So here we are at with the 16th chapter, from here on the problems of the science and magic side continue to intercept one another, and we have disarray within the relationship between Tamamo and Index along with the latter being captured and Accelerator is getting early exposure to magic, looks like Aleister for all his planning is beginning to see just how out of hands this is getting, even for him, so what will be his damage control plan regarding things? Only one way to find out.

Z.L.C genesmith: Yeah, by the time you read this I messed up on the chapter title but I fixed it, that oops moment is completely on me, however now we have the sixteenth chapter, so yeah, still a bit of an ameture writer, Heh, not gonna let that stop me though.

Server Lock: I've read the reviews you put out and...well thanks for pointing out any flaws in the story, I'm gonna see how I can iron some of them out in future chapters, some of the things you pointed out as far as trio dynamics and the relationship between the Touma and Tamamo, I'll try to work something in to where it can flesh out a lot more and then it can feel more deserving so something I now keep in mind.

So now it also occurred to me that not only will I have Touma interact with the main nine he will also come into contact with koyanskaya of light and Koyanskaya of darkness.

So now let's get to the story, as usual Index and Fate belong to Kamachi and Nasu respectively.

Chapter 16: Hunt For Answers

Tamamo felt like shit, the verbal lashing she got from Index cut into like a hot knife through butter, she wept while explaining what happened between the two of them to Touma, her beloved, but she left out the parts where she was ousted for her legend.

Suddenly it didn't feel right to call him that, thoughts started filling her head about the relationship they share. Touma was just a 15 year old subject to memory destruction, making him an absolute amnesiac, and she just up and re-entered his life quickly establishing a dynamic that didn't feel deserved, such a thing felt sinful and down right hypocritical and it started eating at her slowly, yeah he still excepted an anti-hero like her before the accident but this new Touma doesn't know a lick about her or her legend, what would he think, what would happen if Index blabbed everything to him, would he still accept her, would he be disappointed, disgusted, hateful...

"Tama?"

A voice knocked her out of her inner thoughts and she looked at the target of her dark mental state.

"I...I'm ok Touma." She said quickly but in all reality she was far from it.

"Are you sure?" Touma asked with concern.

"Yes, don't worry, I'll be ok."

He didn't believe her, but he chose not to comment, he knew Tamamo was hurting and there were holes in her explanation. What did she not want him to know? As he thought about it he began to ponder, Tamamo knew the old Kamijou, the one that died, so the reborn one was just taking his place, he wasn't her Touma, he doesn't even know what the old one was like, the one she's with now is reckless and doesn't know a damn thing he's doing, merely following gut instinct believing he was doing what was right, and it almost got her killed...twice, it didn't help that he still had the foreboding feeling something bad was going to happen between them regardless of the vows they made to each other that night at the restaurant, it all started feeling empty.

The two sat in mutual silence not saying anything to one another until they heard a knock on the door. Touma was the first to answer after helping Tamamo up, and saw Astolfo standing in front.

"Yo, I didn't want to bother you two but I believe it's urgent we get to figuring out the situation at hand." He stated.

"Come on in, we can discuss inside." Touma offered.

Once inside he began to feel a bit of heavy air between the the two dorm occupants. He had to ignore it for now since there is a greater threat at hand.

"So you mentioned that there was a parchment you picked up that was dropped by our current adversaries?" Tamamo started.

"Yep, it was not long after I came to the city, I confronted Gilles's master when he was about to attack this middle school girl with goggles on her head, she wasn't completely defenseless though cause she had a fire arm and can shoot electricity."

The part with the electricity struck them as they associate electrical attacks to Mikoto.

"Have you interacted with the girl?" Touma asked.

"Yes, it was not long after I chased the mage off, she spoke in the third person which was weird."

Touma and Tamamo shared a brief look as the whole clone thing came back up again.

"Can we see the parchment, what does it say?"

Astolfo put the parchment down on the table, it only had one thing written on it, it said...

"Magnum Tenebrosum?" Tamamo said.

"Any idea what that means?" Touma followed up.

"No, but as far as I'm aware the bastards are using captured souls for some kind of summoning ritual." Astolfo said.

"Is that all, how many souls could they need for such a ritual?" Tamamo asked.

"Roughly 1.6 million." Astolfo said darkly.

That number brought great alarm to the duo.

"We need to find them and take them down ASAP before they can complete the ritual!!" Touma shouted.

"Calm down, even if they have the required souls they still lack something." Astolfo cut in.

"And that would be?" Tamamo pressed.

"A book, specifically a grimoir, it's called the necronomicon, or book of the dead as it were, I overheard there plans before ambushing them."

"Did...you say grimoir?" Touma asked carefully as Tamamo slowly put her hands to her mouth.

"Yeah, why?"

"We need to chase down Index NOW!!" Tamamo shouted.

The three of them rushed out of the dorm Astolfo dawned his paladin outfit, the streets were unusually empty, where was everyone? What happened to Anti Skill? Tamamo took lead since she knew Index's scent and it lead her to the park where she Touma first met.

"The trail ends here, I can't sense her anymore!"

"That means they may have already got her, damnit, more rotten luck!!" Touma yelled.

"Oh shut up about your rotten luck this is not about you Touma!!" Tamamo snapped.

"Wha...ok that was just rude! I'm just as much responsible for Index as you are!" Touma snapped back.

"Guys hold on there's no reason to argue please!" Astolfo pleaded.

"Is Misaka correct in saying that this Index you refer to is the nun that got captured by a madman with strange abilities Misaka asks seeking confirmation?"

"Huh?" All three as they look over to see what looked like Misaka, only she had goggles on and spoke in the third person.

"Hey it's you! How are you holding up?" Astolfo asked.

"Misaka is well, but Misaka has never met you says Misaka as she addresses the cosplayer."

"Cosplayer? And what do you mean you never met me I saved you from being killed."

"Misaka knows of you because of Misaka's sister Misaka states, Misaka 10033 is who you saved. Misaka's serial number is 10032 Misaka elaborates."

"Um...my head is starting to hurt." Astolfo stated as he rubbed his temples.

"Wait, you wouldn't happen to be the rumored clone are you?" Tamamo asked.

"You are correct, Misaka states to the other cosplayer, under normal circumstances Misaka cannot divulge anything freely, however with the current state of things it may not matter anymore Misaka points out, there are or were around 20,000 Misaka clones."

"20 thousand!!" Touma gasped.

"That is correct, Misaka affirms."

"Does Mikoto know!?" Tamamo asked.

"Big sister is aware of us, as well as what we are used for Misaka states, as of right now she is doing everything she can to halt the experiment."

"Experiment?" Touma said puzzled.

Misaka has no time to go into detail, Misaka must get ready Misaka says as she takes her leave."

"Wait a sec!" Touma tried to stop her but got a call from Saten.

"Hello?"

"Kamijou! We got a situation here at the Judgment building, we need help!" Saten said over the phone.

"Be right there hang tight. Come on guys we have to get to the Judgment office building, something is happening."

"I'm guessing there are other out of hand things going on here?" Astolfo asked.

"It seems so." Tamamo lamented.

Mikoto POV:

Meanwhile the aforementioned electro master was running around destroying a cloning facility, she thought that if she could take these out then it would stop the project. However for her troubles she was ambushed by an elite assassin group called ITEM, and she was currently having an electric showdown with there leader Shizuri Mugino, level 5 4th rank Meltdowner.

"Get incinerated already you bitch!!" Shizuri yelled as she fired meltdowner beams at Mikoto who redirected the electric current.

Mikoto was getting exhausted, much of her energy spent trying to take down an entire building, so she would mainly stick to a defensive position, she was about to make a retreat when an eldritch monstrosity burst from the nearby ventilation shaft directly between her and the Meltdowner.

"What the hell is that!" Shizuri shouted in disgust.

Her yell drew the creatures attention as it proceeded to shoot its tendrils at her only to be destroyed by a green electron beam.

"Mugino, we have a super problem right now!!" A voice called to her earpiece.

"Not now Saiai, I'm a bit busy!" Shizuri snapped.

"But Mugino, SUPER TENTACLES!!!" Saiai yelled.

"What are you talking about!?"

Shizuri didn't notice the black fleshy mound coming up behind her until Mikoto fried it with high voltage electricity. More creatures started squeezing out of the cracks in the walls forcing the two level five combatants to flee. Shizuri hated to leave a job unfinished but she had to ensure her team was ok, some of the creatures were chasing her until they were blown up courtesy of Frenda Seivulun's hand held missiles.

"Basically, these things are horrendous!"

On the other end Mikoto was going to evacuate the facility, she passed many mutilated corpses of the staff on the way it made her sick but she had to press forward.

Just as she was about to exit the facility, she stopped when a certain albino boy blocked her escape.

"Well well, if it isn't the third rate, this whole experiment is a bust with this infestation, I was so pissed off was leveling streets killing off many of the abominations, but it's getting boring. But now that I've come across you I may just fight you in order to reach my end goal, try to last longer than 5 seconds, maybe, I'd rather not kill you two soon." Accelerator said as a wicked smile crossed his face.

Mikoto only gulped, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

With Touma, Tamamo, and Astolfo:

The trio made their way to the 177th branch of Judgment's building to find it besieged by a bunch of weird humanoid fish beings.

Artoria was fending them off from breaching the front entrance and it looked like she dispatched a lot of them if the blood stained ground was any indication but more of them kept coming.

"Just how many of these monsters are there!!" The king of knights wailed as she sent a blast of cutting air directly at an oncoming group of the creatures.

One of the beasts manage to almost get the jump on her quite literally when got fried by a blast of fire courtesy of none other than Nero.

"Keep your head on a swivel king of knights! Your lucky I was able to get here fast enough since I was close by to see this mess."

Artoria didn't respond, instead she just swung her blade in Nero's direction cutting another creature in the process that would have gotten her.

"I can say the same for you, you arrogant Roman."

"Come on lets help them finish off the waves!" Touma declared.

The trio rushed in and quickly assisted in killing of the last of the fish humanoids.

"We thank you for coming to our aid, I see you found Astolfo." Artoria said.

"More like he found us, also shouldn't you be thanking Nero for saving your ass." Tamamo said.

"Umu! Indeed, you would have been fish food if it wasn't for me." Nero said with smug satisfaction, though the only thing Artoria gave her was a glare.

Nero then noticed Touma and walked up to him to look him over.

"You wouldn't happen to be Tamamo's chosen one correct."

"Uh, I mean we live together and all." Touma said nervously.

"Umu, I'll admit I like what I see, you would definitely be praetor material if it was I you came across first."

Touma couldn't find words, but he noticed Tamamo had a dark expression on her face directed at Nero.

"Shouldn't you be with Sogiita?" Tamamo asked scathingly.

"Umu, alas he is out of the city for some kind of demonstration at an outlying facility. I wanted to come with him but they ensured I wouldn't be able to follow, a day without my praetor is most gloomy for me." Nero explained.

The door to the Judgment building opens where Uiharu, Saten and Shirai stepped out.

"Quickly, everyone come in." Uiharu pleaded. Ushering the group inside.

"Thank goodness that initial nightmare is over." Shirai sighed.

"We aren't out of the woods yet, hey is Konori with you?" Tamamo asked.

"In fact it seems you two are the only judgment members here. Where are the others?" Touma added.

"Scrambled, or forced to be in their residences, when Anti Skill took over." Uiharu explained.

"By the way who are those two, and why does one of them look like a bustier more feminine Artoria?" Shirai asked.

Hearing that irked Artoria while Nero proudly introduced herself.

"Nero Claudias? Isn't that the name of the Roman emperor who allegedly burned his own city." Saten stated.

Nero quickly looked away upon hearing that and her expression went a bit dark. What happened then was definitely not one of her proudest moments but it's not like she wanted to do that. She went delusional after her wretch of a mother poisoned her.

After Astolfo introduced himself everyone got right to business.

"So your saying we have a dangerous ritual that's about to be performed here using 1 million souls and a grimoir from Index!" Shirai gasped.

"Yeah, Astolfo managed to snag a parchment that had a weird name on it." Tamamo said.

"Here let me try to look it up." Uiharu offered.

As she typed in the name and searched she found that the name Magnum Tenebrosum correlated with an entity created by American author Howard Philips Lovecraft called the armless darkness, and what they read disturbed them was it's description as what was known as an outer god, virtually an unstoppable being that easily wreak havoc on the world.

"Ok, this already seems far fetched to me despite the fact that I've seen magic." Shirai said.

"Be that as it may we still need to stop them before things get worse." Touma added.

"He's right, we must enact strategies for the upcoming trials to be." Artoria reaffirmed.

"One more thing, Uiharu do you think you can hack into any files to see something about a clone experiment." Tamamo asked.

"Sure but it might be a bit so you all can sit and rest."

And so they did as Uiharu got to work. Touma and Tamamo sat next to each other as normal but Saten noticed a different air about the two, normally they would be all love and care but, now it seems there is some kind of distance between the two, not a big one but noticeable, she didn't know whether to address it or not but it left her pondering.

"Guys I think I found something!" Uiharu called out.

Everyone huddled around to see what came up.

"The files were put under heavy coding locks so it took a bit of work to try and skirt around them, but I managed to pull up something regarding clones."

As everyone looked at the screen they saw what was labeled on the drive. Project Radio Noise.

"Index POV:

The young nuns eyes fluttered open as she tried to regain her barring, she was in some kind of old warehouse, and the things she saw made her eyes go wide, there were countless occult items strewn about and it looked like she was in the middle of a giant ritual circle, she then saw the open doors of the structure and saw what looked like the same Shoggoth that ate that woman one time, what was going on? The only thing she did after was gulp.

And that concludes the chapter, I definitely took some liberty to really change things up for this portion of the story pushing forward, and it looks like we have signals of a potential unraveling in the main duo's relationship, woof.

So yeah I'm definitely gonna do some divergence here in there just to shake things up as it goes and as I always say constructive criticism is key and welcome.

Next chapter: Reigns of Madness

See ya!!