Strictly speaking, Aleph did not treat the fourteenth herrscher seriously. Any one of his authorities were more than enough to deal with her. He could defeat her in an overwhelming manner.
The only reason why he kept testing the waters was due to the Cocoon behind her. The rogue Cocoon bore zero semblances with what he knew. It was for that reason Aleph chose to give her more chances—to know the Cocoon's current characteristics.
Needless to say, he did gain something.
'Its authority of time… then its absolute control over all honkai energy. It seems like it could exert control beyond parallel worlds. That's one thing to watch out for…'
His analysis was extremely detailed. If written into a paper, it would have taken up an entire city to write everything he thought.
'Beside parallel worlds… it didn't kick me out from the get-go… nor dispose of me. It could only mean that it could not forcefully do these things.'
Aleph weighed his advantages and disadvantages.
The thing he minded out the most was his existence as the infinite light. It was exactly because of that the Cocoon could only plot to get him out of the "real world" and throw him inside a "fake world".
Then, without him being in the "real world", the Cocoon could slowly fix the changes he had made. Although, it was debatable whether it could still do so.
Aleph stopped his high-speed analysis as he felt it was now unnecessary.
'I'll only see it… now.'
He looked back at the parallel world Earth behind his back before his gaze returned to the fourteenth… no, the Cocoon.
He smiled at her, but failed to elicit any form of response. She gestured with both of her hands and clasped them together. They were pointed at his position right as she did so.
'Huh..!'
Crack-!
Zoom-!
The entire void was filled with thousands of black slits. Arcs of purple came out of them one after another. Their appearance did not stop.
Under Aleph's elemental sight, he saw the convergence of multiple parallel worlds. Each one of them was the possibility of the fourteenth herrscher letting out the final blow to destroy the current iteration of Earth.
Only the purple light filled his sight.
'Goetia. Nice move.'
He did not hesitate to return to his True Form. His features were swallowed by an indescribable light, only leaving his outlines untouched. Atop his right hand was a pitch black sphere. It looked similar to a black hole at first glance.
It didn't take long until the indescribable light affected it. Besides the pitch black color, it was now glowing with a dim white glow.
Click.
Aleph threw the small sphere to the absurd attack it launched. The superimposition of dozens of parallel worlds' attacks created an attack capable of felling star systems with ease.
Unfortunately, they met the pitch black sphere.
The moment it came in contact with a single bit of honkai energy, the attack disappeared. It was as if it was erased with an eraser.
Soon, the darkness of the void and the glow of the distant stars became visible again.
"Hum."
The "fourteenth" let out a snort. Its eyes were focused on the portion of the void. The previous fourteenth would have been deceived, but not it.
Hum.
As it had expected, the previous pitch black sphere did not fully disappear. It emerged out of the dark void with great fanfare. Its size expanded swiftly until it turned into a black sun.
It only had one-tenth of its original size, yet it was more than enough to engulf the entire Moon within it.
The Cocoon responded by pointing out her pointy finger. A pure white dot appeared and floated above her fingertip. It was then sent flying towards the black sun.
Rumble.
Bam.
What came first was a disturbingly "loud" sound. It happened metaphysically—above the physical world. It was caught by the information dimension, thus sending a form of 'effect' to the two complex information beings.
Zoom-!
The sound of tearing came henceforth. The black sun imploded, leaving behind an unimaginable aftershock that caused the void to crack. The black slits were filled with varying colors—some are dark blue, some are dark gold…
'Other layers of dimension…'
{Result. A total of twelve dimensions different from the current one were detected from the aftershock…}
Aleph digested Metatron's analysis while being protected by the dual barrier of Infinity and the Nullification Field. Similarly, his opponents employed means that allowed her to remain unaffected.
The two went through several back and forths. It was the Cocoon who initiated attacks at first, but as time went on, it became Aleph who did so.
The Black Sun, enhanced Hollow Purple, attacks using Yamato…
Aside from his means related to honkai energy, Aleph nearly used most of his power. All five authorities of his were seen by it.
No matter how the Cocoon tried to overlap attacks through parallel worlds and even use Aleph's tactics of attacking by leaving traps in the past, Aleph perfectly solved them. He was the perfect counter to its existence.
Akin to the form he donned the moment he came to this world, he was unchanging.
Rumble.
The Moon had long been wiped out by the aftermath of their battle. Only Earth remained due to Aleph's protection over it. The said action made her eyes contemplate something.
For it, Earth's destruction did not matter. It did not even place a thought regarding that. So long as it could fulfill its purpose of finding a successful embrace, nothing else mattered.
The countless parallel worlds that fell to the Sea, all caused by the Cocoon's willfulness, did not matter to it… at all.
Its changes were visible to Aleph.
'Should… no.'
The thought was extinguished the moment it appeared. Aleph could not accept Earth being destroyed. Even if it was a parallel world—perhaps the world where Senti came—he could not bear to see it destroyed.
That was his will… his purpose.
Aleph had a vague hunch that if he compromised today, he would turn into the Aeons high up in the sky who did not give a damn about the struggles of others. The level of self-centeredness exhibited by the Cocoon was a great example of that.
'I won't. I won't. I won't..!'
Just then, two separate and different kinds of pressure squeezed into his body. It was a kind of compressive force that attempted to firmly lock him in place.
Both he and Metatron saw what it was.
{Result. A new high-level complex information lifeform had appeared. Their main sources could be traced back outside this parallel world. The two dimensions are as follows…}
'The Tree and the Sea…'
Aleph's speculations turned out to be true.
Nevertheless...
Tick.
...he wasn't the type to become a sitting duck.