Thor Vs Midnighter

“What...? What is this massive amount of magic power...!?”

In order to observe the enemy, Kanzaki headed for the square entrance.

She stuck only her head out and saw the expanded cube that was her enemy. The magician’s physical body was modeled off of Thor’s hammer Mjölnir and resembled a cross. It was not standing upright or lying flat on the pathway. Instead, it was flying calmly in the air like a kite.

There was regularity to its movements.

It was moving in a giant circle that had a radius of 20 km. Bluish-white sparks flew along seeming to trail it. Like that, the Throwing Hammer drew a clean circle. Its speed increased. It was not fixed in place. It rapidly moved up like the curve of a quadratic function. In just the 10 seconds Kanzaki had been watching, the enemy’s actual form had disappeared from view, leaving only the giant bluish-white glowing circle visible.

It was much too ominous a phenomenon to be referred to as an angel’s halo.

From the flow of magic power, the circular symbol, and the Thor’s hammer form the magician existed in, Kanzaki was able to guess what was coming next.

She unhesitatingly fled.

A bluish-white beam of light appeared coming from below and heading up as if to stab into the heavens. It shot straight through the center of that 20 kilometer radius circle.

Immediately afterwards, a third of Radiosonde Castle was utterly annihilated.

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A third of Radiosonde Castle had been annihilated.

An avalanche of wreckage did not rain down on the Kanto region because the massive amount of energy had blown away the third of the fortress to the extent that not even dust remained. That spell was powerful enough to forcibly destroy the ozone layer and it was similar to a solenoid coil. The Throwing Hammer had continually revolved around that circular orbit while carrying a massive amount of electricity. That had given the electrified air in the center of the circular orbit a vertical vector.

...That explanation alone seemed to make sense, but the attack was actually physically impossible.

With just the laws of science, the phenomenon created some inconsistencies.

But magic compensated for that and forced it to work.

“haa...haa...!!”

Kanzaki breathed heavily right next to the edge of the destruction.

The edge glowed orange like the inside of a blast furnace. The stone walls and ceiling that had been creating an odd sense of intimidation were no longer there. Just a running long jump’s distance away, there was nothing but open space.

Misaka Mikoto was the type of person who reflexively shot high voltage electricity from her bangs, so why had she used a physical attack rather than her power?

“You…!!”

“You still haven’t caught up? You really are slow.”

Kamijou heard a great roar. It was the sound of air being pushed out of the way like when someone swung a bat with all their might. But that was not the true identity of the threat. It was a frighteningly bright flash of light coming from Mikoto’s (?) right hand.

(An electric arc? Is it a burner used for welding or fusing!?)

Kamijou’s vision greatly blurred.

He dropped his hips down to lower his upper body, and some kind of fusing blade passed by horizontally above his head. The wind turbine behind him was mercilessly sliced through with what looked like a camera flash.

“Oh, nice. When did you learn to do more than simply defend? If you had done nothing more than hold out your right hand, we would have been in a stalemate with you stuck standing in one place.”

There had been more than one slice.

The long pillar had been sliced into multiple pieces like a radish sliced by someone who did not know how to cook. This was because an arc fusion blade several meters long was extending from each of the five fingers on Mikoto’s right hand.

With a slight smile, Thor turned around to face his enemy as well.

His enemy was Silvia. She was one of the fewer than 20 Saints in the world as well as an elite who was one of the highest ranked of the royal maids who doubled as shrine maidens and bodyguards for the British royal family. She was not wearing a traditional and elegant maid uniform. She wore work pants, a work apron, and goggles in a way that looked “somehow like” a maid uniform. A smile that could be viewed as lively appeared on her face.

“How about we get this started?” she asked.

“Sorry. It looks like I kept you waiting.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I got to see something wonderful, so I’m satisfied. …And it really was wonderful. I wish I had been on your side this time.”

“It’s not too late.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t.”

The sound of something slicing through the air could be heard.

It was coming from a long, long bundle of rope in Silvia’s hand.

“I am jealous, but surely you understand that this is not a situation where I can act based on my own personal desires.”

“My enemy certainly is pathetic.”

“Hearing that is painful. The sad thing about maids is that we can’t fight for honor like a king or a knight.”

A conflict could not be avoided.

That battle between the powerful would spread destruction around the area whether they liked it or not.

But if it could be contained to this one area that was nearly deserted, it would at least be better than the worst case scenario where the situation covered multiple areas of the city simultaneously, even those causing the damage had no idea who was getting caught in the middle of it all, and the overall scope was unknown.

“Mjölnir… Perform final connection check. Once it is done, begin supply.”

As soon as Thor muttered those words, the color of his eyes changed.

Literally.

His hair and fingertips began emitting a pale bluish-white light. It looked like St. Elmo’s fire floating around a ship’s mast during a storm at sea. Unlike before, Thor’s power was being drastically raised by someone other than himself.

Silvia whistled.

“I see. So you normally use it like that.”

“Don’t try to say this isn’t fair. You also have two sources of power as both a Saint and a royal maid.”

As he spoke, Thor lightly waved his right hand.

Beams of light similar to arc fusion blades were emitted from his fingertips.

And they grew to 10 meters right away.

Ignoring the explosive noise of the air being roasted, Thor opened his mouth to speak. He had a look of disinterest on his face despite drawing out enough firepower to level a building just by waving his hand like he was shooing away an insect.

And this was just a fragment of his power.

This was nothing but an experiment to see just how far his power had been raised.

“Let’s finish this quickly. I doubt a fight with someone as pathetic as you will be any fun at all.”

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A great flash of light exploded out.

On top of the same overpass road, the Lightning God Thor watched the phenomenon behind him that resembled an explosion and felt the stinging vibration on his skin. A smile formed on the corner of his mouth. This was a wild and belligerent smile unlike his previous one.

“Ohh, ohh. Now, they’re having some fun. I don’t know whether I should praise Academy City for their creations or praise that Valkyrie for keeping up her supersonic speeds even after all that.”

“Cut the crap, boy.”

Silvia the Saint looked at Thor’s right hand with a surprised expression. Arc fusion blades stretched over 20 meters from his five fingers. Even at that level, it was unclear just how powerful an Electromaster of the science side would be needed to duplicate it.

Yet a clear look of astonishment could be seen on Silvia’s face.

Of all of Gremlin and all the Saints, she was the woman who was always standing closest to Ollerus. And yet this level of power was enough to make her look astonished.

She had that much power herself.

In fact, if they were not that powerful, neither Thor nor Silvia would have been able to stand where they were standing.

“With your level of power, you should be able to produce 10 times that length. No…It goes beyond that. If you are really named after Thor, then your true nature lies elsewhere. You don’t fit in the category of a lightning god.”

“Even so, I still feel ashamed.” Thor seemed to completely switch over his focus. He switched from watching a distant battle to facing the enemy before him. “I wanted to avoid this. This isn’t the worst possible turn of events, but it’s only two or three from the bottom. …This is no fun. My killing will involve many others and could even reach the level of a war. I didn’t start this fight for that to happen.”

“So you want to keep the extent of the sacrifices to a bare minimum?”

“If possible, I wanted to avoid having this clash in the first place,” replied Thor honestly. “If I and someone with power rivaling mine have a true battle, that alone could blow away half the city. So don’t worry, young lady. I will hold back as much of my power as I can. I won’t go beyond the lightning god level of Thor. If you die from just that, it’s really your own fault.”

“Hah hah. You don’t need to worry about that.”

Silvia laughed at that arrogant announcement.

It was a much too forceful laugh for a maid.

“I am probably the top ranked magician when it comes to that.”

The sound of something slicing through the air could be heard. It was coming from the bundle of rope Silvia held. She swung her arm around, swung her upper body around, and then spun around on the spot. By the time she did that, the rope had drawn out a complex shape in the air.

It was a complex collection of loops.

Just as Thor thought it looked like the string used to spin Japanese tops, a very bad feeling rushed through him.

Silvia moved.

She moved faster and faster and entered the supersonic realm of the Saint as she continued her ballroom dance that seemed meant to strangle one’s partner. As she did, complex power entered the rope.

The rope was forcefully pulled back and the many loops constricted and provided vectors as if to spin the object held within.

But there appeared to be nothing inside the loops.

Except there was.

There was air.

“Damn you!!” immediately shouted Thor.

There was an explosion.

She had grabbed the air. From the perspective of physics formulas, it was not impossible. After all, even the air had some resistance. It could create friction. And so it should have been possible to grab the air and spin it like a Japanese top.

But could it be done with the physical body of a human?

One needed to grab hold of a mass of air, spin it with tremendous power to turn it into a swirl of shockwaves, and send it after the target from multiple directions. Who could pull off such a wild technique?

Each one was larger than a crane’s wrecking ball that could destroy a building and was likely enough to bury even an underground shelter.

The phenomenon was created by overwhelming physical strength.

The tiny resistance of the air that people normally did not even notice was being used to produce such great power.

(But that isn’t enough to explain it!!)

Thor immediately swung the arc fusion blades on his right hand.

The air was nothing more than air. He was trying to blow away the swirls of shockwaves by heating up the air to a massive temperature so it expanded explosively.

But it did not work.

After two or three smashing blows, the arc fusion blades suddenly stopped moving. They stopped when their 20 meter length was just about to reach the rope that was still dancing through the air and Silvia who was spinning at high speed. 154

“My specialty is barriers,” said Silvia as she slowed down her spinning and planted her feet firmly on the ground. Even so, the several dozen meters of rope were still swimming through the air like the ribbon in rhythmic gymnastics. “People were always getting mad at me at Buckingham Palace for destroying the palace’s equipment too much for a bodyguard. And so I thought long and hard about a way to intercept the assassin without destroying everything around me too. What I came up with was a barrier to suppress my own power.”

“A pattern made from a single continuous line with a Christian angel base… So it’s a modern Western magic sigil.”

“That’s right.”

That was a method of drawing out Telesma from a different phase that existed on top of this world and sealing it inside an object. The charm was completed by referencing a rose pattern with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet arranged in a set pattern to trace out the name of the angel one wished to call.

In all likelihood, Silvia was not trying to access Telesma. She likely wanted something that functioned as a temple pillar that appropriately guided her great power into itself.

In other words, it was a barrier for a summoning ceremony.

It acted more like the semiconductors in delicate equipment than it did a simple wall. It would complexly switch back and forth between allowing power to pass through and sealing off that power depending on the time and situation in order to provide greater ability and delicacy to what would otherwise be a simple torrent of power. This type of technique was used to give form to “something that (looked like it) could answer any question” using the power flowing into this world from the other phase. It was the same as how sending an even electric current into an integrated circuit allowed complex calculations to be performed.

“I create a wall of Telesma along the rope which makes up a ‘hand’ that grabs the air.”

Silvia once more began spinning around at high speed.

The rope writhed through the air like it was trying to lure something.

That great serpent that swam through the sky then distinctly bared its fangs.

“So…well…don’t worry. I am probably one of the most skilled in the world when it comes to not getting others wrapped up in my fights. Just entrust your worries to this maid and go nuts!!”

(Not good. She isn’t just using one angel’s name. It changes from Gabriel to Raphael, then from Raphael to Michael, then from Michael to Uriel. She’s trying to build the power of each consecutive sigil off the power of the previous one!!)

Tarot could be used in many different ways, but in modern Western magic, a reversed card could be used to take advantage of the affinities between the four elements. What card was placed next to the current card could strengthen the useful symbols of the card or the troublesome symbols of the card.

This method was different from those of God’s Right Seat who had specialized in a single form of Telesma.

Even if this magic could never compare to them in any one of the four elements, it attempted to outdo them overall with its superior balance.

“Honestly, there really isn’t anyone normal around that monster!!”

“Can I take that as a compliment?”

Not even Thor could keep up with the movements of the rope anymore.

But he could see the effects.

The actual movements of the rope did nothing more than create symbols that activated magic. He could see something like a gray dust heading towards the overpass as if it was being guided by the rope.

In the very next instant, one entire block of the overpass road was forcefully spun like a top.

Those gray claws were much too primeval to be referred to as fingers. They had taken that single segment of the road that was several dozen meters long and flipped it over like it was a tea table. But the speed had been so incredible that the road did not simply flip upside down; it continued to spin in place like an electric fan.

It had been ripped off of the support that had held its huge weight.

And both Thor and Silvia herself were still on it.

(You’ve gotta be kidding me!!)

Thor had been suddenly thrown up into the air with nothing beneath his feet. Those feet swam through the air seeking something to land on. The soles of his shoes finally contacted the side of the road that had already made several full rotations. But it was difficult to call it a “landing”. For one thing, if he did manage to stand there, he would have rotated 180 degrees and fallen off after a single second.

But there were some people who could manage it.

Saints.

They could move at supersonic speeds with no assistance.

There was a great difference between the breadth of options available to a normal person in a second and that available to Silvia in a second. Even if the side of the road was only pointing up for 0.1 seconds, it was simple enough for her to run across that edge like a sprinter and charge at Thor.

While licking her lips and continuing to control the rope that danced through the air drawing out complicated sigils, Silvia headed straight for him. The intense sense of danger Thor felt slowed the speed at which time seemed to pass for him, but that maid’s speed still overshadowed his.

“Mjöooooooooooooolniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!!!!!” he shouted.

Thanks to his new supply of power, light explosively surged from Thor’s limbs. He did not use those arc fusion blades to slice through anything. He used them as electric boosters by explosively expanding the air to forcibly accelerate the movements of his own body.

Thor’s body was forced into a spin.

He managed to actually contact the side of the road.

At the same time Silvia reached him.

Instead of using her rope, she attacked directly with her fists two or three times.

If he tried to block those blows with his arm, the arm would explode. Thor forcibly twisted his body around to avoid the blows. Every one of his actions just about tore the joints of his arms and legs to pieces. He was keeping his movements to the bare minimum, but the human body was not made to function at those speeds.

“Ghhh…!!”

Thor pushed forward his arc fusion blades as if trying to strike Silvia and used the fact that she repelled it with the barrier created by the rope’s pattern to send himself flying backwards.

He thought he had escaped.

But it may have been a mistake for him to think that.

With no footing once more, Thor began to fall as he was pulled down by gravity. Thor somehow managed to land on the support that was sitting along on the lower level now that it had lost the road that had sat on top of it like an umbrella.

And then he felt a chill run down his spine.

Silvia was clinging to the road block that was still rotating in midair. She was skillfully running along to match the movements of the road as it continually changed which face pointed up like a rolling die. It was similar to an acrobat balancing on a ball. As she did so, a new movement began in the rope. New sigil after new sigil was created and each angel name was overwritten by a different angel name. As this progressed, a tremendous power gathered around her.

And then Silvia jumped from the midair piece of road.

The rotating block of road made an odd movement that seemed to follow the way Silvia had twisted her body. It was as if she was controlling it via magnetism. As if it was connected to her right foot by something invisible, the giant mass of concrete and asphalt began rotating both horizontally and vertically…and then it suddenly dropped down like a morning star.

Thor’s eyes opened wide in shock and he shouted out, “Y-you idiot!!”

“I was called that a lot at Buckingham Palace too.”

A tremendous vibration shook the entire area.

It was like some horrid cup-and-ball game. As if she was returning the road she had destroyed, it slammed back down on top of the support that had been left behind. She even made sure the road surface was facing up.

Of course, she slammed it down so that it would catch Thor between the giant weight of the road and the support below.

“Well, that should do it,” muttered Silvia in disinterest as she landed on top of the road she had slammed down and retrieved the rope from the air with nothing but movements of her wrist. “If you want to fight a Saint seriously, you need to start by altering some of your basic assumptions. I can extend an instant so much with my speed that my movement options are orders of magnitude greater than normal.”

Silvia then turned around in order to deal with the remaining opponent.

In that direction, Brunhild Eiktobel and the Academy City girl’s battle was still ongoing. But a two-sided attack from two Saints would finish that quickly enough.

But then…

The ground wobbled. Silvia initially assumed just placing the road back on its support after ripping them apart must not have been enough to keep its balance, but that was not it.

It was not simply wobbling.

She could feel clear intent in the motion.

“Did you forget, you piece of shit…?”

She heard something from below.

That was when Silvia finally realized what was happening.

“Don’t tell me…you’re forcibly lifting up the road!?”

“The Lightning God Thor was a god of superhuman strength. Throughout all of Norse mythology only two could use the lightning hammer Mjölnir because of how damn heavy it was. My spiritual items include his belt. I hold the name of the god of war said to be even more powerful than the god that ripped apart Fenrir’s jaws. Do you really think a mere bridge is going to be enough to crush me!?”

Silvia’s vision rose by about 15 meters in an instant.

No…

Thor had taken the block of road trying to crush him and thrown it straight up into the air.

(So he’s the type with strength that he cannot convert into speed.)

Silvia calmly thought while flying through the air.

She was a Saint. Given her athletic ability, she need not fear falling. After all, she could jump over to a nearby building rooftop with such ease she might as well hum as she did so.

But…

(Wait…15 meters?)

Her eyebrows moved slightly.

She sensed danger.

Fifteen meters in the air was well outside the reach of a normal human. But how long had the arc fusion blades stretching from Thor’s right hand been?

“20 meters…shit! He can reach me!!”

Silvia frantically swung her rope to draw out the barrier sigil. The attack came in the next instant.

It was like a terrible cook battling a giant radish with a kitchen knife in hand.

Those five scorching claws moved mercilessly for Silvia and roasted unevenly through the road that was flying through the air.

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“…?”

On the top level of the multilevel overpass, Misaka Mikoto frowned where she stood on the road that was falling apart.

Brunhild Eiktobel had suddenly stopped those movements which contained such monstrous power. Even when Mikoto had magnetized her giant steel sword using a high voltage current so that all sorts of iron objects flew to it, the woman had used brute strength to continue to swing around that mass that had to weigh a dozen tons. But now she froze in place.

Her gaze moved from her opponent and off to some other place.

Mikoto did not view it as an opening. It was an uncomfortable silence like a bomb’s timer had reached zero yet did not explode. She felt something that made her hesitant to carelessly attack, so she called out to the woman despite how out of place it was to do so.

“Is something the matter?”

“It seems one issue has been resolved,” replied Brunhild quietly. “I am not sure if I should continue fighting, head over as reinforcements, or view the situation as unfavorable and make preparations to reorganize.”

On the sports-arena-like area one level down, Lightning God Thor and Silvia, the Saint he was confronting, were also looking off elsewhere. However, the two of them looked less confused and more appeared to be enjoying an unexpected outcome.

“Hm, what to do now?” said Silvia with the tone of someone trying to decide whether to hang up laundry when the sky was partly cloudy. “It looks like I just received justification to abandon a job that was necessary but that I was less than delighted to carry out. So what am I to do now?”

“If two Saints went after him, I’m betting you could manage somehow.”

“No,” replied Silvia despite having no obligation to give an honest answer. “All we need to rob Fräulein Kreutune of her power is a spell that adds a pinch of sand to the pure water that has such special behavior. But that is Leivinia Birdway’s specialty. She did not fully trust us. She wanted to keep that technique a secret, so there is nothing we can do now that she has been broken.”

This was not an environment where they could simply retrieve Birdway and continue their plan.

There was nothing they could do if the sole person who could carry out the spell had lost her will to use it.

That was what Silvia meant.

She scratched at her head while gathering up her long rope with the movements of a single hand.

“Dammit, this is why I said I wished I was on your side this time. Then I could have had an all-out fight without having to worry about anything.”

Thor grinned when he heard that.

“It’s still not too late.”

“Idiot,” spat out Silvia with a hint of regret. “I am not like you. I have some comfortable bonds. I have my bonds with an unreliable bastard who is negligent and a crybaby despite very nearly reaching the realm of a Magic God.”

“I am a bit jealous of that.” replied Thor honestly. He shrugged as he said it, but that alone was sincere. “I’ve given everything my all to make it as far as I have, but I’ve never been able to find that. And that’s why I am standing here.”

The action they both took was quite simple.

They took a step back from each other.

That was enough to leave the complexly interwoven situation. That action signified a disarmament where the game pieces that had been optimally set up to achieve checkmate were moved to completely meaningless positions on the board.

It was a sense that only those who had headed far enough down a certain path could detect.

They gave that signal because they knew their enemy was powerful enough to recognize it.

“We will withdraw now,” said Silvia with a smile to the person who was no longer her enemy. “But be careful. If what I hear is true, Fräulein Kreutune is a fully fledged monster. And that holds true regardless of how you try to treat her. A lion at the zoo will suddenly bare its fangs to the zookeeper who has been by its side for many long years. Even if the lion has no intention of doing so, its animalistic instincts and conditioned reflexes can overpower the ‘safety zone’ created by the attachment and experience it has learned. …Humans are in the most danger when they think everything falls into their own framework. Even if the lion has no malice or hostility, it can give the zookeeper a deadly wound when all it is trying to do is ask for food or play around.”

“I know that,” replied Thor quietly. But despite understanding Silvia’s warning, he still added, “But we are the people that gathered due to our dislike of calling her a wild beast and throwing her in a cage. We’re all big enough fools to be willing to risk our lives a bit for her sake. So that warning changes nothing. …We will rescue Fräulein Kreutune. That is our answer.”

He stretched his arms out horizontally to the left and right.

“Times ten.”

An ominous noise came from the arc fusion blades.

“I can reach even further. Times ten again.”

The change that occurred in that area filled with piled-up containers was too large for Kamijou to grasp with the naked eye. The arc fusion blades extending left and right from Thor’s ten fingers stretched to about 2 kilometers in length.

“Do you understand now, Kamijou Touma? This is who I am. A personal fight of mine can reach the level of a war. I have made it this far. And that is a wonderful thing. But this is not my goal. Because now I can see the area beyond what I thought was the goal and thought I could never reach.”

He held the power to completely destroy an entire district with a swing of his arm.