[Host, you're already strong enough to qualify as an earthly angel. You may not be anywhere near the absolute peak of A Certain Magical Index, but you're hardly weak anymore. Why are you still going through the same ordinary routine every day?]
"I only wanted extraordinary power. I never said I wanted some extraordinary lifestyle."
Asakami En remained completely calm.
"Besides, I still can't beat Aleister. There's no reason to get complacent. Meditating more and continuing to improve myself matters far more."
[If you want a guaranteed victory against that monster, you'll need to reach at least the seventh rank.]
[The combination of Spiritual Tripping and the Blasting Rod is absurd. The first lets him exploit whatever you recognize as the greatest possible attack, while the second amplifies the resulting force tenfold. It's practically cheating.]
[That's exactly why I chose this universe as our base. I couldn't imagine another System being reckless enough to send its Host here to cause trouble, especially inside Academy City.]
Asakami En silently nodded.
He had never actually read the original A Certain Magical Index novels, but he had read fanfiction and encountered plenty of clips and discussions online.
Power-scalers especially loved bringing Aleister into arguments.
An attack ten times stronger than the greatest force the opponent could conceive of sounded blatantly unfair even as a description.
[And even if the target's own understanding isn't particularly impressive, Spiritual Tripping links their mental framework to Aleister's.]
[So even if you connected him to someone who knew almost nothing, they'd still be dealing with something based on Aleister's own understanding of ultimate destructive power, and then magnified tenfold.]
[At the absolute minimum, you're talking about something on the scale of ten Big Bangs.]
The System sounded increasingly pleased with its own reasoning.
[And you've also become close friends with Kamijou Touma, one of the central figures around whom this world's fate revolves and one of the people Aleister values most.]
[If you ever end up in a genuinely fatal situation, all you have to do is stay close to him.]
[If the enemy Host is absolutely determined to kill you, then they either have to deal with Aleister or face Touma after whatever restraints normally limit what's inside him have been removed.]
The more the System talked, the more confident it became.
Even if the opposing Host had reached some terrifying level in a short time, so what?
This universe was infamous for appearing far weaker than it actually was.
Earth was packed with beings capable of destroying planets and far worse, all crammed into a tiny corner of the cosmos.
Anyone who only watched the anime adaptations might never grasp just how absurd some of the setting's strongest characters truly were.
In the novels, they operated on a completely different scale.
And whenever those monsters fought on Earth, they usually restrained themselves or shifted the battle into some abnormal domain. Otherwise, the planet would have been destroyed long ago.
The Magic Gods were even worse.
Most remained within higher-order hidden realms precisely because those spaces could properly contain their existence. If some of them descended fully into the ordinary world, the collateral damage alone could spread across astronomical distances.
That was why Asakami En's System had been so confident while scattering its malware through other universes.
It simply wasn't afraid of someone following the trail back home.
Unless another System genuinely believed its Host could survive attacks on that scale and continue fighting afterward, they were better off staying away.
...
Meanwhile, Caelus had just finished listening to his own System explain Aleister's capabilities.
[Of course, all of that is true within the framework of the original novels and adaptations.]
[They're fictional works, so their own setting is free to describe power however it wants. But once translated into an actual multiversal hierarchy, those abilities still fall somewhere between the sixth and seventh ranks.]
[Yes, the supposed destructive force of ten Big Bangs genuinely exists here.]
[Yes, it could injure you.]
[But so what?]
[At worst, it destroys the version of you standing here now. A past version of you can simply return to the present.]
Caelus listened quietly.
[The infinite multiverse contains countless abilities whose descriptions sound completely absurd.]
[Inside their native universes, they can operate exactly as those universes permit.]
[But as I've told you before, when powers from different cosmologies collide, the interaction has to resolve through a shared reality.]
[In fiction, people can argue endlessly because there is no definitive framework for comparing two incompatible systems.]
[Here, there is.]
[His attacks may be overwhelmingly powerful. He may even be able to kill you again and again.]
[But how does he destroy every version of you spread across countless points in time and countless layers of memory?]
[Different worlds have different laws. When those laws meet, they overlap, cancel, and reinterpret each other until a compatible framework emerges.]
[If your entire existence were translated into this universe's rules, you still wouldn't be easy to kill.]
[In fact, within this universe, you probably couldn't die at all.]
Caelus raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
[Because this universe is heavily structured around mythology and religion.]
[If your multiversal existence were fully converted into its local metaphysical language, you'd effectively become someone personally chosen by God.]
[A chosen seed. A favored one. Someone carrying divine grace.]
[And under those conditions, you're not supposed to die.]
[Even if you somehow did, you'd probably end up reenacting a resurrection miracle.]
The System paused.
[Actually, if I translated all your concepts completely into this setting's native framework, you'd probably become something comparable to a Magic God almost instantly.]
[Your underlying concepts are already operating at a very high level.]
After finishing its enthusiastic power-scaling lecture, the System briefly entertained the idea of simply having Caelus kill Aleister and absorb his existence.
Aleister's abilities were undeniably useful.
Once converted into a broader multiversal framework, they would behave differently, but they would still make excellent additions to Caelus's arsenal.
Caelus ignored the System's rapidly escalating enthusiasm.
It clearly just wanted front-row seats to a spectacular fight.
"I entered your experiment by accident," Caelus told Aleister. "It wasn't intentional, and I wasn't trying to steal anything from you. I was simply traveling and happened to arrive there."
"I understand."
Aleister's voice remained impossible to read.
"And I apologize for responding with hostility before establishing your intentions."
"As compensation, I will provide everything you require to remain in Academy City, including legal identification and living expenses."
"I hope your time here becomes another worthwhile memory from your travels."
Neither side showed any particular desire to escalate the situation.
After talking for a while longer, they ultimately treated the earlier confrontation as a misunderstanding.
Caelus left the Windowless Building soon afterward.
Aleister's people provided him with the promised identification documents, a phone, and an unmarked black card with effectively unrestricted funds.
Back inside the Windowless Building, Aleister remained suspended within the life-support device.
Then Aleister addressed Aiwass.
"Were you able to understand what that being was?"
Aiwass was silent for a moment.
"I could see him."
Another pause.
"And yet I could not."
Aleister's expression remained unreadable.
Aiwass continued.
"Aleister, there is something I must make absolutely clear."
"No matter what happens, do not become his enemy."
"Do not attempt to kill him."
"Oh?"
Aleister's voice carried faint interest.
"Why?"
Aiwass answered simply.
"He is favored by the Lord."
Aleister fell silent.
For a very long time, nothing moved inside the chamber.
In this world, God had always been understood as something abstract.
A truth.
A principle.
An ultimate concept woven into the structure of existence.
Not a tangible individual with a personality who personally reached into the world.
But now someone had appeared who had genuinely been chosen.
Someone carrying the unmistakable favor of God.
Which meant that the abstract concept they had always treated as a cold, impersonal truth, the law that existed without ever directly intervening in human affairs...was alive.
And the more someone understood what that implied, the more terrifying it became.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)