This darkness clung to the human heart like woodworms, chains that firmly bound the soul, polluting humanity's capacity for thought, step by step pushing it toward an utterly extreme side.
The bitterness that couldn't be shared with others, the anger hidden deep within, the resentment towards Academy City—all of it erupted at this moment.
Sometimes, humans are more fragile than imagined, especially when that most sensitive nerve is touched, causing them to become hysterical and utterly mad in an instant.
The cage constructed from these negative emotions had now almost turned Misaka Mikoto into a monster obsessed only with revenge, her rationality teetering on the brink of complete collapse.
And the massive energy forcibly gathered before their eyes, its energy level constantly transitioning, was poised at any moment to become a weapon capable of destroying Academy City.
"Misaka-senpai... she's enraged."
Her body trembled slightly. The bun-wearing original, still disturbed by pain, kept her eyes tightly shut.
After outputting most of her cognitive abilities, her condition seemed to have improved somewhat; at least the pain wasn't as severe.
Her 1.45-meter frame floated eerily motionless in mid-air.
The brand-new tracksuit was once again a mess, stained with blood and grime. The young lady hadn't ordered a third set.
This was completely unexpected. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't even dirty the first one—such was the deep confidence of the strongest Thermokinetic esper.
The trial pack of 'Smart Ones' she'd brought from Kiyama-sensei was lost who-knows-where, dropped on this battlefield along with the coffee Accelerator had been carrying earlier.
Her abdomen was slightly compressed, her slim waist easily encircled from behind as she was lifted.
Weighing less than 40 kg, the bun-girl was quite confident about her figure, which also allowed Reiko-san behind her to effortlessly install the 'Sonoko-brand Ability Amplifier'.
However, Reiko's hands carefully cradled the area just below her abdomen, meticulously avoiding the original body's wounds.
Just a brief observation of her own injuries, the sight of those vicious, frightening wounds, dealt a significant blow to a certain someone.
It even made Reiko's arms feel somewhat weak. She let out a long, slow breath, struggling to steady herself.
And Natsume-san currently had no way to treat her own wounds.
The Judgment team issued medical kits, and the supplies they contained were quite effective for situations like this. But a certain lazy bun-girl obviously hadn't brought hers; carrying that sort of thing around was a hassle.
There was no time to get to a hospital now either. She'd just have to deal with it later.
--+--
The surrounding air was in motion, her clear eyes flickering in and out of view within the air currents.
Reiko and her tool-self stabilized their posture mid-air, her expression slightly complex. Too much had happened in the last few minutes, keeping her brain in a state of high excitement.
She was deeply saddened by the change in Misaka-senpai, yet an unconcealed determination instinctively surfaced on her face. She would save her senpais—both of them.
With the Princess and the Queen in grave crisis, the interest-driven Judgment lady had to make her appearance. Too bad she hadn't brought her armband this time either.
Just from the negative emotions leaking out, potent enough to affect others, Natsume-san understood the situation was extremely dire.
The Sisters' ordeal was a nightmare for Misaka-senpai. Setting aside her identity as an esper, she was just an ordinary fourteen-year-old middle school student.
That senpai was bearing an unbearable pressure, one that would eventually crush a heart that trembled even as it pretended to be strong.
Simple, stubborn girls always liked to shoulder all the responsibility themselves. Natsume-san thought this was both foolish and disadvantageous, but she couldn't talk her out of it.
When Shirai-san was injured earlier, Natsume Sonoko didn't even dare to further stimulate this senpai, afraid she might break.
And now, Kihara Gensei had unleashed it all. But this wasn't catharsis; it was merely emotional manipulation.
An esper's emotions or thoughts could influence their Aim Diffusion Field. The tentacled byproduct of the Level Upper was the best proof, carrying the frustrations and jealousy of countless Level 0s.
In the corners the light didn't reach, endless anger, resentment, and envy festered. These terrifying emotions had once suffocated a certain bun-girl.
This was the corner she least wanted to touch. She knew they existed, sometimes wanted to do something, but felt powerless and thus afraid to look directly, rather like the proverbial ostrich hiding its head in the sand.
In contrast, her own Shokuhou-senpai understood the hidden undercurrents of the human heart in this city much better.
And during the evolution towards Level 6, these emotions were causing all sorts of unforeseen changes.
These dark energy masses before her were, in a way, the physical manifestation of Misaka Mikoto's negative emotions.
These peculiar fields generated by the brain were intimately connected to the esper.
Even though she herself had no interest in researching Level 6, just witnessing the changes Misaka-senpai was undergoing during her evolution told Natsume-san that even an incomplete Absolute Esper would likely possess a practical, usable AIM Diffusion Field.
These AIM Fields could very well act as the belonging esper's arms, weapons, wings... even eyes and ears, becoming extension organs of the brain itself.
Not like the meaningless, dissipating brain energy of lower-level espers.
Like the wings and halo that had formed on Misaka-senpai earlier, or this spherical black energy mass formed after infusing it with rage—everything changed according to Misaka-senpai's will, even now, in her state of lost rationality.
So, these dark energy masses might have become part of Misaka-senpai's negative emotions, perhaps a very large part.
If she couldn't resolve these materialized negative emotions, then Misaka-senpai would remain trapped in this emotional prison of her own making, utterly unable to halt the evolution.
In just a few seconds, Natsume-san had deciphered a significant amount of intelligence regarding Level 6. One could only imagine what scientific groups with advanced analysis equipment could deduce.
This information was undoubtedly immensely valuable. She could somewhat understand Kihara Gensei's determination to conduct these experiments at any cost.
Kihara Gensei might be a hero for the science side, but he was unequivocally her enemy.
"I can't find Kihara Gensei."
A sense of frustration welled up in Reiko, who was holding her tool-self. In just a few seconds, she had scanned a large area around them, yet she hadn't found any trace of Kihara Gensei.
She didn't believe he had left, but Natsume-san didn't have much time to deal with this potential threat now.
Even with that vile scientist lurking, she had to save Misaka-senpai immediately.
At that moment, the tool-self, who had been keeping her eyes tightly shut, suddenly opened them. Her vision and a certain perception in her mind began to mix and correspond, and the world instantly changed its appearance.
This world was a sandwich... no, a multi-layered sandwich.
Reiko-san's breathing immediately became rapid.
The Toaru-verse contained things beyond the physical universe. Or rather, the universe Natsume-san resided in was merely the lowest layer of this world.
Above this foundational physical world existed countless strange, bubble-film-like existences, attached in a tightly overlapping manner.
Once inside them, many common sense notions Natsume-san was familiar with would have to be redefined. Perhaps even her own five senses would become unreliable.
Fortunately, Natsume-san was only 'seeing' their outermost layer, equivalent to the shell.
Although these strange existences seemed layered and distinct, Natsume-san had a feeling there was no real concept of space or distance between them; they simply coexisted here.
Furthermore, these existences acted like layers of filters, dyeing the physical universe with their colors, making it both strange and normal.
At least in Natsume-san's current perception, she had to penetrate these layers of film to finally perceive the real universe she lived in.
In just an instant, Natsume-san concluded one thing: the real world was probably like this.
The place she lived in... was actually quite problematic.
Natsume-san had probably heard of similar concepts before.
About a month ago, when she and Kanzaki-san were caught in that time disturbance, she had briefly touched upon another aspect of this world.
But unlike that fleeting glimpse or superficial understanding, her gaze, while still fixed on reality, was now accompanied by a newly generated perception causing her vision to expand rapidly in an unusual way.
It was like an elevator rising, revealing more scenery, or suddenly breaking through a certain boundary. This new perception allowed her to comprehend the world in a completely different way.
What she saw wasn't the starry cosmos, but the entire landscape of the Toaru-verse.
Natsume Sonoko wasn't quite sure what state she was in now, but it was undoubtedly related to the soul fusion.
Those strange existences were probably the Phases.
She suddenly recalled the conversation between Kanzaki-san and Index back then. Only now did Natsume-san truly understand the concept.
And her own mysterious soul seemed intricately connected to this world.
The Toaru-verse, at first glance, resembled a normal, single physical universe, with little trace of a multiverse or parallel universes.
But in reality, it was a peculiar world composed of the underlying physical universe and numerous Phases.
In summary, the Toaru-verse roughly equalled the base physical universe plus the Phases, and of course, included some even more special things.
"Just observing superficially consumes this terrifying amount of processing power?"
Natsume-san was inwardly shocked.
The perceived Phases were just there, neither increasing nor decreasing. But for Natsume-san to comprehend them required expending her own processing power. Simply making her brain aware of their existence was already a significant burden.
In just an instant, almost forced into it, Natsume-san had to activate most of the meteor fragment's power output within Reiko.
Even the most basic observation was already pushing her to her limits. The nature of the Phases' existence completely surpassed her understanding.
--+--
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.