Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

Kamijou heard a low rumbling.

And felt a tremor.

Th entire hell shrouded in darkness began to shake vertically.

Christian Rosencreutz spread his arms wide and made an announcement.

With great force.

“This old man built this hell on his own. The two of you are no more than unwelcome visitors. So this old man can control this false hell at will!!”

According to Kingsford, this was not the “real” hell.

Christian Rosencreutz – or Johann Valentin Andreae – had constructed this temporary collection of images in order to forcibly shove this dead soul back into the living world. That was the purpose of this hell.

So it was best to assume he could freely control anything here.

Which meant…

With a great crash, something fell straight down as if from heaven to earth.

For an instant, Kamijou thought it was holy divine punishment.

But that had no place in hell.

It was something like an ultra-high pressure water jet.

If Kingsford hadn’t immediately pushed him aside, Kamijou would have been bisected before he could even think. Bisected vertically.

“The Acheron, the Styx, and the Phlegethon – you have redirected the rivers flowing through the levels of hell to use them as a weapon, haven’t you? Those special rivers act as the border between life and ☠️ and prevent the living or the ☠️ from reaching the wrong side. By forcibly increasing the pressure for use as a direct attack, the 🌊s work their way deep inside the target, allowing you to make use of their ‘division into two parts’ power.”

“Sorry, Kingsford-sensei, but can you just tell me what I’m supposed to be looking out for as I fight!? If something like that hits me, it’s all over, but I don’t know what kind of initial action to look out for to dodge it. Hurry, Sensei!”

“This is only the beginning. Much more is coming.”

“Yes, of course that was only the beginning!!” roared Rosencreutz.

“You stupid geniuses move too fast! Stop skipping three steps in your head and actually explain everything one step at a time!!”

Kamijou’s tearful shouting received a gentle sigh from Kingsford.

“You do ❌ understand?” asked the glasses woman.

“Understand what!?”

“Hell is shaped like a mortar that narrows in toward the center. So if hell as a whole shakes violently, all the giant objects that appeared on the various levels along the slope will come rolling down to the bottom.”

“Wait, are you serious?”

“You should assume that every single level of hell you have seen thus far will now be your enemy.”

It wasn’t just the one thing.

A big stone gate dropped like a meteor. Was that the gate into hell? If that happened to hit Kamijou, he would be smashed into little pieces. And it wasn’t just structures. The bull-headed minotaur and Nyx-chan slinging around dark sludge came tumbling down as well.

This was worse than just falling rocks.

A single hit from any of this would mean instant death.

…Or wait. Would he remain conscious even after being smashed into a pulp? But if he couldn’t move, then CRC could torment him at his leisure.

And he would have no way of stopping CRC from climbing the spiral staircase back to life.

“Whoa!?” shouted Kamijou as a whole bunch of objects fell in front of him.

Something else came rolling down the mortar-shaped hell. And if it came from the higher levels, it had to be something he had seen during their journey here.

It was a giant breast.

“Now ''this'' is divine punishment!!!”

He leaped aside to dodge it.

He had forgotten that his worldly thoughts had caused that to appear on a higher level of hell. And thinking back, they had just left it there, hadn’t they?

He had just about been killed by his own sin.

But diving once wasn’t enough to make him safe. He scrambled back to his feet and ran full speed away from there, but this wasn’t like a round soccer ball. The mountain-sized breast was much more dangerous in how it bounced every which way as it rolled.

It was going to kill him.

He was going to be killed by a giant breast.

But once he started running, he couldn’t stay on the ground forever. This was the bottom of the mortar-shaped hell, so there was only so much space.

He had no choice but to trust in the sturdiness of the thick layer of ice and head out onto the frozen lake in the center.

Ironic that he had to trust in something about this hell that was thoroughly unkind to anyone inside it.

“I-I just have to go for it… I’m sure there’s still plenty of stuff still caught up on the higher levels. Oh, right. I forgot about Kingsford’s armpit and giant butt. I don’t want to be crushed to death by those, so I have to risk the ice!! Isn’t that right, Sensei!!?”

“…”

This was an exceedingly serious situation with their lives and the outcome of the battle on the line, yet the benevolent expert did not agree with him as she held a hand to her cheek with a smile frozen on her face. She looked as gentle as ever, but the pressure radiating from her was terrifying.

But that wasn’t his biggest concern.

With so many things falling from higher up in the mortar-shaped hell, they couldn’t stay on the outer edge forever. So they had to walk out onto the thick frozen lake. That much he knew.

But that layer of ice was not just ice.

There was a lord there.

“Hey, Kingsford?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“So, uh, since Rosencreutz can control and attack us with everything in this hell, is that giant thing lurking in the shadows going to attack us too!?”

“The six-🪽ed being at the center of the 🧊 is known as the 👑 of the 👿s or the 👑 of hell. Some 💬 he is Satan, some 💬 Beelzebub, and others 💬 Lucifer.”

“I don’t care what his name is! Besides, those are all top-level star players, aren’t they!?”

“Well, he is the big boss at the bottom of hell.”

Fair point.

Finding a tiny goblin or pixie awaiting them all the way down here would be terrifying in its own way. Because that monster would probably be extremely high level.

A low straining sound reached them.

Coming from the beyond the veil of shadow.

From the lord – or core – of hell.

Seeing that would be deadly.

Kamijou was certain of it despite the fact that you couldn’t die in hell, even if your whole body were burned to a crisp or you were skewered through. He could tell that seeing that thing was the one exception and a single attack would be enough to shatter his soul.

And for some reason, Christian Rosencreutz had his arms spread as he leaped forcefully toward those shadows.

And a loud voice came from the shadows.

“Fus☆ion!”

“Ahhhh!! Someone stop that childish old maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!”

Kingsford slammed her fist down in empty air and (however it worked) Rosencreutz crashed down into the ice lake while only a meter away from the lord of demons.

That was a close one.

His transformation sequence had been stopped before he cast off his clothing.

The birth of Demon Lord Girl Belzebu-tan – who had transcended both age and gender – had been prevented.