Part 1
A giant vibration shook the field hospital within the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations.
At that time, Hamazura Shiage was watching Elizalina treating Takitsubo Rikou.
Takitsubo was lying on an emergency stretcher and was wearing a clear oxygen mask. Instead of an oxygen tank at the other end of the tube, it was connected to something like incense made of various dried and crushed plants. According to Elizalina, that would remove the Body Crystal from Takitsubo's body, but…
Suddenly, a large earthquake shook the building.
Takitsubo's body fell from the stretcher onto the ground.
"What the hell!? Takitsubo!!"
Hamazura yelled out and started to run over to her, but Elizalina stopped him with a hand.
Elizalina used her abnormally thin fingers to remove the mask from Takitsubo.
"This is not a problem. The treatment is already complete. The toxin within her body has been removed."
"…"
She had said it so easily that it didn't feel real to Hamazura.
The issue of the Body Crystal had been such an impediment to Hamazura and Takitsubo and yet it had been dealt with so easily?
Elizalina then spoke again as if adding a remark.
"But this only removed the undigested toxin. The portions of her body that have already been eaten into weren't replaced. She should recover a bit, but she isn't fully healed. A different method of healing will need to be found for the after effects of the drug," Elizalina said as she put out the small flames causing the smoldering incense. "Forcing her status up will only give her a greater relapse. I've never been too fond of the performance of science."
Someone threw open the door.
Accelerator entered the room.
"Hey, have you seen what's going on outside!? What the fuck is it!?"
"It's Fiamma. I never thought he would shake the four elements themselves…"
Elizalina frowned and disappeared through the door. The field hospital had originally been an old fortress. There were no windows, so they could not see outside from there.
Hamazura was curious, but he had to focus on Takitsubo.
In order to return her to the stretcher, Hamazura held her in his arms. He then noticed something was different. The feeling of lifting a bag filled with dirt was gone. She was lighter. This was because Takitsubo was making sure to adjust her weight.
Her will had returned to every corner of her body.
Hamazura felt that more than anything symbolized what a large change had occurred within her.
"Hamazura…?"
"It's okay," Hamazura said as he was overcome with relief.
Hamazura continued speaking as Takitsubo actually wrapped her own small arms around him.
"I'll explain everything later, but I'll tell you this for now: it's okay now. You aren't completely healed yet and it will probably take Academy City's help to completely cure all of the after effects, but the Body Crystal will not make your health deteriorate any more. The risk to your life is gone. So it's okay. …From now on, it's our turn to take them on."
The body heat he felt from Takitsubo was that of a normal girl.
She didn't have the unnaturally high temperature like that of someone with a cold.
After just feeling that sensation for a bit, Hamazura finally pulled himself away from her.
She could now stand up under her own power.
Takitsubo sat on the stretcher and Hamazura spoke to her again.
"I'll go call a nurse. Do you need some water? If you're hungry, I could get you some fruit."
"Hamazura, what are we going to do now?"
"If we're really going to take on Academy City, we can't just stay here. We managed to escape the Academy City pursuers by entering the Elizalina Alliance. What's left is heading back to Russia and searching for something to negotiate with."
Hamazura stopped speaking for a second.
He looked Takitsubo in the eye as he continued.
"But we don't have to do that together. You've just gotten over your illness. You can just wait here and…"
"Hamazura," Takitsubo said cutting him off. "Would you wake up if I kissed you or would I have to slap you?"
"Saying something like that just makes me want to leave you here even more." Hamazura roughly stroked Takitsubo's head and looked over toward the door. "I need to find some assistance. But I don't really like stealing a car from someone who saved you."
And then Hamazura saw some scattered documents out of the corner of his eye. They were in a field hospital, but it was really just a military facility that had medical equipment in it. It seemed some of the military related equipment and documents still remained.
What caught his eye was a pile of fax paper.
Hamazura could not read Russian, but he recognized the photo given along with the text.
It was Digurv's village.
"…It's a request to be taken into the Alliance and the issues related to doing so," said Takitsubo who had read the Russian report from behind Hamazura.
Hamazura frowned.
"So the village Digurv and the others live in wants to join the Elizalina Alliance?"
The village was located almost right next to the border of the Elizalina Alliance and the Russian army had been trying to take the land. They had harassed the village by scattering land mines and had even sent privateers in to attack. Escaping that violence from Russia by becoming a part of the Elizalina Alliance was not too surprising a desire.
However, the people of the Alliance had not taken in the village despite their suffering just outside the border.
That likely had to do with the "issues" mentioned in the report.
"It doesn't seem there are any issues with the village or the people living in it."
"What do you mean?"
"There is a nuclear missile silo from the cold war era near the village. Because of what it was, it was hidden in a forest away from the base."
Hamazura listened in shock to what Takitsubo was saying.
She flipped through the report.
"The silo itself has been untouched for decades and the missiles were removed, so it's just an old abandoned facility. However, there is a concern that Russia will determine that the Elizalina Alliance has obtained the technology of Russia's nuclear launching facilities if they were to take the village and that area into the Alliance."
"God dammit," Hamazura spat out.
The nuclear silo didn't belong to Digurv and the others. The Russian army had made the facility long ago, but now it was taking away the villagers' freedom and putting them under the threat of landmines and privateers. It may truly have been a good thing that those Academy City forces had arrived because the villagers might have been massacred otherwise.
"The Kremlin Report…?"
However, the unfairness did not end there.
Takitsubo reached for a different report.
"…This is bad, Hamazura."
"What's that report? Those diagrams look like data on the area's weather."
"It's the values for wind direction, temperature, and humidity. I think the data is being used to predict the spread of bacteria."
"…Bacteria?"
Hamazura's shoulders stiffened at that word.
Takitsubo looked down at the fax paper on which the Kremlin Report was printed.
"This was sent by the Russian army. The original Kremlin Report and supplemental documents were faxed together. In order to justify the actions they're taking within their own country, they're making this performance of a warning. It was actually only sent out a few hours ago so no major evacuation could be carried out even upon seeing it. Most likely, it was sent to the Elizalina Alliance as a threat. It's basically saying 'you're next'."
"What's this about bacteria? What does this have to do with Digurv and the others!?"
"It seems the Russian army has made an official announcement of the Kremlin Report which is a defense manual for the nuclear launch facilities. The plan is to disseminate a bacteriological weapon in order to recover nuclear launch facilities that have been occupied or that are about to be occupied. This is…"
"Is that being used on the nuclear silo near Digurv's village!? That's their own country. Is the Russian army planning to indiscriminately spread a bacteriological weapon!?"
He felt a bit dizzy.
However, given the location of the nuclear silo and the Academy City forces protecting Digurv's village, that area could very well become a target of the Kremlin Report.
"Didn't you say that silo hadn't been used in decades? And there are no missiles there, right?"
"It still possesses the functionality to launch and missiles can be brought in from outside. Russia's experimental missile defense network they put up in recent years is focused on the national borders, so a launch from a silo within the country was not taken into consideration."
"…So they can't defend against a missile launched from that silo?"
"The heads of the Russian army who created the defense network would know better than anyone the threat of a ballistic missile getting through. They would probably do anything to stop that from happening."
"Dammit…"
At that rate, a killer virus would be disseminated near the nuclear silo in the name of protecting the Russian people. If that happened, Digurv and the other villagers would be caught up in it. That virus was bad enough that it was referred to as a weapon. Hamazura did not even want to imagine what kind of mortality rate it had.
"When is it scheduled to be disseminated?"
"I don't know. I just know that the wind direction means that the bacteriological weapon is unlikely to reach the Elizalina Alliance. And if that danger came up, that Elizalina person would likely give an evacuation order to the people here."
They didn't know when it would be disseminated.
The operation might have been in progress right that very instant. If Hamazura and anyone else took action to stop it, they could easily end up just getting caught up in it.
But…
"Takitsubo, will you wait here?"
"Are you planning to use the military technology of the bacterial wall used in the Kremlin Report to negotiate with Academy City? But that has no special meaning to Academy Cit—"
"No, not that. I can't just leave Digurv and the others to die. I know it's nothing more than a risk for us, but I can't abandon them. I mean, this is just wrong!! I haven't exactly walked down a proper path in my life. I've made a lot of people suffer through violence. But this is well above that level. Stopping it isn't what's strange. It's strange that it's happening in the first place!! How can everyone head down paths like this with serious faces!?"
"…"
Takitsubo Rikou stared at Hamazura's face for a bit.
Finally, she nodded.
"Understood. I'll go, too."
"Takitsubo?"
"I didn't get to talk with anyone in that village, but I remember what they did for me. I want to fight for them, too."
"You'd better not regret this."
"The same goes for you, Hamazura."
They both nodded and then headed for the exit of the hospital room.
They knew that wasn't what they should be doing at that time. They had yet to find anything to negotiate with and they could easily lose their lives simply by heading into the war torn Russia and getting involved in a fight they had nothing to do with. Making an unnecessary detour amid all that, would only shorten their lives.
Hamazura Shiage checked over all that in his mind.
But his mind was still made up.
He had a debt to repay.
Part 2
A scream rang out.
It was not a human scream.
The howl was more foreign. It slipped into human hearts with no resistance and shook up the emotions within. One wanted to reject it more than the sound of fingernails on the blackboard, but one also felt an intense feeling of guilt at rejecting it. The incomprehensible cry was difficult to accept and difficult to reject. The voice easily exceeded the limits of human vocal cords as it resounded throughout that nighttime battlefield that looked as if it had been covered in ink.
An angel.
Gabriel.
Misha Kreutzev.
"Stop," Kamijou said without meaning to.
Something floated in the vast battlefield like a single light in the darkness. It was a bluish-white light. A human-like silhouette stayed oddly still at 3000 meters up in the air.
Wings grew from the silhouette's back.
They were ice wings that looked like crystals.
Their lengths were uneven. Some were only a few dozen centimeters while others were longer than 100 meters. Each of those uneven wings moved independently and ominous sparks flew when they struck each other. Kamijou knew that all of those wings held the destructive power to sever a mountain just by touching it.
As they struck each other, the wings stored up just a tiny bit of power.
But that was enough.
"Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!"
A mere human's voice was meaningless.
The wings swung.
A storm of destruction and slicing was born.
The Academy City fighters and supersonic bombers that were made of the latest technology were sliced apart. A few of the ice wings intentionally came apart and became hundreds and thousands of blade-like fragments which rained down on the tanks spread out on the surface. A great shockwave was created and even the Star of Bethlehem shook slightly despite being so high up in the air.
Kamijou looked down from a broken window, but he couldn't see what was happening on the surface because of the thick cloud cover. There were a few openings here or there, but he couldn't grasp the situation just from that. A large amount of snow had been blown into the air creating a further curtain obstructing his view.
"Dammit…"
Directly below the distant archangel, a hole with a radius of a few dozen meters had opened in the thick cloud cover. When the great number of fragments had been fired down, they had blown away the clouds in that area.
Pilots could be seen escaping the sliced up fighters in parachutes.
The archangel paid them no heed.
It did not aim its ice wings in their direction.
However, that was not due to mercy or kindness. Gabriel swung a wing toward another bomber and the gust of wind created by the pylon-like wing swinging through the air was enough to crush the parachutes and rid them of all lift.
If they had a spare parachute, they might be fine, but if they didn't, they had no way of avoiding death.
The word war did not fully cover it.
It was divine punishment.
Kamijou gulped at the thought of that word.
(It isn't just the Star of Bethlehem. Fiamma, you bastard, did you kidnap Sasha in order to add that archangel to the power at your command!?)
"Dammit!!"
That was no time to freeze up. Kamijou rushed through that stone room and ran on through the Star of Bethlehem. It seemed Fiamma was giving that angel orders. However, he would have used it sooner if he had been able to use it at any time.
There may have been a connection with the rise of the Star of Bethlehem.
If there was some kind of key object that was moving the archangel, he might be able to destroy that. And even if there wasn't, he might be able to stop Gabriel by defeating Fiamma himself.
Of course, Kamijou did not know much about the magic side.
But…
(That doesn't matter.)
As he heard numerous explosions even then, Kamijou gritted his teeth while he ran.
(I'll just destroy everything of importance until that angel stops moving!!)
After running through a few rooms, the sky was before him.
He was on a wide stone bridge, but it had no railings on either side. The intense winds and shockwaves from explosions threatened to blow Kamijou's body to the side. The dark sky gave him the same kind of bottomless unease as the ocean at night.
However, he couldn't just stop.
Even Academy City's elite troops could do nothing against that monster. At that rate, they would just get defeated as a demonstration. Even if he couldn't fight it directly, Kamijou was the only one who had a chance of stopping that angel indirectly.
He ran across the 100 meter long bridge and opened the door to the room on the other side.
A complex structure that looked like a pipe organ was spread out on one wall. It may have been a magical item or it may have just been one of the decorative items used to construct the Star of Bethlehem. And even if it had some magical purpose, it might have had nothing to do with the angel.
The way to check was simple enough.
He just had to touch it with his right hand and see if it was destroyed.
Kamijou stepped further into the room with that idea in mind, but…
"…!?"
His breath caught in his throat.
It came directly from the side.
A person had been hiding behind the pews lined up in the room like it was a chapel. That person had suddenly tackled him from the side.
The two of them collapsed to the floor.
Kamijou was having trouble breathing from the impact and his body reflexively tried to suck in air, but he forced down that urge in order to hold his breath and roll along the floor. When collapsed like that, the battle could be decided by who ended up on top. It seemed his attacker was thinking the same thing because the person tried to continue to roll and stay on top.
But the attacker's body struck one of the pews.
Now that they had stopped, Kamijou got up on his attacker's stomach to keep the person on the ground.
To be in that place, the attacker must have been a Roman Catholic or Russian Orthodox elite.
Kamijou was just about to swing his fist down, but…
"Huh…?"
He froze in place.
He recognized the face.
Long wavy blonde hair covered up the person's eyes. She wore restraint-like black belts and clothes that were really just innerwear made of a sheer red material. She was younger than Kamijou. The belt at her waist held instruments of torture that were tools such as hammers and saws modified for use on the human body.
While he did recognize her, she was not an acquaintance of his.
After all, when he had first seen her, she had been "switched out".
For an instant he mixed up her name, but then he muttered the attacker's proper name.
"Sasha Kreutzev…?"
Part 3
Elizalina walked quickly through the gloomy field hospital.
It was really an old fortress being used as a military facility, so it did not have many windows. Before peering out a small window, she had an uncomfortable feeling and when she actually did look out, her lips moved almost on their own in response to what she witnessed.
"How can this be…?"
Night spread out before her.
Floating in the completely starless night was a giant fortress made of churches, monasteries, and convents from across the world.
And like a moon shining in that odd night was "something" bluish-white.
It was a human silhouette with giant wings.
It was an angel.
Even if a magician used a portion of one in the form of Telesma, that magician never really thought of the possibility of actually seeing one. She didn't know what Fiamma was thinking, but the danger was even greater than if an asteroid were on a collision course. It was like bringing about a global ice age in order to defeat an enemy who was pointing a blade at you.
"…"
Accelerator was leaning against the wall and looking in the direction of Elizalina. He had been drawn to the area by the window as well. His focus was not on Elizalina's back but on the window past her.
The mysterious being known as Aiwass had told him to go to Russia.
The parchments he had found there seemed to have been intended to be delivered to that fortress that had floated up into the sky from the Russian military base near the border.
That angel-like thing had appeared from that fortress and it was making large-scale attacks on the elite Academy City forces.
That's right.
An angel.
(…It's almost exactly like the mysterious core of the issue that brat and I were forced into dealing with.)
On September 30th, Accelerator had seen giant wings of light dancing during his fight with Kihara Amata. It seemed their appearance had been related to Last Order. And Aiwass had appeared based on those giant dancing wings of light that were apparently called Fuse Kazakiri.
If the angel that had appeared in the Russian sky was the same thing and that giant fortress was a means of bringing about and controlling the angel…
(It's possible that technology could also be used to control the movements of an angel and send it away. This could be the way to save that brat from the angel or whatever that's making her suffer!!)
Elizalina suddenly turned around toward him.
"Run away," she said.
"What?"
"Hurry!! If you do not leave this place now, they will come here!!"
"They who!? And why are they after me!?"
They yelled at each other and Elizalina cooled her head first. She worked at keeping her voice calm.
"The person who started this war is likely in that castle. If he can freely control that angel, then even Academy City is in a hopeless situation. If they truly grasp the threat, they may consider using nuclear warheads. But…"
"But what?"
"That castle is incomplete." Elizalina glanced over toward the window. "The parchments you have prove that. If they are important enough that Fiamma wanted to bring them to himself even if he had to use the army to do it, then he will have all of the pieces he needs once he gets them."
Accelerator's focus turned to the parchments in his pocket that he did not know the point of.
"They were important enough to have transported in secret…"
"Whatever he is going to use them for, if they are necessary for Fiamma's plan, he will use everything he has to retrieve that final piece. …And that may include that angel," Elizalina said quietly. "Fiamma currently has almost complete control over Index's 103,000 grimoires, but from past examples, it seems possible that deeper information regarding angels or God's Right Seat is not recorded there. Those parchments may be needed to plug the hole made by some missing information. When put together with the 103,000 grimoires, he can make a bridge of knowledge taking him to his ultimate goal."
"Index…?"
A faint dangerous light appeared in Accelerator's eyes.
Aiwass had told him to remember the term Index Librorum Prohibitorum and the Level 0 who had defeated Academy City's strongest Level 5 had left a note saying the same.
Yet another connection had been made with the dark side of the world and with some unknown set of laws that Accelerator did not know the details of but still apparently had some deep connection to Accelerator and Last Order.
(That fucking Level 0. How far ahead of me on this path is he…?)
Not knowing what Accelerator was thinking about, Elizalina continued.
"So you are in danger. Due to the spies that had unfortunately made it into my base, they must have received word of this. Even if you hand over the parchments, you could easily still be captured in an attempt to find out where they ended up."
"Hand them over?" Accelerator muttered. "Those might be the last key to freeing that brat from this angel or whatever kind of fucking fairy tale creature it is. I'm not going to hand them over now."
"Then you need to hurry. To be honest, the Alliance will not be able to protect you if Fiamma and the Russian army go all out. If you do not intend to face defeat here, you should hide yourself for now even if you intend to fight back."
As if provoked by Elizalina's words, Accelerator moved his gaze elsewhere.
Misaka Worst responded to his gaze.
"Sure thing. Misaka will go retrieve Last Order." She waved her hand and cheerfully headed for the hospital room. "But she would like a weapon. Even an old gun would be fine. But this rifle is supposed to have a pretty strong recoil, so it would just be a burden with a broken arm. But then just a handgun might not have enough power. Now, this is a problem. Maybe it's just because the image of the AK is so strong, but do you have a nice version of this submachine gun?"
"?"
Without even looking at Elizalina who was frowning, Misaka Worst opened the door to Last Order's hospital room.
"You are a person that was kind enough to save Misaka. You probably just want to flee while letting the Russians see you have the parchments so the soldiers will leave the Alliance. Ee hee hee."
Elizalina looked surprised, but Misaka Worst entered the hospital room before she could ask for details. Instead, she turned toward Accelerator.
He was gritting his teeth.
(…That bitch. That's quite a personality she has. She doesn't think about anything other than pissing me off, does she?)
"I-is what she was saying true? That's just too reckless!!"
As he waved a hand as if driving Elizalina away, Accelerator muttered a few words in a tone that made it sound like he really didn't want to say them.
"…It's a bonus job, god dammit."
Part 4
There was a night sky when it should not have been night, the Star of Bethlehem floated in the sky, and an incomplete archangel had been dragged down by artificial means.
William Orwell, the mercenary who had once been called Acqua of the Back, silently stared up at that warped world. After crushing the privateer base, he had headed for Fiamma's fortress, but he had not made it and was standing in the middle of a snowy plain.
Fiamma of the Right had made it that far.
Using Telesma to accomplish one's goal was not a rare thing in magic. It was done in old times, recent times, Western styles, and Eastern styles. However, using that huge an amount was different. That situation was not normal. It was true that it was theoretically possible using the proper methods, but it was still astounding that power that could massacre every single human on earth could be used so easily.
But then, an archangel was an archangel.
That was the existence that had announced the conception of the Son of God, that received great awe at being deeply related to the beginning of the Christian Church, and was feared as the one that carried out punishments on evil cities. Even a Saint or a member of God's Right Seat could not win in a straight fight against an opponent like that. In fact, it was unclear if that archangel could be defeated if every single power of humanity were to work together.
To put it bluntly, that archangel alone held the power to end World War III.
It wasn't an issue of winning or losing.
The war would be "ended" by being thrown into a situation where the war could not continue due to every force in the war being slaughtered.
(I see. So that is why Fiamma has grown so arrogant.)
William Orwell gave his frank assessment.
And even then, his will did not even know how to waver.
(But have you forgotten what I rule over as a member of God's Right Seat?)