Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Crossover Extra (section)

===Part 8===

The sea was beautiful, it brought blessings, and it was the mother of all life.

But at the same time, it was a frightening mouth of death.

Rán was the goddess destined to manage that mouth of death.

(This still is not enough.)

She held Skíðblaðnir in one arm of water and her own slender arms grabbed her soul-catching magic net while she quietly thought.

(This still is not enough to change my divinity!! I must fight more and more and more!!)

In that case, she needed to take responsibility for all deaths at sea, even if that was forced onto her from truly foreign worlds that were outside her jurisdiction.

She named herself a goddess, so she had to protect all lives from that unreasonable mouth of death.

“Rán! Don’t fight!! Waltraute and the others aren’t bad people!!”

The boy shouted at the verge of tears from nearby.

She glanced over toward him but said nothing.

She had already decided she would protect them all.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Hel, queen of the underworld, cried out.

She swung an arm horizontally and produced a giant sword of ice.

But it looked like toothpick compared to Skíðblaðnir. It crashed into the ship on the first swing and the sinister ice that smelled of death and the underworld was smashed to pieces.

Nevertheless, not a single shard fell to the ground.

Their points all turned toward the sea goddess and they shot toward her from countless directions like precision guided missiles.

Rán would soon be filled with holes, but she wrapped her soul-catching net around her own slender arm.

She swung the arm around and intercepted every last shard.

Not a drop of blood was shed.

(This net captures souls. When it binds a soul from without, no attack can destroy the soul within!!)

She counterattacked by throwing the net.

It bound Hel’s entire body and Rán grabbed the long thread that closed the net. She swung the woman around like a morning star and threw her into the distance.

Hel collided with Waltraute who had finally recovered and was attempting a surprise attack with her white horse.

The two lost their balance and Rán smashed them from above with Skíðblaðnir.

(My experience points will never leave the expected range if I only battle other Norse gods. To alter my divinity, it would be best to battle the heroes who have come from truly foreign worlds.)

New footsteps reached her ears.

“…”

(So they’re finally here.)

With colossal ship supported by the arm of water and her own shoulder, Rán turned around.

These were strangers from truly foreign worlds.

They were the final piece Rán needed to gain an abnormal level of experience and remake her body and mind into something other than a sea goddess.

Kamijou Touma, Index, Misaka Mikoto, Quenser Barbotage, Heivia Winchell, Milinda Brantini (aboard the Baby Magnum), Jinnai Shinobu, Zashiki Warashi Yukari, the Yuki Onna, Anzai Kyousuke, Higashikawa Mamoru, the bunny girl, Nanajou Kyouichirou, and Satsuki all confronted her.

The difference in numbers meant nothing to Rán, the dreadful goddess who ruled the stormy seas.

And then, the swimsuit-wearing grimoire library spoke from the knowledge those 103,000 grimoires gave her.

“Exorcism 1. As a symbol of driving out uninvited guests to a temple, a dodecagram is displayed on a circle with a ship travelling the stars. That refers to the gathering of the twelve signs of the zodiac and the one who desires our return via the heavens!!”

(…?)

That was a series of rules Rán was unfamiliar with.

A moment later, Skíðblaðnir began emitting intense light.

The ship connected to the truly foreign was activating.

However, the sea goddess was unaware of this method.

They were opening a door to the truly foreign, but they were not using the sea.

“The sea is a symbol of the world’s boundaries. It’s the most obvious symbol of ‘the ends of the earth’, but that isn’t the only such symbol in the Norse world.” Index pointed straight up. “There is also the sky. Even the gods of Asgard can only control the paths of the sun and moon, so a vast expanse must exist there that is not part of the nine worlds. If we pass through there, no seawater will enter this world even if it breaks a hole in the world. There is no need for you to change what you are!!”