Irradiance
Slightly Above Average
I mean, two things: For one thing that should only be the case if there is a conflict between the reality warping. Like, Shirou's reality marble of swords, for example, would do nothing. His swords movements aren't dictated by the reality warping in the marble and could hence be overwritten. That's basically why you can just block them, after all, their movement isn't absolute reality warping stuff. So when it comes to it, Accelerator should be able to reflect them like normal.Because of the nature that there are plenty of Universes that have characters that can explicitly shut off the ability or Espers only alter Reality with the help of their knowledge of Mathematics to help dictate how that works... but what if the Reality basically denies even that? Then there abilities shouldn't be able to manifest at all or straight up be denied.
EDIT: Let me put this as example of how Reality Marbles work alongside the mechanics of the Nasuverse:
Reality Marbles overlay the user's Soul into the World and basically becomes their Pocket Dimension/World:
The thing about it is... that it's literally no different than how Espers do their abilities... but on a smaller scale for the latter and the larger scale for the former(Who has to consistently fight against the Planet who is trying to overwrite the invading Reality back to itself):
This is why Goetia's, completely away from the Earth and in the Infinite Numbers Space, was able to maintain his forever and it was the size of a Galaxy.
When you add that in to characters can explicitly mess with and destroy Reality Marbles... it already implies that the same can very, VERY much be done to Espers in To Aru:
And we see that happen with Enuma Elish and Photon Ray with Altera in Fate/Zero and Fate/Extella respectively.
What this means is simple:
The Nasuverse, as a whole, has a massive advantage against To Aru because of the very nature of their abilities primarily screws with the fashion that Espers project their powers in the World and are FAR stronger due to having to consistently deal with the Planet re-asserting it's own Reality just as much(Nasu even has an interview that if 2 Reality Marbles intersect, the strongest one will override the weakest one, further showing that mechanic always happens even against Reality Marbles.)
And when there are characters that can explicitly deal with and destroy Reality Marbles... then what are the Espers gonna be able to do about it? They explicitly can destroy the very way they can use their powers on an even stronger version of it.
And what can they do against TYPEs that while sleeping, can override the Earth's Reality? Or the Trees of Emptiness which can explicitly bleach the Reality entirely? Nasuverse uses Reality Warping... as one of it's most basic mechanics.
Second, Accelerator has universal feats for his reflection, so he, in particular, should win out against galaxy-sized reality marbles and stuff like that. His reality alteration is just the more powerful in this case.
Coronzon can shorten the chant to some degree, like she had done against Accelerator, but that aside, yeah. Coronzon has a huge weakness in only having one (known) universe level spell and that spell not being the fastest to cast.Me and Masterblack also saw that same attack has an extremely lengthy chant that needs to be spoken before it actually works...
So if you are only Universal in that instance due to that sort of thing? It kinda takes away from it by alot.
This is further NOT helped by the fact that taking the Novels immediately at their word isn't also how we do things because we have people doing that in Spacebattles with the Magical Gods and we got:
Multiversal Magical Gods that are Infinitely powerful even at Infinitely dividing selves that are faster than the concept of speed... that ultimately gets their asses easily kicked and worfed, especially by a character who explicitly didn't want to go full Majin but somehow has an attack that is Universal... but how it's described makes no sense and is x10 that... because.
And I say this AGREEING that To Aru is atleast Universal. It's clearly obvious the Author has a serious case of purple prose and actually trying to explain anything to atleast a decent degree.
As for your spacebattle issues... well, honestly, the power thing is a case of different regulations. There are countless phases in ToAru, i.e. different planes of reality. I feel like it is a matter of side ruling whether destroying multiple phases, i.e. multiple universe sized pocket realms, is a multiversal feats. It isn't the case here, since we take destroying a universe with many universe-sized pocket realms as still just being universe level, but I personally don't blame other sides for having a different perspective on that.
To that comes that the true magic gods are infinitely stronger than Othinus. Their power is so great that they had to divide it by infinite just to make it possible for the universe to just barely contain it, while full-power Othinus didn't have any such problems. They are as or more powerful than Othinus after dividing themselves.
When it comes to magic gods being stomped, your problem lies once again in assuming showings from one part of the story apply to a powerlevel of a character they shouldn't. Magic Gods never get their asses kicked at full power. They first nerf themselves to an infinitesimal bit of their power to be able to enter the world without destroying it and then Aleister hijacks the spell to nerf them further.
“Yes. That zombie girl is useful at times like this. Thanks to her background of actively drawing in a great number of cultures, she has an affinity for most anything.”
“But, High Priest,” cut in a girl’s voice that sounded even younger and also childish. “Miss Zombie’s theory is essentially the same as holding up opposing mirrors, right? By splitting up our power infinitely, we can intentionally weaken ourselves and avoid destroying the world whenever we move an arm or leg.”
“The Voodoo Zombie did an excellent job. I’m sure of it now that I’ve walked around the area a bit. The spell has adapted to our bodies, so now we can move through the world without breaking it.”
“Nee hee hee. Splitting up our power like opposing mirrors, huh?”
Niang-Niang laughed like a mischievous child. She wore a short white China dress and had a distinctive charm attached to her forehead which she poked at with her index finger.
“By infinitely dividing our infinite power, we’ve kept ourselves at a level just barely low enough for this world to contain. …But in a way, this is the worst possible transformation, don’t you think? You could just keep killing and killing us without end. Like a matryoshka doll or an onion, you would have to fight a nearly eternal battle to completely kill us.”
“There is no need to hold back. We are already full Magic Gods, so it would be unnatural to find any way for us to lose.”
“Do you really think I will let you do that?” asked a familiar voice.
“Oh, is that you, Aleister? I’m glad to see you’re still alive and kicking. Sorry about the other day. I really shouldn’t have let my anger get the better of me at my age.”
That was all it took for him to kill.
Rather than follow an exaggerated plan or make careful preparations, he acted on the rocky waves of his emotions.
The High Priest’s words hinted at the joy he felt in tormenting the weak. And worst of all, that “unenlightened man” did not see any of the ugliness inside himself. His surface consciousness did not at all think he was rubbing salt in the wound. He truly believed he was showing his appreciation toward the person he confronted.
“Then again, we have managed to find our feet here. We might be causing some trouble in your backyard and it might not even still be a city once we’re done with it, but try to forgive us. After all, we have pretty short fuses.”
“Found your feet? Do you mean that spell that infinitely divides the infinite capacity of a Magic God to trick the world by eternally layering existences that are just barely small enough for the world to contain?”
“Word gets to you quickly. Anyway, this might be an excellent opportunity for you, Aleister. Our power is limited to what can be explained in this world, so this would be the best time to kill us.”
Even that line had the implied caveat of “but it is still essentially impossible”.
For one thing, no one existed who could kill a being that the world could only just barely contain. Whether a Magic God’s power was divided by a billion or a trillion, a mere magician was still not enough to kill them.
The Magic God’s existence was infinitely layered like a matryoshka doll or an onion.
So as you see the only magic god that arguably was defeated at even an infinitesimal bit of their power was Zombie. However, we never see that fight and it was probably an ambush. For mages like Aleister and those of his former cabbal it is not further unusual to have specific spells that can draw out magic god level power. (There's a quote on that, but I'm too lazy to find it right now)“If you can predict what must be done and what must happen, you can prepare for the next move. To enter this world, the Magic Gods would need to use a common spell on their own bodies. …Did you really think I wouldn’t take advantage of that? It was the perfect chance to overwrite your internal structures with whatever new parameters I wanted.”
“…”
The High Priest fell silent for a moment, but…
“No, that would not be possible. All you ever achieved was the failure you call Aiwass. How could you possibly prepare a spell that would affect not just one completed Magic God but affect a group of them in the exact same way? And you would need information on us specifically before putting together the spell.”
“Oh, come on,” said Aleister with no hint of emotion in his voice. “Why do you think I challenged the Magic Gods alone when Othinus was defeated? Wait. Don’t tell me. Surely you didn’t actually think a ‘human’ such as myself could be enraged by a simple stain in a journal.”
“You…don’t mean…”
“I had to take the necessary parameters by force. That was all. It did get me laughed at by some people I know, though.”
That was why he had not cared that he had lost.
He had only needed steal the Magic Gods’ parameters through direct contact and then make it back alive.
“I buried it inside you,” said Aleister.
That “human’s” cold voice seemed to challenge those gods of magic.
“What did I bury inside you, you ask? Tremble in fear, true Gremlin. There is great meaning in your doubt turning to impatience and then to fear. Listen, I no longer view you as a threat. You may have forgotten after living for so very long, but it is high time you gradually remembered what death feels like.”
“No,” denied the High Priest. “That is still impossible. The very foundation of your assertion is wrong. You claim to have prepared something powerful enough to defeat Magic Gods like us and you claim to have used this opportunity to inject it inside of us, but that would require swapping out Zombie’s spell. Whether you had a spell or not, you would need to defeat Zombie, a Magic God, to replace her spell! That’s no different from locking the key inside the vault. Your initial argument doesn’t hold up!!”
“True.”
Something heavy could be heard tearing through the wind.
The continuing fluctuation in the noise suggested it as slowly rotating as it flew. The Magic Gods reflexively turned toward the noise and they saw something fall from the distant night sky.
It landed right in the center of their group.
It was a cross forcibly made from intersecting steel beams.
It was wrapped in barbed wire and it resembled the magical rose symbol more than it did the original symbol of a monotheistic religion.
With a deafening roar and a cloud of dirt, the cross stabbed into the ground and it had something attached to it.
A human silhouette was nailed to the cross by countless tungsten steel spikes and it was tightly bound by barbed wire.
“Zom…bie?” muttered the High Priest when he saw the girl whose entire body was covered in stitches.
“I would prefer not to use such inelegant language,” said Aleister.
He was supposed to be cold and unfeeling both above and below the surface, but a note of contempt seeped into his voice.
“But by any chance, were you taking me for a fool?”
Aleister has his Blasting Rod spell, too, which makes it so that his attacks become x10 more powerful than the opponent expects and supposedly works at Magic God level (we have seen it amplify a big bang bomb x10).
So him defeating a single magic god with an infinitesimal amount of their true power in an ambush isn't further surprising.
When it comes to being faster than the concept of speed... weeeell, I'm not going to defend it, but it isn't quite made up either. The magic gods at full power can only exist in nonexistent places (due to their power being to great for the world). And nonexistent places are said to lack the concept of distance and time.
Logically speed makes no sense in that place, although that doesn't really make the characters faster. It just means you can't do speed feats while they're there.It may have been wrong to refer to that place as dark. In fact, the word “place” was not entirely accurate either. Non-existent things could not be explained. Nevertheless, a few voices lurked within where no one could interfere.
“We have no more attachment to Othinus herself, but this ending could hinder Kamijou Touma’s future. Then again, I doubt anyone but us could resolve this now that a magic god is involved. It would be a shame to have the direction thrown off so much for something so trivial.”
“High Priest[1], we’re thinking about influencing events by interfering with the existing world, aren’t we?”
“Don’t worry, Nephthys. The old man isn’t so foolish he wouldn’t calculate all that out. This shows just how different an existence Othinus was. Although I doubt she realized the truth behind Gremlin.”
“Othinus was a failure.”
“She reached the level of magic god, so there is no reason to be that cruel.”
“High Priest, you’re as kind as ever when it comes to judging others. If it didn’t come from looking down on everyone, you might have actually achieved enlightenment.”
“Nephthys, we are all lacking in some way. Othinus was remarkable yet went a bit too far, but that is just the kind of person Gremlin gathers.”
“Gremlin, the name of a plain fairy that is not dyed in the colors of any existing religion.”
“Instead of being a fusion of science and magic, it’s an organization that every magic god of every religion can take part in equally☆”
“Oh, Niang-Niang. Where have you been?”
“The concepts of distance and time don’t matter here, remember? And I can’t leave regardless. Even if I did, I’d just end up gathering unwanted attention on a global scale like Othinus. I was a hair’s breadth and an infinite distance away.”
Well, it's either that for or the people upscale them from Lilith, who can do this:
Fucking with causality to act before the opponent, blatantly ignoring consistency, is what one could call beyond regular speed. But, even if the magic gods should technically be able to do it due to supposedly being all powerful in ToAru terms, it's not like any of them ever have shown as much. It's one thing to be able to do something and another to have the idea to do it, after all.“Magick: Flaming_Sword. Manifest thyself through descent of the Sephirah and bathe him in thy power.”
Even if the direct explosion missed, the shockwave alone may have been enough to obliterate a human body. This attack seemed to forget Coronzon’s supposed goal of protecting the temple. If the target dodged it out of fear, everyone here would be killed and the temple made from a decagonal heliport would be split apart from within.
“Babalon, Great Mother of Knowledge, reveal your scarlet light!!”
Aleister roared, but it was too slow.
At this rate, she would be broken.
Just then, Baby Lilith moved her small hand to draw a circle in the air.
But that made no sense.
Given the comparative speeds, it was too late to move your hand after Magick: Flaming_Sword had already been released. Nevertheless, it worked.
Consistency fell apart. Causality was ignored.
In other words, it was a miracle.
With a sound like a saw’s teeth bending, the tip of the Magick: Flaming_Sword was twisted off course. It was caught by the shield-like circle Lilith had drawn, it spun around, and it was trapped in a never-ending circuit.