Chapter 57: Three Minutes

"Huff… Huff…"

A cold fog came out of Aleph's mouth with each breath. He touched the blood red ice in his chest.

{Analysis complete. Remaining survival time is two minutes and five seconds.}

"It's good enough."

He came into this "world" in his severely injured state. It was the time when the hole was freshly made; if it wasn't, his organs would've failed by now.

It was due to the cursed energy enhancement, his Active Power State, that he was able to live for three more minutes despite suffering from it. That goes to show the resilience of a Grade One Sorcerer.

'I strained myself in that fight. I should've escaped, but…'

Thinking of the blue-haired girl beside him, he fell silent.

"What's the day today?" He asked.

"Uhm…"

Before Aleph could speak further, the sock puppet in her right hand "spoke".

"Yoshino doesn't know it!"

"You… are a Spirit, right?"

"Yoshino is! Yoshinon is her friend!"

"...Alright. Among the Spirits, do you know someone with black and red dress? She has an uneven twintail… um, the left side is longer. She also uses guns. Does it ring any bells?"

Yoshino's eyes widened as she heard Aleph's description.

"Could it be…"

"It could only be her. Nightmare!" The puppet spoke. "Tell me, why are you looking for her?"

"Nightmare? It… sounds like her."

Aleph stood up from the street floor. He walked out of the alley and eyed one of the stores with glass walls.

Shatter-!

"Where are you going?!"

"Wait. I just need to…"

He didn't have any time to explain. The inside of the store was a cafe. He immediately looked for a calendar or any of the likes. It was completely desolate.

It wasn't just the cafe. The entire city block was desolate due to the Spacequake Alarms. 

Spacequakes are phenomena created when a Spirit descends into the world. The cracks in space created by them were enough to crush buildings with ease.

Add to that the aftermath of the Spirits' powers themselves. It was enough to cause wide-scale destruction, hence evacuation protocols were widely taught throughout the entire world.

"There it is. Twenty… fifteen."

Aleph's eyes went wide open.

"This is… almost forty years..?"

He stood still for a while. The puppet, Yoshinon, wanted to ask him a question but chose not to disturb him.

"Forty years… Kuk..!"

More blood spilled from his mouth. Aleph immediately had a hunch that his time in this world will end once he dies.

The tabletop was stained by his blood. He wiped it clean before looking for a pen and paper. Aleph soon began writing on it. As he did so, he asked about Yoshinon's reaction.

"What's wrong with Kuru… Nightmare?"

"You don't know? She caused the deaths of more than ten thousand humans. Those guys talked harshly about her several times."

"Mn… Have you met her?"

"Yoshino met her once. Nightmare was scary."

"Heh… She still hasn't changed."

For the next minute, they talked about Nightmare. In sharp contrast with her atrocities, Aleph smiled now and then. He trusted her back then… and it extends until now.

She must have a reason behind her actions. Until then, he wouldn't judge her.

However, this short-lived peace was broken when the cafe was blasted open.

Rumble-!

Bam-!

Shatter-!

Several thin robots appeared. Unlike before, there weren't any pilots inside them. Their targets changed from Yoshino to the seriously injured Aleph.

"This… is enough."

Aleph tore the pieces of paper he had written on. He passed them to the girl beside him.

"If you have the chance to meet her… Nightmare, give it to her."

Several pieces of sticky notes were placed in her hands.

Without even having the time to respond, Aleph charged towards the Bandersnatch robots.

"Go! I'll take care of them!"

The Sphere Boundary's anti-phenomena radius was deployed. No amount of altered physics was able to harm him remotely.

With a wide punch, he tore through one of the Bandersnatch's necks with his ratio technique. It was far tougher than the previous robots, yet Aleph was still able to tear them apart once he got close.

While the melee was happening, Yoshino felt conflicted. Everything happened all too suddenly. She couldn't even fully process Aleph's existence.

Nevertheless…

Hum-!

Bam-!

The large white shark bumped its head straight to several Bandersnatches. Aleph could sense there wasn't any life inside them, and so did Yoshino.

Although surprised, Aleph chose to focus on the task at hand. It only took a minute for them to dispatch the team of Bandersnatches.

[Achievement Unlocked: Ter…]

[Achievement Unlocked: Fly…]

He couldn't properly read the achievements in his sight. His vision was blurred. A feeling of lightheadedness assaulted him.

Three minutes upon his arrival, his organs finally began failing. His knees felt weak. The familiar sensation of laborious breathing assaulted him.

Yoshino was saying something to him, but he couldn't understand her anymore.

"Read… notes…"

With a thud, his body fell to the ground.

*****

"Mister!"

Aleph's body swiftly turned into silver motes of light. It formed a stunning scene for a moment. Even the bloodstains on the tabletop turned like that.

"Mister…"

Recalling his final words, Yoshino took a peek at the sticky notes inside her hoodies' pockets.

"Mister Aleph…"

Through the small pieces of notes, perhaps written for Yoshino, she knew more about the new "spirit". It wasn't until an untorn page that said "Please keep the rest for her" did Yoshino stop reading it.

When she returned to her realm, all that was left within the scene were broken bandersnatches.

Hum.

Out of nowhere, a being clad in pure darkness arrived. Her silver eyes glanced at the place where Aleph fought the Bandersnatches.

"Unmistakably…"

She thought of the boy from decades ago. It was his power that attracted her to test him. Never had she expected that he would fall in one blow, more so give a portion of his power to one of the Spirits she found—causing the said Spirit to discover her identity and break free from her control.

"...Nothing should interfere at this time... Shin..."

After muttering a name she held dearly, she disappeared.

The moment she did so, everything went back to stillness.