Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 16 Star-Crusted Dagger

Alex could not help but feel elated as he saw the satisfied demeanor being let out by Alina.

But this also made him feel conflicted, as he was supposed to be distancing himself from her now.

"Where should I bring Alina next?" Alex muttered as he remembered that he was supposed to bring Alina to the police station.

But with Alina loving streetfood and her actually knowing some residents from the hospital, Alex thought that maybe Alina will also have some acquaintance in the police station.

Now that Alex thought about it, Alina will surely have some acquaintance from the police station, given the fact that she's a powerful Esper.

"So I should cross off the police station then." Alex muttered to himself as he looked extremely indecisive right now.

"….." With Alex deep in his thoughts and Alina not taking the initiative to talk, both of them just stood on their spot awkwardly.

"Hey Alin-" But before Alex could talk, he suddenly heard a powerful roar above him.

"Raaarrr!" Alex felt his ears ringing as his ear bled lightly.

As for Alina, her pleasant demeanor disappeared, as it was replaced by the same aura that Alex felt when she tried to kill him.

Alina is back in her killer mode.

She held a sword in each of her hands as she stared right above her warily.

There, both Alina and Alex could see an enormous creature right above them.

The dome that was covering the whole Dragon Esper City has a hole in it now, with the body of the enormous creature slipping through the hole.

Chunks of broken metal and electrical wiring fell out from the lining of the hole, which fell to the houses below it.

Everyone who saw what happened started to panic as they did their best to run away from the danger.

The enormous creature looked like a lizard with three heads, with each head spitting flames. Its body was scaled, and it had 10 limbs, with each limb serrated with 10-meter long barbs.

This appearance and its own thunderous entrance clearly painted that this mutated lizard is not here for some warmhearted talk.

"Wait, is that an Intruder?" Alex asked as both he and Alina started to run towards the direction of the monster.

"That is an Intruder, and from the looks of it, this Intruder is clearly one suited for battles." Alina said as she waved her swords around her.

"Scwhing, scwhing, schwing."

A large block of metal, which was about to fall on a house, were cut into three pieces by Alina's move.

What made Alex impressed was the fact that the said metal block was around 800 meters away from them.

"So Alina really is a Tier 999 Esper." Alex thought as he saw that the lizard's body was now halfway through the hole that it made.

"That creature is at least a Class SS Intruder." Alina muttered to herself as she run towards the direction of the enormous creature. "But for it to be a Class SSS Intruder is also plausible."

"Are you going to fight that?" Alex muttered as he saw how large the Intruder was.

"What choice do I have?" Alina muttered as their distance from the lizard reached 2 kilometers.

With the speed that he and Alina was running right now, there might be not enough time to stop the lizard from fully entering.

Alex immediately realized this point as he asked Alina,

"Will Clint be allowed to assist us here? With his power level, he might only need one zap to finish that lizard off."

"It is only when the power of the Intruder was Class Z that someone from the Top 10 Espers can help." Alina grimly said as she vaulted over an overturned vehicle. "This Intruder right here is way behind that power level, so Uncle Clint will not be allowed to attack it."

"Drats." That was all that Alex could say right now.

"Can you hurt it?" Right now, Alex knew that it was Alina that will have the higher chance of hurting the lizard in front of them.

"I do not know unless I get to use my power against it." Alina said as she quickened her pace. "The higher the class of the monster will be, the greater their resistance will be to my attacks. A Class Z Intruder will just treat my space slashes as mere tickles. As for this lizard, I might only deal surface damage on it."

"Now that is not good." Alex exclaimed as he knew that they must do something now, or else the lizard will kill the both of them and other people.

"F**, I am still trying to acclimatize with my life here, and then this s**ty lizard just appeared." Alex darkly thought to himself as he looked at Alina. "But at least my date is now finished…"

When Alina and Alex were within a kilometer of the lizard, Alina started to brandish her swords once more.

This time she brandished them for 16 times, showing 16 rifts in space heading towards the lizard.

"Spurt!" The lizard's skin split open as they were unable to stop the space slashes.

But the injury stopped there, failing to penetrate further.

"It's a Class SS." Alina muttered as she fished out a phone-size crystal card from her pocket.

"Contacting Headquarters." Alina muttered as she talked at the crystal card. "Contacting Headquarters."

Alex then heard a static sound coming from the crystal card followed by the formation of image above the crystal card.

"A hologram." Alex thought to himself as he stared at the person being projected from the crystal.

The person was a handsome blonde male, around 20-25 years old. His piercing blue eyes and chiseled jaw might be enough to swoon the majority of the females.

His eyes were emitting a heroic air, making him look extremely valiant.

Alex was sure that this guy's body must be ripped, as that is the only fitting body for a guy with this kind of face.

Alex also noticed that this handsome blonde was giving Alina an extremely fond look.

"Either this blonde is Alina's relative, or he's one of Alina's admirers." Alex thought to himself as he could not help but get disgruntled with this blonde.

"Hey Alina! How are things right now?" The blonde looked extremely happy as he talked to Alina. Alina on the other hand, did not look that happy as she said,

"While I am having my date here in Dragon Esper City, a Class SS Intruder suddenly appeared, tearing a hole through the dome of the Dragon Esper City in the process."

Alina continued talking as she ignored the blonde's ashen expression.

"I know that the World Diagram have already identified that Intruder by now, but I figured that I must also report it to the EWO Headquarters personally."

As it turns out, the blonde's face was ashen not because of the Intruder.

"Wait, you have a date right now?" The blonde blurted out in surprise as he stared at Alina. "Is that true?"

"I just told you that earlier, Lord Gallius." Alina said with a hint of edge in her tone.

The blonde, whose name was Lord Gallius, swiveled his projected head until he saw Alex, who was standing beside Alina.

"So, you are Alina's date huh." Lord Gallius mumbled as he glowered at Alex. "I do not know how you managed to force Alina to date you, but I will make sure to investigate-"

"Right now, a lot of civilians will be in danger if you don't move your bodies." Alina said, interrupting whatever nonsense Lord Gallius was talking about. "If you have a beef with Alex, just deal with it after the Intruder."

"Alex huh. I will remember your name and face." Lord Gallius said as he gave a nod to Alina.

The crystal card then blinked as the projection disappeared.

"So, that guy…" Alex was about to ask Alina something when Alina waved him off.

"You said that you have awakened your Esper Ability, right? Then help me out right now. We still need to deal with that thing."

"Sure."

Right now, Alex could see that there are multitude of Espers crowding around the lizard.

They fired multitudes of attacks toward the lizard, but its tough skin took the brunt for most of these attacks.

The attacks that did went through were just few, and these attacks just served to infuriate the lizard more.

"Rarr!!" All three heads of the lizard then threw fireballs towards the Espers, which all exploded in mid-air.

The power in these fireballs were too great that most of the Espers below the fireballs were immediately killed.

Those who survived were heavily injured, making the whole situation bleak.

Alex gritted his teeth as he realized that the situation is really not that good.

Even with the speed of the World Diagram, it will still take around 5 minutes before any reinforcements can arrive from outside of the Dragon Esper City.

5 minutes will be enough for the lizard to kill more people.

And Alex and Alina will surely be included in that death tally.

"Do you have a plan right now?" Alina muttered as she looked at the lizard despondently. "That monster can be only hurt by a Star Esper, as only their Mental Power will be enough to penetrate that kind of defense."

"Can you be a Star Esper right now?" Alex muttered as the lizard descended on the ground. "Since you are already a Tier 999 Esper, then you just need a little push, right?"

"It is not that easy." Alina shot back with irritation clear in her voice.

"There is a massive gulf between a Tier 999 Esper and a 1 Star Esper. It is not something that can be just done overnight."

"So you can't do it right now?"

"I can't." Alina answered resolutely.

"Sigh, in that case, maybe I should buy that…" Alex thought despondently as he remembered the second item that is being sold to him by Asteria.

This item is the Star-Crusted Dagger, which costs about 15 days of his lifespan.

The function of this Star-Crusted Dagger was actually simple.

Its blade, which was made up of the essence of stars, contain enormous amounts of Mental Power inside them.

If this dagger was stabbed into a person, the person stabbed by the Star-Crusted Dagger will experience a 500% rise in their current Mental Power which will last for 5 minutes.

If the dagger was stabbed to two people at the same time, the boost will be divided, with each of the stabbed person receiving 250% boost.

This pattern will apply if the persons stabbed were 3,4, or more.

These effects might look impressive, but Alex's impression of the dagger dimmed when he saw its side-effects.

Once the 5-minute time limit was used up, the person boosted by the dagger will experience severe paralysis that will last depending on the boost used.

When he saw this side-effect, Alex decided to not buy the dagger anymore.

The side-effects alone will put his life in massive risk. And the fact that it gets 15 days of his lifespan just makes it worse!

But with the lizard currently barreling towards them, and the fact that Alina was here, Alex realized that he can still put the Star-Crusted Dagger into use.

"How much Mental Power do you need to become a Star Esper?" Alex asked as he glanced at Asteria.

Asteria immediately recognized what Alex's look meant. She flew towards the seal on his forehead as she connected with its trading system.

"I need to double my current amount of Mental Power to reach 1 Star." Alina said crossly as she seemed to glare at Alex. "Even with my current resources, it will take me around 2-3 years to become a 1 Star Esper…"

"Well, I have a way for you to temporarily reach 1 Star tonight." Alex said as he gave Alina a reassuring look.

"I can allow you to raise your Mental Power by 250%, for 5 minutes. I think that is enough for you to reach 1 Star temporarily." Alex said confidently. "However, once that 5-minute time was, up, you will be in a severely paralyzed state that will last for half a day…"

"If you believe in me, then allow me to do that power boost on you." Alex said as he waited tensely for Alina's reply.

It did not take Alina a second before she gave her reply.

And Alina's reply was well, a typical reply from Alina.

"If what you said is indeed true, then I will agree. But remember that my uncle and aunt know that I am on a date with you. If you do something nefarious to me, they will discover it, and they will just have to contact some of their Esper friends, and that will be the end of you."

"… I understand." Alex said as he saw Asteria purchasing the Star-Crusted Dagger for him.

The feeling of 15 days of his lifespan vanishing made Alex sigh in exasperation.

"I should not have signed up for this."

**************

After hearing that Alina needed to just double her current Mental Power, Alex decided to use the Star-Crusted Dagger on Alina and himself.

Alina, because she needed to be a Star Esper to fight the lizard.

As for Alex, he needed to use it to since he saw some Espers looking around them with malicious intentions.

These Espers surely are up to no good. Maybe they decided to do crimes right now, with all the chaos around them.

Alex of course was not happy seeing this.

Alex was now itching to use his new skills on a fight, and these Espers will provide that chance to him.

With Alex's current Mental Power, he could sense that these Espers have mental powers around 100-120.

Alex knew that if he used the 250% boost of the dagger on himself, he will raise his Mental Power from 35 to 122.5. That will bring his Mental Power above them.

Combine that with some of his skills, and Alex was sure he can give these Espers some good beating that they deserve.

As for the paralysis after 5 minutes, Alex already had a countermeasure for that.

Alex activated the small radio that was given to him by Clint earlier, and used it to call Clint.

"Master, I need you to fetch us in our place 5 minutes from now. Alina and I will do something against the Intruder that will leave us defenseless 5 minutes from now, so I need you to be there to fetch us. I presume that will not violate your restriction from fighting, right?"

"Hmph, I know what is happening right now." Clint replied as his voice sounded unhappy.

His voice sounded husky as Alex could hear Clint's children being rowdy. "I am highly tempted to just roast that lizard right now, but this damn restriction is stopping me from doing so! But it seems like you and Alina have a plan prepared already…"

After a few seconds of hearing Clint admonish his rowdy children, Alex could hear some sighs over the radio as Clint said,

"Well don't worry. I will fetch you 5 minutes later, so have all the fun that you want."

"You heard that Alina?" Alex said as his predatory gaze went to the criminal Espers, while Alina's gaze went to the Intruder.

"Let have some fun."