Nexus Ascension: My Comprehension Defies the Heaven Chapter 582: Going back, entering path simulation

~6 minute read · 1,552 words
Previously on Nexus Ascension: My Comprehension Defies the Heaven...
Grey discusses the similarities between nirvanic power and Joestar's unique cultivation path. Joestar reveals his Genesis Evolutionary Path, inspired by an ancient scripture. They speculate about its connection to the True Source Being and the Ouroboros, especially concerning Alissa. Joestar successfully removes a strange spatial aurora from Grey, though the identity of the benefactor remains unknown. Joestar then grants Grey the highest administrative privileges within Helios. Grey and Alissa spend the day sightseeing and shopping, culminating in a spontaneous kiss and confession, after which they head to a hotel together.

Grey was speechless.

"What are you saying?" he asked. "Is this something you should even be saying? We just made it official."

"I-Is that not what people do when they become a couple?" Alissa’s face went red in an instant.

She had already been getting herself ready for this moment for days now.

Whenever she wasn’t practicing her myriad laws of heaven, she had been reading all sorts of adult comics. The Pan-Cosmic Human Alliance had them in plenty.

She had noticed a pattern.

The moment two people became a couple, they would head straight into a hotel and do all sorts of bad things together.

The first time she saw it, she was shaking.

But by now she had read more than a hundred of them, and every spare moment she got, she went right back to reading more.

In short, Alissa read dirty magazines.

"I mean, some people do that too," Grey said with a sigh. "But I think we should take our time. Get to know each other, spend more time together before stuff like that."

He was a little embarrassed himself.

He was a healthy young man, and normally he wouldn’t say no.

But this was his cute Alissa.

She had a habit of jumping into things without fully understanding how serious they were. He didn’t want her waking up one day and regretting it.

He had a feeling she only said this in the heat of the moment.

"Does that mean... we’re still a couple?" Alissa asked, confused. "Did you not do it with Lia and Valeria?"

"Pff." Grey almost coughed up blood. "Ahem. Well. It hasn’t really been that long since we confirmed everything. Two months, at best. So."

He was still holding onto her hands.

Now that they were official, he wanted to pamper her even more than before.

He pulled her along by the hand, dragging her into one shop after another. He bought her food. He gifted her clothes. He spoiled her with anything that caught her eye.

Alissa didn’t fight any of it. She let herself be led around, peeking up at him every so often, like she still couldn’t believe this was real.

By the time they were done, the two of them ended up sitting together on a bench, her head resting on his shoulder.

Then she looked up at him and pouted.

"You’re a bad guy..."

"You’re the reason I turned out like this," she added.

Grey smiled wryly and scooped her soft body into his arms.

Even though she was an ice dragon, she was surprisingly warm to hold.

This was the same girl who had treated him so coldly when he first crossed over into this world.

Even back then, after everything the previous host had done to her, she still tried her best to be kind to him.

That was the real Alissa underneath it all. The kind of person who, even after you wronged her, would forgive you in the end, as long as you chose to change for the better.

She was one of those rare people you were lucky to have in your life. The kind who would never say it out loud, but quietly pushed you to become a better version of yourself.

"I feel like I’ve reached the point where I can’t get through a single day without pinching that cute face of yours," Grey said with a smile. "But from now on, I think I’ll have to start kissing you daily too."

There was a term for this.

Cuteness aggression.

He liked his cute Alissa exactly that way.

Alissa buried her face into his chest, not saying a word. The tips of her ears were bright red.

"Um. I think we should head back now, right?" Grey smiled.

Alissa nodded against him.

It was time to leave.

She lingered for a moment longer, reluctant to lift her head off his shoulder. Then she finally pulled herself up, fixed her clothes, and slipped her hand back into his like it belonged there.

They returned to the Helios headquarters together. Joestar was already there waiting for them.

Islode, the Spirit Ancestor, Misty, and Joshua all felt the pressure the moment they saw Joestar.

Joestar rarely showed up like this, so of course they would feel pressure.

"Friend." Joestar stepped forward. "If you ever need support, use this insignia."

He handed over the insignia of the Helios Academy.

"This will let me come to you at any time, in any place, with no restrictions. It weaponizes world-breaking source power, drawing on it the same way the Abyss does."

Grey nodded as he took it.

By now, he understood how they had gathered so much world-breaking source power in the first place.

They took it from the Abyss.

Joestar was likely using his Jade Emperor powers to pull it out, and the Helios also hunted down abyssal planes and universes on their own, stripping the world-breaking source power straight out of them.

In other words, they had no shortage of it.

If he ever found himself in a pinch, he could even borrow some from the Helios.

Right now, though, he had enough stored to travel twice over. He wasn’t in any kind of pinch.

"Wait." Islode spoke up suddenly. "I’m coming with you."

"Huh?" Grey was caught off guard.

Alissa’s head snapped around, and she shot Islode a cold glare.

Grey already had too many women circling around him. If one more got added to the pile, when would he ever find the time for her?

She absolutely could not allow that to happen.

"You’re staying here," Alissa said coldly. "You’re not from our universe. It’ll cause problems if you enter it."

"???" Islode stared at her, baffled.

What had gotten into this girl?

Grey chuckled wryly. He understood Alissa’s concern perfectly.

"She likes Joestar," he told her through telepathy. "How have you still not noticed?"

There was a time when Grey ignored love and romance entirely. Now he could pick up on these things in other people with ease.

The only reason he had struggled to read Alissa was because she acted one way one moment and a completely different way the next.

Islode’s way of showing affection was about level 1. Basic. Easy to read.

Alissa’s was so advanced you practically needed elite knowledge to decode it.

He had only figured it out himself after she kissed him and they made things official.

Hearing this, Islode calmed down at once. Her face softened, and she stopped pushing.

Soon enough, they set off.

The Spirit Ancestor said he still had a few errands to run, so they left him behind.

The moment Grey returned to reality, he spent time with his family first.

Then he sat down with Lia and Valeria and told them everything that had happened at Helios.

The two of them immediately started teasing and pestering Alissa about it.

Grey watched the whole thing helplessly.

He let the three of them have their fun with each other and slipped away to go visit Alan.

"How was the visit, Master?" Alan asked.

"It was good." Grey nodded. "By the way, what are your plans from here on out? You’ve been with us for quite a while now."

"I plan to keep staying with you," Alan said with a firm nod. "There’s still so much I can learn from you."

"Alright." Grey nodded.

If that was what he wished, then Grey didn’t mind it at all.

With that settled, he stepped back into the simulator space.

It was time for the 8th rank.

The eighth rank was both easy and hard.

It was easy for anyone with immense willpower, someone who could shed their inner demons without any effort at all.

"But since I’m a new evolver, I shouldn’t have many inner demons to begin with," Grey thought to himself.

Inner demons formed with age.

The older you were, the harder it became to climb the ranks.

That was exactly why the 8th rank was the ceiling so many people could never break past.

Going any further was brutal for those with average talent. It took them millions upon millions of years just to reach this stage, and by then their heart demons had only grown stronger.

But Grey had the Buddhist technique he received from the Holy Corpse.

That alone was more than enough to handle even an ancient monster.

He could also amplify its power the same way he had during the 7th rank.

Since everything ran on axiom power, he could keep the same chant going, but lock it into ticks defined by a golden ratio to make it far more effective.

Similar to the ticks of the Chaos Source Codex.

His path revolved mainly around axiom power and frequencies.

That was why he believed this would work beautifully.

He immediately formed a clone and begin using that technique he got, testing it on the clone to see if it will work and how far it can go.

The simulator space went silent around him.

If his theory held, the 8th rank wouldn’t take long at all.