Ollerus

“I’m going to the effort of collecting you, so make sure to be of some use,” she muttered before turning her back on Kumokawa Maria.

But then she froze in place.

The Magic God had overlooked Kumokawa Maria on a whim, but now had she decided to kill her on a whim?

Kumokawa Maria thought that was so, but she was wrong.

“…Oh, it’s the failure.”

Immediately after Othinus’s voice rang out, another person was now there.

At some point, a blond young man had come to be in the ring.

There was nowhere he could have been hidden. There had been no sign of him using Academy City esper powers. And yet that blond young man stood there. It was not that he had suddenly appeared. Kumokawa Maria could not put it that way. She had no idea when he had arrived.

And the strangest thing of all was that the blond young man was facing Othinus who had wielded such great power.

“Magic God,” he spat out rudely. It was as if he were declaring himself to be opposed to the one he named thusly. “I am not here for you this time.”

Most of the chain-link had been destroyed but the blond young man still pointed toward the mainly useless exit of the ring.

“Hurry up and leave with the Dvergr. I have business with that Imagine Breaker.”

“…”

Othinus remained silent for a bit.

But then…

A tremendous explosive noise burst out between Othinus and the blond young man.

Actually, it was not just one. Thousands and tens of thousands of explosive noises burst out at such short intervals that they all sounded like a single whole.

However, Kumokawa had no idea what had happened.

She saw no visual phenomenon.

She knew only one thing.

That blond young man could rival that Magic God named Othinus.

“Give it up. This will settle nothing,” said the young man.

Most likely, Othinus had only been testing him. After a few seconds, the explosive noises suddenly stopped.

“Do you think a mere failure can stand before a pure Magic God?” spat out Othinus.

“No, I don’t think I can win. If I could, I would have killed you long ago. I will abstain from killing you as long as I have no means of doing so. That’s all there is to it.”

“…So you’ve come to be killed by me?”

“It isn’t that either. You know that. You may be a Magic God, but you are not perfect. Or rather, you are too perfect and that gives you a troublesome characteristic. You know that and that is why you have put together this exaggerated plan to free you from that dilemma.”

“…”

“Infinite possibilities sounds good, but that gives you both the possibility of success and the possibility of failure. I suppose it’s something like matter and antimatter. For everything, you must hold the possibility for success and the possibility for failure. No matter how much power you gather, you have a 50/50 chance. If you think of it like Russian roulette, it’s like taking a shot with three bullets loaded. Let’s be honest, Othinus. While you possess the power to destroy the world, you also have a fifty percent chance of losing to a child in a game of rock-paper-scissors. It’s almost a miracle that Kamijou Touma has lost twice. His misfortune must really be something. But given this condition, you cannot just wield your full power at random. You want to find a way to control those possibilities. Wanting to increase your possibilities for victory is natural, but when your possibilities for failure increase too, you need to find some way of dealing with that. 50/50 is the most troublesome of all.”

The young man then pointed toward his own chest with his thumb.

And he spoke.

“I am an impure example that stopped at the point where I ‘should have’ become a Magic God. In other words, I lose to you in overall power, but I am freed from that 50/50 dilemma. After all, I am imperfect. Unlike your perfect balance, my odds of victory have a deviation.”

“And you think that will let you win?”

“No, I already told you I can’t. If I could, I would have killed you long ago,” said the young man before smiling and continuing. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have an idea as to how to push you back just a bit. It’s all thanks to how you so carelessly crushed Kamijou Touma’s right hand.”

“You don’t mean…?”

“World War III was started by a man who held the power to save the world. He had the power to save the world, but could not save the world without a right hand to output that power into the world. That was why he used various methods to obtain that special right hand. That’s right. You cut off the right hand that only one of can exist in the world.”

A great metallic noise came from above.

It was from one of the pillars used to support the chain-link fence surrounding the ring. A man wearing red had appeared atop it at some point. His right arm had been severed at the shoulder. Growing from there was an unnatural distortion of space that looked as if sugar water had been mixed in.

“Fiamma of the Right with his power to save the world. And me, a man who can wield the power of a Magic God even if it is impure. …Now then. What will you do in response to these changing possibilities? Fifty percent, Othinus. I believe you have even odds of just forcing your way through this.”

“Hmph,” snorted Othinus.

While holding Marian Slingeneyer in one hand, she turned her back on the young man. She was going along with her opponent’s suggestion.

But after taking a few steps, Othinus suddenly stopped. She carelessly tossed Marian to the side.

“No, I guess I’ll kill you,” she said.

With a great roar, something beyond Kumokawa Maria’s understanding blew about.

Natural Selector, the one who determines natural selection. On that stage where countless contestants, Kiharas, Gremlin, Kamijou Touma, and Marian Slingeneyer had all fought, a battle began that had the same theme but was on a completely different level.

To Aru Majutsu no Index New Testament 4
[-]
Marian did not have enough energy left to shout even if she wanted to.

Something definitive had been lost from the world.

“What happened to those that made that complaint? Did you make them part of that army of the dead too?”

“No. As usual, someone got in my way.”

Someone got in her way.

For Othinus, the number of people who could do that was quite limited.

“Did the failure…Did Ollerus appear?”

“Currently, when I face him, it always ends in a tie. That’s just how things are set up. I will need to do something about him too at some point.”

Her one weakness.

A threat greater than Imagine Breaker.

However, Othinus’s expression did not change as she spoke. For her, it was likely similar to looking at a puzzle she already knew how to solve. She did not need to think about it. She only had more work that required physical exertion like cleaning a messy room.

To Aru Majutsu no Index New Testament 4