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By now, they had already lumped Alex in with the foreign spies.
He didn't bother arguing.
Instead, right in front of them, he calmly cast resurrection magic and high-tier healing spells. Meia, who had been dead, returned to life at full strength. Lemures's injuries were completely healed.
That wasn't all.
The drug toxins ravaging their bodies were purged entirely. The lingering dependency, the damage carved deep into their bones and blood, vanished without a trace. Their bodies returned to normal, no longer shackled to those injections.
The sight of it left Kurome and the others frozen in shock.
Meia no longer belonged to her.
Alex didn't explain a thing. Just like last time, he used memory projection magic and let them watch the main anime and the prequel manga unfold before their eyes.
A moment later, Tsukushi, Natala, and Amalia stepped back into the house.
Seeing Alex had brought yet another group to watch "anime," they joined in without a word. Last time they'd rushed through it, missing plenty of details. This time, they watched more carefully.
When it ended, Kurome and the others sat there in stunned silence.
Disbelief was written all over their faces.
The entire Enhancement Squad… wiped out.
Even Kurome, who survived into the main story timeline, still died in the end.
Alex didn't care what storms were raging in their heads. He only said calmly, "That's your future. Whether you change it or not is up to you."
Then he left the room and went back to training his Development Abilities.
He wanted them all at S-rank as soon as possible.
Only then could he condense his Godhead.
As night approached, Kurome and the others came looking for him.
Alex glanced at them. "Made your decision?"
Kurome nodded firmly. "I want to change my fate. I want to help my sister."
The others echoed her. They wanted to change their futures too.
They were still just kids.
And kids are afraid of dying.
Especially Meia. She had already experienced death once. She had no desire to go through that again.
Lemures felt the same. This time, she'd been lucky enough for Alex to save her. But in the original story, even though she survived the mission, her severe injuries made her "useless." Bill had injected her with poison and killed her without hesitation.
Now that she knew Bill would murder her, she'd have to be brain-dead to stay loyal.
Alex nodded in satisfaction at their clear-headed choice.
Without another word, he cast his most powerful healing spell: Dia Fratel.
A warm, radiant light enveloped them.
The drug toxins within their bodies were completely erased, along with the dependency. The damage from years of forced enhancement was repaired from the inside out.
Kurome and the others felt as though they had been reborn.
It was like washing off years of grime and stepping into clean water for the first time. The crushing weight on their bodies vanished. They felt lighter, freer.
"It's really gone!" Kurome gasped, eyes shining.
"So… we don't have to take drugs anymore?" Silver said, grinning in disbelief.
"That's amazing… we don't have to train every single day or kill people anymore." Tears streamed down Lemures's face.
"Yeah… and no more being locked in solitary," Meia sobbed, laughing and crying at the same time.
For the first time in their lives, they saw hope.
From a distance, Tsukushi watched everything unfold. Her expression was complicated.
For the first time, she truly began to doubt Gozuki.
Was her father really that unforgivable?
Should she even remain loyal to the Empire?
Alex had noticed her watching long ago. He simply chose to ignore it.
After settling Kurome's group, he returned to his room to continue training.
They, meanwhile, cleaned out several abandoned houses beside his. The village had long since been deserted; the buildings were old and worn but still standing. After some cleaning, they were perfectly livable.
Time flew.
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Alex finally raised all his Development Abilities to S-rank.
Mystery, Divinity, Godslayer, Demon King, and Godhead had originally been the hardest to improve.
But by chance, Alex discovered that forging divine weapons also increased Mystery and Divinity. So he spent weeks crafting weapon after weapon at the artifact level.
After forging just over ten, both Mystery and Divinity reached S-rank.
As for Godslayer, Demon King, and Godhead, those stemmed from his acts of slaying gods.
Every day, he meditated, replaying each god he had killed, reliving the sensations of severing divinity itself. He even recalled the feeling of Pandora presiding over the "Dark Christmas Festival."
On top of that, he flew overseas or into outer space daily, unleashing his Authorities over and over again.
Little by little, experience accumulated.
After three months, Godslayer, Demon King, and Godhead all rose to S-rank.
Now Alex stood at Lv.10.
Every Development Ability: S-rank.
All preparations complete.
Next came the final step.
Condensing the Godhead.
At dawn, Alex rose early and adjusted himself to peak condition before beginning.
Before he had entered the world of Akame ga Kill, Hestia had already relinquished control over his Blessing. Now, he wielded it himself.
As he began, the blessing tattoo on his back lifted from his skin and floated into the air, transforming into glowing divine script.
He took out the "Divine Crystal" he had obtained from an ordinary world.
A single drop of his blood fell onto it.
The divine script formed from his Blessing followed, merging into the crystal.
In the next instant—
The world changed.
Clear skies darkened as heavy clouds rolled in. Wind howled across the land. Lightning flashed through the churning heavens.
Energy from all directions gathered like water spiraling down a funnel, pouring toward Alex's house.
The sudden phenomenon stunned everyone in the village.
Tsukushi. Kurome. The others.
They stared at the house from a distance, not daring to approach.
Inside—
The moment Alex's blood and Blessing fused with the Divine Crystal, it erupted with blinding radiance, greedily absorbing the vast energy flooding in from heaven and earth.
"..."
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