Othinus, or the head Norse god which became the origin of the name, had left behind many different legends as the center of the system making up a mythology. That god did not necessarily use only one weapon and there were records of that god defeating various different enemies with various different blades.
And there was one weapon specifically associated with Othinus rather than Odin.
It was simply known as a crossbow.
No one knew its official name, much less how it was produced. That phantom weapon had left only a description of its frightening destructive power in the texts. That symbol of the head god was too obscure to be called a legend and had mostly been covered by the mists of time.
It was said that crossbow could simultaneously hold ten arrows in a fan shape.
It was said firing that crossbow could exterminate any army.
The entire world could be heard creaking.
Kamijou looked up slightly.
He saw the disturbing symbol bursting from Othinus’s back and providing the color of light to the entire black world it covered. He heard the creaking sound of it gathering tremendous power.
In the end, the world was her crossbow.
As soon as Kamijou Touma realized that, ten pieces of destruction rained down from the heavenly dome above.
Part 8[edit]
What exactly could this be compared to?
Perhaps a super-long railgun that targeted someone on the planet’s surface after eternal acceleration using straight guiderails stretching from one end of the universe to the other.
Perhaps a singularity weapon that created destruction unexplainable with Newtonian physics by directly messing with the smallest particles dealing with mass and motion such as the bosons and the Higgs particle.
In all likelihood, expressing it with words was meaningless.
Even if one gathered everything that could be expressed with words, it was unlikely one could shoot down that crossbow.
It merely hit.
“…!!!???”
Kamijou Touma leaped to the side with all his strength.
…The first shot fell vertically from the heavens.
It held the destructive power needed to easily wipe out a planet or two, but it was beyond the point of creating anything like a crater. This was no different from a rifle bullet fired with the initial velocity of a sniper rifle piercing glass without breaking it. The arrow had been fired with such great speed that it pierced the pitch black ground without waiting for the impact to propagate.
Even so, Kamijou ran.
His distance to Othinus was close yet far. It felt like an infinite wall.
…The second shot seemed to skim the ground as it was fired behind him and diagonally to the left.
Kamijou crouched down and the arrow passed over his head and swept across the world. Its trajectory was angled downward slightly and it created a giant valley in that black-dyed world.
Othinus did not move from her spot.
She and Kamijou had to be the same. They were both pouring all their strength into defeating their opponent.
…The third and fourth shots burst up through the ground.
They stabbed up a few meters away on either side of Kamijou. It was a trap. If he rashly moved even a step to evade, he would be smashed to pieces.
The more unnecessary actions he took, the farther he would be from victory.
He sharpened his senses like a needle and pictured himself stretching forward and piercing Othinus with that needle.
…The fifth shot came from directly in front of him.
His movements to the left and right were already sealed off and now Othinus had thrown a straight pitch. For the first time, Kamijou swung his right hand. But not in a straight impact meant to destroy. He scooped his hand up from below, traced his hand along the surface of the arrow, and diverted its trajectory upwards.
He ran straight forward.
His fear and self-interest threatened to shake that simple action.
…The sixth and seventh shots scraped across Othinus’s shoulders.
The two arrows were fired from behind her and they collided in midair before reaching him. With a tremendous explosive noise, the two arrows’ trajectories changed complexly. The boy evaded one by ducking his upper body down and then jumped over the other with a great leap.
Devoting himself to evasion was meaningless.
His path threatened to waver, but he used the power of his will to desperately keep himself on course.
…The eighth shot overcame the restrictions of the third dimension.
Kamijou felt a static electricity-like spark on his spine and immediately swung his head to the side as hard as he could. An instant later, space suddenly split open and an arrow assaulted the world.
He focused on his trajectory.
The several meter path to Othinus appeared clearly in his head.
…The ninth shot ignored the concept of numbers.
The arrows that fell from above colored the night sky like fireworks and glittered like stars covering the heavens. Every single one of them was fatal, but Kamijou did not freeze up. No matter how torrentially they rained down, there was always a safe space left to step in.
He was going to reach her.
He glared at Othinus’s face and clenched his right fist tighter than before.
…And the tenth shot…
(I can reach her.)
Kamijou gritted his teeth.
He sharply moved right up to her.
(I’ll reach her no matter what!! It doesn’t matter where the final arrow comes from! I can punch her after evading it or punch her before she can fire the arrow. Either way, I’ll end this here!!)
“Othinus!!”
In the instant he shouted out, he was certain of his victory.
He stopped thinking about the tenth shot altogether. That was why he had reached the idea of ending this before she could fire it.
But his mistake was understandable.
The final shot approached from directly behind Magic God Othinus.
And she did not move a single step.
In other words, the arrow unhesitatingly pierced through Othinus.
The final arrow broke through the girl’s entire body and assaulted Kamijou from the blind spot directly in front of him.
“…Ah.”
Time stopped.
He was too slow to react.
By the time he heard a dull sound, the final arrow had already been absorbed into his chest and accurately targeted his heart.
This was nothing as kind as piercing or breaking him.
In the instant of impact, Kamijou Touma’s body was smashed to pieces from the chest down. As his heart continued to writhe in midair, the tip of the arrow caught it and blasted it to the farthest reaches of that world.
All that remained in that place were the boy’s arms, shoulders, and head.
At that level, this could only be called his remains.
Kamijou’s “body” spun at least twice through the air and Othinus caught it in one hand.
She had supposedly taken the exact same damage, but not so much as a single scratch remained on her smooth skin. The destruction had indeed occurred, but the wounds had immediately repaired themselves like watching the destruction of gelatin in reverse.
Othinus spoke with a cold light in her one eye.
“It is over.”
“…Dammit. Maybe so.”
