Long white hair floated within the liquid, his pale skin not lacking any rosy hue. The green surgical gown he wore made him look even more like a doctor.
Aleister's eyes were dull, with little luster, the nerves in his face stiff and somewhat wooden, as if his own emotions were in a state of severe suppression.
However, as the light screen before him suddenly vanished, he had already lost interest in communicating with that magician.
Though the other party held some value, it wasn't worth expending too much of his energy.
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
The barely audible words were uttered in a synthesized mechanical voice.
A subtle, almost imperceptible change flickered across Aleister's expression—something akin to reflection, or perhaps appreciation.
This phrase was recorded on the cover page of the grimoire The Book of the Law, and together with this grimoire, it formed a philosophical and magical system known as Thelema.
This system was proposed by the Board Chairman himself—the one hiding his identity, concealed within this bubbling vat—and he was prepared to see it through to the very end, no matter the consequences.
Similarly, this very Academy City before him was promoted and established by this same Chairman. Thus, it was highly probable that the creations within it were closely related to that Book of the Law.
So-called espers were likely products of this magical system.
In that case, espers could also be considered magicians within the Thelema system—yet they were magicians based purely in the physical world, distinctly separate from magicians of other systems, with a clear line drawn between them.
Moreover, the power of espers existed based on physical laws. It wasn't rooted in idol worship, nor was it an imitation of raw stones, miracles, or wonders. Thus, it was only natural to call this the science side.
The surroundings grew dim.
Aleister's thought processes slowed once again, and then he closed his eyes.
Yet, he still retained a few threads of awareness, observing certain targets within Academy City that held his interest. And at some point, without him quite realizing when, a girl with a neat bun had been added to his list.
Just as he relinquished a portion of his cognitive abilities, the output of some instruments around him suddenly decreased.
It was enough to make one suspect that even his thinking relied on these science-side contraptions.
--+--
The windowless building had been struck by the righteous wrath of heaven's thunder—a piece of news neither too major nor too minor. Who knows, it might even make it onto an urban legend website someday.
But right now, no one had much mind to pay attention to such trivialities, because in a certain area of District 7, an ear-splitting evacuation alarm was blaring.
Arriving even earlier than the Anti-Skill teams were the local Judgment members. But faced with this kind of unknown emergency, their first choice was to evacuate the civilians.
The passageway between the buildings, once a shaded path for leisure, had now been reduced to ruins.
And standing amidst these ruins, a human-shaped luminescent body hovered just above the ground, its face devoid of joy or sorrow, utterly indifferent to the danger closing in.
Misaka had completely transformed. Her skin was encased in a strange radiance, like armor made of light.
Soft, ribbon-like protrusions, resembling sharp horns, began to emerge around her body, gradually covering her.
And before her, the boy known as Accelerator stood firm against the countless dazzling lightning bolts. He was wrapped entirely in blue electric arcs, yet remained completely unharmed.
Accelerator moved swiftly, breaking through dozens of electrical attacks in no time.
With one hand, he swatted away the massive, solidified thunderbolt above his head; with the other, he directly grabbed hold of Misaka Mikoto, who was still in the midst of her evolution.
With just a slight manipulation of the vectors in his hand, Accelerator violently tore off a large chunk of the luminous substance from Misaka Mikoto's body, revealing a small part of her original form.
This radiance was an amalgamation of the AIM diffusion field and Misaka Mikoto's own ability. While covering her body, it seemed to protect the person within.
Yet, it still fell within the scope of what Accelerator could comprehend. To adapt to this power, he'd had to spend a little extra time earlier.
Realizing this, a concept began to form in Accelerator's mind.
Even during evolution, a Level 5 still adhered to some of the common principles of the esper system. The abilities still complied with the laws of the physical world; they hadn't suddenly transformed into some other kind of power.
This was crucial information. No wonder Kihara Gensei had welcomed his participation in this experiment. This piece of information alone made sacrificing the Railgun worth the cost.
And the experiment was still ongoing; they could continue to gather all sorts of useful data.
But Accelerator clearly wasn't here to help Kihara Gensei. His goal was explicit: to stop this experiment.
If he could force the brain into a mandatory shutdown—that is, knock Misaka Mikoto unconscious in this state—perhaps he could end this condition.
However, Accelerator couldn't guarantee success. No one knew if a brain in this state still had the function to go into shock.
If that was the case, he would have no choice but to find a way to dispose of the #3. After all, a dead person certainly couldn't evolve.
"Suppression successful. Even though the #3's ability has been amplified multiple times, it still can't break through my defense."
Accelerator's gaze held a scrutinizing edge.
In his mind, while he placed the current Misaka Mikoto at a level requiring careful handling, the danger she posed hadn't yet crossed his threshold.
Nevertheless, the corresponding pressure was steadily increasing. As her presence grew, the frequency and persistence of her attacks intensified, even beginning to incorporate power from the AIM diffusion field.
The evolving Misaka Mikoto seemed capable of influencing the AIM diffusion field around her. Her very being might already be equivalent to a nascent field core—another crucial piece of experimental data.
Swinging his arm once more, Accelerator aimed to strike Misaka Mikoto's main body before the light could restore itself. But the torn sections instantly regenerated.
Even with Accelerator's swift reaction speed, when his attack landed on Misaka Mikoto, the damage was absorbed by that radiance.
In the instant Misaka Mikoto's body was sent flying backward, stark white pillars of light materialized in the sky—dense, chaotic, and accompanied by a buzzing sound reminiscent of swarming bees.
These light pillars struck from various angles, yet their trajectories remained consistent, continuously appearing one after another, homing in on the direction where Misaka-san was flung.
But the moment they approached Misaka-san, the countless electric arcs surrounding her affected them, refracting them in other directions. Still, some light pillars managed to hit her body, erasing large portions of the radiance.
Several dozen meters away, Natsume-san stood dumbly in place, her eyes vacant. Her usual array of attack methods were merely scratching the surface for Misaka-san.
Only the Meltdowner formula, temporarily supplemented by Kihara Gensei, had reached a level where it could put up a fight.
However, Kihara Gensei hadn't thoroughly verified it; disregarding the risks, he'd directly deployed it in actual combat—something Natsume-san would absolutely never do under normal circumstances.
But to extract electrons from atomic nuclei required destroying the integrity of the atom itself, forming high-speed particle-wave cannons with lingering effects. The computational power consumed reached an unprecedented level.
Before long, a faint redness appeared on the face of the vacant-eyed Natsume-san, and her breathing involuntarily quickened.
Meanwhile, a certain white-haired individual was inwardly quite surprised. Wasn't this supposed to be the #4's move?
Before he could dwell on it, the human-shaped luminescent body that was Misaka Mikoto quickly stabilized her posture.
And now, the ribbon-like structures that had covered Misaka-san's body suddenly began overlapping and weaving together, forming a pair of freely movable, hollow 'wings'.
The horn-like protrusion on her head also began to sprout and grow, its tip now adorned with three pure white halos of varying sizes, reminiscent of those of an angel.
But this form didn't last long. The evolution promptly entered the next stage.
Under Kouzaku Mitori's guidance, the Misaka Network had already begun merging with Misaka Mikoto. Memories documenting the thousands of deaths of the Sisters started flooding uncontrollably into the Railgun's brain.
But all of this had little to do with Natsume-san, trapped within her own body for the time being.
She had nearly finished transferring all her brain's memories into her soul. However, a backup still remained in the brain itself, and none of the anticipated issues had arisen.
The process of transferring memories wasn't related to the brain's own operations; it felt more like a manipulation of thought itself.
And during this process of moving her memories into her soul, Natsume-san's thoughts inexplicably experienced a faint stirring.
Beneath this inexplicable stirring, Natsume-san suddenly understood something. The soul wasn't some insignificant thing; it was a person's essence.
What is essence? It's what remains after discarding the body and the brain.
It's like that certain spiky-haired boy—his soul's essence is God's Pure Righteousness Slaying Demons. (A/N: Not really.)
Similarly, Natsume-san's essence had always existed within her soul; this was undeniable.
Moreover, Natsume-san had a strange premonition. This essence might help her solve the problem she currently faced. She realized that she seemed to have always lacked awareness of this essence.
However, the barrier between Natsume-san's body and soul was very real. Previously, she thought it might be because consciousness originated from the soul, causing the body and soul to be split into two separate entities.
But now, Natsume-san was beginning to understand. After transferring the memories, she felt some changes within herself.
As a transmigrator, her consciousness was born from the soul, naturally creating a sense of detachment from the body of this different world.
But the soul only contained scattered memories. Coupled with the relationship between espers and the brain, Natsume-san had ended up neglecting her soul and paying more attention to her body.
Unconsciously, Natsume-san's thoughts always subconsciously separated her native body from her transmigrator soul.
Under this self-denial, she completely blocked the door to exploring the essence of her soul, existing only as a porter for soul memories.
But now things were somewhat different.
Natsume-san had transferred the memories from her body into her soul, overlaying the transmigrator memories with the native memories, squeezing those scattered transmigrator memories into a corner and allowing the native memories to occupy the main position within the soul.
The sense of detachment and unfamiliarity between the two immediately diminished significantly.
Perhaps because of this, both the body and the soul began to exert an equal attraction on Natsume-san, the consciousness. The previously faint, almost imperceptible barrier actually reduced considerably, even showing a tendency to merge together.
Normal people can't perceive their own souls. Natsume-san seemed normal, but in reality, she wasn't.
Fortunately, this abnormal situation hadn't caused her much trouble in daily life, so things had been peaceful all along.
But now, Natsume-san keenly noticed that her ability to perceive her own soul was growing weaker and weaker, and that the outline of nothingness representing the soul was also growing increasingly faint.
When this change first began, she felt a bit panicked. But Natsume-san quickly understood.
The soul that belonged to her was reclaiming the privilege of being perceived, continuously merging with the body named Natsume Sonoko.
No one knew if this fusion was good or bad. Natsume-san, the main consciousness, remained an onlooker.
But she discovered that, deep down, she actually yearned for this—it was the most primal desire of both her body and soul.
As everyone knows, a beating heart cannot think. So what exactly is the 'heart'?
Is it thought? The brain? Or the soul? Perhaps it's all of them.
At that moment, waves of intense, undeniable excitement surged forth from her heart, continuously assailing the brain under Kihara Gensei's control.
"In truth, the fusion process had already begun long ago. It was just missing the most crucial step."
The soul's contour grew fainter, but its pull on Natsume-san's thoughts grew stronger. She didn't need to act herself; it felt as if in the next second, she would be completely drawn into it.
But now, Natsume-san finally turned her attention to a minor detail.
Her soul hadn't been like this from the very beginning. It had changed along with the growth of her body.
Natsume-san still remembered the process of her soul gradually growing from an infant's contour to its current form.
So, the fusion had indeed started long ago.
The only thing lacking was the choice of Natsume-san, the main consciousness—the conflict between the identities of transmigrator and native.
Perhaps this was an underlying rule of this world.
If everyone in the Toaru-verse had a place, then without a doubt, the transmigrator was the extra person.
And the best way for this extra person to blend into this large Toaru family was to occupy a position—whether through reincarnation, possession, or something similar.
However, after occupying a position, if one still insisted on considering themselves a transmigrator, their stance would naturally be skewed, and the soul might fail to properly adapt to the native body.
By filling this strange soul with the memories of her life here, squeezing the transmigrator memories into a minority, Natsume-san's seemingly meaningless action had, by chance, declared sovereignty.
This soul has been claimed by the twelve-year-old native young lady.
Natsume-san's consciousness might originate from the soul, but the soul's memories were fragmented and couldn't support the formation of a true personality. So from the very beginning, the native identity was destined to win.
The fusion process was irreversible. The attraction emanating from the fading contour reached its peak.
Yet this attraction didn't truly pull Natsume-san in. It was more like a wave of farewell.
Then, the emitted attraction abruptly ceased. Her soul had completely vanished.
The special connection to her soul snapped in an instant. Natsume-san's thoughts trembled slightly; clearly, she hadn't been truly mentally prepared.
In the blink of an eye, Natsume-san had become a normal person.
--+--
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.