The Darkness Vs Archangel Gabriel

"There are beings that can exist as male and females, Kami-yan. They have no gender. In legend, they either remain neutral or have features of both genders. To them, the 'name' is the reason why God created them, so they can't exchange names with others."

Hearing Tsuchimikado's words, Kamijou frowned,

"Have you forgotten, Kami-yan? What's the name of this grand spell?"

At that moment, Misha widened her eyes.

BOOM! An earth-shattering boom could be heard.

The sunset sky that was dyed orange instantly became a starry night sky.

"Wha..."

Kamijou inadvertently looked up at the sky. Touya stopped breathing.

Night. It was as if something switched off the lights, and the evening sky suddenly became pitch black night. The unlucky symbol of the full moon hung over them. That was strange, no matter what, today should have been a crescent moon.

"W-what's going on?"

"Can't you tell? She turned the evening into night."

Kanzaki said it casually, but Kamijou was astounded.

It was easy to say that she changed the evening sky to night, but that meant that the person in front of them could control the relative positions of the earth to the sun. No, even the orbit of the moon was switched. That meant that the moon and other planets were under control.

Controlling celestial bodies.

Maybe that terrifying ability was so terrifying that people couldn't experience it personally, but this was a power that could destroy the world. For example, if the world's axis were tilted by ten degrees, a fourth of all life on earth would be destroyed. And if the world stopped spinning, the world would be instantly destroyed. The people standing on the world may not feel it, but actually, the world was spinning at a terrifying speed of 1666 kilometers an hour. If it suddenly stopped, it would be like making an emergency brake. The terrifying force could flip all the things on the surface of the Earth.

That meant...

That at anytime, at any place, once Misha decided it, the world would be at it's end.

"Hold, hold on a minute! Can magic do such scary things?"

"For a human, of course not."

With a sharp and icy look, Kanzaki's voice sounded like a blade.

"Summoning the night to strengthen its own element and putting the moon as the main part. Oh, I see. The element of water, the controller of blue, the guardian of the moon, the keeper of the back. The one who buried the fallen city of Gomorrah under a rain of fire in the Old Testament, the one who foretold the news of the birth of the Son of God to the virgin in the New Testament."

At that moment, Kamijou finally remembered.

Angel Fall.

Since it was named as such, it naturally meant that something descended into this world.

"—Your name is Power of God, the twin-winged archangel aligned to the left side of God, right?"

The breaker of God (Kanzaki) said that, but the servant of God didn't reply.

An invisible shell-like thing started to crack, and the invisible skin was molting.

'That thing' completely awakened.

Suddenly, one of the red glows near the surface started getting closer, and Touma could see vapor trails behind it. As the object got closer Touma could see it was a cylindrical shape.

“Surface-to-air missiles....??!!”

There wasn’t just one or two. 50, no, 100 missiles flew through the air at them. It must have been a counterattack. A few of the missiles streaked towards Touma and Sasha. At this rate they would be receiving a direct hit. Even if the missile missed them, the track the car was running on would almost certainly be destroyed, perhaps even the rock underneath them, and Touma and Sasha would fall to their deaths. Even if they wanted to take evasive maneuvers now, it was impossible. Inside the narrow confines of the car carriage, there was nowhere to run.

BOOOM!

The windows of the carriage shattered, and a violent wind swept throughout the carriage. Even with his hands over his ears Touma felt stabbing pain in his eardrums. Then he noticed. This was not the effects of being hit by a missile. If they had been hit, the carriage would have been a smoldering wreck now, and there would have been no way for Touma and Sasha to survive.

Something had stopped the missiles.

Touma saw the culprit.

Inside the carriage, with temperatures dropping below freezing point, Touma stopped breathing. Their savior was none other than the archangel, Misha Kreutzev. The monster with giant wings of ice flew along the carriage at the same speed. Touma did not care anymore about those exploding missiles in the distance. Extreme fear had gripped his mind. The archangel continuously flapped its wings, intercepting the innumerable amount of state of the art missiles.

“......”

Inspecting her from close range, she was a remarkable creature indeed.

When looking at her from afar, Touma only thought of her as A winged being with the outline of a human. From close range, she resembled and yet did not resemble Sasha at the same time. Touma estimated her to be about two meters tall. Going by Kanzaki’s description, Power of God resembled a female angel. However, her expressionless face reminded Touma of an unfinished mannequin. That featureless face of hers with only depressions and rises in the cloth covering her entire body gave Touma an unnerving feeling just by looking at it. It wasn’t to say that it didn’t look feminine. Certainly it was more feminine than masculine.

It was hard to tell the skin and clothing apart. A smooth white fabric wrapped around the contours of her body. Everywhere across the cloth were fastened golden safety pins. The entire body was composed entirely only of two colors, white and gold. However because of the silvery white glow emitted from the angel’s body, overall she looked more silverish in color.

Her hair was composed purely of the white fabric fanning out behind her head. There were lotus motifs on the top, and Touma guessed it had some religious significance. Bobbing above her head was a small halo composed of water. Touma did not know how or why, but it seemed the halo rotated faster or slower in accordance with the angel’s behavior. Touma wondered what Sasha, a devout Christian, felt as she looked at the angel. Touma and the angel’s “eyes” met. Her face was only a collection of indents, and there was nothing you could really call “eyeballs”. However Touma felt a cold, uneasy feeling down his back as he stared at the depressions where her eyes should be.

Misha Kreutzev tilted her head slightly. Suddenly, the wings behind her back tensed, and Touma could tell that she was going to attack the train any time now.

“....this is bad....!?”

Fiamma of the Right had said Kamijou's right arm and Sasha's body were necessary for his plan. However, Misha Kreutzev may not know. She focused her gaze on Touma’s right hand. The right hand that could banish any supernatural power.

To her, you could say that she was attracted to it because it was her greatest enemy.

Misha Kreutzev raised her wings.

SCREEAAAK!

An earsplitting sound of stone on stone. Or that was what Touma, who’s heart was still in his throat, had thought. However that was not the case.

The noise was not that of Misha Kreutzev attacking Kamijou Touma. You could say it was the opposite. The noise was that of someone coming in from the side at horrific speeds, kicking Misha Kreutzev out of the way.

“M-my second question: What just happened?”

Sasha stuttered in fear and confusion. It was impossible for there to be an existence which could attack and harm an archangel. However, just as preposterous was that they were 5000 meters up in the air. It was impossible for most magicians to reach this high in the air.

However Kamijou Touma knew of one existence which could do both these things. Capable of defeating even Saints, and the only one capable of countering the magic of Misha Kreutzev. An existence created by science.

Created by the concentration of AIM diffusion fields. Emitting violet lightning, tens of wings emitting from her back.

“Kazakiri Hyouka....!”

Touma yelled into the ferocious winds whipping the air around the carriage.

“....that person, why is she here...?!”

Touma did not think she could hear. However, for an instant, her eyes looked at Touma, and Touma could see a faint expression on her face. Then she was dashing off towards Misha with a battle spirit that Touma had never seen before.

On the 30th of September, when Kazakiri became an angel for the first time, she had been controlled by someone else. However in the moment their eyes met just then, Touma felt something was different about her. Even though her hair was shining gold, a halo was around her head and purple wings of lightning sprouted from her back, Touma saw that she was “human”.

She was unquestionably the Kazakiri Hyouka that Touma knew. To stop Misha’s advances, the teenage girl placed herself between the archangel and the carriage. Ahead of them, Touma could see the next entrance into the interior of the Star of Bethlehem. But just as they were about to reenter the fortress. Touma could see that Misha had recovered from the blow, and was preparing to counterattack.

Kazakiri responded, and one of her feathers transformed into a bizarre sword of light. Touma did not know what happened next, for they were plunged into darkness as the carriage entered the tunnel. However the next instant a massive shockwave rent the air, and the carriage, along with its passengers, were blown into the air.

“Dammit!”

Even though he rushed to the back of the carriage, Touma still couldn’t see what was going on outside.

“...What is going on?!.....”

Huge explosions and pressure waves rocked them thrice more. It seemed they hadn’t finished fighting yet. Touma did not know why that soft-spoken girl, formed by the concentration of AIM diffusion fields in Academy City, was there, or how she knew how to fight. There was just one thing to do. Not just for Index, but to protect her friends as well, Kamijou Touma had to bring down Misha Kreutzev as fast as possible.

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Kazakiri Hyouka.

For her, with those supernatural wings erupting from her back, this was actually her first time in the air. At first she doubted her wings could even allow her to fly. However it was not a problem now. She did not need to “learn” how to use her powers. It was as if those wings of hers, emitting purple lightning, gained the power of levitation just by her wishing it.

Protect my “friends”.

The Kazakiri who had come there with this intention, did not find “that girl”. However she found another “existence” similar to hers. An “existence” currently trying to kill Kazakiri’s former savior. 5000 meters up in the air, Kazakiri glared at her enemy. That being similar to her.

The being at once so different to humans, yet resembled a member of the female gender. The being from which countless wings of ice sprouted, and a halo around her head. A being filled with unimaginable power, one which could easily wipe out humankind. Faced with her foe, Kazakiri thought these thoughts. Then another thought popped into her head.

Just like an angel.

Whether this thought was aimed at her opponent or at herself, Kazakiri did not know either. Perhaps all that could be used to describe the “existence” could be used to describe herself, and vice versa. Kazakiri slowly realized this. What was the opponent thinking? Had it thought of something? Had she found something deep within herself? The two creatures in the air finally began to move once again. In her hand, Kazakiri held a sword which contained the same power in it as her wings. Facing her, the unarmed angel raised its right hand, and grasped a blade of ice from midair. No signal was required. They moved in unison and met in a mighty collision.

BOOM!!!

An omni-directional blast wave expanded from the colliding angels. The air was almost like a solid wall, spreading out great distances. Even the gigantic floating fortress shook with the impact. A large number of its buildings were flattened, but the debris did not fall to earth. Rather, it floated in the air as if it was weightless, before being sucked back towards the superstructure of the fortress.

No time to pay heed to such minor details however.

The battle continued. As their swords clashed, the two monsters’ wings flew towards each other, seemingly alive, and crashed together. At supersonic speeds, countless blades attacked both combatants from all sorts of angles. However, victory was not determined in that instant, for both of the monsters were attacking in similar fashion. Wings of ice shattered into millions of pieces, and wings of purple lightning blew apart into particles as they traded blows. The remnants of these broken wings dispersed rapidly from the pair, filling the air with shining particles of ice and lightning. The effect was rather like the shower of feathers left after a flock of birds take flight.

While striking out with countless wings, the Archangel of Water raised her blade of ice, lashing out at Kazakiri’s head. Kazakiri parried the blow and prepared for a new assault. The face of her foe was expressionless. Like a puppet, its eyes, nose and mouth were not discernible from the rest of the face save for shallow depressions and bumps. It was almost as if the enemy was wearing a mask. The depression that Kazakiri guessed was a mouth twitched, and Kazakiri could hear a voice. It was not a voice speaking in any human language, and probably was inaudible to humans as a whole. She couldn’t understand every word, but Kazakiri could get a general idea of what the opponent was saying.

“bhbo…return…hrobp”

The voice carried a tone of emotion. If she could feel the emotion, then she could somewhat decipher the otherworldly language.

“Revert. frPlace. Correct. Alignment. ujj. Heaven. Original. Position.”

It was a bit garbled. The outline of the body of the angel of ice shuddered slightly. Because she too did not have a body of flesh and blood, Kazakiri was able to see the composition of the shell of the other angel.

“…Opposing powers…forcibly put in one container?”

Kazakiri could see fire. Fire that was as incompatible with water as oil. Two different powers were contained inside the angel. At this rate, the angel which could be considered somewhat beautiful, would not be able to maintain her physical form. A container could not contain two powers at once. At first glance it would seem that Kazakiri, who was formed from the AIM diffusion fields of various espers with different powers, was being hypocritical.

However when it came down to it, the AIM diffusion fields that maintain Kazakiri’s existence were much more similar in comparison to the two contained in the angel of ice. The speaking angel emitted an aura of anger.

“Return. Must. Plan. Go. Right. Use. Advantage. Contact. Plan. Help.”

“….. Even if it’s for this that you are willing to harm my friends, I will stop you with all my power!”

“Harm. Ignore. Priority. Return. Correct. Position. Must. Obstruct. Evil. Intention. Judge. All.”

A massive surge of power radiated from the angel of ice. With even greater force, the blade of ice swung down once again, colliding with the sword of Kazakiri, and both angels were forced back from the impact. Misha waved the sword over her head. At this time. Misha suddenly turned her head from Kazakiri, her attention elsewhere.

“Capture.”

She spoke. The archangel who was oblivious to all but her goals spoke.

“Necessary. Report. Lamb-skin. Found.”

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Holding Last Order in his arms, Accelerator sat down in the truck parked in the snow. He rode shotgun, as Misaka Worst jumped into the driver seat.

“Where to?”

“Sneaking around would just be a waste of time. If we want to get this over with as fast as possible, we should head straight for the middle of the fighting.”

“I understand~” Misaka Worst said, inserting the car key that she had obtained from Elizalina. It seemed the car was an automatic, as Misaka Worst was easily able to control it with one hand. In the unnatural pitch black of the night, the headlights of the car sliced a path of light through the shroud of darkness. In no time they had already left the little town behind, and were on the open tundra.

“It should take us roughly… 5 minutes before we cross the border…. Now that I think about it, for us to charge recklessly into the battlefront which was even visible from back there…even with science on our side there is a limit to how much we can do.”

Hanging in the middle of the night sky was the giant fortress. It was just far too big. Like a cloud, it covered the whole sky, stretching from one corner of the sky to the other. Even more spectacular, at the back of the flying fortress, a supernatural glow was emitting from the battle between the two angels. As their wings clashed, the shockwaves spread throughout the sky, and could be felt even from this distance. The residue from their battle painted the black sky with unnatural colours of blue and purple.

“Eh?!”

As if he was going down into an ocean trench, Accelerator felt a tremendous pressure on his chest. There was definitely something wrong with the colour of the night sky. As his chest was weighed down by this pressure, Accelerator turned towards Misaka Worst.

“Hey… you sure you really don’t know what the heck that thing is? As it is formed from the Misaka Network, you should be able to glean some information about it…”

“Which angel are you talking about? The one with wings of ice? Or the one with wings of lightning?”

“…. Either one is fine, even if its information from Academy City, I doubt the information is restricted to only the confines of science…”

….. If he put it that way, it seemed Last Order was heavily involved with those beings flying in the air. Accelerator would not rest until he had saved Last Order. It seemed that the reason for Last Order’s current deteriorating health was due to the angels’ existence. In which case, to save Last Order, Accelerator just had to go up to the fortress and destroy the angels.

But how?

Aiwass’s power was overwhelming. Even in “Dark Wing” mode, at his current level, Accelerator was not able to even make a move before he was crushed. Even though he was called a “villain” he could not even save one little girl.

Then… what could he do? How would he shelter her, and protect her smile from this cruel, barbaric world? The lamb-skin parchment tucked away in his coat was emitting a hateful aura. The arcane symbols scrawled upon it, were they of the same caliber as the “Angel” created on the 30th of September, or was it even more potent? If Accelerator could not analyze the situation, then he would just have to ignore safety procedures prior to combat and charge in with no knowledge of the enemy’s abilities.

This would be a huge gamble.

In the past, such a move that would have threatened Last Order’s life would be a definite no-go for Accelerator. But now, this route was the only way to save Last Order’s life. It was like walking in pitch blackness on a narrow path, where both sides of the pathway led only to bottomless pits, with no idea where you were going.

At this time.

The two monsters battling in the air suddenly sped downwards towards the ground in a spiral of death. If a religious man had seen this scene, it would have undoubtedly been worthy of becoming a legend to be told for countless generations to come. However, Accelerator was not moved to tears by such a scene. For however he looked at them, it seemed the two angels were catapulting straight for the car he was in. To be more precise, one of the angels was flying at him, and the other was in hot pursuit.

“…could it be, they are attracted to this parchment?”

As this realization dawned on him, a malicious grin broke across Accelerator’s face. It seemed that the Russian Orthodox Church, which had started all this ruckus, needed the lamb-skin procedure to complete whatever infernal plans they had. That was what Elizalina had said. Misaka Worst, who was clenching on to the steering wheel, was not as calm.

“Hey! What should we do, what should we do? This situation is worse than running into a Category 5 hurricane!”

“The difference between a natural disaster and a man-made disaster is simple.”

Accelerator rolled down the window, ignoring the freezing winds which could cut like knives.

“Who cares if there are enemies to be slain. We are very lucky that the targets are right in front of us. Saves us the trouble of going to them.”

As he spoke, Accelerator leaned his upper body out the window

“I’ll leave Last Order to you. Try to avoid being killed before I finish this.”

“My, my, this is really troublesome, to be entrusted with a task by others.. Misaka hates this type of situation the most.”

“People who are worthy to be used like this are lucky. They get to crack boring jokes, and have a chance of not being killed.”

“Hmph, Misaka does indeed like that part.”

There was no time left to waste on idle gossip. The two monsters were almost upon them. Accelerator switched on the electrode in his neck. Controlling the vectors of the wind, Accelerator formed four tornados from his back, like wings, and leapt out the window. He didn’t touch the ground. Rather, he rocketed up into the air towards the two battling monsters. A third monster had entered the fray.

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Accelerator was like a blast wave from an explosion, blowing away the snow from the ground, he charged towards the two angels. In the moment before their weapons were about to clash, Accelerator considered which entity he should get rid of first. However he came to the conclusion that since both of them were winged monsters, there was no point in aiding either side, and he leapt between the two, using his Reflection ability to attack the angels by redirecting their own blows at themselves.

BOOM!! The sound of explosions rang throughout the air. Against the doll-like angel of ice, Reflection was largely ineffective. Even though he used Reflection, the wings of ice were like soft candy, as they were bent out of shape, they were sent flying towards the forests, sending up ice and dirt as they went along.

The angle of reflection was too small. If Accelerator continued to forcibly reflect the attacks, his body would be injured too. However, Accelerator’s expression did not change, for the wings of the glasses-wearing angel were fully deflected by his Reflection. The angel had an almost human-like expression of surprise, and in this instant Accelerator took away the vectors from the angel’s attack. Gathering the vectors, Accelerator launched a merciless strike straight at the chest of the glasses-wearing angel.

The sound vanished.

The seemingly weightless flying angel was knocked back 300 meters. Like a crashing airplane, the monster rolled spectacularly across the ground, knocking away everything in her path. The reason Accelerator attacked her first was very simple. His powers worked on this angel, not so much on the other angel. Logically he should try to take out the more difficult opponent first. For this, he would have to incapacitate the easier opponent first to fully concentrate on the harder one.

“You?!”

The glasses wearing angel, using powers that Accelerator could understand, spoke.

She spoke in Japanese, without the distortions Aiwass had.

“You controlled the wings formed by congregated AIM diffusion fields?”

“Hmph, I’m surprised a monster like you has the capacity to think and ask questions.”

Accelerator unzipped his jacket, and took out the lamb-skin parchment, waving it at the AIM angel.

“You were attracted here by this thing right?”

“……”

The science angel frowned in puzzlement. At that moment, the air around them became full with killing intent. This supernatural killing intent was emitting from the angel of ice, whose wings had been shattered by Accelerator’s Reflection. The snow around her for 500 meters vanished, melted to reform those majestic wings of ice. With an ear- splitting sound, the mass of water shot up towards the body of the angel.

In an instant, those wings became weapons of destruction.

“Oi, you annoying creature, wanna introduce yourself?”

Accelerator zipped up his jacket, and turned to face the archangel, as if he was on the side of the AIM angel.

“Um…”

“You stand behind.” Accelerator commanded in a bored tone. “I have no interest in a creation of Academy City. To save that brat I have to deal with that thing over there.”

From the earlier clash Accelerator had analyzed his opponents. Although both angels were monsters, they were not on the same level as Aiwass. Reflection and vector control worked perfectly upon the angel of science. As for the angel who had unknown origins, from the way it was being knocked around by the AIM angel, it was also a far cry from Aiwass in terms of power. For, Accelerator could not even begin to think of a way to defeat Aiwass.

(Hmph, I’ve won.)

Though this was a slightly ridiculous way of judging the situation, Accelerator was confident in his victory. However at that instant.

“….hubjsaioklwnwtplwmbgfaomgffASIKSWWTQPNGpiuanbgkllwqqjdl….”

The archangel began a chant. Something was leaking out. Not only was the chant in a soft thin voice, hard to hear, but it was impossible to discern what language the archangel was chanting in.

“….serghATTACKhyAREAhgoinDETERMINED….”

Accelerator’s ears started to hurt. He felt like he was stuck in a spinning kaleidoscope.

“INCANTATIONgreCASTING…..COMPLETEfrh.”

(I know. I know this language), Accelerator thought. As he raised his head to look at the archangel, all her wings were spread out across the unnatural night sky. Like a radio tower, it seemed as though she was broadcasting signals of some kind into the sky.

And then, Misha’s voice was loud and clear.

“Command, Sweep-Cast initialized.”

The night sky was filled with flashing lights.

There was no time to be amazed at the spectacle, however.

Within a radius of 2 kilometers, tens of millions of fiery meteors of destruction rained down.

This was a perfect “Heaven’s Judgment”, one that Accelerator’s vector control could not hope to emulate.

“Wha-what?!”

Accelerator was unable to respond. To dodge or to try and take the attack head on? Before Accelerator could fully consider his options, the maelstrom of destruction was already upon him. Accelerator could no longer tell the sky from the ground. In the moment that he was hit by the attack, his body was flung ferociously around like a rag doll. Although Accelerator was able to lessen the damage with his vector control, he still tasted blood.

Snow, dirt and sand were all tossed up by the attack, filling Accelerator’s vision with a blur of white.

“This..... this is....?!”

As Accelerator was hurled towards the ground, he gasped for breath, but no sound came out. His throat was blocked. Using vector control, Accelerator cleared the congealed blood from his throat, and was finally able to breathe.

(Fuck.....!! What the fuck was that?!)

The massive amounts of snow and dirt tossed up by the attack filled the entire sky.

In this panorama of white, there was only one other color.

A glow of blue, radiating from the archangel of destruction.

“.....”

Once again, the sky started flashing, and Accelerator was filled with foreboding. For the onslaught he had been through was just the initial “shot” of the attack.

The archangel relentlessly pounded Accelerator with the fiery rain for another ten “shots”.

(“You’re fucking kidding me....”)

His body hurting all over, Accelerator struggled to stand up. He could not die here.

He still had something to do. He would fight until he died or the monster was crushed.

(“It doesn’t matter if I have to destroy it. Just a reason to defeat it will be enough for me!”)

BOOM!! Once more, the sound of explosions filled the air. Controlling the vectors at his feet, Accelerator sped towards the monster who was surrounded by a blue aura.

Once again, the archangel’s emotionless voice rang out.

“SECONDkoWAVE. ATTACKwagerPREPARATIONwsINITIALIZING. 30 SECONDS UNTIL SECOND WAVE OF SWEEP.”

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At the same time.

BOOM!! Giant explosions rent the air above Russia. It was the first shot of Sweep.

“......she went overboard.”

Fiamma muttered to himself, 7000 meters above the land in the flying fortress Star of Bethlehem. He could feel the explosions from here.

He was slightly annoyed that Misha had dragged the Star of Bethlehem into the line of fire. The spell formation of Sweep was formed higher up than the Star of Bethlehem. Thus, even if the Power of God cast a restricted Sweep, it would destroy part of the flying fortress. Judging by the color of the sky, the second wave of Sweep would start in 30 seconds. The damage done to the Star of Bethlehem would be even greater. However, Fiamma wasn’t too concerned.

However Fiamma of the Right’s expression did not change. It was almost as if he wanted to pull a face but couldn’t do it. Besides, the Star of Bethlehem had a certain level of self- regeneration. The debris of the segments hit by the Sweep would float around in space for a while before returning to the fortress.

Fiamma of the Right used the Power of God to augment his 5 senses.

“So it’s like this, huh...”

He spoke in a bored voice.

“So this is my enemy. Would the outcome of the battle change because of the appearance of the archangel? Don’t say you won’t imitate me.”

Although his interest was piqued by the appearance of the angel created by Academy City, its appearance did not change anything.

As for the person fighting alongside the science angel, it seemed he was one of the top ability users of the science side. Even if he joined in the fight, they would not be able to defeat Misha Kreutzev.

The power of Sweep was enormous. At this rate, even the monsters of science were going to start crying for mercy soon. It was certain that with the casting of the second and third waves of Sweep, the monsters would be annihilated. For they could not dodge, nor defend against Sweep.

There was no need to end the conflict with one single strike. Just wearing them down slowly and then annihilating them was enough. That was the brutality in which the Roman Catholic Church was well versed.

Just as waves wore down even the toughest of rocks, Misha would relentlessly grind the enemy into the ground.

“If the enemy is only at this level,”

Fiamma stroked his staff with his fingers.

“Then no one will be able to stop me...”

In his hand, the remote used to control Index had now become an artifact for him to control the great archangel.

“Oh, my Sweep is going to destroy this world huh?”

Fiamma heard the “voice” in his mind. He recognized the “voice”.

“...long time no see. Acqua of the Back, do you still desire a position within God’s Right Seat? Or have you reverted to your mercenary ways?”

“Anything is fine, as long as it’s to stop you.”

“Hmph, and how will you do that?”

Twirling his staff, Fiamma spoke with an air of contempt.

“In this situation that I have created, placing the 6 billion people of the world at the mercy of the ravages of war, how will you be able to save them?”

“...”

“You are a symbol of war. Using violence to bring peace. Fighting unknown dangers in conflicts around the world. Spreading the use of force throughout the world. A person like you is the best type of chess piece. Come on, everyone eagerly waits to hear how you shall use violence to solve the problem.”

Chess pieces that had served their purpose were no longer needed.

“Why has this conflict started? It’s not like you don’t know that I started it. However, I did not fire a shot. It’s because that I have judged and made a decision, that I ask you how you are going to save everyone.”

“So, this is the reason for the archangel swinging an iron fist down on the populace?”

“You want to stop me? In the end, you still resort to force. Your side has no more tricks up their sleeve, how will you stop me? The outcome is already decided on the Academy City’s side who is reinforced by the angel. You, who entered that place on the 30th of September to rescue Vento should know that.”

Fiamma laughed.

“The existence of the science angel warps the fabric of this world, and has huge negative influences on magic. Vento being dragged into conflict with it is proof. That thing will not fight by your side. If you try to use force, both sides will just engage in combat till the death.”

“...”

“Besides, Misha Kreutzev surpasses you all. Even if she is not perfect, she is still the real thing, a Christian archangel. In a full on war, the only victor is me.”

This was the reasoning Fiamma had come to.

“You are strong, but you are just a pawn in this game. Now, no matter how much force you try to use, you cannot stop Misha. I give you leave to try, but it is better for you to just stay on the sidelines and watch.”

“Oh?”

Acqua laughed, and Fiamma lost his smirk.

“Then I shall show you a way to stop her without force.”

In an instant, Misha Kreutzev’s power was cut by a third.

The form of an angel was basically a mass of energy, they had no physical body. More accurately, their bodies were not composed of physical matter. Fiamma, who was linked to Misha, was suddenly dealt a blow through his 5 senses.

“You!..What did you do....No! This is...?!”

“Have you forgotten? I am Acqua of the Back. A member of the most secretive Roman Catholic organization, God’s Right Seat. I hold the position of the back, and am associated with the color ‘Blue’ and the moon. I also wield the power of one of the four Archangels, Power of God.”

“You!....Did you, in your own body....?!!”

“For Christians, releasing and sealing “Telesma” is a basic among basics. Also, my body is the strongest “link” to the Power of God, being “Acqua of the Back” of God’s Right Seat. Therefore, if I forcefully took out the water affinity Telesma within myself, I would not want to think of what would happen to the Power of God from whom such power stems.”

“....”

It was impossible to imagine that such a plan could have been thought up by a sane man. To forcefully contain the power of an archangel within a mortal body was pure foolishness, even for magicians; for the human body would certainly explode from trying to contain such power.

However...

“It is not ‘impossible’.”

Acqua’s voice shattered the silence.

“Right now, the Russian nun you are using, she is doing a similar thing to what I am proposing.”

“You are insane! Sasha is only able to perform such acts because of the Telesma remaining in her body from the events of Angel Fall! Besides, to forcefully suppress Misha Kreutzev requires you to take in far more Telesma!! You don’t have that sort of ability.”

“Hmph, don’t talk like that.... What others can do, I can do too.”

So it has come to this, Fiamma thought. He should have known. As a member of God’s Right Seat, it was stupid for Fiamma to have tried to apply normal reasoning to Acqua.

“Then.... show me!”

Fiamma shouted out the challenge.

“That I shall.”

“You know right? This stupid plan of yours will destroy your combat ability. You are just destroying yourself by trying this.”

♦

In the frozen tundra of Russia, there stood a man. He was far away from the border between Russia and Elizalina, and a distance away from the flying fortress. It was a perfect location to perform his spell.

The man thrust his sword which was larger than his body into the ground to support the weight of his own massive frame. Around him, the air warped, and condensed into the same consistency as treacle. This air flowed in a spiral towards the man.

A tremendous amount of energy flowed towards him. Under the dark blue sky and the shining full moon, Acqua absorbed the Power of God.

“UUUUWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA????!!!!!”

Power flowed into him from every pore on his body. This amount of energy could not be tolerated by a human’s body. Just like how a fan could only suck in a predetermined amount of air. If you forcefully tried to take in more than your limit, the consequences would be dire.

Blood started pouring out from his legs and chest. It felt as though the muscles on his back and neck were on fire. Blood vessels throughout his body were bursting, and his nervous system was going into overload. The man could feel the tendons and ligaments throughout his body snapping one by one. His legs were shaking, as his once powerful body was on the brink of collapse.

However, he did not fall. The sword stuck in the ground, and the willpower in his chest. By relying on those two things, the man was determined to stay standing.

The destruction was not limited to just his physical body. His magical power was slowly burned out of him. The man was a Saint, and a member of God’s Right Seat. Those two traits of his gave him tremendous power, surpassing that of other magicians. However, now the source of his body was being torn apart and he was losing his magical prowess. His body screamed at him to stop this madness, but a man will not stop until he achieves his goal.

Only by absorbing the Telesma of Misha Kreutzev in his body, could he weaken the enemy. To lessen the chance of the Telesma meant to save people being used to take human lives. That was all he wanted. As long as he could ensure that, the man would be able to clench his teeth and battle with the overwhelming tide of Telesma.

And then....

♦

BOOM!!!

Accelerator’s attack hit Misha Kreutzev dead on.

Because of this interruption, the spell formation of Sweep collapsed.

Accelerator and the angel of science charged towards Misha Kreutzev.

To destroy it.

To prevent the battlefield from turning into a wasteland.

And then...

♦

Fiamma of the right smiled. The amount of Telesma Acqua of the Back had absorbed was only about 50% of that of the Power of God. As he had foreseen, it was not enough to stop Misha Kreutzev.

“Even 50% is enough to attain victory.”

Fiamma sighed in a bored voice.

“Saint, God’s Right Seat, both are gone. This is over now. You gave your life in vain.”

“KILL!” He commanded.

It was over. Misha Kreutzev would destroy the angel of science and the ability user from Academy City, and proceed to exterminate the remaining forces of Academy city. No one would be able to stop Fiamma’s plans, as long as Misha was there, the Star of Bethlehem would not fall, even if 50,000 nuclear warheads were launched simultaneously at it.

That was what should have happened.

But, nothing happened. Misha Kreutzev, who had received the order to “Kill”, was not moving.

It was an unpleasant feeling.

His superiority had been perfect, but a slight tilt had formed. It was an extremely small tilt, but it gave him an uneasy feeling he could not ignore. It was as if that small tilt would cause everything to slide away.

“That bastard....”

Fiamma of the Right noticed. There was one more person, currently not on the battlefield, an existence who wielded the supreme power.

“THAT BASTAAAARRRDD!!!!!”

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

At the same time.

Kamijou Touma was at the very furthest corner on the right of the Star of Bethlehem, at the ceremonial altar where Sasha had been used as a medium to summon Misha Kreutzev.

Apparently Fiamma had fixed Index’s remote to the end of his staff, allowing him to control Misha. Therefore, to stop Misha’s rampage of destruction, he had to destroy the staff, and in order to destroy the staff, he would have to confront Fiamma in a battle.

However, there was more. Touma searched for a quicker and more certain way to stop Misha.

“....Misha Kreutzev appeared after the Star of Bethlehem.”

Touma said aloud. It wasn’t certain if he was explaining his thoughts to Sasha, or just speaking out loud to himself.

“If he was able to summon the power of an archangel, why didn’t he summon it earlier? Even if he did not start the third world war and turn his potential enemies on each other, with the power of an archangel behind him, he would probably still have been able to defeat us all at once. Then, why didn’t Fiamma summon Misha until after the Star of Bethlehem appeared?”

This could only mean one thing. Touma finally came to this conclusion.

“The Star of Bethlehem is needed to summon the Archangel Misha Kreutzev and anchor her to this plane! That is why Fiamma only summoned it after the fortress flew into the sky; not because he didn’t feel like it, but because he COULDN’T summon it beforehand even if he wanted to!”

“If that was true, things become much simpler. On the Star of Bethlehem, there must be an object that anchors Misha’s existence to this plane. I’ll just have to use my right hand to destroy this ‘object’--!!”

Touma grabbed one of the thin poles surrounding the ceremonial grounds. About 3 centimeters in diameter, there were several tens of these poles, some of which contained a black liquid, others containing a white liquid. Just as Sasha said, the white and black poles were paired together around the entrance of the ceremonial grounds, almost as if they were drawing in mysterious ‘energy’ into the grounds from outside.

Since there was so many of them, Touma guessed that those poles must be involved in a complex process maintaining the existence of Misha.

Then, all he had to do was break the poles.

CRACK!

The transparent containers were smashed. White and black liquid splashed onto the ground, forming marble-like shapes. It felt as if something started to tremble. Although Touma could not see it, he could feel that an existence was trembling to its core.

♦

At that time.

Acqua of the Back had taken away half of Misha’s power.

Kamijou Touma had broken the pillars anchoring her existence to this plane.

And now, Misha Kreutzev was on the receiving end of the ferocious attacks of Academy City’s strongest esper and the angel of science....

The archangel’s cry echoed throughout the Russian night.

It was a sound the brain of a human could not comprehend, but one could tell it was different from a simple scream. The cry contained unfathomable emotions. Misha’s body, already straining to maintain a humanoid shape, simply collapsed, returning to a state of pure energy. An immense amount of energy. A bomb.

Accelerator, who was the closest to Misha at the time, ignored the rapidly diminishing power of his electrode, and flew towards the archangel at full power.

“...who gives a shit what just happened, this isn’t the problem at the moment!”

The power to rush ahead towards the glowing mass of energy. The strength that Accelerator had lacked from the moment he escaped from Academy City and arrived in Russia. The strength that boy had planted in him after their confrontation, finally blazed up within Accelerator’s chest, and exploded.

“AAH!~ Fuck, I admit it! I want to protect her! I don’t want to lose her!! I don’t even want to think about the possibility of losing her!! I will face anything in order to protect this dream of mine!!!!”

Accelerator would not be able to suppress that enormous energy just with Reflection. Facing the angel of science, whom he has not yet determined to be friend or foe, Accelerator yelled with all his might.

“STOP THAT THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Did he make it in time?

Was there still time to act?

The mass of energy exploded. A pure white sphere of light exploded outwards, consuming everything in its path. Even if one closed their eyes, they would still have been blinded by that tremendous light. The pitch black night became a ceiling of pure brilliant white. Everything within a radius of several tens of kilometers should have become ash. This was not a simple explosion, but one of a Special Energy. It would not have been weird for some crazy side effects to be produced.

There was a very high chance that the explosion could have turned the surroundings into an uninhabitable wasteland. However, as the explosion expanded outwards, it started to warp unnaturally. The angel of science threw the gargantuan energy inside it at Accelerator, who manipulated the vectors inside that energy into a transparent shield and threw it around the ball of energy. Like a shell, it encased the explosion which had already expanded to 300 meters. Inside the shell, the energy from the explosion built up as the expanding light was trapped, unable to unleash its wrath on the land.

It seemed impossible, but the light and sound intensified even more. But Accelerator did not give up, and mustered all his strength, strengthening the barrier around the giant orb of light. For several seconds, the mass of energy was contained inside the shell.

The angel didn't do anything.

Kanzaki stood in front of Kamijou and Touya, and she reached for the nodachi at her waist.

"An angel's power is neither good or evil. Those who were directed by God to save mortals will be praised as angels. Once they fall onto the corrupted earth, they will become terrifying demons."

Kanzaki said in a curse-like voice.

"It's as according to what the Old Testament described. Do you really want to return to heaven? Power of God?"

Kamijou stared dumbstruck at Misha—no, the angel called Power of God. Maybe her reason of preventing Angel Fall was even simpler than anyone here.

Angel Fall was a spell that caused an angel to fall into the mortal world.

An angel that got pulled down would definitely want to go back.

Power of God didn't say anything.

There was no need to talk. She raised the L-shaped crowbar high as if it was a lit fuse.

Kamijou felt a chill, as if his heart was speared by an ice pillar.

The moon above him was even whiter, even brighter. The bright moon created a halo around it, as if a camera lens was forced near the sun. With the full moon at the center, the halo instantly expanded outwards. The interior of the halo formed all sorts of bright lines that looked like all sorts of complicated codes.

A magic array.

And that magic array wasn't just big. Looking closer, all the bright points that formed the lines were magic arrays themselves. It was like flocks of fish swimming together in the ocean, or ants crawling in single file on the land. Billions and billions of magic arrays were neatly arranged to form one huge array.

(How can, there be...such a terrifying scene.)

Looking up at the array of stars in the night, Kamijou was unable to say anything.

The stars in the night sky looked weak and fantastical, but it was just an illusion. Things that were further away seemed smaller—this was something that even an elementary school child could understand. Even one who stayed in Japan should have seen the fighter jets of the Self Defense Forces, or the ones stationed at the American bases, create contrails, but had anyone seen an engine spurt out fire?

That was the case right now.

The contrails released by a fighter jet would disappear after a certain distance. And as for the artificial lights visible in the stratosphere, most likely, only the lights from the rocket boosters of the satellites could be seen.

Even though Kamijou didn't understand anything about magic, he could understand this.

Those magic arrays weren't a trivial thing.

Kamijou could feel it, his body was trembling.

Looking up at the night sky, a drop of sweat appeared on Kanzaki's face.

"Are you serious? Power of God! You intend to use an Old Testament spell just to kill one person? Are you trying to destroy this world!?"

Kanzaki's tone and what she said were too shocking.

Kamijou inadvertently panicked and asked, "What? Oi, what does that angel intend to do...?"

"That's a torrent of fire arrows that once destroyed a civilisation. If that spell activates, humanity will cease to exist."

The seriousness of this situation far exceeded his understanding, and Kamijou was unable to comprehend what was going on.

But the words 'fire' and 'torrent' remained etched in him.

(Rain of fire arrows? Fall down? Don't tell me, those lights in the sky, these billions of bright spots that aren't any different from rocket fuel will land onto the surface!?)

Kamijou remained rigid as he looked at the night sky. The simplest thing he could think of was that the billions of bright spots were missiles aimed at the world. If all those missiles landed on the earth, it would far surpass a carpet bombing. Even if one missile was assigned to every person, there would still be many remaining.

Kamijou wasn't clear how large the attack range was. Maybe it was a city, or maybe a country. If any place that could see the night sky was part of the range, half the world would be reduced to ash.

Kanzaki looked like her heart could stop at any time.

"Without God's orders, angels shouldn't be able to kill. Have you forgotten about that, Power of God? According to the New Testament, the Final Judgment of judging the souls has been decided. Killing people randomly will cause it to be affected, you should be clear about this! This is what you told humanity!"

Kamijou had heard those words from Tsuchimikado before.

At the end of the world, God would descend down to the mortal world and decide everyone's fate, whether they were going to heaven or to hell. If a person who shouldn't be killed was dead, his children wouldn't be born. If that happened, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren wouldn't be born. That was why those who could control time and space were those supremacists who could control history. The angels who escaped from the history of humanity also had the power to change humanity's future.

The supremacists.

The angel didn't respond to Kanzaki's earnest plea to not kill humans.

No anger, no frenzy, no mockery, no sneering, nor any guilt.

It wasn't moving at all.

Seeing that, goosebumps appeared on Kamijou. They couldn't talk to that angel called Power of God. Ever since Angel Fall occurred, perhaps she was like a train that had gone off track.

The angel had only one command to itself, and that was to return to heaven.

It was already unable to think of what would happen to the world.

It just wanted to return to its correct position.

It was like an organ transplant. If an organ that was not suitable was transplanted, the body would reject it, even though it knew that it would die.

It had been willing to work together with Kamijou and company just to find out who the person was.

After an all-out bombardment, it would be unable to tell whether its target was dead from the pile of corpses and rubble. Thus, it had to remember the target's face.

Kamijou gritted his teeth and looked up.

Kamijou's right hand could neutralize any supernatural power, even if it was God's miracle. However, the magic array was located too far away. Even a fighter jet couldn't reach that altitude.

Thus, Kamijou turned to glare at the Power of God.

If he wanted to destroy those magic arrays, the only way was to beat the caster down. Like Angel Fall, the spell was still incomplete.

"Damn it..."

But faced with that simple answer, Kamijou couldn't help but grit his teeth.

If he did that, how would it be different from what that angel did?

"DAMN IT!!"

Power of God was just staring at Kamijou expressionlessly.

Its eyes were like someone standing high above, looking down at insects rolling around in the dirt.

The archangel that could destroy the world without raising a finger didn't say anything.

The Power of God that was staring at Kanzaki silently suddenly muttered in an alien language.

"—qSTUPIDrw"

With a loud boom, a huge explosion occurred behind the angel.

Her back let out something that looked like wings.

They weren't wings that were as elegant as a swan's, but the screen of ice wings like a peacock.

Numerous sharp wings that looked that they were carved out from ice extended outwards like a hill of swords. At the same time, the sea behind Power of God let out an irregular tide, and numerous huge sea serpents or sea dragons formed from several tons of seawater rush out and gathered behind the angel.

The back fused with the seawater, forming a huge wing of water.

The huge water wing of blades opened up behind the Power of God, and each of them were about fifty to seventy meters in length. They looked like walls that nobody could climb up, and like a wall of sharp crystals that could cut anyone's fingers on the slightest touch.

The numerous ice wings stabbed up at the sky.

Finally, a drop of water appeared above the Power of God. The drop of water drew a small circle, forming a halo in the air.

The color was like the surface of the sky at night, bringing the azure blue presence with black shadows and death.

Each wing was thoroughly infused with Telesma, and each attack could flatten mountains and carve valleys like Divine Judgment. Even if it was on the battlefield as per normal, Kanzaki, who often caused enemies to back away in fear, was now stiff with tension. If it were anyone else, the killing intent released would have caused the person to faint.

As he thought, Kamijou looked down at his right hand.

He pressed the palm against a random wall and a crack of orange light appeared. An area of about a meter around his hand crumbled. However, some kind of power caused the fragments to float in place rather than to fall. They then moved back to their original place. There was most likely a core somewhere.

(In that case, I can apply damage to Fiamma by destroying that. While I’m searching for him, I’ll destroy everything of importance I come across. There’s no reason to just leave alone the things that the enemy can use.)

Just as he decided on that plan, Kamijou heard a loud noise.

There were windows in the stone room, but the glass all shattered. Kamijou plugged his ears and looked outside to see numerous fighters flying through the blue sky.

They were Academy City fighters.

Those crystallizations of cutting edge science soared about in the Russian sky.

Fiamma must have also detected the fighters because a voice spoke out that seemed to be suppressing various emotions.

It was like someone who had water thrown on them right when they were getting worked up.

“Sasha Kreutzev, the medium for the angel. The remote control spiritual item for the 103,000 grimoires. The ceremonial site, the Star of Bethlehem. And finally, your right arm that is most appropriate for wielding my power. I have everything I need, so I would rather the side characters would leave.”

Kamijou had a bad feeling about what was to come.

However, he did not know where Fiamma was in the large fortress, so he had no way of stopping Fiamma’s words.

And then Fiamma of the Right spoke quietly.

“Head out, Archangel Gabriel. Blow them all away.”

The world turned to night.

As if everything had been instantaneously painted over with black, the sky turned to a night sky.

“You’re kidding…”

That magic was so great that it gave one control of the positional relationships of the earth, the moon, and the sun. Kamijou could only stare in blank amazement upon seeing that.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the phenomenon he was seeing.

Kamijou Touma’s eyes were opened wide to the limit and he was trembling because he did know.

He had seen that before.

It was an angel’s spell.

That supernatural phenomenon was the buildup to the even greater spell known as Sweep that interfered with the movements of heavenly bodies, built up one’s own power, and was enough to destroy the entire human race without moving a single fingertip. That was a true angel’s spell. As such, it was clear what the being using it should be called.

Kamijou’s face was paler than the night sky as he heard Fiamma continue to speak.

Fiamma sounded like he was enjoying himself.

He sounded like a soldier showing off a weapon he had heavily practiced with.

“No, I suppose I should refer to you as Misha Kreutzev here.”

Immediately afterwards, some sort of blue point of light became visible in the pitch black night sky.

If one stared at it close enough, one might have seen the form of a person. However, it was so far away that it just looked like a small point of light.

But then…

Sound disappeared.

A giant wing-like object stretched from the blue point of light cutting horizontally across the entire visible portion of the heavens.

With a bit of a delay, an explosive noise pounded at Kamijou’s ears.

A few dozen of the unmanned fighters sweeping across the Russian sky were blown to pieces. The fighters that showed life-like movements must have been the ones with actual pilots. A few of those had their main wings severed and Kamijou could see the pilots frantically attempting to escape with their parachutes.

The destruction did not end there.

That blue point of light had swung that giant wing solely to blow away that formation of unmanned fighters. However, the giant wing disintegrated partway through breaking it in half. The severed half flew on and created a gigantic explosion near the horizon where it landed.

An enormous mass of dirt flew up into the air.

An entire mountain had been blown away.

“Well, Angel Fall was an accidental spell. With a summoning method based on and derived from that, stability is a bit of a problem.”

It wasn’t normal.

The difference in numbers had been overturned in an instant.

That was an angel.

An angel was a being that held overwhelming power.

“But doesn’t this make things pretty interesting? The science side has been showing off all sorts of secret weapons, so isn’t it about time the magic side got serious?”

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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.

“Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppp pppppppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!”

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.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Misha Kreutzev.

The shape of the angel’s body was not unusual. It looked just like the body of a 20- something year old woman. Unmistakably this was Gabriel, the only angel in Christian lore said to have female attributes.

But when you looked closer, you could see that she was not human.

The entire surface of her body was covered by slippery cloth of an unknown material, her face had no eyes or nostrils, only shapes that superficially resembled such parts created from the ridges and depressions across the surface of the cloth. The cloth spread out around the back of her head in a way as to resemble hair.

There was no noticeable difference between the “skin” and the “clothing”, the two seemingly blended into one. What looked like gold leaf veins ran across the white cloth surface and occasional identical colored pins held them in place.

The overall color of her attire was more grey than white, but a bluish glow radiated outwards from her entire body, not unlike the glow of a computer screen.

Wings of ice.

About a hundred of them. The sizes ranged from a few dozen meters to well over one hundred meters in length. They resembled nothing less than countless gigantic swords of ice piercing through the sky. The beauty of the crystalline wings was similar to the beauty precious gems like diamonds held for humans.

But.

Throughout the frozen landscape of Russia, all the Academy City troops who beheld the sight of the archangel were not mesmerized by its beauty. For they knew the horror of that shape. No, rather, they had been forced to learn firsthand the horror that was the Power of God.

BOOM!

Flapping those countless wings of ice, Misha flew down at the snowy landscape. The angel’s movements were simple and direct: fly straight down towards the closely packed armor divisions of Academy City, and as she crashes into the ground like a meteor, pound the ground around her with hundreds of wings of ice. With this crude but efficient method of attack that resembled nothing more than a giant stamp descending on the land, Misha crushed the Academy City troops, who had effortlessly defeated the mighty Russian army, like a bunch of ants.

“UWAAAA!!!!”

“RETREAT! WE’RE TOO CLOSE!!!”

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?!!”

The surviving tanks retreated furiously, turned their turrets to aim at the angel, and fired. The sound of the cannon fire felt as though it would shake up one’s inner organs into a mess, and multiple armor piercing explosive rounds rent the air as they flew towards their target.

Misha didn’t even bother to turn.

The wings that were like towers of steel flapped once, faster than the speed of sound. With this one supersonic flap, the air was compressed into a wall of wind that knocked the tank rounds away as if they were nothing. Misha did not continue the attack, for she did not adhere to battle tactics concerning victory or defeat.

“anhwrREPEATnxdp”

Whoosh! Before the deflected tank rounds exploded, Misha was already 1000 meters above the ground again. With the current situation the troops were in, they would not survive another assault. The surviving troops were scattered around the perimeter of the giant crater that formed from Misha’s first attack. Misha chose her target. And just like before, Misha dived towards the ground at horrifying speeds.

“nipsergREPEATnsig”

“sbrgREPEATsmntph”

“nithgREPEATgbsvrfl”

Just like that, Misha continued to literally stamp the Academy City troops out of existence. Misha had no concept of “friend” or “foe” and as such, even the Russian tanks and troops milling around on the surface were crushed into oblivion.

It was a scene of total destruction. A crewman emerged from the crushed hull of an Academy City tank, only to come face to face with a Russian soldier who was almost fainting from exhaustion. However neither pointed their gun at each other. The Russian soldier just stared up at the sky, dazed, and the Academy City trooper completely understood what was going through the Russian soldier’s mind.

This was not a war anymore. The term “war” was just one of the many aspects of human life. This was a true apocalypse. In front of an apocalyptic event such as this, humans were powerless.

“hbsugneznzfREPEATsboisnegrgrer”

This was what the angel was speaking. The human ear could not hear it, nor could their minds understand it. The sound was just like if one’s throat had been pierced with a knife. As the troops looked skywards, the angel of destruction would come crashing down. Misha’s movements did not change, not even her attack patterns. It seemed as though, to the angel, all this was just a boring chore to be done as fast as possible. The soldiers staring up at the angel knew that when Misha’s face turned towards them, death would come to them in an instant as she crashed down on top of them like a falling star. We’re next. They would think. To survive up till now was already a miracle. Our luck must have been used up already.

“...”

The tank crewman sat resignedly on the ground, and gave a faint smile of defeat. The expression of the Russian soldier was identical. The next instant the angel came crashing down. Mercilessly. Its goal, to kill all life on the frozen tundra.

The form of an angel was basically a mass of energy, they had no physical body. More accurately, their bodies were not composed of physical matter. Fiamma, who was linked to Misha, was suddenly dealt a blow through his 5 senses.

The wings were huge, but that the actual body was hidden behind some buildings. Index could tell that mass made up of dozens of wings was slowly moving. It seemed to be about the same as a human’s walking speed.

It was an angel.

Index could not understand why that would have appeared in Academy City. And on top of that, her 103,000 grimoires contained no information on this angel. This had not happened since Aureolus’s Ars Magna. That meant this phenomenon was as big a deal as that.

(I have to stop this.)

Index stared at the wings that measured up to 100 meters.

(This will get very, very bad if I don’t.)

Even the initial attack had contained tremendous destructive power. However, if this was truly an equal existence to the angels Index knew of, its true ability would go well beyond that. It would be able to eradicate all life on earth with a single finger or wield a power that deeply affected the stars of the universe.