His time limit was 60 seconds.
He had to kill Kihara. It did not matter if he had only 10 seconds left after the fighting was over. Esper mode used orders of magnitude more power than normal mode. Even a few seconds of battle time would leave him several dozen minutes of time back in normal mode.
A Testament modified to be portable lay in one corner of the abandoned office.
With that, he could heal Last Order's brain at the very least.
If the virus really had been inputted here, Kihara most likely still had the original script. In that case, it would not be hard to create an antivirus program.
(So I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill him! This will all be over once he's dead! I don't have to think about anything else. I can't return to the path of light either way, so I just need to focus on dragging Kihara down to hell with me!!)
With his mind focused on only that, Accelerator charged toward Kihara like a bullet. He spread out the fingers of his right hand. With his vector reflection ability, he could reverse the flow of blood throughout someone's entire body just by touching their skin. That demonic hand would cause the person's blood vessels and organs to burst. As Last Order was on this same floor, he did not want to use too flashy a method, but this was more than enough to kill.
He sent his hand flying sharply upwards toward Kihara's face.
Kihara simply swung his head to the side to easily avoid it. He showed no fear or tension over how deadly even a single touch would be. His face was proclaiming that it was no problem as Accelerator would never hit him.
After Accelerator missed, Kihara threw a cross-counter.
With precision on a level dozens of times greater than a jab in boxing, he pulled back his hand just after he threw it.
The strike slipped past Accelerator's reflection wall and slammed mercilessly into the bridge of his nose.
"Ah…!!"
The dull sound of something being crushed rang out.
This was not a flashy and heavy blow like from a hammer. Taking it to the nose shook his vision, but it was not enough to knock him unconscious.
However…
When Accelerator stopped momentarily due to the pain, a string of light blows assaulted him. Face, chest, shoulder, gut, and then face, face, face. When Accelerator swung his arm, Kihara would step back. When Accelerator tried to pursue, Kihara would move closer and attack.
"Gya ha ha!! You piece of shit! Aren't you ashamed to stand before me like this!?"
Another impact shook Accelerator's head along with Kihara's shouting voice.
His reflection was not working.
That absolute wall was supposed to ensure not a hair on his head shook even if he took the brunt of a nuclear blast.
Accelerator tried to move away.
Kihara stepped further forward and threw another punch at his face.
"!!"
Accelerator's reflection did not create a thick bulletproof shield in front of him.
It only redirected any force heading toward him. He protected himself from any and all attacks by altering any force moving forward so it moved in the opposite direction.
In other words…
(If my reflection acts on a force moving backwards, it sends it forwards!!)
With blood trailing down from the corner of his mouth, Accelerator was now confident he knew what was happening.
Kihara Amata would reverse the direction of his punch just before it hit Accelerator. He would do so in the instant when he was just barely touching the thin protective film of Accelerator's reflection. That forced Accelerator to pull the backwards-moving fist forwards.
This just meant he had to alter the vector control ability protecting his body, but Kihara's fist made minute adjustments in the direction of its turn as if the man had predicted the changes Accelerator would make. It seemed the intellect that had directly developed the esper power known as Accelerator was quite something.
"What's wrong, kid!? I thought you came here to save that brat!"
He had lost his timing, had the rhythm of the battle taken from him, and was being led around by the nose. Each individual blow from Kihara seemed weak, but it gradually built up in his body like alcohol. As Accelerator's movements grew duller, Kihara started taking bolder and bolder actions which only quickened the rate at which Accelerator grew "drunk".
"Gh…Aahh…!!"
More time heartlessly passed.
This much of a gap existed between them even when he was using his full power as Academy City's strongest esper, but once the protection of the electrode was gone, he would have difficulty even standing on his own two legs. The passage of time caused him to grow more and more impatient.
(You little shit!! You don't have time to be stopped by Kihara here! You're going to lose the time you need to heal that brat with the Testament!!)
"This is too easy, you scrapped murderer!! Have I already won!?"
A great roar rang out.
Accelerator had started to change his train of thought, but his mind was truly shaken this time.
Kihara Amata's actions were growing larger. He had decided Accelerator could not keep up with his speed after the damage the boy had taken.
The gap between strikes grew as the weight of each punch grew.
"Did you think you were a total badass or something?"
A strike to the face caused Accelerator's legs to waver. If he had not been paying attention, they would have gotten intertwined and he would have fallen to the ground.
"Did you think you could make up for everything you've done by standing up to a giant evil organization to save a poor kidnapped brat?"
While Accelerator was focused on keeping his balance Kihara let loose another punch. He tried to protect his vitals with his arms, but Kihara always managed to slip through a gap in his defenses and land the punch. As the damage grew, more blood began dripping from his closed lips.
"Gya ha ha! What a fucking joke! You're never escaping the mud! You can crawl around and try to crawl out of it all you want, but that mud isn't ever coming off!! You should just give up and sink in! If you start walking around, you'll only get everything else dirty!!"
An especially great impact sent Accelerator to the floor. His knees gave out and his forehead fell down to smash against the carpet that had practically fused with the dust.
(…Damn…that bastard…)
But Accelerator placed his hands on the steel desk and avoided completely falling. The damage from Kihara's attacks had torn out all of his stamina. His entire body was screaming for a rest as if he had just finished running a marathon.
(I know that. I know this mud is never coming off. You reminded me of that well enough, so I have no regrets about that. That isn't what I want…)
He gritted his teeth, forced back the pain, and pushed down against the desk supporting him. He used his arms to stand up on wobbly legs.
(Give it a goddamn rest already. All of you are working together against that brat. You and I are the only ones that need to go to hell. Don't get her involved in this, you piece of shit.)
But his determination was in vain.
He heard a quiet electronic beeping.
That tiny final notification had come from the choker-style electrode around his neck.
That mechanical sign indicated the end of his 60 seconds.
In other words, his battery was dead.
All strength left Accelerator and he collapsed to the dusty floor in front of Kihara Amata.