Hello, everyone! After overcoming the Omega world, Touma is now about to face Othinus in battle.

Nightfang123: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

LordChorizoCosmico: Touma definitely has a lot of mental fortitude, and it does help that he always had the hope of returning to his original world. It's unclear how many worlds were between the Beta and Omega worlds, perhaps it was millions or billions, but he could only remember a few. Othinus is pretty good at taking advantage of his personality traits to try to break him, even if she ultimately didn't succeed in the end. Well, analyzing Othinus's weak points did eventually work out for Touma. It was indeed a very emotional chapter. I think Touma does have a purpose in life in addition to saving people. After all, he does yearn for a normal high school life, without any incidents to deal with. He can still enjoy hanging out with his friends and girlfriend. Yeah, it is hard to forgive Othinus after all she did, and Touma is a great person for being willing and able to do so. I agree that it would seem wrong if she were essentially rewarded for torturing Touma. It is indeed hard to see Touma believing that he's evil, but it's good that Will was there to snap him out of it. She had a difficult time with his self-sacrificing hero complex, but she finally managed to get through to him in the end. Wow, I'm glad that I was able to make this chapter even more heartbreaking than the original, I was hoping that I could achieve that.

patrickthehedgehog21: Yeah, I'm also looking forward to writing my version of NT10, especially Mikoto's encounter with Touma in that fight. That's a couple of chapters away, though.

dragonghoul9707: Yeah, I guess there is that distinction between normal amnesia and Touma's memory destruction. Mikoto will indeed need to gain confidence when fighting against the magic side. The manga hasn't reached New Testament yet, so no Othinus or Qliphah Puzzle.

Toa Solaric: Touma successfully fought against all those worlds, so now it's time for his direct battle against Othinus.

Rekuta: Yes, it was indeed a very awful experience for Touma. He could definitely use a hug from Mikoto when he returns. It seems you were able to publish your story, I'm guessing the problem was that the site doesn't allow new accounts to post stories until 12 hours have passed, to minimize spam.

kamikoto60: This was definitely an emotional chapter to write as well. Mikoto's boyfriend in the Omega world isn't any character we know, it's just someone she happened to fall in love with in that world.

Blankow: This was indeed an important scene for Touma, and I'm glad you found the scene with Mikoto on the bench sad. He will definitely deserve some comforting from his girlfriend after this is all over.

Vegitta: Yeah, this was a very emotional chapter to write, especially the scene with Mikoto and Touma on the bench. I do plan on having Mikoto meet the Will of the Misaka Network at some point. Mikoto will also have a very important confrontation with Touma during his battle against the world.

Guest: Yes, I do plan on having Mikoto meet Will at some point.

veryhappy: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Mikoto will have a confrontation with Touma in my version of NT10, but it will be quite different from canon, given their relationship.

Stryper88: I'm glad I succeeded in making this chapter depressing, especially the scenes with Mikoto. Mikoto will have to snap Touma out of his depressive way of thinking in her upcoming confrontation with him, but Will definitely helped him a lot already.

xellos540: Hmm, maybe it's a little weird, but let's say it's the only bench in the park, and Mikoto isn't afraid to sit next to a boy she doesn't know. Yeah, that bench scene, including the part about the ring, was pretty sad. That's a good argument against Othinus's claim, and against her "perfect" world. Mikoto will make a somewhat similar argument, so hopefully it'll get through to Touma. Yeah, this world was only created to make a point, and it won't remain that way forever. Othinus told Touma that, not only did the perfect world not need him, but it needed him to die. So he thought he couldn't stay. Touma doesn't know all of those people, but he can still see that they're all happy. Hmm, perhaps Mitsuari should be there somewhere, but she didn't appear in the canon NT9 either. Yeah, Will almost killed Touma at first, but fortunately he survived, and she was able to talk him out of suicide. Touma did make a promise in canon to protect Mikoto and the world around her, but I added the part about protecting himself in my fic. Yes, those are two big firsts for Touma, which is why NT9 and NT10 arguably show him at his best.

Guest10032: Yeah, that bench scene was really emotional. Don't worry, Mikoto and Touma will get the opportunity to talk about what he suffered through. It is interesting that, in canon, Mikoto was the only one that Touma told about any of the worlds, even if it was just a small part. She wasn't fully able to validate his selfish decision there, but she will get the chance to do that in my story. Yeah, both Will and the American Misakas were great. I do plan on having Will talk with the couple at some point. She talked to Accelerator, not Touma, after that fight in NT10, though. This chapter will cover Touma's fight with Othinus in detail, but my version of NT10 will start in the following chapter. I am planning to heavily focus on Mikoto's confrontation with Touma, and will only cover a few of the other fights in detail, since most of them won't change anyway. Yeah, it should now be 300k words with this new chapter, and an average of a thousand words a day is pretty good.

Despite Touma's determination, he knew that he ultimately stood no chance against Othinus. It only took an instant, and she didn't even have to take a single step. By the time Touma started to dash towards her with his right fist clenched, it was already too late. Something exploded directly in front of him.

The boy felt the explosion in his bones more than in his ears, and by the time his thoughts caught up, he was already flying through the air like a soccer ball. The result must have already appeared in Othinus's head, with him only having been able to slightly alter his trajectory. He remained in the air too long for a human-sized mass, and then his back hit the dirt of the schoolyard. A massive amount of blood rose from his organs and spewed from his mouth.

Ksh Ksh

Touma had trouble breathing, and when he tried to draw in air, he felt something clogging the path. He coughed a few times and rolled from his back into a crawling position. He stuck a finger deep into his throat to clear his windpipe. After coughing up the sticky blood clogging his throat, he was finally able to breathe normally.

But Othinus's voice slipped into his ears, asking him, "What's wrong? I thought you liked simple battles, so why are you moving back instead of enjoying yourself?"

She had never moved from her original spot. She merely had to raise her lance, and a giant hole opened in the sky. Touma caught a glimpse of a pitch-black moon, one he had seen many times before from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. But things were different this time. Without warning, the moon quickly fell towards the schoolyard to crush a single boy.

Ksssshhhh! Ksssshhhh!

Touma used both of his legs to run forward at top speed. He was right in front of Othinus, and fortunately still in one piece. He clenched his fist and aimed it at her face, putting his entire weight behind it. But Othinus merely vanished. She then reappeared behind him and used her free left hand to grab his neck and lift him off the ground. There was a horrible creaking noise, and then it was all over.

Kssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ksssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

After some more iterations of this process, Othinus implored him, "Just figure it out already!"

As their gazes crossed for a moment, Touma simply replied, "I already have." Indeed, no matter what he did, he could never stand up to a Magic God like Othinus. This wasn't an issue of training up his body or coming up with a brilliant idea to turn things around. At a fundamental level, a human could not defeat a god.

While held up by the neck, Touma groaned, "This wasn't an even fight. And this isn't the first time we've had this fight. I don't know if this is the 10th time or the 100th time, but we've repeated it again and again. And each time, I was probably blown to pieces by the first attack. And the integrity of my memories has probably been compromised. I subconsciously refused to accept the pain and fear I felt, so I rearranged the memories in my head to look like a fight following a single path. That's why it seemed like I was somehow holding my own."

Othinus just replied, "That answer is worth 50 points."

Touma then questioned, "And is this schoolyard not even the starting point? Do I always have to start from the first empty black world I woke up in?" If that were the case, then he would have suffered through those countless hellish worlds over and over again, not retaining memories of the vast majority of them.

100 times, 1000 times, or even 10,000 times. Othinus just had to repeat this process over and over. Each time, Touma took slightly different actions and made slightly different choices than before. But once he ran into a dead end doing that, he would finally break. It might happen in the direct battle or in one of the countless worlds, but if the boy collapsed just once, then Othinus's objective would be achieved.

However, Touma then stated, "But I've also gradually realized something else!"

Othinus replied in a disinterested tone, "Oh, what does a human have to say to a god?"

The boy declared, while still being gripped by the throat, "No matter what happens, you won't kill me for good. It's not that you can't, you could kill me at any time if you wanted to. But you haven't, even when you've announced you would. There must be some reason not to. And if I had to guess...I'd say it's something like bonus points."

Immediately afterwards, Othinus snapped his neck, and Touma's consciousness was overwhelmed with static once more.

Ksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

There was one way that Touma could win the battle. Magic God Othinus could control everything. If she wanted to, she could have galaxies collide in order to kill him, or break the bonds between the particles that made up his body, which would cause his existence to disperse. If she was even slightly dissatisfied with something, she could turn back time, re-lay the rails of fate to the future, and get the exact result she wanted.

He could not win by fighting normally. Just like she'd said, the basic specs of a human and a god were too different. Thus, any external force from Touma or any third party could never defeat her. But what if Othinus herself created a situation that would crush herself from within?

She had made a certain revealing comment before the battle had begun. She may not have realized it, but she'd said she was sick of trying to crush him with the world. It might have sounded like an arrogant or prideful comment, but nothing ordinary should've been able to do any mental or physical damage to a god like her. And yet there had already been something which made her feel that way.

Touma didn't know how many repetitions it had taken for him to realize this. The level of internal damage that threatened to crush him was nothing but a slight scratch to that monster known as Othinus. But what if she'd already reached the point where that scratch was enough to begin the collapse?

It was thus just a matter of persistence. Touma could not rip a single victory from her grasp. But perhaps he could earn one, just by losing enough times.

Indeed, Othinus heard a noise from within her head, which sounded like her skeleton creaking. Her blood vessels were pulsing rapidly under her skin. She thought, "His rate of exhaustion should be greater." They had repeated the cycle tens of thousands of times, hundreds of thousands of times, and even millions of times. And that puny boy would fail somewhere along that line.

She reminded herself, "I of course have the more accurate continuity of memories, but he still retains fragments of memories. And even ignoring the amount of pure information, the static of fear and pain ensures he'll break first. He's nothing more than someone who doesn't know his place. The more he clings to the hope of victory, the more shocked he'll be when that hope vanishes in front of his eyes. That is when he'll break."

This was a simple truth that required no thought, and thinking about it wouldn't change the truth. And yet, Othinus shouted in irritation, "Why won't you break? Have you just lost sight of what you're doing after reaching the verge of death so many times?" It was rare for a human to enrage a god to this extent. The confrontation with Ollerus at Sargasso was close, but now the Magic God saw Touma as an equal or even greater opponent than Ollerus.

Touma insolently answered, "Why should I break now? You just have to break once, and I'll be able to regain the place I lost. As long as I have even the smallest chance, I'm not going to break!"

Othinus bit her lip and irritation and blew away half of his body like sorbet. But he still managed to say, "And while going along with this, I've started to understand the heart of the issue. I'm not being unilaterally defeated in vain. As long as I can accumulate the information in my head, I can slowly analyze the situation."

Just to say those sentences, the boy had wandered the pitch-black world, traversed a seemingly infinite number of worlds, and experienced countless forms of fear, pain, and despair. These hells were enough to overwhelm a normal person before they could overcome even one, but he was still in the fight. Plus, reaching this point did not release him from the suffering, since right after he said those words, he was smashed by Othinus and forced to repeat the infinite apocalypses all over again.

On a fundamental level, he was not winning. He had no assurance that Othinus would break if he repeated this process even millions of times. He had no foundation to support his theory. In addition, a human and a god had different specs, so he would reach his limit much before her.

In one of the next battles, Touma said, "This world which you can freely alter is like facing two mirrors against each other to create an infinite landscape. The ability to freely walk through that landscape sounds like a dream. But if you took a stroll using that ability and turned back around, your face would pale. After all, with the exact same world repeating infinitely, there would be nothing to act as a landmark. You would worry about where you had come from and where you should return to."

Othinus used an invisible power to separate his top and bottom halves, but he continued talking in the next battle as if nothing had happened. It wasn't that he didn't remember, he just forced that memory down and continued speaking, "Othinus, I have one fundamental question for you."

With her lance, she stabbed him in the chest, smashed open his skull, and hit a home run with his body. But the insolent human boy continued to challenge the god, "A long time ago, before you gained Gungnir, before you started to lead GREMLIN, before you ran across the monster known as Ollerus, and before you took the name Othinus…"

She smashed him. She crushed him. She destroyed him. But he still asked, "Did you make a mistake? Did you gain a wonderful power and charge forward without thinking to look back? And as a result, did you forget where you needed to return to?"

At some point, his slaughter at Othinus's hand stopped, so he continued, "That would explain most of it. I was crushed in world after world, but you never took away the Imagine Breaker in my right hand. That means what I think it does, doesn't it?"

She was a Magic God, so the human lifespan didn't necessarily apply. Ollerus had spoken as if he'd known what he was talking about, but he was still a human. It was possible that Othinus had been a Magic God for a long, long time. Had she had her power that whole time, and had she cast aside her power at some point?

Touma continued, "I don't know the details about this phase thing, but you have the ability to freely shape the world like clay. Because of that, you completely forgot which world you originally lived in. You desperately tried to recreate that world from your memory, adding and removing phase after phase. And it was the work of a god, so it was probably so close to perfect that no human could ever tell the difference. But as a god, close to perfect wasn't good enough."

After seeing that world she'd created with her own power, Othinus had turned back without meaning to, perhaps fearing her own power.

The boy then continued explaining, "In a later era, you wanted the lance and you wanted to alter the world. You were uneasy that your supposedly perfect world was not so perfect after all. You wanted to work some more on the artwork you'd already created. I don't know what you did to regain your power, but something must have happened for Ollerus to hate you so much. You longed to add a new layer of paint and create the next world. This would explain your internal conflict, because you also had another option that rivalled that of a new world. Isn't that right?"

He thrust his right hand forward, holding out Imagine Breaker and thinking of its original meaning, "According to Ollerus, Imagine Breaker represents the hopes of all magicians, and it's a reference point to restore the world to normal after being twisted by their desires. I don't know if that's its true origin, but it can be used like that. This is the other card you can play, representing the original world. Instead of adding on another layer of paint, you can use this like a palette knife to peel away all the previous layers."

The original world and the next world may not have any differences from a human's perspective, if the god's actions were perfect. But this Magic God was perhaps too perfect, which meant, "Even if it's the same result, of course you couldn't throw away your first and ideal hope of returning to your original world by removing all of the phases you'd put in place! The six billion people on Earth truly think it's the same place as always, but you alone know it's changed. Your second hope of creating a new world would be different from the world in your mind, so you couldn't throw away the other option! You could've easily added a new phase and fled to the new world, but you couldn't give up the hope of returning to your original world. That's why you've kept resetting everything and going along with my selfishness, even when you could've killed me ten thousand or even a hundred million times by now!"

This battle against Othinus was something only Touma could take part in. Imagine Breaker vs Gungnir, the original world vs the new world. The battle between these two cards would literally decide the fate of the world. But despite this, Touma was still just a human, even while standing on this great stage.

In other words, this was only a fight to see which option the Magic God Othinus would choose. Or perhaps more accurately, it was the ultimate presentation to convince Othinus which option to choose.

Touma told her, "You should be able to do it. I don't know how to use this thing, and maybe even professional magicians who've completely immersed themselves in the field of magic don't know either. But you've risen to the status of a god and stand at the peak of magic, so you must have some idea how to repair the world using this reference point!"

This was perhaps the proper form of relationship between a human and a god. Humans didn't battle gods, but instead negotiated with them to overcome disasters and plagues. A human couldn't defeat a god, but perhaps they could slightly alter that god's path to align more closely with the convenience of humanity.

Touma tightly clenched his right fist and said, "Let's try to take even the slightest possible path leading back. I won't say it's for everyone's sake. I already rejected the smiles I saw here and decided to return to my original place, even if it means completely separating myself from Mikoto and everyone else I know. Even if it takes decades to completely reconcile with them, I'm not going to run from the pain. I won't chicken out just because I'm up against a god! I'll do whatever it takes to have you choose my card."

With a somewhat anguished look on her face, Othinus replied, "Do you really think I'd have tried all this if that would work? I've tried it, and it didn't work! Even when I used a palette knife to peel all the paint away in extremely thin layers, I wasn't satisfied with the result. There is no longer a convenient path back to the way things were. The age can only advance, so if what I want isn't in front of me, then my only option is to create the next world!"

Touma then said, "You must understand, Othinus?"

Othinus sharply replied, "Understand what? Is a human child impudently acting like he knows what a god is thinking? Your tiny brain can't understand even a fraction of the trial and error spent reaching this point, so don't think you can conveniently beat me to the conclusion!"

The boy shook his head and retorted, "That isn't what I meant. It isn't an issue of ability or of theory. You know what it is I long for. We've both wandered through this exact same labyrinth, so you must understand! Returning means losing everything and being hated by everyone, but it also means being able to smile at each other again! You must know just how much you can cast aside for nothing more than that!"

Those words were enough to silence Othinus for at least an instant. Touma then concluded, "All that's left is a test of endurance. Let's repeat this billions or trillions of times. I won't move on to the next world. I'll return to the original world and see Mikoto and everyone else again, even if they'll hate me forever. My original world might be different from the original world you're thinking of, but I'm going to force this through regardless. Do you understand, Othinus? I will make my dream come true, even if it means crushing yours!"

Othinus finally said, "Fine, then."

The boy then said, "So let's get serious, Othinus. Stop laughing and draw out everything you have as a god. I won't save anyone. I'm just fighting for myself, and since we're the only two here, no one can save me except myself!"

Othinus retorted, "Ultimately, this isn't really a fight between you and me. It's a fight for me to make my decision. In which case, I must stop hesitating and truly exterminate this fool who's treating my failure as his own accomplishment."

She then proceeded to slaughter him over and over again. Touma eventually stopped counting, and then forgot that he'd ever been counting at all. He did not win even once. Instead, he was crushed, sliced, smashed, ripped apart, blown up, and torn to pieces. His flesh was always accurately destroyed, and just before the light of life went out from his eyes, a slight wave would rise in Othinus's heart.

Othinus always had two choices: to give up and move on, or to try to go back. Each time, after a slight hesitation, she would wave her lance and return him and everything else to that black labyrinth she detested so much. She didn't think about making up her mind just once and ending it all, nor did she think about shaking off her hesitation when faced with her sporadic choices. Not after the first time she slaughtered him, not after the 10th time, nor the 100th time, or the 1000th time, or even the 10,000th time.

But she was gradually giving up. Her feelings began to lean in one direction, and once she made that sharp turn at the very end, there would be no going back, no matter how much she regretted it later.

After the 10,031th slaughter, Othinus finally decided on her answer. She didn't smile, because she would finally end her own dream, leaving only reality to remain. By casting asking her first hope, she would quickly create the next world and return to a normal life, and be forced to persuade herself that it had been the best option.

Her heart would no longer be moved by a blue sky or a green forest around her, but she could at least bring and end to the fighting and live a peaceful life. She had no interest in gaining anything, and she was fighting in search of meaning. And so, after so many victories, the heat within her had cooled. Othinus felt her hesitation vanishing, and her eye no longer wavered.

Touma had no plan to turn this around, despite all his talk. He was only hoping for weakness in Othinus herself. Once she understood that, Othinus truly cooled, and could now obtain true victory.

And yet, she felt an intense headache surging out from the depths of her head. She would've completely given up on her first hope after slaughtering the boy a few more times, but something different happened this time. An invisible cutting attack shot right by Touma and blasted the concrete school building behind him to pieces.

Touma didn't even turn to look at it. He only stared at his enemy, the Magic God Othinus. As her face twisted in pain, a word slipped out from the corner of his mouth, "Finally." Her attack had missed, and he wasn't bleeding. Even so, his heart had been broken by those countless unilateral slaughters, so he wasn't in a good state either. Nevertheless, he still said, "It finally looks like I might win."

Othinus fired back, "Don't be ridiculous. Are you saying my attack missed because the repeated battles have worn down my mind?"

Touma answered, "I'm not the kind of esper that can see into people's minds or hearts. That means you have to decide for yourself. I'm not the only one on the verge of giving up. I may not look good, but you're looking even worse!"

Othinus grimaced a bit, not due to his words, but because it felt like her head was creaking. She argued, "Even if I was being worn down too, our specs are fundamentally different! If we were being exposed to the same pain, then your head would be fried first! So what is this?"

The boy replied, "You don't know the answer? I thought you were a god."

She then wondered, "Or are you saying you're experiencing the same pain while pretending to be fine? No, that's impossible, a human could never keep up the deception when faced with enough pain to make a god suffer. If you were feeling this same pain, your head would have fried a long time ago."

When he heard that, Touma thinly smiled and countered, "You're wrong Othinus. You and I have spent the exact same amount of time in the exact same place. Thus, it might seem natural to assume we've both taken the same damage, but we actually haven't."

Othinus didn't understand what he was saying, but he must have had a point, because there was a definite difference in mental damage.

Touma explained, "It's sort of like a video game. When a weak player challenges an overwhelmingly powerful boss over and over again, he won't get bored. He'll lose constantly and complain about it, but he'll also have fun trying all sorts of things against the boss to analyze their attack pattern. Even if there's no meaningful data gathered, he'll still feel like he's accomplishing something, and fighting an enemy that's out of his league would have meaning in and of itself."

He continued, "But what about the opposite? If an overwhelmingly powerful player fought extremely weak enemies over and over, she would obviously get bored. Her focus wouldn't last long at all, and it would be nothing but tedious work. She won't gain any significant experience or rewards, and there's no meaning in beating up weaker opponents."

That was the situation Touma and Othinus were in right now. The weak one saw meaning in continuing his reckless challenge, but the strong one was sick of going along with it.

Touma concluded, "We've walked through this hellish labyrinth together, and shared the exact same events countless times. But we were still worn down at completely different speeds! And that overcame the difference in specs and caught up with you first. We can't repeat this much longer Othinus. If I can't stop you here, you'll crumble from the inside!"

It was an invisible knife. He hadn't been able to swing his fist at Othinus even once, but he had succeeded in finding a weapon that could inflict a fatal wound. He had found the tool he needed to negotiate with the Magic God.

Othinus growled in a low voice, "Fine, then. I will give up here. I'll cast aside my first hope of returning to the original world, and reign myself to my second hope of the next world. If I cannot put it off any longer, I will give up on your life here. This is indeed a good opportunity, but you know what this means, right?"

Her tone showed that there was one thing she couldn't accept. She could accept the headache throbbing deep within her head, and she could accept the vague state of her heart. But she could not accept the human thinking he was above her.

She then said, in a tone of finality, "I will not return, and I will not repeat. I won't be trapped by my hesitation anymore. I'll give up on everything and proceed forward. Once I kill you this time, there will be no next time, human. You cannot win, and you haven't won even once. This next attack will end your life for good!"

Othinus didn't need to move from her spot. She only needed to slightly raise her lance, and an invisible explosion would immediately smash Touma's body to pieces. She'd made this attack countless times before, and she couldn't distinguish her memories of having done so from her vision of doing so in the future. There was no chance of failure, as ensured by the actual results from the thousands of previous times.

And yet, in the next instant, Touma accurately evaded the invisible explosion by leaping to the side.

The intense pain striking his entire body caused him to grimace. He had somehow escaped the lethal area, but the explosion still hit him in midair. He struck the dirt ground after being thrown further than expected, and his excess momentum sent him rolling even further. Yet even so, he endured.

Othinus turned toward her target and held up the lance once more. A wall of explosions was sent toward Kamijou Touma, so many that they seemed to blend into each other. The boy didn't hold up his right hand. Instead, he turned his body to the side, slipping skillfully through the wall of thousands or tens of thousands of explosions.

The results not having matched her vision, Othinus questioned with a puzzled expression, "What happened? You should not be able to keep up with me with your specs!"

Touma replied, "No, I can't. And these repeated battles haven't increased my physical strength, or unlocked a hidden power in Imagine Breaker, or anything like that. I'm still me. I haven't become anything else."

Each and every one of the stars in the sky transformed into a sharp spear of light and poured down like rain. However, he was still able to evade them.

Othinus asked in a frustrated tone, "Then how can you survive?"

Touma answered, "I already told you before, Othinus. It's fun to try all sorts of things against a normally unbeatable opponent to analyze their attack pattern. It may leave no data behind, but it still feels like you're accomplishing something."

As Othinus reacted in shock, the boy continued, "Even if I can't level up like in an RPG and even if there's no change to my physical strength or supernatural ability, I've been analyzing you all this time. While you killed me again and again, I instinctively memorized your combat patterns! After all, you stuck with me until I stopped counting altogether!"

Othinus questioned, "You mean you used all those deaths?" She knew that he could use precognition in his usual fights against magicians and espers, but she didn't think he'd be able to use the data from all his deaths to counter her own power as a Magic God.

Touma replied, "Unfortunately, I truly couldn't defeat you, even after giving it everything I had. I was still killed in the end, but not for no reason. I purposefully chose how I was killed to test out all sorts of different things. It may be different for gods, but this is enough to entertain a human. In any case, I'm still a normal high school boy. I may have a special power in my right hand, but that's not enough to call me an expert. I may have managed to evade a god's attack, but I'm still me, and I'd probably still lose to a normal magician."

As he spoke, he was pursued by a barrage of explosions. But they could never catch up to him. He'd slip through a gap or betray Othinus's expectations of where he'd move next, in each case just barely preventing his body from exploding.

He then continued, "But even so, I've put together your attack patterns, so I can win against you! You claim to be a god, but you're a Magic God who rose up from the position of a human. This may be disrespectful, but you're somehow easy to get along with. You have desires which lead to hostility, and as long as I can find a way to understand those desires, you're not that hard to deal with!"

Without knowing it, Touma had pointed out a common characteristic of polytheistic gods, such as the Norse gods. They had emotions, and not just positive ones like love and justice. They also displayed negative ones, such as fear and jealousy. They were known as gods, but still had doubts and failures like anyone else. He then declared, "Most likely, even if you have perfected yourself as Othinus, that doesn't mean you're absolute!"

Touma was only making guesses based on his experience, rather than having been taught anything about Norse mythology. But that was what made it so dangerous to Othinus. This was not just superficial book knowledge, he had been able to use this knowledge to his advantage in battle. Othinus stood on top of a mythology based around battle, so she knew just how dangerous real combat experience could be.

Othinus lightly swung her lance, though not for an attack. She moved to hold it in both hands, and mused, "I see. I'd grown sick of my unfortunate connection to Ollerus, but I'd thought that he was the most opposition the world would present. But I suppose the time I've spent with you has surpassed that connection. To think this place would create someone who understands me even more than he did. The world really seems to enjoy throwing difficulties my way!"

Her shout acted as a trigger, and both of them moved at once. But it ended with one step. Time stopped, and space was compressed, neither of these concepts having any meaning anymore.

In addition to the standard properties for a projectile weapon, such as always hitting its target and always returning to its owner afterwards, Gungnir had another special property. As the weapon used by the head Norse god, it could destroy the symbols of human power. This property, more than anything else, symbolized the absolute power of a god over a human.

It did more than simple destructive feats like blowing away a mountain or vaporizing the sea. Instead, the instant it left Othinus's hands, the world itself would be blown to pieces.

Touma felt time and space return to normal. As she fired the lance with tremendous force, the perfect world was smashed to pieces. A fragment of the world took on the shape of a deadly lance, and the walls of the phases were crushed into weapons resembling glass shards. These all approached their pitiful target as if to swallow him whole.

Most likely, no one could have escaped that lance when attacked head on, no matter how they tried to defend or evade. That attack had been given the property of being unopposable by humans. Unless one left the territory of being human, one would be smashed to pieces. Not even Fiamma of the Right or Ollerus could have done anything when faced with it. And there was no way a normal high school boy could overcome it. It would destroy him before he could even use the special power in his right hand.

However, as Touma silently stared at the tip of the giant lance created by sacrificing an entire world, he thought to himself, "Weren't you listening, Othinus? I'm still just a normal high school student, and I may still lose to a professional magician..."

Othinus's face twisted the moment she fired her lance, because she saw the slight smile on the boy's face. He then declared out loud, "But right now, I can overcome you!"

He took a simple action, one he'd taken many times before. He tightly clenched his right fist and used his entire body weight to thrust it forward. His body should not have been able to keep up with the lance's speed, and he should not have been able to follow it with his eyes. But the combat experience he'd built up accurately guided his movements, and he achieved a surefire attack that would work against Magic God Othinus and no one else. His fist reached the sharp tip of Gungnir.

In that instant, all sound and light vanished from the world. When Touma hit the lance, it veered sharply upward. Othinus had held up her hand, expecting the lance to return to her. But instead, it broke apart in midair and completely disintegrated.

Of course, Touma's fist wasn't unscathed. His middle and ring fingers were twisted at an unnatural angle. But still, the boy smiled, even as battered as he was. He could feel victory within his grasp, and said, "It's over...I ended it...You can't...escape my dream."

Othinus couldn't return the situation back to what it had been before. The damage to her mind was approaching the limit. Thus, any more repetitions of the battle would only destroy her own mind while letting Touma accumulate more battle experience, allowing him to defeat her in the end. There was no escape, and she could only accept the simple reality that she'd lost.

But Othinus muttered in a daze, "Do you...do you really think that's all it takes to end this?" The sound of small cracks started coming from behind her eyepatch, and even Touma could tell that something was pulsating inside.

Othinus then exclaimed, "Gungnir only pointed my powers in the direction of 100% success. But the fairy spell Ollerus used on me gave me another possibility as a Magic God: 100% failure. It means all of my actions will backfire, but if I know I'll always fail, I can achieve victory by choosing the exact opposite of my initial impression. Even without the lance, a Magic God is still a Magic God! This is not even remotely over!"

Touma felt a chill along his back, and felt something gathering in his broken right fist. Destroying or severing his right hand seemed to act as some kind of trigger, and he felt something about to burst out. He replied, "Perhaps not, but I will still most likely defeat you!"

This was different from his earlier baseless confidence. By this point, he'd already overturned the myth and destroyed that lance. He continued, "Even if I'd lose to someone else, I will defeat you. Our specs no longer matter, Othinus. My experience has surpassed a certain point, that I could probably beat you while blindfolded."

Othinus then quietly muttered, "Fine then." He then heard the sound of shattering glass, and a spear of light seemed to stab through her back and out from her chest. Touma didn't know that this was the secret fairy spell that Ollerus and Fiamma had worked together to attack her with, nor did he know how she used it to gain the negative possibilities of her power.

She then exclaimed, "You've only risen so high due to my failure as a god. In that case, I will correct that failure here. It is time you learned your place, human!"

Cracks of light spread from the center of her chest out to her entire body, and then out into the entire black world. Her power extended to the farthest reaches of that world, and it was as if that world was ultimately a part of her.

But even as he viewed the negative possibility for a Magic God, Touma smiled, clenched his right fist, and said, "Yeah, this is fine by me. What you bear isn't so light that I can convince you with words. I can understand that now, so let's not hold back, even if it's hopeless or hellish. It wouldn't be any fun if we didn't squeeze out every last drop." These words acted as the trigger, and the boy had likely known that they would enrage the Magic God.

Othinus was so angry that he heard her tooth biting into her lip. As she tasted blood, she acted. Othinus, as well as Odin, had used many different weapons. But there was one weapon specifically associated with Othinus rather than Odin: a crossbow. It was said that the crossbow could hold ten arrows, and that firing them could exterminate any army.

Touma looked up and heard the entire world creaking. A disturbing symbol burst from Othinus's back, providing light and color to the entire black world. He heard the creaking sound, indicating tremendous power.

In the end, the entire world was her crossbow, and ten pieces of destruction rained down on Touma from the heavens above.

It was hard to compare this with any normal weapons. Perhaps it was like a very long railgun that targeted someone on a planet's surface after eternal acceleration using rails stretching across the entire universe. Or perhaps it was like a singularity weapon that created destruction unexplainable by Newtonian physics by directly messing with elementary particles such as quarks, electrons, force bosons, and the Higgs Boson. But most likely, it was meaningless to try to explain it with words or analogies, or to try to shoot it down. It merely hit.

Touma leapt to the side with all his strength. The first shot fell vertically from the heavens. It had enough power to wipe out a planet without creating an impact crater. It pierced the black ground without waiting for the impact to propagate.

Despite this, Touma ran towards Othinus, who was so close and yet so far. The second shot seemed to skim the ground while approaching from behind him and to the left. He crouched down, so the arrow passed over his head and swept across the world. After falling slowly downward, it created a giant valley in the pitch-black world.

The third and fourth shots burst up through the ground, a few meters on either side of Touma. It was a trap, for if he rashly moved even a step to evade, he'd be smashed to pieces. Instead, he sharpened his senses like a needle and pictured himself stretching forward and piercing Othinus with that needle.

With his movements to the left and right sealed, the fifth shot came from directly in front of Touma. For the first time since the barrage began, Touma raised his right hand and traced it along the surface of the arrow, diverting its trajectory upwards.

As the boy continued running straight forwards, the sixth and seventh shots scraped across Othinus's shoulders from behind her. They collided with each other before reaching him, and with a tremendous explosive noise, the arrows' trajectories changed complexly. Touma ducked under one and made a great leap over the other one. Touma couldn't devote himself to evasion, so he used the power of his will to desperately keep himself on a straight path.

The eighth shot overcame the restrictions of the third dimension, similar to Kuroko's teleportation or the power of Curtana. Touma felt a static electricity-like spark on his spine and immediately swung his head to his right as hard as he could. Immediately afterwards, space suddenly split open, and an arrow assaulted a world.

Touma focused on his own final trajectory, and the several meter path to Othinus appeared clearly in his head. The ninth shot ignored the concepts of numbers, with countless arrows coloring the night sky like fireworks and glittering like stars. Every single one was fatal, but Touma didn't freeze up. No matter how densely they rained down, he was always able to ensure a safe space using his right hand.

He was now within range of Othinus. He glared at her face and clenched his right face tighter than before. As he sharply moved up towards her, he thought, "I can reach her, no matter what! It doesn't matter where the final arrow comes from! I can punch her after evading it or before she can even fire it. Either way, I'll end this here!"

Certain about his victory, he shouted out, "Othinus!" But it was a mistake for him to stop thinking about the tenth shot. Because that shot approached from directly behind Othinus. The final arrow pierced through the girl's entire body and then assaulted Touma from the blind spot directly in front of him.

The boy was slow to react, and the arrow accurately targeted his heart. At the moment of impact, his body was smashed to pieces from the chest down. And as his chest continued to writhe in midair, the arrow caught his heart and blasted it into the farthest reaches of that world. All that remained were his arms, shoulders, and head.

These could only be called his remains, and they spun a few times in the air before being caught by Othinus. She had taken the same damage from the arrow, but not a single scratch remained on her skin, as the damage had already been healed. She coldly announced, "It's over."

Touma cursed, "Damn it, maybe so." He'd been able to battle that Magic God after analyzing her combat patterns, but all his data had been about Othinus when wielding her lance. He hadn't been able to accurately predict her actions when using the negative possibilities of her fairy spell. That was why he had made a mistake at the very end.

He no longer felt any pain, and with his heart and other organs gone, it was strange that he was even conscious. He'd heard about people's heads continuing to blink even after being guillotined, but he'd never thought he would one day experience it himself. In any case, it would all end once the blood left his brain.

He admitted, "Either way, I may never have had any chance of winning."

Othinus scoffed, "It's a bit too late to realize that."

But Touma added, "Without your help, the victory I wanted would always be out of my reach." Indeed, his goal wasn't to take revenge on her for taking away his world, or to beat her up to prove he was stronger than a Magic God. After all, if he had killed her, he'd be left all alone in that empty black world.

Imagine Breaker was a reference point for the world, so it could restore everything. But it couldn't restore the world in his dreams by itself.

Othinus narrowed her eye and asked, "If you knew that, then why did you challenge me?"

The boy sluggishly replied, "I thought I could reach you. I had no clue, so a deadly fight was the only option left. I wanted my words to reach you and set something in motion, and I thought my only option was to stand before you despite the danger."

Othinus sharply declared, "But nothing is left for you now. You have simply lost, and the world you wish for will never arrive again."

At this point, Touma was not even blinking anymore, and he was gradually losing the strength needed to form expressions. He replied, "That's fine. Even if I'll never see Mikoto or the others again, that was just my own personal selfish desire. My failure won't make anyone but me sad, so it's fine. This world hasn't failed, and no one knows about this loss. This place has no crime or broken hearts, and the people I wanted to protect won't shed any tears."

In the end, what had he truly wanted? Perhaps not even he knew the answer to that question. He'd been cornered by ridiculous situations, the entire world had acted like he'd betrayed them, and he'd even had his existence face into the background. He'd pushed down the option that held only peace and smiles, and he'd longed for his original world, despite knowing it was wrong.

But had he truly wanted to destroy it? Or had he truly wanted to protect it?

It would've been strange if he'd been able to think calmly about it. Only a coldhearted person could do that. It was because he had cared so much for it all that he'd wanted to protect it, been unable to allow it, wanted to take it back, wanted to watch it go, wanted to give up on it, and wanted to make it his once more. It had all been contradictory and his puny human head could no longer find an answer. With his thoughts such a mess, he had only been able to escape through the action of fighting. He may have wanted for someone to give him the answer, even if it could've been to save the entire world by bringing about his own death.

He then said, "Can I ask for one thing?"

Othinus replied, "I have no reason to grant your wish."

With his sluggish lips, Touma said, "You're pretty intolerant for a god."

She expected him to ask for the happiness of his loved ones in that world. But she was wrong. Instead, he urged, "Make good use of this." As she looked at him with a questioning expression, he continued, "My right hand. I was only able to use it for fights, but you must know a better way to use it. You can use it as the reference point for the world, like Ollerus mentioned."

Othinus reiterated, "I already told you I have no reason to grant your wish. The battle is over, and you'll soon die. No one will praise you if I create a selfish miniature world for you, so there's no meaning."

Touma slowly shook his head and replied, "That isn't what I meant. Use it to take back your world. Take back your first hope. Maybe you can create an identical world from the ground up, and no one else will be able to tell the difference. But even if that world is filled with smiles, it'll be nothing but a tragedy as long as you know the difference."

He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about. But that was because he did. He had continued with his own selfishness even after weighing the happiness of all of mankind against his own life. Othinus had presented her first and second hopes, returning to her original world or creating the next world. Even if the result was the same, the process was different. That tiny difference would give her the same sense of alienation that Touma had felt when left out of that perfect world.

Othinus was the victor of the battle, and unlike Touma, her selfishness would bring happiness to future generations, even if that world was created from her arbitrary judgement and actions. Once he accepted death, he could tell that the world would continue on just fine after he left everything to her.

And so, the loser quietly told her, "I have a challenge for you, Othinus." Even after his body was blown away, Touma gave advice to the head Norse god, and his right arm stretched towards her, as if trying to wipe away her tears, even if she as the victor shouldn't have any.

His final words were, "Be selfish if you wish, and forget about good and evil. It doesn't matter what your reasons are. If something irritates you or is an eyesore, just act the way you want. You've already shown me that doing that will lead to everyone smiling. What is it you wanted to do at the very beginning? Unless you make that wish come true, you'll just become what I was: a pathetic lost child crushed by the happy world."

With that, Touma's arms hung down and his eyelids stopped moving. Magic God Othinus now stood alone in the pitch-black world. The boy in her arm was dead, and before long, Imagine Breaker's power would transfer into something else. It could be a person or an object, and if she removed all other matter from the world, it could even flow into Othinus herself.

She had won, and buried her final enemy. No one remained to get in her way. And yet, she muttered in that lonely world, "Oh."

If she wanted a lively world, she could snap her fingers and create it, but she stood all alone. This was the deepest part of the hell Touma had feared most. In exchange for his own defeat, he'd reminded Othinus where she stood.

She had no interest in what she could create, and she wanted to return to her original world. But returning to that world was only a means to an end. Why had she wanted to return? And what had she expected to achieve with this victory? As she thought about these questions, the answer soon revealed itself.

This was a path someone else had also once walked down. It was why that boy could speak like he knew what he was talking about. Knowing this, the answer seemed obvious. After all, it was Othinus who had created that hell for him.

She asked herself, "Did I want him to understand? Did I want someone who understands me?"

Ollerus held the same type of power but had only been an enemy. The other members of GREMLIN had similar goals as her, but they'd been bound by fear. She had no interest in a smiling group that joined together in fear of her great power, like the international coalition.

In this slightly-off world, she had wanted someone who could understand her wounds of alienation and help soothe them. She'd found no such person in the changed world, so she'd hoped for such a person in the original world. She had wanted to return to her home world no matter what, hoping to find warmth there when she arrived.

But as she tried to recall that distant era, she wondered, "Was there anyone like that there?" Perhaps her difficulty in remembering was because of how much time had passed since then, or because remembering would only bring her pain.

But wherever she'd gone, she'd been a feared tyrant who constantly spread death and violence. Even in the glorified history books written by the winners, she'd been so horrible as to be known as the god of war. So, she asked, "Was there really someone who could understand me in my original world?"

She had no answer to that question. The boy she held had already ceased to function. And yet that may have been what she wanted to obtain, even if it meant destroying the current world. She had travelled an eternal journey to obtain it, but she had destroyed it with her own hands.

That was why she was alone. The boy had not made any detailed plan and he hadn't had any chance of winning. But he'd still managed to provide her with this sense of loss. She sighed and muttered, "That was a truly cruel attack."

She held the reference point needed to repair the world, and she possessed the power and knowledge of a Magic God needed to use that reference point effectively. She only had to wave her hand, and though her odds of success were reduced to 50%, she still had the right to take the challenge.

While they had both used the term "original world," the one in Touma's mind and the one in Othinus's mind were slightly different. Even if the difference was so slight that no one in the world would notice, it tormented her horribly.

She had to make up her mind. Which world would she use her chance on? Her own world, or Touma's world? She could only choose one.

She replayed his words in the back of her mind, "What is it you wanted to do at the very beginning?" That settled it for her.

Returning to her original world had only been a means to an end. What if she couldn't find what she was looking for, even if she searched every nook and cranny of the original world she'd been born and raised in? And what if it did exist in the original world that boy had been born and raised in?

Thus, with this, her options now narrowed down to just one.