Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 13===

Kamijou Touma also arrived.

At the former District 7 site of the Windowless Building.

At that square center of the world.

“Hi,” said Coronzon.

It was 10:30 PM. It had been a close thing, but he had arrived in time.

“What took you so long? I was so bored. Adikalika is such a pain to prepare. I wish I could just activate it already, but it has forced this great demon to wait.”

Two people lay collapsed at her feet. Was that Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou? It was just as he’d feared. They weren’t sure their forces combined could defeat Great Demon Coronzon, so it was too dangerous for any one of them to move out ahead.

What had happened here?

“You should thank them, Kamijou Touma. Arriving here wasn’t your accomplishment alone.”

…Was that the red snow?

He thought it was. Hoped it was.

Please someone say that wasn’t human blood.

Yes.

And come to think of it…

“What ended up happening to Nephthys and Niang-Niang?”

“What do you think happened?”

He had no response for that.

Amused, Coronzon asked him again.

“Tell me, Kamijou Touma. Surely you didn’t actually think those two would defeat me and bring peace to the world? If you had, you wouldn’t have spent your time afterwards planning and preparing to face me. Ha ha! So you must have known the moment you fled!! You knew those two would lose and you still chose to save your own skin!! So am I the only villain here!? Ha ha ha ha ha! Sure, I’m the one who delivered the finishing blow, but you were the one who pushed them toward it!!”

Yes.

That was true.

He still didn’t know what had happened to the two Magic Gods, but…

He was afraid to die. He had learned to feel that ordinary emotion, but now he had survived by forcing the unpleasantness onto someone else. There was no denying that.

“So were you so intent on surviving because you wanted a front-row seat to Adikalika’s activation? You stained your own soul to survive, yet soon you will be destroyed along with the rest of the world.”

He had made Alice cry and she killed him.

He had gone to hell and received the ticket to resurrection that Kingsford or CRC could have used instead.

Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang had told him to run away.

What had he hoped to do after all that?

He had had plenty of opportunities to refuse and stop.

So what had he been so reluctant to leave behind that he never gave up on living?

“Making Aleister despair and releasing me was truly the crowning achievement of your folly. So maybe you do deserve a gift. But just this once, okay? I will give you what you want. I will slice through your body, grab your head, and hold it in place, so enjoy watching the end of the world without even being able to die!!”

“''Give it a rest, Coronzon''.”

Others had been saving him this whole time.

He wanted to end that chain here. He wanted to stand on his own two feet.

He wanted to apologize to all the people he had troubled with his death and he wanted to return to his ordinary life.

Was that so wrong?

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