Chapter 19

Velvet's breaths came in ragged, shallow gasps, her broken arm hanging limply at her side. She stood in front of the containment canister, her mind racing with the enormity of what lay before her. The strange insignia-marked barrier that had repelled her magic attacks pulsed with dark energy, glowing ominously as if to taunt her. Each strike she had thrown at it had been futile, her shadow blade bouncing off harmlessly, the barrier appearing only in response to her spells.

Her frustration boiled over. She roared, a primal scream of anger and helplessness, as she slammed her fists against the surface of the canister. But this time, something unexpected happened. The barrier didn't react. Her hands connected with the smooth, cold glass, and for the first time, Velvet noticed a critical detail: the barrier only activated against magical attacks.

It was a realization that hit her like a lightning bolt, stopping her rage in its tracks. For a moment, Velvet stood frozen, her mind processing the implications. The barrier was designed to repel magic, but it didn't react to physical contact. That meant… there had to be a weakness, some vulnerability she could exploit. The container itself was too strong to break with brute force, but there had to be another way.

Velvet's eyes darted to Yuki, the young girl floating inside the canister, completely unaware of the life-or-death struggle happening around her. The liquid surrounding her glowed faintly, casting an ethereal light over her small, unconscious form. She looked so fragile, so vulnerable. A child, caught in the middle of something she couldn't possibly understand.

Velvet felt a pang in her chest, a surge of protective instinct mixed with guilt. She had promised herself that she would save Yuki, that she wouldn't let Jason's twisted plans come to fruition. But now, staring at the unyielding container and its magical defenses, Velvet felt the weight of that promise crushing down on her.

With renewed determination, she placed her hand gently against the glass, feeling the cool surface beneath her fingertips. She traced the edges of the canister, her hand gliding along its seamless structure as she searched for any imperfections, any sign of weakness. The material was strong—too strong for her to break with sheer force. But if the barrier only activated in response to magic, there had to be something else supporting it, holding it all together.

Her fingers brushed against a small panel near the base of the canister, a section of the glass that was slightly recessed. Velvet's pulse quickened. She crouched down, her hand pressing against the panel, and felt a subtle vibration beneath the surface. It wasn't immediately obvious, but there was a faint hum of energy radiating from the panel, distinct from the magic that powered the barrier.

The battlefield was a cacophony of chaos and clashing forces, a war zone of distorted reality and impossible power. Accelerator stood in the middle of it, silent and focused, his white hair flowing as he manipulated the vectors around him. Debris floated in a violent swirl, twisted by his power in a constant circular motion, but it was futile. Every object, every fragment, every attack he directed at Jason simply passed through him as if the man no longer existed in the same physical realm.

Jason, now a grotesque fusion of man and something far beyond human, floated above the ground, his body glowing with an unnatural, eerie light. His once-human face was distorted, torn apart by whatever he had become. Pieces of his flesh hung loosely, revealing the metallic glint of bones beneath. His eyes, pitch black with crimson pupils, radiated a malevolent energy. The tubes protruding from his back pulsed with strange, unearthly energy, as if connected to some dark, unseen force.

"I told you, this is hopeless!" Jason's voice, now a sickening blend of human and something mechanical, reverberated across the room. His grin widened, a twisted smile that stretched far beyond human limits. His form flickered in and out of focus, like a corrupted image on a broken screen, and every word he spoke oozed arrogance.

Accelerator remained silent, his expression unreadable, calm. His cold eyes never left Jason, analyzing every movement, every shift in the man's twisted form.

"No matter what plan you come up with, no matter what hope you cling to, you will fail!" Jason continued, floating above him like a dark angel of death. The air around him seemed to bend, warping under the pressure of his unnatural power. "And at the end of it all... I will retrieve the Liborium and possess all of the knowledge it holds!"

Jason's eyes gleamed with madness as he spread his arms wide, as if welcoming the universe to bow before him. His voice grew louder, reverberating through the shattered facility.

"I will become invincible!" His voice shook the very walls, his laughter filled with unrestrained ambition and twisted ecstasy. "I will become a god!"

As Jason's voice echoed, Accelerator's gaze hardened, a flash of emotion hidden beneath the veil of his cold exterior. Eri. Her image appeared in his mind, the small, fragile girl whose life had been so brutally torn apart by forces she couldn't understand. The same forces that Jason now sought to command. It stirred something deep within him, a silent fury that flickered behind his deadpan stare.

But as Jason's boasting continued, something strange began to happen. The air around Jason seemed to ripple unnaturally, as if reality itself was distorting. His body, which had been glowing with an unholy radiance, began to flicker and stutter like a malfunctioning machine. His form glitched, disappearing for split seconds before reappearing, as if some underlying force was pulling at him.

Jason's twisted grin faltered. His eyes widened in shock, his grotesque body jerking as if something were yanking him from within. His voice, once filled with arrogance, wavered with disbelief.

"What... what's happening?" he muttered, his voice laced with panic. "The connection... it's fading!"

A surge of fear swept through him. The connection with Yuki... it's weakening. He hadn't anticipated this. Something was severing the bond, the link that kept his transformation stable, that anchored his body to this new, godlike state.

"HOW!?" Jason roared, his voice filled with rage and desperation. His glowing form flickered violently, the once-stable light now erratic, his power slipping through his fingers.

That was all the opportunity Accelerator needed.

Without hesitation, Accelerator launched forward. His movements were a blur, faster than the human eye could track, faster than Jason could react. In an instant, Accelerator was upon him, his fist crashing into Jason's distorted face with brutal, unrelenting force. The blow landed with a sickening crack, a shockwave rippling through the air as Jason's head snapped to the side.

The force of Accelerator's punch was immense, sending Jason spiraling through the air, his body smashing into the ground with a thunderous impact. Accelerator stood over him, his cold eyes staring down at the man who had once considered himself invincible.

Jason groaned, dazed, his twisted body glitching and phasing in and out of focus. His glowing eyes flickered, his monstrous grin now replaced with a snarl of fury. He could feel the transformation slipping away, his godhood crumbling as the connection to Yuki continued to fade. He struggled to stand, but his body rebelled, twitching uncontrollably.

"That bitch!" Jason spat, venom dripping from his words. His eyes blazed with hatred as he realized what was happening. Velvet had reached Yuki. She was severing the connection, disrupting the delicate balance that had granted him his power.

Jason's rage boiled over, his distorted body trembling as he tried to regain control. But it was too late. The transformation was unraveling, and with it, his godlike power.

Accelerator stood over Jason, his white hair rustling in the residual energy, his expression like ice—cold, composed, and devoid of fear. The chaos of the moment seemed to blur around him, but his focus was locked onto the broken man before him. Jason's twisted body flickered erratically, his monstrous transformation faltering as his grip on Yuki's connection weakened. Still, even in his unraveling form, Jason clung desperately to the delusion he had wrapped himself in.

"You were never a god," Accelerator said, his voice cutting through the chaos like a knife. "Just a sad, delusional old man who thought he could play god with a power he thought he understood."

Jason glared up at him, his body trembling as he fought to maintain what little control he had left. His eyes blazed with insanity, his lips pulled back in a feral snarl.

"I am GOD!!" Jason roared, his voice filled with a deranged intensity that echoed through the ruined facility.

Accelerator's face remained emotionless, his cold eyes narrowing as he watched Jason struggle, fight to hold on to the power he no longer truly had. Slowly, Accelerator took a step closer, his voice barely above a whisper yet filled with deadly conviction.

"You. Are. Nothing."

Jason's body tensed unnaturally, his mouth still twisted in fury, but no sound escaped. His form seemed to seize, as though something deep within him was wrenching control away. His eyes widened in terror as he realized something was terribly, horribly wrong. Before he could even process what was happening, his body began to glow—not just with light, but with an ethereal brightness that radiated from every cell of his being.

The light was overwhelming, unnatural, and searingly intense. It wasn't like any glow from magic or quirk Accelerator had seen. The brightness seemed to erase the world around it, draining all color from existence, including Jason himself.

Accelerator's eyes narrowed further, his instincts screaming danger. He stepped back, raising an arm to shield his face as the blinding light intensified. But then, he felt something he hadn't anticipated—a sudden, sharp heat sizzling across his skin, cutting through his usually impervious vector shield.

"What the hell?" Accelerator muttered under his breath, a rare note of surprise in his voice. "It's bypassing my vector shield..."

The light grew even brighter, the heat more intense. It wasn't like normal energy—it wasn't something he could calculate, redirect, or negate. It was something different, something far more dangerous. The air itself seemed to tremble in response, as if reality was being twisted and distorted around this radiating figure of light.

Velvet, meanwhile, was crouched over the unconscious form of Yuki, half-cradling her as the girl remained limp in her arms. Velvet's own body ached with exhaustion and pain, her broken arm screaming in protest with every movement. But she pushed the pain down, her focus entirely on the girl she had risked everything to save.

She glanced around the room, her brow furrowed in confusion. Everything… was wrong. The world around her had started to shift—lose color. It was subtle at first, but now it was undeniable. The entire environment was being drained of life, as though the light that had enveloped Jason was consuming the very essence of the world. The vibrant tones of the containment chamber, the sharp lines of the broken equipment, even the shattered pieces of debris on the ground—all were fading into a washed-out, grayscale version of themselves.

Velvet's heart raced. What is this? she thought, eyes wide with disbelief. I've never seen anything like this before...

Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to tremble, a low rumble that grew in intensity. The walls of the facility shuddered, cracks forming in the concrete as though the very foundation of the building was being torn apart by some unseen force. But it wasn't just the building—it felt as though the earth itself was responding to whatever this was, something far more primordial, far more unnatural than anything Velvet had ever encountered.

Velvet pressed Yuki closer to her, her breathing shallow and fast. I have to get out of here, she realized, panic clawing at her insides. I have to get her out before it's too late.

But her legs wouldn't move. She was paralyzed, not by fear, but by the sheer wrongness of the situation. The air itself seemed thicker, heavier, as though the laws of nature were being rewritten. And that light—the oppressive, overwhelming glow that pulsed from Jason's body—it wasn't stopping. It was growing. She could feel the heat from it, even from this distance. Her skin prickled with discomfort, a slight burn, like standing too close to an open flame.

This isn't magic, Velvet thought, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of what was happening. This is something else… something far worse.

Yuki stirred faintly in her arms, her eyelids fluttering but not fully opening. Velvet looked down at the girl, worry etching her features.

Accelerator stood in the eye of the storm, his cold, calculating mind racing through possibilities, each one more absurd than the last. The energy radiating from Jason wasn't something he could wrap his head around. It was something different, something alien—and most disturbingly, something without vectors. His power, his entire ability to manipulate the physical world, was based on the fundamental laws of physics—everything had a direction, a force, a motion he could control. But this? This light had none of those things. It was as though it existed outside of the rules that governed reality.

No vectors. No way to manipulate it.

It didn't matter, though. Not now. Accelerator wasn't the type to panic, but he could sense the situation spiraling out of control. The ground beneath his feet trembled violently, the very foundation of the facility cracking, splitting apart as the light from Jason's body continued to grow in intensity. His gut told him one thing, and it screamed it loudly: Get out. Now.

Suddenly, over the deafening roar of the collapsing building, he heard her voice.

"Accelerator!"

He turned, eyes locking on Velvet, who was stumbling toward him, clutching the unconscious form of Yuki in her arms. Yuki's body was soaked, limp like a rag doll, her head resting against Velvet's shoulder. Velvet herself was a mess—her face pale and streaked with blood and grime, her body visibly trembling under the weight of her injuries. But she kept running, pushing forward through sheer willpower alone, even though every step seemed to take more and more out of her.

Accelerator's eyes narrowed as he watched her approach, every instinct screaming at him that time was running out.

"We gotta go!" Velvet gasped, her voice filled with urgency as she skidded to a halt in front of him. "This whole place is coming down!"

Before she could say more, the ceiling above them groaned, a horrific sound of bending metal and cracking concrete. Accelerator's head snapped up just in time to see massive chunks of debris, large slabs of concrete and twisted steel, dislodging from the ceiling. Time seemed to slow as they began to fall, and without thinking, he reached out, activating his vector control. The falling debris froze mid-air, suspended by his power, but the sheer volume of it caused a bead of sweat to roll down his forehead. He couldn't hold it forever.

"Move!" Accelerator barked, his eyes flashing with intensity as he motioned for Velvet to run.

Velvet staggered forward, struggling with Yuki's weight. Her broken arm hung uselessly at her side, every step sending waves of pain through her body, but she didn't stop. She couldn't. Not when Yuki's life depended on it.

Behind them, Jason's light intensified even further, now so bright that the edges of reality around him seemed to warp and distort. The walls and floor bent unnaturally, almost as if the fabric of space was being pulled toward him. His body glowed like a miniature sun, the temperature in the room rising exponentially, scorching the air.