The hree months passed quickly.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Beads of sweat dropped to the etal floor. Aleph’s entire body was oozing with sweat… and blood.

  “Multiplying the ives…”

  In his eyes y a pale blue light. His aura went to a plete ge, as if he was someone who could amongst mortals.

  The intrusive thoughts of the being known as Merlin appeared in his mind now and then. Without his sheer focus, Aleph might’ve gone off course for his goal today.

  After learning a lot about the reversed curse teique, he decided to use the [Diary of a Magus]. It pushed him into a strange state where he “acted” as Merlin, borrowing his ideas, thoughts, and knowledge.

  Psshk-!

  Aleph gritted his teeth a a long gash at his left arm. His white bones were pletely exposed as liters of blood came out from it. His heart fell into aed state, stantly pumping out blood to make up for the ones he lost.

  The Knight Killer became stained by his own blood.

  “Like the inated mana from the Land of Shadow. Or the nature of the Underworld. Perhaps, the state where Albion’s Corpse was found..?”

  Numerous strahoughts came to Aleph’s mind. He shouldn’t have known about these things, yet he did. It was as if the spirit of Merlin possessed his mind, giving rise to tless insights.

  Tick.

  Tick.

  Tick.

  It has beey minutes since Aleph used the diary. His entire body kept on losing blood, though his situation was still stable due to his strengthened body. heless, a hollowed out feeling started to creep from his feet.

  “...I got it.”

  Aleph wore a smug look. Blood kept oozing out from his arms and legs. His face was stained with dried blood.

  The creeping feeling of death slowly came closer.

  ‘This… It’s the thing missing from that space.’

  In the past three months, he tried learning the reversed curse teique by dying iraining space. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do so.

  This was the only method Satojo spoke arding the reversed curse teique. He was able to learn it when his heart and lungs were punctured severely. It was also one of the few “training courses” he offered to everyone who might want to learn from it.

  Unfortunately, nobody lear that way. Reversed curse teique relied heavily on ialent.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  The senzu bean in Aleph’s mouth remaiill. The ones from Kashimo’s world had Satoru and Shoko, two users of reversed curse teique on standby. Of course, he had to prepare for the worst.

  In the end, his life outweighed the risks for the reversed curse teique.

  Drip.

  A trail of blood came from Aleph’s tracks as he went into the cold ste. Ihe most secured tainer y a rge transparent tainer filled with murky bck fluid.

  As early as a month ago, he took out [Albion’s Remains] from his reward as the first oo undergo the MANTIS surgery. It ortion of a nonhuman arm more than several dozeers in size. The moment it was taken out, the tration of honkai energy dropped sharply.

  That’s right, it dropped sharply.

  It was as if this body part was enough to suppress the world itself.

  It emitted such a strong pressure far surpassing the danger of all the Herrschers Aleph met.

  His only saving grabsp;was how the arm slowly ‘melted’. After some time, it turned into this set of bck fluid enough to fill aire barrel.

  With Great Sage’s help, the preparations were carried out. That included the risks as well as the way to use these remains.

  “A physical entity that is half ceptual… It is pletely different from emperor-bsp;beasts…”

  Aleph was hesitant, at first, to use it on himself. However, he couldn’t simply ighe rewards brought to him. The Random Box remains unused simply because Aleph wao gauge its potential danger.

  If he couldn’t even handle [Albion’s Remains], it might take a while for it to be opened.

  The power of [Albion’s Remains] was evident. If it weren’t for the fact he took it out on the lowest basement level of the third institute, it would’ve caused a rge fuss throughout the third institute. That, and the suppression from his Sphere Boundary.

  “I’ll give my full trust to you.”

  {Result: Subsequent simutions increased the success rate by 0.21%. It is currently 81.97%...}

  As if responding to him, Great Sage sent out its new update.

  “If that’s it…”

  A three-fifths crystal shone inside his chest. Pg his entire right arm ihe operation area of Albion’s tainer, Aleph—

  “Keuk!”

  —begaing on himself.

  *****

  Death.

  For the third time, Aleph felt it was breathing behind his neck. His [Deathly Intuition] was ringing so loud it caused a buzziion on his head.

  “Did… succeed..?”

  It was a world of pure darkness. When Aleph opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a prairie.

  “Huh..?”

  Buzz-!

  Another ling sound came inside his head. The moment, he found himself ba the cold ste. He was slumped down with his right hand stuside the tainer’s hole. The dried bck-red blood solidified into his skin.

  Aleph immediately reized their in.

  ‘The surgery… how was it..?’

  A familiar voice gave him the answer.

  {Result: A partial success. The cursed energy inside [Albion’s Remains] briefly remained inside your body. To cope with the situation, everything that came from it was temporarily stored ihe Sephira Crystal…}

  His sight turned blue. The fragmented crystal inside his chest had turned jet bck. Albion was extremely strong. This was the only way to ‘utilize’ his remains; by temporarily st it ihe [Sephira Crystal] and gradually letting it assimite to his body.

  Still, it left numerous aftereffects. Si went through his body first, these were iable.

  He sed his entire body, only to find some rather drastibsp;ges.

  He ced in his Active ICHOR State. The bck scales were spread all over his arms and legs. The length of the horn in his forehead remaihe same, though he felt several scales crawling up from his neck.

  Aleph's progress into the Active Honkai Rea frely. He could feel that he could transform further if he wao.

  Albion’s Remains are suspected to have a stroment, something that runs simirly to cursed energy. By giving his body such a huge amount of it all at ohat was the time when the ces of learning RCT became higher.

  A while ter, Aleph reverted to his former state. The [Adaptation] teique allowed him to have a far greater trol of his ICHOR. It was a gift that he received from his near-death enter.

  [Cursed Energy (verted): 2110 → 2400]

  His cursed energy spiked by ahree hundred or so points. Other than that, there remained no visible ges.

  “No…”

  Aleph thought of something in his mind. Looking at his badly battered appearance, he didn’t chew the senzu beans inside his mouth.

  Click.

  Click.

  Spark-!

  A metaphysical sound rang in his mind.

  Moments ter, an imaginary ‘sizzling’ sound came from his body. There weren’t any signs of physical alterations, but Aleph’s [Elemental Sight] saw his bck-purple cursed energy ‘burning’.

  That’s right, burning.

  “Reversed… curse energy.”

  It didn’t take long before he found himself in a pristiate. Even the surgical marks on his right arm disappeared. The gashing wounds on his arms and legs weren’t to be seen.

  “...I did it.”

  Aleph knew about Merlin. He was the magus who taught the King of Camelot, Arturia Pendragon. He also knew about his feat of operating on Arturia to give her the Red Dragon’s Core.

  Aleph po learn reversed curse teique from his insights at first, but he came with this “backup pn” that maximized the bes of [Diary of a Magus].

  In the end, that pn succeeded. With Great Sage and Elemental Sight, he has far more leeway pared to before.

  Just then, a series of arms woke him up from a daze.

  “DEF Two..?”

  Four months after the fourth herrscher, the fifth major eruption occurred.

  *****

  A/N: Alright, slice-of-life is over.