Difference between revisions of "Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Epilogue"
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“Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.” “Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.” |
“Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.” “Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.” |
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The frozen lake had fully shattered. |
The frozen lake had fully shattered. |
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Latest revision as of 19:39, 25 March 2025
Epilogue: End of the Ritual – Flat_Line…[edit]
The silver-haired young man in red lay collapsed on his back.
Atop the shattered frozen lake.
He stared vaguely upwards.
The spiral staircase – that thin strand of saving light – was already in use. He could tell because the entire staircase was glowing in a way it hadn’t been before.
The trial had begun.
Rosencreutz slowly got up.
Did he have no regrets?
Of course he had regrets.
“Hee hee.”
A shadow covered Christian Rosencreutz from behind.
It belonged to Anna Kingsford.
She too was looking overhead.
“Oh, I am so ☺️ that boy managed to climb those stairs. If, after everything, he had seriously said ‘I refuse to let anyone sacrifice themselves, so you take the stairs, Kingsford’, all of my work could have been for nothing☆ …Of course, if that happened, I would have knocked him out with a quick 👊 and shoved him onto the stairs.”
“Damn you. …Did you guide him in that direction? Did you push his thinking towards taking the stairs just like a demon’s temptations!?”
“🎯.”
She smiled.
She had used the exact same trick Rosencreutz had in order to keep Kamijou Touma from suspecting.
The Qliphoth would bring disaster if an ordinary person contacted it. But not so for an expert with sufficient knowledge and sufficient equipment. That expert would have access to tricks and loopholes far greater than the standard methods.
That meant Anna Kingsford could make free use of the secret arts belonging to demons and hell. Such as the sweet temptations of a demon.
And this time, she had promised a certain human she would save Kamijou Touma even if she had to break the rules.
But even so, Rosencreutz found this hard to believe.
“You would go that far…but why? What do you gain from this? Now you cannot take that single-use staircase and this old man knows you know what awaits us down here.”
“I already explained that, CRC.”
As usual, Anna Kingsford did not hesitate to respond.
A benevolent expert did not make mistakes.
Even if it was all a fairy tale spread by Johann Valentin Andreae as a prank, righteousness could be found there if one dedicated their life to it.
That was the truth.
“I will save everyone I included in my plan.”
“…”
“Our next destination is ❌ a false phase like this one. But with two experts working together, we should be able to mitigate the eternal torment to an extent. Don’t you 💭, CRC?”
“Damn you.”
“Nowww then. Let us 👁️ together what the real hell is like, CRC. We are ❌ approaching from the direction I would have liked, but we are about to visit a true world of myth. Hee hee. I do hope I will not be disappointed.”
This tiny salvation surpassed the imagination of Johann who had created this place.
A solid cracking rang out.
Just the one at first, but more and more came with increasing frequency.
At last, the vast frozen lake of Judecca was well and truly shattering. But this wasn’t just the thick ice attached to the surface. That had already been broken and split by the clash between Kamijou Touma and Christian Rosencreutz.
This was something more fundamental.
It had been mentioned several times that this was not the “real” hell.
That was the issue here.
Rosencreutz, the expert of death and destruction, and even Kingsford, the benevolent expert, had wielded heretical power to accomplish their ends.
Something had reacted to that.
So the real one was finally making its appearance.
Christian Rosencreutz clung to the woman from behind and looked up at the long, long spiral staircase. It looked so much like a single ray of light shining down from heaven. He could no longer even see where his recent opponent was on it.
“To serve those around you, hm?” he muttered.
“🎯. That is one of the ideas you yourself sent out into the 🌍.”
The meaning of his upturned gaze changed.
That was no longer Christian Rosencreutz.
Johann Valentin Andreae spoke.
Along with benevolent expert Anna Kingsford.
In the very instant they arrived in the same place.
“Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.” “Live a happy life, Kamijou Touma.”
The frozen lake had fully shattered.
The false bottom was gone.
The phase forcibly inserted by the deadly expert had broken, so the thin film peeled back in places, revealing another layer. That was the moment when the real hell really did open its great maw.
Welcome to the first level of hell, located across the Acheron.
“Phew…”
Meanwhile, Kamijou let out a heavy breath.
He hard a crumbling sound. What was happening down below? He didn’t have it in him to check. But the rumbling of the collapse was approaching. Most likely, the transparent spiral staircase would start breaking apart from the bottom eventually.
Everything would be swallowed up.
A horrifically great maw gaped below.
That was the real hell.
Did that phase really exist?
“Pant, gasp.”
The spiral staircase appeared to be made of thick panels of clear glass. But that probably wasn’t accurate. No matter how endless the staircase, he wouldn’t be experiencing this just by climbing step after step.
His strength was fading.
“Gh!!”
With each new step he took, his strength seemed cut in half. He had easily continued on up at first, but his strength was really and truly fading fast. He felt like his whole body was tangled in long, long hairs while he struggled underwater. It didn’t matter how much strength he had to begin with. No matter how much strength he built up, he would eventually collapse during the eternal cycle of halving and halving and halving. That was the trick.
Was it just that difficult for the dead to be revived?
Ordinarily, that should never happen.
So things had been firmly programmed to prevent it from happening.
(I will go back.)
He fell to his knees.
He was still only partway up, but he could tell he no longer had enough willpower to get back on his feet.
Nevertheless, he reached his arm forward.
He grabbed the next step up even if he had to force it. And he pushed his body up.
“I swear I will go back.”
He spoke the words.
It didn’t matter his legs would no longer move. He would continue forward even if he had to use his hands or even bite the steps. He spoke to himself to gather the necessary strength.
But the halving was absolute.
When he drew on some untapped strength, that would then be halved. Just by climbing the next step.
“I will see Index again and talk with her.”
He spoke aloud.
And he climbed a step.
“I will go back to Academy City and bow to Misaka and the others.”
His voice was falling apart.
And he climbed a step.
(I will…my class…stupid stuff with…Pierce and Komoe-sen…)
His voice had vanished.
And he climbed a step.
(I will…Alice Ano…ble…wasn’t her fau…I died…)
Even his thoughts were breaking up.
But he still climbed a step.
“…”
…It wouldn’t end. The spiral staircase never ended. The great pain and exhaustion began to form suspicion and obstructive thoughts in a corner of his mind. This looked like a helping hand meant to save people, but it was really just a cruel trick designed to obliterate people’s minds and conviction. Instead of filling in all the exits, this hell prepared just the one exit and then watched as people failed to reach it. It was a soul disposal device wrapped in starvation, agony, and exhaustion, that provided no kindness at all to the people suffering within it. It seemed like nothing more than an intentionally calculated obstacle. But…
Where am I?
What am I doing?
Even as he occasionally forgot those fundamental things, Kamijou Touma forcibly dragged along his body which felt like a wet rag clinging to the stairs, using just the strength of his hands to bring himself to the next step.
His fingertips trembled.
Even his eyeballs must have been losing their strength because his vision grew dark.
He had to be approaching the surface.
There had to be light shining from there.
But the world was gradually enveloped in darkness.
“I…back.”
He knew it would be immediately robbed from him, but he still gathered new strength.
He could no longer see.
Or hear.
Still, he relied on the touch of his trembling fingertips to grab the next step.
“I…will retu…to liiiiiiiiiiiiii…iiiiiiiii…iiiiiiiiiiiiii…iiiiiiiife!!!!”
