As promised, the first chapter on Friday/Saturday (Depending on your time zone).
As stated before, I sort-of wrote everything beforehand, but it got too messy and big for a one-shot, so I am dividing it into smaller chapters.
Guest: Think of the fanfic summary as less of a synopsis and more of a giant reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost. Can't have a story about 'Paradise and Eden' without referencing old Johnny in some way. Good observation tho.
Xeno01: Yes, I hope that some of the actions that our hero does comes to a surpise.
luizfernandocordovil007: Thanks! :)
KinDoRh, teguhbnn80: Abyss Crossers OTP
Anyways, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The To Aru Series is owned by Kazuma Kamachi. SCP and its derivative works are under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Coronzon wasn't that hard to find.
"Of course, she wouldn't be. She has been waiting for someone to show up. Did you honestly expect surprises from static evil?"
"HOLY SHIT! Can you SHUT THE FUCK UP!?"
The small voice in his head stopped talking after that, but Accelerator knew better. Sooner or later, it would speak again. He and it would have the same conversations all over again: the voice giving snide remarks before the boy told it to be quiet in less than gentleman-like words.
Re-evaluating his earlier thoughts, the boy concluded that if he ever survived his confrontation, it wouldn't be Aleister that would eventually get him in the end. No, it would likely be him driving his own self into suicidal insanity.
Speaking of Coronzon, the voice was right about one thing: Coronzon was seemingly waiting for something… or someone.
Coronzon had been trapped in Academy City for approximately 12 hours, but evidently, the demon didn't appear to mind all too much. Accelerator had walked all the way to district 1, only to see the long-haired lady holding an umbrella, staring intently at the place the windowless building used to occupy.
Was she wondering where the building could have gone to? The boy asked himself.
Ok, starch that. The boy mentally facepalmed himself for even thinking about that train of thought. What an absurd question. Of course, the demon would have known where that damn building went to. She played a part in its voyage toward space and the so-called 'New World.'
One thing was certain, though. If Coronzon had heard the esper approaching, she was obviously ignoring him.
"She is playing with you. By ignoring you, she is trying to install a sense of fear."
"Wonderful observation, my mental psychiatrist. Are we done with this week's therapeutic sessions?" The boy sarcastically replied.
"Oi." Accelerator challenged the demon as he impatiently waited for the demon to turn around. "I didn't come back to just watch you look rubble. You have some explaining to do."
The silence that lingered for a few seconds quickened the esper's heart.
This was definitely a fear tactic in an attempt to make him back down.
WHY?
"Realizing a sense of déjà vu? Evil is a mirror after all." The voice had spoken again, but the boy was too focused on the current situation to hear its words.
"Hmm…how interesting," Coronzon stated with her back turned towards the boy. "I assumed everyone had already left, fleeing this place just like their God… cowards."
It was obvious to Accelerator who Coronzon was referring to as 'God.'
"Well, you are wrong." Accelerator stated flatly, trying to mask any fear in his voice. This battle would be something new for him because, despite engaging in disadvantageous fights before, he was never much of an underdog. No, the first-ranked esper was almost always the Goliath in his fights.
Still, this fight was always going to happen when he decided to oppose Aleister. There was no point in dwelling on his thoughts; that time would be much better spent finding ways to defeat the demon.
The first step, of course, was to start the fight.
"And another thing, you cause them cowards, but you are the one with your back turned to me."
The esper managed a small smirk, not the same villainous one that would be found against his lesser enemies, but a smirk, nonetheless. The taunting was just enough to ooze an aura of tenacity; to get Coronzon to understand that he wasn't going to back down.
"Thinking of running as well?"
Peculiarly, Coronzon turned, acknowledging the boy's words. Like Accelerator, Coronzon had never met him before today, but the demon was seemingly able to piece out an identity through previous clues in her fight against Aleister and her assessment of the city following the evacuation.
"And you are…OH! OH, HO!" The former Archbishop laughed. "Your Aleister's toy, aren't you? The first one?"
"Fuck off with that bullshit." Accelerator retorted angrily. The demon was doing a much better job getting a reaction out of the esper than vice versa. "I'm no one's toy. Especially not to that bastard."
"Yet. You still followed every part of the magician's plans, didn't you?" The demon taunted. "That's what a toy does. It follows its master wishes, no matter the absurdities."
"And here you are, fighting a useless battle that will result in your demise while the master runs away to Britannia."
Coronzon continued: "But, I will commend you for having loyalty until the bitter end. An end that will be by my hands. Aleister better be thankful. A toy without an expiration is of no use to anyone. It is only when things end that we can learn and grow."
"And I think Aleister will be able to reflect a lot once his best toy had been broken."
Accelerator seethed furiously. The esper had been called many names during his lifespan: "monster, sadist, devil…." Yet no one had ever called him a toy. Such an insult implied a weak… no, a non-person. Something that had no will nor agency. Something that was only created for the use of others. Who in the right mind would apply that title to the world's strongest esper?
"Experiment"
Apparent Coronzon did, which caused the boy to nearly forget why he had decided to come back to the city in the first place.
"FUCK YOU!" The boy shouted charging at the demon. "If you are so interested in different endings, how about I give you one!"
"OH, HO!" Coronzon laughed- getting more and more interested in the boy by the second. "The toy seems to have found his own spirit."
"Come on then! I have high hopes for Aleister's strongest creation."
Instantly, the hair on the demon's head whipped itself at Accelerator. Swerving head-on to match the demon, Accelerator used his powers in an attempt to deflect and destroy the attack.
*Whip*
Floating backward, Accelerator's deflection had worked but only barely. Evidently, there was some type of magic in the demon's hair, and the white-haired boy had also failed to destroy it.
Standing back up, Accelerator felt a small tingle around his body. No doubt, a small amount of magical essence had filtered through and touched his skin, not enough to hurt him, but enough for him to feel it.
Despite having experience in fighting against magic, he was still not as proficient as he would like to be, especially in this fight.
The boy didn't have the time to dwell on his sensation, however, as the hair strands on Coronzon's head started to lengthen and rise, forming intrinsic patterns between them.
"My numerical value is 333, and my nature is dispersion. I prevent the true bonding of all the world's laws, and I bring endless chaos and destruction. My name is Coronzon. Now learn firsthand just what that name means!"
A large portion of the blonde hair had turned different shades of galactic blue- morphing into a face. It was far from human, but every hair fiber stood out with one personality the boy knew all too well.
"Sadistic"
The demon unleashed an unholy number of elemental attacks from her hair on the albino. The first few spells were simple enough to redirect, but the continuous waves were starting to overwhelm his calculations.
He was thankful for Mina Mather's crash course. Had he not learned from the woman, it was likely that he would already be dead at this point.
A small scorch mark burned away a part of his jacket. The continuous bombardment was getting through his vector shield, and Accelerator had to go back on the offense lest he would be slowly dissolved into dust. Using the Misaka Network near its full capabilities, the boy calculated the vectors in place of the magic before flinging them straight back at Coronzon.
Direct hit. The area around the demon was turned into a massive crater surging with magic and unrecognizable vectors. However, Accelerator knew that such a deflection would not be able to kill the demon.
"HAHAHAHA"
Accelerator froze. That laugh was familiar. Not by who it was from but by how it was.
It was the laugh of a madman bent on one goal- an absolute one, no matter what the casualties were.
"The abyss had returned its gaze"
"Don't tell me that's all that Aleister's best toy has to offer." Coronzon continued to laugh. The dust had cleared, and the demon was simply floating on top of the crater. "All of this time running away, building this place, and for only this to show for? What an even bigger failure!"
Coronzon face turned directly towards Accelerator with a large sadistic smile. "It's my turn now. Try to keep me just a little entertained before you perish, will you?"
"Sister," The voice quietly spoke again. Too quietly, in fact. Accelerator had once again failed to hear what the voice had been saying.
Coronzon raised her right hand before doing the same to her left.
"Every number is the same. My right hand contains Nuit of Resurrection. Watch as the possibilities expand and surpass the bounds of the finite. My left hand contains Hadit of Vengeance. The smallest point gathers and concentrates all forces to create a single meaning. Thus, an attack shall be released from the infinite acceleration of the Circle of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and shall appear on the surface layer of this world."
Accelerator froze in shock as he saw something glowing down on him… was that a sword made of fire?
The demon grinned even wider as she finished off her spell. The shadow of her body darkened in contrast to the bright light of the spell above them. "Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power."
As the sword of light started to tremble before its fall, Accelerator had two choices either dodge away from it or reflect it.
He couldn't possibly fight it.
"Dust Explosion"
So that left only one choice: reflect it.
As the sword fell, Accelerator instantly realized that he had no method of calculating fast enough to deflect the sword.
With an uncharacteristic look of terror, Accelerator instinctively raised his right hand as if to follow the actions of his hero...
...before being absolutely crushed as the sword bathed him in searing light.
He wasn't dead.
As the light surrounding him faded, Accelerator was on his knees, heavily bleeding from practically every wound throughout his body.
His ability had saved him. He wasn't able to deflect the sword, but its force was reflected just enough to allow him to live, albeit still severely injured.
This surprised even Coronzon, who stared at the boy in shock before returning to her cruel smile.
"Not bad. It seems that Aleister did have some success in creating this toy."
"But as Aleister isn't here anymore. As such, this toy belongs to me now, and I get to decide its fate."
As Coronzon once again raised her hands. Accelerator instantly knew what was coming new.
"Every number is the same. My right hand contains Nuit of Resurrection. Watch as the possibilities expand and surpass the bounds of the finite."
He wasn't going to survive if Coronzon chose to attack him with this same spell again. Hell, he doubted he would survive if Coronzon only decided to use her hair again.
"My left hand contains Hadit of Vengeance. The smallest point gathers and concentrates all forces to create a single meaning."
This meant that the only hope he had was to reattempt his calculations on the spell. Mentally, he attempted to remember the values and numbers he quantified as the sword fell.
"Thus, an attack shall be released from the infinite acceleration of the Circle of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and shall appear on the surface layer of this world."
But that was easier said than done. As he's wounds bleed out, his vision grew dimmer, his mind just as foggy.
"Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power."
Just as the demon finished the spell again, Accelerator painfully also finished his calculations. He doubted that it was entirely correct, but he was still slightly confident that the brunt of the spell could be deflected.
If it couldn't, at least he wouldn't be alive to lament his mistake.
The sword fell, and everything went straight to black.
Unsuprising, Accelerator got completely destroyed in the battle.
But the fight isn't over just yet. Perhaps Coronzon has some other plans.
Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, but I am also rewriting a lot of my original draft to add some more stuff.
Thanks for reading.