundance greatly outnumber the Xianzhou’s fleets. Their traits—being hard to kill—made it even more difficult to deal with them, more so when they swarmed the pilots in all directions.

‘How should I present myself?’

‘Which authority should I use?’

‘How should I handle the battlefield?’

…

Millions of thoughts flashed in Aleph’s mind. It did not take long before he made a choice—one that would be beneficial to his current state.

A sly grin was drawn to his face.

“Confusing everything… I see the appeal behind those chaotic events caused by the Masked Fools…”

*****

The dark void was unlike land battles. The distance it consumes spanned hundreds of kilometers. The defense lines were protected by the ‘artillery bombing’ of the two Flagships and the smaller battleships/cruisers. It was a scale of fighting unseen by the people of Earth.

Consequently, the people of Xianzhou were extremely used to such magnitudes.

“Full frontal attack…”

Despite being separated by considerable distance, the Xianzhou Luofu sent five fleets to serve as the Yaoqing and Fanghu’s aid against the army of Abundance. 

One of the most crucial departments in such a war was the Divination Commission. They are akin to the codebreakers of wars who intercept advanced intel and leverage it to their advantage.

The order decided by the Arbiter-Generals made its department head frown. She tightly held the edge of the glass table which served as a screen.

“Morale is not the main point of this war… If things happen in the wrong order…”

The entire Divination Commission was called to the Matrix of Prescience Ultima the day before yesterday. In it was the Matrix of Prescience, an extremely large “supercomputer” used to analyze information, in turn creating ‘deductions’ regarding major events.

The last divination they reached was the ‘total defeat of the Xianzhou Flagships’. Shockingly, the Arbiter-Generals did not heed their words, but chose to confront their enemy head-on.

The department head, Fu Xuan, was thinking of what to do when someone called her out.

“Master diviner! Take a look at this!”

When she saw the recent ‘deductions’ formed by the matrix…

“This shouldn’t be… So that’s it.”

…an incredulous feeling swept over her.