Attack on the Queen Britannia

The Attack on the Queen Britannia was a battle which occurred one December morning in the current year of the story timeline, shortly after the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom.

Taking place in the Irish Sea, near to the, it was an assault carried about by British forces and several groups from Academy City on the hijacked Queen Britannia, in order to prevent Coronzon from using the stolen Honours of Scotland to seize control of the United Kingdom's magical system and performing the Ceremony of Mo Athair which would have resulted in the destruction of the world.

Honours of Scotland
The Honours of Scotland are a set of Scottish royal treasures, consisting of three regalia; the Sword of State, the Coronation Crown and the Ruling Sceptre, together with the Stone of Scone. The three regalia and the stone, a combination of three and four, form their own magical system, similar to the system symbolically rooted in the three power, four region structure of the United Kingdom and governed by the Curtana. As the spiritual items form an alternate foundation for the control mechanism, they can be used together as an alternative control for the UK's magical system, though this is only possible if the Curtana's control is unstable. The ideal position for their usage in this manner is at a point equidistant from the centers of the UK's four regions (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) - in the middle of the Irish Sea.

With the Curtana-controlled system still unstable following the damage to the Curtana Second from the clash of Curtanas during the British Halloween,  an opportunity was created for the Scottish royal treasures to be used in this capacity. With the threat posed by the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom, the evacuation of the British Royal Family from London to Edinburgh was partly to prevent the Honours, stored in Edinburgh Castle, from falling into the wrong hands.

Queen Britannia
The Queen Britannia was a luxury cruise ship and floating fortress which was built in order to carry the British Royal Family in comfort and safety across the seas, in order to perform large-scale rituals at 53 predetermined points throughout the territories of the British Commonwealth, aided by the amplifying effects of its central temple. The ship served and protected the royal family for many years, though as necessary diplomatic trips came to be made by plane, the ship came to mean more as a show of force and technological might than as a vehicle.

After being decommissioned, the ship was moored in a harbour in Edinburgh as one of its major tourist attractions. As forcefully dismantling the ship might have resulted in a highly destructive rebound, it was instead intended that the mental noise from the tourists' thoughts would gradually neutralize the magical symbols over time, though it was estimated that the process would take over 1200 years.

Accelerator VS Nephthys
After a few hits from the ice tornado against the ship, seeing that it wouldn't accomplish much, Accelerator had Qliphah Puzzle 545 complete her manifestation and broke into the ship. He decided to head for the engine room to break the propeller shaft and immobilize the ship, but before he made a move, he encountered Hamazura Shiage, bleeding heavily due to refining magic power as an esper in order to revive Dion Fortune. As Accelerator prepared to swat him aside and continue on, he was kicked by Nephthys in a surprise attack through a wall and then tackled through another wall into the ship's opera house.

In the subsequent battle, Accelerator thwarted Nephthys's initial attempt to use her tears on Qliphah Puzzle 545 again by breaking a sprinkler. Nephthys was unaffected by his next attack and subsequently made use of the water herself, dropping it down as a blade. Finding his reflection wavering from the water partially interfering with the electromagnetic waves and being struck by a piece of debris, Accelerator was forced to disperse the water but in the process created an opportunity for Nephthys to use her tears again. As Qliphah Puzzle 545 tried to contain her power as it was sent out of control, she was contacted by the Will of the Misaka Network through her connection with Accelerator and received assistance in turning things to his advantage, realizing her essence as a guide to the Abyss. Through this, Accelerator became capable of dealing lasting wounds against Nephthys.

The clash ultimately ended with Accelerator bloody from the side-effects of relying on something like magic as an esper and Nephthys tangled in the bars in the ceiling for the stage lights.

Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou
Immediately after being saved from Accelerator by Nephthys, Hamazura had another encounter as foretold by the Magic God, this time with his girlfriend Takitsubo Rikou. He soon learned that she had been tricked by 'Anna Sprengel' into accepting a grimoire-derived module, an indirect and apparently safe way for an esper to use magic, in the belief that she could relay the method of modified scrying to Hamazura and prevent him from dying from the side-effects of using magic conventionally as an esper. Instead, 'Anna' intended to exploit her in order to eliminate Hamazura, using Takitsubo and her ability in order to guide the combat module's attacks.

With Takitsubo powerless to stop the crystal ball's attacks, Hamazura evaded the attacks and tried to free his girlfriend by breaking the crystal ball. His attempt to destroy the ball was unsuccessful and he was cornered, but enough time had been bought and mana supplied for the grimoire recreation of Dion Fortune to reactivate. The manifested Archetype Processor swallowed the crystal ball, distorting it from its original form and freeing Takitsubo. As Hamazura caught Takitsubo as she collapsed, Dion Fortune took form once more.

Aleister Crowley VS Niang-Niang
Shortly after getting aboard the ship with Mina and Lilith, Aleister determined the route to the temple and the likely elements of the 'password' required to access it. Before they could carry out any attempts at divination, they were approached by Niang-Niang, who was looking for a fight.

Their clash eventually led to the ship's kitchen, with Niang-Niang losing on purpose and helping Aleister by making it so that the collateral damage from the battle indicated the necessary symbols for accessing the temple, in return for Aleister facing her head-on despite already being wounded. Aleister and Mina subsequently made their way to the elevator in the central storeroom, where Coronzon's Aethyr Avatars attacked them. However, the two easily dispatched them and made use of the hair as footholds to climb the shaft and reach the temple.

Aftermath
After being split in half, the Queen Britannia was left slanted and sank in the half hour following noon. The various groups from Academy City took advantage of the situation created by the sinking in order to slip away, though Mina Mathers recovered the Scottish royal treasures and returned them to Queen Elizard before leaving. Kamijou Touma escaped immediately after the ship was blown open and fled across the ice, in order to prevent the dangerous and now-unsealed entity from killing anyone.