Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13

Novel Illustrations

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  Contents Page
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  Pages 003-005
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  Pages 006-008
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Prologue: Absolute Evil and Relative Evil – CHORONZON.

That being had been watching.

She had been holding her breath and observing the outside world.

She had supposedly killed Magician Aleister Crowley herself, but he had used a brief opening to take control of her body.

Her mind had been swiftly sealed deep within her own body.

She couldn’t escape.

From there, it had been a complete farce. She had felt like she was trapped in a cell where the entire floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in barbed wire. For that great demon, agony and spinning one’s wheels were one and the same.

But that did not mean there had been no entertainment at all.

Even if she could not break free of that cell, the world beyond it was as harsh to Aleister as ever.

When he captured Anna Sprengel, the big boss of R&C Occultics which had plunged the world into chaos, his trusted Kamijou Touma had harshly criticized him.

When he tried to save him regardless, Anna Kingsford, his teacher who he had finally opened up to, had told him that Kamijou Touma was doomed to die.

Kingsford had promised to save Kamijou, but not only did she fail to keep that promise, her life as an autonomous preserved corpse had come to and end along with Kamijou’s death.

When, left behind by the two of them, he tried to overturn Kamijou’s death, the new board chairman had mocked him.

And after it all, Kamijou had returned from hell alone.

His beloved teacher Anna Kingsford had not accompanied Kamijou.

How could she not clap her hands and howl with laughter?

The world was such a foolish and ridiculous thing. That human had broken so many taboos to hijack the body of the great world-destroying demon, yet the lid had unwittingly been forced open from without.

The fact that they didn’t even realize they were doing it made it an even greater failure than Pandora’s failure to contain her curiosity.

Everyone who had frowned and spoken of justice had become the reason the world would be destroyed.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

But that being still wasn’t satisfied.

Her current condition was stable, but she was crude, incomplete, and awkward.

Oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms would not stick around long in their pure form. They would either bond with identical atoms to form a gas, or they would bond with different atoms to form water. There was no intention behind it. It would happen all on its own.

That being was the same.

So.

When Aleister Crowley reached his limit and his heart broke, that being once more crawled out into the open world. It happened naturally, as if to say that which was to be destroyed needed to be destroyed.

And that being – Great Demon Coronzon – made a loud announcement.

“I was waiting. Waiting for the moment your will weakened!!”

Now, humans.

Enjoy the fruit of your ignorant sins.

Chapter 1: A Change – Magician, Witch, Wizard, and…

Part 1

Suddenly.

Something caused the sound of the cold rain to vanish.

Only nothingness remained.

The air temperature must have fallen below freezing. A red – strangely red – snow fell from the leaden sky.

“…”

Kamijou Touma didn’t bother mentioning it.

If he shifted his gaze away from dead ahead for even a split second, Great Demon Coronzon would use that instant to kill him. He was certain of it.

Kamijou, Alice Anotherbible, Great Demon Coronzon, and Vidhatri lying limp and passed out by his side.

He couldn’t see a single positive element to this.

In that silent world, the “kathunk, kathunk” of a subway train passing by sounded deafening loud.

“What’s the matter, human?” whispered the great demon, slowly spreading her arms and wings.

Her long, long blonde hair tangled around her wings and fingertips like spider web.

“Surely, surely you aren’t planning to thoughtlessly charge right at me? You might still be able to get away. Or maybe if you could use that right hand of yours properly. Kee hee hee. At the very least, falling back would improve your chance of survival over a blind charge.”

“Teacher,” sharply warned Alice Anotherbible. “These are the words of a great demon. They might sound kind, but she would never say anything out of concern for someone.”

Something crackled.

From very close by.

The violently flashing orange light resembled the sparks produced by steel striking steel.

…Sparks?

“Don’t tell me…”

“Magic usage causes slight fluctuations in this world and the collisions between the unseen overlapping phases produce sparks which can at times be deadly. They are the source of the tragedy that sent Aleister Crowley down his path of carnage. What you see now is the result of my power bringing them down to this lower physical world and giving them form,” explained Coronzon, enjoying herself.

This wasn’t the only thing the great demon could do. She had purposefully chosen this from the near endless cards in her deck.

Kamijou heard another unpleasant sparking sound.

A drum-shaped security robot had burst from within.

It was possible Accelerator was monitoring this from afar and he was using the unmanned machines to search out an escape route through the minefield.

It went without saying what would happen if a human body contacted that…unless it was worse than it seemed.

“The surface-level destruction is a mere trifle. Contact that and you will die. I am not talking about the surface-level shock or destruction. It will ensure your death at the more fundamental level of destiny.”

Yes.

Aleister Crowley had failed to overturn this at his peak, so he had lost his wife and daughter. This was that same tragedy.

“And I have another warning. That third tree? Clonoth, was it? That caught me off guard in the UK and stripped my essence from my physical body, but that will not work again.”

The remaining security robots wavered a little.

“After all, I am not a pure demon anymore. Human Aleister’s symbols have been mixed in with me.”

The great demon curled her lips upward and laughed from deep in her throat.

Aleister.

She looked amused to no end that he was disturbing the human world even after he was gone.

“So what will you do, Kamijou Touma?”

She was a great demon, so she didn’t believe in benevolent coincidences or divine miracles to begin with.

“There are only two options in this world: a merciless death void of miracles, or a false miracle formed by human hands.”

“…”

“I know you know what happens if you stop thinking and pray to god without preparing anything yourself. How severe was the cost of crawling back up out of hell, Kamijou Touma? But all that will be for nothing if you fail to make the smart move here.”

(Well, this could hardly be worse.)

Kamijou felt like he had been abandoned in the middle of a minefield.

He was surrounded in all directions by invisible mines that would kill him on contact. And he didn’t even know how far they were distributed, so he had no sense of how far he had to flee in order to survive.

“Ugh, really? Just for your information…”

Coronzon had set all this up, but she still looked somehow displeased.

Even though she supposedly had an absolute advantage here.

As if the grand surprise she had spent so much effort preparing was going unappreciated, so she had to explain it for him.

“I didn’t just lay these out there. I can move them at will. So that is not a minefield you are standing in – it is a monster’s gaping maw. If I close it, you will be crushed between its jaws. I know you puny humans of this lower world only understand the things you can see, but surely that is enough for you to appreciate your situation.”

In other words, staying still wasn’t enough to save him.

He had been doomed from the beginning.

Kamijou’s right hand contained Imagine Breaker. He might be able to break one or two of the invisible fangs. But would that be enough to defeat the monster? If it ignored the pain and forced its mouth shut, he was dead. It would be over in an instant.

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

…He didn’t stand a chance.

What would he accomplish by charging in recklessly? He had previously fought Great Demon Coronzon in the UK. His right arm and the rest of his body had been smashed right away that time.

Imagine Breaker…was not enough.

He heard a footstep on metal grating rather than asphalt.

Great Demon Coronzon must have noticed the fear and confusion that hearing that single footstep caused because an amused smile spread across her face.

“Why are you doing this now? We already settled this back in the UK!”

“Why?”

Coronzon snorted.

It grew into full-on mocking laughter.

“Of all things, you’re asking for my purpose and objective!? Kamijou Touma, do you want a similar explanation for how you came back to life? You didn’t turn back from hell because you calmly completed the items on a to do list!! You sought life because the state of life is natural for you and you never questioned that idea. It’s no different for me! This is what I have always been!!”

“So you’re really going to bring countless people to tears just because you never had a particular reason to stop!?”

“I have been true to myself no matter what happened.”

She said it so lightly.

Like someone humming the popular song playing on endless loop in a restaurant.

“Natural decomposition – tearing apart all things and returning them to nothing – is my role of dispersion. How could I trust in myself if I was one thing one day and another thing another day? You puny beings seem capable of that, but perhaps it is the result of your excess of free will.”

“…”

“It was that side of you that ended up tormenting Aleister to the bitter end. To be clear, I will be the one to destroy the world, but it was you who opened the box, Kamijou Touma.”

A grin split Coronzon’s face as she said this.

She was finally back in the outside world.

She couldn’t seem to contain her amusement.

“My value is 333 and my meaning is dispersion. I rule over one line on the great tree, yet I induce discord and betrayal to tear apart the bonds between people and obstruct human evolution. Do you really think I am going to stop? Now that I have been freed, of course I am going to work toward that end with every second available to me!!”

“Teacher,” interrupted Alice Anotherbible.

She looked unusually grim.

As if to say her role as a Transcendent, essentially a part in divine school play, were being stripped from her by the alarm ringing from the audience seating.

Was that young-looking girl perceiving something Kamijou couldn’t see?

“You can’t hold a conversation with Great Demon Coronzon. Not the way you’re doing it anyway. She can’t be won over by what’s right. In her mind, all things falling apart and all people suffering through pandemonium is the most healthy and active state for the world. She only sees your kindness and compassion as a toxin that will cool and solidify the world.”

“!!”

“And she loathes that toxin in her own way. That is why your words can never stop her.”

So did he have to fight?

Countless unseen sparks had been placed around him.

Standing within a monster’s gaping maw was nothing but suicide.

And even if he did escape that, he would only have managed to reach the same playing field as her. Being able to defeat full-power Coronzon was another matter entirely.

He was looking at a battle with a higher being who had easily forced Aleister into submission. He couldn’t imagine how to get started, much less win. Fight or flee, anything he tried seemed like it would only work against him.

But.

“I won’t die…”

Even so, Kamijou Touma’s lips were trembling.

So he forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“I won’t die again!! I was already saved from hell once, so I won’t give up my life so easily!!”

Great Demon Coronzon grinned, but was she mocking how obviously terrified he was or how he had nothing to back up those words.

But in fact, Kamijou Touma did not die.

Because something pierced a straight through that space.

It tore apart the area between Kamijou and Coronzon.

That meant it hadn’t been aimed at Coronzon. Was this clearing a route by intentionally triggering the invisible mines laid out all around him?

(A tear…beam? It can’t be!!)

“Much better. You’ve finally got the right attitude, Kamijou Touma.”

“Ha ha. Boy, did your death put a damper on your hot-bloodedness?”

Nephthys.

And Niang-Niang?

“You mustn’t throw your life away. I see you finally arrived at the simplest answer that no one in the real world seems capable of following, Kamijou Touma.”

“I like this version of you better than your weird recklessness. It’s a lot more reassuring for those of us saving your ass.”

Magic Gods.

They were not a new side to this battle.

They were clearly taking Kamijou’s side and taking up positions to cover him.

Kamijou stared in shock.

Did they just say they were saving him?

From this!?

“Hey, wait. You’re under no obligation to help me out of this mess!!”

They didn’t even bother turning around.

The Magic Gods were facing Great Demon Coronzon in a more casual way, but they were also unwavering.

Even though they had to have a better grasp of the situation than Kamijou.

Yet they still spoke firmly.

“My, my. Have you forgotten that I am Nephthys, a god?”

“And I’m Niang-Niang. How about you let us take over for once? You died and came back, but you didn’t get Magic Godded by it. That means you’re nothing special. Live or die, you’re just a normal human. …And you ordinary people don’t need to deal with creeps like this. The monsters can slay the other monsters.”

Alice held her silence for a while.

But she finally opened her mouth.

“The girl will go with her teacher.”

“Good idea. It’ll be safer if he keeps a trump card with him. To be honest, if softhearted Kamijou Touma escaped on his own, I’d half expect him to be back before long. So go show him to the exit, little miss monster. But if you let him die, I will hunt you down.”

“Hey, quit deciding everything for me!”

Nephthys gave a simple answer to his protest.

“Risking your own skin is all well and good, but if you fall here, then who will bring that girl there to safety?”

Only then did Kamijou remember.

That’s right.

He and Alice weren’t the only ones here.

A Transcendent had collapsed before his eyes while trying to inform Alice of the threat.

Vidhatri.

If she was still alive, he couldn’t just abandon her here. If everyone here tried to fight and were wiped out, there would be no one left to help her. Then she would certainly be killed by Coronzon too.

After reminding him of his responsibility here, Nephthys spoke kindly.

“Make sure she gets away.”

“…Thanks!!”

This was only an excuse, of course. A ritual used to rid Kamijou of his guilt and allow him to act freely.

Nephthys ordinarily acted so irresponsible, but she really did seem godlike here.

“I have a question.”

Someone spoke.

Great Demon Coronzon was smiling.

“What logical reason do I have to let them get away after you held your strategy meeting right in front of me? Not much is more challenging than a retreat when you are at a severe disadvantage!!”

Something new emerged.

This time, it wasn’t even human. It was a golden retriever.

The dog spoke human language.

“Drop straight down!!”

A loud noise followed.

Alice Anotherbible’s small hands had torn up part of the metal grating below their feet. Kamijou, carrying Vidhatri, and Alice didn’t hesitate to jump down onto the roof of the subway train passing through the tunnel below.

An impact.

Continuous shaking. Slipping to the side. But he somehow managed to get a grip on the roof.

He didn’t seem to have hit any of those sparks. They had surrounded him in all directions, but apparently only in two dimensions.

“Looks like we barely escaped with our lives.”

The golden retriever was with them.

What was his name again? Whatever his name, that cute doggy was in fact connected to the infamous Kihara family.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Kamijou groaned as he adjusted his grip on limp Vidhatri atop the train’s roof. That was all he could manage.

“I went to the trouble of coming back to life…and all I can do is run away? Dammit.”

“Staying alive is an accomplishment in and of itself, if you ask me,” said the dog. “At the very least, you overturned that Coronzon person’s expectations.”

“…”

“Dammit,” cursed Kamijou again. He wasn’t about to give up here.

The train was on the move.

This small seam gave him a new start.

Part 2

Kamijou Touma, Alice Anotherbible, and the rest had left.

That left Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang and Great Demon Coronzon.

The higher beings faced each other as red snow fell around them.

“Oh, right.”

The first to speak was Nephthys, the bandaged beauty with silver hair and brown skin.

“I will be killing you here, but I wanted to ask you something first.”

“I’m not here to fulfill your final request. I’m planning on killing billions after this. I can’t give individuals too much attention. It’s a waste of resources.”

“That isn’t what I meant. Is that human still inside you? Or has he been fully destroyed?”

“Did you think a great demon like me would bother using a pathetic hostage?”

“That still isn’t what I meant. I just want to know if I should feel even a little bad after I kill you.”

She made it sound so simple.

And certain.

The Magic God was not swayed by the great demon title. Just like during their previous battle in the UK.

“To be clear, we will be killing you either way,” said Niang-Niang, hiding her mouth behind her modified China dress’s baggy sleeve.

But she wasn’t smiling.

Not now.

“I know this might sound weird coming from Magic Gods who are willing to die to accomplish our goals, but you really should have let it end after you lost last time. Digging this all back up is just a waste of time.”

A tear spilled from Nephthys’s right eye. An unnaturally large tear.

While she laughed and spoke.

It could be easy to forget since she was too powerful, but battle was not that bandaged beauty’s forte. This was her greatest trait as an Egyptian Magic God.

“I weep for you, Niang-Niang.”

The propagating tear.

In other words, a power boost.

A Magic God’s already ultimate power was being boosted further by another Magic God.

Boosting, raising, buffing, multiplying – none of those words were sufficient to describe this.

This was on another level entirely from their playtime at the student dorm.

“It’s the same for Aleister and Coronzon.”

“You’ve already tried this a few times, so you could say history has already proven the futility of it. Digging it all back up like this isn’t going to end well for you.”

All expression suddenly vanished from Coronzon.

On her noh mask of a face, words gathered in her mouth.

“These are the intruders who impede natural decomposition. Can false gods who began as no more than human never progress beyond this point?”

“Huh?”

“Not that it matters,” muttered Coronzon, already back to herself.

She did not answer Niang-Niang’s question.

What Coronzon did say was simple.

“By the way, how much did you hear? Having to explain it all over and over again is a pain, so I’d like to skip what I can.”

“You expect understanding from gods? And really, what right does a demon have to judge us? We’re the ones testing you, dumbass.”

“I see. So you understand none of it. Then I will keep it simple, so even your single brain cell can comprehend.”

The crackling of sparks came from around Nephthys and Niang-Niang.

All 360 degrees around them.

“This is not a minefield. It is a gaping maw lined with countless fangs.”

Part 3

Still being atop the subway train when it pulled into a station would probably cause a panic and they would get in trouble for riding without paying. The train happened to stop before the next station because one of the signals indicated some minor trouble, so Kamijou’s group took that chance to climb down from the roof. It seemed lucky…but with Kamijou Touma that wasn’t an option. It was the result of how badly damaged Academy City was.

Climbing down from the roof was a challenge when carrying someone unconscious. Kamijou was walking it to the end of the tunnel with Vidhatri on his back when the golden retriever asked a question. That the dog spoke human language went without saying at this point.

“Where are you headed?”

“Phew. District 12. The old Bridge Builders Cabal consulate.”

He couldn’t let Great Demon Coronzon kill him. But what could he actually do? She had only been defeated last time at the end of a battle that dragged the entire world into it. Would he have to go through that again? Academy City was already damaged and repairs were slow in coming, so a battle on that scale could easily reduce the entire city to a pile of rubble.

An emergency exit led to a narrow stairway up to the surface. The creepy but bewitching red snow continued to fall. But his breath was white like normal. While viewing the strange scene, Kamijou pulled his phone from his pocket with Vidhatri still on his back.

It was 4 PM, the weather was snowy, and the temperature was -3 degrees.

(It’s no use. I don’t know who would be safe to contact.)

He had a communication device, but he was hesitant to use it. Because he was still officially considered dead. Contacting a classmate or friend would only cause a panic and ordinary Anti-Skill was out of the question. He had only just escaped those Bio Secure people chasing after him with flamethrowers. Not much time had passed at all.

“Teacher, let’s get to the consulate. You can think and call someone after getting some rest.”

“Good point…”

Yes, the consulate.

He wanted time to calm down and think. He couldn’t even come up with any ideas right now. The appearance of Great Demon Coronzon had radically changed things, but he still needed to get to the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate in District 12.

His breath was white.

And that wasn’t all.

“By the way, what is this red snow?”

That had been bugging him.

It didn’t seem to be something Coronzon had done. He reached out just his right hand with Vidhatri supported with his left arm and let some land on his fingertip, but the ice crystal only melted into a drop of water like normal. There was no sign of anything being negated. In that case, had some strange impurity in the air gotten mixed in when the ice crystal was solidifying? He had heard of things like smog and yellow sand changing the color of snow. Maybe it was related to the gas and dust caused by the shells and explosives used in all the recent large-scale battles.

When the snow melted on his fingertip, the resultant drop was clear. So it didn’t seem like blood or some other red liquid had frozen into snow. That was another point toward his theory it was an impurity in the crystal.

…In that case, as bewitching as the red snow looked, it might not be very clean. What did the color red represent? And aside from that, this was city snow which would be full of exhaust.

“Alice, don’t eat the snow.”

“Ehhh!?”

“Why is that so shocking!? There are plenty of other good things to eat!”

“Ugh, fine.”

“You either, doggy.”

“I would hope you could expect a little more intelligence and romance from me.”

At any rate, walking out in the open didn’t seem like a good idea. Kamijou was known as a walking corpse and carrying limp Vidhatri on his back made him look he was committing some kind of crime. Not to mention the little girl and the large dog not on a leash. Their party was practically asking to be taken in for questioning.

“Uh, oh…”

Someone was dancing on the street up ahead.

She looked to be…middle school aged, maybe?

She had a small collapsible umbrella to keep the red snow off of her and her phone was propped up against the edge of a shrubbery, so she must have thought the unusual weather was an opportunity of some kind.

Was it late enough for school to be out already?

Then again, it was the first day back after winter break, so maybe most schools were only having half days.

(I don’t even know when school lets out anymore. I’m drifting further and further from a peaceful life…)

That was a life-or-death problem. For a high schooler anyway.

Snow was accumulating and it wasn’t Christmas. Maybe there just wasn’t much traffic and maybe all the confusion had prevented the snow from being cleared, but the streets were starting to be covered by the red snow and even the trains were having to stop fairly frequently but irregularly. Not many people would want to head out on a day like this, but as someone who was officially dead, Kamijou still wanted to do his best to avoid being seen. That meant avoiding the person jumping and dancing on the sidewalk with no concern for her short skirt and even walking to the center of a big intersection and slowly turning in a full circle to get a 360-degree shot. The cheerful girl’s extrovert energy pushed Kamijou Touma away, forcing him into the narrow side streets. As the kind of person who preferred to take the far corner seat on the train even when no one else was aboard, he really didn’t mind all that much. Although he was somewhat disgusted with himself for how little it bothered him.

“I really don’t want to make a habit of taking my walks in the shadows.”

“It’s not so bad. Do it enough and it stops feeling weird.”

The dog’s advice did not help improve his mood.

He wanted to do something about it before he reached that point.

But while he was choosing the more deserted paths, it was still midday on a weekday. And he was carrying an unconscious girl on his back, but no one was stopping him. Was ordinary Anti-Skill not functioning well? That was fine as long as no one realized the gravity of it, but this could get bad if some devious people took notice.

Their destination was District 12. It was the most religious district and located on the east side of the city.

They had to take a wide detour around District 23 since it was generally off limits, so it ended up a long walk.

“Phew.”

A lot of time had passed by the time they arrived. It was just past 5 PM or thereabouts. In January, the sun would have been setting at this time, but the clouds were blocking it today.

They had arrived at the familiar consulate…sort of.

It was unrecognizable.

It seemed to have collapsed even more than when Kamijou had seen it last. Had a stray shot hit it at some point?

Several of the spires had broken and the garden was covered in rubble and black soil with a dusting of red snow starting to cover it. Over half of a building larger than the average school had been squashed. From the looks of it, the rainwater had to be getting in. Not many rooms would still be usable, but having a roof above your head still meant a lot.

“May I come in?” he asked Alice without thinking.

That made her squeal with delight. Because he was still treating this as her house maybe?

But…

“I-it’s chilly in here…”

Kamijou shivered. It had to have been colder outside, but he felt it all the worse once he was inside. Maybe his senses were returning to him.

A sofa in the corner of the huge lobby was so fancy he wasn’t sure if it was meant to be used or just decorative, but he lay Vidhatri on it regardless. Even that was difficult with the weird doll attached back-to-back with her. How did you remove it? And he felt like the cold was getting even worse. No, could it be he had been receiving warmth from the brown beauty on his back? Talk about a spoiled way to make use of a young woman. As unscientific as it was, he was afraid he had earned some kind of divine punishment there.

They had somehow arrived at the consulate, but now he had to figure out what to do next.

“F-for now, we need to do something about injured Vidhatri. She still hasn’t woken up, but is she okay? If it requires more than a first-aid kit, then we’re out of luck.”

His first thought was the frog-faced doctor.

Yes, a doctor.

“…”

The main goal of his original plan was to prevent Academy City from pursuing him as the living dead. So by escaping to a consulate belonging to another country(?) where the adults couldn’t touch him, he had hoped to buy enough time to call the frog-faced doctor to him and receive professional confirmation that Kamijou Touma was still alive. And with his status as alive confirmed, he would automatically be preserving Index and Othinus’s home too.

He didn’t know if that Condro-whatever country still officially recognized the consulate, but the actual international effectiveness didn’t really matter. He only needed the powerful adults in Academy City to hesitate.

But Great Demon Coronzon’s appearance had destroyed that plan. Utterly.

To be blunt, she wouldn’t care at all about the consulate. If she didn’t like Kamijou’s group, she would march right in to kill them. After all, she was willing to declare herself one who tore apart human bonds and obstructed their evolution. On a larger scale, there was a real possibility of her doing something to Academy City as a whole. If it came to that, then Kamijou’s group would be killed along with the rest of the city.

(Seriously, what are we supposed to do? However we stop Coronzon, I do still want to prove I’m alive so I can move through the city more easily…but do I have time for a detour like that?)

What was Index doing right now? Othinus and the calico cat too. It was below freezing outside. He couldn’t leave them out there in the frigid air and red snow and there was always the horrific chance that they would happen across Coronzon out there.

“I guess we can’t just come to a stop. We need to decide on where to start…”

Just as he said that, he heard a weird clattering noise from overhead.

Was someone there?

“Alice, get behind me.”

“Teacher, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Hm? Alice seemed awfully certain about that.

Nervous Kamijou sensed something off.

It came from his sense of smell.

Was that the familiar scent of some extremely ordinary chemical seasonings?

Then someone emerged from the second floor. The underwear woman with large wings on her back was walking while working at a cup of instant noodles with a silver fork.

“Hm? Boy, wherefore are you here?”

She was the Bologna Succubus, one of the Transcendents.

Part 4

For Kamijou the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate had seemed like a secret base of evil, but for the Bologna Succubus it was a temporary home in a foreign country. Even if it was falling apart, maybe it was best to just return here.

Kamijou tilted his head.

“What are you normal Transcendents doing now?”

“Normal? That’s a new one, boy. Then again, maybe it was inevitable when you’ve been hanging out with ultra extraordinary Alice so much.”

Standing still, the blonde underwear woman gave him an exasperated look while eating her Japanese cup noodles. Maybe it came from being Western, but he didn’t hear any slurping sounds as she ate the noodles.

“Horrifying. You might as well be eating a cup full of salt,” said the golden retriever.

“Well, this pup feels right out of a fairy tale. The best medicine when you’re tired, if you ask me.”

The tragic state of her diet suggested Good, Old Mary and H. T. Trismegistus were not here since the former was proud of her cooking skills and the latter was picky about manners. …Then again, Kamijou was more at home with cup noodles that would be ready in 3 minutes and eaten in 5 minutes than he was with a full-course dinner that took more than two hours from appetizer to dessert.

“Around half of us were knocked out trying to restrain Aleister when he suddenly went nuts. Vidhatri there was one of them. But we scattered afterwards. After all, our grand plan of saving the world with a resurrected CRC didn’t pan out. And organizations are fragile when they lose their central pillar.”

“Aleister did it?” asked Kamijou because he had thought Coronzon was responsible.

The Bologna Succubus sighed softly.

“There’s something wrong with him. No ordinary human should be able to defeat a group of Transcendents. Maybe that’s just the Crowley living up to his reputation as the exception among exceptions.”

“Wait.”

Kamijou called for a time out.

Something wasn’t right.

“If Aleister alone could have solved the Transcendent problem with Anna Sprengel and such, he wouldn’t have relied on Kingsford in the first place.”

“You have a point,” said the golden retriever. “Thinking back, that preserved corpse was an odd choice for Aleister. It isn’t like him to so wholly rely on someone else like that.”

“This talk of corpses is hitting home a lot more than it did before… But anyway, it sounded like he found some dangerous thing, modified it, and forced it to move.”

“Boy, did you forget?” The Bologna Succubus sounded exasperated. “Aleister is no ordinary human. He has crossed a line much like we have. No, it felt more like he was wielding Great Demon Coronzon’s power.”

“…”

“I doubt he could use all that power to begin with, so maybe something caused him to lose control and break through the limiter?”

“Something? Like what?”

“Kamijou Touma’s death and everything related to Anna Kingsford. You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten about that.”

In other words.

Did it all go back to that?

Just gathering up and using that power was enough to defeat a group of Transcendents. Then what could Great Demon Coronzon herself do now that she was back in control?

The Bologna Succubus shrugged.

“The Bridge Builders Cabal is no longer functioning as a magic cabal.”

“I see…”

“I don’t even know what happened to the other members. Some may still be hiding in Academy City, but I bet most of the Transcendents are leaving now that their reason for being here is gone.”

“…”

Is that why the Bologna Succubus was referring to him as “boy” here?

Alice Anotherbible was no longer her top priority.

In that school on that night, they had seen their pitiful master accidentally kill Kamijou Touma and lose sight of herself. The regular Transcendents must have been disillusioned when Alice didn’t even give them a glance after they served her so thoroughly.

Alice Anotherbible had lost her violent charisma.

And what happened when they also learned that summoning CRC to save the world was nothing more than a pipe dream?

“Nothing but hardtack to eat is murdering my mouth☆ Hey, lewd succubus, was there any canned food anywhere? …What’re they doing here?”

Someone else descended from the second floor.

To her, Alice Anotherbible was just one member of a “they”.

Who was this girl anyway? Kamijou was pretty sure he had never seen her before. The blonde was fully covered by what might have been a copper blast-resistant suit or might have been an iron maiden.

The two began conversing without any kind of introductions.

“We have an injury to deal with, so we’ll have to do something about Vidhatri. Ugh, it’s so inconvenient without Good, Old Mary around. Why does Blodeuwedd the Bouquet have to be the only one left? She’s useless.”

“Kyahah. That’s a neat trick if standing around complaining will heal her wounds. But if not, then we’ll have to figure something out with the people we’ve got, whore demon.”

…The strained atmosphere between those two bothered Kamijou, but it was they who brought a first-aid kit from deeper in the building.

The two Transcendents opened the kit and argued as they opened the manual contained in a waterproof package along with the medicines and bandages.

“First, we need to make sure we use this stuff right☆ Start by disinfecting the wound with alcohol.”

“Don’t be stupid. You need to wash the wound with water first and then disinfect it.”

“This swelling is a bruise, not internal bleeding. That means a compress will do.”

“That’s a hot compress. Are you trying to exacerbate the symptoms? You need a cool compress here, trash.”

“That idiot can be safely ignored. Now, let’s see☆ I need to tie the bandage tight to stop the bleeding.”

“If you want the bleeding to stop fast, you have to let the air contact it. Tying the bandage loose to let it breathe is best, dung beetle girl.”

Left all alone on the sofa, Vidhatri began moaning in her sleep.

Those two were practically at each other’s throats.

The Bologna Succubus and…Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was it? Those two were in fact literally butting heads. Which begged the question of why they were staying here together.

“They must be good friends.”

“Huh?” “Huh?”

Kamijou’s comment earned him a pair of fairly serious glares. A girl’s “huh?” was a frightening thing.

Kamijou couldn’t say which of their claims were correct. He secretly did some searching on his phone and found plenty of agreement in either direction. It was funny that too many opinions could be a problem too. He decided to just assume a Transcendent’s body would be tough enough to endure whatever those two did. Or wait…were Transcendents’ bodies tough?

“Damn, I really shouldn’t have stayed in Academy City. I know I have a habit of sticking around in unloved places, but I always regret not getting out sooner than I do☆”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was complaining under her breath and Kamijou concluded this really was his first time seeing her.

And the Bologna Succubus was generally welcoming and cheerful no matter what, so it was unusual to see her detest someone so much. She didn’t seem like a bad person to Kamijou, so what made the Bologna Succubus dislike her to this extent?

He asked and the Bologna Succubus reacted with complete exasperation.

In fact, she held a hand to her forehead.

“Boy, um…you are a hopelessly bad judge of character. It’s like you go out of your way to be tricked so you can destroy it all.”

“Oh, c’mon. Ha ha. An ‘evil plot’ by a little girl like this could only be something adora-”

“She was one of the Killers who wanted to murder you in order to control Alice.”

Apparently this was much more serious than he had thought.

…And yet the girl herself held a hand to her cheek while staring at him.

Hm? This seemed quite different from what he had been told. Was that a spellbound look?

“But…now that I’ve met him for myself, he’s nothing like I was expecting. I was imagining an easy-going piece of shit who, y’know, carelessly presses fire alarms and blows up fire extinguishers. But instead he’s more like, well, the shunned and ostracized kid who sits alone in a corner of the classroom. Ahh☆ I, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, am the Transcendent who protects the unloved. And the negative aura coming off of him is more than enough. Pant, pant. Oh, I can’t stand it. Kyahah, unloved one, leap into my arms!!”

“I’d rather not be accepted for that reason!!”

Was she the type to insult people when trying to be kind!? Kamijou bristled and yelled at the skinny girl whose thick armor opened like double doors. And was she entirely naked except for an apron under there!?

The naked apron was real!!

The depressed aura coming from Kamijou was probably the result of dying, coming back from the dead, being treated as a zombie, being rejected by Aleister for baffling reasons, and then having the resurrected Great Demon Coronzon try to kill him. If he let himself be taken into that soothing shelter, he just knew he would never again be able to leave that sweet-smelling girl’s thick coat!!

(But on the other hand…)

He had died and come back and was now being viewed as a zombie. It was nice finding some people who would ignore all that and actually listen to him.

Great Demon Coronzon.

He couldn’t just ignore that threat, but he needed far more fighters than this to deal with her. He didn’t even know what had happened to Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang after he left.

Even they had said they would “take over” for him, not that they would defeat her or solve the problem. It had seemed like the Magic Gods were choosing their words carefully.

He didn’t know how that had turned out, but it hadn’t seemed like leaving it with them was the end of it. And if they hadn’t ended it, then he had to assume the Coronzon problem persisted.

The Bologna Succubus put a hand on her hip and spoke.

“Anyway, we’ll treat Vidhatri. We’ll need to take her to another room.”

“I’ll help,” said Kamijou.

“This will mean removing her clothing, so you stay away. As the resident expert on sexiness, I cannot condone non-consensual nudity.”

When put that way, there was nothing Kamijou Touma-chan could do.

“Don’t look so dejected. I’ll let you see me naked later.”

“Could you not make this so awkward to agree with!?”

“Don’t worry. Even if everyone else treats you like a filthy insect, I will be there to hug you☆”

“I don’t like the sound of that future either!!”

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet began a friendly(?) argument as they moved Vidhatri to another room

Then the golden retriever made a request in a very dandy voice.

“As a dog whose body requires several nutrients to continue functioning, I would really like to be fed soon.”

Had he not eaten?

But this consulate wasn’t Kamijou’s home. He was reluctant to start searching around for food without permission.

He looked to Alice and she only smiled up at him. Apparently this was fine.

He began searching of the half-destroyed building.

“Come to think of it…I don’t remember seeing a dog last time I was here. I don’t think they have any actual pet food.”

“Such an uncivilized place. But it is what it is. Are there any chicken tenderloins?”

“The premade ones are already seasoned, so won’t they be pretty dangerous? For your kidneys and such? I’ve heard human food has too much sodium for most animals.”

“Of course. Really, only humans are capable of digesting that much salt in daily life. Even the fish swimming the sea show more restraint. Parboil it in water to remove all the excess fat and seasoning. And be thorough.”

As pressing as the situation was, having some work to do helped him calm down.

Or maybe that was just his body being heated by the steam coming from the pot of boiling water on the induction cooker. It wasn’t warming him all that much in this chill, though.

How much could a dog that size eat? He decided to just pile up the boiled tenderloins on a plate until the dog himself said it was enough, placed that and a bowl of water on the floor, and asked a question.

“Are you okay in this cold?”

“This is my winter coat, thankfully. And unlike a cat, my coat resists water. Hot!”

The dog couldn’t handle hot foods any better than cats.

Kamijou badly needed to do something about his freezing body. The dog seemed docile enough, but would he get mad if Kamijou hugged him for warmth?

Then Alice walked over and grabbed his hand.

“Over there, over there. You can warm up with that.”

Something rarely seen in Japan was installed in a one of the cracked walls.

Petty bourgeois Kamijou was used to his dorm’s air conditioning, so the idea of starting a roaring fire inside your home was a fairly exciting one, but Alice seemed to find it normal. Was fire not frightening if it had a partitioned area and was well managed?

And Japan did have its irori.

“Just turn the valve and let the gas out!”

“Wait, fireplaces aren’t for burning chopped wood?”

Apparently the firewood was mostly decorative. So many things evolved with time. Even lanterns used LEDs these days, so apparently nothing was safe.

Also, the building was half destroyed, so was the chimney safe? He was afraid it might be broken partway up or have a hole or crack that would change the flow of smoke in devastating ways…

“Damn, staring at a fire calms you down whether you like it or not, huh? No, that’s a dangerous idea. I need to be careful I don’t Little Match Girl myself… Can you not cook fish or dango on skewers in a fireplace? Like you do with an irori?”

“Ohh, nice and warm…”

Kamijou turned around to ask and heard a sleepy voice next to him.

Alice must not have been satisfied without drying every single part of her wet clothing because she stood facing the fireplace fire with her skirt lifted in her hands.

“Stop that! It’s indecent! There’s a boy here. You’re only supposed to let someone you truly care for see inside your skirt!”

“Ehh? Someone the girl truly cares for?”

“No, stop!!”

Don’t turn this way.

Also, she was wearing some kind of white tights, but was it really safe to heat those so close to a fire? Kamijou didn’t know much about old-fashioned materials, but was that something non-synthetic surrounding her legs? He wasn’t certain. He was a little afraid the heat would suddenly melt it, leading to tragedy.

And as they warmed themselves (“Lower your skirt already!”), someone returned from deeper into the building: the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. They had returned together…which meant they didn’t need to leave anyone with Vidhatri.

“Was the treatment a success?”

“Nyahah, for now.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave a brief response to Kamijou’s question.

So they weren’t completely out of the woods there yet.

Kamijou found this drafty building too cold for his liking, but wearing that thick coat indoors must have been too warm. The skinny apron girl occasionally opened it and fanned it to let some heat out as she gave him a skeptical look.

“We have a question for you.”

“?”

“What are your plans concerning Great Demon Coronzon? This situation looks pretty bad, so we kind of have to play the Alice Anotherbible card, don’t we?”

The central pillars of Alice Anotherbible’s violent charisma and CRC’s world salvation had been broken, and yet…

The Transcendents had begun as a gathering of individuals who wanted to protect the kind of people they personally wanted to help. That meant the Bologna Succubus had people she wanted to help and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had her own.

Great Demon Coronzon.

Kamijou had no idea what she might do, but it made sense those two would be concerned about the appearance of someone who would bring harm to anyone and everyone.

And they would be concerned about the enormous bomb that was Alice Anotherbible.

Blowing up over half the world in a fight to protect the world was meaningless.

Those thoughts were written plain on Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s face.

“It is probably time I decided on a general plan as well.”

The dog was right.

They only had so much time. Doing nothing and avoiding the issue would only be placing the rope around their own necks.

Kamijou organized his thoughts.

And with a deep breath, he spoke.

“I will have Alice fight.”

“Oh,” said Alice, hopping a bit at being brought up in the conversation.

“I had a feeling you would,” said Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, sounding somehow annoyed.

But…

“The problem is she’s too powerful, right? No, I guess the problem isn’t really the size of her power but its instability since you never know where she’ll direct it on a whim. …So we just have to convince the world that Alice is a good guy because she’s the one who saved the world.”

“…”

Kamijou’s explanation caused the skinny apron girl’s sulky look to freeze on her face.

“For real?”

“Great Demon Coronzon is trying to destroy the world. …To be blunt, a threat that over-the-top actually helps us out here. With a half-baked bank robbery or mummy’s curse, we’d be ignored since someone other than Alice could have dealt with it just fine. We need a threat no one else could stop so we can let the entire world know that it was Alice Anotherbible who saved them and that the world would have ended if not for her. Right?”

Fortunately, there was no connection between Great Demon Coronzon and Alice Anotherbible. They both referenced Crowley-style magic, but that wasn’t anything like a personal connection.

That meant it wouldn’t be viewed as the same side splitting between enemy and ally and putting on a show.

“I see,” said the Bologna Succubus, grinning.

She provided criticism and counterarguments as an ally. Like a skilled secretary providing practice before the debate.

“But will it really work out so nicely? Humans are heartless. Once the threat is gone, they might completely forget that someone saved them and start attacking Alice like it’s a demand for disarmament. Because at the end of the day, she’s still a threat for being able to do what she did.”

“I’m aware of that. In that case, we just have to support her. With support from someone who controls the world’s goodness and justice, there won’t be a witch hunt and Alice can become a symbol of victory and peace.”

“Oh? And who did you have in mind?”

“Hey, you’re no diplomat, so stop trying your hand at dangerous diplomatic negotiations, layman.”

A voice suddenly interrupted.

It didn’t come from Kamijou’s phone and the large TV’s LCD screen was badly cracked and broken. It seemed to becoming from the cylinder sitting on the bent table. Kamijou had thought it was a trendy aromatherapy device or something, but…

“The AI speaker is talking on its own!” exclaimed Alice.

Apparently that’s what it was.

Academy City Board Chairman Accelerator.

He had kept silent since the rain turned to red snow, but now he had butted in.

“But how did you…?”

“Consulates that represent a country or region are ordinarily installed with hotlines to the local country.”

He tried to make it sound so obvious, but what did he mean “ordinarily”?

And…

“Academy City, huh?”

The Bologna Succubus sounded surprised.

Apparently she could recognize the massive organization’s leader by his voice. Kamijou was pretty sure the two had never actually met, anyway.

Then the blonde underwear woman winked.

“I thought for sure you were going to go ask the Anglicans.”

“Go to England since this is about magic? I get the idea, but you haven’t forgotten, have you? The original Alice and Aleister Crowley are both from England.”

With that said, Kamijou sighed softly.

Meanwhile, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet seemed to have finally recovered from her freeze.

She pouted her lips and gave her opinion (in a weirdly serious way for a naked apron wearer).

“I see☆ So if Alice’s activities benefited England, it would look too much like it was all a setup?”

“And I doubt we can go to the Roman Catholic or Russian Orthodox Churches. In fact, that would probably end up with the Anglicans claiming original ownership and demanding she be returned to them, so it could just cause further conflict. Really, it will cause the least trouble if we leave Alice with the science side since they know nothing of magic. Intentionally ensuring that treasure goes to waste will ensure the magic side VIPs don’t get jealous as they watch on from the shadows.”

“How do we know that works?”

“It has with Index, the grimoire library.”

Yes, there was an example very close to home for him.

If the magic side was so afraid of having a specific magician or magic cabal control her, they just had to isolate her in another world where no one could reach her. The same could be said of Alice as well.

Alice had far too much power for an individual and analyzing her body could reveal the open source plans for creating “regular Transcendents”. Handing her over to someone on the magic side who knew how to make use of her sounded far too dangerous no matter who it was.

“Are tenderloins that good?”

“Munch, munch. Alice, these are mine. As a human, you should eat human food.”

“Is the girl still human?”

Talk of the power balance in the world of magic went over Kihara Noukan’s head, so he was busying himself with the big plate of tenderloins on the floor. Or rather, he was fighting for them with Alice who had taken an interest in them.

She definitely needed to be left with someone who didn’t know how to make use of her.

“To sum up, we first need to deal with Coronzon somehow or another. After that, we need to make it so that credit for saving the world goes to Alice. And lastly, we leave her with Academy City to avoid any further conflict. Its mostly a vague outline with no concrete details, but does that sound like a good overall plan?”

“Hey,” said Accelerator. “You aren’t forgetting that Alice girl is one of the reasons the city is in such a bad state, are you?”

“The Coronzon problem comes first.”

“Ugh,” groaned the #1, falling silent.

That was unusual.

“Keep your priorities straight. Coronzon rates higher than Alice,” clearly stated Kamijou. “We don’t have many cards in our deck right now. We can’t afford to lose even one trump card. If we focus on Alice first and end up fighting each other while ignoring Coronzon, whatever it is she’s going to do, Academy City will be destroyed first. If you really want to protect this city, then it’s your job to make sure Alice can fight at full strength, Board Chairman.”

“You make it sound so easy. You don’t think you’re free of responsibility just cause you’re not the guy at the top, do you?”

“And I do think there’s room for leniency with Alice. It’s true the damage was done by her great power, but she had no idea what she was doing and it was everyone else around her who pushed her into doing it. And that includes me. Judge her if you must, but I’m not about to let her face the world’s judgment alone. I sacrificed my life saving her, so I will make sure I save her to the very end.”

“…Tch.”

The board chairman at the very top clicked his tongue for some reason, but he said nothing more.

Kamijou wasn’t sure what part of his argument had hit home.

And then.

He heard a ring as if from a deep bell.

Was that the doorbell?

“…Wait.”

Kamijou tensed.

The only one still relaxed was Alice as she hopped on the sofa.

Meaningless misfortune often paid Kamijou a visit, so he had a very bad feeling about this. In the absolute worst case, this was Great Demon Coronzon ringing the doorbell as a joke.

Kihara Noukan looked up from his plate of tenderloins and spoke quietly.

“I do not know much about that magic stuff, but is there a chance she has detected us here?”

“A big chance. After all, she was sealed inside Aleister all that time. So anything Aleister saw or heard, she would have observed from inside him!”

This was the only real option, but had it been a mistake to choose a known building as a shelter?

Hiding deep in the damaged building and waiting for a chance to strike…would be one option, but this was Coronzon they were talking about. If they didn’t respond, she might not even enter the crumbling building. If she decided to instead blast the entire structure from outside, all of them would die in vain.

So they had to respond.

“Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.”

“Yes? Are you giving us the dangerous job since you beat us and we have nothing left to live for?”

“Don’t be dumb. Vidhatri is sleeping in the back, right? I’ll deal with whoever’s at the front door, so you two take her out the back way and escape if it looks bad.”

“…”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet fell silent, looking surprised, and the Bologna Succubus patted her on the shoulder. Except she didn’t release the shoulder of that thick coat and squeezed it with a vise-like grip.

“(I found him first. Try anything and you are dead, you naughty spoiling goddess.)”

“(Ehh, that’s no fun. Well, you have my word, but I can’t guarantee my body won’t act of its own accord when the moment comes☆)”

“(Then your word is worthless!)”

“(Who does this man milker think she is looking down on me? Does this nocturnal lesser demon think she’s his guardian or something!?)”

They started struggling against each other, but Kamijou chose to believe it was a sign of friendship.

He had to go answer the front doorbell.

Kihara Noukan accompanied him.

“Do you have any kind of weapon? With the fireplace, there should at least be a poker.”

“It would only get in the way of my right hand.”

He knew reflexively holding out his right hand was a dangerous move with anyone at the level of an angel or demon, but he still needed to focus on occult countermeasures. This wasn’t like the battle against Stiyl where they both knew each other’s moves.

Alice joined him too.

And he wasn’t even given time to prepare.

He didn’t even have time to think about opening the front door because the outer wall near the door was broken. And so he saw the answer before he could even get nervous. The hole provided a big spoiler.

“Hi.”

Someone stood there.

Dion Fortune…and two others behind her.

No, he recognized them. Wasn’t that Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou?

The group was introduced to him as follows:

“It’s the Anglican Archbishop and her jolly friends.”

Part 5

Coronzon had moved location.

She didn’t need to prepare any supplies. Everything she needed was right here in the city. Each individual would use the puzzle pieces differently, but the great demon chose to use them purely for destruction.

Yes.

Destruction.

But that meant she did need control of the necessary locations first.

And so despite being known as a great demon, she was forced to do something she would have preferred not to.

Move.

“Pros can become cons, advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. Really, Aleister would have loved it.”

But at this point, she couldn’t screw this up.

It wasn’t possible.

She had passed the challenges she could not fully calculate for. That is, she was past the point of gambling. For her, whether or not Aleister would self-destruct and release her had been the greatest obstacle.

Now she just has to complete the rest of the job.

The spell she was preparing was on an enormous scale and would take time, but she still swore on her name as a great demon that it would not fail.

No matter what anyone did from here on, it would be launched.

Great Demon Coronzon spoke quietly to herself.

“Time to begin.”

Part 6

“Adikalika,” began Dion Fortune, seated on the sofa.

Five seconds after taking a seat, she was already recrossing her legs.

“Great Demon Coronzon is preparing a massive piece of magic in this city. It’s called Adikalika.”

Come to think of it, why were Hamazura and Takitsubo of Academy City working with Dion Fortune of the UK? Maybe Kamijou wasn’t one to talk, but their circle of friends was a bit of a mystery.

However, there was no threat here.

They had moved to the parlour which was barely still intact. The kitchen was apparently still functional, so Kamijou boiled some water and made some tea. He hadn’t the foggiest idea how to make proper British tea, but since Fortune happily held the cup between her hands, he figured he had done well enough.

“Ohh, it’s nice and warm!”

“Hot water really helps you calm. I noticed that with my cup noodles earlier.”

It was below freezing outside. With red snow falling.

…So maybe even boiled tap water would have been fine if it warmed her.

Regardless, Dion Fortune got down to business.

About Adikalika.

“Our grimoire library is still being lent out to someone I could mention, but Orsola Aquinas did a brilliant research job. She tracked it down to a booklet packaged with a strange book not even found in London’s national library. Apparently a used bookstore had bought it from a certain Loch Ness mansion.”

Everything since the funeral had left Kamijou starved for human warmth, so he was pleased to hear this mention of someone he knew, but that wasn’t the main point.

So what exactly was this Adi…whatever-it-was? It sounded foreign to Kamijou’s ears, but also didn’t seem English.

Kihara Noukan and Accelerator on the AI speaker seemed pretty smart, but neither of them tried to take charge of the conversation. Were they waiting to have all the information because magic was outside their areas of expertise? Kamijou could think of any number of questions to ask, but he couldn’t narrow it down to just one.

“What is Adikalika?”

Fortune had brought Takitsubo here, but it was she who asked from the sofa with a blank stare and tilt of the head.

Had Fortune not explained it to her own group?

The science side and magic side were so different she must not have expected them to understand right way, so she gave a quick explanation.

“Right, Adikalika. When written in the alphabet instead of the Sanskrit script, it becomes a Crowley term. Originally, I guess you could say it’s a Magick reinterpretation of the Indian goddess Kali as a being who absorbs all things and make them her own. Using the 11th letter – that is, K. So the key to understanding it is Kali.”

“Wait, not so fast,” interrupted Kihara Noukan. “If you assume your audience already understands everything, your explanation is worthless. Simplicity and ease of understanding should be your goal here.”

Kamijou tilted his head.

“Hm? An Indian goddess, huh?”

For Kamijou, the word “goddess” brought to mind a kind and gentle young woman. Uh, oh. Now he was letting himself be influenced by the earlier mention of Orsola! Goddesses weren’t dorm mangers who always wore aprons and carried around brooms!!

And apparently that was way off in this case.

According to Dion Fortune:

“The original Kali is a fairly dangerous god. She started out as a representation of a certain goddess’s fury, so there’s not a hint of kindness found in her. She is a goddess of death and bloodshed and she is openly introduced as a god who has lost her sanity. But instead of a god of death for individuals, she’s more like a god of destruction for nations and the world. Also, destruction itself is not her final goal. One legend says the world was nearly destroyed by the impacts and tremors caused by her dance of joy after defeating her enemies.”

This was sounding bad already.

Hamazura was having trouble keeping up, so he asked a question.

“This is just a case of using a mythological name or symbol for a major project, right?”

“That does happen sometimes. Like with space exploration rockets or submarine missiles.”

Kamijou knew what Hamazura and Kihara Noukan were trying to say.

He decided to take over for them. …Even though he wasn’t exactly a magic expert himself.

“This spell is simply borrowing that goddess’s name, right? …Right? Surely you’re not going to say that goddess herself is going to be physically summoned here.”

That idea sounded absurd, but the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were right over there. The two of them were fighting over a variety pack of cookies that had been left in the consulate. The pack had six different kinds of cookies, but they were both only interested in the chocolate chip ones.

Yes, there were people here with names taken from myth.

After seeing the Magic Gods and Transcendents, Kamijou couldn’t just laugh this off. Vidhatri sleeping in the back had an Indian-sounding name, so anyone familiar with those myths would probably recognize her name. Plus, the Dion Fortune in front of him now wasn’t the real one – she had been created with a magical trick.

“It’s not that bad, but the end result isn’t much better.”

Kamijou felt like he had been trying to hold the conversation back when it suddenly slipped out of his hands entirely.

“As a spell, Adikalika sends the goddess of death and bloodshed to the caster’s chosen coordinates in the world,” continued Dion Fortune. “Specifically, the spell takes the catastrophic destruction that the four-armed black goddess would likely bring and transfers it to a specific land. Only the people in that chosen territory can know what happens there, but I can guarantee you that they will all die. Just assume that it’s all over if the spell is activated.”

The world, catastrophic destruction, chosen territory, all die…

This was sounding worse and worse, but this wasn’t quite enough to picture it. Among the mixture of people from different factions, Kamijou, Hamazura, and Takitsubo had the exact same distinctive look on their faces.

Dion Fortune noticed the way Kamijou was looking at her.

“If you want a description that’s easier for your science brains to understand, I guess you could think of it like an ICBM loaded with a really dangerous poison gas or germ. …But with Adikalika, it cannot be blown up after it is launched. And once it hits, all life within the land assigned the chosen human name will die. It is predicted that the people will be reduced to a mass of blood, flesh, and bone. That is, they will be crushed and sliced into what looks like a giant hunk of gore while still alive.”

That was even more gruesome than expected.

Of course, it was always going to be bad if Great Demon Coronzon felt it was worth the time and effort to use. But still.

At this point, Accelerator spoke through the AI speaker, keeping his voice low.

“What does Coronzon hope to do with that thing?”

“Hm? Isn’t she going to attack Academy City with it?”

Takitsubo answered his question with a question.

Was that really the answer, though?

Attacking Academy City sounded straightforward at first, but it felt wrong somehow. For one, she was in the city. If the spell was that destructive, she wouldn’t want to be caught in the destruction herself.

Dion Fortune recrossed her legs on the sofa and responded.

“I bet she has a different target.”

“?”

“I said the target was defined by a name assigned by humans, remember? To be blunt, the global Achilles heel she’s aiming for will probably be related to the Anglican Church or the Roman Catholic Church.”

“They are both foundations of the vast magic side☆” added Blodeuwedd the Bouquet with a cackle.

It sounded like even the Transcendents saw it that way. Now, anyway. Not long ago, they had acted like they were the center of the world.

Dion Fortune nodded and then said more.

“But I expect she’ll choose the headquarters of the Catholics in the end. So the Vatican…no, she’ll probably expand the scope to the entire Italian Peninsula.”

Kamijou had a question.

“But why? Wouldn’t she have a grudge against the UK?”

“I imagine she does. But she can’t attack us.”

Dion Fortune didn’t hesitate there.

But not because she was optimistic.

She had a bitter grimace on her face. As if to say the problem would be a lot smaller if the UK would just be chosen as the target.

“I mean, if she could use that against us, she would have done so last time. …If you follow her actions then, she attacked Board Chairman Aleister in Academy City before returning to Britain, stealing a treasure in Scotland, and attempting a major spell. If she could have launched Adikalika from Academy City and turned the entire United Kingdom into a sea of blood and mincemeat, she would have done so already. But that wasn’t what happened.”

Feeling a chill down the spine here may have been the natural human reaction, but it was also a meaningless reaction.

They had to focus on constructive topics, not the past. Even if they had to force their thoughts in that direction.

Then why didn’t it happen that way?

Dion Fortune sighed.

“Crowley is a British magician. Ignoring his work could damage the UK’s reputation, so they put in a lot of work analyzing his spells.”

The Bologna Succubus commented while munching on the edge of a chocolate chip cookie (that she had swiped at the end of a battle of scratching nails with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet).

“I see. So do you have some kind of powerful resistance against Crowley-style magic, including Adikalika?”

“Right. At the very least, for the spells he created before his official death in 1947. …That’s why Coronzon tried to use a royal treasure to destroy the UK from within last time.”

“But the Roman Catholics are a different story?” asked Kamijou.

Dion Fortune shrugged.

“When it comes to Crowley, Italy had the huge bomb that was the Abbey of Thelema. But it sounds like Italy threw everything out of the country – including documents and spiritual items – when they ordered Crowley to leave.”

So If the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church had no Crowley resistance, would they have no way of preventing this attack from turning the entire country into a sea of blood, flesh, and bone?

And if that happened…

Takitsubo slowly blinked before asking a question.

“I’m not familiar with the different powers of the, um, magic…side? What happens in the worst case?”

“If nothing is done and this plays out to the end, Adikalika will first trigger all-out war between the magic side and science side. Because Academy City could have stopped it, but Great Demon Coronzon is a being who can only be explained by the magic side.”

“I see, I see. So even though Academy City wasn’t involved in the attack, the magic side will still blame them for not stopping Coronzon. But Academy City will fire back, saying Coronzon is from the magic side. Both sides will have a point, so there will be no end to the argument.”

When the Bologna Succubus spoke up, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet apparently felt a need to as well.

Because they were rivals, or because they were friends?

“The Roman Catholic Church has 2 billion followers, right? Even with all of Academy City’s unmanned weapons, how much can its 2.3 million people do with the city so exhausted?☆”

“…”

And what good was defeating those 2 billion anyway?

The point wasn’t to pit humans against each other to create an even bigger ocean of blood and dye the entire earth red like one big disturbing candy apple.

Would the world really let a single demon drive them that far over the edge?

“And despite being part of the magic side, the Roman Catholics will attack the Anglicans too. Because Crowley is a British magician. Not to mention how closely connected England and Academy City have been. And if the UK does have anti-Crowley tech, the Catholics would want it.”

Takitsubo cut in here.

“We’re talking about war, right? Could they really choose to fight on two fronts like that?”

“As we said, the problem with a war where both sides have a point is it’s hard for either side to stop.”

Things were reaching a large scale here.

But Kamijou knew the same had happened with World War Three, Gremlin, the Crowley’s Hazards, and R&C Occultics.

The global balance was a perilous thing, so even a small trigger could lead to an age of global war.

Great Demon Coronzon herself had said that she was a being who tore apart people’s bonds and obstructed human evolution. And that her method of doing that was the natural decomposition of her dispersion.

That meant Coronzon was intentionally trying to trigger a war like that. It was not a deterrent, a necessary cost, or a single step in some master plan. The war and chaos itself was her goal. The Adikalika spell was no more than the trigger for that.

…They had to stop something like that from happening again.

This was no longer just about Academy City.

Kamijou wanted to know more details. He wanted as broad and deep an understanding as he could get.

“How long does this Adikalika spell take to prepare?”

“By my estimate, the world will be headed toward its doom by midnight tonight. Assuming we don’t do anything to stop it.”

Midnight.

“But that’s a fairly optimistic estimate.”

So there was a chance it could end before then.

It was nearly 6 PM.

They had less than 7 hours remaining. The beginning of disaster was imminent.

“She’s moving awfully fast,” groaned Kihara Noukan. “This Coronzon person has only been in control for less than two hours, right? I don’t see how she could have made any large-scale preparations for this.”

“She doesn’t need any. How long was she sealed inside Aleister? I bet she’s been making full use of her great demon mind that entire time, running simulation after simulation. And as a fellow Golden magician, it was obvious at a glance that Academy City is littered with pieces of Crowley’s legacy. This isn’t like a poison gas weapon she has to smuggle into the country or a nuclear bomb she has to manufacture. She’s surrounded by items she can use.”

“Oh? So to look at it in reverse…”

“I like the way you think, golden retriever. Yes, Adikalika can only be readied inside Academy City. You can think of it as an issue of feng shui or the terrain if you want.”

Even so…

(Aleister, huh?)

What had become of him?

Was he trapped inside that body with Coronzon in control now, or had he been annihilated when she emerged? Kamijou still didn’t know.

At the very least, he knew Aleister, the man who had grieved for the people he lost, was human. For better and for worse. On an instinctual level, he wouldn’t want to construct this Adikalika spell and destroy the world with it.

That human had lost his family and, due to that one factor, decided to declare war on the Golden magic cabal.

At his peak, that human would have been on the side trying to stop this.

No matter how much he would probably deny it.

“…”

Kamijou had Imagine Breaker in his right hand.

Its ability to negate any supernatural ability should be able to stop Coronzon’s Adikalika. However, relying on that alone would be suicide. For one, he couldn’t win a one-on-one fight against Coronzon, so even approaching the core of her plan would be a challenge.

Imagine Breaker was important, but it wasn’t enough.

“W-we do have a trump card, don’t we?”

This came from Hamazura.

He might seem far removed from magic, but he apparently had an idea.

“Dion Fortune’s…whatever it’s called. That black box!”

“Oh… I really wouldn’t recommend using the Archetype Processor here.”

“Why not!? Can’t it…what was it? Eat any magic and then break it apart and…transform it? Into something else? You were forced to use it in the UK, so I know what it can do!”

This carried a lot of meaning.

Yes.

Great Demon Coronzon was painstakingly constructing some unprecedented magic. This spell was on such a scale that not even she could whip it up in a flash, so it had to be quite complex. …So with Dion Fortune’s black box(?), couldn’t they mess it up and ruin the entire plan?

They could use that.

If they had two trump cards, Coronzon would have to split her focus. Which could create an opening. And more importantly, even if Kamijou’s right hand failed to reach her, it helped immensely to have another trump card available.

But something bothered Kamijou.

That item belonged to Dion Fortune, so why hadn’t she brought it up as an option?

“First of all, don’t expect much from it. My toy isn’t as convenient as your right hand.”

Dion Fortune sighed and raised her index finger. A box the size of a soccer ball twirled atop it. Alice stared at it, wide eyed.

She seemed confident in her control.

So her concern wouldn’t just be whether she succeeded or failed.

“All this thing does is convert an existing spell into ‘an unpredictable form’. That means the magic in front of me doesn’t just disappear.”

“But that’s not nothing,” said Hamazura. “If it can at least stop that world-destroying Adikalika magic, then it’s worth using.”

“The massive amount of magic power gathered to activate Adikalika will remain untouched.”

The atmosphere strained.

So would it be like causing a top-of-the-line race car to explode just before the race began?

“After the spell is fully dismantled and converted into something else inside the box, not even I can predict what form it will take when it reemerges into the world. Listen, Hamazura. If we’re unlucky, it could even blow away Academy City. And even if we aren’t unlucky, it could still have a major downside. There is technically a chance it could result in a fantastically lucky phenomenon like burying Academy City in candy, but you’d have better odds of winning the lottery. Are you willing to bet on those odds? When it means putting so many other people’s lives at risk?”

“Uh…”

Hamazura groaned, but Kamijou glanced over at Alice.

Alice Anotherbible might be able to “adjust” the entire structure of the world to force a jackpot…but that would be a whim on her part.

Getting Alice’s help was fine.

But they couldn’t rely entirely on her when they had no other chance of winning. If she failed and was attacked for bringing about the end of the world, it could turn her into a monster again.

“It’s an interim position until the next one is officially chosen, but I am currently the archbishop in charge of the entire Anglican Church. I intend to live up to the trust placed in me. So I am not willing to make a choice that might protect the world but would be like killing 2.3 million people. How about you?”

The rest fell silent.

Kamijou, Hamazura, Takitsubo, Kihara Noukan, the Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Accelerator, and even Alice.

Their unwillingness to speak meant they were conflicted. They each had two weights: one on the yes side of the scales and one on the no side. It was a matter of extent and size and also proof that none of them was willing to give up on Academy City so readily.

But at the same time, Kamijou had a thought.

…This was probably something she could only say at this point.

If Adikalika’s preparations really were complete and the final seconds were ticking down until the 7 or 8 billion people around the globe were dragged into a massive war, he thought Dion Fortune probably would make the decision. She would choose to force a resolution by putting 2.3 million lives at risk. Because she had said she would live up to the trust placed in her as the archbishop of the Anglican Church which protected the people from wicked magic.

Kamijou breathed in and out.

Stop thinking so negatively. Dion Fortune had said herself she didn’t want to do that. And because the situation was so pressing, he needed to come up with more positive ideas.

“Let’s just think of that as a last resort available just in case. If we try everything else and none of it works, then it’s up to Dion Fortune. If we think of it as a lifeline during this tightrope walk, it should help our mental state.”

“Hey, I said I wasn’t going to-”

“And we’re risking our lives so you won’t have to. That’s why we’re here, right?”

And speaking of having someone to support you, Kamijou Touma recalled his fight against Stiyl Magnus.

“I’m so glad I know the board chairman…”

It helped immensely to have Academy City’s new board chairman on their side. The city wasn’t in the best state, but holding full authority over it changed things considerably from fighting as individuals.

“I doubt it will be that easy.”

But.

It was Dion Fortune who immediately shot down that hope.

“I can only guess, but I bet she’ll be making her move soon.”

Part 7

“What?”

Accelerator frowned.

An alarm was buzzing.

This wasn’t just a single window or popup displaying a dangerous error. They were popping up too fast to read. He would have to check the log for that, but that was scrolling by endlessly like a realtime chat.

And the “unknown error” messages weren’t exactly helpful.

He still held the master key that took the form of a smartphone, yet his commands were being rejected. There shouldn’t have been privileges higher than that, but something else was obviously intervening and hijacking control.

This wasn’t anything like hacking or a cyber attack.

No one was breaking in by spoofing their credentials.

He didn’t sense that sort of logic here.

And, of course, these weren’t just unintentional failures or malfunctions.

Which meant…

Was there some command structure entirely separate from the scientific technology?

“I-isn’t this really bad?”

“…”

“This isn’t just the satellites and comms. There’s a chain reaction of malfunctions in the electric, gas, and water systems! It’s January and it’s snowing outside. Who knows how many people will starve or freeze if the pipes freeze and the power stops!!”

Most of Academy City’s food came from agro-buildings and clone meat, but a failure in the RFID-tag-based transportation instructions could create a situation where plenty of ingredients were being produced but none of it could be processed or reach the stores and restaurants. And in fact the bases responsible for that were going down one after another.

“C-could this also be why false alarms keep coming in? Even from the germ lab, the petrochemical plant, and the radiation testing lab… N-n-now there’s no way to tell a real major incident from all the false alarms!”

Were all the automatic reports meant to paralyze Anti-Skill, the firefighters, the hospitals, and everyone else who preserved the peace?

No, this was too roundabout a method for that.

(This is clearly more than just some unfortunate trouble, but the methods are really inconsistent for an intentional attack. It also doesn’t feel like someone acquired the city’s emergency response manual and used that to reverse engineer a method of paralyzing the city.)

He could tell this was an emergency, but that was why he couldn’t act rashly.

“So this isn’t meant as an attack. So is it a side effect of something? But of what?”

As Accelerator glowered into the screen, attempting to grasp the situation, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s shrill voice pierced his ears. She was kind of annoying. …Although that was, in a way, unavoidable when she had been designed as an agitator meant to create a mood that would lead to war.

“Can’t you artificially stop the rain…no, it’s snow now, isn’t it? Anyway, can’t you change the weather? This snow did start out as artificial rain, didn’t it?”

“Stopping the snow’d be easy, but clear skies would only bring the temperature down further. You’ve heard of radiative cooling, haven’t you? That accumulated snow won’t melt right away.”

And if the temperature dropped, more people would die.

The map of Academy City displayed on a wall monitor was gradually changing color.

Yellow indicated areas where ordinary living would be a challenge. Red indicated areas where survival would be a challenge.

Around half was already marked one or the other.

“So within 72 hours, it’s estimated this many will die? More than 100 thousand?”

In urban life, snow accumulation made travel difficult and isolated households. If the power and water stopped in that situation, people would soon start to die. Before even considering transportation, the city’s food was almost entirely reliant on the agro-buildings and clone meat. They wouldn’t be able to grow much of anything without water or electricity.

To prevent such a situation, Academy City had decentralized its power generation using the wind turbines distributed around the city, but even that was useless if the central facilities controlling the power system went down.

And…

“This estimate is assuming everyone obediently stays home as their told and dies there.”

“…”

“If they start rioting or looting, these calculations don’t mean shit. Then we could see several times as many victims.”

It was said the Japanese were relatively less likely to do such things, but that didn’t mean they would just sit tight at home and wait for death. With their lives on the line, they would try to survive. Accelerator felt that was the natural reaction for any living thing.

But…

(I thought this city was designed to avoid this kind of large-scale infrastructure trouble. I know there’s no such thing as absolute safety, but this number of loopholes feels intentional.)

These times were complicated by the fact that he had inherited the city from someone else instead of building it from the ground up himself. He held the smartphone master key, but he hadn’t designed the structure and layout of every single facility and piece of equipment.

However, the previous board chairman had been Aleister. He had been able to shrug it off every time the dark side took a shot at him, so it seemed unlikely he would leave foolish holes like this unplugged for long.

In fact, with holes this large, wouldn’t some hacker from inside or outside the city have used them to bring down the city already?

In that case…

(These loopholes are no mistake. Someone placed them there on purpose.)

He thought in silence.

But he could only come up with unpleasant ideas.

(But no one except Aleister could make use of them. They use some kind of system that the hackers, crackers, and others who make ordinary science their plaything couldn’t even imagine.)

The screen suddenly changed.

No, someone had taken control of it. Even here in the board chairman’s headquarters.

The voice that spoke from it was familiar.

“Hello again. Have you started to catch on, Mr. New Board Chairman?”

“…Is this your doing?”

“This is nothing more than a side effect. I am not trying to destroy the infrastructure for everyday necessities. The destruction I am after is on a much larger scale. Then again, seeing peaceful people starving, resenting each other, and beginning a chain reaction of violence could make for an amusing, unintentional, show. But it is nothing more than a bit of entertainment.”

“You’re only using a backdoor. You haven’t actually taken full control.”

“Give up. It’s a fundamentally different system. You can’t influence the side I’m on no matter how much you type away on your keyboard. Can you keep up with this? Here’s a hint: the science side has no way of explaining the problem plaguing Academy City. Magician Aleister Crowley designed the city that way from the beginning. He took the laws and rules of our magic side and hid them below a veneer of cutting-edge science.”

“…”

Accelerator intentionally remained silent.

So it was Qliphah Puzzle 545 who carelessly opened her mouth and continued the conversation.

“What do you mean…and how far…does it go?”

“How far? Everything. Everything!! For example, the dam in the mountains, the flow of the rivers, and even the culverts hidden below ground! And it isn’t just the water supply either. The railway lines, the broadcast facilities, the main roads, the highways, and even the layout of the districts!! Which is why I can so easily remove them from your control and place them under mine!!! …This is a city of learning created by Aleister Crowley, so it is nothing more than a rehash of the Abbey of Thelema he once built in Italy in order to drag talent out of young lives by drowning them in the supernatural and drugs!!”

After all that, Coronzon cooled down.

In fact, it was uncertain if she had even really felt all that emotion deep down.

“But none of that matters… Academy City appears to detest me for the chaos I bring, but are you sure that’s a good idea, my enemy? Have you perhaps forgotten something?”

“Like what?”

“That I am no longer your only enemy.”

Coronzon did not use hints and insinuations at this point.

Likely because she knew a direct statement would cause a greater shock and more chaos.

“The world will be split in two. Because Academy City named itself a city of science and the sole representative of one side of the world, the rest of the world had no choice but to categorize itself as the magic side. But now it is coming out that Academy City is chock full of magical symbols. …Do you really think the people forced so unfairly to keep their heads down are going to let that go?”

Part 8

They didn’t hesitate.

Kanzaki Kaori, Itsuwa, and the other Anglican magicians had been waiting outside Academy City near the wall, but as soon as they detected an unfavorable sign, they immediately crossed the wall none of them had been able to cross before.

They didn’t even bother masking their footsteps or presences.

The outsiders of the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Forces took the lead and paved the way for the second wave made up of the main Anglican team. It was their usual method.

The total number that crossed the wall in that series of actions exceeded ten thousand.

“Wh-who are you people!?”

When an Anti-Skill officer reacted to the unexpected group in a fluster, Tatemiya Saiji approached and swiftly took control of his consciousness. This meant more than just putting him to sleep on his feet. Tatemiya dragged out every last piece of information the man knew: the names and faces of his colleagues and superiors, the location of crucial facilities, passwords, and so on. Complete brainwashing was too much of a challenge, but searching out information was doable.

Then they only had to repeat the process.

It helped that Academy City was severely shorthanded. Drum-shaped security robots, eight-legged Predator Octopuses, Six Wings attack helicopters, and other unmanned weapons were being used to make up for the lack, but they weren’t much use against the magicians. The magicians passed right by them without being detected.

Perhaps this was the result of England’s long relationship with Academy City.

The Anglicans already had countermeasures ready.

“We Amakusas will head to District 2. The Former Agnese Forces should head first to District 1 and move on to the retrieval job once you finish there.”

“Understood.”

“And take this just in case.”

“A duralumin case? What’s in it? An Anglican-tuned spiritual item would actually be a poor match for us.”

“There are British flags inside. Raise them around the city if you need to reduce the morale of the enemy remnants.”

“What a pain.”

Agnese Sanctis sounded truly annoyed.

She didn’t know whose idea this was, but did they not consider the possibility of it angering the enemy into rebelling?

Then again, her own use of the word “rebelling” may have been a sign of her subconsciously looking down on them. This was their city, so the science side was ostensibly the one in charge.

“So we’re already thinking of Academy City as nothing more than remnants?”

“They did fail to stop us at the wall.”

No matter how much security had been beefed up using science, it was powerless against magic. The magicians could drag out any information someone knew and, if they needed biometrics like a fingerprint or iris scan, they could send the approved person trudging over to the scanner and get it unlocked that way.

District 1 contained Anti-Skill headquarters and District 2 contained the unmanned weapon communication data center disguised as a gunpowder testing lab.

With classified information like that, it would ordinarily take years to confirm the facility even existed, much less determine its location. But a group of magicians had no trouble taking control.

And once they held the location, they wouldn’t even need to use magic to deceive the unmanned weaponry.

They were even gradually identifying the locations of the 12 directors. All the information that had been kept so unnaturally under wraps had to be hidden somewhere in the facilities they were taking. Also, Kanzaki and the others didn’t even need any knowledge or skills with machines. By placing the necessary symbols on the devices in question and holding out their hands, they could read the residual thoughts left by the people who had operated them.

Science side telepathy and magic side spells worked entirely differently.

Which meant there was no defense against this unknown form of attack.

(Aleister. …Given who he was, I doubt this approach would have worked back when he was in charge. But things have changed.)

The R&C Occultics affair had partially exposed the existence of magic to the world, but based on the response from the city, the exposure hadn’t been serious enough to launch a specialized attack against a professional magician. Did information that spread through fads not stick around long? Not only did people simply stop paying attention, but any knowledge could be distorted into uselessness as it spread.

They had already secured a few of the directors, so it looked like they could stick to the current plan while staying on the lookout for any surprise attacks.

Kanzaki and the rest had won.

(This just leaves the District 10 prison. The biggest hurdle will be whether we can checkmate him without directly approaching that most crucial point, but it looks like this will end without giving them a chance to send out the science side’s angel.)

“Other teams have taken District 15’s broadcast station and smartphone data center. Anti-Skill, was it? We can now block the drive recorders and tablets they use. Apparently arrest warrants are all digital nowadays, so this effectively leaves them powerless. Does this make phase 1 a success, Priestess?”

“I suppose it does.”

Kanzaki Kaori did not look pleased by Tsushima’s report.

This had been their plan of course, but…

(It was too easy. Was the science side really already on its last legs?)

The world-renowned Anglican Church had deployed a large number of personnel for this, but it had still only been a blitzkrieg strike of less than half an hour.

What had happened to the power balance between science and magic? The two sides being too evenly matched for any kind of attack had supposedly been the best way to keep the peace, but now it looked like one side would endlessly push back the other.

Monotone beeping sounded within the vast structure with no workers or supervisors.

A communication device had received a call.

“Are you the dumbasses making a mess of an already messy situation?”

“Just a moment,” said Kanzaki as she made a few operations on the data center’s devices. “I just set this facility to handle some of the processing that had grown unstable. Of course, I only mean I followed the instructions on the warning window. I hope that stabilized communications somewhat.”

“What are you after?”

“We could not allow Academy City to remain in charge after discovering the city itself breaks the treaty between magic and science. And if the city still contains some secrets after Aleister left, then the best way of ensuring a solid foundation for the fight against Coronzon is for our Anglican Church to temporarily take over management of the city.”

“The treaty…” said Itsuwa, sounding somewhat worried.

“Take over management, my ass. You know what you’ve done is an invasion, don’t you? Besides, I’ve never even heard of this treaty you’re referencing.”

“That goes back to before you took over. And now that we know Lola Stuart of the Anglican Church was Great Demon Coronzon and Academy City’s board chairman was Crowley, that agreement likely was a meaningless and empty thing. Plus, both Archbishop Lola and Board Chairman Aleister are officially considered dead. It is very unclear if any agreement made between the two holds any power anymore.”

And of course, it provided the new board chairman with no defense here.

In a way, it may have helped him that he hadn’t played a part in it.

“If we don’t do anything, Coronzon will continue to take over Academy City’s functions. We need to stop her Adikalika spell as much as anyone. Plus, we cannot allow large numbers of innocents to die of starvation, freezing, accidents, or the general chaos.”

“Tch.”

But Kanzaki Kaori did not gloat here.

She simply spoke calmly to the many magicians on her side.

“We will manage Academy City. That means the safety of the city’s residents and their property is our responsibility. Do not forget that we are rightfully to blame if a single person in the city starves during a blackout or dies in a traffic accident. Each team is to distribute personnel across the city to restore order and, if necessary, clear snow or guide traffic.”

In truth, Kanzaki Kaori did not have a clear view of it all.

Their original mission had been to retrieve Index.

The plan to take control of Academy City had only been if the city refused to return her. It had simply been reworked for use in the fight against Coronzon.

It was all the result of chance.

In this, she was the opposite of Kamijou Touma and his misfortune.

Was it Kanzaki Kaori’s unnatural level of luck that had allowed it all to come together so well?

(I always get first prize all on my own. And by holding the spot at the top, my luck sends my neighbors down toward hell. It makes me sick.)

Great Demon Coronzon was attempting to use the entire city to construct a single massive spell.

The fact that Academy City could use magic was a major problem in and of itself, but Kanzaki thought making that accusation now would be misjudging their priorities. Doing that now would be playing right into the demon’s hands as she prepared Adikalika.

They could not give her time.

Fighting back against Coronzon was the more urgent task.

So if the Anglicans used magic to try and take back the city the demon was using magic to hijack, they could establish an evenly-matched tug-of-war.

“All we have under our control are the bare minimum of electricity, gas, and water… But the Adikalika described by the current archbishop would instantly blow away this brief calm. In fact, it would plunge the entire world into the fires of war. We must avoid a meaningless three-way war between the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and Academy City. By any means necessary.”

She doubted they could take complete control back from Coronzon at this point, but they could at least delay her.

They had done all this just for that.

They had even pressed their blades and magic against the people they were supposed to be helping.

Kanzaki Kaori clenched her teeth.

“I hope this will slow her at least a little…but even then it will only buy some time. This crisis will not end unless something is done about Coronzon herself.”

Part 9

Back inside the half-destroyed consulate…

“A large Anglican group…just took over the city and are keeping order for the city?”

A dazed Kamijou parroted what Accelerator had just told them.

This was a new turn of events.

Academy City was on the verge of death with no means of fighting back, but still.

And even if it looked like the Anglicans were providing friendly cooperation, it sounded a lot like they had concluded the city no longer had the strength left to keep its own peace.

It was looking like the very framework of Academy City could collapse from conflict between humans before Great Demon Coronzon even did anything.

“Dion Fortune, was it?” asked Accelerator. “Do something about this. You’re their boss, aren’t you!?”

“Well…”

This should have been a basic question and request.

Yet Fortune seemed reluctant to respond.

“If I had to guess, I really don’t think my power would be very effective here. I mean, the previous archbishop was Lola Stuart…in other words, Great Demon Coronzon, right? After being betrayed by the person at the very top, they’re going to be skeptical of anything coming from the next person in that role. And technically speaking, I’m not even human. I started out as a scout created by Coronzon.”

The Anglican Church couldn’t leave their top spot empty and they had needed someone to fill the role, but did that not mean they actually had much trust in the chosen individual?

They ordinarily did what she said, but that might not hold once the world was on the verge of destruction.

“Damn,” Kamijou muttered under his breath.

Yet again things were looking worse.

His plan to get Alice Anotherbible accepted by the world by advertising her as the hero who had saved the world by defeating Coronzon was already falling apart.

Academy City had been the perfect place to send the magic side’s greatest tinderbox because the place had no connection to magic.

But now that Academy City itself was known to be steeped in magic, the Anglican Church would never agree to leave Alice Anotherbible there. In fact, there would be fears that adding Alice’s incredible power to Academy City’s arsenal could lead to the creation of a third faction that could wield both magic and science.

And in fact, R&C Occultics had used both as a weapon and had caused great chaos during its short time in business.

Then Dion Fortune spoke from the sofa.

“Wait. Hold on.”

“What now?”

“Well, there’s another operation being carried out in parallel to that one.”

“What exactly is it!?”

Kamijou’s strong question did not get an answer out of Fortune.

After a while, she finally spoke quietly and quickly without looking him in the eye.

“If my people aren’t interested in obeying me…that one might actually be even more dangerous?”

Part 10

“That’s it. That’s Academy City’s outer wall,” said Index, holding the calico cat.

She had been communicating with the Anglican Church using carrier pigeons instead of EM signals or fiber optic cables. With no home in Academy City and magicians all over the world are after the grimoire library in her head, she had no option but to return to England.

She heard a sudden voice.

But she couldn’t see anyone around.

Index had made a friend here in Academy City.

Kazakiri Hyouka.

“So you’re going…”

“I am.”

“I’ll miss you, but if this is the path you’ve chosen, I won’t stop you.”

Index was glad they got a chance to talk before she left.

But that wasn’t all.

Kazakiri had one more thing to say.

“But be careful. Don’t let your guard down until the very end.”

“?”

The disembodied voice stopped there.

Othinus, the 15cm girl on Index’s shoulder, sighed.

“I know I’m not one to talk, but you meet the strangest people.”

Maybe so.

Index continued through the red snow to approach the city wall.

“Oh, there you are.”

She heard a voice.

It was Agnese Sanctis.

Sisters Lucia, Angelene, and more were there as well. The Amakusas would be better acquainted with Japanese geography, but apparently the Roman Catholic unit that had joined the Anglicans was here as well.

“That’s odd,” whispered Othinus up on Index’s shoulder.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the Anglican unit supposed to be waiting just outside the wall?

The cat mewed. Apparently he wasn’t bothered.

With Index’s perfect memory, she knew she wasn’t misremembering the plan. They were supposed to protect her after she left the city…

“Everything’s gotten all confused. This Great Demon Coronzon – I think it was? – has appeared in Academy City, so we’re dealing with that before taking you back home.”

“Really?”

Index tilted her head.

Was it really safe to wait around like that?

Wasn’t the idea to get her out of Academy City and return her back to England as quickly as possible?

“We could just head back to England I guess, but, um, if we don’t do anything about Coronzon, the country might not be there when we get back. Or something like that? Anyway, follow me.”

Agnese took the lead. And moved back into the city.

This really was strange.

“(Hey.)”

“?”

“(Be cautious. A last-minute change of plans is more dangerous than the grim reaper on the front line.)”

Othinus kept her voice low so Agnese and the rest couldn’t hear.

Which meant she was working to hide their doubts.

This had been odd from the start. The idea had been to meet Index secretly and help her escape the city, yet Agnese’s group didn’t seem concerned about discovery. Even though Academy City could easily view this as a betrayal. It was almost like they weren’t at all worried about being caught.

“For now, let’s get you to District 2. Letting you see Kanzaki would be best.”

Part 11

“(E-excuse me. We have a report from the Former Agnese Forces. They say they’ve brought Index-san here.)”

The room was so quiet that Itsuwa’s modest whisper to Kanzaki managed to permeate the entire space.

A strange air hung over the District 2 unmanned weapon data center.

And this air was no metaphor.

The odor of death hung over the place.

Just as human sweat and the smell of a beast were different things, the stench of your own species decomposing was somehow different. The brain warned you to be on your guard and not to overlook anything.

It said danger was approaching.

“Hello, hello. I’m Isabella Theism of Necessarius. My specialty is necromancy.”

There was a stark difference between the carefree smile and the words it produced.

Necromancy.

“I know it has a sketchy reputation, but fortunetelling and the impurity of death are really about the only two superstitions that remain in the depths of ordinary people’s hearts even in a world of science. Like seeing a house as special because someone was killed there, or seeing a rope as special because it was used to hang someone. See what I mean? It’s something you can’t rid yourself of with equations. You might find it silly, but it’ll still be there inside you. That is what I make use of☆”

A stir spread around Kanzaki Kaori.

The Amakusas had been developed (by Kanzaki herself) to be pure and straightforward in that regard. They couldn’t so easily accept someone who called herself a necromancer.

And the woman appeared accustomed to the reaction.

She herself was a beautiful woman with silver hair and brown skin, but all she did was smile in rags permeated with the odor of death.

Agnese, who must have come all the way to District 2 to escort Index, joined the conversation while brushing red snow off her shoulders.

“She has experience as a team leader. I’ve heard she had cleaned up several troublesome messes on a global scale, like the Cadaver Island Struggle and the Necropolis Calamity. …Which means she was hiding who she really is last time we worked together.”

“Oh, yeah. I did do those things, didn’t I? But I wasn’t hiding it exactly. I just forgot is all. Why bother remembering incidents once they’re over?”

“Then did you solve those with necromancy too?”

“Everyone starts off in their own unique way, but they all end up wailing by the end. ‘I wish I’d never been born’, and stuff like that. So I can’t say who was who. They all blur together in my memory☆”

This was no laughing matter.

Both of those had been true wars with, even looking just at the official count, over a thousand combatants. And these had all been the professional magicians of top-level magic cabals. If the count went past the official members and included the workers building barricades, the lookouts and spies hidden here and there, and the mercenaries (from the magic side of course) who were invited in to bolster their personnel, who could say how many more it was. And they had all ended up much the same.

Only Isabella herself continued smiling emptily.

“Hee hee. Did I scare you?”

An “eep” escaped someone.

Itsuwa jumped at suddenly being the target of the woman’s attention, so Tsushima, who was the big sister type, instinctually inserted herself between the two of them.

“Unfermented wine and flavorless brown bread – both symbols of death,” sang Isabella regardless. “The name necromancy sounds frightening, but that’s all it really comes down to. It did used to involve drawing magic circles on dead bodies, but nowadays everyone uses imitations so they don’t gather the attention of the police. This country has ceremonies where you burn or bury a doll in place of a person, doesn’t it? It’s like that.”

“Eh?” Itsuwa sounded surprised. “You mean you don’t actually work with dead bodies?”

“I suppose the closest thing I do would be borrowing their clothing. Although different factions are split on whether that’s to search for the deceased’s soul so you can summon it or if you use it to remind someone of the deceased so you can extract the related memories and testimony from their mind.”

To be blunt, there were ways in the modern age to legally (although only by abusing loopholes in the law) acquire a full dead human body, but Isabella did not do that.

She had a simple reason.

She didn’t see any real purpose in having a real corpse.

At least in Western European necromancy, the actual ceremonies were very different from the public conception.

“Going grave digging and making a servant out of the dead body? Resurrecting a mummy from an ancient sarcophagus? No, no, I would never. Nobody uses those methods anymore – they’re too inefficient. Besides, the essence of necromancy is communicating with the spirits of the dead. So instead of shutting off their physical limiters to provide superhuman strength, it’s about acquiring information you shouldn’t have by using spirits who have been freed from the physical laws. So really you could say it’s like an uglier version of divination.”

From a Japanese perspective, it was like a version of the Kokkuri-san that used the dead.

The technique was only used to learn.

You couldn’t expect to intentionally mimic the cases where the necromancer screwed up and ended up possessed, allowing a mysterious entity into their body so they could surpass the laws of physics and shoot fire from their hands. That was far too dangerous.

As long as you understood the proper methods, you could complete the ceremonies without an actual dead body.

It could be the room where someone died, the rope used to hang someone, or clothing covered in death odor. How much of “the air of death” an item required to guide you to a special mental state depended on the individual magician, but in this case the level of the technique came from how cost efficient it was.

Isabella Theism had reached the point that she could do this:

“Really, it’s best to have a recipe for a dead body where all the ingredients can be found at the average supermarket or home improvement store. You take some pork or beef and then you make a skull out of lumber and so on.”

“Th-that’s how it’s done? That sounds more like a shop class project.”

Itsuwa’s comment made Isabella clap her hands together in delight.

“It all depends on the quality. Back before CG was so easy to use, splatter films had all sorts of tricks to make convincing fake guts. The poor image quality helped, but the end result was a lot more grotesque and disturbing than what you see in modern horror.”

Kanzaki sighed and spoke up.

“I don’t know if we will have any use for you. For now, I imagine the tug-of-war over the city against Coronzon will continue as we try to delay the activation of Adikalika, but magic to artificially consume lives doesn’t sound very useful there.”

“You think you’re in control of the entire city?” quietly asked Isabella. In a mocking tone. “Do you really believe that? Take as much of the surface-level infrastructure and important facilities as you like, you won’t fully stop the city from functioning. There’s so much more still hidden below the surface. Not to mention you haven’t even captured half of the 12 directors and have no idea where the rest are. You can’t stop Coronzon’s work by desperately trying to plug all the holes. Academy City has more than one map. It looks like a peaceful city at first, but the things hidden by the multiple overlapping maps are what makes it so horrifying.”

It wasn’t Kanzaki who immediately replied.

Itsuwa made the first rebuttal while trembling.

“H-how can you know that? Academy City is supposed to be an unknown world for you too.”

“I can smell death here. The city is thick with it, so there has to be more we aren’t seeing.”

She made it sound obvious.

Or maybe this was a sense unique to necromancers.

Kanzaki asked a careful question.

“Finding fault is easy, but if you were in charge, what exactly would you do to solve the problem?”

“I will answer that with my first job as a necromancer.”

Isabella turned her attention toward something other than Great Demon Coronzon or Academy City.

She focused on the girl who they had supposedly been asked to retrieve and protect.

“The grimoire library, hm? Quite a troublesome thing to be left in Academy City with all this going on. It was miraculous good fortune that Coronzon didn’t secure her before we found her. Coronzon will not leave someone so dangerous free. Dealing with that must be our top priority.”

“What are you going to do with Index!?”

“For now, locking her up should work. She shouldn’t be a problem as long as Coronzon can’t abuse her knowledge, so the situation isn’t pressing enough to require silencing her more permanently. But to be clear, that’s only for now.”

Isabella Theism was saying she would do it if it became necessary.

She viewed the current Adikalika as the borderline with the worst case. She was saying they had to keep those 103,000 grimoires from being used to either greatly abbreviate Adikalika’s preparation period or to create magic even more troublesome than Adikalika.

She was correct.

While also twisted at a fundamental level.

“The other uncertain factor would be Kamijou Touma.”

Isabella Theism actually sounded amused.

The brown necromancer continued.

“The effects of his right hand are certainly fascinating, but whoever they might be, someone who has died once already is part of my domain. He is dead meat. That is a resource that should be utilized for maximum effectiveness. And I mean toward resolving the Coronzon and Adikalika problem, of course.”

“That is unaccep-”

“Oh? And who exactly can protect someone who is still considered dead on paper?”

“Wait.”

The interruption came from the white nun.

Despite the situation, Index’s concern wasn’t for herself.

“D-do you mean Touma?”

“…Sigh, what a pain.”

“Why are you talking about him that way? Died once already? Why would you phrase it that way? What exactly happened to Touma!?”

Index heard a sticky splat.

From her shoulders.

They had been grabbed by discolored corpse hands with visible bone and a rotting stench.

She didn’t even have time to scream. Rotting corpses too melted and swollen to even tell their sex had grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on the floor.

“Agh!!”

“Don’t worry. These are decoy bodies made from sanitary ingredients,” said a cool-faced Isabella.

But no matter what they were made from, these were “dead bodies” professionally made to be indistinguishable from real ones. The shock of unexpected contact with one was no different.

“I came all the way to Japan to do my job. I am not interested in your home drama.”

Index had a perfect memory.

So she could never forget anything she saw or felt.

So.

“Don’t…you dare.”

A new voice joined in.

Stiyl Magnus.

Unlike with Index, there had been no report of his arrival. Kanzaki was supposedly in charge here, but she had no idea why he was here or how he had gotten so injured and weakened.

But something must have happened for him to be so badly hurt.

Stiyl gasped for breath and practically had to drag his body over as he approached.

“What do you think you’re doing, Isabella Theism? You want to lock her up? Stop that this instant. You aren’t fit to command the Anglicans… As a Saint, Kanzaki is the one in command here. If you’re going to insist otherwise, I will punish you!!”

“Ehh? You’re really going with that? The guy who betrayed Kanzaki the first chance he got really shouldn’t be talking about the sanctity of rules.”

A large mass dropped from the necromancer’s rags, landing at her feet.

It was a thoroughly dried, and thus lightweight, corpse.

Had it been pasted to the inside of her rags, arranged just right to be hidden despite the many holes?

It was likely only an imitation made from a mixture of cow bones, pork, ceramic, and more.

“Is this really a job to outsource and leave in the hands of a subcontractor? Obviously the on-site leader should be an actual Anglican. And I would say you’ve disqualified yourself after rushing off on a personal vendetta.”

The hunk of death lying at her feet suddenly absorbed all the moisture around her.

It grew to nearly three meters and lost its humanoid shape.

Kanzaki realized what was happening.

“Wait, Isabe-!?”

A wet pop followed.

The blood and innards were red. Beads of death were scattered evenly in all 360 degrees. Each one could eat through glass used to store nearly any chemical and plastic that wouldn’t decompose even after buried for 100 years. And there were tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of them.

“!?”

Even Kanzaki Kaori flinched before that contaminant. She sharply strung out invisibly thin wires to sacrifice them to the goop. To protect the Amakusas behind her, not herself.

Which created the tiniest of openings.

The Saint who insisted she would save everyone could only watch as Stiyl Magnus and Isabella Theism both took a step forward.

The tall priest’s eyes displayed contempt.

“Is that all?”

He spread out his rune cards.

A flame sword extended from his clenched right hand.

“Did you really think that could stop me, Isabella!?”

Death by burning symbolized purification in Christianity. But it did not mean salvation for the object being burned. Instead, it annihilated the object to eliminate it from the world. Some even believed that a body burned according to a certain ritualized procedure lost the right to participate in the Last Judgment.

It was a matter of compatibility.

Any amount of that contaminant could be eliminated by Stiyl’s flame sword.

Thus, the necromancer’s trick proved meaningless as the priest’s sword sliced through that unclean space. Along with the magician who had scattered the deadly contaminant in the first place.

The flame roared loud as it sucked in oxygen. More than just toss fire at her from without, the brown necromancer’s slashed body was burned from within.

It was thorough and swift.

But she put up too little resistance for someone being burned alive.

Eventually, Stiyl caught on.

“Is this another imitation made from different ingredients!?”

By the time the words had left him, he was surrounded by brown women.

All imitations.

But he didn’t have time to gasp.

Directly behind him, Isabella Theism hid among the imitations.

The action she took wasn’t even all that difficult.

It was gentle even.

She simply placed a hand on the priest’s shoulder.

Stiyl Magnus’s eyes rolled back in his head.

He coughed up something dark. A clump of blood. More of the hideous color spilled from his eyelids and ears. But most importantly, his two-meter form crumpled straight down.

Even the veteran Necessarius members who were world-renowned for their skill in battle against magicians couldn’t tell what had happened.

“Unlike you, I came all the way to Japan to do my job.”

Only the expert in death – the brown necromancer – chuckled and spoke.

“I am not interested in your adolescent escapades.”

Chapter 2: Death and Slaughter – VS_NECROMANCER.

Part 1

The sun was setting on Academy City.

The red snow continued even as night fell.

“Nhh…”

Necromancer Isabella Theism raised her arms and stretched.

Even that dealer in death had visibly white breath in the darkness.

The building was cramped and Isabella knew she was ruining the mood, but she had no real obligation to get along with her colleagues. She hadn’t come to Japan to make friends.

They had taken over this city.

They had accomplished what the magic side as a whole would consider a great feat. This alone had to be causing a kerfuffle in the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. If the power of science joined the conflict, it would greatly change the three-way stalemate between England, Rome, and Russia.

Offering Academy City to the queen would be enough for Isabella Theism’s name to go down in history.

(How history would describe me is an open question, though. That queen is an upright person who values peace and loathes fighting.)

But controlling the world meant nothing if that world was destroyed tomorrow.

She had to focus on Great Demon Coronzon for now.

“Which means I don’t have time to listen to complaints from outsiders.”

She focused on her earphone and heard an annoyed voice.

“What is wrong with you? Wasn’t that a little quick to completely change your mind on me?”

“All I did was lay some groundwork I felt necessary for my mission. To me, this seems pretty peaceful compared to carpet bombing a jungle or some buildings the enemy might be using to hide.”

“Hold on. It was you Anglicans who said you wanted a united front.” The new board chairman’s voice dropped in tone. “That’s why I didn’t resist much when I discovered your further savagery. Setting aside whether it’s humane or not, I could have used magnetic resonance well beyond any safety standards to rattle people’s cranial nerves and turn them into living pawns all from a safe distance. I can still do that.”

“Well, that’s a new interpretation of the zombie. And I like that they’re zombies but you aren’t controlling the dead.” Isabella actually sounded amused. “Did we sign any documents? Did we stamp it with our seal? All you’re going off of is a baseless chat with our previous leader, who had no right to be leading in the first place. Now that I’ve taken the position, I’m not bound by any vague verbal promises or implicit understandings. I, Isabella Theism, will do everything necessary to stop the Adikalika large-scale attack spell that Great Demon Coronzon is preparing. …And I mean everything necessary as a necromancer, of course☆”

When the leader changed, so did the overall policy.

That unpleasant side of organizations was rearing its ugly head here.

After trusting and opening up to the previous leader, that leader was driven out by infighting and a completely different person was now in charge and saying the exact opposite. All the personal trust built up before had been shifted onto someone else entirely and all the risk was shoved back onto him for opening up. Even though this was no time to be getting sidetracked with that sort of nonsense.

“Don’t you get that this fun of yours is only going to lead to more meaningless death?”

“Meaningless? Of course not! …I won’t let a single death go to waste. I generally use imitations rather than consume actual dead bodies for my spells, but that doesn’t mean I lack the ability to do so. And creating lookalikes out of safe and reliable ingredient is a lot of work. If Academy City is going to let these real dead bodies go to waste, I will take full responsibility and put them to good use.”

She was smiling.

This was no lie or mockery – she really meant it.

With Isabella Theism, there was little meaning in debating whether she was a good or bad person. The meaning of justice changed depending on your viewpoint and her opinion was technically correct if all you wanted to do was keep the United Kingdom safe. Of course, that was setting aside the question of if the British people would permit a peace built on other’s deaths.

To Isabella, lives were like a fuel that could be burned with the maximum efficiency. Using them up without any waste was a virtue. So to put it another way, inefficiently protecting others’ lives was not all that important.

Whether this was good or evil didn’t really matter here. That question could wait.

But Accelerator did have an answer for whether he liked it or not: he couldn’t have disliked it more.

“…You’re different.”

“From what?”

“You’re nothing at all like the necromancer I know.”

“I should have known the one sitting in the board chairman’s seat would have some delightful friends. But, you see, this field has branched into many different ideologies and factions.”

Yes. Her sensibilities were not off because she was a necromancer or because she was a magician who specialized in human death. This all came down to Isabella’s personal beliefs and tastes.

Her insistence on always doing what was correct rankled Accelerator, but she was the one who had ended up in a position to influence the fate of Academy City and the world as a whole. Was the world really in good hands? In a way, she was even more of a pain than Coronzon who opposed the world more directly.

“But the fact remains that no amount of complaining on your part is going to change anything. I mean, Academy City is a shambles, isn’t it? You can’t gather enough pieces to take on Coronzon. So despite your sensible complaints, you have no choice but to rely on the Anglican experts who have entered your city. And need I remind you that it is we Anglicans who overcame the threat of Coronzon in the past?”

“…”

“Yes, wouldn’t it be nice if Academy City still had a trump card up its sleeve?”

Part 2

In a District 7 hospital, a nurse who had gone out of her way to modify her official nurse uniform to give it a miniskirt stepped into the emergency room.

“Hey, doc☆ You have a message from Anti-Skill’s um…how do you read this name? It means yellow spring river, but they really should give you the reading too. Anyway, she’s one of those people who keep the city peaceful. Something about wanting an expert medical opinion.”

“If it will not save a life, I’m not interested.”

“I’m not sure in this case. Apparently there’s a few witness reports around the city saying a dead kid called Kamijou Touma is up and moving around.”

“…”

The frog-faced doctor sighed.

Now there was a name he hadn’t expected to hear again.

And…

“Are they sure he’s really dead?”

“They don’t know, which is why they wanted the advice of the doctor who declared him dead. They apparently can’t contact the crematorium either.”

That meant it was possible he wasn’t dead.

The frog-faced doctor had confirmed the boy’s death and even sewed up his mangled body. He had even observed the embalming in the morgue, but was it really possible to fake death in that state?

However.

If the boy was still alive, then, whatever his state might be, he would be one of the patients the frog-faced doctor had to save. He was probably caught up in some kind of trouble again, but that was no reason for the frog-faced doctor to give up on a patient. No matter what it was.

(And really, this sounds a lot more like the boy I know.)

“Transfer her to this monitor. The hospital is full of computers, so this monitor is as good as any.”

“On it.”

The nurse whose excessive display of sex appeal was constantly troubling the patients left the room.

The very next moment, something else happened.

Specifically, something moved atop a bloody stretcher in the emergency room. Perhaps because the poor female patient was unidentified (despite what looked like an ID card hanging from her neck), she had been sent away from District 10 and across the district line to reach this hospital. But by the time she had arrived, hadn’t she already been in cardiac arrest?

“What…?”

Immediately after the frog-faced doctor’s puzzled question, it happened.

It was like a mousetrap equipped with a powerful spring.

The young emergency patient had lost so much blood after biting her tongue that she hadn’t even been able to move her own heart, yet now she sat up. With enough force to tear out the cardiopulmonary bypass tubes attaching her to an external box.

“Bonjour!”

“…”

The frog-faced doctor looked like he wanted to say something, but it was the emergency patient who smiled and spoke to him.

“Ohh, I feel so dizzy. The blood isn’t reaching my brain. Maybe that’s why my self-diagnosis is stalled… A mystérieuse cardiac arrest patient who you couldn’t seem to identify must have been tough, huh? Well, your Jane Doe is in fact named Kihara Goukei, but you can call me Madame Gou. Oh, right. Do you know the nombre of the ambulance that brought me here? Those EMTs work so hard year round, so I feel bad troubling them with me. I need to send them some expensive mangoes later on.”

She was speaking a mile a minute.

Her tongue was operating quite smoothly for someone who had bitten it badly enough to kill her.

“Um, so, is the dead coming back to life the latest fad in this city or something?”

“Don’t ask me. But every part of my body is crammed full of that sort of technologie,” casually revealed Kihara Goukei.

This was the true face of Bio Secure.

“Nhh hee hee☆ When you belong to a team that deals with the city’s illegal undead, you gather a lot of specialized knowledge from across the city. And no one really tracks what happens to that bizarre technologie once it’s been confiscated, so no one ever notices if you modify some of it for your own use before consigning it to oblivion.”

“So you’re saying you have turned your own body into a collection of forbidden research you gathered around Academy City?”

“Because stealing other people’s recherche is so much faster than developing it yourself. That’s more the thought process of an industrielle spy than a researcher, though.”

Biting your tongue would kill you?

Then you just had to have two tongues.

…It was toying with death on that level that made her a Kihara.

“Do you not consider life to be valuable?”

“Life is precious, of course.”

The answer came immediately.

It sounded pure even.

But all that was distorted a second later.

“Which is why it’s so much fun to toy with! A life is one-of-a-kind and not some replaceable scrap of paper, which is what makes it so exciting. Oui, oui. It all comes down to the knowledge that you are doing something truly irreversible!! Ah ha ha. Isn’t that the very definition of a desecration!?”

This was the difference between normal people and the Kihara family.

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the value or share that value. They understood it perfectly, but their goal in handling something precious was entirely different. They were a wholly incomprehensible bunch.

Kihara Goukei continued, looking carefree.

“Now, a perfectly healthy person hogging your emergency room would only trouble the next patient, so I will take my leave here. Oh, which way to the payment desk? This looks like a big hôpital, so is it busy on weekdays? I’m in a hurry, so it would help immensely if you could just automatically charge it to my carte.”

“I get the feeling letting you go will bring trouble to many more people.”

“But you can’t stop me. Not as a docteur, anyway.”

She made it sound so obvious.

There were specialized tools in here, like scalpels used to cut skin and bone saws. Even opening the anesthesia valve might be able to neutralize this dangerous person.

But…

“You are a skilled doctor. Skilled enough to make a Kihara like me jealous. But your skills can only be used to save people. You might technically possess the skills, but you cannot cut into people or sew them up for any other raison. That is just how doctors work.”

“…”

“Oh, don’t worry. I too am working to protect Academy City’s peace. So don’t give me that grim look. I will do my job.”

“Even thought you’re a Kihara?”

“Oui. I will do it as a Kihara.”

Part 3

The District 2 gunpowder testing lab was in fact an unmanned weapon data center.

It was a large place.

And its security was in fact too advanced to be fully utilized by the nuns and magicians with a poor grasp of scientific technology.

There were plenty of blind spots.

Lucia had dragged Agnese and Angelene to the heat control room.

Simply put, the room was lined with valves and tanks of the chemical coolant used to cool the large computers.

“What did you want to discuss?”

“Whether or not we’re going to continue obeying Isabella.”

Sister Lucia was fastidious.

She may not have liked Isabella’s methods, such as attacking her own people when they got in her way and accepting the impure along with the pure – and she in fact seemed much more at home with the impure.

“Eh? Eh? But the Anglican Church took us in when we fled the Catholics.”

Stooped Angelene hurriedly observed both Agnese and Lucia’s faces.

That was the first and most important point.

The 250 members of the Former Agnese Forces would gain nothing by clashing with the Anglicans.

In fact, they might end up with their lives at risk.

But Lucia crossed her arms and continued.

“I feel like the fair deal we were given is being violated.”

“Well…we are basically freeloaders with them. This isn’t the first time we’ve been given odd jobs that are definitely not worth the effort. And any accomplishments we do make go to whoever our leader is on paper.”

Agnese shrugged, but Lucia did not stop.

“She knocked out Stiyl and I don’t like the true identity she was hiding. Can we really leave the fate of the Italian Peninsula in her hands? Doesn’t this situation worry you two?”

“If Adikalika is activated, the world will be headed toward its doom. England has no reason to hold back.”

“So you think they’ll treat everyone equally? Really? Destroying the Vatican will not immediately doom London.”

The atmosphere froze.

That statement made them focus on the cracks.

And Sister Lucia wasn’t wrong.

Even if the world was set to be destroyed today or tomorrow, was England really doing everything they could? For example, Queen Elizard wasn’t here. Nor were Princesses Riméa, Carissa, and Villian. It was true it would be unusual for the royal family to be sent to the front line, but why was everything still operating “business as usual” with all this going on?

Even if the Catholics wanted them dead, Agnese and the others couldn’t abandon them to die.

They were only with England because it best served their purposes. Which was why Agnese had just said they were basically freeloaders.

Angelene stammered, “C-come to think of it, I haven’t seen any sign of the war-loving Knights around. The Anglicans are the only one of the three factions here. Before I thought that was lucky since it would avoid infighting, but now…”

It was easy to suspect England wasn’t taking this as seriously as they might.

Even though the clock striking midnight could signal the Italian Peninsula becoming a sea of blood, flesh, and bone.

The discussion had fast reached a point where it would look badly on them to be overheard by any of the true Anglicans.

But they couldn’t help but get worked up among themselves.

Agnese asked a careful question.

“Are you questioning where they’ve set up their defensive line?”

“We’re convenient workers, if not outright sacrificial pawns for them. I expected them to ask us to risk our lives and fight here. Kanzaki might not because she’s too nice, but why isn’t Isabella Theism demanding it of us?”

Could England be taking an optimistic view?

Did they only see this as an occurrence in Academy City of distant Asia, on the other side of the world?

Even if they screwed up and the Italian Peninsula were submerged in a sea of blood, flesh, and bone, did they think they had another chance? Maybe it was only subconscious, but did they still think there was a buffer zone left?

Lucia had a point.

Especially from the perspective of the Former Agnese Forces who wanted to protect the Italian Peninsula at all costs.

But at the same time, Agnese had felt a chill on her spine for a while. A very distinct chill.

The mention of Great Demon Coronzon may have reminded her.

(This happened last time in London, didn’t it?)

So she was cautious.

She had to treat this like defusing a bomb.

Coronzon was an expert at tearing apart the bonds between people.

So it was possible this conflict had been planned and this suspicion between allies would all serve to benefit the great demon.

(Could this be the same war mood – that same scent in the air – that sent Sister Orsola down the path of self-destruction?)

“Even so, you aren’t suggesting a coup here, are you? The Anglicans have over 10 thousand people in Academy City, so there isn’t anything our 250 can do. And they even have that extraordinary Saint. Not to mention that infighting while Adikalika is being prepared will only delight Coronzon.”

“I know that,” immediately replied Lucia. She apparently had a different idea. “Which is why I’m saying we can’t afford to leave this in the wrong hands. At the very least, Isabella can’t be the one to carry the fate of the Italian Peninsula on her shoulders.”

“Then Kanzaki? She is a dazzlingly good person, but she has the Amakusas to protect. Will she really make any bold moves to help us?”

“No.”

The fastidious nun sharply rejected that idea.

“There is someone else in this building, isn’t there? We need to be using everything available to us, but one person is going to waste.”

The three of them exchanged a glance.

Come to think of it…

“If she is at the center of it, then everyone here will do their job regardless of their position in the magic side power map. Even if it means forcing forward the defensive line that they’ve pulled back. Don’t you think so?”

Part 4

In the District 12 consulate, Kamijou Touma and the others were discussing something. Probably a plan to use against Coronzon.

Feeling left out, Hamazura Shiage’s face clouded over.

“Y’know…I just can’t believe Coronzon is trying to destroy the world again.”

“Think of it like her instincts as a great demon,” casually replied Dion Fortune. “You can’t expect to fix this with a conversation. She isn’t one to be stopped with the straightforward methods Kamijou Touma prefers.”

…Was that really true?

Hamazura thought back to the frozen ocean in the UK. When they last spoke in the cruise ship, she hadn’t seemed like an incarnation of evil to him.

333, dispersion. She was the one who tears apart people’s bonds and obstructs their evolution.

That much was true.

But on the other hand…

“Coronzon helped save you back then. She complained a bunch, but she didn’t take the option from me.”

“But would the world at large consider that an act of good? You’re forgetting that I was a pawn she created to grind the UK’s functioning to a halt. She was saving one of her own attackers.”

He hadn’t thought of it that way before.

Hamazura worked to suppress his reflexive response and made sure to actually think before speaking again.

“Are you saying she only showed interest in it because it was an act of evil?”

“Who knows. Even the magicians who have specialized in studying Coronzon are split on the subject. Master Mathers insisted she is an absolute evil while Crowley argued she is one side of a relative evil. Even those at the top of the magic side weren’t certain of her true nature, so that isn’t something you need to worry yourself over.”

No one knew.

It wasn’t clear.

And yet the world had decided they might as well call her evil?

Part 5

Dion Fortune wasn’t the only one hurriedly investigating Adikalika.

This affected everyone in the world.

And Crowley’s home of the United Kingdom had tons of documents related to his Magick. Since it was based on the same source, Isabella could make some predictions and estimations of what Great Demon Coronzon’s version would look like.

With a general knowledge of the destruction specs, one question remained on Isabella Theism’s mind.

(Why Rome instead of the UK?)

Of course, she could guess that Adikalika’s power would be difficult to use effectively against the UK due to their research into anti-Crowley techniques. And if Adikalika blew away an entire region, it would trigger global chaos and war just as well whether the target was the Anglicans or the Catholics.

But was that really enough for that great demon to give up?

Her grudge was clearly centered on the UK. That had to be the place she most wanted to destroy. And once she decided to destroy it, wouldn’t she make sure it happened no matter the cost or how extensive the preparations?

“This isn’t a plan B. Coronzon didn’t shift to her second best candidate as a compromise.”

But if that was true, it formed a natural question within Isabella.

“She’s intentionally targeting the Roman Catholic headquarters at the core of the Italian Peninsula. …Is there something there?”

And so.

In Academy City’s District 7.

Isabella Theism decided to find an observation point for Coronzon. She had plenty of sacrificial pawns she could have used, but was that really a good idea? They wouldn’t flat out refuse her orders, but even if they made a show of obedience, they might hide useful information. So she decided it was better to do the investigation herself.

What did Coronzon want to destroy in her attack on the Italian Peninsula?

Revealing the structure of the over-the-top Adikalika spell might just provide a hint there.

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon was in this same district.

Isabella Theism had come here hoping to find something there, but…

“There definitely is something.”

Something was rustling along.

It looked like a giant crab, but that was no crab. The monster was around 2m tall and it was hideous. Instead of a poisonous creature, this thing inspired the sense of disgust felt when peering into the kitchen garbage bucket in a stranger’s house. The mass of gold giving off a twisted glow was in fact formed by balling up something like long blonde hair.

“?”

(Long blonde hair. So did this come from Coronzon? If this is her sending out pawns to stop people instead of just showing off, she must be a lot more concerned than she lets on.)

Apparently there was no need for the things to be crabs.

She also saw a great serpent slithering along the red snow, a thin-winged bat, a fat fly, an eight-legged octopus, an earth-devouring snail, and a scorpion that moved different again from the crab. They were all, of course, made from blonde hair.

(That rules out the idea of them being the horoscope symbols.)

They might simply be based on different demons, but she wasn’t certain of that either. Unlike the horoscopes, she wasn’t familiar with any crab demons.

Isabella Theism was a necromancer who specialized in death.

As she stood still and gave off a death scent to play dead, a blonde hair monster passed right by in front of her. They didn’t seem too intelligent. Maybe they couldn’t ad lib, or maybe they couldn’t recognize people if they didn’t fit certain predetermined search conditions.

The same thing repeated a few times.

The monsters were wandering around with a decent density. Specifically, she could see two or three of them from a major intersection. The distribution seemed to differ depending on location, so traveling toward the denser areas might show her where Coronzon was located. However, playing dead took a fair amount of effort, so she decided to end her recon mission here. She also doubted holding her breath would be enough to approach Coronzon close enough for a surprise attack.

(And I doubt these are the only pawns Coronzon has. After slipping past the grunts, I would probably find a mid-boss waiting for me.)

Isabella’s death camouflage was somewhat effective.

The gold monsters failed to notice her even when passing by right in front of her.

But what would happen if they did notice her?

The answer seemed obvious enough looking at the crab legs and pincers of the one that had gone clacking by earlier.

“A single step outside in District 7 would probably be deadly.”

On the other hand, there was no powerful blood scent hanging over the city.

The pawns were not going around actively breaking into homes and killing people.

If you didn’t leave the buildings, no harm would come to you.

So these pawns were meant to ensure no one interrupted Great Demon Coronzon’s Adikalika preparations. By giving them specialized abilities and a simple movement pattern, she was avoiding the mistake of delaying her plan by giving too many resources to the grunts.

…Of course, a failure to notice the regularity of their movements could lead people to behave like they were asking to be killed.

“Wahh!!”

Isabella heard a scream.

From a small boy of maybe 8 or 10. After seeing a monster out the window, had he decided his room was too dangerous and fled outside instead of locking up and sitting tight? Isabella glanced over but immediately gave up on him.

He was a little too far.

She couldn’t reach him.

And there was no harm in ignoring him.

Isabella’s only goals were preventing Adikalika’s activation and eliminating Great Demon Coronzon. She hadn’t exactly been asked to tally up and report on how many died in the process. Dion Fortune was it? Even if that archbishop added that condition now, she was only a false leader given the position to fill the empty seat in the interim. The older members had no obligation to obey her.

The sounds of splitting flesh and spraying blood rang loud.

Isabella’s expression barely changed.

Someone had protected the boy by placing herself over him. The woman wore a distinctive mask and was dressed a lot like a dentist. The golden pincers and legs had stabbed right into her back.

Red scattered from her.

Anyone could tell she had lost a lethal amount of blood, yet…

“Mon dieu.”

She sounded carefree.

No, she seemed irritated.

“Whoever designed this things needs to observe crabes better. And learn more about romance. A crabe’s pincers don’t stab or slash like a knife – they crush and cut like a chain tool!!”

After a dull scraping sound, the two meter pawn was split in two. Right down the middle. The crab lost control and split apart. Into countless threads – no, hairs.

How had she done that?

Only now was Isabella’s curiosity piqued. Even if this was only a scout or patrolwoman, did Academy City really still have someone capable of slaying one of Coronzon’s pawns?

The boy and the woman appeared to be conversing.

“U-um.”

“What is it?”

“Thank…you?”

The woman in question was soaked with blood.

No matter how invincible that last move had made her look, her back had still been stabbed repeatedly.

“Eek!?”

“My, my. Don’t worry. I am not designed to let a little thing like this kill me. …Also, I am Kihara Goukei, but you can call me Madame Gou.”

“Madame…ahh, y-you’re so hurt…and it’s…it’s my fault…”

“Forget about that.”

She used those words to set aside the blood still gushing from her.

The bloody woman acted like her next question was what really mattered.

“What is, um…yes, what is your name?”

“Urekawa. Urekawa Ousuke.”

“Urekawa-kun then? Cough, this is all necessary if you’re going to survive…so take a close look so you won’t forget it.”

Seated on the ground, Kihara Goukei pointed elsewhere.

“What…?”

“Do you see the bus there?”

It wasn’t far away. It was doubtful if the middle-aged man floundering in the driver’s seat actually had a large vehicle license, but that wouldn’t matter as long as he could get the bus moving.

“It will be leaving soon, so you need to get aboard before it does. And then the wonderful grownups aboard will make sure you can escape…so hurry.”

“But…what about you? We need to stop your bleeding!!”

“Don’t worry about that.”

The intensity behind those words made the Urekawa boy’s little shoulders jump.

Only a second-rate would flash their weapon to gain the obedience of those unable to fight. A true professional could easily grasp someone’s heart just by changing the mood.

The boy took a few steps back.

Kihara Goukei smiled a little as she watched that small back running elsewhere.

More of those weird golden things were wandering the area, but they did not attack anyone beyond a wall or door. So whether the bus was moving or not, the boy would be safe once inside it.

So she must have concluded the boy would be fine.

With that settled, Kihara Goukei turned toward the real threat.

In other words, toward Isabella Theism.

“Now, then.”

After an unpleasant tightening sound, Kihara Goukei’s bleeding stopped.

She didn’t have any bandages, not even a tiny adhesive one, but she had done this on her own.

“Independent stanching. It’s not all that unusual a trick. It’s a standard function for animals that sever a body part to escape predators in an act known as autotomy. Think a lézard’s tail or a crabe’s legs.”

“If you can stop your bleeding at will, why didn’t you fall over and play dead? This way you might as well be asking for someone to finish the job.”

“And then who would protect that boy? From those monstres and from you who had no issue abandoning him to mort.”

Isabella Theism heard a quiet psht of something in the air.

“?”

Something stabbed into her right thigh.

She felt no pain.

It was the dart from a tranquilizer gun.

“Okay, now raise your hand if it hurts.”

With continuous metallic grinding and scraping sounds, something like a scroll was unfurled. A belt as wide as a college notebook was spread out around Kihara Goukei like a hagoromo. It was lined with torture devices.

“Not that I’ll stop if it does☆”

The cruel dentist grinned behind her mask.

And the clash began.

Part 6

“Brr…”

Index had little knowledge of the science side, so she didn’t know where she was locked up. It was a space a lot like a large, large indoor pool. Her arms and legs hadn’t been bound, but escaping the boxy room would still be a challenge.

Meanwhile, Othinus was looking all around from her shoulder.

“They said this was an unmanned weapon data center…but is this a spare room? They’ll need more vending-machine-sized servers when they inevitably need more processing power, so they must have secured the space for them ahead of time.”

“What’s your point?”

“It’s a big room with secure locks, but it’s been left empty since they have no use for it yet.”

Yes, that did sound like a convenient place to lock someone up.

“Hey, are you alright?” asked Othinus.

“I’m hungry, but the cold isn’t too bad.”

“Not what I meant. You can’t forget what happened back there, right?”

Was Othinus referring to the necromancer’s imitation dead bodies, or the fact that Index had been betrayed by her fellow Anglicans?

Index smiled a little with the cat in her arms.

“I’m fine.”

“…”

“This is nothing compared to Touma being declared dead and having everything taken from him. I can handle this much pain, but it’s different for Touma. He shouldn’t have to put up with that at all.”

“Yeah,” said Othinus.

Kamijou Touma was alive, but there were those who couldn’t accept that. The 15cm god recalled that empty dorm room. Kamijou Touma’s death itself may have happened by chance, but someone somewhere benefited from keeping him in that “dead” state.

Were they on the science side or the magic side?

Either way…

“Robbing a god of her temple and throne is an unforgivable sin. Whoever is responsible, they must be made to pay for violating the sanctity of my holy ground.”

Just then, they heard footsteps.

The footsteps stopped at the door and were followed by the clicking of the lock being operated.

Someone was here.

“Keep quiet.”

The door slowly opened and Kanzaki Kaori entered with a finger up to her lips.

She carried a ring of keys.

“The door has two locks. The idea was for the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Forces to each have a key to prevent betrayal, but as you can see, I am one of the fewer than 20 Saints. They can’t stop me when I put my mind to it.”

“You’re actually…freeing us?”

Index’s question brought sadness to Kanzaki’s eyes.

As If she hadn’t expected this doubt.

“If I didn’t do it, Stiyl would have tried it even if it killed him. I’ve let him be the villain too often already.”

“?”

Index looked confused. She didn’t understand why Kanzaki would bring up that priest.

The absolute confidence she had in her perfect memory only made the missing memories all the more cruel.

She didn’t even question those memories that had been intentionally erased.

(And it turned out Lola Stuart was Great Demon Coronzon. I would love to give her a taste of my full strength as a Saint to pay her back for what she did to us.)

But that likely wasn’t her role.

Kanzaki was aware of that.

She adored Index more than she could say, but she had no intention of destroying the girl’s current world.

“Listen. Isabella is off doing who knows what, so this is my chance to let you go. The knowledge of your 103,001 grimoires should be used to protect people. So it would be best if you went to Kamijou Touma now.”

“But wait.”

Othinus interjected after listening from the nun’s shoulder.

She appreciated this…but it went beyond what could be decided on an emotional impulse.

“The Anglican Church is an organization, right? And a global one at that. Even if you can’t stand Isabella on a personal level, disobeying her orders will only hurt you and your companions.”

“Be that as it may, this is something I must do. Plus, I know those companions. None of them would want me to save them at the cost of your freedom. And I don’t just mean the Amakusas. The Former Agnese Forces were clearly holding back when they fought me.”

That was the end of it.

She stood firm.

The 15cm god clicked her tongue and looked away.

…How could she reject this kindness when Kanzaki looked at her that way?

“It would be a challenge for us to directly cooperate with Kamijou Touma. We have too many other obligations. But you two…”

“We’ll do it.”

Index didn’t even let Kanzaki finish.

The powerful look in her eyes stared directly into Kanzaki’s eyes.

“Because I know it’s what I should do. Helping out Touma is always the best option.”

“This way.”

Kanzaki Kaori would never stand by Index’s side again.

Other people stood there now.

But she did not consider shoving those people aside to reclaim that spot.

Index’s trust had been reset along with her memories.

So the only option was to build them both back anew. Even if it resulted in a different relationship than before.

“I can show you to the building exit, but that is all we can do. You must find a way to locate Kamijou Touma and join him. Grimoire Library Index, I leave the righteousness and pride of the Anglican Church in your hands.”

Part 7

A creepy rustling sound filled the street.

Golden crabs and octopuses automatically tracked Kihara Goukei’s movements and rushed toward her, but each of them was sliced through and broke apart in turn.

In the night, a bone saw and forceps sharply reflected what little light remained from the streetlights.

Kihara Goukei had hoped to end Isabella’s life before her forcibly boosted muscular strength destroyed her joints and cartilage, but Isabella was a lot nimbler than she had expected.

Specifically, Kihara Goukei’s current state gave her enough speed to easily dodge out of the way of a bullet flying straight toward her, but…

(Hm? Ordinary réflexes shouldn’t be able to respond to this.)

That meant her enemy was being boosted somehow.

Come to think of it, there was something odd about the brown woman’s rags. Given the way it fluttered in a way that ignored the wind currents, it appeared to play a muscle-like role similar to externally-attached springs.

“She also seems immune to anesthésiques. What kind of crazy body does she have?”

“You need to ask that of a necromancer?”

Something whooshed by over Kihara Goukei’s head.

It was a filthy rag so stained yellow and brown that its original color was impossible to determine.

It spiraled around high in the air and then stretched out as it fell straight down from heaven to earth. Almost like a guillotine or something.

“What are you, Ittan-Momen 2.0?”

Kihara Goukei considered how to dodge this, tilted her head, and settled on simply jumping back a step.

She heard something slice through the air.

Followed by a heavy crash.

The asphalt was easily smashed and even the dark soil below was thrown into the air. It went without saying what would happen if that hit a human.

Western European necromancy was not about controlling a rotting corpse to sic it on your enemy and it didn’t harness the grudges of the dead to kill people. It’s true identity and essence was the summoning of dead souls using the clothing and other possessions dug up from graves and the revealing of secrets about the world and about individuals using divination (mancy) of the dead (necro). …Simply put, it had been a secret fad among the bored upper classes because there was very little risk in trying it out (because opening a coffin was not a crime if it belonged to a family member).

This meant controlling the clothing of the dead was their specialty.

Of course, this didn’t apply to necromancers from other regions and cultures.

“That isn’t just a piece of cloth. Is it hardened with glue or something?”

“A human body is nothing. With a bit cleverness and creativity, I can slice through a tree branch with this.”

The deadly guillotine dropped from up high a second and third time, but Kihara Goukei intercepted it and knocked it to the ground with her giant forceps, bone saw, and other torture tools.

“Release ocular muscles – boost kinetic vision 500%.”

(Based on the impacts reaching my wrists, its weight is several times that of the heaviest bowling balls. I see. So the problem is the height from which it drops.)

“Ugh, I’m feeling dizzy. Urp. Oh, right. I should have boosted my stomach first…”

“Vomit inside your mask if you like. I will kill you while you do, though.”

The number of rags flying overhead suddenly exceeded the number fingers on both hands.

And they weren’t all guillotines. The one that looked like a large rake may have been a Cat’s Paw that was used to tear at the surface of someone’s body. The one a lot like a crane game with pointy tips was probably a Spanish Spider that was stabbed into someone’s back so they could be suspended from the ceiling and have their flesh torn by their own weight.

Their forms had a historical flavor to them rather than focusing on efficiency.

Was that just the necromancer’s poor taste?

Kihara Goukei muttered under her breath.

(Of course, it says something about me that I can recognize them all on sight.)

Isabella grinned thinly.

“You have some skill – or more likely are using some kind of trick – but there is only so much you can handle with just the two arms. I don’t need anything special. I can simply overwhelm you with numbers!!”

“Yes, excellent logique.”

With the sound of tearing clothing, Kihara Goukei’s number of arms suddenly grew to six.

The opposite could happen too. A pure pursuit of function could take on an appearance straight out of myth.

“Adding on more arms isn’t that hard. It’s adjusting the position of the shoulder joints that takes some doing.”

They clashed regardless.

The arms spread out like wings were completely expendable. The very first strike tore away one of Kihara Goukei’s arms along with the torture device it held. The second strike meant the sacrifice of another arm. They were more broken off than severed. Had it worked against the brown woman that she was using a mixture of different weapons? Kihara Goukei didn’t particularly care as long as the guillotine didn’t slice through her face or torso along with an arm. And the third strike was blocked with a grinding noise.

It had hit something hard.

The flat, rectangular object at her palm was a giant shield. Except it was made of something more biological than steel or plastic.

“Hwa ha ha ha! Countermeasure complete! My monster of the week name is Crab Shell Man!!”

“?”

In the brief moment Isabella’s movement was stopped, Kihara Goukei sent in a sharp right hook. And that arm had already become a human-sized crab pincer, so a direct hit would crush and sever her neck like a chain tool.

Splat!!

The bloody sound came from the center of Kihara Goukei’s chest.

Several objects like white guitar picks had pierced through from her back.

An unharmed Isabella smiled bewitchingly.

Kihara Goukei’s eyes widened.

“…Eh?”

“Did you already forget what I called myself? I do believe I introduced myself as a necromancer.”

What was the weapon?

What had stabbed through Kihara Goukei’s back and burst out from the center of her chest?

…It was her own broken and severed arm. Or really, the crushed bone in the mutilated cross section?

“And no one ever said I could only do the Western European version☆”

“…”

“I didn’t expect you to scatter your own dead flesh around. Thanks for the assist. You might as well have been asking me to use it.”

“Gh…ph.”

Kihara Goukei tried to speak, but only fresh blood filled her mask. A large hunk of blood.

She had been stabbed in a very bad location.

“You can use your tricks and cheat death as many times as you like.”

Necromancer Isabella Theism grinned and sprinkled something from her fingers.

It wasn’t visible, but it smelled like blood. Like spotting a crushed frog on the roadside on a rainy day.

“But all flesh that has died once is my domain. Now that you’ve died, you have lost the right to your own body.”

A moment later, all the blood, flesh, and bone separated as it rushed toward its original owner from all directions.

Part 8

While Kamijou’s group continued their discussion, the consulate’s doorbell rang again.

Last time, he had gotten all worked up only for it to be Dion Fortune’s group. Thanks to that experience, he was a lot more relaxed this time.

“Who could it be this time?”

“Now that our guard is down, what if it’s Coronzon paying us a late-night visit?”

He really wished the Bologna Succubus hadn’t said that.

The two of them walked to the front entrance…and they could see the answer. Before even opening the door, the nearby crack in the wall provided a view of the visitor.

But he opened the door anyway.

“Who are you?”

“I am Qliphah Puzzle 545, here as a messenger for Board Chairman Accelerator. Um, I thought for sure we had met before.”

The girl had something like a squid tentacle swaying side to side from the back of her hips. And did those English newspaper things even count as clothing?

Whatever the case, she wasn’t an ordinary human.

The Magic Gods, the Transcendents, an artificial demon…and Dion Fortune was a tarot deck and original grimoire, wasn’t she? There was definitely something wrong with Coronzon to be able to stand up to such a wide variety of people all on her own.

“Does it mean what I think it does that he had to send a messenger?”

“Um, yes. It does.”

Accelerator hadn’t come himself because staying in that prison was his way of atoning for his crimes.

But this was more than that.

“Isabella…what was her name? Anyway, the magician effectively commanding the Anglicans at the moment. Is avoiding her complaints really that difficult?”

“It iiiiis. For one thing, my master has only just started learning about magic, so his knowledge is limited. And because he really doesn’t understand it, he can’t figure out how to avoid the attacks being made through the channels that have long lay buried within Academy City.”

Isabella likely had her own methods. Kamijou understood that. But apparently she really would use any means necessary even if her overall goal was to defeat Coronzon and protect the world.

Kamijou invited the artificial demon inside and spoke in a weary tone.

“The city doesn’t need a defense against the Anglicans now too, does it? We already have our hands full with Coronzon, so fighting on two fronts would be such a pain.”

“I get the feeling all of this could change depending on what happens.”

Part 9

It was over.

Isabella Theism breathed out through her nose.

Apparently this was all a science side expert in death and the desecration life could manage.

A scratchy sound came from her ear.

That reminded her she was still wearing a wireless earphone. If that had been the science side’s final trump card, then she could only give her condolences. They just hadn’t been up to the task. And that strength, as minuscule as it had been, should have been directed toward Coronzon.

(Then again, I get the feeling she was acting on her own discretion. Magic side or science side, this seems to be the fate of all organizations. The bigger they get, the harder it is to keep track of the extremities.)

“Surely you aren’t going to demand monetary compensation for this damage when the world is on the verge of ending. Or did that finally break your spirit and you’ll announce your surrender?”

“My, how hotblooded of you. But aren’t you fighting the wrong person? Necromancer, you are one of the foolish obstacles to natural decomposition that human knowledge has brought.”

This was not the new board chairman.

Isabella grimaced and lowered her voice.

“Great Demon Coronzon.”

“Don’t act so surprised. You have realized I am taking over the city using something other than science, haven’t you? Then obviously I can take control of the city’s communication infrastructure. Using a method that doesn’t require electricity or electromagnetic signals.”

Apparently Aleister had set up every last part of the city that way. If only he were still alive so she could give him a witch trial and burn him at the stake.

“But the very fact you’re doing that means you’ve already glimpsed your own Achilles heel, doesn’t it?” said Isabella. “If you do launch your Adikalika spell at the Italian Peninsula from here, it will mean the beginning of a global war…but it also ties you to this city. And in the struggle for Academy City’s infrastructure, we have already taken back around half.”

“But you Anglicans don’t rule the world.” There was mockery in Coronzon’s voice. “While Adikalika is directly targeting the Roman Catholics, you’re really only saving them as a means to save yourselves, so I wonder just how much trust they really have in you. Oh, and come to think of it, aren’t there some of them within your own ranks? Yes, that foreign unit of Roman Catholics.”

Dispersion.

She easily separated people from each other.

Even if their goals were the same and they were all working to bring peace to the world.

“And then there’s the Russian Orthodox Church. Heh heh. Have you noticed how much they despise having something inhuman occupying a seat with influence over the fate of the world?”

“…”

“The Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches will do anything to break free of the current situation. Isn’t that right? And Adikalika is reliant on the geographic features of Academy City. So if someone were to wipe Academy City from the map, they could prevent the world-destroying Adikalika from being activated. Simple, isn’t it?”

Only if you didn’t care about the 2.3 million innocent people living there.

And they likely wouldn’t even provide enough advance warning for the Anglicans there to evacuate.

“I am the world’s gear in charge of dispersion, so I will bring natural decomposition to all things. I will bring opposing factions A and B together so they can be discarded like matching cards in old maid. The three main Christian factions are a pain since they are of an odd number, but I can trigger total mutual destruction by adding in Academy City.”

“I would call that interesting, but I’m not one to trust demons. You could be making it all up to make me rush my next move, so I’ll take it with a grain of salt.”

“Oh, really? Believe it or not, I am one to honestly pass on the truly nasty and devastating truths. Like this for example.”

“?”

“Necromancers are not the only fools born of human knowledge who obstruct natural decomposition. It would seem you are not out of the woods yet.”

Part 10

Kihara Goukei was lying nearby.

The density of the red snow was growing. It had already begun to accumulate atop her, but she showed no reaction even as it covered her mask like a frozen mass.

Anyone could tell she was approaching death.

And there was one person who could not accept that fact.

“No!!”

In the bus.

The size of the vehicle limited what streets it could use. After turning around, it had needed to drive back this way in order to escape further away.

So he had seen it.

Urekawa Ousuke, the boy rescued by a certain monster, had seen the result of the battle.

If the snow were falling just a bit harder, it would have covered her too much for him to see.

The grownups’ calls for him to stop were drowned out.

Of all things, he opened the window and jumped out.

If he had stayed put and let the bus take him away, he would have escaped to safety. And there was nothing he could accomplish by choosing to remain here even if it meant injuring himself.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t abandon her. Not after she saved him. That grownup had risked her life and bloodied herself protecting him.

“No, wait.”

The boy did not stand back up.

He may not have been able to right away. Even with thick snow to cushion his fall, he had jumped from a moving vehicle.

“Please.”

But there was something requiring his attention more than his body’s pain.

He raised just his head, the rest of him still sprawled out on the cold ground stained by red snow.

And he shouted from his little mouth.

“Wake up, Madame Gou!!!”

Part 11

Internal Mechanisms: All 185,814 sections responding.

Bio Limiters: Depth 5 release

Lifespan Effect Calculations: Bypassed

Body Local Network General Host Name “Kihara Goukei” has entered final operating mode.

Forcing reboot.

3, 2, 1.

Part 12

Badump!!

That distorted pulse was audible to Isabella Theism even at a short distance.

She shifted her focus from her earphone to the outside world.

Something was happening that required her attention.

This was clearly out of the ordinary.

Kihara Goukei sat up like a mousetrap after luring its prey in with a hunk of cheese.

“Whew. Ha ha ha. Mon dieu. I’m not about to complain if I die. I’ve lived the kind of life that will bring mort to me first and foremost once something goes wrong.”

Her entire body was slick with blood.

Nothing about her situation had improved.

But that other monster spoke with a hand on the side of her wobbling head to hold it in place.

“But now that he’s called that name…I can’t afford to lose.”

“Wha-”

Isabella’s question was cut off by an unpleasant cracking sound.

Kihara Goukei’s fist had broken.

Due to the speed and weight with which it slammed into the center of Isabella Theism’s chest.

That unpleasant sound had come from the breaking of Isabella’s ribs and sternum.

(When did she stand up…when did she throw that punch!?)

Isabella held a hand to her mouth but that couldn’t stop her from coughing up blood as she jumped back.

Kihara Goukei smiled as she forcibly mended her broken fist, causing grinding and cracking sounds within the hand.

Her mask was covered in blood. From within.

But still she smiled.

“I really have removed my final limiteur. A child is watching and he trusts in me. So now Madame Gou…absolutely can’t afford to lose.”

“Who…are you?”

She was one who toyed with human life.

She was a hopelessly mad scientist.

She wasn’t about to deny those sides of herself.

But…

“You can’t get away with everything using the ‘I’m a Kihara’ excuse, you know? I never did like that excuse. So I started wondering if there was some way to live my life so I didn’t have to make excuses and before long it was all I could think about.”

Isabella stopped briefly.

Looking like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“I’ve heard that one a million times. Is that why you decided to be someone who protects small children?”

“Ah ha ha. Oh, if only I could contribute to société in the usual ways. But I’m so afraid of it backfiring that I avoid using my Kihara side to get too involved with individuals.”

“Then why?”

“Because he called for Madame Gou, not a Kihara. Everyone always assumes it’s some bad joke, but I finally found someone who will trust in that name. What could be more miraculous than that? Scientists are all the kind of jerk who has to question anything and everything, but we’re also capable of accepting the things we see for ourselves. So after seeing this for myself – dammit – I can’t deny it. I’m willing to completely change the way I live my life for this.”

To put it another way, Kihara Goukei was willing to risk her life for this small thing.

That was also why she dressed as a dentist.

A dentist loved children’s smiles more than anyone and mastered the techniques needed to heal them and save them from pain, but they were also feared by those same children. And she had wanted to be someone who could be proud of that.

Just look back at what she had done.

When the presumed “moving corpse” named Kamijou Touma had appeared, when she quarantined the people in the crematorium who could possibly be infected or contaminated, when she protected an innocent child at the cost of so much blood, and when she confronted Isabella Theism. Kihara Goukei hadn’t made a single wrong decision from moment to moment.

She was a member of the Kihara Family, but she was not a broken person.

She was someone who always did the right thing but was always feared for it.

She was a heretic among the Kiharas.

With that battered body, she proudly protected little Urekawa Ousuke and made the position her own. Madame Gou smiled thinly behind her bloody mask.

With a pitying look for the other expert of death who stood opposite her as a relative evil.

“Taking on the th ankless role isn’t easy, is it? You’re not even a Kihara, so it must be exhausting to force yourself to do it.”

“You understand nothing about our world.”

“I’m not interested in learning about any other world than the one I live in, but I am still a Kihara. Even if it’s their job, it hurts anyone to make innocent children cry. Could that be why you Britanniques are going so easy on us despite shouting about a threat to the world? Your hesitant use of the Academy City facilities means anyone can pick up your communications. I was basically snacking on intercepted messages between the hôpital and here, but it really makes me wonder if you’re even trying.”

“…”

Isabella fell silent.

Kihara Goukei smiled behind her mask. But with all the blood, the smile was more grim than grin.

“I don’t understand any of this Coronzon stuff, but you say there’s a threat to the entire world, right? Then I would think at least one of you would suggest bombing the entire city into oblivion to ensure the safety of the rest of humankind, but none of you is touching on that last resort. It’s hardly a surprise you’re being delayed by enemies you hadn’t even considered. You won’t accomplish anything if everyone on site is hesitant to speak up. And…when everyone deployed to the front line is scared and reluctant to dirty their hands, it’s going to put a greater burden on their leader.”

Necromancers were cruel.

To their targets, they might even seem like horrific monsters.

But had Isabella mentioned even once that she enjoyed that cruelty?

From the beginning, she had only ever said she had come to Japan to do her job.

So of course she wasn’t interested in people’s dramas or stories. Her stance was to not protect as many people as possible by not letting her personal feelings for her fellow Anglicans hold her back. She was taking the problem seriously and giving it her all.

She could not afford any detours, so she wouldn’t even help a stranger she chanced across along the way. It might seem like a little thing, but going with her heart there could throw off the overall schedule and allow the entire world to end.

Ordinarily, her attitude was the correct one for a combat professional.

“So I don’t blame you for what you did. Whether it’s England or somewhere else, there is something you want to protect, isn’t there? Even if it means dirtying your hands and becoming the kind of person who will make a small child cry and throw stones at you with their small hands in a city turned into a battlefield. You have something that makes it all worth it. …So how about you accept that, hold your head high, and come at me with everything you have? So you can stay true to what you believe is right.”

Isabella Theism listened.

She hung her head as the enemy’s voice reached her ears.

And the brown necromancer smiled.

Just a little.

“Let’s stop playing around.”

“Gladly.”

“And I do have just one thing you should know. Voodoo is known for its zombies, but it is a polytheistic religion where the list of gods being worshiped is always in flux, the good gods and evil gods can swap places depending on the circumstances, and they freely take in parts of other mythologies. Indian mythology has a god that came from a movie, but I think Voodoo provides even more freedom than that. Which makes it extremely convenient for a necromancer who learns bits and pieces from other mythologies and then misuses them. And when you can borrow the power and symbols of any being, you can do things like this.”

“?”

“Daeva.”

With that single word, something appeared behind Isabella Theism.

Kihara Goukei first saw a gigantically swollen insect abdomen.

Next, she saw brutal legs resembling spiked clubs, a pair of compound eyes so red they appeared to be filled with blood, and translucent impure wings.

Empty space seemed to distort to allow the appearance of a giant fly of more than 5m.

Yet its curves seemed somehow feminine and alluring.

Each individual part might be found in nature, but this being clearly existed outside the physical world.

It was still transparent, but it had completely affixed itself to this world – this phase.

“I see. Would you look at that.”

Kihara Goukei looked up at it with a half smile.

She didn’t know what it was, but it certainly appeared to be on another level from what she had dealt with so far.

Only Isabella’s voice continued.

She spoke earnestly, like a priestess serving her dark lord.

“You are one of the six demon lords who rule over evil. You are the bearer of deadly poison who will distort your own legend and fuse with others if it will achieve your goal. You are one of the many foundations for controlling death and flesh. Tonight I seek you, o queen of contamination, dead bodies, decomposition, and apostasy.”

“Interesting. …But it doesn’t mesh well with my scientifique tastes.”

“Intrude upon my world, Druj Nasu.”

The phase border was torn asunder and the thing materialized.

Part 13

In the District 12 consulate, Kamijou Touma found himself with little to do once it became time to stare at maps and documents and think up a plan. He left the table surrounded by the golden retriever, Dion Fortune, and others and was trying to pass the time when Blodeuwedd the Bouquet approached him.

Apparently she wasn’t much of a thinking type either.

“Neh heh☆”

Her face was awfully close.

He detected more than just a sweet feminine scent. Several floral scents were mixed together.

She had fully locked onto him.

“Help me, Alice!! Or Miss Succubus!!”

“Those are the last people you should go to for help. Unlike them, I’m a fairly reasonable Transcendent.”

What was Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s salvation condition again?

She saved the unloved.

So he was less than delighted to have her locked onto him. He sighed.

“Then why were you attacking Academy City so much? The city was made by Aleister who seems like exactly your type.”

“Ehh, you can’t be serious.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet seemed taken aback.

Like she had been recommended some bizarre food.

Her mouth formed a small triangle.

“He wasn’t hated or unloved. People called him the wickedest man in the world, a cannibal, and a demon lord, but the fact that he was ‘controversial’ means he did have his supporters and defenders. Yet he ignored all of those voices and chose to get all worked up on his own.”

Were those more like mechanical arms than clothing?

The blonde girl used the sleeves of her thick metal coat to mimic a shrug.

“Aleister Crowley was a human who looked past all the talking voices and focused only on the negative opinions. To the point that some people think he actually felt antipathy toward the people who believed and followed the theories he proposed. From outside, that might look cool, but the people who actually worked themselves to the bone sharing their love with him wouldn’t have seen it that way. The world wasn’t cold to him – he simply refused to touch the meal placed before him until it had gone cold and rotten. I’m not a fan of that kind of waste of emotion.”

“…”

“I want to distribute my unseen feelings to the starving people who can never seem to find any love no matter how badly they want it. To the people who need my feelings here and now. I want to provide the kind of warmth and strength that motivates them to get back up in their dark room and reach for the doorknob. I have nothing to give the fools who are so self-absorbed with their own appearance and pride that they let the feelings they are given rot. There are plenty of truly suffering people out there since the world is so starved for kindness.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet stopped speaking there.

She peered up at Kamijou’s face in amusement. Only then did Kamijou realize something.

Had he been hanging his head?

“Oh, you don’t like my answer?”

Kamijou Touma hadn’t been there.

He didn’t know the full story of Aleister’s life.

He had only wandered within the Windowless Building under Mina Mathers’s guidance and received tarot-recreated glimpses of Aleister’s battle with the Golden magicians.

But Aleister had learned his wife Rose was doomed

And he had been told in advance that his baby Lilith would surely die.

That human had trembled in rage when his ordinary happiness had crumbled around him. And knowing the Golden Cabal had been responsible, he had fought the Battle of Blythe Road, said to be the world’s largest magic battle. Kamijou didn’t think Aleister’s path could be simply classified as good or bad.

Kamijou had pushed him to the edge.

Maybe it was selfish of Aleister to force his expectations onto Kamijou.

But it was true Kamijou had failed to live up to them.

He had done what Anna Kingsford said and escaped hell alone. Could there have been another path if he argued back and insisted on thinking it through more carefully?

Why?

Why hadn’t he recklessly insisted that he would bring CRC and Kingsford back to life too and that they would all live happily together next time?

All of that was superfluous.

He knew that of course, but they had directly been dealing with human lives and souls. Wasn’t a crazy place like hell the perfect venue for shouting an unrealistic wish or two?

“If you acted different from normal…”

“?”

“Shouldn’t you suspect you were intentionally guided in that direction? Keep in mind that magic is a system that starts with the manipulation of your own mind in order to influence the outside world and other people. With ceremonies performed by multiple people, it isn’t unusual to sync your mind with the others.”

A journey through hell. Or a jailbreak.

You could say that had been a large-scale ceremony.

“So Aleister was wrong to resent you. You shouldn’t demand someone take responsibility for an unavoidable choice after they finally managed a miraculous resurrection.”

Kamijou couldn’t accept Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s words so easily.

While she was a Transcendent, she hadn’t actually seen that hell. If she could, then the more powerful Alice would have been able to intervene when he died. So Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s argument was no more than speculation.

Just then, a call came in from Accelerator.

“All the calculations are complete. …Once you’re ready, head to District 23.”

Kamijou frowned.

That didn’t sound right to him.

“District 23? I know that’s an adjacent district…but isn’t Coronzon in District 7?”

“You won’t be able to sneak right up to her on foot. You need a plan if you’re going to get close.”

Kamijou understood before even hearing the details.

He was certain he wasn’t going to like this plan.

“So what is your plan?”

“I’ll use all the missiles remaining in District 2. And I really mean using up the entire stockpile.”

“Hey, I seriously doubt ordinary weapons are going to work on Coronzon!”

“Of course they won’t. They’re only a diversion. You’ll be parachuting down through the bombardment to immediately arrive deep inside District 7.”

“Eh? Right in the middle of all those flying explosives?”

If even a single missile detonated nearby, they would die.

Um, didn’t those delicate devices react at some pretty weird times? Like the shoplifting prevention sensors at a store’s exit, or antivirus software? Even the precise location of a store on a map app tended to be off by just a little. Sure computer chips were supposed to be logical, but everyone had pressed the button on a half-broken game console or washing machine while praying that it would work one last time, right!?

…And Kamijou was certain that he would get the short straw on this one. He didn’t have any objective evidence, but never underestimate Academy City’s Mr. Misfortune! He still hadn’t played any games on his smartphone because he knew just how hopelessly bad his luck was!! Why even bother trying for a rare pull when you knew you would never get it, even if you paid!!?

“Coronzon will notice what we’re doing. No matter how hard we try to hide it,” said Accelerator. “So we’ll never get anywhere if you bank on that. But that just means we need to create a situation where she has to focus on something else even though she knows what we’re doing. …Remember, that Adikalika trump card of hers uses the city’s geographical conditions. So she won’t want any serious damage to the city’s landscape, will she?”

“Oh! You’re right…”

That hadn’t occurred to Kamijou.

Great Demon Coronzon was trying to destroy the entire world, but for now she wouldn’t want Academy City destroyed.

“Even if she is a villain, she won’t want missiles bombarding the city until she’s completed her plan, will she?”

“I doubt every last missile we have would kill Coronzon herself, but she’ll be forced to use that sturdy body of hers to destroy the missiles as her top priority. Isn’t that thoughtful of her? She’ll protect the city for us. An enemy’s strength can become a weakness if you change your viewpoint. Coronzon has no family and she’s not sentimental enough to grow attached to a house or other possessions. But we do know one thing she definitely won’t want destroyed, so we just have to focus our attack there.”

Adikalika was the ultimate trump card that could destroy the world if used in that way, so it had seemed like Coronzon was the one in control. And that wasn’t exactly wrong either.

But if Coronzon was too focused on staying in control, that fixation became a weakness because she didn’t want to lose it. It felt at odds with her ultimate goal, but maybe that was just how strategy worked. Once you gained something, there was a cost to defending it. In battle, there were no 100% pure benefits.

This was a ray of hope.

The time had come to reclaim control of the situation.

Part 14

Red snow fell in the night.

Great Demon Coronzon stood in a square space that was unusually empty for this urban part of District 7. The long, long blonde hair draped over her large, bat-like wings kept changing shape like it was creating string figures, but she was really only making minor adjustments at this point. She had been building a spell using all of the terrain and landmarks forming Academy City, but now even the final adjustments were nearly finished. She would soon be able to stop work and move on to the next phase.

Preparations for the Adikalika large-scale attack spell were already complete.

This would be the initial signal gun that would submerge the world in a sea of blood.

She didn’t even need to check the horoscope to know the necessary preparations were complete. She was not concerned that the forces of science or magic would take back control of the city, so now she only had to wait for the moment to arrive.

“Are you watching, Aleister?” she whispered.

She turned her gaze elsewhere, wrapped her arms around her own shoulders, and shook with suppressed laughter.

And Great Demon Coronzon spoke as if enjoying his final resistance.

“You will soon see the end of this world you still trusted no matter how much it hurt you.”

Chapter 3: To Protect the World We Live In – Dance_With_ADIKALIKA.

Part 1

“How long are we gonna be stuck here? I’m starving…” groaned Aogami Pierce.

He was in the District 10 crematorium.

They were quarantined inside.

There were some vending machines in the hallway, but about half the options on the bread machine had their red “sold out” lights lit. With the entire class there, a few dozen were forced to use the same vending machine, so it didn’t require the supplier to be falling behind on restocking the machine for it to be running out.

Every window and door was sealed from the outside with a thick bulletproof plastic. The only exit was gas-proof door protected by an air curtain, but it was guarded by a thick powered suit armed with a flamethrower. Whether it was powered suit’s doing or not, no one’s phones had a signal. The only smile was on Aogami Pierce’s Magical Powered Kanamin charm. The view out the windows was already dark. It was 8 PM. Aogami Pierce had been so busy with the funeral this morning that he feared he wouldn’t get a chance to claim the social network game rewards that had become a daily habit for him. He also hadn’t checked the video sites or online news. Falling behind the average person in information felt like being a step away from death for an otaku.

“And yet Kami-yan’s probably still walking around out there when he’s the one who caused all this. Then that woman who seemed in charge bit her tongue and was sent to the hospital and those middle-school-looking guests left too. What’s even the point of keeping us in here at this point?”

“Aside from that, something about this doesn’t feel right. They claim to be afraid of a microscopic infection or contaminant, but they haven’t brought in any kits for testing our blood or mucous membranes.”

Fukiyose Seiri tended to take the reasonable view and reject conspiratorial thinking, but for once she was pursuing it while choosing her words carefully.

Was there really an infection source here?

The crematorium staff and the part-time monk were starting to look skeptical as well. And if trust in Bio-Secure(?), the hosts in charge of the place, dropped, another thought would naturally begin to form.

They were up against a flamethrower-wielding group that kept their faces hidden. The group was highly organized, yet didn’t appear to be the official Anti-Skill.

…Was it really safe to go on obeying their instructions?

Then a sound came from outside the cloudy window.

It sounded like the rustling of a thicket being parted.

The powered suit stationed in front of the gas-proof door tilted its heads in a very human way and then contacted someone.

“B5a, you’re scheduled report is late. How long are you going to hang around out back? I can see your coordinates, so quit slacking off and respond.”

A short silence.

The mood changed.

“B5a? …A3b to C1d, B5a’s coordinates aren’t moving from around back. He’s even switched off his camera sharing, so what the hell is he up to? You’re outside, right? Just to be safe, I’m requesting a visual check.”

For some reason, Aogami Pierce looked to the window clouded by plastic, not the powered suit doing the talking.

He was curious.

What was that rustling sound he could hear coming from just outside?

Or maybe he had no real reason to expect anything and he was simply being guided by a curiosity about the unknown, a psychological tendency found even in ancient myths.

“H-hey? A3b to C1d, what’s wrong? Check in, all of you!”

There was nothing more than a sound like splitting wood. And not a thin piece of plywood either – this was the sound of a centuries-old tree being forcibly split down the center.

The powered suit guarding the gas-proof door contacted someone, shook his head, and then rushed outside.

Aogami Pierce looked puzzled.

“Huh? What’s he doing leaving his post? Could this be our chance to escape?”

“What if he returns right a-”

Fukiyose didn’t finish her sentence.

They heard some kind of rustling sound outside the cloudily translucent window…but nothing more than that.

The powered suit that had left the gas-proof door hadn’t returned.

“Around back of the crematorium would be…right out there, wouldn’t it?”

Because no else was talking, Fukiyose’s voice sounded awfully loud.

Then silence.

It was so uncomfortably quiet that Aogami Pierce’s gulp was audible.

“What is going on outside?”

The bulletproof plastic sprayed over the outside of the window left the view too cloudy to see well. Aogami Pierce slowly approached to try and get a view outside.

Crash!!

A powered suit’s bucket-like head armor broke through the cloudy window.

“Eek!?”

Aogami Pierce tumbled backwards onto his rear.

No one laughed.

This wasn’t ordinary glass. Even after breaking, it didn’t shatter. The glass advertised as bulletproof stayed in one piece with cracks spiderwebbing across it. How much force had that slammed into the window with? After breaking through the plastic wall, the bucket-like head armor did not move. Aogami Pierce didn’t know exactly how a powered suit worked or was worn, but the head was at an unnatural height for standing or sitting. Wasn’t it painful to have just your head fixed in such an awkward position?

Or.

Was the wearer beyond the point of complaining about pain or fear?

Something was definitely happening.

What that was was less clear.

But while the details were a mystery, staying here would be a bad idea!!

“Th-there’s something out there… I saw some kinda giant legs moving around! If we don’t do anything, will that thing get in through the window!?”

Fukiyose also took a few steps toward the window.

“I-it’s fine,” she said. “It’s fine. I mean, those Bio Secure(?) people sealed up all the exits with that special bulletproof plastic!”

A high-pitched and unpleasant cracking sound rang out.

Yes. Tons of cracks had spiderwebbed through one of those precious windows, destroying it.

What protection was that?

“Are you planning to hide in here forever?” asked Aogami Pierce. “What about food and water? All we’ve got is the bread vending machine in the hallway!”

The bread vending machine was already half covered in “sold out” lights and those special forces(?) protected head-to-toe with tough powered suits hadn’t fared too well themselves. No one could say for certain if the makeshift bulletproof nature of the plastic applied over glass could really prevent this attacker from getting in.

More than that, the trapped high schoolers could succumb to the mental pressure, panic, and suicidally scatter.

Tsukuyomi Komoe, who was responsible for all those students, breathed out through her nose. The 135cm teacher managed to speak even as she tearfully trembled.

“Th-th-th-there was a bus outside! We can take a look outside and, if there’s an opening, make a run for the bus out the main entrance!!”

“But who’s going to drive it!?”

“Believe it or not, I have a Class 2 large vehicle license, so I can handle a bus with ease!!”

The students were leaning heavily toward the “not” side, but complaining would only get them left behind in the crematorium filled with such a dangerous atmosphere. And no one in a 1st year high school class would know how to drive even an ordinary car. So like it or not, Tsukuyomi Komoe was their only hope.

They decided to call over the crematorium staff and the part-time monk too. They gathered their things and approached the gas-proof door that was inflated with air and felt like the goal at the end of a marathon. The problem was the space beyond the two-layer door.

Looking to the roundabout with a large roof to keep the rain off…there it was. The bus they had arrived on.

The 20-ish meters to it clutched at their hearts with fear.

But the group protected by thick powered suits had been taken out.

This had to be better than heading out and staying on foot.

However, there was still a fundamental question.

“So what was that about giant legs moving around?”

“I don’t know. That’s just what I saw through the distorted glass.”

They only saw darkness out front. That didn’t tell them much of anything.

But it had to be there.

“I-I found the key… Okay, everyone, are you ready? There is no turning back if you forget something. Ready, set…go!!”

On Komoe-sensei’s signal, they all ran out toward the bus.

Part 2

It was already night and a red snow was falling.

A girl in black mourning clothes, Misaka Mikoto, let her shoulders slump.

Truly the world had to be ending if Shokuhou Misaki was the only person she had to vent to.

“What do we do now!? It’s gotten dark. It’s eight o’clock! But we still haven’t found that idiot, it’s well past the dorm’s curfew, and we missed dinner…”

“I have Mental Out, so I can get by if need be.”

“Are there no hints at all!? We haven’t seen any of those Bio Secure powered suits in a while, so what is even happening anymore!?”

That was who they were supposed to be pursuing, but it felt like they were straying further and further from the center of the excitement. They were in District 10 since the crematorium was there, but was this even the right district to search?

And…

“What is that?”

Just as she was starved for any information at all, Misaka Mikoto spotted something in the distance.

Specifically, at a large intersection with a pedestrian bridge located a short distance away.

“There’s something there.”

“Those aren’t ground-based drones, are they?”

This was nothing at all like Bio Secure and their powered suits. The things didn’t even seem mechanical.

What were those gross 2m monsters crawling with legs?

Mikoto wasn’t a fan of snakes and worms either, but she found it hard to watch many-legged creatures moving around.

And these didn’t look like ordinary creatures. Something like big clumps of blonde hair were crawling this way and that. They inspired the same disgust as peeking inside a stranger’s kitchen trash bucket.

Mikoto held a hand over her mouth in exaggerated sorrow.

“Long blonde hair… Shokuhou, this isn’t some new and extremely cursed special move of yours, is it?”

“Of course it isn’t. How am I supposed to use my psychological Mental Out to make hair move around on its own? Besides, isn’t it obvious at a glance that those monstrous clumps of filth are nothing at all like the perfect beauty ability of my hair!?”

The busty blonde must have been deeply offended because she tearfully grabbed at Mikoto.

Mikoto had a fairly strong belief that half the negative aspects of the world were Shokuhou Misaki’s fault, but apparently these things were part of the other half.

“So what are they?” asked Mikoto.

“I sincerely hope the fact that the dead are getting back up doesn’t mean we’ve entered some alternate world where anything goes…”

Several of the golden things turned their way. Forcefully.

It wasn’t clear why, but the things had locked onto them.

However, if they were vulnerable to physical attacks, they weren’t really anything to fear. Not when Misaka Mikoto was Academy City’s #3 Railgun.

She blasted an arcade coin at three times the speed of sound and the golden crabs, centipedes, and whatnot scattered. Of course, she could only manage this so easily because she was the Level 5 known as the Ace of Tokiwadai and an ordinary person wouldn’t stand a chance against them.

“Misaka-san, there’s one up on the pedestrian bridge.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Misaka-san, you missed one in the right side street.”

“I was just getting to that one.”

“Misaka-san, wait, that isn’t one of them!!”

“Nhh!?”

Misaka Mikoto shook hard.

…Did she just blast a non-blonde thing as it turned a corner up ahead? And the thing making a clanging sound was, um, a vehicle?

This was one problem with being too powerful.

Time froze for a bit.

And Shokuhou Misaki held a hand over her mouth in exaggerated sorrow.

“Misaka-san… To think you would tarnish your name ability with murder at your age…”

“Wait, hold on, they’re probably not dead maybe! Oh please be alive, whoever you are!!”

She rushed over to find no one in the driver’s seat.

In fact, the engine wasn’t even on. Apparently no one had been inside and something had caused the parked car to slowly slide forward. While this frozen street looked flat, if you placed pachinko balls on it, she guessed they would probably all roll in a single direction.

But anyway…

“Phew. No harm, no foul.”

“I have a feeling this still violates several law abilities, but it’s only a feeling, so I’ll ignore it.”

Just as the two of them were breathing a sigh of relief, Mikoto spotted a girl passed out near the car.

The girl wore a white nun’s habit.

And was that a calico cat and a girl figurine she had there?

Part 3

Heavy yet unsteady breathing sounded in the dark night of red snow.

“Pant, gasp…”

Coming from Kihara Goukei.

The end of her extended arm was grasping a giant fly head.

Her left arm was missing past the elbow and the right arm holding the corpse was already rotting away in places, revealing the greenish discoloration of the bone below.

Had her opponent called this magic? Some method that Kihara had never before seen had eliminated so many of her biological reactions that even the brains contained within her skull had been fully blown away at least twice, but, well, all she had to do was mend the missing biological organs.

(Still, I did lose a lot: three of the stamp-sized computer chips embedded in my body, two of my bacteria colonies, and even my precious pea crabs…)

But she had still defeated that thing.

When she tossed the unneeded fly head aside, it splatted onto the red snow-covered ground and then vanished as if melting into thin air. Like it had never existed in the first place.

Necromancer Isabella Theism was seated with her back against a building wall.

Her head was hanging limply and she wasn’t moving.

A thin layer of red snow had accumulated on her head.

She had to already be unconscious.

However, this wasn’t over yet.

Kihara Goukei heard unpleasant rustling sounds.

Coming from a golden mass resembling a giant crab.

Apparently these things had been scattered around by a visitor who went by the overblown title of “great demon”.

The small boy approached her. Probably because he was afraid.

His name was Urekawa Ousuke, wasn’t it?

She loved children. No, it didn’t have to be children. Asking for help was a gamble because it required revealing your weakness and powerlessness to someone else. To the point that a rejection from them could mean losing everything. Kihara Goukei loved anyone who would take that step to rely on her. Which was why she wanted to live up to that trust no matter what. Even though she knew, as one of the infamous Kiharas, they would all wind up disliking her in the end.

“Madame Gou…”

“Don’t worry. There is nothing to fear.”

By the time she said that, all wounds had vanished from Kihara Goukei. Only smooth skin was visible through her torn clothing. Her rotten and missing limbs were back as well.

A child was watching. Doing the correct thing always made them fear her, but that didn’t mean she should continue showing off all that gruesome blood and injuries.

…However, that didn’t mean she had regained full function of her body.

(Really, I would have been truly dead if that thing had destroyed two more of my miniaturized myocardium bunches.)

She wasn’t about to say so, though.

She was concerned, but increasing the boy’s burden by revealing the state of her remaining lives was the wrong thing to do.

As reliable Madame Gou, the correct choice was to smile and say something else.

“Let’s get you home. I will crush all the dangers and clear a path for you☆”

She was perfectly fine with leaving Isabella to die, but the boy looked up at her with damp eyes and she was forced to give herself two extra arms. …This was not a free-to-use unlimited storage space deal, though. If she didn’t orally ingest various ingredients such as protein and calcium, she would suffer from deficiency symptoms, so she had to be careful. Apparently her only choice was to fight today while carrying yesterday’s enemy on her back.

(But still.)

“This was too much of détour. I really don’t think I have enough stamina left to deal with that Coronzon person.”

Part 4

They had settled on a plan.

First, take a transport plane into the sky. Then every last missile left in Academy City would be fired on Coronzon and they would hide in that barrage to parachute down nearby.

Only so many people could act.

Namely, the group in the crumbling consulate.

Kamijou Touma, Alice Anotherbible, Kihara Noukan, the Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Qliphah Puzzle 545, Dion Fortune, Takitsubo Rikou, and Hamazura Shiage.

Their job was to battle a great demon to keep the entire world at peace.

It was ironic that the group they had gathered for such an over-the-top objective had such variety yet wasn’t even large enough to play a soccer match.

(So Vidhatri is ultimately staying in the consulate to rest. At least it sounds like she’s woken up.)

They would just have to do this with the group available.

At 9 PM, they stepped out from the former Bridge Builders Cabal consulate.

Their destination was District 23. It was right next door to District 12 where they were now.

They could travel that distance on foot.

Kamijou took a nervous look out at the main street and was shocked by how dark it was.

Was this really Academy City?

“There’s no one here. No cars either. I know the Anglicans apparently took over the city, but I guess they’re not patrolling the streets like Anti-Skill.”

“Because their priority is Coronzon. That selfish and indiscreet group did not travel halfway around the world to keep order in the city,” said Dion Fortune, pouting her lips.

Even if it was only an interim position, she seemed upset that none of them were listening to what she said as their leader. Understandable.

“If they’re not willing to do the job, they shouldn’t have used military might to take over…” said Accelerator over the wireless earphone Kamijou wore.

That other leader was also in a bad mood. Again, understandable.

District 23 was a unique place that specialized in the aerospace industry and the entire district was a giant off limits zone, but not much security was functioning with the city in such a bad state. And it seemed unlikely the Anglicans would understand the scientific value well enough to post magician guards.

The place was wide open at the moment.

Academy City was darker than usual and Kamijou asked a question while walking through the falling red snow.

“District 7 is a big place. Do we know Coronzon’s location there?”

“The former site of the Windowless Building,” said Accelerator.

“…I see.”

“Apparently that damn demon intends destroy every piece of Aleister’s legacy.”

Coronzon was currently spreading “blonde hair monsters” around District 7 for defense. They looked frightening at first, but finding the highest concentration would tell you what Coronzon most wanted to protect, which told them where Coronzon was as she completed her ceremony. …Constructing a defensive line was important, but this could easily happen if you weren’t careful where you positioned it.

In this snow, Kamijou found it frightening to be endlessly on the lookout without anything actually happening.

He felt like he would freeze to death if he didn’t do something himself.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet opened and closed her iron maiden thing.

“If you want to warm up, my coat is open to you.”

“Help me, her nemesis!!”

Kamijou clasped his hands and prayed to the flying succubus who launched a flying kick into Miss Bouquet’s face since it was the only exposed part of her. She did it with those sharp heels of hers, so would she be okay?

Meanwhile, the border to District 23 came into view. It was impossible to miss with the metal fence taller than an adult stretching endlessly to the left and right.

“So this is the place.”

From the outside, no guards were in evidence.

That special district was supposedly crammed full of runways and launch sites, but it was terribly dark at the moment. The stadium-like lighting was currently switched off. Probably because the international airport was shut down during the emergency.

“Still, there might be someone in the roofed checkpoints,” cautioned Accelerator. “So instead of causing unnecessary problems, find a good spot and climb over the fence.”

“You’re so nice to normal people.”

“Of course I am. Normal people aren’t a nuisance to society like all of you.”

Kamijou had no response to that one.

They all climbed over the tall fence. It looked like little Alice would have trouble…and she might just spread her arms and break through the fence with a smile if left to her own devices, so Kamijou assisted her.

Meanwhile, Hamazura noticed something and grew flustered.

“H-hey. That bouquet person is flailing around on the ground. She fell over!”

“Peh peh peh. It’s a miracle she even managed to climb to the top of the fence in that iron maiden of a coat!” said the Bologna Succubus.

“This world is deeply sick if we must rely on these people to save us all,” lamented Accelerator.

The Bologna Succubus held a hand to her mouth and roared with laughter while showing zero inclination to help (even though that was her colleague), so Hamazura and Takitsubo had to help up the girl who might as well have been wearing a mascot costume made of steel. With all the metal on the outside, she had to be handled with care lest their palms stick to it in the cold.

And the mystery person inside was crying fairly seriously.

“Uh, uh, eh, uhhh… That insane demon who wanders around in her underwear was making fun of me. I’ll never live it down…”

Apparently the Bologna Succubus’s fashion choices were considered abnormal even among the Transcendents. On the other hand, the girl talking here wore a naked apron underneath her thick coat.

“You should have remove the heavy coat and thrown it over the fence,” commented Kihara Noukan who had made it to the other side of the fence.

How had a dog managed that? Was he really just a golden retriever?

They had finally entered the off-limits zone.

But they would be safe for now. This plan came straight from Accelerator at the very top. Kamijou knew he didn’t need to be nervous, but he still found himself crouching down to avoid being seen.

“Your destination is Runway D-25. A transport plane is waiting for you there. I had the snow cleared in this frigid weather to get it there, so don’t you waste it.”

“I’m amazed to learn the city has at least 25 runways.”

But even with the runway lights off, wouldn’t an airplane and its large wings be pretty noticeable out in the red snow? An airplane’s main wings seemed more delicate than a house’s roof, though.

The Bologna Succubus flapped her wings.

“If it’s just the boy, I could carry him up into the night sky. No airplane necessary.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you. Coronzon and the Anglicans will both react sharply to any magical tricks. An airplane lets us fly without using any magic, which will help us hide within the missile explosions to approach.”

Dion Fortune immediately shot down her idea.

In the magic world, you apparently weren’t guaranteed a victory if your magic power level was over a million billion or whatever. At times, it was more useful to fully hide your presence and blend into the background.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had been flapping her own wings for the same reason, so she froze a bit as everyone turned her way.

The red snow was beginning to accumulate in the darkness. The marks on the runway were hard to make out, but that just meant they had to find the place where a lot of people had been moving around clearing the snow. By following the remaining footprints and tire tracks, it looked like they could at least avoid getting lost and walking in circles through the vast District 23.

“Hey, there’s something there.” Kihara Noukan was looking elsewhere. “It doesn’t look like a city security robot. That is a design that would frighten the children to tears.”

A weird, two meter crab creature was scurrying along in the distance.

No, was that even a living thing?

The monster was made from tons of blonde hair.

This was one of the patrolling guards Coronzon was using for defense.

“A scout, I suppose,” said Blodeuwedd the Bouquet with a white breath.

Kamijou frowned.

“Is it something like the Aethyr Avatars I saw in the UK?”

“She isn’t providing them that much power. Probably so she can focus on Adikalika,” assessed Dion Fortune.

But it was still there.

Hadn’t that #1 bastard said they were only in District 7!? Then what’s this one doing here!?

“Coronzon must have noticed me poking around, so she randomized her defensive line to confuse us as we tried to slip through!” said Accelerator.

“What, so it was your fault!?”

“No, it was your fault for failing to settle on a plan without my help!!”

But while he didn’t say it out loud, Kamijou was moderately surprised.

Apparently not even new Board Chairman Accelerator could see anything and everything happening in Academy City.

Was his observable area being limited by all the unrepaired damage across the city?

This meant Coronzon could more easily learn of their plan…but that didn’t ruin everything. She would have learned about it eventually. Even if she knew they were coming, they would still be able to parachute in among the missiles while she was too busy dealing those missiles to deal with them.

“But if the transport plane or the runway are blown up, you won’t be able to take off. Get aboard the plane as soon as you can. We can discuss this after that!”

Kamijou heard the rumbling of an engine.

Based on what Accelerator had said, he was expecting to find airport staff operating a snow plow, but that wasn’t what this was.

“What the hell is that?” asked Accelerator.

“…That’s my class.”

It was a bus.

With a 135cm teacher gripping the steering wheel.

Either she wasn’t used to driving such a large vehicle or the tires were slipping on the red snow, because it wasn’t moving any faster than a bicycle. He heard a flapping sound and noticed a window toward the back was open just a bit with a curtain caught in it.

Why had they wandered into off limits District 23?

As he wondered that, he recalled the crematorium was in District 10 and that was adjacent to District 23. With Coronzon and her defenders swarming their home ground of District 7, maybe they hadn’t been able to return to their dorms and had come here for shelter.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave a simple comment.

“They’re going to die.”

A shape was already in hot pursuit.

Several were in fact.

Those two meter crabs were made by forcibly wrapping long, long blonde hair. Unlike the weirdly long legs of a Japanese spider crab, these were stouter and had thick, brutally shaped pincers. At that size, a pinch would probably be able to crush and slice right through a steel pipe as big around as Kamijou’s arm, but what was with that clump of hair? In addition to simple physical attacks, its terrifying appearance suggested it could also use toxins and infections.

They couldn’t let Coronzon know what they were doing.

He knew that much.

But then he saw one of the monsters, which could run straight forward despite being a crab, lunge toward the bus that couldn’t get its speed up thanks to the slippery snow. No, the long tail on that one meant it was probably a scorpion. What would happen to his classmates if it caught up?

“…”

Kamijou Touma made a rapid direction change.

He clenched his right fist and charged straight toward the giant killer scorpion.

The instant he punched it, the sensation vanished.

It rapidly lost its shape and scattered across the red snowy ground.

It gave off a twisted shine.

That really was long, long blonde hair it was made of. At this point, there was no need to ask whose.

The #1 groaned from the earphone.

He may have been holding his head where he was.

“You’re just causing us more trouble…”

“Where can I send my class!?”

“The closest option would be the international airport terminal. It’s full of anti-terror mechanisms, so it should last a while. I’ll open the shutter at the delivery entrance.”

Fortunately, smart people could switch gears quick at times like this.

His voice might not reach them inside the bus, but he should still be able to use the school’s social media. Just to be safe, he sent a notification to all their phones, so the entire class received a message from a dead boy’s address simply telling them to change course.

“Now I just have to draw the attention of the golden crabs and snakes so the bus can escape safely!”

Boom!!!

Something exploded nearby.

No, that was the sound of thick lightning dropping from high in the sky and piercing a giant snake.

“There’s only so much I can do,” said Accelerator. “You figure out which targets are most efficient.”

Kamijou couldn’t afford to die here. Even if he let his class escape, the entire world would be doomed if Coronzon were allowed to launch Adikalika. And then his classmates would be killed regardless.

The Bologna Succubus raised her voice from a short distance away.

“Stop worrying about the future! Focus on what’s right in front of you!!”

The golden scorpion was closer than he had expected.

While he was watching its sharp pincers, something else swooshed sharply down from the upper right of his vision.

That was the giant venomous tail.

“Uh!?”

He heard a powerful metallic roar and saw orange sparks.

For a brief moment, Kamijou truly had no idea what had happened.

He sensed the sweet, sweet scent of nectar and felt someone else’s body heat in what was supposed to be a freezing night.

He wasn’t in complete darkness. He was shut off from the world, but the enclose space was filled with a faint bluish-white light meant for growing plants. And he saw an excessively skinny girl’s body.

That was apparently Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. Her thick metal coat had covered him and deflected the sharply jabbing scorpion tail with its massive armor.

“Th-thank-”

“You’re mine now☆”

“Mgh, mgh, mgahhh!?”

Before the fear could even set in, he was caught in the embrace of a pair of unusually skinny arms. And the thick metal coat that cut him off from the outside world shut the final remaining slit before his eyes. Uh, oh. At this rate, he would be chewed up inside this super-sweet girl’s iron maiden!?

An exasperated voice spoke from outside the coat.

“You know, I’m beginning to think you want the boy’s right hand to strip you naked and toss you out into the open.”

“Hm, is that how it works?”

With a flapping sound, the Bologna Succubus opened her large wings wide.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet also opened her thick coat like double doors.

Those Transcendents had once tried to bring salvation to the people.

…They really were so much alike. Kamijou couldn’t imagine why they didn’t get along.

And now wasn’t the time to be relaxing. Failing to take out any of those monsters would only lead to further victims.

Once Kamijou was finally returned to the outside world, the demon woman smiled and whispered to him.

“Really, boy. You never do stop trying to show off, do you?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“I didn’t say that☆” “She didn’t say that☆”

Part 5

As the bus departed, Aogami Pierce stared out the window and shouted.

“Kami-yan!!”

But Kamijou did not answer the call from the bus.

Maybe he hadn’t heard through the thick window.

Or maybe he was preoccupied with other matters. Aogami Pierce could see him using his right hand to punch and destroy a few more of the blonde hair crabs and scorpions approaching the bus.

Even though he didn’t have to do that.

Even though he been pushed away as a dangerous source of infection.

Even though Aogami Pierce hadn’t confronted the adults for treating him that way when they hadn’t even applied any real pressure to prevent it.

In truth, the class had no idea what was going on.

Why was Kamijou Touma’s fist so effective against those monsters?

What was he doing here in District 23 after fleeing the crematorium?

But he hadn’t changed.

Dead or resurrected, Kamijou Touma was Kamijou Touma.

The bus drove on.

To leave that boy behind again.

A Magical Powered Kanamin charm swayed from Aogami Pierce’s pocket. The location of a new shelter had been sent to his phone which finally had a signal again.

Fukiyose Seiri looked glum. The highly responsible girl was talking to herself.

“Oh, no. …And I called him a zombie back at the crematorium.”

“That settles it. Busty black-haired Fukiyose Seiri must atone by working as the manager of the boy’s dorm for a while!!”

Aogami Pierce struck a pose shortly before a fist struck his face.

She wasn’t opposed to finding some way to atone, but she disliked Aogami Pierce’s attempt to use that to benefit himself.

Something like a sob came from Tsukuyomi Komoe in the driver’s seat.

She let go of the big steering wheel with one hand to rub her eyes, but the large bus began to slide to the side and was soon swerving back and forth a lot. She was too short for her feet to reach the gas and brake pedals, but maybe it had been a mistake to break a mop handle in two and attach them to her legs with packing tape wrapped around her shins and shoes to forcibly allow her to drive.

Little by little, their usual classroom was returning.

Now the only thing they needed was him.

Part 6

District 23 was large and flat. It was dark, devoid of landmarks, and currently covered in an unnatural red snow. The frantic fighting threatened to throw off Kamijou’s sense of direction, leaving him unsure which way he had come from and which way he was going.

(The bus has gone, so now I’d really like to get away from these things.)

“Teacher, look after yourself!”

He didn’t need Alice to tell him that.

Golden crabs and snakes were converging on his location from multiple directions.

He’d taken it too far.

Now he might not make it.

Just as his panic was starting to show, something exploded to the side.

No, that wasn’t it. The steel mass of a snowplow had crashed in and crushed a few of the golden snakes and scorpions.

The driver was too small for the driver’s seat.

The person who hopped out of the snowplow was Anna Sprengel.

Come to think of it, hadn’t she been freeloading in Kamijou’s room since her punishment had been delayed?

“I hope you hadn’t forgotten about me, fool. No, surely not.”

Kamijou Touma’s lack of reaction earned him a kick in the shin.

Apparently his inability to look her in the eye had not been appreciated.

“I have been gathering information on my own and it isn’t looking good. Academy City’s resources are close to depletion, but Coronzon only has to cut off more of her endlessly growing hair to replenish her forces.”

“Eh? That’s how it works?”

“She is only allotting them the bare minimum of resources because she had to focus on Adikalika, but if she focused on mass-producing these things, it could turn into a very big problem.”

A short distance away, the red snow was split through and something like an Eastern dragon drew out a large curve.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was swinging around her metal coat’s large sleeves and shouting something, so she was probably summoning a swarm of starlings or other pest birds.

Kamijou asked Anna Sprengel a question as he ran along the red snow.

“How much do you know about our plan?”

“I wouldn’t be in District 23 if I wasn’t familiar with the general idea.”

He didn’t know how she had learned that, but if she could do it, then someone else could in the same way.

Like Coronzon.

Since they had clashed with her blonde hair monster scouts, she had to know what they were doing regardless.

But that didn’t make this revelation any less frightening.

“…”

Meanwhile, Hamazura Shiage had been silently glaring this way for a while.

The track suit girl with him also showed no sign of stopping.

Kamijou didn’t fully understand all of the relationships between the people here. Did Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou have some connection to Anna Sprengel?

For that matter…

“After R&C Occultics, I bet there aren’t many people with a favorable opinion of Anna Sprengel.”

“You’re not wrong, but I’m being falsely accused in this case. That wasn’t me – it was the filthy scammer who was using my body.”

“?”

That made no sense to Kamijou, but why did Hamazura and Takitsubo also frown when they heard it?

A certain succubus reacted to the phrase “falsely accused” by wagging her tail side to side, but he didn’t have time for her right now.

After some more running, Kamijou came across a lump taller than he was. The pointy-haired boy initially jumped, thinking it was another monster released by Coronzon, but it wasn’t moving. Apparently it was only a large pile of red snow.

The result of clearing the snow.

Of course, this went beyond what someone armed with a shovel could accomplish. Most likely, someone had used that snowplow or a wheel loader.

There were a few different routes marked with tire tracks, so there must have been a team that gathered the runway’s snow here and another team that loaded that into a dump truck or something and carried it away for.

“With those monsters in District 23, I had the workers quit clearing the snow and go hide in the international airport terminal,” said Accelerator. “After all the work they put in for us, I couldn’t let them die for us too.”

That went without saying.

But with the world on the verge of destruction, Kamijou appreciated hearing things like that said out loud. He didn’t know if this should be called an emergency or a crisis, but neither was any reason to trample people’s lives underfoot. And the person serving at the top as board chairman was willing to say so.

And in that case…

“Is that it?” said Kamijou, catching his breath.

Even with barely any lights around, the large shape still stood out from the surrounding darkness.

It looked like a giant whale with wings equipped with several x-shaped propellers.

It was a transport plane.

Part 7

Misaka Mikoto sighed after managing to rescue(?) Index in the dark streets of District 10.

“I didn’t screw up. I mean, I’m helping her, so she should thank me. There is no reason for her to throw stones at me. None at all.”

“Hey, girl. You might be able to fool that sheltered nun, but you can’t pull the wool over the eyes of a god of deception.”

The 15cm person(?) was saying something, but she probably wasn’t human and could be safely ignored!

Academy City’s #3 looked into the distance.

There was something there.

But not a scurrying blonde thing. This looked more scientific.

Mikoto stared in amazement.

“Are self-driving vehicles allowed on public roads? I know they let those busses drive around during the Daihaseisai, but wasn’t that a special case?”

“It may be a public app-based taxi service taking advantage of loopholes in the regulations. Besides, aren’t even the traffic lights having trouble in this red snow? When ordinary taxis can’t ensure their safety, they’re probably refusing to work.”

Shokuhou gave some explanations, but it didn’t sound like she had anything solid to go on.

At any rate, Mikoto raised her hand to hail it and it approached her like normal.

“What’s with this car? It’s tiny.”

Probably because it was designed to be self-driving and thus had no driver’s seat or passenger seat. It reminded her of one of those ultra-small cars shaped like an egg lying on its side that you sometimes saw in TV ads. She wondered if a golf cart might actually be more spacious.

Index tilted her head.

“Will that take us to Touma?”

“I don’t feel like explaining, so I’ll just say ‘more or less’.”

“Okay!”

The white nun boarded with guileless eyes. A single piece of candy would probably be enough to kidnap her.

Meanwhile, a much more suspicious type of girl gave the car a skeptical look.

“Not so fast, Misaka-san. Hailing it is all well and good, but do you know where it’s going?”

“Scoot over.”

Mourning clothes Misaka Mikoto ignored the question and climbed in after the nun.

The door automatically shut behind her.

“Huh!?”

Shokuhou Misaki pounded on the door from the outside.

But this self-driving car only seated two!

“Didn’t you hear me say the car was tiny, you stupid girl!? And claiming seats has always been a race! Hmm, what a shame. There’s just not enough room in here for any sacks of fat to join us.”

“–––––!? ……!!!?”

“Hm? Short hair, what is she saying?”

“That right there is her shouting ‘Huhhh? Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh??’ at the top of her lungs. She’s so cute when she’s helpless.”

Misaka Mikoto was cruel through and through.

With a deep rumble, the tiny car mercilessly drove off.

It was clearly electric, so that rumble was probably a sound effect played for safety.

(Since it’s self-driving, if she really wanted to stop it, she only needed to move in front of it while it was stopped so the camera or radar would detect her and automatically apply the brakes. That stupid girl’s inability to ad lib makes her so much easier to deal with.)

15cm Othinus stared into the distance and muttered from Index’s shoulder.

“I may be a god of war, but if that outwitted her, I’m worried she won’t survive left all alone with those weird golden things scurrying around.”

“If that was enough to kill her, she wouldn’t have been a thorn in my side for so long.”

Part 8

Aboard the transport plane, Kamijou had been most afraid while they rattled along the frozen runway, but everything stabled out once they were up in the night sky. Even though now was when they were truly approaching death.

He was surprised enough to find they had parachutes small enough for Alice and Anna Sprengel, but then he noticed Kihara Noukan rummaging around a corner of the cargo space. Even though he was a golden retriever. Was there really such a thing as a canine parachute in this wide world?

“It’s an extreme sports product. Manufactured by a start-up with some mistaken ideas about what a pet product should be. They also made dog snowboards and dog diving suits. Even though the animals can’t understand or enjoy the concept of being in a viral video. In the end, it’s a product made by humans for humans.”

The voice coming through the earphone was as prickly as ever.

…Just how much information reached the new board chairman on any given day? This didn’t sound at all relevant to the current global threat.

Kamijou also noticed Blodeuwedd the Bouquet modifying the harness of the parachute she was issued. Equipping it to her thick metal coat probably was a challenge, but was it safe to mess with it on your own?

“The missile attack has started,” said Accelerator.

“I see.”

“The stockpile’s only so big, so you only get one chance at this. Jump out into the sky at the designated point and drop down near Coronzon. Miss this chance and you don’t get another shot at it.”

“I’m aware.”

After that exchange, the #1 fell silent.

He seemed displeased with something.

Accelerator whispered the next words over the transmission.

“…Complain about having to do this.”

“Later. I’ll complain all you want when we’re looking back on it.”

A red warning light lit up and the wind raged in.

The pressure rapidly changed.

In the very back of the transport plane, the door meant for loading and unloading vehicles lowered. It formed a gentle slope and led toward a heart-stopping view of the city far below.

“Time to go.”

“The #1 has to see everyone else go?” said Accelerator. “There really is something wrong with this world.”

It was finally time.

Great Demon Coronzon had probably noticed by now. So they couldn’t hope for the best-case scenario. Their next best bet was to put her in a situation where she couldn’t stop them even if she knew what they were doing.

That meant launching every last missile left in Academy City. Mixed in with all those flying objects, Kamijou’s group would be dropping down toward Coronzon.

“Your drop destination is the former site of the Windowless Building in the center of District 7. Not long now!”

An adult man stood next to the open slope and shouted over the roaring wind. It wasn’t clear if he was from the city’s light side or dark side.

“You will be dropping along with the missile attack! So there is no making a U-turn to try again if you mess up. It would stand out too much. We will be arriving above the drop point shortly. Make sure you jump the first time! It is currently 10 PM sharp. Begin jump!!”

At this point, Kamijou just had to steel himself.

He clenched his teeth and took a running start down the slope leading into the sky at over 2000m up.

He forcefully kicked off the end of the slope.

Gravity vanished.

He jumped.

Did he not feel the ordinary fear of heights in that moment because it was such a dark night? The city night was lit unusually sparsely, making it hard to judge the distance to the ground. …Which was actually a dangerous factor leading to landing accidents when making parachute jumps.

Alice and Takitsubo Rikou zoomed right past him.

Apparently your positioning changed your speed.

Kamijou had been spared tumbling uncontrollably end over end, but not because of any athleticism on his part. The parachute bag on his back was wriggling on its own to adjust his air resistance and balance.

Even so, he was at an altitude of 2000m.

That wasn’t very far. In fact, it was frighteningly short for a fall.

As the wind roared up at him, he checked the small LCD on the shoulder strap to find his free fall speed was more than 200km/h. A mere 2 kilometers was nothing.

(I hope that bastard watching on from his ivory tower of a prison did the math right!!)

Something like a cylinder with collapsible wings dropped by right next to Kamijou. It was about as thick around as a two liter water bottle, but its length was well over his height.

“Wait, a missile!?”

If it detonated now, he was dead.

He was free falling from higher up than a skyscraper roof, but this new development eliminated the ordinary fear of that situation.

Also, this didn’t look like a missile that flew in a straight line before piercing into the target.

“What is that? It’s more like a little fish swimming through the sky. A whole school of them!”

“It’s nothing special,” said Accelerator. “Just a turretless next-gen tank. If you want to blow up another tank, a self-destructing drone has much better range and precision than an ordinary tank gun. Then all you need is to build a large-scale production line to bring down the cost of each drone stuffed full of semiconductors. Then to load a single tank with as many drones as possible, you replace the top of the tank with as many multiple launchers as will fit.”

The explosive covered in what looked like small smartphone lenses weaved sharply about.

This was more than simple speed.

This bleeding-edge deadly technology would read the trajectories of autocannon fire and auto grenade launchers that used radar fuses and then evade them as it approached its target. Once this swarm of slaughter locked onto you, there was no escape and it seemed to work just fine against magic.

“There really is something wrong with Academy City,” said Kamijou.

“Hey. By claiming and sitting on the military patent for this, we can keep the outside world from making any.”

Apparently the new board chairman had thought this through.

Kamijou just hoped it didn’t backfire.

At any rate, it sounded like he didn’t need to worry about any of the missiles pouring down from the sky accidentally hitting anyone. They could stay put and the swimming drones would avoid them on their own. In fact, it might be safer if no one panicked and tried moving around. …That did bother Kamijou a little because it reminded him of how people had to go through annoying processes and complete tedious registrations to make the processing easier for the machines.

He soared through the night sky.

He plunged into the valley between buildings.

The city that had looked so tiny rapidly spread out around him.

The LCD on his shoulder strap must have been linked to an altimeter. His parachute opened on its own without him having to pull anything. With a sound like a sheet beating at the air, he felt a squeezing across his body. The complex harness had distributed the weight.

“Gweh!!”

But that didn’t make it gentle. This didn’t feel beautiful it all.

Light as a feather this was not. The point of a parachute was to let you fall from a great height without dying and that was it. Maybe it was similar to how being shot through a bulletproof vest still hurt like hell and immobilized you for a bit.

It wasn’t over with the parachute opening.

In fact, he felt like he was still moving pretty quick with it open. The speed felt similar to attempting a slope while seated on a bicycle.

There was no light.

The swimming drones were detonated here and there in the sky and illuminating the world like camera flashes, but the contrast of the shadows was too strong and it only disoriented him.

The pointy-haired boy was aiming for a wide-open street with three lanes both ways…but it turned out to have a lot more stuff than he had expected: streetlights, trees, a wind turbine. Each one would kill him instantly if he collided with it. And the surrounding buildings created some highly irregular wind currents. In fact, the way the wind was dragging him backwards was terrifying.

“Damn, I wish I’d gone for a building rooftop!!”

“Do you want to die impaled on a street wireless LAN antenna or lightning rod?”

He heard a voice.

Was that Dion Fortune drifting along right next to him?

“More importantly, keep an eye on your altimeter. We’re almost at the ground. Don’t miss the moment of impact because it’s dark and there’s snow. You’re out of the fight here if you break your leg!!”

What exactly was he supposed to do?

Just as he wondered that, all the streetlights at a large intersection unnaturally lit up.

Had the rumored new board chairman done something again?

That showed Kamijou the distance to the ground…but it was way closer than he’d thought!?

“Oh, shit!!”

He bent his legs in preparation to cushion against the shock. The wind carried him over and he crashed int some low bushes between the street and sidewalk, but he supposed that was better than colliding with a thick and solid tree or streetlight.

As soon as he landed, the unnaturally lit up street lights unnaturally extinguished themselves.

(Hey, not so fast!)

He had to feel around in the darkness. He fumbled around until he managed to release the parachute harness from his body.

“Where’s the Windowless Building!?”

“The wind blew us pretty far off course. I caught a glimpse of it earlier, but from this far, Hamazura and Takitsubo might contact Coronzon before us.”

Not good.

They weren’t sure they could defeat that great demon with all of them fighting together. It was too dangerous for anyone to go ahead of the rest. Especially for the non magic experts.

Kamijou heard some large wings flapping overhead.

The Bologna Succubus was flying around while carrying iron-maiden-like Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. She was drawing out a big figure 8, so it didn’t look like she was taking the shortest route somewhere. Perhaps she was trying to draw Coronzon’s attention. They had mentioned magic side people reacting more sensitively to magical tricks.

But where was Alice Anotherbible?

Where had Anna Sprengel gone?

Or Qliphah Puzzle 545?

And Kihara Noukan?

(Damn, we keep losing the people that act like trump cards!)

Regardless, they were short on time. They were right at Coronzon’s throat, but that meant she would use each minute and second they delayed to plot a recovery. He wouldn’t even have time to check if everyone was alright.

Dion Fortune was not shaken.

In fact…

“We’ll just have to make do with the people we have. No matter how carefully you plan it out on paper, battles always come down to what you can do with the cards reality gives you!”

“But getting too accustomed to ad libbing means a complete lack of control.”

“Since when were you the careful planning type?”

…

Looking back, every single one of his fights had been ad libbed from beginning to end!!

They had been separated for now, but they would all be heading to the same place from their different landing spots, so he could only trust they would meet up where Coronzon was.

He was a good distance away from the former location of the Windowless Building, but it was a straight shot down a major street. There was no time to lose. If he was worried about Hamazura and Takitsubo, he had to rush there as fast as possible.

While running, Fortune kept to Kamijou’s left-hand side.

She was keeping her distance from Imagine Breaker.

As much as she looked like a young girl, this part of her may come from her nature as a tarot deck and original grimoire.

But they ended up stopping before long.

Because something blocked their way.

Creatures like two meter crabs and snakes made of blonde hair.

…But that wasn’t all.

Roar!!!

A sudden blast of wind blew through.

The red snow on the ground was thrown into the air and Kamijou felt like he had been struck by an ocean of blood. If Dion Fortune hadn’t immediately grabbed his left arm and tugged, the surprise attack probably would have bisected him. Right down the middle.

Something scraped along the ground. Leaving behind a strange, sharp, and sinister scar. Kamijou briefly saw it as the earth itself hemorrhaging blood. And when the red snow guided his gaze along the scar…he saw someone.

Wearing black mourning clothes.

With a palette knife in her right hand.

With feline symbols all over her.

And the thing she was riding like a steed was…could you even call that thing a cat? The enormous and lithe beast shadow was made of black paint and stood two or three meters tall.

“You’re…kidding,” groaned Kamijou.

Calling this a reunion would be inaccurate. This was likely a different individual from the woman he knew.

But come to think of it…

Before, in the UK, Great Demon Coronzon had taken measures to stop Kamijou, Aleister, and the rest. She had released several pawns based on members of the Golden cabal. The Dion Fortune here now was the only survivor.

That had included big names like Westcott and Mathers…but come to think of it, there was one Golden magician who Coronzon had never used.

Dion Fortune gave the answer.

She spoke the name of the trump card Coronzon had saved until the very, very end.

“Moina Mathers…”

The name sounded subtly different from the one Kamijou knew.

But it likely referred to the same person.

She was the wife who had supported Mathers, one of the Golden cabal’s three founders. She was an engineer who had used her artistic talent to design realistically producible versions of the many spiritual items thought up by the Golden cabal. She was the black cat witch.

She resembled Mina, but the Moina that Coronzon had created really was different. The eyes behind the veil were pitch black. Sticky shadows lurked within them and they were so dark it seemed like they would absorb everything.

And Kamijou was hit by the fear of the unknown.

Thinking back, Mina Mathers had always fought alongside him.

To put it another way, they had never fought each other until one or the other was unconscious.

(You’re kidding…)

Out of all the Golden magicians, the black cat witch was the one whose strength as an enemy he couldn’t judge…

(We must stop Coronzon and Adikalika. We don’t have time for this risky battle that we might not even be able to win!)

Kamijou gulped.

At the same time, the girl next to him stepped forward.

“I’ll do it.”

“Fortune?”

“Honestly, this is a great opportunity. I was already thinking it was high time I conquered my trauma related to her. I mean, she surrounded my house with black cats that were just meow, meow, meow, meow all night long, keeping the entire neighborhood up. She used an astral technique to gouge into my fragile maiden’s back. And there’s plenty more she needs to pay me back forrrrrrrrrr!!”

She suddenly exploded.

There was a lot of personal resentment mixed in, but Dion Fortune didn’t seem willing to back down.

If Fortune and Moina were going to clash here, then Kamijou had to get moving. He couldn’t stick around and waste Fortune’s determination to give him some time even if it meant wearing down her own life.

“Thanks!!” he shouted.

He thought he saw a small smile when Fortune briefly turned to look at him.

She was always saying hers was an interim position and she was only filling the vacancy.

But…

“She’s doing a pretty good job as archbishop if you ask me.”

Kamijou simply ran.

First those blonde hair monsters and now Moina Mathers… Was that really all? How many trump cards did Coronzon have hidden away?

Part 9

At the Windowless Building – or really, its former site – a pillar of pale light rose from the center of the large square clearing.

At this point, she must not have felt the need to hide.

Great Demon Coronzon held a hand to her hip, looked up at it, and sighed.

That was the Adikalika large-scale attack spell.

For a great demon like her to spend hours on it, the spell clearly required a lot of care to set up. Of course, that may have been why she felt so attached to it now.

“Only about an hour to go.”

Even that comment under her breath was interrupted and cut off by a nearby explosion.

Was that Academy City’s missile attack?

None of the missiles could directly hit her. She didn’t even need to raise her palm for them to explode and scatter in midair.

“Fools.”

If they had so much weaponry leftover, they should have ignored her and indiscriminately bombed different parts of the city. They should have thoroughly destroyed the city themselves. That way they could have prevented doom for the world at the cost of a single city.

This time, anyway.

She wasn’t about to call it quits if she failed the first time. She was Great Demon Coronzon and she had never said anything about only having a single devastating trump card.

The center of the threat was not Adikalika.

It was Great Demon Coronzon herself.

Of course, Academy City wasn’t actually placing their own fate and the fate of the world in the hands of this long-distance attack.

She knew just how crafty and greedy humans were.

She moved her feet to draw out the lines of a rectangle in the accumulated red snow. Then she added a diamond and a few lines to divide it into sections where she drew in the necessary symbols.

This was a horoscope.

A glance at the ground was enough to read it.

It detected a few people headed this way.

Sensing was her specialty. She was, after all, the supernatural being who managed knowledge off limits to living humans. And that management primarily meant preventing the masses from reaching or acquiring that knowledge.

She had lost count of how many people she had devoured after they foolishly assumed that summoning and taming her was the ticket to endless knowledge. It was laughable that those people were referred to as talented or wise when they couldn’t even figure out it was a bad idea to contact something that essentially had a warning sign with the words “danger” written in large text.

(Some grimoires make me sound really important while describing a role not much different from this country’s Kokkuri-san. Well, at least it’s not as bad as getting confused with the necromancy where people ask a rotten zombie to reveal the future to them.)

“Still…”

Did they really think an explosive blast – that is, physical light and sound – could disturb her?

It was almost scary how ignorant they were of magic. Or maybe was their misplaced confidence in their knowledge that would hurt them in the end. She felt like she was watching bandits hiding in the dark woods and celebrating their victory while unaware that night-vision devices existed.

There was no reason to wait for them to arrive. She could blow them up from here. And all she would need to do was raise her palm in that direction.

So it was time to obey her rule of dispersion.

Who should she kill first?”

“Heh.”

It amused her to no end that her creation of Dion Fortune had taken over her old position as the Anglican Archbishop. Blowing Fortune away along with the Moina Mathers she had sent out would be simple enough…but that was a low priority. The Archetype Processor that could break apart and transform any magic was a greater threat than Fortune herself, but that still wasn’t enough to push her up out of the low priority category.

Fortune was a toy Coronzon had made after all.

The creation could rebel against its creator, but it could never win.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet also weren’t top priority. Coronzon had directly destroyed Crowley, so the Transcendents were small time to her. After all, Alice Anotherbible was an accidental success by one of Aleister’s students and the other Transcendents were the deteriorated result of mass-producing inferior copies of Alice.

(I can do better.)

“The standard route would be to crush Imagine Breaker here. Isn’t that right, Aleister?”

That was the best choice if she wanted to beat them down the most.

As a demon, it was the most correct option.

Coronzon grinned and, for some reason, rubbed a hand below her navel before holding that palm straight out ahead.

Kamijou Touma wasn’t yet close enough to be visible, but that was a mere trifle. It wouldn’t stop her from targeting and killing him.

If she was going to do this, she might as well show him some truly wonderful sparks.

She would end his life with the terrible toy that had taken Aleister Crowley’s family from him and even triggered the Battle of Blythe Road.

Kamijou Touma.

He didn’t know space itself was about to explode.

With no way to sense it, he couldn’t raise his right hand to defend against it.

And once it hit him, he was destined to die.

The inability to escape that destiny had been proven by the death and doom of Aleister’s family.

“Does it hurt?”

It was rude.

She knew that, but she couldn’t help but let the smile split wide across her face.

“It hurts, doesn’t it, Aleister? Yes, it hurts to be trapped in your own body and forced to watch an ending you do not want. I should know. I lived through it myself. The entire time you had me sealed away, it was endless torture as I watching those hellish scenes playing out! Now it’s your turn, magician!! It’s time you felt even a minuscule fraction of the agony I felt as my body was used against my will!!!”

This was only one step in that process.

With each new step, she would take another life. And she could circle the globe as she went. That was his reward for underestimating a great demon and, even temporarily, using her like that. Look back upon the bloody path you walked and despair, Aleister.

But then…

“…No.”

She heard a voice.

It was a girl’s voice that ever so slightly irritated Great Demon Coronzon as she single-handedly prepared the end of the world.

She had been just a bit faster.

First, a sound like a large sheet beating at the air.

That was the sound of flapping wings.

The girl flew directly in front of the great demon and descended.

And with her feet on the ground, Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 raised her voice.

“I won’t let you. I will never let you do that!!”

Part 10

And…

“Qliphah Puzzle 545?”

At first, she had completely forgotten who that was.

Or so Great Demon Coronzon’s expression suggested.

The result was obvious even before they fought. Unlike humans, angels and demons were not physical beings. Which meant they could directly sense the Telesma energy from which they were formed. That was an overwhelming disadvantage for Qliphah Puzzle 545. Frankly, it was amazing she had made it this far without being killed by the scouts Coronzon created by cutting off her own hair.

“Now that you mention it…yes, I remember now. You’re that imitation demon I created. And a creation opposing its creator isn’t even worth a laugh. What can a puny disposable pawn hope to accomplish against me?”

“Leviathan.”

She said one word.

Just one little word.

Yet as soon as Qliphah Puzzle 545 recited that incantation, Great Demon Coronzon fell silent.

“See? This will work against you.”

“Damn…you. That…”

“Is fatal for you.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was also a demon.

So when she smiled, it split wide across her face.

“Great Demon Coronzon. You are the one who lurks in the Abyss hidden within the great Sephiroth tree and monopolizes the wisdom found there. You are the only wicked being who, as a demon, has managed to remain hidden in the holy realm guarded by angels. And in the end, you are no more than Crowley magic applied to the illicit technique to secretly devour and acquire the tree’s fruit and sap despite being its guardian.”

“Don’t you get that this power is too great for you? If an artificial imitation like you reaches to that place, all you will accomplish is destroying yourself.”

“A demon who is tangled around the very Sephiroth which makes you special, devours it, infects it, and consumes its functions would be your greatest enemy. …And there is one, isn’t there? A demon who appeared from the Qliphoth, the inverted tree which gathers all the world’s injustice and vice, broke the seal when Adam and Eve were driven out, and finally managed to bite at the Sephiroth! A demon so powerful he was reduced to an imperfect form in the current world!!”

Space exploded.

Orange sparks became visible.

Did the clashing of the two demons’ wills contain enough power to distort the phase?

“I create an atmosphere of war, disturb the regulated order, and inspire conflict between people. I may be an imitation, artificial, and false, but on a more basic level…I am still the kind of demon who devours the tree that is this world.”

“…”

Coronzon glanced down at her fingertips.

She wasn’t even scratched.

There was no problem.

…And yet she was trembling?

“How strange. Your structure obviously isn’t human, but it isn’t that of a normal demon either?”

“Just take a look at my name: Qliphah Puzzle 545. I too am a demon who lurks in the colossal tree. Although for me it’s the inverted tree that gathers all the unclean symbols. So I already contain the same traits and value as the serpent of the multiplying heads. I have it all!”

“Hidden in one of the great trees that acts as a diagram of the world, a supernatural being, a usurper of knowledge, and a demon… Why? Why are you so much like me!?”

“I dunno, maybe cause you created me?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 attempted a wicked smile, but she was pretty sure she failed.

This wasn’t about challenging or surpassing.

This was a child killing her parent.

That was the lowest and wickedest sin, but perhaps that was what made it so appropriate for a demon.

So she spoke.

“Picture it. Summon within yourself the Beast of Revelation, the monster gnawing on the great tree. Beast and serpent and dragon and demon are one and the same, thus there is no boundary between you and he.”

With each word spoken, the girl-shaped demon could feel it.

Something was straining inside her and pulsing in a disturbing way.

Coronzon spread her wings wide and tangled together countless long blonde hairs like a spiderweb to form a complex magic circle…and then stopped. She had been in such a hurry that the spell she formed was too powerful. This would cause Adikalika to burst and return to nothing.

(Damn, I wasted 1.5 seconds on this!!)

So while holding herself back with wings spread, Coronzon whispered to her opponent.

And just like a demon, this whisper was meant to guide her in the wrong direction.

“You must be aware your very being is unraveling.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had been created by Coronzon in order to cover the United Kingdom in a war atmosphere to drive it toward ruin. Since she had been meant as a temporary thing, not much care had gone into the structure of her girl form.

“You might be able to activate the spell, but you can never endure the recoil. Your form will break down permanently. And it will go beyond your appearance. You will lose your memories, your personalty – everything. And you’re still going to go through with it!?”

By focusing on the primary functions, it would at least blow her away without a trace.

All that would remain would be, well, a twisted form worthy of the demon title. More than just her outer appearance, she would lose everything down to the depths of her mind and become nothing more than a hideous monster.

“7, 10, 8, 11, and 666. Extract the necessary numbers from within yourself while expanding them to their greatest form.”

But she didn’t care.

She wasn’t listening.

That foolish, weak, and filthy demon was intent on expanding the partial knowledge she had after incompletely performing an incomplete copy.

Because of what she had seen.

Inside that prison cell, that boy was working all alone to atone for his crimes and had still managed to find hope in the world outside, but she had seen his face when he found that world was being destroyed. She had seen his expression, which he probably hadn’t meant for anyone to see, when he had learned the boy he considered a comrade in arms was dead.

That’s why she needed to do this.

The people who were running here were a necessary part of the scenery he wanted to protect.

She wouldn’t let it end here. She wouldn’t let them be slaughtered from afar.

…No matter what she had to do.

“Here, I reflect the same number with a different meaning. By letting it engulf me, I gain a different self.”

She would protect the world – the dream – that boy was trying to create.

So Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 roared with all her might.

Shaking free of the chill she felt as she unraveled.

(Farewell, master.)

“Transform me in body and soul, Leviathan!!!”

Part 11

Shortly before that…

“Hamazura.

“I…know!!! What the hell!? Don’t despair in the world before you’ve even tried!”

They were lying on top of her.

Two figures had jumped in from behind and tackled Qliphah Puzzle 545 to the ground. Even if it was temporary, she had a body and that meant obstructing her breathing and actions would cancel the spell.

It happened at the very last second and from her own side.

Great Demon Coronzon recognized the pair too.

Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou.

Two who, for some reason, hadn’t been on Coronzon’s list of targets had now arrived.

Pinned down on the red snow, Qliphah Puzzle 545 spoke weakly.

“Why…would you stop me?”

Her voice shook as she asked. Her face was a mess of tears and snot.

Understandably.

She would have lost that face and body.

Her personality and memories would have crumbled away.

She would have turned herself into a monster to battle Coronzon.

Of course that would scare an ordinary girl.

“You idiot!! If you don’t want him to suffer through watching a familiar face die while he’s forced to watch helplessly on from that cell of his, then why would you kill yourself and force it onto him that way!? To be honest, I don’t have a great opinion of the previous board chairman even after everything everyone’s said about him. But this new one’s different, right? He might actually do something to fix this city. But what you’re doing is just gonna send the next board chairman off the rails too!!”

“You saw him from closer than anyone.”

Takitsubo Rikou continued in her flat voice.

But that didn’t mean there was no emotion behind it.

“Doesn’t that mean it was the same for him? The new board chairman sent you to the consulate when the world might end today. He placed all that responsibility on your shoulders and let you handle it. Even though I’m sure there was at least one thing he wanted to protect with his own hands.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t raise her head from the ground covered in red snow. She curled up, balled up, and shook.

Sobs spilled from her.

Maybe she didn’t want them to see her crying.

That was the moment when something inside Hamazura Shiage that he couldn’t quite put to words crossed a line.

(This world can really go to hell. Why should she have to be embarrassed about that?)

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a demon. She was a created being. She had come from Coronzon.

None of that could change.

But all she wanted to do was walk next to a familiar person in this ordinary world.

Yet she had been pushed this far.

She had done all this.

Hamazura slowly turned around. To face Coronzon.

“Hey, Coronzon.”

“What is it, Hamazura? If you’re hoping for some odd job to do, wait about an hour and get back to me.”

An hour.

Did that mean the world was set to end at around 11 PM?

Dion Fortune had said her estimate was optimistic. Still, this was earlier than the midnight estimate.

“Surely you don’t think you can defeat me just because you know a little bit about me. Mathers thought he could control me and Aleister had researched me ten thousand times more than you. Yet they both lost – everyone always does!! Even the great Golden cabal fell! And his legacy of Academy City is my toy as well. So what can you, who couldn’t even accomplish anything within the bounds of that city, hope to-!!!”

“You’ve gone too far.”

A grinding sound filled the air.

It may have been the grinding of teeth.

Great Demon Coronzon had fallen silent.

After a full three seconds, she began again.

“Then what will you do about me?”

“That depends on your answer.”

“Do you think you are in any position to test me, fool!!?”

Part 12

And.

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?

Chapter 4: Call That Name – Shout_the_Summon.

Part 1

Not much time remained until Adikalika’s activation.

Alice Anotherbible was not here. Nor was Anna Sprengel. The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were apparently creating a diversion and Dion Fortune was battling the Moina Mathers released by Coronzon.

Kamijou Touma had no choice.

He had to fight.

He didn’t just observe one point on Coronzon. He observed every part of her.

It was his only option.

Because she wasn’t going to attack him swinging around a knife. It could be her lips, her arms, or her spread wings. Any of it could form an incantation, a gesture, a magic circle which would indicate an attack. He couldn’t overlook a thing.

She was smirking thinly.

At him and his foolish decision to not break free of the shell known as common sense.

“One word of warning.”

“What!?”

“Whether you resist or not is up to your excessive human free will…but it will be much easier for you if the first attack kills you.”

A golden vortex formed.

It was made of…

“Hair!?”

Was it a giant spear or a scorpion tail?

The destructive attack thrust in from an unexpected direction, but Kamijou somehow managed to brush it aside with his right hand, negating it.

As soon as it popped like a balloon, it took on a completely different form.

It formed a giant crab, then a fat and twisted fly, and then a snake slithering along the ground before leaping at him.

“Imagine Breaker. I suppose I must admit to its power as an unshakable reference point for the world and its ability to negate any supernatural power.”

Coronzon held herself in her arms, spread her wings, and chuckled.

“Your right hand can indeed negate magic. But only one spell per attack. You haven’t forgotten I can launch a second spell too, have you?”

Not good.

Negation wasn’t enough for this enemy!

If negating one spell would lead to multiple new threats, he was in trouble. Kamijou clenched his teeth and turned his attention in her direction.

But at that very moment, he heard the air bursting.

The phases ground together, clashed, and collided with a great power, creating a deadly distortion.

The sparks became visible.

Coronzon whispered bewitchingly.

“A great maw.”

“!?”

They rushed in from all around him at once.

In this case, even obeying his instincts as a living creature and cowering down was meaningless. If he did that, the jaws would snap shut and he would have nowhere to escape. So instead he leaped hard to the right, approaching one of the sparks, and smashing it with his fist. Before the ring could fully close in around him, he rolled along the red snow to distance himself from the center point.

It didn’t end there.

Kamijou was risking his life with each and every move, but it was all a silly game to her.

Coronzon whispered.

“I am a demon, but not from the Qliphoth where the forces of evil gather. I am the great demon hidden by the holy Sephiroth. I dwell in the same abyss as Da’at.”

She held her left hand straight out and her right hand pulled back toward herself.

The pose resembled aiming a rapier.

“Every number is the same. My right hand contains Nuit of Resurrection. Watch as the possibilities expand and surpass the bounds of the finite. My left hand contains Hadit of Vengeance. The smallest point gathers and concentrates all forces to create a single meaning. Thus, an attack shall be released from the infinite acceleration of the Circle of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and shall appear on the surface layer of this world.”

A chill ran down Kamijou Touma’s spine.

This was bad.

He had been on the receiving end of this spell when he first clashed with Coronzon. It was a much too powerful torrent of power. Back then, he had tried and failed to stop it with his right hand and been torn apart, his bones and organs destroyed.

“But I showed this one off last time.” Coronzon grinned. “Still, weaving it into a combo should lure you into position for a hit.”

As soon as Kamijou frantically tried to jump from his position, a golden scorpion and spider rushed in from the sides.

They were only meant to hold him in place, but a hit from the venomous tail or sharp legs would still kill him.

Now he couldn’t escape.

“Oh, no.”

He should have focused on the flow of attacks instead of viewing each in isolation.

And after he had told himself at the start to observe everything as a whole.

(Damn, now I can’t dodge it!!)

Yet if he tried to stop it with his right hand, he probably wouldn’t be able to fully negate the torrent of power and it would tear his body apart.

White lightning dropped from the sky.

Coronzon didn’t even look up.

“Really, is there some rule that everyone who sits the board chairman seat must be a fool? Aleister easily deflected that one and you expect it to work on me, #1?

“Also,” continued the great demon. “If you can attack me from there, then I can attack you from here.”

Part 2

Bang!!!

In the most tightly secured cell of a far distant prison, the giant LCD monitor on the wall shattered. Glass shards flew out in great quantity and shredded Board Chairman Accelerator’s body.

“Gah…”

(My reflection…didn’t work? They slipped right past my vector control barrier?)

“Dammit. So it’s a power…from that side of things…”

Part 3

Only static came from Kamijou’s wireless earphone, but even that ended eventually.

He was dumbfounded as he used his right hand to negate the scorpion and spider made of blonde hair.

No response.

The board chairman had been taken out too easily.

Especially considering he was Academy City’s #1 Level 5.

Great Demon Coronzon’s strength was on another level entirely!!

“His ability to attack anywhere in the city from that one point also means that one point can be attacked from anywhere in the city. Much like the rules regarding gazing into the Abyss.”

Coronzon looked like she was viewing some distant place while standing here.

Was she sneering at Accelerator who she had just defeated?

Or was she recalling the previous board chairman who had developed the #1?

“Still, for someone sniping people from hiding, it’s curious how careless you were about the standard rules for line of sight. Is that another blind spot created by your reflection, Academy City’s #1?”

Her focus shifted from the distant to the near.

Coronzon’s target was now Kamijou.

“And have you forgotten, Kamijou Touma?”

“Kh.”

“I have a winning move. As long as no one intervenes, I only need to repeat the process to pierce you.”

“Dammit!!”

She was right.

The long, long hair spear, the scattered crab and fly scouts, and the invisible maw formed from countless sparks. He knew that series of attacks was coming, but he could not break free of the rails. Position, movement, distance – Coronzon only had to use small steps to adjust those factors and Kamijou would effectively be trapped in a thick cage. It was like a shogi problem only requiring a predetermined series of moves.

And the time had come.

Coronzon made her sneering announcement.

While directing the tip of an immaterial rapier toward him.

“Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power.”

Blam!!!

He had no choice but to block it.

This was beyond the limits of his right hand.

But rather than strike it with his fist, touching his palm to it and swinging his arm to deflect it away just barely qualified as a correct answer. His arm made a disconcerting creaking sound, but the bones were not broken.

But that was all.

Kamijou Touma’s feet left the ground. As soon as he noticed that, his body was thrown backwards.

Twice, thrice he bounced along the red snow before entering a roll.

He only tasted a rusty flavor.

He supposed still having senses at all was a plus. That meant he wasn’t unconscious.

…Unlike last time.

“I told you.”

“…”

“I only need to repeat the process. You didn’t think this was a one-time-use ability, did you? This is an elementary move. Our last battle was cut short when your right hand went nuts, but, well, this is what happens when I actually make an effort to surround you.”

She was overwhelming and then some.

Last time, the British magic experts had gathered together and somehow managed to pull out a win, so taking on this monster alone had been a mistake.

“You aren’t hoping circumstances will change if you buy enough time, are you? Could this be a stalling tactic so you can let Alice Anotherbible, Anna Sprengel, or another extraordinary member of your party deal with me?”

Great Demon Coronzon had been pure terror to begin with.

But the squeezing at Kamijou’s heart was even greater now.

“They aren’t coming. Because I set it up that way. Kamijou Touma, Hamazura Shiage, and Takitsubo Rikou. Oh, and there was that Qliphah Puzzle 545 too. You four were simply low on my priority list, so I didn’t get around to trapping you in a labyrinth before you arrived.”

One by one, Coronzon plucked away his hopes and possibilities. All with a sneer.

Almost like a child traveling all the way to a flower field, capturing a bug, flipping it over, and innocently tearing out its legs.

“So all I need to do is repeat the process, taking as much time as I need to kill you. Don’t worry about how much it will cost me. Nothing you think can help you escape now.”

“Damn…”

“You see, I can spend as much time on this as I want. But Adikalika will activate in less than half an hour. So it’s you that needs to stop playing around and seriously try to stop me.”

He was far from unscathed. In fact, he was in state of extreme tension where a wrong choice in when to blink could mean instant death.

“Dispersion? Natural decomposition? Destroying the current world?”

But still Kamijou was not broken.

His right fist was intact.

“To hell with that, Coronzon. Who alive today is going to accept that!?”

“My value is 333, my meaning is dispersion. I am the one who tears apart the bonds between people and obstructs their evolution.”

Coronzon whispered her own purpose as if rolling it around in her mouth.

And she looked up.

Once more.

“Keh heh heh. You humans were given the freedom to choose for yourselves yet you continue to let others make your choices based on ‘information’ and ‘trends’, so you can never understand those who were only given a single path.”

“Freedom?”

Kamijou frowned.

The jealousy in her voice made it sound like that was something she didn’t have.

How could she say that after everything she had done?

But before he could say so.

It all flowed out like a rotten clump.

“God made all his creation in accordance to his plan. Not a single part of his plan failed. So it naturally follows that all this world’s sin and vice function as gears in his master plan. That includes all things in this world. Yes, the scams, the theft, the violence, the murder, the swords, the guns, the poison gas, the nuclear weapons – everything!! Vices that even a great demon like me could never imagine will continue to be discovered in this world!! 333, dispersion. The one who lurks in the Abyss hidden in the Sephiroth and obstructs human evolution. God is omniscient and omnipotent. He knew from the beginning I contained the possibility to betray him, to become a hideous demon, and to lose the war! So why didn’t he stop me!?”

“…”

Did she sound like she was spitting on heaven because she was a being known as a great demon?

If so, had these very words been expected by someone?

Coronzon put on a twisted smile.

“Because a creation is no more than a creation, it is difficult for me to escape my traits and my role. Unlike the humans who were tempted into eating the fruit, we – the beings known as angels and demons – have much greater restrictions placed upon us. You could say we are god’s tools. Just as a sword is a sword and cannot be a dinner knife or fork, we can make use of – or even abuse – the abilities given to us within the bounds of our created purpose, but we can never take an entirely different path.”

What was this?

The previous diagram was breaking down.

Or could it be?

Was the very act of understanding Coronzon’s feelings and inner state enough to drag one toward vice?

“So there is but one way to bare my fangs toward heaven. Instead of futilely resisting, I must take my purpose farther than he ever imagined, derailing his plan in the process!! That gives me a chance of ruining god’s plan without ever betraying my purpose in being here. I!! I am here to fight against all the tragedy that occurs in a world designed for someone else’s benefit!!!”

Coronzon spread her arms and wings wide as she made this grand proclamation.

“You’re…kidding,” muttered Kamijou Touma.

Without thinking.

She was 333, dispersion. So she could not allow anything to exist forever and would ensure all things faced natural decomposition.

That was indeed her original purpose, but it only described a method. No one had touched on what she would gain by breaking down the entire world. No one had mentioned her personal objective.

The answer was a simple one.

That being who far surpassed the bounds of humanity could be summed up as follows:

She was sick of it.

333, dispersion. She tore apart the bonds between people and obstructed their evolution. Those were the hideous numbers and symbols within her – at her very core. When comparing herself to the many other beings who dedicated themselves to roles of bright blessings – mercy, protection, honesty, safety – she couldn’t accept that she existed only for that dark function.

So she had tried to overturn that.

Coronzon wrapped her arms around herself, doubled over, and screamed.

As if trying to forcibly seal away the source of her nausea, which just so happened to be the very core of her being.

“It makes me sick! Oh, so sick!! Both myself for being used in that way and the humans who think this power has any value and create so many spells to interfere with me! But most of all, the world that requires me repulses me!! Do you understand, good one who always strives to be righteous despite your imperfection!? God knew I would stray. So! I was robbed the chance to grasp even the tiniest sliver of freedom by rebelling of my own free will!!!”

In a way, it was like being forced into the role of telling people to fail and find misfortune.

She was a tool only expected to harm and frustrate others.

No matter how powerful she might be and no matter how important the seat she sat in, the very first assumption had distorted her. How could she find any confidence in that situation?

She had been told she was a necessary part of the world.

But when god had created her from the start as someone capable of rebelling, even that could perhaps have a purpose.

Her power was to tear people apart and prevent their evolution. That was who she was. A great demon.

This world could not exist without that despicable and contemptible system and the current age could not function without so much anger, sorrow, resignation, and infighting, so Coronzon had concluded they were far too twisted and imperfect.

So.

She had decided to use every last part of what she was to destroy the plan she didn’t understand and without even trying to understand it.

She had wanted the fastest way of doing that.

She had settled on something she could reach out and touch.

She thought her best option was to destroy the world that god had created and raised.

“Am I nothing more than a sumptuous feast for you humans, designed to fail in order to give you courage when you defeat me? Or am I the deluge bucket, designed to succeed so that my thorough destruction can cleanse this impure world? The answer doesn’t really matter.”

Uh, oh.

This went beyond the degree of violence.

Great Demon Coronzon had something that would overwhelm others on another dimension altogether, more closely related to concepts of good, righteousness, and the mental struggle against doom!!

“Either way, if I simply take the role of my symbols and value too far, I can derail and ruin it all without violating the rules. So you cannot convince me with words. I will never hold back. I will activate Adikalika here no matter what! I will bring this to a level that will make anyone – yes, even god himself – hold their head in their hands and look away!!!”

Something exploded.

Coronzon spread her arms and roared as light exploded out from her in a dome.

Light.

A dazzling white.

As if screaming that her rebellion against heaven was the truly righteous and correct choice.

“…Ah…”

Maybe it had been a mistake to listen to her.

How could Kamijou Touma overcome this when his own position was starting to waver?

The blast struck him across his body.

He was knocked back, thrown through the air, and fell to the ground. He rolled again and again, throwing red snow into the air.

It was night and Academy City didn’t have many lights on since repairs were still slow in coming, but neither was the reason his vision rapidly grew dark.

It blinked in and out.

He felt no pain. Nor any obvious fear or panic. All of those active emotions were melting away from his mind. It reminded him of when Alice Anotherbible had killed him in his school that night. The same sensation was filling him once more. Mercilessly.

Oh, no.

This time…he really was going to…

Part 4

The night wind raged.

The darkness was colored by the blowing red snow.

Only a winged figure stood within it. Kamijou Touma had still clenched his right fist, but that was all. He had passed out with his fist still tight. He was completely out.

The communication line was staticky and there was no response from the person on the other end. Physical distance and thick walls were meaningless against magical curses. They provided no defense. New Board Chairman Accelerator had also been fully silenced.

It was quiet.

Divinely so.

“Qliphah Puzzle 545.”

“Kh.”

The artificial demon floating stealthily in the air shook when she was called out without even a glance in her direction.

“You could try that stunt again, but know first that I have already developed a countermeasure. Leviathan was it? That sacrificial spell will only lead to a meaningless death. So settle down and watch the end of the world. That would be the better option for a lonely demon like you.”

Red snow fell through the dark night.

Adikalika’s countdown continued unabated, but no one remained to stop it.

The world’s fate was sealed.

No…

“So you’re the last one left, Hamazura Shiage.”

A voice spoke.

As if recalling old times.

Another form had gotten back up.

Quietly.

He was battered and bloody, but Hamazura Shiage was not dead yet.

With an ironic smile, Coronzon spread the wings on her back.

“I can’t imagine what an ordinary human can accomplish, but fine. As a human, you lack perfect righteousness yet work desperately to gather up the fragments of a good heart. Toying with that treasure without realizing its value to me is the height of folly. So fight back against my annihilation.”

“Y’know.”

Hamazura Shiage sat down in the red snow.

Yes, he did not duck down or dive behind cover.

Almost suicidally, he sat right in front of Great Demon Coronzon.

And he let the words spill out.

“I had a feeling it would end up this way. The last one standing wasn’t going to be Kamijou Touma or Accelerator. Coronzon, since it’s about you, I had a feeling it’d be me, even if I don’t really belong here.”

“Are you suggesting that I showed mercy to my enemy because we are acquaintances? You think I, a great demon, standing here as a concentration of vice, would do that?”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

Hamazura’s voice sounded somehow empty.

But also confident.

He personally knew Coronzon, not through hearsay or myth.

“You’re logical. You’re trying to destroy the world for a very rational reason. So you labeled everyone opposing you an enemy and you defeated them. It’s simple really. You eliminated them because they were trying to stop you, so you don’t actually hate Kamijou Touma or Accelerator.”

Yes.

She didn’t hate them, but not for some emotional reason. There just wasn’t any connection between them.

Kamijou Touma and Accelerator were nothing more than strangers to Coronzon. What reason did she have to thoroughly hate Villager A?

“Ha ha! Then what? Have you accepted it yourself? You’re saying I forgot to even mark you an enemy because you’re just some pathetic delinquent? Even then, anyone who stands before me is an enemy. I will destroy anyone and everyone who tries to stop Adikalika. You damn gnat. You cannot stop me, Hamazura Shiage!!”

“That’s not it either.”

He rejected her claim again.

Immediately.

Even Coronzon had to frown now.

Could the being known as a great demon not understand this tiny truth?

“I’m not working against you. I no longer have any reason to attack you.”

“I…don’t understand.”

“Go ahead.”

With those words, it was Coronzon who grimaced.

But seeing the look on her face, he spoke clearly.

“I know all too well this world is shit. I mean, I’m a Level 0. That alone means I’ve got nothing. So go ahead. If the new age you imagine is a free and righteous place where everyone can be happy…”

“Hey, wait. Dammit, Hamazura, are you saying…!?”

“C’mon, Coronzon. Go ahead and do it.”

Yes.

When Hamazura faced Coronzon and she asked what he would do about her, he had said “that depends on your answer”.

“But…back in the UK, you stopped me, didn’t you? In the very end, with some help from Dion Fortune.”

“True,” admitted Hamazura. And then, “But I hadn’t actually processed what you said back then. I stuck with my own thoughts and simply thought I could save you too if I protected the world. …But how did that pan out? The instant you were free again, you got to work trying to destroy the world again. As if to say it’s the world that’s wrong. To be honest, I agree with you there. If the fighting continues with you or without you, then it doesn’t seem like you’re the source of the problem.”

From Hamazura Shiage’s point of view, Kamijou Touma and Accelerator were success stories too dazzlingly bright to look at. It wasn’t a matter of money, education, family, or esper level. No matter how much he tried, he knew he could never catch up to them.

So they would want to protect the world. Without a second thought.

Even if it meant risking their lives.

Even if something about the world felt off.

Ultimately, they wanted to protect the current world because they were reluctant to let it go. Because they were happy people who could imagine the benefits they would find in keeping the current system going.

If they were foolish, they would be fine with that.

They would foolishly look only to their own happiness and continue to reap the benefits.

But what if they were clever? What if they were aware so many people were denied freedom and couldn’t obtain the things they had, but they continued to enjoy those benefits themselves? That was no different than trampling others in pursuit of their own happiness. It was an undeniable sin.

Protecting the world was not necessarily a good or righteous act.

If the wicked wealthy with all their injustices and dirty money said they were going to protect the world, who would praise them for it?

If the world had been rotten to the core from the beginning, then the meaning of that phrase flipped on its head.

Everyone thought of Great Demon Coronzon as an unpersuadable absolute evil.

Hamazura alone disagreed.

Because he had once broken away and fought alongside Coronzon.

And he had realized something because he saw her as a relative evil who could be reasoned with.

He suspected this world was hiding something that had pushed Coronzon to do this.

“Damn you…Hamazura…”

“You can see it, can’t you?”

That question was a rejection of everything Hamazura had believed in.

How much courage had it taken for a mere human to voice it?

It likely wouldn’t have been possible for Hamazura alone.

Which was why he was currently holding the hand of his girlfriend lying unconscious by his side.

He knew that would give him the courage he needed to face every obstacle this world could throw at him.

“You’ve viewed this world on a higher level than me and you’ve investigated this world with superior brains than mine. …If, in the end, the Great Demon Coronzon herself concluded this shitty world deserves to be destroyed, then that’s probably the right answer. If even you had to give up with all your power, then there’s really nothing we can do. At the very least, I can’t think of anything to say to stop you. So you know what? …I think you might as well go ahead and do it. Why not?”

This was a destructive third view that Kamijou Touma and Accelerator could never have held.

This was Hamazura Shiage’s job.

Was it Dion Fortune who had said even Kamijou Touma was powerless against Coronzon?

“Are you kidding me!? Do you know what you’re saying!?”

“Why do you make it sound like you want me to stop you, Coronzon? I’m the all-purpose trump card. I’ll work with a great demon if it’ll save my girlfriend or just a friend. You weren’t expecting a softy like me to take on that role, were you?”

“Kh.”

“That’s why”

He wasn’t good or righteous. But he wasn’t fully evil either.

The soft boy continued.

“That’s why I’ll accept you. When I saved Qliphah Puzzle 545 earlier, I was even thinking this world can go to hell.”

If Takitsubo Rikou were awake here, he might have arrived at a different answer.

But he couldn’t do that now.

“Over and over, I’ve seen the depths of this world’s cruelty and how it wears down the people you love like some sick assembly line. Body Crystal? The Golden cabal? Everyone treats people’s lives like nothing more than a useful component and they praise that behavior like it’s a sign of strength and beauty. Can you believe it? And no one ever questions it. Not even the people being worn down! It’s obvious to anyone that this world is rotten to the core. …So if you’re going to get rid of all that glorification of complexity for the sake of complexity, give us nothing but an ordinary world full of ordinary things with nothing hiding below the surface, where everyone I love can laugh happily and worry-free forever and ever, then you’re clearly on the side of good and righteousness, Coronzon.”

The higher being seemed taken back.

It couldn’t be.

Was someone really saying this to her at this stage?

She suddenly found herself the one pointing out the dangers.

This wasn’t right.

How did her role get so turned around!?

“Have you forgotten? Once the Adikalika large-scale attack spell activates, there is no stopping it. It will fully destroy all life in the target land. So the Italian Peninsula will be crushed and slashed into a hell of blood and bone. And after that, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, Academy City, and the Russian Orthodox Church will all join in endless war! I have set them up in pairs so they will eliminate each other like matching cards in old maid, so every part of this world will be brought to an end!! Trying to curry my favor will not allow you to survi-!!”

“It’s hopeless regardless, right? Whether or not you use that Adi-whatever.”

He didn’t let her finish.

He wasn’t speaking all that loudly, but Coronzon still fell silent.

As if he had struck her right in the heart.

“Hey, Coronzon. You’re not stupid and you’re not wild. With you, every single action is based on your intelligence. I saw just how incredibly smart you are back in that fight where you dragged the UK and the whole world into it.”

Hamazura spoke quietly.

Yes, the boy holding his unconscious girlfriend’s hand was quiet.

He did not shout and scream.

“I’ve been thinking. You couldn’t believe what I was doing, but you still helped me save Takitsubo Rikou and Dion Fortune. You had to have thought I was a burden and an idiot, but you never did betray me, leave me behind, or let me die. So I had to wonder why you’re doing this to Academy City. …It’s simple. You decided you had to start a global war. There’s something you can’t solve without taking it that far.”

“Are you saying you can see it? But how could a mere human do that?”

“I don’t know what it is. But you weren’t the one who messed up this world. It’s already so messed up that stopping you wouldn’t fix anything. So it’s past the point of not wanting to die or wanting to make sure at least my girlfriend survives. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s definitely going to happen if nothing is done. So betting on you seems like the best option. If I want even the slightest chance of the people I know surviving, someone has to force the world off its current course.”

“…”

“Or are you going to say I’m wrong?”

It wasn’t that Hamazura Shiage doubted the world was ending.

He could already tell the world had been rotten before Coronzon began any of this. It was so bad even a Level 0 idiot like him could tell. And if it was that bad on the surface, then the invisible core or central pillar of the world must have been badly eaten away by now.

He didn’t know what the termites gnawing away at the great tree actually were, but knowing that wasn’t important.

So that wasn’t what had shaken him.

There was something else he had to be certain of.

“Am I wrong to bet on you? Are you not worth it? Were you going on and on about your importance, but it was all talk and you just want to destroy the world for the hell of it? Will you end up sticking your tongue out, laughing, and going ‘oops, that didn’t accomplish anything’? Well, in that case, you really are a villain. If you’re causing trouble for so many people without doing anything worthwhile. If you’ll just keep all the money I’d bet on you because I trust you. If you can’t stick to goodness or righteousness and stall out somewhere in the middle without ever accomplishing anything, then you’re evil! If it’s all going to be pointless in the end, you might as well not have done anything in the first place!! Do you know what that’s called? It’s called being a troublemaker, the lowest and weakest type of villain, Coronzon!!!”

She hung her head.

The monster who was understood by no one said nothing for a while.

She appeared to be biting her lip.

And.

Finally.

“Don’t make me laugh, human.”

When she raised her head, she showed off the most demonic of faces.

“I came up with this plan myself, but it was you who gave me the final push, Hamazura Shiage. So I hope your soul shatters from the guilt of unnecessarily making yourself responsible for the countless corpses soon to litter the entire globe! …Adikalika!! O master of death and blood, incarnation of destruction, and black goddess of the 11th letter, break the current world’s pillar of good and submerge the very planet in an ocean of black blood!!!”

The world shined.

Behind Great Demon Coronzon, at the center of the empty space where the Windowless Building once stood, space itself was emitting a pale light as if something were gathering there. The pillar of light’s glow strengthened in stages. It was already past the point of no return.

In that moment, Hamazura Shiage smiled. While squeezing his collapsed and unmoving girlfriend’s hand.

Just a bit.

As if he were at the train station sadly seeing off a friend who was moving away.

“Sorry I couldn’t give you a world you can accept.”

“~ ~ ~!!!?”

Never before.

Not even once.

No one had never accepted that great demon and even she had failed to accept her own function and thus chose to curse god and herself, so she looked like she badly wanted to say something.

She had clearly lost.

Kamijou Touma, Accelerator, Aleister Crowley, and even Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers had all failed to bring that look to her face.

Of pain.

And anguish.

She began to say something.

“Hamazur-”

She never finished.

The light exploded.

Part 5

Shortly before that.

Kamijou Touma lay collapsed on the ground, half buried in red snow.

Something was wrong with his body. He couldn’t seem to get up.

He actually felt no pain, making it hard to figure out what part of him was broken. In his state, the lack of a bloody smell actually seemed unnatural. So he guessed his senses were acting up too.

He had been damaged in some lethal way.

That much he was somehow certain of.

Even so, he glared out of eyes that could barely see anything anymore.

Someone was talking.

Hamazura Shiage and Great Demon Coronzon.

They were preparing to do something decisive.

He didn’t know the details.

His ears weren’t working right. Even his brain was nearly dead and he couldn’t manage to break down and comprehend human language.

Even so.

He understood.

If the current sequence of events wasn’t stopped here, then it truly was all over.

So he slowly moved his right hand.

Stretching it out.

It would never reach.

Even though it was right over there. He could see the glowing pillar of Adikalika from here, yet it was just too far away.

Was it no use?

He understood what Great Demon Coronzon had said.

Something other than his physical strength was on his mind.

He always fought using his clenched fist, but even he thought it was a raw deal.

No one would want the job of tearing people apart. All she could do was choose to rebel. What she did wasn’t on the level of forcing someone to give up on a reckless dream because they would be happier that way in the long run. She really did just tear relationships apart. Nothing more than that. She already didn’t like it, but she wasn’t even allowed an excuse for herself as she did it. And this naturally led to everyone else loathing her. If you were told that was all you could ever do until you were dead and gone, of course you would despair. And since the angels and demons were higher beings than humans, it had to be all the more unbearable to have nothing but that function.

She would want to change it if she could.

She wanted to reject it.

Kamijou thought those were natural reactions.

He understood.

But he didn’t want the current world to be destroyed.

He didn’t want the people living there to be hurt.

He wasn’t talking about the Magic Gods, Transcendents, or other special humans whose special powers and abilities would make their deaths a great loss for the world as a whole.

He was thinking of the dumb conversations at school and all the nonsense that happened in his dorm room.

He wanted to protect those ordinary things.

He wanted the ordinary things to continue being ordinary.

Without fear.

Without trembling at the possibility of being lost.

Wouldn’t it have started out that way for Coronzon too?

Wasn’t it because she understood the importance of people’s small and ordinary feelings that she couldn’t forgive this world for requiring a person who tore people apart, that brought her despair in having that role forced onto her, and that had ultimately led her to rebel against heaven?

Was this what she really wanted to do?

Was it really right to let the victor destroy the entire world without getting any clear answers to these questions?

If the world really ended now…

If Coronzon herself wasn’t sure if she would gain anything from her victory…

Then how could the humans accept their impending deaths!?

(Someone…)

Kamijou’s throat was dry as a bone.

Maybe even the mucous membranes inside his body had been scorched.

(I don’t care who.)

Even so.

What could he do?

It could be anything, he just didn’t want to give up.

He forced his throat to move as if peeling it apart.

And still collapsed, the boy only had one thing to say. As if in prayer.

“…………H…………e…………l…………p…………”

Part 6

“You got it.” “You got it.”

Part 7

It sounded like a song.

The lovely girl’s voice controlled everything.

“ATOA. JOEAGTTA.(Alter target of Adikalika. Jump over Europe and go to the Atlantic.)”

And…

“What…?”

Great Demon Coronzon turned her gaze aside.

She knew Adikalika had activated.

It had been launched.

But she didn’t understand.

Why hadn’t she sensed the result?

Her eyes widened past the limit and viewed someplace other than here before groaning.

“It was released. The Adikalika large-scale attack spell was launched… So why isn’t the Italian Peninsula submerged in a sea of blood, flesh, and bone!?”

“Because you redirected it yourself. Although it was my Spell Intercept that made you do it.”

The response was calm.

It was a girl’s voice.

“That spell targets a land named by humans and it brings slaughter to everyone there. That means it won’t have any effect if it’s sent somewhere without a name. It was short hair’s idea. She said Japan has a lot of unnamed islands that are only identified with numbers. And other countries do that too.”

“Damn…you.”

“No matter how big the spell, no matter how intricate the preparation, and even if it is carried out by a higher being far greater than humans…magic is still magic. The spells of angels and demons are based on the same foundation, but did it never occur to you that they could therefore be obstructed by humans?”

“You mean the filthy tongue of a mere human was violating my mind!?”

Coronzon raged, spread her wings wide, and began to yell, but she was forced to fall back a few steps.

Because of something flying in at three times the speed of sound.

With a “boom!!!”, the air was fiercely compressed a moment later.

After catching the projectile in her palm, she could tell what it was. It was half melted, but that was an ordinary arcade coin.

“Oh? Well, that’s unusual. I’ve seen a few people send it back with their reflection, gravity, or some other cheap ability…but I never thought I’d see an idiot catch it with pure brute strength. Oh, wait. Those Magic God people could do that, couldn’t they?”

“Damn you… Damn you both…”

Coronzon growled the words like a deadly curse.

As if the repetition would build up her resentment.

The “zap!!” of a high-voltage current burst out.

Hamazura Shiage had tried something and received a lightning spear, sending him down onto the red snow.

Now Coronzon really was alone.

She had begun this plan alone, but for some reason she now felt a hole in her heart. And not a small one either.

And.

The pillar of light was gone.

The Adikalika large-scale attack spell had been launched, but only launched.

Not a single person had died.

This miracle had not been brought about by Kamijou Touma.

But this was clearly the result that loser had asked for.

“Alice Anotherbible and Anna Sprengel never made it here. Yet you outsiders did? It doesn’t add up. If you could just walk here, they wouldn’t have used parachutes!!”

Coronzon began ranting, but she soon stopped.

Her accumulation of resentment had ceased.

She was empty.

No, she had realized there was a precedent.

Hadn’t Anna Kingsford done something similar in hell?

And hadn’t the other Anna been here?

In other words…

“No, it isn’t just that those two never arrived. Did they intentionally give up their spots!? To ensure these two could reach the center!? Did they use magical tricks to let them pass straight through the invisible labyrinth without my noticing!?”

No voice answered her.

Instead, the two girls took a step toward Coronzon.

Straight toward her.

“Do you really have time for that? Unlike Touma, you don’t have anyone coming to save you.”

“I don’t know what any of this great demon stuff is about, but I hope you don’t think you can hurt my idiot this badly and get away with it.”

Index of the magical world.

Misaka Mikoto of the scientific world.

Those two girls had heard a certain boy’s cry.

Epilogue: Another – 4th_HERO.

“Phew.”

Alice Anotherbible let out a white breath.

Even she, the prototype Transcendent, had used so much power she had to catch her breath.

Index and Misaka Mikoto.

She had sent those two girls on ahead.

While ensuring the source of all this trouble didn’t notice.

That had opened a “hole”, but she remained trapped inside the invisible labyrinth. That modern labyrinth kept her from her destination no matter how far she walked and it was a much bigger problem than the blonde hair scouts which appeared more threatening.

She had done it with brute force, but she had opened a hole.

She understood the logic behind it.

Next to her, Anna Sprengel released a white breath of her own and looked up into the sky with annoyance. She was another extreme, a being too irregular to call a Transcendent.

Red snow fell from the night sky.

Cold concrete buildings surrounded them in all four directions.

Meaning…

“Dammit, Coronzon. She used the gray concrete as a replacement for the thick screen of freezing snow that causes people to get lost in a mountain blizzard, didn’t she? And so we’ve been wandering a labyrinth where we think we’re walking in a straight line but end up circling the same block over and over again.”

“Right.”

Tonight was snowy and thick clouds covered the sky above. There were no landmarks.

However, it likely wouldn’t have mattered if there was a moon in the sky. Knowing the direction wouldn’t be enough to escape this dungeon.

Human senses were fragile.

It was simplest to think of it like a room with green screens covering the walls, floor, and ceiling, but people could easily lose track of distance and direction when their vision was all colored a single, unchanging hue. When pushed to the limit, people would wander into places they shouldn’t be and even begin to doubt the accurate data provided by their map or compass. Once that happened, they would only sink further. Strange things happened in the mountains. Maybe so, but a few of them were the result of people unwittingly passing the limits of their body’s functions.

Magician Aleister, the creator of Magick, had also been a mountain climber. That may have played a role in how he shaped his spells.

“But the girl opened a hole once, so she can do it again in the same way. Let’s try again once the girl has managed to charge up again.”

“Assuming Coronzon hasn’t applied any countermeasures.”

Which she would have. She wasn’t a foe you could use the same move against over and over.

These two were out of the loop now.

They hadn’t been fully driven from the scene, but their arrival would be much too late.

The two young(-looking) girls heard a voice from overhead.

“Oh?”

That was the Bologna Succubus with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet hanging down by one huge arm of her metal coat.

Not even looking down from the sky was enough to escape the labyrinth. Just like you couldn’t rescue people from a mountain blizzard using a helicopter.

The super skinny apron girl looked surprised.

“What are you doing, Alice? It’s not like you to give up your feast to someone else☆”

“She’s finally maturing,” remarked the Bologna Succubus.

“Heh heh.

Silently, the red snow continued to fall.

Great Demon Coronzon looked up into the starless night sky and laughed.

It was a laugh of pure scorn.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

“Oh, was there some funny joke I missed?” asked an exasperated Mikoto.

Coronzon answered with her fit of laughter continuing.

“Funny? Yes, funny indeed! My, my. Adikalika really was a poor choice. The spell structure was a bit too delicate, so it could have broken or even shattered had I poured my full strength into a defense at this close range. …But that ends now. No longer will I be disturbed by such trifles. I can finally draw on my full strength. Gya ha ha, and what could be funnier than that!? Bfh, gh, ha ha ha hee!!”

“Full strength?”

Mikoto frowned and Coronzon came to a complete stop and explained.

Without reservation.

“Everything before was just a rehash from the previous battle. Did I do anything new?”

A rehash.

“Some of my power nearly overflowed with Qliphah Puzzle 545, but that was all. If not for that, Kamijou Touma and the rest of you would have been instantly smashed into meatballs before you even arrived here. Grimoire library, do you perhaps understand the relevant values and units here? Heh heh. You should know all too well that Great Demon Coronzon is at least an international threat and not someone any individual should attempt to fight. Bwa ha!! Oh, I can’t help it. Sorry, but I just can’t. Hwa ha ha ha ha!!”

Index didn’t bother answering.

She cut right to something more important.

“You mean Adikalika wasn’t your goal?”

“Not really, no.”

Once again, Coronzon admitted it with terrifyingly little reservation.

Despite everything.

“Adikalika was just one possible method. I wasn’t all that attached to it. Make no mistake. My priority is the ends, not the means. I can begin the end of the world somewhere else. In the very near future.”

“How near…?”

“Tomorrow if I wanted to. From somewhere on the other side of the world from Academy City. Yes, maybe from Brazil in the Southern Hemisphere.”

Coronzon sounded almost puzzled.

And then she burst out laughing.

“Bwa ha!! Wait, don’t tell me. You didn’t think Adikalika was my one and only trump card, did you? I am Great Demon Coronzon, guardian of wisdom in the great tree and the traitor who stole that knowledge. Kee hee hee hee hee hee. Every last one of my fingers and toes wouldn’t be enough to count the ways I know to submerge the planet in a sea of blood!! Bwa nya ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Coronzon had several cards in her deck.

She had no pressing reason to insist on victory here at this moment.

She was already the strongest and she wanted to rid herself of that loathsome power. No failure for her would weaken her. She might be interrupted and driven to failure by humans, but she would retain her full power.

So as long as she was willing to keep going, she could accept any number of losses.

She wasn’t like Fiamma of the Right or Magic God Othinus who had bet everything on a single opportunity.

Coronzon’s evil nature was stickier, harder to get rid of, and hopeless.

Had she had her fill of laughter?

After wiping a tear from her eye, Coronzon finally returned to a serious expression.

“Hee hee. But now I know what to do next. …You two are first on the list. I seriously doubt you could disturb any of my other trump cards, but you did manage to stop me this once. So I will eliminate you before this silly countermeasure can spread to the rest of the riffraff. Then I can take my time as I get to work. And without having to look after Adikalika, I won’t have any limits holding me back!! Or do I need to put it plain words for you? From now on, I will be at my full power!!!”

This was all the more reason for Index and Misaka Mikoto to fight.

Great Demon Coronzon.

The destruction of the world didn’t even come into it. Did she realize that the mess she had made of the city was unforgivable enough? That destruction of their ordinary and everyday was sufficient. Index and Mikoto weren’t trying to rack up a high score by saving people all around the globe. They couldn’t stand to see just one nearby person die.

Something audibly beat against the air.

The great demon had spread her enormous wings wide.

She had readily abandoned the Adikalika fight. Which gave her freedom.

There was an exaggerated element to her behavior, like she was only enjoying an event.

“Now, come!! One of you is the Grimoire Library full of knowledge gathered to fight back against the modern Western magic developed by Magician Crowley and the other is a Level 5 produced by former Board Chairman Aleister. …The perfect combination for the world’s final attempt to fight back. It is time I went around crushing each and every sliver of hope he left in this world so that I can wring the bloody tears from his soul and watch that soul turn blacker and blacker!!”

A high-pitched cling rang out.

It came from the arcade coin flicked up by Misaka Mikoto’s thumb.

“I don’t understand anything you’re going on about, but I hope you don’t think you’ve defeated everything the #3 can throw at you just because you stopped a Railgun head on. These powers are all in how you use them. There are only seven Level 5s, but that isn’t because no one else has this kind of firepower. I’ll show you the wide range of applications that sets the seven of us apart!!”

“…”

Misaka Mikoto was eager to get started, but Index looked pale.

Perhaps because she was from the magic side.

And therefore had a better understanding of what they were up against.

Great Demon Coronzon was still confident enough to play around. As she had said, sporadically throwing individual power against her was not the appropriate strategy for full-power Coronzon.

Othinus whispered from Index’s shoulder.

“(Don’t be intimidated. That will only guide you in the wrong direction. As a god of war, I know that all too well.)”

“Right. But…”

“(You find it disturbing how easily she gave up on Adikalika after putting so much effort into it? She claims she doesn’t care because she has plenty more options for destroying the world? Nonsense. She can laugh, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s panicking after her plan fell apart. She’s currently trying to recover from that failure and is desperate to stay in control so she can reuse as much of her plan as possible. So as a god of deception, I tell you: do not be deceived. You’ve driven her right up to the precipice. You have no reason to let up now.)”

“Even so…”

“(And if Coronzon is a great demon of knowledge, than you of all people have no reason to fear her. As a god of magic, I assure you: the knowledge in your head is in no way inferior to the knowledge she clings to so preciously. The two of you are equal.)”

“…”

All of this had occurred to Index already.

The problem was Index’s inability to refine her life force into magic power. That meant she could not use the knowledge of her 103,001 grimoires to wield magic herself.

She also couldn’t force that role onto Misaka Mikoto since that girl was a scientific esper. If an esper did force themselves to use magic, it could easily cause severe damage to their blood vessels and nerves. Othinus also couldn’t do it after being shrunk to 15cm and Index couldn’t expect anything from the cat in her arms.

So they weren’t enough.

Grimoire Library Index knew that before the fight even began.

Battling that great demon on even footing would require a clash of knowledge against knowledge.

That required a magician.

A human magician.

They were missing a crucial piece needed to battle Great Demon Coronzon head on!!

Just then.

She heard a voice.

“There’s…still…”

It came from Kamijou Touma.

Coronzon frowned. She supposedly contained all the world’s knowledge, yet this truly baffled her.

He couldn’t even get up, much less fight, so why wouldn’t he just play dead?

Why would he draw attention to himself? What could he do at this point?

He had already lost.

Kamijou Touma had lost. Accelerator had lost. Even Hamazura Shiage was no longer moving.

But…

“There’s still…someone…” whispered the puny boy.

Was that all he could manage even after gathering the very last of his strength?

Even so…

“Long before us. Long, long before any of us were born, there was a hero who’s been fighting this cruelty all along. Fighting against the world and losing, but refusing to give up and getting back up. There’s another who eventually built this city and gave so many people the power to fight without having to give up!”

“What…?”

“Isn’t that right, Aleister!!?”

Great Demon Coronzon froze.

For just one definite moment.

And.

Crack!!

The sound of cracks running through something rang out from within Coronzon’s chest.

Afterword

If you picked them up one at a time, welcome back. If you bought them all at once, welcome.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

As Dion Fortune said in the last volume, this one was something of a reunion. So I included or mentioned characters both old and new. The Level 5s, the Anglican Church, the Amakusas, the Saints, the Former Agnese Forces, the Kiharas, the Magic Gods, an artificial demon, a great demon, the Golden magicians, R&C Occultics, the Transcendents…so many different categories made an appearance in this one book. Do you remember them all? You’ve processed all those characters and pieces of worldbuilding to reach this point. Even as I write this, I’m trembling at how much of a bother this is going to be for Haimura-san as he does the illustrations!!

Necromancer Isabella Theism first appeared in an anime bonus novel. Since that has been released as an ordinary light novel now, I decided it was alright to include her in the main story and made her an enemy boss. I thought she could be used to continue focusing on the previous volume’s question of whether Kamijou Touma is alive or dead, so I had her play the role of the magic side necromancer. Oh, and if you want to know what Accelerator meant when he mentioned “the necromancer I know”, you should check out a certain manga from Dengeki and its anime! There’s plenty of the kind that directly control dead bodies in there.

As for Kihara Goukei, that was me going “Ha ha, did you really think a member of the Kihara Family would be taken out that easily?” So I let everyone’s Madame Gou run wild this time. As a kind scientist who specializes in human life, she might remind some people of Kihara Kagun. Kihara Goukei is a researcher (can she really call herself that when she steals the tech?) only gathers forbidden scientific knowledge, but she may have turned out like him if she had entered the realm of magic. She’s probably been gathering and making use of tech created by people like Kihara Byouri and Yakumi Hisako.

Kamijou Touma never was able to meet up with the frog-faced doctor and is still officially considered dead, but his return to society has begun after saving his classmates, I guess?

Personally, I think even the dead could be accepted pretty easily as long as they aren’t harmful. The stereotypical example is people fearing that they will be cursed by a dead person, so they make them harmless by worshiping them as a god.

Speaking of Kamijou, I think the highlight for him this time was his futile struggle even after losing. He’s willing to risk his life to win, but he won’t just give up because he’s lost. Hes found something he refuses to give up on even if it means losing and dying. I think that is another form of growth, but what do you all think?

I give my thanks to my illustrators Haimura-san and Itou Tateki-san and my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. Academy City taken over by the magic side is an unprecedented situation, which I expect made the illustrations a challenge. Thank you yet again.

And I give thanks to the readers. With dark Moina Mathers riding around on a giant black cat, Qliphah Puzzle 545 nearly dying, and everything with Kamijou’s classmates or the Transcendents, I expect every reader found a different thing they liked best. All I hope is that you found something like that yourself. Thank you for continuing to read these books!!

It is time to close the pages for now while praying that the pages of the next book will be opened.

And I lay my pen down for now.

Come to think of it, was this Shokuhou’s first time shouting “Huhhhh?” in the main story?

-Kamachi Kazuma

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Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing) Kamijou Touma Visits Another World Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter	Next NA