"Aha... you're just playing games with us. Is that it? Well, I'll play along then. You're going to love this. Trust me. What you're seeing now is my normal state."
Accelerator's sadistic smirk grew into a wide grin, almost stretching from ear to ear. This was it. The high that put someone as strong as him with his back against the wall. The kind of strong enemy fitting for the strongest Esper. Many people attributed his strength to his redirection and general vector control, but few knew that his real, greatest weapon was his brain. The brain that did millions of calculations in just seconds. Physics used to be like mental math for him, and with those calculations, he was able to perform his Esper abilities of tactile telekinesis, gravity manipulation, and so on.
Even after Ao Amai had shot him in the head and caused him brain damage, his calculation abilities sinking to less than half of what it used to be now that he relied on the Misaka Network, he still miraculously retained his title of the number one strongest Esper within Academy City. It just went to show how powerful he truly was.
After all, just because he had grown weaker didn't mean his enemies had grown stronger.
Fiddling with the choker electrode, a burst of energy would shake the room in the form of a shockwave. Not too bad, but it was certainly noticeable for now.
"This is my Esper mode. And this..."
He pressed another button on his choker, letting out another shockwave that would knock anyone nearby away if they weren't careful.
"... This is known as an Esper who has become the strongest Esper of them all. Or, you could just call this the power of the Accelerator."
"Hmph, what a redundant gesture. You've displayed this power before. What's different?"
"Heh heh... Just wait," Accelerator replied, adjusting to the power. He hadn't let loose like this in quite a while. He needed some time to let his body adjust to the vibrations, as well as possibly the others for what was about to transpire.
He's bluffing... Someone from the Science Side couldn't get any stronger than this, right? Tch, still... what's he actually doing? Could he really become stronger than what I've already seen?
When the time came, Accelerator acted.
"And this..."
He braced himself, tossing aside his crutch for the time being. It would only get in the way. This was it. Another moment to see just how powerful he truly was. Even after being crowned the strongest around, idiots were foolish enough to try and challenge him. But no matter how many people would surround him, no matter what kind of firepower they'd be packing, they'd all fall before him in no time, and all he had to do was flick his finger at them a few times and then they'd be sent flying into the wall as though a car had just crashed into them.
Thus, he was always only ever holding back not just because he didn't want to resort to overkill for pathetic targets that weren't even worth wasting his energy on, but because his opponents would already have been defeated by the time he could even think to increase his power. Even after learning to never underestimate his opponents after his encounters with that damned Level 0 and Amata Kihara, the sad truth was that he was like a god amongst men, and no matter how much a god might hold back, he was still a god to the men no matter what.
But when one tempts a god, specifically The One Who Wields The Power of God, enough to show off his true colors... It was all over.
"This... is... to go... even further... beyond!"
Espers did not have something so cliche like "ki" or anything of the sort. This was not some banal battle manga where all he had to do was charge his spirit energy or some bullshit like that, unless one were to count his AIM Diffusion Field that every Esper had. The personal reality that allowed his powers to interact with the real world.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahh!!"
Still, if there was one thing Accelerator had in common with a standard battle manga protagonist, it was that his power was capable of being fueled by his emotions. His pure, raw, unadulterated rage. His fury. His resentment. His anger. His regrets. All of it. It was almost like he could directly channel his thoughts into his abilities in order to become stronger.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghh!"
The first time he had transformed, or more accurately, "awakened," was something that Accelerator would have liked to forget. And even then, he didn't even remember much of it to begin with. That is, he didn't remember much of anything after his electrode had deactivated after running out of energy. All he remembered was the anger. The fever. The rage that turned good men cruel. The fury that turned cruel men inhumane. He was reminded of his inability to protect the one thing he had ever wanted to protect. The little girl known as Last Order. He was reminded of the laughter and scorn of Amata Kihara.
"W-What are you doing?! Fool, do you even know what you're trying to accomplish here?!"
Truth be told, no. He did not know what he was doing in reality, except for perhaps a faint idea. He was going to try to "awaken" once again. It was like releasing a monstrous beast or a savage hulk from its cage. That's precisely what Accelerator was to the bitter core. A damned dirty animal who could only destroy.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
But if destroying everything meant he could protect what was behind him, then so be it. He was a villain anyway. Villains did not deserve the luxury of having things to protect, like a family. But still... just for the moment, he would have liked to believe that they didn't think about that. Last Order. Aiho Yomikawa. Kikyou Yoshikawa. He would have liked to believe that he could have lived with them like some family that was oddly ideal in some dysfunctional way. But he could never stand by them. He could only stand in front of them. Away from them. Alone.
It's... unreal! How is he generating this much power?! It's... too much!
The ground shook further. In fact, it almost felt like the entire realm that they resided in was shaking. Vibrating beyond control. The sheer force of his power was enough to cause the world to stand still. And that was no exaggeration or metaphor. Part of the reason the process of his "awakening" was taking longer than one might expect was because he was literally borrowing time from the world. He drew upon the power of the very world that everyone stood on by absorbing the kinetic energy of its rotation. If anyone were to move right now, they'd realize that their movements were just slightly slower than how it would normally be.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghh!"
The lava beneath them shook, like waves arising on an ocean. It felt like a powerful gust of wind was assaulting everybody nearby alongside the massive shockwave that may as well be some sort of low earthquake at this point. Time slowed down even further as Accelerator drew upon more of the kinetic energy from the world's orbit. At this rate, he had taken away at least a minute and a half worth of kinetic energy. And who knew how much more was left?
"AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHUUGHHHH!!"
Pain. Indescribable pain assaulted the boy's body. Even on its own, Accelerator's body was, compared to a normal human, relatively weak when not factoring in the powers. As his Redirection ability was passive, things like what his power deemed to be "unnecessary ultraviolet radiation" like the sun's rays were blocked, explaining his albino appearance, as his body is unable to produce melanin from this. On top of that, since he never exercised due to it being relatively pointless aside from simply walking, his physical strength without vector control was less than that of a normal, healthy and well-built human. By extension, he was more vulnerable to pain than others. A normal human, if able to bypass his Redirection by some miracle, could take him down within up to ten punches.
"Gnnnnnnnghhh... AaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHUUUUAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The back of his shirt ripped, as did his very skin, almost as though some invisible force were slicing him with a blade, blood leaking out as some could observe a strange... something attempting to force its way out of the line-shaped holes in his back. But this phenomenon was coming from inside. Like some sort of grotesque mutation. Accelerator screamed so loud that his body threatened to cough up blood if he wasn't careful. It was a miracle his lungs still held, though that was likely because of his powers either way. Small parts of the platform that they stood on collapsed, falling into the lava.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAAAUGHHGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!"
The room changed again. But it mattered little to him right now. The pain was too much. It was far more than what anyone would have to go through. But that was okay. As much as he screamed, he didn't mind the pain. It was like he felt that he deserved this pain. His repentance for killing the 20,000 Sisters. This was their pain. He had no right to complain. They had suffered more than he ever could, and it was all by his hands, no less. He deserved this. He deserved this. He deserved this.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAHNNNNGHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!"
Two black wings of an unknown energy violently ripped themselves out of Accelerator's back, like giant blades cutting through flesh and bone. Accelerator's mind effectively broke for the time being as he awakened for the first time since his encounter with Amata Kihara. He had become blind with complete rage and emotion as the true reason he was labelled the strongest Esper ever conceived made itself known to everyone nearby. Only one thing left to do now.
"Killkillkillkillkillkill."
For the most part, he was speaking some unknown, foreign, almost alien language that nobody present could even begin to decipher. The language of the angels. However, parts of his humanity barely remained, allowing his murderous self to emerge in the face of the overwhelming power that threatened to overtake his very soul.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
He feared nothing.
He felt only the desire to destroy.
And destroy he did.
At sub-relativistic speeds, at least one percent of the speed of light, or seven million miles per hour, for reference, he dashed in a flash towards the crystallized enemy. His Redirection worked to his every convenience. Just like how everything that would be sent towards him would end up being sent back at the same magnitude of speed, everything that
he would send himself towards would also apply towards them.
In simpler words, when Accelerator had dashed towards the crystallized Zant, thrusting his arm forward to grab him through the sharp, bladed crystals, his Redirection not only protected him from the blades, but also destroyed the crystals themselves as well, sending what would have been the power of how he would have been impaled back towards the objects, smashing them and allowing Accelerator access towards Zant.
"YOU'RE MINE!"
Grabbing Zant by the face, the sheer power of his grip threatening to crush his head if not for the fact that that was not what he intended to do, he lifted the demon lord up with one hand and threw him straight through the wall and into the next room, leaving a giant hole. Leaping through said hole, his wings surging with the mysterious black energy as he did so, he zipped straight for Zant once again, crashing into him and almost caving him into the ground.
Kneeling on top of him, the savage Esper raised his arm and mercilessly brought it down towards Zant, his sheer physical strength augmented by his Vector Control to the point that each punch almost equaled the force of having a skyscraper repeatedly slam into oneself.
Bam,
blam, bam.
Yes, this was it. Power. Absolute power. The power that Accelerator had yearned for when he had initially joined the Level 6 Shift Project. He wanted to attain the kind of power that rendered people unable to even fathom challenging him again. He wanted to attain the kind of power that made people believe that even the thought of fighting him was some sick, twisted joke.
Truly, he was a villain to the core, playing hero by day all that he liked, running away from his past.
"EAAAAAAT SHIT!!"
Once again grabbing Zant by the face with one hand, Accelerator leapt several meters into the air with the aid of his wings, launching him to the ceiling. With this final gesture of relentless brutality, Accelerator threw Zant's body into the ground like a baseball pitcher, his vector manipulation causing Zant's body to fly at the speed of a bullet in order to maximize damage!
With that being said, Accelerator had effectively tired himself out. His energy was gone now, depleted from the overwhelming display of energy. Almost anticlimactically, the black wings sunk back into his flesh, and the demonic boy dropped to the ground, landing on some debris, seemingly unconscious for now. He couldn't quite tell for sure if Zant was down for the count for good, as these kinds of guys could be unpredictable, especially after he seemed unperturbed by Kanzaki's assault, but that was okay.
Maybe it was okay to depend on others once in a while...
@The Silver Paladin @Jeremi @Mighty Roman @Wedge Antilles @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Raven
