Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

In the middle of the city destroyed by two cursed techniques, Aleph stretched his arms with a smile.

'That was a good sleep.'

By now, he wasn't shy when it comes to close contact. If it weren't for the fact they needed to do something else, Aleph's self-control would have been broken a long time ago. 

They did not dare to do anything beyond cuddling and the likes, either. Once they did, they would definitely go up until the final base.

Just now, Aleph experienced how it was to sleep on two soft and huge pillows. Mei sat on his lap and let him take a nap on her chest.

In this aspect, Mei takes the first place out of the four. If Hua had an antithesis, it would be her.

"What are you planning today?"

Kashimo closed the book he was reading. Thinking of Aleph's previous shenanigans, he wasn't surprised when this entire planet crumbled down completely. During the last three months, a total of eighteen visits occurred. Aleph used it to experiment his powers on each training space.

There was a time Kashimo saw the entire Earth get destroyed by an enormous black hole. It appeared right into the Earth's core, attracting everything into it until nothing remained.

By then, Kashimo understood one thing. His cursed technique is very strong. His knowledge was the one holding him back from unleashing its true potential.

As such, he asked Aleph a favor—to bring books in this training space.

"This planet will have to be destroyed again. I hope you won't mind."

As he spoke, hundreds of new books appeared in the middle of the broken road. Several huge bookshelves manifested out of thin air, each housing books Aleph had finished reading before.

Seeing this, Kashimo was both satisfied and mentally exhausted. Not once in these three months did he stop reading. Although his focus went to topics related to electricity, it was still a mind-numbing grind.

"Alright. It just so happened I have something new to try."

Hearing Kashimo's tacit approval, Aleph no longer hesitated. The former immediately vaulted from the ground several times until he was at the edge of Tokyo.

Prior to the course completion (defeating Kashimo), the training space has a limited area. The entire Tokyo has a barrier that prevents Aleph and Kashimo from going beyond.

With the course completion, this barrier no longer existed. The training space became a virtual world that housed the entire world—Kashimo's Earth. The same went for Sasaki's side, though it was more special than Kashimo's.

After all, it possessed something known as "textures". 

"Sea of Quanta… Considering its parallelity with the real world, it's not unreasonable to use it to displace positions. But then, her method of doing it…"

Aleph recalled how Ling turned into a 'string'. It was her turning her physical body into a concept.

Hum-!

Slowly, black scales crept all over his arms. Two diamond-like horns emerged on his forehead. A pair of tattered wings with sharp edges appeared on his back. Most of his body was engulfed by an ink-like substance—only the details such as the scales being more prominent.

His irises became elongated. The pressure he emitted spread throughout the entire Tokyo and was still spreading at this time.

[Cursed Energy (Converted): 18,559]

The three months he spent wasn't in vain. He managed to increase his cursed energy reserves by three thousand, adding to his already exaggerated strength.

The ground soon began to rumble. His sheer presence was enough to induce an extremely strong earthquake. The already destroyed high-rise buildings started to collapse one by one.

The force he emitted did not stop in Tokyo. It started to spread to the cities beyond it.

"Fifteen months… Even Satoru wouldn't win against this kid." Kashimo mumbled under his breath. "I guess they were right. I am left behind by the future. But… I am not willing to go down without a fight."

A good portion of his body turned into electricity. This was how he used his 'Mythical Beast Amber'. Changing his body into electricity allowed him to exert his cursed technique at another level.

However, this was no longer satisfactory for Kashimo.

Buzz-!

This time, he wanted to go beyond his previous limits. The pressure exerted by Aleph worked on him fully. His entire body was directly kicked into a fight-or-flight state. It was a state of utter despair when facing enemies one could not hope to defeat.

'Hm. He's finally utilizing it at its fullest.'

Aleph knew how underutilized Kashimo's cursed technique was. There are things he could do given the right knowledge. The Herrscher of Thunder's basic operation to form barriers was one such thing. With that, Kashimo would not lose out on a melee. Even technological weapons would no longer pose a threat to him.

"Now, how should we do it…"

Click-!

A lock was broken.

Within Aleph's chest, a black crystal with a missing section shone brilliantly. It shook before cracks emerged.

For a moment, his pressure disappeared.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Each step Aleph took left behind a trail of grass and flowers. Just by existing, he influenced the world around him. The textures stored inside Albion's body came out of Aleph's body.

As to which texture he brought out?

"Age of Gods…"

It was none other than Earth's texture during the Age of Gods. Be it the substance known as True Ether or the invisible Mysteries that affected their world, it was "brought out". Though, the more correct term was "properly simulated".

His cursed energy was rapidly depleted in every millisecond. 

Even at this state, Aleph was still far away from that "state" he went through when he came out of the Evolution Cube. Everything he did was half-baked compared to what Albion could do.

"One second."

That was how long he could last if he wanted to bring Albion's full power to this world. The last time he did it, he caused an explosion that destroyed the entire Earth and 'died'.

This time, he wanted to do something else.

Click.

Time seemingly stopped. The swaying of the grass and flowers halted. The falling debris from the skyscrapers stopped mid-air.

It was then that changes happened in Aleph. His body turned translucent before turning into a beam of black light. 

It shot directly upwards before disappearing under the night sky.

"This…"

Kashimo's entire body, which was turned into electricity, felt 'numb'. A strong yet strange feeling swept his entire existence.

'I will die.'

In a place imperceptible to him—the Information Dimension—a mountain-sized dragon streaked across. The information his 'existence' brought was so complex it directly modified the information in the real-world.

The Information Dimension could be considered as a special dimension that 'shows' everything that happened on all dimensions, so long they exist within the plane of reality (physical world).

'I see. This is how it's done.'

Just then, a second passed by. The mountain-sized dragon dissipated before being pushed out of this dimension.

Moments before Aleph came out, he saw the huge rifts present all over the land. Knowing that he was about to cause an impending explosion…

"I went overboard again."

His consciousness was sent out of the training space as Earth experienced yet another destruction.

*****

A/N: Imagine this. There are two separate Earths. They might have differences in finer details (for example, gravitational constants, speed of sound/light). However, it remains true that: 1.) Gravity exists on both Earths; 2.) Light and sound exists on both Earths; 3.) There is nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon in both Earths. 

It could be said that both Earths revolve on the same general set of physic laws. The information dimension was one of them. 

I thought it wouldn't make sense if it was 'special' (basically exists in Mahouka alone) when we have Plato's World of Ideas in real life (This should be the inspiration of Mahouka's author). That's why I made this information dimension (or at least a similar dimension) a universal thing.

But then, things in Honkai Impact 3rd have huge differences with things in Mahouka. This is one of the things we'll delve deeply later (and will have a corresponding weight in the plot).