A/N: Thanks to Kira Minzu for following.
I was going to post the last few chapters next week, just to keep you in suspense, but then decided not to. :)
The moment her hand touched the building, the lights illuminating the Windowless Building flickered. Accelerator's eyes widened. He backed away one step and then another, and as the ground began to shake, he turned and ran, barely slowing to grab Last Order.
He threw her onto his shoulder and moved as the ground cracked, fissures forming so quickly that it was almost as if they were chasing the retreating esper. He could bet that no place in Academy City would be safe, possibly no place in the world if the girl continued. But that only meant that he had to drop off Last Order somewhere relatively safe before he returned to where Celeste—no, Lucifer—was.
Because that thing couldn't be anything but the fallen angel Celeste had summoned.
"Kusotare," Accelerator hissed and used Vector Change to add bursts of speed, his feet barely brushing against the ground before he shot forward again.
Surprisingly, after the initial yelp of surprise, Last Order didn't say anything. With her head level with Accelerator's waist, she could see the ground cracking and shaking, and she knew that if she squirmed or made any noise, she could cause the boy to accidentally drop her, and she would be dead.
Accelerator must have been moving more quickly than the cracks were, because eventually the noises grew softer and softer, and the violent tremors turned into soft vibrations. And then everything stopped, and everything was normal again. Only then did Accelerator stop and drop Last Order, none too gently, onto her behind.
"Stay here," Accelerator ordered, then hesitated, frowning. "No. If the ground starts shaking all the way out here, then run to where it isn't shaking. And stay away from anything that could fall on you."
"Where is Accelerator going, Misaka Misaka asks?"
"Back," he said.
Without waiting for her to say another word, he sped back the way he came, dodging falling materials and sidestepping to avoid the cracks in the earth. To tell the truth, he had no idea what he could do when he got back to Celeste. He didn't know magic, didn't know anything about angels. And if that thing could actually scathe the Windowless Building, something even he could not accomplish, Accelerator wasn't sure he could do anything against it.
It didn't help that the monster was in Celeste's body. That only meant he had to somehow stop it without hurting her.
He snapped open his cellphone, his gaze flicking quickly between the road and the screen as he scrolled down quickly. "Tsuchimikado."
"Accelerator! What in the world is—"
"Lucifer is going berserk. Windowless Building. Now," Accelerator snapped, and without waiting for Tsuchimikado to agree or disagree, snapped the phone shut.
At least he had had the presence of mind in the last few days to acquire a cell phone and insert the numbers he thought he would need.
Tsuchimikado must have been close to the Windowless Building, or already heading that way when Accelerator called, because the two boys arrived at about the same time. And what they saw shocked them.
Fissures ran up the walls, smoke billowing from where the lights that didn't die out had exploded. The ground surrounding the building couldn't even be considered a proper flooring anymore. The proper term would have been 'beach', if there was an ocean nearby.
And somehow, the girl was glowing, the bright white telesma crackling with ebony and violet threads. The beam of light stretched up to dye the sky crimson, and the light around her body faded into a faint glow, jet black wings sprouting from her back. It almost looked as if she was opening the gates to hell, and legions of demons and undead would pour from the sky and earth any moment.
Almost probably wasn't the right word anymore.
A giant magic circle began to stretch over Academy City. A curse word escaped Tsuchimikado's mouth. Accelerator agreed, and let out a choice word of his own. That could not be good.
"That could not be good," a male's voice echoed their thoughts.
Tsuchimikado yelped even as Accelerator spun on his heel, but the snarl on his face faded as he found himself staring at Aleister Crowley. Or technically, he was staring at Aleister's chest, but he only had to tilt his head a little to see the man's face. Aleister stared up at the sky, a bemused expression on his face.
"You could leave the Windowless Building?" Tsuchimikado asked, bewildered.
"That's not the problem now," Accelerator rolled his eyes at the blonde before turning back to the older Crowley. "Can we do something about that?"
"Yes. We can," Aleister nodded. "We could do it the easy way or the hard way, even though both methods are difficult enough."
"And?" Accelerator asked impatiently.
"The easy way is to kill her," Aleister nodded to the hybrid of human and dark angel.
Accelerator stiffened. "No."
"Yes, I quite agree with that. I still need Lucifer, after all," Aleister said.
Accelerator let out a string of curses that told Aleister he didn't agree with the magician's reasoning. In spite of the situation, the corners of Aleister's mouth twitched upwards.
"The hard way is for you two to keep it distracted while I go find Index. There should be a grimoire somewhere that tells us how to seal Lucifer in a body," Aleister said, then hummed absently. "Now, which book was it…"
"Keep… that distracted," Tsuchimikado said wryly. "Right. That should be easy. As easy as visually counting all the pixels on a computer screen."
"Yes. Easy," Aleister nodded with a half smile. "Now if you will excuse me."
The two boys stared at the man's back as he started walking away, almost as if he was taking a stroll through the park. Tsuchimikado got the feeling that Celeste's insanity also came from Aleister.
"Any ideas?" Tsuchimikado asked Accelerator.
"Just attack," the boy said curtly, and he shot forward.
Tsuchimikado gave a wordless shout, half frustrated and half irritated. "I'm a normal human right now, you know!"
Accelerator ran straight into a barrier several feet from the girl. He clenched his teeth, trying to force his way through with his ability. But tentacles of pain ran across his skin, and with a grunt of pain, he felt himself repelled.
Accelerator flipped so he landed feet first, the soles of his shoes sliding across the sandy ground. The girl never stopped murmuring, the magic circle above their heads growing bigger and bigger, until it suddenly stopped.
Tsuchimikado glanced nervously at the sky, hoping that it was Accelerator's attack that slowed down the spell, but he was disappointed. The circle had reached its goal, and began to glow. The sky shimmered, the crimson spreading into the horizon, a black spot becoming increasingly larger above the center of the magic circle.
Tsuchimikado scoffed. Lucifer the Light Bringer his arse. What kind of light bringer brought darkness anyways? The fallen angel was a destroyer now, and he had no doubt that the berserk fallen angel was aiming to destroy the world. It had already stolen a lot of the power stored in the Windowless Building, trying to use as much external energy as possible before turning to the life force of its host.
The blonde onmyouji watched helplessly as Accelerator attacked again and again, throwing everything he could get his hands on before finally resorting to physical attacks once again. He couldn't break past the barrier. And the girl never turned to look at him.
Aleister really needed to hurry up, Tsuchimikado thought as the dark spot grew to an alarming size, as if threatening to open a portal or simply swallow the planet.
If the greatest magician in the world couldn't do anything within the next few minutes, Earth was doomed for sure