Aleph did not care as to how Xianzhou in general handled the aftermath. Jingtian sent him to one of the courtyards open in Fanghu. The architecture reminded him of the mix between feudal East and high-end technology.
He did not stay for long and decided to stroll around.
The glass floor reflected Aleph's appearance. In the eyes of the bystanders, however, nothing was there.
"Fu…"
Knock-!
His knuckles knocked at the glass floor and made a low sound. It was something audible only to himself.
"To have an internal structure more complicated than diamonds… Galactic ships and the likes are terrifying, indeed."
The knowledge of numerous civilizations from the Sanctum popped up in his mind. They were roughly at this level. Countless civilizations mixing together was something that could be seen at an era like this. That, in turn, results in creations far exceeding the perception of most humans on Earth.
Aleph stood up from his squat and looked around. The walking bystanders passed through his body. Most of the people present here were soldiers with a mix of wounded civilians. He unknowingly strolled farther from his original courtyard.
In the end, it took him seven hours to walk around three of the major locations in Fanghu.
Their equivalents were the Exalting Sanctum, Aurum Alley, and Cloudford of Luofu. They are the residential areas, business areas, and airports, respectively.
Certainly, seven hours were not enough to explore the entire Fanghu by foot.
Aleph could choose to end this dilemma by using his unimaginable calculation prowess to know everything within the flagship. But, he chose not to do so.
"Anchors…"
It was another foreign concept from the information dug from [Wandering]. The gods of that world were always in danger of assimilating to their authorities. By then, it would be unknown whether it was still "them" or an objective "concept".
Anchors were made by them to prevent such a thing. Using the faith generated by 'mortals', some gods were able to preserve their self-consciousness.
As for the reason why they were being 'assimilated' in the first place, it was not something Aleph could nor he would touch upon for now.
'Do I need them?' He wondered. 'It won't hurt having it as a backup plan. The reasons for Aeons opening up their Paths should be roughly similar to it.'
He thought about the unexpected help brought by [Wandering] before he nodded.
'I'll do it while exploring this world. Maybe then, I might really need this kind of help.'
Before long, Aleph returned to the courtyard. There was a thick plum tree in its open yard. It was one of the secret vacation houses Jingtian has.
A sweet scent was carried to his nose. Only the swaying of the tree was audible. It was due to the soundproofing technology used around the entire two-storey courtyard.
Aleph sat on the ground with his back on the tree. He then laid the back of his head on the tree, allowing him to see the 'night sky' simulated by Fanghu's atmospheric system.
"A trial…"
He shook his head and stopped thinking about the day he lost. He chose to focus his attention on his gains instead. It took a while of skimming before he saw the end of his backlog.
It was the achievements he gained before his fight with the Cocoon of Finality. They were brought by his successful transcendence.
[Spirits' Origins: Become a full-time spirit.]
[Coronation of Infinite Light: Control your latent power to the fullest extent.]
[True Dragon's Return: Allow Albion, the last True Dragon, to step onto the physical world once again.]
[Zeroth Sequence: Become the Sequence Zero True God of your own Path.]
[Enemies to What?: Assimilate the authority of your enemy for your own use.]
A total of five achievements were stockpiled before his decisive fight with the Cocoon. Aleph planned to use some of their rewards as a backup due to how he hasn't thoroughly learned their uses. Later on, it was proven that the three [Stella] arrows he received sufficed.
"Huh…"
The moment he 'stared' at the words, he was brought to several memories containing the history behind the achievement. All of them showed the time when he completed his Sephira Crystal Core, thereby allowing him to fully utilize all the latent authorities inside him.
It took a while for him to return to the real world.
'Five major rewards… and this isn't the end.'
[Double-sided Sephira Core: A controlled upgrade of the Sephira Crystal Core; counts the usage of two authorities as one.]
[Scroll: Scroll of a scribe.]
[Complex Information Imprint: The ability to permanently imprint complex information.]
[Database: Circle of Inevitability]
[Authority Displacement: Upon usage, usurp one of the authorities of the complex information lifeform.]
Aleph looked at the five rewards and decided to go through them one by one.
"Double core… I was wondering why it's different. It turns out to be like this."
The original Sephira Crystal Core has two states—Angels and Demons. The former was the normal state of the core, while the latter was its inverted and out-of-control state.
In fact, it was the origin behind the "monsters" Kurumi hunted during her early days as a spirit. The spirits back then had the Demons—Inverse State—as their default state, making it incompatible for humans. Only when they were successively washed down did the Angels become the new default state.
"Two authorities will count as one…"
Aleph saw their effects before the fight with the Cocoon, but he chose not to take them in so as to not affect his current chances. He does not know whether accepting it would incapacitate him for battles, just like the time he completed his Sephira Core.
"I was in too much of a rush…"
He did not regret it for long. His original limit of three authorities at the same time was more than enough to perfectly carry out his plan. It wasn't as needed before as it is now. His limit of one authority during concealment increases to two.
"Scroll…"
Aleph vaguely felt something familiar from it.
{Reminder. Complex information compatible with this ultimate skill has been detected…}
Metatron's words woke him up.
"I will deal with it later…"
Next was the third item.
This was one of the few things he accepted outright before the battle with the Cocoon. It did not cause much trouble, either.
This ability allowed Aleph to leave traces of him within the enclosed solar system—the key as to whether he could return or not.
"Hum… Another database…"
He skipped it for now and went to the final reward.
"...Is this pushing me to kill an Aeon?"
It was too terrifying. Most Aeons can only usurp authorities by drawing in similar Paths and assimilating the weaker Aeons. That was the case with Xipe and Ena, the Aeons of Harmony and Order, respectively.
"If I can kill one…"