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- Othinus, or the head Norse god which became the origin of the name, had left behind
- many different legends as the center of the system making up a mythology. That god did
- not necessarily use only one weapon and there were records of that god defeating various
- different enemies with various different blades.
- And there was one weapon specifically associated with Othinus rather than Odin.
- It was simply known as a crossbow.
- No one knew its official name, much less how it was produced. That phantom weapon had
- left only a description of its frightening destructive power in the texts. That symbol of the
- head god was too obscure to be called a legend and had mostly been covered by the mists
- of time.
- It was said that crossbow could simultaneously hold ten arrows in a fan shape.
- It was said firing that crossbow could exterminate any army.
- The entire world could be heard creaking.
- Kamijou looked up slightly.
- He saw the disturbing symbol bursting from Othinus’s back and providing the color of
- light to the entire black world it covered. He heard the creaking sound of it gathering
- tremendous power.
- In the end, the world was her crossbow.
- As soon as Kamijou Touma realized that, ten pieces of destruction rained down from the
- heavenly dome above.
- -Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 9 Chapter 8 Part 7
- What exactly could this be compared to?
- Perhaps a super-long railgun that targeted someone on the planet’s surface after eternal
- acceleration using straight guiderails stretching from one end of the universe to the other.
- Perhaps a singularity weapon that created destruction unexplainable with Newtonian
- physics by directly messing with the smallest particles dealing with mass and motion such
- as the bosons and the Higgs particle.
- In all likelihood, expressing it with words was meaningless.
- Even if one gathered everything that could be expressed with words, it was unlikely one
- could shoot down that crossbow.
- It merely hit.
- “...!!!???”
- Kamijou Touma leaped to the side with all his strength.
- ...The first shot fell vertically from the heavens.
- It held the destructive power needed to easily wipe out a planet or two, but it was beyond
- the point of creating anything like a crater. This was no different from a rifle bullet fired
- with the initial velocity of a sniper rifle piercing glass without breaking it. The arrow had
- been fired with such great speed that it pierced the pitch black ground without waiting for
- the impact to propagate.
- Even so, Kamijou ran.
- His distance to Othinus was close yet far. It felt like an infinite wall.
- ...The second shot seemed to skim the ground as it was fired behind him and diagonally
- to the left.
- Kamijou crouched down and the arrow passed over his head and swept across the world.
- Its trajectory was angled downward slightly and it created a giant valley in that black-dyed
- world.
- Othinus did not move from her spot.
- She and Kamijou had to be the same. They were both pouring all their strength into
- defeating their opponent.
- ...The third and fourth shots burst up through the ground.
- They stabbed up a few meters away on either side of Kamijou. It was a trap. If he rashly
- moved even a step to evade, he would be smashed to pieces.
- The more unnecessary actions he took, the farther he would be from victory.
- He sharpened his senses like a needle and pictured himself stretching forward and
- piercing Othinus with that needle.
- ...The fifth shot came from directly in front of him.
- His movements to the left and right were already sealed off and now Othinus had thrown
- a straight pitch. For the first time, Kamijou swung his right hand. But not in a straight
- impact meant to destroy. He scooped his hand up from below, traced his hand along the
- surface of the arrow, and diverted its trajectory upwards.
- He ran straight forward.
- His fear and self-interest threatened to shake that simple action.
- ...The sixth and seventh shots scraped across Othinus’s shoulders.
- The two arrows were fired from behind her and they collided in midair before reaching
- him. With a tremendous explosive noise, the two arrows’ trajectories changed complexly.
- The boy evaded one by ducking his upper body down and then jumped over the other with
- a great leap.
- Devoting himself to evasion was meaningless.
- His path threatened to waver, but he used the power of his will to desperately keep himself
- on course.
- ...The eighth shot overcame the restrictions of the third dimension.
- Kamijou felt a static electricity-like spark on his spine and immediately swung his head
- to the side as hard as he could. An instant later, space suddenly split open and an arrow
- assaulted the world.
- He focused on his trajectory.
- The several meter path to Othinus appeared clearly in his head.
- ...The ninth shot ignored the concept of numbers.
- The arrows that fell from above colored the night sky like fireworks and glittered like stars
- covering the heavens. Every single one of them was fatal, but Kamijou did not freeze up.
- No matter how torrentially they rained down, there was always a safe space left to step in.
- He was going to reach her.
- He glared at Othinus’s face and clenched his right fist tighter than before.
- ...And the tenth shot...
- (I can reach her.)
- Kamijou gritted his teeth.
- He sharply moved right up to her.
- (I’ll reach her no matter what!! It doesn’t matter where the final arrow comes from! I can
- punch her after evading it or punch her before she can fire the arrow. Either way, I’ll end
- this here!!)
- “Othinus!!”
- In the instant he shouted out, he was certain of his victory.
- He stopped thinking about the tenth shot altogether. That was why he had reached the
- idea of ending this before she could fire it.
- But his mistake was understandable.
- The final shot approached from directly behind Magic God Othinus.
- And she did not move a single step.
- In other words, the arrow unhesitatingly pierced through Othinus.
- The final arrow broke through the girl’s entire body and assaulted Kamijou from the blind
- spot directly in front of him.
- “...Ah.”
- Time stopped.
- He was too slow to react.
- By the time he heard a dull sound, the final arrow had already been absorbed into his
- chest and accurately targeted his heart.
- This was nothing as kind as piercing or breaking him.
- In the instant of impact, Kamijou Touma’s body was smashed to pieces from the chest
- down. As his heart continued to writhe in midair, the tip of the arrow caught it and blasted
- it to the farthest reaches of that world.
- All that remained in that place were the boy’s arms, shoulders, and head.
- At that level, this could only be called his remains.
- Kamijou’s “body” spun at least twice through the air and Othinus caught it in one hand.
- She had supposedly taken the exact same damage, but not so much as a single scratch
- remained on her smooth skin. The destruction had indeed occurred, but the wounds had
- immediately repaired themselves like watching the destruction of gelatin in reverse.
- -Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 9 Chapter 8 Part 8
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