Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter4

==Chapter 4: The Brink of Death – Battle_With_ARCHENEMY.==

===Part 1===

The factories of District 17 surrounded them.

The time had passed 4 AM. If it weren’t January, the sun may have already been rising.

One line was far more distinct than the horizon and also quite dangerous.

Academy City’s wall was in view.

The fate of the world would be determined by whether or not the great demon managed to cross that wall.

But neither Kamijou Touma nor Coronzon even glanced in its direction.

They knew the greatest threat at the moment was right in front of them.

Coronzon started first.



“Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Ruler of the eastern horizon.”



“Hoor-Paar-Kraat. Ruler of the western horizon.”



“And south is Set’s direction. The east and the west have already been sealed. The world is now a straight line. Be pierced by the dazzling light stabbing the world from my southern hand and die, human!!”



A fearsome white light was compressed before it raced out, scorching the air as it went.

And several more followed.

“!!”

A single hit to Kamijou and not even a hunk of flesh would remain. He would be truly obliterated.

But he did not catch this with his right fist. He swung his entire body aside to dodge.

Coronzon’s attacks were extraordinary.

Even with Imagine Breaker, carelessly trying to stop them would send his arm spinning with the rest of his body, blowing him away.

His right hand’s power was no use anymore.

However, Kamijou Touma hadn’t been fighting because he thought he thought he could win.

He knew all too well how much of a disadvantage he had.

But there was a reason he couldn’t let this continue, so he was fighting.

His body…moved.

''He couldn’t remember what they looked like anymore, but someone had done something to help him'' and now he could push past his injuries to fight.

(If I can move around like this – if I have enough speed to slip past her attacks – then I can reach her. Each step I take and every centimeter I move brings my fist that much closer to reaching Coronzon!!)

“Ha ha!! So the first attack didn’t take you out!? You really have grown!! And I thought you would be rolling along the filthy ground immediately after spewing some wild nonsense like usual!”

This was not a simple matter of physical strength.

Coronzon tore apart people’s bonds and obstructed their progress. Yet the world still needed her. She hated herself, so she wanted to destroy that framework and create a fair and impartial world void of conflict.

Kamijou knew she was twisted, but part of him couldn’t directly refute what she was saying. That was why he had lost their previous battle. Helplessly so.

What about now?

Could he say she was wrong to her face?

He asked himself that now.

And he fiercely faced forward. At the great demon who was trying to destroy the world by ''overdoing'' her role. At someone who could not accept a world where someone as evil as herself was allowed to exist.

If he couldn’t, this would be a repeat of the previous battle over Adikalika.

He would lose the psychological battle, freeze in place, and receive a serious injury while just standing there.

“I’m not sure I understand all that confusing stuff about the Sephiroth and you being a great demon…but it boils down to you wanting to create a just world, right? That’s why you’re fighting?”

“Yes. That’s right! I will create a pure world without any loathsome roles like my role of tearing people apart!! The next world will be a world of freedom, fairness, and happiness, filled with only just things. I will create an era where no one suffers or is torn apart. And I will do anything to achieve that!!”

“…I see. But I think it’s nice if the world is a little bit off.”

“?”

“As long as the world is kind to people, it’s okay if it’s a little bit off. I mean, a world where only just things happen, and only in the correct way, sounds stifling. There’s no soft cushioning in a world like that. Any impacts will hit you directly, like hitting solid concrete with a metal bat. That would mean no one ever lets anything slide and there are never any surprise bonuses, right? The unjust are expected to be destroyed and never get a second chance. No, the unjust would never come to be in the first place. …Yeah, that would be stifling all right. ''I don’t want to live in a just world where saying the wrong thing doesn’t just get you criticized but gets you executed.''”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that your next world where everything’s all lined up in order and where everything can be explained doesn’t sound very fun. Your ideal leaves no room for whims and uncertainties. It’s like having a ton of choices, but you know where they lead before you make them. In the worst case, there might not even be any ‘wrong’ choices at all. In that case, then no matter what you choose, the path you take from birth to death with all lead to the same ending. It’d be a boring life of pressing the same button over and over.”

Coronzon’s face turned red.

“What kind of reason is that!? You can’t even benefit from your good deeds in the current imperfect world. It will all fall apart at some point. Are you saying you will accept bad deeds!?”

“There’s something I’ve wondered while looking at Qliphah Puzzle 545 and the Bologna Succubus. Why do demons fulfill people’s desires? Is it to drag people down to their own doom? Without directly physically killing them? If so, there must be better ways, like using hypnosis or illusions to pit the humans against each other. But demons all lend their power to humans and take those humans’ ruin as payment. And they even do this with the kinds of desires that an angel would never grant and you’d be reluctant to tell anyone else about. Doesn’t that mean that you demons are like a cushion to catch the people who slip through the cracks and can’t recover through the normal methods? However you were originally created, you may have ended up functioning in that way.”

Of course, those people would be ruined in the end. You couldn’t rely on a demon and then get away scot-free.

But you had the freedom to choose: die without any say in the matter, or go to hell satisfied you made your own choice.

“Are you kidding me, Kamijou Touma? Don’t act like you know what you’re talking about after only about 15 years of life! I exist to ruin people! God knew I would rebel, yet he did nothing to stop me!! My fall was planned. A soft cushion to catch people who slip through the cracks? I am not equipped with that function and it would be sinful to even wish I did!!”

Kamijou smiled a little.

He wasn’t Hamazura Shiage. ''Kamijou Touma could not agree with Great Demon Coronzon.'' But he felt like he was a little closer to understanding why Hamazura had been worried for her and decided to bet on her. But not much closer.

Hamazura hadn’t wanted Coronzon to be left all alone due to her title of great demon.

She was an embodiment of evil, but she would not call herself righteous. Hamazura had probably seen the weakness in Coronzon that prevented her from arriving at that answer.

“I seem to have struck a nerve. And I thought you demons were supposed to be good at this sophistry stuff.”

“Kh.”

“You’re a demon, aren’t you? But do you really want to defeat heaven?”

Coronzon herself had just said it would be “sinful” to wish she had that function.

She kept saying she would defy god, destroy the world, and wipe the slate clean, but she still understood the weight of the current rules. She kept saying she hated them, but she was constantly aware of them. Almost like a rebellious teenager and their parents.

In other words…

“No matter how much you resent, hate, and curse him, you still picture him as the ruler of the next world, don’t you? You can’t throw out the idea and presence of a good god.”

“Do not attempt to analyze me, human. I am an irredeemably wicked being, but there is one thing I know: baseless accusations are a sin deserving of death!!!”

The roar of splitting air passed above Kamijou’s head.

A group of people rapidly flew by in the night sky above.

It was the Transcendents like the Bologna Succubus and Aradia.

Some lights were flashing. Colorful lights.

“Oh, dear. Have you already forgotten who swatted you down from the wall!?”

“Alice!! If you want to save Kamijou Touma, then get ready. We will lay the groundwork and visualize the extent of the magical damage. Then when you attack, you don’t have to worry about that boy being caught in the blast! Today isn’t a day to be playful, selfish, or in a temper! Today is the day you take this seriously!!”

Lay the groundwork.

Each of the lights flashing in the night sky had to be a deadly attack. They would soon stab into the ground. It would be a downpour of destruction. While the Transcendents were only borrowing those forms, their precision meant the end result was little different from the acts of the gods of myth.

All expression vanished from Coronzon’s face.

And then she chuckled.

To Kamijou, it didn’t look like she was enjoying this. That was the look of someone who had cold water thrown on them.

“I am the great demon who lurks in the Abyss of the Sephiroth and obstructs humanity from arriving at wisdom.”

Kamijou’s shoulders shook.

This was bad.

He had picked up on some kind of invisible change in the air. He knew it was unscientific, but then Coronzon stood at the peak of the unscientific.

''Her presence was growing.

“Thus, this kind of magic is the best fit for me. …Dakshina Kalika.”



A white explosion followed.

It was made of ice.



A point in the sky unnaturally froze. Before Kamijou could even identify it as an icy orb as smooth as a crystal ball, it burst from within, scattering sharp shards in all directions. A mass the size of a soccer ball became tens of thousands of shards. With enough force to snag at and topple the factory smokestacks and blast furnaces.

It didn’t matter how many colorful beams of light were launched by Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and the other flying Transcendents. Each of those magic attacks had to be powerful enough to kill Kamijou…but none of them made it through. He had thought of them as a downpour, yet they were all intercepted before reaching Coronzon. Not even one of the glowing raindrops falling from the sky managed to slip through. Instead of accurately hitting each one, it was more like enveloping the entire area with a small explosion. The precision was perfect. It was truly a wall. An impenetrable wall of ice.

Coronzon wobbled on her feet. Blood dripped from her mouth. In exchange for this great power, something was being worn away inside her.

He knew he could end this, but Kamijou still shouted out loud.

“Wait! Kanzaki told me you saved a girl from a violent man while you escaped. Then even you must have some-”

“Yes, It’s true! Ha ha ha. God must truly despise me. I don’t know if he placed it in me to begin with or if he remotely interfered, but he made me do that!”

“No, dammit, that’s not what happened! God wasn’t controlling you! This just means you had that capability inside you from the star-”

Several more ice orbs exploded.

Kamijou’s cries did not reach Coronzon.

Precisely, as if someone had arranged it that way.

And all of the attacks falling from the night sky were shot down before reaching her. Light and explosions danced wildly.

Explosions.

Without end.

And, most of all, with extreme precision.

Interception, shooting down, the act of obstruction. Coronzon made full use of her purpose and grinned. Even as her eyes wavered and red blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

Coronzon didn’t even look in the Transcendents’ direction. She was only considering how she would use ''this'' to torment, tear down, and kill the powerless boy.

He alone she would make sure to kill here.

Kamijou sensed something else seething behind her wicked smile.

“Cough… What now, Kamijou Touma? I have more than one trump card. I can destroy the human world in so many other ways beyond Adikalika. As I’ve explained countless times already! But I don’t recall saying ''I couldn’t bring about that destruction from within Academy City a second time''!”

She could blow up and shoot down that downpour of rapid projectiles with perfect accuracy. What would happen if she did that to attack him on the surface? Maybe he could stop one or two with Imagine Breaker, but he couldn’t keep up with so many attacks. Then should he run away? How was he supposed to get away from that on his two human legs!?

The distance grew again.

The gap between them had seemed to shrink and he had been certain his right fist would reach her.

But now the psychological distance kept growing.

“I can accurately shoot down objects flying up to Mach 9 whether they come from the front or behind. This is a 360-degree barrier. The Transcendents? That school play of phonies dressed up as gods!? Ha ha ha!! Superior numbers mean nothing to a great demon!!”

“Damn!!”

“Come, Alice Anotherbible!! You are the only one who can likely break through Dakshina Kalika’s barrage by brute force. But I do not fear you! I am an expert at making people give up. That is my purpose as a great demon. So I will face you head on as I wear you down and break every last part of your spirit!! If you don’t act now, I will turn your precious teacher to mincemeat!!!”

Coronzon had to understand the threat Alice posed.

Yet she was goading and provoking Alice for her own enjoyment.

Coronzon was just too much. Kamijou didn’t even have to move in for an attack. If she simply walked toward him, he would be crushed. Whether or not he readied his fist.

Kamijou backed away, driven back by the barrage of exploding ice.

“Are you kidding!? Did you think these brute force tactics would be enough for the Transcendents to give up!? We just have to break that Mach 9 limit!!” said the Bologna Succubus.

“Ha ha!! About what I would expect from a nameless extra. Breaking the Mach 9 limit only lets you get close. Even if that uncontrollable straight line does reach me, I will simply hit you with a cross counter. I have more than the one trump card, you utter buffoon!!”

Lights flashed and explosions boomed.

Kamijou dove into a nearby unmanned factory while hearing the angry cries of those extraordinary people. That alone was a miracle. Yes, without the Transcendents giving him the opportunity, he would have been turned to mincemeat after taking the first step. An ordinary human couldn’t attack, defend, or even move freely against Coronzon. Not even a supersonic Saint like Kanzaki was enough. Coronzon was too great a monster!

“But what kind of factory is this?”

Had he actually gotten away? If this was an ultra-dangerous factory marked with some kind of hazard symbol because it dealt in dangerous chemicals or microbes, he would rather not know about it.

Kamijou took a look around and found a huge indoor space like a harbor warehouse or school gym. However, it didn’t feel spacious thanks to the object at the center. At first, it looked to him like a humongous ikameshi made of gray steel, but it wasn’t.

A sliced aircraft carrier sat there.

It was supported from below by countless wooden pillars and surrounded by metal scaffolding and stairs.

The back half of the whole was complete, but even that half was sliced up. The cross section showed the interior of the ship, including cabins and corridors. Kamijou knew he was seeing something strange. It looked like there were three or four levels below the flat deck.

He frowned.

“They’re building a ship? So is this a shipyard?”

“From the look of it, it will be at most 100m long when fitted together, which is awfully small for an aircraft carrier. It must be a drone carrier that has cut out all the necessities for a human crew.”

“Whoa,” exclaimed Kamijou.

All of a sudden, he found 15cm Othinus on his shoulder. He felt her glaring at him. During all the confusion after that giant LAShTAL thing knocked over the building, Othinus must have been hiding in his jacket.

“You do understand me well enough that I need not explain what I am doing here, human?”

“Fine, fine.”

A drone carrier. Academy City was located in western Tokyo, so it didn’t border the ocean. But come to think of it, hadn’t Transcendent Mut Thebes found a warship to use as a weapon? Since this one was sliced up, maybe large transport helicopters would suspend it from wires and carry it, piece by piece, to a coastal harbor city outside Academy City where the pieces would be welded together into the whole warship. That was far from the normal method, but Academy City could pull it off.

The side of the ship curved back further than vertical and bore the name Kagenui.

Coronzon was protected by a Mach 9 barrier. And this drone carrier was awaiting completion in the shipyard. …Should he try to find something he could use, or was it too dangerous for an amateur to touch anything here? An ordinary high school boy couldn’t even make that judgment. With a great demon as an enemy, he was afraid he would be lured toward what looked like the best option but would actually work against him.

“So what was that thing Coronzon was using? The Dak-whatever!?”

“Dakshina Kalika. Just like Adikalika, that’s another alternate name for the Indian goddess Kali and an alphabetic symbol used in Crowley-style Magick. I assume you can figure out for yourself how highly Coronzon ranks it.”

So it was on the same level as the Adikalika large-scale attack spell…

Kamijou nearly came to a dumbfounded stop.

Even though he knew that great demon’s true essence – yes, the very essence she so loathed and despaired in – was in breaking people’s spirits, making them give up, making them fail, making them rot, and sending them tumbling into the depths.

..Yes, that magic was exceptionally powerful. It might take time, but if Coronzon were to walk through a city or country she wanted to destroy, she could scatter endless destruction and wipe it off the map. None of the people being destroyed could stop her slow approach, so everyone and everything in that area would be obliterated by the ice explosions. It was an absolute interception magic, a Mach 9 barrier. That wasn’t very exciting, but there was no countermeasure!

(Maybe a teleporter would be able to fight back against that… But I doubt that alone would be enough to win.)

“Are you kidding me? If she could do this, why didn’t she use it from the start? It was only a few hours ago that she could have won easily if she had just hung on until Adikalika activated!”

“It’s probably ''too'' powerful. At Scotland and here, she was setting up a major ceremony meant to influence the entire world. Thoughtlessly using a major attack would have damaged her delicate spiritual items and ceremony, so she chose not to use it. But now she has nothing to protect. At this point, she has no reason to hide her presence. She can focus on killing the enemy before her and escaping, so she can more easily draw on her full strength.”

Othinus suddenly stopped talking there.

Because of some footsteps.

In the distance.

“Kh.”

Kamijou was cautious. Could this actually be Alice or someone else on his side? No. There was no rush to these footsteps, so he doubted this was a Transcendent who had hurried inside after breaking through the ice barrage. More than that, Kamijou Touma knew his misfortune too well than to hope for a lucky break like that.

The hundreds of wooden pillars supporting the sliced carrier were thicker than Kamijou’s body, so he hid behind one of them.

Overly long blonde hair.

A beige habit.

But something wasn’t right.

The explosions were continuing.

From beyond the wall and outside the shipyard. Coronzon was already here inside, but they were just as powerful as before?

“I left some turrets out there.”

Coronzon said it herself. Loudly enough for Kamijou to hear her even from this distance.

And with a smile splitting her face.

“This does require me to send magic power their way. They are stationary turrets, but as long as I continue to supply them with power, I can set up as many as I like. Their power, speed, accuracy, and precision are all no different from my own. This keeps the Transcendents pinned down by their barrage. And if you do not choose your exit carefully, you will be turned to mincemeat as soon as you take a step outside.”

“(Human.)”

“(Yeah, I know.)”

Kamijou didn’t believe her.

An analysis by his understander Othinus was one thing, but would Coronzon really reveal accurate specs when he hadn’t even asked? ''Not a chance''. He had to assume she was hiding something, like that those turrets could actually move around at high speed or that they amplified the power of the shots beyond what she could do herself.

She was even more serious than before.

But this was the seriousness of a wounded animal. She had been pushed devastatingly far beyond her limits.

Would she pass through the shipyard to shake the Transcendents and then safely cross the city wall?

“Alice Anotherbible and the rest of the Transcendents will not show up to save you. Besides, they were an unnecessary addition to our confrontation anyway. Now, is there any fat left to be trimmed? For example, what about that Magic God on your shoulder who keeps whispering wisdom into your ear? I will crush her now, Kamijou Touma!!”

Coronzon did not hesitate. She aimed her palm straight toward him from her distant position. Apparently he wasn’t hiding as effectively as he thought!

“Dammit!!”

A frozen white explosion burst forth.

A rapid chain of them did.

Each of the thin carrier slices had to weigh hundreds of tons. More and more of the wooden pillars distributing their weight snapped and they tilted with a great groaning. Kamijou didn’t have time to consider what was safe and what was risky. He ducked below a slice that looked ready to collapse at any moment, diving to the other side of the ship. He wanted to get as far away from Coronzon as possible and put some kind of cover between them.

Coronzon tilted her head in response.

…Yes, it made no sense that Kamijou could escape on foot like that. She had already said that spell could handle anything up to Mach 9.

“Hmm.”

She directed a curious look to her surroundings rather than Kamijou.

“The strike points were scattered. Or rather, my accuracy has clearly dropped. Why would the automatic targeting fail? Is the echo not reflecting right in this indoor space? No, even then…”

“(The problem is in the Telesma forming Coronzon. That is, her nature as a great demon. I know I’m not one to talk after being reduced to a fairy, but wicked monsters traditionally avoid silver or iron. Yes, iron. And I hope I don’t need to remind you that this is a military shipyard. Did she call it an echo? Yes, because Telesma does not rely on the laws of physics, using its weak echo to track a target would provide history’s greatest sensitivity. But her impure demonic power is absorbed by gold and reflected wildly by silver and iron. That means her echo doesn’t work in here.)”

Othinus whispered all this into Kamijou’s ear.

He couldn’t trust Coronzon’s own words, but Othinus’s analysis was a different matter.

“(You just said something crazy in there, didn’t you? An echo that doesn’t rely on the laws of physics!? Are you messing with me!?)”

“(Did you think a magic cabal’s manuals would waste many pages on physics? And that isn’t what matters here. Stop arguing when it means the enemy can’t use that ability here, idiot.)”

To sum up, he could ignore that Mach 9 barrier while inside the shipyard. He approached Coronzon.

This time, his right fist would reach her.

===Part 2===

The space below the pile of debris was not very large.

It was at most a five meter square.

A normal person would have turned on their phone’s light and immediately regretted it. They would have thought the darkness was better. They would receive an intense feeling of pressure while gaining nothing positive, so they might very well have passed out.

Index was seated with her knees against her chest while she toyed with the calico cat in her hands and produced a trembling voice.

“I’m hungry.”

“Didn’t you already say that?” Misaka Mikoto sounded exasperated as she curled up small in the faint light. “I do have some emergency cookies, but the problem is the lack of a drink.”

“Hooray!”

“No hesitation at all!? Have you never experienced that dry-mouth hell before!?”

The resolution had already left their hands.

All they could do was wait for rescue.

They just hoped when they were dug out of the rubble they wouldn’t find the entire planet had been reduced to rubble.

“I hope Touma’s all right.”

“What, do you regret sending him off like that? He’s the guy who knocked out Academy City’s #1 and rescued nearly ten thousand of my sisters. Once he decides he’s doing something, he sees it through to the end.”

“Yeah. No matter how many times I bite him for seeing me naked, it never seems to deter him.”

“That sounds like hi- wait, what has that idiot been doing!?”

They shared some bitter laughter.

They realized they didn’t actually know each other very well. They had Kamijou Touma in common, but barely any direct connections beyond that.

How long was it until dawn?

Whatever the case, this probably wouldn’t last long.

“…I don’t want to die.”

Mikoto stated the obvious.

But there were times when the obvious carried great meaning.

Like when tens of thousands of tons were pressing down from overhead.

“Yeah.” Index again nodded within the deadly rubble. “I can’t go to school with Touma…but I do want to see the ‘new term’ he’s been talking about.”

===Part 3===

Silence had fallen for a change.

Great Demon Coronzon must have stopped using her Dakshina Kalika inside the shipyard.

The muffled booms were coming from beyond the thick walls. From what she had called the turrets.

The greatest threat of that magic was its incredible rapid-fire ability and precision. On the other hand, the destructive force of each individual attack was not great enough to freeze his legs in place just from seeing it. Of course, a direct hit from that sharp 5m explosion would still pierce through every part of his body and kill him instantly, but ''that was all it would do.'' That was destruction he could actually imagine, which wasn’t like Coronzon. He didn’t know if the great demon had realized how the iron trick worked, but she must have decided that attack had lost its ''allure'' with its accuracy so greatly reduced.

…That meant she would not intercept him now.

Kamijou had used the metal scaffolding and stairs to reach the deck of the sliced carrier. Strangely, there was no launching catapult. Also, the flat deck was covered in square panels a few meters across. Perhaps the Kagenui operated its aircraft completely differently.

He kicked away a heavy toolbox left on the deck. The deck was the equivalent of three or four floors above the shipyard’s floor, so about the same as dropping something from a school roof. The toolbox lid opened on the way down, allowing wrenches, a power drill, files, and other tools to pour down like rain. With her directly below.

“Oh?”

An odd sound followed. A distorted popping sound, like striking the air with a whip.

Coronzon extended her overly long blonde hair like a chameleon’s tongue and hopped up to the carrier’s deck three of four floors up.

Bringing her less than 100 centimeters away from Kamijou.

(How is she still showing off new abilities!?)

“Kh!!”

“Now, allow me to shout: Veparrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

He had to suppress his instincts.

Using Imagine Breaker was too dangerous.

Instead, he immediately let his upper body drop down.

Something like an invisible shockwave burst from Coronzon’s wide-open mouth. It missed Kamijou and greatly ''bent'' the deck of the cutting-edge warship, albeit one still under construction. And it didn’t end there. Something like white grains of rice were eating though it. Those were maggots. The armor panel grew dark and rotten before melting away.

“!!”

Finally.

As powerful as it was, one of Coronzon’s attacks had ''missed''. This was the perfect chance. Kamijou rushed in and clenched his right first, but his feet sank down. The floor didn’t hold.

He fell.

“Gah…owww!!”

But it could have been worse. He only fell one level. He landed in the cabin directly below. He might have died had he plummeted all the way to ground level.

The table and chairs were directly bolted to the floor. It was hard to tell because the computers and wiring hadn’t been installed yet – was that called the outfitting? – but this was where the ship was controlled.

“Is this the CIC?”

So said Othinus. …Why had he been able to come up with “outfitting” but not “CIC”?

Of course, he didn’t have time to sit around listening to Othinus. A second and third roar were launched from directly above. There was no rotting this time. Once the interior of the ship burned away, the other time it shattered like stone or ice. Kamijou rolled away from the large hole overhead, leaving the broken cabin and entering a narrow corridor.

“Rank3” was written large on the wall and red and yellow lines on the floor branched off along different paths, but he had no idea what they meant.

Othinus was saying something while clinging to his clothes.

“So she’s moved on to Goetia now? …Dammit Coronzon. She pouts her lips and acts like a niche specialist, but she’s just a trend-follower. Even she loves the classics. Maybe she yearns for the proper methods since that’s something she can’t do herself.”

“What is that Goe thing!? I may be dumb, but I can tell missing this will get me killed!!”

“After all the attention R&C Occultics gathered, I imagine it’s famous enough that even a goth loli middle schooler would know about it… The general public views it as a handy grimoire that lets you summon a whole bunch of demons with just one book, but the Crowley faction interprets it as a ‘murmur’. Instead of a physical summoned monster, they see them as spells that withdraw unknown power from within yourself through conscious atavism. There are 72 + 1 extra. Crowley himself supposedly drew on a portion of Buer’s power for healing magic. I say ‘supposedly’ because it’s a legend with no corroborating evidence.”

So was it magic that placed a variety of special effects on your voice? Like a paralyzing scream, a slashing shout, or a healing song?

“Are you saying this has more than 72 attack patterns? We’re not talking about some rich kid’s colored pencil set here. How am I supposed to deal with that kind of variety?”

“Goetia is certainly a pain. It starts out with a lot of basic abilities and then has a lot of room for adaptation among them, so it’s hard to guess what could come next. So you need to get her to switch to some other magic, human.”

“?”

She must have expected Kamijou’s frown. It was nice that he could skip past a lot of the annoying trouble with his understander.

“Each spell she has used so far has been extremely powerful, but she has never once used more than one spell at once. She has always focused on one at a time. You saw her bleeding, right? She has been shortening the preparation time for those large-scale ceremonies too far even for a great demon. Because they’re so powerful, she may be afraid of losing control and having them blow up in her face. There’s also Aleister’s obstruction to consider.”

“Meaning?”

“If we get her to use a spell that works in our favor, she will be creating her own blind spot. When using a certain spell, you know she won’t use Dakshina Kalika or Goetia.”

That conclusion meant a lot.

It was enough to make the future look a bit brighter for Kamijou.

“I’ll do it, but what spell does she have to use for us to win?”

“Magick: Flaming_Sword.”

The future sank into darkness.

Wasn’t that the most dangerous of her attacks that she had used against him during the battle over Adikalika?

That ultra-fast and ultra-powerful projectile attack had twisted his entire body around along with Imagine Breaker.

It was the original reason he feared Coronzon.

“But if she uses that, I’m dead!”

“When she had a physical body, yes. But Imagine Breaker worked on it when she was separated from her body in Scotland.”

“And now…?”

“She has a physical body.”

It turned out his hopelessness hadn’t quite been complete before. Now his understander had thoroughly proven he would die instantly.

“Look, human. All of Coronzon’s magic has been powerful enough to kill instantly. Getting scared over the power of the attack at this point is meaningless. And no matter how powerful it is, you know this attack. Between Scotland and Academy City, you’ve been hit by it twice and lived both times. And you negated it once, when she wasn’t at full power. Your body has learned the pattern and timing by now, right? It gives me a headache to consider, but that most frightening of attacks ''has become'' the easiest one for you to dodge. Plus, Coronzon sees those past experiences as successes, so she will use it if she gets impatient. Especially now that she can use it at full power.”

“…”

Was this when he should shout “such misfortune”?

“The worst thing she could do now is produce some new ability you’ve never seen before. You saw that earlier when she used her hair to pull herself up onto the carrier, right? That’s the last thing you want now. So no matter how dangerous it is, a known attack is much safer. When you know the attack already, you just have to dodge it. It’s simple. You can do that, can’t you, human?”

“It is not that simple! If it was easy to dodge, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with!!”

Still, it was true she would be wide open after using that attack. It had been the same with that Goetia(?) attack. If he hadn’t fallen through the rotting deck, he would have been able to get a punch in.

“Just in case you’ve forgotten, I will point out that I am not saying these things to make you suffer. To be blunt, this is the very best option you have left. I’m reluctant to even bring up the other options. Would you go out of your way to choose a more painful and more difficult road, human?”

Was she saying the best line had fallen this far?

Great Demon Coronzon was just that dangerous a being.

Most likely, the vast majority of his options would lead to his death. The normal options would get him killed like normal. So Othinus was presenting him with an unthinkable option and encouraging him.

“Ugh. Where do I start?”

“You don’t have to. …You aren’t an angel, a Magic God, or a Transcendent, yet she failed to kill you. That great demon’s patience will already be running thin. It wounds her pride. The only surprise is that she hasn’t already tried to rely on that past success.”

He had thought it was weird how much Othinus was pushing him toward this, but apparently it was something he had to be ready for regardless.

He was scared of course, but this was all for nothing if he let that guide him onto a losing path.

He heard footsteps.

From nearby, on the same level. He pressed against a corner in the corridor.

“I am a demon, but not from the Qliphoth where the forces of evil gather. I am the great demon hidden by the holy Sephiroth. I dwell in the same abyss as Da’at.”

He heard a voice.

In a tone far too sinister to be called singsong.

“Every number is the same. My right hand contains Nuit of Resurrection. Watch as the possibilities expand and surpass the bounds of the finite. My left hand contains Hadit of Vengeance.”

He recognized this phrase. This was the incantation Coronzon uttered before casting Magick: Flaming_Sword. She really was impatient. Adikalika had been stopped, she had fled through Academy City, and she hadn’t been able to cross the city wall. Thinking back, she had experienced one failure after another. She had to be sensing bad luck, or an unpleasant invisible trend. It made sense she would want to rely on a past success to break free.

If she was focused on that incantation, she must have switched what magic she was using.

No Goetia was coming. He didn’t have to worry about Dakshina Kalika.

Kamijou pressed up against the wall and waited.

Three steps.

Two steps.

One step.

He steeled himself and rushed out from around the corner.

Coronzon was right there. He didn’t even need to let her use that flaming spell. His fist could just reach her!!

And Coronzon’s lips whispered.



“Get him, ''Dakshina Kalika''.”



Kamijou’s heart froze.

But the poor boy could accuse this of being unfair or unreasonable all he liked. It wouldn’t make the reality any less cruel.

“Ohhhhhhhhh!?”

He shouted, twisted around, and – because using Imagine Breaker would be more dangerous – he dropped to the floor to somehow avoid the barrage.

Or he tried to. But in truth, he felt a scorching heat in his right flank. A bunch of ice must have exploded to the side of the sliced carrier. The ice had shattered itself to scatter countless ice shards at speeds greater than bullets. They easily pierced the ship’s armor and one of them tore through the boy’s side.

He spun through the air.

He broke free of gravity and then made a horrifying discovery. The carrier was sliced into pieces. And he had flown beyond this slice. He flew over the three floor drop to the shipyard floor and reached the next slice.

“Gah!!”

Othinus…had been wrong?

No, that couldn’t be.

Maybe Coronzon really could only use one spell at a time. But she could solve that problem by creating a time difference. And she had given some dubious information earlier.

''The turrets''.

If she had set up those stationary turrets (that maybe could actually move) here and there within the shipyard, then Coronzon herself would be free to act. By using her second magic in advance, she could catch Kamijou in a crossfire. The strategy discussion with Othinus had been necessary, but it had given Coronzon too much freedom!!

The drop in accuracy no longer mattered. If the barrage was distributed over a wide enough area, it could still hit.

Kamijou rolled through a large area. Located directly below the flat deck, it was likely the maintenance hangar where the many drones would wait on standby. …But the width of the slice left only about the space of a classroom and there was nowhere to hide.

Plus, Coronzon had been singing. What had she prepared for the other half of the crossfire?

Wasn’t it an attack that would kill if it hit?



“Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power.”

===Part 4===

''Crash!!!

A power even more brutal than lightning pierced Kamijou Touma’s body.

This was not unpredictable misfortune. It was something more definite.

After all his work and struggling, had he failed to overcome this full-power attack launched while Coronzon had her physical body?

“…Hmph.”

(He wasn’t blasted to pieces. Did he use Imagine Breaker at the last second? A valiant attempt when he had to know it would still break and kill him.)

Regardless, the battle was over.

He was still breathing, but he simply lay there twisted on the floor. Finishing him off would be far too easy. The 15cm version of Othinus was shouting something at the boy and glaring fiercely at Coronzon, but that too was meaningless. She couldn’t do anything.

Her magical knowledge had to be useful in battle, but she was not the grimoire library. The disgraced Magic God could not use that loathsome Spell Intercept.

“Perhaps you were not the one who should have been with him, Magic God.”

This pain was not necessary for her victory.

But her soul was afflicted by her nature as a great demon.

When Coronzon sneered, her mouth filled with the flavor of blood. Very bitter blood.

“It didn’t have to be you providing him with magical wisdom. Yet you insisted on keeping that spot for yourself. Did you let your wretched desires influence you? If it had been the Index Librorum Prohibitorum with him here, she may have been able to protect that dying brat!”

“What makes you think you’ve defeated the world here? The battle isn’t over yet. Act triumphant all you like, your precious attack still failed to actually kill Kamijou Touma. You failed. Just like you failed to escape this city!”

“This isn’t even about that.”

Coronzon glanced aside.

The sliced drone carrier and the shipyard itself created several solid layers blocking her view, but she still seemed to be interpreting the stars in the night sky.

“This planet may be on the way to its doom without me having to lift a finger.”

===Part 5===

A shape sliced swiftly through the night sky.

It had been given the beautiful nickname of the Swan, but that was due to the pure white paint which was a self-defense measure to deflect as much of the heat as possible when it launched a nuclear strike. Even those who didn’t know the detailed specs could imagine how many bombs and cruise missiles the strategic bomber was loaded with if they heard the 55 meter and 275 ton craft had a crew of only four.

Currently, its large bomb bay was filled with something even more dangerous.

Punishment for an Archangel.

When that magic circle struck Academy City territory, along with the bomber itself, it would swiftly take effect. The very nature of demons and angels would be affected to forcibly injure that great demon. All lives within 50 kilometers – in a circle stretching from western Tokyo to the Chubu region – would be killed, but those were acceptable losses.

If it would allow them to eliminate such inhuman beings from the earth.

“Hee hee. I’ve waited until the last second, but Coronzon’s reading is still strong. You’ve failed, Academy City. Aaaaand you too, Anglicans. You human specialists should stick to chasing after human magicians. It’s time for the monster specialists to clean up this mess.”

After all that, Vasilisa smiled in self-deprecation.

She was ultimately talking to herself.

The pilot seated next to her was an ordinary soldier(?) who knew nothing of magic, but there was nothing to worry about there since he had been thoroughly brainwashed. At greater than Mach 2, Japan’s Academy City wasn’t far away at all. And she had gotten started long before they had expected.

Vasilisa smiled quietly.

She had at times fought alongside the other sects. Protecting the earth and humanity usually meant her interests were aligned with those of other beliefs.

But not this time.

Given its purpose, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Annihilatus could not compromise on this.

This world was managed.

Thus, inhuman beings could not be allowed to threaten human lives.

That was the base assumption.

As long as they would follow that, Vasilisa and her colleagues could work with the other sects, but if they wouldn’t follow it, those other sects became her enemy.

Vasilisa did not enjoy having to do this. She was using a strategic bomber to deliver the necessary magic circle to Academy City, but the magic circle was only a magic circle. Someone had to supply it with magic power to activate it. Vasilisa would not survive when they crashed into an open park at full speed. Nor would those inside of or near Academy City. Of course she didn’t enjoy having to sacrifice her life and the lives of others.

There were so many people she still wanted to adore, Sasha and the Patriarch not least among them.

But she believed this was the right thing to do.

She was protecting the earth. Protecting humanity. Protecting justice. Protecting peace.

She was using human means to protect all humans from an inhuman threat.

…Yes, doing everything necessary to defeat Great Demon Coronzon was undeniably the right thing to do. Who in the world could resist this joy, temptation, and duty?

(I hope Sasha will see how sensible I was to keep her out of this.)

Academy City was in no state for effective air defense.

The science side angel Kazakiri Hyouka had been the one concern, but even she couldn’t act right now.

The conditions were in place.

If they had been more careful but more bold in their attempts to kill Coronzon, Vasilisa might not have had a chance to act and been stuck watching.

(But instead I get to swoop in at the end and claim the victory for myself.)

The scenery below changed from sea to land.

Academy City was dead ahead.

Strange alarms were sounding within the bomber, but based on the scouting drones they had sent in earlier, the outside troops wouldn’t actually shoot. She didn’t know why, but some rules of theirs forbade it. So a bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons was approaching, but they just let it go. That country never made any sense to her.

An open park was best for delivering the magic circle to the ground. She commanded the pilot.

A mere ten degree tilt to the nose filled the bomber with the definite sensation of falling.

They didn’t need to put out the landing gear. Slamming the fuselage into the ground and letting the surface tear it away would be perfect.

“That will make it easier for me. You can rest easy, Japanese people. Accept that Academy City never did belong here and give up on it!!”

Vasilisa’s words ended there.



A great tremor shook the entire 50m strategic bomber.



Instead of something hitting it and causing damage, it was more like its course had been forcibly diverted. Against the wishes of the control column. And so the Swan missed Academy City. It flew right past it.

“What the-!?”

The bomber’s great size and speed prevented her from commanding the pilot to make a U-turn. Its turning radius was just too large.

But this hadn’t been the scientific angel.

Academy City’s air defense should have been dead or close to it. Then what was this?

She heard a voice.

The strategic bomber was a ceremonial ground tearing through the night sky at greater than Mach 2. This shouldn’t have been possible without permission from Vasilisa, its master.

“We could just shoot you down in your confusion, but then I would feel bad.”

“We are gods, after all. Ha ha! Did anyone ever say we can’t fly!?”

“Nephthys and Niang-Niang…”

Vasilisa spoke their names in a daze before a point deep in her head suddenly boiled over.

She figured it out.

“You damn Magic Gods!!”

“Oh? But we’re not getting in the way of your Russian Orthodox work. There are two monsters right here in front of you. And full-power ones unlike Othinus. I would think we would be a higher priority than attacking Academy City.”

“C’mon, you specialize in inhuman things, right? Well, we’re the crazy Magic Gods who don’t think twice about crossing the line between life and death to obtain knowledge. So come play with us monsters, specialist!!”

===Part 6===

Looking up from within the sliced carrier inside the shipyard, Great Demon Coronzon wrinkled her brow a little.

This was odd.

Why wasn’t the strategic bomber crashing? A direct hit from that wouldn’t do much harm to her. And if it blew away Academy City in the process, it would cause enough chaos for her to celebrate since she wanted to escape the city. Yet it wasn’t happening?

“Is the tide turning? But what caused it?”

(Aleister’s tricks don’t work. Then is this ''your'' doing? No, am I reading too much into this? Either way, I don’t have time to think about it with the way things are going.)

After some thought, Coronzon froze.

Someone had their hand against the ship’s inner wall. As they gathered strength in their legs. Their movements were wobbly, but they were gritting their teeth. Kamijou Touma was standing back up. Once more.

Yes, he was moving.

He had been twisted and blown away.

''Ordinarily,'' he should never have been able to move.

“Thank goodness,” he said.

He had the voice of someone who hadn’t given up.

“My head hurts like hell and I honestly feel like I’m about to die, but thank goodness I didn’t accidentally touch my head… Yes, that’s right. ''I don’t know who it was, but someone helped me out.'' All for this moment. Because now I don’t have to worry about passing out even when my pain must be way past the limit!!”

Hadn’t Othinus asked what made Coronzon think she had defeated the world? 

Kamijou Touma was one thing, but that cunning Magic God would not make a baseless argument from emotion. She had known from the start what kind of psychological control had been applied to Kamijou Touma!

Even so.

While he could still fight, what was driving that human so far?

He would have been better off just dying.

A drowning man would grasp at straws. Pain and fear could not be tamed by logic. Even if he had survived, he might have avoided a further thrashing if he had played dead. Maybe the world would later be destroyed, but he would be safe for the moment.

“How can you so innocently believe in the future?”

Coronzon found herself taking an action entirely unrelated to her victory.

Some thick, invisible words left her mouth.

As if she were uttering a curse.

“Imagine Breaker negates all supernatural powers and summons misfortune. It negates the good along with the bad, so as long as you possess that right hand, you can never receive god’s blessings. Just like me, your function intrudes on your life. No, it’s worse for you since you never chose for yourself to rebel. You were abandoned by god from the moment you were born. He said it couldn’t be helped and that misfortune was your lot in life. For no more reason than that!! That’s more than enough for you to reject a world that claims to be fair. So why don’t you curse the world? Why don’t you want to destroy the world that wouldn’t choose you!?”

Battered Kamijou smiled a little.

…He didn’t want to be the happiest person and rejoice in his triumph.

Even if it would look pretty cool to be able to say so like it was nothing.

But he couldn’t say it.

He refused to.

He had once gone to hell. During his tour of hell with CRC and Anna Kingsford, he had seen all too well what his nature was.

He was a filthy human.

When someone cried, it hurt him too and he just wanted to escape that pain. He only clenched his fist and fought so desperately because he was a terribly weak person who lacked the resolve to accept tragedy. Being punched was easier than seeing tragedy, so that was what he did.



He didn’t want the misfortune.

He wanted to be happy.

He wanted to live.



He might be plagued by misfortune, misfortune, misfortune, and more misfortune, but he would not lie about his desire to protect his own life and wish for happiness. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to escape from hell. No matter what ideals he laid out, he still hadn’t wanted to die. No, he hadn’t wanted to give up on life just because he died. There was still so much he wanted to do in this world.

He didn’t mean anything as profound as making a great invention that changed the way people lived or eliminating all crime from the world.

Just a single piece of toast.

He hadn’t wanted death to take even the simple action of biting into buttered toast.

It was ugly, foolish, and filthy.

He knew that and that was what allowed him to speak with such conviction.

“Happiness isn’t something you wait around for someone to give you.”

“Damn…you.”

“Even if you were born into misfortune and even if you made a great mistake, there’s no rule saying you have to give up on hoping for happiness. Anyone can ask for it, even if they’ve hit rock bottom. No one has the right to stand in the way of people’s desire for happiness.”

“~ ~ ~”

This was a different choice that Coronzon hadn’t been able to make.

She had hated, cursed, resented…and destroyed her own desire to be happy. At some point, she had stopped hoping for happiness.

Kamijou stared straight at a fact he didn’t want to remember.

Defeating Coronzon would also mean attacking Aleister.

(But you haven’t rotted either, have you?)

One was rotten and the other wasn’t.

In the end, the decision was easy. Kamijou Touma took the first step forward.

===Part 7===

She needed to fall back.

Great Demon Coronzon willed herself to do so. Ultimately, Kamijou Touma only had his right fist. So she should immediately jump back to put sufficient space between them and then obliterate him with rapid-fire projectiles. She could use Dakshina Kalika, Goetia, and plenty more trump cards besides.

Yet in that moment, her legs froze up.

Did she want to defeat this human head on without any tricks?

…No. Coronzon was a collection of concentrated wickedness, so she would never consider something so admirable. A third party was clearly holding her body in place!

“Alei…ster?”

(You too? You haven’t rotten either!? After everything this world and its people did to you and after you finally lost even your own body!? You still found something left in this thoroughly twisted world!?)

The next thing she knew, Coronzon was saying something under her breath.



“I am a demon, but not from the Qliphoth where the forces of evil gather. I am the great demon hidden by the holy Sephiroth. I dwell in the same abyss as Da’at.”



She should have known from the beginning that both Kamijou Touma and Aleister Crowley were different from her. But the great demon looked devastated.

That difference had just been demonstrated to her.

The idea that people’s environment and circumstances turned them into bad people was a silly fantasy imagined by the wealthy and happy as they looked down on the unfulfilled. There was no truth there.

The difference came in how someone used their environment and circumstances to grow.

This was a demonstration of that.

Misfortune was not an excuse for letting your character rot.

Which meant that Great Demon Coronzon’s wickedness was something she herself had raised inside her.



“If…”



Kamijou Touma thought on this too.

In the end, Coronzon had relied on her past success.

Of course she had. Kamijou had yet to avoid this attack when launched at full power when she had her physical body. He had lost each time, as if it were fate. She had always used this to settle things. By forcibly overpowering even Imagine Breaker’s ability to negate supernatural powers.

Whenever she absolutely needed a win, she would use this.

She would ''indulge in'' this absolute and perfect victory.

Kamijou Touma actually smiled a little.

Great Demon Coronzon was a terrifying being. But this choice seemed somehow human.

“Every number is the same. My right hand contains Nuit of Resurrection. Watch as the possibilities expand and surpass the bounds of the finite. My left hand contains Hadit of Vengeance. The smallest point gathers and concentrates all forces to create a single meaning. Thus, an attack shall be released from the infinite acceleration of the Circle of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and shall appear on the surface layer of this world.”

“If you think the only hope for you is in the next world… And if you say you’re willing to destroy the current world to reach that world…”

He was already badly damaged after being hit by this once. He didn’t know what state his body was in or how long he could keep moving.

And.

This had already been prophesied. What was it Magic God Othinus had said?



“Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power!!”



It shot right past his ear.

A torrent of power greater than lightning rushed out horizontally and tore away a few of Kamijou’s hairs, but that was all.

He had dodged it for the first time.

He hadn’t used any kind of special power. Only his own physical strength.

A few of the carrier slices behind him collapsed with a great cacophony and shaking.

Perhaps Coronzon had a small idiosyncrasy somewhere. Some minor tic that Kamijou himself hadn’t even consciously picked up on.

Her jinx, her curse, her tragic fate…had all collapsed.

Othinus had said the worst thing she could do now was produce some new ability he had never seen before.

To put it another way, no matter how frighteningly powerful it was, a known attack gave him a chance. When his body knew the attack already, all he had to do was dodge it. “You can do that, can’t you?” Othinus had insisted. At first, he had thought she was being absurd, but no longer. She hadn’t rejected the idea before sharing it because she believed he could do it.

He had overcome it.

And he had already seen that Coronzon was wide open after using this attack.

Kamijou Touma focused on his fist.

He stepped forward.

Bloody Coronzon’s surprised face expanded to fill his field of view.

Who was at the surface here in this final moment?

Was it Great Demon Coronzon or Human Aleister Crowley?

Kamijou had no way of knowing.

He clenched his right fist. Hard. Harder than hard.

He still didn’t have an answer.

But he spoke all the same.



“Then!! I’ll destroy that illusion!!!”



The sound and tactile sensation were duller than usual.

He did ''exactly that''.

===Part 8===

It was quiet.

Shortly before the final moment, the area outside the shipyard was in fact deathly quiet.

Coronzon could set up as many Dakshina Kalika turrets as she liked, but she had to constantly supply them with magic power. To pour all her strength into the clash with Kamijou Touma, she hadn’t had any to spare for anything else. All of the turrets made from long, long blonde hair – which looked like lion heads with four legs growing out of them – had gone limp and silent.

Hamazura Shiage had been coincidentally freed from his cell, but unlike Necromancer Isabella Theism, he hadn’t had a clear goal in mind and ended up wandering the late-night city, but following Coronzon’s trail hadn’t been difficult. The entire city had been ordered to stay indoors, so he just had to go where the biggest commotion was. But whenever he arrived, Coronzon had already fled to another district.

He had repeated that process a few times.

And he finally caught up in District 17.

However, that didn’t mean he would catch up in time.

Just think about it. Hamazura was following the tracks she left, so if he had caught up, it meant Coronzon had slowed. So it wasn’t something to rejoice. This meant she was being driven into a corner.

The highly accurate ice barrage of Dakshina Kalika was gone.

Hamazura had no trouble walking into the shipyard.

Although perhaps it would be wrong to say he did so “safely”. He should not have peered inside that massive box.

“Wait…”

The drone carrier was still incomplete and stored in slices.

So he had a clear view inside the ship.

During the final moment.

Looking up from far below, puny Hamazura Shiage yelled.

With all his might, as if he were trying to tear his throat open.

“Waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!”



The demon was already dead.

Her wicked desire remained unfulfilled.

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