When Misaka Mikoto saw the person standing at the epicenter of the explosion, her heart skipped a beat. She immediately recalled what had happened three days ago in the alleyway. Even if that bastard were reduced to ashes, she would still recognize him.
'This level of power!' Mikoto's eyes widened. 'It's completely beyond Level 4!'
'He has to be a Level 5. But there's no registered ability like that among the Level 5s. Could he be the Number Six whose identity is completely unknown?'
Mikoto looked up at the sky, where shockwaves were tearing through the clouds. 'The ones fighting up there are the Number One and Number Two. And the one down here is the Number Seven...'
'What on earth is happening?! Why are half the Level 5s in Academy City gathered here fighting at once?!'
...
"That felt great! This is the first time I've ever felt this good, Gunha!"
Takahashi Yuuya put one hand on his hip and swung his other arm, laughing heartily.
By combining his Level 5 Electromagnetism with his Physical Enhancement, and calculating the exact vector of his muscle fibers, Yuuya could achieve a devastatingly powerful impact. He was essentially using his own fist as the projectile of a Railgun, unleashing it in an instant with destructive force comparable to the Number Three's signature attack.
"Are you really a Spatial Esper?" Sogiita Gunha asked, cracking his neck. "You actually possess a physical attack with power comparable to a Railgun! Interesting technique. But it's about time you understood the true importance of GUTS!"
Seeing his attack so easily dispersed, Gunha got a surge of excitement. He bared his teeth, rubbed his nose with his thumb, and lowered his stance.
"HAAA—!"
Gunha threw a powerful punch from fifty feet away. A dazzling crimson, explosive aura ignited the air in front of Yuuya. The heat and destructive shockwave, more volatile than a thermobaric bomb, instantly enveloped Yuuya's position.
The ground beneath Yuuya's feet shattered into countless fragments, as if bombarded by dozens of high-explosive landmines. The earth was completely overturned.
Watching from the sidelines, Mikoto's expression changed drastically. Even a Level 5 with defensive capabilities could die if hit by such an incomprehensible attack.
'That guy is fighting the Number Seven... the Strongest Gemstone.'
"You're really something, buddy!" Gunha shouted from within the smoke. "I don't know what your purpose is, but I'm going to take you down first!"
With a stomp of his foot, Gunha moved at more than twice the speed of sound (Mach 2). He instantly appeared in front of Yuuya and punched him squarely in the chest.
"TAKE THIS!"
Wumph.
The air rippled violently for a split second, but the next instant, all the kinetic energy colliding with Yuuya's chest was perfectly nullified. The arena returned to dead calm, leaving Gunha's fist resting harmlessly against Yuuya's shirt.
Gunha was stunned.
"Take my punch too," Yuuya said, showing no mercy.
He drove his fist into Gunha's chest with all his might. The force of 25 tons was enough to send an armored tank flying 100 meters in an instant.
BOOM!
Before Gunha could react, he was transformed into a human cannonball. He flew backward with a sonic boom, crashing violently into the ruins of the collapsed stadium stands. The debris collapsed with a deafening roar, burying the Number Seven under hundreds of tons of concrete and steel.
'What on earth is going on?' Mikoto watched, utterly stunned. 'Isn't this supposed to be Accelerator declaring war on the city? Why did it turn into this guy beating down the Number Seven?! Who exactly is he?!'
RUMBLE—!
The pile of ruins suddenly exploded outward. Gunha was ejected from the rubble, landing heavily on his feet. He wiped a streak of blood from his mouth.
"I was careless! How embarrassing!" Gunha shouted, his eyes burning with renewed vigor. "I didn't expect you to have an ability that makes my psychokinesis just disappear! If I don't show some real GUTS now, I'll lose face!"
Gunha looked at Yuuya with a deeply serious expression.
"You're a monster, aren't you?" Yuuya said casually, shaking out his wrist. "You took a 25-ton punch to the sternum and you're completely fine."
'As expected of a Quasi-Magic God candidate,' Yuuya thought. 'With a physique like his, as long as he isn't killed in one go, he regenerates through sheer willpower. Even if his heart is damaged or his skull is fractured, he just ignores it.'
Killing the Number Seven required at least the power of an Archangel. Even in canon, taking three direct hits from the Magic God candidate Ollerus only left Gunha unconscious, not dead.
"As long as you have GUTS, an attack of that level is just a scratch!" Gunha declared.
"To be honest, you can't beat me," Yuuya said, relaxing his shoulders. "Your current output is far from enough. Even if you use all your strength, you still can't shake my defense."
Ding!
[System Notification: Mythic Treasure Chest Discovered!]
Target: Sogiita Gunha.
Activation Condition: As a great being destined to become the supreme entity, it is inevitable that you will gain the admiration of powerful figures. Please obtain the absolute allegiance and "Follower" status of Sogiita Gunha.
'Follower?' Yuuya squinted at the floating prompt.
He certainly admired superhero-like figures like Gunha, but gaining the absolute loyalty of someone that stubborn and independent was going to be incredibly difficult. Furthermore, the System didn't specify multiple unlocking stages this time!
Ding!
Note: Treasure Chests below the Mythic tier have multi-stage, simpler unlocking conditions. Chests at the Mythic tier and above have only ONE absolute unlocking condition. The difficulty is exponentially higher.
'I see. So the previous conditions really were just the tutorial...' Yuuya mused.
Across the crater, Gunha clenched his fists. The swirling, logic-defying five-colored smoke began to violently orbit his body again.
"Don't think I can be defeated so easily!" Gunha spoke solemnly. "Putting up an absolute defense is not true strength! True GUTS will never surrender to an impenetrable wall!"
Gunha took a deep breath. The colorful smoke vanished instantly, condensing into a blinding stream of light around his fist.
"SUPER AMAZING PUNCH!"
He roared, launching himself toward Yuuya like a meteor.
...
District 7. A Hidden Laboratory.
Inside a cutting-edge research institute, numerous supercomputers and analytical devices were operating at maximum capacity, their fluorescent screens flashing incessantly with raw data.
An elderly man in a white coat with a hunched back was literally dancing with excitement.
Kihara Gensei.
"Yo ho ho! Hahaha! Accelerator's appearance was expected, but I didn't anticipate the Number Two being there!" Gensei cackled, staring at the satellite feeds.
"The collision of Vector Manipulation—which controls all known physical laws—against Dark Matter—which creates matter that defies those laws! It is the ultimate collision of refined physics! Oh, the magnificent AIM Diffusion Field data we can collect from this clash!"
Gensei spun around to look at another monitor.
"But to my utter surprise, the Number Seven is also present! Showcasing the astonishing, unexplainable power of a Gemstone! And he's fighting the new anomaly with multiple abilities!"
"We cannot stand idly by!" Gensei shouted to his panicked researchers. "These servers are completely inadequate! Mobilize all available mainframes! Reroute power from Sector 4! We must observe every single microsecond of this data!"
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