Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

Aleph's flight speed was beyond the known human limits of his previous world. It was mainly due to his small size.

Originally, Albion was the size of a mountain. It was also strong enough to survive in space with its bare body, swimming through the sea of nothingness until it decided to 'die' on the ruined Earth.

In terms of physical strength, only a few could match it. 

'Hm… What would happen if I crashed to the ground?'

Aleph ran the mental calculations in his mind.

Mach 25, plus his total weight which could be modified using Star Rage, amounted to…

'Two or three cities at least...'

He decided not to try it for now.

Thinking of it, Aleph heaved a sigh. Never had he expected he would become this strong in a span of a year.

'There's also a wind barrier… It's like Albion's built-in with a complete flight system…'

With these idle musings, he headed towards his next destination.

*****

Bam-!

A huge honkai beast crashed down from the sky. It was a bird-shaped emperor-class honkai beast. Its wings were made of white silicon, and they were filled with sharp edges.

A gaping hole could be seen on its body.

It crashed into a section of the city. Fortunately, the civilians had long been evacuated. Only military personnel and the likes remained.

"That's Miss Elysia for you."

The current frontlines were no longer cities close to the wilderness, but highways. It was the only 'open' path to the outside world.

Before honkai was publicized, the standard operation to a city was ten meter tall metal fences. The official reason the government told them was wild animals. Now, it serves as a 'wall' to defend against the undeads and low-level honkai beast.

Bang-!

Bang-!

Bang-!

Bang-!

…

The sound of gunshots dominated the battlefield. It wasn't even a month since Project Soldier was enacted. Fire MOTH did not have enough time to convert soldiers into 'MANTISes'.

In the most vulnerable section of the metal fence—built with electric shocks and the likes—hundreds of zombies stood still. This alone made it easy for the soldiers who formed a front to thin out their numbers.

"Fu…"

An orange-haired girl with a long ponytail heaved a deep breath. The continuous sounds of bombing caused vibrations in the ground. The clouds of dust drifted over to their side, prompting the ground soldiers to wear their goggles.

Only the girl did not wear anything. She was inconspicuous in this battlefield for only wearing a combat uniform.

A small text was present on her right arm, which reads: M.A.N.T.I.S.

"Reinforcements…"

The girl, Dystopia, recalled Elysia's words of reinforcements coming to support them. The current overall situation made it so that there wasn't much manpower to be deployed in other cities. Even the logistics that came from the sky were affected by the flying honkai beasts on several routes, causing delays to their resupplies.

Click.

Hundreds of clicking sounds appeared in her mind. The moment it did so, hundreds of undeads became dazed.

It didn't take long for them to be shot dead in the head. It created an obvious gap in the groups of undeads.

However, it wasn't enough to put a smile on her face.

"Miss Elysia told me to conserve my power, but…"

The defense line they needed to maintain was the size of an entire major city. Calculations show that their perimeter was nearly two hundred kilometers long.

Dystopia was a rare 'mental-type' MANTIS. If she willed it, her full power could take out thousands of these low-level honkai beasts and undeads in one go.

Zoom-!

"Hm..?"

Just then, she heard a sound akin to a loud drum. It was dull enough when it reached the surface.

It was then that she saw something—a black figure crashing into the ground.

"What was—"

Boom-!

Rumble-!

The landing point was of considerable distance from the fences. Still, the force was enough to send thousands of undeads flying up in the sky. One could easily see they were 'killed' by the sheer amount of force.

The tall chariot-class honkai beasts weren't spared. They were the ones who relied on the ground the most. The Seraph-class and Templar-class didn't need to do so.

Ironically, the undeads near the metal fences were the ones who survived.

"Cough..!"

A huge cloud of dust rose up from the distance. It was thick enough to affect hundreds of soldiers.

Click-!

Shatter-!

Sou-!

Dystopia looked at the direction of the crash. She 'heard' shattering noises from it. What followed next was the sound of something creeping through the ground.

The moment she saw it come close to the fences, she was startled by its appearance.

'They're transparent, but it's there..?'

The transparent arcs died down a few meters away from them.

When the dust cloud cleared up, the scene presented itself to their eyes.

Thousands of undeads lay to the ground lifelessly. All the chariot-class honkai beasts were standing with their upper body missing. All the seraph-class honkai beasts could be seen lying on the ground along with the other corpses.

The most incredulous thing were the building-sized templar-class honkai beasts.

There were dozens of them spanning half of the defense perimeter.

More than half of them were seen split in half. Their large bodies slid down as they fell to the ground.

Amidst everything, what stood out was the visage of a single person. The area around him was unsullied with any of the corpses. He was seen holding an eastern blade.

Not far away from him, a crater as deep as several dozen meters could be seen. It was easy to guess that it was the crash site of the 'black figure' from the sky.

Just then…

Creak-!

From the distance, an extremely large honkai beast charged towards him. The area around it was swiftly turned into ice. The temperature went down at an extremely fast speed.

"Tsk, tsk. The cannon fodder of the emperor-classes…"

The man, Aleph, muttered.

"Did the writers hate you? Or did they only see you?"

Among the emperor-classes, Parvati had one of the longest screen time. It was present when honkai beasts were depicted in the second eruption of the Current Era. It was also present as the honkai beast ICHOR used by Kevin.

The number of its kill-count alone lies on the top.

Seeing the one charging towards him, he did not know what to say.

"I'll add to your kill-count, then."

Under the focused gazes of the many…

Tchk-!

The moment it 'crashed' to Aleph, its body was torn apart into two.

Bits of purple blood spurted out of its corpse. It was still emitting chilling temperatures, though not as much as before.

"The Eastern Saint."

"No… you mean, the Reaper?"

The discussions of the spectators pushed the man's identity to the forefront. In terms of sheer power, only he comes to their minds. Part of it was due to the promotion done by Fire MOTH, but it was largely due to the words spoken by the soldiers deployed on the eastern continent.

"Sir Aleph…"

Dystopia finally understood why Elysia said those things to her.