It was a swift transformation. In a magical girl manner, her clothing ged. Such magical means are enough to shock Aleph in the past.

  Her middle school uniform was ged with a bck-red lolita dress. He could tell Kurumi pced her mind into creating it.

  “Is it izable?”

  “Yes?”

  Kurumi seemed ied in his rea.

  “Isn’t it normal that magical girls ’t choose their outfits?”

  “Fufu… I . In fact…”

  Her outfit ged in an instant after being ed by light particles. It ged to the exact bzer Aleph wore.

  ‘It really fits her…’

  He had the same thought years ago; he still had it now.

  Kurumi’s outfit reverted to her previous one. Out of nowhere, a flintlod a musket appeared in her hands.

  “Do you have something you break?” She asked.

  Aleph’s expression remained natural as he took out a pair of gsses in his chest pocket.

  Crack-!

  With a snap, he broke it in half.

  “Throw it.”

  He did as he was told. The moment it was midair…

  Bang-!

  By the time he caught it, the broken gsses were repaired—rather, time was rewound back to its unbroken state.

  “It’s time.”

  “As expected. It ’t escape your eyes.”

  The two began talking about Kurumi’s power. It h’s first time seeing something as magical as that back then.

  ‘I thought about the Project Soldier that time. Mobius’ immortality seemed like magic.’

  With a sigh, Aleph prepared himself for what’s about to happe. He kept trying to summon forth his cursed energy but to no avail. It was as if he didn’t have an ounce of them sihe beginning.

  ‘Great Sage..?’

  Even the reliable [Great Sage] wasn’t present, ting his theory that he was experieng his past the sed time.

  When Aleph found out that he couldn’t utilize cursed energy, he sensed everything in his body .

  Click.

  ‘There’s really something..!’

  He was surprised to feel something. It was hard to describe it in his own words.

  ‘It should be time…’

  Just then, the world turned dark bck. Time paused when Kurumi was smiling in front of him.

  ‘Use it..!’

  An indescribable force emerged out of nowhere. It was akin te onball headed to his own body.

  The moment his pointy finger moved, a gss-like wall emerged from him.

  Crack-!

  Crack-!

  Aleph’s entire body began to break free from its frozen state. Moving around was like removing frozen ks of ice from his body.

  By the time he shifted his torso, the ‘force’ broke through his ‘wall’.

  Shatter-!

  Psshk-!

  Spt-!

  A baseball-sized hole appeared on his right chest. At that very sed, blood emerged from his attempt to breathe.

  In his perception, everything moved in slow motion. He saw Kurumi’s expression ge from a smile to a shock.

  Psshh-!

  Aleph was about to fall when his right leg stepped forward. It slid until he prevented his fall.

  ‘It’s this. Back then…’

  He touched the gaping hole in his right chest. Flesh stuck out of it. Blood kept falling out. Chills were sent down to his spine.

  It wasly pleasant to see and feel a hole in your chest.

  Back then, it wasn’t just a hole in the chest. His heart was bsted by that forbsp;

  Aleph looked up behind him. His face was extremely pale, with cold sweat falling from his forehead.

  “Ain?!”

  Click.

  Kurumi decisively poihe flintlock behind his back.

  “Dalet.”

  Bang-!

  The bullet which taihe power to reverse time struck his body. However, it didn’t have any effect.

  “It’s no use. This… thing… cough… strange.”

  Bang-!

  Bang-!

  Aleph disregarded Kurumi’s desperate attempts at this time. He looked at the person who did this.

  The persoire silhouette was covered with darkness. All light that attempted to e close to it was devoured by darkness.

  “...”

  The person iion seemed oblivious to Aleph’s peeking. It already disregarded him as a dead man. The only reason for its ued appearance was the power within him.

  Now, it could see a f e between Aleph and Kurumi. It was another sensation Aleph felt; as if he could pass a portion of this power to someone else.

  ‘...I see her.’

  Silver pupils.

  Long silver hair.

  Aleph’s eyes were able to see through that darkness, albeit only a little. In the past, he saw through her silver eyes. Now, he saw her hair and half of her face.

  ‘ime..!’

  “There’s a way… Where is it…”

  Kurumi’s voice cracked. Despite trying to keep her calm tenance, she couldn’t do it. Everything was too sudden. One moment, they were talking normally; the moment, her friend was in danger.

  A few seds passed after he got shot. Breathing became more borious due to his punctured lung. He had long colpsed to the dirt ground.

  Dozens of kittens surrounded him in an anized mahey didn’t prevent Kurumi from attempting to treat him.

  Aleph pushed himself up with his arm, though he couldn’t. The best he did was to turn his entire body over.

  “Don’t move! You’re making it worse..!”

  “Heh… It’s… dis…tasteful. First meeting… like this.”

  Blood kept bubbling up his throat with each breath. His punctured lung was rapidly defting until it could no longer fun.

  Seeing Kurumi’s tearful face, a pang of guilt assaulted him.

  The exact same thing occurred years ago. Although, he couldn’t even talk as much as noh could only point out “silver eyes” before his sciousness disappeared.

  Now, his situation was much better.

  “Don’t… No…”

  Aleph could no loalk. The only thing he could do was hold her hands. With a smile on his face, he experienced a fake death once more.

  Just as his sciousness went dark, his body felt weightless. Aleph received the sensation of ‘swimming’ through something, akin to doing a backstroke in swimming without moving his body.

  By the time he came baself, he was still greeted by a pang of pain. Though, his sciousness became clear. His sight became clear.

  Aleph’s body went back to his inal strength.

  “Am I back..?”

  {Answer: You are in another world.}

  The girl’s voice with a straight tone finally responded ba.

  Instinctively, Aleph used thought acceleration and parallel mind to process everything. He analyzed his situation as he slowly stood up from the ground.

  Aleph touched his chest and found the same hole in it. He was still wearing the same bzer as his middle school.

  However…

  “Cursed energy.”

  A bck-purple energy emerged from his fiips.

  In an instant, he performed cursed energy enhao his body. Dim purple lines appeared all over his body. The pain became fainter as his right lung worked at multiple times its efficacy.

  “How injured am I?”

  {Answer: With cursed energy enha, you will st for a total of three minutes. After that, yans will fail all at once.}

  “Prolonging my death… What happened just now?”

  {Answer: A portion of your sciousness is brought to another spacetime simir to a mirage. The damage brought over from a time period remains until the end of this experience. Upon dying, your sciousness will return to your body.}

  Aleph digested [Great Sage]’s expnations. It seems like he was brought over here by the mirror. The first thing he experienced was the re-enat of his past. After that, he was brought over to the present period of this world.

  Aside from the entire experience, he also asked about the fake death it once mentioned.

  {Answer: No true deaths will occur during the proje. A power protects your soul during proje. It preserves the soul while the material body dies.}

  Fifteen seds ter, Aleph’s attention was taken by his surroundings.

  Rumble-!

  Fuzz-!

  As the ground shook, the temperature became lower. It didn’t take a few seds until he saw what was happening.

  “Robots and… girls?”

  The robots are fighting against a girl with a green hoodie. At that moment, he sehe gazes from the ones in the robots.

  “Two spirits?! There’s a ge!”

  “What bad luck!”

  “How about the spacequake arm? Why didn’t it go off?”

  Sensing their gazes turning hostile, Aleph sighed.