Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

It started out as a small black dot. All it took was an entire second for that black dot to expand massively. By then, it was akin to a miniature sun hanging in the sky.

"Ara. That is how it works."

Disregarding the extreme changes in the ground, Kurumi maintained her usual expression. The hems of her dress fluttered along the hot wind. The extreme heat caused by two consecutive bombardments did not cause any damages to her nor her dress.

Soon, the miniature black hole collapsed. All that was left were three fragments of a dark blue rhombus gem. More of her clones came out of her 'shadow' and started heading towards the drop-off points.

In the midst of it all, a dark blue silhouette emerged out of thin air. The figure gained detailed features belonging to a human.

It only took a blink for the newcomer to become shocked. Her sight finally shifted towards Kurumi.

"We have a lot more in common than I thought, Herrscher-san."

Her high-pitched tone sounded as if she was playing around with the Herrscher.

In that split second, the figure wasted no time. It swiftly disappeared under Kurumi's sight.

The flintlock pistol on her hand remained pointing to the ground.

"Perceptive, isn't she? If she wasn't…"

She recognized the newcomer. It was none other than the sixth Herrscher Aleph warned them about. Her original appearance was seen by his elemental sight. The girl did not choose to change it, and as such, Aleph discovered her original appearance as well as three of her disguises.

"Hm…"

Her eyes became dazed as she thought of her next move.

*****

[Achievement Unlocked: Long Distance Kill]

[Achievement Unlocked: How is that possible?]

[Achievement Unlocked: Time is Relative]

…

Numerous achievements rang in Aleph's mind. He looked at his pinky finger—to be exact, one of the strings tied into it.

'Kurumi used up one of her chances.'

The first ability brought by the [Red Strings of Fate] allowed him to copy one of his techniques and pass them to the girls. With [Information Imprint], Aleph forcefully broke this limit. He combined the two abilities to form something similar to a 'Stigmata'. Its sole effect was to raise the upper ceiling of the copied abilities into three uses.

The one he gave to Kurumi was none other than Star Rage. Its destructiveness was no joke, considering how it could bring down an entire planet if he willed it.

Originally, it was a cursed technique with an accompanying shikigami. Both the user and the shikigami could change their imaginary mass, in turn creating a strong close-quarter-combat style.

Aleph's Star Rage did not have that shikigami. Instead, he could target one of the items he 'owned'. The definition of 'owned' is an item in his possession to which he has absolute ownership.

He knew about its capability to turn into a black hole with sufficient imaginary mass added, hence the spherical metallic balls were used.

"Her stockpiled lifespan should be good enough. These achievements suggest that she succeeded…"

His figure never stopped moving. By the time he thought it over, he had already arrived in the true Herrscher of Flame's location.

'Not good…'

He scanned the entire city with elemental sight and found that the Herrscher of Flames disappeared. 

It did not end there.

'The sixth..!'

Aleph decided to land near Kevin first.

Swoosh-!

The latter was still using his abilities to cool the burning city down. It was done to prevent any damages to the transport and combat ships when descending into this place.

Tap.

His landing was silent, yet it attracted Kevin's attention.

Seeing it was Aleph, he dropped most of his vigilance down.

"What happened here?"

"I fought the Herrscher… It was Adjutant Rong… Major Himeko's confidant. Her power was off the charts…"

Kevin began telling the details of their fight. The two-minute-long fight ended abruptly. Finally, he focused on talking about the sudden appearance of the sixth Herrscher. The way she appeared and disappeared was extremely fatal in combat. 

If it weren't for some unknown reasons, she might've been able to kill the majority of their current high-level MANTISes, with the exception of those who were the strongest.

'She's cautious enough. I need to help Vill-V finish that thing.'

The living Second Herrscher Core—previously the Blank Core—provided way too many precious data to Vill-V. The Global Time Fracture System was simply one of the things she invented over these past three months.

One of the things she was working on was a device that would lock space. It is able to prevent any phenomena related to quantum entanglement. That includes the sixth Herrscher's ability to teleport to places.

Just then, a sound came from Aleph's earpiece.

Buzz-!

The static sound was cleared up. Kurumi's voice came from the other side.

"I got it, Ain."

"Alright. I'm heading over."

*****

Ling was able to draw up a functional plan. Although the Cocoon often had changes—as if it has a split personality disorder—she was taught some of its comprehensible actions. Then, it gave her four Gems to distribute to others

Other than those occurrences, she vaguely felt that the Cocoon was incomprehensible again. 

Nevertheless, she only had one goal this time around: to gather up more allies.

To do that, she wandered around the world and began choosing four people out of all.

It wasn't a difficult feat as she has a pre-existing talent pool to select from—Fire MOTH.

Three of the people she selected came from Fire MOTH. The final one came from the outside. These people have an astounding knowledge of their specialties, strong honkai resistance, or both.

Thus, the only thing left was to find a way to 'stall' for time. 

The Cocoon's actions were incomprehensible. It wanted Ling to select Herrschers through the Gems, yet it did not stray from the original process of Herrscher Awakening.

If it was that convenient, they could have simply undergone transformation at the Moon.

That alone made it clear that something was wrong with it.

'Create a believable bait. Sir Aleph has to be drawn to it. Then, awaken the rest and take them away.'

The plan was a success. Aleph did head into the 'fake Herrscher of Flames'. This gave Ling much more leeway to take the other four Herrschers away.

However…

'The Herrscher of Reason is gone.'

Ling thought of the girl with a golden pupil. She had never seen that girl before. She went through many bubble worlds, yet it was Ling's first time seeing the girl.

It was as if her existence was nothing but air. 

Still, Ling knew she was there.

In the end, she shook off these chaotic thoughts as she focused on another problem:

'How should I take the next Herrschers away?'