A Certain Unexpected Visitor

by moguera

Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

For the longest time, Corona seemed to completely ignore Touma and his friends, her eyes sweeping the surrounding landscape, looking for...something. "COME OUT AND FACE ME CREATURE!" she boomed, "THOU CANNOT HIDE FROM MY JUDGMENT!"

Nopony moved or said anything. Ultimately, they could only stare at the Tyrant Sun and wonder what the hay she was doing. She was still looking around, apparently expecting something to happen. When nothing did, she blinked and looked down, seeming to finally notice Touma and the others. The ponies cringed away when Corona's blazing white eyes swept over them, trembling in fear. The Tyrant Sun, it seemed, had regained much of her power in the time she had been away.

Lyra clung tightly to Bon Bon, as did Ditzy with her daughter. Corona's reappearance had brought up the all too unpleasant memories of what she had done the last time she'd appeared before them. Poor Dinky was terrified, shaking like a leaf as she buried her head into her mother's chest, sobbing as quietly as she could, afraid that the slightest sound would draw Corna's attention and she would be wrenched from her mother's arms again.

Looking back at them, and seeing his friends' fear, seeing their tears and their trembling, Touma grit his teeth. His right hand clenched tightly into a fist.

"This is bad," whispered Trixie, her voice quavering, "She's here and we don't have the Elements."

"What about Princess Luna?" asked Lyra softly, "She can't have failed to notice this. She'll be here from Canterlot any minute now. She'll bring the Elements with her, right?"

"I hope so."

They went silent as Corona's gaze focused on them, then narrowed its focus to Touma, who seemed the least frightened of the group. If anything, the human seemed duly resigned. Her eyes narrowed. Surely this couldn't be...

"What manner of creature art thou?" she asked.

"I'm a human," replied Touma flatly, "And I'm the one that you called here with your spell."

"What?" exclaimed Corona, throwing her wings back, waves of flames billowing with every movement, "My spell was meant to summon the most fearsome creature from another realm. How didst thou manage to be called instead?"

"Like I know," groused the human, "What were you thinking anyway? Why in the world would you try and summon something dangerous?"

"Silence mortal worm!" shouted Corona, thankfully restraining herself from amplifying her voice any further, "Thou art meant to be defeated by me. Thou shalt serve as a reminder to my ponies that they need my power, my strength, my rule. Thy death shall be the glorious prelude to my return. Already, thy presence has thrown those foals into a panic. And now, by defeating thou, I shall restore order."

It took a few seconds for Touma to come up the words to describe his feelings on the matter. When he did, it was short and succinct. "You're an idiot aren't you?" he deadpanned.

"What?" gasped Corona, enraged at having been insulted by such a lowly creature.

"Everyone here knew you were behind that spell from day one," said Touma, "In fact, the only reason that panic happened was because the rest of the town found out." His expression became a fierce glare. "Don't you understand? More than anything else, these ponies are afraid of you!"

"LIES!" exclaimed Corona, "My ponies only fear me because my treacherous sister hath spent the past thousand years spinning her web of deception, until I was nothing but an object of fear to them. When I return to my rule, they will see. They will love me." Her eyes narrowed and her next words emerged as an angry hiss. "I will make them love me."

"How?" snapped Touma, "By calling up monsters to put them in danger? By threatening there lives. You can't win love by hurting the ones you're supposed to protect."

"SILENCE!" roared Corona, the waves of power rolling off her body a palpable force in and of itself. The ponies behind Touma cringed away. But the human remained unbowed. The Tyrant Sun continued her tirade. "These ponies are mine! Mine to do with as I please! They are weak! They are frail! They are gnats! They have no right to question my rule!"

"If that's what you think ruling is about," growled Touma, "Then I'm just gonna have to break that illusion of yours." His right hand clenched all the tighter tighter.

Light blazed from the tip of Corona's horn, congealing into an orb of fire that hovered above her head. "It is convenient that thou have joined with the corrupted Elements," she remarked, "Now I can eliminate all who might oppose me easily."

Touma looked over his shoulder at his friends. "When we start," he said softly, "Run. I'll deal with her."

They all stared at him aghast. "How!" exclaimed Raindrops, "She's an alicorn. She's too powerful!"

Touma gave her a gentle smile. "Don't worry." The fireball launched itself towards the group. Not even looking away from his friends, Touma casually raised his right hand. The ball of flame slammed into and flared brilliantly before a sound like breaking glass echoed across the quarry. The flames vanished in an instant. "I've fought worse."

He turned back to Corona, who was stunned that her attack failed. "How?"

"I'll show you," said Touma. He estimated that their must have been something close to thirty meters between him and the edge of the quarry. The real difficulty would come when he had to scramble up that slope. It would be difficult, but not insurmountable. Taking a deep breath, he began to run towards Corona.

The mare's mane and tail transformed into tendrils of blazing flames that lashed out at the human. The flame from her mane circled around to his right, while the flame from her tail came at his left. The fire arrived on his right first, which Touma easily reached out with his hand and blocked. The flames scattered, even billowing around Touma and intercepting the attack on his left enough for him too slip past unscathed.

"Impossible!" shrieked an enraged Corona, her horn blazing with blistering light, enough to nearly outshine her own sun, "I doth not know what manner of power this is, but thou shalt not reach me."

"We'll see," grunted Touma as he continued to move forward.

The light from Corona's horn flickered and then scattered into a dozen bolts of superheated magic, converging on the human from different directions. Touma threw himself forward, dodging some. As one managed to close in, he whipped out his arm, catching it and neutralizing it. Even as he did so, his forward momentum stopped as he turned to block some of the bolts coming in from the side.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Corona gathered her will and unleashed a blazing lance of fire the width of a telephone pole straight for the human. Touma barely got his right hand up in time. This time, the attack did not vanish instantly, but continued to press Touma, Corona pouring power in as fast as he could neutralize it. To keep from being pushed back, Touma used his left hand to brace his right. However, Corona's attack was keeping him pinned in place and stopped him from advancing.

A smug sense of victory ignited within Celestia's chest. "It seems as though there art limits to thy power," she observed.

With a growl, Touma forced his fingers inward, gritting his teeth and straining. Instead of simply trying to crush the power in his hand, he instead forced it to the side. Corona's beam tore a molten swath through the ground, throwing up superheated stones and splattering the surrounding area with liquified earth. Fortunately, Trixie and the other seemed to have followed his advice and had run while he occupied the Tyrant Sun's attention. A battle like this would be impossible to contain to a small area. They would have gotten caught in the crossfire and hurt if they'd remained behind.

Again, Touma moved forward. Corona's horn flared, sending another lance of energy surging forth. Instinctively, Touma's hand reach out for it. However, at the last second, Corona dipped her head, sending the lance into the ground at the human's feet. Touma was catapulted backwards as the earth in front of him erupted in a massive explosion, burning shards of rock tore through his skin and scorched his flesh. The shockwave made his bones creak and knocked the breath from his lungs. Kamijou Touma landed on his back, sliding a short distance before coming to a rest.

"Ah," observed Corona, "Another discovery. It seems thy right hand thou art so proud of is useless if the attack thou faces is not magical."

A grimace flickered across Touma's face. It was true that there were limits to what his right hand could do. Though his hand could make magical fire disappear, it was useless against the smoke and ash such a fire produced. Mundane phenomena produced as a secondary effect of the supernatural power he faced were something his hand could not counter. But even so...

"It's not like that's enough to stop me," said the human as he got back to his feet, "You're hardly the first opponent I've had figure that out. I've fought plenty of people who thought that just figuring out the limits of my hand was enough to beat me. If that were enough, I would have never been alive to come to this world in the first place." Again he started forward.

A cruel smile lit Corona's face as her horn flared again. This time, she didn't produce fire or plasma or radiation. Instead, she used on of the most basic skills that any unicorn could do, telekinesis. Her magic ripped chunks of stone from the cliff face. Any one of them would be enough to crush the human flat, to turn him into a bloody paste beneath the unforgiving stones. She launched them, sending the chunks of earth flying in lazy arcs.

And still, Touma rushed forward. Even as the boulders descended towards him, he continued his mad advance, as though unafraid of his own impending death. He sidestepped one stone, not even caring that the shrapnel blown up from its impact cut bloody lines along the left side of his body. His charge allowed him to pass under the arc of a second rock before lit landed. The shockwave of its impact blew Touma forwards and knocked him off his feet. But he managed to turn his fall into a roll, regaining his feet without losing any of his precious forward momentum.

Even though his right hand was useless against this kind of attack, Kamijou Touma continued forward without hesitation. Any one of these rocks would be enough to end his life instantly if they hit him full on. But still, he pressed onwards. Even though he was battered and bleeding, Touma took one step after another, each one bringing him closer to the mad godlike being he was fighting against.

How? marveled Celestia, He is naught but a maggot, crawling upon the ground. He should be trembling in terror before me. His power is nothing compared to mine. I can make the heavens shake, the earth crumble. I can make fire rain from on high. I am the sun! And yet, he shows no thought of cowering. Is this the manner of creature I have summoned? Is this the shape of the "most terrible beast" from another world? If that is the case, it is most pitiful. But still...

The ground, weakened by Corona's attacks, gave way beneath Touma's foot, causing his step to falter. At that moment, a massive boulder dropped straight towards his head. Even if he managed to throw himself clear, he wouldn't be able to escape injury. In the end, the enemy that would do him in was that which had struck him down most often in his life...simple misfortune. But still...

With a yell that seemed to tear its way forth from his lungs, Touma flung himself forward as hard as he could, the movement carrying him clear of the stone. At the same time, Corona saw her opportunity and struck. Her horn blazed with light, sending a whip-like stream of plasma lashing out faster than mortal eyes could track.

Touma seemed to sense the attack coming. He shifted to dodge. But his stumble earlier cost him precious seconds. Though her blow did not end his life, it still struck its intended target. Pain seared through Touma's shoulder. His right arm went flying away. Distantly, at the edges of his awareness, Touma could hear a voice crying his name.

There was no spray of blood. The fiery blow that cleaved his arm off at the shoulder had also cauterized the wound shut. Corona smiled. In her moment of victory, it wouldn't do to have her enemy succumb to his wounds before she was finished administering the punishment this lesser creature deserved for daring to defy her.

Spreading her wings, Corona glided down from the cliff, coming to rest before her victim. "Thou truly art a foolish creature, thinking that thou couldst defeat me with something so tiny. Thy hand was nothing more than a parlor trick. It is useless before the full might of my unveiled power."

To demonstrate her point, Corona flared her wings again, calling forth a searing solar wind that swept Touma off his feet and sent him sprawling backwards. A strangled cry erupted from Touma's throat as he hit the ground, tumbling before being left face down in the dirt.

Corona laughed. "Yes! That is where thou belongs. This is the purpose thou hast been summoned here for, so that I may crush thee down, so that my ponies may see the power that is meant to rule them. Now, beg for my mercy. Plead for forgiveness, though thou shalt not receive it."

Touma did not respond with words. Instead, he reached out with his left hand and pressed it against the ground. With a low groan, he forced himself up onto his knees. Then, he set one foot on the ground, then the other. Finally, the human known as Kamijou Touma stood upright on his own two legs. His head hung, his face expressionless, eyes glazed over, but still he stood. Before Corona, before the Tyrant Sun, before the power that had once ruled Equestria since time immemorial, he stood. Though his right arm, his only weapon, was gone, though he was battered, bruised, and bleeding, he stood.

Corona's eyes narrowed into slits. "Thou art helpless before me and yet thou still continues to offer such defiance. I had planned to make this last longer, but I cannot suffer such impudence any further." Power gathered at her horn. A blazing inferno came into being over Corona's head. The flames from her mane and tail were swept up into the burning orb in the sky above, a recreation of the sun in miniature. Its power would not even leave the human's ashes behind.

"THOU HAST SERVED THY PURPOSE INSECT!" she roared, "NOW OFFER UP THY WORTHLESS LIFE TO ME!" The radiant orb above her rushed out at Touma, who did not even look up as his doom approached. The ground around him began to glow as the sheer heat given off by the sphere slammed down upon it like a hammer. He would likely die before it even made contact.

And then it was gone. The ball of solar flames was sliced in two vertically, slashed apart and dissipating into steamers of harmless light. In an instant, that mighty attack had been erased from existence, swept away in a single motion, as though...as though by an invisible right arm extending from the human's shoulder.

A shiver ran down Celestia's spine as she took an involuntary step backwards. Even though Kamijou Touma's right arm, his only weapon, was gone, he had still somehow stopped her attack. Even as she watched, she could feel an invisible power swirling around the stump where his right arm had been severed. Though her eyes could not perceive it, she could somehow sense the eddies of a power that made everything she had pale in comparison.

An unheard growl made her bones vibrate. Unseen eyes glared at Celestia as power continued to gather at the boy's right shoulder. In an instant, their positions had been reversed. Now Celestia was powerless, trembling before the invisible force at Touma's side. There is...

There is something...

There is something there.

Against this unknown force, this invisible thing, Celestia felt as helpless as a newborn foal, as useless as...as useless as a mere mortal pony. A horrifying thought crept into her mind. The most powerful beast from another world? Was this human nothing more than a container for the real monster my spell was supposed to call? She tensed as she felt the gathering force prepare to attack.

Touma's head lifted up. It was a simple motion. There was nothing dramatic or impressive about it. His head lifted, with eyes that seemed not to be looking at anything in front of him.

Celestia's body tensed as her mind was flooded by a single overwhelming realization. It is coming!

"You again?" Touma's question was not addressed to Celestia. Rather, even though his expression or his eyes hadn't shifted in the slightest, it seemed as though he was addressing the invisible thing gathering strength at his shoulder.

"I told you once already," continued Touma, "I don't know what you're trying to do. But..."

In that instant, an even greater power erupted from within Touma. Without prelude or warning, it crushed the mysterious force that had been lingering where his right arm had been, swallowing it up.

"...Don't get in my way." There was a crackling and then a slithering sound. Then it appeared. Celestia wasn't sure how or when, but there was Kamijou Touma's right arm, hanging there as though it had never been touched. It surprised her to see this human reclaim a lost limb so easily. But something else shocked her even further, penetrating all the way to the core of her being.

She had felt the power that Touma had used to crush the invisible thing, that unseen force that made even her power seem like nothing in comparison. With that kind of power, he could have exterminated Celestia in much the same way she had planned on killing him. He could have crushed her even more effortlessly than the invisible thing. However, once his right arm reappeared, that power vanished without a trace. There was no sign of the overwhelming force that Touma had wielded only a few seconds ago.

The most powerful beast from another world...

What rocked Celestia to her center was not the awesome power she had seen within Kamijou Touma. It was not the overwhelming force of the invisible thing. Even if she hadn't believed it was possible, she could still at least conceptualize or imagine a power greater than hers...

But for an enemy to throw that power away, all for the sake of taking back a much simpler and weaker power...It was a move that Celestia couldn't comprehend. The very idea eluded her understanding. For Celestia, whose entire life had been consumed in the struggle for power, it was an action so indescribably alien that her mind ground to a halt.

"Thou," she whispered, "Why hast thou cast away thy power."

Touma's spine straightened. His eyes had cleared and he met Celestia's gaze without hesitation. Slowly, he raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. "I have everything I need right here."

"MADNESS!" shrieked Celestia, the flames from her mane and tail billowing in her display of rage, "Thou hast power beyond measure. Why would thou cast it away solely to reclaim such a useless weapon as that hand?"

Touma smiled. "Because..." He looked down at his hand, opening it again. "Because I know you."

"Thou...knows...me..." For a moment, it was all she could do to make words. "Ridiculous! Thou hast no knowledge of me. I am Celestia! I am the sun! I have protected Equestria since its infancy! I am absolute! I have guarded this nation against darkness and chaos for millennia untold. Thy claim is nothing more than a crude jest. With thy meager power, what can thou claim to have saved?"

"I know you," persisted Touma, "I've fought someone like you before. He was someone who wanted to save the world, even though he might wipe out all of humanity in the process. He was consumed by this twisted idea of something called 'the world.' You're no different.

"You've been caught up in defending this thing called Equestria that you've forgotten what's really at stake." Touma's smile widened. "You grew so obsessed with it that you didn't even realize what you trampled. I know...because I've seen it over and over again..."

The pause hung in the air as Celestia waited impatiently for him to finish.

"...The moment someone's world was saved. To protect and save those who are suffering right before my eyes, to reach out my hand to them..." He extended his right hand towards Celestia and clenched it into a fist. "...I don't need anything more."

A blazing nimbus of flames erupted from around Corona. A swirling orb of fire appeared in an instant and rushed towards Touma like a missile. With his right hand, he batted it aside and charged forward. Corona withheld none of her power. Arrows of plasma rained from above. Shining lances split from her horn and thrust at him from all directions. Her wings beat up a scorching solar wind to sweep him away.

Touma's right hand reached out and caught the first beam lancing towards him. With a twist, he altered its course, sending it sweeping across and cutting off the others coming at him from other vectors. Lifting his hand up, he stopped the first of the falling arrows, turning it into scattering spheres of light that got in the way of the others, setting them off and filling the air above him with explosions. The combined force of those explosions turned into a shockwave that buffeted the blistering winds aside. With only two moves, Touma had already completely cleared the path ahead of him.

Corona's magic conjured a brilliant, spinning disk that whirred towards her opponent like a circular saw. Then she lashed out with her flaming tail at Touma's left side. The human simply reached out with his right hand and caught the sun disk, pulling it across him so that it became a barrier between his left side and the jet of flame from her tail, causing it to splash harmlessly against the improvised shield. All the while, Touma continued to press forward.

Enraged, Corona's horn blazed with enough light to be a miniature sun in its own right. She threw all of her power at Kamijou Touma. Fireballs, blades and spears of light, flaming arrows, radiant pillars, she filled the entire space between her and the human with magic that a hundred unicorns could not match. It was power that could wipe a city off the map, level mountains, gouge valleys, reshape the land itself.

But that right hand made it all meaningless. Even when he couldn't negate it outright, he twisted her attacks so that they collided, canceled one another out, and opened the way for him to advance. Touma seemed to be able to read her attacks, to the extent of seeming to know what she planned even before she launched them. Each step brought him closer and closer.

"How!" exclaimed Corona, falling back before the oncoming human, even as she launched attack after attack at him, "How can thou keep coming? Thou should have died a thousand times."

"Because you're weak," said Touma, "Because you have nothing."

"NOTHING!" raged the fiery mare, "I have defeated adversaries thou cannot imagine in thy worst nightmares! I have the power to lay low the greatest foes Equestria has ever seen! Nothing thou has can even begin to compare!"

"But..." said Touma without a second's hesitation, "You're alone aren't you?"

The onslaught came to a sudden halt. Touma's words stung her heart. Celestia's eyes widened. "L-lies! I am the ruler of all Equestria. I am never alone!"

"Really?" asked Touma, "Ponies are mortal. They're frail. They're weak. They're gnats. What kind of company does the Queen of Gnats have?"

"What art thou speaking of?"

"Because you've always fought alone," continued Touma, "You've gone out to battle again and again, by yourself, all alone. That's why you're weak." His expression became surprisingly warm. "You don't have the strength to trust others, to believe in your friends."

"FRIENDSHIP!" roared Corona, "Again with that drivel. I have already heard it before!" Even as she shouted, she suddenly remembered a way to turn things back in her favor, to retake the advantage in this battle. Kamijou Touma had thrown his power away for the same right hand as before. The weakness was the same.

Her telekinesis ripped up chunks of rock once again. "If thou hast such faith in friendship, then where are thy friends now? Have they not fled? Have they not abandoned thee? See how thy faith in such frailty has cost thee!" She lobbed one up to come at Touma from above, then fired the other straight at him like a bullet. Even if he dodged one, he would come into the path of the other, she was sure of it.

In the face of the oncoming boulders, Touma didn't even flinch. Instead, he smiled lightly. He did not move to dodge. Nor did he raise his right hand. He simply continued moving forward.

A streak of jasmine descended from above. Raindrops' hooves slammed into the boulder over Touma's head, crushing it into pebbles and knocking the whole thing away from him.

At the same time, a mingled gold and blue aura wrapped around the rock Corona had fired straight at him and pulled at it, jerking it to the side so that it missed Touma's body by bare inches.

Even though he didn't look behind him, Touma knew they were there. Raindrops hovered protectively above him. Trixie and Lyra were arrayed behind him. Cheerilee, Ditzy, and Carrot Top were there too, each of them prepared to do what they needed to help him. Touma grinned.

"I'm an idiot who always rushes into things without thinking about them," he said simply, "I keep getting sent to the hospital because I get beat up until I puke blood. I went in alone against a force of over two-hundred enemies just to save one person. I traveled into a hostile country in the middle of a world war just to stop one man.

"And if I hadn't had my friends, I would have never won anything." Touma continued to close in inexorably. "You're weak because you don't have the strength to put your trust in anyone. You have to do everything yourself. Deep down, you're just a child crying out of loneliness."

Corona fell back before him, but Touma still advanced, keeping the distance the same. "So wait right there," he said, "Because Kamijou Touma is going to use his right hand to shatter that illusion of yours." He charged.

Corona attacked again. She hurtled stones stones, sent waves of flame rushing at the human, struck at him with orbs of plasma. Touma's right hand extinguished the flames. Raindrops' hooves shattered the boulders. Trixie and Lyra caught the debris in their magic and used them to intercept the orbs of plasma while Ditzy, Cheerilee, and Carrot Top called out directions for which attacks to intercept.

Touma closed in. The distance between them was less than five meters. With a beat of her wings, Corona launched herself upwards out of his reach, dipping her head so that she could direct a lance of flame straight at Touma's chest.

Touma's right hand intercepted the lance. Without the slightest hesitation, he twisted it and changed its course...straight into the ground at his feet.

The resulting explosion launched him upwards on top of a rock that he used as a platform. Even though the flames from the explosion scorched his clothes and the shrapnel cut new wounds in his body, Touma didn't falter. His gray eyes locked with Corona's blank white ones. His mouth opened out in a battle cry.

"UUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" Kamijou Touma pushed himself off the platform of stone. Corona, taken by surprise, had no time to retreat. She could only watch helplessly as his right hand clenched into a fist, which he swung with all his might.

BAM!

It was nothing to be impressed with, a simple punch with his right hand. There was no secret technique, no special method behind it. Back in his own world, many trained fighters would scoff at such a sloppy attack. It was not a fist that could shatter stone or dent steel, just a simple blow with his right hand.

And yet, to Celestia, at the moment of its impact, it seemed like something so much more. Even as she felt the Imagine Breaker's mysterious power sweep away her magic like so many cobwebs, the sensation of the blow went beyond the mere cancelation of her magic. At the moment of impact, Celestia felt...something...slam through her. It wasn't something she could describe with words. It was as though, within that simple punch that Kamijou Touma had wielded in so many battles, swinging his fist for the sake of others, an action performed time and time again, there was a force that went beyond the mere strength of his arm and the weight of his body behind it.

It was, Celestia found herself musing in the strange dilation of time that always seemed to take place in such situations, perhaps related to the strange power that seemed to animate this creature's body in spite of the wounds he had taken. He had been cut, beaten, battered, bruised, and burned. He was knocked to ground, had his arm severed at the shoulder; and yet, he rose and continued to move onward, seemingly possessed by a force beyond his own mortal strength.

What is it that drives him forward?

Celestia had no answer to her question as the wind vanished beneath her wings, the strength washed from her body, and even the awe-inspiring power of the sun itself vanished. Suddenly, there was nothing. The realization struck Celestia with the force of a hammer. She had lost.

Following the impact of Touma's fist against the side of Corona's face, a sound like breaking glass echoed across the ruined expanse of the quarry. Corona fell. Her wings could no longer bear her weight. The flames of her mane and tail were extinguished. The light issuing from her eyes dimmed. The aura of overwhelming power around her scattered. Corona, the Tyrant Sun, fell to earth with a mighty crash.

Touma plummeted as well. But a pair of forelegs wrapping around him arrested his fall. Gently, Raindrops lowered him to the ground. Once his feet returned to earth, Touma gave her a grateful smile and a nod, prompting her to let go of him as he turned back to Corona.

The Tyrant Sun had shrunk. Her mane and tail were no longer projections of living flame, but composed of pink strands of limp hair. Her blue eyes, no longer obstructed by the nimbus of power that normally surrounded her, gazed up at the human with unadulterated terror. Touma stood over her, his face stern and impassive.

"You called your ponies weak. You think they're powerless. But if that were true, wouldn't have Equestria been destroyed during your thousand years of imprisonment? But it's still here. Even without you, they are still here. And even when you returned, these supposedly weak, frail, mortal ponies beat you.

"At the end of the day, you have no one. Right now, you have no one to support you, nothing to hold you up. You're at the mercy of those you dismissed as less than nothing." Touma raised his fist. "Do you see now how weak you are?

"I've faced powerful enemies." He took a step closer.

"A man who could wave his right hand and pluck stars out of the sky..." Another step...

"A little girl who, somehow, managed to be head one of the world's most powerful magic cabals..." Another step...

"A specialist who never used the same spell twice..." Another still...

"A certain Number 1 esper in Academy City who's supposed to be completely untouchable thanks to his power to control any vector..." Closer still...

"The defense mechanism for a library of over a hundred-thousand magical grimoires..." One step more...

"A spoiled ojou-sama who gets all sparky and throws lightning at me when she's angry..." Touma now stood within easy reach of Corona. His voice fell on her like nails being pounded into a coffin. "...And others besides...so many more. You don't even come close to any of them."

Corona did not respond with words. Instead, she lunged forward, aiming the tip of her horn for the human's heart. Kamijou Touma's right hand was useless against this kind of attack. Even so, he didn't show the slightest trace of fear. He simply reached out with his left hand and caught Corona's horn. A slight tug pulled her thrust off course. As Corona stumbled from the counter, Touma's right fist slammed home on the side of her head, knocking her to the ground once again.

Her body trembling from exertion, Corona forced herself to stand up again. This time, she did not face towards Touma. Instead, she turned her back and fled, taking quivering, limping steps, trying her hardest to get away from this terrifyingly incomprehensible existence. With just two blows, he had done what Discord, Tirek, Grogar, or even Luna could not. With that right hand of his, he had done as much damage against her as the full force of the Elements of Harmony had done before. Desperately, Corona tried to escape, summoning as much magic as she could produce. It was agonizing, pulling together the tiny traces left over from her once mighty reserves. She gathered enough, just as Touma reached out a hand after her.

Corona vanished in a flash of light.

Kamijou Touma looked forlornly at the space the Tyrant Sun had once occupied, his hand still extended. Even though he had succeeded in stopping her, Touma a sense of failure still weighed down on him.

"Touma."

A soft voice called his attention to his side, where he saw Raindrops smiling up at him, tears in her eyes. In a single movement, she leapt up and chopped her hoof down at the top of his head.

THWACK

With a gurgling grunt, Touma dropped into a crouch, holding the top of his head, where he was certain he could feel a lump already forming. Raindrops touched back down, in front of him this time. "That's for trying to do everything yourself!"

"Fukou da," groaned the human for a moment.

By the time Touma managed to gather enough awareness to regain his standing position, a flash of silvery light announced the arrival of a dark-blue alicorn with a billowing starscape mane and tail.

"Princess Luna!" exclaimed Trixie, running to her teacher, who bent down to give her student an affectionate nuzzle.

"Thank goodness," breathed Luna, "When I sensed that my sister had returned, I tried to come as quickly as I could."

Touma scratched his head nervously. "Sorry Princess. I tried to help her, but it looks like she wasn't ready."

Luna let out a sad sigh. "Then we will have to wait until she confronts us again. It saddens me, but I hold out hope that Tia will someday let the walls around her heart fall."

Touma gave her an encouraging smile. "Well, as long as I'm here, I'll help as much as I ca-" Touma's speech cut off as the world tilted sideways at an alarming rate.

The Elements of Harmony and Princess Luna watched in stunned shock as Kamijou Touma collapsed silently to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Touma!" yelled Raindrops, rushing to his side and nudging him gently with her head. She looked up, her panicking eyes locking with Luna's. "He's not moving!"

"Let me see," said Carrot Top, coming up and leaning down to inspect him. She put an ear to his nose and mouth, noting that he was still breathing. She carefully looked over his body up and down before turning to the others. "It looks like his injuries caught up to him," she explained, "He'll need to go to the hospital. Some of those cuts need stitches. He actually has debris embedded in some of those wounds. There are plenty of burns, a few of his bones may be broken and he'll have amassed who knows how many internal injuries."

Luna let out a despondent sigh. "I'm afraid this is my fault for not getting here sooner."

Trixie directed a questioning look at Luna. "What did take you so long Princess?"

"It is strange," said Luna, "Though I came with all due haste, something kept me from getting here until the battle was over. It did not feel like a barrier in the sense that I understand them. I can only assume that it was some new magic my sister has created."

"Actually, that was me."

A sound like a bursting balloon echoed across the supposedly empty quarry. Trixie dropped to the ground. There was no sign of any attack, no indication that she had been struck by anything. She simply lost consciousness and fell over.

The noise sounded five more times. The other five slumped to the ground before they could even react. As Luna stared in stunned shock, all six of the Elements of Harmony were knocked out without the slightest warning. Before she could even blink, it was already over. Shocked beyond belief, she turned her head in the direction of the voice. When she saw its source, her eyes widened...

Author's Note:

Sorry if I butchered Corona's dialogue. My Shakespeare courses were a long time ago.
Next chapter is the final one.

Comments

[PINIPF]

2467949 That helps but to help you out more take into account that in To Aru Majutsu no Index an universe in where people with powers exist and those people are measured into a scale(of how powerful they are) Touma here is a ZERO 0 neigh nothing no power whatsoever, thats beacuse (is believed) his powers is so freaking awesome that it cant be measured XD, anyway his powers consist in being able to BLOCK with his rigth hand any kind of supernatural abilities/powers/magic w/e, and to top it all is a freaking durable cqb combatant so.... yeah------ also since his power block "magic" it also blocks good luck and since the absence of good luck is bad luck his life is kinda shitty.

[Raistlin]

Why isn´t Luna even just a tiny-bitsy surprised Touma defeated Corona?

[moguera]

2535257 At this point, she's just relieved. Unfortunately, she now has bigger surprises to deal with.

[Soul Reaper]

2535175

Konata pony is best pony

[Raistlin]

2535175

Don´t forget Touma hides a power in himself which can, and do, make the ones like Fiamma of the Right or Corona piss themselves, AND an even bigger power (which can be Touma´s total willpower itself, which would make him even more badass) to keep the former in check if Imagine Breaker is removed.
Kamijou Touma means "The person superior to God". You can figure out why.

[Dragonlover553]

I have defeated adversaries thou cannot imagine in thy worst nightmares!

... He beat a being who is quite literally All-powerful. I don't think you have.

[Dragonlover553]

2535855 is it possible that Touma IS God?