The weather had turned foul in an instant, and just like that, the good mood vanished without a trace.
Natsume Sonoko stood there in a daze, utterly lost.
While she'd been under control, there was nothing she could do—but from the corner of her eye, the scene unfolding felt eerily familiar.
It seemed that before any major disaster struck, obvious warnings always appeared one step ahead, only for things to spiral completely out of control.
Having too much experience with that sort of thing… who could say whether it was a blessing or a curse?
Fortunately, Accelerator was nearby. That gave Natsume, still stuck in spectator mode, a sliver of confidence. That white-haired guy was definitely stronger than her, at least.
There was a strange tension in the air, as if it were charged with some immense energy from another phase.
That energy soon materialized in this world. In Natsume's field of vision, dark, shadowy forms—interwoven with glaring crimson—suddenly erupted from Last Order's body, clawing their way wildly into the sky.
They twisted together like countless black serpents, or perhaps chains surging out from Last Order herself—bizarre, unpredictable, yet undeniably real.
Watching from the sidelines, Natsume suddenly understood. This was nothing other than an aggregation of AIM diffusion fields.
Since this kind of transformation couldn't possibly come from the Sisters' own electrical abilities, it was almost certainly influenced by that AIM field.
Natsume was quite familiar with the way AIM fields could interfere with reality—but why did it look so sinister now, as if it had slipped on some kind of black shell?
As the energy continued pouring out relentlessly from every part of Last Order's body, growing more and more intense, it took only seconds to spread from the open space in front of the building to several hundred meters beyond, blotting out much of the surrounding light and beginning to heavily distort reality.
Although this energy originated from the AIM diffusion field, it had now merged inseparably with the Misaka Network.
After the virus was implanted into the Misaka Network, the Sisters' AIM fields had fully integrated with the network in a short period.
But this was quite different from the indirect formation of the AIM Burst during the Level Upper incident—it felt more like a direct plundering of the AIM field, an outright seizure.
The Misaka Network, originally a 'shared super-brain,' had turned the tables—becoming the main entity and seizing the Sisters' AIM fields and Personal Realities for itself, transforming into this tangible, condensed form.
In other words, the Sisters had gone from being the core to mere accessories, while the Misaka Network took off entirely—evolving from a secondary brain into a master brain, now possessing its own Personal Reality and AIM diffusion field.
It had effectively become an extraordinarily unique electromaster.
In terms of pure processing power, this special ability user could leave Accelerator in the dust—perhaps even rivaling the Tree Diagram's standard computational capacity.
As for comparing it to Natsume herself… well, she might as well just go to bed early.
What Kihara Gensei and his ilk aimed to do was merge Misaka Mikoto with this special ability user, while inducing Mikoto to wield its power—inevitably causing mutual assimilation.
The overwhelmingly powerful Personal Reality and AIM diffusion field would instantly mislead Mikoto's brain, forcing open the gates of evolution.
Both were electromasters, with highly similar AIM diffusion fields and Personal Realities. Add to that the fact that the Sisters were originally derived from Misaka Mikoto, and their compatibility was off the charts.
If you ignored differences in ability development, they could almost be considered the same ability user.
Kihara Gensei exploited this very point, easily securing the computational power needed to elevate Misaka Mikoto to Level 6.
As for the method of linking the Misaka Network into Mikoto's mind—it was simple. No psychological control was needed, nor was it about opening network permissions.
Instead, they directly leveraged the similarity of their diffusion fields and Personal Realities to forcibly load the network onto Misaka Mikoto.
Those black shells encasing the AIM diffusion field, generated by the custom virus, would loyally execute Kihara Gensei's commands—becoming the chains that bound the two ability users together.
"AIM diffusion fields from ability users of the same system share an inseparable connection—phenomena like the Skill-Out incident have already proven this."
"And for two highly similar AIM diffusion fields, that connection becomes even stronger, even tending to merge. No matter how powerful Misaka Mikoto is, she will inevitably be drawn into the specialized Misaka Network."
Watching the tablet screen as Misaka Mikoto drew closer to her destination, the terrorist girl's expression grew a touch more serious.
Dressed in a fanciful nurse outfit, black tights stretching above her knees, a tablet case slung diagonally across her shoulder, and twintails falling to her shoulders—this terrorist girl seemed to have a fondness for cosplay.
'It's about time.'
As the test subject drew nearer, Kouzaku Mitori held her breath. At the same time, Kihara Gensei's voice came through her earpiece.
Even though the Misaka Mikoto on the monitor was the original of her dear friend Dolly, she was also the one who caused Dolly's suffering.
So… let her be buried in this city along with everything else. No one escapes.
'I'm sorry, Dolly. I was powerless back then… but now things are different.'
Standing on the vast rooftop, Kouzaku Mitori gazed into the distance.
Several hundred meters away, a massive, pitch-black anomaly of energy—formed from the AIM diffusion field—had appeared. A genuine smile of delight spread across her face.
It was a smile of true anticipation—anticipation for this city's destruction, for the power of a Level 6 to exact revenge.
She began calculating the relative distance between Misaka Mikoto and the windowless building, preparing to guide the controlled Mikoto according to plan. In her hand appeared the remote control typically needed to utilize the Mental Out ability.
Under Kihara Gensei's authorization, she had obtained a registered account for the Exterior.
Leveraging most of Exterior's power, she would choose the right moment to breach Misaka Mikoto's electromagnetic barrier.
Mikoto's electromagnetic barrier was strong enough to resist Mental Out under normal circumstances—but with Mental Out's capabilities greatly enhanced, the barrier's reliability would plummet.
Even if Misaka Mikoto integrated with the Misaka Network, before evolution began, Kouzaku Mitori could still use the virus to alter part of the network's permissions—so there was no need to factor in any boost the network might give Mikoto.
'Hmm…'
Just then, a few muffled groans came from beside Kouzaku Mitori.
Though Kihara Gensei paid it no mind, the metal puppet had brought Shokuhou Misaki back to prevent her from breaking control and causing unnecessary trouble.
For now, Kouzaku Mitori's main body—equipped with access to Exterior—would keep watch over her.
Shokuhou Misaki lay pale on the ground about ten meters away, a used medical kit discarded not far from her.
Her arm seemed to have been bandaged, but her eyes remained tightly shut—the applied Mental Out still affecting her mind.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.