Hello, everyone! In this chapter, the chase between the High Priest and our couple continues.

Rekuta: Yeah, Mikoto is definitely not the same level of monster as the High Priest. The Railgang girls aren't going to physically join Mikoto and Touma in this arc, but they will help with evacuating the city. I am thinking about how to involve them more, so maybe sometime during the Kamisato Arc would be good. Thanks, I just finished my second week at the job, and it's been pretty interesting so far.

dragonghoul9707: It's unknown exactly when Kuroko started crushing on Mikoto, but she implied that she got Mikoto's previous spying roommate removed. Shokuhou will get some more development with Mikoto starting with NT16, for sure. And Kuroko could play a decent role if she gets involved in some of these incidents.

xellos540: Mikoto does actually break the fourth wall a few times, so maybe she does know what kind of story she's in. Well, even if Touma knew it wouldn't work, it was still worth delaying the High Priest a bit. Yeah, there were vague news reports from Denmark, so some of them might be familiar with the term. All the Level 5's are "monsters" in terms of raw power, even if it sometimes doesn't seem like it. Yes, Touma is very fit, no wonder he managed to ride that bike for so long. Mikoto and Kinuhata already got along pretty well, so they might enjoy going to the movies together. That was a convoluted introduction from Fiamma, but I guess he likes doing that sort of thing. It's too bad his plan failed so miserably, so the chase continues on. A certain dog may be necessary in the very end.

HotaruTKM: I read the first chapter of your new story, and it was pretty nice! I'm looking forward to seeing more interactions between Touma and Mikoto.

Guest: Like I mentioned before, I just started a new job, so I have much less time to write now, only in the evenings and on the weekends, and that's if I don't have other plans for those times. I do still plan to update consistently, but it will be at a slower rate.

As Mikoto and Touma continued their frantic bike ride, the girl was feeling very uneasy, despite currently cuddling into her boyfriend's back. It wasn't because their lives were in danger, or because Academy City was facing destruction. It was a smaller and more personal issue.

Mikoto tried to not think about it explicitly and put it into words, because if she did, it might have become too much for her to bear. So instead, she accepted the anxiety and anguish of the situation.

Touma sensed that his girlfriend was feeling down, though he wasn't completely sure why. He turned back to her, gave her a smile, and said, "Don't worry Mikoto, I know it seems impossible to beat the High Priest right now. But I've always been able to somehow resolve these kinds of incidents, so I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something this time too. Then we'll be able to go back home tonight."

The girl gave him a weak smile in return. She suspected that was trying to reassure himself as much as her, in a desperate effort to relieve some of the pressure on his heart. Mikoto still felt a deep sense of uneasiness in her chest, but she replied, "I hope so."

Mikoto figured it would be best to do something to help with their situation. So she checked her map app again and stated, "Okay, we're at the park in District 5, and the neighboring districts are 1, 4, 6, 18, and 23. We can't go to District 1 because that's where all the administrative buildings are, and we can't go to District 6 because it's a giant amusement park. Either of those places would result in too much damage!"

Touma struggled to continue pedalling the bike after having used up most of his stamina to get to the park. But he forced out the words, "District 23. It's filled with aerospace facilities, right? That's the best place to confront the High Priest. A launch site wouldn't get anyone else involved, and they should have plenty of firefighting equipment in case of an emergency!"

Mikoto then asked, "Are we going to take the shortest route again? If we move in a straight line, he'll catch up! Maybe we could cut through District 18 on the way?" Even as she suggested this, however, she wondered whether it was right for them to select the people in that District as potential victims for their own convenience.

The boy gritted his teeth and muttered, "I wish we could just get some time to think. If we can hide from him for at least a little bit, maybe we can devise a plan."

But at that moment, the High Priest suddenly appeared, running alongside them, and said, "Ho ho, are you lovebirds having an intimate discussion on murder methods?"

With a simple command, he summoned a giant mud arm from the ground. It then moved horizontally towards the couple.

In response, Touma waited for a moment to draw the High Priest in a bit closer, and then made the bike jump upwards, exclaiming, "It might be minuscule in comparison, but it's time you had a taste, High Priest!"

The giant arm missed its target, and instead slammed into a truck with a concrete mixer. As a result, the rotating liquid concrete poured onto the High Priest's head. Despite how powerful he was, even he couldn't do anything when his eyes were blocked.

When the acrobike landed back on the ground, Touma kicked up the lid of a nearby fire hydrant. The high-pressure water within gushed upwards, and the High Priest unsteadily stumbled straight into the spray of water. His body was shot up several meters in the air, and the concrete covering his clothing was washed away.

However, Touma hadn't intended either the concrete or the water to be the finishing blow. He nudged Mikoto with his shoulder, and she understood his intentions. The girl smirked and promptly sent out a lightning spear directly towards their opponent.

Not only was it a one billion volt blast, but the High Priest's body was completely soaked with water, which raised his conductivity. In that situation, a normal person wouldn't just have their heart stopped, but they would also be roasted alive.

But of course, even after all that, the High Priest emerged again with some lighthearted laughter.

Touma clenched his teeth and shouted, "Damn it!" Was that attack really the best they could do? He and Mikoto may have done an excellent job putting together that counterattack on the fly, but could they be satisfied with such an effort when faced with the firepower of a Magic God?

Could they have thought of an even better plan with even 10 or 15 more seconds to think? This was the problem they had been facing from the very start. They could not stop and think, but if they kept running, other people would potentially get harmed as collateral damage. They couldn't prepare for their next action. Instead, they could only go with the flow and were forced to be reactive rather than proactive.

Just has he had these thoughts, Touma spotted something in front of him. He saw a girl being surrounded by a group of college students. They seemed to be gloating about having stolen something called a "liquid diamond" from the girl, after some building was sent flying. As soon as Touma heard this, he locked the wheels of the acrobike, bringing it to a complete stop.

Mikoto said from behind him, "Why'd you stop? Is something going on over there?" She narrowed her eyes at the menacing college students. She hadn't quite heard what they had said, but she could tell what the general situation was.

Touma replied, "One of them mentioned a building that went flying. It sounds like that girl was caught up in the trouble that the High Priest...no, that we caused. And those guys are taking advantage of the situation."

Mikoto looked between two different directions. She saw a girl surrounded by college students in front of her, and she saw the High Priest rapidly charging towards them from behind.

And yet, the boy turned to his girlfriend and asked, "Mikoto, can I make one incredibly selfish request?"

The girl knew exactly what he would ask, but she urged him on, "What is it, Touma?"

And of course, he gave the exact answer she was expecting, "I want to save that girl right this instant."

Mikoto automatically smiled in response, without even needing to try. Touma must have been permeated by his fear of the High Priest, but he was looking away from the old man. The girl thus gathered strength in her arms and told him with a grin, "Don't worry, I would have punched you if you said anything else."

Nothing more needed to be said. They didn't even need to discuss what they would do. Touma immediately steered the bike in the new direction and raced towards the group.

They didn't go for any complicated plan. Instead, Touma simply slammed the acrobike into the college student holding the liquid diamond's storage tube. Although the bike was light, it was still moving at 60 kilometers per hour, so it had more than enough momentum to send the college boy flying into the air.

This caused him to lose his grip on the tube, and the girl was able to retrieve it, though she awkwardly fumbled with it, tossing it from hand to hand. Touma quickly warned her, "Hold onto that and get down! He's coming!" Not having any more time, he started pedalling again and fled the scene with Mikoto.

The girl was momentarily confused, but the High Priest then arrived and crashed into the college group, knocking one to the ground, and another into a nearby tree. All three of the college students were now unconscious, so the girl held on tightly to the storage tube and began running away, ironically thinking that the old man had saved her.

The High Priest then once again started closing in on Touma and Mikoto. Having witnessed what they'd just done, he laughed, "Oh hoh, I finally caught a glimpse of it, Kamijou Touma. Now I'm really excited, what kind of selfishness will you present to this Magic God next?"

The boy didn't bother to respond, and instead focused on his pedalling. But then Mikoto, who had been peering at her map, exclaimed, "Wait, if we keep going this way, we'll probably hit a traffic jam at a railroad crossing!"

Touma immediately shouted, "Then what are we supposed to do?"

Mikoto told him, "For now, turn left!" Her boyfriend instinctively made the turn upon hearing her command. But they ran into a hurdle, made up of traffic cones and a pole lying horizontally on the road. It was clearly meant to keep people out, but it was too late to stop.

The bike rushed into a construction site, and it immediately fell into a wide pit, which was four stories deep. There was a momentary pause before they started falling, enough for Touma to wonder if they were building an underground passageway so the trains wouldn't cause traffic jams. But once they started plummeting down, he could only shout, "Mikoootoooo!"

Mikoto squeezed her body tightly against him, winced, and exclaimed, "It's the map's fault!"

In order to slow their descent, Touma pressed the bike's wheels against the wall, and with help from the gyros, forced the wheels to dig into the wall. This added friction allowed them to slide down at a slower speed, rather than simply falling.

Nevertheless, they still landed pretty hard, and the bike bounded back up a few centimeters, before settling back down on the concrete and gravel floor. Fortunately, they didn't blow a tire, but Touma was worried more about their pursuer. But when he looked back and up again and again to check for the High Priest, Touma realized, "He isn't following us?"

He continued to pedal forward aimlessly, afraid to just stop. Mikoto also looked back with a confused expression and muttered, "I doubt he's too scared of the height to jump down."

Perhaps there was a reason behind this, or perhaps the Magic God was trying to confuse them with meaningless actions. Without knowing which was true, they couldn't afford to relax. And the two of them were abruptly startled by a high-pitch beeping from the acrobike.

Mikoto asked in response, "What's that?"

Touma looked at the handlebars and observed, "The light's turned from green to orange. That means the bike's battery is running out!" He frantically reached towards the battery pack on the bike's frame, and pulled out a cable. He mused, "Hmm, this is a normal plug, so we should be able to find an outlet around here. If we can recharge it for half an hour while the High Priest is gone, we'll be good to go."

Mikoto held out her hand to grab the plug from him, saying, "I should be able to charge it more quickly. I just have to be careful not to overdo it, or I might cause the battery pack to overheat and explode."

The boy grinned at her and teased, "Imagine if we spent all this time escaping from the High Priest and we die because you accidentally use too much of your power."

The girl rolled her eyes and lightly hit his back, retorting, "Shut up, we'll be fine as long as you don't piss me off with some stupid comment."

This gave Touma a funny idea, and he suggested, "Hey Biri-Biri, why don't you put the plug in your mouth?"

Mikoto guessed that he was making some sort of joke, so she raised an eyebrow and replied, "Really? You know, I can send electricity into the wire without needing to directly touch it, let alone putting it in my mouth."

She hadn't reacted exactly like Touma had expected. He nervously scratched his cheek and said, "O-oh I know, I just thought it would be kind of hot if you did that."

The girl's cheeks reddened as she registered what he was getting at. She muttered in a bit of an annoyed tone, "Is this really the right time for you to make such a perverted request?"

Touma just shrugged unapologetically. As a result, Mikoto sighed and said, "Fine, I'll do it." She placed the plug into her mouth and closed her lips over it, and started sending electrical currents down into the battery.

The boy's eyes widened as he looked back at her. He hadn't thought that she would actually do it, but watching Mikoto gently suck on the plug made him blush and mutter, "Damn, that's so erotic!" It was hard for him to continue pedalling the bike.

Mikoto removed the plug from her mouth and groaned, "Okay, you got your show, now I'm going to just do it normally. It should only take a couple more minutes." She now sent sparks from her hand into the plug.

Touma decided to stop needlessly driving the bike, so he applied the brakes and brought it to a complete stop. It seemed that the High Priest really wasn't coming after them, so they would likely have enough time to fully recharge the bike.

The boy started to step off, placing one of his feet on the ground. But a moment later, the High Priest crashed straight in, breaking through all the bedrock. The expelled dirt now writhed all around the couple like a living organism and threatened to bury them.

Touma put his foot back up and immediately started driving the bike again, pedalling as fast as he could. Giant rocks flew all around them, and he desperately avoided the obstacles by shifting from the floor to the wall.

Mikoto continued to charge the battery, even while wrapping both her arms around Touma, by using her magnetism to hold the plug next to her. They heard the old man's laughter from beyond the dirt filling the tunnel.

The tunnel sometimes branched off, and their map was unable to tell them where they were going, so Touma could only go in random directions and hope for the best. But it would be all over if they reached a dead end. Their bodies would be buried and destroyed, and no amount of controlling metal beams with magnetism could stop that.

The girl exclaimed in frustration, "Is this really what Magic Gods are like? Nothing we do had any effect on him, and it seems like he can do anything! Is it a waste to even try thinking of a way to fight him?" She couldn't fathom how her boyfriend had held out against Othinus, and she felt like she was already starting to reach the point of despair.

Touma remained silent for a moment. He was feeling somewhat the same way, but there was a more important question. The boy muttered, "How did he know we were here?"

Mikoto was a little startled by this abrupt question, and replied, "What?"

Touma elaborated, "He must have lost sight of us when we first came down here. And come to think of it, when we left my school, and when we were talking to Fiamma through that spiritual item, the High Priest immediately interfered."

It didn't matter how strong the High Priest was if he couldn't find them. Unlike the full-powered Othinus, he wasn't attacking by distorting the entire world. Touma and Mikoto had some time to think, so perhaps they could figure out some deeper rules.

Where could they go to escape the High Priest, and how could they defeat a Magic God? They needed to switch from a passive role to an active one. He continued musing, "Does he detect us when we get within a certain range, or when we stay in the same place for a certain amount of time?"

Mikoto frowned and responded, "Maybe, but that seems a bit arbitrary. Was there something in common among all those times he's instantly detected us? Maybe something like that is how he's picked up our tracks."

As they continued through the upwards sloping tunnel, Touma looked up in surprise and repeated, "Tracks? Wait, that might be it, Mikoto! If I'm right, we might be able to do this, as long as you keep the battery charged!"

He pressed all of his weight on the pedals. Before Mikoto could ask what he'd figured out, a white light appeared in front of them, and they approached the tunnel's exit.

When they emerged from the tunnel, they saw that they were near a river. Completely by coincidence, the acrobike then landed on the deck of a work ship in the river. The workers were startled by their sudden appearance, but Touma bowed profusely and got permission to finish charging the bike on the ship, freeing his girlfriend from the task. The workers lectured him, but they just thought that the couple was filming for an extreme video site, so Touma and Mikoto were safe for now.

The boy then pulled his girlfriend down so that they were lying down and facing each other on the floor. Mikoto guessed that this was so they could hide from the High Priest's view. She still felt uneasy, so she clung to Touma's shirt and rested her face against his shoulder.

Touma finally explained his conclusion, "It's dirt. If you think about it, he's been controlling dirt this entire time, so we should've assumed he was tracking us with the same medium he's been using to attack us." He finally let out a sigh of relief before continuing, "When pedalling the bike, my feet were off the ground. But when I was talking with Fiamma, and when we were in the tunnel, the High Priest attacked the moment I placed a foot on the ground! It's like he's part of the dirt, or like the ground is his skin."

Mikoto's eyes widened as everything clicked into place. She exclaimed, "Ooooh, that makes sense! So if you just keep your feet off the ground, we're safe!"

The boy nodded, "Yeah, we just need to stay on the boat or on the water." Of course, they also had to stay out of the High Priest's direct sight, but at least they could escape his radar or GPS-like search. Touma continued, "That's assuming this isn't a trick, but based on my experience with Othinus, a Magic God wouldn't bother playing such a trick on a lowly human. They'd just crush their enemy with overwhelming force."

Mikoto raised her head a bit to peek over the edge of the ship, and reported, "No sign of the High Priest, looks like you're right!"

They both lay back down on the deck, feeling exhausted. Touma closed his eyes and continued thinking, knowing that this could be the turning point where they shifted from passive to active. After thinking back on what the High Priest had done so far, Touma opened his eyes and concluded to himself, "High Priest, I'm not afraid of you! This isn't like with Othinus, where I felt my soul and existence being torn away. I don't sense that madness from you."

Mikoto then rolled over to her other side, facing away from Touma. She didn't want him to see the anxious expression on her face. Having escaped from the High Priest for now, she had some time to think things over, but she wasn't having the helpful kind of thoughts.

She'd been able to suppress those negative thoughts by focusing on the fighting and fleeing, but in this moment of respite, they swelled up within her chest once again. She was supposed to be a strong fighter, but all of her attacks had been useless against the High Priest. As a result, Mikoto painfully began to wonder if there was any point in her being present in the fight.

The girl took a deep breath, and decided to try avoiding these dangerous thoughts by strategizing with Touma about what they would do next. She turned back over to face him, but she was met with a disturbing sight.

Two girls were sitting on either side of Touma. One girl was dressed like an Egyptian mummy, wearing only bandages, and the other girl was wearing a mini Chinese dress. They each grabbed one of Touma's hands and pulled those hands towards their own chests.

Touma was resisting, trying to pull back his hands. The two girls sighed and made a concession, pressing his hands just below their breasts instead. Mikoto's jaw dropped at the sight, but she was too shocked to make a sound for a moment.

The girl who'd grabbed Touma's right hand said, "Oh dear, not even Imagine Breaker is enough to restore my original power. I guess the power of the spell is already gone, so there's nothing to negate." She then looked over at the other girl and said, "Niang-Niang, what are you doing? Imagine Breaker is only in his right hand, not his left."

The girl named Niang-Niang replied, "Is that right, Nephthys? I thought any body part would do as long as it touches your chest."

Mikoto finally reacted, with sparks coming out of her bangs, she angrily exclaimed, "Hey! Get off my boyfr-!"

Before she could finish her sentence, Niang-Niang, who still had a pointless grip on Touma's left hand, pointed her free arm towards Mikoto in annoyance.

With that simple action, a thick blade shot from her loose sleeve and stabbed into Mikoto's chest. The girl felt more confusion than pain, as she saw herself pierced by a crescent-shaped blade at the end of a spear. But now that she was pinned down, a bunch of other weapons emerged to tear and slice through all parts of her body.

Mikoto didn't feel any pain or shed any blood, but her mind felt dizzy at the sensation of being stabbed. But this was not just mental manipulation like the kind Shokuhou would use. It was still physically happening, and she feared that she would already be dead by the time the situation caught up.

It was at this moment that Touma broke free from the two girls' grip and sprung into action. Seeing his girlfriend in danger, he desperately shouted out, "Mikoto!" He immediately swung his right hand around to destroy every single one of the weapons connecting Niang-Niang's sleeve to Mikoto's body. And to protect her now that she was freed, he stood between her and Nephthys and Niang-Niang.

Mikoto ran her hands along her entirely unharmed body, thinking, "What? What kind of magic was that?"

Niang-Niang giggled, seeming entirely unperturbed that her weapons had been destroyed. She said, "Ahh, there's no point thinking about it too much. Destroying them all at once like Kamijou Touma did is the best plan. After all, each one of my Pao-Pei has a different effect, so if I release them all at once, you can't sit around and analyze each one, can you?"

Mikoto repeated in a confused tone, "Pao…Pei?"

Niang-Niang replied, "Ah, sorry, using my own terminology would confuse you. They're weapons used by the sages in an ancient Chinese novel, but there are plenty of similar things lying around too. My country is filled with tools of no official origin."

Nephthys then chimed in, "I don't think that's the main reason these two are so confused."

Touma then asked, "Who are you two?" He made sure to stay in front of Mikoto to protect her, but they remained seated as they answered his question.

Nephthys said, "As you've learned, I'm Nephthys, and this is Niang-Niang. You can think of us as the High Priest's partners, Kamijou-chan."

This information made Touma dizzy. If they were the High Priest's partners, then they had to also be Magic Gods on the same level as him. He and Mikoto were already having problems against one Magic God, so the prospect of going against an additional two was terrifying, even if they seemed to be weakened from their full power. And since they were different from the High Priest, he and Mikoto would have to start all over again in analyzing their methods and weaknesses.

However, Nephthys laughed at his scared expression and said, "You don't have to worry, we aren't going to destroy Academy City right this instant. Didn't the High Priest tell you what the true Gremlin wants?"

Touma answered in an exasperated tone, "You mean the stuff about you not wanting world domination and wanting me to score what you do so you can get some peace of mind?"

Nephthys asked, "Are you prepared to give us your answer?"

Both Touma and Mikoto tensed up, fearing what would happen if he refused them. But Niang-Niang then shrugged and cut into the conversation, "You don't have to look so horrified. Hmm, Nephthys, do you think the High Priest scared him a little too much?"

Nephthys replied, "Well, he is the type that makes rash moves that ruin the plans he was working on five minutes before." She then looked back at Touma and told him, "We have no intention of starting any kind of trouble in Academy City, or in this world at all."

The boy asked, "How can we be sure of that?"

Nephthys pressed her finger to her chin and answered, "I can't speak for him, but I quite like Academy City. Even as puny humans crawling along the ground, you dream of and diagram the stars in the night sky, and you've even built a mass driver to land an unmanned probe on a comet."

She then held up her hand towards the sun in the sky, continuing, "The stars can be plucked from the sky so easily, so why are you so desperate to reach them? It's not remotely logical, but you humans are filled with that kind of passion, aren't you? I'm honestly jealous of that sort of thing in your hearts."

Niang-Niang was trying not to laugh as she admonished, "You're really looking down on them, aren't you?"

Nephthys countered, "Hmm, but my experience tells me that this leaves them with a more favorable impression of me."

Niang-Niang conceded, "Well, we are gods, so people do expect us to crush them underfoot instead of lowering ourselves to their level."

Touma and Mikoto were still in front of them, but the two Magic Gods weren't paying them much attention. Touma then demanded, "Why are you even here, anyway?"

Nephthys answered, "Didn't the High Priest tell you, we're weakened at the moment thanks to 'him.' We hoped your Imagine Breaker could help, but it didn't work. Not that it really matters."

Niang-Niang nodded and added, "This isn't really a problem for us, but I can't figure out what 'he' was thinking, dragging us into the real world in this incomplete state. We're in the state where we can destroy the world, but not recreate it afterwards."

Touma's eyes widened in absolute horror, and Niang-Niang reacted by holding her stomach in laughter, saying, "Sorry, sorry, you really were traumatized by Othinus, weren't you Kamijou-chan?"

Nephthys sighed in exasperation and said, "Sorry for making fun of you. In any case, we'll deal with that goal on our own, but you could help us with our second goal."

Touma immediately replied, "I won't become your scorer. I have no interest in making any wishes or prayers, and I'm sick of the idea of turning the human race into puppets for your ridiculous peace of mind!"

Nephthys laughed and clarified, "That can wait until another time. The current issue is the High Priest going on a rampage. That doesn't represent the will of the rest of the true Gremlin. We're not all like him."

Mikoto had remained silent until now, wanting to just listen to the conversation to get a good grasp on the situation. But now, she hesitantly asked, "Why can't you deal with him? He's your comrade, so go capture him and leave!"

Nephthys and Niang-Niang simply ignored her, and the former instead continued addressing the boy, "We want you to stop the High Priest, so we'll give you the information you need. But don't expect us to fight him directly."

Touma spoke without much thought, "Wait…" Meanwhile, Mikoto was displeased that the Magic Gods were ignoring her, and couldn't bring herself to speak again.

Nephthys then continued, "Well, if we receive a prayer from you, Kamijou-chan, we'll do it. Of course, that would end up with Academy City and all of Japan at the bottom of the sea. After all, it would be a battle between Magic Gods."

The two Magic Gods were very cheerful while talking to Touma, even while erasing Mikoto's presence from their minds. It was exactly because of their friendly tone with Touma that Mikoto felt each of their words as a painful physical blow. She was being verbally isolated.

Touma suddenly grabbed the bandages corresponding to Nephthys's collar, glared at her, and shouted, "I said wait, Nephthys!" He didn't care or think about the danger of being that aggressive to a Magic God.

The boy didn't back down, despite the tense atmosphere. Niang-Niang then said in a teasing tone, "What will you do? It doesn't matter to us if you don't want any divine advice. If you want to fight him on your own, go ahead. But can you manage that, when you don't even know the basic structure of the High Priest's body?"

The boy had no good answer to that question. He knew there was a slim chance of being able to defeat the High Priest with no other help, but he also felt uneasy about the potential consequences of accepting help from those Magic Gods.

In the end, it was Mikoto who broke the silence. She walked up to her boyfriend's side and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Fine then. Let's use all the help available to us. This is no time to be picky for our own pride."

Touma turned to her in surprise and muttered, "Biri-Biri…"

The girl, with a determined look on her face, continued, "We can put up with it for now, but we'll outdo them in the end. So let's keep talking. It would feel like a waste if the High Priest interrupted now after all this."

The boy had a bitter expression on his face as he realized the situation, and he finally let go of Nephthys's collar. He would go along with her offer, but his expression clearly showed that he didn't like it.

Nephthys's expression remained unchanged, and she observed, "You don't like it, but you can't refuse us, can you? You have always been greedy to achieve victory, and tend to use any means available to you. And right now, you also have someone next to you to protect." She let out a laugh before announcing, "Now, let's talk about the High Priest."

Nephthys began explaining, "As you may know, the High Priest is a Magic God from Buddhism, specifically the Japanese version. Now, Kamijou-chan, are you familiar with self-mummification?"

Niang-Niang then cut in, "Nephthys, you're skipping a step in your explanation. In Japanese Buddhism, you can't achieve enlightenment and travel to the Pure Land in a single lifetime. You need to reincarnate again and again, slowly polishing your soul, and only liberating yourself at the very end. That's when you become a Buddha, at least normally."

Nephthys continued, "However, there is a way to become a Buddha in a single lifetime, and that is self-mummification. The process itself is simple. Like you can tell from his body, it's the Japanese version of a mummy. And unlike Egyptian mummies like myself, they don't remove the blood or organs. They just close themselves in a dark room and dry up."

Touma was surprised at the process the High Priest had apparently gone through to become a Magic God. He questioned, "So he was killed to artificially create a Magic God?"

Niang-Niang shook her head and answered, "Don't be silly, he trapped himself underground and chose to starve. It's called self-mummification, after all." Both Touma and Mikoto were dumbfounded by this, but she continued, "He essentially buried himself alive, forming mudra and chanting sutra until the end. The parts of his body that seeped into the surrounding dirt during the process created a connection, which is why he can control dirt."

Touma was taken aback at the lengths the High Priest had gone through, all to become a Magic God who could control the space that had starved him to death. He honestly asked, "Why did he go that far?"

Nephthys nonchalantly replied, "Isn't it obvious? The only reason any priest aims to rid themself of worldly desires is to save the entire world. Pretty much all of the Magic Gods are the same like that. But with our overwhelming power, salvation from one of us is essentially an absolute dictatorship. Though the High Priest's story might be one of the worst."

She paused for a moment before pointing out something else, "Don't you find it odd, how the High Priest has very noticeable aspects, like his purple robe, flaming collar, and his pure gold sword. But he has never once swung that sword, has he?"

Touma and Mikoto looked at each other as they thought back to their fights against the High Priest so far. They quickly realized that Nephthys's point was true. They had been distracted by how he'd attacked them with giant mud arms and entire buildings, but the High Priest had never used his most obvious weapon.

Nephthys explained, "They're all burial accessories modeled after the Buddhist deity Acala, but they weren't the High Priest's own choices. After he died, a faction that did not want him to become a Buddha sabotaged the attempt. With those treasures adorning him, he couldn't have abandoned his worldly desires, and thus couldn't have achieved enlightenment. It was basically a blatant smear campaign against him."

Niang-Niang then chimed in, "So he had the body of a Buddha but not the position of one, so you could call him a wandering Buddha. In polytheistic religions, every god has a name and a role, but he is a Buddha with no role and just the placeholder name of High Priest. He concluded that what happened to him was the will of the people, so he believes he can save the world by acting like someone who could not abandon his petty desires."

Hearing all of this was enough to make both Touma feel faint. He'd faced many different magicians before, who'd been worried about taking too much damage. But the High Priest had already died, so he just laughed at any potential damage.

Nephthys gave the simple conclusion, "So you can't convince him to stop. He's rotted so much, but he's satisfied with where he is now." She then held out her hand towards Touma and declared, "So despite what I said, if you really don't have enough strength, call out our names. If you make an appropriate sacrifice, we can restrain the High Priest in a battle between Magic Gods. Perhaps it wouldn't be the most exciting conclusion, but it would be entertaining, since it would mean you had accepted the value of a Magic God's power."

Touma looked down at the hand offered to him. If he gave up here, he could access the easy cheat code and have them easily end this incident. That was the only thing needed to save everyone from further harm, and it shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

But Mikoto grabbed onto Touma's arm and shouted, "No!" In that moment, even she didn't know exactly why she did so, but she felt it would be dangerous for Touma to accept the Magic Gods' help.

Perhaps it was selfish and petty of her, but she was scared that her boyfriend would leave for a place she could never reach. Mikoto knew that her powers were no match against a Magic God, and she felt pathetically that her pride as Tokiwadai's Ace and as the 3rd Ranked Level 5 was being torn to pieces. But she didn't care about any of that. All she knew was that she couldn't allow Touma to carelessly join forces with those Magic Gods. With that resolve, Mikoto clung tighter to her boyfriend's arm, and glared at Nephthys as a normal girl.

This caused Nephthys to give Mikoto a puzzled look. For the first time, Misaka Mikoto had entered her field of vision. The Magic God chuckled and shook her hand in amusement, saying, "That's right. The stars can be plucked from the sky so easily, but you humans feel such passion for such unimportant things."

Not even Mikoto knew what Nephthys had just seen in her, but somehow a simple insecure action on her part had drawn the Magic God's interest.

The two Magic Gods finally stood up, as if signaling that the conversation was just about over. Nephthys then concluded, "I'll give you one last piece of divine advice. If you intend to defeat the High Priest with brute strength, you'll need to carefully work out the process of his destruction. It's not a mere difference in physical strength. After all, he's a special being who left the proper path of destiny and skipped a level on his own. He can freely manipulate the intersection of the Six Paths, so it's best not to assume that the cause, process, and effect are neatly lined up in order."

With that, by the time Touma and Mikoto blinked, the two Magic Gods were gone.

Although they were safe from detection on the work boat, Touma quickly deduced, "We shouldn't stay here for too long. If the High Priest thinks about it in reverse, and figures out where we can be without stepping on the ground, the chase will begin again."

They'd gained some time to think and some more information on the High Priest, but they needed to make good use of it. As Touma unplugged the now fully-charged acrobike, Mikoto mused, "If we can't directly defeat him in a straight out fight, we'll need another way of resolving this. At the very least, we can try going for District 23 again. And on the way, let's see if we can brainstorm a good plan."

Mikoto and Touma got back up on the bike, and the boy said, "All right, sounds good." They sensed that they were about to enter into the final part of the battle.