Volume 18 Chapter 4 (1/2)
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Kamijou Touma once more climbed to the top of the transparent spiral staircase
He had reached the summit of the mountain
A vast space awaited hi was transparent After taking just one step into it, he was unsure where the stairs he had climbed were No, perhaps the exit really had disappeared once he arrived
And now that he had climbed the heavenly staircase, he was in outer space
He had no idea how the diiant blue planet spread out endlessly below his feet
”It is simple”
For the first time, he heard a physical voice instead of a staticky fake
Kamijou Touma was not about to let any absurdity or unreasonableness surprise him now That ”human” stood in the center of that space which had nowhere to hide He had ankle-length silver hair and wore a green surgical gown He looked like both a man and a woman, like both an adult and a child, and like both a saint and a sinner And he spoke as if he had been standing here for an entire century
”A field ruled by the ley lines running through the ground The directionality and intensity of the various forces arriving from the cardinal directions and froic born on earth is bound to earth And unfortunately, humans will fill in seas and shave down oals Yes, the very saht I oal if I escaped the limited possibilities of the earth I will adot there ahead of me”
That was the purpose of the powerful walls, fully-enclosed environment, and rocket boosters
And it did not matter if those conditions needed to escape the earth were destroyed He had ignored Euclidean geometry to extend space, raise his tower in another dimension, and free himself from the bonds of the heavens
”…Is your battle still not over?”
”It may never end I used the life support syste into the outside world, but I also gavemyself 1700 years of extra time In other words, it is all part of the plan No matter how many failures, defeats, losses, and setbacks I face, I can redo it all”
”Can I say so kind of mean that tramples over all that?”
”Such as?”
”…Lilith may have died before she could learn to speak, but I doubt it was this look on your face that she loved”
There was nothing more than that
Kaht this was someone who could be stopped ords He knew Aleister had invited hi for so was set up to be resolved with a fist So clenching his right fist here was not leaving the rails prepared by the Board Chairman even by a millimeter
But he did not care
In the end, this was all Kamijou Touma had
No ht have wished for it, he could not becoi player or cook in this instant So he had toabout the details and sla on the brakes, he had to floor it, throw out the plans of this scherasp the results for hi
”Let's do this”
”No words are necessary We know each other better than that”
Oddly, that turn of phrase brought a smile to Kamijou's lips
This was truly his first ti this ”human”
And yet Aleister's strange statement seemed so very appropriate
They must have been linked before he was born and they must have been enemies from the moment he was born
No ave each other, their relationshi+p was an inseparable one
So
This time, words truly were not necessary
The two of theround and ran forward
Kaic battle
And that hy he did not have to worry about being taken by surprise and killed
The ”huht hand forward He extended his thuinary muzzle toward Kamijou's belly
And a few numbers scattered from his hand like sparks
32, 30, 10
Several illusionary gunshots rang out in a row It did not un was flintlock If these had been actual lead bullets, there would have been nothing Kaic Thattoo perfect an i
He deflected the bullets and ht up to Aleister
Or he should have
”Spray”
”Wha-?”
Kamijou's confused voice did not actually leave his mouth as sound
Before it could, an unpleasant cracking sound stabbed into him from the side He doubled over as an i forward, but he was knocked sideways Blood burst from his mouth as he breathed Unable to cry out or screaain across the invisible floor
”Who are you looking at? The person standing here is the ician who has decided to live forever because he loathes the collisions between phases more than anyone else”
”Gah…bah!? Are you saying you've constructed a way to gather together the unpredictable sparks and spray so you can target and fire it!?”
”Do not act so surprised by what is no ic that I launch myself But if I had coht have been able to show some kindness to an innocent baby”
Kamijou could not just crawl around on the floor
Aleister had already changed his stance He held out his right and gently grasped the empty air The spark-like nu fire by scraping a lighter's flint Ka, but for so sword appeared in the back of his mind
Spiritual Tripping
This e into the viewer's mind
This spell gave the value of the real object to the pantomime
(I' to be…stabbed!!)
Kamijou immediately tried to roll away
But Aleister jabbed into eardless
No
No!!
”The Blasting Rod”
With that short warning, a pleasant sound stabbed into Kaht shoulder A dark red hole as thick as his littler finger was opened there An invisible blade had stabbed him Even without an explanation, his instincts and the intense pain told him the answer
”Ugwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”
The range was clearly longer than the ie this much just because it had no physical forht
He had seen that conflict
Magic only appeared to have infinite possibilities to those who did not understand hoorked He only had to recall the e They had always followed some kind of rules to produce a limited power that they then used to decorate the world as they saw fit
Say you wanted to extend the length because the attack could not reach
To do so, there had to be rules or a theory that allowed it
”The Blasting…Rod!! Is that what did it!?”
”It aet thinks it is That is the surest and simplest symbol of power that h to avoid jealousy frouised it as a trick that sent the target's refined ic power out of control to knock the them”
Kamijou did not have time to wonder if the initial attack that had hit him, Tsuchimikado, and the others had been amplified like that
13, 5, 32 In other words, the sword again
He dodged based on the assuth of the rapier would be 10 tie he saw in his head, but a dark red hole was opened in his side
”Gbh!?”
”When you assu Rod uses that as the basis for the 10 times amplification Thus, the blade is extended 100 times”
At that length, the blade could slice across this entire space He could not pull it out To avoid being held in place by the iht hand It shattered and vanished into the ether and he regained his freedo the wound closed
If Aleister had intended to eliic Gods on his own Had he had any realistic chance of that without an exception like Kamisato Kakeru's World Rejecter? Kamijou had his doubts, but this seemed to be the trick
If he could not do it as a huic Gods themselves
Drawing out the power of a God and defeating a God while reht
Instead of beco a God, he would control them and rule them
Nothing could have been ant, but that just showed how much hatred he had in his heart
However, that ainst full-power Othinus How to ic God who had absolute confidence in their poas still aany kind of huainst them
And…
”Do not think this is all there is”
Aleister Crowley pointed toward the empty heavens
”Why did I drive you on with the chain assassins and mountain devilishness which reaches for human karma and pushed you onward? Why did I have you climb the alternate-dimensional mountain of the third tree? Why did I have you pursueand the Blasting Rod? All things have a reason If you do not knohat that reason is, then it h”
”It is all a single ceremony,” he announced
Then the spell user spoke a powerful name
”Couidance and complete my objective”
Immediately afterwards, that tehter than the sun
In that instant, an entire city pulsated
”Uuh…!?”
Still back in District 11, Shokuhou Misaki groaned at the eerie throbbing below her feet Biological disgust ran down her back like the ground was covered in slugs, but the ground reirl herself
Her th, and her feet grew unsteady
An unpleasant feeling different froans inside her stomach like an invisible hand, so she doubled over and rubbed her inner thighs together
She held her head and worked to hts
(What…? My…power…)
Some juvenile halls had syste their powers by obstructing their concentration with the stihts, sounds, and smells, but this was different She could only describe it in an extremely abstract way
(…It's being…sucked out of me…???)
Shokuhou Misaki did have a guess about this
Not counting the chairman, the Board of Directors had only 12 members One of those was Yakuitate Halation Project, she had been served by Rensa, an esper cyborg who could use any of the Level 5s' powers What kind of technology had she used?
Yes, she had not created the powers herself
Hadn't sheLevel 5s so she could remotely draw out their powers?
(So did the Board Chairman use his authority to place artificial nerves and blood vessels across the entirety of Academy City? Does that let hiather their powers in a single place???)
It was quite the trick, but it had to be an extreamble on Aleister's part After all, the heat wave that had recently attacked Acadeescale s had gone just a little differently, the city's network of nerves ht have been torn apart and failed to work
And
It was obvious where the ”powers” of 80 of the city's 23 athered
”The Windowless…Building”
Shokuhou felt incredible disgust as if she were being forced into a giant biological abdominal cavity
”But…what for…?”
He descended
Did this being even knohat it meant to alter hiht had weakened Kamijou's eyeballs must have been forced to adapt
Aiwass
The holy guardian angel that Aleister Crowley su his beloved wife's body
He had long, golden hair and radiant skin But that skin was endlessly cold, so perhaps it should be described as a pale platinum
He seemed beautiful, but perhaps that was because he was such a distant being
He seemed like a jewel, but perhaps that was because he seeanic
”A play at Thelema? You should have known froland and built a temple”
”It can talk…?”
That alone orthy of surprise
Kaels before For example, he had seen the one known as Gabriel a few times But they had never made their presence known quite so smoothly In fact, they had seeot to them
”I see, I see So my voice can reach you without distortion this time That may mean the world had recalled the truth to some extent”
Aiwass's shoulders shook in laughter, but no emotion was visible on his face
”And is it that strange, boy?”
”What…?”
”Fuse Kazakiri was used as a ed to elic form”
He had been created froround up by human hands
Froel
So…what? Was that the correct answer?
”And this is no time to be concerned with such trivial matters”
So impossible happened
The angel smiled
This was the look of someone who had stumbled across a new hobby while bored out of their mind
”At the moment, I am your natural enemy”
It exploded
What did? Before Ka his fist forward and his right arle from the shoulder Not even the intense pain could keep up Then sorabbed it in his hand while still s
”Ha ha!! It seeo And its purity leavesdetours, haven't you!?”
”You talk too much”
”Very well”
It happened in the span of a breath It was just like with Magic God Othinus back in Baggage City Aiwass squeezed his hand and easily crushed whatever-it-was to death
”Ah…gah!?”
The pain finally caught up
Kaht shoulder
”Ignorance truly is a frightening thing,” said Aiwass ”Are you really entrusting your life to three-diarden where Euclid never applied in the first place?”
So
Karabbed his destroyed shoulder, and th to force the dislocated joint back into place
As soon as he swung his arm, his body somersaulted backwards He had just forced his shoulder back into the socket in exchange for so much pain that his vision diain just a few seconds later
”Ighgghghghgh! Ghgghghghghghghgghh!?”
(Dammit!! I blocked it, but I still have no idea what happened!!)
If he could at least learn what this attack was in exchange for the da which way to dodge But with no results, he could only continue to block the attack
This was the great treasure built up in order to overpower all of the Magic Gods, including full-power Othinus That meant this battle would be just as…no, more hellish than that battle
And Aiwass was not the only one here
Aleister
”The Blasting Rod”
That support spell would aht it would be
It was now a solid wall
Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass had been amplified 10 times
Kamijou did not even have tirabbed his unreliably dangling right wrist with his left hand and forcibly pulled it forward just in time for the direct clash to hit
His feet rose from the floor
His body flew through the air and his back slammed into a colorless and invisible wall
”G…bh!? Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”
A dull sound he had never heard before burst from within his body
To be clear, this hat happened after I it could
Even if the liine had been extended 10 times…this destructive power could only be described as unbelievably great It gave credibility to Aleister's arrogant intent to declare war on the Magic Gods while re human
”…Pant…pant…”
Was it a hand or a wing?
It was too large to iine the overall form And even after it moved away, Kamijou could not move for a while He was pinned to the wall and could not even collapse to the floor No, he even considered the possibility that he was squished to the wall like a crushed frog
”That's just like a transformation,” said Aiwass ”How childish”
”If I was not, I would not have continued falling for more than a century”
”True enough, I suppose If you had any sense, you would have given up long ago and your soul would have withered away”
What could he do?
How could he punch them?
Even when Kahts inward to escape the pain before his eyes, he could not find an answer
So when he moved, it was mostly on reflex
He grabbed his right shoulder with his left hand and forced the joint back in place
Having returned to his nor
And the angel al himself
”You're quite the hero, aren't you? Are you that intent on refusing to let Aleister Crowley fall on his own? Yes, I can see why you were chosen”
”Iine Breaker chose you Because no ed for it, he only ever met failure and setbacks”
Ka of those words
The sun attacked him once more
In that moment, a horrible chill ran down the back of 15cm Fairy Othinus who had lost her usual spot
”Touma, Touma! Where are you!?”
She looked in an odd direction as she listened to the white nun continue to shout the boy's nae spiral staircase
”Aiwass… That na here?”
”What?” asked Fran who picked Othinus up so she would not be trampled underfoot
The sole surviving Magic God breathed from her nose
”Tch!!”
The spiral staircase provided , but it also allowed the gear and handcuff rings to become a threat once more as they appeared around Maika Thanks to that, Tsuchiht back The rainbow chain skeleton and transparent flesh and blood could not be defeated without I them back barehanded Fran seeht as the only one who could voluntarily use ic without any risk
”Aleister had always used the ter, be it spiritual or physical, was scientific as long as it was beautifully ordered and could be explained causally”
Othinus was a big deal herself for continuing to speak with no change of tone with all this going on
”And the peak of that theory was Aiwass That naious category …And this world is foric side phases that have been placed on top of the physical laws” She put her hands on her hips and looked to the el of the bottommost layer…that is, of the world of pure physical laws That is why he is Aleister's greatest treasure If he establishes aAiwass and uses that tremendous power to destroy all of the filters other than Aiwass, only a icless world will remain”
The hoodie bikini girl was part of the ic side, but not even she seemed to understand
The one who came to a stop was Index
”Aiwass? But if that appears here while living up to the theoretical values…”
”Yes, this would have been constructed in order to oppose Magic Gods such asin a straight fight”
Soulped