A Certain Infinite Possibility

by Darkbetrayer

An ancient organization has emerged from hiding in order to bring the world into darkness. Will Touma be able to stop them or will his actions make everything worse. Will Touma finally develop the harem he deserves? Magic and Science will collide in ways no one thought possible. Touma X Harem (Maybe, he is really dense.)

94. S4 Battle for Australia: Plagues

At last, the arc I have been looking forward to writing for so long. With everything that has been happening, it took forever to get to this point. Do I regret going slow? No. I promised myself I would not rush things to write the parts I really am looking forward to. I want this story to cover so much and flow together. If you only center on one person, you are bound to miss things happening all around them. It's why spinoffs work so well. Poor Australia though, with everything the people there have to put up with, now the magicians are causing problems too. I did do some research into some Aboriginal Australian legends and found out some interesting stuff. When you have so much time before reaching the point information is needed, you have plenty of opportunities to research. I'm sure it won't cause out hero misfortune though, right? Right? Let's move onto the comments now so we can get to the story.

Brosephg: It did turn out to be more slice of life instead of pure chaos, funny, near-death experience like the first omake. For some reason, everyone wants Touma to suffer, but being poor just isn't enough. He has to physically suffer. I mixed in just enough misfortune he couldn't have a normal day. The ending though, that was by far my favorite. Sometimes, you have to be afraid of those you don't see than the ones you do.

Whwsms: Minimum yes, but he still has to have some. The universe doesn't like Touma that much. Aleister and Laura huh? I would ship them.

Theloneexplorer: Heh, it was kind of accidental. I randomly came across it when I was killing time in the Raildex forums. That's for spreading the word.

anand891996: Our hero will have much more misfortune this chapter, but also the chance to show off.

Anon Guest: Research purposes make the series so much better, but the girls found out. Eve will have to remember this the next time she does something similar. The Queen is the reason England is so loved, but Knight Leader really has to work his tail off to keep things running smoothly. Yuna, well, that question will be answered after the Australian arc during a hilarious little raffle.

Master Knight Trolling: Nope, only Ruiko got a small increase from her level.

GameCguru: I realized I should have had Motoharu do more, but then it would have become a two parter. Knight Leader has my deepest sympathies too.

general ironox: The Queen is one of the greatest characters in the series.

wildarms13: It was fun to write and did seem kind of short. I think it was because I split up the people so I didn't have twenty or so people interacting all at once. I knew the red likes in Australia couldn't be a coincidence.

Syko-Soldier963: Magic abilities were kept secret, yes. Normal science side people wouldn't understand the difference. Well, in the series he had a harem, so we will see. If his body is made of Dark Matter, just like in the novel, a single hit by the IB would destroy him. For his appearance, you will have to wait and see.

Acpeters: It was fun to write them on the receiving end instead of getting the courage to actually give Touma the gifts.

Guest: I have read all the LNs and I still like Accelerator's description. I couldn't do everyone or the chapter would have gotten ridiculously long. There was a good chance those two wouldn't have given him chocolates. Holiday is more for kids and lovers. Seria is going to play a major role after Australia so I didn't want to do anything major with that yet. As for Eve, well, there are reasons. I don't fix grammar. Before I upload the next chapter I yell at my computer to fix some of the issues in the previous chapter. It does just enough so I don't destroy it. It saw what I did to the last computer when I threw it out of the window. It knows better.

Agent Nine: I put the Queen and Carissa at the end to leave a strong impact because it was my favorite scene.

Salishious: Out of your list, I kind of like Kanzaki and Mugino. The best thing is Mikoto and Misaki would follow them so Touma would have four girls. As for your list of events to happen, after Australia is finished with, there will be a lot of fun with them.

MightyImpulse: The reason will be evident soon.

Handsomistic1: It's not like Eve ever tries to attack them. England was only because they attacked her first and she had to defend herself. All she tries to do is give people gifts and they get all upset over it. No gifts for Laura, she didn't send him anything. Aftermath of the city fights will be shown after Australia. It chains together with a couple scenes that take place at the same time as the Australian fight, so I figured it would be better later.

Jujudude: They are not canon because the timing difference is an issue. The main story takes place in late spring while the omake take place in Christmas and early spring.

Generation Zero: You seem to have a lot of conspiracy theories and some of them may be closer than you think. You are the first person to mention St. Peter recently. A friend helped me design some of his magic, so it should be a good fight. You have so many ideas which mimic my own, so I really can't comment on the rest of it.

FrodoFighter: Good to know and it appears you did not regret that decision. Or you might have when you think of the time spent reading and reviewing haha. Ah, I forgot the sisters in the Omake. I'll make Imouto have some awesome scenes to make up for it. Only three murders? I assumed the entire street would be a smoking crater. Let's say a kinky sex dungeon would be an improvement. It was a periwinkle apron, not pink. Good guess for Accelerator's delivery. Touma should have made his friends chocolate, what a jerk. For Misaki, that line was to keep it family friendly. We all know she would do ANYTHING. The correct term for doing something you are not supposed to is, "Challenge Accepted!"

Kisses cause hard problems for our hero? No idea what you could mean there, *wink.* Food with love is great, but it still has to be food. Using dish washer fluid instead of an ingredient neutralizes the love and causes terrible bathroom pains. Hold hands? Mikoto would never do something like that you sexual deviant. I can't believe you would even think of something like that. Mugino joking is a really bad sign. Touma should watch his back. At the end, Lessar was willing to share. Everyone could be included, but they chose not to. The girls overseas were the best scenes. Did you not know? The requirement for Knight Leader is to find the sanest knight and raise him to deal with the royal family.

vietnamese guy: If the situation arises, I might make a short mention of it.

Disclaimer: Random people do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index or any of the characters. Reading this story may cause you to burst out in laughter or start yelling at fictional characters. This may cause nearby people to assume you have gone crazy. Please read responsibly. Magic Gods own all so they can do what they want.

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Touma awoke to a sight no one wants to wake up to.

A large spider was crawling toward his face.

Touma stared at it in silence for a moment. It was insanely large compared to the spiders he was used to. It was easily eight inches long and its face was completely visible as it walked across his stomach. Touma had a perfect unobstructed view of its soulless black eyes and large fangs. The spider's body was covered in mostly brown fur, but had some black stripes on its legs. The legs extended in a crab like fashion with each step. Touma tried not to breathe heavily, in case he startled it. He had no idea if it was poisonous or not and did not want to be bitten. He was about to jump out of the cot and pray he could flip the spider away from him, when he heard Imouto whisper into his ear.

"Don't move Misaka advises. Misaka can reach her gun." Touma's eyes darted to her and saw her right hand move off the cot. A quick movement made her action pointless. Something flew through the air and hit the spider squarely in the middle of its body. The spider was jettisoned off of him and hit the wall of the tent. It fell to the ground with a thud, a much louder sound than what a spider should have made. Touma leaned over and looked down to see a steel knife embedded in its abdomen.

"It's just a Huntsman Spider," Zach yawned. "They look creepy, but usually won't attack people unless provoked. Its bite does hurt a lot though."

"That nearly gave me a heart attack," Touma muttered and sat up in the cot. "You could have warned me."

"There's a lot of things worse in Australia than spiders," Zach pointed out. "That's not even counting Adam."

"Like what? Misaka wonders curiously. That spider will likely haunt Misaka's dreams for many nights." She propped herself up and looked over at Zach, who sighed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Like drop bears," he explained as he sat up. He yawned and looked at their confused faces. "Mutant koalas that jump out of trees and attack people who walk under them."

"Do they live around here?" Touma asked anxiously. With my luck, I expect to find an entire den of them.

"Nah," Zach said dismissively. "Not enough trees in the area." He glanced at his watch. "Well, we are all up and would get less than half an hour more sleep if we tried. Might as well get ready." He spun his legs off the cot and slipped on his boots.

"So tired...," groaned Touma. He hadn't been able to sleep for most of the night because of how close Imouto was snuggling up to him. He sat up and she scooted over so he could put on his boots.

"Misaka slept peacefully Misaka also announces. The bed was very comfortable."

"I bet it was," Zach muttered with a grin. He stood up and opened the flap of their tent. "It looks like the earlier rises have already begun to move."

"Estimated time of departure? Misaka asks."

"I expect the alarm to go off in fifteen or twenty minutes and we move out in thirty."

"What are we going to do until then?" Touma asked and grabbed his canteen from under the cot.

"That's what I'm going to check on," Zach replied seriously. There was no longer amusement in his voice, which told Touma and Imouto what kind of battle they could expect. "Your friends who insisted on helping out would have been assigned their position last night, but you," he glanced at Touma. "Will be put in the location the princess determines to be the most strategic point."

"Misaka will accompany him Misaka states firmly."

"I… can't guarantee that," Zach admitted. "It's up to her."

"Misaka will accompany him Misaka repeats firmly."

"Let's wait and see," Touma suggested to Imouto and put a hand on her shoulder. "This is their mission and we are only here to help out. We don't want to do something that could jeopardize everything." Imouto stared at him for a moment before giving a brief nod. They followed Zach out of their tent and started heading toward the command tent. Touma opened his canteen and was about to take a drink of water when a sick rustic smell reached his nostril. The smell was familiar and almost made him vomit. "Zach, we have a problem." Zach and Imouto turned toward him and he poured out the content of the container. It was still dark, with only a fringe bit of lighter sky in the far horizon, but the lights from the camp was more than enough to identify the dark red liquid.

It was blood.

Touma held a hand up to his mouth in disgust. I almost drank that.

"How did your canteen get filled with-…?" Imouto started to ask, but Zach cut her off.

"Damn it," he muttered. "Adam's on the move. We need to inform command-…" He was cut off by a loud, earsplitting siren. "Never mind, they know."

"What now?" Touma asked Zach. I thought we would have a little longer to learn exactly what they want me to do. Are we going to move out now? He noticed the knights and nuns were flooding out of their tents. All looked ready for battle.

"We have to get to the command tent, NOW!" Zach, Touma, and Imouto started to full out run across camp. Touma had to force himself to ignore the shouting from all around him and focus on his destination. They reached the tent at the same moment George and Amelia did. George glanced at Touma for a fraction of a second and waved him in. Imouto followed, but Zach stayed outside. Touma looked around and saw, besides Amelia and George, Carissa and William were already inside.

"What happened?" Carissa demanded. "I need a full status report now."

"Adam has set his eyes upon us," George explained. "And his first target was our water."

"What did he do?" Amelia asked. "I didn't have time to find out."

"He transformed it into blood," Touma blurted out and everyone turned to look at him. "My canteen reeked and, when I poured it out, it had turned red."

"Makes sense," William grunted. "He uses the power of Exodus and we know he can cast magic based on the Plagues of Egypt. He has decided to focus that power against us now."

"What was the plague order again? Misaka asks in order to be prepared for the eventuality."

"After turning water into blood," George said. "There were frogs from the river, dust into lice, swarms of flies, diseased livestock, boils, thunderstorm of hail, locusts, darkness, and then death of the firstborn."

"We examined his magic to an extent," Amelia added. "If he wants to maximize the effectiveness of his spells, then he needs to cast them in order. His Plague of the Firstborn is powerful, but only covers a small area. If he wants to take out our army with it, he needs to wait."

"Do not think he can be rationalized that easily," William warned. "Assume he can do them out of order until proven wrong."

"Precisely," Carissa agreed. "We move out now before we get hit by the worst of it. George, Amelia, pass on to your lieutenants. The plan has changed."

"Understood!" They both pulled out their radio and started issuing commands. A shout from outside the tent caused the rest of them to turn toward the commotion.

"If you don't get out of my way!" the familiar voice of Leivinia Birdway roared. "You will wish Adam was the one who killed you!"

"Let them in!" Carissa ordered. "We don't have time for this shit." The flaps to the tent opened and Leivinia entered, followed by Lessar.

"So everyone is already here?" Leivinia asked ad looked around. "Good." Her eyes paused on Touma and Imouto.

"Agnese said her forces were working on removing the spell on our water," Lessar added. She twirled her Steel Glove in her hand.

"First good news today," Carissa commented. "We can't march into battle for long without water. However, standing here and giving Adam a motionless target is suicidal. We have to move out." She turned to Lessar and Leivinia. "You two will be split up with George's and Amelia's group. If either of their forces encounter Adam or a possible companion of his, they will need your expertise and knowledge. Do you have any complaints with that?"

"Nope," Lessar replied.

"The idea is solid," Leivinia agreed. "What about him?" She pointed a finger at Touma.

"He will be with the initial strike force to destroy Adam's barrier," Carissa answered. "Led by me personally." Her eyes narrowed, as if she dared the others to object. Leivinia crossed her arms and frowned, but then reluctantly nodded.

"With his hand," Lessar muttered, but finally consented. "You should be able to break through any magical defenses instead of trying to decipher them. Okay, that should be fine." She leaned over toward Touma. "But afterwards, I'm coming to your tent." Touma gulped.

"Then gather your forces and move out," Carissa commanded. George and Amelia saluted, but Lessar, Leivinia, Touma, and Imouto merely nodded. They were just about to exit, when the sound of more yelling was followed by loud croaking.

"It seems like the frogs have arrived Misaka comments." They flooded out of the tent and looked around. Thousands upon thousands of bright green frogs were all over the camp. They were getting in the way of troops forming up, hopping into tents, and getting on everything. "You can tell the knights are well trained in these unusual situations Misaka whispers. This magic does not make sense though. Calling this many frogs in an environment that does not support them should not be possible." Touma looked around and saw what Imouto was referring to about the knights. The knights didn't seem to mind the frogs and would step on them without breaking formation. Anything the frogs were on, the knights just knocked them off. Groups were forming in different locations and Agnese's nuns were running to join them.

"That bastard is playing around with us," Amelia growled. "He can't honestly believe these cheap tricks are going to amount to anything. All he's doing is giving us time to prepare for the worst plagues."

"He really is perverting the purpose of the bible," William added. "The plagues were made to punish the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the slaves, not for villains to subjugate armies. It is as if Adam's goal is to show off his power."

"I find it more disturbing he can imitate the magic Moses performed," George muttered.

"Why?" Touma asked.

"Because Mosses was just supposes to be a medium for God to create the plagues," George answered solemnly. "He didn't actually perform the magic himself. Adam is actually performing magic that God used. Eve may not have the appearance of a Magic God, but Adam… be prepared for anything Touma Kamijou."

"If you are done blabbing," Carissa said. "You and William go lead your troops, along with," she paused and looked at Lessar and Leivinia. "New Light's representative." Lessar nodded and walked off after George and William. She glanced over her shoulder and seemed slightly disappointed.

"We have company," Amelia warned them and then pointed. In the distance there was a black blurry cloud moving directly at them. The thing was this cloud was much lower to the ground and semitransparent. As it neared, Touma noticed it wasn't what it appeared. It was a cloud of insects and it began to split into smaller swarms before hitting their base.

"I thought lice was next," Touma pointed out. "Does this mean he can skip plagues?"

"I doubt he skipped it," Carissa informed him. "Keep moving." She pushed him forward before continuing. "My men have protection on their armor. Lice wouldn't be able to bother them once they put it on. The church forces will have their own unique defenses, same with New Light and the Dawn-Colored Sunlight."

"I didn't notice them," Touma muttered and glanced at Imouto.

"Misaka did not feel any lice either Misaka confirms."

"Your hand is preventing miner plagues from approaching you," Leivinia explained and rolled her eyes. "You should know that by now. He probably spread the dust last night in preparation. I don't know why you would be unaffected." She gazed suspiciously at Imouto. "Maybe the nuns put defenses on your tent."

"Misaka does not know why Misaka lies." Touma almost face palmed.

You need to learn not to say you are lying, he thought to himself. He knew why Imouto had been unaffected by the plagues so far. Since she had been sleeping in the same bed as him, his right arm had been wrapped around her, which meant his hand had touched her most of the night. Leivinia didn't know that, only Zach and Imouto did. Please don't tell anyone about last night Zach. I promise I'll rat you out about those rumors if you do. Birdway is under the impression I work for her or something, so she's going to be unreasonable if she finds out about it. It's not like I can really say no if someone asks me something so seriously… He gulped as Leivinia's cold and calculating eyes examined him. It was lucky the situation they were in was so dire, so she couldn't interrogate him.

"You know," Carissa murmured and Touma was surprised to hear amusement in her voice. "We brought certain… devices with us, but I didn't think we would get a chance to use them. It was only a precaution. Heh, this should be a sight." She kept walking toward a large group of knights in the distance. There was another group further away, so Touma figured one of them was Amelia's squad, since she was still with them. "You should see this boy." Carissa glanced at him for a moment.

"Huh?" Touma was confused. His question was answered a moment later as several bright reddish-orange flames erupted along the border of the base camp. It was still pretty dark out, so the flames were clearly visible, even at a distance.

"It appears to be knights wielding flamethrowers Misaka identifies as she squints her eyes."

"Not a bad plan," Leivinia acknowledged. "Swarms of insects are easy to take out with them. If your men can't do their job properly, I can make up for their incompetence." She twirled her wand in her hand. Amelia looked like she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut. "When am I branching off into the other group anyway?"

"Amelia's squad is currently with mine and will break off shortly before we reach Adam's barrier," Carissa told her. She grabbed her radio from the waist and held it up to her mouth. "I need a status update on our defenses, any effects of Adam's magic… and why is everyone not in position?!"

"The flamethrower unit is working out as planned," the voice on the other end answered. Touma could hear his voice shaking slightly. "Only a small percentage of the flies have gotten through. They are an annoyance at best. However, our horses were struck down by his magic..."

"Diseased livestock," muttered Amelia. "The fifth plague."

"…we had to move the main body of troops out of the way to allow the flamethrowers through. Everyone will be in position in under one minute. The frogs made the terrain slippery."

"Everyone better be ready when I get there," hissed Carissa. "Remember, do not stand outside the border of the camp." She disconnected and hung the radio back on her hip. She kept walking and the others followed.

"If we were hit by the fifth plague Misaka interjects. Then does that mean we are halfway through Adam's offense?"

"Don't be fooled," Leivinia told her. "The first five plagues are more annoyances than actual problems. The last half is much worse and ends with death."

"Why do you not want the troops to stand outside of camp?" Touma asked Carissa. "Do you have a barrier in place or something?"

"Yes," Carissa confirmed. "It's one of our few defenses against the Plague of the Firstborn. The plan was to strike at Adam before he initiated his magic, but it was only one delay after another." She glared at Touma as if it was his fault. "So now, we have no choice but to wait this out. If we march now, there is a good chance we will be out in the open during the final plague."

"But isn't waiting in enemy territory a strategic mistake Misaka questions?"

"We know!" Amelia and Carissa growled. Touma shrugged at Imouto and she imitated his action. They made their way to the far side of the camp where two large platoons of knights had gathered. Two tanks were parked further behind them. All the knights were in full armor with helmets, so Touma could not see their faces. He had experienced firsthand how the armor augmented their physical abilities, plus he couldn't tell how many magical protections they had. Behind the knights, the Agnese Forces had gathered. He had glimpsed a few of them running around in the camp center, so they must have been keeping a small group back for communication purposes. One of the nuns closest to Touma gave him a brief nod of her head, which he returned. Carissa stepped between the two groups and every one of them went silent. Touma couldn't see, but he knew every pair of eyes were on her. Only the sounds of multitude of frogs and buzzing insects were heard.

"Listen up!" Carissa announced. Her voice radiated authority and Touma felt his muscles stiffen up automatically. His eyes fell on Imouto, who was watching Carissa intently, and then Leivinia, who actually was paying attention, but not nearly as intently. "Due to one screw up after another, we have not been able to set out against Adam before he turned his eyes upon us. We have no choice but to bunker down until his magic has finished. If we march toward his base, we will be caught out in the open. No doubt the forces of England could handle an attack of his caliber, but our offensive power would surely be diminished. So, we will weather the storm and strike back when he thinks he has won. This battle will end before the sun shines down directly above us and it will be his complete defeat! The threat to England ends today!"

Touma was forced to cover his ears from the force of the knights' and nuns' cheer.

"They are in high spirits Misaka says loudly over the noise!" Even so, Touma could barely hear her. "Misaka's ears still hurt though!" Touma nodded in agreement.

"She's just riling up their morale," Leivinia muttered when the cheers finally subsided. "The fighting is going to be intense, so if they started depressed, I doubt they could perform at peak effectiveness for long."

"The second princess does have a way to inspire loyalty," Amelia said. "Us knights trust her completely."

"Maybe too much with the knights," Leivinia replied with a sinister grin. Amelia turned and frowned at her. "Right?"

"Birdway!" Touma hissed.

"What? It's true."

"Too soon."

"Troops!" Carissa continued. "Remember, you have full authority to use all necessary force against Adam and his men-….!"

"AND IT WILL ALL BE FOR NAUGHT!"

The boom of thunder echo across the camp and everyone turned in the direction of Adam's barrier. The voice that had spoken was undeniably male. It was dark, serious, devoid of laughter, and unmistakably familiar.

"Adam," Touma said hoarsely and made a fist.

"Show yourself demon!" Carissa roared in the direction the voice had come from, but Adam did not respond. Instead, ominous clouds began to form over the area were his barrier had been placed.

The grey clouds appeared out of nowhere. They started to swirl and grew in size right before Touma's eyes. The clouds twisted in midair to form a huge vortex high above them. Lightning flashed across the sky and from behind the clouds. Thunder boomed and the wind begun to pick up. Then the clouds began to extend outwards. They moved like arms stretching out to embrace someone in a hug. The grey mass was slowly beginning to surround their camp. As the clouds stretched, they grew darker. The greatest concentration of clouds was still over Adam's barrier, but it was gravitating toward them. Reddish-orange light peaked out from the top, like an inferno was raging inside the twister. The further down Touma's eyes traveled, the darker the clouds grew. The middle had a sickly purple color while the clouds at the bottom were almost black. The clouds send shivers down Touma spine and then they stopped moving right before they were directly over their heads.

"This magic…" Amelia mumbled and trailed off.

"Misaka has not observed cloud formations move like that Misaka whispers."

"Yeah," Touma agreed. He didn't bother to mention it was magic. She most likely knows. The clouds started to shift and something began to jettison out of the swirling mass. The outline of a face slowly pushed its way out of the clouds and glanced down at them. The face was only a rough sketch, but they could immediately tell it was Adam.

"It is a shame you value your lives so lightly!" Adam boomed down at them. "If you had stayed away, you could have lived to see tomorrow!"

"I knew you wouldn't ignore us!" Carissa shouted up toward the sky. "Humph, I wonder how well he can hear me."

"There is not much I can't observe!" Adam said and Carissa looked surprised. "Including Eve's betrayal! I know she told the Imagine Breaker where I was!" This caused a lot of muttering to break out among the troops. Touma's eyes went wide in surprise.

I can't believe Eve actually betrayed him, Touma thought. When she gave me the hint, I thought she was just goofing around. What could she gain by doing that? He turned to Leivinia. "What's so funny?" he asked her when he saw her grinning.

"It's hard for powerful people to work together for a long time," she explained quickly. "They eventually want to one-up the other one. If these two have been working together for centuries, I bet Eve was waiting for the perfect opportunity to betray him. She plans to use us to do her dirty work. From my brief glimpses of her, I don't think she is entirely sane. Adam is much more collected."

"So the odds of a trap is decreasing Misaka says relieved. Though, it is a possibility Eve expects us to finish each other off so neither side can stop her."

"A good observation," Amelia agreed. "That is why we couldn't commit all of our forces."

"So," Carissa replied to the face in the sky. "Eve not only messes with us, she interferes with you too. I suppose it doesn't matter. Today is your last day."

"It is!" Adam agreed. "I am just about finished! All my preparations will be complete by sundown! Your appearance changes nothing!" The face in the sky grinned, which immediately caused every alarm in Touma's mind to go off. He glanced at Carissa, Amelia, and Leivinia and noted their expressions had all turned solemn. Every time Adam appeared, he had never once laughed, or even smiled. He was always calm and emotionless, the exact opposite of Eve. This was not a good sign. "You are lucky I am in a good mood! After eons, our justice will be served, so I will make this offer! Leave and I will spare your lives!"

"As if!" Carissa roared back. "We will crush you where you hole yourself up like a frightened kitten!"

"Misaka believes that would count as animal cruelty Misaka states with distaste."

"Then the death of your men rests solely on you!" A tremendous lightning bolt roared across the sky at Adam's words and was immediately followed be an earsplitting boom. Adam would not repeat himself. His offer was a onetime deal. Carissa's denial set forth the next chain of events. Touma did not expect her to agree, he knew for a fact she wouldn't, but he wished she chose her words better. The mass of dark clouds moved over them and the inferno higher up only intensified. "Let them feel the pain from your stubbornness and pride!"

"AHHHH!"

Dozens of people started yelling out in pain, both male and female. Touma turned around wildly and then heard the sound of breaking glass. My hand went off, he realized. Not everyone was being affected by the invisible attack. It seemed like less than half were, but with everyone together, it seemed like a much greater number. Touma had no idea what was happening, but then a girl's cry of pain cause him to turn. "Imouto?!" He saw her collapse to her knees and her gun had fallen to the ground next to her. He crouched down next to her. "What's wrong?" She looked at him and her lips were pressed tightly together to avoid crying out again. She pulled back one of her sleeves and Touma almost gagged. Her arm was covered with pulsing red boils. It looked just like what the kid's sister in the small town had, but they were appearing much faster and looked ready to burst already. He reached over to her and touched her arm with his hand. The sound of breaking glass rang out and the boils instantly disappeared. Imouto blinked and looked up at him.

"Thank you Misaka says gratefully. There was nothing Misaka could do to stop the pain."

"Adam is serious now," Touma muttered angrily. He stood up and helped Imouto her feet and looked around.

"Let me see your hand," Leivinia demanded and grabbed his hand after he had let go of Imouto. Once again, he heard the sound of it going off and he managed to catch a glimpse of a couple red boils disappearing from Leivinia's arm. "That's better. Good job at being useful."

"I didn't hear you say anything or I would have helped out sooner," Touma said.

"A little pain won't be enough to stop me," Leivinia bragged. "You don't have to worry about me so much. Instead, you should probably start attending to the others. It's only going to get worse."

"No doubt," Amelia agreed. "Mr. Kamijou, can you start curing our troops before the next wave of attacks? We should help as many as possible."

"Of course," Touma agreed quickly and stepped forward. He may have been immune to Adam's magic, but everyone else was suffering. He could feel Carissa's eyes on him, but he walked up to the nearest person he could tell was afflicted by the plague of boils. The person was one of Agnese's nuns and there were several large boils on her neck. She looked up at him as he approached and he noticed her face was slightly pale. "I'm going to help," he reassured her and touched her arm. The boils disappeared and the nun's face regained its color. She was just about to thank him when the tip of his finger brushed against the cuff of her habit. His hand went off again.

The poor girl's outfit exploded before his eyes.

"Err…" Touma trailed off and let go of the girl's arm. There was no way he could have known the nuns were wearing habits designed for combat and such were made from magic. In hindsight, after the run with Agnese in Italy so long ago, he should have considered that possibility. "I'm s-…" He didn't get another word out.

"KYAAAAAAAAAA!" the nun shrieked and dove down to cover herself.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Amelia roared and Touma felt himself get punched by her and another, most likely Leivinia. Touma fell down to the ground next to the nun, who stood up and ran off behind the others. Two of the other nuns passed her a spare outfit. Touma didn't immediately get up, his head was still spinning, but he could hear many of the nuns mumbling about him and the knights hardly contained their amusement.

"Zach was right," Touma heard one of them say. "This boy is a riot."

"I can't believe I forgot he was completely clueless," Carissa muttered and rubbed her temple with her hand. A flicker of annoyance flashed on her face. "Silence!" she suddenly yelled out in frustration and the troops immediately shut their mouths, except from an occasional gasp of pain from someone afflicted by the boils. "That boy doesn't know anything about our magic, so that kind of accident was to be expected. It was her fault for not realizing it either." Touma opened his mouth but Leivinia elbowed him in the side. "Most of you have seen his negation before, so this should not be a surprise. We don't have time to goof around and make fun of him right now, so if you are affected by the boils, get in line and let him touch you with his hand. Oh, and roll up your damn sleeves!"

Things went smoothly after that. In no time, Touma went through and cured the inflicted troops while the storm above them raged. The nuns he cured were divided into three groups. The first group thanked him and moved on. The second group turned red at his touched and quickly left. He figured they did not have much exposure to males close to their age. The third group glanced at him suspiciously, the memory of the first girl still fresh in their minds. Touma also noticed the knights kept back and waited for the nuns to go first, even though a couple of them were staggering slightly. This was something he could understand. The men were allowing the women to go first to get healed while they waited, even if they were suffering. Touma would have always let others go first. When it was finally their turn, the knights just removed a glove so Touma did not touch their armor. When the last one was finished, he walked back to Leivinia and Imouto.

"It wasn't your fault what happened Misaka says reassuringly. Accidents happen, even if they occur unusually often around the savior."

"That's not my fault," Touma protested. "But I should have realized their clothes might have been magic." He could feel Leivinia's amused expression on him and he went silent. His gaze moved to Amelia, who was issuing orders to the troops. Even if they were confined to the base camp, there was no way they were going to be slacking off. Troops were moving around and setting up runes and spells to prepare for the inevitable. "I am worried about Ruiko and Frenda though. They don't have magical protection. If they had been one of the ones afflicted by Adam's spell…" he trailed off and made a fist.

"Don't go thinking of running off on your own," Leivinia said from behind him. He turned toward her. "The knights and Anglican forces have their own magic to combat this. Your hand was just a more convenient use for our group. Stop distracting yourself and be prepared for what's about to happen."

"I'm not going to abandon the people who got dragged along in all this," Touma told her forcefully. She sighed and shook her head, but didn't argue. Touma felt Imouto put her hand on his shoulder, one of the few social gestures she knew, to try to reassure him. He smiled at her, but gently removed her hand. He took a few steps away and glanced back across the camp. He saw the other main group, which George was leading. Lessar was over there and possibly Frenda. She wouldn't want to be left out. Ruiko has to be back somewhere in the camp. Be careful, all of you. He turned back to his group and frustration overtook him. They were so close to Adam's stronghold and they still couldn't stop him from doing whatever he was doing. His eyes finally fell on Carissa, who was being unusually silent. She was only standing and glaring at the rest of her troops, with her arms crossed in front of her. Touma didn't know why, but he felt like something was wrong. He slowly gravitated toward her.

"What do you want?" Carissa muttered, without turning to look at him. Her voice sounded slightly strained.

"Are you okay?" Touma asked. He kept his voice down.

"I'm fine. Worry about yourself." Touma's eyes fell to her arm and saw it flinch slightly. It finally dawned on him.

"Adam's magic hit you, didn't it?"

"Keep your mouth shut," Carissa whispered angrily and she glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "I can't let the troops know their leader can be easily affected by the enemy's magic. Besides, it's not like yelling out in pain will solve anything."

"It's not going to do them any good if you can't fight at full potential," Touma protested.

"Whatever," Carissa relented. "You should realize how lucky you are. Common folk don't normally get to touch royalty."

"I know," Touma said and discreetly touched a bare spot on her arm. His hand went off. "But it's not the first time," he mumbled and then his brain realized what he said. Carissa's head turned toward him and he backed away immediately for fear of his life. He knew he shouldn't have said that, but his fatigue and the tension of their predicament were getting to him. He kept backing up as lightning shot out of Carissa's eyes. Well figuratively, there was a lot of anger directed at him for opening his mouth. Touma was about to apologize when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. This was a feeling he knew all too well. It had been a long time since he had been targeted by it, but his body instantly reacted.

He raised his right hand above him.

Then the sky above him dropped the lightning.

"Damn it!" he cried as the lightning struck his hand. The hairs on his arm stood up from the static electricity, but the lightning was immediately negated. All those times Mikoto chased me around the city really came in handy. I'm so used to surprise lightning strikes. I need to remember to thank her. He blinked to stop the white spots from the sudden flash of light caused by the lightning and looked around. The full situation began to dawn on him. Lightning was not limited to his group. It was constantly striking down randomly upon the camp. Tents struck by the lightning caught on fire, the thunder threaten to deafen his hearing, and the sudden flashes of bright light kept temporarily blinding him. Adam's assault didn't stop there. The clouds above them roared and the red inferno intensified.

Hail began to rain down.

It wasn't normal hail in many ways. First, it was not nearly as numerous as a natural storm would produce. The hail was far more spread out, as if to maximize its appearance, rather than the destruction. Second, the hail was roughly the size of softballs. A well place hit on someone's head would probably kill them from the force of the blow alone. The third, and perhaps more importantly, was the hail was glowing.

It was on fire.

One of the softball size pieces of hail hit the ground less than ten meters away from Touma. On impact, the hail exploded and lit a nearby tent on fire. Touma looked around and saw the slowly increasing rain of fire descend upon their camp, with occasional bolts of lightning. The sounds of explosions and yelling were muffled slightly by the ringing in his ear, but he could tell some people were beginning to panic. He heard Carissa shout something to the knights and he turned. The knights had raised their shields and formed a wall with them parallel to the earth, with the nuns ducking underneath it. There were plenty of gaps between the shields, but Touma saw a piece of flaming hail exploded a few inches above their shield wall and the flames never reached them. He realized their shields had formed complicated designs in the air and that must have been some kind of magical shielding rune. He was temporarily distracted and forgot he was standing out in the open.

"Look out!" Imouto dived forward and tackled Touma an instant before one of the flaming hail flew down at him. He fell backwards and Imouto landed on top. She rolled off of him and sprung to her feet, before she reached down and helped him up.

"You two need to find some cover!" Leivinia yelled at them and a large wall of stone rose from the earth next to them. It intercepted three explosions before the assaulting weather wore it down. She was standing under a small dome with one side opened so she could see them. Leivinia scooted out of the way to allow Imouto and Touma to rush in. "Seriously, you cause us no end of trouble. With your hand, you can't share the protection of the knights' runic shields and we can't give you armor. Don't touch the walls or this shelter will come down on us." She held up a disc in her hand. Her Symbol Weapon was based on the principle of ether and by transforming it into different shapes, she could control different elements. The wand was her primary form, which controlled fire, while the disc allowed control of the earth. As long as she kept using the disc form, she could regenerate the shelter after each explosion from the hail.

"Sorry about that," Touma apologized, but he quickly changed the subject to something more important. "Frenda and Lessar are with the other knights, so they should be okay under their shields, but what about Ruiko? She's still somewhere in the camp." He looked out across the remains of the once proud camp. Tents had collapsed and were on fire, the ground was covered in depressions from the explosions, and black smoke was rising into the sky, which caused the scenery to appear even darker when added to the black clouds above them.

"She is probably in one of the main tents," Leivinia said with a shrug. "They have better defenses than the sleeping tents. Think of them as small fortresses."

"I'm going to make sure," Touma said and stepped out of the stone shelter.

"You idiot!" Leivinia yelled at him.

"Misaka thinks the savior should stay too Misaka says to express her desire. But Misaka also knows how the savior is, so please be careful." Leivinia face palmed when Touma turned to give Imouto a brief nod.

"If you die, it's not my fault!" she yelled at him and then pouted. Touma had taken several steps away from the safety of her shelter and dodged a piece of hail, when he heard a voice.

"Stop boy!" He turned and saw Carissa marching toward him. She effortlessly sidestepped three balls of fire and stopped in front of him. "What do you think you are doing?! Your orders were to stay here!"

"I can't stand here when my friend could be trapped back there!" Touma replied forcefully. He stared at Carissa directly in the eyes, even though she was taller than him. "I'm going to check to make sure she is okay, then I will be back."

"If an opening appears and we can't move out because you are missing," Carissa countered. "How many more people are going to die?"

"I can't abandon her," Touma argued. "I'm going to check up on her and if you want to stop me, you will have to do it by force." For a second they stared at each other in silence and Touma was too focused on her to be aware all the eyes of the knights and nuns were staring at him. His eyes lowered when Carissa drew her sword from her hip. Wait… is she actually going to strike me? Her blade moved faster than his eyes could follow, but the strike wasn't aimed at him. A piece of flaming hail had been flying at her and she struck it. The hail didn't explode, but ricocheted off her blade and hit the ground a couple meters away. It exploded on contact with the ground and the wind whipped her blonde hair slightly. Touma saw another piece of hail flying down at him and he reached upwards with his right hand. The hail hit his opened palm and he felt something. It's solid, like a stone. With the sound of breaking glass, the flaming stone disappeared without a hint of an explosion.

"Not bad," Carissa complimented.

"I can take care of myself," Touma pointed out. "Now, I'm going to check up on her."

"You can do that," Carissa finally conceded. "But I had a quicker method in mind." She pulled out her radio. "This is your commanding officer. The Imagine Breaker boy is being difficult. What is the status of his companions left in camp?"

"Only one is left in camp and she is currently in the medical bay helping out with the few people caught outside when the thunderstorm and hail appeared. She was not injured."

"Roger," Carissa finished and hung up. "This is much faster than running around blindly. Use your head once in a while."

"I tell him that all the time!" Leivinia called out. "He doesn't learn!"

"If she's okay," Touma said slowly. "Then I don't have any reason to leave." He looked up at the sky and saw the clouds above them begin to spread out. The thunderstorm had stopped and the hail was falling less and less frequently.

"Whatever," Carissa sniffed. "I can't have you running all over the place and abandoning your post. Look sharp, this plague is almost over." Touma nodded and hustled over to Imouto and Leivinia. There was less of the flaming stone hail, but it was still coming down. Taking shelter was the best course of action. Leivinia glared at him for being stupid, but Imouto was also staring at him with a look Touma couldn't identify. He was also now aware of the nuns and knights watching him.

"Is it my imagination or are they staring at me more often than necessary?" Touma asked.

"After the stunt you just pulled?" Leivinia asked incredulously. "You argued with the commanding officer while simultaneously knocked away a very powerful magical attack and made it look like you didn't even care."

"Oh," Touma mumbled embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head. "Was it that big of a deal? Carissa hit it away with a sword."

"Misaka also has noticed you have been addressing the commanding officer very casually Misaka points out with a trace of suspicion." Birdway smirked evilly.

"Huh?" Touma asked bewildered. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing Misaka mumbled irritated." She looked away from him and Touma couldn't understand what he did wrong.

"INCOMING!"

Touma stepped out of the shelter, when he heard someone yell, and was closely followed by Imouto and Leivinia. The hail and thunder had finally stopped and the clouds above them had thinned. The warning shout was indicating a new threat. Swarms of black dots in the distance were approaching the camp. It was like black streams were flowing across the sky. As they drew nearer, the hum of thousands upon thousands of beating wings reverberated through the air. The streams were actually swarms of locust. There were so many, it would be impossible to guess the numbers.

"Get the flamethrowers ready!" Amelia ordered to the knights, but they were not fast enough. Even moving immediately at her words, only a few managed to position themselves and start burning the swarm. There were not enough of them compared to the insects and the camp was soon completely covered. The locusts did not care where they landed. All the plant life was being devoured while everyone else was being covered by them. The knights and nuns were crushing the ones that came close, while Leivinia turned her weapon back into a wand and started joining in burning the pests.

"There's so many," Touma said and immediately regretted it. One of them crawled into his mouth and he gagged. He reached up and grabbed its leg to prevent it from crawling down his throat. The plan was to pull it out, but Touma received a surprise. The leg disappeared, along with the rest of the insect. The insects themselves are magic? How? Did Adam create them like Eve? But his power was supposed to be different. We didn't consider the possibility they both could use creation magic. The rest of his body was covered with locusts, but his hand was clear. He held it up to his face so he could see between his figures without an insect leg poking him in the eye. The knights were faring better than most, with their armor providing the most protection. The locusts were still trying to slip in between the slits on their helms though. The nuns were fairing the worst and were in similar positions as Touma, without the convenience of his hand. An occasional flash of light, fire, or other type of magic occasionally went off as they tried to clear themselves of the pests.

The crackle of electricity next to Touma caused him to turn.

"Misaka does not like these types of animals Misaka states in disgusts. Misaka will stick to cats." She was constantly generating a small electrical field around herself. Any locusts that came into contact with her generated a small blue spark and then fell to the ground paralyzed. Touma immediately thought of a bug zapper and couldn't help grinning. "What is so funny? Misaka asks."

"Nothing," he said quickly and looked at Leivinia. "Birdway, are you o-…?" His question was answered by a wall of fire erupting around her. She stepped out of it and looked completely unharmed. The smell of roasted insects lingered in the air though.

"No matter how many I toast," Leivinia complained. "They keep coming."

"We need to find a way to repel them!" Touma turned toward Amelia, the one who was giving out orders. "Knights, provide cover for the Anglican forces to give them time to devise a spell." The knights formed several circles around groups of the nuns like a well-oiled machine. There was a slight glow from their shields, but it didn't seem to provide any protection. The locusts ignored what they were doing and continued to try to find their way into every nook and cranny. "Why aren't our wards working?" Amelia asked Carissa.

"Hmm," Carissa murmured. The locusts were covering her, but she only wiped them off her face. "The locust plague was designed to eat plant life, not animal. It's possible Adam designed these locusts to eat mana refined from our life energy. Mana isn't technically animal and exists naturally in nature too. What do you think?" She addressed the last question to Leivinia.

"Pretty good theory," Leivinia agreed. "It would explain why your armor and wards already set up are not affected. They target spells that require a constant source of mana being refined."

"That's going to be annoying while we devise a countermeasure," Carissa fumed. "Amelia, any ideas?" They started talking in rapid hushed voices.

"Misaka won't be able to keep this up for long Misaka reports." Touma turned toward her. "The strain of keeping a constantly electrical circuit is very taxing."

"Try to hold on a little while longer," Touma whispered. He couldn't do anything else to reassure her. If he touched her, he would either get shocked or negate her ability. "The plagues are not lasting that long."

"That's because Adam is rushing to the last one," Leivinia hissed. "These are just to wear us down."

"And it's working," Touma mumbled back dryly. He took a couple cautious steps and another cloud of locusts rushed past him. There was still no end to them. He saw several of Agnese's forces being harassed by the insects and there was little they could do about it now. Leivinia couldn't keep up magical flames around them all precisely, or she didn't want to. Touma couldn't be completely sure about her level of skill. There was also nothing he could do right now either. He felt so useless, like he was watching everyone else suffer. Adam is just letting us suffer from a safe distance. He could face us directly, but he's going about it from the safety of his base. Touma suddenly felt angry and made a fist. He was clenching it so tight, his knuckle was turning white. His hand pulsed. Huh, oh that's right. I keep forgetting I can do this. His hand could make the locusts disappear, so an area pulse could take out a large number of them.

He held out his hand and a white light emitted from it.

The wave of light engulfed him and all the insects disappeared. He blinked and was glad not to have hundreds of legs crawling all over his body. He looked around and received a surprise. Insects were disappearing behind him. It was like an invisible wave from his hand was flowing toward the center of the camp and disintegrated the insects. A blank strip devoid of insects appeared, before the rest of the insects began to spread out to fill the space. What happened? Are they somehow connected and negating the area interfered with it somehow? He suddenly felt a vicelike grip on his arm and then pain. He turned to see Carissa staring at him.

"Why didn't you mention you can negate besides with just a touch?!" she demanded.

"Err," Touma stuttered as he thought about it. "I only recently learned about it and I'm not use to using it a lot. It slips my mind."

"For the love of-…," Carissa fumed and then composed herself. She let go of Touma's arm and he could feel the blood start to flow again. "Never mind, this may be what we needed." She turned to Leivinia and Amelia. "Did you two catch what the boy did?"

"He negated an area and it caused a ripple effect among the rest of the locusts," Amelia identified. "So the locusts themselves were magically created and not just called."

"Adam is creating rivers of mana originating at his location," Leivinia added and traced a line through the air. "The mana feeds his magical bugs and allows them to flourish and multiple. The boy interrupted one of the streams and they no longer could stay materialized. Hmm, it's only temporarily though. We need a more permanent plan."

"No," Carissa argued. "This is perfect. Position him in the path of the current flowing through our main forces. This should be the break we need."

"So the Anglican forces can develop a barrier to block the rest of them," Amelia finished. She looked at Leivinia. "Can you track the position without going off to far?"

"No sweat," Leivinia replied arrogantly. She generated another cyclone of fire to remove the insects from her. "I'm more than eager to rid myself of these pests. Boy, follow me. We need to move to that side of the troops." She turned and started walking, while Touma hurried behind her. They didn't quite run, with the swarm of insects still gripping onto them, but they weren't dallying. "Here," Leivinia pointed to a spot in front of three knights. All three of them stepped back to allow Touma room. "Keep using that area negation here to disrupt the insects from the troops. I'll let you know when you can stop." She took a couple steps back. "Go," she ordered and Touma nodded.

He focused and fired off another white burst of light from his hand. He saw all the insects covering the platoon of knights and nuns start disappearing, starting with the ones closest to him. The knights who knew what to expect stood up straighter, but several of the nuns looked around wildly. "Don't even think about slacking!" Touma heard Carissa yell at them. "You have a brief reprieve to figure out how to stop the mana streams creating those insects. Get to work!" Touma gulped and imagined what Carissa would do to him if she thought he was slacking. There was a two second delay before Touma could fire off another pulse, so he mentally counted down in his mind each time.

The plan worked perfectly.

"They got it done pretty quickly without the bugs interfering," Leivinia commented and almost sounded impressed. "Okay, you can stop." Touma sighed in relief and walked over to her.

"Did they finish?" he asked. She didn't respond and only pointed. Touma turned and heard dozens of the nuns chanting and a yellow glow emitted from their circle. The insects started to slowly fade away before disappearing completely. With their job finished, Touma and Leivinia headed back to Carissa Amelia, and Imouto.

"We owe you thanks," Amelia told Touma. "If you hadn't found out about locusts' weakness, we would have been stuck for who knows how long. The Anglicans were able to design a spell to neutralize the mana streams the insects were being created from."

"Don't give him too much credit," Carissa interjected. "He only did it by accident."

"Don't inflate his ego," Leivinia added.

"I don't have an ego!" Touma protested and Leivinia only laughed at him. Knowing they were only making fun of him to distract themselves from the situation, he turned toward Imouto. "Are you okay?"

"Much better now that the insects are gone Misaka admits." She started to dust off her shirt. "Insects have been added to the list of animal Misaka is not content with adopting."

"You did well at protecting yourself," Touma praised. "You may not have Mikoto's firepower, but your control is-…"

Everything went dark.

It wasn't like clouds blocked out the sun and it turned to dusk. Everything had instantly become pitched black. Touma could not see a single flicker of light. The sun on the horizon was gone, the fires were gone, the lights from camp where gone. I'm completely blind. He took a couple steps forward and held out his hands to avoid bumping into anything. The uneven ground made every step treacherous. This is the next plague, darkness. Adam actually was able to extinguish all the light in the area. This was something completely unknown to Touma. It was one thing to be temporarily blinded by a flash of light, but another to be unsure of when he would be able to see again. His hand was not reacting to the darkness in front of him, so Touma was not sure what to do. He heard a lot of yelling and screaming, but then Carissa took over.

"Stay calm!" she roared at them. "You all know panicking and crashing into each other won't help! Stand at attention and wait for further orders." The shouting stopped but there was a lot of clanking as people tried to get in line. Touma stumbled slightly and his right hand grabbed something soft. Touma was confused for a moment.

A peach?

Bam!

Something solid hit him in the side of the face and sent him flying backwards. He landed sideways on the ground with a loud thud. His head was spinning and it took a moment for him to collect his thoughts. He held his hands up to his head until he felt like he could sit up. He tried to prop himself up, but it was difficult through the pain and the added fact he still couldn't see. He finally managed to sit up and rubbed his face with his right hand. His thumb and finger brushed against his eyes and then he heard the sound of glass shattering. Bright light suddenly flooded into his eyes and he was forced to squint. He forced his eyes opened and looked around. The troops were hastily formed up, but it was obvious they couldn't see. The nuns were trying to draw runes and circles, but they couldn't get the shapes right. Imouto and Leivinia were nowhere near him, but someone else was.

Amelia stood only a few feet away, had her eyes closed, and a slightly flustered look on her face. Touma gulped and scrambled away until he found Carissa.

"Carissa!" Touma called out and her eyes twitched. She turned to face him. Her eyes opened automatically, but they didn't appear to be able to focus on him. She's blind too.

"What is it boy? This isn't the time for a stupid question."

"My hand can negate the blindness."

"Why the hell didn't you say that earlier?!" she roared at him. Touma instinctively scrambled backwards for a second. Carissa calmed herself down. "No, there's probably a trick into negating it, right?"

"Yes," Touma confirmed. "My hand didn't go off until I touched my eyes."

"Interesting," Carissa mumbled and then turned away from him. "Amelia and Leivinia Birdway, come to my location quickly. Follow my voice." Amelia was the first to move toward her location and Leivinia started to push past the knights near her. Somehow, she had gotten stuck behind several of the knights. Touma took this opportunity to find Imouto. She was standing still and kept jerking her head, as if she was trying to hear the location of everything around her. Touma scooted over to her and reached a hand out, but she suddenly hit him with her hand.

"Identify yourself Misaka demands!"

"It's me," Touma said. "Hold still and I'll remove the blindness." Imouto instantly froze and Touma pressed his hand against her eyes. His hand went off and he lowered it.

"Sorry for smacking you Misaka apologizes sincerely. Misaka could not identify your presence without sight."

"It was my fault for not announcing myself," Touma said quickly. "It's not the first time this trip. Now, I have to get back to Carissa. I bet she's going to have me remove the blindness from the commanders." Imouto nodded in understanding and Touma turned around. I probably should have cured Carissa before, but I'm sure she wants to be the one to tell me to do it. Touma skidded to a stop next to Carissa and Amelia right when Leivinia managed to find them.

"You two are next to me right?" Leivinia asked.

"Yes," Amelia confirmed. "I'm glad the princess decided to give the order to stay here. Imagine if we were blinded when engaging Adam's forces. It would have been a massacre for us."

"It's the reason I made the call," Carissa huffed. "We are on his territory." She turned her head around. "Boy, you better be right next to me or I swear I'm going to-…"

"I'm here," Touma interjected quickly before Carissa could go into vivid detail of how she would inflict bodily harm upon him.

"Then cure us," Carissa ordered. "He has to touch our eyes, so don't stab him thinking he's attacking us."

"Can we stab him for fun?" Leivinia asked jokingly.

"Go ahead," Amelia mumbled and this confirmed to Touma she knew what he accidently did. Instead of saying anything, he reached up to touch Carissa and gently put his hand on her eyes. As soon as he heard the familiar sound, he removed his hand immediately. Carissa blinked several times and looked around.

"That's better," she said and then glanced at Touma. "Stop dawdling and get to work on them."

"Right." Touma then did the same thing with Leivinia and Amelia. Both of them had similar reactions to Carissa as they got used to the light again. "Should I start working on the rest of the troops?" he asked.

"No," Carissa told him. "That would take far too long and you wouldn't be able to reach the other group." She turned to Leivinia. "Since we now know his spell doesn't actually extinguish light, but interferes with us being to see light, can you design a spell with the Anglican's and Amelia's help?"

"Yes," Leivinia answered. "Get me a half dozen or so of your strongest magicians." Carissa nodded to Amelia and she set off into the mass of troops. "Now, there is one thing I'm not sure of and I hope someone can help me with. Is this spell making a wall around our eyes or did Adam remove the sense of sight? That answer depends how I design the spell."

"Adam's mana is so corrupt," Carissa mumbled. "It would take too long to decode it without the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. He's using magic similar to God, but at the same time mixes it with his own twisted beliefs. I should have demanded the church send her too."

"Then we have to guess," Leivinia said with a shrug. "If we are wrong, it's going to take twice as long."

"I think it's the one where he removes our sense of sight," Touma volunteered. Both Carissa and Leivinia turned toward him simultaneously.

"What makes you say that?" they asked in unison.

"Well I didn't see anything that resembled a blockage around anyone's eyes," Touma explained. "Everyone's eyes looked normal. Also, I think Adam would prefer taking things away from us instead of creating. Eve is the one who likes to create things. The insects he kind of had to because of the way the plagues worked."

"You're explanation is pretty bad," Leivinia said and face palmed. Carissa had only rolled her eyes. "A mana blockage could easily be invisible. As for the second part of your rambling, there might be something to that." She rubbed the side of her face with her free hand. "Fine, I don't have anything to support the other side."

"I brought the others," Amelia announced. Five knights and three nuns were right behind her. "They still need their blindness removed."

"Get to it boy," Carissa said and pushed him forward. Touma quickly went through the troops and removed their blindness. The knights actually removed their helms and he was careful not to touch their armor. He was also extremely careful not to touch the nuns' clothes. They looked a little embarrassed when they saw him face to face, but they murmured thanks. After they were cured, he backed away next to Imouto to make sure he was out of range while they performed the spell. Amelia and Leivinia were working directly with the design of the spell, while Carissa was feeding information to the rest of the troops using her radio. Touma noticed she kept looking up at the sky and frowning.

There's one more plague coming, Touma thought. And it's the worst. The Plague of the Firstborn, the spell we have seen Adam cast before, but this time it will be on a much larger scale.

"You look worried Misaka comments."

"I know what is coming next," Touma muttered.

"The last plague Misaka says." She nodded her head. "Does the savior think there is something he can do to stop it instead of staying here? Misaka can try to cover the savior's absence."

"I'm frustrated because I can't do anything to stop this," Touma said bitterly. "All we can do is react. I don't know how many people were hurt by the hail and thunderstorm, and I'm sure they won't tell me. Something like, unnecessary information. As long as we sit here, we can't stop Adam from doing whatever he wants to. He can keep raining down plagues on us until our defenses finally falter. I'm not use to this. All I can do is punch people."

"Misaka remembers seeing the punch the savior speaks of Misaka reminisces. The final punch that defeated Accelerator has been stored permanently on the Misaka Network. The evil one watches it almost daily Misaka adds."

"Please don't tell him that," Touma begged and Imouto responded by placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Misaka would never say or do anything to put the savior's life in danger Misaka answers honestly." Touma looked at her. Those words normally should not have been a surprise between friends but, to Touma, that wasn't something he heard a lot. His friends from school would say things that would cause him to get chased constantly for misunderstandings that were not his fault. Mikoto would occasionally shock him, but she didn't do that nearly as often and he usually had to deserve it. Misaki and Ruiko were probably his closest friends that didn't really get him into trouble with their actions, but they did tease him from time to time, not that he minded.

"Umm… thank you," Touma replied to her.

"Misaka does not like standing so close to the enemy's base and waiting either Misaka continues. Though, the plan to move out as soon as an opening is sound, so Misaka can't complain."

"One more left," Touma muttered and Imouto nodded. They stood in silence for a while and watched Leivinia bark orders. Even if she was a little bossy, she was intelligent and a natural born leader, much like Carissa. They eventually got the spell set up and the nuns and knights began to chant. A white light erupted around them and covered the entire camp. Touma noticed the light stopped at the border of the camp and then his hand went off when the light hit him. The light still passed over him and he sighed in relief. If my hand negated the spell from a distance, I would have to leave the camp to allow them to cure everyone.

"That was easier than I thought," Leivinia announced way more loudly than necessary. "Curing blindness has been around for centuries so all we had to do was choose one of the methods. The boy was actually correct in his weirdly acquired analysis of Adam."

"I can hear you!" Touma called back, slightly irritated.

"What?! I gave you credit!"

"So after blindness we have death left," Carissa said as they all gathered around. The nuns and knights went back into their positions and then mess of troops began to line up evenly. "Amelia, are our precautions still functioning?"

"I'm checking now," Amelia replied and continued to have a conversation on her radio. "None of them were damaged by the storms," she announced after a minute. "We are fully prepared for the final plague."

"Perfect," Carissa said. She turned to Touma. "Do not approach the entrances of the camp until I tell you otherwise. We don't want you accidently touching anything."

"There's a barrier erected around the camp to stop Adam's final plague, right?" Touma tried to confirm.

"You could say that," Carissa answered with a grin. "Let's say we have the best defenses against this one than the others because Adam was kind enough to show us it before."

"Your defenses only delay the inevitable!" Adam's voice boomed out. The clouds did not shift into a face this time, so Touma figured Adam didn't care about that anymore.

"Brace yourself." Those were the only two words Carissa said into her radio and then cut contact. She turned into the direction of Adam's base. "What brings this unexpected displeasure?" she asked out toward the vast desert.

"You have stayed despite my power and warning!" Adam's voice continued to ring out as clearly if he was right next to them. "Princess, you are solely responsible for leading your men to their death! Every firstborn among your forces will die, from the lowest servant to your strongest commanders!"

"We have survived every one of your previous plagues!" Carissa retorted. "And we will survive this one. The might of England grants no quarter to evil!"

"This plague caused Egypt to fall!" Adam replied and his voice grew cold. "Let us see if history repeats itself." His voice disappeared and Carissa crossed her arms. The scowl of her face told Touma she was not amused.

"Above us!" one of the nuns shouted. Touma turned his eyes upwards and a chill ran down his spine.

A single speck of pure white light appeared in the dark grey clouds covering the sky.

This light didn't give Touma hope. It felt ominous. The clouds slowly opened and the light grew brighter. The clouds swirled around the opening and the light refracting off them made the edges around the light spin too, like a portal to another world. The opening grew until a large river of glowing white mist began to flow out of it. The mist looked like it was made of light, but it flowed and moved like flickering water. It continued to grow and covered the sky above them. The mist swirled in a spiral and provided light to the entire camp. The dreary morning suddenly looked like midday. The light was eerie, because the pale white light seemed to drain the color of the surroundings to make them look dull and bleak. From the main current above them, several smaller streams broke off and began to descend down toward the camp. The mist moved slowly, but with purpose. It was almost as if streams were hands and reached down to greet them with a gentle embrace.

Touma knew better.

That white mist would kill whoever it touched if they were a firstborn. Touma's eyes widened as the rivers of death reduced the distance to them. The shouting from people in the troops was barely noticeable. He knew the church and knights had set up defenses, but he couldn't see them. All he could do was watch the light of death reach out the tips of its fingers toward him. His right hand began to rise up automatically, but it stopped. The mist stopped moving directly at them and seemed to be pushed toward the side. It was as if there was an invisible dome covering the entire camp. The mist didn't disappear though and instead began to surround the camp. In minutes, the entire camp was encased by the white mist, but it couldn't seem to penetrate the camp's border.

"Will the barrier hold?" Touma asked Leivinia. "It stopped the mist, but now we are surrounded."

"The final plague," Leivinia told him. "Was specifically designed to bring forth death. However, the way to protect from it is wellknown."

"Huh?"

"You really need to read a book once in a while," Carissa told him. "Even if your city doesn't study religion, the story of Moses is very common. To separate the Egyptians from the Israelites, or Moses's people, the blood of a lamb was used on the entrances of their houses. The plague would not enter any houses marked. Because we knew about Adam's power, we were able to prepare. We naturally couldn't mark every tent, so we marked the entrances toward the camp. The spell required a dwelling with at least one entrance so we designated the camp as the dwelling with four main entrances. Windows did not have to be marked, so we considered all the open space windows. Pretty simple, but we do have one problem."

"Which is…?" Touma asked.

"We don't have a way to actually destroy the plague," Amelia explained.

"WHAT?!"

"Is the plan to wait until it wears out Misaka questions?"

"Pretty much," Leivinia confirmed. "None of our testing found a sure way to destroy this. We have to wait until Adam relinquishes his mana voluntarily or runs out."

"Trapped like insects!" Adam's voice boomed out before Touma could respond. "I would have preferred your deaths, but watching you cowards hide is fine for now! Bask in your failure as I finish my work!"

"Shit," Leivinia hissed. "He's right. If we take a single step outside of the camp, we will be hit by the spell. He's going to keep it going while he finishes whatever he was doing."

"And we have no idea how deep Adam's mana reserves are," added Amelia. "Some of our troops are not first born, so they could leave, but the vast majority of our forces will be stuck."

"If we can't leave the camp," Carissa fumed. "This entire excursion will have been for naught. Get to work on finding a way to break his spell." The nuns and knights snapped to attention and immediately started working.

"So the only things protecting us are some blood marked around the entrances?" Touma asked Leivinia.

"If you reduce the complex system of beliefs and mana refinement then yes," Leivinia replied and rolled her eyes. "Your hand will be able to pass through any of the entrances without removing the protection as long as you don't touch the actual wood frame the blood is smeared on."

"That poor lamb Misaka mutters darkly."

"Spare me the drama," Leivinia huffed. "People eat lamb all the time so the blood was not hard to obtain from a butcher." She turned back to Touma. "Seriously though, do NOT touch the frame of any of the entrance ways or we are screwed."

"I won't," Touma assured her. "I actually received a warning this time about what not to touch." Leivinia couldn't resist chuckling for a second and went to join the others about the task at hand. He sighed and squinted up at the swirling white light. Well, this is going to be a long day. What can we do to get out of this? Eve said they needed my hand, but Adam always acted like he rather get rid of me instead of risking my interference. Eve stopped him the last two times he was about to go on a rampage, so it appears she wants me alive, but why? And if she does, why send me to Adam without her being here to stop him? I'm sure she knew I would find a way to go. Does she think he won't kill me or does my hand actually not matter? Did she know the church would need me? She's always full of lies and half-truths I can't make out her goal. He closed his eyes and grabbed his head in frustration. This doesn't make any sense. Any answer leads to more questions.

"Something on the savior's mind? Misaka asks curiously." Touma opened his eyes and saw Imouto's face watching him closely. He sighed and nodded.

"I'm trying to figure out what Eve's game is," Touma answered. "Eve said my hand is important, but Adam has shown he doesn't care. Eve was the one who told us where he is and now Adam said she betrayed him. Eve is very manipulative, even if she acts as a kid, and I think she knew I would go with the church to stop him. She either has to have complete confidence in our victory or…" He trailed off and Imouto spoke up.

"…or she expects us to finish each other off Misaka finishes quietly."

"Precisely," Touma agreed. "Though, everything she has done up to this point has never been straightforward. I think there is something more to this we don't know about."

"Do you have any ideas? Misaka questions."

"Any idea I can come up with will be many times simpler than something Eve is planning," Touma admitted. "I can't focus on the details. Instead, what if I focus on the part about Eve knowing the church would bring me here? It would be assumed I would be forced to join their groups. These kinds of large fights I can't just run off on my own." His eyes fell on one of the entrance to the camp, not too far away from him.

"True Misaka agrees on these points. Even stealth operations are coordinated with the main group and are usually performed by a small group of highly trained individuals. While the savior is strong, you usually fight on your own." Touma nodded.

"But what if I go off on my own?" Touma asked. Imouto titled her head to the side.

"Misaka would say that would be a suicide mission Misaka replies confused."

"Exactly," Touma agreed with a smirk. "Which is why I think I might be able to catch Adam offguard and get us out of this trap. We can't stay here forever. We have to move the assault against his base. This may be extremely risky and Carissa would probably flay me alive if I told her my idea, but it's all I can do."

"Misaka is hesitant to support a course of action that may cause the savior bodily harm Misaka admits hesitantly." Touma saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes and put his hands on her shoulder. He lowered his gaze until he was looking at her directly in the eyes. Touma also thought for a moment he saw a tiny bit of pink appear on her cheeks.

"I have to do this," He told her. "I'm going to move toward the entrance of the camp and try something." He paused and took a deep breath. "Do you trust me?"

Those four words had a much greater impact than Touma realized and would cause a crisis he could not have predicted.

Imouto had been connected to the Misaka Network since she had woken up. So the scene before her was being broadcasted to all the other Sisters. Every single one of them was paying the utmost attention to this conversation, including Worst and Last Order. The Sisters were worried about Touma and were preparing to mobilize every one of them currently in Australia to his location if things got out of hand. The network immediately burst into chatter about whether or not Imouto should stop him. It took Last Order to restore calm and then Misaka 13577 called a vote about what Imouto should do. Imouto was aware of all of this, but the boy staring at her caused her to do something the network had not witnessed before.

"I do." Imouto replied with the two simple words, but emphasized the 'I'. The network had gone silent because Imouto had answered a very important question the network had not voted on. Minor decisions did not require a network vote, but the Sisters had an agreement that important issues required one. Most Sisters now considered Imouto rogue and the rest of them agreed after her next action, which was virtually a declaration of war. Imouto reached up her hands and placed them on the side of Touma's head. Touma turned red and Imouto knew what she was doing was the right choice. His reaction was exactly what she had read in a book. She stood on her tiptoes and moved her head so her lips pressed firmly on Touma's cheek. She pulled herself back and looked up at his flustered face. "Misaka hopes this good luck charm will help Misaka says, her face red with embarrassment."

"Charm?" Touma asked in shock. Where on earth did she learn that? He knew she was only trying to help, so he smiled at her to cover his own embarrassment. "Thanks," he told her. He dropped his hands from her shoulders and turned away. "Wish me luck." He started walking toward the entrance of the camp, with only Imouto noticing.

"Good luck Misaka whispers nervously." Imouto sighed and pressed a hand up against her chest. Misaka's heart rate is way faster than normal except when under physical exertion. Misaka might be getting sick and should get herself checked. This is not the first time. Imouto then turned her attention back to the thousands of angry Sisters trying to contact her. (Misaka will now answer questions Misaka 10032 reports.)

(What was that?! Misaka 13577 demands angrily. Your decision to ignore protocol was completely unacceptable!)

(This is why Misaka volunteered to go instead Misaka 19090 reminds everyone. Misaka 10032 has begun to exhibit selfish desires that impede her mission. Misaka would also like to point out, when Misaka 10032 woke up and started broadcasting this morning, she was in the same tent as the savior.) The darkness in the net continued to grow.

(So much negativity and killing intent. This is great, but it's overpowering Misaka…) Worst faded out and the network suddenly felt even darker for some reason.

(Please calm down everyone MISAKA pleads as MISAKA tries to restore order. I'm sure she has a rational explanation MISAKA adds quickly as MISAKA hopes to get an acceptable answer.)

(Explain why we should not travel down to your location and swap you out Misaka 18997 says angrily. The deal was to share all data gained with the savior, not hide the information.)

(First, swapping Misaka out with another would be impossible right now Misaka 10032 explains. We are currently trapped behind the enemy's power. Also, with the number of troops, it would be impossible for another Misaka to approach without being seen. Such an action would only cause suspicion among our allies. However, Misaka 10032 adds quickly, things are about to start moving again and Misaka needs to be prepared. Misaka will be uploading to the network but will not be replying to questions.)

(Wait-…!) One of the Sisters tried to stop Imouto from disconnecting, but did not make it in time. Imouto sighed to herself and turned toward Carissa and the others, who did not appear to be having luck with disabling Adam's attack.

"…nothing is affecting his magic," one of the nuns reported. "We can't even strike at the mana connections directly."

"We didn't think it would be easy to stop this one," Amelia told her. "This was a plague designed by God. Keep working."

"We can't move out until it's stopped," another knight pointed out. "The men are getting restless and some of the newer recruits might try something rash."

"They know better than that," Carissa hissed at him and the knight froze. "Being a little restless is fine, it will keep them on their toes. I also will not give the order to move out until we have a way to stop this." Her eyebrows furrowed at something the knight said. Recruits might try something rash… rash. Her eyes widened and she looked around. "Where is the Imagine Breaker boy?!" she demanded. Her question was answered by the voice of Touma, which made her spin around on the spot.

"ADAM!" Touma yelled up at the sky. He was standing only a few steps from the entrance to the camp. He could almost reach out and touch the swirling white mist. "I know you can hear me! I'm going to come out and defeat you right now!"

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Carissa roared in fury. "Get away from there!"

"I'm going to step outside of the camp and you better hope my hand stops your spell!" Touma continued to yell up at the sky. "Otherwise, your entire plan is going to fail if you can't get your hands on the Imagine Breaker!"

"Is he stupid?" Amelia asked in disbelief.

"Did he completely forget what kind of person Adam is?" Carissa muttered. She was about to run over there and beat the living daylights out of the boy, when Imouto spoke up.

"He said he had a plan Misaka informs. Misaka believes in him even if the savior acts in ways Misaka cannot understand."

"A plan by him is usually charge forward and act stupid," Leivinia pointed out.

"Naive," Carissa told Imouto, but she raised an eyebrow. A plan, huh? It's more of a gamble. If Adam considers his hand important, he will stop his magic. If he doesn't, the boy will die. She measured the distance between them and calculated it would only take her a couple seconds to cover the distance if she ran full out. She was actually debating this because the boy was being stupid and she wanted to hit him. If he died, they wouldn't be able to break the barrier to Adam's base and the entire operation would end in failure. Then she realized something else. She actually did not want the boy to die. Before she could sort out that unusual feeling, she received another surprise.

"Do you value your life so little Imagine Breaker!?" Adam called down to Touma. "It's all your forces can do to keep my power at bay and hide behind their pathetic shield! Go ahead and step outside of it if you dare! Such an action would only demonstrate my power and demoralize your troops!"

He's not wrong, Carissa thought and began to form the optimal strategy in her mind. The Imagine Breaker is a kind of symbol for our assault. However, the fact Adam responded to the boy's taunts indicates his hand is important. Now, the question is how important? She glanced over at Leivinia. Her expression was serious and her eyes were narrowed in thought. She's probably thinking the same thing. Should I intervene or let the boy handle this? He may not be smart, but his instincts are usually pretty good. Her options delayed her for a moment.

"You told me what I wanted to know!" Touma yelled up triumphantly. "I'm going outside. Let's play a game of chicken then!" He took a deep breath and took the three steps to exit the base camp. Everything happened in an instant. Carissa, Amelia, and Leivinia had all started to move to stop him, but they set off too late. Touma stepped outside of the barrier and into the white mist.

The mist promptly retreated away from him.

Touma stopped and looked around. The mist wasn't just retreating from him, but from the entire encampment. The white mist was rising back up into the sky and began to disappear into the hole in the clouds. The color was slowly returning to the surroundings as the unnatural light disappeared. Even the clouds seemed to be thinning out. The normal light from the sun began to creep up over the horizon and Touma breathed a sigh of a relief. It was like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. Without the mist's eerie light making the scenery look depressing, the atmosphere was considerably lighter.

"If you truly wish to lead others to their deaths!" Adam's voice range out. To Touma, it did not sound angry, just loud. "I welcome you to my domain!" Touma glanced out into the desert and received quite a sight. The plant life that still existed after the locust plague began to wilt before his eyes. Grass and bushes shriveled up into brown dried out husks and broke apart in the weakest breeze. The few small trees began to lose their remaining leaves and collapsed under the rotting branches. The trail of death started to move away from the camp toward Adam's base. The wind picked up from the west and blew away the remains until nothing except dirt and rocks were in front of him. It was an eerie sight, but Touma did have one piece of hope to hang on to.

I knew he needed my hand. He couldn't risk losing it. His pride was short-lived when three people hit him out of nowhere, which caused him to fall to the ground.

"What were you thinking?!" Amelia demanded. "You were specifically told to stay inside!"

"That was the most bullheaded thing I have seen you do!" Leivinia added angrily. "You could have died instantly. There is a limit to pigheadedness!"

"I gave you an order," Carissa said, in a voice of determined calm. She was however radiating a dark aura which dwarfed Amelia's and Leivinia's anger. "You do remember what we discussed earlier, about following my commands? Now, before I lose my temper, what made you think this would work?"

"No matter what Adam said," Touma pointed out. "He never actually went through with an attack to kill me. True, Eve stopped him a couple times, but that might have been an act. With her, you can never really tell. If she did betray him, I doubt that would change his plans once he decided to do something. I believed they actually need my hand, which means keeping me alive until they are ready. When I stepped outside the barrier, I took that gamble."

"If it had turned out he didn't need you hand," Amelia asked. "What then?"

"I figured my hand would protect me long enough to get back inside," Touma answered sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

"You…!" Leivinia fumed for a moment, but then rubbed her face with both hands. "I should have expected this. I should be mad but, for you, that was actually well thought out. It was still stupid and I would never have done something so rash."

"I figured we had to try something," Touma replied with a shrug.

"I really should punish you for insubordination," Carissa said slowly and Touma's blood turned to ice. "However, you occupy a rather unique position and our time is limited. Plus, your gamble actually paid off." She smiled at him and Touma started sweating. The smile was actually scarier than her threats. "The plague is almost gone, so we need to start moving." She pulled out her radio and then gave one last look at Touma. "After this is over, I'm going to have a short discussion with you about your insubordination though."

I think I rather be dealing with Leivinia and Lessar again, Touma thought and glanced at Amelia and Leivinia. They were both frowning at Carissa's words, which only added to Touma's paranoia.

"Attention!" Carissa yelled into her radio. "The attack is over. We are moving out!" A loud cry echoed across the camp and all the knights and nuns began to march out of camp. Carissa lowered the radio and looked at Amelia. "We don't have time to separate. So our units will attack together. George's platoon will flank Adam's base." Amelia nodded and Carissa glanced at Leivinia and Touma. "You two stay with us." Touma agreed quickly, not wanting to cause another fight, and Leivinia briefly nodded her head. They started to move with the troops when Imouto appeared at Touma's side.

"Misaka had complete faith in the savior's plan Misaka says with conviction." Touma raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't say anything. "Misaka was not worried Misaka lies while avoiding her eyes."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Touma said dryly. "Now the real fight begins." Imouto nodded and they were silent the entire march. It didn't take long to reach their destination, less than twenty minutes at their pace. When Carissa stopped them, Touma looked around. Are we waiting for something? He didn't see anything different. The desert surrounded them and the trail devoid of foliage kept going forward.

"Okay boy," Carissa told him. "You're up."

"Err," Touma said confused. "Where is the barrier I'm supposed to destroy?"

"About twenty feet in front of you," Carissa told him. "You can't see it with normal methods, but it's there."

"So I just have to go up and touch it."

"Yep," Leivinia confirmed. "Then I recommend backing up quickly. We have no idea what is standing behind it. Adam could have made ten foot tall spiders ready to pounce on you."

"Please don't say that out loud...," Touma told her through his tears. "With my luck, they will be there." He walked forward cautiously and held up his right hand.

"We are putting a lot of faith in him," Amelia said to Leivinia and Carissa. "Can he do this?"

"He will," Leivinia answered and yawned. "One thing you can count on him is to do what he says he will. Right, second princess?" She grinned at Carissa, who only scowled.

"You are lucky we don't have time to spare to punish you for that comment," Carissa muttered angrily.

"Even if you did," Leivinia challenged. "I would like to see you try." All three fell silent when Touma stood right before the barrier. The troops behind them raised their weapons for whatever was on the other side of a barrier that covered over a mile.

Here goes nothing, Touma thought and reached out his right hand. Touma wasn't sure what to expect, but he thought he would touch something. Instead, he only heard the sound of glass breaking. There was nothing solid. Instead, the space in front of him began to break. It was like he threw a baseball through a window. His hand created a hole while cracks began to spread out rapidly. As they continued to spread, Touma began to see an outline of an invisible dome structure. The cracks did not stop until the entire dome was covered. Then it instantly disappeared and the scenery completely changed. Touma had expected some kind of fortress seen in fantasy games or some dark ritualistic space, but what was hidden was completely different.

It looked like an excavation site.

That actually might have been an underestimate of what laid out before him. Touma thought Adam was trying to do some kind of magic ritual, but it appeared he was actually searching for something. The top layers of dirt and rock had been removed and placed in a huge pile in the distance. Adam might have been excavating something, but gave up half way and just started to strip mine the earth away. Rows and rows of pathways lined the walls of the pit with tunnels periodically built into the side. An occasional outline of a person moved in and out of the tunnels. The pit was so deep, Touma couldn't see the bottom from his angle. He would have to go up to the edge of the pit and look down. However, there was a more pressing issue at hand. A large golden disk, maybe ten meters in diameter, was flouting above the enormous pit. Adam was standing on the edge of the disk and looked down at Touma and the others. He was dressed all in black, but was only wearing a simply t-shirt and jeans. His face was emotionless and his eyes betrayed nothing when he looked down at them. He looked completely indifferent to their arrival.

"So you decided to come," Adam said. "Very predictable."

"We are here to stop this!" Touma yelled up at him. "You can't cripple an entire continent just to achieve your own selfish desires!"

"If you stopped interrupting us," Adam replied. "I would have been finished already. Maybe you should stop worrying about what others are doing and focus on how your actions are causing more suffering."

"You…!" Touma stuttered in anger.

"Words will not reach him," Carissa said. Touma looked over at her. He hadn't noticed her walking up next to him. "It's time to do it our way." She unsheathed her sword and raised it high. "All troops, CHARGE!" The thud of countless knights' metal boots was heard as they began to run toward Adam's mine.

"Foolish," Adam said and raised a single hand. "You are not worth my time. Come back and see me when you have had time to mature." The ground beneath Touma started to shake violently.

What's happening? Touma thought and looked around. He gasped when a large segment of earth under a group of knights collapsed into the ground. The earth seemed to have been hollowed out beneath them. It wasn't just Touma's group though. He saw the other knights led by George in the distance began to disappear as the earth beneath them collapsed. He turned around and received a shock. The base camp far behind them seemed to be shaking and lights were disappearing. Even the camp is being swallowed up into the earth. Ruiko! Before he could worry anymore about her, the ground beneath him broke apart and fell. Touma couldn't do anything and he fell after the dirt he once stood on. The space under him was pitched black and he could not see a bottom. He spared once last look at Adam who only stared back. "You won't win!" Touma yelled up as he disappeared into the darkness below. Shiiiiiitttttt!

Once all of the opposing forces had been swallowed up by the earth, the earth shook again and closed up. The bottomless pits disappeared as if the earth was merely pinched together, like a small wound. The end result was a smooth dirt and rock surface, exactly what it was before Adam used his magic. Only the plant life did not return. Adam slowly surveyed the land around him to make sure he had been thorough and then gazed into the distance. The base camp had also been consumed by the earth and nothing was left of the opposing army. Adam turned around and sat down on the golden thrown situated directly in the center of the disk. He placed a hand on a small rune embedded in the right arm rest and said, "Take out their leaders and the rest will fade on their own."

"It will be done," a male replied. The voice sounded as if the person was right next to them. "What about her? Should she be allowed to participate in the fight? You are the only one who can truly control her."

"Her pets will devour most of the garbage," Adam replied passively. "But if she is needed to kill a commander or two, let her."

"Will do." Adam disconnected the magic connection and glanced once more at the dirt patch where Touma had been standing only a short time ago.

"You seem to think you can decide your fate," Adam said. "Now you will understand the futility of your efforts to change what is. Maybe after forty years we will meet again." He paused. "Though, if it takes you that long, I will be sorely disappointed."

---

Feel free to leave a review, comment, suggestions, or ideas, I love reading them. If you have a question you wish I ask and would like a quick answer, feel free to message me directly. I try to respond to those within a day or two. Comments, I tend to respond to in the next chapter.

Shizuri: Huh, he was doing so well and then he failed.

Misaki: That's only because Adam cheated. He knew he was going to lose, so he acted like a coward.

Mikoto: I'm still worried. Touma will think of something, but Saten-san got pulled into this.

Kazari: Saten-san has been in precarious situations before and always have gotten.

Misaki: That would be a lot more convincing if you weren't clutching Kagere-san's arm so tight he probably lost feeling to it.

Jason: I don't mind.

Accelerator: When the hero gets back I'm going to beat the crap out of him.

Mikoto: Why?

Accelerator: The brats have been freaking out all morning and Worst seems to be especially aggressive. She sprayed mustard all over my room.

Motoharu: Seems like she wants some attention. Why don't you take her out somewhere?

Accelerator: Bite me!

Pierce: Kami-yan Disease is being spread everywhere. Looks how many girls are following under his spell! Even Misaka-san's sister. That's sure to cause some problems during the family reunion.

Mikoto: …