"Selene—!"
At this moment, Accelerator felt just like the Jade Emperor in Journey to the West when Sun Wukong stormed into the Heavenly Palace.
Unable to deal with the rampaging Magic God wreaking havoc in the Star of Bethlehem fortress, he was once again sent flying, smashing through dozens of churches and chapels before becoming deeply embedded in the rubble. Emerging from the swirling dust, battered and disheveled, Accelerator was in a hurry.
He didn't shout it outright, but it was close enough—just short of yelling, "Call the Honkai Ancestor, quick!"
Dignity, manly pride—none of that mattered now. If Selene didn't show up soon, he figured he'd be offering himself up as a sacrifice.
After all, he was Academy City's second-ranked Level 5 esper—right after Selene. With her absent, it fell to him to hold up the sky.
Rumor already had it that the Board of Directors was considering promoting Selene to become Academy City's first-ever Level 6 Absolute Esper.
In truth, the definition of "Level 6 Absolute Esper" inside Academy City was vague and broad. The most widespread explanation was: to grasp the will of God while still in a mortal body.
And Selene's ability to reshape mountains and seas without external aid was a strong argument for that definition.
As the Level 5 ranked immediately after her, Accelerator threw himself into the fight the hardest, shouted the loudest—and got beaten down the most. More than once, the so-called "god" withered corpse had sent him flying tens of kilometers, nearly shattering even his reflection barrier.
But no matter how bitter it felt, he couldn't say it out loud. He had to keep charging forward—at least not let Kakine Teitoku get ahead of him. That was his last stubborn pride after so many defeats in the past few months.
So while Accelerator and Kakine put on their desperate show, the rest—Misaka Mikoto, Mugino Shizuri, Stiyl Magnus, and other survivors from Academy City and the Anglican Church—watched wide-eyed as the two of them took turns playing tank and damage dealer.
Knocked flying, getting up with a roar, charging again—only to be blasted away once more…
If not for the fact that the Star of Bethlehem was still being sustained by the angelified remains of Fiamma of the Right, and the fortress itself was sturdy and self-repairing, it would have fallen apart long ago.
"Academy City's top three Level 5s really live up to the name," Stiyl muttered around his cigarette, still shaping his Flame Giant spell. Scraping away at the enemy—he'd keep doing it, even if it felt pointless. No way he'd just stand by as a bystander.
"…What?"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Noticing Misaka Mikoto's strange gaze, Mugino Shizuri scowled as she tossed away her overheated diffusion semiconductor. "Oi, middle schooler—don't lump all of us in with those freaks."
Urban legend had it that among Academy City's eight Level 5s, there were the "upper three" and the "lower five."
It pissed Mugino off, but it was the truth. She couldn't beat the top three. To put it bluntly, each one of them could take on the rest of the Level 5s combined.
Not far away, the sky was torn open.
Calling it a battle was generous—it was more like a picnic. A god's picnic.
Most of their attacks vanished without a ripple.
Somehow, the main force they had to rely on was an iron hulk piloted by a dog. For espers and magicians without the means to boost their physical capabilities, it was an embarrassing reality.
Your usefulness doesn't even match that of a dog. In fact, tying up a dog would be more helpful.
Come to think of it… yeah, that's not exactly morale-boosting.
Rumble rumble rumble—!
In just the blink of an eye, looking down from the Star of Bethlehem fortress, one could see that the once-formidable fortifications above Banda Aceh had been completely obliterated. Wreckage of engineering robots littered the ground, deep cracks scarred the earth—it looked like the aftermath of a catastrophic mudslide.
Bzzzz—!
A murky mushroom cloud rose into the sky like a colossal human head. Within the layered clouds, repeated artificial discharges shifted the charges, lightning flickering to form what looked like a face—complete with eerie, ghostly green eyes.
It wasn't truly a skull, but the human-skin-covered head was so shrunken and withered that it looked more like a skull than anything else.
On the desiccated body, a purple robe adorned with pure gold shimmered. With a sharp clang, the Magic God known as High Priest drove his golden sword into the air itself, ripples spreading outward like waves across a lake.
From it came countless ghastly, otherworldly wails. Two enormous wrists rose like towers.
It was one of High Priest's unique abilities—magic specializing in manipulating earth.
In life, he would first dig a narrow underground chamber, then enter it himself. After sealing every entrance except for a narrow air passage, he would sit inside, ringing a small bell and chanting sutras, continuing his meditation until the moment of death.
This was the origin of his earth manipulation magic—born from his mortal experience before ascending to Magic Godhood.
After receiving the Infinite Division Technique from "Zombie," complete Magic Gods could no longer use powers such as phase manipulation, time control, or dominion over life and death unless they returned to their full form.
Otherwise, Aleister wouldn't even have to fight—he could just wait for them to die.
"Oh… another avatar? Aleister, no matter how dignified your excuses sound, in essence you're no different from us—perhaps even more selfish," came the raspy, decaying voice.
Crushing yet another of the countless Aleister constructs known as "Crowley Madness" in his grip, High Priest's sunken, terrifyingly empty eyes glanced toward a crude cross made of intersecting tungsten-steel rods jammed into the cratered ground.
Barbed wire coiled around it like thorns. Rather than a symbol of monotheism, it resembled a magical rose emblem.
Pinned to it by countless tungsten-steel spikes was a small, stitched-up figure, bound tightly in barbed wire.
—Magic God "Zombie."
"Polluting and altering Zombie's Infinite Technique with your childish, pathetic parameters… to achieve the impossible feat of godslaying. Hmph. Truly, only you—the greatest magical genius in centuries—could pull that off."
In theory, whether a Magic God's power was divided to one-billionth or one-trillionth, the shift from infinite to a finite that the world could contain was still an astronomical figure beyond mortal comprehension.
Meaning, to erase them completely, you'd have to kill a Magic God a trillion—even a quadrillion—times.
Magicians simply could not kill them.
But Aleister had found another path—and forced it to work!
Strictly speaking, this was something even Selene had not done: killing a Magic God using power that the real world could contain.
Selene's method, examined closely, was to hit them with an overwhelming burst of force, forcing them into stasis. Then, in the brief window before they could recover, she would analyze and devour the counterpart Magic God, use her growing mastery over their form to exile them from this world, and let her true self between the multiversal walls finish the job.
It was basically parcel delivery—easy, efficient, and maximized in profit.
Aleister poured a century of effort into building multiple trump cards, combining them with the Anti-Art Attachment powered armor—piloted by the Kihara brainstem linked to both Aleister's will and Selene's authority—to take down the Magic God "Zombie."
From a certain perspective, this did affirm the truth: only a Magic God could defeat another Magic God.
After all, Aleister was no ordinary human. He possessed the qualifications to become a Magic God—he had simply refused.
"Regaining full power… a bit troublesome." Only a bit.
Calm and unhurried.
High Priest showed no emotion over the death of "Zombie," a fellow true Gremlin member. In fact, he looked away dismissively, as though glancing at a stranger in passing.
"Kamijou Touma, your power comes from the foundation of the world itself. My manifestation here is due in part to you."
Step by slow step, the withered old man approached Kamijou Touma.
To anyone other than Kamijou, he paid no attention. Vector control, nonexistent exotic matter, atomic disassembly, railgun fire—none of it mattered to him.
Beneath the lavish purple-and-gold robes, High Priest raised a hand as thin and gnarled as dead wood.
The next second—
BOOM!!
Centered on the decrepit figure, the touched section of the Star of Bethlehem's fortress wall burst apart like fireworks!
No—wait.
It didn't completely shatter. The Queen of the Adriatic's ice and the architecture pieced together from churches and monasteries across the world still held. But now it was nothing more than an empty shell suspended in midair.
The earth—every grain of soil—had been blasted away.
Like a towering cumulonimbus cloud, the dust rose high. It was like the massive dust plumes from a building demolition—except here, it defied the curve of the earth, towering above the horizon.
It moved like a living thing—like a serpent slithering, or the shifting mound of dirt left by a burrowing mole—spreading outward in an uncanny crawl.
Clearing away the buzzing flies, High Priest kept a set distance as he faced the spiky-haired boy.
"Kamijou Touma. No matter how many times, I will ask you—"
"I'll say it again—no matter how many times you ask, no matter how tempting the terms, my answer's the same: I refuse!"
With a sharp rejection, Kamijou clenched his fist. "I will never betray my friends! You're not getting through here!"
Lowering his stance, shoulder ready to slam forward, right arm extended, Kamijou hurled himself across the icy heights with all the momentum he could muster.
"Stubborn fool," came the sigh.
THUD!!
In the blink of an eye, Kamijou's vision lurched. Gravity seized him, inertia crushed into his gut—
He had no time to cry out.
His body slammed into a nearby chapel standing on the ice.
Crash, crash!!
Stained-glass windows shattered in a cascade, shards scraping against his skin as he tumbled.
"Cough—! Ghhk—cough…!"
Coughing up thick, dark-red blood, his trembling, blood-slick hand pressed against the floor as he struggled to rise. Forcing his spasming eyes open, he fought to keep his vision clear.
Selene still hadn't returned. According to Aleister, his power was favored by the Magic Gods, granting him greater tolerance than most—enough to avoid instant annihilation.
The Board Chairman had endured countless deaths without giving up. He had to hold on too—for that dream…
For the wish Aleister had staked everything upon.
That fierce emotional outburst shook even Kamijou Touma. In the face of the Magic Gods, that battered man's roar echoed:
"I will shatter every phase—!"
I will rebuild a pure world where everyone has the right to be angry, the right to demand answers.
A world where people can laugh and cry without restraint.
Where every man and woman can become a star.
Where humanity is freed from the sparks of clashing phases and the droplets that never became miracles.
A world built upon the fruits of personal effort, untouched by divine blessings or heavenly punishments.
...
Kamijou remembered Aleister's words. With such an ideal, such a grand vision—how could he retreat?!
Every inch of his skin felt like it was being sawed apart, every breath a stab of agony—but he still forced himself to stand.
"Come on—again!"
"Kamijou, boy! I'm counting on you!"
Zzzt!
A blade shrouded in violet-red light sliced the air with a piercing screech—boom!
Churches along the path split apart, ancient stone columns scarred with diagonal gashes, black-red molten fluid seeping from the wounds.
In the sky, the steel cockpit surrounded by countless thrusters and metal wings bore deep dents and gouges, its broken hatch revealing a golden retriever with a cigar clenched in its teeth.
This was the damage from killing the Magic God "Zombie."
For even weakened, Magic Gods were the strongest beings in existence. Even with Aleister's will and part of Selene's authority linked, and even with a surprise attack, taking one down without injury was impossible.
No matter the exhaustive preparation, a clean victory was out of reach.
Half the Anti-Art Attachment's cockpit had been destroyed, armor and weapon mounts replaced multiple times.
"Puh!" The golden retriever coughed blood between its fangs, speaking in human words.
Clack—!
Eight thick, cylindrical metal pillars rotated with a grinding snap. From their tips burst enormous electromagnetic blades as thick as a man's waist—eight colossal swords swinging again and again at High Priest below.
Each strike exceeded Mach 20, sonic boom clouds exploding outward, shattering nearby churches.
"Science truly is fearsome. But… to think you could succeed twice simply because you did once—that's underestimating us."
The raspy old voice came from High Priest as he ignored the collapsing molten debris. Moving at the pace of an old man, he nonetheless slipped past each blazing blade with hair's-breadth precision.
"And you!"
Squelch!
The elder lifted his golden-sword "cane" and stabbed it into the void behind him.
Hot blood trickled down as the golden blade pierced a handsome, winged youth wreathed in a seven-colored halo. The youth deliberately coughed, splattering High Priest with blood.
"Another avatar? I'll see just how many you have."
"Heh… you'd better worry about yourself, last surviving god…" The handsome youth's lips curled into a grin.
"Last surviving—?" In the next moment, High Priest's green-black eyes widened. On his withered face was plain, seething fury.
The presences of Niang-Niang and Nephthys—gone?!
Damn it—when?!
"Right now," the winged youth said, a glint of mockery in his gaze.
Squelch!
Blood sprayed. High Priest's face was drenched as Aleister's avatar's chest burst open—and in that instant, a golden spear reflected in his pupils, narrowed to pinpoints.
—
—
40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:
Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven