An unprecedented, powerful emotion kept surging from within his heart.
It was limitless fear.
Facing the man before him whose eyes were full of mockery, Accelerator’s brain gradually came to a halt.
It was hard for him to think.
His breathing became incredibly heavy.
His throat was filled with the taste of blood.
How long had it been?
Or rather, ever since he awakened his powers, he had never experienced such a painful event.
Accelerator, pushed to the edge by terror, suddenly began to pull the corners of his mouth wide.
He let out a piercing, sharp laugh.
“Hahahahahahaha!!!” His confused and fearful eyes turned increasingly bloodshot and crazed.
Fear, anger, unwillingness, and killing intent—countless negative emotions poured wildly out of his heart.
A violent storm once again surrounded Accelerator’s body.
The surging tempest completely destroyed the already ruined building, revealing the two figures inside.
Tsukasa found this more and more interesting.
He casually dropped Accelerator and lightly jumped back to create some distance.
He waited to see what Accelerator would do next.
“The thing that can kill this bastard…
isn’t it right here?” Accelerator muttered to himself.
His brain was calculating at high speed.
He pushed his Vector Transformation to the limit.
His calculation ability grew rapidly under this terrifying pressure.
He controlled the air, constantly compressing it.
He guided the “wind” flowing through the entire city to concentrate at a single point.
It was exactly one hundred meters above Accelerator’s head.
The moment all the violent winds merged together, they produced a dazzling white light, like the tip of a welding torch.
Plasma.
When air is compressed, it generates heat.
Internal combustion engines, like diesel engines, operate on this principle.
When the air in Academy City was compressed at an ultra-high rate, it became a high-heat sphere exceeding 10,000 degrees Celsius.
It forced the “atoms” in the surrounding air to split into “cations” and “electrons,” forming what is known as plasma.
What started as a tiny point of light instantly sucked in the surrounding air, expanding to a diameter of twenty meters.
“There is nothing in this world that can stop me anymore.
The world is in my hands.” His trembling palms clenched tightly.
With a hideous expression, Accelerator stared at Tsukasa.
He expected to see the other man look pathetic, or at least show a look of fear.
However, there was nothing.
Nothing at all.
Tsukasa still had that same arrogant smile.
That look of contempt had lasted from the very beginning of the fight until now.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes!?” Accelerator’s strong pride tortured his heart.
That stinging pain could only be erased by making the person in front of him die a miserable death!
“Not bad, not bad.
Then let’s decide the winner with firepower.” The corners of Tsukasa’s mouth curled up again.
It was as if he were mocking him, or perhaps giving a final warning.
His deep voice echoed in Accelerator’s ears like a nightmare.
“Take your stance.
Steel your nerves.” Flames appeared in Tsukasa’s palm.
The fire was like a toy that he could shape however he wanted.
But the high heat coming from the flames in his palm caused the surrounding concrete ground to gradually melt.
The scorching light was dazzling and brilliant.
“Divine Flame (“Open”).” Tsukasa extended his left hand.
He spread his index and middle fingers like a bow.
He pressed the index and middle fingers of his right hand together.
Like he was drawing an arrow on a bow, he pulled back a flaming arrow with a long trail of fire.
“Die, damn you!
Aaaaaahhh!!!” Accelerator, who had completely fallen into madness, controlled the plasma above him and slammed it down toward Tsukasa.
Tsukasa slowly released the flaming arrow.
Everything in the world seemed to slow down at this moment.
The flaming arrow, containing extreme heat and the explosive power of a nuclear bomb, collided with the high-heat plasma sphere that was over 10,000 degrees Celsius.
At the moment of impact, it was as if two nuclear weapons had exploded together.
Extreme light and heat swallowed the entire school district in an instant.
It was a level of extreme violence that few people could ever witness.
That flash of extreme light and heat pierced through the city night.
From Academy City, and even from the Japanese mainland tens of thousands of kilometers away, people could see the magnificent sight of what looked like two suns rising in the night sky.
The terrifying wind pressure covered the entire district.
Even though Mikoto, the Misaka Clone, and the four members of Item had already fled, they were still blown off balance by the wind.
“My eyes!?
My eyes!?” Frenda, who had been using binoculars to watch the battle just moments ago, failed to avoid the extreme light.
Her eyes were instantly stimulated.
She lay on the ground, clutching her eyes and rolling around wildly.
However, Frenda’s pathetic display didn’t catch the attention of the other three.
The three girls looked toward the center of the explosion in horror.
Their bodies couldn’t stop trembling.
If they hadn’t retreated from that area just now, they would have been instantly vaporized by the surging shockwave and disappeared from this world.
That thought made the fear impossible to push away.
Mikoto stared blankly at the spot where the two “suns” had risen.
Tsukasa’s image appeared in her mind, and tears fell uncontrollably.
The girl fell to her knees, her face showing a look of pain.
“It’s all my fault.
If it wasn’t for the Level 6 Shift project, none of this would have happened.
That mister wouldn’t have been caught up in this.” The girl’s kindness turned into a sharp blade that stabbed her heart.
She was filled with guilt.
Even though she had only met him once, that man had given his life just to stop the “Level 6 Shift project” (or so Mikoto imagined).
The Misaka Clone, who had not yet had emotional programs installed by Amai Ao, could not yet understand Mikoto’s current feelings.
She could only stand blankly by Mikoto’s side to keep her company.
Several minutes passed.
The aftershocks of the explosion completely cleared away.
It revealed District 17, which had been turned into a wasteland of scorched earth.
In the center of the massive scorched area, there were two figures.
Accelerator was covered in blood.
His eyes were white, and he was crawling on the ground like a zombie.
Tsukasa was walking slowly toward him.
Hearing Tsukasa’s approaching footsteps, Accelerator felt he was close to death.
His mind no longer performed any calculations.
Instead, his life began to flash before his eyes.
I originally had a normal name, just like everyone else.
My family name had two characters, and my given name had three.
It was an ordinary, unremarkable name.
“How boring.
One day, this power will make the whole world my enemy.” Watching countless heavy armored tanks attacking him, a young Accelerator spoke indifferently.
To avoid “destruction,” he locked his “emotions” in his heart and never showed them to anyone.
He hated getting close to others from the bottom of his heart.
The way to avoid hurting anyone was to become a person who remained as still as a mountain, no matter how others treated him.
A tiny bit of impatience in his heart could kill someone, so he couldn’t have any emotional ups and downs.
Only by becoming a person like ice could he prevent his power from going out of control and endangering others.
“The Strongest” is different from “Invincible.” “Invincible” means the winner is decided before the fight even starts.
“The Strongest” means you only know who is best after an actual fight.
In other words, Accelerator being “The Strongest” only meant people would want to challenge him.
Therefore, in order to not hurt others, he aimed to move beyond “The Strongest” and become an “Invincible” existence.
He participated in the “Level 6 Shift project” experiment.
During this time, he murdered nearly ten thousand Misaka Clones.
Countless bloody remains and the faces of the Misaka Clones appeared clearly in his mind.
The fear of death, the confusion over his past killings, and the anger toward his naive younger self—all these emotions mixed together.
The figure of the black-haired man, with his reckless and contemptuous face, became clearer and clearer.
“I don’t care anymore!
I don’t care about anything!” Throwing away all his positions and beliefs, at this moment, Accelerator only wanted to kill the opponent in front of him.
His white eyes turned completely red, including the whites of his eyes.
The killing intent overflowing from his chest surged out like a tide.
Accelerator forced himself to stand up.
His eyes turned a deep, blood-red color.
Despair that surpassed the human realm gathered together.
Black Wings erupted from his back as if they were made of solid despair.
“Good.
The Black Wings are out.
Since that’s the case, I have no choice but to let you live.” Tsukasa’s voice came from behind Accelerator.
He was standing back-to-back with him.
This caused Accelerator—who should have been completely insane and focused only on destroying everything—to feel a drop of cold sweat slide down his forehead.