Toaru Majutsu no Index:Crossover Chapter 4
Status: Incomplete
2/16 parts completed
Chapter 4
[Series Introduction 5]
The Unexplored Summon://Blood Sign
After thoroughly researching summoning ceremonies, this world accidentally discovered what lurks beyond the gods. Shiroyama Kyousuke cannot ignore the cursed words of “help me” and he continues to throw himself into deadly battles with summoners.
Part 1
13990th Strategic Intelligence Analysis Report.
Concerning the three biological weapons created by Loki.
No answer found. Incomplete analysis included.
Written by Light God Baldr.
(Addition)
Classification: “Frozen” Level 4 – Authority to refuse access requests included. Strictly managed.
What exactly is Hel?
She is one of Loki and Angrboða’s three children. Fenrir is prophesied to eat Odin and Jörmungandr is prophesied to grow too large and crush the land, but no one knows what Hel will do.
And because we do not know, she is viewed as dangerous.
Odin sealed her in the depths of Niflheim and that is where she gained her position as queen of the underworld.
But looking at this story rationally reveals several strange points.
First of all, Norse mythology is a society of combat ruled by a god of war.
Anyone one dislikes, anyone dangerous, and anyone in the way of one’s growth or path will be killed. There is no reason to forgive an enemy. That is the culture and religion of our world. The most famous form of trial is by combat. The one in the right will gain the favor of the war god and will surely win. In other words, the victor can name himself just. Strength says everything in this society because of the religion and the god at the foundation of it all.
In that case, why would he need to let Hel live?
If Odin had feared her, he would not have simply imprisoned her in the underworld. Wouldn’t the normal response have been to kill her as soon as she was born?
There is no answer to this question.
But I do have a guess.
Odin does not have a sympathetic enough heart to have felt sorry for his young enemy and gone easy on her, so perhaps he did not actually let her live.
In other words, it was not that he did not kill her; he could not kill her.
That line of thinking supports an extremely interesting theory.
Now, what exactly is Hel?
She is the queen who rules over Niflheim, she is the grim reaper that manages the souls of the dead, and she holds one of the triggers to Ragnarök because she is the one that orders Níðhöggr to bite at Yggdrasil’s roots so the tree will wither and the nine worlds will be destroyed.
And besides these frightening facts, she also possesses another noteworthy characteristic:
Hel has been given the authority to rule all nine worlds.
To put it simply, that is the same authority as Odin and no one knows why this is. One theory says Odin gave her the authority because he felt sorry for her after unfairly casting her into the underworld, but as previously stated, it is highly suspect whether that god of war has a sympathetic enough heart for that.
Now, let me suggest a bold theory.
A grim reaper that manages the souls of the dead may sound frightening, but Odin actually possesses the exact same power. He gathers the human souls that come to Asgard and uses them to form the Einherjar army.
How is that any different from Hel who rules the underworld and creates an army from the souls of the dead?
And as previously stated, she has the authority to rule all nine worlds “for some reason”.
So…
Doesn’t this mean Hel is identical to Odin? Doesn’t this mean she is a second head god?
If so, she has the power and role needed to be just as much of a threat to Odin as Fenrir and Jörmungandr. And yet it does not matter if Hel herself is evil or not. In fact, the better a person she is, the less of a leg to stand on Odin has.
Only one head god is needed.
And people will want to worship the most just, kind, and powerful god they can.
If there were two candidates for head god, a festive mood would fill the nine worlds and a general election would begin. If they have the exact same power, then the more popular of the two would end up on the throne.
Now, it is time for a fundamental question.
Is Odin all that desirable of a god?
He is a cunning god who fears the prophecies, he frantically prepares for Ragnarök, and anyone who will not help him win that fight is branded a sinner and cast down into Niflheim.
Meanwhile, Hel was sealed in the underworld due to the fears and anxieties of that other god. She retains the purity of the driven snow and can still develop into a good or evil person.
The current head god has only held the position because he is the only one who can do the job.
But if someone else could wield the same power under the same conditions, which on would the people accept as head god?
This is why Odin did not kill Hel. She has the exact same power as him, so it would come to a draw if they fought. He could not afford to make such a foolish mistake. And if he truly tried to kill her, Hel’s survival instincts could awaken the power within her. That would signal the beginning of the end for Odin. He could not let it get out that there were two head gods with the exact same power.
And so he sealed Hel in Niflheim.
That way, her “role” would be overwritten with the silly “queen of the underworld” title and she would forget about her power as the head god.
But how long will that last?
Odin is aware of the problem, but he cannot reflect on his own actions and he can only feel safe and secure by oppressing others. He is undoubtedly walking onwards despite having already swallowed the seeds of eternal destruction.
(Addition)
- This document is far removed from authentic Norse mythology and would negatively influence many cultural traditions, so Odin has personally frozen it. To unfreeze or view it, Level 4 or higher permissions are required. Also, please be aware that the names of anyone who does view it or even requests to view it will be automatically sent to Odin.
Part 2
There was no longer any reason to hesitate.
Kamijou and the others ran toward the massive pitch-black vortex and plunged inside.
They did not know what kind of effects it had, but if it was based in Norse mythology and thus constructed from a supernatural power…
“I can negate it.”
Kamijou swung his right arm as he spoke.
He could not exactly negate the tree itself. It would immediately regenerate no matter how much of it he destroyed. Still, he could briefly scatter the portion around their group.
“We can do this! Hel’s power isn’t altogether hopeless!!”
“Hah. And we’ve got the Princess on our side. We ran into one of Hel’s soldiers before, but that robot was nothing against the Baby Magnum’s cannons. There’s no stopping us now!!”
Yes, they had the firepower of the Baby Magnum on their side.
For the moment, only the Black Dragon Níðhöggr had been able to endure its attacks. Most of Hel’s forces could be destroyed with a first generation Object and the confusion of suddenly being thrown into this Norse world had contributed to her trouble in the fight against Níðhöggr. They would have the advantage now that they were on top of things.
That sense of safety may have helped them charge into the vortex without hesitating.
Incidentally…
“Wait… What is that?”
Mikoto frowned as she ran.
She was a Level 5 esper who controlled electricity. She could use it as a simple attack, but she could also use magnetism and electromagnetic waves to scan her surroundings.
That was why she was the first to notice.
A massive form was approaching them from beyond the black screen.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” groaned Quenser as he came to a stop.
The others stopped as well. It felt more like a giant mountain than an enemy. Nothing could be better described as “blocking the way”.
It was over fifty meters tall.
Its spherical main body could endure a direct hit from a nuclear weapon and its surface was completely covered with over one hundred cannons. Some were low-stability plasma cannons, some were laser beam cannons, some were railguns, some were coilguns, and some were rapid-fire beam cannons.
It used a cross-shaped air cushion propulsion device and had chainsaw-like treads for auxiliary propulsion.
A main cannon resembling a metal bridge was attached to either side of the cross-shaped footing.
They were rapid-fire beam Gatling guns made by strapping together five barrels each. At close- or mid-range, that grim reaper of the battlefield could provide enough overwhelming cannon fire to unilaterally wear down the enemy Object.
Kamijou Touma did not know its name.
Neither did Index.
But Quenser did and he squeezed out the words as if he was having trouble breathing.
“Isn’t that an Information Alliance second-generation Object? Isn’t that the Oh Ho Ho’s Rush!?”
Hel stood in the center of the pitch-black vortex or black tree.
She had already discarded her title as “queen of the underworld” and returned to simply being “Hel”. She was aware Kamijou and the others were approaching and what they were saying.
The blackness raging about her was an illness eating into her yet it had also become a part of her.
It was her fingertips, her eyes, and her ears.
So she had noticed the people trying to save her.
So she had despaired.
(Why?)
They were trying to save her. They saw the swirling blackness as evil and they were trying to strip it from her.
But stripping it from her would mean she could not save the people deemed to be sinners. It would mean saving her alone, forcing the sin back onto the sinners, casting them back down into Niflheim, and starting their eternal torture anew.
(Why can’t you show this same kindness to everyone else?)
Kamijou Touma and the others may not have realized how it worked.
They may not have known rescuing her would mean suffering for so many others. They may not have known just how raw and repulsive the torture techniques hidden behind those words were.
But it no longer mattered.
Hel had decided she would save them…save all of the humans.
She had decided to bear it all herself and become another great god.
So…
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
She cried out in despair.
She called to the blackness that swirled around her and had become a part of her.
The nine worlds of Norse culture were supported by the branches and roots of the world tree, but Loki had twisted those branches in impossible directions and stretched them out to the completely foreign places Kamijou, Quenser, and the others had come from.
What Hel did may have been similar.
However, she did not use Yggdrasil.
Some who saw it may have seen it as a massive hurricane. Others may have seen it as a black tree.
In other words, this second great god had created a brand new system with a brand new tree.
This was why she was said to have the same power as Odin and why that one-eyed god had sealed her away along with the true fear she brought him.
SUMMON://call.another_world.address_point@Heavy_Object.“Rush”.
Somewhere in the world, a great mass welled up like mist.
It was a colossal weapon of war that exterminated its foes with great firepower instead of the more peaceful methods of the nuclear age. After the collapse of the United Nations, a few different world powers had risen. One of those was the Information Alliance and this second generation Object was a crystallization of their military technology.
SUMMON://call.another_world.address_point@The_Zashiki_Warashi_of_Intellectual_Village.“Hishigami_Mai”.
The black tree guided a new form in from somewhere.
It was a freelance agent who had set an artificial Youkai known as a Shikigami as her hypothetical enemy and thoroughly modified her body until she could kill the Youkai that were unaffected by physical attacks.
SUMMON://call.another_world.address_point@Killer_Queen_and_Deep_End.“Shizuna_of_Electrocution”.
Somewhere else, someone was pulled up like bubbles rising from a swamp.
She was a dangerous criminal who freely massacred people like a natural disaster even after being designated a banned killer. She had reached the depths of madness in her obsession with the preservation of corpses and collected the corpses she created with a modified stun gun so as not to spill any blood.
SUMMON://call.another_world.address_point@A_Simple_Survey.“White_Girl”.
A white torrent appeared that threatened to destroy the black tree itself.
It was the manager who gathered together every Absurdity. This overwhelming existence had been connected to Prometheus who gave fire to man and to the Banshee said to predict people’s deaths. A certain inhumane organization even viewed her as the Philosopher’s Stone.
SUMMON://call.another_world.address_point@A_Certain_Magical_Index.“Accelerator”.
And the deciding factor was released.
It was Academy City’s #1 Level 5. His power let him freely transform momentum, heat, electricity, or any other vector. He had even shown signs of taking one step beyond the realm of science and into the realm of magic.
“Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Hel had the authority to rule the nine worlds and therefore the entire world. She had created a new black tree, sent its branches and roots out without holding back, summoned great violence from other worlds, and continued to scream. She yelled on and on as if to say this was not enough and that she was not going to let it end here.
The violence she birthed spread devastating destruction instead of the crying of infants.
The monsters did not hesitate to charge toward Kamijou and the others.
Without a doubt, this catastrophe would continue until she was truly saved.
But they had all realized something: this was the true scream of the girl known as Hel.
