Before long, the four arrived at a heavy metal door. After passing pupil-recognition and fingerprint scans, the door slowly opened.

"This is a secret facility under the Talent Workshop," Shokuhou explained. "Mikoto and I put the Misaka Sisters we managed to rescue here."

They passed several security gates and stepped into a massive circular hall. The lights came on, revealing the scene before them: in the center were hundreds of transparent life-support pods arranged in rows. Blue-green nutrient fluid circulated inside them, illuminating countless identical faces.

They looked almost exactly like Mikoto Misaka—"Misaka Sisters," as they were known.

Inside those transparent chambers, the Sisters lay quietly in deep sleep.

"This…this…"

Index clapped a hand over her mouth, pupils dilating.

"Guh! So many Mikoto Misakas!"

She gasped, pressing a cold hand over her lips.

Kanzaki Kaori frowned.

"What's going on with them?"

She found it hard to believe so many people could share the same face.

"They're basically clones created by the science side using Mikoto's DNA," Rei Ao explained succinctly. Kanzaki felt a surge of revulsion, akin to her disgust at necromancy-type magicians.

"So far, we've managed to rescue 157 of them," Shokuhou said, her voice calm but terrifyingly so. She stood at the main console, her starry eyes scanning the sleeping faces one by one. "They were forcibly grown through drugs, so their skeletal structure is incomplete, their internal organs failing, and their average lifespan doesn't exceed three years.

"They also have varying degrees of brain and body defects, so they can only remain in stasis."

Kanzaki's Seven Heavens Seven Swords gave a faint hum in its sheath, and the Saint looked pale.

"This is… even crueler than I'd imagined."

For the first time, she realized how merciless the science side could be.

Index clutched at her habit.

"I… I don't understand why people would do this to their own…"

Rei Ao ran a fingertip along the console, and simultaneously all the locks on the capsules unlatched.

"Because some believed that sacrificing a few lives would achieve what they called an 'Absolute Esper,'" he said, turning to face the three women. His iridescent eyes gleamed with indescribable light.

"Today, that mistake ends."

Shokuhou seized Rei Ao's arm.

"Wait! If you wake them so suddenly, their physical defects—"

"Just watch."

A faint smile played on Rei Ao's lips, brimming with otherworldly confidence. He raised his right hand, five fingers splayed. In that instant, the entire lab was flooded with rainbow-colored light. It seemed alive, flowing into each capsule to envelop every Misaka Sister.

Shokuhou's starry eyes widened to their limits as she witnessed the impossible. Those lights were reshaping bone, repairing organs, re-aligning nerve connections…

"No way…"

Kanzaki mumbled. As a Saint, she could sense the rules of space twisting and reconfiguring. "Is that… magic?"

"Creation and regeneration magic," Rei Ao's voice echoed amid the glow.

"Something only a Magic God can wield."

No sooner had he spoken than the first Misaka Sister opened her eyes… then a second, a third... In mere seconds, 157 girls were awake simultaneously. They all rose smoothly from their chambers, moving as if they hadn't been in stasis at all.

"Vital signs normal, Misaka #10032 reports."

"No anomalies detected, Misaka #10039 adds."

"Physical functions exceed standard values, Misaka #10086 exclaims…"

They each displayed varying degrees of astonishment or curiosity, a clear sign that their emotional systems had been restored. The sight made Shokuhou's knees buckle—she nearly collapsed, had Kanzaki not caught her in time. The Saint's own hands were trembling as she realized she was witnessing a true "miracle."

"Are their defects really… gone?"

Shokuhou asked, voice shaking like never before.

Rei Ao didn't answer directly; he merely looked on as the newly awakened Sisters tested their bodies.

"Of course. I never claim anything I can't do."

"And this is just the beginning." He snapped his fingers. "Crack!"

It was as if space itself shattered like glass. The next second, all of them found themselves standing on a wide-open field.

"This is… the abandoned test grounds in District 23?" Shokuhou recognized the location at once. She'd grown used to Rei Ao's terrifying spatial manipulation. Right now she was more curious about why Rei Ao had brought them here.

Before she could speak, Rei Ao walked a few steps, then looked satisfied.

"This place is wide enough. Let's begin."

He raised his arms. The sky seemed to darken. Clouds churned as though stirred by an unseen hand, forming a massive vortex. The ground trembled, grass rippled without wind. Countless points of light flickered in the air, converging and gradually taking on human shape.

"In the name of a Magic God, I cross the boundary of life and death."

Rei Ao's voice sounded ethereal and mighty, as though a million voices spoke at once.

"Return, those whose lives were taken."

The motes of light formed physical bodies—one, ten, a hundred, a thousand…and in no time, the entire grassy field was filled with girls wearing the same uniform, all with tea-brown hair, identical faces.

"Misaka Network connection confirmed, identifying individual serials…"

"Memory data intact, last record is experiment termination signal…"

"Life reaction online, Misaka #20001 says in confusion…"

A cacophony of voices buzzed like bees in Shokuhou's ears.

"???"

She was thoroughly befuddled now. Kanzaki Kaori looked equally stunned. If what they had seen earlier was a miracle, this was a divine phenomenon. Index simply fell to her knees with hands folded, as though praying.

~~~

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