"..."
Aleph opened his eyes to the sight of Hua dozing off. When he confirmed he was back, he softly sighed.
'The same fleeting gaze.'
It was a kind of acknowledgement. The moment he destroyed Finality's influence on him, he did not experience any other hindrances, as if it was intended to be discovered in the first place.
'A test. They aren't lying about that part.'
All the complicated thoughts were reduced the moment he came back onto himself. He slept before. Only now did he feel the softness of Hua's lap better.
'...Nope.'
Aleph stopped his thoughts when it became wilder.
'I wonder what they are doing now…'
He was about to stand up when he felt a considerable weight behind his back.
"..."
It was none other than Senti. She slept on his back while clinging on him like a koala. He felt her arms being wrapped around his waist. It was a sleeping posture that would challenge Kiana's boss-level posture—a sleeping posture bad enough for gods to doubt them.
Feeling this happy trouble, Aleph chose to remain still. He positioned his face sidewards. His cheeks met Hua's legs as a result.
'Well.'
Pushing aside the fact he could have avoided doing this, he opened the backlogs form the Achievement Hunter. One after another, lines of prompts appeared. These achievements go as far back as the time during his fight against Voracity.
[Constricting Boa: Fight against Voracity]
[We Do a Bit of Trolling: Successfully impersonate another Aeon.]
[Past, Present, and Future: Hold a place as the everlasting time.]
There are three major achievements from that fight. The rewards they spawned are useful to the current Aleph.
[Unique Skill: Degenerate]
[Error Pathway Uniqueness]
[Second True Magic]
The first one was something he was familiar with.
'Degenerate… Is it telling me something?'
Aleph rolled his eyes on it.
'The Unique Skill integrated by the original Great Sage… Raphael.'
Degenerate was a unique skill consumed by another Great Sage to turn into the [Ultimate Skill: Raphael].
Unlike Metatron who consumed the [Unique Skill: Investigator], Raphael consumed Degenerate. According to the [Database] obtained, it gave Raphael the ability to synthesize sub-skills into one.
Theoretical deductions made by Metatron showed potential of it being used to integrate Ultimate Skills.
It was completely different from the supportive role given by [Projection].
'Hm… I have accumulated some interesting stuff.'
He looked over his lengthy [Reward List] he hadn't touched yet. These came from the minor achievements—basically the ones he would inadvertently do in his daily life.
Currently, they number over the thousands.
'The second one… I finally got it.'
He stared at the pair of a black gloves stored inside the complex information.
'It's separate from [Error] but also similar to it.'
Achievement Hunter gave Aleph the authority of [Error] itself. That removed the needs of other prerequisites the original [Error] authority had. The [Uniqueness] he gained was more of an extra weapon that strengthened his [Error] authority.
Finally…
'I am seeing this right, no?'
Second True Magic.
In the world of Fate—the world where Albion came—it was the equivalent of an [Authority]. It was slightly different from your normal authority, however.
For once, it could be taken by anyone, granted they are talented. This one happened to be taken in by King Solomon's student.
The power it gave is the control over countless parallel worlds. It has a reach within the fields of time as well.
The simplest example of its application was Goetia's Noble Phantasm. It was an imitation of the [Second True Magic]. The power it possessed was enough to wipe out an entire Earth with ease. Just the energies from countless other parallel worlds are enough to overwhelm everyone at his time.
Unfortunately, he was powerspiked one after another when the Lostbelt escapades came into being.
'I'd assume it's similar to Yamato. It could get adapted to fit this world.' He mused. 'Then…'
Aleph's thoughts inevitably went to the Imaginary Tree. It is the entity responsible for housing countless parallel worlds.
'When I need a hammer, they'll give me an entire fire truck.'
He is currently making up plans to return to the original Earth. That required the use of Error's loopholes, Door's capability to connect dimensions, Null's ability to negate distance…
Metatron estimated that the current success rate is at 51%. With the final [Fool] authority, it becomes 80%. The authority merged from it, [Lord of the Mysteries], is that powerful.
While he hasn't gotten it now, the [Second True Magic] created second thoughts.
'If I can use it to tamper with the Imaginary Tree…'
Aleph moved on from the first three major achievements. He hasn't forgotten about the others he got from that brief encounter with Finality.
[True Sleep: Rest wholeheartedly upon becoming an Aeon.]
[Reversed Card: Deal with external tampering for the first time.]
[Double Luxury: Experience the gift from Hua and Senti.]
The rewards they gave made him pause.
[Red Strings of Fate — Information Form Anchor (Upgrade)]
[Conceptual Resistance]
[Red Strings of Fate — Peach Blossom]
Unexpectedly, his eyes swept to the third reward.
[Peach Blossom: Grants your body various flavors.]
"..."
Aleph knows where to use it.
For the nth time, he recalled his time with Kurumi. The latter was enthusiastic when it came to these things.
He wordlessly scanned the first two rewards.
[Information Form Anchor: Turns your lovers into Information Form Anchor.]
'...Han Xiao.'
This term came up during his talks with Han Xiao. It was used by the latter to successfully carry the 'virtual universe' into the 'real universe'. Han Xiao acted as the core of this virtual universe from the previous iteration.
Speculatively, it is the one responsible for granting him the feeling similar to 'Terminus', although lacking in some parts.
[Conceptual Resistance: Grants resistance over external tampering of complex information lifeforms. It includes direct memory and perception tampering from the World itself.]
Aleph did not focus on the reward but to its description.
A clear standard slipped out of Achievement Hunter.
'World.'
He pronounced it inwardly and found something different.
'World and World. It's different.'
The two words are the same, yet the feeling they gave Aleph were completely different. Whenever he thought of Terminus as the World, it becomes like that.
Thus…
'Terminus is a World?'