Chapter 142: The Landing Point of Consistency
We smashed through the laboratory wall with the Jagged Edge and stepped inside—only to freeze at the sight before us.
"This… what is this!?"
No wonder Touma-san’s eyes went wide. From the outside, the lab’s hallways had looked no wider than a typical school corridor, but once inside, the passage warped into a vast chamber the size of a gymnasium.
Was this… sorcery? Or was this the inside of a temple? If that’s the case, shouldn’t Index have already broken through by now…?
"Hmm, looks like we’ve been caught off guard, huh?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Reicia-chan asked Oriana-san, who pressed a finger to her lips. Looking slightly guilty, Oriana explained,
"That boy’s right hand—just touching it breaks magic, right? Most likely, this abnormal expansion of space is the result of him destroying the ritual spell that formed this temple."
"Huh…?"
"The act of ‘partitioning space’ is ritual magic at its most basic. The spell originally woven into this lab wasn’t a complete temple, but rather that foundation-level structure. When even an imperfect temple is destroyed violently without the proper procedure…"
…The inner space twists like this!? No way—how could something so conveniently catastrophic even happen!? And worse, the fact that Imagine Breaker makes the distortion even worse makes no sense at all!
"You seem confused, but of course this isn’t the end. Think of this as the sign before a tsunami. The expanded space will recoil and collapse—compressing the entire ritual ground down to the microscopic level."
"!!"
Because the act of partitioning space was forcibly terminated, the entire domain will collapse into chaos!? What kind of instant-death trap is that!? Or… wait. Could this all have been Amata-san’s plan from the start? Did he predict Touma-san’s intrusion would destroy the temple and deliberately set up the spell like a line of dominoes, accounting for the aftermath?
"W-What should we do!? How much time do we have left before it happens!?"
"Relax, will you? Being that tense only ruins the fun. I told you, didn’t I? I’m the original text of grimoires. Which means—"
With those words, Oriana-san extended her right arm horizontally.
Then—fwshhh!—her arm blossomed like a lotus.
In that instant, BOOOOM!! Light that shimmered red, blue, yellow, and green all at once burst from Oriana-san’s right arm, gripping hold of the very fabric of space.
"W-What did you just do?"
"Right now, I’ve surpassed the restrictions of colors, letters, pages, and angles—I can soft-touch the five great elements. Through the medium of ether, I reached into space itself and slowed the collapse a little."
"Then… that means…!"
"But don’t get too comfortable. Even so, the limit is about ten minutes. And since my right arm is tied up maintaining the ritual, you should treat it as dead weight from here on out."
…And on top of that, another problem was already staring us in the face.
Why had this laboratory transformed into a temple in the first place? For it to be a temple, someone must have performed sorcery. But it definitely wasn’t Xochitl-san or Index, who had gone ahead of us. That left only one suspect.
Yes. Kihara Amata had already performed sorcery.
It was almost certain he was making use of Oriana-san in some way, but the fact he could wield sorcery at all was a serious problem. We were already running out of time with the completion of Blood Sign, the External Path, down to its final seconds. If he added magical interference on top of that, our margin shrank even further.
…And if that technology were completed, it would trigger a full-scale war between the science side and the magic side. That was the one thing we couldn’t allow.
"Baba-san! What’s Index’s position!?"
Our top priority was regrouping with Index. With her knowledge combined with Oriana’s original text, we’d be unstoppable. Or so I thought—until I realized the crucial T:GD system had stopped functioning.
"We’ve been careless. With space this distorted, outside communication must be in complete disarray. In other words… we should assume no support from Baba-san."
That was bad. But dwelling on what we’d already lost wouldn’t help. If it was Baba-san, he’d grasp the situation and provide backup later. For now, we had to do what we could.
"—Well, looks like you’re enjoying yourselves plenty."
A sudden voice echoed from the hall, which had expanded into a cavernous gymnasium.
It wasn’t Kihara Amata.
The voice was deeper, harsher—belonging to someone large and powerfully built.
From the darkness, a figure emerged with such overwhelming presence it was easy to mistake him for a monster.
We held our breath and shifted into battle stance—but when I finally saw who it was, I was stunned speechless.
"…Y-You’re…!"
Final Chapter: The Kind of Thing That Pits You Against the Whole World — Are_You_Ready?
Episode 116: The Landing Point of Consistency — In_October_3?
The man looked like a gorilla stuffed into a cheap jacket, his hulking muscles straining against the fabric. His cropped black hair, dark skin, and eyebrowless face gave him a menacing presence—enough to make any timid child burst into tears at the mere sight.
But that wasn’t what shocked me.
The real reason was—
Komaba… Ritoku…!?
Someone I hadn’t even imagined might appear here suddenly stood before us.
"What’s going on!? Why is Komaba here, of all times!? He should’ve already been—dead by now…!"
"No…"
Reicia-chan faltered, lost in confusion, but I quietly cut in.
That’s right. Of course. Why hadn’t I realized this before!?
If Accelerator never fell into the dark side, then how could Hamazura have possibly joined ITEM in the first place!?
It never should have added up. In the proper flow of events, Accelerator’s fall, Komaba’s death, Hamazura’s rampage, and his eventual place in ITEM were all linked together. Yet here, Accelerator hadn’t fallen, and somehow Hamazura already knew Touma-san, already joined ITEM. That contradiction had been right in front of us the whole time.
Which meant someone else must have dismantled Skill-Out in Accelerator’s place. That explained why Skill-Out collapsed ahead of schedule, pushing Hamazura toward ITEM prematurely. That’s how strange combinations like Frenda and Hamazura even came to exist.
"You… why are you here…?"
"Heh. Figures you’d recognize me right away. Well, of course you would. From your perspective, this is the second time I’ve pulled this trick."
And the one who had made all of this possible was—
"Are you saying Kihara Amata slipped into the empty slot!? Wait—no, that’s way too convenient, isn’t it!?"
"I think so too. But then again… has anything about this only now started being convenient?"
"…"
Think about it.
The Level 6 Shift Project—the insane plan to evolve an esper into an absolute. Amata had been behind the Sisters Project then, pulling the strings. Ever since we started moving, ever since we got directly involved with the Plan, Amata had been there. Always waiting, always tangled in our path, as if absorbing every distortion our presence created.
From the very beginning, he had been standing behind every ripple we caused. I didn’t know why he was chosen, or how it worked, but the pattern was undeniable.
And now, he was using Komaba as his newest pawn to strike at us.
"See, for experiments I needed a sturdy lab rat. And look at this! Perfect specs! Like he was born just to be my test subject!"
Komaba laughed hollowly, his face remaining disturbingly expressionless. It was an unsettling sight—but dropping our guard around a Kihara was suicide. Oriana’s right arm was already occupied, and we only had Kamijou on our side. That meant we had to neutralize Komaba fast.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
We snapped our fractures out toward him, but in the next instant, the sight before us left us stunned.
Komaba was still advancing, completely ignoring them.
At this rate, he was about to walk straight into them—and be sliced apart by our very own attack.
"Wh—!"
Panicking, I immediately halted the fractures’ extension and rounded their edges, making sure there was no chance Komaba-san’s body would be cut apart.
"What a soft little shit. That knock-off brat gets all hot-headed and forgets to even look at what’s in front of him. You don’t need some flashy trick—your target’s weak spot is right there begging for you to hit it. A wannabe saint who can’t even kill one damn person, struttin’ around with that fake-ass smile of his!!!"
A sneer.
Taking advantage of the opening left by us restraining our own fractures, Komaba-san lunged forward, fist drawn back for a crushing blow. But Oriana-san’s heel slammed into his ribs first.
"Guahh…!!"
He went flying several meters without even bouncing, tumbling across the corridor that was so wide it resembled a gymnasium. …That was too close.
"Oriana-san! You saved us!"
"No worries. …But wow, that guy’s huge. If I’d taken him head-on, your onee-san here would’ve been flattened."
"Kihara!! You bastard!!"
Kamijou roared as Komaba-san picked himself up from the floor, sliding into a ready stance with undiminished momentum. He too had realized Amata was pulling the strings behind Komaba’s actions.
"The hell’re you whining about now? You already know this is kiddie stuff for a Kihara. Next second his face could peel open like a goddamn flower and spit out a machine gun, and it still wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. That’s the playground you stepped into. You dumbasses get that yet, or do I need to spell it out!?"
………
Even as Amata’s sickening taunts crawled into my ears, I forced myself to think clearly.
Why bring Komaba out now? Sure, it was to block us, but why bother? Why set up a roadblock here at all?
Kamijou’s arrival had triggered the collapse of this space. That much was surely part of Amata’s scenario. Oriana-san preventing that collapse—that was probably the part he hadn’t accounted for.
…So maybe the real disruption was us reaching the lab without the space breaking down. In that case, by holding us here with Komaba, Amata could buy time to let the collapse happen after all…?
If so, wasting time fighting Komaba was the last thing we should be doing.
"Kamijou-san. Oriana-san. Please—go on ahead into the lab."
Against Komaba, Kamijou had the worst possible matchup. Oriana-san could probably handle him, but the thought of Amata tangling directly with the magic side worried me more. That left only one choice. The one most suited to holding this ground was—us.
"This fight… will be ours. Reicia Blackguard will take him on."
"Well, well. Ain’t this a riot. Guess this world’s still got a few laughs left in it."
………Honestly, he was one of the last people I ever wanted to face. This man.
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